that people should get, but it’s also a right that they should enjoy as citizens
of this country.”
Such claims regularly occur in the vigorous discussions over the big in
the Namibian public sphere, as well. Letters written to the leading daily
newspaper, for instance, illustrate well both the general link between
social payments and a rightful share of mineral wealth and the specific
theme of inheritance or birthright. One recent letter to the editor of the
national daily newspaper, for instance, insisted that Namibia’s rich resources
should provide “a decent living for each of its citizens.” For that
reason, “it is the basic right of each Namibian to directly benefit from the
resources of this country and in the same way, big is every citizen’s basic
right.”30 Another insisted on the big as part of a package of policies that
would force the rich to give up their excessive wealth; rather than seeing
the rich as people to admire or envy, the writer insisted, “We have nothing
to be grateful to the rich about, in fact they should hang their heads
in shame for being in that position.”31 A third insisted that “the problem
is not that there are not adequate resources to go around for everyone.
There is enough on this earth for everyone to live a sufficient life. The
real problem is that resources are not fairly distributed. That is the main
issue. It is all about distribution!”32 Another letter insists that a big is due
to all (“the mere fact of being a homo sapien or, if you like a Namibian
citizen, should be sufficient to qualify”) because “the historical situation
is that the capitalist economy now only needs a small number of people in
full-Â�time employment.” Those who object to giving money to people who
do not work, the letter’s authors insist, should look around and observe
“the off-Â�spring of the rich in Namibia. . . . They certainly do not work
for a living. They inherit the wealth and do not have to lift a finger. Most
of the wealth today is transferred through inheritance. This is one of the
main reasons why the ideology of work is so false.”33
Perhaps the most prominent public advocate of the grant, Bishop Kameeta,
directly links the idea of basic income to a notion of citizenship
rooted both in a moral model of “the Â�house” and in a rightful entitlement
to a material share of national wealth. Thanks to its rich mineral
resources, he noted in an interview, Namibia as a country is rich. “We are
living in a mansion. We are living in a villa!” But if a nation is a Â�house, citizenship
means being “part of the Â�house. And if only some of the children
are eating in the Â�house, and some are starving, I think that is not fair!”