Tecola Hagos, "A man who mistook his wife for a hat."

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Paulos Yrgaw(06/30/05)

My first encounter with Tecola Hagos was a number of summers back when I run into his book titled, "Democratization" in a public library here in Ottawa. In light of the then mushrooming democratic rhetoric and a stern attempt to render Ethiopia a guinea pig for a democratic discourses immediately after the collapse of the ancien regime, I thought maybe the book would be a good reading and a good pick as well. However, to the disappointment of the reader, the book turned out to be a replete with anachronistic political maxims where virtually every page is imbued with convoluted foot-notes. I must say that, I had to finish the book with great pains (if one is to quantize pain that is). He is Michael Moore at best and Michael Moore at worst. His website is not an exception either. The man who claims to have a towering intellect with a razor sharp cerebrum, recently, is set in motion to lecture the public in a condescending attitude about what is good and a feasible future for Ethiopia. In his own trance world, he is a prototype of St. Peter, the bearer of the key to the Academia, Lyceum, Oracle and a Hegelian realm where Ethiopia finds her historic place in a dialectic world. In an attempt to render his audience an intellectual punching bag, he throws his punches here and there by invoking the high-priests of the intellectual isle, the likes of Hayek, an emigre and the brain-father of Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan; Fukuyama, a neo-con and the disciple of the late Leo Strauss; Edward O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins who implicitly subscribe to the infamous "Eugenics". The litany of course goes on and on. The question however remains. How is this relevant to the Ethiopian political and social dynamics? Whether it is the "Clash of Civilization(s)" or "The End of History" or the yesteryear bipolar world is replaced by the prevailing theoretical push between Hassan Al-Bana and Leo Strauss, how is this pertinent to our clear and present danger? The good doctor who makes a living of empirical threads and inductive reasoning, fails miserably to see the inertia which is holding our country from striding into a better future. Instead, he takes a pleasure of guiding the "cave man" into the light from an Ivory Tower. He needs to get off the Ivory Tower, and feel the heat of the common Ethiopian man. What Ethiopia crucially needs is pragmatism, a working truth, if I can utilize Dewey’s intellectual tool where we can tackle poverty, backwardness, HIV, and all the other social ills in our own way.

In his most recent article, Tecola Hagos unleashes a diatribe aimed at Negede Gobeze, a man who is reputed to had been at one time a serious alternative to the colonel by the Soviet communist tags to lead Ethiopia. The Soviets’ selection of Negede Gobeze was not only confined to his intellectual acumen but also on his ruthless and violent nature as well. As the Dergue tags, the likes of Goshu Woldie, Shawl et al, are throwing their bait in an attempt to assent to power, Negede Gobeze is doing his share in that regard, amnesiac of his dark history where he was implicated in tandem with the colonel in the killings of true revolutionaries . But what makes the whole issue more funnier is that, when Tecola Hagos dubbed the Opposition parties opportunists whose sole impetus is centered on the hate of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. One does not have to travel too far to see how hypocritical this assertion is, one only need to see into the book, "Democratization" where Meles Zenawi is crucified, vilified and disparaged by the author solely based on personal grudges bereft of any credible data what so ever. As the truth of the recent unfortunate events gradually but surely unfolds, Tecola Hagos is giving an impression of finding a soft heart for EPRDF in general and Meles Zenawi in particular. This vacillating political stand on the good doctor’s part is however a mid-set and shouldn’t be taken serious for it has a danger of relapsing into a schizophrenic hate monger and political clap-trap. Hence he is a potential candidate as a bizarre wonders of the mind in Oliver Sacks narratives.

Paulos Yrgaw

Ottawa, Canada.

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