Hou die aandag waar dit hoort
Besuiniging van sowat N$200 miljoen op weeldevoertuie vir topregeringslui oor die volgende vyf jaar is Donderdag met groot fanfare aangekondig.
In die tyd van Covid-19 is elke besparing welkom – en selfs nodiger as tydens ‘n ongeveer vier jaar lange resessie. In die huidige konteks moet egter fyner na die aankondiging gekyk word. Ondeurdagte ophemelgesange tref ‘n vals noot.
Die ingrypende inkorting en selfs opskorting van vervoeruitgawes is al vir enkele jare ‘n gegewe. As ons regering die motorplan tot nou ernstig oorweeg het, moet dit Namibiërs tot kommer stem.
Was die aankondiging bloot nog ‘n weerligafleier in tye van groeiende kritiek?
Aandag hoort in hierdie tye sonder skroom en wegskram op vraagstukke wat saak maak. Weens die coronapandemie ís daar in elk geval nie geld vir blink waens nie.
Met alle krediet vir ingrypings wat ‘n wegholverspreiding van Covid-19 voorkom het, is daar knaende en groeiende noodkrete wat nie geïgnoreer mag word nie. Beloofde hulp aan individue en besighede weens die ekonomiese krisis wat die virus geskep het, sal alleen groter skade veroorsaak indien dit – soos tans die indruk is – nie tydig geskied, genoegsaam is en die doel tref nie.
By die stembus, later vanjaar en in 2024 of reeds voor dit, kan die regering net meer wantroue verwag.
Volgende week se begroting sal waarskynlik min salf kan smeer aan die swere wat reeds begin oopbars het.
Onvanpaste applous, op verkeerde oomblikke in dié toneelstuk, sal niemand baat nie.
So sê ander
17 Mei 2020
Trump's continued goading of China
Donald Trump’s histrionic threat last week to “cut off the whole relationship” with China produced a scornful response from Beijing.
The US and its western allies do have concerns – some legitimate, some exaggerated – about China’s rise to superpower status.
Fear and hostility towards outsiders, economic grievance and entitlement, and a powerful sense of American exceptionalism – all sentiments feeding the confrontation with China – are the building blocks of the rightwing nationalist, populist, quasi-racist coalition that Trump assembled in 2016. Beating this coalition of hate is 2020’s election challenge.
It was entirely predictable Trump would try to distract attention from his coronavirus fiasco by accusing Beijing of exacerbating the crisis.
The Beijing government is wrong to play, in effect, Trump’s game.
At this moment of extreme stress, it is vital to keep matters in perspective. No, China has not become a liberal democracy. Yet overall, China’s opening to the world in the post-Tiananmen age has been beneficial all round.
China is not the Soviet Union. It is a rival. It is a challenger. It sometimes plays dirty. But it is not an enemy – unless malefactors like Trump are allowed to make it so.
• THE OBSERVER
In die tyd van Covid-19 is elke besparing welkom – en selfs nodiger as tydens ‘n ongeveer vier jaar lange resessie. In die huidige konteks moet egter fyner na die aankondiging gekyk word. Ondeurdagte ophemelgesange tref ‘n vals noot.
Die ingrypende inkorting en selfs opskorting van vervoeruitgawes is al vir enkele jare ‘n gegewe. As ons regering die motorplan tot nou ernstig oorweeg het, moet dit Namibiërs tot kommer stem.
Was die aankondiging bloot nog ‘n weerligafleier in tye van groeiende kritiek?
Aandag hoort in hierdie tye sonder skroom en wegskram op vraagstukke wat saak maak. Weens die coronapandemie ís daar in elk geval nie geld vir blink waens nie.
Met alle krediet vir ingrypings wat ‘n wegholverspreiding van Covid-19 voorkom het, is daar knaende en groeiende noodkrete wat nie geïgnoreer mag word nie. Beloofde hulp aan individue en besighede weens die ekonomiese krisis wat die virus geskep het, sal alleen groter skade veroorsaak indien dit – soos tans die indruk is – nie tydig geskied, genoegsaam is en die doel tref nie.
By die stembus, later vanjaar en in 2024 of reeds voor dit, kan die regering net meer wantroue verwag.
Volgende week se begroting sal waarskynlik min salf kan smeer aan die swere wat reeds begin oopbars het.
Onvanpaste applous, op verkeerde oomblikke in dié toneelstuk, sal niemand baat nie.
So sê ander
17 Mei 2020
Trump's continued goading of China
Donald Trump’s histrionic threat last week to “cut off the whole relationship” with China produced a scornful response from Beijing.
The US and its western allies do have concerns – some legitimate, some exaggerated – about China’s rise to superpower status.
Fear and hostility towards outsiders, economic grievance and entitlement, and a powerful sense of American exceptionalism – all sentiments feeding the confrontation with China – are the building blocks of the rightwing nationalist, populist, quasi-racist coalition that Trump assembled in 2016. Beating this coalition of hate is 2020’s election challenge.
It was entirely predictable Trump would try to distract attention from his coronavirus fiasco by accusing Beijing of exacerbating the crisis.
The Beijing government is wrong to play, in effect, Trump’s game.
At this moment of extreme stress, it is vital to keep matters in perspective. No, China has not become a liberal democracy. Yet overall, China’s opening to the world in the post-Tiananmen age has been beneficial all round.
China is not the Soviet Union. It is a rival. It is a challenger. It sometimes plays dirty. But it is not an enemy – unless malefactors like Trump are allowed to make it so.
• THE OBSERVER
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