Observer – Page 624 – Windhoek Observer

12 May

The price of not knowing why

ObserverNational NewsCovid-19, Government, schools

Our educational system teaches students to ‘do’ but not to think. Beneficiaries of apartheid and colonialism loved this. Thinking people will quickly and easily perceive weaknesses and attack strategically. After independence, in most public schools, that same back-handed educational trend continued. The reason changed. The priority was increasing higher literacy statistics and ‘grades.' The government did not want to slog up the hard road of educating teachers and teaching students critical thinking. In this pandemic, we now pay the price for this. We ask people to wear masks, but do not help them to understand why. That is the reason…

09 May

Couch Cat: Mask etiquette rules

ObserverUncategorisedCouch Cat, Masks

Jackie Wilson Asheeke For now, we all have to wear masks on our faces. So, let’s make the best of a weird situation. It cannot be all doom and gloom. Let’s look at this whole thing with a different eye; shall we? I put on my mask for the first time to go to work on the first day after the lockdown ended. My rude awakening is that I dirtied the inside of the thing immediately with my face make-up and lipstick. Duh-uh. I must be some smart person to not have thought about that one. Rule #1 – no…

09 May

N$500m required for e-learning

ObserverObserver MoneyArts and Culture, Covid-19, Ministry of Education

Andrew Kathindi The Ministry of Education needs N$500 million to fully implement its e-learning needs to cater for learners whose normal learning schedule has been disrupted by COVID-19. Deputy Director of Information Technology in the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, Johan van Wyk, told Windhoek Observer that the ministry has submitted a request to government for a COVID-19 stimulus package and has also submitted a request within its normal ministry budget process. “For an end-to-end package and what we would need for all solutions, not just data, although internet will be the most important part, we are looking at…

09 May

Govt weighs MTC listing plans

ObserverObserver MoneyCovid-19, Government, Mobile Telecommunications Limited, MTC, Namibian Stock Exchange, NSX

Staff Writer Government could be forced to review the set timelines and defer the listing of Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) due to COVID-19 outbreak, for what was to be the country’s biggest listing of a Namibian company on the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX). According to the initially announced timelines, MTC was expected to be listed on the bourse by July 2020, after having submitted its listing application to the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) by February 2020, with the opening date for its public offer having been set for March 2020 and closing in June 2020. “We are discussing the matter…

09 May

Time to analyse issues ideologically, give them an ideological perspective

ObserverUncategorisedlockdown

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro Certainly the emergency and lockdown could not but compel all of us to shift gears in one way or another given the time of reflection it may have afforded us. If only if to maintain some sanity from the solitary confinement, for some, and from depression visited by confinement with those some may all the time been trying avoid. For me criticisms which have been floated as analyses in our media, against the administration of Dr Hage Geingob, since the advent of his first term in 2015, compelled me to shift in an ideological gear. A gear that…

09 May

Observatory: Lives are worth more than the economy

ObserverUncategorisedCovid-19, World Health Organisation (WHO)

Clementine Tjameya Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa has listed Namibia as having reported zero cases of COVID-19 over a couple of weeks. I humbly question this conclusion. I am not a doctor, nor do I have any health care training. Admittedly, I can make my choices about what to believe regarding COVID-19 in Namibia, based only on what I read. With the low level of testing in Namibia (maybe only 1000 tests done for 2.5 million people), I am not certain the number of 16 cases can be accurate. Countries with reportedly high infection rate…

09 May

Focus on the basic needs of the people

ObserverUncategorisedCovid-19, Government, people, State of Emergency

. . . anything else is noise Jackie W Asheeke COVID-19 is a game changer. Any business or individual thinking that all will snap back into pre-pandemic shape is delusional. The best thing to do is to lower your barriers against change and thank God you are alive. After that, we all must focus on the needs of the people and step-in to thwart the profiteers, conmen, hoarders, blindly selfish people and other vermin that feed off of other people’s misery. Food stores in Windhoek are raising prices in the middle of a State of Emergency. Government should take legislative…

09 May

The Time Traveler: Towards a freer media

ObserverUncategorisedCoivd-19, Government, media, WPFD 2020

Hugh Ellis It’s a day on which the sacrifices of journalists are honored, and one on which we look forward to greater advances that enable everyone in society to have equal rights to communicate publicly. What is great is that Namibian journalists are not being killed, imprisoned or having their lives threatened. Bribery of journalists is rare. But this does not necessarily mean all is well. Looking back on the tone of many stakeholders’ statements leading up to WPFD 2020, as a career-long media practitioner and educator, I’m a bit disappointed. Politicians and their spokespeople seem to have equated a…

09 May

Slashing salaries bears watching

ObserverNational NewsCovid-19, Ministry of Labour, salaries

The Ministry of Labour wasted time and energy last month making ridiculous noises about regulations to forbid employers from firing staff. Instead they should have gotten ahead of the curve and provided guidelines when employers slash salaries. Mass salary cuts from a wide range of businesses in all sectors are in the headlines. This is inevitable in these unprecedented, harsh and unclear business times due to the State of Emergency and its backlash. There could be thousands of bankruptcies and business reductions in the wake of this pandemic’s devastation. Hundreds of thousands of employees will be affected in some way.…

08 May

E-learning: an expensive, elusive dream

ObserverNational NewsE-learning, tablets

We applaud the efforts of our decision-makers who are trying their best to carry the country through the COVID-19 crisis. That said, we cannot avoid pointing out that recent comment by the Executive Director of the Ministry of Education that the country was never ready for mass e-learning for all learners, is no surprise at all. Who seriously believed that Namibia could substitute home learning using the internet (in English) for primary and secondary school classroom lessons? We certainly did not. The entire effort was a waste of resources. Is our government actually telling the country that it had no…