Provide, how equal is that?

Namibia and income differences keep me puzzled.

Income differences are the evil of the World, but not only between continents but quite literally between neighborhoods. We love to offer ourselves (sometimes quite literally) at the altar of market capitalism, never questioning is this reasonable? The cash the cars the bling can all be hire purchased. Who cares about investing to the future? ”What you have eaten belongs to you, what you have saved belongs to Chiefs men”, says the Ovambo proverb.

Recently I heard the former Minister of Finance for Sweden say, “It is our (Sweden) competitive advantage at globalization that we are more equal than others. Competitive advantages for us are maternity leave, universal free school system, progressive income taxing and so on. We better include all of our social classes and women to contribute when elsewhere only fraction of the society contributes.” There lies the wisdom. Why should only the “white propertied men” as my American Prof used to say, be allowed to contribute to the advancement of the society? More competitive societies are the ones which include broader range of society to be entrepreneurial.

“I love the new restaurant at Merua Mall, the service is so good. World class really!”
“It’s so difficult to get good (domestic) help nowadays.”

These are the quotes of my upper-class friends in Africa.

Namibia surpassed Brazil as the most unequal country in the World at the turn of the millennium, decade into the independence and freedom from violent white supremacy. And even today Namibia still continues to grow the gap between the rich and the poor day by day. Macro economic growth remains stagnant. 10% of Namibians live in better welfare than the rich in Luxemburg or Canada, ranking the top two in welfare in the World, richest 22% rank higher than the average of Sweden, Finland and Germany (measured by UNDP Human Development Index rating system). And what about the rest? Take a wild guess what is the amount of people living under the poverty line? Yes, you would be correct. It’s the rest of the population.

More income gap, better service and help one can get. This is what every elite household lady knows.

Furthermore, the gender gap is significant. Women earn half what men do in Namibia. 90% of women are just above the poverty line, ¾ of women live way below it earning 0,70 USD a day and more than half of the women earn less than 129USD a year or 35 cents USD a day.

When are the "help" (the domestic workers) going to cry for help, demand freedom and equality? Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

Obama gave us all hope, sense of history in the making. I respect the freedom fighters, because their cause was just. One man One Vote! But the war won was just the beginning of the struggle for independence, not the end. The new generations must step in as the old generations enjoy their well earned pensions. And young generations should not work for their immediate personal gain of the the pool, the car, the sound system, but for our children and our children’s children to have a better nation, country, continent and World. When are WE going to see that?

Power is never given, power is always taken. The one who received “power” from someone’s hand, must always remember “he who giveth, can taketh away.”

Yes we can!