The Hustle

I'm what you call a funny blogger; I use my wit and sarcastic humour to make people laugh. It’s my signature style, seldom do I sit down and actually delve into deep thought and write about bread and butter issues, but when I do I bring everything to the table. I don't take sides when I write serious posts; I just tell it like it is, here goes!

According to the FinScope Consumer Survey 2012 in which 1200 Adults were interviewed 52 % earn N$1000 or less, which means that four out of ten Namibians would have been stranded without cash in the last six months. 9% say they had to get money from friends to make ends meet. Only three % received a salary cheque bigger than N$11 000 every month, they make up 7 % who say that they have no problems paying their bills. About 76 % stated that they struggle to make end meet, with 12 % relying on government old age pension.

now I guess you understand why so many ordinary Namibians drink so much, but that's the fuckery of life. Working class folks all over the world drink to give themselves a reprieve from the stress and anguish caused by the hustle. But in Namibia we go a bit overboard at times, folks drink till they forget their own names, so you ask yourself, what problem is that big? so big that an adult would drink rather than face it? It’s simple really, because Namibia has one of the highest inequalities in wealth distribution in Africa, add to that our unemployment figure stands at 50%, and an increasing number of high school failures, you start to understand that people tend to drink to forget and make the struggle they face seem a little less daunting because most uneducated Namibians between the ages of 25 and 45 will never find a permanent job.

The rich drive Maserati's and the poor can hardly scrape enough together to buy a bicycle. The Gap between the rich and the poor is so wide you could put the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Dead Sea into it. That is the Major Problem facing Namibia, finding a way to make sure every single Namibian gets a piece of the cake, it can't be that hard with only two million people in a country twice the size of France with Italy added on top. But this particular problem is one the government can't seem recognize, I'm not sure whether they're ignoring it or just content with the status quo because it benefits them. My last statement might sound like the words of an ungrateful young man who doesn’t really appreciate the price of freedom but I say those words for a reason.

Last year our president his excellency Hifikenpunye Pohamba launched an uncharacteristic tirade on young people accusing us of trying to steal the revolution from them, referring to young people as occupied with nothing else by book face and money. He may be right (after all Facebook, money and status are important to young Namibians), but to me it sounds more like just another ordinary African president putting young people down for having the audacity to question why corruption is trending like a topic on twitter, why job creation does not exist (just look at the guys standing at traffic lights waiting for people to give them odd jobs), why the health sector is in such disarray that its more dangerous going to the hospital than compared to staying at home sick (okay, I’m exaggerating again), why unemployment even among graduates is so high, the crime rate, public transport etc. To me it’s a response that says “don’t ask us funny questions because we are the ones who liberated you”, so what? We are free as a democratic nation! It does not mean we are free economically! All young people want to know is how our leaders (including the president) aim to tackle the issues facing the youth, who make up close to 60% of the population (We voted them into power, we deserve to know). The questions posed are all relevant and deserve honest answers not “We bought you independence speeches and Liberation songs”.

The only form of an answer is the delightfully named TIPEEG (Targeted Intervention Program for Economic), you can just tell from the name that some came up with this nonsense and gave it a funny name thinking people would just welcome it with open arms and not question it. The logic behind TIPEEG is that infrastructure development projects e.g. Roads, government offices, schools, clinics and hospitals will drive job creation by allocation the contracts and tenders to young Namibians who will employ fellow young jobless Namibians, if you take the decision making out of government you remove red tape and bureaucracy, meaning contracts are advertised, applicants pitch their proposals and the TIPEEG Mafia give out the contract to the best applicant, quickly and efficiently with no government politics. Implementing it however has proved just as difficult as Zimbabwe's land reform program. Cue the tenderpreneuers, who are Namibia’s answer to the mafia (okay I’m kidding, the mafia reference is a bit exaggerated), the tenderpreneurs are entrepreneurs whose main aim is winning as many government tenders as possible and making a profit of course (keep into account that someone on the tender board is probably getting a brown envelope loaded with cash in exchange for information to allow these guys to get these tenders, keep that in your mind). The result is another BEE shambles, a few well connected people get all the contracts while the rest get nothing (it’s a basic you have to know someone in high places scenario), so basically the cake gets cut up by those with power and influence and the poor get the crumbs. These are the type of things that young Namibians are concerned about and our questions and discontent are in no way an insult to the older generation, we are just worried and concerned with how we are going to get through the hustle of life.

Note: The chronicles are not meant to offend anyone, so if that happens then please put your concern in writing and mail it and we will pass it on to the relevant/appropriate person = someone who will pass it on to someone, who will then pass on to someone who will pass it to the relevant authority. (Stolen from a government ministry press release).