Namibian news
Week 18 of 2020 has been a busy one. The lock down on markets made necessary by the COVID-19 is still in effect, but as Namibia has had no new cases reported, the government has decided to cautiously allow certain markets to open again by May the 4th. This is huge news for the tourism sector, as now we are allowed to ferry paying travelers to stunning destinations. The borders are still closed, and the government’s approach to easing the lock down is very very cautious. They are showing this disease the respect it deserves, which is refreshing.
Open Markets, closed borders.
The curious situation that Namibia is finding itself now is that it is clean and safe, but almost every other country in the world is not. Hence, the borders are closed, and only the most essential travel over the border is allowed. This is the state of affairs until one of a few things happen:
- A working vaccine is developed & made available to everyone. Travel in this case will be much like traveling to a country with Yellow Fever.
- The pandemic ends on it’s own. It has happened in the past, so not totally unreasonable. However, with COVID-19, one has the feeling that the cat is out of the bag.
- A way is figured out to get people across the border that guarantees that they are not infected. No quick temperature measurement will be enough. Although it’s a huge pain, the only thing that works now is quarantine and test.
Where does that leave the tourism operators? Well, in pretty much the same situation as the rest of the country. Ahead lies at least a few months of very hard work for very little reward. Cutting all sorts of luxuries and adapting to the changing landscape rapidly just to stay alive. The real difference between in the market before May the 4th and after May the 4th, is that you are allowed to work, with restrictions.
Resistance to Change
There are a LOT of people that are not happy with the current situation & restrictions. People that have found a way to make a living that simply is not available right now. It may sound a little harsh, but adapt or die.
The government wants to start markets back up, but still wants to stop large groups of people gathering. Obvious, really, if you consider that if there are still undetected cases in the country you would want to limit the spread to easily traceable interactions between people.
So, no schools and churches for a while. There will be an increase the market for nannies, though. Being a nanny now won’t pay much, as the competition will be killer. But… people with very low salaries will need to get back to work. There are plenty of people living on not much money at all that can take care of a kid that would accept any sort of pay. Back to the point I made above. Months of hard work just to stay alive, and making do with much less than you are used to.
I see many people being really upset on Facebook as they struggle to deal with this new reality. Crying over spilt milk is not going to help. Life is tough, and not fair. We all better suck it up and toughen up if we don’t want to be too bruised at the end of this one. Of course, the government is not helping by also taking this opportunity to reign in the rampant abuse of alcohol in this country. Rather than trying to provide other avenues and/or help, they are forcing the issue through rough-shod.
It won’t work.
Hopefully someone will talk some sense into them before they make up a totally new and unnecessary disaster.
Return of Prohibition?
Everyone that was profiting from the addiction to alcohol is upset, same as the cigarette guys in South Africa. The addicts are upset. The bottle store owners are upset. The distributors are upset. I imagine the manufacturers are upset too.
Where this one is going to go? It may be a good thing in the long run, or it may open the gates for a lot of bad things that were kept at bay by having alcohol legal.
America is in the dying throes of losing their war on drugs, lost the fight against illegal alcohol in prohibition. You cannot legislate away something that people want. The reason is simple: Laws are supposed to be rules that everybody agree on for the greater good.
Governments generally concentrate on the “Greater Good” and “Rules” and neglect the “Everybody agrees”. People are not going to keep to rules that they don’t want to. It will just turn them into criminals, and now the government has a much bigger problem.
The hard-core addicts will break the law to get their substance of choice at whatever price, creating a very lucrative market for people that are willing to break the law. When you break one law, breaking another is not that difficult. These dealers (also breaking the law) would then introduce people to the addicting substances to grow their market.
Many people are being thrown in jail and a much larger police force is needed, requiring more tax dollars. The people in jail learn criminal habits from career criminals and come out worse, not better, with no hope of a good paying job now have to turn to criminal behavior to fund their habit. Lose, lose, lose.
It’s like taking pain killers for a splinter in your hand, but never removing the splinter. The only way is to figure out what hurts and fix that. Figure out why people are getting addicted, and remove the reasons. Eradicate poverty and boredom, guide people.
Looking far in the future, the Namibian government might consider following examples of projects that works. The Netherlands are closing jails because they don’t have enough criminals. Portugal also has a few success stories about how to deal with addicting substances.
But, I digress. Future looking is fun, but does not get us eating today.
Market for camping
Looking at markets, and identifying a need is fun, too. Then comes the slog of making something happen, parts of which can be fun, too.
In the last week we released camping tours for locals. Prices are aimed at people that don’t have a 4×4, and are very budget conscious. So, not a lot of profit there, and lots of hard work. Immediate returns for this venture are staying alive and paying the bills. Working out in nature has it’s own rewards too, of course. Making tons of money? Not so much. Anybody making loads of money now is either socially irresponsible or doing something illegal. Or both.
Our ad has reached 20,000 people living in Walvis Bay, we have had some market interest in the product. People are scared of the future, and holding on very tightly indeed to their money. Being new to marketing, this sort of thing has a steep learning curve for me. So, I really don’t know if that is good or bad. But, it is getting easier and more fun. Putting the tours together and dreaming of the future has a certain Zen like quality. 🙂
As the slowly dripping tap of locals entering the tourism market opens on the 4th of May, we will put up some locals specials for our normal tours as well, and maybe add a little twist that sets us apart from our competition. We have to let our buddies know that we are still in the running!
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