Perspective - The People Who Lost Their Way:

The People Who Lost Their Way:
Looking at the Consequences of "Going it Alone"
09 April, 2009 | Maru Gubena

The problems facing Ethiopia

and its people are too many and

too complex to

count or

describe, but they all have been

created and cultivated by the

people

themselves, as it is the

group, the community and the

society which are

responsible for

molding and shaping our lives,

cultures and habits – bringing up

and socializing its children.

Even those who show cruel, inhuman and destructive behaviours, such the former
dictator, Mengistu Hailemariam, or the current leader of the TPLF, Meles Zenawi,
belong to and are an inseparable part and product of Ethiopian society. It would
not be wrong to state that that since most of us have not been tested, it would be
difficult, if not impossible, to vigorously argue that we, the Ethiopians at home and
abroad who are restlessly, relentlessly and sleeplessly demanding basic rights and
freedoms for individual members of Ethiopian society, including a dramatic
improvement in living conditions, could not behave in similar ways, just as
inhuman and destructive as those two individuals, had we been given the
opportunity to rule. Our own destructive actions and behaviours throughout the
fall of 2005 and to the present day clearly suggest that we might not be so very
different from those who have inhumanely committed the most horrifying,
atrocious crimes against our families, friends, classmates, colleagues, neighbours
and our most talented Ethiopian compatriots, whom most Ethiopians had seen as
the future assets of the country and its people. Yes, I actually continue to wonder,
often anxiously, whether we ourselves, who appear to have lost our way yet try to
appear to be the guardians and defenders of human rights, are well equipped for
these roles, and whether we would prove to be better, more responsible thinkers
and relatively honest policy makers, policy executors and educators.

Imagine now just for a while, just for a moment, that we, the entire community of
the Ethiopian Diaspora, had lived through the remarkable and testing four-year
period, from winter 2005 to early 2009, a period marked by an irremovable black
stain on the minds of the Ethiopian Diaspora community, on our own island. I will
call it Zaldonia. We are there with no rules and laws of our own, just as we are
living now. It should not be at all difficult for any member of our community with
a healthy common sense who walked the rough paths of those high, treacherous
mountains with us throughout those four remarkably tragic years to predict or
guess what would have happened to some, or even most of us. Yes, the past few
years have put the long-held grudges and deep-seated resentments many of us
hold against each and every one of our own compatriots in a bright light. In fact,
the past three and half decades, but especially this brief four-year period, have
shown us unmistakably that we have completely lost our direction with respect to
finding a path to togetherness and unity.

Yes, it is certainly true that each of us is talking through our own personal
websites, newspapers, radios, paltalk rooms and other means of communication
about Ethiopia and the unity of its people, including discussions of our country’s
territorial integrity, but in actual terms those talks are just a means to an end, a
ladder that can be used to climb to desired socio-political and economic positions
or to help those related to us to achieve a degree of political power over others.
Yes, it is true that all of us are talking and writing - but we are not changing
ourselves, our behaviours and mindsets; we are just trying to influence and change
others, so that we can share (or if possible remove) their political power and the
economic positions at their disposal. Yes, all of us are also writing, talking and
complaining about opposition groups and those who love to “go it alone,” and we
want them to establish a united force and work together, but we ourselves, as
website and radio owners and paltalk talkers don’t like and don’t want to hear
about working jointly with other radios, websites or owners of other
communications media.

We, all of us who have

been molded by exactly

the same culture, love to

go it alone so that we can

continue to enjoy doing

what pleases us to

without being bothered by

others, without the

slightest feelings of

shared responsibility or

accountability, within our

own lonely and fruitless

circles of freedom –

going our own way on

our own timetable.

Let me just share something with you, something which sometimes even scares
me. But I hope I am terribly wrong. Yes, I sometimes think, imagine and get even
so scared to death that if, just if, Ethiopia, our country, one day becomes very
lucky and finds herself to be young and beautiful, exactly in the same way as
some of our exceptionally elegant, beautiful Ethiopian girls, and much to her
disbelief and shock, she meets someone, a kind prince. They fall in love and
marry. She, our country, looks set to live happily ever after, becoming not just
prosperous, a disease and prison-free land, but also kicking out all of those who
have been and still are oppressing and repressing her children, taking their
positions as President, PM and Information/Disinformation or whatever ministerial
positions they may have held, becoming very democratic and commencing a
joyful life with all of her eighty million children.

What do you think what would happen next? I really don’t know, but I am
sometimes so scared that some, if not most, Ethiopian Diaspora talk shows and
political groupings might possibly not give up their talking, unless their demands or
the demands of those they support and with which they have been engaged and
busy for so long are incorporated into the lifestyle of the newly born Ethiopia and
its newly crafted socio-political and economic policies. They might not even want
to attend her wedding. This is not just based on my wildest dreams or fantasies; it
comes from my observations, for example when I have witnessed that many
helpful ideas and visions presented to us by some open-minded thinkers who are
free from family and group orientations, which have not been allowed to grow in
our minds and hearts, or in our home country. Instead they were simply buried
deep in the ground and forgotten, simply because such ideas and visions did not
make a place for the political programmes of our current, ineffective political
organizations and the plans and desires of privately owned business and media
outlets.

In conclusion, I would dare to say that, although “going it alone” – ignoring the
direction that most social animals of the world community follow, living in respect
and love with each other – may have benefited a limited number of our
compatriots, perhaps in economic terms or/and self-satisfaction, for the majority
of us the direct and indirect consequences of losing our way and going it alone
have been and are huge and may be difficult, if not impossible, to repair. The
limited social and cultural fabric of the Ethiopian Diaspora community that existed
previously has been shattered by those who are incurably addicted to going it
alone and by those whose mindsets are firmly glued to a family and group
orientation.

Why are we then talking and shouting, sometimes very emotionally and sometimes
in an exceptionally concerned manner, saying that we are talking about the current
problems and future direction of our country and its people, instead of simply
admitting that what we are saying is on behalf of ourselves?

Maru Gubena
Readers who wish to contact the author can reach me at info@pada.nl

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