Making A Better World - Milton Louw

  "The designation of prostitution as a special human rights issue, a violation in itself, emphasises the distinction between prostitution and other forms of female or low-status labour... however exploitative they are. It thus reinforces the marginal, and therefore vulnerable, position of the women and men involved in prostitution. By dismissing the entire sex industry as abusive, it also obscures the particular problems and violations of international norms within the industry which are of concern to sex workers." Thus anything but legal status for sex workers leads to marginalisation and abuses: "even in the many countries where prostitution itself is not illegal, sex workers cannot secure the minimum basic standards which other workers have acquired as far as conditions of work or their personal safety are concerned. It also means that the police frequently fail to take action to help the significant minority among prostitutes who really are victims of slavery."...

  Namibia does not yet have a legal framework to protect personal details such as full names, date of birth and personal contact details. In fact, many businesses and government departments are not even trained in what is considered personal information. Take for example the website of the Law Society of Namibia (LSN). On its “Find a Firm or Practitioner” page ( https://lawsocietynamibia.org/find-a-firm-or-practitioner/ ), it shows public information in a browser window, namely Name, Surname, Designation and Industry. If, however you investigate the coding of the page, it will also give you the Full Names, Date of Birth, and Personal Cellular Number of all its members. The ability to save information on a computer and share this electronically necessitates legislation to be promulgated that protects the abuse of this information. These laws are especially necessary in our Information and Communication enabled society where information is stored on electronic retrieval systems. ...

  I have attached below an explanation of the advantages and disadvantages when banks set their own interchange fees. As you can see, if they do it themselves, it benefits the banks. BUT, all the disadvantages are on the side of the merchants and the consumers. As a consumer activist, I was pleased when PAN - Payments Association of Namibia took the step that made it easier to compare costs between banks. In the Namibian market, I am afraid that banks will disadvantage the poorer consumer, causing them to pay more. If however, the PAN costs are made the maximum, we will all benefit from it since banks must compete but not go over a certain amount or percentage. in essence, it is about how regulations are applied to ensure fairness and competitiveness in the market. ______________________________ Interchange fees are charges paid by merchants to card issuers each time a debit or credit card is used to make a purchase. When banks set their own interchange fees, it can have a range o...

Ek heg hieronder 'n verduideliking aan oor die voordele en nadele wanneer banke hul eie interbankfooie bepaal. Soos jy kan sien, indien hulle dit self doen, is dit tot voordeel van die banke. MAAR, al die nadele is aan die kant van die handelaars en die verbruikers. As 'n verbruikersaktivis was ek bly toe PAN - Payments Association of Namibia (Betalingsvereniging van Namibië) die stap geneem het wat dit makliker gemaak het om koste tussen banke te vergelyk. In die Namibiese mark is ek bang dat banke die armer verbruiker sal benadeel, wat hulle meer sal laat betaal. Indien egter die PAN-koste as die maksimum gestel word, sal ons almal daarby baat vind aangesien banke moet meeding, maar nie oor 'n sekere bedrag of persentasie gaan nie. In wese gaan dit oor hoe regulasies toegepas word om regverdigheid en mededingendheid in die mark te verseker. _______________________________________ Interbankfooie is fooie wat handelaars aan kaartuitreikers betaal elke keer as 'n debie...