A Ripple of Change and an Agent of Wisdom
I do strongly believe in the notion that individuals, even a single person, can reshape the course of history, rebuild, and restore,... a nation. I do know for sure, there are very few psycho and terminally ill Ethiopians who try to rob the dignity and the integrity of their fellow Ethiopians based on not on practical rationale, but based on total arrogance and ignorance.
If we preview history in general, the world we have today, specially the good things which modern society is enjoying are contributions from a pool of preeminent individuals. I have found the story hereunder very relevant.
Although the Wrights initially received wide acclaim for their invention of the airplane, the aviation community was quickly overcome by jealousy and greed: airplane developers did not want to pay the modest license fee the Wright brothers asked when others employed their method of lateral control in heavier-than-air flight. To escape this fee, the aviation industry engaged in a prolonged smear campaign against the Wright brothers, minimizing their contributions in the invention of the airplane.
France and Germany simply refused to issue the Wrights patents for controlling the lateral motion of airplanes by ailerons or wing-warping. Europeans were free to copy the Wrights ideas without restrictions, or the embarrassing admission that the Wrights had done something the Europeans had not.
In America, an ugly patent fight erupted. The Wrights brought suit against Glenn Curtiss, who was selling airplanes with aileron control without paying royalties to the Wrights. To fight the suit, Curtiss enlisted Albert Zahm, then on the staff at the Smithsonian. Zahm, with his public forum through his position at the Smithsonian and later at the Library of Congress, was especially effective in trivializing the Wright's contributions.
Even the Smithsonian got into the fight, for selfish reasons. Samuel Pierpont Langley, one-time director of the Institution, had spent a fortune of the Institution's money to develop heavier-than-air craft. His craft, launched from a houseboat, could not take the strains imposed by the catapult, and broke during the launching, causing a great deal of humiliation to both Langley and the Smithsonian. Curtiss and Zahm offered to prove that Langley's airplane was effective, restoring the reputation of the Smithsonian in the process. They re-built the crashed airplane, making a number of modifications to the craft needed to make it airworthy. It was then flown in a straight line, with no method of lateral control, as a way of showing the Wrights did not really
invent the airplane. In all the publicity that followed the event, the Smithsonian, Curtiss, and Zahm neglected to mention the many modifications made to the plane, claiming they had reconstructed the plane to Langley's original design. The Smithsonian recanted this claim only after many years and considerable damage to the Wright's reputation.
What reward did society bestow upon the Wrights for all their pains, their creativity, and their generosity? Wilbur, worn out and exhausted from a prolonged legal fight in the patent battle against a set of well-financed, viscous, and self-serving collection of airplane developers, succumbed to a mild case of food poisoning.1 In a small measure of victory, the courts sided with the Wrights. From this outcome, Orville was able to obtain a tidy sum of money, although the sum was in no way commensurate with the importance of the Wright's contribution or the patent the brothers received for their method of lateral control. Of course, no money at all came from European countries,2 which simply stole the Wright ideas without compensation.
The smear campaign against the Wrights must be counted as one of the most effective in history. Today the common man recognizes the Wrights as the inventors of the airplane, but the prevailing attitude toward the Wrights is that they were bicycle mechanics who invented, perhaps by happenstance and chance, the first airplane. Few today realize the genius and hard work the Wrights brought to their chosen task. Even fewer appreciate the elegance of the sturdy Wright biplanes, how difficult it is to learn to fly as you invent an airplane, or have any idea how much longer society would have waited for airplanes if the Wrights hadn't taught us all the way. As we near the 100th anniversary of the First Flight, efforts are underway to build a national park in Dayton to honor the Wrights. One might imagine that corporations who make billions off the airplane would be eager to support this effort. One might imagine that countries who stole from the Wrights might be looking to make amends. One would be wrong. Watch your back, Jack.
Further, Nikola Tesla, the Serbian born, naturalized American citizen, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, physicist who had made about 14 inventions such as wireless communication, motors ( generators), wireless power transmission grids,..... Boltzman Ludwig who conceived the idea of tapping energy from particles, atoms . Leonhard Euler who ushered modern mathematics, had been ostracized by society as mad people. These individuals and others have contributed to the best things in the world we live today. However, their ostracisms were based on jealousy, greed which are the root of hatred. They were not based on their tribal or political beliefs. We humans are naturally jealous, greedy if we allow that side of us dominion on our whoness, we end up jealous, greedy, hateful,pessimists,.... This is why our very few fellow Ethiopians in diaspora are living in their world of hatred. They cannot see who they are. When they went to disrupt W/ro Azeb Mesfin's award, the only thing they think is that she is the wife of Ato Meles Zenawi. They have no clue the good things she has done. They neither has the bad things she has done to convict her not deserving the award.
In my opinion, Azeb is a light to the oppressed and marginalized Ethiopian women. She is a beckon of freedom for Ethiopian women. She is a ripple of change. She is an agent of Wisdom. I cannot underestimate what she is doing. She is doing all PHD Ethiopians have failed to do. I daresay we do not have to study in Oxford , MIT, Princeton,... Harvard University to make a difference in our country. All the greatest Ethiopian women and men never went to any University. When King Solomon wrote 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs he never studied literature. When Moses made perfumes, he never studied chemistry. When Jacob was breeding his speckled goats, he never studied animal husbandry. When Nikola Tesla made all the inventions which we enjoy today, he was a University dropout. He did not have even a degree. However, he was living ahead of his time. Some of his inventions, we still cannot understand them, like wireless power transmission grids, he demonstrated it practically but all the universities in the world are still struggling to understand yet.
Thus let us not blind ourselves by our degree papers and our beliefs. Let us see the extraordinary things which ordinary people are doing. I believe that Ethiopia's enemy number one is not poverty. Ethiopia's enemy number one is poverty of leadership. When I say this, I am not pointing fingers only at the government, but also the so called opponents who are vision-less. The only trade mark they have is unity without even knowing its meaning. We cannot have unity with hatred spoused with leadership poverty.
We have to assert the truth, because the truth wins at the end. Our country cannot be developed by hate mongering cyber projects. If we oppose Meles, let us assert it clearly without mixing tribalism. If Meles is doing what most Ethiopians do not agree, he is doing it because we are weak and divided. Then there is no anything which can stop Meles from doing whatsoever he wants. If there was any genuine political party which really opposes Meles for some of his bad policies, I could have been the first one to join. Nevertheless, it is a dismay for me there is none better than Meles. Those we have only oppose Meles not for his policy but for who is and where he come from. I have read articles of an opposition party called AFD. It preaches Meles is from the minority. How can such a group be called an opposition party? Does it mean that an Ethiopian cannot be a leader of Ethiopia because he or she is from the about 90 minorities in Ethiopia? For me it does not matter about the person's tribe, place of birth,... as long he or she is competent to rule for the well-being of the nation.
In conclusion , let us engage with each other positively based on concrete facts, truth for the betterment of our nation. Hatred will not provide a loaf bread for a hungry Ethiopian in Ethiopia. Let us not infringe the dignity and rights of our people merely because they belong to a certain group of people. If Meles has done wrong, let us stand together and tell him he must stop repeating mistakes. If we are united he cannot be above us. He is not above the people of Ethiopia. He can be above the people if we are weak.
God Bless Ethiopia, By Haben Kiros
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