WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-07-30 Time: 13:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
By Alfredo Hengari
“COMPARAISON n’est pas raison.” To compare is not to have reason and we should not make comparisons in a cold manner. But it is useful to compare. After a failed attempt to liberate Michel Germaneau, a French citizen aged 78, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb assassinated Michel.
He did so after an urgent meeting of the Security Committee. President Sarkozy in his press conference entirely dedicated to the death of an ordinary French citizen announced that this barbaric act would not be left unpunished. He sent Bernard Kouchner, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the region in order to devise a strategy that would ensure the safety of French citizens. I can imagine that the region is not one where thousands of French citizens reside.
But the view is that the life of every single French citizen counts and means must be devised to ensure that their safety is ensured irrespective of where they find themselves. Unlike Michel, who was living dangerously in a dangerous part of Niger, in Windhoek, Namibia, a young grade 11 learner Magdalena Stoffels, aged 17, was callously murdered on Tuesday in a riverbed while on her way to school.
Thus far, we haven’t seen or heard about the Minister of Safety and Security, his deputy or even a senior official being on the scene trying to get first-hand information regarding this odious act. This cowardly act may have rightly so hit the headlines of major newspapers in this country, including this one, but I am not too sure whether it will be a subject that would enjoy the priority of the head of state, Hifikepunye Pohamba or the Cabinet Committee on Security. I don’t know if it gives the Minister (of Safety) sleepless nights or if it spurs him to action.
I don’t know what resources we will dedicate to the fight against crime and to ensure that another life should not be lost in such a senseless manner. I am not too sure if we will see the Ministers of Safety and Education hold press conference/s in the immediate future to announce safety measures for young girls and boys who pass through riverbeds and other unsafe places on their way to school.
Government shamefully passed with urgency a law against stock theft a few years back. I critiqued the outlandish nature of that law. Yet, the said law enjoyed support of lawmakers because it would protect the livestock on their farms after some of them had fallen victim to stock theft.
It should not take the daughter of a Minister for us to deploy and dedicate more means in the fight against crime. The death of Magdalena Stoffels should not be an anecdote; it should be a turning in the fight against crime. Namibians must be ensured and assured that there is a period before the death Madgalena and one after her death in which government rethink its strategy against crime.
Clearly, it is not working. For a country our size and our resources, crime is disproportionate. A political columnist would not have solutions, but what is clear is that the people we have voted into office have the sacrosanct duty of ensuring that all Namibians are safe, in their homes or on the streets. There is a need to raise the level of consciousness regarding crime; it should become a subject that enjoys the priority of elected officials.
We shamefully dedicate inordinate resources to private telephonic and electronic conversations between individuals talking about their lives and their work, including our own comrades. We have invested in sophisticated equipment. We spent so much time calling individuals all sorts of names, instead of focusing this excess energy on criminals.
I am pretty sure that these resources would be best utilised in the fight against crime. The memory of Magdalena, an innocent girl who wanted to make the best of her life by going to school, should not be in vain. It should be a point of admission that crime is spiralling out of control and government should act with urgency. We can no longer pretend otherwise.
Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 30 July 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201007300505.html?viewall=1