“A child that is born in prison fears the free world”
Thus far the appearance of Ethiopia has been perpetuated rather than the nature of Ethiopia as it really is. Each successive government continues to affix its own veil rather than shade some light on the causes of Ethiopian’s dysfunction. Massive energy, vital resources are spent by ruling groups in indoctrinating, creating a hypnotic state among its varying citizens and imposing flowed model of thinking, rather than encouraging mutual reality. All different Ethiopian citizens or people of that land are contending based on their own individual or group’s appearance of what the state of Ethiopia is, or what it should be. Henceforth the fundamental nature of Ethiopia has not changed since its inception. For some Ethiopia is a step-mother for other it is their biological parent. For some it is source of empowerment for other it is causes of agony. For some Ethiopia is ancient country for others it is a two century old in the process of becoming. The clash of these competing ideas is the present day drama of Ethiopia. Whether the drama will unfold in tragic end or in a new beginning remains in our determination to look beyond the appearance, unwrapping the veil of Ethiopia and hoping over the propaganda and the bias of ourselves entering the domain of the truth.
We must recognize that Ethiopia is just an idea that exists in our mind a not a nature’s phenomenal like the sun set and sun rise that continues independent of our thought. Ethiopia is not a fixed entity despite the common perceptions. Although some group do entertain that Ethiopia is a natural phenomena that can only be transformed by divine intervention, but rather I contend that Ethiopia is thought that can be altered to transcend us, elastic enough to stretch us. Since Ethiopia is an idea, it does not belong to no one, no ethic group has patent over Ethiopia, while Ethiopia’s past history is contrary to this idea. Note Ethiopia is not a static entity that confines our existence to narrow field, restrict our freedom of thought, the power to redesign her lays within us, so it can keep up with the needs of its people and the rest of he developing world. Its in realizing these truths that the veil of appearance can be broken and prosperous future can be forged.
Ethiopia’s defects exist within our own mind not in some external location or physical entity, but rather Ethiopia is fluid mental state dependent on our own mental imagination. This is a comforting thought for it builds the correct framework necessary to over come our self-imposed challenges. But to do that we must understand what makes up Ethiopia is our collective thought, experience, our triumph our failure, happiness and sorrow not an individual wish, or group’s influence as it has been in the past. Our failures to recognize and to integrate these different ethnic experiences are the core problem of Ethiopia that manifest in different form such as liberation struggle, indifference, secession, lack of greater vision and inefficient collective participations.
Secession and lack of vision are symptoms that something fundamental is wrong with Ethiopia, just like a headache is warning single that vital things are in jeopardy that requires a solution on the level beyond the veil of appearance, at the same time liberation movements are warning single that requires our immediate attention to remedy the source of the problem. It is also erroneous to conclude the problems with Ethiopia are liberation movements and different groups seeking secession, therefore any energy, resources spent on countering these problems will only produce a temporary relief that will soon return unless the fundamental causes of conflicts are not rectified. Fundamental change will only come in recognizing this important distinctions that liberation struggle are not the problem but rather a call to look beyond the apparent problem seek the sources of the problem.
These competing forces have been able to super-impose selective history and experience upon others alternatively, there by creating a dire reality for the people of that land, exposing its citizens to unnecessary migrations, poverty, regression. But the key to overcoming these problems still lays in deeply scrutinizing our own thought and looking beyond ourselves, opening our spectrum of thought to the aspirations emanating from other as well. A perception based on sole individual experiences and thought that is based on appearance is destined for demise. The first step in overcoming superficial existences are to examine the bias we harbor.
The bias we harbor creates a perception and perception is our door to the outside world. We act based on our past, present perceptions, what we think the world appear to us. Whether we choose to or not we are the product of our parents, grandparent’s perception, and past history. That is way relying on history, lineage, emotional ties will not produce an authentic result. That is why our thought must be active and strong enough to be free of these influences. It’s the collections of individual’s perception that molds the national directions. If defect lays with our perception, so is in Ethiopia, it is critical to notice the dominant individual bias dictates the Ethiopia’s overall agenda. As ironic this may appear the eye can’t see itself, except what is outside of it, also our thought can not perceive itself as separate from perception, with out genuine self-examining, without holding ourselves to higher ideas.
At this point it is important to know what appearance is and what lay beyond the appearance. Appearance is a reflection, as what we look like has nothing to do with who we are, and has no bearing on our spirit. Appearance can be thought of as headache, headache is not an illness it is just symptom of something major. We can temporally relief headache with painkillers but if we don’t seek the source and remedy it the headache is guaranteed to return. The people of Ethiopia are the cause, its collective history are the apparent. An important concept we must grasp is the appearance rarely leads to the sources, the source is the vital truth we are after.
A progress of man is measures by his ability to discern these appearances from the cause while doing so may cause a temporary discomfort, but the results are lifetime of freedom. Also Ethiopia’s progresses are measured by degree of her citizens to discriminate between myth and reality, fact from opinion, symptom from cause and information from propaganda. This also the phenomena that distinguish a baby from an adult that babies are fooled and base their worldview on appearance on the other hand as the baby gradually grows he overcome appearance steadily enter the reality of his own domain and takes control of his/her own destiny. Age is not a gap that measures adulthood that must be filled with passing of time but rather how quickly one discriminates appearance from reality. Hence some individual easily mature, while others struggle. This is because age is a superficial, rather than a title to enter adulthood. This is the case of Ethiopia we are fooled by appearance, cycling through false reality with government that chants different slogan, yet sinking back into the pervious appearance. Manipulating appearance does not yield change to reality; it is only the truth of reality that changes appearance, liberating the mind of people.
The reason such superficial appearance are continued into 21st century and maintained is that when the appearance favors us we guard the appearance despite the harm it creates to other, until of course we lose control than fight to restore the pervious circumstance that favored us. This cycle of changing appearance for another appearance must end. This cycle has created modern day stoned age country and egotistic political governance, which mistakes peace for the appearance of peace, mistakes freedom with subjugation and failed to deploy liberated self-sufficient citizens that invents, explores, discovers and able to enjoy the natural resource endowed to him by god.
Once the veils of appearance are broken the problem of Ethiopia are not a dire situation at all but a natural beauty. Ethnicity, which is the apparent cause of conflict in Ethiopia, we must recognize it as symptoms rather then cause as most people considered including the author. On the surface indeed ethnicity is an apparent problems, but this is the outer layer of the problem what lays beneath should be our first for most interest, including the coming generations. Since ethnicity is the cloth Ethiopia wears it must be dealt with outermost care, ignoring will in fact widen the apparent reality we hold creating separate mindset.
One of the most difficult aspect of reality is that it is hidden deep beneath the many layer of appearance, thereby requires strong will consciousness, scientific mind, authentic approach to solving Ethiopians problem. History is the mask of appearance; it is an effect of our mental processes. Change, rearranging history does not change the outcome, but what will bring authentic change is changing our mental attitude of what Ethiopia is. Appearance rarely leads to progressive outcome, but the cause that triggers’ events of history are the real idea we must investigate. The reason many years has passed to notice the chain of appearance place up us is that appearance exists as multi-dimensional layers. Only diligent investigation, consistent endeavor can uncover the veil of appearance and requires a combined effort of many generation to leap through appearance and enter plane where our thought is cause of our existence not a subjugation of appearance. The western world is in the last phase what I call the age of appearance, and its beginning to embarked on the next plane that alter appearance with technology. While it is at the last phase of this apparent-age, it has yet to embark on spiritualism
Because our society is infested with apparent reality no national visionary leaders have emerged to tackle these problems. Now and then ethnocentric leader may emerge to address Ethiopians issues but yet to provide lasting fundamental solutions. There are times also when a local leader have emerged to tackle Ethiopia’s problems yet failed to succeed because failed to incorporated the whole Ethiopian citizens because the solution focused on narrow view of what Ethiopia is. Ethiopia’s exists in apparent reality because no leader or organizations have been able to introduce its people to the nature of the truth; therefore “The true nature of Ethiopia has not been conceived.” While many people may contest this idea the truth lays in deeply examining the condition Ethiopia is in at this time. A country that possess a glorious past, long history, that had the advantage over other countries, yet unable to capitalize, transform herself into a cutting edge country, rather next to last in poverty and sustainability list of world record. Does the problem lays in lack of resources? Does the problem lays in her people? Or the solution could just as simple as paradigm shift to wakes-up us from out disarray. Could the solution be as simple as mental switch that turns on truth rather than apparent reality?
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Ebissa Ragassa can be reached at [email protected]
BBC Monitoring (BBCM) can confirm that two major Western broadcasters are suffering consistent jamming of their transmissions to Ethiopia. Jamming is deliberate interference aimed at preventing the target broadcast from being heard. The standard technique is to transmit an irritating noise or continuous music on the same channel as the target.
In the latest media development to hit the Horn of Africa, the scene of numerous “radio wars” over the past quarter-century, shortwave broadcasts from Washington-based Voice of America (VOA) and Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) are now being jammed.
In both cases, the target of the jamming is radio programmes in Amharic, the lingua franca and main official language of Ethiopia. VOA is also suffering jamming of another of its regional language services. The deliberate interference appears to have started in the first half of this month, possibly on or around 12 November.
VOA and Cologne-based DW are funded by the US and German governments to broadcast radio and TV programmes to foreign audiences. The moves against the VOA and DW follow intensification by Ethiopia of its jamming of broadcasts from neighbouring Eritrea. The jamming of Eritrean state radio, the latest episode of which began in summer 2007, was stepped up in late September and early October, BBCM observed at the time.
Details of the jammed broadcasts
The VOA’s daily one-hour (1800-1900 gmt) service in Amharic is now being jammed. According to the opposition website Ethiopian Review – www.ethiopianreview.com – the jamming of VOA began on 12 November. BBCM observations have confirmed the presence of jamming signals on at least three of the five frequencies used by the VOA. The direction whence the jamming originates (established by the use of directional aerials) is consistent with the signals being transmitted from within Ethiopia.
VOA currently uses 9320, 9860, 11675, 11905 and 13870 kHz for its Amharic service. The service is not streamed on the Internet, but audio of recent broadcasts is available at www.voanews.com/horn.
On 19 November, VOA’s service in another major Ethiopian language, Oromo, was also observed to be jammed. VOA’s Oromo service broadcasts at 1730-1800 gmt, immediately before the Amharic transmission and on the same frequencies.
DW’s daily one-hour (1400-1500 gmt) service in Amharic is also being jammed. Noise interference has been observed on two of DW’s shortwave frequencies (11645 and 15640 kHz). DW recently added a third frequency (15660 kHz). At the start of its Amharic programme on 19 November it announced that this had been done in response to the jamming. The lead item in the news bulletin that followed was that the Ethiopian government had conducted air raids on villages in the Ogaden region in the southeast of the country. DW maintains a multimedia website for its Amharic service at www2.dw-world.de/amharic.
Opposition broadcasts
Ethiopia The Woyanne regime has also jammed various private opposition radio broadcasts. The country has been targeted for many years by such operators, which hire airtime (generally an hour a day or on certain days of the week) from commercial shortwave transmission facilities, including those based in Germany and the former Soviet Union. The number and identity of such broadcasts, and their schedules, often varies, depending on the availability of funds to hire shortwave airtime. Eritrea is also targeted by private opposition shortwave stations.
German radio broadcasts to Ethiopia “jammed” – hobbyists
Shortwave radio hobbyists have reported deliberate interference to the Amharic-language transmissions of Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), beamed to Ethiopia.
A US hobbyist noted “jamming” of DW’s signal on 11645 kHz on 14 and 15 November, and to DW’s Amharic broadcast on 15640 kHz on 15 November. (Glenn Hauser, DX Listening Digest, 15 November)
A German listener said the interference resembled a combination of sounds, “like bubble, motorboat, pips, and whistle buoy howl”.
In a separate report, Ethiopian Review website reported on 13 November that VOA broadcasts to Ethiopia had been jammed since 12 November “with the help of the Chinese government that provided technicians and powerful radio jamming equipment”.
According to Kinijit officials, the party’s Central Council will soon discuss and decide on whether to officially join the Alliance for Freedom and Democracy (AFD). Before making a decision on this critical matter that has already changed the political landscape of Ethiopia for the better, ER urges members of the Kinijit Council to consult with the public. To help with the discussion, we are re-posting some of the arguments that have been been presented by the following writers in favor of AFD:
Violence and sexual abuse within the home are among the main reasons children run away to live on the streets, according to a report, the State of the World’s Street Children, published by a coalition of charities.
In Ethiopia, an estimated 150,000 children live on the streets. The story of Genet, now living in a safehouse in Addis Ababa, is similar to those of many such children, especially girls.
No images of Genet are included to protect her identity.
My troubles began when I was 14 years old and my mother became too ill to care for my younger sister and me.
We were sent to live with a family as their domestic labourers.
We were both subject to frequent beatings and were not allowed to go to school.
A year later we were taken by our grandmother to live with a distant male relative elsewhere in Addis.
We were told our mother had died and this would now be our home.
It had been horrible with the family we had been living with before and I hoped the new family would be kinder to us now that our mother was gone.
But I was forced to go to bed with the male relative who we had been sent to live with and a woman in the household frequently beat us both.
I was pretty sure that the man was also sexually abusing my 11-year-old sister too. After two months I ran away but my younger sister was too frightened to come with me.
I ended up in the house of a family friend who took me in but they demanded that I pay my way by working as their domestic servant.
After being beaten and verbally abused, I decided to take my chances on the streets.
I find it very difficult to talk about my time on the streets of Addis. I survived there as best I could for over two months. I was often very hungry.
Other girls I met living and working on the street told me about the Drop-in Centre for street children operated by the Forum for Street Children.
It took a lot of courage to go there for help as I found it very difficult to trust adults.
But when I told the community workers there what had happened to me they immediately gave me a place in their safe home for girls.
I am now 16, I have started school again and I am being trained at a local health centre as a janitor so I will be able to support myself when the time comes to leave the safe home.
I am desperate to see my sister again. They tell me she has managed to escape from the abusive household we were in and is now living with our grandmother in her home village.
When I grow older I want to help other children in the same situation as me.
Ethiopian community leaders and social action groups will step up their fight this week against a government decision to wind down Ethiopian aliya in the coming months, as arguments for bringing thousands more Falash Mura immigrants currently unrecognized by Israel are presented to the Knesset’s State Control Committee on Wednesday morning.
According to representatives from the newly-formed Public Council for Ethiopian Jews, which includes such public figures as former Supreme Court Judge Meir Shamgar, Prof. Irwin Kotler, Ethiopian Chief Rabbi Yosef Adaneh, Geulah Cohen, Naomi Hazan and Hanan Porat, the government is reneging on its original promise to bring in all remaining Falash Mura – Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity under duress a century ago.
They claim that sources inside the Interior Ministry have indicated that the process of checking eligibility of those still in Ethiopia will be stopped by the end of this year. This past summer, Jewish Agency for Israel officials based in Addis Ababa told The Jerusalem Post that aliya from the African nation would be over by the end of 2008, a sentiment reiterated by the Interior Ministry.
“We are not stopping our activities in Ethiopia; we are simply winding down an operation that has reached a natural conclusion,” Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabene Hadad said Tuesday. She confirmed that Interior Ministry operations in Gondar, where most of the Falash Mura are currently waiting to be processed for aliya, would be over sometime in the near future.
“What is important to highlight here is that the government is going back on its original commitment and is refusing entry to roughly 8,000 people who are eligible to make aliya according to criteria outlined in the past,” Avraham Neguise, director of Ethiopian advocacy group South Wing to Zion, told the Post. He was referring to a government decision from February 2003 permitting those Falash Mura willing to undergo an Orthodox Jewish conversion process to come to Israel under the Law of Entry.
“The government’s original decision did not talk about stopping the aliya on a certain date or at a certain point, but said rather that all those with a maternal link to Judaism were eligible to immigrate,” continued Neguise, adding that many of those who either were denied entry to Israel or had not yet been checked for eligibility had close family members already living here.
One such family is that of 24-year-old Telahun Tzegah, who made aliya with his mother seven years ago but left behind family members in Gondar, including half-siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles.
“Their bags are packed and they are ready to come, but they [the Interior Ministry] refuse to process them,” he said Tuesday, adding, “They were originally told that they could make aliya, so they left their villages and moved to Gondar. Now they are stuck there with no help. They can’t go back to their villages, and they aren’t allowed to move here.”
Tzegah said that he was regularly forced to send the family a portion of the meager salary he earns as a security guard, “just so they can afford to eat.”
The Interior Ministry explained previously that it was simply working in compliance with the specifications of the 1999 Efrati census, which lists those Falash Mura with familial ties to Jews and hence eligible to come here.
However, Neguise pointed out that the Efrati list originally included three volumes – Falash Mura in Addis Ababa, in Gondar and in the outlying villages.
“The ministry has decided to ignore those people from the villages,” he said. “How can the government make the decision to split up families like this?”
Rabbi Menahem Waldman, director of the Shvut Am Institute and an expert on the Falash Mura conversion process, has joined forces with Neguise and also sits on the Public Council for Ethiopian Jews.
“These people are recognized as Jews according to Halacha and the State of Israel,” said Waldman, who helped to compile the Efrati census. “It is our responsibility as a Zionist state to bring these people here and welcome them with an open heart.”
He said that along with the hearing in the Knesset on Wednesday, the forum was also supporting a legal petition to force the government to honor its original commitment, and added that it would not give up until those 8,000 people were brought to Israel.
She was going to a world where there was said to be a pile of gold at every corner and a stash of money at every turn. She had heard rumors that the place was not much short of heaven. But that fantasy disappeared as soon as she got off the plane and took her first steps in the United States. America is nothing like what others in Ethiopia described it to be for junior Engidawork Kita.
Engidawork Kita and Selam Kabtiymer
[Photo by Gili Perl]
The lottery to another world
In 2000 Kita’s family won the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery that enabled them to make the move to the United States from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program annually makes 50,000 permanent visas available to a random selection of people who “meet strict eligibility requirements [and come] from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the U.S. State Department web site.
Individuals who receive visas through the program are permitted to bring spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States and are authorized to permanently live and work in the country, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services web site. “Since everyone wants to come to America, it’s a way of randomly picking people,” Kita’s friend, senior Selam Kabtiymer, says. Although Kabtiymer’s family had also won the DV lottery, she and her family were able to come to the United States without the lottery’s help. Kabtiymer’s mother was already residing in the United States and so the rest of her family was able to get visas through her. Kabtiymer’s father had applied for the DV lottery in the case they were not able to obtain visas this way.
Junior Engidawork Kita and Senior Selam Kabtiymer Photo by Gili Perl.
For Kita’s parents, as for most others in Ethiopia, the chance to move to the United States was a dream come true. A war had been raging between Ethiopia and Eritrea since 1998 over a border conflict. Even Kita was afraid when she heard news warning the country that Eritrea threatened to attack. “I used to get scared because I don’t want to die of course,” Kita says.
Still, Kita’s feelings towards the move were lukewarm – she wanted to experience America, but not at the expense of leaving her relatives, friends and culture behind. “You want to see what it’s like to be in America,” she says, but at the same time she did not want to leave.
Making the transition
The difficulties of the move were only compounded by Kita’s limited knowledge of English. “It was hard,” she says. But making Ethiopian friends in school and receiving support from teachers helped Kita adjust to the new environment. “[The teachers] were really helpful,” Kita says. In addition, Kita took ESOL from fourth to ninth grade to help her get past the language barrier.
Although there was no pile of gold waiting for her in the United States, Kita sees some clear benefits of living in the country. She finds that there are more opportunities to succeed in school because there is so much support available from the education system. Even though Kita went to a free public school in Ethiopia, students still needed to purchase books and other materials on their own. It was tough luck if you could not afford them; here, public schools provide the books as well as financial help.
Kita also feels that there are more facilities available in the United States, such as easy access to computers. “There [were] no such things as computers in my school [in Ethiopia],” she says.
Kita adds that American schools are more laid back. “School is easier here…compared to Ethiopia,” Kita says. She offers that this is not so much because the subjects are easier but more so because the teachers are comparatively lenient in this country.
Kabtiymer agrees that education is stricter in Ethiopia and there is much more pressure from teachers and parents. School rankings are taken very seriously and so students constantly compare themselves with others, according to her.
School here has helped Kita adapt to the American culture. But at the same time, she tries to maintain certain aspects of her Ethiopian heritage. She celebrates some of the Ethiopian festivals and eats Ethiopian food daily. Kita is also a member of the Ethiopian club at Blair and hopes to participate in the club’s big show in early June, which features traditional dances, a fashion show and a drama.
Kita still misses her country at times and though she realizes that money does not come easy no matter where you are, she does not want to move back permanently. “I want to stay here now that I am used to it,” Kita says. “I like it here.”
