Wolde Tewolde alias Obo Arada Shawl
March 13, 2007
Debteraw, SS is a person who knows the purpose of health, happiness in life here on Earth and after death. He also understands that progress can be achieved via information, knowledge and wisdom. For that, he graduated from college to acquire information, he taught in classrooms as well as in the fields to possess knowledge and he went to the Monastery to enrich his wisdom from the Almighty, God.
In other words, Debterw has studied the law of three and functioned in squares and rectangles among Ethiopians. Now he is operating from the four corners of Ethiopia while studying the Pentagon, the language of five. It is a little bit complex to understand the nature of his position, at this time.
It is to be recalled that I have contacted and interviewed him around X-mass of this year (See Part I of this article). However, I lost contact when I asked him about his proposed solutions for Ethiopia’s ills when he responded “AAGNMELAGO). Today on the 13th of March, I have contacted him and posed some relevant questions of the day. Here are his answers: -
Question: What is AAGMELAGO?
Answer: It is “an access to the RED SEA, Religious Freedom; Cultural-Civilization and Governances all working in unison.”
Question: Are you up-to-date with the current conditions of Ethiopia?
Answer: Oh yes, the land question issue is not yet resolved.
Question: Are you talking about BADME demarcation?
Answer: No, that was not an issue in the first place.
Question: What was the issue then?
Answer: The proclamation says that all lands belong to the government. And who is the government? And what kind of government do we have? A government that does not accept defeat, a government that does not believe in unity-in-diversity and a government that does not tolerate opposition are totally alien to the Ethiopian way of life. We have a government that is bent on revenge, disunity and cheat. As long as the government cannot solve the land ownership, conflicts on unfair seizure of land cannot be avoided. As long as the government owns the land, any developer can bribe any official who in turn can seize the land in the name of government. The slogan “land to the tiller” in February 1965 that was led by Gebru Gebre Wolde, social philosopher and the then President of UCU (University College Union) got a response by the DERG in February 1975. Inform me if the then President who is still alive is happy with the way of the present land holding system. In short, there is no concordance between the Public Opinion versus the Public Policy.
Question: Is it not true that the current government have many diversified parties based on ethnicity?
Answer: First of all, they do not have political parties. They have all kinds of parties but political. I am not speaking of diversity based on philology, languages and dialects. Look at the diversity of Ethiopia - the mountains of Sahel, Dashen, Tulu and Batu, look at the Rift valleys, the
Danakil plains, The Blue Nile Basin and the Ogaden deserts. We used to call them in three dimensions, i.e. DEGA, WEINA and KOLA. Human, Animal and Plant lives on diversified lands. Diversity in ideas and thought, freedom of religion and diversified in cultures should have been the primary criteria for unity. The major political goal of EPRP was and is to form a democratic state based on popular participation. Respect for human as well as civil rights was supposed to be guaranteed for all nationalities. Democracy and Independence from foreign powers should have been asserted. Tell me in the history of Ethiopia with the possible exception of the 18th and19th centuries that the kings were not united with the people. Our current leaders and educators (the Doctors and Generals) speak only in terms of Haile Sellassie, Minilik, Yohannes and Tewodros. What has happened to the Ethiopian Revolution? I need an answer from you guys who are not physically in prison like us but mentally in prison in foreign countries. Don’t you understand what a true Revolution means - a Revolution that was conceived in the University, initiated by EPLO, proposed by EPRP and still burning among all Ethiopians and Eritreans? It is called the Eway Ethiopian Revolution.
Question: Can you explain to us briefly what the Eway Ethiopian Revolution means?
Answer: If you did not get it let me briefly explain. There are no scholarly debates what is/was not a revolution that took place in Ethiopia and
Eritrea. The etymology of Revolution is strictly turning or rolling back to its original place. The difference in definitions and explanations arise because of definitions and approaches. The “Animal” of EPRP differentiates between Revolution and Rebellion. For instance, the TPLF believes in the barrel of the gun and aims at toppling the Amhara elites. The EPLF believed in Independence from colonialism that was overdue from Western Powers but aimed wrongly at the Ethiopians. The OLF believes in Democracy, which is its natural habitat. So you can see the struggle between rolling backwards and moving forward.
A Revolution is derived from Latin and it means turning around. Something significant that usually happens in a relatively short time of span or long period of time. Human history has passed through various stages defining Revolutions in various ways. They differ in the duration of the Revolution, the motivating ideological factor, and the number of participating revolutionaries and in the means they employ. All of these result in a socio-political change in the socio-political institutions or in a change of culture or economy. What happened to Ethiopians and other Revolutionaries? You tell me!!!
The Revolution of the Celestial spheres, which overthrew the official cosmology decreed by the Catholic Church, the word acquired its subversive political connotation. The Ethiopian Revolution should be seen in socio-political change in the socio-political institutions. Political and socioeconomic revolutions have been studied by many social scientists in the realm of sociology, history and political science. Many generation theorists have attempted to develop detailed theories of why and when revolutions arise in three approaches of psychological, sociological and political. Our Eway Revolution was not in all three approaches. It was neither psychological nor sociological. It was only political and we have to keep it that way until we get it right in the process.
Many studies of revolution refer only to four classical “Great Revolutions”. All four were famous and uncontroversial examples that fit almost all definition of revolution. They are as follows: -
The Glorious Revolution (1688) the Biblical Way – followed by Haile Sellassie I
The French Revolution (1789) The ELF Way - followed by Melese
The Russian Revolution (1917) The Lenin Way –followed by Menghstu
The Chinse Revolution (1927-1949) the Mao Way – followed by Essayas
EPRP has its own model of Revolution, The Eway Revolution. I plead with you to follow that way.
Question: What is your stand on the role of unity, love and peace?
Answer: Unity-in-diversity, Let hundred thoughts contend and let hundred flowers blossom. We should have access to the SEA (freedom of Speech, Expression and Assembly).
Question: What about love?
Answer: Love is the domain of religion. It should be an orthodox (original) where an individual chooses to love or hate.
Question: Does this contradict with the thesis of Reconciliation or Democratization that prevails in Ethiopia’s holidays?
Answer: No, No, I am not talking of national or public holidays. I know you have holidays of X-mass, the birth of prophet Mohammed, Ramadan and Easter, Meskeram and Meskel.
Question: What about peace?
Answer: There is no peace if you are not prepared for war!
Question: I do not understand.
Answer: You will understand in due course.
Woldetewolde@yahoo.com
