Welcome to the people's tent!
By Wondem WoldeEmanuel
May 30, 2006
First of all, this is an open and personal welcome, in the old traditional way , to the OLF and the other Liberation Fronts that I do not know too much about, to THE PEOPLES 'TENT". It was customary for our fathers and Mothers to leave their homes and temporarily dwell in tents while marching forth and returning from defending their liberty and Country. As we all know, the Ethiopian People remain evicted from the "HOUSE' they should have inherited and occupied more than three decades ago. After all, it was built by the sweat and blood of their forefathers and mothers. Today we have armed intruders that have occupied our House without a lease or rental agreements.
Secondly, I do not think I need to ask forgiveness or apologize for only recognizing ONE and not many peoples in one Ethiopia.
Thirdly, I am not welcoming you as foreigners or guests for entering the Tent, as it belongs to you as much as it does to the rest of us. By the way, if you have not received a hug or warm welcome and observe reservations on the part of some of your brothers and sisters, it is because they believe you should not have left the Tent in the first place. They hope the preliminary gathering may be an antecedent of what is to come and are gingerly , but eagerly awaiting to celebrate the positive outcome of the main event. They also want to make sure that you are here to stay. I have no doubt that you understand we all have been heart broken by unrealized coalitions , fronts and all kinds of alliances that did not stay their course to bear fruition. This time around, we are praying that your dialogues are not, as in the past, a finger in the dike but, honest and sincere discussions of real concerns and concrete and practical remedies to the many woes of our Motherland.
It is not necesssary to state other reasons as it will bring bad memories. I do not want to dwell on our ugly past, but will be obliged to mention a grave mistake or two we have committed so that we need to straighten them up and do not fall into the same pit again. I am talking about those of us that claim to have acquired a wealth of knowledge and enlightment. We left the uncomfortable Tent or directly immigrated and took residences in foreign lands and even became citizens of many nations enjoying all the rights and privileges as their old settlers. To realize our dreams of power, fame and fortune, we organized ourselves and agitated the unsuspecting natives of our Motherland to displace those who have lived , intermarried and interbred for generations. We have unnecessarily elongated the suffering of our people, even in absentia and through our local surrogates, by disuniting the innocent and encouraging them to kill each other than to have them united to liberate themselves from the brunt of tyranny and dictatorship. We have raised and dwelled upon the unintelligent question causing an inextricable dilemma of who came first, the chicken or the egg? To make a long story short, we have made grave mistakes and sinned. I pray the Tent to be our temporay residence where we cleanse ourselves : truly recant and repent, promise to each other and to our long suffering people to relieve them of their miseries, mostly of our own creations, that we have put them in, to enable us to march together and occupy our permanent House. I hope we will be cognizant of the fact that we have made the children of Ethiopia not to grow to be twenty years of age. We have allowed hunger, disease, ignorance, ethnic strifes and killings, political incarcerations in dungeons and genocides to affect and waste the lives of millions.We should be mindful and humiliated by the nonsensical attributes that we proudly manifest such as our political sophistry, foreign languages proficiency that we hold above everything else while despising our own history, cultures and traditions, languages and what not. We have become insensitive and thus ignored to heed the demands of our citizens and deprive them of their peace and tranquility. We undermined the united struggle for the respect of their human and democratic rights by a one man one vote system and made them easy preys to butchers and dictators.
I was encouraged to write this welcoming note and meantime throw few reminders because we have to be truthful to ourselves and I was also very much encouraged by the recent choice you made to stand by the victimized majority of your brothers and sisters than to become a partner in crime with those in the business of division and repression. We know you were openly and secretly sought and enticed by the undemocratic forces. By turning them down, you have lessened their threat to reduce Ethiopia to a place that will be unfamiliar to all of us. You have detonated the bomb traps they hid to ignite and explode by launching a civil war that would disintegrate the Motherland. I truly believe you have clearly seen the dangers that is awaiting the Ethiopian People and are playing a major role to reverse the intended destruction than to raise your stakes high to the next bidder. I must also emphasize that this is the beginning of a long journey and must frame our vision and actions based on common interests and principles and start the march as soon as possible. I know it takes time to build trust and confidence in each other, but we do not have the luxury of wasting time, even minutes and seconds, and therefore, must attain them as we go along.
The House that belongs to our citizens that has been occupied by armed intruders without the concent of citizens continues. Their promise to hand it over to the rightful owners have not been kept . On the contrary, they have tried to split assunder the foundation of the People's House. Fortunately, they were only able to tear apart one tile amongst over eighty and dispose it, like it was nothing. Without consultation and permission of the majority owners, the minority have also artificially partitioned the wide and far accommodating living quarters into narrow and small sized rooms. They have attempted to strip the building of its original blended and smooth colors. As only children without the ability or experience would do, they have sprinkled the much neglected and nonporous turned interior and exterior walls with bold and blinding colors, instead of artfully brushing them with decorative and coating paints that are attractive to the eyes. They have been hammering on the building for fifteen years to dismantle it. Except for few cracks that will easily be filled by citizens, they did not succeed in bringing down the House. It proves it has a strong foundation and was not built on sand or "dibushit" as they want us to believe. We are very glad that you defied and turned them down to be a part of their conspiracy and plan to implode/explode the House with the ill conceived ethnic dynamites? It will not be difficult to renovate and reinforce our intact House, if we are willing to put our minds and efforts together.
I hope my message will be taken as a reminder and not as a sermon from my pulpit (computer) to those in the Alliance pew.
Inberta!
----------------
The writer can be reached for comments at wondem19932@earthlink.net
ETHIOMEDIA.COM - ETHIOPIA'S PREMIER NEWS AND VIEWS WEBSITE
© COPYRIGHT 20001-2006ETHIOMEDIA.COM. EMAIL: webmaster@ethiomedia.com
May 30, 2006
First of all, this is an open and personal welcome, in the old traditional way , to the OLF and the other Liberation Fronts that I do not know too much about, to THE PEOPLES 'TENT". It was customary for our fathers and Mothers to leave their homes and temporarily dwell in tents while marching forth and returning from defending their liberty and Country. As we all know, the Ethiopian People remain evicted from the "HOUSE' they should have inherited and occupied more than three decades ago. After all, it was built by the sweat and blood of their forefathers and mothers. Today we have armed intruders that have occupied our House without a lease or rental agreements.
Secondly, I do not think I need to ask forgiveness or apologize for only recognizing ONE and not many peoples in one Ethiopia.
Thirdly, I am not welcoming you as foreigners or guests for entering the Tent, as it belongs to you as much as it does to the rest of us. By the way, if you have not received a hug or warm welcome and observe reservations on the part of some of your brothers and sisters, it is because they believe you should not have left the Tent in the first place. They hope the preliminary gathering may be an antecedent of what is to come and are gingerly , but eagerly awaiting to celebrate the positive outcome of the main event. They also want to make sure that you are here to stay. I have no doubt that you understand we all have been heart broken by unrealized coalitions , fronts and all kinds of alliances that did not stay their course to bear fruition. This time around, we are praying that your dialogues are not, as in the past, a finger in the dike but, honest and sincere discussions of real concerns and concrete and practical remedies to the many woes of our Motherland.
It is not necesssary to state other reasons as it will bring bad memories. I do not want to dwell on our ugly past, but will be obliged to mention a grave mistake or two we have committed so that we need to straighten them up and do not fall into the same pit again. I am talking about those of us that claim to have acquired a wealth of knowledge and enlightment. We left the uncomfortable Tent or directly immigrated and took residences in foreign lands and even became citizens of many nations enjoying all the rights and privileges as their old settlers. To realize our dreams of power, fame and fortune, we organized ourselves and agitated the unsuspecting natives of our Motherland to displace those who have lived , intermarried and interbred for generations. We have unnecessarily elongated the suffering of our people, even in absentia and through our local surrogates, by disuniting the innocent and encouraging them to kill each other than to have them united to liberate themselves from the brunt of tyranny and dictatorship. We have raised and dwelled upon the unintelligent question causing an inextricable dilemma of who came first, the chicken or the egg? To make a long story short, we have made grave mistakes and sinned. I pray the Tent to be our temporay residence where we cleanse ourselves : truly recant and repent, promise to each other and to our long suffering people to relieve them of their miseries, mostly of our own creations, that we have put them in, to enable us to march together and occupy our permanent House. I hope we will be cognizant of the fact that we have made the children of Ethiopia not to grow to be twenty years of age. We have allowed hunger, disease, ignorance, ethnic strifes and killings, political incarcerations in dungeons and genocides to affect and waste the lives of millions.We should be mindful and humiliated by the nonsensical attributes that we proudly manifest such as our political sophistry, foreign languages proficiency that we hold above everything else while despising our own history, cultures and traditions, languages and what not. We have become insensitive and thus ignored to heed the demands of our citizens and deprive them of their peace and tranquility. We undermined the united struggle for the respect of their human and democratic rights by a one man one vote system and made them easy preys to butchers and dictators.
I was encouraged to write this welcoming note and meantime throw few reminders because we have to be truthful to ourselves and I was also very much encouraged by the recent choice you made to stand by the victimized majority of your brothers and sisters than to become a partner in crime with those in the business of division and repression. We know you were openly and secretly sought and enticed by the undemocratic forces. By turning them down, you have lessened their threat to reduce Ethiopia to a place that will be unfamiliar to all of us. You have detonated the bomb traps they hid to ignite and explode by launching a civil war that would disintegrate the Motherland. I truly believe you have clearly seen the dangers that is awaiting the Ethiopian People and are playing a major role to reverse the intended destruction than to raise your stakes high to the next bidder. I must also emphasize that this is the beginning of a long journey and must frame our vision and actions based on common interests and principles and start the march as soon as possible. I know it takes time to build trust and confidence in each other, but we do not have the luxury of wasting time, even minutes and seconds, and therefore, must attain them as we go along.
The House that belongs to our citizens that has been occupied by armed intruders without the concent of citizens continues. Their promise to hand it over to the rightful owners have not been kept . On the contrary, they have tried to split assunder the foundation of the People's House. Fortunately, they were only able to tear apart one tile amongst over eighty and dispose it, like it was nothing. Without consultation and permission of the majority owners, the minority have also artificially partitioned the wide and far accommodating living quarters into narrow and small sized rooms. They have attempted to strip the building of its original blended and smooth colors. As only children without the ability or experience would do, they have sprinkled the much neglected and nonporous turned interior and exterior walls with bold and blinding colors, instead of artfully brushing them with decorative and coating paints that are attractive to the eyes. They have been hammering on the building for fifteen years to dismantle it. Except for few cracks that will easily be filled by citizens, they did not succeed in bringing down the House. It proves it has a strong foundation and was not built on sand or "dibushit" as they want us to believe. We are very glad that you defied and turned them down to be a part of their conspiracy and plan to implode/explode the House with the ill conceived ethnic dynamites? It will not be difficult to renovate and reinforce our intact House, if we are willing to put our minds and efforts together.
I hope my message will be taken as a reminder and not as a sermon from my pulpit (computer) to those in the Alliance pew.
Inberta!
----------------
The writer can be reached for comments at wondem19932@earthlink.net
ETHIOMEDIA.COM - ETHIOPIA'S PREMIER NEWS AND VIEWS WEBSITE
© COPYRIGHT 20001-2006ETHIOMEDIA.COM. EMAIL: webmaster@ethiomedia.com
