Friday, December 12, 2008

Letter in the Namibian

The Namibian has been our very favorite newspaper here, and we buy it from the guy standing on the corner every Monday through Friday for N$3 (about 30 cents). The Namibian has been around since before independence, and is a surprisingly in-depth, and balanced newspaper. It's motto is, "still telling it like it is." It is an English language paper, but it has several pages each day in Oshiwambo. There also is a government run English paper that also has sections in indigineous languages (the New Era), an Afrikaans paper (Republikein), a German paper, some free weeklies and some other local papers. One of the neat features of the Namibian is that they have a whole page every day dedicated to SMSs from readers. I think it's a great way to publish a lot of opinions daily (40 to 50 per day), and you really get a pulse of the nation reading these. Plus, most people communicate via SMS here - much more than actually talking on the phone and infinitely more than email or letter writing. I think US papers will need to copy this SMS idea in its papers.

While I am a fan of the SMSs, I was pleased to get a real letter to the editor (not an SMS) published today about my social work department at Unam in the Namibian. It's all true. Read it here!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Liz!
Great letter! What a fantastic experience! Halloween sounded awesome and very neat to hear about how the election was viewed around the world. Absolutly right...no idea who they are talking about in the 1948 election. Enjoy your final days!!
Tell the family I said hello!

Lezley