TIME FOR FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE

 

May the New Year bring us courage to break our resolutions early and our expectations be realized with each and every day of the year. I hope the New Year brings peace and new inspiration to all of us.
My family and I wish you and your family all the best on your thoughts, actions and changes that will bring lots of happiness. My own plan is to swear off, every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall my wishes in 2016.

Time for fundamental change is about our way of life, our objectives and our decisions. We are convinced that basic human needs are the same everywhere and finally we all strive for the same thing to succeed in life.

My theory for my commentary focus is that the political tradition among Ethiopian elites at home and abroad abruptly blaming and shaming one another will not get us anywhere. Our history since the 1960s shows that it is a failed and disastrous political culture driven by elites who continue to focus on isolated and partisan pieces rather than serving the common good. We critique the governing party but fail to critique ourselves and one another civilly. By this I mean embracing each of Ethiopia’s citizens, defending and advancing their rights and their welfare. Instead of doing this, we continue to react to events rather offer ineffectual alternatives.

 Rarely, if ever do, we have self-doubt in what we say. Egos and self-aggrandizement in the name of a cause dominate intellectual thinking. It continues to be a culture of “my way or the highway.” We talk about freedom, justice and democracy all the time.

Do we have a common definition and understanding of these fundamental principles? What do you think? I, for one, don’t think so.

In other words, without a clear awareness and a common plan there is no forward movement and progress. Don’t you think it’s about TIME FOR CHANGE?

The only method to solve our problems at Home and abroad is an all-inclusive approach which is based on the reawakening belief. For this to happen, the political elite and the people must change their mindset and should stop venerating and lionizing the kingdom of the past temperament to reign again.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved our colourful, charismatic and engaging royalty. But that’s in the past, like everything else, all things good or bad must come to an end, that’s our history but can’t be our destiny.   

We need to move forward with a renewed sense of urgency building institution of all-inclusive education system which can rationalize the minds of the people and the political elite which is suitable for creative and innovative changes to bring transparency and accountability into operational and the awareness to decimate the inkling of nepotism and subjugation.
Don’t you agree that Ethiopian society need a profound transformation from within now not five or ten years from now?

We can’t afford to dwell on our differences. It is not sufficient when someone merely acknowledges, regrets, or apologizes for something they have done. Change in our perception is very essential in our society, in whatever level of services we’re dealing with, whether sports, welfare or community organizations or day to day interactions to be able to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of individuals, members, volunteers, participants and most of all paying our gratitude to members in any institutions who’ve officiated unreservedly.

To appreciate how playing with the fire of ethnic hatred is so tense with unintended consequences, it will be good to remember that mutual recognition is a precondition for social trust. A sense of self-worth by any group in society is only partially internal; it also depends on the willingness of other competing groups in society to acknowledge the worth of the other. This is why status contests which lack good-will are inherently negative-sum games. Where a group is discriminated informally or as a matter of government policy, cultural self-awareness eventually gives way to inherently exclusionary group consciousness.

If there is one thing the majority in the diaspora and the people of Ethiopia loathe and reject, it is political bluffing, power mongering, egos and self-aggrandizement/self-centredness and hypocrisy. Division, narrow group think, personality cults, arrogance, hidden agendas, naming and shaming, character assassination of each other, one person or group trying to undermine the other and so on will not advance the common cause and or respond to our unity and the urgent solutions for the Ethiopian people, especially Ethiopia’s youth.

Our future generation is in desperate need of model leadership and guidance from the vast societal structure inside and outside of the country. It is ordinary Ethiopians at home who die for human, social and economic rights and freedoms. The rest of us can at least stand on their side. For this reason, I suggest that division must give way to cooperation, partnership and solidarity.

Creating confusion and resentment between the younger Ethiopian populations causes more dilemmas than immediate solutions. Although, the Oromo story is so poignant, in fact, not just Oromos, all Ethiopians have suffered massive injustices under successive governments and the only way we can achieve freedom and lasting democracy today is when united, reconciled and all is forgiven, change our perception, not when divided by ethnic groups or not when being polarized by historical lies presented as truth to serve a very few freedom or radical movement organizations.

Let me be clear here that I do not blame the new generation or all the courageous young journalists and freedom movement leaders who wanted to inform the public the truth through the glass doors they grew in. They are products of a traditional society which is high in power distance, i.e., a culture that accepts denigration & inequality between leaders and the led, the elite and the common, the managers and the subordinates, the professors and the students, favouritism over competence and nepotism instead of merit, etc., etc.
Our hope and Ethiopia’s future hangs in the hands of young generations who are in sync with twenty first century values where blind ethnic loyalty is regarded as ignorance, backwardness and primitive. It is rewarding to see around the US, Europe and anywhere else in colleges and universities that young Oromos, Gurages, Amharas, Hararians, Tigrayans, Eritreans and all other Ethiopian ethnic nationalities look and interact with distinctive sense of affinity towards each other.

It is now incumbent upon us, the older generations, to appreciate more and resent less, to encourage and support the interaction of young people and to undertake projects and discussions of the like organized by various institutions abroad and at Home. The least we can do is to refrain from infecting these young people with hatred towards each other. Instead let us earnestly tell them of the good and bad times we had in our Homeland and our determination to get ahead on our long journey to pursuing our success up to where we are today.

“One Ethiopia for all and all for one Ethiopia”

MENTORING NOT MENACING IS THE KEY TO RAISING RESPONSIBLE KIDS

On behalf of all migrant Australians, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we live and pay our respect to their elders past and present. I’m proud to call it ‘my home’ and pay my allegiance to the flag and privileged to use my democratic rights to make inoffensive comments when I see, hear and feel something that betrays our social cohesion.

I just want to get it out of my chest about recent swimming's great Dawn Fraser’s comments about Australian tennis players at Wimbledon. I was not bewildered or surprised with her comments because I hear and see revolting remarks like that every single day.

We all may have come by different circumstances but now we have boarded on the same boat either to navigate together with family spirit by look at the more realistic picture, as they say the devil is in the detail and change for the better or sink together titanically. “Whatever we practise we will get good at, for better or worse.” –Law of nature. 
     
I believe like majority of Australians, I do think Australian swimming great Dawn Fraser stepped over the line when she unconditionally said; young Nick Kyrgios & Bernard Tomic are “being paid too much, arrogant and if they don't like it, go back to where their parents came from. We don't need them here in this country to act like that."  Can you imagine if that applies to every Australian kid if they behaved badly?

Dawn Fraser like Pauline Hanson haunted by their past both speak what’s in the minds of some Australians who couldn’t have the opportunity and celebrity status to say what, how and when they feel the pinch.  

Irrespective of Nick or Bernard’s perceived behaviour or sportsmanship they are still learning how to associate themselves with the level headed environment and persevere their new status as the world’s best tennis players.

I believe society is expecting too much of young people to stay still and behave like everyone else or want them to be someone they admire. We can’t change elephants to be like lions or vice versa. We need to accept growing up kids for what they are or drive them to the limit where they will be traumatised and stigmatised to display even more anguish and unwanted behavioural problems.

Dawn Fraser who is old enough to know better has shown us and the rest of the world how the racist past still droning around among people of her generation.

On the other hand, the media extends their support telling us that Dawn Fraser has apologised after suggesting Nick Kyrgios "go back to where his parents came from" over the claims she apparently knew they labelled him tanking during his 4^th round loss at Wimbledon.

The message still is disappointing. The media should stop playing mouth piece spreading the apology messages. If Fraser honestly wants to apologise, she should appear live and say it as she did the dreadful call on the young tennis player in first place.  

Why didn’t everyone raise their eye brows when, the then 20 years old, Lleyton Hewitt, was lobbing all kinds of racist tantrums against a black linesman for twice foot-faulting him for offences he committed in the US Open in 2001 while playing against, another black man, James Blake?

 

Kyrgios & Tomic Wimbledon 2015                          Blake Hewitt US Open 2001
                                                                          
Hewitt goes on to say, "Look at him (the linesman) and tell me what the similarity is (beckoning towards Blake)," brutal words clearly picked up by the courtside microphones. "I want him off the court, I've only been foot-faulted at one end. Look at what he's done."  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/usopen/3011926/US-Open-Crowd-chide-racist-Hewitt.html

Besides all the Australia’s past social stigmas, do you think the weight of their names, Kyrgios, Tomic vs Hewitt, made a difference?

I beg you not to step over the line to challenge and abuse me; rather take a good hard look at the whole unfolding argument mindfully if you sense this problem is incensed by Australia’s past social norms regressing again like that of the recent US wave of racial brutality by the police force against its own people.

We should take Dawn Fraser’s comments as a wakeup call for the old and new generations and embrace it seriously without making offensive judgements and learn from it and refrain not to make the same mistake again and again. Dawn Fraser and her generation grew up in a time of racial inequality and rampant era of all sorts of discrimination.

Make no mistake, things have changed and it’s time for change, we absolutely need to accept anybody that acts and does anything and everything different than us, without judging and labelling, mindfully. We realize that we are all different species and make different errs sometimes and we should accept that as a warning to check ourselves in the mirror without banging our heads against the mirror or wall.

This wisdom doesn’t come without attention, but paying attention to the things we find most offensive or uncomfortable isn’t for the faint-hearted, so it also requires courage to observe with an unbiased attitude.
Apparently, Dawn Fraser didn’t seem to have a rosy past too.

Here is a copy of bizarre online comment about her by:               [ mawson01 3:23 PM on 07/07/2015 If I recall, Dawn was arrested stealing a flag at the Tokyo Olympics. Not only that, she was not a "team" player in refusing to swim the medley relay.

Pot calling the kettle "black" maybe a risk but appropriate metaphor.]

A B R U T A L M E R C I L E S S L O S S O F L I V E S

What promises to be a better, peaceful and prosperous new year, 2015 has shifted its passage of astral travel already causing brutal, to name a few, heartaches around the world.

The Islamic State militants in Libya cruelly shot and beheaded 30 Ethiopian Christians.
The Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram continues to harm innocent citizens.
The Attacks against foreigners including Ethiopians continues to haunt in South Africa.
The sinking of boats full of refugees in the seas of Middle East is becoming like the Watergate mystery.

The rampant culture of racism among United States police is regurgitating the social injustices that have been crushed, chewed and cremated in the past.

The dangers of online dating with the unknown and family violence crimes are creating indecisive results for justice systems.  

The Israelis and Palestinians continue to play tug of war destroying the peace process, people and their infrastructures.

The mysterious vanishing of Indonesian and Malaysian airplanes in the eastern hemisphere without trace continues to puzzle the International Air Transport Association and International Civil Aviation Organization.

The Bali 9 tragedy which saddened a lot of people around the world finally laid to rest.

Indonesian president, Widodo, executed Australian duo, Chan and Sukumaran and 6 other death row inmates from different countries in a cold blooded draconian style law and order while the 9th Philippine’s woman received a last minute reprieve.

I felt the pain pounding in my heart thinking what it would also be like for the families and friends of those executed by a barbaric style firing squad.

With all the miscarriages of justices and corruptions in judiciary systems in Indonesia & around the world, fortunately, luck has been with some people for surviving the merciless decisions. Regrettably, luck was not on Bali Nine Australian duo and 6 inmates’ side and certainly I am convinced that their time was up and destined to die this way mainly as a result of their Karma.

Karma is a fundamental doctrine that all of our actions- mental, vocal and physical will have equal repercussions, affecting us. It’s the principle of cause & effect where our intent and actions influence our future. Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering.

It’s our actions, deeds and motives of the past, depending on its severity, that brought our harsh realities of incessant sufferings of today. 

We are mortal beings destined to go, in different circumstances good or bad, in an avoidable power like the source of a big torrential river grounded on our Karmic retribution. We can only redeem it in our present lifetime with good intentions and deeds for a very happy life in our next lifespan.   

Unfortunately, when our time is up nothing I mean nothing will save us. We all have seen people survive from unforeseen disasters like tsunami, bushfires, airplane crashes and so on, and tend to believe miracle and guardian angels are on their side.  

The truth is those survivors are not ready to pack up yet. Hey! I’m not talking about irrational wonder. This divine truth has been around since human evolution but we just haven’t been embracing it as a result of our varied upbringing and nurtured in a diverse spiritual choices. This may sound strange and new phenomenon to you but our life’s worth finding out more about the concept comprehensively without making overstatements or otherwise. We have the “Choice”.

However, this tragedy should be the day of awakening and whatever the cause maybe, good, bad, karma or else, the maximum punishments bestowed on human lives are excessive and unjustified and should be replaced with other forms of reprimands that can rehabilitate those honestly remorseful offenders.

They didn’t mean to bring anguish to their families and everyone around the world. Maybe they’re there to create a cause: telling the world that there still exist brutal injustices that need changing. They certainly caused huge impact of empathy reverberating in our nation and around the world that will bring change of hypocrisy, accountability and inequity.   

If offenders sincerely admit their youthful and stupid mistakes and asked you for forgiveness and mercy, what would you do?

As continuing track records of offences show, legitimizing death as a form of punishment to deter drug trafficking has never worked and lots of visiting innocent foreigners still keep falling victims of this brutal injustice. It’s very sad that this barbaric action would rather discourage more foreigners from visiting the beautiful Indonesian Isles thereby crippling its economy and human interactions.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo defiantly defends his reasons and appears to have rejected any clemency claims even before he reads each specific clemency petitions from death row inmates.

The president appeared inexperienced foreign policy diplomat who hasn’t anticipated the state of affairs that threatens to undermine Indonesian & Australian relations, a bilateral relationship far more important to Jakarta by ignoring an honest request for clemency of its citizens.

As for Widodo he will get his own remuneration as an effect of his deeds, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

It’s always a great occasion when nations decide to resolve their problems through diplomacy in a peaceful means of magnanimity, honesty, fairness, justice, and mutual benefits. Such great agreements are born out of strong principled presentations of each sovereign nation pursuing its national self-interest. Because of unpolarised interactions, national leaders will start to recognize the legitimacy of all well founded claims and concerns of each other as riparian conditions.

The exchange houses-diplomats are not to be used as rubberstamping institutions but as a functioning body to foresee and examine any requests, grievances, agreements, resolutions, treaties, even policies during the negotiations, ratifications and ultimately granting of the congenial decisions unconditionally.

This is a reminder to all countries who exchange diplomatic representatives such as embassies, consulates or any proxy agencies for their respective countries not as symbolic but must give assistance at a time of critical statuses and open to communicate effectively and fairly to listen to each other’s concerns and compromises to accommodate the interests in an harmonious and humane manner more specifically in a time of disaster and distress about their citizens.

I wish the Indonesian people and other present day law abiding countries to denounce the ‘out dated’ death penalty categorically and practice universal law to live with the global community humanely.

To those unsympathetic individuals who took an unlikely side because of offender’s ethnic backgrounds or filled with hate mongering biased moral judgement, must wake up to their consciousness to put “humanity before ethnicity” and practice the fundamental ethical principle of “treat others the way you want to be treated.” 

Finally, I send my deepest condolences to all the families of the executed, my warmest gratitude to the organizers of ‘We Stand For Mercy’ appeal, lawyers who indefatigably & effortlessly fought the injustice battle to the end and to those who took part in doing everything in this distressing, upsetting and heartbreaking epic journey.

 I hope 2015 finally ends on a very good and remarkable note.

Good bye & RIP 

OVERCOMING THE STATE OF NEW AGE BARBARISM

The group formerly established (by misguided & deceitful management? see video) as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) recently renamed itself simply as Islamic state (IS), to represent worldwide Muslim Community, is appearing ferociously inhuman than first thought.

                Truth in Media - The Origin of ISIS from GC on Vimeo.
 

They remain condemned and unrecognized to this today. Many mainstream Islamic and non-Islamic communities refusing to acknowledge IS and considered the group unrepresentative of Islam.

The group has been designated as terrorist organisations by the United Nations & many countries are directly instigating war against them

.

They started their onslaughts by beheadings of soldiers, civilians, journalists and aid workers, as well as the deliberate destruction of monumental cultural heritage sites.

Now, they come up with a terrifying backwardness vengeance to crusade against Christians.

Recently dreadful news has been circulating around the world; this time IS is targeting Ethiopian Christians. Clearly, they must have run out of other justifications to turn their gun against their Christian fellow human beings.

Ethiopian authorities have finally confirmed 30 Ethiopians have been callously killed by IS extremists in Libya.
 

A song by Ethiopian Artist, Jacky Gossee, dedicated to Ethiopians killed by Islamic State in April 2015

The cold blooded execution of innocent Ethiopians by IS in Libya is heartless, horrible and absolutely against the teachings of Islam.

To the new generation’s young people whose opportunities are unlimited to succeed in anything they choose to do with the access of technology at their fingertips need to be extremely aware of the conundrums within it, their young and stupid identity augmenting their curiosity not to fall victims in the hands of IS or any radical organizations, which brutally carry out injustice against humanity, that will jeopardise their life.

This chilling fanaticism in the name of Islam against brotherhood of Christians is unsubstantiated and backwardness.

Come on IS! These acts of barbarity and primitive ideas of the crusade era won’t get you anywhere. You must find an ethical and vindicated reason for your resolution without killing unexpecting and uninvolved innocent people. 

 

We all understand the disparities and unfairness some of our Muslim brothers and sisters have to endure. The same is true for some Christian brothers and sisters but IS regrettably slaughtered amiable innocent Ethiopian migrants in search of peace, freedom and justice by instigating war on Christians.

Like all of us in the diaspora, those Ethiopians left home leaving everything behind and dispersed in every direction in search of all the opportunities that peaceful existence has to offer in an unknown distant country. Change, unfortunately, didn’t come as they anticipated for some fellow Ethiopians as they continue to suffer in the Middle East, Yemen and surprisingly subjected to discrimination assaults among our own bloodline in South Africa.

Opportunities in unknown distant countries have tremendously changed in the last two to three decades and apparently life has been harder for some previously migrated Diasporas everywhere for all sorts of reasons.

I hate to say but the truth will eventually emerge someday as more and more refugees mainly African origin, it seems, purposely dumped in the seas and an organized crimes have been committed by covertly sinking the refugee boats on their way to the imagined, “promise land”, better opportunities starting in Europe as a predominant destination.

        Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants on boat transporting from Libya to Italy

European countries can’t tolerate being a safe haven endlessly to the influx of refugees anymore as this continues to create all kinds of economic, political and social upheavals and imbalances with the already existing diaspora communities and its citizens. 

Now we have heard, seen and recognized all upsetting incidents thru all media hypes and the Ethiopian government’s guilty conscience pacification of 3 mourning days for the runaway peace seeking fallen victims, what do you think has to be done to stop this never ending brutal suffering?

An honest moral compass to transform our misfortunes ongoing in circles is to make an unconditional change in our own back yard. This may not be my areas of expertise but extensive life experience, my sense of right and wrong tells me that change starts with us (at home). Ethiopians need to change to create harmony among themselves and save our people from fleeing persecution to total destruction in the hands of a predator and Machiavelli. In addition, world communities need to take responsibility to defend its society from falling in the hands of terrorism in a concerted effort.

Above all, our leaders need to look at what worked and what did not and why. It appears that they were again finger pointing at each other for all the failures. None seemed to want to take the slightest responsibility for the letdowns.

Our political leaders do not seem to realize the importance of critical reflection and drawing lessons from past mistakes. Unfortunately, this trend seems to have been mainstreamed into the nexus of our culture. It is probably related to the failure of our institutions of higher learning in delivering and nurturing an intellectual nation that values competing models and views while promoting critical thinking. Such a culture has permeated all our social and political life.

Clinging to our established beliefs even in the face of contrary evidence, failing to identify real sources for our failings, failing to value the importance of doubt and scepticism in our thoughts and actions are only indicative of the failure of our educational institutions. We will never succeed in establishing participatory democracy until and unless we challenge this view openly.

This line of thinking encourages a fearful & reticent character which is adversarial to the democratic frame of mind. This is unacceptable, for it creates a roadblock to our collective search for democracy. Intimidating individual for offering a critique of an idea, action, or institution is an egregious violation of free speech, a quality vital in participatory democracy.

Let me be clear here that I do not blame the new generation or all the courageous young journalists who wanted to inform the public the truth thru the glass doors they grew in. They are products of a traditional society which is high in power distance, i.e., a culture that accepts inequality between leaders and the led, the elite and the common, the managers and the subordinates, the professors and the students, favouritism or partiality, nepotism instead of merit or competence, etc., etc.

Behaviours of all kinds that express such inequalities may be confused with humility or modesty or shyness culturally customary, prudence, and admiration that permeate our professional and social lives.

Let’s all be mindful, first we were divided as ethnic groups before we found our self-further polarised within our respective communities literally everywhere we look. Individuals with hard-line extreme views have held sway on our politics long enough leading us only to conflicts and failures, now it is time the forces of good from all sides of the divide start pulling in the same direction wisely focusing on the greater common good without dowelling much on the past. Our politics should move out of divisive cultures that characterised it for as long as we can remember by shunning the tendency of focusing on what makes us different since that approach has not only remained unproductive but also failed miserably and evidently as it stands out for the freedom it deprives and the refugees it produces. We have gone our separate ways with a great cost, yet any failure to chart a way of getting along constructively in any capacity either as people of one nation or as friendly neighbours is even likely to be at a much higher cost.

No words can describe the shock, grief, and compassion so many of us felt at the ruthless loss for the families and friends of those so inhumanely murdered Ethiopians. We owe our deepest condolences to them and utterly condemn these barbaric acts. I commend the diaspora Ethiopians for standing strong together as one Ethiopian family as we have always done irrespective of our religious differences to condemn the brutal suffering of Ethiopians wherever they are whether or not we share the same religion, ethnicity, political views, age, gender or any other characteristics.

We got it wrong once again and I beg to differ. I believe it is time to be free from the past and focus on humanity and citizenship rather than ethnicity. What brings us together is more powerful than what divides us.

It’s Time For Change that Ethiopians of every faith everywhere call out for our freedom and pursue the moral transformation of ourselves, our society and the government.
 

Ethiopia and its people will live together for ever!