The Solution for ETC 's Problem is Human Investment, not Privatization

I actually do not know in real situation the strong side or the weak sides of ETC.

Nonetheless, I do not think it is right to take ETC problem a seperate entity. The

problem of ETC must be a part of the parcel of all Ethiopian problems which may

include, political, social, innovational,....

The political aspect may leads us to raise the question of motivation the staffs' of

ETC. Are the staffs active, innovative,... ? This is a question which I would not able

to answer myself. From my general knowledge, in Ethiopia no matter what one

invents or makes there is no any incentive. That is why Ethiopians are always bound

to fly out whenever they get an opportunity to get out of Ethiopia. Furthermore,

does ETC conduct any research on innovation? I would not able to answer this

again. Does the local engineers have the capacity to install or repair or recycle

or design brand new and old product? I cannot answer this too. If the local

engineers does not have the capacity, to install, repair, recycle, to design products,

it will be difficult to solve the problem. If I have to speak the truth, Ethiopia has a

big problem. And this problem in not a new problem it has been there, and Meles

is a part of it. Why? because he is a policy maker. He is the one who makes

policies so he is the driving force when I say this I do not mean directly him, but he

must have a crew of advisers on aspect of the policies like

Technologies and science,engineering, medicine, military, economy, commerce,

tourism,environment,irrigation,transportation, power systems, communication

(ETC), mining, industries, .... and that problem has been a barrier for Ethiopians.

We have a useless education system. Ethiopian graduates cannot do anything when

compared to westerns. For example, how many engineers does Ethiopia has? Many

, but can any of them make anything? Absolutely no. What is then the point of

having degrees of engineering? It is Just waste of the countries scanty resources.

What is the main cause of this? In my opinion, the cause of this we spent our lives

learning English to master science by bypassing our language probably we think it

is a short cut but it has been the main shackle of Ethiopian development. We are

not able to translate what we learn into practice. We only get that useless paper.

We cannot apply what we learn. We cannot understand even the product we buy.

We cannot even repair the product we buy. We do not produce any generic product.

How are we going to improve Ethiopian infrastructures if we always buy products

which we cannot repair?

It will be impossible to make progress, it is like we are calling a technician from

another country. Is it possible to call a technician from another country to repair all

the physical faults in the ETC system? It is not possible. Thus we must develop our

language and we must able to translate technologies to our language so that we can

understand technologies faster and transfer faster. Science is not born with English.

Even the Jewish who has lost their language ones have restored their language since

1948. Now their Universities' teaching medium is Hebrew, the Arabs, the Japanese,

the Chinese, the Russians, the Swedish, Denmark, Norway,.... they use their language.

However, we have a problem of Englishization like the Hellenization of the Israelite

in the old testament when the Israelites considered themselves civilized by speaking

hellenic language but which eventually reduced them to slavery. Now in Ethiopia if

one speaks English well, he or she is being called educated. Our capacity or

knowledge is measured by English which is really reducing us to nuts. Thus Ethiopia

needs not only a new prime minister but also a new ideology. This prime minister is

someone who depends on money collected from charity, so the same for Ethiopians

scholars who crave to be employed by NGOS than by their government to engage in

their own business because they know the government does not generate money and

that does not encourage anyone to be creative and they themselves are educated to be

employed than to be entreprenuers.

The social aspect is tied up with the politics, language, cultures of Ethiopia. We are a

self contained nation. We almost have everything we can imagine but we do not see

it.Being a self-contained nation, with unique culture, language,.... make things very

hard for Ethiopians to translate Technologies to practice because we learn in a

language which takes the whole of our lives to learn. Once I met a South African

lady who worked in Tigray for two years with an NGO called farm Africa. She was

helping agricultural development in Tigray. She told me she was working with

Ethiopians who have master degrees but cannot do anything. I ask why? She said, “

the main problem is they learn things in a language they do not understand.” She

studied in Africans but capable to translate her knowledge to English and Tigrignea

and she was writing booklets for farmers while none of Ethiopians can do that. This

should be the same problem which I read in your website aiga about the absence any

tourist guide tracts or piece of maps which shows the areas to be visited by the tourists

in axum.

As to the innovation, our scholars are not innovative because they cannot still

understand what they have learned . Then how can one solve problem buying product

s from outside, and one cannot repair them if they break down or cannot solve the

problem by locally available resources. Does one has to call a technician from another

country?

In conclusion, these are the premises of our backwardness; thus Ethiopia needs a new

approach, new ideology, new policy, not necessary a new leader if the current

leadership reforms itself. However, I do not think the current regime can reform which

is obsessed with money collection from donation at all expense sometimes at the

expense of vital Ethiopian interest. As such the problem can only solved by human

investment in short term, and developing the Ethiopian language in long term. This

is not only for ETC but for all sectors. One cannot develop a nation by importing

cell-phones. Cell-phones are like broken cans, They cannot either solve the

communication infrastructures. I thus agree with Zeru Hagos some of has ideas. But

the Zerus must understand that the regime does not have the capacity, not the will

that is why we say the regime must work with the citizen than following always all I

know policies some of them which are the policies of the blinds like policy of

landlocked Ethiopia.

ETC must never be privatized; but ETC can sell the services by contract to local

private companies. I know the leadership in Ethiopia is obsessed with capital

investment of foreign multinational companies that will only benefit the elites not

and deepen the suffering of Ethiopians.

Gezaee Hailemichael

(01-07-07)