Throwing a Hat Over the Fence

That part of the job had been done when the nation declared it wants to be a democratically run country. However, as it is the case of the hat, if the idea of throwing it over the fence was to climb the fence and retrieve it, it is not difficult to tell there must have been the knowledge that the task could be difficult. This had not been proven anywhere else better than in what took place in Ethiopia. It is not going to be easy to become a democratically run country, although that might be the only solution that will give respite for the nation that is being torn apart by many problems. We always have to hold the administration in office in a high regard, because it is trying to make something good out of a mess it inherited. At the same time it is not possible to turn a blind eye on what is taking place in the country whose situation is improving somewhat, but the badly needed relief is not yet in sight.

That might be the main reason why a totally new administration that is elected democratically will have to take charge soon. While that is the best way to go, to arrive there, there are many hurdles to pass. At the same time, all lurking dangers should be highlighted. It is obvious that there are groups, whether they are political groups or ethnic groups that are not able to see that there are better pastures. At this particular juncture, it is difficult to tell whether this oversight is deliberate or unintended. If it is deliberate, it will make things more complicated, whereas if it is an unintended oversight, it could easily be corrected. What is important here is the nation cannot go back to where it was, where a given ethnic group and those that it chose to surround itself with will get their way to the point where the others will be considered as chattels that do not have their own interest concerning the role they want to play in the nation building, running, and what exactly should take place in their own region.
What is taking place now is close to this kind of doing things. Every region has its own autonomy to do what it thinks is better for its own region and the inhabitants, without worrying someone is looking over their shoulder or has a plan that totally excludes them from having a say in what is taking place in their own region. The existing regime is doing its best to let each region has its own say in making the vital decisions concerning a particular region, while at the same time as a federal government it has its own input that does not interfere in anyway with what the regional governments and the inhabitants are doing. Such an achievement deserves applauding.

However, even if there are some structural changes, the claim that the economic situation of the countryside is changing in such a way that the dwellers are becoming middle class might be farfetched, when every indicator shows that they are still subsistence farmers. Some of the gain they had attained might be at the expense of the city dwellers where the cost of living had gone through the roof. The staple grain the nation is used to is out of the reach of the big majority of people. To alleviate the problem the government has introduced a subsidy recently that allows every household to buy 25 kg of wheat ration, a staple people are not used to eat on a daily basis. It is not only that the PM had advised the people in the parliament that they will have to change their eating habit and start getting used to eating wheat, which shows that at the micro level the administration is faring worse than its predecessors. What this reveals is things are not really good on the ground and there might even be more grievances, where people are losing the best land that was growing the frequently ate staples for growing flower. Even if good money could be generated from exporting flowers it should not be grown on lands that were growing grains that are badly needed for the already exploded population that is highly concentrated in the major cities, and that is a strategical error that requires addressing. Since all the companies that want to grow flower in Ethiopia have enough capital, they should be made to open new lands, because they can afford it.

The other problem that everyone talking about is the public’s lack of any means of accumulating wealth, which means everyone from top to the bottom are salaried personnel. There could be a handful of businesses that could come into existence in an unethical manner, where the ethnic group that is having the leading role in the government, the Tigreans in this case are taking advantage of the situation to a point where they are monopolizing the business scene. We do not have to forget that the movement had never been to replace one ethnic shackle by another, in fact it was to get rid of all ethnic shackles for good. That could only be attained when there is a democratic system in the nation, even if still there is doubt hovering about the readiness of the nation for such a system, simply because there are dangers lurking, where there could be a plot to take the nation back to where it was, even worse if possible.

Consequently, it is not difficult to see the dilemma the nation is in. Its standard of living is not improving on a large scale simply because there are many things lacking. One of them is private property that would enable the people to make more money than what they are getting as salaried personnel. It makes a big difference if people start to have a rent income, because they can borrow money to build a house and they can use the portion of the money they get to pay the loan, while they use the rest to make more money or to supplement their income that they get from salaried work. That is how wealth can be accumulated in a nation such as Ethiopia that is not yet very advanced in coming up with projects that have money generating capacity in the marketplace that will get the nod of those who are venture capitalists, that is if they exist in the country. That even gets better when people have a means of borrowing money even if it does not mean it will be a sure winner, at least it will put them in a position to take risk by going into a venture, which is monopolized now by those who have special access to bank loans, which is totally unfair.

It is also possible that people from the cities could be engaged in farming and it does not matter how they do it. They do not necessarily have to become country dwellers. Their interaction with the country dwellers alone could raise the sophistication level of the country dwellers that might not know how to turn around their situation or even they might not know what to do with their newfound wealth. The possibility that they cannot use their money to improve their situation is there, because there are not many things they can do with their money to make more money, except saving it or consuming it.

There are these kinds of blind spots or outlooks that do not blend with a widely held political doctrine that the nation will have to get rid of even if the nation might have had a bad experience because of such an arrangement, yet now it is in a position to introduce safety mechanisms at every level. It has a very effective means on its hands to do that, which is to start electing its own government democratically by dictating the requirements through their representatives. The only caution required is avoiding lurking dangers that will not hesitate to take advantage of any weakness or instability. It is the job of those that are educated and in a position to expose what these dangers are. Therefore, it is not enough to throw a hat over the fence, but people will have to be determined to go and retrieve it, which requires exerting some amount of effort.