Dear Lodewyk,
I am glad the ICT Alliance is eventually having its AGM tomorrow and I hope many people attend. But please stop blaming me for all the mishaps at the organisation.
I quote
"We all have concerns regarding the upcoming AGM as we have been left in a lurch by the previous secretary to a certain extent. Much of our documentation and records were lost as a result of what I believe to be malice from our previous secretary after being implicated in unethical behaviour and who was duly terminated. We have, since his departure been building up our records again and will to the best of our ability present an accurate report on the past term of the Alliance. "
You cut me off from the server at IIT before we even had a disciplinary hearing. Quite honestly, it was the best thing you ever did. Even for me, having a hearing find me guilty in a job that has not paid me a salary for a eight months was great!! It gave me a chance to write a book and now I head over 5,000 members of the Namibia Consumer Protection Group on issues such as the Nampower increase.
So please, if you want to put blame somewhere, leave me out of it.
Malice (A desire to harm others or to see others suffer; extreme ill will or spite) is not something you would ever find in me. That is what you did when you called Legalshield and got them to withdraw their job offer the morning I was supposed to start. And even for that I am happy. By not taking the job, I now have 500 hectares in the Otjimbingwe district.
Kind regards, I will always be thankful to you for the opportunity to teach so many Namibians while at your company,
Milton
___
"A noble heart cannot suspect in others the pettiness and malice that it has never felt. "
Monday 26 April 2010
Monday 19 April 2010
No to leaderless consumer protest actions in Namibia
The NCPG is a non-profit Namibian organisation that campaigns for customer rights and focuses on illegal and unethical behaviour by Namibian companies.
As a lobby group, we believe that we need to be involved with Government, State-Owned Enterprises, Community-Based Organisations and the Media in our efforts to protect the rights of the consumer. In this regard, we believe strongly in interaction to find solutions facing us all in Namibia.
During the past two weeks we have been calling for action against the Nampower proposal for a 35% price increase in the provision in Electricity. Our website and email newsletter started a petition that clearly states our objections and is aimed at the Electricity Control Board who is the body responsible for deciding upon the increase, or not. This was taken one step further by the “We don't accept the 35% electricity price increase from Nampower” group on Facebook started by UK-based community activist Jade McClune.
It is with regret that we wish to inform the public through this statement, that we no longer can support the unilateral decisions being proposed by Mr McClune for us here in Namibia to undertake street actions. Such protest should be organised locally and have clear indications of who the leaders are, and these leaders must be present to show they are in the forefront of such action.
As much as we desire attention to this cause, we cannot condone actions that are not clearly aimed at addressing the problem, rather than becoming a platform for unrest. Thus, while as individuals we will attend the planned protest march, as a lobby group we must insist that such actions have clearly defined leadership that is present at such actions.
We assure all the consumers in Namibia that we will continue to work in your best interest by working together with Government and business in ensuring your rights are respected.
We will continue the fight for consumers. It is “Our Money, Our Rights”.
Milton Louw
Founder
Wednesday 14 April 2010
Crucifixion vs. Resurrection
Last night I had dream:
Since the crucifixion of Jesus there has been a family of one of his disciples that managed to take down his cross and keep it hidden. This family stayed in the Middle East and found things becoming very difficult during the time of the Ottoman Empire as they had become Christians. The Patriarch decided to entrust their mission of looking after the cross to one of his most trusted friends to happened to be of the Muslim faith.
The Muslim family has been keeping the secret of the safekeeping of the cross of Jesus since this time. Recently, the descendants of the original family wished to have the cross returned to them. The two families have always been close and a meeting was held to discuss the matter.
The head of the Muslim family was however not agreeable with the suggestion and kept putting up obstacles to the return.
The Christian Patriarch discovered that since the time of the handover to the Muslim family, many unexplainable things had happened to the family and their success, riches and fame had increased tremendously. Obviously, the task of looking after the cross had benefited this family and they would be reluctant to part with it.
This difficulty caused problems with the relationship between the families and they became every distant and mistrusting of one another.
After much thought, he realised the truth of the matter.
They were spending much time talking about the object representing the crucifixion, rather than recognising it is the resurrection that is important.
My understanding of the dream: We spend too much time telling others about our suffering, rather than rejoicing on how we overcame it.
Since the crucifixion of Jesus there has been a family of one of his disciples that managed to take down his cross and keep it hidden. This family stayed in the Middle East and found things becoming very difficult during the time of the Ottoman Empire as they had become Christians. The Patriarch decided to entrust their mission of looking after the cross to one of his most trusted friends to happened to be of the Muslim faith.
The Muslim family has been keeping the secret of the safekeeping of the cross of Jesus since this time. Recently, the descendants of the original family wished to have the cross returned to them. The two families have always been close and a meeting was held to discuss the matter.
The head of the Muslim family was however not agreeable with the suggestion and kept putting up obstacles to the return.
The Christian Patriarch discovered that since the time of the handover to the Muslim family, many unexplainable things had happened to the family and their success, riches and fame had increased tremendously. Obviously, the task of looking after the cross had benefited this family and they would be reluctant to part with it.
This difficulty caused problems with the relationship between the families and they became every distant and mistrusting of one another.
After much thought, he realised the truth of the matter.
They were spending much time talking about the object representing the crucifixion, rather than recognising it is the resurrection that is important.
My understanding of the dream: We spend too much time telling others about our suffering, rather than rejoicing on how we overcame it.
Nampower management should be fired
Namibian Economist - FRIDAY, 09 APRIL 2010 11:03
Written by Nyasha Nyaungwa
The Namibia Protection Group (NPG) has called for the sacking of the managing director of Nampower, Paulinus Shilamba and his management. The call follows an announcement by the power utility last week that it will be seeking a 35% tariff increment from the Electricity Control Board of Namibia (ECB).
In an interview, founder of the NPG, Milton Louw said the proposed 35% electricity increase was reason enough for Shilamba to be fired.
“Surely we can expect better management that realises the importance of electricity in the daily lives of our people. This kind of increase will lead to a decrease in economic activity, and job losses. This is reason enough to ask for his (Shilamba’s) replacement.
“The MD and his management must be tackled directly. They are responsible for the long-term planning and if this has gone wrong they must take the blame. Pity this will probably not happen,” Louw added.
Instead of increasing, electricity tariffs, Louw implored the government to urgently finalise the Kudu Gas Project.
“We must get the Kudu Gas Project going now. This project never seems to get off the ground. Second, let’s build a nuclear power station (explained fully in my book) that is a compromise on our supplying uranium,” Louw said.
Contacted for comment, officials at the ECB refused to comment on the matter. An official from the PR department who refused to identify himself could only say that the issue of whether a 35% increase will be granted or not will be based on the outcome of the consultation process that is scheduled to end this Friday, 9 April.
“If the majority of the stakeholders are against the proposed tariff increase, a compromise will have to be reached as we basically have two groups to protect, namely: Nampower and the consumers,” the official said.
Written by Nyasha Nyaungwa
The Namibia Protection Group (NPG) has called for the sacking of the managing director of Nampower, Paulinus Shilamba and his management. The call follows an announcement by the power utility last week that it will be seeking a 35% tariff increment from the Electricity Control Board of Namibia (ECB).
In an interview, founder of the NPG, Milton Louw said the proposed 35% electricity increase was reason enough for Shilamba to be fired.
“Surely we can expect better management that realises the importance of electricity in the daily lives of our people. This kind of increase will lead to a decrease in economic activity, and job losses. This is reason enough to ask for his (Shilamba’s) replacement.
“The MD and his management must be tackled directly. They are responsible for the long-term planning and if this has gone wrong they must take the blame. Pity this will probably not happen,” Louw added.
Instead of increasing, electricity tariffs, Louw implored the government to urgently finalise the Kudu Gas Project.
“We must get the Kudu Gas Project going now. This project never seems to get off the ground. Second, let’s build a nuclear power station (explained fully in my book) that is a compromise on our supplying uranium,” Louw said.
Contacted for comment, officials at the ECB refused to comment on the matter. An official from the PR department who refused to identify himself could only say that the issue of whether a 35% increase will be granted or not will be based on the outcome of the consultation process that is scheduled to end this Friday, 9 April.
“If the majority of the stakeholders are against the proposed tariff increase, a compromise will have to be reached as we basically have two groups to protect, namely: Nampower and the consumers,” the official said.
How to get FB without accessing the site (your company blocked it)
*NOT an original post of Milton Louw*
Just to help those of us who are not so techie to get FB:
I follow it through a feed reader (in my case, Google Reader).
Besides the obvious benefits to this, one great side effect is that you never, ever see the output of applications (e.g., quiz results) or the other useless noise like "so-and-so is now friends with someone else you already know". The only drawback I've found is that you also don't see notifications about photos that your friends have uploaded. (You do see links that they post, however: just not Facebook-hosted photos. It's a bizarre omission.)
Anyway, I just had to explain to someone how to accomplish this feat, which made me realize how completely non-obvious Facebook has made this. Finding these feeds is a complete pain in the ass. They've really gone out of their way to hide the URLs you need to use.
So. You have to subscribe to three or four different feeds.
Posts: Find the Posts feed by going to http://www.facebook.com/po
Notes: Find the Notes feed by going to http://www.facebook.com/no
Notifications: Find the Notifications feed by going to http://www.facebook.com/no
Status Updates: This is the RSS URL for the "What are you doing?" Twitter-like part of Facebook. This is the one you probably care about, and it is trickier, because Facebook no longer links to the feed URL! Nice one guys. You have to construct this URL by editing one of the above URLs. E.g., take the "Notes" URL and change the part of the URL that says "friends_notes" to "friends_status". Keep the parts of the URL before and after that, including the magic numbers at the end.
Just to help those of us who are not so techie to get FB:
I follow it through a feed reader (in my case, Google Reader).
Besides the obvious benefits to this, one great side effect is that you never, ever see the output of applications (e.g., quiz results) or the other useless noise like "so-and-so is now friends with someone else you already know". The only drawback I've found is that you also don't see notifications about photos that your friends have uploaded. (You do see links that they post, however: just not Facebook-hosted photos. It's a bizarre omission.)
Anyway, I just had to explain to someone how to accomplish this feat, which made me realize how completely non-obvious Facebook has made this. Finding these feeds is a complete pain in the ass. They've really gone out of their way to hide the URLs you need to use.
So. You have to subscribe to three or four different feeds.
Posts: Find the Posts feed by going to http://www.facebook.com/po
Notes: Find the Notes feed by going to http://www.facebook.com/no
Notifications: Find the Notifications feed by going to http://www.facebook.com/no
Status Updates: This is the RSS URL for the "What are you doing?" Twitter-like part of Facebook. This is the one you probably care about, and it is trickier, because Facebook no longer links to the feed URL! Nice one guys. You have to construct this URL by editing one of the above URLs. E.g., take the "Notes" URL and change the part of the URL that says "friends_notes" to "friends_status". Keep the parts of the URL before and after that, including the magic numbers at the end.
Fire Nampower MD!
This is completely unacceptable! Nampower loses money on political decisions to support Zimbabwe and we, the Consumers, must now pay the price.
Not only should we reject this increase, we should demand the heads of the management at the company.
Nampower is looking at INCREASING ELECTRICITY by 35%.
If the public have anything against this increase they can send an e-mail to the following address: -
mayame@ecb.org (ECB is the Electricity Control Board of Namibia)
Please note that this email should reach them before the 6th of April (next Tuesday).
Please forward this address to all Namibians in your address book.
Not only should we reject this increase, we should demand the heads of the management at the company.
Nampower is looking at INCREASING ELECTRICITY by 35%.
If the public have anything against this increase they can send an e-mail to the following address: -
mayame@ecb.org (ECB is the Electricity Control Board of Namibia)
Please note that this email should reach them before the 6th of April (next Tuesday).
Please forward this address to all Namibians in your address book.
World Consumer Rights Day 2010 - 'Our money, our rights'
The global consumer movement will once again unite for a day of action on 15 March 2010. The theme for World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2010 is ‘Our money, our rights’ and will highlight consumer issues in relation to financial services.
The Namibia Consumer Protection Group is presently working at attaining membership of Consumer International.
Consumers International (CI) is the world federation of consumer groups that, working together with its members, serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers.
With over 220 member organisations in 115 countries, CI is building a powerful international movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere.
Founded in 1960, the organisation is now needed more than ever. This modern movement is essential to secure a fair safe and sustainable future for consumers in a global marketplace increasingly dominated by international corporations.
Campaigns and programmes
CI campaigns on the international issues that matter to consumers everywhere. This means achieving real changes in government policy and corporate behaviour while raising awareness of consumer rights and responsibilities.
In campaigning for the rights of consumers across the world, CI seeks to hold corporations to account and demands government action to put consumer concerns first.
To this end, CI is committed to acting as a global watchdog: campaigning against any behaviour that threatens, ignores or abuses the principles of consumer protection.
CI is doing this by:
* Working with national member organisations to influence governments, highlight marketplace abuses and raise grass roots support.
* Pressing consumer concerns through official representation global bodies such as the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), International Organization of Standardization (ISO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
* Raising awareness about purchasing choices through clear, engaging and accessible communication.
The Namibia Consumer Protection Group is presently working at attaining membership of Consumer International.
Consumers International (CI) is the world federation of consumer groups that, working together with its members, serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers.
With over 220 member organisations in 115 countries, CI is building a powerful international movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere.
Founded in 1960, the organisation is now needed more than ever. This modern movement is essential to secure a fair safe and sustainable future for consumers in a global marketplace increasingly dominated by international corporations.
Campaigns and programmes
CI campaigns on the international issues that matter to consumers everywhere. This means achieving real changes in government policy and corporate behaviour while raising awareness of consumer rights and responsibilities.
In campaigning for the rights of consumers across the world, CI seeks to hold corporations to account and demands government action to put consumer concerns first.
To this end, CI is committed to acting as a global watchdog: campaigning against any behaviour that threatens, ignores or abuses the principles of consumer protection.
CI is doing this by:
* Working with national member organisations to influence governments, highlight marketplace abuses and raise grass roots support.
* Pressing consumer concerns through official representation global bodies such as the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), International Organization of Standardization (ISO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
* Raising awareness about purchasing choices through clear, engaging and accessible communication.
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