June 11, 2022
T. G
As any person with a genuine concern and wish to see Ethiopia victorious in every aspect of her peoples’ lives, I heard, read, and watched the news about the result of the soccer game with Egypt.
Here is my comment which is characterized by a highly mixed feeling.
First, I have to say that it is great news to hear! Congratulations!
But as I mentioned above, it is with a very disturbing mixed feeling that I have come across this news. Because this is happening in a very tough time we have terribly failed and continued to fail to make our country relatively peaceful and comfortable to live in leave alone making her the champion of peace, freedom and of course free from absolute or abject poverty!
And this, I must tell you, makes our joy very mixed and incomplete because we have lost and keep losing so many values that have been and are the very sources of our national pride as matter of not wishful thinking but as matter of what we were supposed to do.
Yes, it is the right thing to be proud of registering victory over Egyptian players in this most -liked sport!!!
But at the end of the day, what matters the most is registering victory over the very overdue political system of horror and total dehumanization orchestrated by the very stupid and ruthless ruling elites of EPRDF/OPDO/Prosperity!
I hate to say but I have to say that if this generation remains very clumsy or good for nothing about the very essence of how to win freedom, justice, human dignity, and meaningful way of life; it would become and will continue to become the very victim of the dirty or very cheap populist political agenda of the ruthless ruling elites and their allies and puppets! And if so, all what is supposed to be the very reason or source of national pride including sport and cultural activities will lose their real sense of meaning and value!
Needless to say, that all our joys and victories of various human activities such as sports and cultures and arts and so on and so forth essentially depends on our struggle that enables us to make our country a country of democracy, freedom, justice, human dignity, good citizenship, compassion, unity, equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefits by getting rid of the political system of mutual elimination of ethnocentrism.
I understand there may be so many compatriots who want to take this very clear and straightforward opinion of mine simply as a matter of politicizing sport or mixing sport with politics. Yes, this criticism would make sense if we were talking about challenges that are expected under a relatively normal circumstance. Sadly enough, our case is not characterized by challenges that can and could occur under normal socio-political environment. It is incredibly horrible and dehumanizing to the extent of challenging us what we are and who we are not only as Ethiopians but also as human beings!
Can we claim that we are sportsmen or women who make our country proud but remain the generation of who cares about the reign (the political set up) of horror and devastation at the same time? I absolutely do not think so!
I am not saying stop playing sports or any other activity until we will be living in a political system of freedom, justice, rule of law, dignity, etc. Not at all!
What I am saying is we should not allow ourselves to remain under a total political slavery or dehumanization and fool ourselves that we are doing great because we can show others how we are victorious in sport and other activities even though we keep languishing in a backward and terribly dehumanizing way of life due to a very politically idiotic and ruthless ruling elites!
We desperately need to make your sport and cultural works victories complete by fighting hard for freedom and justice both for ourselves the generation to come by telling those stupid and ruthless ruling elites enough is enough!
I am sorry to say but I have to say that making the flag flew in any sport or any other event and declare victory here and there whereas things inside our own home (country) are extremely embarrassing, dehumanizing, unbearably devastating because of the politically motivated heinous crimes being committed by those evil-minded and evil -guided ruling elites does not make sense at all! What truly makes sense is the concerted effort that enables us to be both a generation of freedom and justice and of great performers of sports or any other activities! In other words, we desperately need to be willing and determined to refuse those evil-guided political elites who hijack our victories in our various sport and cultural and artistic works and make them parts and parcels of their very dirty and deadly political orchestration!
If we do not want to badly fool or cheat ourselves, we are in a total delusion (thinking and believing contrary to the very bitter reality on the ground). Simply put, allowing those painfully dishonest and ruthless ruling elites to continue playing their deadly political gambling by hijacking victories in sports and other activities and declaring them as the fruits of their efforts is totally embarrassing!
I understand that so many of my compatriots may consider this opinion of mine as pessimistic (chelemtegnnet) or mixing politics with sport. I strongly would like to argue that the mentality or attitude of this type of who cares about the dehumanizing and deadly political system if we perform great in sport and other similar activities is horribly self-degrading and self-dehumanizing!
Yes, to believe that whatever those cruel political elites do to the people in general and to those in sport’s arena in particular does not worry me/us if I/we do good or great in sports and other entertaining activities is absolutely embarrassing!
I want to argue that it is much and much better to recognize and accept what is clear and plain on the ground for so many years and do something about it instead of keep going with the political, moral, and social crises we have gone through for so many years and keep going with no meaningful end sight or exit!
Let’s try hard to come together, act together, move forward together and make our sport and other activities meaningful by essentially getting rid of the very overdue cancerous political system and making our victories complete and long-lasting!!! The mentality or attitude of keep doing the same business as usual under a very horrible politics of total slavery does not and will not make any sense at all!!!