| Mission Report: Namibia: October 2010 |
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 Texas-sized Namibia is located just North of South Africa on the continent’s west coast. Because of its arid climate, only about 2.15 million people live here, 350,000 of whom dwell in the capital and largest city, Windhoek (pronounced “Win-Dook” by the locals). Outside the big city, you can drive for many miles on the main roads, and the only other people you will see are in the occasional car or safari-tourist bus.Yet even in this empty land, the population controllers are busily about their evil work. More than a dozen international population control groups are attempting to make Namibians into Americans and Europeans with their fanatical meddling. These organizations include the usual suspects: Family Health International, Marie Stopes International, the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association (NPPA), the Open Society Institute, Population Services International, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and of, course, the United Nations agencies such as UNAIDS, UNCEDAW, UNDESA, UNFPA and UNICEF. These and other groups have dumped more than half a billion dollars into population control activities in Namibia since 1990, an average of more than $200 per person. AND WHY IS ALL OF THIS ALLEGEDLY NECESSARY? NSSM-200, the “Kissinger Report” of 1974, tells us that the United States and the rest of the “developed” world want to hold down the population of the Southern Hemisphere simply so it can get its hands on the world’s natural resources. And Namibia does have fantastic natural resources. It is the fourth largest producer of uranium in the world and is rich in diamonds, copper, uranium, gold, silver, lead, tin, lithium, cadmium, tungsten and zinc. Making the nation even more attractive to the greedy West are probable huge deposits of oil, coal, and iron ore. Even though Namibia’s total fertility rate (TFR) is low by African standards at 2.5 children per woman, the population controllers continue to spread their gospel of sterility. Their efforts are hardly necessary, unfortunately; Namibia has the seventh-highest adult HIV infection rate in the world at 16 percent, and the life expectancy of a child born in 2010 is a dismal 52 years. 
Brian with some of the staff of the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek after Emil and Brian spoke.
That’s one of the UN’s most effective and deceptive propaganda methods: applying big-city definitions to country people. ABORTION ON THE STREETS Misoprostol (Cytotec) is freely available on the streets of Windhoek. If you have $150, almost any doctor outside the Roman Catholic Hospital will administer the abortion pill. A 2009 Inter Press Service news article describes well the attitudes of Namibians and the impact of population control measures already being implemented in this pro-life nation. The article mentions a street peddler named Merja, who said, “We need the extra money and at the same time we are providing a service to our fellow desperate women in need. It’s not like we are killing babies. I only sell Cytotec tablets to those whose pregnancy is less than three months.” Merja says that she buys a packet of 56 Cytotec tablets for U.S. $50 and sells each tablet for $14, making a cool profit of 1,468 percent in a week, mostly off of careless college students. “Fellow desperate women in need?” Sure. “Merja” is no different from the unscrupulous abortionists in the United States. An incredible 90 percent or more of Namibians strongly oppose abortion, making them among the most pro-life people on Earth. In the same article, Ndawana Hausiku said, “Abortion must never be legalized in Namibia. Women will just willy-nilly commit murder. Innocent babies will be killed. If our mothers had been given that opportunity to choose whether we should have lived or died then a lot of us would not be here. It’s also so un-African.” 
Brian speaking to the seminarians at the St. Charles Lwanga National Seminary in Windhoek.
Ironically, abortion on demand is already established by law in Namibia. Women can have abortions for rape, incest, or for their lives and health. As we all know, the UN definition of “health” is “A state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Namibia is just one of dozens of countries where population controllers have forced women to be sterilized. Hundreds of Namibian women were sterilized without their consent or even their knowledge, and when they went to get birth control later, they were told that it was not necessary since they were sterile. These women are rejected by their husbands and villages because being sterile in Namibia carries a worse stigma than having AIDS. Not surprisingly, the hospitals where these forced surgeries were carried out are funded by PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. But the population controllers don’t care, just as long as the number of people is kept down. ON THE ROAD AGAIN Father Thomas Manninezhath, CMI, the Secretary General of the Namibian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, along with our director of HLI-Africa (English-speaking), Emil Hagamu, met me at the small Windhoek (“Win-dook”) Airport, and we drove 25 miles to the St. Charles Lwanga Major Seminary. Since Namibia is far South of the Equator, it was winter here, and refreshingly cool after the ferocious heat wave blanketing Virginia, which reached 105 degrees on one humid July day. 
Emil speaking to staff of the Roman Catholic Hospital in Windhoek, one of three talks to a total of 145 people.
Emil and I also distributed a large amount of material to the seminarians, including the Pro-Life Library CD, the Pro-Life Pastoral Handbook, and the ever-popular “Little Feet” pins. On Sunday, Emil and I gave a two-hour session to the public at the Cathedral Auditorium, and then, over the next two days, presented three separate four-hour sessions for a total of 145 medical professionals from the Roman Catholic Hospital. In the evenings, I worked on my laptop while watching an Indian soap opera called “India: A Love Story.” Father Thomas is from Kerala, and he is addicted to it. It is actually pretty entertaining, with gross overacting and absolutely awful lip-syncing. A German priest told us a story one night as we ate in the Cathedral parish dining hall. It was a good dinner, for sure, and it was the first time I have ever seen bacon cheese spread. Anyway, the story was of a Namibian guy who learned that he had AIDS, so he then set out to have sex with as many women as he possibly could. Most of the 105 became infected. Why do people do this? I just don’t understand it. This is what the anti-life mentality can do to people. As Emil and I departed the auditorium after our last session, we walked through the play area for the kindergartners. One of the little ones ran up and hugged me. Then a couple more did. Finally, a dozen little kids all waited in line for hugs. CERTAINLY THE BEST SENDOFF EVER! 
Emil with a couples group in Windhoek, Nambia.
Both Emil and I found that many Namibians have fallen victim to anti-life thinking, simply because they haven’t heard the other side of the story. They did not comprehend why explicit sex education and contraception are intrinsically evil, and they found it very difficult to understand the scientific evidence and Church teachings on these issues. Some even thought that abortion could be acceptable under certain “hard case” conditions. Namibia is a prime example of how abortion is one hundred times harder to get rid of once it is established than it is to stop it from infecting the culture in the first place. Once abortion is accepted, people become comfortable with it and see it as a necessary if undesirable convenience. The ethical ground in Namibia is hard and dry, and many of the seeds Emil and I tried to plant will undoubtedly fail to bear fruit. It will take repeated attempts to break up and soften this ground before the pro-life message is wholeheartedly accepted by the people. When this happens, the future of Namibia will be assured. Please pray for this to happen. |