When I contemplate some important aspects of world reality today and its problems, I cannot help thinking that they are partly the result of exagerated belief in the powerof scientific knowledge and achievement in the western civilization.
The undisguised and the seemingly unlimited success in manipulating nature gave rise to the belief that nature can be dominated definitely and by extension the world and human beings in it as well can be controlled absolutely. This attitude has brought us inevitably where we are now socially, politically and ecologically in global terms. We are slowly reaching a point where things seem irreversible. I do not like to sound pessimistic because I believe somehow in the power of positive forces in the universe. It is high time more than ever today that we realize this: nature can transcend itself in human beings. Human beings can choose freely to die or to live. They cannot be treated indefinitely like animals. This is essentially a blessing. But it can turn also into a curse in this nuclear age if we are not careful.
No wonder that in this situation clever minds, not interested in facing up to the dilemma, have chosen to stir and foster cultural phobia at home and wars in “unimportant” distant lands to divert attention. May be industrial societies, where most people are still employed, can afford such luxuries for a time being, luxuries which are disastrous to the poor in the world.
The country which I originate from is Ethiopia. It is among the poorest of the poor in the world. Our ordeal is not caused by nature, which is indeed immensely beautiful and kind to us, as anyone who knows Ethiopia understands; our ordeals are the work of warmongering Abyssinian political elites who manipulate international circles and are in turn willingly manipulated by them to remain in power. Since its invention Ethiopia has never had a government elected by its peoples. And there is no prospect of it having one in the foreseeable future. All our neighbours had witnessed some forms of a democratic rule some time in their history- in the Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and even Eritrea.
Now we have heard enough of somalization and warlords in Somalia. Historically warlords are mostly the products of feudal systems. But Somalia in fact knows no feudalism whatsoever, not in its traditional form at least. Yet the propaganda in the world media has it that it is in Somalia and not Ethiopia, which was the bastion of feudalism in the continent, that warlords caused havoc. Ethiopia is still mentally and culturally a feudal bastion. Of course one cannot blame the basic problems of tribalism in Somalia on the regimes in Ethiopia entirely. Nevertheless I can safely say most of the problems facing the Somali nation today are engineered in Addis Abeba by modern Abyssinian warlords with the full involvement of Anglo-American circles. The fear of the Ethiopian empire suddenly falling apart is haunting them all.
Meles Zenawi and his likes, as we all know, could even claim at times, when they considered it necessary, to be Marxists worried by the misery of the proletariat and the working people! The fact remains that they are at heart feudal warlords busy trying to hold together through intrigues and by force a repressive empire baptized as” a democratic” republic. To that end they must keep switching and swinging between opposites favoring an international player who helps them rule over their tottering empire. Will China guarantee the survival of this empire under the Tigrian minority regime? And what would happen if the warlords in the TPLF turn against one another? In the events of complete disarray in the Woyane ranks one can only guess what would happen. Even if the Amhara political elites retake power with the help of the Anglo-American circles, which is very probable if the Oromos and the other oppressed nations of the empire keep sleeping, as they will most probably do, in the light of what we know of their low morale and their long tradition of resignation and submissiveness, the picture will not change for the better. Indeed it could even be worse. While the Tigray political elite wants to rewrite the history with some changes, mostly cosmetic, the Amhara political elites are still bent on preserving with characteristic arrogance the old myths intact even though they are long dead in practice. Sadly they are poisoning many of the young generation with their savage thinking. Of course they do count, among other things, on the so called international legitimacy. The Amharas are also a minority though a bigger one than the Tigrian. That is why most of their ruling elites have always dreaded democracy even though nowadays we often hear them singing in its praise in chorus loudly as best as they can.. They are accustomed to ruling exclusively over a long historical period unquestioned. It is painful for them to give up the gimmicks of loving Ethiopia more than others, even more than themselves. That is why they always turn to obscure ethos and religious myths to make their points rather than to a recorded history.
By the way honestly I cannot pretend to understand fully what lies behind the Amhara dogma and chauvinism concerning Ethiopia. Can sensible Amharas claim to be more Ethiopians and, for that matter, more Christians than the Tigrayans? Historically the beginning of the empire building and Christianity went out from Axsum. If the Amhara dogmatists could not win over the Tigrians particularly in Eritrea to their idea of Ethiopian unity beyond discussion and thereby keep at least the Eritrean Highland in their Ethiopia, how will they dare to impose it on the Oromos, the Somalis, the Afars etc if we disregard the question of Oromo slaves for the time being? The only clear and convincing point now is that of the Amhara elites hungry for influence trying to discredit the Woyane by all means in a bid only for power. There is no end to their confusion and double thinking. Ironically those anti Woyane Amhara elements in this city, who were known for their bitter opposition to the Woyane, were transformed all of a sudden to the friends of the regime in Addis Abeba in the wake of the war with Eritrea and the invasion of Somalia. These days they seem highly impressed by Woyane challenging Egypt on the issues of Nile, an issue which can be settled easily by international law. Woyane is cleverly using the issue dramatically to manipulate especially the Amhara public opinion and its jingoist tendecies so that the question of the faked election becomes secondary in the rush to defend Ethiopia against nonexising threats.
We can understand the empty gestures made recently by Meles Zenawi against neo-liberal market orientation of capitalism. He realizes the nature of democracy does not allow the western regimes at home indefinitely to support an extremely repressive regime. Even if it does it would be at a high cost politically, militarily and financially. What are already the costs of western fleets roaming the red sea and the Indian Ocean to say nothing of the other regions of the world? Can these fleets keep dictators in power in Ethiopia and beyond for ever against peoples determined to struggle for justice and the right of self-determination? Oppressed peoples, in Ethiopia, can be herded together like animals in inhuman Kebele structures, silenced and manipulated by handouts of food, fertilizers, seeds or some bank credits. But these remedies, though they can reinforce the traditional passivity of the subjugated peoples, will not make them forget their rights.
Ethiopia and other countries with similar dependent colonialist structures must be dismantled, peacefully if possible, better sooner than later, to minimize human suffering and insure peace. I do believe in real African unity, but not a unity of AU which is a curse on Africa, the unity mostly of dictators running after money and power This is the right answer to the Chauvinism of the Abyssinian elite, especially the Amhara elite, and their unqualified and unconditional Ethiopian unity for which they are shedding crocodile tears. Some of their ideologues these days compare the conquest of the territories of the oppressed nations by Abyssinia to what they call the liberation of Spain from the Arabs. The implication is that Oromos, Somalis, the Afar, the Sidama etc are new arrivals through migration or war. If they do not like Ethiopia, well, they can leave it to its original owners. This is surely nonsense, historically speaking. No people could claim the ownership of a land from the very beginning.
The immediate aim of the Amhara political elite is to make a political comeback at all costs. But even the Woyane has made it impossible for them to achieve such a dream easily on their own. It has filled most of the government posts formerly occupied by the Amhara elite with the” sons “ of the oppressed nations who are willing to uphold its supremacy not out of love but self-interest. They will fight to the bitter end on the side of the Woyane to keep their salaries and other privileges. For them Woyane is certainly a power for good! However, because of indignities and humiliations to which they are subjected from time to time, they may decide suddenly, if the opportunity arises, to bite the hands that are feeding them as the Woyane itself is doing to the western powers who brought it to power and kept it alive with the injection of huge amount of money into its repressive machine.
Meles Zenawi’s gestures may well be only tactical to blackmail the West, so that it keeps silent on his atrocities. Have no doubt Meles is acting now like an emperor. Other Abyssinian emperors must turn in their graves out of jealousy of his techniques. But some of his political acrobatics may well end in his undoing. Since the faked election Meles has felt emboldened embarking on internal cleansing of his party. Important Tigray warlords are humiliated in the process. Will they hit back or take it easy? After all, what they had done to others happened to them. Meles can count exclusively on the military, like all dictators, using his Tigrian ethnic card more hideously. It seems to me now that TPLF is no more an organization. The same thing did happen to the EPLF. Our modern Emperors in the Horn of Africa cannot tolerate even undemocratic political organizations, even their own. This reminds me of a Hindu legend. There was once a king who did not trust anyone including his body guards. So what could he do? The legend says that he trained himself learning how to sleep only with one eye closed.