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There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to Fortune.
William Shakespeare's (Julius Caesar)
There have been many tides in the affairs of
Ethiopia and Ethiopians, not many of which were
taken at the flood. Today, more than ever before,
there is perhaps the Mother of all Tides . . . a
one-in-a-thousand years Tide . . . in the
affairs of Ethiopia and Ethiopians . . . Ethiopia's
own Millennium.
It comes at a time when, for one reason or another,
we had failed to seize several previous
opportunities presented to us by occurrences brought
about by design, chance or default, the most recent
being that of our national elections of May 2005.
Today, we have yet another golden opportunity that
will be a grievous mistake to miss . . . a mistake
for which history will not forgive us. There are
some obvious favourable developments that we could
build upon occurring. Efforts are being exerted to
mitigate wrongs done; much more is being done to
alter the perception of our country, an unfortunate
image created by international media.
Irrespective of the different opinions regarding the
country's development paradigm, an unprecedented,
seemingly sustainable, rapid economic growth is
being registered. Though opinions vary as to what or
who is the major culprit for the relatively severe
inflation as well as the measures being taken to
mitigate its harsh impact on the very low or no
income sections of society, it is evident that
government is exerting serious efforts to control
it. Stop and/or reduce it.
Industry and businesses for their part are
responding to the problem in different ways,
including taking measures to improve the terms and
conditions of service of their employees.
Government's decision to improve the salaries and
pensions of civil servants could not have come at a
better time.
Although the public relations campaign surrounding
the Millennium and the Diaspora may have created
expectations that are impossible to deliver, I am in
no doubt that the chemistry or Shakespeare's Tide is
just about at its highest . . . at the flood which,
if we seize it could lead us to fortune.
The Millennium presents us with the most historic
and opportune moment to ignite the fire of
Ethiopianess and engage the imagination of
Ethiopians . . . a nation that defines its national
unity in its rich diversity and its universality in
the centrality of its deep-rooted history and
culture of humanity . . . a nation, to me, unlike
any other in the world.
Humanity is a continuum. Man's hopes and aspirations
are never fixed over a long period of time. What may
be considered as the ultimate goals can only be
guide posts, beacons to move towards to but never to
be reached.
It is the journey towards them that is life's
life-time engagement. So, allow me to dream about
what I want to see happen in this land of a proud
and complex people: A people who chose to and died
of hunger instead of eating horse or donkey meat to
survive; a people while being ruled by a devout
Christian Emperor, would decide to welcome the
devout and persecuted followers of Prophet Mohamed;
a people who, armed with spears, swords and single
action old guns, fought and ultimately triumphed
over a modern European adversary who came armed with
automatic weapons, tanks and big guns as well as war
planes laden with poison gas, and thereby became a
beacon for the freedom movements that engulfed the
African continent, which finally culminated in the
freedom of every state; and so on.
Those who know me from high school days at the
General Wingate Secondary School, know that I have
been an incorrigible dreamer and optimist. Like many
young persons of my days, I flirted with the idea of
Marxist solutions to the multifaceted problems of my
poor country and poorer country men and women. I was
confident that one day - much sooner than the 50
years I had been waiting for - my fiercely proud
country men and women would throw away the yoke of
servitude, rid themselves off self-appointed
surrogates and stand up for their rights as one
people for ever bound by a common destiny, nay,
denominator . . . their humanity.
More than 50 years, to violent changes of political
power and the experience of three distinctly
different styles of governance later, I remain a
dreamer though not so full of myself as I was then.
In September 2000, 189 heads of state ratified the
Millennium Declaration which resulted in the now
well-known eight Millennium Development Goals. These
are laudable goals embraced by Ethiopia and the
importance of the achievement of which need not be
over emphasised. I believed and still do that our
strive to attain an acceptable minimum quality of
economic life on the one hand and the
inherent/instinctive desire of every person - man,
woman, young and old - to be free from any kind of
fear need not be mutually exclusive.
The journey towards such a state of affairs starts
with embracing the culture of tolerance and mutual
respect for our differences. And the process of
narrowing our differences starts with our decision
to make peace with and within ourselves which, in
turn, would form a firm foundation for a renewed and
sustained effort to create a national consensus not
only about the broad goals we want to achieve
together but also about the path we need to take.
Let us all make a fresh start. I still see too much
hatred and greed in our midst. The Millennium is one
chance in a thousand years. None of us will be there
for the next one. History will not forgive this
generation of Ethiopians if it fails to grab the
opportunity and engage earnestly in a genuine
national reconciliation . . . one mammoth exercise
of national soul searching and cleansing.
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