The Scholars & Insurrection

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Reta Sisay
September 30, 2005

It is seldom that we encounter anyone suggesting to bring down the nation before we do anything about it, unless of course we are dealing with the Network of Ethiopian Scholars (NES) and other exiled desperados of the west. It is rather important that we investigate their motives, before we endorse this "manipulating international pressure" scheme, "to change the government." The scheme, even though dead on arrival, is the latest fad in political power play promoted by this Network of Ethiopian Scholars of the Scandinavian or, more clearly, an internet chat room-turned-a gentlemen's club-turned-an insurrectionist movement?

I was not being too heavy on the "Scholars from Denmark" when I asked them to descend from Cloud Nine and level themselves with the populace. But, as I figured even then, it was too much to ask: The scholars remain in oblivion. As a matter of fact, they are singing a modern day four part harmony in one corner of the cyberspace, claiming their exclusive ownership of the truth. Their pages and pages of interminable calls, adorned with western quotations, fail to connect to the folks down below. Though I am not of the breed that bases its opinion on a literal "cut and paste" quotation of any sort, it is with great pleasure that I introduce these Scholars with a quotation from an influential German philosopher, Frederick Nietzsche, who said that "Deep inside a scholar is a mediocre . . . " Hence a humble request that our "Scholars of Denmark" come back to us: An ordinary person's plea to today's Ethiopian elites to level with us and mind the gap.

In their Press Release number 14, " The Scholars of Denmark," declared that they will hand down "a Covenant" or a "Canon" to our nation. Amazingly enough, this is not a misprint and, unfortunately for us, the scholars meant what they say: they will hand to the nation a Covenant, Canon. Behold, the Covenant, the Canon and the law of our land is to come from "The Scholars' of Denmark." All the way from the firmament of truth and wisdom and, after having it approved by their patron saints, Ana Gomez and all, the scholars are willing to bestow the law of our nation upon us. Amen.

Apparently the slumber party in Copenhagen is not over and we can but imagine, how dreams distort reality. Until reality kicks in and their comprehension improves, it will be up to this nation and these people to make it clear that the "Covenant" or the "Canon" or the Creed from Denmark will have to stay in Denmark. As we will not pause our progress until the scholars are willing to conclude their delirious sojourn with Zeus and Apollo, it might be necessary to remind the whole kit and caboodle that Ethiopia will remain an independent and free nation.

The quotations, cited below from Press Release number 14, are rather interesting and are helpful in revealing the "rational" approach of our scholars:

In Ethiopia, the people have shown that democracy is their glue to mediate between an effective state and engaged society. This is an important reason for donors never to retreat in their stand to help deepen and broaden democratic engagement in Ethiopia without tire. If they want their support to have consequence that makes a difference, they must not see the development of Ethiopian democracy expediently. They must pursue it with principle, (Italics mine.)

It is not sarcastic or unreasonable to call it a dribble. Because, if this statement is supposed to rhyme with the do-not-give-aid-to-Ethiopia slogan of the insurrectionist movement, it is not serving that purpose. While maintaining that the mechanics of grammar and semantic clarity are extremely important in communicating ideas, I don't want to dwell on this fact at the expense of not addressing the inferiority complex syndrome that seems to have plagued these scholars. This ailment has done so much damage that they cannot and do not dare to try out anything without the approval of their masters. After objecting to the top priority status of the "development goals" and the "African Green Revolution," the scholars concluded the following:

Incidentally, both the World Bank and the IMF have already said that there is no way that Africa can meet any of the UN Millennium development goals! What this tells us is that the issue is more than finding technical fix, it requires serious democratisation if social and economic transformation is take place irreversibly [sic].

More dribble, and a renewal of their allegiance to their masters. Telling us that if their masters do not think it can happen, it will not happen. Apart from the obvious master–slave relationship it presupposes, looking at the statement closely, will reveal an even greater folly in the Credo of the Scholars of Denmark: Their western masters, who reign above mortals, can tell our future, therefore, their masters must lead us into the future. Not much needs to be said about their rational than to call it a simple case of reductio ad absurdum.

It may or may not be obvious whether some of these scholars from Denmark are on a permanent sabbatical, otherwise known as a self-imposed political asylum, but we can be sure that they are not in the insane asylum. And that is the tragedy.

The scholars, who quoted from Lewis Mumford, suggesting "perpetual rediscovery and reinterpretation of history," do not want us to poke into the recent past, specially, if it has anything to do with their role in the previous regime. They tell us that "the past is not our current problem." After a triumph to power, in concert with the most homicidal maniac that has ever ruled our nation, after overseeing the liquidation of a generation or two along with a complete annihilation of the economy and the land and, after several years of rehabilitating, in the cozy corners of the west, from a stream of emotional ailments they experienced after the fall of the Dergue, the very same scholars that breathed life into Mengistu Hailemariam's Regime, are back and they don't want any mention of the "Red Terror" regime in the court of justice. Only because it will blow off their expensive European make-up, consequentially deterring their return to the palace, incognito.

Assuming the truth, however, that this call to Ethiopians to forget the past will be taken for what it really is, a farce, the pole bearers of the Dergue's "Red Terror" regime are aggressively following their alternative plan--the Insurrection.

The very idea that, at this point and time, Ethiopia still needs to shed blood in order to feed, cloth, house and nurse itself, is the fundamental issue that will set me against the desperados of the "Wild West," who would not shun away from spilling innocent blood to get their way. In my view, no one and nobody has any moral ground or the legs to stand on and tell us Ethiopians that some of us will have to die in order to facilitate for some lunatic spoiled brats to take power and fornicate with the nation til kingdom come.

Press Release number 15 was nothing more or nothing less than an "Urgent Call" for this insurrection. It is not ironic that the demands in this press release are officially and fully adopted by the Opposition Groups' leaders. There is an impeccable similarity to how things turned out to play in the revolution of the seventies. In other words, kindling and arousing peoples' emotions and curbing them in a treacherously evasive manner, is a deja vu affair to the individuals in the Net work of Ethiopian Scholars.

After stipulating preconditions that need to be fulfilled before the elected Members of Parliament take their seats, after calling on "the Meles group to listen to reason, not to go and form a Government," after calling on "the police and armed forces never to obey an order," after setting up the stage for a less than perfect public mutiny, our scholars were not aware of the logical flaw in their call after call, after call, when they wrote, "to defeat Meles and his small clique around him," they "would even appeal and call for a new and open EPDRF . . . " On my part, until this point and time, until they call on the Prime Minister to join them to topple his own party, I believed this idea of insurrection was inching up. I honestly did not know that they have lost the sense of time and gravity that bad that they need more than a parachute: They need a time capsule to be brought back to the peripheries of this century, if not this millennium.

I couldn't but wonder if this call is not the worst practical joke in this election saga, since their associate, a certain doctor, whose art in cloak and dagger far exceeds that of his colleagues', plotted a smart self-serving custom-designed insurrection manual, but published it in a book form and sold it to the public before the commencement of the colourful "Revolution." In short, the call for the insurrection was and is like an opera buffa that literally turned into farce and is virtually bound to end as a tragedy, while the scholars improvise their interludes in real time, with real people.

Our voices must be raised and unequivocally delivered to the slumbering scholars: We as a nation, are forgiving enough to "excuse" you while you "kiss the sky," as Jimi Hendrix described your state in "Purple Haze," but, please don't fall like "Heavy Metal" from the sky and expect a safe landing at the expense of the most vulnerable segments of the Ethiopian people. In other words, spare us from the violence and the loss of innocent lives you are willing to believe is necessary to prepare for your smooth landing on the piece of real estate that we have come to know as Menilik's Palace.

In closing, I want to emphasize that, may be what happens in France twice every century, a great war, happens more frequently in Ethiopia; possibly, as a pessimist Shakespeare would put it, "the gods, . . . kill us for their sports"; maybe we have stretched ourselves too thin, in order to rebuild our lives as quickly as we wish. I am in no place to give the empirical or the subjective explanation for why we face violence on a recurring basis, but I darn well know that all human-made catastrophes, including war and violence, can be avoided by any willing civil society. And Unlike the scholars of Denmark, Ethiopians believe and know that Ethiopia is a nation, civil and willing enough to avoid war and violence

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