Making A Better World - Milton Louw

By: Milton Louw The banking population in Namibia has increased substantially in 2009 according to the World Bank’s Financial Access 2010 report released on Thursday, 16 September. The number of deposit account holders in Namibia has grown by 23 percent, with statistics confirming the resilience of the seven commercial banks during a year weighed down by the international financial crises. According to the report, more than three quarters of the population (752 per 1000 adults) hold deposit accounts and 20 percent have loans with financial institutions. In comparison, the report shows that sub-Saharan Africa had an average of 163 deposit accounts per 1000 adults and only 28 bank loans per 1000 adults. In addition the report shows that the disbursement of loans shrank across sub-Saharan Africa last year, with Namibian loan accounts declining in volume by 36 percent. The most remarkable was that Namibia scored the highest with 1185 “Depositors with Other Depository Corporations” ...

A Namibian Consumer Protection Act should specifically target unfair discrimination and enforce the right of equality in the consumer market. The Act must put the onus on the landlord to prove that he is not discriminating in any way against a tenant on the basis of things like race, gender, nationality, and even income. In addition, we believe the new Act should allow for automatic renewal of the rental agreement. This will prevent landlords from using this as an excuse to terminate when the tenant wishes to stay. At present many agents and landlords are using the end of the year contract to get rid of tenants so they can increase the rent amount for the next person. Normally the rent will only go up by around ten percent, and the landlords are pushing up the prices to the new tenants by a lot more. Lastly, we propose that the Consumer protection Act must include the right to fair and honest dealings. “No physical force, coercion, undue influence, pressure, duress or harassment ma...

According to wikipedia: A contemporary working definition of "indigenous people" for certain purposes has criteria which would seek to include cultural groups either: * before or its subsequent colonisation or annexation; or * alongside other cultural groups during the formation and/or reign of a colony or nation-state; and who furthermore * have maintained at least in part their distinct cultural, social/organisational, and/or linguistic characteristics, and in doing so remain differentiated in some degree from the surrounding populations and dominant culture of the nation-state. To the above, a criterion is usually added to also include: * peoples who are self-identified as indigenous, and/or those recognized as such by other groups.

Took my daughters out for a birthday celebration last night and they ganged up on me and wanted to go to Panarotti's for "Eat all you can Thursday". Well, we got there past seven and waited for almost an hour and a half for a table (we were 9 people in total). I did not mind the wait, but when we sat down we were informed the special only went till 9 'clock. Whoaw. I can eat as I like in half an hour. Nowhere in the advertising does it state it stops at 21H00. Especially after waiting so long. But would you believe it! the waiter arranged that we can pay the special price, and arranged at least five bottomless pizza (including a seafood) for the same price. I am not sure if it is because I have five daughters, or this is the normal service. So from my side, congratulations to Panarotti's Windhoek for good food and EXCELLENT service. I hope we all get such service elsewhere this weekend. "Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the serv...