Article Follow-up and Response: If I were �

By Tecola W. Hagos

My Ten-point suggestions of policy that I would implement in Ethiopia if I were in power seem to have generated strongly felt negative and positive responses. Although I have no reason to withdraw any of my policy suggestions, I do regret in having posted those suggestions from a first draft that I wrote late in the evening in one sitting, before editing it properly. There is much to be desired in the style and diction of that piece.  Nevertheless, I take it that my ideas were clearly understood. The reason for this follow-up is not on question of vagueness but rather as response to several private e-mails I received and questions publicly stated in the Ethiopian Review and others.

I used the well articulated comment by Destaw Andargie, which was posted in the Review and also e-mailed to me directly earlier, as representative of so many other comments by very many people. First of all, my profound appreciation to all the people who read my ten suggestions, especially to all those concerned Ethiopians who took the trouble to post their comments or to e-mail to me. Destaw Andargie deserves my sincere gratitude and applause for his polite and highly patriotic note and commentary.  Destaw started his comment by suggesting that my ideas are �disputable, if not frightening� Of course, they are frightening. After all, I am suggesting policies that would profoundly shake our Ethiopian society in a manner that had happened only in revolutionary changes in our long history. 

With due respect to all who tried to address the issues of the future of Ethiopia, I must say that their suggestions in general seem to be what I call democracy from a catalogue�well packaged text-book ideas that read well, but has no teeth or connectedness with the reality on the ground in Ethiopia. Not much could be changed in Ethiopia by such policy implementations. How would the ritual of elections, or consultation with Elders, or Ministerial retreat, or the continuation of poorly run Killels et cetera would ever change our tragic Ethiopian situation even by a tiny portion. Such entities and structures had been with us from a thousand years to the last eighteen years. Without the types of drastic and bold changes I had suggested, we Ethiopians will still continue to wallow in our filth, most of us will still continue to live in �homes� no better than bird nests, most of us will still continue to drink dirty disease-laden water, we will still continue our irresponsible breeding bringing into our miserable lives added pain and suffering, we will still continue the downward spiral of moral decay and self degradation, we will still continue exporting our most precious legacy to Arab countries where they will be exploited, raped, even murdered.  

One factor that seems to be a common denominator to all of our flawed individual characteristics is the fact that most of us acutely lack personal courage and are fearful to challenge any authority unless we are hiding in a mob. In other words, what we mistakenly think of as caution or wisdom in most individual Ethiopians is timidity and often pure cowardice. What ever courage we muster, it comes only in the case of mob type frenzy, a kind of courage I think of as a debo courage. This individual cowardice may be a recent development during the depilating fifty years reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. To some extent, the harshness of the Ethiopian hierarchical and rigid society toward those who do not conform may also be a factor.  At any rate, the net result is a society whose individual members are usually reduced to shells that are fearful, uncooperative, unreliable, and lacking (in personal courage). Of course, what I stated here may be said about individual members of several societies around the world. Nevertheless, sharing in such characteristics does not improve our lot. Moreover, I am not in any way discounting or undermining the very few truly courageous Ethiopians, such as Judge Birtukan Mideksa, who are beacons of hope for millions.

Here below are my succinct responses to the more pressing questions and comments sent to me directly or posted in Websites. For easier reference, I have indicated Destaw Andargie�s (AD) questions and/or comments itemizations at the appropriate responses of mine. 

1. My mention as a future leader of Ethiopia having the possibility of turning into a �dictator� and the implied use of force did not sit well with a number of commentators. I have two purposes in such direct statement stating the possibility of using force and acting alone without democratic niceties if the need arises: a) honesty in what a leader plans, and b) establishing the extent of ones commitment to bring about profound and qualitative change in Ethiopia . I suppose the characteristics of Ethiopian leaders, which includes everyone from Haile Selassie to Meles Zenawi, maybe summed up as docile as a lamb while ascending the lofty throne of power, and ones enthroned to be brutal and barbaric. In my blatant direct statement endorsing dictatorial power and the use of force if the need arose, I am simply confronting such hypocrisy and deceptive tradition. [DA: One]

The issue of past Ethiopian political leaders and their grave criminal acts cannot be easily resolved by amnesty or acts of forgiveness. I have read the claims of several Ethiopians that act of forgiveness or general amnesty as a solution to bring about harmony in Ethiopia �s political atmosphere, which claim I find totally unacceptable. I am not for vengeance, but for justice and for setting proper legal precedent for future generation. After all the idea of amnesty is to protect very few individuals who are still active in the political life of Ethiopia . Such interest of a minuscule number of Ethiopians should not dictate to us a compromise of such high magnitude. There is also a distorted representation of the South African reconciliation effort.

The type of amnesty (the concept of forgiveness is not part of the official legislation in the case of South Africa ) propounded by several Ethiopians is simply a misunderstanding or distortion of the South African reconciliation effort. The requirement of confessions to specific criminal deeds as the criteria to trigger such acts of amnesty from prosecution in the reconciliation effort of South Africa �s Government is understated or totally excluded in the suggestions of several Ethiopians. At any rate, it should be the victims of atrocities of murder and torture who should have a say in the matter. And amnesty should not be considered as part of the policy ideation of any would be Ethiopian leader at such initial stage. 

2. I believe that the massive presence of international organizations in a poor country could only be seen by anyone including me as a dishonest act by the host government. When the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established and was headquartered in Addis Ababa in 1963, the population of Ethiopia was about 32 million and the per capita was about $300. Now, over forty years later the population has tripled to almost 90 million and the per capita has declined below the level of the 1960s. The number of starving people and their dire existence has become even more alarming incrementally. During the same period, the presence of international organizations and the expansion of their personnel had increased by leaps and bounds. Then, where is the benefit for Ethiopia of having international organizations and their personnel in Ethiopia , mainly in Addis Ababa .

The economic distortion created by a handful of highly paid (relative to the pay-scale of the Ethiopian Government) international employees� presence in a poor community is not something that could be taken lightly. With such economic distortion comes also moral corruption. The very fact of having a group of individuals that are treated differently because of diplomatic immunity and other arrangements the Ethiopian Government has to agree to, creates bad precedent and reverses the cherished democratic ideal of equality before the law. In 1991-92 when I was in Ethiopia , I saw how foreigners in the guise of diplomatic privileges would cut lines with impunity at banks, post office counters et cetera. The population tends to accept such demining system as a matter of natural order of things. I saw Ethiopians being trampled upon as third class entities in their own country by foreigners.

We Ethiopians need to work on building our human dignity and self respect, and that cannot be done in an atmosphere where tens of thousands of foreigners are freely peacocking around with their infuriating insensitivity and arrogant attitude toward the native sons and daughters of Ethiopia . Some of those international personnel have also contributed to the sexual permissiveness of the society, and increased the alarming incidents of HIV/AIDS infections in the Ethiopian population. My ideal for Ethiopia would have been a situation where foreigners of what ever stripes live in fear and trepidation of their host population instead of lording it over Us, acting as if they are our �masters,� and we Ethiopians their slaves serving them hand on foot at a plantation called Ethiopia .

On the myth of the alleged inflow of hard currency and improvement of the Ethiopian economy due to the presence of international organizations and their employees, I believe a close study would show how far Ethiopians within Addis Ababa and in the rest of Ethiopia suffered because much needed fund is used to build infrastructure to accommodate the high demands for services and utility layout to meet international standards neglecting local needs of the Ethiopian people. The fact of creating a beacon of westernized city in the middle of medieval Ethiopian society acts also as a magnet for the inflow of rural people into the city increasing the pressure on the limited resource available to the local population in Addis Ababa . None of the incidental modernizing factors in such situation is beneficial to Ethiopia as a whole. It simply increased flash points for conflicts and chaos. However, there are certain indirect benefits that would otherwise would not have happened, but for the presence of international organizations and their personnel. Such presence did deter the Ethiopian Government from escalating its brutal treatment of its citizens during civil protest and demonstrations. 

I was challenged also for writing in approval of maintaining close relationship with Israel . One writer even accused me of being fearful of Israel , which accusation is nonsensical. Irrespective of some discriminatory treatments of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel , the fact remains that Israel is the one place in the Middle East that Ethiopians are accepted and treated with respect and dignity as new immigrants on equal terms with other immigrants from Europe or the rest of the World. There is no comparison whatsoever in that regard with the type of brutality Ethiopian male and female workers are subjected to in Arab countries.  I have held the view since 1967 that Israel has a right to defend itself and to exist as a nation. When on October 23, 1973 Ethiopia severed its diplomatic relations with Israel , I was vehemently opposed to such act and argued with friends pointing out that was a political disaster for Haile Selassie and that he made a monumental mistake in discontinuing diplomatic relation with Israel due to pressure from Arab countries.  He lost his Throne a year later. Had Ethiopia enhanced its relationship as suggested by Israel in 1969 and again in 1971, we would have been still intact, with our territorial waters and Islands and with most of Eritrea as part of Our homeland.

Maintaining close relationship with Israel is Ethiopia �s only survival insurance. We should not buy into the sugar-coated but poisonous offer of friendship from Arabs. If they could treat our citizens living and working in Arab countries with such barbarism and savagery, it is not hard to imagine what they would do to us if we lose or surrender our independence and become totally dependant on Arabs. In fact, ideally I would even entertain to conquer them as we have done in AD 520 with our liberation army under Emperor Caleb�s commanders where we brought peace and security and ruled the area for almost a century. It was a century later on the Prophet Mohammad�s victory that the last Ethiopian rule vestige was removed from Jeddah. Mind you, my suggestions are in cases of state to state relationships and not about my individual connections to friends with Arab or Jewish background. I do not base my political judgment in the interest of Ethiopia on my private individual relationships; let me assure you all that I have met in my professional life some of the most despicable individuals this side of the universe who happen to be Jews, on the other hand I have met also the kindest most honorable individuals who happen to be Arabs. Such is the paradox of life. [DA: Two, Eight]

3. The restriction or complete ban of VISA for Ethiopian domestic workers who want to work in Arab countries is a legitimate right of a responsible government in an effort to protect its citizens from horrendous abuses by barbaric Arabs and their equally barbaric Governments. I do not need to write here proof as to the barbarity and savagery of Arabs at their home bases. It is a daily occurrence reported almost daily all over the internet and the news media around the World. I am adamant on this point. The way a society crumbles in most instances seems to be from weakness from inside the country itself. The weakest links in any society are the unprotected members of society namely children and females. The great historian Toynbee identified at least twenty one world civilizations in human history out of which nineteen of them perished due moral corruption from within. Such moral corruption has to do with loose sexuality and permissiveness without direction of the young of the populations he found to be the case from his monumental research. Ethiopian society shows most of the elements that Toynbee describes as the cause for the self-destruction of those nineteen civilizations.

Even if they were acknowledging the problem of the horrendous abuse suffered by an alarming number of female domestic workers in Arab countries, some of my critics were concerned how such policy of denying VISA can be implemented without violating another precious human rights principle of freedom of movement. One must understand that there are exceptions even to the most fundamental of human rights. The need to protect the welfare, dignity and human rights of Ethiopian domestic workers is as important as any other safeguards of rights. The policy to ban Ethiopians from travel to Arab countries to work as domestic workers is a protection and not an encroachment on their freedom of movement or related rights. [DA: Three, Five]

4. Population density is not the only measurement for a person to be concerned about dealing with population explosion. The availability of resources plays far more important role in such consideration than mere density. There are very dense societies such as Japanese society, Taiwanese society, et cetera that are very wealthy; on the other hand, there are societies in least densely populated nations, such as Mongolia , Mali , Algeria , et cetera that are poor. My concern has nothing to do with absolute numbers of Ethiopians per square kilometer but the availability of resources to the alarming birth rate and fertility index of about seven children for every female. The last thirty years was a period of the population explosion in Ethiopia . Such population explosion could be correlated with the famine cycle and the moral distortion taking place in urban centers as well as in the rural population that has constant contact with such areas. [DA: Four]

5. My argument is that we should start being serious about parenting and our sexuality. Population control must be a priority for any Ethiopian Government. The growth rate is dependent on the right form of stimulus by the Government. It seems to me that there is a misunderstanding about the essence of personal liberty and freedom of the individual. It is never an absolute. After all it is society that provides life-giving sustenance, a culture, an education, and a sense of belongingness to the individual from starting at birth and ending with death, from youth to old age. Members of society often had to fight and sacrifice their lives for the protection and independence of their respective communities and their members. In other words, the members of society have vested interest in the lives of the individual members of that society, including the sexuality of its members. The primary duty for such education of culture and correct relationships between members of a particular society is the duty of parents.

In other words no one individual has the right to do what ever he or she wants with her or his sexuality. Our physical bodies are as much ours as they are also part of the community where we live. We owe it to our society to help maintain the integrity and continued existence of our respective communities. The stupid idea of the Woodstock era of sexual freedom is simply a gimmick whereby inferior males took advantage of a temporary glitch in the social fabric of the American society of the period to have access to young ladies that they would only dream of. They dispensed with the set of requirements, such as moral integrity, proven success in life, valor and courage, et cetera that they would have been expected to meet under the traditions of the society against whom they were rebelling. Ethiopia is undergoing its � Woodstock � over forty years later. [DA: Five]

6. Some of my critics found my suggestion of arming Ethiopian families with guns unacceptable because they were afraid that would be leading even peaceful people into civil war. This particular suggestion is not something new, but an old pet idea of mine that I even had incorporated some fifteen years ago in a book where I explained the reason for the concept. I called it a democratization of violence. The idea came to me after having watched endless records of films and later videos of the animal world where I noticed that the most peaceful groups of animals were/are those animal groups whose members have great strength and are also equipped with deadly weapon (formidable teeth, claws, or tusks) like lions, hyenas, wolves et cetera; by contrast, the most cantankerous and those that fight all the time are those animals with much less formidable weapon or strength such as baboons, chimpanzees, apes et cetera. And that led me to the belief that a well armed society would be also a most well ordered society where there is minimal abuse and use of force against any of the members of that society because any abuse or use of force would be met with no less devastating retaliatory force.

A clear example in our own human community is the fact that the two Supper Powers (the United States and the old Soviet Union ) that are well armed with weapon of mass destruction never fought each other. Whereas, countries that have conventional weapon have been fighting each other throughout the world for years now. In other words, being armed does not necessarily lead to escalation of conflicts or to civil war. Now the question is would not such armed Ethiopian communities resist government imposed changes?  If so how am I going to enforce my radical policies? I believe the process of arming Ethiopian families all over Ethiopia would of itself create trust between the people and my Government and the Ethiopian families, who would be willing to consider seriously my other social revolutionary ideas. What parent would object to having his daughter protected by law from being sexually violated before the age of consent and marriage? Most of my policy items have local sentimental elements and are primordial, thus easily understood by the population. [DA: Six]

7. Even though I acknowledge the existence of a common nature of all human beings that overrides surface differences, we must recognize also the fact that historical incidents peculiar to a society must be understood in context. The apparent differences between communities come from the way human beings constructed social structures in order to meet survival needs. The needs remain the same in all of human societies. However, approaches and methodologies differ due to differences in pre-existing social structures and the environment. Thus, our focus is mainly an effort to identify how those social constructions are similar or different from each other, and how such similar or different structures were effective in achieving the intended goals of spiritual and material development of mankind. Thus, the emphasis is not on the exceptional but on the commonplace, the humble, the ordinary, or the elementary.

I cannot perceive something more fundamental than ethical precepts. Ethics is the foundation of law, of social and individual relationships et cetera. What is amazing is that such foundational ethical principles are on one hand simple behavioral patterns with easily understandable principles and on the other hand expressions of deep spirituality. The recasting and interpretation or recognition of ethical principles in the fabric of higher social structures is where the new metaphysics of fractal political philosophy comes into play. [DA: Nine]

8. The ritual of election is not that significant of itself as far as I am concerned. Its importance is not for its alleged democratization of Ethiopia , for it democratizes nothing. However, I believe the election process is a way of creating a sense of self-worth in a battered population. For that reason alone I will allow elections.  It will be done in stages, first getting the population elect its leaders at the Woreda level, form there into the national election system of electing for national offices that will be done after a new constitution has been drafted and accepted by the population.  [DA: Nine, Ten]

Ethiopia is in need of profound changes in several areas. Compared to other nations, its social history is far benign than most nations. As a result it has not advanced in its technology, trade, and agriculture. Yes, there were numerous battles fought between rival dynasties and religious or ethnic groups. Even those battles were not as atrocious as those fought in Europe or Asia . Ethiopian Emperors were mostly generous, superbly educated, and highly ethical individuals. [I know of no nations other than Ethiopia where six or seven of its Kings and Emperors were sainted.] As a consequence, the general population suffered much less in the hands of Ethiopian Emperors compared to the atrocities committed by their counterparts elsewhere in the World. Essentially Ethiopians are a spoilt people, except for the natural disasters; there is not that much individual suffering of Ethiopians in the hands of warlords or feudal tyrannical leaders. 

If our goal is to modernize our beloved Ethiopia , we will not be able to do it where our export is less by three times than our import. We will not be able to do it wearing three piece suit of expensive wool. We need to adopt Mahatma Gandhi�s concept of self reliance and humility. We need to wear with pride our homespun and ride gharis or walk to work. We need to develop our mass transport and cut drastically our conspicuous consumption of manufactured Western goods. These are recommendations easier said than done because they demand attitude changes: they require new and profound patriotic commitment on most Ethiopians. Ω  

Tecola W. Hagos

February 22, 2010

Washington DC