The tourist view of Namibia

Me and my sister relaxing at the Fish River Canyon in Namibia.
Isn't it just looking like the Grand Canyon?

Namibian experiences part one

I didn’t know how much you can get into a country after spending only 3 weeks there.
I mean you can’t really understand the whole culture of a land which has so many different ethnics and tribes; you can only get an idea. The major types of culture are from hunter-gatherers (San) to nomadic farmers (Himba) and subsistence farmers like the Ovambo and Herero. And you can also find the Europeans there who settled to Namibia in the colonial time. So you nearly can get an idea of the cultural gaps and the resultant separation problems. It’s amazing to live a week on a German farm in Namibia and then spend a week in the homelands of Namibia where you can find just countryside, animals and some nomadic tribes living in mud huts. And we also were living like nomads, sleeping in tents, cooking our food over a fire and drinking water only from our big water can.

And I realised how much negative influences civilisation can have. The south of Namibia is pretty developed, which is good and especially most of the Ovambos and Hereros can deal with the influences of the western world. But for the real nomadic people like Himbas it is still a problem to combine their culture with the western and developed culture. It looked like they like to live like a nomad. And in these areas where you had civilisation influences in the homelands you could see the poor people which where drinking alcohol or begging. I felt sorry for them because they see the rich world but don’t have a chance to be part of it. In these totally undeveloped areas without any civilisation it seemed that the Himbas are happy to only know their world. And it’s so amazing to see their relationship to the nature.

Don’t get me wrong I am totally pro Globalisation and development but it has to be in another way, which the culture can accrete to these developing things. In some cases it looked like a western country just built a supermarket in an area where nobody needs a supermarket because they don’t have money to buy something. Just like sink or swim!!

to be continued

Animals of Namibia

one of the big five - elephants

happy hippos

my favorite african animal - giraffe

see the monkeys

Katrin und Sven

born in Namibia, the little farm kids Katrin and Sven
They are so cute I just wanted to keep them both:)

Namibia

Finally I have uploaded the Namibia Pics. This summer I was in Namibia with my family and we traveld and discovered the whole country. We have friends who have a farm there. So we spent a couple of days there and then were traveling. I n our first week we saw the whole south of Namibia, which is pretty much developed (if you can say that in Africa), you probably can compare this with south Africa. Then we were driving to the north west of Namibia, called the caprivi strip. Overthere you can see the real Africa, mostly undeveloped and many big animals.

My thoughts about Namibia and the problems that I saw will be follow in next blogs. Firstly I just want to share some pics. Because I took to much pictures which are all very good I decided to combine them all and devide them into topics.

Corruption continues to threaten development

The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2005






The 2005 Index bears witness to the double burden of poverty and corruption borne by the world's least developed countries. Corruption is a major cause of poverty!

The TI's Chief Executive David Nussbaum said: "corruption isn't a natural disaster. It is cold, calculated theft of opportunity from the men, women and children who are least able to protect themselves. Leader must go beyond lip service and make good on their promises tp provide the commitment and resources to improve governance, transparency and accountability."

http://www.transparency.org/cpi/2005/cpi2005_infocus.html

The Globalisation Dream

In my company we are having english lessons once a week. its just to improve converations and to stay in that language. Our teacher is an american and a very cool person. Today we were talking about our dreams and goals for life. I was thinking about that and I was talking about globalisation and the importance of exchange people and going abroad not only to hear about other countries but to live there and getting to know this culture. so after that discussion our teacher was saying that he is very impressed by me, because I am the first german person he met that is pro globalisation. so my new goal will be showing germans the importance and the good things of gloabalisation. AIESEC and other organisations are doing that with exchange and it works very good. but we have to get further on. I was shocked as my teacher, by the way he is totally pro, told me the most germans he knows are against globalisation.
so this english lesson really reminds me on my traineeship through AIESEC in michigan and I think I wouldn't be so totally pro globalisation if I didn't get so much involved in AIESEC.
exchange really is the key!! AIESEC keep it up!!!

something funny

I don't really believe that this theory is true. but its funny!!:)

O' zapft is

my lovely college friends Katrin and Sabrina



David, me Stefan and Sabrina



Robi and Nicole

Wiesn Spektakel

Oktoberfest in Munich, how awesome sound that!! and it was definitely one of the biggest party I've ever been.:) a college friend of mine, katrin, got a job in munich so we went there, drunk lot of mass beer and of course wore lederhosen and dirndl.

but see the pics!!!



nicole (roommate from katrin), katrin (my college friend) and me.





me with a maß beer, how big is that:)