Why We should be Sick-and-Tired of “Ethiopian Politics”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 4, 2009 -- As an Ethiopian nothing drives me more bonkers than waking up every morning, just to learn that something tragic, or depressing had happened in Ethiopia (either on the political arena, or the economical-and-business front).

In my entire existence, I have never felt any less of an Ethiopian through all this mayhem that Ethiopia seems to find itself in, time and again. In fact, I believe, Ethiopians have an undying patriotism about them. Patriotism oozes through our blood stream. We fight, and fight, and fight for one common goal – the betterment of Ethiopia.

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Why We should be Sick-and-Tired of “Ethiopian Politics”

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As you all know, we have what we call – the Ignorant Ethiopian Diaspora. If you haven’t already felt like you have been attacked or disrespected, congrats, as you are not in that category. You are the average Ethiopian who wakes up every day, goes to work, support the family, and hope and pray for the best in Ethiopia.

However, there are also those who wake up every day, hoping and praying that Ethiopia turns into a Hell-on-Earth. They usually have some kind of twisted news (or article) on their websites, or they are contributing to some news site with their name preceded by a – “Ph.D.“(or, something they fancy to be). I don’t know about most people, but every time i see some laughable article by these wanna-be “experts”, I feel terribly insulted. And I am overwhelmed when I see the number of Ethiopians who follow in droves any such news fabrication.

The Recent Fuss about “Hailu Shawel and Meles” hand shake

The recent commonly shared news among most opposition websites, is the the now famous handshake between Hailu Shawel and Meles Zenawi, on their agreement of the 2010 Ethiopian election conduct code.

As far back as I can remember, I was the first person to call-out Hailu Shawel among with his Kinijit cronies, when they first popped up on the political stage as the “main” opposition groups to the current government. Here is a man (Hailu Shawel) that I concluded to be a power-hungry politician, and I had no doubt that anything he touched would crumble and degenerate.

At the time, I knew I would be the lone and unpopular voice, and I have accepted the lashing that was to come from my fellow Ethiopians, as Kinijit was popularly accepted to be the HOPE of Ethiopia.

Needless to say, my skepticism about Hailu Shawel didn’t take too long to prove right. As we all know now, the Kinijit Party ["Ethiopia's Best Hope"] had since dissolved, and each of its prominent members had moved to their next gig in politics.

Ironically, the very websites that propped up Hailu Shawel to his current status, are the very websites that are working over time to tear him down. I have no problem in naming names of websites who are the poster-child of hypocrisy, but we know who they are – and better yet – they know who they are. And, believe me, the time has come when the next revolution of Ethiopian bloggers and news sites are ready to put these agenda-driven websites into their spots.

I have had enough of it, and my motivation is not one that needs fueling. Our politicians have for the longest raped their own people, and now the Ignorant Ethiopian Diaspora Elites are doing the same. They are a bunch of pompous, egotistic and self-centered men, who manage to hide behind a keyboard and spit out whatever comes to their childish brain. They are mostly driven by the business-end, and are eager to feel important, in a sort of ‘power-broker’ way.

What’s a Hand Shake Got to Do With It?

I can’t even begin to discuss how low we have come. we have finally hit the ‘bottom‘ of our own despair. The Ethiopian diaspora is, perhaps, in the most critical and situated position to play a role towards bringing about awareness and democracy in Ethiopia, yet we are quick to tear each other apart.

When all is said and done, we have done nothing but add insult to an injury, and it is time to own this shameful act. We have managed to fail ourselves and, by default, our people.

We have come to a point where we are discussing hand-shakes, when the whole story should be about the events and the inside politics of how ex-enemies in Ethiopian politics could find a common ground if it benefits their individual aspirations and desires, and how the people are the ones to always finish last.

This should have been the moment where we should have been using our individual medium to teach the poor people of Ethiopia on how our politicians fail us, no matter what sacrifice we are willing to pay for their agendas, and how careful we should all be in building our hopes up on any future candidate(s) for office, no matter how promising she/he may sound.

But some have chosen to highlight the hand shake as a breaking news, and it is precisely because their egos have been bruised by their past promoted and chosen political candidate. But the fact is they got what they deserve, and my hope is that they learn from this experience and I certainly hope they take their time in choosing when to board the next massively popular ship.

The Choice Between Two Evils

One thing Ethiopians have been cursed with – and this phenomenon is prevalent through out Africa – is a poor and corrupt leadership. We have always been faced with a choice picking between two evils. And it is also the main source for our deep political division, almost to the point of killing one another.

We have to learn to say ‘no’ to all of the candidate choices in front of us, if we deem it to be necessary, as is the case now.

The Berhanu Nega’s, the Meles Zenawi’s, the Hailu Shawel’s and many others are ALL one and the same.

It will be a cold-day-in-hell before I support the likes of the self-proclaimed patriot Berhanu Nega. The notion of contributing 500 U.S. dollars to his Ginbot 7 political organization, so that he can raise arms and fulfill his political ambition at the cost of one of my brothers dying, is something that makes me cringe.I can’t bear that thought.

No politician, or political group, is worth an ounce of our blood. If we can say NO to Darfur in our neighboring country of Sudan, why in the world should we say YES by contributing 500 U.S. dollars to Ginbot 7, just to give birth to our own Darfur in Ethiopia?

So, Berhanu Nega, guess what? Go to Hell ! And you can take with you all the rest that your butting heads against.

The revolution, this time around will be, and must be different. We are not going to resort to picking up guns. We say no to that. And the revolution is going to be different because we will be calling out those individuals and news sites that incite mayhem, we will expose them for what they are, we will form a united front that would force them out of their posh positions that they are holding for dear life.

The message is simple – be careful about what you say, and how you say it, because this time around, just when you least expected it, history might be written differently. David is contemplating beating up on Goliath. But secretly, he is hoping that Goliath would be listening to his advice.

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