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Soini Nampala The Constitution and Supreme Law of the Republic of Namibia contain a chapter on the Principles of State Policy, articulated in Article 95, with a key focus on the “Promotion of the Welfare of the People". This chapter and article empower every Namibian to influence government policy by debating and scrutinising its decisions. The word “democracy” has been so misused to the point where it has almost lost its true meaning. In its basic sense, democracy refers to a government that is ruled by the people through their elected representatives. This means that the people choose, through elections,…

Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) When the USA’s President Donald Trump went to Beijing, accompanied by a large entourage of the Silicon Valley’s CEOs worth 20 trillion dollars combined, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked him rhetorically in their meeting/summit in the Great Hall of the People, saying, "Can China and the USA overcome the ‘Thucydides Trap' and create a new paradigm of major countries’ relations?"  Indeed, the twenty-first century is being shaped by a geopolitical transition of historic magnitude with the accelerated rise of China and the rapid decline of the United States as the…

By any honest historical measure, Namibia achieved political independence in 1990. But political independence and economic emancipation are not synonymous. Thirty-six years later, many of the structural foundations of the apartheid economy remain remarkably intact, repackaged under democratic governance yet functionally unchanged in their outcomes. This is an uncomfortable truth, but one that must be confronted with intellectual honesty rather than ideological defensiveness. As a Black Namibian entrepreneur, I have increasingly come to appreciate that while our political architecture has transformed, our economic architecture remains deeply influenced by colonial and apartheid-era logic. Ownership patterns, access to capital, spatial inequality, market…