Alemayehu G. Mariam
[This commentary is an expanded version of remarks I gave at the annual SEED Award Dinner (Society of Ethiopians Established in Diaspora)[1] held at the Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington, D.C. on May 29, 2011.]
I thank the Executive Board of SEED and its chairman Prof. Melaku Lakew for selecting me as one of the 2011 honorees.
The very acronym of the organization is inspiring. Seeds germinate, become seedlings, develop roots and grow. In time, they bloom and blossom into beautiful flowers and drop new seeds for the next generation. For the last 19 years, SEED has been growing and blossoming, and this evening we see the seeds of SEED in the faces of these extraordinarily accomplished young men and women we are honoring.
I am proud there is an organization such as SEED to recognize Ethiopians who have aspired to make their own small contributions to the cause of Ethiopianity and humanity. For that, we should all celebrate SEED and congratulate its Board and members for having the foresight to establish and sustain for nearly two decades a non-partisan civic organization dedicated to recognizing the contributions of Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia regardless of ideology, political affiliation, ethnicity, nationality, religion or race. SEED is a shining example of what individuals can accomplish by acting collectively through civic society institutions.
I am proud and deeply humbled in being selected to be among a group of honorees that has made extraordinary contributions in the service of all Ethiopians. W/o Abebech Gobena has been called by many as “Africa’s Mother Teresa” for her life-saving humanitarian work with orphaned and abandoned children and abused women. Dr. Woldemeskel Kostre trained generations of Ethiopian Olympic gold medalists and other athletes who have set numerous world records. Professor Redda Tekle Haimanot has made singular contributions to the eradication of polio and helped improve health care access in one of the most medically underserved parts of Ethiopia. Ato Ezra Teshome is widely recognized for his extraordinary contributions to the eradication of polio and helping to empower poor women and children in Ethiopia.
There are two Ethiopians who are being honored tonight posthumously. Professor Hussein Ahmed was an outstanding scholar whose original research illuminated the role of Islam as a cohesive factor in Ethiopia. Dr. Melaku E. Bayen was the first Ethiopian physician to graduate from an American university. He coordinated a Pan-Africanist campaign against Italian aggression in Ethiopia in the 1930s.
When I find myself standing among these towering and heroic figures, I remind myself, in the words of the poet Robert Frost, that I “have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep”.
These individuals are great role models for me, all of us here tonight and the next generation of young Ethiopians.
Speaking about young Ethiopians, I am especially proud to share this stage and event with the high school and college graduates honored this evening. The academic achievements of these young people are among the absolute best in America. Their community service and extra-curricular activities are inspiring to all of us. I am so proud of these young people that my “cup runneth over.”
I am not only proud this evening but also blessed. I share this stage with my daughter Abigail who is being honored in her own right for extraordinary academic achievements and community service. What took decades for me to learn, she mastered in her teen years: True democratic citizenship involves taking individual responsibility to help one’s community and those less fortunate than oneself with a sense of duty, obligation, commitment and honor. I have learned from her that when young people look beyond themselves and their daily distractions and frustrations, they become a mighty force for good and humanity.
This evening I want to say a few words to you from the heart. Many of you know me for the things I have said and written from the mind. Every week in my commentaries, I speak in the language of facts, statistics and evidence. I try as best I can to weave facts through a fabric of persuasive analysis and argumentation to convey my message. But speaking from the heart is more difficult because one has to penetrate the inner crust of facts and statistics and speak from the bedrock of truth.
The truth is Ethiopia’s young people are Ethiopia’s future. Nearly 70 percent of the Ethiopian population of 80 million is estimated to be young people (50 percent of them under age 15). An old Ethiopian proverb reminds us: “Our youth are today’s seeds and tomorrow’s flowers. (Ye zare frewoch, ye’nege abebawoch).” For me, the most important question today revolves around these future flowers in Ethiopia and in the Diaspora.
We in the older generation often ask the question, “What can we teach and do for our young people to prepare them for the future? How can we guide them to a better future?”
The right question in my view is: “What can we learn from young Ethiopians today?”
I believe the vast majority of young people everywhere share one common virtue: Idealism. They believe they can change the world and make it a better place despite the endless wars, communal and sectarian conflict and human rights abuses. Young people want freedom, peace and equal opportunity. They are deeply offended by unfairness and injustice. They have little tolerance for dishonesty and hypocrisy, the principal reasons for their disengagement from politics which they think is all about lying, money and corruption. They despise those who abuse their powers. They have contempt for double-talkers. They are turned off by the older generation’s attitude of “do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do.” They are disappointed when they see us lacking in courage and integrity and selling out for a few pieces of silver.
When I look across the proverbial “generation gap,” I see a gap in thinking, attitude and perspective, not age.
The young people have a “can-do” attitude; for most of us in the older generation, it is “no can do”. They find reasons to do things, we find excuses not to. When churn over old and tired ideas, they come up with innovative ones. When we wallow in despair over what could have been, they bubble with hope and excitement over what could be. We hesitate, they act. We brood, they think. We see the darkness in the tunnel, they see the light at the end. We drive looking through the rear view mirror; they cruise along looking through the windshield. Some of us in the older generation want things to happen. Many of us sit around and wish it to happen. Our young people make it happen! Such is the nature of the gap we need to bridge.
A long time ago, we in the older generation started out on the road to idealism, but somewhere along the way we took a detour to a destination called realism. There we began to worship at the altar of greed, power, wealth, fame and the rest of it. When our realism ultimately proved disappointing, we became cynical and concluded that in a dog-eat-dog world, only the strong survive. We became self-centered and indifferent to the suffering of the weak and defenseless, turned a blind eye to their plight, a deaf ear to their pained cries and muted our lips to the injustices inflicted upon them by the powerful.
We must now return to our idealist roots. George Carlin, the irreverent satirist, said “Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.” Maybe you have seen a glimpse of that disappointed idealist in yourself. But there is nothing shameful in being an idealist. The greatest political and moral leaders of the world over the past century have been idealists. They were great visionaries because, like young people, they could imagine and envision a much better future. Gandhi told the British colonial masters: “In the end you will leave India because 100,000 Englishmen simply cannot control 350 million Indians if those Indians refuse to cooperate.” Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. “dreamt that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” Nelson Mandela pledged, “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another…” These idealists were laughing-stocks in their day, but in the end they won and the world is a much better place because of their struggle, leadership and principles.
To be idealistic also means to be ready, willing and able to unlearn and change outdated attitudes, beliefs and fears. It took me a long while to appreciate Gandhi’s teaching, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Today I think in terms of humanity and not ethnicity or even nationality. I replaced my ideological rigidity with intellectual flexibility. I once kept silence in the face of brutality, today I champion accountability. I watched others relate on the basis of enmity, today I seek to promote cordiality. My ultimate hope is to mobilize global unity against inhumanity.
In 2005, I broke out of my hardened cocoon of realism into the mushy soft world of idealism. Following the May elections in Ethiopia that year, 193 unarmed protesters were massacred by government troops in the streets, and 763 shot and wounded. Over thirty thousand people were rounded up and imprisoned. The post-election events of 2005 plunged millions of Ethiopians into the abyss of cynicism and despair. It had the opposite effect on me.
My conscience was seared by the sheer brutality and inhumanity of that bestial and barbaric massacre. I thought of the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa in March 1960 where apartheid policemen killed 69 unarmed black South African protesters. I was too young to speak out for the Sharpeville victims, but not too old now to speak for the 193 Ethiopians and the thousands of other victims of crimes against humanity.
That is how I became idealistic. I came to believe that it is possible to have an Ethiopia where citizens can peacefully protest the actions of their government and not be massacred for it. No person should become a political prisoner or a target of government persecution because s/he dissents with those in power. I believe those who hold the reins of power in Ethiopia must bow their heads before the law and not sit on the throne as the deities of the law. In other words, they are not the gods of law but the law’s humble and faithful servants. I began to imagine that no person in Ethiopia should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. I even had the audacity to imagine that there must be an independent free press in Ethiopia to stand as a watchdog over government and expose corruption. There must be an independent judiciary to administer justice and hold accountable those who abuse their powers. Elections must be free and fair, and young people should be allowed to play a central role in the country’s future. Long story made short, I became, as some might say, a hopeless idealist.
When you become an idealist, you stand up for your convictions. You preach and teach what you believe in. So I do my best to promote democracy, human rights and freedom in Ethiopia and Africa and elsewhere. I try to be the voice of the voiceless, though some may think I am just a voice in the wilderness.
It is true that I am a relentless critic of oppression, injustice and dictatorship. No doubt, some will laugh and call me naïve for my efforts. Surely, I must know that a few idealists cannot possibly change the world. That may be true, but I am persuaded by Margaret Mead who observed, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Idealism also means using ones misfortunes to help others in daily life. Several years ago, my wife developed breast cancer which was discovered in its earliest stages through an annual routine mammogram and successfully treated. Though my wife had an excellent outcome, so many Ethiopian women die needlessly by not doing regular mammograms and hiding the fact of that disease from their loved ones and friends once diagnosed. She decided to come out in public and write a “letter to my Ethiopian sisters” to raise awareness about breast cancer and how to prevent it from taking so many lives. Some well-intentioned people advised her not to make her condition public implying that there is something embarrassing about having the disease. She is an incorrigible idealist in her own right and believed that if more Ethiopian women knew the truth about early detection and treatment, they will be able to beat breast cancer every time. Silence about breast cancer kills more of our sisters and mothers than breast cancer itself. Let us all be whistleblowers against breast cancer!
We need to bridge the generation gap I spoke of earlier. We can do that if we speak the same language as our young people. We bridge the gap when we learn from each other. They can teach us about the future and the great things they can accomplish; and we teach them about the past, how to avoid the mistakes we made and the things we did right.
Some may think my bridge-building ideas are impractical, unattainable, fanciful and the stuff of dreamers. In my own defense, I will answer them with a question: After all, what do expect from a utopian Ethiopian?!?
In the struggle of all idealistic people, the outcome is always the same as Gandhi taught: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
We will assuredly win if we are on the side of our young people. If you don’t believe me, talk to the young people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya… I say, let’s join the Youthvolution in Africa.
If I have one message for all of you, and particularly the young people here tonight, it is that we all need to be the voices of the voiceless and stand up and be counted. In the words of the great Bob Marley, I say: Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights (and their rights too)! Don’t give up the fight! Make change happen one person at a time.
Thank you SEED and all of you who have come to honor us tonight!
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Barack Obama
[1] SEED is a non-partisan civic organization established in 1993 dedicated to the recognition of Ethiopians and Ethiopian friends who have demonstrated outstanding achievements as educators, scientists, artists, religious leaders, high school and university students and community leaders. http://www.ethioseed.org
Previous commentaries by the author are available at: www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ and http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/
15 thoughts on “The SEEDs of Hope in the Ethiopian Diaspora”
Dear Ato Alemayehu G. Mariam, you nailed it. The gap you dwelled on is the one thing we all seem not to touch it. Yes, there is gap and it is getting wider everyday. For those of us from the old school, it is a bit late to adjust to the new reality for it may require a born again process which we are not ready to do so at this time and age. By the end of the day, we will realize that we have been wrong – too late!!
peace and love
Ezana from Toronto
Prof Al Mariam, let’s be realistic because only a fool is optimistic under the present condition of Ethiopia. I don’t think there is any hope left whatsoever as far as the country is concerned. The current mafia tic and corrupt regime led by tyrant Melese has rooted and settled deep and it is highly likely that he will remain in power for the foreseeable future whether we like it or not. Like the Syrian Allwatic minority family who have been in power for the last 42 years, the current minority ethnic-T leaders in Ethiopia controls 96% of the military and security apparatus of the country in addition to that the minority ethnic Ts dominate the economy. The regime is a friend of the US and the EU and it can displace, sell lands, arrest, torture, and murder whoever it hates. Period.
I assume Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam is addressing his frequently well-written article, this time, this year, to a selective audience at the Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington, D.C.; however, his audiences whom he named “The Seeds of Hope in the Ethiopian Diaspora” include one of those who achieved academic excellence, Abigail, his own daughter.
Abigail is a beautiful and historical name, a Biblical name, the name of the wife of a wealthy Israeli man, a fool as his name suggests. Abigail was an extremely wise and charming lady who saved the life of her husband, Nabal, from the sword of David when Nabal refused to send some gifts to David who was living in one of the Judean deserts, running from King Saul who was determined to kill him. David never mistreated Nabal’s servants while they were tending Nabal’s sheep in the desert, but when David and his men were hungry, David sent some of his men to Nabal to send him some food supplies; however, the greedy Nabal said to David’s servants: ‘Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?’
Very ashamed and humiliated, David’s men went back empty handed and reported what that fool man, Nabal, had responded. David, with his four hundred men, well armed and ready to destroy the entire properties of Nabal, was on his way to Nabal’s house. As soon as Abigail was told what her husband had said to David’s men, she, immediately without telling her husband, ordered her servants to load on her donkeys the following food items and food quantities: two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and she drove away to meet David with all the gifts she had prepared for him. When Abigail saw David, “she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said: ‘My lord, let the blame be on me alone….May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name–his name is fool and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.”
Convinced by her sweet and intelligent words, David finally accepted all the gifts she brought him and said to her: “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request” (1st Samuel 25). Then David took Abigail as his wife after her husband Nabal passed away.
Only a highly educated and a well-versed person in Biblical history gives such a lovely name to his daughter whom he loves and adores; I am proud of you, Professor, that you have an intelligent daughter with a distinguished name – Abigail. By the way, in Amharic language, the name Abigail is Abigia (አቢግያ).
Going back to the main topic – The Seeds of Hope in the Ethiopian Diaspora
In reality, all seeds do not germinate: some seeds germinate; some fail to germinate; others are picked up and eaten up by the birds of the air before they get a chance to germinate. Is this a natural process, a simple luck or a predestination that God has foreordained such things must happen?
The good professor is talking only, I think, about those seeds that germinate, grow, bloom, and bear fruits like his daughter Abigail and others, but what about those who are left behind, never get a chance to germinate and a proper soil to grow up? Does the good professor has a helping hand to bring up those who are left behind, and does he know who these Ethiopian kids are: these kids can be found here in the diaspora world and at home in Ethiopia. A good farmer knows which seeds can germinate and which ones cannot. In the same way, does the good professor know which kids can reach to the level his daughter has reached, and which kids cannot?
According to the good professor, “True democratic citizenship involves taking individual responsibility to help one’s community and those less fortunate than oneself with a sense of duty.” Cuba is not a democratic country; China is not a democratic country, but these two undemocratic countries help their communities, so can we call them they are democratic nations since we see them helping their communities? On the other hand, America is a democratic country; Canada is a democratic country; Great Britain is a democratic country, but we see hundreds of homeless people in these democratic countries; therefore, can we call them undemocratic since many of them are not helping their communities? Especially, the many unfortunate young in these so called democratic nations perish before they germinate, bloom, and bear fruit. What can be done to help them germinate, bloom and bear fruit?
The professor knows very well today’s young people are occupied by something tangible such as sports, selling drugs, and having sex; therefore, why the good professor is wasting his time talking about abstract words such as Idealism and Realism that belong to the ancient Greek philosophers. It may be true a person must be first an idealist before he/she becomes a realist. Those who invented airplane first put their ideas on paper; then their ideas became a reality when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean using their hand-made airplane; therefore, idealism becomes realism, and realism becomes materialism.
The good professor asks good questions such as: “What can we teach and do for our young people to prepare them for the future? How can we guide them to a better future?”
I do not know about you, my dear professor, but I know what I can teach and do for the young Ethiopians here in the diaspora and back at home. I will teach them the true source of freedom, peace, and prosperity is the love of God, and to live in peace with everybody. Christianity teaches this kind of freedom to its followers, but Islam teaches Jihad to millions of Muslims. Every Muslim must practice Jihad once or many times in his lifetime. Jihad means waging war against the Christians, the Jews, and the many other non Muslims as we see it happening every day.
It is true, dear professor, “Young people want freedom, peace and equal opportunity.” It is not only the young who need such fundamental truths: freedom, peace and equal opportunity; we all need them, and without them, there will be no progress except war.
Finally, I don’t believe Islam has ever been “as a cohesive factor in Ethiopia” rather than as a divisive, destructive, manipulative, and exploitive phenomenon in the Ethiopian Christian history. I have not yet seen Professor Hussein Ahmed scholarly research on the role of Islam as a well-integrated factor in Ethiopia. When I get a chance to read his paper, then I may comment about it in detail.
Astta Getu. Please get retired with your confusing taught you will be needed more in church than in here because mixing politics with church is like what Aba paulos is doing .soon or later we will get rid of Woyane’s regime at same time it’s equally important to drop people like out of the conversation we don’t wanna do the same mistake again and again and expect different result
Dear Hakim #4,
I’m too young to retire, and when I say too young, I’m using Methuselah’s calendar; Methuselah lived about 969 years, and he had never been sick all those years. Even though King David, who came later, said: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten [70 years]; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years [80 years], yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).
You cannot separate politics from religion or religion from politics; most of the philosophers, the scientists, and the politicians have been Church people, and the Church cannot ignore the great contributions of her children to the world. Yes, the children of Islam have contributed nothing to the world, but they are still muddling in politics and in killing innocent Christians.
You are very angry because I have mentioned Islam and its weapon Jihad; instead of getting angry, give your comment on the topic. I don’t understand why you easily get angry whenever someone mentions the name Islam. If you are ashamed of your religion Islam, you have the right to leave it and join another religion at your own risk because if you leave Islam, your fellow Muslims will kill you. You know it and everybody knows it there is no freedom in Islam.
[Assta B. Gettu],
Several times you have been told not to detain us in a Christian Vs.Islam lecture.You keep doing it any ways.you believe you are a Christain,yet,you seem to be without love for others.No where, are you told in the Book of books to hate or deride other faith,but you do it often any ways.What is the matter with you?Is it because you have taken an overdose Habisho as a kolo temari or what? Be sensible ! and accept the fact that every subject does not begin and terminate in religion. It is better,sometimes, altogether not to comment if one has nothing good to share.
I’ve never read such an intelligent thesis by a very distinguished & honourable person, Prof Al Mariam. Such is a
person of immense integrity and value. Idealism has to be accompanied by action. Action might require one’s sacrifice of money, time, energy and even life. To sacrifice that one needs a courage. Courage comes from fear of God & the love of truth….
I also enjoyed the wise bible story quoted by Asta B gettu on the story of Abigail…… It’s so inspiring.
God bless you all…..
asta b gettu,
Still same old foolish who cannot grasp & understand even the religion he profess. Grade students do better than you, assta. Try to grow up as time is flying. This is enough for you as more explanation will let you lose more baby-boy.
This is an advise not a comment.
cheers
Abc-hahu #8,
You have tried many times to misspell my name, thinking misspelling my name will give you a little bit satisfaction in stead of total destruction. The reason you always misspell my name is you are out of descent words; you have nothing to say about the topic on discussion. You fart, poison the atmosphere, and you run away, but you cannot hide. You are still at abc-hahu level, not even in fidel-hawariat. You are one of the lowest persons in the Muslim world. By the way, if you leave your religion, no one is going to attack you because you are a worthless person; all the Muslims as well as the Christians know that.
Do you really know the difference between an advice and a comment? If you knew you shouldn’t have used the verb “advise” as a noun. Go back to your abc-hahu and learn the use of nouns and verbs.
Dear anon #6,
My goal is to snatch you out of the world of unbelievers and bring you to the family of God – the Christians. So you must be detained in my world of Christianity rather than be detained in the world of the enemies of the Christian Church, the bride of Jesus Christ. If you are tired of reading my comments, just ignore them and go to the other person’s comment, but I will never be tired of responding to your comments, bad or good.
astu,
Are you OK? Yes I am in abc & hahu level, but you are a lost one. The subject matter was about the young generation not religion. You are the one who want to divert, like always, from the core of the subject and inject your twisted idea of full of garbages. Believe in whatever you like, that is your choice. You should also understand, I assume you can’t, others have the right to choose what is abc or hahu of democracy.
You don’t even understand what you write that one can easily detect. Grow-up baby boy.
Cheers
Abc-hahu #11,
Everyone knows by now you are mentally retarded because you have a hard time to spell someone’s name after you have been told to spell it correctly for almost two years.
Yesterday, you wrote asta, and today you wrote astu, and tomorrow you will write something else. Misspelling someone’s name is the sign of severe mental retardation. For the last time let me write my name for you, and this is my real name: Assta B. Gettu.
When I asked you to comment about the subject, you simply stated that “the subject matter was about the young generation not religion.”
I doubt you have read “The Seeds of Hope in the Ethiopian Diaspora” by that famous Ethiopian writer, Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam, and let me tell you I am one of his admirers.
Since you admit you are at abc-hahu level, let me educate you why the good professor named his beloved daughter Abigail because Abigail is a Biblical name, a religious name, and when the good Professor says, “Abebech Gobena has been called by many as ‘Africa’s Mother Teresa,’” he is telling us what other people have been saying about the good work of that religious Catholic nun Mother Teresa from Albania, a Muslim country, but who ended up her entire life in Calcutta, India, doing a Christian missionary work.
As I said before, one cannot avoid religion or religious people from saying something good about a good religion and about the person who believes in that good religion, and that good religion is Christianity, and that good person was Mother Teresa who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and died helping hundreds of orphan children, especially from the untouchable Indians. Is there any person like Mother Teresa in the Muslim-Arab world who gave her entire life for the cause of homeless children? None! In the first place, a Muslim woman is not free to exercise her freedom; her duty is to submit to her husband and not to go out and help the destitute Muslims. Of course, Muslims in general never help non Muslims, but Mother Teresa helped Muslim children, Hindu children, and Christian children.
If misspelling my name pleases you, continue playing with it; it will never hurt me, but the readers will judge you that you are an absurd person who badly needs help.
Asta Getu* you know ? “they says one coin in box makes more noise than the full one”because you read the bible (which is good)it doesn’t mean you have to insult other religions and also because you can write proper english it doesn’t mean you have a knowledge of every thing and jump on commenting in every issue to attack islam
Your old head is full of hatred it will makes your few remaining days in the world even fewer believe me I can’t save
From your problem (hatred)cause it is deep rooted in you but I will pray for you in islam my fellow Ethiopian man
Astu’ye, Don’t you know maqolemamet. I hope you do now.
Again you repeat the same mistake of writing something you don’t have a good grip of it. Propaganda and fact are not same. Let me leave that for you to ponder for your good health.
Don’t you know who the most generous and philanthropist person in our Ethiopia? Figure it out.
Cheers
Abc-hahu #13,
God knows how many Ethiopians you might have deceived using the Amharic word ማቆለማመጥ (maqolemamet) or using the other Amharic word መለማመጥ (melemamt). People like you who do not believe in themselves always use the above two powerful ignominious Amharic words for survival.
Can you tell me which one is propaganda and which one is fiction in my comment, and which one is politics and which one is religion in my previous comment?
I ask you to tell me a generous person like Mother Teresa in your Muslim community, whether in Ethiopia or in other Arab-Muslim countries. Christianity is full of generous Christian women, but I have no clue if Islam has the same.