SECTION I
General: Civilization and Philosophy
By Tecola W. Hagos
From Old Files of Ethiopian Semay
11/15/23
Tecola and his amazing Pain job
Professor Tecola is a controversial scholar. I myself had many commentaries against him in the past as well praising him.Let me start this quote from his other writings he wrote on Amhara society;
<< The people in Amhara
Kilil have been victimized by TPLF, ANDM, now with vengeful hatred by OLF and
OPD. I supported Abiy Ahmed changing my long-standing position in opposing him
because I saw him as the lesser evil of all the monsters now in power. I am
very certain that the Amhara people are the pillar of Ethiopian State/Nation
whose singular interest is to preserve the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Ethiopia. They are the only ethnic group that had never expressed
formally or informally to secede from Ethiopia. They are the most patriotic
ethnic group, where the meaning of ethnicity blends perfectly with Ethiopiawinet and Christian Orthodoxy. “Orthodoxy” is a misleading
word to use here for Amharas are the most tolerant and accepting group of
people in Ethiopia. But they are dismally disorganized and do not have a power
structure leading them to defend their own lives and the lives of all
Ethiopians.>>
“If you want God to laugh at your jokes, just tell Him your
life-plans.” Putting in mind this quotation as a profound statement, even if it
is a cynical sneer at the effort of a rather pitifully fragile life form
(mankind), I will attempt to discuss some hopeful projects and relationships
with neighboring nations and peoples. Before I embark on such perilous effort,
I will first address some issues I have with the recent essay by Dr. Fekadu
Bekele posted in this Website. The essay has generated some interesting
discussion on the current political situation in Ethiopia, and that is what a
good essay is supposed to do: bring out important issues for discussion, and if
possible provide some solutions. Fekadu Bekele in a lengthy and valuable essay
has articulated the political and economic problems facing us all and pointed
out the main reasons why we, as a people, failed repeatedly from bringing about
meaningful political and economic changes in Ethiopia. I applaud greatly
Fekadu’s effort. Moreover, in the hope of expanding the discussion, I have
written few paragraphs below on certain specific and limited issues discussed
in Fekadu’s essay. I do have points of divergence in that essay, and the least
of which is Fekadu’s repeated use of the word “backward” in a general
characterization of Ethiopian civilization, social life, or economic situation.
Although I was finished writing my article before I read Fekadu’s
essay, I have added this section to indicate some of the delicate concepts in
Fekadu’s article, but most importantly to express my admiration for such
engaging piece, and express how I am grateful for his candor. Fekadu’s
admiration of Prometheus, my favorite character (in Greek mythology) coming out
of our universal human ethos, reminded me how far religious concepts based on
Judo-Christian and Islamic self-serving Messianic imagery as well as the
concept of eschatology (end of time) had distorted the true
symbolism of mankind’s tragic struggle against an overwhelming and indifferent
universe. As far as I can tell, the philosophers who have truly understood/felt
this human tragedy of ones awareness of ones pathetic limitations are
Schopenhauer and Unamuno, and especially Unamuno as he poetically illuminated
his inner most sympathy to the human condition in his wonderful
book The Tragic Sense of Life [in Men and Peoples]. From one
of our own contemporaries, the words of John Lennon frames this tragedy of
human existence, i.e., existing alone, surrounded with overwhelming force,
endowed with a great imagination et cetera, but acutely fragile: “Life is what
happens to you while you are making plans.”
A. What does it mean to be “Backward”?
It is precisely the Promethean myth cited by Fekadu that is the
basis of my comment on the issue of being “backward” as mentioned in Fekadu’s
essay. There are other writers from the past and some current political leaders
who have used the word “backward” to describe certain societies. I find such
descriptions to be pre-structuralist thinking i.e., before the enlightening works
of Boas, Levi-Strauss and others. Of course my attempt here is cursory, for it
would require a book or two to do justice to the issue. However, I can still be
able to show in large brush-work the problem of using such loaded word
“backward” when there are other expressions that could impart the state of the
economy of a society without stigmatizing or degrading human beings in that
community.
Should we make distinctions between moral/ethical standards and
excellence in technological advancements? And if we do which one should be
given greater emphasis? In an introductory course on ethics I teach
undergraduate students, the one barrier that we attempt to overcome in that
class [the class is composed of students from different nations from all over
the World] is to look beyond the barrier that technology has erected between
diverse societies and see the humanity of the members of different communities.
The idea of shared human nature as opposed to strictly materialist or
empiricist consideration of human life leads us to very many ennobling and
enriching activities. In its ugliest extreme in the past, judgments based on
the “backwardness” of certain communities has lead to the establishment of the
institutions of slavery and colonialism. The Nineteenth Century colonialism was
mostly justified as a “civilizing” mission from the technologically advanced
West to the technologically “backward” people of Africa, Asia, Oceania,
Australia, and the Americas. The legacy of that human degradation still is
holding in its clutch men and women, who received their “civilizing” tutorial
as house maids and servants, laborers and farm hands et cetera from their
colonial masters, who after liberation end up calling those “others” who were
untouched by such degrading process “backward.” The tragedy of slavery and
colonialism is long lasting even persisting long after those structures had
been destroyed. The deformity and corruption it caused in the human psych lives
on (in so many people) all over the world in the children and grandchildren of
those first victims.
Even with such understanding of ethics, history, and the dynamic
process of change, people can easily fall into that type of trap of making
distinctions between peoples and communities on some form of external
materialistic standards. At a moment of great passion, trying to elevate us
all, I too fell to such trap of judging communities by such external
measurements [See my “Response…” article in this same Website below] and ended
up devaluing my fellow Africans. This concept of “backward” distorts our
perception of the value of human beings by emphasizing the wrong ethical or
moral standard. The danger here is when what is contingent is being considered
as an intrinsic attribute or quality; it polarizes and corrupts all possible
decent relationships between people or communities and results in horrific
atrocities and genocidal behaviors. There are numerous convincing examples in
recent or past World history for our consideration.
As far as I am concerned, the most “backward” people are those
people who have a penchant for mass murder and genocidal hatred for people they
differentiated from their group on the basis of race, esoteric religious
commandments, and culture. Certainly, Ethiopian leaders throughout their
history have shown great restraint, humane consideration, and minimized the
murder of people they subjugated. Ethiopians have never dropped nuclear bombs
or poison gas on cities and murdered indiscriminately non-combatants, children,
men and women; never carried out on any one group of people genocide or ethnic
cleansing; never forced any people to convert into a religion or prosecute them
for practicing a different religion; never enslaved and treated people like
animals and property; and never hated any people because of their ethnicity or
race. Such ethical great people cannot be identified as a “backward” people.
None can call Ethiopia/Ethiopians “backward” on any meaningful scale of
measurement. No individual from our part of the world should be taken in by the
high-rises, sophisticated killing machines, high consumption (at great cost to
the rest of us), and the glitter of the West as a standard of being civilized.
B. Philosophical Diversion
In the hope of refocusing the discourse, I address the issue of
using Socratic/Platonic ideas on government as a measuring rod in discussing
current or past Ethiopian political situation. Although much distinction is
attempted by several people to distinguish Sophist ideas from ideas of Socrates
(Plato), we should be aware that Socrates too was a Sophist. He used his
dialogue/rhetoric as the Sophist did with the exception that he was less
relativistic than the Sophists who are usually identified with Protagoras. At
any rate no Greek philosopher, except Diogenes the Cynic (the dog) since he
treated everyone with the same degree of contempt, of the time of
Socrates/Plato believed in equality of human beings. As a matter of fact, the
social structure in Plato’s Republic is based on the assumption that human
beings not only have different abilities but are also inherently unequal by
nature. Thus, the concept of “equality” is not really a Greek concept as we
understood the concept of “equality” in our time. Moreover, the concept of
justice is a particularly Greek concept that has impacted upon the
philosophical thinking of several political and philosophical thinkers down to
our own time.
In terms of the metaphysics and epistemology of philosophers in
general, the better idea is to classify them as foundationalists or
non-foundationalists rather than Sophists or Platonists. In which case, both
the empiricists (Aristotle, Locke, Hume) and rationalists (Plato, Leibniz) are
foundationalists. Since Kant embraces elements of each, he too is a
foundationalist in some aspect and non-foundationalist in others. This type of
identification allows us to group the Positivists, Linguistic-atomists,
Phenomenologists, Existentialists, Structuralists, and Deconstructionists as
non-foundationalists. This is simply a matter of focusing either on the most
common characteristics or on differences of the essential elements in any
school of thought. These designations are not hermeneutically sealed
categories. At any rate, it is refreshing to read a piece that refers back to
the sources and foundations of serious philosophical basis for political ideas.
It all comes down to one singular issue such that what greatly matters to the
individual is not the vast distance between galaxies, but the closeness of the
next human being in a community. In other words, one must look at the world in
all its possibilities and also in all its actualities.
C. Ethiopian Intellectuals and Their Legacy
The problem with Ethiopian intellectuals is not ignorance, but
lack of intellectual integrity, curiosity, and ethics. Fekadu emphasized the
inability of Ethiopians to formulate correctly the problems and solutions
dealing with Ethiopian social, economic, and political lives due to lack of
knowledge. I would add on that important point my observation that I find the
analytical capacity of Ethiopians to be quite sophisticated, and informed.
However, what I find to be lacking is intellectual integrity, curiosity, and
ethics. In addition, their deliberate avoidance of controversial issues has
aggravated the problem. It is well known that whether they are historians,
philosophers, political scientist et cetera there is an unhealthy degree of
utilitarian even mercenary quality to the works of a number of Ethiopian
intellectuals. It seems that Ethiopian intellectuals do not take to task anyone
in real or perceived power who may hurt their careers. Examples abound on this
score. Have we ever challenged the assumptions and at times outrageous sweeping
generalizations by foreign authors on Ethiopian history or society challenged?
May be one or two of us may have done that. And that is not a record that would
instill confidence or pride in the achievements of our intellectuals.
The problem, as I see it, has to do with the inability of
Ethiopian intellectuals or writers to listen to each other. Another problem is
their lack of curiosity to investigate or challenge age old assumptions. The
overwhelming desire not to standout by being challenging to the norm has killed
our abilities to come up with original works. There are numerous subjects,
events, and situations that deserved close scrutiny and investigation in
matters concerning Ethiopia, but we have failed by not doing the work. Instead,
we settle for third-rate works by intellectual tourists who visit Ethiopia for
few months and turn out books that we cite as authoritative. We are more
interested to look at the academic credentials of people rather than absorb or
critically evaluate the merit of what is presented to us.
The most disconcerting and devastatingly sophomoric characteristic
of some Ethiopian intellectuals is their god-like worship of “Ferengi”
intellectuals, who seem to have a monopoly on Ethiopian intellectual life. It
is both sad and comical to me how some Ethiopians value any validation by
Westerners. Equally devastating is the pathological greed those well known
Ethiopian intellectuals, who have succeeded in their academic lives out in the
West, have displayed by closing the door of opportunity after their entry into
the rarefied halls of academia, not ever cultivating young Ethiopians to carry
on the intellectual torch after them. How many Ethiopians have been protégées
of well known Ethiopian intellectuals in the last thirty years? None! If those
elderly Ethiopian intellectuals were really concerned about the survival of
Ethiopia, there would have been over a hundred young Ethiopians plugged to the
system by now on the sponsorship by each of those aging Ethiopian
intellectuals. However, those same “successful” intellectuals usually turn
around and accuse Ethiopians for not being productive. It is clear to me that
no civilization is possible on the disconnected “excellence” and effort of few
people.
As a reminder, I want to emphasize the fact that Ethiopia has the
longest running literate culture in the world. Even though we identify the
culture of the written word with that of the version of Christianity that is
authentic to Ethiopia, such association is only a partial picture, for Islam’s
literate culture too has a very long tradition in Ethiopia as well. With such
long standing tradition of learning why is Ethiopia’s education system in
shambles? To this day, the oldest literate culture in the world does not have a
doctoral program except in Medicine in its colleges. The multi-headed obstacles
that had arrested the development of advanced programs in colleges were the few
Ethiopians with advanced degrees who fought against such logical growth from
taking place during the time of Haile Selassie all the way to our own time.
Ethiopia is cursed with such selfish individuals who have exploited the
opportunity a suffering people provided in educating themselves, but have
become a hindrance in more ways than one against the developmental rights of
all Ethiopians.
II. The Polarizing Saudi Factor
I read the rambling essay extract of the Ambassador of Saudi
Arabia to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in translation from the
original Arabic that appeared first in a Saudi government run daily
newspaper, Al-Watan. The Washington Post [June 6,
2004, Outlook, B4] printing of the piece in English translation is a great
service to all who may have some doubt as to the fanatical and destructive
mind-set of the members of the ruling House of Saud. This piece by Bandar is an
alarming and extremely disappointing piece, and it is specially so because it
is written by an individual who has spent most of his adult life in the West in
schools and important appointments. Bandar is the Dean of Ambassadors in
Washington D.C. because of his seniority due to his long term of service of
twenty years as Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States. He is a person
who had spent most of his professional life in high visibility and delicate
position of power and influence.
It seems that neither education nor experience had any meaningful
impact on the state of mind of Bandar, for he sounds in his article no less a
demagogue than the fanatics of every type from bin-Laden to the street corner
preachers in East London. He used similar language and similar solutions to
problems that are very complex and deep seated. I find the piece by Bandar
highly irresponsible and juvenile. Bandar preaches, threatens, scolds, and
insults not just Saudis, but most anyone who may have in some way expressed a
view different than Bandar’s; this includes even those who had nothing to do
with his type of ersatz political engagement. To some extent, I understand the
problem facing Bandar and his fellow Saudis. As a reformists led by the Crown
Prince, whom Bandar expressly supports, are in a great dilemma: their desire to
bring about much over due reforms is counter checked by the Wahhabist
conservative block, which situation translates into a tug of war between two
powerful forces that may end up annihilating each other leaving Saudi Arabia in
the hands of the most radical and anti-West forces.
Nevertheless, the Janus face of Bandar is obvious. The face of
Bandar in the article is very different than the face he presented in American
television interviews. On television, Bandar projects humility, sensitivity,
empathy, secular politics et cetera with a degree of some native charm.
Whereas, in the piece he wrote he used the language of dogmatism, advocating Manichean type of choices and murder in
order to solve political or religious dissention. Furthermore, he opted to
polarize society with hard-edge distinctions between insiders and outsiders. He
stated, “We, as a state and as a people, must insist that all choose between
the truth, in which we believe, and the lie, which we think that those who
deviate [from the religion] are advocating.” Making such a categorical claim
that there is only one truth and every body must believe the truth that the
Saudi’s have discovered is an insult to all. It is this type of claim that has
polarized the Saudi society that people live under dread and extreme
oppression, and all that is done in the name of Islam. Bandar did not stop
there in his remedial prescription to a world in his eyes has gone astray. He
added, “In my opinion, with all due modesty and respect, our honorable clerics
must call for the ruler to declare Jihad against these deviants, and give him
[i.e., the ruler] complete support in this matter, and be determined about it,
since whoever keeps silent [and refrains from speaking about] the truth is a
mute Satan.” This is frightening. Are we all “mute Satan” just because we mind
our own business and do not go out on fanatical religious rampage as the
Wahhabis? Is this a call for mass murder? For full scale oppression of
legitimate dissent?
There are numerous scholarly books and articles on the corruption
of the members of the ruling House of Saud and on the brutality of their
government that had beheaded fifty two alleged criminals in a single year
(2003) for crimes as frivolous as adultery. A few years back one of the members
of the House of Saud had caused the beheading of the lover of his niece, a
Princess, and her execution by a firing squad. We do not have to go far to find
out how the Saudi government functions. Nepotism, self-serving appointments,
incestuous public service are all the hallmarks of an administration that is
run like ones own private home rather than a state. Bandar, the son of one of
the Brothers ruling Saudi Arabia, has been Ambassador to the United States for
the last twenty years. Is this a type of administration standards that
enlightened governments follow? The answer is a resounding no! The recorded
facts of brutal executions and oppression of the people of Saudi Arabia is not
something enemies of the kingdom concocted, but the stark reality of life under
the House of Saud.
What is sad is the fact that people never seem to learn from
history: oppression of people whether it is in the guise of religion or secular
ideology never outlives the wrath of the people, for sooner than later
oppressors meet their maker in ignominy. And individuals like Bandar sail
through their lives with the illusion that their lives are guided by the
highest moral standards, and would use any means to preserve that fragile
falsehood to the extent that they will kill those who do not agree with them or
have different perspectives. Those marvelous ancient Greeks had a category they
identified as the rule of contradictions, the “excluded middle” in logic--a
type of fallacy. The statement by Bandar is a classic example of contradictory
positions: on one hand Bandar is condemning the “deviants” who follow horrific
standard of behavior in their terrorist activities, but then Bandar is
recommending the same type of lawless terrorist action against the same
“deviants” to murder and destroy them right away without process of law.
In the essay under reference, Bandar made much of the battle of
Al-Sabla of 1929, but failed to tell us that it was a relatively minor skirmish
or sort of a power struggle between the Salafi Brotherhood, the original
Wahhabi movement, which did not warm up to the on going maneuvering of the West
to get Abdul Aziz to open Saudi Arabia to oil explorers once independence is
achieved. It is to be recalled that Abdul Aziz’s success was very much
dependent on the fanatical backwoods religious fervor of the Wahhabi movement
that was sweeping the area like wild fire with its version of pure form of
Islam, a kind of literal interpretation of the Koran taught by a puritan Sunni
medieval jurist Ibn Hanbal, and much later Wahhabism was fanatically spread by
Mohammad Ben Abdel Wahhab. Ever since the Wahhabists become an integral part of
the Saudi government, the oppression of the Sh’ii and all other factions as
well as all other religions has been a violent daily occurrence in Saudi
Arabia.
In fact, without the Wahhabi religious movement, Abdul Aziz’s
Kingdom would not have lasted this long. However, that same movement is on the
brink of destroying the House of Saud at this point in history. Bandar’s
article is a blind bravado, sounds more of the last gasp of a dying system
lashing out at perceived enemies as is the case of all dying oppressive
regimes. Rather than seeking the problem within the very structure of the
government of Saudi Arabia and the most oppressive religious prescriptions on the
population, he admonishes his fellow citizens not to examine themselves or the
political institutions they live under. “We have a religious and
national obligation not to be tempted into following those who have misled us,
to pursued us that the flaw lies with us, as a state and a people, and that
this terrorist phenomenon is the result of the cultural situation in which we
are living... This is a Word of truth that aims at lying.”
Like most “Third World” dictators whether it is Bandar’s or other
members of the House of Saud sophistication is severely limited by expediency
and narcissism. Whether it is a personal pronouncement as expressed in the
article or other occasional statements on behalf of the Saudi Government, all
such statements are simple sophistry full of self contradictions and faulty
logic. Those leaders of oil-rich Arab nations routinely siphoned the wealth of
their respective nations to their own private uses. Whether they called their
fiefdom a kingdom or a republic they are all run like the households of private
individuals who clocked themselves in public persona and religiosity. There is
no proper accounting of public fund, or proper reporting to the public of the
revenue from selling of oil. If we take Bandar and any number of officials of
Arab governments as examples, other than the fact that of their loyalty to
their respective chief executives, they are adroit dealing with often gullible
American public; they are also astute business men very often with fabulous
private wealth. This is not to insult the individual capacity or intelligence
of Bandar or others. In fact, in case of Bandar, he knows how to fly fighter
planes (made in the United States), knows to fire sophisticated weapon systems
(made in the United States), and hold his own against hostile media people and
Television anchors et cetera. All that is fine, I have no problem in the
dissemination of knowledge and sharing of know-how as long as its benefit
reaches most members of a community.
However, I object when people simply use the benefits derived from
Western manufactured goods, and still maintain or keep a mind-set far removed
from the culture and social structure that produced those wonderful objects of
convenience that are the work-products of the West. I find it highly
anachronistic for anyone benefiting from the product of the West without taking
into account the cultural content under which those products were created and
manufactured. The choice is obvious, either one leads a type of life that fits
in context a tradition one wants to preserve, which means that one lives with
what ones society can produce, or if one has needs and tastes for western
products one adopts some of the West’s standards of behavior and government
structure and functions. Western products, goods and services are results of
Western culture, social structure, and government. In short, one may
not live by the moral and legal content of primitive times and expect the
Modern World to look the other way when such anachronistic society beheads
adulterers or fornicators, publicly flog or cut off the arms of thieves et
cetera as part of a criminal adjudication process.
Starting from the time of the Prophet, Ethiopians have provided a
place of refuge to Arabs starting with the Prophet’s own family members and his
early followers when they were being persecuted by fellow Arabs (Quraish). It was only recently, after oil became a major source of
wealth, that the Saudis became self sustaining wealthy people. Before that they
were mostly known as Bedouin Arab nomads eking a living herding camel, growing
and harvesting date palms, and rudiment of animal husbandry and agriculture.
Both Mecca and Medina were permanent settlements, a kind of crossroads where
long lines of caravans of traders crisscrossed, but they were also primitive
villagers compared to other great Arab cities such as Damascus, Baghdad or
Cairo. Settled life in Mecca or Medina before the time of the Prophet was
corrupt with all kinds of influences with unbearable degradation of women and
slaves. The Prophet has to be acknowledged as the greatest liberator of women
in that part of the World by elevating women to a much higher status of
respect, and by establishing new ethical standards and belief in one God replacing
all different gods and goddesses and superstition. However, his present day
followers in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan et cetera seem to have totally
arrested the development of the teachings of the Prophet and turned it into a
grotesque instrument of oppression and degradation of women no less worse than
the type of dehumanization of Women of that period before the Prophet changed
it through his Message.
Urban settlement of any size was shunned by the many tribes of
Bedouin Arabs who preferred the relatively uncorrupted open desert, which
preference seems to have formed the underlining nature of the Bedouin Arabs of
that time. This love of the open desert was part of the material out of which
the freedom loving unconfined personality of the people was fashioned. There
were no great cities or centers of scholarship et cetera, for such great cities
and centers one has to look elsewhere in the Arab World such as Baghdad,
Damascus, Cairo and others. In the Twentieth Century with the establishment of the
new kingdom by a vigorous and almost mythical personality, King Abdul Aziz, the
area was transformed from the backdrop of the Arab world to its pinnacle. As a
consequence of the sudden transformation of Saudi Arabia from a poor community
to a wealthy one, Saudi citizens who had migrated to different parts of the
world seeking better opportunities were either invited back or on their own
went back to the Kingdom.
I remember when I was a school boy in Dessie, that the owner of
one of the largest department stores was a certain Saudi called Abdul Kareem
who left Dessie suddenly with very many other Saudi’s to Saudi Arabia. At that
time, the rumor was that Abdul Kareem was a family relation of Abdul Aziz, the
man who established the present kingdom that bore his name. For hundreds of
years, tens of thousands of Arabs, Yemeni, and other refugees from the Middle
East were given a home in generous Ethiopia, and were treated with respect and
accepted as important members of the Ethiopian society. For Example, in my life
time, I have never heard of any Arab ever abused, ill treated, or forbidden to
practice his or her religion in Ethiopia. As a matter of fact, some of those
Arabs were accepted even as in-laws in familial relations more than just being
refugees. Those Arabs led fulfilling lives with places of worship (Mosques),
free fellowship with other Moslems, open and friendly social and cultural
interactions with the generous people of Ethiopia. Truly, at least for
foreigners, Ethiopia is a Holy land.
This essay is not a criticism of Islam per se. I see the problem
between Arabs and the rest of the World specially the Christian World as a
misunderstanding rather than a “clash of Civilizations” as Huntington insists.
I start by asserting that no ideology or theology can be so clearly stated that
no interpretation is necessary. Thus to insist that a particular form of
interpretation of an ideology or a theology is the only correct form is a
tremendous handicap to any civilization. We know from experience and from history
that societies did evolve, that ideas grow and develop, that ancient people
have been very ignorant on all kinds of things and have burdened as with their
superstitions and pathetic views on human relationships et cetera, et cetera.
Acknowledging such human fallibility and shortcomings, we must be ready to
reexamine accepted “truths” and habits, custom and ideology or theology.
Nevertheless, we need to see certain ideas in the context of a particular time
frame and social system in order to be fair in our relationships with our
contemporaries and to be just in our judgments of others.
Thus, I suggest that the situation in Arabia would have been even
worse were it not for the coming of Islam as a religion at that point in time
in that part of the World. It absolutely elevated the moral standard and the
standard of individual conduct of the Arabs to a great height compared to the
muck they were living under before Islam. This article is not a criticism of
Arabs for being Arabs either; it is an article rather to get beyond the
polarizing posturing of dictatorial Arab leaders and their exploitation of poor
nations around the area, and then address several important avenues of mutually
beneficial economic, social, and cultural relationships between Ethiopians and
Arabs of several nations in the area. After all, no one can look down at the
great achievements of the Arabs in architecture, medicine, philosophy, and
literature. To me who greatly admire the philosophical works of great Moslem
philosophers such as Abu Ali ibn-Sina (Avicenna) AD 980-1037, Abul Walid
Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd (Averroes) AD 1126-1198, Sader al-Din
als Shirazi AD 1571-1640, and who adore the sublime poetry of Jalal-e-Din
Mohammad (Rumi) AD 1207-1273 and Omar Kahyyam, it is a singular tragedy that a
peasant revolt of Wahhabism against intellectual refinement could takeover Saud
Arabia to the detriment of all that is meaningful and humane and replace it
with an extremely oppressive out of touch orthodoxy.
No medicine to an illness can be prescribed before properly
identifying what the ailment is. Thus, let us start by asking first: What did
we Ethiopians get in return for our centuries long generosity to Arabs and
specially those from Saudi Arabia? What we got was an unjust and shameful
concentrated effort to destroy our ancient country even contrary to the
admonishment of the Prophet himself not to molest or attack Ethiopia. For our
kind outstretched hands, we were paid back with the abuse and torture of
our citizens working in Saudi Arabia. For our fellowship in the God we all
believe in and celebrating the building of Mosques for our Moslem fellow
Ethiopians at times right next to our Orthodox Churches, what we got in Saudi
Arabia is an absolute ban of any religious building let alone Churches even
worship in private homes of Ethiopian Christians was met with brutal
attack. Minew bagorese ijune tenkese. Who financed the Eritrean
liberation movements? Who seduced with money some of the Moslem Ethiopian
Officers to abandon their posts in Asmara? Such questions must be asked by all
Ethiopians and we need to revisit our relations with Saudi Arabia.
The Wahhabist project to destroy one of the greatest and most
tolerant Churches in the World, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, in the last
twenty years has evolved into an abashed open attack to date. The aggressive
mushrooming of buildings of Mosques as propaganda pieces in provocative
proximity to Christian areas and Churches, the conversion of
Christians by bribing them with petro-dollar, the corruption of young Ethiopian
girls et cetera have become the new fact of life in Ethiopia. To add insult to
injury, the Saudi Government’s brutal abuse of Christian Ethiopians working in
Saudi Arabia is not just limited to physical abuse but also involves the denial
of the universal right of worship that is in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and numerous other resolutions and conventions. Because the Saudi
Government has set its perverse standard of conduct towards foreigners from developing
countries as opposed to Europeans and Americans residing in Saudi Arabia so
low, private Arab citizens have adopted this lowered standard of behavior and
are engaged in the abuse and torture of their employees no less disgusting than
the abuse and torture of Abu Ghraib Prisoners. There is not a single Christian
Church in the whole of Saudi Arabia. Whereas the Saudi government using so
called individual-investors and Embassy personnel have mounted insidious
program disguising their evil design in the name of investment to undermine the
core Ethiopian civilization by spreading Wahhabist ideology of oppression. The
threat to Ethiopia is not just limited to Orthodox Christians but against the
Moslem population of Ethiopia as well.
There are certain facts people must understand about Ethiopians
and must stop their ill conceived destructive schemes or design on Ethiopia. As
Ethiopians we have a remarkable distinct culture of religious tolerance and a
long history of giving refuge to people who seek our protection and generosity.
Compared to other cultures in our part of the world, we are a culture where
women always had great roles both as productive members of society working on
farms, or as traders, healers, midwives, mothers et cetera. Respect to our women
folks is not something new, but part of our ancient culture. We neither curtail
the movement of women nor hide them under veil. We do not micro-manage the
lives of our fellow members of our communities. We maintain many of the
democratic rights that are ingrained for the last sixty years in the Universal
Declaration of human Rights.
When I criticized human rights abuse of Ethiopian women and
children in several of my previous essays, I did that in comparison to an
“ideal” condition and not in contrast to the cultures of countries in the
region. Ethiopian women through out history have enjoyed great autonomy and
positions of influence within the family or in public compared to their
counterparts in the region or elsewhere in the World including the West. Thus,
Hell will freeze first before Ethiopians will allow Wahhabist ideology corrupt
our culture of tolerance and respect of individuals from whatever religion,
social status, and gender. Ethiopians will not abandon the human rights that we
have fought for and retained for so long. There is no way that we are going to
go to the type of oppression that we see in Saudi Arabia and other Arab
countries in the area. Any social structure that denies basic rights specially
oppresses women and children as if they are slaves is alien to Ethiopian
ethical standards and history.
Saudi Arabia’s troubling foreign relations has hurt the political
and economic development of the Palestinians and those of the Arab people, not
to mention the billions of people who had to suffer because of the exploitative
pricing of oil and oil products, a natural resource, which rightfully belongs
to all people of Earth as much as it belongs to the Saudis. The Saudis have put
at the disposal of the West all the profit gleamed from all the peoples of the
World further strengthening the economic and military power of the Western
nations against all the rest of us. How could anyone be expected to appreciate
such behavior? To provide you with a clear example how the Saudi
government and the Saudi people are living in some fantasy world, consider the
millions of their neighboring people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, et cetera
dying in appalling conditions due to famine and disease since the 1970s while
the Saudis are amassing the wealth of the world for their own private
disposition. In the 1970s, 1980s, and the ongoing famines in Ethiopia, neither
the Saudi government nor its citizens showed any worth while humanitarian
assistance to such suffering people. [There was some gesture of kindness but
appallingly meager help of that one ought to be ashamed of to think of as some
form of assistance to a devastated people and nations.] On the other hand, the
Saudis and their leaders spent during that same period when millions died due
to famine, trillions of dollars on weapons and frivolous projects of building
palaces and resource hotels etcetera. What is the value of projecting an image
of Godliness when all your activities show extreme selfishness, greed, and
avarice?
The fact that Saudi Arabia has fully cooperated with the West in
the destruction of the Taliban Government in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein’s
Government of Iraq without first securing some needed conditions that should
have contained the brutal policy of Sharon’s Government against Palestinians is
a clear example of such failure. In fact, if the Saudi Government had been
truly supportive of peace in the Middle East, it could have achieved that goal
fifty years ago. The main failure of the Saudi Government was its unrealistic
support and instigation of Palestinian leaders and other Arab governments to
obliterate Israel rather than using Saudi’s considerable oil wealth and
influence on Western nations to bring some judicious settlement between the two
contending parties. Looking both at the historical records and considering the
concept of self-determination, which allowed Arabs to establish nation states
after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire where all Arabs were contained as part
of a single Empire and none had been there as independent states for centuries,
Arab nations should have recognized the right of Jewish people to form Israel
as their sovereign nation-state, and boundary lines could have been delaminated
and demarcated peacefully.
Knowingly or unknowingly Saudi Arabia’s foreign relations with the
United States and Britain has sabotaged Arab solidarity from challenging George
Bush’s disastrous war against Iraq that has been shown to have been the work of
ideologues, rather than the work of seasoned diplomats. The containment of
terrorism or elimination of weapons of mass destruction was used as a public
intimidation tool. It is sickening to watch in the media the representatives
and spokesman for the Saudi Government groveling all over begging and cajoling
the West for fear of losing a lopsided “friendship.”
SECTION II
III. Working in an Enlightened Relation
Being aware of the hostilities and unrelenting efforts of
countries such as Egypt, the Sudan, and their supporters in the Arab League
against Ethiopia is not being a warmonger or a political Neanderthal. It is
rather the correct state of mind for a member of a nation surrounded by such
hostile forces. Ethiopian past leaders have made many crucial strategic
mistakes. It is amazing that we have stayed a free country this long. The first
and most devastating strategic mistake of our leaders was (and still is) the
lack of recognition of the crucial importance of the material and moral
development and enrichment of Ethiopian subjects/citizens as the best defense
against hostility and a source of national strength and unity. The second most
vital mistake is in not strengthening the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church.
It is a fact that tens of millions of Ethiopian Christian families
have sent their children to defend with their blood the nation from both
foreign aggression and internal destabilizing forces for centuries. The
Ethiopians who died defending the nation, keeping the freedom of all Ethiopians
were overwhelmingly Christian Ethiopians. Even though such monumental sacrifice
maintained the welfare of all Ethiopians, it did so at great cost of loss of
life and economic disadvantage of Christian Ethiopians. Christian Ethiopians
were the majority of the population for centuries; however, through generations
of hardship, and being killed or wounded in prodigious numbers in numerous
battle fields, their number has been denuded to below fifty percent of the
current Ethiopian population. For example, the vicious Red Terror of Mengistu
Hailemariam disproportionately (over 90%) claimed the lives of Christian
Ethiopians (including the lives of the Second Patriarch of the Ethiopian Church
and that of an Abun) more than any other religious group. The recent war with
“Eritrean” government claimed the lives of more Ethiopian Christian soldiers
(some claim over 80%) than any other religious groups.
It is with these facts in mind that we are facing the current
seemingly “peaceful” but in fact deceitful project of the Wahhabist campaign
from Saudi Arabia against Ethiopia. This insurrection is headed by Saudi Arabia
security leaders and Wahhabist agents functioning as “investors” and “friends”
of Ethiopia within Ethiopia. The issue of the survival of Ethiopia has become
more and more alarming as we witness recent developments. The fact that our
earlier mistakes in not seizing up the danger properly and acting accordingly
is now coming to haunt us with real painful bite. I have read numerous articles
by very many Ethiopians who seem to think that all our current problems were
started by the TPLF and EPLF alliance and Meles Zenawi’s lone action or
inaction. Such stand is a very limited view of history and shows great lack of
understanding of history as a dynamic evolving process. Especially hurtful to
our process of learning from our mistakes is such silly denial of the facts of
the mistaken activities of our leaders (past or present) international
relations of signing agreements and taking money thereby alienating Ethiopian
territories and encumbering Ethiopia with limitations and inequitable
obligations on its rivers and lakes et cetera. We must not confuse the fact
that both TPLF and EPLF and their leadership are symptoms of poor political
policies of the Governments of Haile Selassie and later that of Mengistu,
rather than the original causes of our current problems. This is not to
minimize the treasonous activities of those leaders, especially that of Meles
Zenawi.
As we can discern from the history of our leaders, successive
Ethiopian governments were more interested in window dressing and appeasement
rather than addressing firmly and decisively the problem of civil disobedience
and national security at its infancy. The Ethiopian leaders in our recent
history tried to play it safe, on one hand appeasing sworn enemies such as the
Arab states such as Egypt, the Sudan, and Saudi Arabia, and on the other hand
oppressing and brutalizing Ethiopians. Both approaches were not helpful to
strengthen a nation surrounded by hostile nations. The correct response should
have been to declare a state of emergency and declare a state of hostility if
not war on both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The fear of the Ethiopian leaders for
not going to the jugular seems to have been that those Arab States might stir
up Ethiopian Moslems against the established order. That was the greatest fallacy
a number Ethiopians have bought into during the long reign of Haile Selassie.
And to this day, the same mistaken fear of the growing number of Ethiopian
Moslems still persists. Nothing is further from the truth, Ethiopian Moslems
are as patriotic as the rest of their fellow citizens, and they should not have
been prejudged as lacking in patriotic zeal. Yes, the Arabs would have tried to
escalate their hostility in some part of the nation more openly, which they
have been at for years in a clandestine manner. Thus, the net magnitude of risk
confronting us would not have increased by much; however, on the other hand, it
would have given Ethiopia the advantage of mobilizing its population toward a
single goal.
I understand history to be more of a succession of events, not
linear, but complex and tumultuous with whirlwinds of events in the middle of
its wide ranging current; nevertheless, directional. I am inclined to believe
that it is essentially anti-entropic. This generalized perspective is not
offered as a deterministic view of life or the universe. It is not meant as an
excuse to the great harm committed against the people of Ethiopia and the State
of Ethiopia by the leaderships of the TPLF, EPLF, and by several other
“liberation” movements. I could add to the list a number of Ethiopian student
movements that helped add fuel to enlarge the flame of dissention that resulted
in the type of destabilization that brought about the dictatorship of an army
minor officer to power, which was the last straw that destroyed traditional
Ethiopian power structure and ushered into power the leaders of both the TPLF
and EPLF. The independence of “Eritrea” remains an ill conceived and harmful
situation to people in both “Eritrea” and Ethiopia.
If one builds a nation on appeasement and hiding the truth, or
glossing over important facts, sooner than latter such a nation will be faced
with irreconcilable contradictions. It will fail in establishing a system of
governance that is responsive to the needs of its citizens and the security of
the nation. I believe that it is an act of tremendous love for the people of
Ethiopia for one to admit mistakes of past leadership, as well as in ones own
life, in order to build a meaningful social and political structure to bring
about a great future for all Ethiopians. The way we tried to remedy past
mistakes without acknowledging the weak civic situation and adopting ill
conceived, and at times quiet juvenile ideas, such as the premature
introduction of Marxism-Leninism political theories of self-determination, and
pseudo democratic federalism on the basis of ethnic identity et cetera in a
traditional society before building some core centers of well disciplined
focused political groups and before raising the standard of life and education
of Ethiopians was an error. I realize I am using wide brush strokes to
illustrate my understanding of history and that of political change in Ethiopia
and the surrounding region, but that is to be expected in an essay of this size
where restating background history and political evolution in detail is
impractical. In other words, there is no short cut to political or economic
development; sooner than later, what we glossed over will rear its ugly head at
a time least expected and will swallow up our dreams in the accumulated
nightmare we thought we have outrun.
One is respected from a position of positive projection of power
and resolve in building an economically and politically strong nation; it is
not necessary that a nation has to be wealthy to be treated with a degree of
respect. If one is a doormat, one will be treated as a doormat--stepped on! A
weak position invites attack by everybody. And our leaders have not helped us
build our self-respect. With their split-personalities one of timidity on one hand,
and an insanely violent practice of plunging their swords into the body of
their own country men on the other, our leaders have miserably failed in
commanding respect in the world. This is a task that ought to be done before
anything else. It can be done with minimal change of perspective in our
leaders’ attitude toward fellow citizens.
My emphasis on economic cooperation with neighboring countries
such as Egypt and the Sudan, countries that have had long historical connection
with Ethiopia, is not some new revelation. There are numerous essays by
international financial organizations such as the World Bank and scholars from
several universities on the subject. I believe this is an opportune time for
change of paradigm; the old modality of considering Ethiopia as an enemy to be
destroyed and its religion to be changed will never result in security and
prosperity either to Egypt or the Sudan. Thus it is absolutely necessary to
start such much needed cooperation in earnest due to the impending disaster unless
something drastic and revolutionary is done without further delay. The scale of
human tragedy is going to be something beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.
Hundreds of millions of people in Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia are
going to be victims of famine, epidemics, civil wars, or cross boarder
conflicts.
IV. The Blue Nile Basin: A Great Ethiopian
Natural Asset
I am at a loss where to begin in emphasizing the great importance
of the Blue Nile River not only for Ethiopians but also for hundreds of
millions of people in that part of the world. As far as the interest of
Ethiopia is concerned, the subject of the Blue Nile Basin has been thoroughly
analyzed, dissected, synthesized and clarified by highly qualified Ethiopians,
such as Yosef Kiros [J.D., Ph.D], Daniel Kendie [M.Sc., Ph.D] and others. There are several excellent studies and general
treatments on related subjects on dams, hydroelectric power, irrigation et
cetera for all of us to read and learn about our great assets, such as the Blue
Nile River, Lake Tana, and the several major tributaries and minor streams that
drain into the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile basin is one of Ethiopia’s nine
international river basin systems that make up all the river systems and lakes
of Ethiopia. All of these rivers are spring feed and rain water drainage of the
Ethiopian highlands and plateaus. Over 85-90% of the water of the Nile that
finally drains in to the Mediterranean Sea is from this Ethiopian Blue Nile
River and other Ethiopian river basins. I had referred a number of times to the
great scholarly works of Daniel Kendie in essays I wrote a couple of years ago
in connection with the border dispute between Ethiopia and “Eritrea.”
The important point Yosef is making in his captivating article,
posted in this Website and others, is that it is not to Ethiopia’s
advantage to engage Egypt and the Sudan and the larger Arab population with
attack words because the reality on the ground is such that Egypt and the Sudan
are utilizing effectively the waters of the Nile while we Ethiopians are
engaged only in rhetoric hurling words at them. Furthermore, according to
Yosef, we will be better off using a more accommodating attitude and negotiate
to work with Egypt and the Sudan rather than antagonize them. Only then, Yosef
suggests that we will be able to advance our cause some. The argument is
profound and should be considered carefully. The problem is not with the fact
as reduced to its bones by Yosef, but it is with Egypt and the Sudan. Every
negotiation that is to be made with such an understanding is necessarily from a
weakened position. It will result in crystallizing hitherto challenged position
of Egypt and the Sudan. It is this fear of creeping loss of all the rights of a
source country i.e., rights in our own rivers and lakes that made me take
extreme position to reject all riparian rights in favor of source countries. We
are between a rock and a hard place.
Daniel Kindie is also in favor of negotiation, but at the same
time he seems in favor of taking a position of some strength with the idea that
Ethiopia has the superior right in the conflict than either Egypt or the Sudan.
This, of course, is an oversimplification of a rather complex and well written
essay. The importance of the essay is in its detail background history of the
conflict of interest between Source Countries and riparian Countries mainly
Egypt and the Sudan and the role played by colonial European Countries. The
narration on the hydrology of the Blue Nile Basin is another important
contribution of Daniel Kindie in addition to several important citations of
studies and articles on the Nile and Blue Nile Basin.
There are very important suggestions that Arabs in general and
Egyptians in particular should take seriously. To begin with we must acknowledge the fact that
there could not be any peace in the region if Ethiopia is marginalized. The
sheer size of its population that will reach one hundred million as Egypt’s
population by year 2025, in a mere twenty years, will cause tremendous social
upheaval unless proper steps are taken right away. How can Ethiopia feed one
hundred million people with its present economic condition? The same problem of
overpopulation within Egypt and the Sudan will result in similar social upheavals.
Already source countries and others such as Tanzania included have expressed
views to reevaluate and re negotiate the use of the Nile water. Several well
noted political leaders have expressed their concern that war and conflict on
water distribution may be inevitable under present condition. But it need not
be like that.
Ethiopia is truly the “water tower” of Africa. Several dams could
be built on several of Ethiopia’s river basins saving and accumulating water
that could meet the growing demand for fresh water in the region. It is an
established fact that the Aswan High Dam has several problems. It has 12-14%
annual loss of water due to evaporation. Such high evaporation rate compared to
Ethiopia’s less than 3% evaporation rate is a good indicator of the
disadvantage of building of any dams in either Egypt or the Sudan. Evaporation
in the lowlands of such desert environment with tremendous temperature extremes
between day and night is a real insurmountable problem; evaporation represent
tremendous annual lose of several million cubic feet of water. Another problem
of the Aswan Dam is salination and loss of scares farmland that was covered by
the necessity of building shallow dams taking out of use tens of thousands of
acres of rich farmland. Construction of dams in Egypt or the Sudan is a real
waste of money. Both Egypt and the Sudan will not be able to satisfy their
water needs even if one hundred percent of the Blue Nile water is to flow
without any obstruction or challenging by equally legitimate contending
interests by source nations.
Simply put, the hard fact is that without huge reservoir of water
there will not be enough water for the growing population in Egypt, the Sudan,
and to a limited extent Ethiopia. The sooner Egypt and the Sudan and the Arab
League realize the impending doom, the better for everybody. The right place to
build dams is in Ethiopia with its deep gorges and very low percentage of
evaporation. For example Lake Tana’s capacity could be easily increased by
several million cubic feet of water by building a modest size dam where the
lake empties and become the Blue Nile River. At least four or five large dams
on the scale of the Hoover Dam could be built on the Blue Nile and thereby
insure for centuries adequate water and power supply to the Sudan and Egypt. In
fact a more comprehensive plan would include dismantling of the Aswan Dam,
deepening the water course of the Nile River itself, thereby lessening the
exposure of water surface to the elements, and building a system of side holding-reservoirs
for distribution to irrigation systems.
Multiple dams on the Blue Nile will free up other tributaries to
the Blue Nile for small scale dams as well, for purposes of regulating Annual
over flooding that takes place during the rainy seasons in highland Ethiopia.
For the Eastern and Southern Regions of Ethiopia Somalia and Kenya, several
smaller dams could be built to provide irrigation for large scale farming and
cattle breeding, and for electric power. Hydro electric power is the cleanest and
cheapest power source. This is where Arab petro-dollar could be used for such
long term life-saving projects. The Arabs rather than waste time and effort on
promoting conflict within Ethiopia ought to reexamine their long-term needs and
realize that their best hope for their continued existence is through good
relationship with Ethiopia and not with anybody else. The West will simply
exploit and suck them dry of their wealth. For example rather importing
tasteless mutton (sheep) from Australia worth hundreds of millions of dollars,
they could have invested in Ethiopia for the incomparably tastier Ethiopian
breeds of sheep, which are at this point too expensive and reserved only to the
very richest members of Arab society in a number of Arab nations. The Ethiopian
breeds of sheep have variety unlike any Western and Australian source sheep,
and are much preferred by Arabs. Ethiopian cattle/beef is another preferred
product that could be developed extensively and could meet the needs of the
Arab nations and that of other African nations. There is similar marked
preference for Ethiopian cereal if it is farmed and packaged for such market.
Ethiopia can be turned into the cornucopia of plenty (Bread-basket) for the
whole of Africa and the Middle East
Thus, having deep reservoirs of water is no less than God sent
solution to the impending doom in the region, specifically the doom facing
millions of people in Egypt and the Sudan, which is going to happen unless
drastic projects are undertaken without delay as identified herein. This is a
time for cooperation and not a time for conflict or settling old grudges.
Rather than being bogged down in the historic hostility by Egypt, the Sudan,
and the Arab States against Ethiopia, it time for reconciliation and wisdom.
Ethiopia has the key for the salvation of the region. It is “fresh water” that
is becoming most important and scares resource in the region and not cheap
rhetoric.
Ethiopia has vast under developed potential farmland, grazing
range, vast areas that can be reforested, rivers that can be harnessed and
stocked with fish, lakes that could be turned into resort areas as well as fish
breeding centers. Ethiopia has the greatest potential for being the bread
basket, cattle and sheep breeding area than any of the countries of East
Africa. The Arabs could invest in Ethiopia for their own national security in
terms of supplies for their growing population. In order to carry out all these
marvelous projects, they must abandon first their ambition to convert Ethiopia
into an Islamic State and accept the fact that such outcome is impossible to
achieve, and it will only lead to the destruction of the whole region and not
just that of Ethiopia. Arab countries for the sake of their own survival must
invest their oil wealth in such long-term projects in Ethiopia.
The trillion of dollars of Arab nations, invested or kept for
safe-keeping in Western countries such as the United States, Britain, France,
Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Canada is money being used to keep the engine of
advance technology and industry, schools and research institutions, which is
keeping the West to develop further and arm itself with nuclear weapons while
keeping the rest of the world at bay and at its mercy. Arab petro-dollar is
keeping the West continue to dominate the world. Is this the type of legacy
that Arabs want to be remembered for? One thing for sure, the Arab people will
never see a penny of all the trillion of dollars invested or in safe-keeping
out in the West. When all these dictatorial Arab governments are replaced
either by other dictatorial governments or by democratic ones to a limited
extent, in that process of change all that fund is going to disappear in
private inheritances and in some dubious schemes of corporate restructuring out
in Western nations. One must think of such funds as lost property of the Arab
People, and start all over again and learn to avoid similar mistakes committed
by the leaders of the Arab World since after the Second World War to date.
How does opening opportunities in Ethiopia for Ethiopians improve
the lives of Egyptians, Sudanese, or Arabs in general? Why should Arabs invest
billions of dollars in projects that are wholly built or developed within
Ethiopia? We can entertain several other relevant similar questions. We must be
able to establish with reason and with evidence of overwhelming advantages for
Egypt, the Sudan, and the Arabs in general from such projects suggested above.
The first important act of real friendship must come from Egypt, the Sudan, and
the other Arab League Members by changing their historic hostility toward
Ethiopia. They need to perceive Ethiopia as a nation that would be a life-saver
crucible for all of them. Ethiopians can be trusted with such sacred
responsibility to be the guardians of the “Water-Tower” of Africa to benefit
hundreds of millions of people in the region. After all we own the source
headwaters, and our past record of generosity, honesty, respect of
international norms, and our singular fear of God of thousands of years of tradition
is our bond.
Tecola W. Hagos
July 2004
Coming Up Soon!
Distributive Justice: How to Divide a Small
Bread Among so Many
By Tecola W. Hagos
Bill Soderberg in his virile little book, The Game of
Philosophy, discussed the significance of playing with the “cards down”
meaning without looking at the value of each card one is dealing out--a process
by which rights and privileges are distributed without knowing who is receiving
those rights and privileges. This is also a further development of the idea
offered by Sarvepelli Radhakrishnan in his effort to ease the real life
consequences of living under a caste system, and in our case, living under a
brutal dictatorship and extreme poverty.
