“The whole world has been a modern slave plantation disguised as a sophisticated political economy. The governments are modern day fiefdoms exercising autocratic control over their unenlightened slaves. Man has become so gullible through a false consciousness of living a better life, that he failed to see the deceit that was perpetrated against him. Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and Thomas D’Urfey’s song “Old MacDonald had a Farm” depicted in an allegorical way the development of a new form of enslavement that escaped the intellectual understanding of even the academics whose eyes were glued to an illusory utopia. Like the average man they too are now trapped in a web deceit and dictatorial governance.”
What an instructive if not to the point observation. Which is much relevant in this era and age of Neo-colonialism touted and paraded as globalisation and inter- and intra-dependence of nations in mutual interest.
On the home front Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but wonder if it is a matter of naivety or political and economic realism or both, that after 30 years plus of political and/or flag independence, years in which it has become more clear than anything else, that the more things seem to be changing the more they remain the same, there is a believe that the country has been , is on the course? On course for what with all the telltales and signs of socio-economic stagnation if not retrogression and decay. Yet, we still have people who must and should be in the better know, still promising what is tantamount to Mana from Heaven, or even, if you wish, worse Mana from Hell proper. Because despite things being as clear as daylight that, more than anything else, there’s no way that under the current Capitalist system, which on a daily basis entrenching itself, there’s no way that the wretched of the earth, the working class, can expect better living conditions. Other than the usual to placate the system, which in this day is worse than then the usual crumbs falling from the tables of opulence. That people can be expected to continue to make a dignified existence under the perpetuation of the Capitalist system, unbearable and unlivable as it has been, still is and shall continue to be, is beyond the understanding of most, let alone the working class and its leaders and the masses of the wretched.
Yet, one is hearing everyday promises for a better tomorrow without any illusion of a fundamental change to the current Capitalist system, let alone any pretense at tampering with its fundamentals, only as a beginning with the first small step rather than a giant leap towards real change.
After 30 years plus of independence in Namibia, one must by now have started to see the beginning of a reflection towards the first few steps of radical socio-economic transformation. But what has been hearing, is hearing and seeing are some cosmetics to the status quo, which one cannot imagine or let alone dream would invoked, stimulate and instigate the necessary real momentum, if only towards an earnest reflection that for most of the wretched of the Namibian earth, it is not yet Uhuru. Not as long as the country seems to still remain in her long slumber, rendering real radical socio-economic transformation but a pipedream for now, if not in eternity.
While the would-be agitators and engineers of real change, social critics, development specialist, you name them all, without any exception, all they have been doing without anyone failing, is coming up with cosmetics to the status quo. In the final analysis, rather than being agents of real change, at best they seem to have been the prime apologists for the status quo of Capitalism.
Admittedly there are community organisations out there who have been doing sterling work among the communities to lessen the burdens of otherwise sore and sad socio-economic conditions. Strong in the beliefs and convictions that they cannot bear their communities walloping in wanton poverty, squalor and destitute. But while Yours Truly Ideologically, as indeed the destitute communities that they provide for, may appreciate their sterling work, one cannot but wonder, notwithstanding their opium-like philanthropy, one cannot but want to know what their ultimate ideological disposition is and may be.
Are they of the view that things may eventually change for the better in the long run, thanks to their philanthropic endeavours? Or is it a matter of only providing the wretched with the necessary relieve interventions. But are they by so doing also not equally providing the Capiltalist system with a lifeline, unwittingly so? These are scenarios that all those who ultimately believe in a radical socio-economic change, sooner rather than later, must start to ponder, if this may not have crossed their minds already.
Because of the desperate socio-economic situation prevalent in Namibia, and it would be self-delusional to thing that it would sooner or later subside, let alone ever subside by itself, the country, needless to say, has for long now been in need of a serious ideological paradigm shift. Because nothing short of a radical socio-economic transformation, albeit piecemeal, shall put the country on the real path towards transformation.
One cannot but observe that the typical talk among social and economic analysists has been recovery. Recovery from the economic misfortunes, which for that matter, given the nature of Capitalism, are not unexpected but true to its nature. But the cardinal question is whether the hoped-for recovery of the Capitalist system, shall even in any way deliver the wretched of the Namibian earth from the Capitalist yoke?
Is what we are seeing and have been reliving not the beginning of the end of this dreaded exploitative system? If that is the case how could the country ever wish and hope for the its recovery at worse, or at best return to a system, which in the first place is and has been responsible for the miseries in which the majority of its citizens has been relegated to paupers and condemned to everlasting destitutes?
If either the recovery and/or return to it is all that Namibia in this era and age can wish and hope for, then surely the country is really not only in need or thinkers but a complete ideological paradigm shift. Can, among others, the Swapo Party think tank, announced recently, be one of the vehicles towards such an ideological paradigm shift, which no doubt, the country needs? Time will tell but one thing is certain, recovery and or return to Capitalism is nothing but reinventing miseries, squalor and the poverty to the extent and proportions worse than the country hitherto has never seen since our flag independence. A carte blanch for the continued perpetuation of the exploitation of the resources of the natural resources of the country for a few and their continued wholesale of the country to big corporations in the name of investment.
