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The events of the past week have been tumultuous and
filled with mixed emotions. Everything that has
happened has caused me to ask one question "Eske
meche (until when)?"
I
write this piece filled with frustration and angered
by the situation that we, as citizens of this
nation, find ourselves in. We are stuck between a
rock and a hard place, a place that we seem to have
become quite accustomed to. Eske Meche?
Finding ourselves caught between difficult and hard
is something that has become so the norm in our
nation that we have gotten to a point where we
appear to be taking it for granted. The funny thing
is that it should never have been the case. There is
no justification for a nation's flip flopping; it is
healthier when it follows a set path. Jumping from
one path and inclination to another never got
anybody anywhere in time. Eske Meche?
It
has been twenty years since there was a serious
political upheaval in the country. The EPRDF came to
rid us of the oppressor that was the Derg,
just as the Derg had come to rid us of the
oppressor that was the Imperial Government.
At
the time, just as the nation and her people reacted
when there came a little thing called the Coalition
for Unity and Democracy (CUD), hope, faith and
support were given to the people that were thought
to have the answers to our woes and would act as the
forklift to get us out of the depth of poverty.
As
many times as we have been given the options for
change, those very same options keep coming out to
manifest themselves as simply a variation on the
very same modes of government that they fought so
hard to rid the nation of. In other words, we are
getting the same wolf in sheep's clothing. Eske
Meche?
After having been bombarded with all forms of
promises from both the inside and outside that we
would soon be lifted up out of our of poverty, that
our standards of living would exceed those that we
have known for generations upon generations, and
being told that we have had our fill of the
substandard-living pie, we still find ourselves in
the same puss and disease ridden, partially starved
and, for the most part, illiterate reality that is
the basis and foundation for poverty.
There may be a certain amount of change, but it is
not enough considering that everything and everybody
else around us has grown and developed at an
exponential rate while we are still trying to crawl.
Sort of like the difference in Internet in Ethiopia
and Internet anywhere else in the world. Eske
Meche?
Even with things as they are, we have done nothing
about them. Not only have we failed to pay attention
to the problem at a national level, as is the
responsibility of any good citizen who wants to be a
part of the discourse of their nation, but we have
gone beyond the point of disenchantment to that of
complete passivity.
We
allow all the things that we hate to be done to us.
We allow ourselves to continue living in a state and
condition that we know is not fit for existence. We
continue to follow the path that has been laid out
for us, although we see clearly the road blocks that
are sitting in the way. We are living in a
vegetative state, one that needs more than life
support. Eske Meche?
The worst possible thing that has come out of all
this is the simple fact that those who are fed up
with the state and condition of the state that is
Ethiopia have simply chosen to move on. These are
the people that recognise the flaws for what they
are, choose to address the issues that are pertinent
to the development and progress of the nation, and,
better still, offer viable solutions that could
bring about maximum output with minimum input.
These people have recognised that the passive,
non-changing eternal state that Ethiopia finds
itself in is no place to exercise freedom of mind
and thought. As a result there is a brain drain of
such huge proportions that the future of the nation
and independent thinkers has been solidly buried 24
feet under.
We
have lost the next generation of intellectuals, we
have pushed away the potential learners and teachers
and we have made it clear to them that they are not
wanted here. Perhaps they could use the coloured
entrance while the rest of us use the one for
whites. Eske Meche?
This bit of rambling is the result of the intense
frustration that I have felt over the political,
social and media happenings of the last few days.
These are not specific incidents per se, but they
add up to make the larger picture.
Eske Meche,
are we going to live in a nation that does not
permit us to be ourselves? Eske Meche are we
going to adhere to a line that has been printed up
for us? Eske Meche are we going to be
citizens of a nation that does not want to hear what
we have to say? Eske Meche? |
