The merchants of the wars and the plight of Horn of Africa
A. Alexander, Professor of Easter
and African Studies
Part 3
This is the third and final part of my reflection on
Ethiopia. In this section, I will discuss the future of Ethiopia by
highlighting its Achilles heel and by providing some recommendations. Before
that, I would like to answer a question that some of my good friends have asked
me: Why do I write about Ethiopia? My answer is that even though I have lived
my adult life away from Ethiopia, my affection for the country from my early
childhood has remained with me. I love its beautiful scenery, welcoming people,
and the lack of generation gap where young and old talk to you, families
welcome you to their home, church, private spaces or share with you whatever
small they have. That impression has remained with me.
Furthermore, as a person interested in spirituality,
Ethiopia is a mysterious and intriguing country for me. Ethiopia appears
fragile, weak and on the verge of collapse for casual observers but has
remained unconquered and resilient over the centuries while many great nations
and empires have reached dazzling heights only to come trampling down.
Ethiopia is complex. It is a country of the highest
mountain and the lowest point in the world. It is a water tower of Africa and
yet suffers from shortages. It is a country of deep spirituality and yet in perpetual
conflict. It is a country of immense wealth that remains unexploited but fails
to meet its needs. So I often ask myself why Ethiopia remains in problems? Why
do people who have extreme self-confidence in God and their own ability find it
hard even to make peace with themselves?
What is the issue? What is the missing ingredient? To
answer this question, one needs to see where the conflict starts - within the
elite and intellectual class. Ethiopia has everything it needs to achieve peace
and prosperity except for one important ingredient: a self-respecting,
self-reflecting, and humble intellectual class that doesn't regurgitate
whatever the educational system throws at it. Instead of counting its blessings
and strong foundation left by forefathers, many want to destroy it without
examining what made this country so great.
Ethiopia is the 27th biggest country in the world and
one of the most blessed countries with amazing sceneries, landscapes,
ecological diversity, and wildlife. However, it remains poor due to
mis-education by Western schools of thought that injected self-hate to destroy
self-worth and self-reliance by the intellectual class.
The new educated class ends up being phony by
appearing to be educated and sophisticated by imitating someone else instead of
upgrading its value and virtues with modern education. Instead of understanding
what made this country so great, many want to destroy everything traditional
values, religion, and tolerance with new Stalinist virtue of wanton and destruction.
The purpose of education was to improve one's own
value and system using the newly acquired education and skills. But in
Ethiopian mis-education, it was designed to destroy everything of ours to make
a new self in the image of the people who designed the educational system,
which is the West. Unless the Ethiopian intellectuals reset and start fresh to
love itself and appreciate what the older generation has done for this country,
it is impossible to build a castle in the sky. Ethiopia needs a foundation;
that is what our forefathers left for us. By destroying the foundation no one
will be able to build anything. Ethiopian intellectuals need to understand
their value, their education, their religion, their community co-existence, and
ability to resolve problems. Unless Ethiopians stop hating everything made in
their own image, the country is doomed to perpetuate the same misery and
suffering.
It is very important for Ethiopia intellectuals to
get back to basics - the essence and spirit of the country. It needs to find
the values that made this the only independent country in the world for
thousands of years. It needs to abandon attempts to be an imitation of
Westerners and be comfortable in its own skin. It needs to see
uniting values like the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches and Islam.
To achieve those values the Ethiopian youth need to
unite and continue the struggle against the last 50 years of political
hegemony, self-hate, genocide and destruction through united
actions.
The public resistance in the Amhara region and the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the beginning of the Ethiopian self-reliance and
empowerment. It must not remain in the Amhara region alone, it must expand into
Oromia, South Gurage, Addis Ababa and other reasons. No one has
benefited from existing genocidal system and it is a question who is net for
attack and extermination by Western trained extreme of the Oromo political
elites.
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