Milton Louw - Future Namibia : Autorenportrait BoD - Books on Demand

Milton Louw - Future Namibia : Autorenportrait BoD - Books on Demand: “Why did I write this book?” “In this book I hope to objectively evaluate Namibia’s economic problems in terms of Namibia’s realities. ... Namibia’s economic problems have both proximate and ultimate causes, too. The solution must eliminate its proximate causes which are multiple and complex. They include: a hugely expanding rural population that is moving to the urban areas; illiteracy – especially in regards Information Technology; lack of adequate schooling and medical care facilities; and their constantly escalating states of poverty. ..."

The Dogg making racial jokes on Facebook

Facebook and social online media is today becoming a method of sharing our ideas with friends and relatives from all around the world, and all around our country too. It allows us to share our ideas, photos and private comments with each other and we know that our friends often think in the same wey that we do - that is after all why we are friends. Many of us do not think that our comments or posts should be considered public, or often consider that people we might not know can read our posts and judge us accoring to these comments.


Last night, 5 January 2012, I was rather saddened to read a post by one of our leading artists who has over 29,000 people following him on Facebook. The Dogg posted the following at around 20h00 on his fan page:

"A MULE IS A CROSS BREED OF A DONKEY AND A HORSE.....SO A BLACK PERSON AND A WHITE PERSON OFFSPRING IS ALSO A MULE SINCE IS CROSS BREED?....HAHAHAHAHAH"  

This is obviously a racial slur and can lead to a charge of racism. What was worse, was that as it was posted by the star many of his fans felt they too could comment and make even more outrageous comments making fun of other people whose parents were from different cultures or mixed races. It was particularly sad that these fans (many of them still youth and possibly born frees) did not realise their comments were  racist and to be strongly condemned - even possibly having a criminal charges laid against them (and The Dogg).

I wish to urge our artists, and our fellow Namibians, to be careful of the things they write on facebook or any other social media. Not only are your comments racist and hurtful, but can, and should, lead to criminal charges of racism.

I hope that our people who make use of these tools think twice before making such comments, or even participating in such activities.

Martin Morocky (born 31 March 1983), known by his stage name as The Dogg is a Namibian multi-award winning musician, producer and actor. He's one of the most outstanding artists in Namibia and is considered one of the pioneers of Namibia's kwaito genre.

Future Namibia - On Sale Now

"Future Namibia" is a book written by Milton Louw covering various PEST (Political, economic, social and technological) issues facing Namibia.

About the author
Milton Louw is a Namibian born socio-political entrepreneur. He has traveled extensively promoting Namibia as an investment destination.

His publications, email newsletters and more recently his blogs are read by entrepreneurs from all sizes of businesses. His research on managing a country as a business using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools has been received by a wide audience of business, academics and other social entrepreneurs.

Future Namibia Mission Statement
"Develop the tools and systems to assist the management of Namibia (government, civil society and private sector) in providing access to services and technologies to allow maximum quality of life to all who live here."

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Idealism

Idealism! Throughout history, some men had sought the ideal, and most had called it freedom. Only fools expected absolute freedom, but wise men dreamed up many systems of relative freedom, including democracy. They had tried that in America, as the last fling of the dream. It had been a good attempt, too.

The men who drew the Constitution had been pretty practical dreamers. They came to their task after a bitter war and a worse period of wild chaos, and they had learned where idealism stopped and idiocy began. They set up a republic with all the elements of democracy that they considered safe. It had worked well enough to make America the number one power of the world. But the men who followed the framers of the new plan were a different sort, without the knowledge of practical limits.

The privileges their ancestors had earned in blood and care became automatic rights. Practical men tried to explain that there were no such rights—that each generation had to pay for its rights with responsibility. That kind of talk didn't get far. People wanted to hear about rights, not about duties.

They took the phrase that all men were created equal and left out the implied kicker that equality was in the sight of God and before the law. They wanted an equality with the greatest men without giving up their drive toward mediocrity, and they meant to have it. In a way, they got it.

They got the vote extended to everyone. The man on subsidy or public dole could vote to demand more. The man who read of nothing beyond sex crimes could vote on the great political issues of the world. No ability was needed for his vote. In fact, he was assured that voting alone was enough to make him a fine and noble citizen. He loved that, if he bothered to vote at all that year. He became a great man by listing his unthought, hungry desire for someone to take care of him without responsibility. So he went out and voted for the man who promised him most, or who looked most like what his limited dreams felt to be a father image or son image or hero image. He never bothered later to see how the men he'd elected had handled the jobs he had given them.

Someone had to look, of course, and someone did. Organized special interests stepped in where the mob had failed. Lobbies grew up. There had always been pressure groups, but now they developed into a third arm of the government.

Bagde of Infamy - Lester del Rey

Why did I write, "Future Namibia"?

Namibians have a lot to be proud of. It is one of the most spectacular countries in terms of scenery and wildlife. In addition, it has enormous mineral wealth.

The most important ingredient of this country however, is its people. Namibians have emerged from decades of colonialism and apartheid rule to become one of the most integrated societies in the world. Regardless of social, economic or political background, Namibians are proud of their country.

As a child of Independence, having raised the flag of Namibia over Windhoek the morning of 21 March 1990, I am grateful for those who went before me to ensure the quality of life we can all enjoy.

I have been trained in investment promotion, or in plain words, marketing of Namibia to outsiders. This has had its share of success and failure, but more importantly given me the chance to study the people, the landscape, the business sectors, history and so much more.

This book is the result of my experiences and study of the best system for making this country even better for us, and our generations to come. While preparing the book I was looking for a basis on which to write. The best structure, I believe, has been to write this book as a “Business Plan for Namibia”. Accordingly, I looked at:

·         Management (Government, Legislature and Executive)

·         External and Internal Environments (PEST analysis)

·         Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)

·         Marketing planning(through segmentation and targeting) to find the best value proposition

·         Forecasting

In all these, I looked for the best result achieved in other countries such as China, Germany, France, Netherlands, Japan, USA, etc and adapted it to our specific situation.

Throughout this book I also looked at how to integrate technology into our systems and daily lives. I have struggled to find a term for this and the best I could find was “Progress through Technology”,  or in German, “Vorsprung Durch Technik” . I prefer to use the German expression because in German the word “Technik” not only means technology, but also the technique of studying and mastering the skills of something.

My conclusion is that in Namibia, discrimination is not based only on race, culture, gender, or geographical location, but more importantly in access to services (and technology).

Just as in any business plan, this book is not set in stone. It is a work in progress that will develop and change to reflect the changes in our society. I hope that you the reader, will not only read, but become a participant in creating this vision of “Future Namibia”.

Future Namibia Mission Statement

“Develop the tools and systems to assist the management of Namibia (government, civil society and private sector) in providing access to services and technologies to allow maximum quality of life to all who live here.”

Milton Louw

14 August 2011