Bad ideas vs. Good idea: the Power of Educating Girls 

By Amhare O Gilo

      There is war never before between good ideas, bad ideas, never than before the clashes between the two have split the world apart.  When Malala, a Pakistan girl spoke in the swat valley infested by radical Muslims about girls’ education, her message, and her advocacy was clear, was seen as provocative, in the eyes of the extremists it was threats to their draconian establishment, filthy environment they run.  The responses ensued by the extremists was total inhalation of her, they did by firing a bullet into her head, only Malala to be saved and survive due to modern medicine, and  technology.

The idea of changes, challenges against establishments predates our present course of history going to back thousands years. Of course rulers, power holders, and their establishments have been against public education and public knowledge of anything threats to their power.  For example a Roman emperor called Tiberius Claudius Nero 42 B.C. - 37 A.D.  Was very harsh in his treatment of his subjects who he saw possesses some kind of knowledge’s that will be threats to his totalitarian regime.  We are told that one day a Roman commoner invented unbreakable glass, came to Tiberius anticipating that he would get a big reward, if he demonstrated his invention to him, be okayed to starting a business of some kind; but according, after the man showed his invention, Tiberius then asked the man if he had told anyone else about his discovery? The man said no Sir, Tiberius said well, ordered his men dragged the man and killed.  According, Tiberius killed the inventor for fear that if the kind of technology was allowed to take place, the man allowed to make strong unbreakable glasses that would last long, therefore making the cheaper glasses out of the business, than this technology was a threat to Tiberius’s monarchical order of the day. Because in Tiberius’s mindset this kind of technology will upset the existing system of which he kept subjects busy, out of the city. Therefore the fear unemployment by his subjects, the wave of unemployed that will eventually come to Rome, making it harder for him to controlling them; the consequences of eventual riots in the city alarmed the king the most, therefor he was better got rid of the person.

In 1558 William Lee a British citizen who was by that time trained to become a priest took notice of the decreed, by Elizabeth the I who decreed that to her subjects wear a hands knitted caps over their heads. According William Lees came up with an idea of an invention that would free people from endless hand knitting, according by 1559 he had his stocking frame machine ready, travelled to London with very extreme excitement to see Elizabeth I, after arriving there, demonstrated his invention, he observed that queen Elizabeth I was unhappy about his invention. In fact the queen Elizabeth was said to have said this “thou aims high master Lee consider thou what his invention could do to my poor subjects. It would assuredly bring them ruin by depriving of employment thus making them beggars”. 

Therefore William’s invention was turndown, later he was banished from England, took asylum in France, thinking that France would be liberal to his ideas but little did he knows that all monarchies are the same, the response Lee got from French monarch, was the same as the response he got from the queen of England, Lee, even went to prison for it in France. And after Elizabeth death from illness, Lee than was allowed to return to England where he was permitted to apply the knowledge of his invention under King James I of England.

From the Middle Age, all the way to 19th century education was for well-to-do children, education was not for common man, wherever the world ones go, especially west European histories shade lights on many narratives on the struggle to make literature available to all.  For example 18^th and 19^th century England, education instructions were setup under the churches; to gain excess one has to go through rigorous draconian standard admission test, or exams. The way these institutions were setup discourages the poor even from thinking to attend them.  According to gain excess to education one has to go through was what they called apprenticeship for 7 years. All literary subjects  taught  were in  subjects approved by the church of England such, as  classical Greek, Latin languages  language , trade schools, were  for those who could afford  fees   So in this period or era as you can see education was for elites or for the people who live in the higher echelon of the society. So the vast majority of the population in England was left in dark, according those who read and write during those epochs were elites classes

Centuries ago monarchies were serious about preventing their subjects in gaining access to literacy, according to an English historian lady Antonia Frazier on PBS, until 1912 in England the word “Democracy” can land a person in prison that anybody talking about democracy was like somebody talking about “Revolution” or like somebody talking “terror” and terrorism today.  She said the ruling establishment in England was not comfortable with the word democracy; anybody seen reading pamphlets or distributing them was considered sedition, and  is subject to harsh treatment by law.    

  As you can see Tiberius, Queen Elizabeth I of England had two things in common: the power to kill or to banned, control subjects. By control both achieved four things: 1st they controlled the technology, 2nd they controlled the information, 3rd they controlled the invention, 4th they controlled the innovation.

So did you see now why Malala warrant death by the extremists’ groups? because all she wanted is education so she can chart her future, that's a threat to religious order she was living in, a challenge they must not put-up with. The power to hinder someone from knowing something is also to preventing him/she from inventing. The power to prevent anyone from learning is to make someone dumb unchallenging through written words, was/is, still being exercised.

 Mlala Youssef,   speech to the United Nation a couple weeks ago, titled “the extremists are afraid of books and pens” was a heart breaking speech; I have never come around, heard of from a sixteen year old girl for long in my life. Malala Youssef the Pakistan girl who survived the bullet wound to her brain by the religious zealots in her country has won the hearts, souls of million peace-loving people of the world.  Only her courage, refusal to be silence by extremists who control the vast swap of lawless territory in Pakistan, and where no government power exists are exceptional, her courage,  staunch  resistance against primitive religious order  only to be found in the historical annals of heroes.

Malala Youssef,  just like that heroic Ethiopian  Pinkaw’s lady of Gambella,  who refused to be subjected to continuous spousal abuse by her husband , beaten, strangled, down on her back, suffocated  chocked  with her husband holding her throat, asked insult me again or I kill you?  And the Pyinkaw’s woman replied, and said “fuck you” kill me I don’t care, only to be rescued by the intervention of spectators, who felt they too were responsible for what will be the end result of what they were watching.  

Andante preeminent poet once said, I paraphrase “ Hell is also reserved for those who watched crimes being committed at their presences, kept silence , said nothing, or intervene, or call for help”. The world now is paying much more attention to the millions of girls still suffering under inhuman cultural yokes.  Now we are all Malala Youssef, and  her banner to fight for girls education, the torch has been lit up brightly has never before, she shall triumph over the dark forces of dooms, wantonness.   

 

Ethiopia got plenty water but the children of the Blue Nile are thirsty  

I just got done washing my dishes, I took a shower, using lot
water, and this is what I do every day to maintain my civilized way of life. And because water is an essential matter in all life whoever got it in plenty shall have prosperity, shall have fewer problems on earth, Ethiopia got plenty water but the children of the Blue Nile are thirsty with no water to drink, were deprived of bathing water. 

 The Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source still undetermined but located in either Rwanda or Burundi. It flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile is the source of most of the water and fertile soil. It begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

While the Egyptians children have abundant water to quench their thirst, plenty of water to bath with and to play with, they had no clue where the water came from, leave a lone the name Ethiopia as the source of the water they drink, isn’t funny of Egypt? I realized that’s why Egyptian politicians those other days flagrantly dispelled my country name, reputation, with upset stomachs, intoxicated minds vomited huge amount of blood in their cabinet meeting that would take an enormous amount of time for them to cleaning and sanitized diplomatic relation with Ethiopia. And I believe things are not going to be the same anymore.  The damage to our country reputation is already done; no amount of apology can wash the dirt away or fixed the damages to our rips. 

I looked at the history of civilizations of the antiquity:  the Romans, the Egyptian, the Mesopotamians, Axum, Timbuktu, all these civilizations died out because of lack of water, and because of endless cycle violence.

 The question is how many of us would like to go Timbuktu, or to Axum to visit or to take a residence there. Why many Ethiopians want to go Europe or America, what 's the reason for huge influx of our countrymen wanting to go to oil rich gulf countries of the middle east? Why? Is it economic problem or political problem?  The answer these question is that, yes they go to America, Europe to take part in the economic prosperities of both Europe, America,. They also see green pasture from across the Middle East; they flock there to take part in the management of the green pasture in the Middle East. Yes our country is poor not because we do not have resources but because our natural resources were mismanaged by the failed regimes in power previously which care not for the wellbeing of their people. Yes the answer is no one dares to go to Timbuktu or Axum.
 

How can you prevent human trafficking, the outward migration of Ethiopians like these one sitting, to chart into unknown horizon they ever known.

 

 There is no civilization living and thriving over there except some few areas where there are wells available. The rest is none whatsoever. Where there’s no water there’s no political stability, there’s no economic, cultural prosperity, and therefore no civilization so to speak.  I bet those chicken headed Ethiopians who are the bedfellows of the Egyptians know this for a fact, but careless because they had ill-fated political agenda, nothing but political prostitution  as one can assume; they would do anything to gain power at any cost. I bet many of these folks were from rural area of Ethiopia, where their mothers, sisters whom they left behind travel several miles every day to fetch waters for drinking. Let alone everyday water for bathing.

 By the way what are these Ethiopian extremists? Why they act the way they do, shamelessly?  In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that murder, theft and shamelessness are inherently bad things.  In his view murder takes away life, theft takes away property, shamelessness takes away liberty. In other words, if you act in a shameless manner with no respect for the freedom of others you deny them their liberty.

 Look at the Diasporas demagogues from Ethiopia, what are they preaching the most?  To me most of them preach hate messages filed with venom against other ethnic Ethiopians.  Many of them were thieves from the old draconian regimes, very self-centered, have no respect for the people of Ethiopia, they had no respect for the constitutions even under the best circumstances. No they don't care they are rotted remains of the old authoritarians, of the totalitarians orders. These are defeatists, numbed, paralyzed, out of the picture, just like fish out water gasping for air to survive. Just like fish out of water if no one put them back into water they are condemned to die on the sand.

Come back home, invest your knowledge, time and money to your society: Governor Gatluak

Sunday, 19 May 2013 23:56 By Ahmare Gilo,GSN contributor

Come back home, invest your knowledge, time and money to your society: Governor Gatluak

Minneapolis, MN, May, 20, 2013 (GSN) - The meeting between the largest Gambella community in the world and Gambella’s Governor Gatluak in Twin Cities, MN, USA was a success.
The governor of Gambella was delighted, glade to seeing all members of the Gambella community in Minneapolis. The governor told his audiences that, he came to US not  for public relation trip but for capacity building in public administration training, orientation ,that there’s an arrangement in the planning for future delegates to come to US to meet the Gambellan community in general.
He briefs the conference on all subjects’ matters: be it economic development, politics, security, social and cultural development trajectories. After highlighting all the important issues, he concluded that I am here to listen to you, challenged his audience that their participation in all realms of economic, political order, peace and stability is crucial and imperative for development.

The governor challenged Gambella Diaspora community to bring their money home and invest them in various forms economic activities. He told them your country is poor but with hard work we can get there, we can live better like other developed country. Bring your knowledge, skills in every fields of endeavor so that you can apply them and shared them with us.

The governor emphasized a lot on the important of engineering: road, building engineering, water, electrical engineering, agricultural engineering and construction engineering etc...   Because he said it is where the bulk of regional treasure or money goes, it is where the money is for those who want to make money. Right now said the governor, all the engineering work done in the region is done by all outside contractors (he meant the highlanders) the audience laughed. He said but “I am telling the truth.” we have problem with many of them not honoring their words, taking money, disappearing , not finishing their jobs under the signed contracts.  So that’s why my people I am urging you to bring your skills home, soon because in order mitigate these problems we must hire the natives people who are skilled in these fields, that’s how it should be. We must empower the region’s citizens before others.

Security issues: the governor spoke about the important of security of Gambella: the problems of the outlaw groups such as Murle, Lou Nuer and armed groups lurking in the jungles, penetrating our unsecured borders, jeopardizing the stability of our people, the entire regional security. The security dilemma he said is now being looked at interstates levels. And  South Sudan, North Sudan respectively were looking in to this security dilemmas, we know  it is also in their interest to had all borders security, protected and secured. And durable security said the governor in his view benefit all countries bordering each other’s.

On Force Villagization: the governor denied, said there’s no such thing as forced villagization. He told his audience how can I do that to myself? the son of the soil of Gambella, “god forbid” I cannot do that. However he said villagization is federally mandated program geared toward settling semi nomadic people of the region to benefit development projects. He said for example Jor district had problem of flooding, disruption of lives from every cycle of disasters they get every year.

So what happened; we asked Jor people to take part into what we already viewed as envisaged good programs of settlements, but the governor said, Jor people refused. “Saying we are not leaving nowhere. We are not going anywhere, where it is not our ancestral homeland. In this case the governor said, we left them alone. So my people there are no forced villagization program. It wouldn’t happen under our watch.
     
Reporting by Ahmare Gilo, GSN contributor, Sources: http://ajumhara.blogspot.ca/ Amhare Gilo is Studied Political Science at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Briefs from the Conference of the Gambella People

Bridging the Gaps of Misunderstanding Among the Gambellan Community

I don’t know why the fuzz about a Nuer man in the leadership. Mr Gatluak ascension to power is under fire by tiny disgruntled Ayuaks, in the Diasporas, and at home in Ethiopia.  To tell you the truth I do not understand why the protest, why the worry? I don’t get it, no I don’t. Last week Gatluak was chosen for the leadership of Gambella by all regional parliamentarians. According, the selection, election was done conducted in full view of all the members assembled in the assembly that day. If some family members of the disgruntled were there during the preceding some I believe could have casted their vote in favor of Gatluak or in disapproval of Mr. Gatluak. And in my view the protesting, the dissension is a normal. It is the working of parliamentary democracy.

What we have in Gambella is not a process presidential democracy like we have here in the United States where the winner takes all, with opposition still with enough power, provided to them by the constitution to interfere in the executive decisions making. That’s why we have a messy working congress in the US with some congressional delegates, becoming road blocks, dragging, the congress, opposing all important legislation's they don’t like, stopping them from reaching the congressional floor.  No in parliamentary democracy one wouldn’t do that kind of business, it is done deal; in parliamentary democracy the decision lies with executive. It’s a smooth working environment; it is good for development, especially it is a good system for a developing world, that’s why many in the developing preferred parliamentary democracy, than the presidential democracy.

   According, to the information we have received so far, Ato Gatluak name was the last name to have been mentioned, after all the names was read, failed secure the winning votes in the parliament,. Hence Mr. Gatluak emerged as winners of the votes casted by the parliamentarians in the in the assembly; therefore, he was declared the Governor of the state. As of today he is the governor of Gambella entrusted with the authority to run the state. Some of us might have not agreed with this news, that’s fine, normal. But what’s abnormal is if the grumbling, murmuring continued making it difficult for the functioning democratization to move forward in full gears.

So why the fuzz about Gatluakk? isn’t too late to be protesting, and to be boycotting? Look Mr. Gatluak has already been declared a leader; he must be respect from now on. We shouldn’t prejudge him of his ethnicity; the general public must know that.  It is not Anyuawa downfall as has been speculated. No it is not. Just wipe your tears, eat food, drink, enjoy because it is not the end of Anyuawa. The Anyuawa as community is still intact, working, surviving, reviving.

What happened is historical phenomenon, will continue like that without interruptions. Some must view this historical making the wrong way, it is okay. We could learn more from the federalism project.  What we need now is cope, adapt to the prevailing wind of change. We have to conquer the fear that lies within us of others. Because it is counterproductive, it wouldn’t take us anywhere.

You see,, let me give you a brief lesson of history from the far east, it may be, china, for Chinese leaders for many centuries have fear of outsiders, they called them the “barbarian” verses them the “civilized” China, they sanctioned their people from getting contact with outside world, China was locked, from outside world for many many centuries.  

Hitherto China was a sea fairing nation had traded with other nations around, afar, imported goods from outside world in an exchange they had also exported their goods to outside nations. Its economy was booming, prospering, its people living standard was at its best, compare to nothing around China.  But all these, came to a halt  when different successive Chinese emperors ordered their nation to have no contact with outside. One effect from the draconian orders was the halt to boat buildings, followed by China becoming a lame duck, freezing China to death with no progress coming in or going out. By the time the giant country woke up, Japan a neighboring country has reached the industrialization age, it was late for China to compete.

You see if you read history, you will find out that Chinese people were the first people to have had contact with outside world, not the men from Europe as we were told to be. But that’s another topic, let me go back to China, after the death of Cheng the unifier of China, the new successors to his throne did their best to open up a little to the world but without success, until the revolution of Mao Zedong, which bought normal relation with the outside world, improved the lots of Chinese people. After Mao’s’ death, a man name Deng Xiaoping open his country to America, which they had feared the most, saying “it doesn’t matter whether the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice”.

  You see where I am coming from, what I am conveying here using other as examples, it is doesn’t matter whether it is Nuer or Anyuwaa, Megengir, Opuo, an highlander, they all are Gambella people.  

One thing we keep forgetting is that to live together as community of Gambella in peace, and in harmony one’s group rights, must not override others groups rights, if one group violates other people rights, one’s group right is going to be in jeopardy. It is simply understood, here in America the idiom goes “If you scratch my back, I scratch your back, it true in other societies too.

In his treaty the leviathan, Thomas Hobbes argued that the sovereign who rule a primordial society derives his legitimacy from unwritten social contract by which individual gives up his natural liberty to do as he pleases in order to secure his own rights to life which would otherwise be threatened by “wars of everyman against everyman”, he was talking about the pre-modern primitive societies. In our case today we have written laws protecting individual rights, also shouldering individuals entrusted for public offices with responsibility, and accountability. So it is not free ride, leaders have some constraints which prevents them from doing as they pleases. The game you know, one shouldn’t mix pleasure with public duty.

      

   Democratic Election: Democratic elections where-ever is taking place, are messier than you think it should be, but on the other hand democracy, democratic elections is a better process of empowerments, of public figures eyeing for leadership in the public sectors. The game if setup well, it allows people to have alternative choices of their own choosing. There is no clear cut in the process, making it hard on many occasions for contenders to give up, withdraw their names before they go along to the finished line. Sometimes the defeat, the embarrassment people got from the democratic electoral results, like bitter pills are hard to swallow, most of times cumbersome to bear.  But if one is defeated, one must accept the result of the election; concede honorably not because one agrees to but because one has higher ideal, lofty goals about his own society.

The goal of the politicians must be to raise above narrow politics of division, parochial exercising of politics which excludes everyone else except one’s own tribe, villages.  Because such a messy politics would not take us anywhere, if people are not very careful, it could spell chaos, draw us toward ethnic quagmire, of which is followed by social stagnation, and arrested developments. Mind you the rest of the Ethiopians provinces, in 20 yrs. of this regime takeover have been leaping forward in realm of developments: be it in education, infrastructure building or economic empowerment, industrial construction, road building, etc… all have registered very remarkable, irreversible results for them.

The gap between us and the highlanders as we called them in Gambella in developments is the north- south poles in measure. So what happened? Why are we lacking behind? Well briefly Gambella has been in what political scientists called perpetual violence, making the tiny state like ours with size Mankato County’s population ungovernable and uncontrollable for a while. And even now the fire is not out completely there are many vicissitudes of logs in my views with fire still hidden in the wet bushes of savanna; no one for sure knows when they will catch the dry grass reignited it into fire again.  But one thing is certain we don’t want war, and war has not been good to our people, it has dragged our people down, made us the laughing stock. There is nothing to gain from war except the loss of lives of loves ones. We must choose the path of progress alleviate our people from age old suffering they are in now.

We must devote our times to learning, training ourselves for best skills we could apply tomorrow in rebuilding our society. Leave politics to those who are the wizard of politics, leave health institutions to those who are health expertise, education to educators, leave policing to those who police the crimes etc...Etc... Lastly respect for all individual in their own fields, if we do that we build a harmonious society with peace in minds.     

 

Ajumhara Journal congratulated Hialemaraim Desalign Ascension to power.

Ajumhara journal passes on its congratulatory message to his excellency Dasalegin Hailmariam on his new post as Prime Minster of Ethiopia. The journal also praised the ruling party the EPDRF for its wise decision in handling the smooth transfer of political power.  We are gladen that everyone was behind the party for this tough decision to prevail. No doubt that democracy, democratization is in its full gears, and in its full speed in our country.

The country is metamorphosing ahead, there is no turning back. Democracy must takes its full course without fear from the fallout. It is a messy system but better to live under democracy than to live under autocracy, dictatorship or under no democracy at all.  We know also that democracy goes hand in hand with lots of problems. But those problems are going to wither away as democratic political culture matured, the consolidation of democratic mechanism is embolden. Democracy must strive for better goals of social developments, it must flourished, it should become the only language spoken in towns, cities, and across the nation at large. Ethiopia is going to be blessed, and proud when we all spoke one universal language, that is democracy.  

The Ajumhara Journal urge all citizens to stand behind PM Desalign on his new task to tackle what our country is embarked on right now: the fight against poverty, the fight against illiteracy,  the fight against diseases, famines, and food shortages, the fight against backward looking economic developments in all realms. These are our number one enemies. And these are our age old enemies, and our old times problems. 

Legitimacy: In The Sphere of Politics

             Legitimacy it is a political word used by many in different varieties of societal day to day operations. But the real meaning of it is in politics rather than other areas of social takes. In the political community the word legitimacy is used a lot to describe certain aspects of political features: leadership legitimacy political party legitimacy or organizational legitimacy and departmental legitimacy, governmental legitimacy. The list goes on, on. Let’s take the leadership legitimacy for example.  Most of us believe that a democratic elected leader is legitimate, that is not say the election process is pure without problems. But any democratic would be leader before he or she claims the legitimacy leadership must go through the election process where she/he would be contesting other people eyeing for the same position.  

          Thus it is fair to say that the winner of the election process was a legitimate person, and therefore should be accorded power to go ahead, form a government of the people. A government of the people is a legitimate government and it is called a democratic government.  On the other hand of the political decay we have leaders who get into power through the barrel of the guns, that is juntas composed of military men and women or through a prolong war of guerrilla warfare that is authoritarianism, or through rigged election, that is autocratic or through the window or the backdoor, that is personal government or government by connection. It is where nobody asked you who the hell are you? How did you get in here?  The former is legitimate but later is illegitimate.

       
   Long time ago in the Anyuak land the chiefs of the Anyuak land or pa-Anyuawa conduct certain procedures to appoints titles upon their subjects. I believe certain ceremony is issued at “bura” with festive activities where the chief would announce, declared title upon select few already in his disposition.  It was done not by secret consultation but conferring with elders of the community. Thus giving the chief an overall power to announcing names of would be title men loud, and clear to the gathered people at bura, to those listening from behind the bura.

            After proceeding, than food and drink is served, followed with merry dance, and songs.  Therefore when we look back at pa-Anyuawa political culture we all can agree the process of political empowerment although not democratic as in the sense of western concept of democracy; but the question of legitimacy as we saw here was answered and completed and it was genuine. Men were titled among their peers, selected among rank and files of their social groupings; without doubt they were legitimate men because their legitimacy took place in the eyes of the majority people seated at bura, also heard from behind bura by those listening.   

Bura Aganya Cero Nykuwar:

          
 Bura Agayna makes you kuwro. It was Nyang Rondiel a nuer fellow by ethnicity; who boasted that unless someone was titled like him at Bura Aganya, than no one should dared questioned his authority. Again legitimacy comes to mind here, it is important in this case. Let me brief you about Bura Anganya. Hitherto, during first south Sudanese liberation movement, by the way the first south Sudanese movement name was Anyanya I.  Anyanya I then used the bura of Nykuwar as center stage for their rank and file promotions and for demotions also.  It is here that the leadership of Anyanya I announced titles, declared promotions for war-front battalions, brigades, also demotions of ranks for those who did misbehaved, and for lack of good performances. The leaders of the Anyanya I movement exactly announce titles pronounce names, declared validations  in front of the rank and file of the movement , the guerrilla forces, as you can see here their system also is the exact replica or copy of the Anyuak system of government .

Conclusion:   How you came to power is important because it is the question of legitimacy. A democratic leader; he or she must come to power in politics through political process. A traditional leadership that comes to power like ours also is legitimate because there are certain mechanism intact that checks the excess of the spoil chiefs, and his cabinets, his appointees. No one under any circumstances should call himself chief unless he was titled at bura in front of his peers. Simple, but True.    

Amhare Gilo