By Alethia
All the articles that I mean to contribute are written as some small contribution to what is going on in Ethiopia today and I’m a person who does not have any political ax to grind, no political party affiliation, extinct or extant, in Ethiopian history, nor do I have any desire nor any calling to be in any political position. I share the above warning so that those who jump to any unacceptable and indefensible conclusion about the writer need not waste their time thinking and saying anything irrelevant to me. I hope this warning would be taken seriously and we make some progress in public discussion and debate about what is best for the Ethiopian people, us.
In my previous piece, in my brief reflections on Dr. Birhanu, I tried to focus on some of the values he stands for and practices amidst his fellow Ethiopians: the value of truth, esp., love for truth, and virtuous character traits that reflect the life of a person who loves truth and the force with which he enjoined his fellow Ethiopians to join a movement he’s part of as people who care about truth and of virtuous character.
When a public figure who is also in a political leadership position embodies and also consistently demonstrates such values in action it’s time to take note of what is happening and to celebrate the beginning of a future for our nation that knew nothing even remotely similar in the lives of its political leaders before. There is something sufficiently different about the future of Ethiopia if we give a chance for people of truth and character to lead us in truth and character. In another article I hope to show a very intimate relationship between truth and character.
The fledgling democratic movement in Ethiopia, which is in its infancy, has more promising figures at its fore front as millions of fellow Ethiopians are keenly following. I want to take this moment to say a few things about who’s who among them. What does distinguish the two young men and one young woman in Kinjit whose names have become household names over the last couple of years? Short answer: the values they stand for and their commitment to devote their lives to a cause that is noble and far greater than them, a cause that will outlive them and all of us alive now.
First a few things about Muluneh and Sileshi: I know these two young men very, very closely. They’re among my close friends and I can speak volumes of great things about them as a friend. I’m not here to do that at this moment. This is not the place to do such a thing now. But what I’m sharing now is part of my knowledge of these young men with whom I’ve shared so much over the last many years.
The first time I met with Muluneh and Sileshi, in the sense relevant to this piece, they were discussing with their like-minded fellow Ethiopians, with intensity and passion, how they could contribute something to the Ethiopian society. I was very impressed, to say the least. I was not sure whether their love for the country was even reasonable and acceptable at the moment. I said in my previous piece I’m skeptical by nature and more so due to my academic training. I was patriotic when I was only 10 or younger, if that makes sense. That means I’m not a patriotic person and have never been in my adult life. When I met Muluneh and Sileshi, two young men who loved their country so much, I was encountering such passion for Ethiopia in their lives with vision and commitment to bring about their vision for their country.
Muluneh and Sileshi would passionately talk about Ethiopian economic problems as it’s befitting for economists, their background being in economics, and they would also argue, with passion and intensity, that the solution for Ethiopia’s economic impoverishment was nothing less than ushering in democracy. By the time I met these young men they were already unflinchingly committed to going into politics knowing full well all the prices that they would pay if they followed their commitments. Follow their commitment they did for all to see and behold. That now is history. I was witnessing this history before it unfolded in the noble commitments of two of my close friends for a cause that is far greater than them but that called for people who’re willing to pay such exacting prices, with their lives and in death, if need be.
In short, Muluneh and Sileshi knew what they wanted to do with their lives. They knew their callings. They thought out loud and clear the costs and consequences of being in politics in Ethiopia as Ethiopians. These are friends whose lives have been bound by love for freedom, democracy and economic prosperity for the people of Ethiopia. They decided to risk losing the invaluable things they vowed to win for the people of Ethiopia: freedom, and promising lives of personal prosperity as young people with reasonably well paying jobs in their hands when they joined their fellow Ethiopians who also risked losing their all to bring about the same invaluable goods to the people of Ethiopia: democracy, freedom, human life with dignity, and economic prosperity.
Those moments that I shared with these friends were moments when they were working hard on, investing enduring values in themselves in the sense of what it takes to be a political leader for the people of Ethiopia. These young people have also made a commitment to embody truth and speak the truth, no matter how much that would cost them. They are doing that and have done that and will continue to do so as I’m firmly convinced. A political leader without virtuous character traits such us humility and integrity and transparency and love for truth is the source of all political misery for a nation and these young men have made a vow to live a life of accountability to the people they mean to serve with integrity and humility and transparency and truthfulness.
I could go on and on about what I know about these promising young friends for the future of Ethiopia. Now I want to say a few words about Birtukan Mideksa who’s another heroine and another household name for millions of Ethiopians everywhere. I’ll be brief about her since there is more information out there about her than the previous two who make my trio.
I’ve known Birtukan for about 14 or 15 years. My memories of her from the university days are vivid: Birtukan was a young woman with unusual degree of audacity and far reaching aspirations that rarely anyone would take seriously then for she’s very young and she would sound as another day-dreaming young woman who did not know what she’s talking about. Many of those who thought that way are simply wrong for Birtukan proved us wrong by following her visions and mission in her life with vigor and principles and discipline.
One of Birtukan’s thirst and hunger as a young woman was (as it’s now) to see justice reign in Ethiopia and in the Ethiopian courts. It’s now history as to what happened to her hunger for justice in the Ethiopian courts. She went on to become among the most celebrated young lawyers/judges in Ethiopia for the reason all of us know. Birtukan is relentlessly pursuing her long-standing dreams to see justice reign in Ethiopia now as ever as she continues to fight more vigorously for justice and human rights and the rule of law to reign in the whole of Ethiopia, not only in the confines of the Ethiopian courts.
Fellow Ethiopians, the trio above make powerful promises for the fledgling democratic movement in Ethiopia. I’ve personally seen promising lives in these young people for a long time and now I commend them to fellow Ethiopians who stand for freedom, democracy and human dignity with intense passion that this trio embody and demonstrate in their lives.
________________
Alethia can be reached at [email protected]
23 thoughts on “Reflections on the Trio: Muluneh, Sileshi, and Birtukan”
ኢንጅነር ሃይሉ ሻውል! እባኮዎን በበሽታዎት ላይ ሌላ ብሽታ አያምጡ:: ይባስ ብለው በሽታዎትን ወደ ቅንጅት ላይ እያዛመቱ ስለሆነ ከተጠያቂነት ነፃ ለመሆን ከፈለጉ ልብዎን ከፈት ያርጉና በፅናት ይትጉ አለያም ለሚችሉት ለቀቅ ያርጉላቸው::
I have read your article, it is quite wonderful not on the subject matter but on the way you put it down. It is really wonderful and quite articulated in its presentation. Thank you for that. But I have some reservation here. Let me put it as follow.
Is this the right time to say a word on behalf of Ethiopian politicians or to make an attempt to write part of their biography? Do you think that will take us some paces forward? No! It is not the right time to me and to most of us, as I do presume because nothing has been done so far in Ethiopian politics; even I can say a scratch has not yet been done in Ethiopian political arena. I can assure you that we are not even in the right track of politics. Do you agree on this, if so how come , you write the whole story of those individuals?
It is not the right time at all to mention individual’s names as a subject of discussion for what they have just tried a little unless you have special stake on them. Here, I am not disregarding their role and the twilight we have seen due to their relentless effort and scarify up to and including death.
Please, just go back in memory to the place where you were from, try to capture current situation of your people, even your brothers and sisters, and then you will find out a clew to point you beautify pen that can work perfectly. Please just forget individual at least for the time being ,let us look forward to find way to wage war against famine that has been destroying even the meaning of life(to be or not to be)from mind and body of our society .please let us work on those issues brother!?
Do you think this is going to be fair if we open a debate regarding individuals? Never at all, if I were you, I will try to pin point on a way how we can wage war on poverty, tradition, culture and characteristics problems of our people but nothing else if I am concerned with for the people in danger.
Please do not go further on these sorts of issues. It might encourage those individuals but it does not count to Ethiopian people and their problems.
Thank you.
Roha, you are 100% perfect.
I really could not understand the reason why this guy was encouraged to write these points. A lot of conflicting ideas in the article. He claims he is neither a supporter nor a member of any political party, however, he is supporting those individuals who are driving the politics.
Do not sugar coat what you want do bro; you are free to say whatever you want, but do not try to make such nonsense ideas.
thank you
Roha-What are you talking about? You haven’t mentioned any thing new about Ethiopia. Yes there is hunger,poverty etc.Every body knows about that.You don’t even come with one solution for our problems.What’s wrong to write about Bertukan and the rest of them.I wonder if you you would be happy if Alethia wrote something negative about Bertukan.Of course we should discuss about our polititians.Bertukan is one of few Ethiopians who fight for her country,If we don’t discuss about her who else do we discuss about Azeb Mesfin? I don’t think so. I don’t understand your point?
Roha, a million thanks for ur comment. I am in consummate accord with your comments on the authors idea. your concern for your country seems genuine from ur enthusiastic words. yes ofcourse we all should focus on the important issues of our ppl if we are really solicitous about our country’s future.
But that is not the only reason why I am against the author:
first I don’t believe that such kinds of panegyrics for individuals are contributive even to politics itself,the struggle to Democracy. we can learn from the past atleast, we have been calling individuals “mandella”, but we all know where they are right now.
I personally believe to support and appreciate ideas than individuals. individuals may come and go, one time hero and turncoats another time, one time democrats but other time dictators… as you said, nothing different was done on the reality as it was vaunted on the tongue. SO no time to niggle over petty details of panegyrics and condemnation of individuals.
Lets concentrate on how to go a step on improving our culture, attitude… to come out of our abysmal privation and hunger the sooner possible.
to repeat her words, pls don’t go further on such sorts of issues… they are debilitating in all aspects.
Alethia responding to Roha, Kenaw, et al:
Hi Roha:
Thanks a lot for your comments. Just some clarifications are in order:
1) You say, “Is this the right time to say a word on behalf of Ethiopian politicians or to make an attempt to write part of their biography?”
Answer: I do not think the above reflections would be counted as biographies proper, in part or in full. Even if the above was a full biography I do not think there is anything wrong with providing information about who’s out there pledging to be Ethiopia’s future political leader. Having knowledge of who is who is a good thing, at any time, now or even much earlier. I hope that part of bringing about a democratic discourse and reality into Ethiopian political life is by providing as much accurate information about who is who as we can. Western democracies are built on making such available info about who is who, about their leaders and that is what is valued and valuable as piece of relevant info as opposed to what you say. If what I shared is correct, true, which I believe is true, what I’m doing adding is some truth about the politics of leadership in Ethiopia now and for the future. You can challenge me on the factual mistakes about the trio, if I’ve made some, for the sake of truth to be made available for all of us who mean to be behind these trio or in order to be against them if they are not good enough as PROMISING young leaders for the future of Ethiopia. I’ll be the first person to against them if they fall short of what they’ve promised to deliver to the Ethiopian people. That is part of the meaning accountability, responsibility in political leadership.
2) You say, “…nothing has been done so far in Ethiopian politics; even I can say a scratch has not yet been done in Ethiopian political arena. I can assure you that we are not even in the right track of politics. Do you agree on this, if so how come , you write the whole story of those individuals?”.
Answer: I partly agree with what you said here: We barely began making real progress forward politically. My trios’ story is not so much focused on their past accomplishments as politicians as it’s presenting them as future hopes and promising political leaders of Ethiopia, given a chance. That understanding does not need any defense/clarification beyond what I’ve just said.
3) You say, ” Do you think this is going to be fair if we open a debate regarding individuals? Never at all, if I were you, I will try to pin point on a way how we can wage war on poverty, tradition, culture and characteristics problems of our people but nothing else if I am concerned with for the people in danger”.
Answer: Yes, it’s proper to debate about who the right leader for Ethiopia is and who is not before we go too far in aligning ourselves, our support for a wrong leader, as we’ve done multiple times in the past, because of lack of adequate knowledge about who is who. I’m contributing to that perceived and felt lack of knowledge by sharing some relevant info on who is who from what I know.
By the way, I’ve lots of things to say about some other issues that affect our society and the above piece focuses on just one. That does not mean I’ve done anything against contributing more to what calls for contribution as it goes on. One thing at a time, is the idea.
Thanks for your comments and hope that the above clarifies some of my points above.
Cheers,
Alethia
Hi Roha:
Thanks a lot for your comments. Just some clarifications are in order:
1) You say, “Is this the right time to say a word on behalf of Ethiopian politicians or to make an attempt to write part of their biography?”
Answer: I do not think the above reflections would be counted as biographies proper, in part or in full. Even if the above was a full biography I do not think there is anything wrong with providing information about who’s out there pledging to be Ethiopia’s future political leader. Having knowledge of who is who is a good thing, at any time, now or even much earlier. I hope that part of bringing about a democratic discourse and reality into Ethiopian political life is by providing as much accurate information about who is who as we can. Western democracies are built on making such available info about who is who, about their leaders and that is what is valued and valuable as piece of relevant info as opposed to what you say. If what I shared is correct, true, which I believe is true, what I’m doing adding is some truth about the politics of leadership in Ethiopia now and for the future. You can challenge me on the factual mistakes about the trio, if I’ve made some, for the sake of truth to be made available for all of us who mean to be behind these trio or in order to be against them if they are not good enough as PROMISING young leaders for the future of Ethiopia. I’ll be the first person to against them if they fall short of what they’ve promised to deliver to the Ethiopian people. That is part of the meaning accountability, responsibility in political leadership.
2) You say, “…nothing has been done so far in Ethiopian politics; even I can say a scratch has not yet been done in Ethiopian political arena. I can assure you that we are not even in the right track of politics. Do you agree on this, if so how come , you write the whole story of those individuals?”.
Answer: I partly agree with what you said here: We barely began making real progress forward politically. My trios’ story is not so much focused on their past accomplishments as politicians as it’s presenting them as future hopes and promising political leaders of Ethiopia, given a chance. That understanding does not need any defense/clarification beyond what I’ve just said.
3) You say, ” Do you think this is going to be fair if we open a debate regarding individuals? Never at all, if I were you, I will try to pin point on a way how we can wage war on poverty, tradition, culture and characteristics problems of our people but nothing else if I am concerned with for the people in danger”.
Answer: Yes, it’s proper to debate about who the right leader for Ethiopia is and who is not before we go too far in aligning ourselves, our support for a wrong leader, as we’ve done multiple times in the past, because of lack of adequate knowledge about who is who. I’m contributing to that perceived and felt lack of knowledge by sharing some relevant info on who is who from what I know.
By the way, I’ve lots of things to say about some other issues that affect our society and the above piece focuses on just one. That does not mean I’ve done anything against contributing more to what calls for contribution as it goes on. One thing at a time, is the idea.
Thanks for your comments and hope that the above clarifies some of my points above.
Cheers,
Alethia
Hello All:
I could not post my response to Roha for some reason and have sent an email version of my response to him for him to post it in my behalf. Roha has contacted me to share the same message in an email and hence the connection.
Hope that Roha will find a way to post my response soon. I’ve tried many times and could not post and as I type this I’m not sure whether I’ll succeed in posting this or not. Just trying.
Cheers,
Alethia
Responding to responses on the Trio:
Thanks a lot for your comments. Just some clarifications are in order:
1) You say, “Is this the right time to say a word on behalf of Ethiopian politicians or to make an attempt to write part of their biography?”
Answer: I do not think the above reflections would be counted as biographies proper, in part or in full. Even if the above was a full biography I do not think there is anything wrong with providing information about who’s out there pledging to be Ethiopia’s future political leader. Having knowledge of who is who is a good thing, at any time, now or even much earlier. I hope that part of bringing about a democratic discourse and reality into Ethiopian political life is by providing as much accurate information about who is who as we can. Western democracies are built on making such available info about who is who, about their leaders and that is what is valued and valuable as piece of relevant info as opposed to what you say. If what I shared is correct, true, which I believe is true, what I’m doing adding is some truth about the politics of leadership in Ethiopia now and for the future. You can challenge me on the factual mistakes about the trio, if I’ve made some, for the sake of truth to be made available for all of us who mean to be behind these trio or in order to be against them if they are not good enough as PROMISING young leaders for the future of Ethiopia. I’ll be the first person to against them if they fall short of what they’ve promised to deliver to the Ethiopian people. That is part of the meaning accountability, responsibility in political leadership.
2) You say, “…nothing has been done so far in Ethiopian politics; even I can say a scratch has not yet been done in Ethiopian political arena. I can assure you that we are not even in the right track of politics. Do you agree on this, if so how come , you write the whole story of those individuals?”.
Answer: I partly agree with what you said here: We barely began making real progress forward politically. My trios’ story is not so much focused on their past accomplishments as politicians as it’s presenting them as future hopes and promising political leaders of Ethiopia, given a chance. That understanding does not need any defense/clarification beyond what I’ve just said.
3) You say, ” Do you think this is going to be fair if we open a debate regarding individuals? Never at all, if I were you, I will try to pin point on a way how we can wage war on poverty, tradition, culture and characteristics problems of our people but nothing else if I am concerned with for the people in danger”.
Answer: Yes, it’s proper to debate about who the right leader for Ethiopia is and who is not before we go too far in aligning ourselves, our support for a wrong leader, as we’ve done multiple times in the past, because of lack of adequate knowledge about who is who. I’m contributing to that perceived and felt lack of knowledge by sharing some relevant info on who is who from what I know.
By the way, I’ve lots of things to say about some other issues that affect our society and the above piece focuses on just one. That does not mean I’ve done anything against contributing more to what calls for contribution as it goes on. One thing at a time, is the idea.
Thanks for your comments and hope that the above clarifies some of my points above.
Cheers,
Alethia
Thanks a lot for your comments. Just some clarifications are in order: I’ll focus on Roha’s comments:
1) You say, “Is this the right time to say a word on behalf of Ethiopian politicians or to make an attempt to write part of their biography?”
Answer: I do not think the above reflections would be counted as biographies proper, in part or in full. Even if the above was a full biography I do not think there is anything wrong with providing information about who’s out there pledging to be Ethiopia’s future political leader. Having knowledge of who is who is a good thing, at any time, now or even much earlier. I hope that part of bringing about a democratic discourse and reality into Ethiopian political life is by providing as much accurate information about who is who as we can. Western democracies are built on making such available info about who is who, about their leaders and that is what is valued and valuable as piece of relevant info as opposed to what you say. If what I shared is correct, true, which I believe is true, what I’m doing adding is some truth about the politics of leadership in Ethiopia now and for the future. You can challenge me on the factual mistakes about the trio, if I’ve made some, for the sake of truth to be made available for all of us who mean to be behind these trio or in order to be against them if they are not good enough as PROMISING young leaders for the future of Ethiopia. I’ll be the first person to against them if they fall short of what they’ve promised to deliver to the Ethiopian people. That is part of the meaning accountability, responsibility in political leadership.
2) You say, “…nothing has been done so far in Ethiopian politics; even I can say a scratch has not yet been done in Ethiopian political arena. I can assure you that we are not even in the right track of politics. Do you agree on this, if so how come , you write the whole story of those individuals?”.
Answer: I partly agree with what you said here: We barely began making real progress forward politically. My trios’ story is not so much focused on their past accomplishments as politicians as it’s presenting them as future hopes and promising political leaders of Ethiopia, given a chance. That understanding does not need any defense/clarification beyond what I’ve just said.
3) You say, ” Do you think this is going to be fair if we open a debate regarding individuals? Never at all, if I were you, I will try to pin point on a way how we can wage war on poverty, tradition, culture and characteristics problems of our people but nothing else if I am concerned with for the people in danger”.
Answer: Yes, it’s proper to debate about who the right leader for Ethiopia is and who is not before we go too far in aligning ourselves, our support for a wrong leader, as we’ve done multiple times in the past, because of lack of adequate knowledge about who is who. I’m contributing to that perceived and felt lack of knowledge by sharing some relevant info on who is who from what I know.
By the way, I’ve lots of things to say about some other issues that affect our society and the above piece focuses on just one. That does not mean I’ve done anything against contributing more to what calls for contribution as it goes on. One thing at a time, is the idea.
Thanks for your comments and hope that the above clarifies some of my points above.
Cheers,
Alethia
I have read the article expecting some practical example like date or reference to places of discussions etc Unfortunately, there is nothing in the article to substantiate the claims. I ended up feeling the usual Wedase Kentu- feeling. When we agree with individuals we call them Prof. Eng. Dr etc, and when we disagree we give them nicknames, like Fetenech, Chelemaw etc. Our praise as well as hate must have a limit and should be backed with concrete examples. Otherwise it nothing more than Ye-Azmarinet Bahel.
I do not know these guys before the election. I never heard of them before they were arrested. I have not read what they wrote or listen to their speeches. They were arrested and we all loved them for being victims. It is a human nature to be bonded with people we think we share the same value.
Now it is time to tell us who they are, what they were doing in the last 16 years, why they didn’t join the struggle against the tyranny or why we didn’t hear about them.
i do not agree with praise in vacuum or condemnation without evidence. We need to grow up and no one is fooling no one.
Of course all Ethiopians are patriots and love their country, almost 80 million of them but some also have weaknesses. Some love power, money or privilege. These bad characters often overcome the good traits to shadow them. That is why we see dictators and people who commit so many injustice against their own people. For me Mengist is no doubt a patriot but also a power monger and bloody dictator.
So -lease let’s provide evidences, dates and references to help us sort the fiction from the truth. When I say this I am not saying anything against the tro, what i do not like the author vague and deceptive writing.
Some people are voicing that you are praising these individuals as though they did above and beyond their call of duty. That is you given opinion. The article shows your admiratation to these young, intelligent,and selfless individuals. I like you have a lot of love and respect for these people. when they speak. I like what they say. They are very transparent. I trust they could try their best to lay the foundation of democratic goverement in Ethiopia. They must love their country, why would they want to suffer or possibly lose their life? To build a fair system, to organize and talk about free election, economic freedom is breaking the law according the Meles goverment. So who in the right mind will attempt to do these act. You are absolutely right. They are the right people for Ethiopia. let us talk about them better let us support them, let us expand and free our country.
Hi All,
First of all I would like to make something clear. .Mr. Alethia has sent me an email regarding my enquiries. He has made a good attempt to clarify things, and to provide answers on those issues I raised via email. I have made several attempts to post his response but it did not go though for some reason. Thank you once again sir.
Anyway, I am not yet satisfied in any thing being undertaken by any political party leaders and the political party by itself in the contemporary history of Ethiopia. Therefore, now it is not the right time to me to talk about individual personality in respect of Ethiopian people. Be careful guys! Here I am not disregarding their effort, commitment, and willingness to do something like miracle to us, I am personality indebted to them for what they have done so far and for what they are going to do in the future (I do have a great respect for their call) I hope someone someday will show us the way to wipe out the absolute poverty from the shoulder of millions of Ethiopian people .Birtukan, Sileshi and/or muluneh might be the one to do the Job.
However, there is no need to put personal reflections on individuals. Trust me, we do not have a word to speak publicly regarding individual did (Gedil) on the name of Ethiopian people. We are real worst place. So it could be possible to speak about individuals in the name of poor us.
What do you think when you think about Ethiopian people? What do you think about when you think about Ethiopian economy, legal system, democracy? It is in the worst situation, right? That breaks our heart, right? What do you guys think about the sky rocketing price of even basic need commodities back in our homeland? It is the worst of its kind, right? So we need to see the job done with someone who has a call. Let us get the job done then, we will speak about our heroes and heroines as the world did for Nilsson Mandela, Marthin Luther king, and so forth.
Let me add some thing here, I am sure that we (the outsider) has the never ever predicted the current division among kinjit leaders, and we never expected to see some wonderful individuals to turn in to ash and the worst personalities of year 2007 if we do get a chance to collect a pool, isn’t it? Look some of the leaders, what are they doing right now? Listen their speech, and what lesson do you guys get from that dirty politics? Watch them now, it shame right? Some of them were used to be our heroes, right? Here no need to mention individual names. This situation gives us a great opportunity to observe things very carefully specially about the personal motives of individuals. So, I do believe that it is not the right time to reflect on individual since nothing has been done so far as I presume.
To sum up, I do not recommend anything like that in the current devastating situation of our home land and we do apparently need the job get done, then we consider, then as our historic brothers and they will remain in our heart and mind forever. They will be my heroes and heroines, too.
This is my nth attempt to post the same message hoping that it’d be a response to some of the commentators above. Just trying;
Hi Roha:
Thanks a lot for your comments. Just some clarifications are in order:
1) You say, “Is this the right time to say a word on behalf of Ethiopian politicians or to make an attempt to write part of their biography?”
Answer: I do not think the above reflections would be counted as biographies proper, in part or in full. Even if the above was a full biography I do not think there is anything wrong with providing information about who’s out there pledging to be Ethiopia’s future political leader. Having knowledge of who is who is a good thing, at any time, now or even much earlier. I hope that part of bringing about a democratic discourse and reality into Ethiopian political life is by providing as much accurate information about who is who as we can. Western democracies are built on making such available info about who is who, about their leaders and that is what is valued and valuable as piece of relevant info as opposed to what you say. If what I shared is correct, true, which I believe is true, what I’m doing adding is some truth about the politics of leadership in Ethiopia now and for the future. You can challenge me on the factual mistakes about the trio, if I’ve made some, for the sake of truth to be made available for all of us who mean to be behind these trio or in order to be against them if they are not good enough as PROMISING young leaders for the future of Ethiopia. I’ll be the first person to against them if they fall short of what they’ve promised to deliver to the Ethiopian people. That is part of the meaning accountability, responsibility in political leadership.
2) You say, “…nothing has been done so far in Ethiopian politics; even I can say a scratch has not yet been done in Ethiopian political arena. I can assure you that we are not even in the right track of politics. Do you agree on this, if so how come , you write the whole story of those individuals?”.
Answer: I partly agree with what you said here: We barely began making real progress forward politically. My trios’ story is not so much focused on their past accomplishments as politicians as it’s presenting them as future hopes and promising political leaders of Ethiopia, given a chance. That understanding does not need any defense/clarification beyond what I’ve just said.
3) You say, ” Do you think this is going to be fair if we open a debate regarding individuals? Never at all, if I were you, I will try to pin point on a way how we can wage war on poverty, tradition, culture and characteristics problems of our people but nothing else if I am concerned with for the people in danger”.
Answer: Yes, it’s proper to debate about who the right leader for Ethiopia is and who is not before we go too far in aligning ourselves, our support for a wrong leader, as we’ve done multiple times in the past, because of lack of adequate knowledge about who is who. I’m contributing to that perceived and felt lack of knowledge by sharing some relevant info on who is who from what I know.
By the way, I’ve lots of things to say about some other issues that affect our society and the above piece focuses on just one. That does not mean I’ve done anything against contributing more to what calls for contribution as it goes on. One thing at a time, is the idea.
Thanks for your comments and hope that the above clarifies some of my points above.
Cheers,
Alethia
Hi Tesfay and others:
Please note that I’ve already emailed my response to Roha since I could not post my response here. I’m again trying to see if I could post this very note.
If Roha is really interested in true dialogue why wouldn’t he post it, if he can, since I’ve already emailed my response to him? Or, if some of you do not trust me about what I’m saying, just email me at the contact address provided there and I’ll forward the same message , response, that I’ve emailed Roha, yes, without a change I’ll forward to whoever asks for a copy.
Cheers,
Alethia
1) You say, “Is this the right time to say a word on behalf of Ethiopian politicians or to make an attempt to write part of their biography?”
Answer: I do not think the above reflections would be counted as biographies proper, in part or in full. Even if the above was a full biography I do not think there is anything wrong with providing information about who’s out there pledging to be Ethiopia’s future political leader. Having knowledge of who is who is a good thing, at any time, now or even much earlier. I hope that part of bringing about a democratic discourse and reality into Ethiopian political life is by providing as much accurate information about who is who as we can. Western democracies are built on making such available info about who is who, about their leaders and that is what is valued and valuable as piece of relevant info as opposed to what you say. If what I shared is correct, true, which I believe is true, what I’m doing adding is some truth about the politics of leadership in Ethiopia now and for the future. You can challenge me on the factual mistakes about the trio, if I’ve made some, for the sake of truth to be made available for all of us who mean to be behind these trio or in order to be against them if they are not good enough as PROMISING young leaders for the future of Ethiopia. I’ll be the first person to against them if they fall short of what they’ve promised to deliver to the Ethiopian people. That is part of the meaning accountability, responsibility in political leadership.
2) You say, “…nothing has been done so far in Ethiopian politics; even I can say a scratch has not yet been done in Ethiopian political arena. I can assure you that we are not even in the right track of politics. Do you agree on this, if so how come , you write the whole story of those individuals?”.
Answer: I partly agree with what you said here: We barely began making real progress forward politically. My trios’ story is not so much focused on their past accomplishments as politicians as it’s presenting them as future hopes and promising political leaders of Ethiopia, given a chance. That understanding does not need any defense/clarification beyond what I’ve just said.
3) You say, ” Do you think this is going to be fair if we open a debate regarding individuals? Never at all, if I were you, I will try to pin point on a way how we can wage war on poverty, tradition, culture and characteristics problems of our people but nothing else if I am concerned with for the people in danger”.
Answer: Yes, it’s proper to debate about who the right leader for Ethiopia is and who is not before we go too far in aligning ourselves, our support for a wrong leader, as we’ve done multiple times in the past, because of lack of adequate knowledge about who is who. I’m contributing to that perceived and felt lack of knowledge by sharing some relevant info on who is who from what I know.
By the way, I’ve lots of things to say about some other issues that affect our society and the above piece focuses on just one. That does not mean I’ve done anything against contributing more to what calls for contribution as it goes on. One thing at a time, is the idea.
Thanks for your comments and hope that the above clarifies some of my points above.
Cheers,
Alethia
The above was my first response to Roha which I’m still trying to share.
Hi Roha:
Thanks for your attempt to post my response to you.I’ve no idea why some of our posts do not go thru. Most likely for technical problems.
Since you kept telling us that we should focus on Ethiopia’s prominent problems like poverty etc (putting aside political leadership problems (?)), I’ve been wanting to hear your views on the subject matters you kept bringing up.
Will you do an article to address some of the problems that you want us to discuss here? Just curious. I’ll contribute some soon.
Cheers,
Alethia
Hi,Alethia. I belive you have got very constructive and respectfull responses from bros. But, you seem you couldn’t understand what they are trying to teach you and for that matter all of us. You must be staborn? You are showing your personality.I am suspecting now you have an agenda. Otherwise, if you are an innocent person who just adores our beloved leaders we heard you. But now we want and need to focus on the real issue that is havocing our people.As mentioned by others, Our leaders are trying to do their best and we are all behind them.So I lets keep the biography or the GEDIL for the future. After the leaders have accomplished the libration of our people from the canning dictator the grinding poverty ,belive me there will be many biography books about them. Do you have some piece of writing on some other issues; let see and read them.
TAKE IT EASY BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Mr.Alethia,I think you did not get my points in the very first paragraph ofmy recent comment.Let me make it clear’I have made several atempts to post your coments,the system did not allow me to do so due to some duplication reason or wherever.It is not my fault.
Besides ,what do you mean when you say if you love “true dialog”it is vegue for me because I have already mentioned the situation on the first paragraph plus I do not want to waste my time if I do not believe in open discussion,I will never ,ever make an attept to right a word with out reason and some intrisic value.
I read Alethias TRIO article it is good she said what she said because she personaly knows the “TRIO”But she can’t prescribe for us what is good.WE have a leader the CHAIRMAN OF KINIJIT his name is ENG.HAILU SHAWWL.
Hi All:
To Roha and others:
Hope that you’ll read and respond to another article that I’ve just sent to the editor of ER to post for us. It’s part one, discussion on the relationship between truth and character.
Hope that you guys will read it carefully and responsibly discuss the issues.
Cheers,
Alethia
Hi All;
Roha, your comments are well taken and you know that I’ve responded to them because I took them seriously. Unfortunately, others have not read them for a reason you and I could not figure out. It seems to be some technical problem that stood in the way of posting that response.
Feyisa, never mind about my being stubborn or otherwise, I’ve already sent an article to the editor of ER and hopefully he’ll post it and you’ll have a chance to engage the ideas there.
Or, just email me and I’ll send you the article titled: What’s truth? What does truth have anything to do with character? If you’re patient enough to read some philosophy you’ve it there. Anyone who’s ready to carry on a reasonably subtle yet clear philosophical discussions on the very issues that brought us here is very welcome to join me and others in the conversation that I wanted to start.
Cheers,
Alethia
Hi All:
The article I mentioned that I sent to ER has now been posted on Addis Voice and now you can read and respond if you will. My email address is at the end of the article on the trio.
Cheers,
Alethia