Observer

8183 Posts

Couch Cat – Battle your fat butt and belly

Jackie Wilson Asheeke After the holidays, eating fat food must stop. Stand in the mirror naked. Grab your belly (use two hands if you must). Then, turn around and twerk. Look at that sight in the mirror. You know exactly how much is too much. Juicy and curvy is good – but now is the time to make yourself even better. Here is what I do. First, I slow my roll with the junk and fast food. Pizza, soda, and chips are curse words for me. The best way to get your mojo back on eating properly is to pay…
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Bank Windhoek ranks best bank

Bank Windhoek ranks best bank

Staff Writer PSG Namibia’s 2020 Banking Review has again ranked Bank Windhoek as the Best Bank in the country for the second consecutive year. The PSG Banking Review study provides a detailed time series and financial ratio analysis between banks in Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia. The ranking system consisted of six categories: profitability, cost efficiency, credit risk, advance growth, market share, and capital adequacy. In the Namibian bank's category, Bank Windhoek outperformed in five categories, leading to best rate amongst the major financial institutions in Namibia. The Review stated that financial ratios were based on the most recent…
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Do not downplay job losses due to COVID-19

The pandemic has slapped an ailing Namibian economy in the mouth and drawn blood. Namibia should now be calculating the real economic impacts of the outbreak to get a solution that encompasses the crisis's depth and breadth. The government must not under report data about job losses due to COVID-19. This country cannot fix what is broken unless we acknowledge all that is broken, even if it paints a dismal picture. This is not the time to placate decision-makers and political bosses with optimistic, rosy scenarios. We need to look into the eyes of the pandemic beast and do battle.…
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Year of ideological reawakening, concerted resilience against capitalism

Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro “The critical needs of the working class can only be fulfilled in a socialist Namibia,” members of the Marxist Study Group wrote in a piece in the Namibian newspapers headlined: “The End of Swapo?” Yours Truly Ideologically could not agree more or less with this piece, especially the aspiration towards socialism and the realisation that only socialism or socialist Namibia can fulfill the basic or critical needs of the working class in Namibia, as is the case indeed the world over. This is given the continued and continuing realisation that the needs of the working are unfulfilled, if…
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The Time Traveler: The power of the daily practice

Hugh Ellis I guess quite a few of us picked up an unexpected, I-can’t-believe-s/he-is-doing-that, hobby during lockdown in 2020. For me, that hobby was the saxophone. I’d recommend learning a musical instrument to anyone, for both cultural connection and mental health, but this not directly what this column is about. It’s about the one big thing that impressed me about saxophone pedagogy, and indeed all musical instrument learning, as far as I know: you must practice every single day. I soon realised, as I guess most music students do, the great power that daily practice has. When you practice something…
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We are in the worra but at what cost?

Khanysiwa Mogotsi If you used any social platform this week, you should have heard about the heavy floods that swept the nation thanks to heavy rain. Although the rain is blessing for our very dry country, we should not forget the way they might have affected the livelihoods of unfortunate Namibians, especially during a pandemic. Most of the country are happy that their prayers for heavy rain have finally been answered. But, be careful what you wish for. There are those who are currently being forced to deal with water damage to their houses and cars every rainy season. Unfortunately,…
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The unthinkable has happened

Jackie Wilson Asheeke “These are the times that try men's souls” is a quote from Thomas Paine who wrote pamphlets against the British during the American Revolutionary War. When I watched people waving flags of racist groups, the confederate flag and wearing Trump promotional garb storming the US Capitol Building, my soul was tried. This was a violent armed insurrection in the United States. Donald Trump wants to remain, president, even though he lost the election. His thugs want to try to make that happen. The unthinkable has happened. A US President has fomented insurrection in an attempt to subvert…
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Shoprite/Checkers workers turn on Nafau

Shoprite/Checkers workers turn on Nafau

Andrew Kathindi Shoprite and Checkers employees currently on strike due to low pay and poor working conditions say they have lost confidence in Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union (Nafau), the union representing their case against their employer in court. This comes after Nafau Secretary General Jacob Penda announced that a meeting with Shoprite management yesterday (Thursday), which was intended to reach an agreement over the matter, ended in a stalemate and yielded no results. Employees were disgruntled with Penda, accusing the union boss of stalling a demonstration by Affirmative Repositioning (AR), which was intended to shut down several Shoprite…
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ECN ponders next move

ECN ponders next move

Andrew Kathindi The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) is pondering its next move after finally receiving the reasons for last year’s December judgement regarding local elections in certain areas. On Thursday this week, the ECN began reviewing the Court’s justification for its decision regarding the elections in the Aroab, Koës, Stampriet local authorities and Mariental Rural constituency. “The reasons were received yesterday (Thursday). We’re still looking at them, and then we still have to meet,” Chairperson of the ECN, Advocate Notemba Tjipueja told the Windhoek Observer. Tjipueja had previously stated that the Commission would need to study Electoral Court Judge…
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COVID-19 vaccines are arriving soon; are we ready?

The rich countries of the world are already receiving their COVID-19 vaccines. Many have inoculated millions of their citizens so far. That won’t happen here; we can’t afford it, and we are not producing the vaccine locally. The ministry of health's announcement indicated that vaccine doses for 20 percent of the population (or about 508,000 people) could start in February. Namibia must handle the entire process with effectiveness, fastidiousness, trained workers, and discipline. We cannot afford to mess this up. We assume that our health officials are conquering the logistics of maintaining the extreme cold required for the doses' storage.…
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