NAMIBIA: YOUNG OR DUMB?

Elizabeth Davel
“What is happening to our country?” This is a question we all hear repeatedly on the radio in the morning, among our peers and even in our own heads when we read the newspapers or look around at vandalized buildings and homeless people sitting on street corners. It becomes easy then to think that we might have missed a step somewhere, that our country is a sinking ship. But is that really the truth?

As part of the annual “Pasch-sprachkurs” held by the Goethe Institut, I had the honour of flying to Germany and spending three weeks surrounded by young, brewing minds from all around the globe. Naturally we all talked about and made comparisons between our different homelands. At first our little African country did seem very little indeed and rather inferior to bigger countries like Italy and Japan, but by the end of the three weeks I found myself asking the undeniable question: has Namibia really got it all wrong or are we simply young?
Despite being years, perhaps even decades, behind the other continents as far as development is concerned, they too face problems such as corruption, unemployment and violent crime. “Every day we’re just waiting to see who gets killed next,” Felix, from Indonesia said.
When ignoring for a moment the fact that many Europeans believe we all still live in huts and also ignoring the fact that is still true for many Africans, the only differences that then remain between a small African country like Namibia and a large European country like Germany are the numbers of floors in buildings, the number of lanes on the highways, the advancement of technology and perhaps the fact that the Germans have a much more active, enthusiastic approach towards life. “Wir sind die freundlichsten Volk auf dieser Welt,” as the musicians, Die Prinzen, sang.
Here we must then ask ourselves if we really did skip a vital step somewhere along the way and are now completely off-track or if we simply need more time to learn and adjust, to find our own way of making things function smoothly and successfully?
The answer to that question, however, is not always crystal clear and everyone may very well have his or her own answer and reason for it, too.
One little cliché that remains true, though, is that there is always room for improvement.
Together with Molka, from Tunisia: “Let’s hope for a better future for our countries.