The trouble with Namibia (Part 1)

PROFESSOR JOSEPH DIESCHO WRITES:In the Biblical Book of Proverbs (29:18) the wise King Solomon wrote: “Where there is no vision, the people shall perish”.Countries that stand the test of times are those that were founded on a vision that was propounded by their leaders early in their existence. To wage a liberation struggle in itself is not a vision, and many African countries continue to disintegrate after their laudable wars of freedom, mainly because there is no coherent vision to invite and unite the nation after freedom is won.In fact, the leaders who liberated countries became the very destroyers of those countries because the leaders confused their desire for power with vision. Africa is strewn with these examples and Namibia is right in there at the moment.VISION AND INSPIRATIONA vision is a desired future state of life that comes into view for its leader who in turn relies on what he sees in the future for his people. The description of such a vision is so appealing to those who hear of it in such a way that they can look forward to experiencing it.It is an affirmation of what inspires the leader at a particular moment to hazard the risk of motivating others to believe that the future could be better than the present if they work with him towards achieving it. The manner in which the leader articulates what he sees as a better state of affairs for his people is clear and understandable such that they aspire to work together toward being part of it. A vision statement is futuristic, inspirational, realistic and relevant to the context of the people about and for whom it is meant.Moses articulated his vision of the Promised Land to the Israelites (Jews) wherein there would be plentiful milk and honey (food security and happiness) as it was promised to the people of God once they were free from bondage of others. This vision of self-sufficiency and total brotherhood of the children of God is what keeps the Jewish alive spirit today, be it in political leadership, business entrepreneurship and national innovation and collective peace. The vision of Moses of old continues to point to the future and the importance of being Jewish in the community of Jews with a duty of care for one another.CHINAChina is moving upward in the world because of the vision that was propounded mainly by their sage Kong Qiu, commonly known as Confucius, who taught that the primary goals of society was to educate people to become self-motivated and self-controlled so that they know that everyone should take responsibility to contribute to harmony in society where all are happy and abide by the same rules. Hence today wherever the Chinese people are in the world, they conduct themselves as Chinese people in the furtherance of their internalised values and ethics handed down from one generation to the next, and in accordance with the teachings of the Chinese Communist Party of old.Chinese citizens are socialised to know and understand that every Chinese individual that does something in the name of China does so as if he or she is the best China can produce. Any Chinese who acts in the name of China are just as good as President Xi Jiping himself or any member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party for that matter. Hence the current Chinese Political Bureau has only seven members of extremely well-tested mature men who had in their lives internalised and lived out the self-evident values and precepts of the Communist Party whose programme was set more than 50 years ago, and all that that needs to be done is operationalise it domestically and internationally.THE UNITED STATESAmerica, that is only 243 years old controls world affairs, surpassing old European countries because the United States of America were founded upon a large Dream through which its founders in Philadelphia enunciated their vision of the new world for their people when they said inter alia, that they wanted to create a system of government that the human race has never seen before.In this new world which they had the fortuitous duty to name and create, each member would know and appreciate the self-evident truth that all people were created equal and endowed by God Himself a right to life, freedom and happiness. This is the American vision that attracts people from all over the world more than any other nation on the planet.The American Dollar is at present weaker than the Euro and the British Pound Sterling, yet the world uses the dollar and not the stronger currencies. Successive American leaders keep going back to the original vision of being the most free and most welcoming nation in the world – Hollywood simply embellishes this vision and it works.INDIA AND TURKEYIndia is a tone-setting nation not just because it is the most populous democracy in the world so to speak, but it is a society based upon a set of fundamental values that bind all Indians into one Nation that moves in one direction. India's first Prime Minister, Mahatma Gandhi, established the core narrative of what it means to be an Indian with Hindu values of altruism and serving humanity with a profound understanding and valuing that the community must produce what it eats, wears and exports.Turkey is the most progressive Muslim nation, now the 6th strongest economy in Europe because of the vision of its Founder, Mustafa Kamal Atatürk, after whom the country was named. Atatürk was a deep visionary who crafted the new definition of a post-Ottoman Empire nation as a Republic based on a rigorous economic and political programme of transformation into a forward-looking secular nation-state with a Latin-based orthography of the Turkish language to integrate his country into the new world order with Turkey as a credible participant.(The final part of this opinion piece will be published in Friday's edition. - Editor)

The trouble with Namibia (Part 1)

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The trouble with Namibia (Part 1)

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