opmerc,
I am really dumbfounded how easily you brush off the suffering of Amhara, and by extension the suffering of all other Ethiopians who are being victimized for refusing to identify by their nationality-- since the anti-Ethiopian tribal politicians use Ethiopian exchangeably with Amhara. Your holier than thou attitude that you are operating on the higher-level intellectual abstraction but everybody is an emotional bubble is a put-off. It is not something you have to look hard to find or equivocate; the facts are on the ground for all to see; It it is an Open political policy both within and outside of the governing body; and the so-called ethnic politicians who are operating freely with a wink and nod from the governing body to do their anti-Amhara /anti-Ethiopian political agitation ad nauseam. Amhara are being attacked in those circles because it is thought that once Amahras are chased out and emasculated then the rest is easy. The radical Oromos who are lead by jawar and co want to continue to plow through with what Meles has started, thus the tango dance with weyanes. Since you pose questions that are already impregnated with answers, let us explore them together.
1-What do you think NAMA has achieved? The question should be what necessitated the establishment of NAMA? I don’t have to go through it all but go back and look the history Amhara nationalism since weyane came into power. It didn’t take a year or two After Dr Asrat established nationalist party to abandon the name and come into Ethiopian fold. Though even when it sounded Amhara nationalist parties the policies it was promoting at the time was PanEthiopanist in nature. After 27 years of anti-Amhara policies of uprooting, and exclusion of Amharas, it is an instinctual response of survival that has brought NAMA. NAMA has to go through growing pain as all political organization has to go through. But it has filled a vacuum that was opened up by weyane deadly antiAmhara policies. You might argue that you can not cure the same illness with the same illness, well taken,but don’t forget that you can take a venom to make the ant venom. Awakening Amh, to know their right to live in dignity, and equality with other Ethiopians is not a threat to anybody, those who going to perturbed by Amhara’s assertion to live in dignity are those who wish Amhara ill.
2What does organized mean in that context if not people retreating back to their tribal enclaves,
Since we are not going to expect a lot from Weyane and Shabia incubated nationalist parties, let us pose this simple question to the nationalist political organizations what have they done to accentuate the problems of 27 years of AntiAmhara anti-Ethiopian policies that is causing a havoc in Amhara society across the country. Their religion right violated, their right to learn their language denied, whatever symbols they deem dear vilified and violently snatched on the street while the authorities look on… exclusively harassment policies enforced and in Addis Ababa they have been denied for the past 27 years and now harassed. from your ivory tower brush it off by saying “ now you are leaning on that same "my plight is extra special" theme. There is collective suffering going on”
There is a big different when the suffering is shared across all section of the society , but when the target is specific and backed up with institutional apparatuses, your “ my plight is special” hagwash doesn’t cut it.
3. What does a weak Amhara actually mean to you?
A weak Amhara means an Amhara who made to feel a second class citizen in his own country, it means a citizen who can not go upright to lead his life without being called a settler, when the government institutions don’t give him protection because of who he is ; it means when you stop celebrating your holidays as you used to do, when the media like OMN openly agitated a against you , your religion , your culture without trace of truth in them, but allowed to do it. Is this collective suffering or peculiarly Amhara’s at this time?
4. how is supporting people who can never hope to hold federal power in any substantial way, the answer to federal-level security questions?
If you can ascertain your right at the local level and defend yourself when attacked that is a good start. At the federal level always parties coalesce around their common interest. As they say politics is local in nature.
5. condemnation is easy. It's just words.
One only says this kind of thing when his principles are on shaky ground or compromised to the level of trading water as prelude to something else. Forget the concern of her being Amhara, as Ethiopians when this kind of violent human right violation happens we have to condemn it the first instance it happened. It is a moral imperative to call out evil regardless of the consequences. We don’t negotiate behind closed doors to strategize how we going to confront it while human life is at stake. After Jawar’s instigated violence took place what Abiy and Lema had shown was a moral cowards. They went the extra mile to appease the criminals while the victims were hanging to dear life hiding in church across Oromia. They should have gone to one of those churches and said we are with you that would never happen again. all the lukewarm condemnation that came from other opposition leaders as well was disheartening, to say the least.
6.leaning on that same "my plight is extra special" theme. There is collective suffering going on.
You either haven’t experienced it in person to make this kind of ungrounded statement, but tell that to any Amhara who lived though it all would tell you there is special plight because the whole weyane system was designed to attack Amharas psychologically, physically and economically than any nationality in Ethiopia. And if you look around it is all there. Tell me any other nationality who is insulted outright by his own official not because of what he did but because of who he is:
you can't go around paying tribute to forefathers, next day tell me our problems can only be solved by going it alone.
No one said that Amaras can solve everything alone it has to do it with other Ethiopians. At this time though the effect of weyanes divide and rule has done damage to Ethiopians social fabric and the support coming from others when one society in trouble is scratchy, So relying on oneself for self-preservation is necessary.
Well look how Weyanes want Amharas to pay tribute to their forefathers:
https://www.ethioreference.com/wp-conte ... u-2102.jpg
final point:
Nama needs to outgrow its juvenile political maneuvering; chasing out other political parties who came to campaign in Amhara. Nama can make its case but the Amhara people should have the right to chose any party they want to.
Also some of the childish statements coming out of the previous leader that Amhara is the measure of Ethiopian manhood etc .
Till the national political parties grow a spine to stand with all Ethiopians and condemn targeted attacks on any Ethiopian national including Amhara, the survival instinct dictates that one has to defend itself by any means necessary.