In recent months the talk of regulating social media has come to the forefront of political and social discourse but is this even feasible at the current scale of these social media networks.

Social media has created a situation where every individual on the planet has the ability to connect to, disseminate and consume content and with that comes various unforeseen consequences as seen by the rise of mass shootings ,murders ,suicides being disseminated through these platforms  and this rightfully has caused many to ponder as to why these platforms cannot seemingly better control the content being displayed on their platforms.

On the flip side of this argument due to the scale of people using these platforms regulating the content on these platforms is a rather difficult task as currently human moderators cherry-pick content that goes on these platforms and in some cases there in entirely no moderation. These companies now have to essentially play catch up to the sheer number of content being posted onto these platforms.

In more recent times social platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp have been used to disseminate information that was considered fake news to the inhabitants of India that led to various deaths. Platforms like 4chan were used to publish the manifesto’s of suicide bombers and mass shooters. Twitter and YouTube were used as nesting grounds for extremist leftist groups and Neo -Nazi’s which after much outcry led to mass boycotting of these platforms to get rid of people that spew any form of hate speech or content that is considered hateful and harmful.Some are of the opinion that its better to let such groups fester in plain sight rather then relegate them to the darker corners of the internet where oversight isn’t a priority.

This also poses the question would the regulation of social media be good in autocratic governments where these platforms are platforms for discourse that would otherwise not be allowed in the public space examples that come to mind are countries like China where any discourse against the communist government can lead to various things like surveillance or in extreme cases imprisonment.

The question then becomes would the regulation of content on these platforms not impact freedom of expression an speech? Also the notion of hate speech is a rather blanket term as what constitutes hate in one country constitutes nothing in another and to add to that who gets to decide what is hate speech and can this not then lead to suppressing any form on content that the masses do not like even if the content differs with the accepted truth based on facts or just opinion .

The unregulated nature of social media helps both good actors and bad actors in society  but one thing is for sure the regulation of social media itself has various implication in various settings and it does not solve all our issues and in many cases it may create new problems.

Standard Bank donated 16 pairs of boots to the football team of the Batubaja Combined School. The school will represent the Zambezi Region in the Copa Coca Cola finals which are scheduled to take place in Rehoboth this weekend. Batubaja is a village 50km outside Katima Mulilo.

What is remarkable about this team is that they not only won the Zambezi regional tournament against 20 other teams, but they did it without boots, prompting Standard Bank to come to their rescue.

The team received their boots today and also had the opportunity to meet the Chief Executive who wished them all the best in the tournament.

Base FM recently attended the launch of the BUY-a-BRICK A MUSIC FEST that is an initiative by Standard Bank to address Namibia’s housing problem that plagues mostly the lower income families of the nation. The event has met with great enthusiasm from all attendees as all at the launch were in agreement that such an initiative was greatly needed in the country. Base FM would like to extend its gratitude to Standard bank and its partners in undertaking an initiative of this nature and implore other corporates to follow in a similar path in order to address the various social and economic ills that plague our Nation.

Thank you for honouring our invitation to the launch of this historic and very important event. (OPENING STATEMENT)

I would also like to thank VMC-6 for joining us as partners in coordinating the A Capella Music Fest
By its design, the A Capella Music Festival serves two purposes The one is to provide supporters of A
Capella and Gospel music a platform to enjoy the music of their choice in a very friendly atmosphere.

It is not very often that Namibia hosts shows of the A Capella kind .We hope that the lineup of artists
on the day will give Namibian music lovers a musical treat of a lifetime.

The second and most important purpose of this A Capella Music Festival is of course to support the Buy-a-Brick Initiative by raising funds to address the housing needs of our low-income communities
living in informal settlements.

We know by now that there are more than half a million of our people live in shacks or other informal
structures and are thus in need of proper housing. We also know that Government alone cannot
address the housing needs and that is where we as citizens must play a complementary role to
government.

This A Capella Music Festival and other initiatives around Buy-a-Brick, afford us as Namibians a chance
to address one of the biggest social challenges in the country.

All the funds generated through the ticket sales for the A Capella Music Festival will be distributed to
the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia who are directly responsible for assisting communities in
building houses they can call home.

May I also take this opportunity to thank all the corporates and individuals who have already made
their contributions towards the Buy-a-Brick initiative. Rest assured that you are supporting one of the
worthiest causes in our country.

#NAMA2019 tickets now available

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24 July 2019 – Windhoek – The Namibian Annual Music Awards announced during the Nominee Show that the prestigious awards will be hosted at Namibia’s coastal beauty Swakopmund on 7 September 2019. As of today, tickets to the awards show are now available

NAMA2019 is thrilled to be back at the coast and encourage the residents from Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and the entire Erongo region to be part of Namibia’s biggest night in music entertainment by attending the event at The Dome in Swakopmund.

Tickets for NAMA 2019 has gone on sale at WebTickets Namibia and customers can buy them at any PicknPay stores and stores in the region as well at Wernhill Park, Auas Valley, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.

Customers can also buy online via the website at http://www.webtickets.com.na with their debit card, credit card or EFT payments. You can also book online and pay at the selected outlets at any cashier in Swakopmund, Auas Valley, B1 City, Katutura, Mega Centre, Werhnhill Park, Ongwediva or Katima Mulilo.

Early Bird Tickets are now available at the unbelievable discounted pricing of only N$120 for General Seated Tickets and N$350 for VIP tickets. The special low-price Early Bird tickets will only be available for a limited period so be sure to go get yours today.

When the Early Bird period ends, all ticket prices will restore to normal non-discounted pricing and will thereafter sell at N$250 for General Seated Tickets and VIP tickets will then sell at the normal price of N$500.

The Namibian Annual Music Awards is proudly brought to you by MTC and NBC, and with generous support and co-sponsors NACN, Endjala Investments, Standard Bank, Air Namibia, Namibia Statistics Commission, Coca-Cola and its PowerPlay brand, Metropolitan, NWR, Tafel Lite, Namibia Film Commission, NDTC, Nascam and The Swakopmund Municipality.

Swakopmund is the capital of the Erongo region administrative district and situated in the Namib desert. The town lies on the B2 road and the Trans-Namib Railway from Windhoek to Walvis Bay.

The Dome is heralded as the new Business, Entertainment and Sports Hub of Namibia, attracting a growing number of business travelers, sports teams, tourists and holiday makers.

Subscribe and follow the official digital channels for the Namibian Annual Music Awards and be ahead of multiple exciting announcements to follow over the days and weeks ahead including more live performances, hosts, meet-and-greets with the stars, amazing competition packages, and much more.

Official Website: http://www.nama.com.na

Facebook: facebook.com/namibianawards

Twitter: twitter.com/namibianawards or @namibianawards

Instagram: instagram.com/namibianawards or @namibianawards

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Ever Since Namibia gained its independence on 21 March 1990 from South Africa it has been an uphill battle for the relatively small populace of the country to secure jobs for themselves especially the youth.

Unemployment in the country has always been rather high even now some 28 odd years later from independence. The statistics paint a very clear picture of how the country has dealt with unemployment since its liberation.

According to Central Bureau of Statistics  Namibia’s historical unemployment rate stands currently at 33.4 %  which is historically much higher than 2012-2014 which stood at 27.4% and 27.9% respectively. Upon further analysis, Namibia’s unemployment has always been rather high with slight fluctuates every year or so.

This is shown by the depiction below:

This is rather concerning especially when one notices there seemingly is a trend that unemployment is increasing with the population size on the ground, for example, the unemployment rate stood at 34.4% at 2.48 million registered Namibians living in the country and 34% when the population was 2.44 million.

This shows that the country will suffer if it cannot find ways of employing its people if the population continues to rise which it will.

Youth unemployment is also an area of concern as it has largely stayed the same over a ten-year course and has not seen any significant changes. The World Bank has stated that the Namibian youth are most affected by Unemployment with 43.4% of them unemployed and unable to find jobs. Woman are the second-largest group affected by unemployment in the country with 38.3% of them unemployed.

The World Bank classes Namibia as one of the most unequal countries in the world with a Gini Consumption of 57.6 in 2015 meaning that there exists an unequal distribution of purchasing power throughout the economy per household resulting in high levels of inequality for everyday citizens.

There were however some positive strides made by the country being the reduction of the poverty line from 69.3% in 1993-1994 to  28.7 in 2009-2010 and a further 17.4% in 2015-2016 which shows that the country is tackling the issue in some capacity. The main contributors to inequality in the country according to the  World Bank is lack of education and adequate job creation.

The following chart shows the changes in youth unemployment over the years:

The Windhoek cultural festival took place this year between 26-30 June this year at the Dr.Sam Nujoma Stadium. The show this year showcased a large variety of cultures from in and around Windhoek and cultures from the furthest reaches on Namibia.

A diverse amount of cultures were on display during the full duration of the show and cultural performances were aplenty. The event was not only to showcase cultures but it also served as a means through which cultural groups could display and sell various goods and traditional cuisines.

According to organizers the goal of the show was to encourage the empowerment of communities through culture and also to bring cultures together to celebrate our cultural diversity.

The event received large amounts of supports from various public figures and a number of corporates who took the time to make an appearance in support of the initiative. One of the cultural participants the Doupos San Cultural group made appearance at the show as they sold traditional ornaments and performed traditional dances.

Turtu Fernandu Spokesperson for the Doupos cultural group mentioned that they participate mainly to “bring attention to the San community which has been marginalized for a long time and also to market their cultural products to create revenue”.

The show was the first standalone cultural show of this magnitude and it led to many first among which were the fireworks that lit up the Katutura skyline for the very first time.

The event was an all-round success and based on this success the event should become a mainstay in the Namibian events calendar every year.