By Donald N. Levine (aka Liben Gebre Etyopiya)
1. The Ethiopian polity was transformed from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy. I am trying to think of one other polity where such a transformation took place with the same party leaders staying on in power. Of course there were severe bumps along the way, and injustices whose pain will linger for a long time.
2. Political elements competitive with the EPRDF regime transformed themselves from a vast number of splinter groups into a system of three major parties. In Adama (Nazret) in 1992 I found two political party offices side by side, both saying they stood for Ethiopian national unity. “Wow! That is great!” I thought. “But why aren’t you two together?” There was no difference at all in what they stood for, the staffers explained–only a clash between the personalities of the party heads. It seemed that those who favored genuine Ethiopian unity could never get united. But now most of them have.
3. Hapte-Selassie Tafesse was offered the site of the Jubilee Palace in which to create a national museum of Ethiopian paintings and other treasures. Same old jovial Haptos. We reconnected joyously after forty-five years. When I mentioned my visit to prisoners at Kaliti, he quipped: “Well, I was in prison for eight years and you didn’t even visit me once!”
4. Much new housing appears to have sprung up in and around Addis Ababa. It gives the impression of a burgeoning if not booming economy, a picture that contrasts with the image of dreary depressed Addis one sometimes gets from abroad. Critics note that the housing was constructed hastily and contains functional flaws.
5. Universities were expanded and plans to erect enlarge the system of higher education to twenty-two universities were announced. The expansions are coming at the expense both of quality of the universities and the health of the secondary school system, and with no resources in sight to move toward realization of the more ambitious plans.
6. In Gawls, Afar region, the skull of a small human ancestor, which could be a missing link between extinct Homo erectus and modern man, was discovered along with several stone tools and fossilized animals. Sileshi Semaw of Indiana University, director of the Gona Paleoanthropo-logical Research Project, reports that the hominid cranium “is very close to the appearance of the anatomically modern human.”
7. The world’s first multi-disciplinary peace center was established in Awassa, offering regular training in aikido, the martial art of peace; workshops in conflict resolution; training in nonviolent communication; and a library of literature in Amharic and English on peace studies. Story to come.
8. Two million Ethiopian infants were added to the population of the poorest country on the planet–thereby guaranteeing continued misery for vast numbers in a largely agricultural economy affected by massive deforestation, soil erosion, erratic rainfall, diminished land per person, and epidemic diseases. As Sahlu Haile, Packard Foundation senior program advisor, wrote in a prize-winning report, population growth will drive Ethiopia’s future: infrastructure and agricultural land cannot support its growing numbers, so huge numbers are trapped in vicious cycles of poverty, disease, and hunger. The government developed a policy to educate girls to avoid early marriage and early childbearing and to support family planning, but inaction, disinterest, and ambivalence of senior officials has stood in the way of implementing it. And United States agencies have been inhibited by rules against the promotion of family planning.
9. Following protracted antagonism, leaders of Government and opposition parties met on October 2, 2005 for a series of talks that could pave the way for elected members of the latter to enter Parliament. They met every day for some five days and were approaching agreement, then the talks broke down.
It’s amazing to think how close they were to a solution that could have averted the November killings and all the subsequent turmoil. Still, it shows the potential for reconciliation and Ethiopia’s resurrection.