Well, the US 2012 election is over. Obama has won. Most of us, including me, did not vote for Obama enthusiastically as we did in 2008. What we actually did was vote against Romney.There are two good reasons to vote against Romney. One is racism. This does not need any explanation. It is self explanatory. Look at the red states. And look the percentage differences between Obama and Romney in these red states. That tells you a lot. Any time you want to move or relocate in the States, it is a good idea to avoid these regions.
The second reason is the republican foreign policy. Republicans are worse than democrats when it comes to defending human rights around the world. It is true that both democrats and republicans defend American interests at the expense of others including human rights issues in Ethiopia. We have seen this in the Bush administration as well as in Obama’s. But the republicans are very extreme in their foreign policy with no room for negotiations outside their interests. And to some degree, this is an extension of their home racism to foreign policy.
They have the problem of purely seeing the world as their backyard to coerce and dominate it to the extent of starting dangerous conflicts and wars around the world. Republicans have this dangerous mentality of us vs them in their world outlook. And they have demonstrated this policy many times during republican administrations before that led to costly wars abroad and tension between races and economic classes at home. It is highly likely that a republican president will start war with Iran.
So the bottom line is that we are still stuck with Obama and the democrats to help us influence US foreign policy in Ethiopia. We need some pragmatism here. We should all find a workable approach to get what we need from the Obama administration knowing that he is not the president of Ethiopia. Nor does he have a vested interest for Ethiopia because of his African roots. Obama is an American president and he may have to defend America’s interests against our desires. We should expect this unless we are naive enough to assume for Obama to solve our problems.
First, we have to bring ourselves to a level where we can earn some attention and respect from the Obama administration. The work should start among ourselves and prove to anyone that we are dependable enough to be trusted and lead a country. We should not expect anybody to propel us to power or make it easier for us to bring TPLF to its knees. This work is primarily our job. Obama won’t do it for us.
Obama is not obligated to help us kick TPLF out of power. If we need help, as we obviously do, we should know how to get it. Complaining, whining, and acting like a cry baby, as some of us are behaving right now, won’t get us anywhere. We should admit that we are powerless and weak at the moment. We need a lot of help if we can get it. Not only from Obama but from everyone. And we should be mature enough politically to know how to get it.
We need to know how the world works. The world does not know whether we exist or not. Nor it cares if we are dying like flies from famine or TPLF’s bullets. We should make our plight and presence known by doing what we should to attract attention. Don’t expect the world to cry with us in our misery. We should not run around kicking and screaming with tantrums like a child with a temperament problem. We should know the world is not a kind place.
The world does not owe us anything including sympathy and empathy. It is a place for winners irrespective of how they win. It is time for us to grow up. It is about time for us to understand that this world is not a bowl of cherries. It is not a forgiving place either. Rather it is a dog eat dog world. We have no option but to be wise, mature, and determined to get what we need from what we got by any means necessary.
Having said that, I like to remind all of us to take the best first step towards earning respect from the Obama administration. And that is to do our homework carefully and wisely. Let us stop becoming a bone in the throats of the opposition. Let us unite and work hand and glove together. And prove to the Obama administration or, to anybody else for that matter, that we have the ability, the discipline, and the resolve necessary to lead a democracy.
And the best place to start is to move the coalition of ten Ethiopian political and civic organizations formed three months ago. We know they have established a coordinating committee representing these ten organizations. But so far, this committee has not shown any significant moves in the Diaspora.This is high time to form and strengthen a diplomacy and lobbying committee to immediately start work with the Obama administration. And other committees should have also been formed by now such as PR, Finance, Organization, etc. Patriots in the Diaspora are waiting for this coalition to start moving and moving fast as the local and world politics is fluid and changing fast.
To come back to my topic, will Obama remember us this time and return our favor? Good question. If we sit and wait for Obama to do our job, the answer is a big NO. But If we aggressively and wisely work as described above, the answer will most probably become a YES. How President Obama reacts to our interests still depends on us. It is in our hands.
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