Situations
There is a plainness about certain situations:
A snowfall all day long in November
Packed with a driving wind
Is a good sign winter is eager
To herald its arrival.
Life is nature’s embroidery
But all lives are mortal.
As soon as darkness sets in at dusk
One is already sure of dawn at sunrise.
Other situations are not so clear:
There is no telling
How a petulant spoiled child
Or for that matter a clean-cut wholesome one
Is going to turn out in the future.
One can’t always detect the danger
That lurks in a small flood
Until it has developed into a deadly big one.
The significance of a farsighted policy of all-round development
Can be obscured for a while like the sun behind dark clouds
Doubts of uncertainty can be cast over it
Especially at a time when over a hungry and thirsty populace
Loud cries about abstract human rights are deafening
When impetuous calls for quick results are an obsession
As if belittling a mountain of formidable challenges
And a sea of human suffering
As if these riddles of a long tortuous history
Are like a toy to play with and can be commanded at will.
My heart beats fast with excitement
When I come across stories of development in Ethiopia:
A factory built here and a factory built over there
A bridge built here and a bridge built over there
A road built here and a road built over there
An airport built here and an airport built over there
A school built here and a school built over there
A clinic built here and a clinic built over there
A dam built over here and a dam built over there
Opening up an irrigated farmland here
And an irrigated farmland over there
An electrification of a village here
An electrification of a village over there
Planting trees by the millions in one region after another
Reaping a bumper harvest this year
And a bumper harvest the following year.
Hardly as enticing and seductive
As the absolutist slogans of freedom and right
They are just flat-sounding practical deeds
But in tandem with an improving rule of law
And a budding clean government
They are pleasing to my ear
Like a medley of popular Ethiopian cultural songs.
Persistently followed and nurtured over the years
In tune with the pulse of concrete realities
Such a policy of national renewal and construction
Will open up the path to real freedom and democracy
Of Ethiopia’s own creation
And a decent living for the many.
Sustainable development is not carried out for its own sake
Its target is the multitudes of our impoverished compatriots
Their greatest human right is their right to live
In a land of biblical want and wretchedness
The right of existence is the mother of all human rights
Nothing else is more important
Everything else will be built up in time
Upon the foundation and scaffolding
Of the thriving lives of the peoples of Ethiopia.
Hard work has a difficult long road to travel
Patience will serve like a lens to see its handsome results.
December 2, 2007
Copyright SWS