Mereja Forum

[DefendTheTruth]

One of the major stumbling blocks of current political discourse in the country is the issue of Addis Ababa, the capital city of the country, where almost every thing is pivoted and centered. Be it political, economical, social, cultural, technological, educational and many other aspects of communal life are all based in the center which is Addis Ababa.

But everybody in the country also needs the lives of Addis Ababa and as such tries as far as possible to come to the center and have a share of urban life.

Many of the peripherals were especially disadvantaged and they lacked many of the facilities the capital city can offer, so they only possibility was to try to come to the city and have a share or the advantage the city life offered.

Added on top of that Ethiopia was a highly centralized country and many of the centers concentrated just only in the capital.

Now that has lead to a stage where such development can't be sustained any more. It is becoming even a distraction in the efforts the country is trying to undertake to change the wellbeing of the country.

We can mention here, as example, how Eskinder Nega was becoming a headache to those who are running the affairs of the country, starting with trying to create a squatter town and trying to openly subvert the efforts of those in charge of administering the affairs of the city itself.

Jawar Mohammed also once came out and declared "only on our dead body that we allow the distribution of the condominiums" that were built in the city for the dewellers.

It is also not a secretes that one of the mainly contested issues of the rivalry between Amhara and Oromo political actors lies on having the upper hand over the city, which means a source of permanent friction, hurting harmony between the brotherly people of these two major chunks of the country.

So, the challenge is becoming insurmountable for those who are involved. It needs a solution, an innovative one for that.

Such innovative solution could be in bringing Addis Ababa to everywhere where the people coming to Addis are living. Then you solve the problem and in a more promising solution for that which is good for the country.

Obbo Shimales Abdissa has already hinted the long term plan of the government in trying to solve such a big problem in this direction.


That needs to be appreciated, not complained about like the widespread media outlets in the country are echoing this days.

[Cigar]

You mean like Eritrea's core principles?
Be honest and say emulate Eritrea instead of bring Addis to all ethio citizens not the other way around.
But then again you the hypocrites are fooling yourselves by what Eritrea is doing by smearing its and its leadership names.
The best way is to give all the necessities to all citizens where ever they live.....which is Eritrea's priorities. And it is not easy. Some fast gratification people will always have problems (selfishness) but at the end of the day that is the only winning formula.
Now I bet you admit what I just said. After all that is your message too.
But only I mention Eritrea or because that I am one, you will have problem.

[TGAA]

You Mr DTT mixing up the good the bad and the worst Ideas together to make your case.
let us go over the good ideas you raised
1. there should be co-equal metropolitan cities like Addis Ababa in different parts of the country. A country of more than 120 mil people should not have just one big city.
2. We should use Addis Ababa's capital, Know-how, and the infrastructure to support the emerging cities.
3. We should not nurture enmity between the metropolitan cities such as Addis Ababa and the rural communities to further a political agenda.

The bad one
To bring up Obbo Shimales Abdissa trash idea as something one should give consideration to is an insult to any intelligent being.
Using illegal means to change demographics -- which he has side openly
To weaken Addis Ababa and make it irrelevant unless his tribal wishes didn't come true.
His stupid plan recruits Oromo Teachers and change the Addis Ababa school system without having national a consensus on how to go about creating a multalgal national educational system in the country.
Obbo Shimales Abdissa's tribal nonsense is not what Ethiopian wants. Everything he said should be scraped let alone use it to build the Ethiopian we all can be proud of.. If he thinks it is a good Idea let him bring it up in public and let us get into a healthy debate about it, but he thinks as he said it for his tribal buddies,it is all about political trickery. It is surprising that DTT thinks that Obbo Shimales Abdissa's proposal is Solomonic.

Then comes this: Eskinder Nega was becoming a headache to those who are running the affairs of the country, starting with trying to create a squatter town.Takele Uma is the one who was giving a ownership cirtificat for those who deserve specal treatment to squatter not Eskinde. Esknder didn't have the police or the authoriety behind him to enforce his will except his pen and camera to expose . Given what we have learned about Takele Uma for DTT to come out and blame Eskender for injustice and out right plunder that went of in Addis Ababa adminstration is really dishonesty . What DTT is saying is that had we let Takele Uma rode roughshod more than he had we would have been better off. The Ethiopan people beg to differ, Mr DTT.

[DefendTheTruth]

TGAA,

there is no need for me to take any side in this simple opinion, it is all about the country and nothing is more than the country itself. Individuals are only second to the country if we have to take a side for individuals, in my view.

The idea came to my mind after I saw a scene in Borana (Guji) Zone of Oromia Region, which shows couple of building of few stories (I think was built for University of Borana, I posted the video yesterday somewhere), which felt to me very much exotic for the scenes of those places.

While I was in Ethiopia those regions had to come to the bigger cities, in most cases Addis, to just see multi-story buildings, getting a service in such buildings would be just a pipe dream for those farmers, during those days.

If someone went to a university and gained the needed knowledge, then that someone also have to leave the place, becuase he/she can't use the gained knowledge in those places themselves. The direction of movement has always been in the direction of the capital, which came to be very much over-suffocated by now. Its development is no more sustainable according to the current trend.

I do think what Obbo Shimales said in his so called "leaked audio" is much different from this idea, which was of course formulated in a room filled with his party supporters and whom he need to give some stimulus to rally behind (just in my own formulation here).

Prof. Mesfin Wolde Mariam was asked specifically about this "leaked audio" and said that "it is not that much unusual when you are talking to your party adherents and I am not much impressed about it" or something very similar.

If you are decentralizing the country then it needs also to necessarily come in terms with allocating (distributing) the resources that were used to be going only to Addis before. That could be said it is weakening Addis, but then you can't have it both ways, I think, and that is essentially what Obbo Shimales was saying visa-vis Addis (Finfinne) in the "leaked audio", except in a tone that was chosen to appease the party adherents.

With regard to Engineer Takele Uma, I have seen so far no practical fault for which he should personally be held accountable. He said he (his administration) has given some condos to those who were dislodged from their ancestoral lands by sheer force and now left to lead a destitute lives while those who took their lands are living lavishly in the high rising condos and enjoying life. I don't think something should be wrong if those people were to be compensated.

Fact is that they are not yet compensated nearily enough (from over 65 K affected only 20 K were given the condos in this case). If there is an abuse of rights of those privileges, then I don't think that abuses are solely the responsibility of the city mayor.

The system is rotten to its core and it is hardly possible to avoid the abuses, especially in coutries like Ethiopia, where the required resources to curb the mal-practices are very scarce, if any.

No one, I repeat, no one can avoid the type of abuses that are present in the society at different levels in different forms. It takes time to change that, if at all.

With regard to Ato Eskinder Nega, I know why you don't like his name being raised, but you couldn't prove me wrong that i raised his name without any tangible evidences of the actions I mentioned in my post.

Cheers!

[DefendTheTruth]

You mean like Eritrea's core principles?
Be honest and say emulate Eritrea instead of bring Addis to all ethio citizens not the other way around.
But then again you the hypocrites are fooling yourselves by what Eritrea is doing by smearing its and its leadership names.
The best way is to give all the necessities to all citizens where ever they live.....which is Eritrea's priorities. And it is not easy. Some fast gratification people will always have problems (selfishness) but at the end of the day that is the only winning formula.
Now I bet you admit what I just said. After all that is your message too.
But only I mention Eritrea or because that I am one, you will have problem.

Chigar,

it is said that "let me have beauty from my Creator, then I will learn craft from my neighbor", it seems that the two traits could be the most important ingredients of human life.

If Ethiopia is wise enough, then there is no reason for it to not to learn from its most next neighbor, assuming that you have got something to offer in this regard.

Are you confident that Eritrea could be a role model for Ethiopia?