| « Ethiopia - Eritrea: The cause of and preparation for the war | Ethiopia - Letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security » |
Ethiopia - About The Diaspora : Disorganized, demoralized and disillusioned
advertisement03/31/08
Ethiopia - About The Diaspora : Disorganized, demoralized and disillusioned
Ethiopia - Disorganized, demoralized and disillusioned Diaspora
By Golto Aila
Published on April 1, 2008
Those who lived through the brutalities of the current and former oppressive regimes of Ethiopia will definitely have experienced it, and those who have lived in the West long enough to follow the news of those who have lived through the bloodshed of the Middle-Eastern wars are familiar with the term post-traumatic syndrome, but how many of us actually think this syndrome (which can have a devastating and lasting psychological impact on an individual) may be afflicting us! I am not a psychologist, but would certainly appreciate the input from a psychologist to help explain some of the behavior we Ethiopians, especially in the Diaspora, commonly display, and which seem to defy logic!
I have often wondered, quietly on my own, or thinking loudly in my articles, why we refuse to come together and stand united to, at least, honestly confront ourselves in pursuit of answers as to what is the reason for this very serious shortcoming!
If one observes a herd of buffalos from a safe distance, one observes all sorts of activities include fights between the bulls and these can be ferocious and may end up fatally wounding a participant! But when an outside intruder appears on the scene, either the herd stampedes away or turns to fight the intruder. It would be rear to witness a continued fight between the bulls in such a situation. One would observe a similar behavior in a pride of lions and other social animals! In a human environment this basic survival instinct exists, and the level of sophistication in the interpretation of the threat and subsequent defense needed against the threat are, of course, different depending on the prevailing circumstances.
So why such a consistent aberration when it comes to us, Ethiopians? The various dictators have disowned us, displaced us, taken away our freedom of speech, jailed us, tortured us, raped our women, killed our beloved ones, raped our Motherland, and even dismembered our motherland! Any humiliation one can think of has been perpetrated against our people in the most perverse and inhuman way possible! Yet we appear to be completely paralyzed in the face of all this! Why?
Consider the circumstances of most Ethiopians in the Diaspora:
1. The condition that led you leave Ethiopia: Lack of freedom; fear of arrest; arrest torture and imprisonment; killing of a beloved one; lack of the wherewithal to look after yourself or your beloved ones, etc.
2. The method of your flight from your country: walking through forests and deserts and across dangerous borders. In peril of being attacked by wild animals and in danger of dying due to starvation and thirst, while terrified of being spotted by the defenders of the regime – who would, most likely, kill you without even an interrogation or after sadistic torture!
3. Encounters outside your beloved motherland: Humiliation by the forces in the country of refuge - abuse, rape, murder, begging, and exiting from there by means no less perilous than the you used when you left your Motherland.
4. You somehow survive all the perils and obstacles that were thrown in your paths and arrive at your destination – the place you will call “home away from home”! At your arrival, tired and haggard as you may be, there is the inevitable sense of exhilaration and accomplishment, a well deserved self congratulation, and the very necessary sense of relief, until the following day, when you wake up to the necessary evil of learning to cope in your new “home away from home! As you go through this phase, you often ask yourself “why in the world did I put myself through all this and come to this horrible country”! This question has led to many suicides, many sufferings. Mercifully, the majority have found their feet in their “new home”! Many have taken all these in their strides and excelled. Today there are Ethiopian professors throughout the world, (many in the West), successful entrepreneurs, and so on and so forth!
Unfortunately, whether one perished in one’s flight from the Motherland or made it in the “new home”, the experience takes its toll, and in our case it has been devastating! Devastating because whether we are at the top of our game or scraping the bottom of the barrel in our “new home” we seem to have lost a lot on the way:
1. As a people we seem to have failed to use our communal survival instinct!
2. We seem to have lost the capacity to come together for a common purpose, while seemingly appreciating the necessity and even the urgency to do so!
3. The individual successes we have achieved in our “new home away from home” seem to have instilled a quixotic sense of independence and pride in ourselves!
4. We are suspicious of any other Ethiopian who has a different view from us or even similar views, if he/she happens to hail from a different back ground!
5. We have totally lost respect for each other
6. We don’t tolerate each other.
7. We are perpetually in denial! Denial that we may be wrong; that our enemies may be right; that our Motherland is in a perilously unstable state; that we desperately need to do something to avert a looming catastrophe!
In the game of survival, people of different cultures and backgrounds, or even enemies, come together to fight against a common threat, be it natural or man-made! It is incomprehensible that a Tigrean who ran away from Ethiopia to save his life from the current regime back home, comes to America only to find an enemy in an Amhara who ran away from home and came here because of the same reason! It is the lowest, in terms of human values, that an Ethiopian in America gets help from a white American and an insult from a fellow Ethiopian! But what is the reason for this shameful and abominable behavior!
I don’t know the answer for sure, but I suspect a life full of trauma while growing up, torture in the hands of a government that is supposed to protect us, the trials and tribulation of crossing a dangerous border on foot in near starvation state, humiliation in the transit nation and the challenges in our “new home away from home” have inevitably turned us into people we were not, when we were happily growing up or running about our affairs in the tranquillity of our communities, in our motherland! What do I mean?
1. If you were a young boy whose family had to run away under the circumstances I described, you would hate Ethiopia because your memories are filled with pain and fear. That childhood traumatic experience sticks with you for the rest of your life. A caring and responsible family can be helpful in that situation, but as human, bearing the scar of torment and fear at your tender age it is natural to banish the thought of your Motherland out of your mind, because it equates to suffering!
2. If you were a member of a political movement during the early Derg era, you would have had opponents from other organizations with whom you had a bitter relationship that may have led to clashes and loss of lives. Today, you would blame the suffering of those days and the sorry state of Ethiopia today on that organization. Because of the errors of those days, which led to your suffering and a brush with death, you see yourself to have survived, no thanks to your opponents – whom you now consider your eternal enemies. Incidentally even your opponent has similar views about you! You don’t accept any fault and apportion all the blames to your opponents and they in turn do the same to you. There is no convergence – hate and recrimination in perpetuity!
3. If you are an entrepreneur: The current regime or the Derg regime took away your livelihood, locked you up on a trumped up charge of one thing or another. Eventually you make it out of your motherland in one of the ways I described above. Somehow you make it here, using the talents God gave you! You now want revenge against the regime that stripped you of everything you had. You would go as far as hurting any Tigrean or anybody related to the Derg regime, just because of some remote association with your tomentors!
4. If you were a government official in the Derg: You may have been engaged in the Derg atrocities against innocent people or you may have helped people against the Derg – that is, you used your office to protect innocent people against injustices practiced by your administration. Today you are a pariah – nobody will care to understand your circumstances – everybody is painted with the same broad brush!
5. If you were a government official in the Woyane administration at some point, there doesn’t seem to be an opportunity for you to rehabilitate yourself or even explain what risks you may have taken to protect innocent people. You are afraid for your life and people will be suspicious of your wherever you go!
6. If you are an Amhara: You may hate the Tigrean compatriots because of what the current government is doing to Amharas, irrespective of whether that individual had anything to do with the current regime!
7. If you are a Tigrean: You are suspicious of Amharas and others who are suffering under the yoke of tyranny, not because of your support of the current administration, but because you assume (and you are right more often than not) these other ethnic groups would consider you a sympathizer of the current regime and identify you with it.
8. If you oppose the Woyane regime: You are in mortal danger especially if you are considered as serious threat to their survival! You would, therefore, be very fearful of any Tigrean or anybody who has ever been associated with the Woyane!
9. If you are an Oromo: You are likely to consider Amhara, Tigreans and everybody else to be against you because of the suffering through ages and under various administrations. Your suffering and your circumstances of today are all attributed to the inhuman treatment, real or imagined, suffered in the hands of these entities!
All these experiences are etched in the hearts and minds of these survivors and the bitterness is retained in perpetuity. But every now and then things happen that briefly take your mind away from your own terrible experiences of the past and face the realities of today, such as:
1. The abject poverty of our compatriots at home!
2. Starvation in Ethiopia
3. Political unrest in Ethiopia
4. Lack of security and perpetual fear under the current regime
5. Blatant abuse of power and killing of innocent people, etc!
The outrage temporarily makes you forget your own experience and bitterness. You set out demanding redress - removal of the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia! As you travel down that path, you realize that you are heading toward reconciliation with your old enemies in order to effectively counter the current regime, something you cannot stomach! You have psychological barrier, and you don’t know how to overcome it or even may have no intention of overcoming it! Suffice that you have appeared at some protest meetings, participated in a few demonstrations, and also contributed towards some cause! Your conscious is now clear, you have done your best and the rest is in the hands of God and ?America! The plight of Ethiopia continues, the suffering of your people continues, and in spite of all the effort to wring your hands off the problem facing Ethiopia, your guilt conscience also continues, until another cycle of atrocities! And so it goes on and on and on!
The world knows Ethiopians as decent people, as hard working people, as conscientious people and as intelligent people. The world is right about us because all those things are true! But how come we are completely paralyzed when it comes to making a united stand against injustice perpetrated decade after decade against our Motherland and our people? To me the answer seems to lie in our failure to:
1. Separate our individual pain from the pain our motherland is suffering today.
2. Separate the errors of organizations from its individual members
3. Appreciate that given the right opportunity people are capable and are willing to admit to their errors and make amends!
4. Our inability to let the by gone be by gone
5. Our failure to confront ourselves and accept at least part of the responsibility for what went wrong
6. Our utter lack of appreciation that we can make the best of friends out of our former enemies
7. Our failure to give ourselves a second chance to study a situation with the view of finding a positive resolution
8. Our unhealthy attitude of self confidence and defiance emanating from our ability to survive against all odds to reach where we have, forgetting that we achieved what we have with the help of others. Such unhealthy attitude adds to our false perceptions that we don’t need each other!
9. Our strange pride in the ability to hate our perceived enemies more than our enemy has the capacity to hate!
Even as we live among the Western societies and use their principles of reconciliation and civility to survive here, we have failed to apply the same principles for the betterment of our people! We have allowed ourselves to be stunted and frozen in a primitive mindset that the best way to deal with people you disagree with, is to excommunicate them, hate them and pretend they don’t exist. This has led to our failure to execute the most elementary measure of coming together to address the problems that afflict each one of us today!
Notwithstanding our claims and appearances to the contrary, we all hang our heads in shame for the abject failure to respond to the call of duty, to help our Motherland and our people! As the days, weeks, months and years go by our people are descending into sub-human levels of existence, and we have failed to stand up for them, instead we perpetually engage in irrelevances to take our minds off the problems we can prevent today, instead of waiting for another disaster to strike, to which we respond with our ritual of wailing outside the seats of power in the West!
Once again, I appeal to you to use the tool we introduced recently – Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia, so that we can all learn to talk with each other, appreciate each other, and do something meaningful for our Motherland – however little, we owe that to ourselves! The cause of our Motherland and our people should help us see beyond the grudge we hold against each other – forgiveness and understanding are higher principles than revenge any day, anywhere! We shall all be a better people if we paid hate with love; neglect with caring; lack of civility with civility, irresponsible behavior with responsible conduct! We must all try to turn enemies into friends – that is the real triumph, not an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth!
63 comments
Now, where is the Forum? What is its objectives? Who are the faciliators? How can one participate in the forum?
You do not have the courage to take a moral stand. You are not sure if the mistreatment of Oromos and others is real or imagined? What sort of standard do "adama.com" use to distinguish intellectuals from the wanna be pseudo intellectuals? This is one of the reasons why Oromos shoud be more agressive and take control of the political power inorder to silence these kinds of dumb analyses.
Most Ethiopians, specially from the cities
left Ethiopia to imporve our life. We
want to work hard and help our family
back home. We dont have time to sit down
with politicans. We are tired of politics
and politicans.
Why do we have to die generation after
generation to change dictators. If you
want to get rid of weyanne, good luck.
I promise you we will be in your victory
parade.
Until then, leave us alone lets improve our life and help our family. The young
generation in diaspora are focused on
education. We need educated powerful people
that can convince investors to invest
in Ethiopia.
The write said
"I appeal to you to use the tool we introduced recently – Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia..
Whe are you guys? This is my honest Question.
I personaly need to know those leaders behind this called "Solidarity Forum of Ethiopia".
I have learnd a lot from my past years. So, I have promised, atleast for myself, that i will not any more jump and join any pary eventhough i knew that Ethiopia is at its greatest problem.
I expect that most if not all the Leaders of this Forum are EPRP. So come out and make clear yourself so that people know you and join you.
CULTURE.WHICH OUR FORFATHERS KNOWEN...
bewnet yegna neger betam yasazinal
shame on him!!!!!!!
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
WATCH OUR TONGUE.
We all know what our problems are, but we are still searching for the answer. We all go to school to aquire knowlewdge which can benefit us and others.
1. Have we realized our teachers are raised in the knowledge beliving this
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights. . ." This was changed to unalienable by John Adams at the time of printing the Declaration.(Wikipedia)
2.Are we aware of our tongues being a fire. Words could heal our children, friends, countrymen or could burn and damage them for good.
So in short we have to do the right thing,
RESPECT and WATCH OUR TONGUE.
This are things we can control and are the basis of all civilizations we see around us.
The comment goes as follow,Comment from: addis amet [Visitor]
"yemanew jilanfo. zim bilo indew magtet. yihene wistu arual.
Yilk dehna neger serteh yagerihin sim astera...."
Go figure, This guy said nothing except smiling. how one is going to come out with constructive idea with out fearing being buried alive with hate comments. May God be with us. Regards, Ted
I’m no psychologist either but I think evaluating our self like the writer did by asking our self serious questions is a starting point for us to make a positive difference to our motherland.
Did I pray for my country?
Did I try to put my bias and emotions aside when I look at our issues?
Did I try to look at things from different angles?
Did I try to be patient?
Did I try to be respectful to my fellow Ethiopians in spite of their different views from mine?
Did I full fill my responsibilities as a responsible law abiding citizen?
Did I have all my facts straight when I accused others?
Did I sponsor our homeless kids or those who are in need?
Did I financially invest in my country?
Did I offer my professional knowledge or service to my country?
Did I participated in any positive cause or just waited for others who are willing to participate?
Did I defend my country from outside enemies?
Did I learn and teach others about my country?
If we all start to answer YES to these and more questions concerning our country, we will overcome our shortcomings and unite for the betterment of our country.
I have hope that we all will
It's a very good observation. The lack of respect for one another, our stubbornness not to accept different views or our permanent denial not to accept and face reality is indeed a very worrying thing. The dilemma we all face here when we think denotatively, is our assumption is that if our metaphor is true, then all other metaphors must be false. What we think is only our representation of reality, or face the consequences that we have created for ourselves. We rather are curious to hear and accept the same sentence spoken by a white person than the one spoken by fellow Ethiopian. We avoid each other in public places to exchange cordial greetings if we sense that we are Ethiopians. Being “away from home” is supposed to bring us even closer and stronger.
We seem to have lost many of our original human qualities. We ignorantly gave away some of the most precious qualities one can have as a human being. We just carelessly let dark forces exploit us, rule over our destiny. Ethiopian sensitivity, our warmth, our humble nature, our shyness, our pride etc, are, contrary to our assumption, very sophisticated eternal qualities that we were supposed to protect and cherish wherever we go. Our spirituality in particular is the most expensive of all the human asset we Ethiopians are blessed with. These days, we don't even dare to talk about it – it's not hype among us, while the spiritually dead or hungry world is desperately shouting loud to be heard by God. But us, we have it and we don't use it properly. We don't seem to acknowledge the fact that it's this absence of Spirituality that makes us behave in a primitive and strange way. How could we be happy, loving, considerate or strong if we don't use the gift that has been given to us by God?
Yes! We are paralyzed because we are not activating that powerful spirituality which could protect us from all evil, which could bring us together while being fearful of God. No! We prefer to follow the current trend of being Godless, indifferent seculars even agnostics. We often avoid calling the name of God properly, or we don't talk about spirituality enough because we have debilitated ourselves and become disillusioned.
Some even have already begun imposing on us their atheistic convictions or views by depicting Religion and faith in a childish, sloppy or intellectually lazy manner. I am not a religious person, but at least I know that religion and faith are not the same.
The decline of true Ethiopianess, specially amongst us, in the Diaspora, is attributable to lack of the righteousness that was so evident in prior generations who experienced anger against those who would corrupt the Ethiopian System. Fear of damnation gave them moral strength which now is left out of the many materially enthusiastic Ethiopians, who don't seem to acknowledge the fact that they still have God's spirit in abundance, who know the Almighty better than other people or who accentuate often God’s love, but not His retribution. All too many who want to be called believers are of the belief that their forefathers faith alone is sufficient. Some are of the mindset that being religious is sufficient to be saved. But, even spirituality and praying alone won't be enough to be rewarded with righteousness. We have to earn righteousness through our deeds.
Our forefathers were just and righteous. They were God-fearing and humble. They had pride and lots of integrity. We need to learn from the best of those shameless Ethiopians who were, without exaggeration, the best this World had to offer. Instead of quickly dismissing religious fervor of Ethiopians as backward or delusional, instead of putting blind and irrational faith in politicians or insead of looking for scapegoats to our individual problems, we need to learn how to ask for God’s wisdom in our prayers so that our leaders can do His work. For themselves, true believers must ask God for wisdom and do good works and the politics will be resolved to make our beloved country that bright light on the hill.
For many in this world, may be religion is the way of reaching out to God, but Ethiopian Christianity is God's way of reaching out to Ethiopians. This is the truth! Those who try to demonize our Ethiopian identity will soon face this very truth. Mark my words! Their utter stupidity will come back & haunt them.
Spirituality or Faith is a powerful instrument, an ever sharp 2 bladed sword. It can smite your enemies, give you comfort or strength. It is a gift from God. However, if you give anyone control of YOUR faith, anyone, any group, any church, they can take your faith and slay you with it, physically and spiritually, they can even slay your soul. Let's take great care in what we place our Original Orthodox Faith in, and if we are ever in doubt, ever, let's keep our precious faith in our own hands and keep it from those that would use it to do us, others or even themselves big harm.
There is time for everything.
We are blessed with perseverance and rock-steady character in our original identity. We also need to know that God's enemies far outnumber the faithful for now in this evil world we live in. So, if we would like to see something that gives our lives some meaning, we need to have faith. In good faith we can discover our positive Ethiopian identity, we can victoriously challenge all the evil that surrounds us. Let's be nice to each other. Let's learn how to respect our brothers and sisters.
Maybe you are one of the "ehapa generation" loosers.But i and most of the Abeshas i know since the early 90's (in southern Cali) are neither political nor hateful towards each other.It's the old farts from dergue era that are obssessed with politics and one's tribal affiliation.
Peace to you.Get help.
Thank you again
Your forum is empty and if you do not return within the shortest time it will be closed. Therefore, you will be permanently erased. This forum is only for people with a capacity to share views, news, and articles on Ethiopia(mainly) and the requirements are you present your idea(opinion) related to the article presented to you by Nazareth.com
Special Awards to Dereje, Janet, and Hope for sharing your ideas in a clear and understandable language. Thank you for your wonderful contribution to this forum.
Hope--you raised good points but you started out by saying ...." one failure to the..... You could have presented your brilliant ideas without this statement. I know you mean no harm in that. That is why you deserve a special award too.
Keep the good work up!
in my previous comment i gave short notice to three people to leave this forum and listed their names. However, i made a spelling mistake on one of them as the name is an alien kind. It should be spelt as Armacho and not Armaco. I apologize for the grave mistake i had made and just to summarize my point, this would not have happened if you had stayed in your own forum.
Dear brother, this is a great article written well and to the point. You are right there is a lot of individuals in our community who are not united due to politics. However, the small city I live in all Ethiopians were and are now still united and always help one another and care for one another. It defies all other realities in other large cities in the U.S. It is however, the reality of tribal politics of the homeland that is affecting people in the diaspora. Everything that takes place there does affect all here. Just an observation.
The Ethiopian.
i admit that you are a good writer. However, this does not mean you are objective in what you have writen. You seem to have left your country during Mengistu and the trauma of that experience seem to be still in you to the extent that makes you to believe ethiopia is the same as you left it during Mengistu.
That is why you made a big mistake to put EPRDF and Derg in the same catagory.Why don't you get an opportunity to visit ethiopia and then write another article so that we will see you if you are a true ethiopian who is concern about the unity of the people. As a Tigrean and ethiopian i personally disagree with EPRDF's tribal politics. Whoever works for unity is welcomed.
" Lekermo Liabdu, Zendiro Kotin Kef kef Yadergalu!" Ale Yagere Sew.
Your article is fool of contradictions. On one side you tell us that there are great injustices going on in our country now we need to do something ( may be kill all woyane and their supporters), and on other side you tell us to forgive those criminals who starve to death millions of Ethiopians and killed hundred thousnds of Ethiopians in the name of red terror (Derg).
All Diaspora have to do is either invest in their beloved mother land or lobby for their mother land using their infulence in their adopted country. Other than that, we don't have to agree with each other, we don't have to love each other or we don't have to organize each other. If we do, it has to be because we choose to, not because you told us to. Until and unless we go back home and do something in accordance with Ethiopian law and constitution, we have no real influence.
My advise to you is worry about your mental health or go back home and contribute positively. Try to differenciate what you can do and what you can't do. Change comes by doing small things, not by preaching forgiveness.Past and present criminals have to face justice in the court of law and then be forgiven.
One more information for you: most Ethiopian refugees are economical refugees than political. Don't forget to see your doctor.
God Bless Ethiopia!
HOPE,
I love it
Great input sister...take care,
Z-Mike
Golto:
You are simply Geltu and nonesense. You are trying to instigate ethnic violence but in vain. In todays EThiopia no one suspects the another negatively.
You are worthlessly toiling, man. who the hell do you think yuo are to cheat the people.No one will heed you foul cry.
Go to hell Geltu
You are very retarded WEYANE-ADGI who is absent from thinking and boaring me to death by repeating the same WEDI-METRE shit like trained animal. Please get the F*** out your TPLF-pungent head from here and take it to DEDEBIT dunes. The stupid tegre worm like you is a full of S**T and unable to know right from wrong only survives with mental
parasitism and blind chance. GET LOST A-HOLE and good luck using BEN-GAY
This forum is only for people with a capacity to share views" TENAGREH-MOTEHAl
We are not expecting any type of views from WEYANE old furts accompanied by mental infirmity. What kind of compromise you want?There can be no compromise between a property owner and TPLF day light burglars. The looters cheaters and tribal masscarers need totaly annhilation and absolute surrender with
recogniation of our rights to our property.
we don't share views with stinky TEGRE-LEBAS!!, therfore Don't come here to fool me since there is no value or concession the bugler to offer in returns. CHIGARAM-LEBAS raising my HTN,
We can continue trashing each other while others sink into this forum and act like they’re Ethiopians and keep us divide… or we can reject them and say enough is enough, we are going to rise-up to build strong Ethiopia! The Ethiopia we all LOVE!
Z-Mike
We are all Habesha..........One of the best culture in the word. Kind God fearing and love for our country. Politcians come and go , system change However habeshanes is forever.
I agree we may have all been traumatized as a collective. The Derg has demoralized us as individuals, killed our identity and destroyed our national pride, our social fabric. As a society we have lost respect for each other, for authority, for elders and the rich. We became known for hunger and poverty. Then as if to add insult to injury, woyanne added ethnicism to the whole picture. Instead of Ethiopians, we started to identify along ethnic lines. We have become suspicious of each other, so no wonder we can't work together. Instead of addressing issues, read message, we try to find out who the messenger is and look for motivations.
We ridicule others and get a kick out of that, as if that would make us look smarter. Look at the other comments above, some are just critical and resort to name-calling and do not even have any substance to them. Sure, everyone is entitled to difference in opinion, but please elaborate your point and try to persuade us. That would take a lot of courage and alas there isn't enough of that. It feels good to say what you think even if you are wrong and accept criticisms openly and not take them personal. We have a sort of pride in that we think we know and being quiet and modest have been virtues that we have accepted while growing up. We do have a backward way of thinking, Freud would have a field day with us. Is it our upbringing, our history of not being colonized ( yeah, we're proud of that but maybe some kick in the pants would have helped getting our values sorted out) or what? But people somethings gotta give, or the sum total is zero and we're not getting anywhere. I can go on and on, but enough for now.
To quote the famous Rodney King “why can’t we all get along???” is an obvious question to ask all of us Ethiopian expatriates now calling ourselves Ethiopian in Diaspora. The answer may be hard to find but if we find it will be harder to find a solution to our problem. The issue of the political disarray is only a symptom not the cause of our confusion and anger. We see it even more clearly in our Churches in the western world. If there is one city in the US where the Ethiopian Church whether it is Orthodox or Pentecostal has not broken in disarray, I don’t know about it. Many cities have seen one church break into two and then break up into four or more very small churches for no logical reason at all. Only very few churches have avoided this mess.
Although there a re a few great exceptions, most Ethiopian community associations also break up for no reason other than personal animosity and rumor mongering. In my opinion the following social characteristics of Ethiopians needs to be changed.
1. We lie to each other and about each other all the time. Lying and exaggerations are corrosive to the brain and if we make them common habits we will be building our castle on the sand and it will tumble down on us. Please note that no one is as bad as we think he/she is and no one is as heroic and perfect as we think he/she is. The truth is sober not flailing mad with anger or ecstasy.
2. We are either blind hero worshipers (some times worshiping in mass) or we trash our idols for miner human failings and treat them worse than we treat our enemies.
3. We are suspicious of everyone and expect to be betrayed. Therefore inherently we don’t trust and look for confirmation of our mistrust and inevitably find it.
4. There is a hidden tribal chauvinism in all of us which is now blatantly displayed in the Ethiopian blogsphere. We are almost working for a tribal war and most of us believe we will win it. We all know that no one wins in a tribal war. Yet, many Amharas believe that they are close to Oromos with whom they will have easy alliance to eliminate Tigres who are now considered to be synonymous with Woyane. Many Tigres believe that the first chance they get the Amhara are ready to wipe them out and believe that their salvation is to stick by woyane for dear life. Many Oromos believe that they are not Ethiopians but colonial victims of the invading Amharas from whom they will be liberated by OLF through armed struggle. Somales believe that they belong to Somalia not Ethiopia. Similar grievances are spoken by other smaller tribes. All this tribal machinations are magnified a thousand times by Ethiopians in Diaspora. Thus our inability to work together.
5. We fail to recognize that there is no magic bullet that solves Ethiopia’s political, economic and social problems. We also fail to look at democracy as a process. We will be disappointed if we look at it like an antibiotic that kills an infection in one or two shots.
6. We need to know about leadership much more than we do so far. If we elect a leader, say for a community association, we should trust and let him lead. We can not attach a politburo type of a committee that votes every time an action needs to be taken. If he leads badly the leader should be replaced by the member’s vote at the next election.
7. If we agree on most major issues and disagree on a few things it is very good. Only morons and automatons agree on everything. Our difference is our strength not our weakness. It is stupid to trash those we don’t agree with.
8. Finally, let us keep in mind that the Ethiopian Diaspora can not change Ethiopia. At best, it can only play a constructive role in the development of Ethiopia. Ethiopians in Ethiopia should be the one’s who actually do the job.
LET US BUILD ETHIOPIA BRICK BY BRICK AND BUILD OUR MATURITY AS WELL SO THAT WE CAN SERVE OUR COUNTRY WITH DISTINCTION
Recently we posted a press release and then the Solidarity Forum document on AV. The document spelts out the Mission Statement and objectives and even the structure of the FORUM. Most importantly the FORUM is a grassroot movement to be created and stood up by ordinary Ethiopians. If you want me to post the document to you please give me your e-mail address so that I may send it to you. My e-mail address is GURMESA51@YAHOO.COM.
Golto
Very good comments and additional ideas. Well done to both of you for giving your honest opinion.
Kokeb--the empty can- stop making a lot of noise. Nothing of value comes out of your lentil sized brain but empty slogans. I will pray for you honestly. You need help.
You said "I have learnd a lot from my past years. So, I have promised, atleast for myself, that i will not any more jump and join any pary eventhough i knew that Ethiopia is at its greatest problem.
I expect that most if not all the Leaders of this Forum are EPRP. So come out and make clear yourself so that people know you and join you "
At this time the Forum is being managed by a coodinating committee until the grassroot movement by the members of the Ethiopian public have formed their own "My Solidarity Forum" and then come together to elect the Forum leadership! I am one of the co-ordinators. I can send you the Forum Document which clearly states that this is not a political movement and no member of any political organization will hold office in the FORUM! Once formed the FORUM will be the property of every Ethiopian who will have full rights as a member to participate in the forum. A significant departure from the way organizations are usually formed is that this is primarily a grassroot organization, so that ordinary members can build the organization from bottom up rather than some big shots controlling the organization from the top!
Golto
Thank your for your encouraging comments! Unfortunately cynicism has become a way of life for many of us - it is a reflection of a life that lacks happiness! The article I wrote does not explain every Ethiopian in the Diaspora, it does not necessarily exclude those of our brethren who live in Ethiopia, it is an attempt to force us to think - what we can do to change somethings that we may be guilty of, by confronting ourselves as objectively as humanly possible.
Mitomedhin, you said it. You carry your values, and the memories of your happier days in Ethiopia with you wherever you go. You wear your identity on your sleeves and be proud of it - good for your! But just review some of the comments to this article on this page, these are all Ethiopians - Our brothers and sisters, how I am supposed to respond! I hope and pray we all look at ourselves and see how we can get the best out of our lives, wherever we are and whatever we do. You can take yourself out of Ethiopia but try as hard as you may, you cannot take Ethiopia out of yourself!
Golto.
Most of us in the diaspora are literate to highly educated at the expense of Ethiopian and US taxpayers to whom we have the the obligation to lend our support in the name of freedom, democracy and Justice for the masses. In spite of standing together for a common cause to fight for and formulating a strategy, we are fractured into five or six catagories/factions imposed on us by the existing political stuation as mechanism of self restraint/mechanism for survival from being incriminated. We also lived under fear in all the regimes even including the Emperor, who probably go after the few conspirators. Nevertheless,the population at large had more freedom than during the subsequent dictatorial regimes. The elite wanted change, instead of reform, change they got. The liberation movements called for liberation from the colonial empire, they got that and more. The current liberation fronts are doing the same only from the current regime that gave them, the right to secede, but will never happen. Why not join this discussion forum and devise a strategy to stand together and undertake a peaceful struggle. Think about it.
I have never came across such an elegant piece of writing for a very long time. Let’s give him a chance; it is a very cool article.
Golto for President /PM!!!
For the (Leaboches)the Woyane soliders in Ogaden region,we grantee you,that soon or latter we are going to kik their Assis with thier big time humulations to Makale and thier Mountains dry lands.
No decent human being, let alone an Ethiopian, fails to share the pains of the massacre, bordering on genocide suffered by our brethren in the Ogaden! While the severity of oppression may be different from region to region, there is no group of people who have been spared, I doubt if Tigreans have been spared!
You have wrongly located me in Ethiopia's Central Highlands, and you are spewing the same kind of venom as the former NPPP of Kenyan Ogaden did soon after Kenya's independence! Today Kenya's Ogadenis are in peace and are playing hosts to the refugees from the Greater Somalia since the days of Siad Barre, and that traffic is increasing not decreasing! You should take a leaf out of that chapter and learn how to positively impact the lives of your people! You, just as human beings, should try to find ways of aleviating the suffering of Ogadeni people by joining hands with your brethren in the rest of the country!
Golto
But you said: "Golto for President /PM!!!"
I have to be forced into either office, but if I find myself there, here are the order of things I would do before I step into office:
1. Form the Administration of National Unity, with members selected from every region of Ethipia.
2. The ANU then elects presidential council, with revolving presidency on annual basis.
3 The Presidential council appoints an interim parliament with the duty of representing the people.
4. Draft the constitution
5. Submit the draft constitution to a national referrendum
7. Ratify the constitution by the interim parliament
8. Hold a democratic national election freely conducted to elect the national assembly and its President/PM.
Golto
peace
Thanks for what you are doing. Please keep up with the good work. As you said the solution for our problem starts when Ethiopians come together and communicate.
Also I ask you do not give weight to some chidish comments that may be posted. Also keep note that some who claim to be supporters of one group or member of one ethnic group, may not be what they claimed they are.
Best Regards
GK
Think the reality. What is going on.
You can read your mind and you can be honest to your feeling or denay it. But you can't read mine or the people who gave you an accord. Ethiopia is no more the same.
We could not be one in any way. Don't Dream! Or Stop dreaming! Live the reality. Don't lie to yourself that is self killing and hence the country. "One Who hides his sickness wull not get cure"
You are well equipped to be whatever you desire to be. What Ethiopia need is a unifier like you not a divider like Atse-Meles. What I like most about you is your sincerity. Keep up the brilliant work for the sake of Mama Ethiopia. My God keep you from the evil eyes and spirits of the dividers. I’m with you all the way.
Thank you sir!
Comment feed for this postComments are closed for this post.
