By Wolde Tewolde
Sept 23, 2009
Two approaches and two proposals for redefining or redrawing of Ethiopias future either by cartography or planning.
On the one hand, there is Ato Zewge Fanta who has written two articles the first one was entitled Liberators coming north or South and the second article entitled Building Democratic Ethiopia: Nation of Individuality, This author, has vehemently objected not only the need but also the idea of help coming either from the north or south of the main stream Ethiopia. He emphasized that Ethiopians do not need liberators. As a solution, Ato Zewge Fanta proposed models (via diagrams and maps) depicting on how Ethiopia could be redrawn for administrative or political purposes.
While on the other hand, Obo Arada Shawl has been proposing via his articles entitled Solutions with DEBTERAW indicating the dire need of DEMOCRACIA which is still hanging on the neck of Tsegaye G. Medhin, alias DEBTERAW. Obo Arada Shawls model for re-defining Ethiopia is based on intonation of spoken and written languages.
Ato Zewge, on the one hand, is a cartographer by profession as such he had access to top secretes of
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Re-Settlement and development programs in Ethiopia,
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Land Reform, and
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Border issues with neighboring countries such as the Sudan and Eritrea.
Obo Arada Shawl, on the other hand, was an economist by training and a transport planner by profession and as such he had
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Planned and programmed transport infrastructures
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Participated in various transport and communication sector studies
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Participated in the inventory of Ethiopias socio-economic and materials for construction
Zewge believes that the Kilil administrative imposed by the Woyane regime had created insurmountable economic and social hardships to all Ethiopians. It is recommended for readers to read Ato Zewge Fantas articles on how he arrived to this conclusion. And also, it is necessary to examine his models for reform. I suggest to the readers of this article to compare and contrast Ato Zewges model with that of Daniel Kindes proposal of Ethiopias administrative structure.
Unlike Ato Zewge, Obo believes that the concept of Kilil per se is not bad in terms of physical geography as inasmuch as it is against the freedom of Movement for Ethiopians. The Woyane groups have just repeated the concept of infringing on peoples individual freedom that was created by MIESON with the approval of the DERG. The creation of Kebele was a terrible mistake and now, it is perhaps ten times greater a disaster to be used by the current regime. For Obo Arada Shawl, Kilil is interchangeable with Kebele in terms of destruction and harassment.
Both writers could not agree more on the Kilil issue. It is a devastating concept no matter how the current president attempts to convince the world that ethnic federalism works.
This writer aka Obo Arada has proposed to re-define Ethiopia not in terms of physical geography based on cartography or virtual demarcation but by naming names, by inclusion and by honoring titles. That is, call me by my name, call me by my address and call me by my title (NAT).
My name is the letter E, my address is MAKK and my title is a civilian titles and not professional titles. We can discuss and debate on these Names, Addresses and Titles in order to comprehend, communicate and reconciled. This is what I call the Eway Ethiopia.
In other words, this writer has a history of building bridges between the head, the heart and the hand. If these three Hs are connected, there is definitely a solution to our perceived problems.
As to – from the outside to the inside – the 3Fs of, Flag, Fidel and Freedom have been presented to the readers.
DEMOCRACIA or democracy?
Ato Zewge Fanta defines democracy as follows.
Democracy is a principle by which to fortify and build, not divide societies. The people of any region have democratic rights not to be excluded and barred from sharing the heritages and resources that the nation is endowed with. Similarly, it is the right of the nation to protect the interests of the whole and to prevent the partition or separation of any region away from the rest (Zewge Fanta, 1993). According to Ato Zewge, kilil is a colonial dogma and he wrote the purpose of kilil was to partition Ethiopia into several tribal homelands with ultimate goal of creating several nations within a nation. This according to Ato Zewge is an anti-thesis of democracy.
Democratic right is one aspect of DEMOCRACIA. The rule of the majority and the right of the minority should be considered in the case of Ethiopia without delay.
DEMOCRACIA is the rule of the majority but in Ethiopia it was and is the rule of the minority. In other words, there are too many minorities to count. That is what the ethnic federalism is about. The foreign powers do not want the rule of the majority for there is no way to control the majority and as such there is no benefit to gain from such support of the rule of majority.
In the case of Ethiopia, foreigners have been searching for the real minority. They had found in the five hundred nobility of Moja and Asdge families and when these five hundred members of nobility could not be useful any more, then they began to search for few educated elites in the country, they failed to find or to pin point some, then they searched among the military elites again they failed. The Eway Ethiopian Revolution via DEMOCRACIA raged on unabated.
As the Eway Revolution was coming to a close, foreign powers have intervened with a new brand of recruits to halt the oncoming victory of the people and they found in some elements in Diaspora. Again many of them failed to hold on to power as a minority. For few years they seem to give up hope and only concentrated in exasperating the regional conflicts. This time around, still to build a minority of bourgeois class who can be a minority to be controlled and maneuvered by foreign powers is on. That is the dilemma we are in.
Are Ethiopians going north or south to be rich or to be liberated that may be the question at hand? Are these groups going to be rich by corruption? Or is Ethiopia is going to be wealthy by selling or leasing its land to foreign countries? The answer lies within each of us.
Conclusion
Zewge Fanta has attempted to redraw Ethiopias map via cartography based on nationalism and patriotism whereas Obo Arada Shawl, has been proposing to re-define Ethiopia via the concept of planning, programming and budgeting if not by name, address or title. Let the discussion and debate begin.
If Ethiopians cannot prosper by the concept of DEVELOPMENT, it is better for them to PRESERVE their natural resources. By natural resources, I do not mean, minerals, agricultural produces but also their cultural history, religion and climate.
TRUTH WILL PREVAIL
For comments and questions