A hungry man knows himself
By Victor Angula /
Namibia’s economic inequality and people’s hunger will continue beyond the year 2030.
Maybe even until the year 2050 most Namibians will still be hungry.
They will be hungry, not because there is no food. No. They will be hungry because nobody can feel somebody else’s hunger.
If you are hungry, you know yourself that you’re hungry. You can feel it. You can even see it that you’re hungry.
But your hunger is in your stomach. So that others cannot see it. And they cannot feel it.
No government official will know that you’re hungry. No neighbor, friend, or even your wife/husband can see that you’re hungry. Even your president cannot feel your hunger. No one else will feel your hunger but yourself.
This is the dilemma facing Namibia and other developing countries. It’s the expectation that leaders will do things to feed the people because they know how hungry the people are.
The people of Namibia are hungry, hungry for food and also hungry for success.
The hunger of Namibians comes from the systems which continue to perpetuate economic inequality. These systems are: educational system, political system, economic system, legal system, and the financial system.
I can even say that most Namibians are hungry, not because they are lazy but because they are waiting on the systems to start realising how hungry the people are.
The people who are in the system, they don’t know the hunger of someone who is outside the system.
Unless things have changed and moved to another level: the level of anger.
It’s no coincidence that the two words, “hunger” and “anger” or even “hungry” and “angry” sound and look the same. It’s because hunger and anger are supposed to go together. It’s because another person gets to know about your hunger only if your face and actions show anger.
It is no coincidence that it’s natural for children to cry when they are hungry. Whether it’s a child or an adult, a hungry stomach brings out angry actions. A hungry man is an angry man; that is an old slogan.
But the Namibian government has been doing a lot to keep the people hungry without them becoming angry. The system is designed to make people hungry but without them becoming angry. This is why people have been dying of hunger, but you never hear their cries. People just die quietly.
Therefore unless you’re angry then don’t expect people who have full stomachs to worry about your hungry stomach.
– Victor Angula is the editor of Omutumwa News Online. He can be reached at victorangula@yahoo.com
