Ihave not been counted! And I so desperately wanted to be amongst those exclusive and elusive few that refused to be counted, but since no-one showed up, I was forced to join the larger group.
I found the whole experience underwhelming and in bad taste to say the least. Not even the extension of the deadline gave me the relief I almost prayed for.
I am disgusted by the poor planning of the entire thing. There were holes in some of the maps, probably leftovers from the last census. What, they could not buy new ones? Couldn’t they at least have covered the holes with masking tape?
And a lot of the expected households did not RSVP. I hear that was due to privacy concerns and homelessness. The work started late and slowly despite the provision of cars and helicopters.
This despite the fact that they had ten years to plan for this.
Granted, it is not easy counting people. They have a habit of not staying put. Try counting the people at a party. The first thing you will find out is that some have inexplicably disappeared.
But still, ten years and they are struggling with the basics?
The NPC also failed to make extra keys for locked farm gates. Given the love/hate relationship we have with our commercial farmers, you’d think they would plan for this. Or did they just simply fail to make an appointment? How about sending a simple e-mail?
The ‘dogs’ issue was another headache. So much for being man’s best friend.
Either way, not only did the NPC fail to provide protective gear against attacks, there were not enough toilet facilities in case those damned animals decided to give chase. Merely giving them t-shirts and caps is hardly adequate.
Is that the way to take care of our enumerators? Why couldn’t they buy those suits dog trainers wear? Brown jeans?
Not that the enumerators have anything to gloat about. Some of them messed up basic questions because they could apparently not understand them.And since the supervisors were outside, watching the car, nobody could help them. As a result some apparently ended up counting
themselves as well. They did not have a problem counting their money, if memory serves me right. They can tell you to the last cent how much they are owed. But they miss something as big as a house.
No wonder there were threats made against them.
Not that they have anything to fear in this respect. The police are onto this as well as issues of non-compliance. Enumerators claim 67 people refused to be counted, possibly more.
These are pretty accurate figures. Why didn’t they just write those numbers down?
The real disgusting thing was the attitude of some of the NPC people. Whenever a complaint was leveled against them, they had a ready made excuse. And
they did not look guilty at all! As a matter of fact, they seemed relaxed and in high spirits all the time.
It is clear that they had forgiven themselves. Should forgiveness not come from us? I prefer guilty people who look guilty and feel bad. Has screwing up become that common and acceptable?
I must admit it is not entirely the fault of the NPC that I was not counted. There was a bit of complacency on my part. I was standing under a tree when two enumerators walked past me. A tree is not a house. Plus, I completely forgot to bring my shack with me. But I brought my dog and the bedpan I stole at the Katutura hospitalduringthepoweroutage.Andyou know what they say about enumerators, dogs and toilet facilities ...
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