Well, here is my take. It all starts from me. I am part of the problem.

In my high school years I supported striking the then Haile Sellassie University students in Addis Ababa and sang:

That was in the late '60s.

When I joined the university it was “Land to the Tiller”, “Sector Review”, and the question of nationalities – in short basic democratic rights. The aging emperor did not want any of it. The fact was the objective reality was ahead of everybody; the rubber stamp parliament, the moderate wing of the ruling circle, the progressive sector, or any organized body. In a very short time a leadership vacuum was created that was filled by Derg. I joined demonstrations in the streets, shouted: “Ministrochachin Leboch Nachew, Serkew, Serkew, Aybekachew.” When Endalkachew took over, like most in the streets, I shouted: “Gulcha bikeyayru wot ayataftim.” Yes I was in a small group that was part of those that fanned all these and it joined other groups and then a party was declared. Then again that was still very little to what the time demanded and it was late.

The atrocities Derg committed can not be stated in an article like this but then again who writes and who reads? In one form or another millions struggled, organized or disorganized, on national issues or local issues, and the last days of Derg were approaching fast. I was not organized and I was not there. Like 1974 the democratic forces everywhere in the country including the army were not there in 1991. TPLF stall the show. How fast it galloped to Addis Ababa is known to all.

Like the morning sun famine is visiting us regularly, except now it has increased its frequency and decreased its time of absence. AIDS has made one of its primary residences in Ethiopia. Corruption and nepotism have only turned blatant. Inequality and justice have never been further away as they are today. We are back in the circle again. What Derg did was the cause for its fall. You all know what TPLF is doing and where it is going.

At this particular time, it is clear that the rotation of brutal governments is about to continue. Leaders, be it individuals or groups, survive with the support of and the acceptance of the people they lead. The people carried the emperor and when the people said enough, the ground on which the emperor was standing gave way and the emperor became a one person army. Derg got up and helped by expectation and the ills of the emperor rode for a while. That too lasted. It got brutal and its deeds stunk and the people said enough. Helped by the vacuum and the peoples’ hate for Derg TPLF snatched the throne only to waste it because it just did not have what it took. Now the same fate is awaiting TPLF. The same hatred for TPLF and the yearning for the departure of TPLF's departure are making TPLF's departure in accord.

I, like most people I know, am not organized. The organized sector does not have a good history to give me any confidence about the future. I am delegating the work to others and blaming everybody but me. If you are like me, let us change our behavior. If we constantly cry how bad our leaders are, if we always complain about leaders, if we are ready to point fingers, if we know what is wrong and the wrong continues; then there is some part we are playing that makes this reality real. I and you part of the problem, if not the problem.

You know and I know Meles is not going to have any fair election. You know and I know Meles is not going to cede power voluntarily. I used to believe that Ethiopia is different and anything that I read about other countries dictators will ever happen in Ethiopia. That anyone that has participated in the Ethiopian Student movement, even if that participation was joining the withdrawing students and standing at the edge of a rally, would ever stamp on the rights of the people and the rights of the same university students in particular. I admit I was wrong. What ever happened in other countries happened in Ethiopia. Democracy is given a golden name but changed according to the wishes of those in authority that define it and has become unrecognizable. Again you all know what TPLF is doing and where it is going.

If we are outraged by what is going on, standing on the side is not the answer. Appealing to international organizations and foreign donors has its limits. Standing in the streets of foreign cities, shouting love for the people and government denunciation have very little impact, albeit saving oneself from one’s own self guilt. What has been going on, what is going on, and what is going to go on can only be stopped when all of us stop blaming others, stop folding hands, and stop sitting on the problem.

Let us look at the reality. Let us all understand our historical obligation. If do not do that, then history which favored our fathers for their courageous patriotic deeds will bury us with shame, where we are unable to look at our own children and tell them we ever existed for the shame of what we did not do. What is real in Ethiopia will not go away because we wished it to. It will not go away because we closed our eyes, delegated it to others, or just of its own will. We shall not forget what the reality of the last half of the 20th century Ethiopia looks like. We do not need anyone or anything to remind us of that. We lived it. That is part of us, and that is us.

What can one at present do to change things in Ethiopia? Meles is comfortably sitting at the throne. The people are under TPLF surveillance. The opposition is not allowed to work inside the country even with the slightest semblance of democracy. I do not know which one is going to be better for the country – TPLF or another group with its own agenda! What is true is what is now has to go and what is going to come is unknown. Thus there needs to be a transition. For this transition to work let everybody study who he/she is. From there let each of us think the best route to take from what is real to what will be a government by and for the people. One way will be to bring in all organized groups, the present government, and prominent individuals together. This guaranties to some extent a wider representation. From here it is easy to go to a constitutional assembly and . . .

Nice idea, but how can we go from the present reality to a wider representation? We go there because the alternative is back to the circle and if we do not want to go back to the circle we all must take this route. Well, it is ok for you to say, why will Meles or the other groups follow us? Well it is always the one that follows the will of the people that will come out champion. Knowing the history of rules that are not representing their people, Meles likewise will not easily give up his throne. As stated earlier, leaders, be it individuals or groups, survive with the support of and the acceptance of the people they lead. Let us say enough is enough and not stop at that but also dictate what shall come next.

When all us that are outraged raise up in unison with a ferocity equaled only by the amount of blame we put on others, when we hold hand in hand in streets, in neighborhoods, in schools, at work, at home, and everywhere we walk, everywhere we talk, everywhere we breath, and everywhere we live in Ethiopia and elsewhere then it will not only stop, it will be replaced with what it is not. If not, then not only will the rotation of brutal governments continue, but the abject poverty of the people, the drought we have expected as a necessary cycle, AIDS, the inequality, and the injustice will also continue, for these are what define Ethiopia today.