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| NAMIBIA IS A GREAT NATION BUT............... |
12/12/2008 |
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The Republic of Namibia is a vast, sparsely populated country along the South Atlantic Coast of Africa. It is one of the richest sources of diamond in the world. Mining and fishries are the major economic activities. Subsistence farming is also predominant though the soil is not very fertile. The geographical terrain makes it attractive to adventure travelers, while the game-reserves are a beauty to behold and thus a haven to eco-tourists. As a young country that gained independence in 1990. It ranks high in good governance-improved rule of law, transparency and sustainable economic opportunities. While there is extreme inequality and the problem of HIV/AIDS, the country needs partnership in trade and other spheres of development. It needs foreign assistance progress and development. Cornélie M. Van Waegeningh, the Honorary Counsel-General of Namibia to the Netherlands, who has lived and worked in Namibia, in this interview highlights her role as the image-maker of Namibia in the Netherlands. She had served in the country and knows the people and their culture. The stark contrast between the abundance where she grew up and the circumstances there in Namibia, etc had endeared her to the land and hence, her desire to help put the country in the map in the Netherlands for trade, tourism and development policies and programs. Her acceptance of this non-remunerative post signifies that to give real service, one must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. Furthermore, it shows that greatness is not found in possessions, power, position or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service and character. The Voice Magazine''''s Henry D Oduenyi had a more revealing encounter in an interview with the Honorary Consul. A video clip of this exclusive interview can as well be accessed on our web site: www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com
Interview:
The Voice: Welcome viewers to this interview session. With me for the interview is Cornélie M. Van Waegeningh - The Honorary Consul of Namibia to the Netherlands. Welcome.
Consul: Thank you.
The Voice: I would start with inquiring what your portfolio is?
Consul: I am the Honorary Consul which means I have an honorary portfolio. Which further means that the things that I do are in the domain of trade relations; it is a little bit like putting Namibia on the map in The Netherlands,; so you can call it public relations for Namibia. I render assistance to the people who are going to Namibia. I am not issuing visa(s) myself because the Embassy is in Brussels but I do give them guidance when they are in need of visas and other information.
The Voice: The country Namibia, how big is Namibia? I mean the size of the country?
Consul: Namibia is a huge country. It is about 20 or 22 times the size of the Netherlands. It was one of the first and only colony of Germany. I think it was in 1890, when Bismarck was the German Chancellor that it was agreed upon for him to have Namibia as a colony of Germany. Germany at that time had very few colonies if any. Namibia was then known as South West Africa (SWA). When the Germans lost the First World War, all their colonies were taken away from them. So the League of Nations decided to put it under their protection and in 1920 it was given to South Africa. South Africa kept it close to their heart so to say, until 1990 when Namibia got her independence from South Africa. That was during the apartheid regime. That is why you can still see the remnants of the apartheid regime in Namibia. That is also why Namibia has for a long time been a sort of a province of South Africa.
The Voice: Thank you very much. Namibia ranks low in the Human development Index (HDI) of the UN. Is this not a serious cause for concern on the government to seek ways of improving the condition of Namibians?
Consul: To be honest, maybe the Human Development Index-(HDI) is not the most serious problem. The most serious problem in Namibia is inequality in income distribution. That is what the UN calls the “Gini-index”, you have the human development index and you have the “gini-index”. Out of 170 countries in the world where this factor was used for measurement, Namibia ranks number one. If you turn that upside down, Namibia is in number 170 compared with the Netherlands which is in number 20. That means that Namibia is the one country in the world with the highest inequality in income distribution. This is also one of the remnants of the apartheid regime “extreme inequality”. Though I am a Dutch, but it is a policy one would not be proud of. The apartheid regime was a very wicked system. It is an invention of a Dutch mind. Of course, apartheid is a Dutch word.
The Voice: let us branch away from that horrible era and get into Tourism. What do you think should be done to improve the tourism industry in Namibia to enhance revenue?
Consul: It is a very complex question. First of all, let me inform you that as a source of income for the country, the four pillars of the economy are: The mining sector to start with, which I think accounts for about 25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), followed by the Agricultural sector, then comes the Fishing sector, and the Tourism sector in the fourth place. Agriculture is not a major revenue earner, but the important fact is that majority of the people are dependent on it for subsistence and sustenance. The tourism industry is inter-related to the Agricultural sector through the land issue. This is because Namibia is a land with wide open spaces. I had mentioned already that Namibia is thinly populated. The population is only about 2million people. It has a very beautiful wildlife and beautiful nature. It is very rough. However, in terms of agriculture, the productivity is poor. But tourism is linked to land reform and poverty related issues. The most fertile land is in the hands and still in the hands of those who are best-of, while the poor have only little portions of land. The nature of tourism policy in Namibia is partly private-commercial and partly Community-based. The government also engages on community-based tourist activities. So they also try to get the poor farmers on board. However, there are beautiful ranches that are privately run tourist resorts....
The Voice: Suppose you are given a free hand, what can you do to improve it?
Consul: That is a very difficult question. My personal heart is very much with the poor. It is with those who have no opportunity. Namibia has a very interesting concept for development: Broad Based Economic Empowerment Concept. They try to focus really and to include those who are less-off. It is a holistic approach to economic development and I think that should be supported.
The Voice: Talking of development, I think one of your duties as the Honorary Consul is to bring in developmental projects to Namibia or to expose Namibia to Dutch business Investors. What is the case so far?
Consul: It is pretty complex in the sense that, it is not my task to do anything in the field of Development Co-operation. Let us be very clear because that is part of regular bilateral relations with government to government or to NGOs. I lived in Namibia at the time as the Charge-d’affairs of the Netherlands in Namibia and that is the other way round now. Then, in my portfolio I did have Development co-operation. I have been to remote areas there, and I do know the country well, so I more or less know where the needs are. So as Honorary Counsel, I will of course try to get the message to my own government. I am no longer in government service as you may understand. So I will try to bring the message across to them. But I cannot really do much in that area. Of course, I can try to assist Namibia in trade promotion, in promoting the trade relations between the two countries. I will do what I can but you know that “the Dutch likes to earn money”. That is in our nature. Laughs! We all like to earn money, don’t we? The Dutch are tradesmen. In Namibia, the government is stable and the economy is stable. But trade prospects are small. That is due to the fact that it is a huge country with little population. The market is small, so the Dutch are very much inclined to go to South Africa and far less inclined to go to Namibia. You can keep on telling people it is a beautiful country but the potentials there are limited. So that is the problem.
The Voice: There are critical factors that attract tourists and you rightly explained Namibia lacks them. But given the liberty to scout for investors especially in the areas of agriculture; the Dutch people are renowned farmers and renowned agriculturists. Don’t you think Namibia could be the food hub of the Southern part of Africa, since they have vast land If investors think twice and go there to invest?
Counsel: Namibia is a very dry country. It has two deserts. The carrying-capacity of the country is limited. Despite its vastness, it is an enormous country. The ecological carrying-capacity of Namibia has its own limitations. They have areas in Namibia which is in the North-East where you have fossil water like in Israel. There, you have underground water; it is there you have large scale farming. Otherwise, it is dairy farming, extensive dairy farming, extensive live-stock; so you have sheep farms there. The sheep farmers and sell the skins for leather, coats etc. Despite the vastness of the country the potential agricultural activities is not so huge. When I lived there, during our National Day celebrations, we presented our national products like cheese, herring, and so on.. When the people tasted the cheese, they exclaimed- “oh! What a delicious cheese, we like them as well…”. I took the Ambassador once to one of the cheese farms here and of course, he showed a lot of interest. But then you come to the other questions like the availability of milk over there and other production factors of cheese? The market also remains small because there are very few customers.
The Voice: At this time every developing nation embraces Information Communication Technology (ICT). Some African nations are very well informed in this area like Rwanda. They have embraced it so much to the admiration of the whole world. What is Namibia doing in this area?
Consul: The access to telephone communications is very well developed as I understood but Internet is not so well developed yet. It may be an interesting issue to state that I had a meeting with the municipality of Heusden in the Southern part of The Netherlands yesterday. The Municipality is in partnership with an average sized village in Namibia called Otjwarango. They exchanged among others, school kids and Municipality staff. Whenever they are visiting Namibia, they take along their computers as we could see on the movie yesterday, how they were installing the computers-though they were second hand computers. They told us that they were extremely pleased with the computers and their lessons. There will be an increase in similar activities. But again, the problem is that there are only pockets of places where people live. It is the wireless connection that will work but the wired connection is the problem in the country. Everyone there is having his own mobile phone like all over the world, isn’t it? And the kids are very keen to work with computers but they are very expensive.
The Voice: And the government Departments?
Consul: They are all having computers and in that aspect, they are all Western-oriented.
The Voice: it is very disappointing that in Namibia the Health sector has not improved as expected by other African nations. The twin killers-Malaria and HIV/AIDS are ravaging the country, what is your government’s position?
Consul: You mean my own government?-laughs! Namibian Government.
The Voice: The Namibian government of course, because you represent their interest. What are they doing to tackle this tragedy?
Consul: The tragedy in Namibia is a real tragedy. The figures are so high. They say about 10-20% of the population or if not more is HIV/AIDS infected. Malaria infections is predominantly in the Northern area where you have more water. The Namibian government is further advanced in the distribution of HIV/AIDS anti retroviral medicines to the people. It is unlike South Africa where they tell you to eat garlic or to use all kinds of soaps in order to protect yourself against any type of infection. So, they are quite advanced and quite open to modern technology. The entire work force and the economy of Namibia may be affected if there comes a time when medicines are not going to be freely distributed by the government. The level of promiscuity in Namibia is terrible. Rapes of young children, Sexual abuse, etc, are horrifying. But that also is part of the remnants I think partly of the whole apartheid regime. There is never a county that I have been to where I have experienced such high degree of sexual abuses and rapes, etc. They are terrible. The people are desperate and they do desperate things.
The Voice: This is a situation that calls for serious action. What serious actions/action plans has the government put in place to tackle this ugly situation?
Consul: There are a lot of initiatives. There are some from the non-governmental sector but also from the governmental sector. They try to encourage people to discuss the issues more openly and to make it an issue for family discussions for more awareness. I do remember when I lived in Namibia, my domestic aid with whom I was very close to said to me in Afrikaans “Mam, I am just a poor black girl, so I have to undergo… that I am getting pregnant from all different men”. I asked her why? Why? For heaven sake! I am just a poor white girl, and I do not have to do that therefore you do not have to do that also. That is something in their mind, so it is mentality matter as well. They are working hard on that but you cannot erase it in 10 or 20 years of independence. It will take some time.
The Voice: There are natural mineral resources that Namibia is noted for. How has the government harnessed these resources to improve the lives of the citizens?
Consul: Well, to be honest I do not know. What I do know is that they have a social program and in that sense, appropriate governance system. There are always things to improve upon in our country as well as in theirs. I feel they have a good social and economic program. I had earlier mentioned the Broad Based Economic Empowerment programme, which is meant to include those who are in the backward positions to make them part of the economic concepts.
Let us go back to the apartheid era; there were ethnic administrations in Namibia. The ethnic administrations had their own responsibilities for education up to the age of 13 and after the age of 13, you would be qualified for national system. If you go to school as a youngster and become part of the ethnic administration and your administration does not have funds, how can you ever get to the national positions? So you already have a backward position. That is why there are a lot of people that are virtually illiterate-they cannot read, write or quite understand English–the National language. However, the government is working hard to reverse the situation and all these are backlogs that they will have to deal with in years to come. I personally feel that all those macroeconomic indicators like income per head or per population are giving the wrong picture of Namibia. If you look at the degree of inequality of the population, there are about 30% of the population that live on about $1 per day or whatever, and there are other people that are very, very rich. It is such that the degree of inequality is enormous. Then, your question was on how the government is using the revenue from the mining sector for the social and economic programs. The two sectors have solid social and economic programs. It is very hard to reverse the situation in 10 or 20 years time.
The Voice: Are you happy with the progress in the trade between Namibia and the European countries?
Consul: I think that European countries should pay more attention to Namibia and really make good efforts, but do you know what it is? The Development Cooperation can play a role in that area. Development Cooperation also gives incentives to trade and promotes trade. The moment the official government for example, The Netherlands cuts off development budget for Namibia, all other bodies that can draw from the National development budget will follow suit. It is like a chain reaction. It is like a domino game sort of.
The Voice: As I understand, the Municipality of Heusden here in the Netherlands are working in conjunction with a municipality in Namibia for developmental cooperation and assistance. What impact have their contributions made to the lives of the Namibian people?
Consul: They have made a major impact and I will elaborate on them later. I should also say that there are actually 3 municipalities in the Netherlands that have partnerships with 3 different Municipalities in Namibia. The 3 of them are working in the field of HIV/AIDS and they get special funds, in this case from the Netherlands government but under special arrangement for the HIV/AIDS projects. Last night, I was in a meeting in the Municipality of Heusden, they have just come back from a visit to Namibia. They showed very interesting movie on a multi-purpose building in Otjiwarongo . Otjiwarongo is the village that they have partnership with. This multi-purpose building was set up by the municipality itself. It is being used to give assistance to young mothers with HIV/AIDS. Their babies are not yet HIV/AIDS infected. In order to stabilize the situation and prevent the babies from contacting HIV/AIDS, the mothers could breast-feed the babies, as I understood only for 1-2 months. Then they have to switch over to powdered milk until the time the babies can take more solid food. The whole counseling of the mothers is done by Namibians and it is supported by the Ministry of Health in Namibia. There are excellent AIDS coordinators there and the women fully understand when they have to stop the breastfeeding. However, the powdered milk is very expensive and it is being paid for by the Municipality of Heusden here. An interesting aspect is that here the Dutch municipality generates funds from its own people in order to assist the people over there. It is indeed an interesting activity and really commendable. What I like more is that they try to strengthen the ability of the HIV infected mothers to survive. It is not that they are dependent on them; they try to give them extra assistance to retake their lives.
The Voice: What gave you the inner drive to accept this responsibility for no fees?
Consul: I felt honoured about it-Laughs. I thought a long time about it. I am still working; I have my own job of course. I have a lot of other things in addition to it. I really thought over it and because I love that country, I lived there for 4years and I am somebody who likes water. I like to do water sports, I like to swim, I live along the water and all of a sudden you find yourself in a country where there is no water but sand. I therefore learned to love sand, to love desert, and to love the emptiness, whereas I grew up in a country with a high population density. So, I learned to love the extremes. I like my own country and I like that other country too. When I was asked by the government of Namibia, I really felt very honoured. Yes, I do love this country; there is a click between me and this country.
The Voice: If you are given a chance, would you like to spend your retirement period in this great country of Namibia?
Consul: Laughs! I sometimes think about that. I go back to Namibia approximately, once every year.
The Voice: Do you see a Cornélie Van Waegeningh becoming a politician in the Netherlands someday?
Consul: Laughs! Laughs! No! No, definitely.
The Voice: Thank you very much for such an exciting period with you.
Consul: You are welcome.
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