By Network of Ethiopian Scholars (NES)
Inspiring quotes
I am not upset you lied to me, I am upset from now on I can’t believe you.
(Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher)
The key is to get to know people and trust them to be who they are, instead we trust people to be who we want them to be, and when they are not, we cry. (Anonymous)
1. Introduction
Time flies. In comes 2008! Yet another year is replaced by a new year in the eternal dance of time. Our country had a new year in September 2007. It shares also the New Year on January 2008 with the rest of the world. It has the opportunity to pause, reflect, interrogate, evaluate and select what would work from what would not twice, as moments like New Years help concentrate a nation’s priorities and map and shape its future.
The time from the Ethiopian millennium in September to the current New Year has been unsettling to say the least to the vibrant democratic movement that emerged after the May 2005 election. What we expected was the release of the elected MPS that were sent for 20 months in jail will stimulate and invigorate the democratic movement, solve with maturity the difficulties in the Diaspora by displaying the moral authority of the released MPs and move into a higher level of clarification and mobilisation united to build systematically the movement. Unfortunately what happened was a lack of unity and division by those who came out from jail leading to a split that appears to have gone beyond any attempt to repair and rescue. The split is unfortunate as there are wild allegations that would have been very good to clear up. With the split the truth will not be known. We now know who has been rude and who has remained civil through the ordeal, but we will not know who is culpable and who is not, concerning the issues that triggered this destructive turn. This will not be cleared as long as each side remains with its sectarian narrative unexamined and protective of its story. For the moment, there appears to be no way that there can be unity within knjit. It is time in the New Year to resolve and re-think how a post- knjit powerful social-democratic movement and realignment of social forces can be forged. This commentary will attempt to show the obstacles Ethiopians must overcome and put forward a few proposals to strengthen and build the democratic movement for debate.
2. The Obstacle: Social Capital Deficit despite Ethiopia’s Age!
Our readers may recall previous NES commentaries that by some accounts the likely origin of the Ethiopian state formation has become now 7,000 years or even 8,000 years depending on which myth of origin one takes to begin the count!! China has 5000 years of such history. For Ethiopia seven or eight thousand years indeed makes it the most ancient country in the world. If we take the 4000 years that used to be 3000 years until last September’s Ethiopian millennium, it still makes Ethiopia belong in the oldest groups of countries such as Egypt, Persia and China. Even the 2000 years that Ethiopia entered after celebrating its millennium in September 2007 makes it yet still amongst the oldest groups of countries in the world. This is not to suggest all can or should agree on this age of Ethiopia. Those who think very often look back in order to see how far to look ahead into the future.
The question we must ask is this: Given such long historical memory, why has the country failed to invent an ethically anchored, consultation rich politics that works and constructs the nation rather than the divisive, cantankerous and cruel politics that destroys and unsettles all to a point where we all worry whether we can ever evolve a shared national direction to shape Ethiopia’s sustainable future that beats the fear of time? Even after the people made choices, voted and expressed their voice, why is that the very persons involved that helped to bring about this creative trajectory are at each others throat trying to undo what seemed to all indeed a record historical achievement gained also in a record time? Why are we back to the drawing board every time history opens a historical possibility to move in more constructive directions? Why is the seed planted often threatened with such desire to cut and pluck it out and even kill it? When are we going to stop wondering whether the particular way politics plays out in the country may or may not deliver an Ethiopia that will endure? When are Ethiopians to be liberated from the tyranny of a particularly uncongenial politics that disrupts all from mustering and sustaining the ability to relate and interact with each other to undertake substantial coordinated and collective action that is productive based on a shared project for freedom, equality, human dignity and justice for all in order to build and improve comprehensively the welfare of the people, the nation and the country?
3. Counting Age comes with a price of an oppressive inter- generational tyranny!
We continue to repeat reminding all concerned Ethiopia’s old age and historical longevity not to celebrate the few and far in between successes such as the epic African victory at Adwa in 1896 for example, but more as a call to all to reject and extricate the country from the oppressive litany of horrid failures that have existed from time immemorial to the present and threaten to continue to the future. We invoke the long gone past to bring home forcefully how much age old problems continue today to persist and threaten to pile up in the future by imposing something like an inter-generational tyranny over the people and their successive progeny rather than freedom and development. There can be no complacency by retelling the age of any country. We recall historical age in order to review a particular community’s national history where the secret of unleashing the opportunities to shape the future are locked. In order to appreciate the transformations that can make a difference, we must always examine and reflect on the complexities of a country’s historical journey and national history.
Ethiopia’s accumulated historical memory-the good, the bad and the tasteless- can be a source of learning to find the knowledge and the way to help prolong Ethiopia’s life hopefully by injecting a positive transformation dynamics of its age-old static society. That is to say, having lived for so long, one can only hope that this country will live on and on with an age that defies the law of gravity, solving the twin persistent problems of hunger and governance for good with justice and fairness to all.
In and of itself, counting years of vegetative existence of a country’s life, as well as a person may not be interesting. What would be most interesting would be, if indeed, when there is quality to the life-world for an individual as indeed also similarly to the strength, dynamism and self-reinforcing vitality of the system-world that has been driving the specific Ethiopian national history. There is no intrinsic value in counting ages per se however long and rich they are. What is of value is in what each age, as indeed each generation bequeathed to future ages and generations. Problems unsolved or newly created ones, more often than not, can pile up to a mountain top and become additional burdens on the generations that come after previous generations.