SINCE their ever-presence on the corners of most of our main streets countrywide seems to have become an everyday spectacle that appears to be taken for granted by the mothers and fathers of our cities and towns, if not by the our policymakers in general, I cannot but put their plight uppermost on my wish list for 2009.

I am talking about a fraction of the wretched of the Land of the Brave, if not the biggest fraction. These are the army of unemployed people, who become wretched ornaments of the corners of our streets. While their daily presence there is a categorical statement, it does not seem to elicit the necessary response from the powers that be, as their conditions seem not to ease year-in and year-out. Neither do their seasons change, as this festive period once again demonstrated with Christmas being business as usual on the corner of these streets for hordes of them.

Thus, these members of our society cannot but reach the wish list in the hope that anyone who matters in the sphere of influence within our society from politicians (local, regional and national), the clergy to civil society and even the media, will help ease their plight. Not so much because 2009 is an election year. Perhaps, yes maybe for politicians to whom the people only seem to matter during election time. But more importantly for the broader society as part of their responsibility to see all having an equal share in the national cake.

Their presence on our street corners has been a plea, loud and clear, year after year as it has been, that somehow they are equal citizens of this country, equally deserving of the scantiest of attention in the least from policymakers, and from society to ensure their upliftment. Certainly, my wish is not a wishful one but one based on people crying for real atonement, first of their material being, if only by employment, and as an attendant of their souls and persons by being gainfully employed.

Telling by the 2008 Grade 10 results, thousands of children may end up on our streets. The results for the Grade 12s are yet to come. But telling from the last couple of years it is not preposterous to see a swelling in this army of idle people. As experience has shown, even those who have obtained the necessary grades to enter tertiary education may not be able to do so because of lack of means, and the inability of the Government to help them into tertiary education.

Basically, a good number of them would be left to their own devices. Telling by past experiences, this seems to have been the easy way out. As unproductive as this option may have proven to be, it looks like nowadays the streets are the best and ready universities four our youngsters.

One recognises the brave and desperate attempts by the Government last year to get the army of Grade 10s, especially, unable to obtain the necessary promotion mark into Grade 11, back into schools. To what extent this policy change has had the desired outcome is unclear. Hence the fear that the vicious cycle of failures and teenagers ending up in the streets might continue. Combined with the high unemployment rate, this is a recipe for disaster calling for well-thought out radical approaches. Such approaches seem hitherto to have been elusive. Hence, the wish that somehow policymakers, and of course society at large, give this matter due serious and urgent attention meant to bring about a long-lasting solution.

This brings me to the third wish concerning our senior citizens. For the good part of any year our senior citizens seem to be condemned to a life of poverty and squalor that can easily earn them the definition of an endangered species of some sort. This is excepting Christmas when the fortunate ones are afforded some niceties largely by own communities. Not that those who have been benefiting them do not deserve credit. But their noble efforts need supplementing, especially by those who may not as yet be aware of the plight of the elderly in society if only to plug a few holes in their daily hand-to-mouth existence.

Yes, one can grant the excuse that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) may have started from a zero. But it cannot remain stuck in its guns. It must start to flex its muscles. Hitherto, what it has been doing is nothing more than appeasing us and making us aware of its existence. This is not the ultimate goal of the ACC. Its goal is to curb and eradicate corruption. There is no mistaking that corruption is rampant in our political system, or any other sphere.

What is needed now is for the ACC to really start showing its teeth where it matters most, the systematic corruption perpetuated by the powerful and stop appeasing us. Most importantly, the ACC must start prioritising the cases it deals with. Disciplinary matters are better left to institutional managements of the various instances. Between it and the Office of the Ombudsman, somehow the two must get their act together. Not to speak of the Presidential commission of enquiries that seems to bear little fruit and whose recommendations seem not to be acted upon. Members of Parliament, especially the ruling party backbenchers, must also start living up to their mission.

My second last wish is for more political tolerance in view of elections this year and the political intolerance and violence visited upon us during the course of last year. There is no mistaking a general perception out there who the ringleaders of such violence have been. Fingers have been pointing to the supporters of the ruling party, Swapo. This presumed guilty verdict seems to have received little discouragement from the political bosses within the ruling party, whose best response has been trying to placate these acts of intolerance to the extent of giving an impression of acquiescing to such acts.

There is no mistaking that lurking behind such flashes is political intolerance, provoked and unprovoked. Unless the various political bosses change their tune in this matter, we may not see this year's elections in the same mode of tradition and culture we as Namibians, and the world at large, have become accustomed to since independence. We must by now have reached a certain stage of political maturity. The events last year prove otherwise and our political leaders do share the blame.

Obviously, the list is inexhaustible but for my last wish is rain, rain and more rain. In this year when we would be expected to expend resources on elections to ensure that they are free and fair, certainly we need rains so that we can easily release such resources douse any inflammable political utterances and desires.

Welcome to 2009 and may it be one of the best years in a free and independent Land of the Brave.