Letters

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Letters

Grootfontein Spar workers underpaid

Wednesday, 17 October 2007 18:40
Dear Editor, ALLOW me to express my feelings in your paper. I am concerned about the employees of Spar, as they are very much underpaid. The salaries of most employees including cashiers are N$485.00. But just imagine working shifts and only getting N$485.00 half of which, about N$ 200.00, is spent on toiletries, food and other staff at the Spar Supermarket. Tell me how is a mother or father who is a bread winner expected to survive on such an amount? We experience a lot of problems in Grootfontein with Supermarkets especially the Spa Supermarket. They know that we need work, that’s why they treat us like dirt and we are fired like nobody else business. Some of us are afraid to complain, because we don’t want to be fired but why are we treated like this? Underpaid and illtreated
Last Updated on Thursday, 22 November 2007 10:04

Music business free for all

Wednesday, 17 October 2007 18:39

Through you Editor,

Allow me to educate budding musicians. Anyone with a few bucks can go into a recording studio and come out with enough material to release a CD on an unsuspecting world. And that is precisely the point. You’ve recorded a record...so what? Everybody and their sister can rent studio time. Isn’t there a bigger question? What do you intend to do with it?
Making music and making a living from your music are not the same thing. When it comes to getting your music into the marketplace, you have entered the domain of Music Business and the first lesson is:
You have to make people aware of your music, and YOU have to create the demand for it, by getting the attention of the media who control the access areas for exposing new music (the record labels, distributors, stores, and live venues, as well as radio, TV, and the print media). No one is sitting at home waiting for you to release your music.
By saying all this, I presume that the intention behind recording your music was the intention to get your music in the hands of the record-buying public. Well, do you have the contacts and funds to properly distribute, promote, publicise, and perform that music? So many artists and bands go through the expense of recording and manufacturing their music only to find out they didn’t save any money for the marketing end of things.
There are two music worlds. There is the world of pure music, which involves the creative side of things, songwriting, rehearsing, and performing, and there is another world which must come into play IF you truly want people to hear your music...the Music Business.
Even the utterance of these words turns many people off. There is something potentially offensive about music becoming a commodity. It smacks of ‘sellout’, or a betrayal of sorts. But I feel strongly that there is a way to merge these two worlds, to not sell out, and to honour the way the business of music is conducted. For starters, keep control of your music for as long as possible. Put out your own CD and dive into selling and promoting of it.
The point is that so many bands/artists these days talk about “getting signed”, by some label. Musicians that are concerned about money before they even know anything about the business of music are doomed to eternal unhappiness and frustration.

Music should always come first, followed close behind by simply asking oneself some simple music business questions, such as:
• What is a copyright?
• What do publishers do?
• What happens when you do sign with a record label?
• Why do labels pay the royalties that they do pay?
• What is royalty, anyway?

My hopes are that by making you aware of some basic issues you will take the initiative to learn as much as you can about the music business.
If my attitude seems to be one that is at odds with you, why even bother trying to make a living from your music, you are getting the wrong idea. Through years of teaching musicians the business of music, my only concern is to be honest about the odds. Once we know what it really takes to compete in the music industry, we can at least look at the realities we must face, and decide if we want to fight the good fight, or simply go back to having our music be an enjoyable hobby. To help you get a feel for what must be done, let’s keep asking a few more questions.

• How should the artwork for the CD be designed?
•What information should be on the product?
•Should I sell my music at live shows?
•Should I consign my CD to local stores?
•What do Distributors want from me in order to carry my music?
•What price do I sell my CD for?
•Will radio play my record?
•How does radio choose what it plays?
•What newspapers,magazines, music trades might review my music?
•What clubs and other live venues might I play in?

I could go on, but I think you get the point. After 9+ years of supporting independent music and musicians, my closets are full of ‘wanna-be’ demos, CDs. I know that much of the music is good music, but that’s just the point...GOOD has very little to do with anything when it comes to the music marketplace. GOOD is taken for granted. Why else would anyone go into a studio to record, if they didn’t believe their music was worthwhile?
Think about the questions I brought up. You cared enough about your music to record it, so don’t stop there. Protect it and prepare it for the marketplace in a way that is comfortable to you.
Fidel Nambundunga is an independent music business consultant based in Khomasdal, Windhoek. He is available for private

consultations on management, agreements, promotion and marketing music independently and can be reached at +264-61-260 938/ 081 270 3821 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sanlam Music Awards are too limited

Wednesday, 17 October 2007 18:35
Dear Editor, First of all I wish to ask the question – what kind of music awards are these? For an Independent country, we can be proud to have all our different cultures and so many different artists – unique in their own right but when we come to something huge like music awards –we give a different story. The organisers say the awards are meant to uplift musicians and grow talent but it is a shame how they are awarded in a discriminatory manner. Where are the categories for Jazz, Classical and Country music, Afrikaans, Heavy metal etc? Last year I went to the office of Mr. Mulele Simata of Sanlam and was told there was no category for me to enter. I wanted to enter the competition as an opera artist in the Alternative category. Opera is a genre that has been in existence for many years, since some of us were only a twinkle in the eye. I cannot help if the other opera singers in the country are so stuck up and do not want to enter the awards. Opera is no longer just for the elite and rich – it’s unique and it’s there for everyone. Diva Dion, Artist
Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 October 2007 18:44

Wrong traffic rules book in use

Wednesday, 17 October 2007 18:35

Dear Editor,

Through you I wish to write an open letter to the Minister of Works, Transport and Communications, Joel Kaapanda. I wish to register a serious public concern on the traffic rules book that has been recommended by your Ministry for people who want to obtain learners driver’s licences. The book is titled: “Pass Your Learner’s and Driver’s Easily”, Namibian Edition by Clive Gibson, Gavin Hoole and Bata Passchier. It is said to “cover the latest official test syllabus”. To my surprise and those of other learners we have been told on arrival at testing rooms that “you have learnt from the wrong book!”
Why, Minister Kaapanda, do your officials at the Namibia Traffic Information System (NATIS) not taking this issue as a national problem? Is your office aware that there is a “wrong book” in circulation? If this book is also being used by licensed drivers on our roads, then our “Xupifa Eemwenyo (Save Lives)” campaign will be meaningless and a waste of our scarce resources. I know for sure that there must be some people who are benefiting from the sales of the said book at the expense of the poor. Why is it allowed to go on, unnoticed, since its first publication in 2004? The said book should have been banned from being sold or at least a serious warning should have been issued to the public. The other recommendation before one gets a learner’s licence is that “a written or oral test that assesses your knowledge of the rules of the road, road traffic signs and signals, the controls of vehicle and duties in the event of a collision”, must be undertaken by each and every prospective learner.
What I have observed during the learner’s licence test is that only an oral theoretical test is undertaken. Why not a written test? This is especially necessary when there are too many people who come for a test and they end up being tested in a three – in – one fashion. That means one examiner is testing three people at a time. I personally witnessed this at NATIS, in Windhoek’s Northern Industry on 28 September, 2007. For your reference: my NATIS identification number is 500100058 VZV and receipt number; 50010064M4 YW.
I am therefore asking for your prompt intervention, Minister Kaapanda, in this possible road crisis before it is too late. NaTIS is likely to be make money from the poor for gain.

Steven Mvula, Human Rights Activist

NPC PS puts promotions at the Commission into perspective

Monday, 15 October 2007 13:00

Dear Editor

I hope you will respect my “Right of Response” to the letter which appeared in the letter column of Informanté edition 27 September 2007. My reaction is to put things into perspective. The gist of the letter is about five staff members at the National Planning Commission Secretariat who were either unprocedurally recruited or promoted.
Firstly, I am not clear on the first two staff members referred to and as a result it is difficult to provide facts on them.