How Much Longer?

By Lulit Amdemariam:

The events of the past week have been tumultuous and filled with mixed emotions. Everything that has happened has caused me to ask one question “Eske meche (until when)?”

I write this piece filled with frustration and angered by the situation that we, as citizens of this nation, find ourselves in. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place, a place that we seem to have become quite accustomed to. Eske Meche?

Finding ourselves caught between difficult and hard is something that has become so the norm in our nation that we have gotten to a point where we appear to be taking it for granted. The funny thing is that it should never have been the case. There is no justification for a nation’s flip flopping; it is healthier when it follows a set path. Jumping from one path and inclination to another never got anybody anywhere in time. Eske Meche?

It has been twenty years since there was a serious political upheaval in the country. The EPRDF came to rid us of the oppressor that was the Derg, just as the Derg had come to rid us of the oppressor that was the Imperial Government.

At the time, just as the nation and her people reacted when there came a little thing called the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), hope, faith and support were given to the people that were thought to have the answers to our woes and would act as the forklift to get us out of the depth of poverty.

As many times as we have been given the options for change, those very same options keep coming out to manifest themselves as simply a variation on the very same modes of government that they fought so hard to rid the nation of. In other words, we are getting the same wolf in sheep’s clothing. Eske Meche?

After having been bombarded with all forms of promises from both the inside and outside that we would soon be lifted up out of our of poverty, that our standards of living would exceed those that we have known for generations upon generations, and being told that we have had our fill of the substandard-living pie, we still find ourselves in the same puss and disease ridden, partially starved and, for the most part, illiterate reality that is the basis and foundation for poverty.

There may be a certain amount of change, but it is not enough considering that everything and everybody else around us has grown and developed at an exponential rate while we are still trying to crawl. Sort of like the difference in Internet in Ethiopia and Internet anywhere else in the world. Eske Meche?

Even with things as they are, we have done nothing about them. Not only have we failed to pay attention to the problem at a national level, as is the responsibility of any good citizen who wants to be a part of the discourse of their nation, but we have gone beyond the point of disenchantment to that of complete passivity.

We allow all the things that we hate to be done to us. We allow ourselves to continue living in a state and condition that we know is not fit for existence. We continue to follow the path that has been laid out for us, although we see clearly the road blocks that are sitting in the way. We are living in a vegetative state, one that needs more than life support. Eske Meche?

The worst possible thing that has come out of all this is the simple fact that those who are fed up with the state and condition of the state that is Ethiopia have simply chosen to move on. These are the people that recognise the flaws for what they are, choose to address the issues that are pertinent to the development and progress of the nation, and, better still, offer viable solutions that could bring about maximum output with minimum input.

These people have recognised that the passive, non-changing eternal state that Ethiopia finds itself in is no place to exercise freedom of mind and thought. As a result there is a brain drain of such huge proportions that the future of the nation and independent thinkers has been solidly buried 24 feet under.

We have lost the next generation of intellectuals, we have pushed away the potential learners and teachers and we have made it clear to them that they are not wanted here. Perhaps they could use the coloured entrance while the rest of us use the one for whites. Eske Meche?

This bit of rambling is the result of the intense frustration that I have felt over the political, social and media happenings of the last few days. These are not specific incidents per se, but they add up to make the larger picture.

Eske Meche, are we going to live in a nation that does not permit us to be ourselves? Eske Meche are we going to adhere to a line that has been printed up for us? Eske Meche are we going to be citizens of a nation that does not want to hear what we have to say? Eske Meche?

Source: Fortune