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Justicia Shipena  The minister of international relations and trade, Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, urged members of the Namibia Association of Former Ambassadors (NAFA) to closely analyse global developments and advise the ministry on issues of strategic importance.  Ashipala-Musavyi made the call on Thursday in Windhoek during a NAFA meeting. She said the experience and insight of former ambassadors remain critical to advancing Namibia’s foreign policy and economic interests. NAFA was established 12 years ago as a think tank and advisory body to the ministry, drawing on the knowledge, experience and networks of retired diplomats. She said this role has become more important…

In the history of nations, certain dates are inscribed into the collective consciousness, not merely as markers of time, but as anchors of identity. For Namibia, the first week of February has become such a period. It is a week that begins with the quiet sunset of the third president, Dr Hage G. Geingob (February 4), and ends with the final rest of the founding president, Dr Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma (February 8). The Young Observer dedicates this edition to these two towering figures. To the youth of Namibia, they were more than names on a ballot; they were the storytellers…

For a long time, the word 'cancer' felt like something that happened to other people. People in distant countries, or people much older than ourselves. It lived in statistics, in whispered family stories, or in hospital corridors far removed from everyday youth life. Recent events in Namibia, however, have drawn this reality closer to home. Cancer is no longer a distant threat. It is a present and personal one. Among young people, conversations about cancer are often avoided because they feel frightening or irrelevant. We focus on careers, friendships, ambitions, and fitness, quietly assuming that serious illness belongs to some…

For generations, the journey into working life followed a familiar rhythm. One began at the bottom of an intern’s desk, a junior designer’s draft, an assistant’s notes, or a trainee’s first uncertain attempt.  The early work was rarely glamorous, often repetitive and sometimes invisible.  Yet it served a quiet and essential purpose. It was the first step. It was where skill was formed, confidence was tested, and professional identity slowly took shape. Today, that first step is beginning to disappear. Across the world, artificial intelligence is transforming how work is produced, distributed, and valued.  Tasks that once belonged to beginners,…

If you walk through the streets of Windhoek today, you are not merely navigating a city; you are moving through the physical expression of an intellectual miracle. The independence we inhabit did not arrive as a sudden political accident. It was engineered. Long before the first flag was raised, our future was being drafted in the heat of exile camps, argued in the chambers of the United Nations, and whispered in the secret meetings of the Old Location. Black history is often spoken of as memory. In classrooms, it appears as a collection of dates and names. In speeches, it…