Thursday, June 1, 2017

WE WANT CHANGE & TOLERANCE not VENGEANCE

The Member States of WHO elected an Ethiopian, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, as the new Director General of WHO on May 23, 2017, in Geneva.
Dr. Tedros is expected to start his work on July 1, 2017, for five year term.
Prior to his election, Dr. Tedros served as Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012–2016 and as Minister of Health from 2005–2012. He has also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board; and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
After reading and viewing all his credentials, I couldn’t help but consciously driven to write the changes needed if we have to move forward without political partisan gerrymandering, feeling envious, jealous of our own blood to take the world stage making as all proud.
Let’s not forget how far we’ve come and what changes and progresses we’ve made bearing in mind our repressive past and still more work to do trying to convince old school oppositions & remnants of the past that have lost their status and hierarchies reluctant to tolerate successive changes.
Considering our past tyrannical systems of government, the current one is angel in disguise & fairly better than the way things were and the only problem is people are not used to changes, playing denigrating and mistreating strategies of any elected governing ethnic elites and any future successive leaders will face the same fate if society doesn’t change.
From my own observation, Dr. Tedros really deserve a better treatment from his own Ethiopian people to be elected to any position, let alone to the world’s highest office.
Our old habits can get so deeply engrained in us that they affect our body and mind at a cellular or organizational level. We sometimes experience depressive feelings not caused by anyone or environmental events that happens around us but by our own emotional reactions as a result of distorted thinking.
We label people with different personalities if they don’t fit our expectations, but the fact is acceptance is the key to let everyone be themselves.
We often send our messages in the way we know how, our own way, not in the way others welcome it; nevertheless, receivers often forget the messages come with good intentions & genuine advice before filtering it in their own thoughts and react badly.
Our knowledge isn’t generally the driver of behavior. We often don’t do what we should do because of inattention, apathy, avoidance, fear, being too busy, confronting an unsupportive environment, a negative attitude or habit or routine without being labelled a pushover. 
It is said that those who do not learn from past mistakes are doomed to repeat it. Many mistakes and errors have been committed by successive habits in the past. These mistakes need to be identified, studied and lessons drawn from them so that they will not be repeated again. We need to build collective agenda to advance and support these mistakes and undertake not to repeat them.
We cannot transform our country without first educating, inspiring and transforming our people to the level that requires understanding, mutual respect and endeavor to unfold the bondage of ignorance and evil governance that capitalizes on our negligence to become informed and ready to defend collectively, as living organism of habitat do, to the perpetual continuity of our existence as Ethiopians. –Tesfaye Aman
If there is one thing I detest and reject in the Diaspora Ethiopians, it is political bluffing, power mongering, egos and self-promotion/centeredness and hypocrisy. Breaking up, narrow group think, personality worships, nepotism, arrogance, enviousness, hidden agendas, one group trying to undermine the other and so on will not advance the common cause and or respond to the unity of our future new breed of Ethiopians especially the youths.
Playing the ethnic card game is to fall victim to destructive identity politics that breeds division, hatred, conflict, and cynicism.
The process of unifying people is difficult and the road to unity is often littered with the debris of historical grievances, animosity and resentment.
We seem to throw stones at each other from far away physically hitting no one but emotionally affecting all of us, doing so with no clear evidences of criticisms or offering solutions to any comments being made by anyone who is contributing alternative opinion to solve the ongoing problem. 
This is just my observation of our academics’, celebrities, and disgruntled old monarchy sympathizers reacting in an unanticipated disrespectful manner. Instead of rebutting about any remarks with evidences in a valued manner customary to our culture, throwing condemnations based on emotions leaving the subject matter unresolved. I don’t want to give examples of those articles or issues as it serves no purpose but create more divisions. You will know next time you read some of the commentaries online.
It seems our ego (sense of self) has taken over our conscience. It’s shame that we simply don’t acknowledge or appreciate anything because that threatens our intellectual territory. This shame can lead us to deny or reject the simplest act of sharing, gratitude and validation of somebody else’s thoughtful concepts.
When we let our ego convince us that we have done no wrong and instead of repent begin to justify our actions, then we have chosen a state of denial over truth, flesh over Spirit. If we consciously war against our conscience, refuse to repent, ask for forgiveness and doing the right thing, choosing rather to justify our actions by whatever theory we can come up with allowing our ego to defeat our conscience.
Change is about striving to go beyond our limitations and create something better both in our personal lives and collectively to eliminate or even lessen pain and sorrow from our and other’s life without reservation by relinquishing our inner resistance to take positive action and transform or discover something profoundly new without resignation.
We need to remember that if we can’t think greater than how we feel, we can never change.
We might choose to go to war with our morality and reassure ourselves with our ego by saying… it was not my fault, I was born this way, it is genetic, my father or mother was this way, I was abused as a child, God made me to act this way…, it is a way of life – all men or women do this, everybody is doing it and so forth.
The list of excuses we might come up with abounds, every time we justify our sinful actions, it seems our ruthless ego (opinion of ourselves) has defeated our humane conscience to value somebody else’s good thoughts.
Don’t get me wrong, you probably have seen it or sensed this action was taking place and there is nothing negative about telling the truth, “Nothing but the truth”, rather than pretend and act as everything is hunky-dory.
We have all changed in some way or another and seen some of those changes either for good or otherwise, helping us or affecting our interactions since the opening of information exchanges in a multitude of social media outlets.
I, for one, certainly, have noticed how the interactions motivated some of my friends and the social media users to reinvent themselves unlike others who have been overwhelmed by the wave of changes in methodological networking or communications and apparently withdrew indefinitely or coyly remain as a silent passenger.
Remember, we may not have the prestige of celebrities, the power of Pope or all other academic luminaries, but our differences of opinion and stories are unique and equally valued, effective and say something no one has imagined before. Thumbs up and hats off to those of you for being resilient to care and share to disseminate what will be pivotal information for everyone and also send my hearty message to those coyly pals to absorb all as much as they can and explain their cherished side of story. All we need is to improvise our thoughts to change.
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela
As Obama time after time stated in several of his deliveries, “change takes time”, it’s time for us to take responsibility for our own predicaments.
Obama clearly told African leaders on the future of Africans: “We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans. I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family’s own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story. …”
“Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans. … “Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions….”
We all need to do our share without expecting others, especially, when there is no, basically, convincing, charismatic and negotiating leader, except those yearning for power, that we all fully and undoubtedly support to take the chair.
The realities today are different than they were five, ten or twenty years ago. Aligning one’s thinking and actions with the changing times (realities) and circumstances is a sign of wisdom and humane maturity.
Today, it’s not enough to create change at the level of symptoms and structures. We need to work even more deeply to change the underlying paradigms of thought and to connect with our deeper sources of creativity and self.
Failure can be turned into an opportunity to learn and grow. I say it can, because it requires a particular attitude to benefit from our failure. Without that mentality, all our failures will go to waste. This is true in political affairs as it is in personal life for a leader as well as a follower. So, what is that mentality?
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” –Albert Einstein
It is our mentality that is willing and able to reflect on past experiences – past actions and their outcomes. It is only through such reflections that one learns one’s strengths, weaknesses and the environment and conditions in which actions were undertaken and what could have been done differently that could have resulted in a positive outcome. It is not enough to admit collective failure. One needs to evaluate one’s role in the failure. This is even more so if one is a leader under whose watch an organization – business or political – failed. Denying (to oneself and others) failures and personal accountability and scapegoating or blaming on someone will not do. Leaders without such a mentality cannot educate themselves from past failures and therefore deserve no second chance to continue doing the same thing over and over again and again.
I pay my indelible gratitude to all the people that I have been in contact with, past and present, friends and families, regardless of their academic standing or status, who and what they are. As a result, I have gained a great deal of knowledge and extensive experiences dealing with the downtrodden and my intention is not to use over them and you, but to share it with them and you so that we all can see we have the same aspirations and desires on our life’s journey and I’m contributing my insight to empower all of us and loved ones for a safe ride.
Opportunity is not universal. Those of us who have it must endeavor to appreciate the great responsibility that accompanies it.
I want this story for society to change, to challenge our own behaviors and who we are as a society and what is expected of us to live as a cohesive society and ask you to join the journey to a better and habitable lifestyle.
Therefore, WE WANT CHANGE & TOLERANCE not VENGEANCE. (ስለዚህ፣ ቂም በቀል ሳይሆን  ለውጥና ትዕግስት  እንፈልጋለን)

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