There is an Amharic saying that could literally be translated as “Better our offspring perish than failing to keep our promise.” Similar or equivalent adages are abundant in most socio-linguistic communities in Ethiopia.
To be fair, people sometimes find it difficult to keep their promises as an unintended unfolding may persuade them to get diverted to different routes. But it is much worse when anybody intentionally and sloppily ignores their words. Contrary to this, not few individuals walk their talks despite a rocky road they face along their course.
A few months ago, First Lady Zinash Tayachew made a promise to realize over twenty projects, worth over 716 million Birr, that would support the needy children in the capital, Addis Ababa, and contribute to trim school dropouts in remote areas of the country. The question is: How many of them are materialized?
True to the promises of the first lady, most of them have now become visible to spectators. Four secondary schools will commence functioning by the Next Ethiopian Year and the remaining will follow suit. Kuskuam Children’s Village, a 12-million Birr project, will see completion next July.
The first lady’s initiative and her office’s encouraging performance sends an important message to all Ethiopians at home and abroad.
For one thing, the past decades, whether one likes it or not, implanted dependency syndrome in the mindsets of many. Hence, not few individuals sit arms crossed or turn blind eyes to pressing problems facing the society, which even pushes a number of kids and elders to dwell on the streets.
Literally, the government is responsible to fulfill the basic demands of citizens and communities. Sadly enough, even realizing the basic demands is far from being possible in developing countries like ours. It becomes from ‘the frying pan to the fire’ when problems like this are compounded with “greed”—corruption and the embezzlement of public funds being manifestations.
What instills hopes in our hearts is that the good gestures of few people who are always readier to giving than receiving as the bible also says: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
That is one of the reasons for good signs of progress of the multimillion Birr projects of the first lady. Is not it?
For the other, without a shadow of a doubt, to give to one’s people and to one’s country keeps the benevolent person at the peak in the hierarchy of Abraham Maslow. But it is difficult to describe those who snatch from their poor country.
We, as a society, must exercise both keeping promises and exercising benevolence. We have to look deep into our culture to learn how forefathers and foremothers applied these creeds—the creed of walking the talks, the creed of giving no matter you have little and creeds of abhorring looting from a poor country.
The bottom line is that particularly Ethiopians in the diaspora who have witnessed the development of societies in their respective host countries ought to play an exemplary role in the effort of transforming the country for the better. The country needs their expertise, experiences, and constructive criticisms, if not their investment in many areas.
The thing is that this is a time that we ask not what our country can do for us, but it is a time that we ask what we can do to our country!
The Ethiopian Herald June 7/2019
