SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, HONOURABLE JOEL KAAPANDA, MP, AT THE LAUNCH OF NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON “NATIONHOOD AND NATIONAL PRIDE”

8 DECEMBER 2008
WINDHOEK

Honourable Raphael Dinyando, Deputy Minister of Information
and Communication Technology
Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors
Distinguished Invited Guests
All Media present
Ladies and Gentlemen

Today, I wave the Namibian Flag to kick off the Nationhood and National Pride campaign – a nationwide campaign to encourage fellow-Namibians to love and to be proud of our country – Namibia, the “Land of the Brave”. As proud sons and daughters of this beloved country, I would like to request everyone of you to join me and my Ministry in this important programme to make our citizens proud to be Namibians, respect our national symbols and to take care of the country.

The term national refers to our collective national aspirations, ntaional goals, and national principles. As a nation we launch this first ever National Campaign on Nationhood and National Pride, we should be assertive, and set an example to guide our new generations to a nation that is prosperous and united.

It is indeed the aim of this campaign to encourage the integration of media education at home and schools. This national campaign features nationhood activities, such as intensification of the fight against vandalism in schools, gender violence and promoting hygiene and sanitation by changing the behaviours of our communities.

In this regard, the media should help to educate the public, especially the youth, to become responsible citizens by promoting and develop a sense of ownership, national pride and patriotism. The media should play a role by shaping perceptions and attitudes of our community in order to foster nationhood and pride of what Namibia has achieved.

Therefore, I would like to explain briefly on those topics as follows:

Vandalism – if we look around, we may realise that the impact of vandalism has no significance. But in reality the scourge of vandals is escalating to the point that the country is losing a lot of revenue to repair old infrastructures to the expense of expanding or for new developments. Significant to these are vandals in government or non-government properties, road signs, communication infrastructures (poles, fiber wires, telephone booths and solar panels).

Hygiene and Sanitation – Our objective is to develop and apply knowledge that will
help improve hygiene, sanitation that contributes general populations' improved health, welfare and learning performance.

National Pride – we aim to educate the public, espeically the youth to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to understand and develop the sense of ownership and national pride in their daily lives.
This relates to respect and knowledge of the national symbols such as, National Flag, National Anthem, and Coat of Arms.

Ladies and Gentlemen
Our partnership to create this media campaign is a direct result of our landmark “Service Delivery Survey”, which emphasized the importance of media in national building. This study pointed to the need for the Namibian, especially young Namibians to develop media literacy skills to more effectively navigate the communication, information, education, entertainment and marketing environments in order to learn and benefit from it.

I am, therefore, confident that in partnership with all the media institutions in the country, this network and collaboration with stakeholders such as development partners, NGO's, State Owned Enterprises and other organisations will create awareness and change behaviours across the country. Workshops, conferences, contest and media festivals will be organised across the country to create awareness and to educate Namibians in the values of nationhood and national pride. Namibians, I am pleased to support this initiative as it will sharpen young people's minds to become responsible citizens and to be proud of their own country.

Master of Ceremonies
Ladies and Gentlemen
In this regard, we are highly encouraged by the practical show of understanding and support by a good number of both public and private institutions in this first step of the national campaign, here I refer specifically to the launch and the cleaning up operation.

These institutions are, the Namibia Breweries (Pty) Ltd, Green Awareness Africa (GAWA), Cell One, NBC, the Rundu Town Council, Shell Namibia, Kavango Regional Council, Rundu residents particularly the youth who are our beacon of hope for the future.

This national campaign will comprise of advertisements in the print and electronic media and public service announcements that will be developed to promote critical thinking about nationhood and national pride. The focus will be on constructive messages, and I urge viewers, listeners and readers to internalize these messages and live it in their day-to-day lives. I also want to use this platform to sincerely thank our media partners in strengthening the hand of the Ministry in taking out HIV/Aids Take Control and nationhood and national pride message to the population.

It is simply not possible to teach history or citizenship in secondary schools without promoting some notion of patriotism. If patriotism means pride in – and loyalty to what is deserving of admiration in one's country, then it is worth promoting as long as it is associated with openness to, respect for, and generosity towards other nations and communities.

Dear compatriots
Lastly, it is my pleasure to announce that my Ministry in collaboration with the National Youth Council and stakeholders will conduct and cleaning campaign this week, starting from 11 – 13 December 2008 in Rundu, in the Kavango region. This campaign is aimed at empowering and encouraging local communities to have greater understanding and knowledge of the causes of diseases by improving sanitation and hygiene that impact on the general health and well-being of the nation.

The cleaning campaign was proposed by me during my official visit to that region as contribution to the growing town. This undertaking forms part of the campaigns under the mandate of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology aimed at informing, educating and entertaining the public. My Ministry will in future roll this campaign out to other regions. It is therefore, my honour to declare this campaign officially open.

“Happy Xmas and New Year”

I thank you very much.