Namibia and the Egyptian Revolution

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Thank you Taati and Mona for sharing information about your countries!  It was fascinating listening to both your presentations.

Here’s what I learned about Namibia:

I had not heard of Namibia before meeting Taati.  I found it interesting that some people in Namibia cannot understand each other because there are many dialects.  I was surprised to learn English is the official language even though most people do not speak it. I was surprised to learn that German colonized Namibia and that German is spoken there.

It was neat to learn the desert in Namibia is the oldest desert in the world. It is beautiful how the desert meets the sea.

I was not aware there was a liberation war in Namibia. It was very depressing hearing about the mass gravesites. It’s hard to believe this war happened recently. It’s horrible that people were targeting women and children. I am glad some children were able to take refuge in Germany, but it was sad to hear that when they were brought back to Namibia most had a hard time readjusting and went back to Europe.

Taati explained that in 1990 the government started a new initiative called Vision 2030, to improve the quality of life in Namibia. It is sad to hear people die from a treatable sickness because they could not travel to a hospital.  I am glad there are mobile hospitals now so more people have access to doctors.

Taati also said the president announced that all children should go to school until they are sixteen. She said some Black and White people in Namibia do not like that their children go to school together because of the recent war. Taati says the Whites have a hard time accepting Blacks as their equals and the Blacks are still bitter about how the Whites used to treat them.

Here’s what I learned about the Egyptian Revolution:

I was glad Mona shared the build up to the Egyptian Revolution because I did not have a good understanding of how the revolution started. It was amazing to learn what a big role social media played in organizing the revolution. I was shocked and disturbed by the picture of Khaled Saed. I can see why pictures and videos of police brutality called Egyptians to action. Wael Ghoneim’s quote,“the power of the people is greater than the people in power” was very applicable to the Egyptian Revolution.