Our heritage
Friday, April 20, 2012
The first was that the police have again changed their uniforms and the other, more recently, that a tourism consultancy report on Southern Africa has apparently concluded that, for tourists, this country is the least friendly, or, should you so wish, the most unfriendly.
Before irate readers reach for their pens or their coshes, it needs to be understood that the conclusion is not that this country is the least friendly in southern Africa - it is that it has been found that the people who most tourists routinely meet are not particularly friendly and these people we will assume are immigration officers, the police, hotel and safari lodge receptionists, shop sales ladies, waiters, taxi drivers, fuel station attendants and so on. It may be that some of us do share the experiences of those tourists but that is another matter, because no one sought our opinion. The other story, about the adoption of new uniforms by the police did come as a bit of a surprise to me. I have an impression, obviously erroneous, that the police time, what seems to be their frequent changes of clothing, to coincide with the latest economic crisis. It beats me to understand what could possibly have justified the latest change, including the switch to unappealing base ball hats, save that it must have resulted from yet another expensive consultancy report.
The recent disclosure by the IEC that 2,513 registrations have been turned down due to various irregularities should prompt all Batswana to meticulously review the voters' rolls and address concerns about rejected registrations.The disparities flagged by the IEC are troubling and emphasise the significance of rigorous voter registration processes.Out of the rejected registrations, 29 individuals were disqualified due to non-existent Omang...