Ounongo Repository (Namibia Univ. of Science and Technology)
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An exploration of the theme of guilt and redemption in "The Guide" by R. K. Narayan and "A Grain of Wheat" by Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
No full textThis article examines the theme of guilt and redemption in The Guide by R.K. Narayan
and A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Guilt and redemption are treated as one because redemption of the two main protagonists in the two novels follows upon guilt. The protagonists of the two novels are compared with each other because both of them dupe the general public into believing that they are heroes. They follow similar paths of being ordinary men who, in
the course of their lives, win the admiration of their people because of a misunderstanding.Instead of revealing their true selves they allow this misperception to continue because it suits them. How each of the protagonists meets his destiny and seeks his redemption is, in the final count, the embodiment of the philosophical vision of the two novelists writing from
a post colonial perspective. Since the article deals with the theme of guilt and redemption as one, it, therefore, not only compares and contrasts the protagonists in the novels, also addresses the issue of writing in a post colonial world and how this impacts the world view of each writer
Reflexive inquiry and reflective practice: Critical reflection and pedagogy in English language teaching.
No full textThere is an ongoing debate on learners’ poor performance in English at the NUST. The main challenge that the institution faces to train faculty is addressed by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) which has an Academic Support Unit in charge of organizing teacher training workshops, special lectures and several other activities. While some members of staff believe that it is impossible to mark a test without taking cognizance of the language in which it is written, others distinguish between form and content and choose to ignore the
language component of a test. This discrepancy of thought has led to skewed results with students scoring brilliantly in their content subjects like Mathematics, Business Management courses, etc, and failing in English. The current state of affairs begs the question: what do we focus upon in our teacher training programs: is it on language or on content
Reinventing service delivery in Namibia.
No full textInternational Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (5th : 2007 Oct. 24-25 : NUST)The main purpose of any public service globally, is to promote the general welfare of the citizens of that specific country. The assumption can therefore be made that in order to promote the welfare of the citizens; the public sector should be managed effectively, efficiently and economically. Therefore, if the public sector did not perform according to these principles, the public sector should reform itself to meet the needs and expectations of its citizens. Over the last few years we have seen significant changes taking place in public administration and management in transitional countries.
The main factors leading to public sector reform can be traced back to the following criteria, namely, the redefinition of the role of the state within society and the emphasis of governments to adhere to the principles of good governance through increased transparency , openness, accountability and increasing citizen participation and the rooting out of corruption. The purpose of this article is to briefly explain what measures the Namibian government has undertaken to improve service delivery
Role of culture and change management in sustainable public service reform.
No full textASSADPAM Annual Conference and AGM (2007 May 29 -June 1 : NUST)Culture and change is complex, unpredictable and cannot be managed but do have prospects for steering. This paper concurs with Van Tonder that change management is cultural management; and also with Bate that culture and strategy are substitutes. For understanding the concept of institutional culture, the Three Layered Diagram of Schultz, et al. was found to be simplistic but useful. The ‘new’ and ‘strong’ culture provides design parameter for cultural change or reform.
This paper recommends design parameters for reform of public services in the Southern
African Development Community (SADC); and complements the research of Bate in
providing a more detailed roadmap for institutional cultural change consisting of the following integrated phases or dimensions: Structural (understanding); spatial and temporal (origins and trajectory); processual (life cycle); contextual (environmental context) and subjective (objectives and ambitions of role players). Amongst other, the following institutional cultural change applications are discussed: For understanding a specific institutional culture, the Organisational Checklist of the United Kingdom Civil Service College is recommended; and an in-depth knowledge and thorough cultural assessment. For strategy formulation, the 7-S Strategy Framework of McKinsey, is useful but not without its limitations. This framework can be combined with the Balanced Scorecard of Kaplan and Norton to provide balanced and cohesive strategies for reform
Ipv6– network security in polytechnic of Namibia network
No full textIncreasing demand for IP addresses on the IPv4 address space made the introduction of a new addressing scheme with more addresses inevitable. IPv6 was designed to address the issue of small address space in IPv4. In addition to increasing the address space IPv6 is presumably supposed to increase the security of networks. However, does IPv6 really improve network security? Based on the IPv6 design, it can be argued that IPv6 does improve network security to some extent. IPv6 was designed in such a way that every IPv6 node should support Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), an Internet security standard for protecting communications over IP. The implementation of IPv6 networks is still in its infancy and thus many of its security aspects still need to be thoroughly reviewed and possibly contrasted with highly pertinent IPv4 security issues. Despite its firm security based design structure, research has established that IPv6 may also be susceptible to some of the common IPv4 networks attacks, such port scan attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks and denial of service attacks, as well as to other attacks that are IPv6 specific such as misuse of ICMPv6 and fragmentation attacks. Therefore it can be argued that IPv6 networks are also susceptible to network attacks. However to what extend is IPv6 susceptible? In order to research this, a live IPv4 network was tested for network security and compared to a emulated IPv6 network. As will be discussed in this research, it was found out that both IPv4 and IPv6 networks are susceptible to many types of network attacks
Advancing entrepreneurship education in Namibia: A practical approach.
No full textInternational Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (5th : 2007 Oct 24-25 : NUST)This paper is a qualitative analytical study of competences in entrepreneurial education. It is based on an initiative which analyzed various approaches to entrepreneurial education in Namibia. In the recent past, promoting entrepreneurial education at local, regional and national levels has become a high priority in public policy. The Namibia educational systems have expanded dramatically while the graduate job market is declining tremendously. Entrepreneurial education which can lead to job creation is a sinequo non. The different approaches to entrepreneurial education in Namibia are analyzed. The differences in conceptual, contextual, design and delivery impact both positively and negatively on entrepreneurial eduaction in Namibia. A number of actual and perceived barriers need to be overcome to facilitate a better understanding of entrepreneurial education. The conclusion and recommendations could offer valuable insight into the important aspects of entrepreneurial education in Namibia. Various stakeholders could also derive some benefits including policy makers, educators, government agencies and students. A further study on entrepreneurship education and curricula practices is highly recommended
Structuralist analysis of D. H. Lawrence's "The White Stocking".
No full textThe French structuralist, Roland Barthes‟ structuralist analysis of Honore de Balzac‟s short story Sarrasine, S/Z, published in 1970, has had a major impact on literary criticism. In this analysis Barthes shows where and how different codes of meaning function, and he uses specific „codes‟ to show how a text „works‟. Barthes‟ five codes (to be discussed later) form a network of meaning in a text which provides a framework for analysing any text
Regional integration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC): A case study of Namibia's cross border migration issues in Oshikanga.
No full textThe article is directly the product of research performed as part of the PhD
dissertation on Politics and Public Management offered by the Department of
Political and Administrative Studies of the University of Namibia. The main objective of this article was to investigate issues of cross-border migration and their effects on the project of the SADC regional integration. A case study of the border area around the Oshikango town at the Namibia/Angola border has yielded the empirical data. The data were gathered about the distribution of variables such as grassroots community’s understanding and attitudes towards implications of cross border migration as measured against the SADC project of regional integration. Other important variables that support investigation techniques are gender, age and education level of respondents. Informed by this investigation and based on the Oshikango case study this article has arrived at the conclusion that SADC is currently unable to achieve its goal of regulating free movement of persons in the region. The problematic seems to be that since
SADC is state-based regime, member states take their refuge in the doctrine of
state sovereignty, often at the expense of the common regional agenda, in other
words they talk regionalism, but they act nationally. This characterised SADC as
a shallow integration with limited involvement of civil society and local
communities, and hence, cross-border migration control in the region became an
issue. Induced by these conclusions, this article recommended encouragement
of trans-frontier special development arrangements such as parks and corridors
deeply integrated in trans-boundary grassroots communities
Instructional design challenges within the NUST.
No full textPan-Commonwealth Conference on Open Learning, PCF4 (4th : 2006 Oct-Nov : Jamaica)Education in Namibia, since independence (1990), is underpinned by learner-centred and social constructivist learning theories. Within the NUST’s Centre for Open and Lifelong Learning (COLL) efforts are being made to ensure that instructional material are in line with these learning theory principles. However, for varying reasons educationalists are struggling to implement these principles in practice.
Additionally, in a world where technology is king and e-learning is rapidly becoming the norm in distance education circles, Namibia’s status as a developing country is limiting its ability to electronically interact with its students. As a consequence, Namibia is at a beginner stage for e-learning, and print-based materials are still the major medium of instruction.
This paper outlines the need for COLL to rely on appropriately developed print-based instructional materials for learner support. Initial research has focused on investigating COLL’s instructional materials alignment with the education principles subscribed to in Namibia and on the perspectives of writers on the support they get as writers of distance education instructional materials. Analysis of the results will help develop strategies to improve print-based instructional materials, through the support of writers
