This morning I woke up early. As I sat sipping coffee, I was thinking that the here and now needs to be appreciated and honoured for its own sake. It gives us too much that we usually ignore in our habitual conditioning and haste. There are countless problem-free zones in existence no matter what a particular negative situation may be. For some time, I have made it a point of thinking or singing to myself, when waking up in the morning: “ May peace fill our earth”. Children’s play, you may think. Sure, it is easy to think and say that. But to feel its reality from a certain angle of my own daily experience works like a balsam for me. It is more than a balancing act. I even enjoy to extend it a bit accompanying it on a keyboard or a recorder. It is pure joy.
Yet after the coffee, I went over to my desk switching on the internet. I see president Obama holding a press conference with the Ethiopian prime minister. He says without blinking that Ethiopia is a democracy. Yesterday I read about the president of world’s number one superpower raising the issues of of the rights of homosexuality in Kenya. Do the peoples of the world see Ethiopia as a democracy? Is homosexuality a burning issue in Africa where millions are underfed or go hungry under pro western power hungry military dictatorships or extremely corrupt civilian politicians? This is part of the reasons why so many young people are fleeing from the continent despite the dangers involved.
The president gotta learn when to shut up. But he cannot do that while his military, especially his drones, are killing so many innocent people. The Abyssinians are fighting his wars on the ground as no one else in Africa to save their empire. Democracy is not a genuine issue for their regimes and their opposition groups. Keeping their empire intact is their main point. The American ruling elites register this fact and use it very effectively to achieve their own global agendas…even though they know very well how crazy the Abyssinian assumptions are.
I was intrigued by the president’s body language as he tried to avoid mentioning Ginbot 7. It would have pleased the TPLF if the president condemned it outright. But he knows that not only Ginbot 7 and other affiliated Abyssinian groups but also even Oromo groups such as ODF and OPC are only competing with one another to serve the American and Abyssinian interests at the end of the day. So the American president feels the need to protect these groups as long as they are made up of yes men and women.
If Ginbot 7 could mobilize Amhara patriotism initially with the help from the Eritrean regime and ultimately gains ground and foothold in the Amhara central highlands, the West would reconsider throwing its lot in one basket with the Tigrayan ruling minority elite. Most Amhara elites are quite straightforward: in their Ethiopia which is, in their imagination and propaganda, not merely a three thousand years old geographical space but also an everlasting mental space or crutch, American interests are safe for ever with or without Wayane. Contrary to the Abyssinian political imagination and dogma, Americans are brilliant strategic thinkers and planners. Just look at Mullah’s Iran. It is becoming a friend suddenly despite the Shiite dogma. Iran’s imperial dreams in the region at the expense of the Arab people do not contradict American interests. I was impressed hearing president Obama this morning defending the agreement with Iran in clear terms.
There are situations in the history of ideologies and dogma when fiction is more real than reality itself. Empire builders have always benefited from the fact. Naive masses open themselves easily to very tragic manipulations ending up as victims of dangerous delusions. Oromos must take note of this historical truth very seriously. Most of us, Oromos, are extremely naive. The greater part of the Oromo bourgeoisie and petite bourgeoisie is callous to a very high degree. This is due mainly to the most backward and most systematic dehumanization under the Abyssinian tyranny encouraging petty thinking and opportunism. The fear of death is constantly hovering on our heads. Notwithstanding the fact that we can be as fearless as robots and extremely brutal fighting and dying under the Abyssinian command against our own people. To this day we have failed as people, as groups and as individuals, to produce a revolutionary organization with a committed leadership based in our land to effectively lead our struggle for freedom and independence from Abyssinian despotism and violence. We seem utterly incapable of freedom from the endless permutations of our individual egos. Let me mention here a topical example of our naivety. Up to now I know only three or four Oromo individuals who are clearly aware of the fact that Jawar Mohamed still tries to avoid addressing the issue of the right of the Oromo people to self determination even theoretically, to say nothing of considering the Oromo question as a colonial question. This man is being made into an idol uncritically. Criticizing him seems unthinkable to many. Even before his famous ” I am first Oromo”, I had numerous conversations with him criticizing, congratulating and ecouraging him to move forward in his political activism. But each time he evaded the main issue about the strategic aims of our struggle, which must culminate in our independence from Abyssinia and its brutal empire, Ethiopia. I know that with this statement I am opening myself to the outrage of his worshippers with herd mentality. If that is the case, so be it. I am not here to entertain anybody. Now I think there are two Oromo paltalk rooms in which most speakers have at least theoretically the correct position that the Oromo question is a colonial question. I am amazed now to see that one of them is almost taken over by Great Oromia (walabsi) and his colleagues who are cleverly agitating persistently, now for some time, to keep the Oromoland within Ethiopia. Why is all this endless shameless wavering? I think that at present even the main Oromo political figures and groups are remote-controlled by Abyssinian sponsors. Watch out!
If we want to overcome our disorientation and naivety we need ethical motivation. Where do we find it? Only in ourselves. I think the concept of Waaqeffachu is not just a traditional religious concept. It is more than that. It is rather mainly a philosophy of nature similar in many ways to the vedic philosophy of ancient India. It does not discriminate. Like the sun it gives energy and life to all- which is pure light of love. It can unite us in the face of new empire builders and their Oromo slaves. It can strengthen our unity and resolve to be free from the shackles of oppression, including the spiritual poverty and inferiority complex that goes with selfishness. The question is one of cultivating personal integrity in practice in a social, organizational and educational framework in the fields of real struggle, as opposed to the conundrum of imaginary scenarios of some of our groups based in and controlled by Asmara. It is not going to happen only by wishing, no matter how well intended. In this way, I am convinced, if we work honestly with what is in our hands NOW, the universe will take care of us and our unfounded fears will be dispelled soon. Again, let us watch out. No matter what happens let us not lose contact with the present moment- the only concrete reality at our disposal, though it is constantly changing. It helps us to be clear-minded, energetic and pragmatic.
I would like to mention here in this context one of Berhanu Nega’s interviews on ESAT. At the end of that interview he was asked to address the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) population. He said openly his organization does not consider the present Ethiopian army, its security apparatus and its police as enemies. I think he means what he said. Basically his organization was founded to facilitate the Amhara political come back and supremacy with the main agenda of combating the national liberation movements, especially, the Oromo aspiration for independence. The Wayane apparatus of torture and genocide will be tolerated to keep the empire intact and Somalia splintered among its puppet clan leaders. The new Amhara elites would not mind to leave also the OPDO as it is, a toothless hyena. They may not ban our dear language.. We can continue with our blah blah and rest assured!
Of course other global players such as China and Russia do also buy the criminal African political and military elites as much as they can. If I concentrate in this site on the roles of Western powers in Africa it is mostly because they are more aggressive and more powerful than other global players. I hoped for long, not without good reason, that China and Russia would address their deficits in human rights record to stand to the one sided Western imperialist hegemony. But greed and empire building seems to win the upper hand everywhere for reasons I do not fully understand. Is there anyone out there to enlighten me on the issue? I am ready to listen short of supporting Imperialism of any form. Is history the repetition of repetition? We seem to be back to square one- the era of inter-capitalist conflicts and wars by proxy or even directly.