Land of the brave? Far from it

There is a common English phrase that says a friend in need is a friend indeed. This statement, loosely translated, defines a friend as someone who helps you when you really need help.
This type of person is a true friend indeed. Of late in the land of the brave this statement seems to be something of the past or again loosely put, a fallacy.
About a fortnight ago a very close friend of mine nearly got mugged in broad daylight in a low density suburb in Windhoek while people in the street simply looked on.
A thug simply walked up to her and wanted to snatch her purse in full view of onlookers. I asked myself a question, is this what the land of the brave is all about.

It baffled me that people can look on when someone seems to be in trouble.
As normal human beings, if you see someone screaming, running and has a severe facial expression showing panic, the humane thing is to intervene and come to their aid and try and understand what is transpiring. But to my amazement, when this happened, people only stared as if she were a mad person.
What happened to helping your fellow man?.
After that incident, I thought to myself, one can actually die, get raped or even be scarred for life by such events.
People have gotten so accustomed to turning a blind eye to those in need and simply say in their heads, “it’s none of my business”, which is a very bad thought.
Just take time to think if it were your daughter, father or even your mother, under attack.
Its a sad situation that needs to be addressed in the so-called land of the brave.
To make matters worse I do not know if it has to do with the newer generation or just plain old ignorance, as the onlookers nowadays simply record with their phones incidents occurring, so that they can post the clip on the internet. A person can get stabbed or mugged in full view and people still record the happening instead of helping. To me this is appalling behaviour as it signals the death of a society, a decay of the moral fibre.
This is just one incident I know of, and trust me there are more crimes occurring daily or even hourly in the land of the brave.
I find that people often misconseptualise the phrase “a friend in need” as it seems most people associate this concept with someone looking for financial support.
After the broad daylight mugging I have come to realise there is need to establish more neighbourhood watches to avoid these crimes. I must commend the British High Commission and Nampol who last month responded to the calls made by the two governments by combining the fight against Gender Violence and the drive to integrate Community Policing and Neighbourhood watches at grassroots.
Yes, the training was done but it seems implementation is far from it. There is need for neighbourhood watches to protect civilians against daylight robbers.
It does not mean that if you do not know the person under attack and they are not from your neighbourhood, that you must turn away and mind your own business.
Man up and aid your fellow brother.
Do not get me wrong. I am not advocating we all turn into vigilantes and put a burning tyre around a mugger and torch him.
 Like I said an organized group of citizens devoted to combat crime and vandalism within a neighbourhood, is always needed as they take the right approach.
It is a sad state of affairs, considering that we will be celebrating our silver jubilee of Independence while the community is not united in fighting crime as they feel its none of their business.