Ethiopian political life is in turmoil again. AIDS ravishing Ethiopian
bodies;
the boundary question perturbing the body and mind; relentless poverty
marring
everday life; young Ethiopian men squandering their youth soul and body
on the
mudy streets of Addis; girls in their teens selling their bodies to
sick and
wealthy men alike; the old languishing in shacks and shanty towns with
the
bible on hand; priests chanting redemption songs on old churches;
hopeless men
and women hanging around church yards because they have no where else
to go;
coffeshops teeming with idlers in the middle of the day sharing a pot
of tea
among ten; beggars whisking away deadly flies from their famished
bodies; at
night when all cows are black, the poor and the rich mingling in steamy
asmari
places, these and many other scenes which I witness everytime I visit
my
homeland are pressuring me to seek peace at any coast, to dream
tranquility in
the midst of depression.
Oh Yes, oh Yes, I do not know why but I am in the mood for peace, in
the mood
of contributing towards the fashioning of a new Ethiopia, under a peace
seeking
leadership that will create a new mood for perpetual peace.
Perpetual peace is what I want now. Prosperity with leadership is what
we
should all want. Easier said than done you might say. You are right. So
easy it
is to preach by writing feather light pieces such as this one. Light to
write
but heavy to think, just like happiness is short and sadness is long.
We Ethiopians deserve better now. Let us remove the mood for war.
Instead let
us think hard but write lightly about peace, about the conditions of
creating
it, and most importantly justifying peace to the anxious public and
educating
them to the idea that peace is also an
act of valor, of bravery, of vision and of high moral intelligence.
Our new discourse should praise peace seekers and peace makers.
The
public must
be educated towards a new discourse that presents peace makers as
heroes of
the new age, as harbingers of change, as vehicles of profound
transformation of
the Ethiopian soul which is hardened by poverty, insensitve leaders,
corrupt
officials, hopelessness and despair. We ought to hearlad their names,
praise
their efforts, and pray for them to accomlish the impossible. Goodwill
and
encoragement must accompony their paths. Their efforts should not be
sqeezed in
the squabbles of political parties, but be presented to the public as
visions
of greantness and highmindedness.
The mood for peace, which is what need now is what we should create by
any
means necesary. Let us dream peace, and the transcedent might reveal
himself to
show us the way.
