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Ethiopians4cm
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Situation Critical: The Toxic Virus that is Identity Politics

Post by Ethiopians4cm » 03 Sep 2019, 12:08

Here is an undeniable truth: the root cause of suffering—ranging from destitution, internal displacement and growing sectarian strife—is not ethnicity but economics. The lack of a coherent economic policies and the focus on “economic development” driven by debt and foreign exploitation has created a paradigm of multidimensional poverty and omnipresent hopelessness. But who has time to focus on these pesky facts when there is identity politics to fight over!

Focusing on identity gets in the way of addressing these festering socioeconomic issues. The reason why ethnic friction is increasing, crime is rising and violence is proliferating on a daily basis is due to lack of opportunity that does not discriminate based on ethnicity. More than 60% of the population is 24 years old or younger and the median age is 18; sadly, what should be a strength has been turned into a weakness due to mass unemployment. Instead of paying attention to these pressing matters and marshaling all resources to ameliorate these core issues that are eroding civility, most politicians and activists are trafficking in identity politics.

Waging battles about which languages are “official”, creating churches based on ethnicity, fighting about which symbol to have on our sendek alama, declaring war over religions and ideologies do not feed hungry mouths nor will they enrich our nation. Bickering about which “tribe” felt injustice more and trying to monopolize pains will not lead to healing but will only amplify wounds. The only way for us to mend as a society is by listening to each other instead of yelling past one another. Tragically, too many Ethiopians would rather hold on to ethnic grievances instead of working together to...continued...

Read full article at: https://ethiopians4cm.org/crisis-in-ethiopia-2019-9-3/