The Poors of Ethiopia: who will feed the poor of the poorest in Contemporary Ethiopia?

By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D).

By the standards of reason, contemporary Ethiopia in the hands of the prevailing regime, with fine beginnings and a sour end, has put Ethiopia on the march of development. With the right principles of development, the new buildings, the paved roads, the colleges and universities will one day put Ethiopia on the ranks of a developing nation. For this Ethiopians ought to be grateful, but we must demand much more, on the behalf of the poor of the poorest. Until the material needs of the poors are met no Ethiopian regime should be left in peace. Rather, the wings of the Eros Effect must begin to fly in contemporary Ethiopia and draw millions of Ethiopians to march on the streets and demand radical economic change.

The squashing of freedom on the other hand will traumatize the citizens and make them increasingly cynical and unwilling to dream, to hope and fight for their future. Traumatized citizens are poor participants in the production sphere. They say to themselves, why should I work hard, when the fruits of my labor power are used to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer?

They are right. Indeed, what they should do is march on the streets propelled by the Eros Effect and change their condition.

What I find disturbing now is not the question of freedom, but a much more fundamental question. Who is going to feed those millions of Ethiopians who have no relatives in the Diaspora, relatives who break their backs to send money to their relatives, so that their relatives could at least exist without living.

Lucky are those Ethiopians who have compassionate relatives who care for them- by sending money, close and medicine. But then there are those without connections, who die early, if they are lucky to be born, and do not know how to live from one day to the next. Those are the ones who envy their lucky neighbors who feed on the labor of Diaspora money. They watch them eat, longingly eyeing them as they swing by with their blue jeans and high heels, and also bitterly listen to the happy stories of those who have purchased a villa next door, and are shopping away in Dubai, on their next stop in Paris.

The poors of Ethiopia feel like plucking out their envious eyes and remove their ears. They condemn themselves for being born and promise not to be born. They say in their hearts with Gubena- Aleweledem.

The regime does not know what to do with the poors; it throws them away in tin houses. Even those tin houses are not available anymore. Diaspora Ethiopians have enough in their hands. They cannot stretch their hands any further.

I must now ask what we should do with the poors of contemporary Ethiopia. I suggest that our intellectuals engage this question and start a healthy discussion of this burning question on development with meaning.

To be continued...