Years have rolled by unnoticed; the time for the evaluation of the behavior of people has slid through our fingers just like that. Events swiftly pass through the corridor of time making everything difficult to get hold of and to mold something concrete for the benefit of fellow countrymen and for mankind in general.
At this fast-moving period of world history, out of nowhere inventions pop up only to fill the inhabitants of the world with awe. Unable to explain how things happen that way, filled with bewilderment, people simply yield themselves and their activities to such unexplainable swift change the world has ever witnessed.
The ever-changing international politics pervades the security of the nations, everywhere. No state has sovereignty or complete power to govern its own territory. It is often observed that local affairs are obscured with international affairs. There are lately conditions that have developed in which it is difficult to say who belongs to which country.
Boundaries which were marked by fathers and forefathers appear to be no more relevant to their original meaning. They are removed from where they are legally supposed to be unchangeably as long as that country exists. The cross-border movement of migrants and others imposes unprecedented social and economic burden and crisis to many countries which happen to fall prey to such obstinate occurrence, a situation that does not easily give way to relent handling.
Currently the dominance of a rich nations is highly pronounced. Diplomatic relationship between two countries helps to manage the country’s affair by an agent in a foreign land. The agent, representing his country accomplishes everything in his power to establish the mutual benefits between the countries whereby in the process he leans to the advantage of his country; such situation creates misunderstanding that might take the issue to an undesirable level. The political skirmish that starts there becomes an international issue and calls immediate solution, otherwise economic and diplomatic warfare and even worse situation than that can occur. Other nations which have diplomatic ties with one or the other tend to fall behind in support of their ally and ardently push the situation to where it cannot be curbed.
At this juncture, the dominance of one country over the other comes into play through either military or diplomatic raw. Noisy or violent quarrel rages at the General Assembly of the United Nations or at the Security Council. The fury of the representatives of each country trying to substantiate their argument is so much noisy that at times, on top of the booing of the opponent party, they almost get engaged in physical assault, an act of literal savagery and utterly unexpected of modern people that status. But the good thing about such situation is it occurs seldom.
On the other hand, under the guise of modernity, foreign influence has pervaded the psychology of the current youth group of the society. Such infiltration of foreign influence, where the indigenous views are not yet ready nor capable to assimilate it becomes a big threat to the stability of the country as the youth sector of Ethiopia comprises seventy present of the population, the group that cannot be easily reckoned with. Out of naivety, young people fall prey to anything that glitters and seemingly acceptable.
Fads and fashions most attract the attention of the young people despite their bad and impacts. In addition, addictive substances that include chat, shisha and hashish (from which the word assassin is derived) have tremendously affected the physical and psychological faculties of the young people. Such debilitating substances have forced quite a large number of students out of school, made them vegetate and eventually push them away from home.
The extreme case of the situation is exhibited in the youth in the form of violence and at its worst, stealing and robbing. Furthermore, the substances, in due course, cause disorientation, frail health and weak physical condition. Therefore, to satisfy their uncontrollable crave, they stop at nothing until they get the substances. Despised and ridiculed, they consider the society as their staunch enemy. The worst problem with the substance is exposing the young victims to gay practice. The end result of the whole is nothing other than developing future adult atrophy -a burden to the already socially, politically and economically staggering country.
Such are the dread consequences of external influence; the influence that sneaked in to dismantle the social fabric of a country like ours. This situation did not happen just like that; the self-seeking greed of the clandestine activities of some people for monetary gain at the expense of the young people is accounted for the crime.
Equally devastating, the issue to be discussed is the hegemony of one ethnic group over the other. A country is referred to as a country when all the ethnic groups, more than anything, equally exercise their citizenship rights. The ambition to subdue others by means of a tactful cultural subjugation creates suspicion and an eventual hatred among people who are supposed to co-exist in harmony. No culture is superior nor inferior to any other culture; as long as that culture serves the society it dwells in, devoid of its wrong application, it has high social value in that particular context and can even permeate to other cultures if civilized tolerance and acceptance on the part of the recipient group is in order.
Lately some misguiding foreign influences, in the guise of religion, infiltrate the established faith practices adhered to the precepts of religious books. Most of the youth and some grownups are so naïve that they gulp any teachings they come across. Lack of experience so much affects that they believe any teaching which in the long run morally overwhelms their whole beings and makes them slaves to it; once a person falls prey to such practice, it is extremely difficult to redeem him from the faith malady. Experiences show that such infiltration is consciously designed to create immorality to violate the norm; moral decadence disrupts the smooth flow of activities to maintain social integration. Family, as the basic unit of the society, has no chance of survival in the face of such moral decadence. A country, devoid of well-established moral standards, is bound to total collapse and becomes an easy target for foreign attack.
Failure in observing the norm, affects social standard which the citizens abide by to keep it stable and steady. In case of the disruption of the system, unless norm is obeyed according to the tenet of the culture, the possibility of recuperation or rehabilitation is proven very slim. The issue of defiance of the authorities is currently a burning issue; children’s refusal to obey their parents and the school administration, workers insubordination and so forth have staged a setback to the development of a country particularly that suffers from unimaginably high scale poverty. In a society where there are no leaders and followers and where the leaders find it difficult to enforce law such as in industry work, teaching and all other sectors, because of the insubordination of the workers, the possibility of attaining success in developmental activities is entirely impossible.
Education, in theory, takes the lion’s share in creating the future enlightened citizens of our country; before the previous two governments (the military junta and EPRDF), this concept was highly revered and was genuinely put into practice; that was during Emperor Haile Selassie’s government. Education system at that time was for producing of all rounded scholars, reliable in every scholastic profession and others fields of knowledge. The father-children relationship between teachers and students was the foundation of teaching and learning endeavors. Teachers were intent on creating the total development the faculties (mind, emotion and physical) of their students with full and relentless concern that matches that of the biological parents. Because of this, teachers are highly respected and obeyed. The current laissez-faire type of education was totally unacceptable by teachers and students alike. Currently, education at tertiary level has become an issue of ridicule: project assignments are done by cut-and-paste style, in which the student has no subjective involvement. Presentation by power points is a common place in college defense.
By and large, the current local and international developments fill every one of the inhabitant of our planet with awe and wonder. Let’s watch our steps for uncertainty lies along our way into the future; absorb everything that is to our benefit and reject which may hinder our safe and holistic progress in life.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday September 8/2019
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
