BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Although Ethiopia’s presence at this year’s Olympics in Tokyo Japan was marred by controversies among the top-level delegations members of the Ethiopian contingent during the opening ceremony, the games are continuing against all the odds. Public ire here at home was evident as the display by the Ethiopian delegation at the opening ceremony was allegedly unfit for a great nation like ours whose participation at the Olympics is legendary.
Those who criticized the organizational mishaps on day one tend to forget that Ethiopia’s triumph at the Olympics started decades ago and that Ethiopians athletes triumphed at many Olympic games despite overwhelming difficulties. Those who exaggerated the first day incident between the top officials of the Ethiopian Olympic Committee and the Ethiopian Athletics Federation overlooked the need to quickly shift the focus from “the clashes of personalities” to clashes of Ethiopian sportsmen at the games.
After all, what mattered most was how our athletes are going to perform rather than who was the real culprit in this endless tit-for-tat whose origins are rooted in the “power” struggles within the athletic bureaucracy back home. Similar criticism was expressed during the last Olympics at Rio, in Brazil, when an Ethiopian official at the athletic committee was alleged to have sent his son to compete in swimming competition whereas better athletes were ignored and stayed back home. Unfortunately the official’s son who made his way to the Olympics with his dad’s help became a laughing stock because of his poor performance. Similar mishaps are bound to happen now and then at the Olympics.
The global pandemic had forced the games to be postponed as they were initially scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020. The main culprit is of course the Corona virus pandemic. A few weeks ago, the pandemic was spreading normally in Japan. And suddenly in the last few weeks the number of infected and dead victims spiked as a result of the havoc the delta variant has suddenly messed up things. However, a second postponement was unacceptable for the Japanese despite opposition to the games at home. It was also unthinkable to abandon the games simply because the pandemic is spreading with unprecedented tempo. Japan is used to such adversities and it is once again proving resilient in the face of great odds.
Japan has started to prepare for the games many years ago. It has invested billions of dollars to organize the Olympics. It has invested a great deal of its emotional and financial capital in the games and it has been preparing the events with meticulous care and scientific precision. It has mobilized its technological and scientific might to make the games a resounding success that could symbolize Japan’s irresistible economic advances.
Japan has always been a resilient nation. It rose from the nuclear ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to become one of the most developed countries in less than seven decades. What is remarkable is that it could rebuild a war-devastated economy without compromising its culture and its sovereignty. It fiercely defended its culture in the face of aggressive Western influences. Japan is a leading example of how a country can preserve its culture and at the same time attain a high level of economic development and serve as an example to many aspiring countries.
This is actually what Ethiopians seek to do at this critical time. They want to preserve their culture and attain economic development at the same time. However, this will be done not by imitating Japan or any other country but on the basis of their common culture and collective aspirations. The two visions are not contradictory. They are rather complementary.
Ethiopians could not so far attain economic development because they ignored their culture and heritages and fell prey to adverse foreign influences for much of their modern history. Ethiopians like the Japanese hare hard working people. Yet, they have never enjoyed the degree of freedom and modernization the Japanese did. On the other hand, Ethiopians tried to copy foreign experiments from the East or from the West without taking due consideration to their cultural and historical differences.
They adopted different ideologies and models of development that did not take into consideration Ethiopia’s specific realities. Those ideologies were not only foreign to Ethiopians but also alien to their culture, religions and collective consciousness. Japan is an example of how nations can develop without ignoring their cultures and by reconciling their differences.
Japan rose from the ashes of WWII to build mighty economic machinery that has become the envy of the entire world. Its rise was so fast that by the 1960s it could organize the Olympic games that led to the glories of Ethiopian athletes like Abebe Bikila, a legendary sportsman who could inspire generations of runners decades after Ethiopia’s glories at the Tokyo games. Abebe’s fame and achievement have always served as a symbolic link between Japan and Ethiopia, kept alive to these very days.
Japan’s resilience is also evident in the fact that it went through a series of natural disasters like devastating Tsunamis, earthquakes that destroyed entire cities while the Japanese rose morally unscathed and rebuilt what was destroyed. The secret to their success is also their unity of purpose, specifically Japanese democracy and their unswerving commitment to national rejuvenation.
Japan spent billions of dollars just to keep afloat its proud history of achievements and commitment to the Olympics ideals and spirit which is in itself a demonstration of utmost resilience and dedication. There are many people in Japan and elsewhere who are criticizing Japan’s decision to go ahead with the games despite the pandemic.
This is legitimate and timely criticism. However, the Japanese have overcome more serious odds in their history. They are again proving that their spirit of defiance in the face of adversities is still going strong. The pandemic will become history one day but Japan’s spirit of endurance and the Olympic spirit of resilience is bound to endure even longer afterwards.
The Japanese Olympics organizers have also displayed some degree of wisdom because they could not keep on postponing the games until favorable conditions will be created. For that matter, nobody knows when the pandemic will be eliminated. The Japanese self-confidence in the face of the odds is also exemplary. They are showing the world that it is possible to organize such a bog event by using science and technology in the service of humanity.
Japan and Ethiopia have something in common as far as their history and cultures are concerned. Like Japan, Ethiopia too was ruled by monarchies that were bent on modernizing Ethiopia. Unfortunately, their visions could not be well-articulated and implemented as time was against them and civil wars, conflicts and revolutions overtook them. There was no time to implement the grand design of Ethiopian transition from tradition to modernity. Japan learned from the West and took modernizing steps before it was too late to do so. Ethiopia lost too many opportunities as quarrels took the place of rational dialogue for much of the last fifty years of its history.
The Tokyo Olympics are now in full swing and attentions are now turned to the medals and winners, to countries that are leading the pack on the medal table and to the achievements of individual athletes. Real pride does not reside in the past. It is rather a matter of present achievements. Ethiopia has always done well at the Olympics. The less known fact is that Ethiopia is also the first country in Africa that shined at the Olympics particularly in long distance races. Athletes, past and present, have made millions of Ethiopians proud with their achievements so far.
The Olympics are not only about winning medals or about rankings on the medal table. They are rather about pride, national image and national status in the global race for excellence. That was why people here at home reacted emotionally upon hearing about the controversies surrounding Ethiopian Olympic officials in Tokyo. Ethiopia is no more a small country. It is a big nation on the rise and the world has a lot of expectations in what our country will achieve at the games.
As a matter fact, countries that shine at the Olympics are those that have strong economies and strong sense of patriotism. Athletes from the United States, Japan, China, Britain and many other nations are not only skilled by also patriotic. That is why winning athletes almost always shed tears of joy standing on the podium as they receive their medals of honor. They do not only weep for their personal achievements but also because of love for their country. And this is the single most important passion and the greatest honor for any country and any athlete taking part at the games. Thus the very image of a country is at stake at the Olympics, starting from the opening ceremonies all through the closing events.
Ethiopian delegation leaders might have faltered at the opening ceremonies but they have enough time to use the entire duration of the events to play the role of ambassadors for their country and return home without grudges and guilt feeling. After all this is not the last Olympics and Ethiopians have always the opportunity to leave aside their difference and work hard for the honor and respect of their country as they have done for decades.
The Ethiopian Herald August 4/2021
