Making A Better World - Milton Louw

(First appeared in New Era 16 September 2015) A few years ago my eldest daughter called me during a training session I held in the capital. At the time I was freelancing and training officials at a large OMA about how to use Facebook. When my daughter heard this she had to express incredulity and stated, “But how do you teach something which is so easy to use?” She was of course mistaking using the social media platform with managing the platform and the interaction you can have with the system when understanding how your followers or “likers” react to posts and photographs. I of course had to protect my business model and had to explain to her the difference. In essence, posting comment, publishing pictures or commenting on posts is all easy to do and allows your friends to see where you are, when and with whom. However, you want to know more about the people seeing your posts entails a lot more work in the actual engine room of the programme. Thus I was training managers of inform...

(First appeared in New Era 9 September 2015) One of the biggest problems is starting a family is that most of the things I want such as furniture, motor vehicle, etc. costs more money than what I earn in a month. The only option for purchasing these high cost items is to either save or to take it on credit. For myself, I have learned the hard way that it is better to save and buy later, rather than purchase on credit and not be able to afford the monthly payments later. Unfortunately, most consumers still prefer to buy on credit and can find themselves lending recklessly and then becoming “over-indebted”. In many countries of the world, a law has been enacted as a National Credit Act that promotes an effective, fair and accessible credit market and to help protect consumers from "reckless lending" and "over-indebtedness". Unfortunately, Namibia has not yet enacted many such consumer laws yet. Under such a credit environment, debt counselling is included as a too...

(First appeared in New Era 2 September 2015) “Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.” “Hi, I need some airtime urgently. Please send and I will refund you. This is Milton Shaanika-Louw.” A few hours later, the same cellular number sends another similar message but claims to be from someone else. Really, is this scam not easy to see through? After all, surely a famous and rich person would not need telephone credit. Perhaps our free calling now allows people to send this kind of phishing scam at little or no cost? This week I was very angry that people are still so gullible, but had to stop myself thinking like that because the confidence artists (con man) is making use of the good inside people to steal their money from them. Thus I should not be angry at the good intentions ...

(First appeared in New Era 19 August 2015) During the 1980s I was told that Namibia (and specifically Rehoboth), is the land of milk and honey. I did not know at the time that the name “Rehoboth” had biblical significance. In the Bible, the story is told of Isaac that had dug two wells and the people of the communal area had argued both times on who had rights to use the water. When Isaac dug a third well there were no quarrels and he thus called it Rehoboth and said, "Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land". The Rehoboth Gebiet had a medium-sized dairy industry and its own supply of milk from the Swartmodder dairy farm that had been set up with funding from the Rehoboth Development Corporation. Both these businesses flourished and was able to supply their immediate local market with enough dairy products at an affordable price. Shortly after Independence, the market forces were such that the largest dairy producer could apply economy of scales and...

(First appeared in New Era 11 August 2015) During the past week I attended a consultative workshop by the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and SME Development in Windhoek on the National Policy for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. I was glad that the Ministry is revisiting the previous policy which is at least 18 years outdated. During the discussions I brought up the issue of whether this policy will clearly stipulate that it is to support Namibian owned businesses. This brought out differing viewpoints, with one side arguing that we cannot discriminate against foreign owned business while the other side argued that a policy should be put in place that specifically assists Namibian entrepreneurs to increase the size and scope of their business. As consumers we are often requested by (mostly) big businesses to support Namibian products and services through the “Buy Namiban”, Team Namibia and other promotions. This is often at a cost that we as the consumers have to c...

(First appeared in New Era 5 August 2015) On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell got the first telephone to work and uttered the words “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you”. He as the inventor realised early on the intrusion a telephone could be and refused to have a telephone in his own study. The past few weeks I have been getting very frustrated with this invention and the intrusion it is having on my privacy. It all started when MTC started sending me SMSs about a competition that I could participate in to win if I first gave them three of my hard earned dollars. Come on. That is gambling. If I, and all the other entrants must pay a participation fee, but only one of us actually wins a share of the money we all contributed, then this means that not only is it a gamble, but also a money earner for MTC. Upon enquiry with MTC, I was informed that I should send an SMS to request them to not send me any further SMSs about the competition. Yep, that’s right. I have to spend three...

(First appeared in New Era 29 July 2015) (Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens that was published in 1861 and tells the story of an orphan named Pip) This coming week it will be my first wedding anniversary. Traditionally, (since the Middle Ages), each wedding anniversary requires a specific gift depending on the number of years you are married. For example, the tenth wedding anniversary is tin or aluminium celebrating ideas and symbols while the fifteenth anniversary gift is traditionally crystal. The first wedding anniversary is traditionally symbolised as being paper while in modern times we also give gifts of clocks. I have spent some time considering the various gift ideas from money, photographs, books, stationary, event tickets, love letters, calendars and poems. After much consideration, I decided what I will by my loving supportive wife for her anniversary. But back to the consumer issue at the heart of this decision making. One of the ideas is to purchase a co...