Ato Hailu Shawel is a product of Ethiopia's great melting pot, Addis Ababa. Three quarters an Oromo, and one quarter an Amhara, he is the ultimate new Ethiopian species that we could safely term as the Addis Ababan.

One mechanism by which the Addis Ababa melting pot works is through the intermarriages of different ethnic groups. By 1994, according to one survey, only one quarter of the city's residents were married to someone with an undivided ethnic heritage identical to his or her own.

The other, of course, is language. Much like the English language is the great unifier in the US, Amharic, more or less, serves the same purpose in Adiss Ababa. And like the disdain of America towards the perceived purity of Europe, Addis Ababans loathe the notion of distinct ethnic groups in Ethiopia who could take an exception to the intermingling so common in Addis Ababa. Adiss Ababan intellectuals have spent the larger part of the last quarter of a century rewriting Ethiopian history in their own image, concomitantly mass-producing political parties that supposedly fight against ethnic politics. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm for serious intellectual work on the issue of ethnicity in Ethiopia is less forthcoming.

Meanwhile, the melting pot has not melded that many unions outside Addis Ababa. The overwhelming majority of Ethiopians are rural based, rarely venturing outside their immediate environment. According to one study conducted by the Addis Ababa University, the majority of Ethiopians die with out ever leaving the Awraja that they were born in. Hardly a surprising revelation. But this is the cruel fact, which people like Ato Hailu Shawel refuses to live with. And despite what Ato Hailu Shawel and his friends might say, ethnicity is an issue in our country because Ethiopia is not the mirror image of Addis Ababa. In fact, distinct ethnic groups constitute the Ethiopian reality. The Woyanes are a product of this reality; they are by no means an inventor of it. And so long as this remains the fact, the existence of AAPO is only inevitable. Neither can Ato Hailu Shawel explain our status in Ethiopian politics as mere conspiracy by the Woyanes. Things are just not that simple.

The glaring fact is that there is only one species of the human race; it cannot be broken into biological units called race, ethnicity, or national group. We are all the same. Nevertheless, most of us hold preconceived theories about the attributes of those in different cultural and linguistic groups and view others through their stereotypes. For instance, three-quarters Oromo university students at the Addis Ababa University, according to one study, believed that Amharas are "insensitive to other people", and 82 percent of the same group said that Gurages are " devious in business". Ninety percent of the same group believed that Tigrayans "are racists" (the actual term they used was ZEREGNA). And I just could go on. But I think the point has been made.

Stereotyping is a habitual practice used by all of us to simplify the complex world that we live in, and to make life somewhat predictable. Nevertheless, we need to remember the maxim that if people believe something to be true, it will be true in its consequences. Look no further than the plight of the Amharas in 1991, who perished in tens of thousands in Arusi and Harrerge because of the stereotypes held by their neighbors. This partly explains why we need ethnic based political groups in Ethiopia today, Ato Hailu Shawel. Woyane has nothing to do with it.

Nationalism in Ethiopia has evolved in two very different directions. On the one hand, the nation is defined primarily in political terms, as embracing all those people living in a common territory and governed by a common state. On the other hand, nationalism is defined on the basis of language and culture. The latter has generally been derided as "tribalism", though for the last 30 years it has proved to be more potent.

Despite the assertion to the contrary by Ato Hailu Shawel and his friends, the two versions of nationalism are not irreconcilable. In fact, the only way that Ethiopian nationalism could survive is by somehow finding the means of co-opting ethnic (language and culture based) nationalism. Indeed, I agree that ethnic nationalism posses a threat to Ethiopian unity. What I find troubling is the insistence by the likes of Ato Hailu Shawel and his friends that it has no positive aspect. I rather think that it is extremism coupled with ethnic nationalism that is the menace, and not necessarily ethnic nationalism by itself. No less a threat to Ethiopian unity is the extremism being promoted by Ato Hailu Shawel and his friends, which must be called by its true name: xenophobia.

From my personal experience with AAPO , ethnic politics has not meant the promotion of divisiveness; neither has it meant the undermining of Ethiopian unity. Rather, it has meant grass root activism, something which political parties like the AEUP could not boast about. Xenophobic organizations are not known to be terribly sympathetic towards the common man, since their primary obsession is the worship of the state. Ethnic based parties, on the other hand, have an instinctive attachment with the common man, however narrow that base might be. In this regard, ethnic based parties are superior to multinational political organizations in the Ethiopian context. To date, no Ethiopian multinational political organization has ever claimed to represent the majority of Ethiopians across the board. Not even the giant ego of Ato Hailu Shawel was up to it. Somewhere in the interview, he has freely conceded that most members of his new party are in the north. What more do I need to say?

I don't think it would be too much to argue that multinational organizations in Ethiopia are very much aloof from the common man. This aloofness if what is being promoted as progressive nationalism by Ato Hailu Shawel and his friends. By the same token, it is the close affinity of ethnic-based parties with the common man that is being scorned as tribalism. Very much a common Amhara man that I am, by instinct, and conscious choice I am a member of AAPO. These are the facts, and they are very much self-explanatory. I am by no means a member of AAPO because of some grand conspiracy, as Ato Hailu Shawel has repeatedly alleged.

Finally, I find it troubling that a man with the standing of that of Ato Hailu Shawel could level baseless accusations with such ease. Had it not been for the moral anarchy that prevails in our nation, I am sure that Ato Hailu Shawel would not have said the things he said about AAPO, and "the newspaperman".

He has no evidence to corroborate his assertion, and if not for the moral anarchy of these days, lack of evidence would have been a deterrent by itself. But we live in an age where truth has little value, and what really matters is the settling of scores. Indeed, a troubling time it is.