where is our loyality to our people?

I came on one article that was posted on Aiga Forum about mobilizing the Tigrian Diaspora to collect money for elementary schools in Tigray region and fascinated in the content and it reminded me what I am hearing and reading in all government media about the country achieving the Millennium Development Goal according the target sited in the plan of action and I tried to related what I read and the data that are posted about Ethiopia in UNDP annual reports that states about the Human Development Index and tried to share my opinion to my pears so that they can develop it and recommend to alleviate the lies that are propagated daily.

I will start with the content that I read to share you the iceberg of my doubt about what is propagated in our media and the reality in the ground in their own words and try to compare where Ethiopia stands and what have to be done in the future. My recommendations are not earth shattering but if the deaf ears can at least hear and see their faces if they came to their senses to ameliorate the damage done during their stay in power.

The reason I used the HDI data base is due to the basic factors this index take into consideration life expectancy, literacy, education, health, standard of living and measures of economic policies towards quality of life.

Let I start with what I read on Aiga Forum. Its objectives are to collect money for elementary school in Tigray and since it is written in Tigrigna it is a call to those who are from Tigray but those who can read Tigrigna can understand it. Since it is written in that way the contents are very amazing in a country that self boosts its achievement in education and health in Ethiopia.
It starts by saying there were 1049 schools in 1996 E.C. but in 2000 E.C there are 1775 among these 350 were transferred from “Das” to “class”. The plea starts enumerating of which 48 percent without desks and tables, 80 percent without toilets, 78 percent without potable water and also the shortage of black boards. These problems hamper the participation of our daughters and sisters in the schools that are transformed. What I can learn from here are two things, one the growth of schools 40 percent in four years is improbable but not impossible but to furnish and to construct are two different issues and the second it reminds me that the country had build more than 13 new Universities and their infrastructure comes to question marks because they need more facilities than elementary schools to some extent.

Having these in mind I will try to adhere to my main topic that is loyalty and our faces with respect to our neighbours and why we lie to our people? At least the people has the right to know the truth and fight the fact and knowing the problem is part of the solution and basic to grass root mobilization also.








Let we come to the reality of our country from the following data:



Country/Year 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 HDI Rank 2010
Ethiopia 0.25 0.287 0.298 0.309 0.317 0.324 0.328 157(38)
Kenya 0.315 0.366 0.372 0.377 0.379 0.384 0.389 128(16)
Uganda 0.35 0.38 0.388 0.398 0.408 0.416 0.422 143(26)
Rwanda 0.277 0.334 0.344 0.355 0.373 0.379 0.385 152(34)
Sudan 0.336 0.36 0.365 0.369 0.373 0.375 0.379 154(36)
Djibouti na 0.382 0.387 0.394 0.396 0.399 0.402 147(29)
Libya na 0.726 0.733 0.741 0.744 0.749 0.755 53(1)
Tunisia 0.53 0.563 0.57 0.576 0.58 0.585 0.59 81(3)
SSA 0.315 0.366 0.372 0.377 0.379 0.384 0.389 151(33)

Source: UNDP

I pick these countries because of two major factors. The first are countries that are our neighbours with almost with same political visions where there are no or minimalist democratic rights and some are countries where Libya fully dictatorial and Tunisia mild dictatorial while in the Sudan, Tunisia and Libya are countries where there are more gender gaps in the society and their results in HDI index will help us to describe some hidden issue in Ethiopia.

The other issues for my focus are the government in power were similar expect Rwanda (2000), Djibouti (1999) and Kenya (2002) who came late to power but the others in comparison were more than 11 years in power Sudan (11 years), Uganda (14 years) and our country 9 years before my basic year 2000.

According the data I could not refute that there is a trend for betterment in situation but Ethiopia being the fastest growing country in the Sub Saharan region as we are told by TPLF gangs but one can not see it the difference than those who have low growth rate.

Among the above selected countries Ethiopia under TPLF is 157th in the world and 38th in Africa and based on the assessments done by UNDP it shows that we are below Sun Saharan average and the least from all our neighbours.

Where is the transformation for the last years manifested becomes for me only in our TPLF hostaged media and another futile works in propaganda because on can exactly see in a region where all priorities were given after the war we are observing the same deja vue now and every day.

This shows us the disloyalty to our constituents as well to our selves that are saying we are the delegates of the people to bring democracy and development in this land locked miserable country.

My problem is till when are we lying to our people in order to accumulate own money and stash it in foreign banks in the name of democratic governance.