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DefendTheTruth
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Joined: 08 Mar 2014, 16:32

It has never been sufficient to win just a battle to defeat in a war

Post by DefendTheTruth » 24 Mar 2020, 11:46

If winning just a battle has never been enough to defeat an enemy in a war, then what is the significance of devising a method to win a single battle?

The current corona virus pandemic is just a form of the many different forms of natural catastrophe that has repeatedly affected our people and dragged them back many times while they were trying to pull themselves out of destitution and improve their life standard a bit.

Among the major factors that contribute to the devastating effect of an arising natural catastrophe are lack of resources and sufficiently designed strategy geared towards pulling the people out of poverty and make them self-reliant, at least to some extent. Every time a disaster arises there are many calls to help to minimize the effect, not at times also ineffectively.

Those efforts which succeeded in overcoming the catastrophe and averting a pending national tragedy then simply withdrew their efforts and went back without any consideration for the preparedness for the future, if the same challenge may have to arise again afterwards.

Ethiopia, among other unfortunate natural and manmade calamities, has made many experiences and at least partly tried to overcome the challenge to a significant degree. The problem remains that those efforts are simply withdrawn and went back as if there is no more similar challenge in the time ahead. The next time the same challenge occurred then people turned to the same old means of calling for support, mainly on the respective local level, without taking any grasp of how a comprehensive national strategy should look like.

The same is happening now with respect to the currently in the mouth of every citizen of the world. Resources are being mobilized in different forms to help our country overcome the challenge specially over the internet but we don’t see any initiative geared towards steering a more comprehensive effort to make the people withstand a similar challenge in the future.

It is not enough if you win 100% the battle (the crisis at hand) without having devised a sound strategy to make the nation somewhat invulnerable to similar challenges in the future. But it must be also clear that a catastrophe or a natural disaster will not go away forever when we have possibly won over the current corona pandemic.

DefendTheTruth
Member+
Posts: 9763
Joined: 08 Mar 2014, 16:32

Re: It has never been sufficient to win just a battle to defeat in a war

Post by DefendTheTruth » 29 Mar 2020, 06:53

This is what I am talking about in practical terms.

I am not condemning Tamegn Beyene and his collegues for attempting to support those in need and be there for the nation at the time of its need. I am also not trying to oppose his political stand here, even if I may have a different political opinion from his.
I am in fact moved by the same reason that moved him and his colleagues of the "Global Alliance" and share the idea that we need to reach out to those in need at this difficult time. It is a trying time and there is no more better time to show how you are concerned about the well-being of your people, like Tamegn Beyene and his colleagues are doing in trying to raise fund to support those in need.

I do but question the strategy he (they) is (are) using in dealing with the issue at hand. First, it is, once again, focused on winning the single issue at hand and no consideration of its sustainability is taken.

Instead of institutionalizing it they are handeling it in an ad hoc basis. This is also the reason, in my view, that he is complaining about others in his message here.

You go out and collect many by appealing to the wider public but then go back and spend the money according to your own decisions, not according to the decision of the donors who own the money.

You are taking the responsibility of spending the money onto yourself but go out and collect the same money from the public, there is un imbalance in there on the collection and spending side of the resource.

We want to support our country's people but in a way that lends itself that we can also co-decide how the resource was being used up. Is that much to ask for?

There is a saying which goes like: "trusting is good but controlling is better" or something like that, which even our forefathers also resorted to resolve many social problems.

Tamegn Beyene's strategy is is about "trust me, and that should be enough". My answer is that that is not sustainable and you are a testimony to my claim in your message here.

You can start to institutionalize the effort of raising funds for such cases and ensure that there is also a relaible control mechanism where there is an accountability of the actors and trust in them is ensured well.



There are many people who are willing to support and be part of the effort to make a difference but they are not necessarily convinced that your decision on how to spend (set priorities, area selection, and other circumstances of how our money is spent) refelects theirs.

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