EDITORIAL: We have no cure for you, Mr President!
In a fairly shocking statement yesterday, President Hage Geingob claimed that reading local newspapers makes him feel "depressed". He emphasised that this is due to the press' fixation with publishing bad news about the government while disregarding the progress accomplished.
First, depression is a severe medical condition that shouldn't be lightly played with, especially by a head of state. The English language is richly endowed with alternative expressions to put Geingob’s point across without encroaching into a very perilous zone of depression.
But since English is not our ‘motherland’, as the quasi-literate would say, the president and his speechwriters can be forgiven.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the proverbial room. If Geingob has qualms over the veracity of information published, he has a free rein to pursue all available options to seek recourse.
But the media, regrettably, cannot treat Geingob’s illness if he is "depressed" by factual media stories on, for example, kids languishing on the bare ground beneath trees to attend lessons.
This year, the state-related headlines, to cite a few, have been about corrupt tender practices, thousands of children having no placement in school due to lack of space and government's spending spree on subsistence and travel allowances for officials like him.
The media cannot look away when public enterprises are falling apart, or 85% of Namibian children are failing – just to save the president from his self-diagnosed depression.
First, depression is a severe medical condition that shouldn't be lightly played with, especially by a head of state. The English language is richly endowed with alternative expressions to put Geingob’s point across without encroaching into a very perilous zone of depression.
But since English is not our ‘motherland’, as the quasi-literate would say, the president and his speechwriters can be forgiven.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the proverbial room. If Geingob has qualms over the veracity of information published, he has a free rein to pursue all available options to seek recourse.
But the media, regrettably, cannot treat Geingob’s illness if he is "depressed" by factual media stories on, for example, kids languishing on the bare ground beneath trees to attend lessons.
This year, the state-related headlines, to cite a few, have been about corrupt tender practices, thousands of children having no placement in school due to lack of space and government's spending spree on subsistence and travel allowances for officials like him.
The media cannot look away when public enterprises are falling apart, or 85% of Namibian children are failing – just to save the president from his self-diagnosed depression.
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Namibian Sun
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