tecolahagos.com - ethiopian related issues and commentary

I. General

The responses to my review of the book Tagaie Siye Abraha reflect a wide spectrum of opinions. Judging from the letters and comments I received, it seems that some of my critics are reading their own thoughts into my work. In other words, whatever I wrote was read in many diverse ways, which suggests to me that either individuals are using me to vent their frustration or I have become a divisive lightning-rod for all kinds of ideas. Of course, neither assumption reflects my intention. Nevertheless, I want to thank many patriotic Ethiopians who believed in their Ethiopian identity more than in any ethnic chauvinistic labeling and who understood my message and came to my defense and support. Moreover, I urge all those good people back home and elsewhere in the World to pay close attention to my statements herein.

I realize that most Ethiopians here in the Diaspora (the Americas: United States, Canada; Europe) or back home are in pain and agony, more fearful than ever, about the fate of our country. Just reading the letters and comments sent to me, I realized that I might have added to the anxiety of some people including a few who professed to have been influenced by my earlier writings. Some have expressed heart wrenching disappointment that they felt I have abandoned them, the last person they expected to do so. Thus, my first duty is to ease this pain of my fellow Ethiopians and reassure them as far as I could that my criticism of �Shoa Amhara,� Mehale Sefaris, Aradas, et cetera is rhetorical and a designation of limited number of people and is not meant in any way to create fault-lines adding to existing problems leading to the fracturing and ultimate breakup of the Ethiopia we all love and want to keep whole for generations to come. All of my effort may be designated as a journey �beyond ethnicism� because the whole aim of my writings, lectures, and panel discussions has one single goal: to transcend tribalism, clannish grouping, and narrow nationalism.

My aim in citing past historical incidents, such as the lives of particular Emperors, is meant to blunt the arrogance and at times unabashed grabbing of power by a group of individuals on the basis of the alleged laurels of their parents or ethnic group. I am trying to move us towards a better understanding of our checkered past and not to sweep it all under the rag as if nothing hideous or deceitful had not happened in our history. This approach of disclosure will help us remove all kinds of entrenched interests and all of its residual. This is a process of contrition that we need to undergo to cleanse our souls from deeply buried mistakes and sense of guilt. Only after such honest acknowledgment will we be able to work with a system of government that will help us establish equality of opportunities and responsibilities as one people.

II. Amharas, Aradas, Mehale Sefaris, Shoa-Amharas, et cetera

As I stated earlier, people seem to read in my articles their own peculiar ideas, biases, and prejudice not necessarily reflective of either my intentions or my goals. Just because I criticized a particular group of �Amharas� some how makes me anti-Amhara is the most moronic claim by anybody as to my motive. First of all, I identified �Shoa-Amharas� by quotation marks indicating a special group rather than a generic one, i.e., a limited number of individuals who were the power sources and functionaries of several Ethiopian leaders who identified themselves as such. These were people who glorified in the achievements of local political leaders such that there is nothing unusual or wrong in identifying Menilik, Haile Selassie, and Mengistu�s power base with their locality. For example, we routinely identify Tewodros with Begemder/Quara, Yohannes IV with Tygraie et cetera. On the other hand, it would be absurd for anyone to think that I included all those poor Amharas in Shoa to have caused the problem facing Ethiopia. No one in his right mind would include everybody in Shoa when one refers to the power structure of some leaders as �Shoa Amhara� power base.

Strictly speaking the word �Amhara� as used by most people is more of a loosely applied cultural designation as opposed to a scientific and specific ethnic identification of one coherent group. If there is such a group, it must have transcended race, tribe, or clan. This is true especially observing the way most �Amharas� behave in a least ethnic driven social activities. However, if we use the term in its narrow and limited meaning, it may designate foremost a particular group of people of ancient Ethiopia now related to people from Northern Wollo�s Amhara- Sient region related to the Agews who had occupied a much larger area than their present area that straddled Wollo and Gojjam. Through waves of demographic movements due to war and other natural catastrophic events that took place around the time of �Yodit� at the end of the Axumite period, and later during the Zagwe Dynasty, other parts of Ethiopia such as Gondar and Debretabor in Begemder-Semien, Menz in Shoa and further South the large settlements of the great Seven Houses of the Gurages, an amalgamation of Tygreans and Amharas, and so on, the great Ethiopian Empire expanded to much greater size engulfing what remained now as Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Empire predates all present day settled population by several centuries in what is wrongly designated as an exclusively settled or indigenous �Oromo� land and �Somali� land et cetera. At any rate the �Amhara� designation mostly reflects this supra ethnic expansion of an imperial culture rather than an ethnographic identification. Mostly, anyone who speaks Amharic fluently for two generations is usually designated as Amhara irrespective of ancestral linage as long as your name or your father�s name is not �Hagos!�

The Mehale Sefaris are another good example of a non-ethnic group who ultimately were identified with being an Amhara group, who started out their history mostly as descendants of King Sahle Selassie�s vast household of domestics and slaves. Over a long period of service within the inner circle of the center of power of the Shoa-Ethiopian Throne, they were gentrified into Rases and Dedjazmatches and intermarried with the aristocracy and ended up controlling the future of Ethiopia through Haile Selassie and all of his successors. The breakthrough for the Mehale Sefaris was their great effort and success in installing Menilik, an illegitimate son of King Haile Melekot, by one of his domestic/slave girls, first as King of Shoa, and later after the death of Yohannes IV as Emperor of Ethiopia. Menilik in his own right was a dynamic and charismatic man, who impressed even at a young age of nine Emperor Tewodros II. There is no question that present day Ethiopia, specially its Southern half was a result of his great reclaiming effort. However, he has done so at the expense of the core of Ethiopian civilization, the Northern Regions, weakening them and as a result making the whole of Ethiopia vulnerable to attack by its old enemies and new once from the northern/western Boarders as well as from the Red Sea. Thus the Mehale Sefaris are identified as both great builders of political organizations, but also as crafty manipulators who would not hesitate to sacrifice people on the periphery of the Empire to preserve the center that they have successfully moved to Shoa-Ankober and Addis Ababa for some time. The Mehale Sefaris have unity of purpose and great capacity to mold and redirect raw political power to their design. Their great talent and capacity in shaping history is not fiction but a reality. We have seen them at work again in how they tamed the wild and brutal military man Mengistu and later his nemesis the TPLF and its leader Meles Zenawi. I have both great admiration for their single minded devotion to the manipulation of power and disdain for the method they used. For example, my great admiration for Aklilu Habtewold, whom I consider as a great patriot, in no way is diminished by the fact that he was either a Mehale Sefari or a beneficiary thereof.

The Aradas on the other hand have no history of great achievements compared to the Mehale Sefaris. I have adopted this particular name �Aradas� to designate some �intellectuals� who are sophisticated and urbanized with some dubiousness of character with quite sinister dimension. At times it was commonly used by people to refer to pick-pockets who lurk around open flea-markets. The basic root word �Arada� refers to the open flea�market near the outer walls of the Great Cathedral of Kidus Geiorgis (St. George Cathedral) in Addis Ababa. The Aradas have no convictions; they are opportunists who use their education to promote their own selfish interest to the exclusion of anything else. They are mostly educated in the West, and have lived most of their adult lives as students or scavengers of Western culture, mostly American. Unlike the Mehale Sefaris, the Aradas have very limited effect on long term political changes. Since they are mostly users and opportunists, they tend to come into the picture after all the political turmoil has settled and after major changes of government has taken shape. The Aradas are also non-ethnic group, but they are mostly identified with Addis Ababa and by derivation as �Shoa-Amharas.�

Coming back to my detractors and their assortment of letters, it is clear to me that the statements of my detractors about my alleged ethnic affinity is, in fact, a reflection on their narrow ethnic mindedness and has nothing to do with my attitude, political outlook, or life in general. They are the ones who are saturated with small-time ethnicism not me. For most of my critics, my last name was sufficient evidence for their assumption that I am a �Tygrean chauvinist�--a fallacy that has no basis in reality. At least one individual wrote that he has withdrawn his earlier accolades of my work on account of my book review because it is not to his liking. It is amazing how delusional and shallow an individual can be. People by now should have realized that I do not write to please groups, political parties, or particular people, the least of whom people like such individuals with antiquated ideas about human rights, civic responsibility, and democracy. I write the truth in the hope of helping every Ethiopian achieve justice and equality, democracy and freedom, and economic independence. Identifying one tiny group of people for the ills they have done against the interest of the larger community of Ethiopians, which assertion I supported with substantial factual evidence, does not by any standard of logic make me anti-Amhara or anti-Ethiopia.

However, at the risk of sounding too patronizing, and I beg your pardon for that, let me state that I do not mind being insulted and vilified by individuals who felt strongly in response to my review comment. Better that such individuals insult me than Meles Zenawi who would have their heads on a platter. After all, this is the closest that such individuals come to challenge a person, with some degree of authority by acclamation or self-appointment, without being molested or hauled to jail. If it could help hone the political outlook of my critics, I do not mind being a punching bag for all such hurting people. When one loves a people, one must accept also the barbs and the darts thrown in ones direction. I can state with a great degree of certainty that if the Mehale Sefaris stop manipulating us and start thinking of themselves as one member of a community made of very many people, and the Aradas stop taking advantage of our innocence, I will be the first one to embrace them as my brothers and sisters, I would even vote for them if they choose to serve us all.

I am particularly critical of Addis Ababa both as a symbol and as a real stronghold of the Mehale Sefaris, and as the economic backbone of succeeding Ethiopian governments starting from Menilik all the way down to Meles Zenawi to the detriment of the rest of Ethiopia. That view is based on incontrovertible facts. More than the political reason for my aversion of Addis Ababa, it is strictly based on the economic subversion it caused, and negative social challenges it brought about. The net effect of such concentration of manpower, investment, commerce et cetera in Addis Ababa is tremendous economic underdevelopment, restraint on education resulting in social (human) degradation in the rest of Ethiopia. For example, in my youth I have heard the many ethnic slurs by Addis Ababian children, some of whom my own close relatives, on the way people from other parts of Ethiopia speak Amharic, for most a second language, or the way they acted. Such silly games of children speak volumes about the overall perception of their parents. No one is spared from such barbs including Oromos, Gurages, Gonderes, Menzes, Wolloies, Tygreans, et cetera.

I have gone through the disingenuous but childish argument offered adnauseam by Mehale Sefaris and Aradas about Addis Ababa being the capital city, the center of international relations, et cetera thus should be maintained at a level of a world-class metropolis. This is one of the silliest and most nonsensical arguments that I have ever heard forwarded by educated people who should know better, which is full of fallacies. The argument is circular in the sense that facts are manufactured first on the ground and then justifications are provided for those facts. The singular question that we ought to consider is whether there was any national need in the first place to turn a small city of a poor nation into hosting international organizations, opening hundreds of embassies and international agencies, building first class hotels et cetera using up scares resources that should/could have been used to meet the humble needs of most Ethiopians all over the country. How is it in our national interest that we house and provide the infrastructure for expensive international organizations and their personnel, at a time when most Ethiopians do not even have their most basic needs met, such as purified water for drinking, or medical facilities and clinics, or schools et cetera? What is more important, for example, the water problems of thousands of towns and villages of Ethiopia being solved or building some high-rise headquarters for an international organization? It seems we have confused our priorities!

In the last fifty years, after the return of Haile Selassie to Ethiopia, once the Italian occupation was over, Addis Ababa saw tremendous transformation. It is to be recalled that the Italians in their five years occupation using forced Ethiopian labor had built water systems, electric power houses, government buildings, residential houses even apartments in main towns and provincial capitals such as Debre Markos, Dessie, Gondar, Mekele and in very many other smaller towns. Addis Ababa next to Asmara had the most constructions by the Italians. However, after the Italians left, Haile Selassie�s government almost obsessively focused on Addis Ababa and transformed it as an original City built entirely by indigenous labor and finance. Sadly, the rest of the important cities and towns mentioned herein were totally neglected and the infrastructure and utilities in those towns to this day are still those built by the Italians over fifty years ago. They have the same old water distribution systems, roads, government buildings et cetera built by the Italians that are being used by those provincial capitals. Even at that, the facilities were not maintained properly let alone new ones being built.

This form of lopsided development of Addis Ababa affected all aspects of Ethiopian social, economic, political, and cultural life. One such effect well known to my generation of Ethiopians is the way Ethiopian students reacted in the 1960s and 1970s. This was also the period when hunger and famine affected millions of Ethiopians. As we recall the leaders of the Ethiopian students movement at the University and colleges were almost one hundred percent students from the provinces (or in general from rural Ethiopia). Student leaders such as Berhane Meskel Reda (Tygraie), Tilahun Gizaw (Wollo), Walelign Mekonen (Wollo) et cetera were individuals who saw the glaring discriminatory development of Addis Ababa and vicinity in context of their hometowns or rural regions. Of course, their anger was not directed at the people of Addis Ababa or Shoa, but at the system that created such inequity and injustice. Thus, the radicalization of students started in earnest fueled by the contradictory national poverty surrounding an island of �prosperity.� The stark contrast between the feverish building of high raises and mansions within Addis Ababa contrasted sharply with the bleak existence of hunger and creeping famine in the rest of Ethiopia. It left no other choice to the student body at the University except to take on the Imperial patronizing Government of Haile Selassie. Because of such intensity of emotion, there was no room for debate or alternative views. Thus, the origin of totalitarian or Marxist philosophical ideology in Ethiopia could be traced to the lopsided development of Addis Ababa at the cost of the rest of Ethiopia.

One other negative consequence in the development of a single �Metropolis� was the tremendous demographic movement from rural Ethiopia to Addis Ababa. Most of all, Addis Ababa attracted individuals who were least settled, transient, often surplus in their respective villages. It also attracted young girls and young females who may have some difficulties in married life to abandon their homes for a life in a big city where they end up as prostitutes or apprentices in houses of prostitution. This was all facilitated with the new transportation network where all roads led to Addis Ababa. This system also spawned secondary and tertiary road-side villages and little towns mushrooming without proper municipal plans or incorporation around bus-stops which further attracted rural people to leave their homes and settle in those bus-stops towns further eroding the cultural ties of standards of conduct that had hitherto maintained a proud culture of dignity and individual autonomy. This new phenomenon resulted in the degradation of the worth of the individual, and the rise of absolutist power of the State and/or the Government. Because of the prevalent of massive prostitution, it lowered the status of women to being just sex objects, and redefined sexual activity to just being recreational activity without its serious consequences or responsibilities. Cheap sex freed young Ethiopian men from the traditional and much more cumbersome responsibilities of forming family-unites that would ultimately result in taking care of wives, children, and in-laws in an extended family structure�the backbone of Ethiopia�s time tested source of values and heroic tradition. [I have heard some Ethiopian elders commenting on the easy availability of sex, because of the spread of prostitution in our generation, that in their days one has to traverse seven mountain ranges for a stolen moment of love carried out under maximum secrecy.] Thus, with unplanned and haphazard urbanization we lost much more than we think we have.

It is shameful to hear those �modernist� Ethiopians praising and arguing for the type of cosmetic modernity of Addis Ababa while most Ethiopians are living under subhuman conditions drinking germ infested dirty water, with minimal sanitation or hygiene, and starving year in year out. It is particularly criminal when we consider the tens of thousands of young mothers dying in child birth, and when over fifty percent of all children born to Ethiopian mothers never living beyond the first year of their lives, and yet we are arguing here whether we should be maintaining the living standards of diplomats and highly paid international civil servants et cetera in a system that has not delivered much to our well-being or development aspirations. I say shame on us all for taking our fellow Ethiopians for granted, and for treating them as subhuman ciphers. I am not engaged here in simple rhetoric, but with serious subject matter. Out of very many evidences of injustices and inequities against Ethiopians perpetuated by Ethiopian Government leaders after the end of the Second World War, I have picked three situations that are easy to understand and graphic in their significance as proofs to support my accusations against maintaining both the economic and political systems that has brought us to the edge of cataclysmic end.

IV. Koka Dam [blood-money], Budget Proclamations, International Organizations

One must admit the incontestable fact that it was mainly in Addis Ababa that Haile Selassie was fully engaged in construction works after the Italians left Ethiopia. During his long reign, Addis Ababa was transformed with high-rises, international four star hotels, headquarters of international organizations, colleges, numerous mansions to house the Ethiopian aristocracy and elite class that included the new-rich business class as well. Here below are three concrete examples of such lopsided programs and undertakings to make you understand why I questioned the wisdom of creating a single metropolis, Addis Ababa, that has gobbled up our scares resources leaving the rest of Ethiopia very little to live on resulting in the current condition of total meltdown of our values and our very humanity not to mention our pride as Ethiopians.

1. Koka Dam � Blood Money

In order to achieve such tremendous growth, some power source has to be installed for Addis Ababa. The blood-money of forty million dollar (over half a billion dollar in today�s money), paid by the Italian government subsequent to the 1947 Peace Treaty of Paris, was used to finance the building of Koka Dam and the hydro electric generators. Although hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians were victims of Fascist Italy all over Ethiopia, and mostly people of the Northern part of Ethiopia paid the most sacrifice, all of that blood-money was invested to benefit Addis Ababa and Haile Selassie�s circle who bought or appropriated land in the area. There was some diversionary tactic used to silence any dissention in the inequity and injustice of putting the blood-money meant to compensate the millions of Ethiopians for the benefit of people in one single City. Haile Selassie�s government in devious scheme tried to hide its actions by distributing some insignificant amount of cash to some provincial warlords and families of patriots whose family member were killed by the Italians. The bottom line was that all that blood-money was invested to benefit principally Addis Ababa and vicinity. Later some power was extended to other parts of Ethiopia from Koka.

[As an aside, let me make this absolutely clear when it comes to the handling of that blood-money the Italians paid us, I never tire admiring Haile Selassie in that one instance of integrity that he did not personally touch a penny of that blood-money for his personal use. How many African leaders would have that level of integrity having absolute power as he did? One reason that I got into trouble with a number of friends is on that important point because I hold the view that Haile Selassie despite his shortcomings, and he had a few, was essentially an ethical man in more ways than one.]

2. International Organizations and Missions

The establishment of the OAU and the headquartering of other international organizations was another premature idea that is still bleeding us to death. In the 1960s there were numerous social, economic, and educational needs all over Ethiopia. Had the Ethiopian government moved to meet such needs at that time, Ethiopians now would have had the infrastructure, the culture, and the human resource to combat famine, pestilence (AIDS), and all forms of social ills. Already the forty million plus dollars, the blood-money paid by Italy, had been spent on Koka Dam that was exclusively meant to benefit a limited area. It was concentrated on Addis Ababa. Thus, the new ambition to make Ethiopia an international player created another expenditure that paid for the building of new modern buildings, offices, hotels, mansions, streets et cetera further sucking every penny that could have been used to improve the humble needs of the millions of Ethiopians for clean

water, health clinics, education facilities, et cetera.

It is quite incongruent, taking into account the tremendous human needs as yet unmet in Ethiopia, to have Addis Ababa as the cite of so many embassies and headquarters or branch offices of several international organizations. In my one year sojourn with the EPRDF, I saw first hand the degree of distortion (corruption) and moral decay engendered by the presence of such foreigners in a community that is essentially suffering from multiple layers of oppressive structures heaped one over the other, and suffering the worst form of poverty. The corruption is not just limited to economic corruption but also involves moral decay where young Ethiopian girls have become playthings to those foreigners starting from the simple cook to the highest office holder. A society that cannot protect its females from such degradation is not worth calling a society at all. The blatant abuse of diplomatic status involved in illegal trade of duty free alcoholic beverage, clothing, consumer goods, and the raging black market for hard currency has elevated to new height the degree of serious problems facing Ethiopia as a nation. Even more devastating is the psychological harm done to Ethiopians who are being relegated to second-class citizenship in their own country while foreigners are treated with a degree of sickening difference.

We have fallen so far down in the eyes of the World nations, big and small, that even people who were running around naked after wild animals only a few generations ago have the gall to refer to Ethiopia as a �failed state.� We read articles full of degrading and insulting statements by some African reporters about Ethiopia and its people. Even though the �great� Mandela deserves our respect for his long struggle and suffering (imprisoned for three decades), I was extremely disappointed in his autobiographical sell-out book Long Walk to Freedom [Back Bay Books, 1995] wherein he went out of his way to state that Ethiopia is an �extremely backward� country (p265), forgetting the fact that he started out his life almost naked wearing loin-skin until he came in contact with Europeans in his teens. He forgot the fact that he grew up in a culture so primitive that it has neither a written language nor a settled civilization until the Europeans came to shore. His own tribe, the Xhosa, never developing beyond the structure of a primitive tribe. This is true of many other sub-Saharan African peoples, including those of South Africa. Because they were such disorganized and weak peoples that a handful of Europeans were able to subjugate and trample them until recently. I am reacting strongly because it has now become a sort of fashion, a kind of attitude of condensation by very many individuals from newly minted African nations that came into existence since the 1960s to beat upon Ethiopia. Ethiopia by contrast was a world power who stood face to face with the Romans, the Greeks, the Ottomans et cetera in the ancient World, and maintained its independence and high culture for thousands of years to this date. The Ethiopians are the only people on Earth that had never been anybody�s slaves, or colonial subjects.

It is particularly painful to read such remarks in the case of Mandela; the significance of Mandela�s statement is not to be taken lightly. This is the case of biting the hand that feeds. After all, it was the Ethiopian Imperial Government of Emperor Haile Selassie that provided help to the ANC and comfort and training to Mandela when the rest of the world did not even nod in encouragement or acknowledgment of the ANC. Mandela was issued Ethiopian Passport No. 8786 under an assumed name of David Motsamai, which facilitated his movement around Africa. What is tragic in Mandela�s and other Africans new found feeling of modernity and disdain for our ancient and truly the single most important Black civilization is the fact that there was no need for such a remark singling out Ethiopia for �extreme backward� identification when most of Black Africans including Mandela were running around half naked in total primitive condition only a few generations ago.

Year after year there was only a single place where developmental work of any kind took place in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa ate up literally billions of dollars in the last fifty years while the rest of Ethiopia in total received only a miserly fraction of the budgetary money. Facts are facts, go take a look at the budget proclamations and come back then to talk to me if you do not disappear in shame for accusing me for pointing out the folly of our leaders in trying to create a Western style metropolis in a poor country as yet struggling to stand on its own feet. Although I have studied the problem closely in the past, just to check my facts one more time, I went by the Library of Congress and reviewed Ethiopia�s Budget Proclamations for about fifteen years 1960 to 1975. It is sickening to read how much abuse and neglect was committed by Haile Selassie�s Government year after year on the people of Ethiopia outside of Addis Ababa wasting their money on frivolous projects trying to impress the Western World with their type of symbolism of development. I do not blame Haile Selassie as much as I do those who surrounded him, most of whom well educated men. I do not understand how such obviously gifted and talented officials could overlook the most basic norm in our tradition�the fact that the greatness of a leader is in the wealth and well being of his subjects. Geber� cirab ager yitefal.

While Addis Ababa was being built by money extorted from Ethiopians from all over the country through taxation, and with loans acquired in their name from international financial institutions, the rest of Ethiopia was being devastated with famine, epidemics, illiteracy, high degree of infant mortality et cetera. Every single high-rise, luxury hotel, international office building you see in Addis Ababa is built on the flesh and bones of sacrificed Ethiopians. The social and economic distortion of the uneven development of the country, the rest of Ethiopia vs. Addis Ababa, resulted in generations of Addis Ababians with corrupted outlook and despicable attitude towards other Ethiopians.

To cite one such situation of manifest moral corruption of some Addis Ababians in the United States as an example to make my point absolutely clear, I want to bring to your attention the type of reception given to the first immigrants of Ethiopians from war-thorn Ethiopian countryside and provincial towns who were given refuge in mass in the United States in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Some of those new refugees were ex-freedom fighters who had sacrificed their youth and future for the sake of bringing freedom to all Ethiopians. Those wonderful Ethiopians were greeted with contempt and condescension by the sons and daughters of Addis Ababian elites and officials who were dug-in and settled residents of the United States for many years by that time.

Prior to the new wave of emigration of the new refugees from the rest of Ethiopia, those hyphenated children of the exploitative class were the only ones to have had such chances to live in the West as students (some on government scholarship) or pursuing personal goals prior to the arrival of several thousand Ethiopians from outside of Addis Ababa. [It is to be recalled that it was considered as a mark of �great achievement� for such individuals to strut around decked in their plaid jackets and button-down shirts�the symbol of Americanization�in the poor neighborhoods of Ethiopia, and being admired and envied by many who never had a chance to live abroad.] I have spoken to several of those former refugee Ethiopians who still talk with pain about their treatment when they arrived in a strange country, in the hands of such entrenched and Americanized Addis Ababians to this day. Rather than helping the new immigrant Ethiopians adjust to their new setting, true to form as true children of their exploitative Addis Ababian parents, the earlier settled hyphenated Americanized individuals from Addis Ababa were belligerent and abusive.

[Some of those hyphenated Addis Ababians, who had resided in the United States long before the new Ethiopian refugees came to shore, had gained some undeserved reputation back in Ethiopia as progressive intellectuals forming this or that student associations and over billing themselves with self importance and swelling with hot air of being Marxist-Leninist of some sort. After making some manipulative opposition at the beginning of EPRDF�s takeover in 1991, some of the same people wiggled their way to become trusted servants of Meles and his cronies as officials of Addis Ababa University and as advisers in Meles�s Government.]

It is fruitless to fight with me, or try to castigate me for telling you the truth to your faces. Just go take a look at the crumbling cities or towns such as Dessie, Gondar, Debre Markos, Jimma, Yirga Alem, Arba Minch et cetera and the hundreds of small towns all over Ethiopia, and ask yourself, where are the water purification systems, the electric power plants, the factories, the colleges and high schools, the hospitals and clinics, the highways and feeder roads et cetera. Where are the government offices, the grain silos, pasture lands, the dams, irrigation systems et cetera that should have been built long before building a single headquarter for an international organization. What is the value of erecting buildings after buildings, high-rises after high-rises, hotels after hotels, headquarters after headquarters of international organizations in Addis Ababa when the rest of Ethiopia is deprived of the tiniest of improvement of life and starving for minimal development?

Who in his right mind will be angry at me for pointing out such horrible inequity? Addis Ababa is a real problem that will not go away; it will simply grow into a ghetto ever sprawling over larger and larger area with unimaginable misery and corruption. If you try to improve it, it will be sending good money after bad one. There has to be drastic policy change; a new beginning in order to stop this hemorrhaging open wound that is infecting the rest of the body-politic of Ethiopia. We may have to make painful decisions, starting with the closing down of our international relations, and redirecting our resources inward into rural development programs, and distributing Government Agencies away from Addis Ababa in different administrative regions. We may need to put serious multiple rural development programs, and actively engage ourselves in deurbanization projects starting with the City of Addis Ababa. In few short years we will be able to control our own destiny.

There were some important points not explicitly discussed but implied in general terms in my book review because of the limitation set by a review format itself. Issues of atrocities committed by the current Ethiopian Government in the Southern and Western part of Ethiopia were pointed out as missing in my review. I cannot possibly include all the different problems afflicting Ethiopia in a review about a book focusing on a specific subject matter. Some also have challenged me for implying that TPLF had waged a resistance movement and some of its leaders were liberators of Ethiopia. No matter how we judge the inner aims of EPLF and that of Meles Zenawi, and their half-backed psudo-marxism ideology that resulted in terrible social and political deformity, most TPLF members fought for the liberation of Ethiopia from a brutal military government. I have my own brothers and relations that I talked to at some depth who knew several members of the TPLF and EPDM, and all confirmed the view that they fought for Ethiopia not for Meles Zenawi or TPLF per se. They fought to remove a brutal dictator. I still hold on that view, and still honor all those young men and women who fought for the freedom of all of us against a brutal dictatorship.

V. Questions on Ethnicity: �Afar� land, �Oromo� land, �Somali� land et cetera

At the present time, other than the pernicious attack on the territorial integrity of Ethiopia by Issaias Afeworki and his �Eritrean� government that has created tremendous hardship to the people of Ethiopia [which includes the people of Eritrea], the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has been the second source of divisive effort by former disgruntled members of the EPRDF government of Ethiopia. If we listen and read carefully those individuals who base their political rhetoric on ethnic identity as a basis of differentiation between members and outsiders, disappointingly most simply repeat the old Marxist-Leninist views on self-determination, and ape also the rhetoric used by the Eritrean movements. The Eritrean rhetoric to some extent succeeded because it was the time of the end of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the domination of the World by the United States, and sadly Ethiopia was with the losing side! However, such rhetoric is painful anachronistic at this point of the World�s situation and in the new global relationship of nations in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet system of World domination. Rather what we all need to do is to reformulate our common goals and work together to solve our political, economic, and social problems.

1. Oromo v. Galla � Ethiopia

The Oromo movement is an artificial effort to create a state structure out of the fully integrated people of Ethiopia based on language overlooking the fact of the strong rope of commonly experienced historical events that has bound all Ethiopians to a common destiny for centuries. And it is impossible to create such an artificial entity �Oromiya� without carrying out surgical dissection of individuals and families one by one in order to extract what is �Oromo� and what is Amhara, Hadiya, or Tygre et cetera. The OLF makes all kinds of claims and accusations against the Ethiopia it perceives to be an occupying force. It looks quite ridicules when one realizes the people who are being accused are no different than the accusers. If the name �Ethiopia� is the offending word, it becomes a question of individual choice as opposed to historical fact. The word �Oromo� as the word �Galla� has very contested origin. The former as an identification is a recent political construct during the time of Mengistu even though the word�s origin �Orma� seems to predate the word �Galla.� The word �Galla� has been a point of acrimonious dueling between scholars for sometime now. However, no one seems to have come up with good explanations how these words entered our lexicon. More importantly whether it really is a derogatory term used by Amharas to undermine such people. The consensus seems to suggest that these words describe two sides of the same coin looked at from different trajectory. The word �Galla� is allegedly derived from the word �gallumma� meaning someone who is a stranger coming into a community or area as opposed to the word �Oromo� allegedly derived from the word �orma� meaning some one who left an area.

In order to understand better the psychological turmoil behind the OLF search for new identity, I started out by reexamining stereotypical concepts and words used in association with that movement and the people it claims to represent. I found fascinating roots of words in books, and invaluable discussions by noted scholars such as Aleme Eshet, Donald Levine et cetera in EEDN. I spent over a year considering all possibilities of the derivative of the word �Galla.� What I discovered was a lesson in the misrepresentation or misunderstanding of innocuous names. I believe, the word �Galla� was a third party designation of certain activities that was transformed by Ethiopians as an identification to mean a particular people. I believe the word �Galla� is derived from the Greek word �γάλα� pronounced as �galla� or �ghala� which means �milk.� It is to be recalled that vast regions were overrun with Oromos following in the footsteps of Ahmed Gragn�s a decade rule of Ethiopia in the 16the Century. But the migration of limited number of Oromos predates Gragn�s war. There were Greek and Greek speaking merchants who were used in the transfer of goods and other services by the Ethiopians before and after Ethiopia was surrounded by the Ottoman Turks who had attempted to destroy Ethiopia over the years. Arabia and Egypt used to be the natural outlets for Ethiopians to the rest of the world over the past centuries. I think the Amhara or Tygriean people who have come in contact with Oromos in markets for exchange of goods might have heard Greeks referring to the milk or milk products as �γάλα� spoken as �galla� which they might have easily identified with the Oromos since the Oromos were great cattle herders and were exchanging milk and butter for grains, textile, and other products with the highlanders. And I believe that must be how the Greek word �γάλα� spoken or pronounced as �galla� came to be used in reference to the many groups of new settlers. I am offering this alternative Greek source as an explanation. However, this third explanation must establish the Greek root of the word �Galla� predates the narrative history by Abba Bahrey, Zenayhu LeGalla. At any rate, there is nothing sinister or derogatory in the use of the term �Galla.�

The great Empire of ancient Ethiopia resembles in more ways to its contemporary the Roman Empire. The building of an empire is not like colonialism of the 19^th Century as practiced by Western European countries in Africa where colonized people are reduced to a status no different than being slaves. Empires, on the other hand, incorporated defeated people into their system as part of the empires. Through such incorporation defeated people transformed themselves gaining in status and ultimately becoming full partners in the affair of the empire. The Ethiopian Emperors in fact had better understanding of defeated people�they allowed defeated people to have their own local power structure as long as they paid tribute and supplied soldiers and commanders in cases of military expeditions carried out by the Emperors. In the case of Ethiopia, the leadership of such incorporated people became quickly integrated as well through intermarriages. It is a fact that every ruling house in every ethnic group is an admixture of Amharas, Tygreans, Oromos, Wolaitas, Gurages, Afars et cetera. Even more important is the fact that those who became Ethiopia�s Emperors and leaders are from families that have had a long history of intermarriages. One may see this extensive intermarriage between the leading houses of several ethnic groups as a process of transcendence of ethnic limitations and the building of an Empire that has outlasted every empire on Earth. There is no question that the system of integration has worked. To make my point absolutely clear, I will give you two examples, Emperor Menilik came from a family of Amharas, Oromos; Emperor Haile Selassie came form a family of Amharas, Tygreans, Gurages, and Oromos.

The great Ethiopian innovative approach to building such empires was passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. For example, the last Emperor who gave Ethiopia its present shape, Emperor Menilik did exactly that when he was reclaiming Ethiopia�s old Empire holdings that had been resettled by Oromos and Somalis after the defeat of Lebna Dingle and the devastation of the old Ethiopian Empire in the hands of Ahmed Gragn. The presence of old Churches, foundations of burned down Churches, and large village sites all over the presently designated area of Oromia predated any Oromo settlement, and the eye witness accounts of the massive several waves of demographic movements from present day Northern Kenya on the heels of the fleeing Christian population (because of Gragn�s destructive army) displacing settled communities is uncontestable evidence of the size of ancient Ethiopia�s Empire. For most Ethiopians, this is old-story; its veracity has been established by great Ethiopian world renowned scholars such as Sergew Hable Selassie, Richard Pankhurst, Getatchew Haile, Taddesse Tamrat, Alem Eshet, Bairu Tafla, Bahru Zewde, Mohammed Hassen et cetera. There are also numerous travel accounts and academic works by foreigners that affirms the Ethiopian narration.

It was during the reign of Ahmed Gragn that large numbers of Oromos (Quotus, Aderes, Hararis), Somalis, Afars were converted to Islam. The force behind the Islamic movement in Medieval Ethiopia was the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. There is no need to repeat that history here since it is very well known. It is mentioned here as the major cause for the convulsive demographic movements all over Medieval Ethiopia. However, the real important point I am trying to make is that there are not that much large areas in Ethiopia that one could claim as the patrimony of an indigenous people except very limited pockets of remote virgin areas. So called �Oromo� land, �Somali� land et cetera are areas simply incorporated through large demographic movements especially after the 16^th Century. Thus, the type of assertions that we hear made by ethnic groups of some exclusive patrimonial land is fallacious and is aimed to push out a more recent settled areas that people have worked hard to develop. Ethnicity is being used to promote anti-democratic and divisive goals to hurt individuals perceived as outsiders. In a unitary state there can be no such excuse to displace or remove people from their places of settlement, work, or development.

The programs of the OLF and other such so called liberation movements emphasis on tribalization of politics is a sad regression and infantile ideation of political processes. In a way it is a failure of our education system and the political and economic systems of past Ethiopian governments exasperated by the current irresponsible Bantustanization of a great nation according to half-baked Marxist ideology based political programs that emphasizes on a corrupted form of �self-determination� and installed language based divisive political structures, without taking into account the great integration that had already taken place. What we need to do is to build on that solid historic foundation of Ethiopianness rather than implement the current almost juvenile and divisive lumping of Ethiopians by their language and dividing them into mini-states.

2. Remapping of Ethiopia and the New Administrative Structure

The State of Ethiopia has all kinds of residual rights in the land, water-bodies, natural resources of all the areas that are not being utilized by individuals or groups. This is particularly important in vast desert areas where no one group or individual can be said to have any grandfathered rights of �use.� Thus, designations on maps of vast empty areas as Afar, Issa, Somali, or Oromo are total errors of the present Government. The closest thing that may be seen as conferring some permanent right of use could only be around water-holes, settled oasis, villages et cetera and the right of passage across these vast open lands. All so called no-man�s-lands are under the ownership of the State of Ethiopia as distinguished from its Sovereignty over all of Ethiopian Territories that includes land, rivers, lakes and territorial waters in the Red Sea. The Ethiopian Maps should reflect that fact. At any rate, all ethnic based designations of claims of land, natural resources, and populations are all primordial and fictional, none of which have any place in the modern world. As a people encumbered with monumental problems just to survive in the world, our effort should be directed in the integration of more people and more resources in order to insure our survival in a world that is becoming exceedingly competitive and globalized

The right approach is to look at the problem of development and political integration from a pragmatic administrative point of view. The incorporation of all towns and villages with ascertainable boundaries is a great way of empowering residents with their own political and administrative powers. This allows people to have something of value at stake in the larger political life of the nation. Incorporation is not like lumping of people through their language; rather it deals with the real economic base of a society and allows such community to have identifiable responsibilities to its residents based on real life situation of survival, development, and growth.

Richard Pankhurst in a 1997 article [�History of Northern Ethiopia � and the Establishment of the Italian Colony or Eritrea�] wrote his hopes on the future of Ethiopia and Eritrea that succinctly reflects my sentiment on the unity of the people of Ethiopia in the larger context of political evolution in the Twenty First Century. I quote, �When the bloodshed is over, and the scars begin to heal, and probably even sooner, it will be necessary to look to the future with new, and wiser, eyes. It is important to remember that the two countries of the Ethiopian region, divided by an artificial frontier, and years of civil war, as well as by the Peace Settlement of 1991, share a common millennial-old history, and form part of the same civilization. Recognizing that the economies of what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea have been linked since time immemorial, and that the two countries are bound together by innumerable racial ties, it should not be beyond the ingenuity of the peoples of this part of the Horn of Africa to devise a mutually acceptable framework, and the sooner they begin to think about this the better.�

VI. Questions on my Ethnic Background

One individual, who did not even have either the courage or the integrity to write in his/her own name, has been writing this insidious attack on my person, in Medrek that I am anti-Amhara, thereby completely distorting what I wrote as policy suggestion to contain Mengistu�s High Officials, such as Ministers and Ambassadors during the transitional government period in 1992. In order to make sure that such individuals had not participated in Red Terror activities, and to guard against their infiltration of the leadership of the TPLF before it accomplished its mission of the establishment of a democratic government for Ethiopia (that was my understanding of the program of the TPLF at that time), I advised the government to replace those Ministers and Ambassadors by new ones. Moreover, the public was up in arms and demonstrating day after day for the arrest and removal of such Mengistu Officials. At any rate, I did not single out Amharas as was blatantly misrepresented in Medrek for such precaution or censor. If that was the case why did I struggle to restore the Government�s monetary support to the Ethiopian Patriots Association? Or restore the dignity of the Trinity Church? Or very many instances that I tried to bring some dignity to my fellow Ethiopians. Please, go ask the leadership of those organizations who remember me in their thoughts for my effort to this day.

[By way of encouragement, I have to make it clear that no Ethiopian should be afraid of me. Since the individual who wrote in Medrek criticizing me is obviously afraid of me, I take this opportunity to explain to my readers, that defending myself, or explaining some statements I had written is an exercise of my human rights. I am not trying to further frighten or alienate a person who is already hiding behind an assumed name. I sincerely look to the day that we all stand up and face whom we criticize or disagree with as adults and not cower in and hide behind facades or pretenses and throw barbs at individuals who are openly challenging us to be a better society and dignified human beings. Do not prejudge me either as Fekade did, who wrote a rebuttal to my book review and comment and sent it to a Website that has nothing to do with me except to make an occasional hyperlink to some of the Articles appearing in our Website. Fekade assumed that I will not publish his comment, an assumption that speaks very loudly about his state of mind of insecurity and even fear of me than on my clear stand on freedom of speech and expression. Had he sent his comment to me directly, I would have posted it as I have so many other insulting comments and letters.]

Because this silly accusation is getting in the way diverting people�s attention from the real issue I am bringing to the attention of the Ethiopian people, I will go over my family identity one more time. I have repeatedly informed in writing everyone who can read that my ancestral roots and homes cover most of Ethiopia: Ambassel (Mamedo) and Yejju (Woresehe, Worehimenu) Oromos in Wollo; Debre-Brehan (Menz) and Efrata in Shoa; Axum, Adowa, Woqerro, Enderta, and Tembein in Tygraie; and Gondar in Begemder--solid Ethiopian stock of farmers, foot soldiers, warriors and freedom fighters of uncontestable valor, scholars, and yes statesmen too. I am tired of this tiny group of Mehale Sefaris, whose own �Amharaness� is open to question, and who do not even measure up to my Amhara blood contained in my little finger, keep bringing in this silly accusation of I being anti-Amhara over and over. All of my Amhara cousins whom I love dearly are as puzzled as I am with the efforts of such people trying to deny me my Amhara linage and relations.

The closest that one may accuse me of being a chauvinist maybe the fact of my singular weakness of pride in being born in Dessie and growing up a �Wolloie.� Growing up in Dessie was magical, the most enriching experience for anybody. I grew up among people whose openness, kindness, and tolerance for all kinds of people from different ethnic background and religious persuasions is legendary. Visiting with my Grandmother in Boru to celebrate �Hamle Selassie� in the famous Church of Boru Selassie (its up keep was entrusted to our family by Emperor Yohannes IV), and visiting with my Great-uncles and Cousins in Ambasel, Tita, Seyo, Haike, Kombolsha et cetera are some of my cherished memories from my boyhood. I attended a brand new elementary school named after my Great Grandfather, Memhir Akalewold Elementary School, with a library and science laboratory. That was where I read most of the classics in abridged form, including the Wizard of OZ!

One incident that happened when I was ten years old, which I remember very vividly, was the celebration of the marriage of my Uncle (younger brother of my Father) who was a Tygreian marrying a Hamasien girl from �Eritrea� in Dessie! That union produced four wonderful cousins. Our family had pitched some large tents for the wedding guests. And one smaller tent with better quality fabric and decoration was of particular interest to me because that was the one my favorite Great-uncle was seated in, he was from Tita. It was the tent set for the Moslem side of my Mother�s side of the family. The story goes that when King Michael was baptized, some of his family members refused and were disfavored. My Great-uncle following the example of his Grandfather stayed Moslem. What was fascinating was that he fought as a patriot against the Italians for five years despite the fact that his family had a rocky relationship with Ethiopia�s powerful Emperors from Yohannes through Menilik, and finally Haile Selassie. My father had unconditional respect for my Great-uncle that was charming and almost amounted to hero-worship. In fact, that was how they met, my father coming down from Tygraie in the five year patriotic struggle joining up with those in Wello. I, of course, was totally fascinated by the war stories he was telling me. There you have it that is (Dessie, Wollo) the greatest center of Ethiopianization and where you learn and grow up appreciating, respecting, tolerating, and at times loving diversity. My formative young years were the most important years of my life where I grew up in a social and cultural milieu living with parents and relations who respected people from different social status, religion, ethnic background et cetera as a way of life and not as some political agenda.

As to my Shoa-Amhara ancestors, to those doubting-Thomases who want proof, I suggest that they contact our family �Mahiber� of the great Memhir Akale Wold of whom Dawit Yohannes, the speaker of Meles�s Parliament, is also a member; for we both are Grandsons of two brothers from same parents from Shoa with Gondar as their original home from few generations ago. My father and his side of the family are from Tygraie (Axum, Adowa, Woqerro, Enderta, and Tembein). My Father has as broad base in Tygraie as I have in the larger political State of Ethiopia. These were/are families that served with Alula Abanega, with Yohannes at Metema, at Adowa with Menilik, at Mereb as the part of the vanguard force to face the Italians and later Michew with Haile Selassie, and in the five year resistance movement in Wlkeit-Tsegede, Northern Wollo et cetera. These were people who paid with their lives fighting to preserve the territorial integrity and independence of Ethiopia for hundreds of years�for example, my Grandfather (Father of my Mother) was executed by the Italians at Hayik. And even after the Italians were kicked out, My father with his friends struggled for the unification of �Eritrea� with Ethiopia in Asmara and elsewhere in Eritrea. However, my family history and family-root connections had never put me in a chauvinistic ethnic straightjacket. I did not pop up from some isolated outcrop of a rock in the middle of nowhere. I have a great history behind me; my base is wide and touches more groups of people than any of the Mehale Sefaris who accuse me of being a �Tygrean chauvinist.� Chooheten kemugn. The Mehale Sefaris and Aradas are the ones who should worry about their attitude towards the larger community of Ethiopians. They tend to measure Ethiopia by their limited local standards. I have more at stake in seeing a unified whole Ethiopia more than any single person who based his or her Ethiopian identity on a single ethnic group, certainly more than the narrow Mehale Sefaris special interest and the greed of the Aradas.

My family root matters to me to the extent of knowing the richness of my family history, and realizing how wonderful it is to be a part of this marvelous human tapestry called Ethiopia, and glow in knowing how inter-connected we all are, and in realizing how foolish it is to fight each other as Oromos, Amharas, Tygrians, Somalis, Afars, Hamasien et cetera when we truly constitute a single great family with so many wonderful children: brothers and sisters. I do not expect nor desire a privileged place for myself or for my relations because of linage. As far as I am concerned, my only �ethnicity� is in being Ethiopian, and my rights and duties start and end on that single fact. Period!

VII. Main Goals and Principles

Thus here below, I have outlined the core principles that I uphold so that there will be no more misunderstanding where I stand on issues of the State of Ethiopia, human rights, ethnicity, and democracy.

A. The State of Ethiopia

1. Ethiopia is a product of thousands of years of struggle of courageous men and women (leaders, soldiers, farmers, traders, cattle men, herders, and nomads). It is a nation forged out of great sacrifices of real people--a nation of intermingling of different groups of people with two main religions. It is not a nation that was created through semantics and arguments in hotel conference halls. I need not over-dramatize our illustrious history; just stating the facts is dramatic enough.

2. I believe that the best political structure for Ethiopia is a unitary state structure, with subdivisions only to meet economic and administrative needs and cohesion. I favor the old administrative structure of provinces. No federal structure of any kind can hold the nation together; therefore, the present �Federalism� or division of Ethiopia on the basis of language should be scraped altogether. At any rate such system was adopted from the Italian system of divisive plan and briefly implemented during the Italian occupation of few years. There shall be no right of secession for any group.

3. The name �Ethiopia� must be preserved and not be changed because it is the oldest national identification for the people of Ethiopia as a whole. In order to forge a solid national identity, I believe our traditional and historic Flag (Green, Yellow, and Red strips) must continue to be our symbol of freedom, sovereignty, and unity. No other flag is to be allowed in Ethiopia though individual identification of administrative provinces could be stitched to the single official Ethiopian Flag. Ethiopia�s history is the history of every member of the Ethiopian State; it is the history of the Axumite, the Zagwe, the Agazian, the Amhara, the Tygrean, the Oromo, the Somali, the Kunama, the Hamasien, the Serie, the Beja, the Afar, the Issa, the Wollaita, the Arissi, the Gurage, and all other people. This great history must be taught with pride and promoted vigorously by schools and the Ethiopian Government.

4. No ethnic enclaves or privileged area for any particular ethnic group should be set aside. Ethiopia belongs to every Ethiopian equally in all its parts and in its entirety. No claim of ethnic or nationality based patrimony shall be recognized or enforced. Land belongs to those who can use and develop it into a productive asset and source of security and pride. There can be no grandfathered right or privilege to any particular piece of real estate. Historic cites properly identified by learned Ethiopians shall be the responsibility of the State and will be accorded protection and care.

5. One language, at this time Amharic, since it is the widest spoken and understood language in Ethiopia, ought to be recognized as the official language of the Ethiopian Government.

B. Citizenship and Civil and Human Rights

6.Once an Ethiopian for ever an Ethiopian that includes all of Bete Israel in Israel, all of Afars and Issas in Djibouti, all Somalis in both Somaliland, all �Eritreans� in Eritrea, and all Ethiopians in the Homeland as well as in the Diaspora. All life is sacred, and specially Human life shall be treated with utmost respect. The integrity of the individual may not be diminished in any manner.