Strugle Kids

http://www.namibiansun.com

And ya!! This should be my first post of the year. So the first thing on my mind is the whole “struggle kids” issue.  To those not aware who the struggle kids are; To my understanding it’s a group of ADULTS calling themselves children of the struggle who were born and raised in exile and are now squatting in Windhoek. I first heard about them, when they made headlines that they are walking all the way from  Outapi 800km to Windhoek to petition the Prime minister.

http://www.namibian.com.na

Now the current situation is that they have been camping in Tura near the swapo head office, and get evicted like every day, the latest incident is when they went head to head with the cops when they decide to march to the Prime minister’s office. They  are demanding jobs and other entitlements from the Swapo lead government. What comes to mind is that clearly they want free jobs handed down on a silver platter, or are they pawns in a political game.

I know for a fact that they are government programs and legislation that can cater for their needs mainly the Veterans act of 2008, Land tenure act as well as government grants for orphans and children under 18. So basically if government want to solve this issue they can easily deploy a task  force from lets say the ministry of Gender and social welfare register them collect data and conduct a baseline study to determine what instruments the government can use to solve this issue.

On the other had one may ask why they so special? Children from exile have been branded as lazy and have been given special treatment after independence already and they wasted those opportunities. But as for me I just wonder how they been surviving  this whole time in Windhoek, because if you go where they camp you can see litter, meaning they are consuming food, where they get this money??? and its sad now that most of their stuff is under police custody, and tabloid reports suggest that the police denied some of the access to their ARV medication. 

Whindhoek 061

So I have been reading a whole lot of blogs and have decided to start my own blog  about my experiences, opinions, and news updates on Namibia. Naturally my first post will be on  my general view of Namibia.

http://kylereed.com/Pictures/ForeignTravel/Africa1/index.html

I came to Windhoek in Feb 2010 it seems just like yesterday, in retrospect it  has been a great learning experience for me. Namibia aka the land of the brave is not well known by many people, in other the words the friends in my circles before I came to Namibia did not know much about the place as well. Its a city a have grown to love, and has allowed me to grow as a person.

Windhoek on the other end is nothing like any African city I have been too.  It’s Very similar to Gaborone in many ways but totally different from cities in East Africa. First thing you notice in Windhoek is that its super clean and there not that many people around so maybe that’s why its easy to keep clean. Even the informal settlements to me are relatively clean big ups to the municipality in their efforts to keep the city clean. 

  

http://www.racafrica.co.uk/namibia_photos.htm

The taller the buildings the bigger the dreams.  Clearly South African Bankers and Insurance companies have the biggest dreams in Windhoek.  Windhoek gets very busy the first week of the month then activity goes back to snail pace. The 10% rich benefit the most as majority people in Windhoek depend on SALARY! that’s why I think Namibia sucks when it comes to wealth distribution and the entrepreneurial spirit among youth is almost known existent! This for me is an opportunity to take advantage of .

http://www.peterbennett.co.uk

                                                                            I like to think of Namibia as a 10^th province of South Africa. Every shopping mall in Windhoek looks like any random shopping mall in South Africa especially Gauteng area. 

You can use the South African Rand to buy anything in Namibia and the Namibian dollar does not get the same privilege in South Africa. So the Namibian dollar is a currency to make its people feel like the own a currency and an illusion of economic independence.

I want to talk about the culture shocked I experienced when I first came to Windhoek but I think that will have to be a whole post on its own but for now this post will serve as my general view of Namibia as of today.