Oneword

I believe in serendipity, that is the luck in making unexpected discoveries.

Maybe I should rather use the term “synchronicity” for what I want to write about.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related.

The first of these experiences went by without much bother. It was when my family and I were at the Maerua Mall shopping centre (in Windhoek) some time ago and I saw a certain shop advertising special offers for “Freedom Day”, a South African public holiday.

But this stuck in my mind.

It was, of course, the Namibian branch of a South African chain store.

In the meantime, South Africa erupted with xenophobia and, of course, people here in Windhoek also started asking questions. We do, after all, also have a fair number of non-Namibians from surrounding countries living here.

“Could that happen here?” they all wanted to know. Answer: I don't know. People are funny beings and one never knows what could trigger such a response.

We are all aware that Namibia has an unemployment figure somewhere between 30 – 40% (depending on which political party's lies you believe) and I assume if hundreds and thousands of people from elsewhere come to Namibia and took the bread out of the mouth of Namibians, a spark might be generated – especially if these foreigners were better qualified and not so choosy as to which type of work they were being offered.

In other words, a qualified teacher from XYZ may, for instance, not hesitate to sell funeral policies or even perform hard, physical labour (which some Namibians are known to shun).

If enough “foreigners” did just that while our home-grown labour market continued to languish, who knows what could happen........

Today (Saturday, 24 May – one day before Africa Day) we were in the centre of town in a shopping centre in a square and lo! and behold, I saw another shop advertising something quite illogical and nonsensical in Namibia: Something about “it's raining and pouring and the old man is snoring”. Once again, the Namibian branch of an SA chain – who, by the way, claim that one is @ home there.

Now, unless Global Warming and Climate Change have insidiously made rapid changes to Namibian seasons, this IS NOT our rainy season! It may be so in the Cape for all I care, or even in Gauteng, but for all practical purposes Namibia does not get winter rain (if we do it is very rare and not all that much).

Our rainy season (when we get rain) usually falls between November to April (The Shebeen has the last rainfall figures for 15 April). (Also see Namibia Weather Network)

A little further down the road in another shopping centre close by, there is a shop where I have been fortunate to find several CDs of “The X-Files”. Now these I have bought one by one (and sometimes many more than one) until there were no more.

Now, my common sense tells me if seasons 1 to 5 are available and there have been 9 seasons so far (in the USA), the other seasons would also be available.

But, no, they are not!

And why not?

Because the main office in SA has not sent any more! (yes, again a chain store from our neighbour – this time crusading for cash).

Upon my reasonable question whether the rest could be ordered I received the reply that they did not order: SA sent what they wanted to send!

You see what I am getting at?

While I am very glad we have these stores, they seem to be mainly interested in foisting off their wares upon us and repatriating the money asap.

Once again Customer Care is totally forgotten and does not seem to play a role.

The very fact that they are in an independent, sovereign country, quite distinctly different from their own, does not seem to bother them at all.

What is good for SA is good for Namibia, hey? If SA sneezes, Namibia catches a cold,hey?

And no! Not all stores are like that!

There are several where the customer does feel like a king and gets good, better and excellent service – but these are few and far between.

I just deeply resent the fact that for some of them I do not count; that Namibia does not count! For all they care I might as well be another SAFA (South African).

I am not! I am Namibian and damn proud of it!

Check you, OK, while I am off to do some picking and paying ........