Buying the election

All kinds of fun stories leading up the election on Nov. 27 and 28th. When your political party holds power, and wants to keep it, it seems like nothing stands in the way of making a few 'gifts' before the election.

1. Several Polytechnic students report that the SWAPO government has paid their student grants in full (usually half) and added money to cover transport and books. I must say that I noticed a marked improvement in the fashion sense of many students after these funds were distributed. Some clothing stores made out fairly well in the deal. But, ask any student who they are voting for (now), and there is usually no hesitation!

2. The Namibian newspaper has been slowly tracking a story of special student bursaries (study grants) provided to students in Namibia by the Chinese government to study in China. One of my Ecology II students dropped out of class during the first month of the semester and is one of the lucky awardees. Turns out that the awards were given to children of influential SWAPO leaders. Read more about it in the New York Times, as part of their series on how China is buying influence around the world.

3. Article in The Namibian newspaper today about gifts of Toyota double-cap pickups given to each traditional tribal chief in Namibia (48 of them!). There is a wonderful photo of a line of white pick-up trucks waiting for their new owners who are milling around like kids in a candy store. They are gifts from the SWAPO party. No, wait. They are gifts from the taxpayers of Namibia...each was purchased with taxpayer money. If the chief cannot drive himself, the government provides a driver for him, too. What a deal!

It is no wonder that when a watch-group presented their world corruption ratings this week, Namibia ranks as a highly corrupt country (56th most corrupt out of 180 rated countries; New Zealand and Denmark were the least corrupt). So, Namibia is not the worst, but still corrupt.

It's hard to imagine the little corrupt things that plague society getting cleaned up if these large blatant acts of corruption are front page news. Just for the record, Polytechnic lecturers did not receive Toyota trucks. Yet.