By: Kumari Lewis and Ben Williams
Migration
is something that seems to come naturally to humans and animals. We began as
nomads, moving from place to place following our food sources as they too moved
but we eventually began to settle down and establish more permanent, immobile
ways of life. Animals never ceased to migrate and probably never will as they
continue to fulfill their basic needs for sustenance and suitable weather
conditions through constant movement. It seems as though, for a time, migration
became stigmatized: only those too uncivilized to sustain a sedentary lifestyle,
such as animals, would migrate. But eventually the human desire to learn and
discover new things overtook the stigma and explorers set out to traverse the
oceans and greater distances than ever before.
Nowadays
curiosity is what drives many of us to travel. I believe that is the mainreason
most of us on this trip decided to study in Namibia for the semester: a basic
desire to explore the world. But it is sometimes easy to forget just how many
thousands and millions of people are forced to travel, to migrate because of
dangerous political, economic, and social situations in their home country.
This past week in our Politics of Development class we were visited by
immigrants from Zimbabwe, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a
Namibian who had immigrated to the Unites States for ten years but recently
returned. Curiosity may have played a role in their migration, or at least hope
that Namibia would provide a better life for them, but ultimately many of them
were forced to leave their countries because of such dire political and
economic circumstances.
Having
lived in the "western developed" world my entire life, the concept of
living in a country where: the currency is literally abandoned because it has
become so inflated, the government is so corrupt that millions of public funds
disappear annually into the pockets of politicians, or people live in fear of
speaking or writing anything against the government because they may be
imprisoned or simply disappear, all of these situations are so foreign to me
and yet these are the heart wrenching realities of the immigrants we spoke
with. It is one thing to read statistics in a textbook about how corrupt and
inefficient some government regimes are but it is entirely different to speak
with men and women who have had the personal experience and struggled for
freedom but have yet to establish a supportive lifestyle for themselves and
their families. The statistics show that Namibia is a middle income country,
but in reality there is a huge wealth disparity, and immigrants are often
falling on the losing end of that disparity. Even very well, if not over
qualified immigrants are often denied jobs simply because of their nationality.
Namibia has an unofficial unemployment rate of 50% thus it makes sense that the
government would want to employ Namibians instead of ‘foreigners’ but it seems
that Namibians who are significantly less qualified are receiving jobs instead
of immigrants purely because of their nationality. There is a brain drain from
immigrant host countries because people have hope that they will be able to use
their qualifications elsewhere, but ultimately Namibia is more concerned with
hiring Namibians instead of the most qualified applicant so the host country of
immigrants loses knowledge and Namibia fails to take advantage of it. So while
the idea of hiring Namibians to reduce Namibian unemployment is at first glance
a great tactic, delving deeper reveals that these policies may not actually
improve Namibia’s economy as much as they hope to.
After
the short time that we have spent in Namibia that actually feels like a
lifetime, it has become painfully obvious that things, particularly politics
and economics are not what they may first seem. There is much more to see and
understand than what is on the surface, and our immersive experience in
Southern Africa has allowed us to delve deeper and discover so many new things
about ourselves and the societies that make up this wonderful place we call
Namibia.
This
past week at CGE Namibia has been quite a lively one, ripe with speakers and
trips that begin to define our experiences here in Windhoek. Week ten in
Windhoek is just past the halfway point, so it’s far enough along for us to
begin to think of some defining experiences that we will take back with us to
our respective colleges and universities. One of the reasons I was attracted to
this program was because of its captivating title: Nation Building,
Globalization and Decolonizing the Mind. Two critical components that comprises
all of the aspects of the title are politics and political institutions. At the
forefront of the aforementioned is Namibian’s governance, its three tiered
system, fit with executive, legislative and judicial branches. Our Politics
class reading for the week summed up the process of and adoption of Namibia’s
constitution. The constitution was adopted in February of 1990, the same year
Namibia won its independence. It was with this information under our
belts that we took a trip to Namibia’s Parliament in downtown Windhoek.
Namibia’s Parliamentary building sits atop a hill in Windhoek, overlooking
Parliament Gardens, an immaculately kept garden with colorful flora.
As we
entered the Parliamentary building, we were met by our host David. He proceeded
to show us around the buildings while providing us with a wealth of knowledge
about Namibia’s Parliament and parliamentary procedures. Here’s a brief
snippet: Parliament currently has 72 members, 37 of which constitute a quorum;
it is in session from February – July and August – November, meeting Tuesdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.; the dominant party is
SWAPO, which holds an overwhelming majority; there are two houses: the National
Assembly and the National Council; the National Assembly makes laws, while the
National Council advises the National Assembly on the laws it makes. One of the
most prominent aspects of the tour that stood out to our group was the
participatory aspect of Parliament. It has an open door policy which allows for
citizens to sit in on sessions, as well as question their representatives about
issues at hand with the session and legislation. However, despite this
fantastic opportunity, our guide informed us that not many people show up to
the sessions. Trying to understand why this is the case is something that has
baffles me. I understand that many people lead busy lives, but especially for
such a newly independent nation, it seems that many who fought with arms twenty
five years ago, would use this a a resource to make their country a better
place. On the other hand, with the ruling party, SWAPO, having such a firm
grasp on politics now, I can understand why citizens would simply assume that
SWAPO’s agendas would just pass, which is what has happened.
 |
| CGE students visit parliament! |
At the
end of the day, it is easy for me as a foreigner to criticize Namibians for not
going and participating in their own Parliament, but it is crucial to try and
understand the thought process that goes into decision making.Further,
non-participation in political processes is not a foreign concept to me as an
United States voter. During presidential election years, voter turnout is
around sixty percent of all registered voters across. For midterm elections
like the ones that just took place, turnout is even lower. This is abysmal. Furthermore,
just from hearing some of the rhetoric from each country, it seems as if voters
in both countries, at times, do not feel as if their vote will count. More than
likely one single vote will not make a difference in an election, however if
this ideal becomes pervasive than these voters collectively will make a
difference in their inaction.
During the rural homestay a few weeks back, my
host mom told me that SWAPO could do no wrong in her eyes since they fought for
the liberation of this country. Throughout the semester we have encountered
many people with this thought process, so it is easy to understand why some
people do not participate. Because of the liberation struggle, they see
political leaders as their brothers and sisters, thus, they feel that the
politicians have their best interest at heart. Namibians and immigrants alike seem
to invest much faith in the Namibian government, society, and economy. And
despite SWAPO’s wrongs Namibia is still seen by many as a greener pasture, a
country of significantly more opportunities than their home country that they
would leave everything behind to start over in Namibia.
This blog is the work of our students. To learn more about Center for Global Education programming, visit us at www.centerforglobaleducation.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment