Political Perspective

PEOPLE should not be permitted to fan the flames of hatred or incite violence against any particular person or group, whether it’s on the basis of colour, tribe, sexual or religious preference, and our laws supposedly prohibit such discrimination.

It is most important, overall, that everyone practises tolerance, whatever one’s personal predilection or bias towards ‘types’, and it is undeniably so that most people have such inclinations. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise.It is also vital that we don’t practise double standards and we should guard against this danger in ourselves and others.IT is often due to a lack of understanding that we exhibit what could be interpreted as ‘discriminatory’ thoughts and practices.There are few people who could claim never to have had such thoughts, or dismissed another group or individual, on grounds such as these.It is also often easy to cry racism when there was perhaps no racist intent on the part of a person or persons.Ignorance is often the reason for such actions and it characterises much of the human race.But there are obviously those who are hell-bent on offending racial and other sensibilities to the extent of calling for murder and mayhem, and this is plainly unacceptable to all and should be rejected by a multi-cultural society such as ours.We’ve had two incidents of late of two men revelling in anti-white sentiment.Granted, both have been charged with various offences in our courts, which shows they aren’t the most upstanding of citizens, but there’s been little reaction to their utterances.We’ve had another, less extreme example, of a Khomasdal religious community expressing hostility to their pastor because he is not of their ‘kind’.It is important that people speak out against these tendencies where they occur, or at the very least try to educate the perpetrators that this is not the way forward to a harmonious and peaceful coexistence.And like it or not, we have a society in which many are ‘different’.Prejudice of all kinds is ugly at the best of times.We’d be foolish to get stuck in the apartheid way of thinking that racism is only such when it is a white government intent on oppressing a black majority.That was certainly true in its time, and it overshadowed then other kinds of racism that were, and are still, at work in our society.There are those still scapegoating whites years later, such as the two mentioned above.They’re entitled to their anti-white sentiments, but they should keep them to themselves and not inflict their prejudices on others and /or drum up racial discord.No one’s forcing them to interact with those they don’t like, but they’re not entitled to go out and kill them! We are keenly aware also of anti-gay prejudice in Namibia and one of the worst critics and witch-hunters has been the Founding Father, along with other senior politicians.This is no more acceptable than racism.The answer to their sentiments (to which they’re also entitled) is to come to terms with the fact that everyone is not the same as they are.But again, they can’t incite people to go out and beat up gay people.They abound in our society; live with it! We should save our anger for those who really do damage to our society and those who live in it.The corrupt and the rapists and the murderers and paedophiles, among others.Right-thinking people should try to deal with their preferences and prejudices, and not act them out or try to force others to accept their views.But we must certainly guard against double standards.One can think back a few years to a time when a now-deceased businessman was accused of referring to black children as ‘baboons’.Regardless of the fact that he may have been misconstrued, his remarks caused a major furore in Namibia, and endless debate and argument, even press conferences, and apologies at the end.But face it, only because it was white versus black! They choose to ignore their own prejudices, yet find it acceptable still to scapegoat only whites because of the apartheid past.But it is so that there’s a lot of anti-tribal sentiment in Namibia among black groups, and it seems to be something people agree not to reveal or talk about, at least not publicly.There are jokes about the ‘executive tribe’ but no serious attempts to deal with what are often historical prejudices and unless we attempt to guard against the marginalisation of other groups this will only add fuel to the fire in future, unless we take ownership of these problems among us.Law-abiding people who have a certain sexual preference, colour, religious leaning or affiliation should be left in peace to pursue their own life choices.The answer to dealing with prejudice is to encourage inclusion at all levels of Government and other strata of society.And above all, tolerance of that which is different.There should be place for all cultures and creeds to coexist here.They contribute, after all, to our richness and diversity.It would be foolish to pretend otherwise.It is also vital that we don’t practise double standards and we should guard against this danger in ourselves and others.IT is often due to a lack of understanding that we exhibit what could be interpreted as ‘discriminatory’ thoughts and practices.There are few people who could claim never to have had such thoughts, or dismissed another group or individual, on grounds such as these.It is also often easy to cry racism when there was perhaps no racist intent on the part of a person or persons.Ignorance is often the reason for such actions and it characterises much of the human race.But there are obviously those who are hell-bent on offending racial and other sensibilities to the extent of calling for murder and mayhem, and this is plainly unacceptable to all and should be rejected by a multi-cultural society such as ours.We’ve had two incidents of late of two men revelling in anti-white sentiment.Granted, both have been charged with various offences in our courts, which shows they aren’t the most upstanding of citizens, but there’s been little reaction to their utterances.We’ve had another, less extreme example, of a Khomasdal religious community expressing hostility to their pastor because he is not of their ‘kind’.It is important that people speak out against these tendencies where they occur, or at the very least try to educate the perpetrators that this is not the way forward to a harmonious and peaceful coexistence.And like it or not, we have a society in which many are ‘different’.Prejudice of all kinds is ugly at the best of times.We’d be foolish to get stuck in the apartheid way of thinking that racism is only such when it is a white government intent on oppressing a black majority.That was certainly true in its time, and it overshadowed then other kinds of racism that were, and are still, at work in our society.There are those still scapegoating whites years later, such as the two mentioned above.They’re entitled to their anti-white sentiments, but they should keep them to themselves and not inflict their prejudices on others and /or drum up racial discord.No one’s forcing them to interact with those they don’t like, but they’re not entitled to go out and kill them! We are keenly aware also of anti-gay prejudice in Namibia and one of the worst critics and witch-hunters has been the Founding Father, along with other senior politicians.This is no more acceptable than racism.The answer to their sentiments (to which they’re also entitled) is to come to terms with the fact that everyone is not the same as they are.But again, they can’t incite people to go out and beat up gay people.They abound in our society; live with it! We should save our anger for those who really do damage to our society and those who live in it.The corrupt and the rapists and the murderers and paedophiles, among others.Right-thinking people should try to deal with their preferences and prejudices, and not act them out or try to force others to accept their views.But we must certainly guard against double standards.One can think back a few years to a time when a now-deceased businessman was accused of referring to black children as ‘baboons’.Regardless of the fact that he may have been misconstrued, his remarks caused a major furore in Namibia, and endless debate and argument, even press conferences, and apologies at the end.But face it, only because it was white versus black! They choose to ignore their own prejudices, yet find it acceptable still to scapegoat only whites because of the apartheid past.But it is so that there’s a lot of anti-tribal sentiment in Namibia among black groups, and it seems to be something people agree not to reveal or talk about, at least not publicly.There are jokes about the ‘executive tribe’ but no serious attempts to deal with what are often historical prejudices and unless we attempt to guard against the marginalisation of other groups this will only add fuel to the fire in future, unless we take ownership of these problems among us.Law-abiding people who have a certain sexual preference, colour, religious leaning or affiliation should be left in peace to pursue their own life choices.The answer to dealing with prejudice is to encourage inclusion at all levels of Government and other strata of society.And above all, tolerance of that which is different.There should be place for all cultures and creeds to coexist here.They contribute, after all, to our richness and diversity.