Comments on: Barack Obama’s election triggers Africa soul searching http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/6576 Ethiopian News and Opinion Journal Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:45:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Visitor http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/6576/comment-page-1#comment-49250 Visitor Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:47:06 +0000 http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/?p=6576#comment-49250 Eritrawi seems to assert the despotic tendencies of our leaders is due to imposition of the western society style democracy. Then it's fair for one to assume a system exists or has existed or would have existed that had benefited or benefits the majority of constituents without this imposition. It would only take his\her own argument to point that another system never existed since he\she tells us that the system they(westerns) have took 200 years to build - what were we(Africans) doing then? Their system however it is made, improved the lives of their citizens while bettering democratic mechanisms. But we can the life expectancy of an African is significantly shorter than that of the western, even the amenities enjoyed in Africa is far inferior than that of the European. Has there been a better system countries other nations apart from South Africa and Ghana would have been the economic leaders. At least in S.A. and Ghana the system somewhat can be adapted and changed by the people and its institutions. And these countries do much better in terms of economical growth. Will there be a better system I can't say for sure, but the creation of it comes only if we do something different than the one that kept us 200 years behind. I would like it to be clear, I am not claiming western intervention hasn't stumped or regressed the African, but it is to argue there was and is something inherent to our way that has made us easy prey for the western - to be easily corrupted since the days of slavery. It would be nice and dandy had our leaders ignored the western philosophy and brought prosperity to their constituents, unfortunately currently democracy as the west defines it seems to be the best. Eritrawi seems to assert the despotic tendencies of our leaders is due to imposition of the western society style democracy. Then it’s fair for one to assume a system exists or has existed or would have existed that had benefited or benefits the majority of constituents without this imposition.

It would only take his\her own argument to point that another system never existed since he\she tells us that the system they(westerns) have took 200 years to build – what were we(Africans) doing then? Their system however it is made, improved the lives of their citizens while bettering democratic mechanisms. But we can the life expectancy of an African is significantly shorter than that of the western, even the amenities enjoyed in Africa is far inferior than that of the European.

Has there been a better system countries other nations apart from South Africa and Ghana would have been the economic leaders. At least in S.A. and Ghana the system somewhat can be adapted and changed by the people and its institutions. And these countries do much better in terms of economical growth.

Will there be a better system I can’t say for sure, but the creation of it comes only if we do something different than the one that kept us 200 years behind.

I would like it to be clear, I am not claiming western intervention hasn’t stumped or regressed the African, but it is to argue there was and is something inherent to our way that has made us easy prey for the western – to be easily corrupted since the days of slavery. It would be nice and dandy had our leaders ignored the western philosophy and brought prosperity to their constituents, unfortunately currently democracy as the west defines it seems to be the best.

]]> By: Eritrawi http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/6576/comment-page-1#comment-49156 Eritrawi Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:05:37 +0000 http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/?p=6576#comment-49156 The naivette of some Africans is disheartening to me, I can't understand why the people who write about democracy in African never write about the tremendous socio-economic differences between Africa and the so called first world countries of Europe and America, the people of Europe went through over 200 years of experimentation with their political systems, while Africa is still mired in backwardness, diseases, lack of education and economic backwardness, none of these writers mention the gargantuan task needed to help improve the living standard of the people, instead they keep comapring how governmental leaders are choosen. This shows us how disconnected the African inteligentsia are from the people they claim to talk about. What Africans need is a form of governance they choose for themselves not one selected for them by their former colonial masters, that's what happens when colonialists organize governments to suit their needs not the needs of Africans. Time for Africans to wake up and put their people first, not compare the governments without popular base to those of the western world. The time for bondage should end, Europeans don't need us to show them how to govern and we don't need them to show us how to govern ourselves. The naivette of some Africans is disheartening to me, I can’t understand why the people who write about democracy in African never write about the tremendous socio-economic differences between Africa and the so called first world countries of Europe and America, the people of Europe went through over 200 years of experimentation with their political systems, while Africa is still mired in backwardness, diseases, lack of education and economic backwardness, none of these writers mention the gargantuan task needed to help improve the living standard of the people, instead they keep comapring how governmental leaders are choosen. This shows us how disconnected the African inteligentsia are from the people they claim to talk about.

What Africans need is a form of governance they choose for themselves not one selected for them by their former colonial masters, that’s what happens when colonialists organize governments to suit their needs not the needs of Africans. Time for Africans to wake up and put their people first, not compare the governments without popular base to those of the western world. The time for bondage should end, Europeans don’t need us to show them how to govern and we don’t need them to show us how to govern ourselves.

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