Let us be mindful of the consequence of our Action
By a Concerned Ethiopian:
First of all personally I have no desire to take any part in politics however, it is sickening to hear unfounded accusation and this has compelled me to jot this note.
The famous proverb calling a spade spade is the order of the day at this time and moment. It is very sad to hear from the so-called Ethiopian Diaspora being extreme and go to an extra length to make the life of the people of Ethiopia miserable again and again. I have never seen any nation Diaspora work against the interest of its own nation they claim to represent. There is no need to gather evidence to corroborate, just read few of the extreme so-called opposition blogs filled with unfounded accusation and ranting, are enough to mention.
From the very beginning of the Ethiopian student movement till today the so-called Ethiopian intellectuals have not contributed much for the development of Ethiopia, period. The negative and destructive work done by some half-baked so-called intellectuals nullify the little positive contribution done by some genuine Ethiopian intellectuals. My heart goes to all the Ethiopians and their family for the life lost in Eritrea and more over brother-to-brother fight with TPLF now EPRDF, what a loss. Please read kibur Dawit Woldegiorhis’s recent book “Kihdet Bedeme Meret” the destruction the loss and clearly put all Ethiopian problems being instigated by the so called Ethiopian intellectuals, who became an instrument of foreign interest against the interests of Ethiopian people they claim they stand for. What an army and air force we had and how dedicated solders, ethnic representation we had, and all those dear Ethiopian sons and daughters perished in brother to brother fight thanks for Ethiopian intelligentsia. After all this, still the blood thirsty Ethiopian intelligentsia wants another blood bath and try every nukes and crooks to instigate turmoil and fully collaborate with foreign forces that work for the demise of Ethiopia. What a shame!
During the Derg era an elderly person asked what Socialism is, and one answered “Kifat, Mikegnet, Kinat …” (wicked, evil, jealous, envy , rude ..) and the elderly person said, then socialism has got its home and will never leave us. This saying manifests the true nature of the so-called Diaspora. In all regions where the Diaspora lives a formal Ethiopian community is either missing because we do not cooperate, or in several places litigate by hiring costly lawyers with an existing Ethiopian community, or there are a bunch of communities in one area that bicker against each other instead of providing a community service suppose to be provided. We claim that we are religious; it is known that most Ethiopian exile practice orthodox Christian in their communities. What a shame politically divided church exists in these communities. Who is behind this shameful act? The so called Diaspora intellectuals spearheaded such division by creating distrust among the god fearing parishioners in some places with huge litigation cost and hence, it is customary to have several Ethiopian churches lead by you name it, so called pseudo opposition party in every community where Ethiopian exiles live. If this is the kind of leadership and democracy we want to offer for the Ethiopian people it would be aggravating the pain to the wound we already inflected on the Ethiopian people and there is a good Amharic proverb that should be mentioned here. “Bafincieye Yewta”. (Let it go out of my system through my nose”}
Please do not get me wrong there are quite a number of well-qualified Ethiopians working in top-notch schools, research centers; companies well respected which add joy to our heart of their well-deserved accomplishments. Some of these beloved sons and daughters of our nation are doing their contribution to extricate our people from abject poverty and disease. The North American Ethiopian medical association’s great commendable work, Ethiopian engineers and Business professionals work and contribution are a few to mention. Thank you for your noble work and may your future plan be a success!
On the other hand from day one to this day we see names with title Dr, Professor, etc ranting about the human right violation, oppression etc and work hand in hand with external agents who long for the demise of Ethiopia. First of all let us be straight a title of Dr or Professor does not mean anything unless what we advocate has a wisdom. Our education is based on recital like the old “kese timherte bet Dawit wengel Medgem“ we can get a PHD in history, geography even in science or engineering unless we are wise we end up hurting the very people we are longing to help. Let us ask ourselves what have we done with our education or what can we do with it, except a few. What have we designed, or are working in cutting edge technology or science? Leave alone Ethiopians thousands of Chinese and Indians who have flooded US Universities and research centers are not working on an innovation, mainly work on expanding or value adding to an innovation. This goes back to our upbringing of recital education and hopefully the next generation will have a better chance to be innovative by changing the teaching method. So let us not get carried away, we are no better than the average Ethiopian and be mindful before blabbering all this ranting and disservice the very people we want to help. Talking about Ethiopian education the professors after studying abroad and seeing how foreign university professors, nurture the new generation and inculcate the students, some of our professors behavior is beyond imagination. No body expect the to have an American university type student versus faculty relationship in Ethiopian universities of course, however some professors conduct is appalling. There was one time one graduate student who is also a faculty member, cannot dare to have a coffee in a bar near the university where his professor gets his coffee because of the fear of this professor. Undergraduate students go and have a coffee there without any fear. These kind of professors run the campuses like a feudal with their recital education and never allow the new generations to reach their level, leave alone advance and better. Surprisingly these professors did not have feudal background most of them came of peasant background and yet to demonstrate such behavior is unusual. A formal research of this behavior is warranted to address the issue. Of course we are not perfect but let us ask ourselves why this happen and how we can we help our students to better their education? There are few exceptions who worked and still working, who did a very commendable work to advance and grow the faculties tirelessly and even spend a lot of time to undo the damage done by these feudal bent intellectuals and they should be praised for their work and my hat is off for their noble deeds. Among the very few exceptional who has raised the bar of excellence one on the top of the list who has facilitated hundreds of Ethiopians PhD study, who are now serving in Ethiopia and all over the world, and most recently single handedly defended the interest of not only Ethiopian, the whole developing world farmers interest against the giant corporations, not to sell genetically engineered seeds without regulations, Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egzibher comes to mind. One student’s father son conversation is worth to mention here, he showed his father his grade and told him that it is better than his own score and the father was pleased and said if a son is not better than his father there will not be a progress. This has a deep meaning and we need to encourage the young to achieve higher so that we progress as a society.
One of the recent set back in Ethiopia is the sad event transpired after the general election. Our heart goes out for all the family for the life lost during the unrest. The strong opposition leaders who walked the walk, talk the talk has sacrificed a lot for a cause of real multiparty democracy. They are paying a price for such cause and it is because of these Diaspora fanning extremism that forced them into this quagmire. It would have been nice to see them administer Addis Ababa as they won fair and square and the government to have a viable opposition. It is important for the government to know that these people who are in jail have no part in violence and for the interest of democracy restore their elected position in the assembly and start a real plural governing. Democracy cannot be built overnight we need to crawl first before walking. Ethiopia has no history of democracy and we are one of the violent nations in the world where fight among brothers resulted into a huge devastating loss of the young and the brightest of Ethiopians. The cyber war is going strong and with such vitriolic venom tone it does not seem to wind soon.
We have to learn how to agree to disagree definitely the government has its own policy and of course some of us do not agree with their policy and hope there is a peaceful means to have a dialogue to address the issues. We have been violent for years and years and let us try in a peaceful ways and means to reach our goal, which some of us think is beneficial to our people. Some of the Diaspora goes to the extreme length even to US congress to revoke the Ethiopian government officials travel privilege. In one hand we say we are the world beggars and poverty stricken people and on the other hand we strive to block the mobility of these officials who took the shame of our beggar ness, and beg in the world arena to feed our people.
The main argument for this effort is that the government is enriching its own clicks and followers and uses it against the people of Ethiopia to oppress. First of all don’t we think the donors are smarter than what we think? Secondly these days such aid and loans are designed for a specific project and funding is released periodically with balance and check. So what is the concern? Unless we want to work against the interest of the Ethiopian people our concern has no merit. My thanks goes to all Ethiopian officials who work hard by donning all the shame, by being a beggar, in front of grueling executives to secure loan and aid for the people of Ethiopia. Such concerted effort to work against the interest of the Ethiopian peoples is beyond me. To draw a parallel scenario similar to this action worth to mention is, in one of the north American cities where Ethiopian Diaspora resides there is one Ethiopian community center run by an Ethiopian who gets its funding by designing projects. The city award funding, by selecting on a merit basis, among other immigrant community submitted projects and proposals. The entire project is evaluated and the fund is released by check and balance. A few so called Diaspora spent huge money even swindle naïve Ethiopians to contribute for the litigation fund and took this individual to court alleging that he is trading by the name of Ethiopians. What a farce if they really care for the community, they could have started the community before him to serve the people we care. The other option is if they have the gut, to propose their own project and apply for funding as the guy did, to achieve their goal. No we just feel jealous when some one is doing it. Last time I checked these litigants lost their case in the court of law after spending huge attorney and litigation fee and the Community started by this individual is operating stronger than ever. What a waste!
Some Diaspora claims that bogus statistics and rosy picture by the government media are not factual and are presented for public consumption to make the government look good. Where are you living do you know to sift through facts. It is not difficult to find facts from fiction. Here is where I call a spade spade. It does not take much in this day and age to find out and figure out facts from fiction unless we do not want to accept the truth. Should Ethiopia deserve to develop at a faster pace? Yes. Is the government trying to do that? Yes. Does the government need a lot of improvement to govern the people? Yes you bet.
This is the time I want to credit the government for the achievement-attained and wish them to attain even higher goal. Let us mention few facts and figures and all these are available on the Internet and at independent sources.
Education.
Primary and secondary education covering has grown in leaps and bounds and to uniform the education curriculum plasma TV is introduced in the high schools of Ethiopia. I am sure the facilitators of this project switch to the affordable means of communication using the optical fiber laid recently via broadband connection than using satellite communication. Plasma TV is the most expensive TV screen and the lifetime is only four to five years whereas LCD screen is as good as plasma and has at least 12 years of life time and as well cheaper. Even HD CRT screens should do fine and sound technology adoption is essential to cut cost down, this is just my remark. Woreda net is also deployed to connect federal offices and different administrative Woredas with a state of the art communication network on Tele backbone that provides voice, data and as well Video conferencing. Even some developed countries do not have such network what a feat!
Higher education is really the bright spot of achievement, there were only two universities before the current government now there are nine universities and thirteen more universities are on the pipe line. Is not that wonderful and gives one a goose bum? Yes indeed of course quality is also important and once these schools are rolling quality should be the focus. The capacity building program of upgrading the technology faculties in the country to enhance the quality of the graduates is worth to mention and a far sighted work the government is taking and please keep up the good job. The engineering faculties of Addis Ababa, Jimma , BahirDar, Alemaya(DireDawa campus) , Arbaminch and the soon coming Gonder universities are poised to create highly demanded well trained Engineers who will be designing and building the new Ethiopian projects, kudos to that. The thirteen universities coming online at once is huge for a country like Ethiopia and the money to build such schools are secured from a long term loan and probably a small amount of aid and these is what the half baked Diaspora running to block from happening. What a shame! When the students from these schools graduate the government should encourage the talented ones to go and pursue higher education locally or abroad. In this day of globalization we need to be competitive and that is what China and India are doing and after graduation some will return equipped with high caliber knowledge as what is happening to India and China. The Diaspora ideal help would be facilitating GRE TOEFL and other relevant tests and applications for these graduates to join US higher learnings. Hopefully it wont be long to see a young Ethiopian graduate abroad from the likes of Dilla,Semera or Bokoji University soon (By the way Bokoji university will not be online soon). The existing universities and the one coming soon have an expansion project plan to raise their capacity in quantity and quality. Graduate training is also expanding in bounds and leaps and heart warming to hear Gonder and Jimma universities also are training MDSs in different field of specialization. Of course it is expensive and is not the priority but for a proper health care new medical schools should be opened in the new and upgraded universities and in the long run it is an investment on human capital. To retain the doctors in the hospital the government should work on some form of health coverage insurance so that the hospitals run at a cost and be able to pay much reasonable wage to the Doctors.
The pioneer Alemaya University has produced world renown Ethiopian scientists that are serving all over the world and is expanding it’s offering with different new faculties including Harer and DireDawa campuses. The new upcoming DireDawa and Jijiga universities undoubtedly benefit from this institution by sharing resources. In addition to these higher learning institutions that produce trained manpower there are from 30-35 agricultural colleges scattered all over the country administered by the ministry of Rural development. These newly built colleges produce junior agricultural technicians and these colleges each train from 1500 – 2000 students full boarding and lodging with fully staffed faculties funded by the government. It is hard to say where the money comes from for all these funding! Yet the Diaspora is winning all over Europe and North American capitals to block such loans and aids that are directly used to teach the Ethiopians that can help to extricate the Ethiopian people from abject poverty. World Bank and other loans have been used to build these colleges and is a huge investment and let us hope that it start paying off. Fully functional agricultural research centers networked and equipped with laboratory equipments have sprouted across the country even in the remote areas headed by the research center (EARO->EIAR). It is a daunting challenge to retain the qualified staff in these remote area research centers. The recent wave of housing condominium building in Ethiopian cities and towns should focus to benefit these researchers housing need and adjusting their compensation by enterprising these research centers will help. The findings of these research centers are published in international journals and easy to find and for the quality of their research work pick any research proceedings or publication. Google the name of author the trail takes you for a university in Germany, Holland, Belgium, US, Ethiopia or countless international recent centers. It is also heart warming to see Ethiopian professors in various US Universities collaborate with Ethiopian universities and research centers in biotechnology, improved crop, goat breeding and you name it. Private universities and colleges have sprouted in every corner of the country and especially a formidable quality schools are under progress especially in Addis Ababa and the job opportunity that created by complementing the income for the academics is a godsend. In order to create respect among Ethiopian people and learn the different culture and language of the different nations, it may be time to launch in all elementary and high school a compulsory requirement for each student to study one additional Ethiopian language of their choice other than their own mother tongue. Hopefully this creates a mutual respect and helps the students work in different regions that may require local language skill.
Air
Ethiopian Ethiopian!
The recent growth of Ethiopian Airlines is phenomenal! Ethiopian not only to Ethiopia, the service it provides for Africa, is huge by enabling Air travel between African countries as a brisk. For Ethiopia it is not only a flag carrier it is bridge for the outside world and catalyst for its economy. The technology transfer, exposure and training for the employees it introduces are also an eye opener in every sector, for the country. The hard working and dedicated men and women of Ethiopian airlines and the senior management deserve congratulations to the wonderful work they are doing. It was only a couple of years back the airline hit the one Million passengers mark and this year’s 1.7 M mark makes the airline well on its target to transport 3M by 2010. This double-digit growth in a competitive industry, where fuel cost going to the roof and at a time almighty US carriers are big time in red, it is amassing to have such performance and again keep up the wonderful work! Recently for the first time in the history of the airline it has acquired the largest number of brand new aircrafts into it’s fleet. Namely eight Boeing 767-300and 737-700 of these five with direct buy and three on lease basis. To top it off a number of Boeing 767 and 757 are being added to the fleet on a long term lease basis to this day to meet it’s need. Ethiopian is poised to receive probably the second carrier next to Japan Airlines in the world; beating even American carriers on the third quarter of 2008 the most advanced Boeing 787-8/9 into its fleet. What a bold and daring move! Ten of these large and highly advanced fuel-efficient aircrafts costing the airline in the tune of billions of dollar is the fleet renewal project that ends by the year 2010. The airline is also on the work to order five more either Boeing 787-8/9 or Airbus 350 and a number of regional aircrafts to supplement the existing Fokker 50 fleets. A multimillion Birr state of the art cargo terminal and brand new maintenance hangar (hope this time it is heated for grave yard shift technicians) are a testimony for the airline growth in bounds and leaps. Coupling with the recent conversion of a Boeing 757 passenger to cargo and a combination of additional DC8/10 and MD11 on lease has poised the carrier for a daily up lift of 80 –120 tons of agricultural produce to Europe. The impact of this for the economy is going to be phenomenal. It is a hope that the plan of the management to adjust compensation, and the quality of life in Addis, to fend off the recent attrition of the pilots to MiddleEast and Asia and even lure back those who left. It is fulfilling and a duty for the pilots also to serve the nation that gave them the opportunity. When the prime minister travels abroad takes out of service an aircraft for days and it is hard to imagine how the airline manage to handle scheduled passengers of these flights where standby aircraft are none. If the travel is only by B737 the impact is not as huge as B767 and after that, the prime Minster faces the unrelenting so-called opposition wherever he lands be it Europe or North America. After dogging all this commotion in front of foreigners as bad as it is his trip is to ask for help, negotiate a loan or an aid the Diaspora by the name of Ethiopian people fight to deny Ethiopia to get assistance. The government leadership and the senior board members of the airline including ET senior managements deserve applause for such shinning and spectacular growth of the airline. ET is currently enjoying excellent credit rating due to the country’s peace and tranquility and the Ethiopian government’s amicable relation ship with the US government. During the Derg Era Ethiopian was paying arm and leg in high interest rate for the B757s it acquired. Yet again a few Diaspora vigorously advice fellow countrymen not to fly Ethiopian and use other foreign carrier which cost more and put up for a mishandling in a transiting airport. Had ET depended on the Diaspora it would have been long ago in Chapter 11 while in the bright side, the proud Africans Frequent fliers’ mileage is growing in bounds and leaps.
Ethiopian telecommunication is providing all types of modern communication for the nation by expanding its service to all parts of the region. This complex fast evolving sector by any measure is a daunting task to implement and provide service. The recent achievement of this sector is linking major cities and towns in an amassing short period of time with an optical fiber. Once the under sea international hook up is completed it will have a huge saving on intentional communication and huge bandwidth for data uplink and download. In fact locally with the current optical fiber network data upload and download between the nodes should be a brisk. Cell phone subscribers will soon exceed the landline and the focus of the landline expansion is proper. Having its own communication training institute and aiming to excel in producing highly skilled man power with the all the faculties and external consultants, it is poised to improve the quality and the reliability of the service it gives for its customers. The recent flop reported in the media related to the billing system should never happen in such institution who successfully commissioned numerous complex projects and it is a sloppy work and should not be repeated. There is a blog against Tele, regarding the management practice, mostly by its own employee. It is good to have a good challenge and these employees should challenge all the management’s proposals to do it right and the management should open the implementation of the proposals for all capable personal for a review. Most of the blog is criticizing the recent government signing of memorandum of multibillion-dollar projects with Chinese companies. Referring to the recent flop of Chinese Cell phone network and compatibility and quality with installed Ericsson or Nokia networks. First the Government is probably getting an incentive in financing and price break. Now the challenge is the due diligence of the Ethiopian side Engineers to make sure the intended project is done right. Chinese do not have their own technology hard ware is not an issue it is possible to negotiate to require a hard ware that should meet a minimum requirement. China does not have its own router uses Cisco or equivalent router and Unix boxes are the likes of Solaris with its own OS and also uses the likes of Oracle for the back end. They do not have their own unless they invent a new one now. Moreover all this brand name hard wares, their inside components except CPU the cards the chips and the memory are made in China,Taiwan and so on. So where is the concern yes the catch is to demand well-tested fault tolerant software that drive this system for a particular project. This is the place where things fall apart and the make and break happen. Due diligence and proper training is important in the requirements to consider. Is not that a recent memory of American brand VSats bought for the school net ended up without much success? So Brand only or western company will not be the answer. Leave alone a country like ours in US a multibillion dollar system built by reputable numerous US companies for public office election voting system, has flopped on the day of election. However, this dose not mean that it is okay to have a sloppy work especially us should be very careful not to squander the little resource we have and due diligence should be the name of the game. Kenya or other African countries have several private Cell phone operators with huge cell pone customers. There is always a trade off and the Ethiopian government has resisted even the pressure of lending organization not allow such operators and this is an act of a sensible government, which looks after the interest of the nation first, well done! The country long ago would have attracted a number foreign drive-by cell phone operators and siphon the lucrative profit with a couple of networks and towers. The sensible thing to do down the road, still the government having a large stake is to float share for sale first for locals and invite foreign operators with a portion of the stake. This is exactly what British telecom, German Postal, TeleItalia or other major European government did.
One of the measuring indicator Economists relay on is construction. It is hard to believe the current cement demand in Ethiopia is twice Germany, no wonder the demand for cement due to the ongoing construction of dams, schools, roads, buildings, houses and condominiums, that the demand dwarf the existing production. The Mugher cement factory doubling its capacity, a number of private cement factories including Midroc, hopefully come online before the sector is stifled with a shortage of this product, which will have negative consequence for the economy growth. The government facilitation and the an wavering economic investment of the beloved Sheik Mohammed Alamoudi by offering to meet the cement demand by importing, are commendable and hope to rescue the construction sector.
The completion of Fincha sugar factory has undoubtedly raised the countries sugar production. However the demand stripping over the supply and the un-satiated export potential warrant more output. Again it is timely and commendable for the government executing huge projects of the new sugar plant including huge Dams to irrigate thousands of hectares of sugar cane plantation for the factory. The funding for this project is mainly from the government coffer and for the factory recently loan is secured from Indian government. Moreover this project is a test for a homegrown design and construction, which is conducted totally from design to construction by local contractors. Let this be your springboard to land to many more big projects. The work started by the private companies to provide fuel for vehicles will get a boost from this factory ethanol production. Well done and commendable act by a responsible government for the concerted effort to realize this project. Processed leather product and textile are also given considerable attention and will be the next export commodities brewing to grow.
The white oil of Ethiopia.
It is a recent memory of Ethiopia boycotting Seoul Olympic to win the heart of North Korea, to finish Gilgele Gibe hydro project that was started by them. The continuous blackout and power rationing in the cities that forced some businesses scrambling to back up their power supply with an expensive diesel generator are still fresh. Ethiopia produced only about 450 MW from all old and poorly maintained powerhouses. It is only after the tune of multimillion dollars WorldBank loan and several years of construction the Gilgel Gibe with a huge dam came into line with 184 MW capacity to ease the continuous blackout and power rationing. A 300 MW Tekeze dam which is in the pipeline, having 185 feet height bigger than the controversial Chinese world largest, the “three gorges hydroelectric dam”, followed by Gilgle Gibbe II with capacity of 450 MW construction is progressing using the Gilgel Gibbe I dam and building a new powerhouse. The Beles hydroelectric another 450 MW, is also being carried out and to top it off probably the largest in sub-Sahara the Gilgel Gibe III with 1850 MW capacity on the Omo river the biggest ever, construction is well under progress. Electrifying towns and regions and connecting high power lines into the grid are progressing in full steam. Indian companies are contracting these projects with the soft loan obtained from Indian government. Local companies the like of Midroc and others are supplying locally manufactured electric poles and wires in the tune of multimillion Birr contract for the electrification project. The high power line connection to Djibouti, Sudan and Kenya and beyond is progressing and it will not be long, Ethiopia becomes the powerhouse of Africa. All these huge projects enabling the nation to improve the lives of millions of Ethiopians require billions of dollars, which Ethiopia cannot afford to finance. Living in a developed world where electric power is a given like air and sunshine, few Ethiopian Diaspora demonstrate at World Bank headquarters and European investment banks to block the loan needed for these kind of significant projects. Our proverb for the like of these, “Tute Nekashe” is long overdue. The government-concerted effort for such spectacular performance deserves applause. The excellent performance of the senior management of EELPA and the hard workingmen and women of this company deserve our appreciation. My fifty cents observation is, it is high time for EELPA to take the initiative to get rid of an inefficient, in its days a break through, “ Yenjer Mtad” that wastes enormous energy, heating bricks which is a poor conductor of heat , with an inefficient material. In North America it is already available and with local modification the consumer can enjoy huge saving in their electric bill and the saved power is a plus for the rural electrification. Recently also EELPA is testing a prepaid card electric meters, well technology is good but care should be taken and let us not be carried away with such sophisticated technologies. First in a country like Ethiopia where there is a huge unemployment human meter readers are affordable and such systems initial cost is high moreover servicing these equipments can be costly. Prepaid cards can be forged and EELPA can loose money unlike telephone-prepaid cards where pin numbers are checked at a central server. The good old meters even in America are still being used and some meters are hooked with telephone lines and utility providers read the meters from a central location and still this may not be appropriate for Ethiopia yet. Due diligence is important before diving into a costly technology just because of its convenience.
Let us keep our finger crossed for the Gambella region oil well drilling, executed by the Chinese company on behalf of Petronas hit a jackpot, which can help to bring down the sky rocketing inflation due to fuel price in the country. The Government has taken a risk to re-negotiate profit sharing with Petronas that won the Kalub and Hillal gas fields in Ogaden. In light of world gas prices the government demand and bold move is commendable and shows executing its duty to keep the interest of the nation.
Export oriented cash crops production is increasing steadily. Sesame production in the Northwestern part of the country is becoming one of the top foreign currency earners. Recently a western media has sarcastically commented that how Europe is getting food from Ethiopia? The comment arose due to the recent haricot bean supply to European market from Ethiopia. Ethiopia is ranking now second next to a South American nation in exporting this crop. Flower production is poised to be a major foreign earner and the incentive provided in terms of tax holiday, bank loan and infrastructure development to attract foreign investors in this sector by the government is commendable and has started paying off. Several International media has reported that, the incentive provided by the Ethiopian government has lured a considerable number of growers from Kenya to move their operation into Ethiopia. The government with the help of international experts is on the verge of launching commodity trading which will benefit Ethiopian framers enormously. Indian farmers have reaped enormous benefit from such system. Coffee exports in quality and quantity is growing and is the major foreign currency earner. Thanks for Oxfam the clandestine attempt to block, the Ethiopian government effort to increase revenue by Trade marking and branding the beans, by big US Corporation (Starbucks) has been exposed via the world media. This kind of effort should have been initiated by the Diaspora to help the Ethiopian coffee farmers to get their fair share for their product by boycotting Starbucks and informing others also to boycott until the company withdraws its opposition. Except a few news articles by cut and paste the news in Ethiopian related sites, no effort by the Diaspora has been proposed to rally and support Oxfam’s exposure to help the Ethiopian coffee farmers.
Kibur Sheik Mohammed Alamoudi
It is very hard to reason why people develop hatred and disseminate unfounded claims to discredit once noble deed and try to tarnish a spectacular accomplishment. Some Diaspora disseminates hate and even encourages boycotting any service or product affiliated to this beloved son of Ethiopia. The reason they are giving is that he is the supporter of EPRDF. So what? Does not any one have the right to support their liking? Is not that democracy all about? These people know deep down, this is an excuse to express their hate for any one that does well to our people, our inherent envy expressed in different forms. Most Ethiopians appreciate and wish for many more years of investment in Ethiopia, which has significantly contributing to improve the life of thousands of Ethiopians, by the beloved son of Ethiopia Kibur Sheik Mohammed Alamoudi.
Ethnic based political oppositions.
In my judgment the main problem of Ethiopian people is abject poverty, illiteracy and disease and the great OROMO people share the same problem like their other ethnic Ethiopian brother and sisters. Some enlightened group of oromo at some point were not considering other oromos as oromo who live or born beyond Ambo from their reference. Their reference being Wellega particularly Dembidollo where most of them hail from, currently residing in Europe and North America and a number of them residing in Minnesota. There is a joke also that this group of people claim Minnesota as well to liberate referring to their Viking descendant. An expert research can definitely shade the light why such number of intellectuals from this region (Dembidollo) have such view. Looking to the background of their primary and secondary education being at mission school that is run by foreign missionaries, one wonders that if the colonized mentality has been planted by these missionary educators in to the young mind of these people, which they routinely do in other colonized African countries. In the other hand there are also proud and distinguished ormo Ethiopians who have contributed and contributing in fighting the Ethiopian people enemy, poverty by engaging in every sector with the likes of His Excellency Bultcha Demekssa. It is important each ethnic group has its own autonomy, flourish its own culture and live peacefully for the better future with all the different ethnics in the nation with fair and just government. In this fast globalization of the world claiming a certain region to a certain ethnic, based on mere majority is not productive and the claim to own the region may not be based on fact. This region claiming that, it only belong to a certain ethnic group, which is now simmering in mainly underdeveloped nations can be outdated by recent DNA findings. As a matter of fact Ethiopia, the people of the world can claim particularly Afar region, in short any body in the world can claim Afar as its own! This DNA tracing technique was on NBC(an American TV) .A very fascinating and impressive program Anchors’ DNA tracing was revealed. The result shows path used by their ancestors to reach North America. Surprisingly all route begins from the now Afar region of Ethiopia. Astonishingly the path shown for the one of the anchor was that her ancestors came to America from Afar traveled to Asia and then North America. The Anchor admitted that she has an Asian blood. The way it works is DNA like finger print even more powerful has a unique marking. The Researchers have a collection of DNA sampling of different people in the different part of the world. One’s DNA is compared with the representative samples the method determine in high precision the person ancestry. In general the point is that all people evolved from the same family and in this fast globalization unity and diversity is strength and the focus should be fighting and help the alleviate the yoke of poverty from people of Ethiopia.
Conclusion.
Including myself please let us do our fair share within our capacity to improve the livelihood of our fellow Ethiopians back home, we owe it to them. If not at least let us stop our relentless effort of defamation, blocking the effort of the people who are labouringly to improve the very people we want to help. We are not saying the Government is perfect, needs a lot of improvement and dialog should be the medium to communicate our message across, and prove us wrong, that these deeds executed by the government are not helping to improve the life of Ethiopians. If not at least be mindful before taking an action that disservice the very people we want to help.
Dec 12, 2006