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The Italian Wars and the 5 years of occupation were over in 1940. Since that time and till the revolution in 1974, Ethiopia had time of peace.In 1951, Eritrea became a part of Ethiopia again. As it was in Antiquity. Ethiopia began to develop it's navy, the Ethiopian Airlines was the only African air company (outside of South Africa and Egypt). At a time when the whole continent went through the turmoil of revolutions and civil wars, Ethiopia was the place of peace...There were conflicts and even the coup in 1960, but no major wars or national calamities. Everything was local....
Haile Sellassie always wanted to join the European powers since Europe has its peace since WWII. Even the end of communism didn't spark the war....
The Great Ethiopia Civil War which began in 1974 made Ethiopia into African country. The Liberation gave no peace to Africa, and all new independent nations found themselves at war.... with themselves.
What lessons did Europe learn in the first half of the century?
That the sense of superiory is too expensive. Instead of ruling the world, the so-called great powers were too busy governing their own countries.
The Last Great War, the Cold War, demonstrated that economy rules....
[I wondered for a long time why after the 1935 War with Italy Haile Sellassie prefered a military uniform. You don't see him in traditional Ethiopian royal dress anymore, and the European suit he uses only for diplomatic occassions. In public in the country -- the military leader!
In anthropology, they call it "symbolic powers": the images projected for the country as if he still at war. Ready for war. That is what any Ethiopian leader in past was about -- the commander.
Ethiopia wasn't ready for peace then, she is not ready for it even now. Perhaps even less so.
PS. For those who study military history, you know that army is a progressive force of history. All our technology is of military origins. The postmodern philosophers (Virilio) insist that our new social and economic organizations are build on army principles.]
The sixties in the West went in form of spiritual crisis, but in Africa it was political crisis. The poor is ready for war, but which war of the last century made somebody richer? Ah, the Americans, who haven't had wars on their territory since the Civil War! The Vietman War proved the the peace principle is universal. The War Doesn't Pay. Not for the people.
As long as Africa is poor, there will be wars. Peace doesn't bring prosperity, Prosperity breeds Peace.
Wars have strategies, Peace has only one formula -- economic prosperity.
There are two ways to get there: fast and slow. The fast is when a few get rich, the slow when everyone works hard to become "middle class"....
Both methods require strong government with the sense of directions. Franko in Spain did it. He happend to be a strange "fascist" who through the catastraphe of WWII, minded his own "Spanish" business. Perhaps he was a better nationalist than Hitler and Mussolini; he counted what is good for his own country and the people.
What is good for Ethiopia?
Peace. It starts and ends with it. Peace is the first condition for any work.
Second, the power.
Contrary to the common assumption, I do not think that African governments, including Ethiopian, do have much powers. They are in perpetual state of getting it. They struggle for power even when they are in power. They have only enemies, they have no friends. They know only one method of control -- the control over army.
Till the armies are replaced with the workers, there is no peace for Africa.
In 1991-92 most of the 400 thousand Dergue soldiers went through six months of rehabilitarion. They were in prison camps. Many of them were trained in high technology -- how else would one operate a super-sonic jet? For many of them there is no other place but the army. Could they be retrained for high tech industry?
First, they weren't trusted. Second, the marxist-oriented leaders in Addis and Asmara never believed in capitalism. Issays was proud that Eritrea has no western loans -- he kept the army and he kept people poor. When people are rich the government needs the power base, not the army.
Ethiopian history of the last decades is a story of wrong choices and missed opportunities.
I am far from the opposition's complains that the country is governed by the wrong leaders. They are what Ethiopia's got. I believe in opposition, but the word itself means that they and the people in power do have a common goal, the future of the nation. The methods to achieve it could be different, but the true opposition is a part of the governing body. When there is no dialogue between the two, there is no opposition. That is the case in Ethiopia.
Ethiopians are divided. They had to realize that being different is the ground for being together and not to working against the difference. There are many calls for unity, but it has to be born in the hearts and minds of the people. The war has to end in you.
projects: recipes texts: HIM (summary) in focus: reading: Story of Esther
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