The tragic accident on ET 302, Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft last Sunday, which claimed the lives of 157 passengers and crew members, has shocked the global community and so many are still expressing condolences through various social media.
It is a heart-breaking loss not only for the victim’s families but also for all the people who relish the value of love and the burning pain of losingloved ones.
Even though the ways we accept and handle sorrowful incidents are different from one-another, there is always one reality that most people commonly share. No matter how unbearable it feels to realize that our loved ones are gone, our true love for them and their best memories are the things that we would never let go.
True love and best memories are human being’s eternal blessings that death can never take away. They are the lights of hope and faith that would give us courage and strength to get out of our sorrow and keep our heads up to set a new course for a new vision and purpose in life.
As long as our hopes and faith are kept with true love and best memories, we could have the courage and strength to carry on our lives and most of all to struggle and accomplish not only ours but also the dreams of the beloved ones we have lost.
Even if tragic moments could leave a terrible scar in people’s hearts and it takes time for the wounds to heal, we could always cherish the true love and memories. No matter what color they had, nationalities they were, no matter what their languages, cultures, religions or beliefs, your beloved ones are in the hearts of many people around the world.
As I observed over the past six days, people who have seen or heard the news from different media outlets were deeply touched. It is clear that most of these people from all corners of the glob never had the chance to have personal introduction with the victims before the tragedy. But the way the accident affected their feeling has revealed some reality that many seem to have give up on. That reality is that humanity will always have hope!
Despite our differences and attitudes in various socioeconomic and political aspects, the past six days have thought me that mankind would never stop caring for each other. Most peoples’ condolences on social media are reflections of the truth that feeling for others and our nature to value life the most are the blessings we could always have.
However, these blessings are mostly being covered by several reasons and by hateful and racist ideas of negative people and stereotypes as they continued injecting their evil thoughts in the minds of the youth and children through social media.
We could hold on strong and gradually get over the pain and sorrow of the people we have lost from tragic accident. But dealing with the mad results of the minds we have lost from evil thoughts of social media abusers could be more than difficult when it is too late.
The loss of the beloved ones brought most of us together to show concern of caring and valuing life more than anything. Thus, this true positive nature of mankind can play its own significant role to play in order to save the youths from social media abusers who provoke hatred and mass conflicts. We all have responsibilities to show the youths the positive sides of humanity and life. We all know how blind ideologies and foolish ambitions or narrow sense of heroism could destroy nations and how the youths, women, children and the elderly lost their lives, homes and suffered being left behind.
It is time for all of us to avoid dwelling on destructive arguments on social media and embrace the value of life for the sake of the beautiful children whom we are obliged to hand over a beautiful future.
In terms of valuing life the most, Ethiopian Air Lines has been globally known for its reputation of prioritizing safety. The airline has repeatedly gained international recognition from various organizations. Only in the year 2018 Ethiopian has been recognized as company of the year by All African Business Awards, Best airliner in Africa Awards for the seventh consecutive year and Best African Airline at Arabian Travel Awards. It has also been crowned as best airline, business class and best economy class in Africa on SKYTRAX world air line awards. APEX passengers’ choice award was also one of the much recognition that Ethiopian gained in 2018.
In this case, if Ethiopia has to succeed in its multifaceted reforms building sectors that prioritize humanity for better services is crucial. All governmental and non-governmental sectors need to follow Ethiopians’ way of doing business and build a tough reputation that would never collapse in times of crisis or accidents.
The Ethiopian Herald March 16/2019
BY HENOK TIBEBU
