Last weekend, Windhoek was a ghost town. Even though Monday was a working day, Tuesday was Heroes' Day and many people took Monday off too to have an extended four-day weekend.

Those who could not get leave simply went AWOL or abused sick-leave benefits to call in ill to avoid work.

We have on several occasions in the past pointed out that while holidays are nice to have, these extra extended long weekend breaks come in addition to the normal annual leave of most working people, and it should come as no surprise that this has hugely negative consequences on the economy.

Productivity certainly took a nose-dive across the country; many businesses saw fit to close over this period; and as usual the extended break was characterised by over-indulgence, particularly of alcohol.

It should therefore come as no surprise that crime increased countrywide and Police and traffic officers had their hands full on the roads and elsewhere in an attempt to maintain law and order.

Notwithstanding, some horrible incidents of violent excess were reported by NamPol, which included a woman's body found near a club in Rehoboth, an eight-year-old girl raped at Okakarara, and a 23-year-old man arrested after he allegedly raped two nine-year-old girls.

These statistics are shocking and point to something more serious unfolding in our society.

Public holidays are necessary breaks in our working lives and Namibia has a surfeit of them.

But if we lose any notion of a work ethic in this country, we are also losing the spirit of enterprise and commitment to our work and responsibility to our nation as productive citizens.

The occasion of Heroes' Day got lost somewhere in the midst of the work avoidance and merrymaking.

Namibia is not at the point yet where it can afford to take time off from making the country work.

A lazy and drunk nation will not have a competitive edge, and moreover, rapes and deaths and other violent crimes could have been minimised or avoided altogether had we allowed less time to the perpetrators to commit these deeds.

Namibia has to get out of the current state of lethargy in which it is so that we can put our feet solidly on the path of progress.

This will not and cannot happen in the current lackadaisical climate.

2010 And The Sex Trade AS the hype around the 2010 Soccer World Cup continues to build, the rotten underbelly of our southern African societies is being exposed, and Namibia won't be exempt from being a target of criminal gangs plying their trade in the region.

Human trafficking and prostitution will increase in the build-up to the prestigious World Cup that is to be hosted by our powerful neighbour to the south.

Zambian researcher Merab Kambamu Kiremire made this startling revelation at a public lecture this week at the University of Namibia.

In her paper, 'On the blocks: Human trafficking for prostitution for the Soccer World Cup 2010', Kiremire estimates that over 500 criminal gangs are involved in trafficking for the sex trade in South Africa and cross-border syndicates are on the increase.

While this practice has been going on for years, very little has been done to stem the tide, she says.

Regional governments, according to her, are hopelessly ill equipped to deal with the situation.

For us in Namibia, we need to tackle the issue head on.

Unpalatable as it might well be to purists, moralists and religious groups, it is perhaps preferable that prostitution should be legalised and that sex work be decriminalised.

To do so will not necessarily mean that the moral fibre of our society will be undermined or that our standards of morality will be thrown to the wind.

Instead, the choice that mostly men make to visit prostitutes is then entirely a personal moral choice.

What is even more relevant is that the women who are involved in the sex trade as prostitutes will have the protection of the law behind them, and not be the victims of unscrupulous men who take advantage of the fact that prostitution is outlawed.

Human trafficking has to stop, and security agencies in Namibia and the region should be working closely with international agencies such as Interpol to close the lid on the gangs making this their livelihood.