Tecola W Hagos
.
I.
Foreign
Relations:
Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed continues to irritate me with his obsequious behavior toward President
Issayas Afeworki, and now his fawning over
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmajo)
of Somalia. Pictures from the recent Meeting of the three Leaders show Abiy’s
deplorable behavior the source of irritation for me and very many Ethiopians.
The singular such picture of the three leaders huddled together like some
giggling school girls is both
disturbing and unbecoming of the dignified proper conduct of individuals
representing sovereign people, I expected. [See the picture below.] Of the
three, the most sycophantic is Abiy Ahmed wearing his ridiculous Jano in
the fashion of dressing of an Agafare, not appropriate for a head of government.
[Abiy, if you wear our National Dress, which is a good idea, but do it
properly.] He is acting like a chihuahua beaming and wagging off his tail (in his case, his
hands) in the presence of his owner. Look at Abiy’s posture and the look in his
face, the way he is adoringly salivating fixated on the face of Issayas Afeworki.
I simply could not stand watching an Ethiopian leader in such subservient and
servile posture. How I wish we have Emperor Haile Selassie I with us now with
his great imperial dignity and wisdom in a trying time like the present.
The
old school of diplomacy and foreign relations emphasizes personal direct
relations as the most desirable form of diplomacy for its effectiveness in the
short run. But that is often misunderstood and misinterpreted as a “buddy-buddy”
system. Far from such loose and over dependency of conduct on friendship in a buddy-buddy
relation, personal relationship of leaders of different sovereign nations
requires very careful tending and attention. It does not allow a sport’s locker-room
familiarity or liberties at all or the friendly pulling and shoving of team
mates. Abiy in his eagerness to please his guests is crowding his guests to
such a degree of discomfort that I doubt they will ever accept any invitation
with him again. Or sit in close proximity.
International
relations when conducted by seasoned statesmen is always dignified, courteous,
and circumspect. Neither Issayas Afeworki nor Farmajo will surrender or abandon
the security and national interest of his country just on a whim, or just
because other leaders fawn over him because such a leader knows that form of
overt friendly approach is seeking some advantage against his own national
self-interest. Neither the Eritrean Leader nor the Somali Leader would forego a
single item of his national interest just because Abiy is acting like a
lap-dog. In fact, they will have less respect even contempt for Abiy and seek
to squeeze out of him more concessions. The meeting is billed as a national
security consultation. The question is who are these Leaders concerned about?
Djibouti? Somaliland? China? Saudi Arabia? Egypt? None of the countries I
mentioned are considered as immediate threats to any of the three Leaders.
What
is the political situation that triggered such regional meeting of the Leaders
of the three main countries of the Horn? The answer is not that difficult to
come by. Though not a state, TPLF is the organization all three leaders Abiy,
Issayas, and Farmajo want to liquidate:
1.
In case of Issayas, TPLF physically and ideologically stands in the way and is
a stumbling block to Issayas’s ambition to exploit the wealth of the rest of
Ethiopia without restriction or oversight as he did before the war where
Eritrea was even listed as the World coffee exporter country despite the fact
there is almost no coffee grown in Eritrea. Over a long period, even during the
time of rebellion against the Ethiopian government/Military, TPLF had a
tumultuous relationship with EPLF for decades.
2.
In case of Farmajo, it is a time of settling of score for the marginalization
of Somalia by Meles and the TPLF dominated Ethiopian Army; the creation of a
boogeyman to blame is existential or a necessity because of the challenge of
homegrown rebel group. It is an astute move to thwart or impede any possible
collaboration between TPLF and the Somaliland Government (Hargeisa) in the
future.
3.
For Abiy it is the ideal chance to liquidate the Leadership of TPLF and
dissolve the organization thereby removing one real check on his ambition for
absolute dictatorial power. The liquidation of TPLF has begun with arrest of
some Ethiopian Military Commanders. Eritrean operatives might be involved in
the that purging. By carrying out such atrocities both the Amhara and Oromo
Kilil Leaders would achieve the condition to redraw the territorial map of the
Federation and reduce Tigrai to some insignificant territory to be trampled on
by Dergists, Gedu Andargachew, Demeke Mekonnen, Fikreselassie Wogderese, et
cetera.
Abiy
is the Manchurian Candidate manipulated in place to facilitate the recovery of
power by the vengeful defeated murderous Officials of the Derg and by that of
Amhara and Oromo Kilils Leaders. In all such intrigue, no one is thinking
about Ethiopia’s interest and the future of the people of Ethiopia. What we
have are individuals in leadership positions that are in almost all instances
with appalling limited abilities to carryout the minimal demands of their
respective societies. If the degree of development of the people in each country
is the measurement by which we judge the statesmanship skills of leaders, Abiy
Ahmed is a complete failure compared to Issayas or Farmajo. This Bahre Dar meeting
undermines severely Ethiopia’s relationships between two great friends Djibouti
and Somaliland who had been supportive of Ethiopia throughout the 45 years
period since 1974. By Contrast both Eritrea and Somalia had fought and occupied
Ethiopian territories without provocation from the Ethiopian side in the past.
II.
Development and Survival
Let me bring
you down to the level where real Ethiopians are to be found eking a living
under difficult present time and uncertain future to help you priortize your
interest. We, the people of Ethiopia are caught in a loop that seems day by day
impossible to break through. The main reason is the low degree and level of constructive
intelligence and knowledge of the population. A recent article about a
foreigner from Newzealand raising fund to build a little bridge in a remote
part of Lalibela area brought to my attention the very core reason why we Ethiopians
are living in great poverty and squaler for thousands of years eventhough we
were never colonized and had lead a sovereign existance.
The
short article by Alex Loo, “Manawatū charity to hold an art auction for a
good cause” [Stuff, 10 November 2018] describes how a small
community of people in Baregota (near Lalibela) and surrounding area scattered
over an area on both sides of a small river had difficulties crossing a small
river for decades maybe even for centuries. It is an area that has ample
resources of raw material to build a bridge, but the people nor the government did
anything.
“Villagers cross the river daily, as it
effectively splits the village in two, with some housing, the church on one
side and the remainder of the houses and the grain mill on the other. The
river crossing is also used by those travelling further into the hinterland,
and Foxley estimates it is used by 10,000 people a year. …
“The auction, aptly named To Ethiopia With
Love, will feature donated pieces from artists such as John Tidball and Colin
Hoare. Organiser and Bricks for Life committee member Helen Pratt estimates
there are 50 pieces of work for sale, including a piece she painted herself.
“Initially, Foxley had a vision that the bridge
could be built by the locals with wood from gum trees around the village.
However, he soon realised the village would need a bridge designed by
engineers, so he reached out to Bridge the Gap Africa, an
American organisation that specialises in building footbridges across dangerous
rivers.”
This
situation is not unique to this particular community of Baregota, but is true
through out Ethiopia in tens of thousands situations of similar difficulties
and even with other more pressing problems where the female members of such Ethiopian
communities travel for miles to get water from disgustingly polluted rivers and
springs with people and animal waste and garbage et cetera. Ethiopian men did
not even have the simple decency to carry such burden of carrying heavy water
pots or jerrica to aliviate the painful labor imposed on Ethiopian femals and
children by tradition. And yet for thousands of years such Ethiopians,
generations after generations, did not build safe drinking water sources, nor manage
their filth proberly et cetera. Not only that, but also the trashing and
storing of cereals, such as Teff, Wheat, Oats, Shimbra et cetera,
and the processing of Chili into Berbere, Kike into Shiro
et cetera is inhygenic, literally such produces are admixture of animal
dropings, soiled with shint, et cetera due to the primitive methods of
using animals and the physical labor of human beings without safty hygenic procedures.
Again what is missing is not raw material or resources, but acute constructive
intelligence and wisdom in the creation of some form of technology to
facilitate efficient and hygenic form in the production and processing of food
products.
Conclusion:
Rather than
focusing on the acute existential (survival) challenges facing over a hundred
million Ethiopians, Abiy Ahmed and his co-conspirators are meeting with foreign
leaders to discuss the fictitious security threat facing them all. In reality
what they seem to be focusing is on the process to liquidate the Leaders of the
TPLF and the Tigrai State. Abiy Ahmed is a manipulative spineless sycophant who
is leading Ethiopia into destructive confrontations with Tigrians, Afars,
Somalis, et cetera. I urge political and military leaders to learn from the
experience of leaders around the world in history how to lead a nascent
democracy as is the case in Ethiopia.
I
recommend that you all, including Abiy Ahmed, read the history of Kamal
Attaturk of Turkey, the Anabasis of Xenophon (on the Persian
expedition), and the history of the brave commander Yi Seong Gye of Korea (of
his unique role in the creation of Joseon Korea in the 14th Century).
I suggest for your considerations the history of those leaders for the simple
reason because they illustrate the power of having loyal soldiers, even though
few in numbers, in order to survive an expedition through enemy held vast
territory, and even establish a dynasty, in the case of Yi Seong Gye lasting almost
a thousand years to our time.
We do have great history of our own leaders that could provide our
leaders with insight on the preservation of Ethiopia. Whether it is Emperors
Yohannes, Menelik, or Haile Selassie each showed great dignity in dealing with
foreign leaders and their representatives. I have never read or heard of any
Ethiopian leader except Abiy Ahmed who acted like a servile servant to foreign
leaders.
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