In these times of famine and AIDS, we Ethiopians need to introspect on our culture; we need to force ourselves to look into our hearts. There we might see what we are not willing to confront. Inside that industrious heart, is where our virtues and vices dwell, and there fester arrogance, ignorance, jealousy and suspicion, eating up our virtues, valor, resilience and pride.

I have noticed too at numerous meetings that we Ethiopians celebrate the failure of others. We cherish them only when they die.  We are so quick to point out their vices; so slow to recognize their virtues. When those we had cruelly savaged while alive, we come in record numbers to mourn their death, to give them company during those long hours of grief and remembrance. Of course these are virtues too. More virtuous would be to have loved them when they were alive, to have respected them when some of them courageously spoke their minds and raised the mirror to our reluctant faces. No, we do not do that. We do not like to be told the truth. We prefer the lies of silence, by thinking that silence is golden, whereas speaking truth is not even worth the prize of copper.

I notice too that we like to belittle our intellectuals. We go out of our way not to select them to work in committees where their services are much needed. Or we play them against each other. Dr. X is hailed briefly, when he does what we want him to do. He is played against Dr. Y, who at one point like Dr. X was a hero. He spoke the truth and then he was overthrown. Dr. Y takes his place.

The new honor bestowed on Dr. X goes to his head. Soon he is contaminated by arrogance. Perhaps, he was always that way, but the masses did not catch the disease on time. When they wake up to it, they depose him. They fetch another leader. The cycle continues. You see now why our country is in dire condition. Arrogance becomes the virtue of our intellectuals. When it serves our needs we hide their vices and we worship them. When we discover their vices we go to the other extreme.

Then too we do not like success. We cannot stand to be outshined by others. We misinterpret democracy too. We think that apples are oranges, that everybody is equal. That we have the right to speak about things we do not know.  We think that intellectuals, inspite of their expertise are our equals. So we challenge them. If intellectuals dare to tell us to enlighten ourselves, then we make sure that they are humiliated in our long and boring meetings, where we do not dare to speak our minds.

At meetings of Ethiopians, we intimidate our Amharic speaking audience by throwing English phrases at them, or by speaking in English when it is absolutely unnecessary.

We believe that ignorance is bliss too. That education does not matter. That if a PH.D works at a parking lot, then we reason, what is the point behind getting degrees that would qualify us to work only at the same place. So we belittle education and the educated. Nor are we willing to be corrected. If you dare to correct an Ethiopian, you would have an enemy for life. He will not invite you to anything. He will shamelessly tell his friends that you had called Ethiopians ignorant, and the masses are set against you.  I understand that this weakness is a function of pride. In the right context, pride is an empowering virtue, and it continues to enable us Ethiopians to resist humiliation and the savagery of an imperialistic gaze.

Suspicion also afflicts our soul. It disenables us to embrace well-meaning people who work for their country, and along the way become famous. So what fame and recognition follow the paths of good work? Does it make sense to suspect the motives of the person who incidentally becomes respected because of her work? Does she have to be obstructed for a well-done work? Should not we learn how to embrace the greatness of the work and the individual who personifies the work?

Keen observers of the Ethiopian cultural landscape have rightly observed that we Ethiopians are very jealous of one another. Jealousy of course is a major part of human nature. We share this vice with the rest of humanity. We have however managed to orchestrate this vice to a disturbing degree. This vice continues to stand on the way of the prospects of Ethiopian modernity. It is tearing our country apart. Ethnic differences are fueled by it. Our intellectuals suffer from it. We choose and denigrate our heroes propelled by jealousy and ethnic chauvinism. Jealousy prevents us from recognizing and admiring a good piece of work, an upright person, and a gifted human being. We must learn, how to sublimate the corrosive power of this poison.

In these trying times, morality demands that we cleanse ourselves from arrogance, ignorance, jealousy and suspicion to combat famine and AIDS. We must use all our thinkers, inspite of their ranks and ethnic origins, to work for their country. We must cease to play intellectuals against intellectuals at our fund raising committees; we must not use this special time as a ground of fomenting our hostilities and political agendas. This in not the right time. We must pull together and fight the menace of famine and AIDS, which are feeding on each other. Feeding an infected body, still demands of us that we attend to the body that is freed from hunger but saddled with AIDS.

Arrogance, ignorance, AIDS and Famine continue to be the perennial enemies of Ethiopia. Protracted education and effective public policy, if we give them a chance can heal us.

I must apologize to my readers that the vices that I have pointed out are not the traits of every individual. All those positive responses I received recently disprove that. My observations are mere generalities, inherited essences in our culture. Most of them belong to the realm of character, which can be changed.

I have said all these because I love my people, and my way of expressing that love is to speak my truth at all times.