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Month: January 2020

Transport Authority Says ‘Buckle Up’

Posted on by Web Master

Along Africa Avenue that leads to Bole International Airport, Deputy Inspector Abiyot Abebe and his colleagues were busy controlling the traffic flow on the road.

They randomly stopped vehicles to check for traffic regulation compliance, mainly in relation to the newly introduced safety belt regulation that forces passengers to wear seat belts as of January 12, 2020.

On January 14, 2020, the second week since the new traffic regulation was put in place, a driver of a 1998 Trios Daihatsu stepped out of the car to talk to a traffic officer about the offence he has committed related to the person in the passenger seat not wearing a seat belt.

After a short argument with the officer, the driver got back into the car, complaining about the 250 Br fine for the offence.

“Every new traffic regulation introduced makes me a guinea pig,” he complained.

Hawi Jemal, 26, was another driver fined for violating a safety belt regulation. Last week she was at Bole District Police Station to collect her driver’s license. She was one of the many drivers lined up at the station.

More than half of them were penalised for violating the new safety belt regulation. While many paid 250 Br, Hawi paid 300 Br for the same offence as it was indicated on her receipt.

“I don’t know why I had to pay more for the same traffic violation,” she said.

Hawi also argues that she should not have to pay for the passenger’s failure to wear a seat belt.

“Since my car has a functional safety belt, it should be the passenger who pays the penalty,” she said, smiling.

The Addis Abeba Traffic Commission has been working on early preparations and promotional activities for several months in advance to raise awareness about the use of safety belts before the regulation was implemented, according to Markos Tadesse, a major inspector and head of the media division at the Commission.

In the first two days after the enforcement of the new regulation, more than 6,000 drivers were penalised for the safety belt traffic violation.

In enforcing the new regulation, the Commission stated that the use of safety belts decreased the number of deaths related to traffic accidents by half for those passengers in the front seats.

Traffic accidents are becoming a nightmare in the country, taking the lives of many. In Addis Abeba, traffic-related deaths went up by one percent as serious injuries increased by a fifth in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

The death rate has also increased by a third in Oromia Regional State from the same period last year with 433 people perishing in 1,095 traffic-related accidents. Close to 618 car accidents claimed the lives of 183 people in the Amhara region in the same period this year.

Nationally, the number of accidents occurring last year stood at 40,871 with 4,597 deaths; additionally, 7,408 and 5,949 people sustained serious and minor physical injuries, respectively. The associated property damage was estimated at 872.9 million Br.

A recent study conducted by the Bloomberg Initiative highlighted the poor utilisation of safety belts in Ethiopia despite encouraging improvements made in other areas including helmet use, speed control and drunk driving.

Globally, out of the 1.2 million traffic accidents, 45pc caused serious injuries to passengers that could have been prevented or minimised by the mere use of a safety belt.

The use of safety belts decreases the number of deaths related to traffic accidents by 45 to 50pc for those passengers in the front seats, while it reduces the death rate of passengers in the back seats by 25pc to 35pc, according to WHO.

During the first quarter of this fiscal year, 43 deaths and 101 serious injuries were reported related to traffic accidents in the capital city alone.

Concerned with the ever-growing traffic accidents that claim the lives of drivers and passengers, the Federal Transport Authority has introduced the new safety belt regulation that makes wearing seat belts mandatory for passengers in all types of vehicles.

It was introduced based on an earlier proclamation revised in 2017 that declares it is the responsibility of drivers to ensure the safety of all passengers on board, including verifying that they are wearing seat belts.

The proclamation declares all passengers in all types of vehicles traveling a distance of more than 150Km out of a city, while it gives room for qualified enforcement based on the types of vehicles used within the boundaries of a city.

Accordingly, all vehicles having five to eight seats are required to comply with safety belt requirements for all passengers. Public transport vehicles having between 12 and 25 seats traveling within the distance limit indicated for the inner city are required to enforce safety belt compliance on the front seat passengers only.

Passengers in the back seats are advised but not obligated unless they are traveling over 150Km outside the city, according to Yigzaw Dagnew, communications affairs director at the Authority.

The traffic regulations now in place have different levels of fines and penalty points that can be registered on driver’s records depending on the seriousness of the violations.

Penalty points are not recorded on drivers files for the first level traffic offences, but it holds a fine of 100 Br. The second and third levels have one and two penalty points, while the fourth and fifth levels have three and four penalty points, respectively, in addition to payment of fines up to 350 Br.

The safety belt regulation lies in the level four category that entails three penalty points in addition to the 250 Br fine.

Wuletaw Amsalu, 42, who drives a 2002 model minibus taxi, was also fined for failing to enforce the seat belt regulation on a front seat passenger.

“Since it was a short distance,” said Wuletaw, “I didn’t think it was that important to make sure the passenger on board had the safety belt on.”

Wuletaw generally accepts the importance of the safety belt regulation, but he still has reservations.

“Though it is quite useful for those driving long distances outside the city,” said Wuletaw, “I don’t think it is that important for vehicles commuting within the city.”

Habtamu Mezgebu, also 42, shares Wuletaw’s view.

“I don’t think it is practically convenient for taxis like ours,” said Habtamu, who drives a 1984 model minibus taxi, which is visibly in poor condition.

One of the passengers’ seats at the front has a safety belt but not the one in the middle. Hence, he folded the middle seat and kept it out of service to avoid the vigilant eyes of the traffic police on the streets.

“Seat belts of such old vehicles break down, as they can’t sustain the frequent rotation of passengers who usually travel short distances,” he remarked.

Some minibus taxis appear to comply with the regulation by keeping the middle front seat out of service, at least for the time being. But others still dare to take their chances while the officers are not in sight.

Some minibuses keep the seat belt to show a visible sign of compliance to the law enforcement officers, but if one pulls it hard just to check its functionality, it is apparent that it does not hold back the passenger fastened to the seat during an emergency.

Biniyam Getachew, director of traffic control and event administration at the Addis Abeba Drivers & Vehicles Licensing & Control Authority, argues that it should indeed be the responsibility of the drivers to ensure that all the passengers wear safety belts during commutes.

“Passengers get on board because they trust the competence of the driver who should also ensure the technical conditions of the vehicle they are driving,” he said. “Therefore, it is logical that it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure compliance, and thus they should be penalised for failure to do so.”

Though the fine rate is fixed, some drivers like Hawi are fined more than the regulated rate.

This discrepancy happens due to a calendar system used by the traffic police officers and payment system at the banks. Traffic police use the Julian calendar, while the banks use the Gregorian calendar, according to Biniyam.

The new penalty payment system imposes an additional penalty of five percent a day if the penalty is not settled within the first ten days.

“So, if the bank clerks don’t properly convert the local calendar into the Gregorian one,” Biniyam said. “The five percent payment will be calculated on the date difference occurring at conversion.”

“We’ve corrected such errors in relation to penalty payments to avoid such inconsistencies,” Biniyam noted.

The other reason for the variations in the payment rates is related to earlier penalty records that were not settled on time. The current penalty payment takes into account any outstanding penalty records of a driver that has not been settled before.

The latest traffic regulation also made certain amendments to the previous version in terms of reducing the validity period of penalty points on driver’s records from two years to a year. It also excluded 24 types of minor traffic offences drivers usually commit out of the penalty point recording system.

Drivers with accumulated penalty points of 19 and above will be suspended for a one-year period. Traffic accidents resulting in death carry 28 penalty points and accidents causing serious physical injuries entail 22 penalty points. In both situations, the driving license of the driver responsible for the accidents is suspended for up to one year.

While concerning many drivers and vehicle owners, the new regulation opened a business opportunity for some retailers of spare parts.

Hekniem Minas, a salesperson at Jemila Auto Body Parts in Teklehaimanot area, is one of them who is currently visited by many who look for seat belts.

“Before the introduction of the new regulation,” said Hekniem, “no one came to our shop to ask for a safety belt.”

The prices of the safety belts shot up to well over 900 Br in the few shops that provide the belts. Previously, they were sold for less than 400 Br.

Hekniem currently sells the safety belts for 600 Br.

For the Love of Sleep

Posted on by Web Master

Last week, I had to wake up late at night, because my son was crying. My love for him did not change the fact that I was deeply irritated that I had to wake up before finishing my sleep. If it was physically possible and had I been capable of functioning with very little sleep, I would have taken from the 26 years we humans are believed to spend sleeping and allocated it to the time I spend with him.

Almost all people in the world spend a third of our lives asleep. It is the one activity that consumes most of our time, making us prisoners of our beds. I am no exception. I take my sleep time seriously. I do not negotiate when it comes to it, and anything that comes between me and my sleep is my enemy.

However, there is always an exception to the rule. In this case, they are known as “short sleepers”- not to be confused with sleep deprivation. The former function normally with less than a normal amount of sleep. To me, these are aliens.

There are about 20 true short sleepers around the world, according to Christopher Jones, professor of clinical neurology at the University of Utah. Their circadian rhythm is different from the rest of us.

“Their moods (very upbeat) and their metabolism (they’re thinner than average, even though sleep deprivation usually raises the risk of obesity). They also seem to have a high tolerance for physical pain and psychological setbacks,” he stated.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Leonardo da Vinci were believed to be short sleepers. For years I have been trying to discover their secrets. After I read in a blog that a person can trick their minds into thinking they have gotten enough sleep, I tried to do it. But then I realised tricking my mind into thinking that would mean I would not need to sleep to compensate the amount of sleep I lost. But I would rather get actual sleep than tricking my mind into thinking I’ve slept.

But I had always imagined all that I – or any of us – could accomplish had we been capable of functioning with little sleep. Most of us have tied up schedules divided between work or school and leisure. The majority of our daytime is spent on activities required for our survival.

Not many of us take the time from our busy schedules to carry out activities that interest us. When we finally get home from our daily routines, we just want to rest and sleep. Sure, some people take their work to their homes or even as tired as they are still find the time to read, watch movies and converse with their family members.

I often imagine how cutting my sleep time short by one or two hours could have affected my life differently. I can only imagine how enlightened I could have been had I spent time reading, researching and learning new things every day instead of going to bed early. I can imagine the happiness I would have brought to my family had I sacrificed the extra hour or two to do something memorable with them instead of jumping to bed early.

I would have built strong relationships with friends had I given the time to really listen and talk to my friends even after a busy day. I would have kept myself entertained while learning something had I not been sleeping in the middle of watching movies.

I can imagine all the great things I could have done if it was not for the love of my sleep. But even after saying all that, it is hard to keep myself awake when all I want to do is sleep.

Even as I was writing this article, I was debating whether or not to sleep before finishing it. For once, I prevailed, and here we are.

Corrupt Society Corrupts the State

Posted on by Web Master

The theory is relatively simple. If we are following a healthy and honest path in our personal lives, then we would also collectively make up a healthy nation. If we are as disapproving of corruption in our individual lives, then we must be fairly objectionable to it as a nation.

More than anything else, attitudinal change is the best defence against corruption. Centring on a strong will to see a just nation with principles, a society that is adamantly against it is the best defence against a government lacking checks and balances.

Why the attitudinal change?

Institutions have long been believed to be the best defences against tyranny. When multiple individuals with diverging political interests share power, they serve as the best defences against each other’s thirst for power and money.

But as the last five years of the past decade have shown, when populism rises and polarisation is the rule of the game, the institutions have become almost useless. And this is in countries with mature democracies. The only thing standing against a complete slide into the old days of authoritarianism is an informed public that still wants to see a just and uncorrupted state.

That is why Ethiopia ought not to only look at institutional reforms. There needs to be societal progress, a change in attitude to ultimately shape resource management. This change in attitude needs to occur in our value system.

Value systems are the seed of individual and national character. By establishing the foundations of the nation’s growth, it advances the capacity of participants that absorb changes in the value system.

Corruption should not be viewed from the perspective of greed. We have to see it as an unwitting decision by individuals to get ahead, usually within a system that is itself broken. It is not a coincidence that corruption is prevalent in countries where, although punishment is severe, poverty and poor socioeconomic structures are rampant.

If we ask even the most corrupt person in the society whether he is happy with the way he conducts himself, the reply would most likely be a big “no”. She will explain that she is corrupt, because everyone else is, for without it she cannot survive. He is just trying to do his fair share of “hustling” to get ahead in life.

People that commit corruption are not especially terrible people. They have merely calculated their odds and determined that the best way to get ahead is to take “short cuts”. Deep down in their hearts, they would rather not get their hands dirty.

I am not just saying this because they spend liberally on charitable organizations, contributing to churches or taking in a relative or two. My conviction comes out of the understanding that presented with a better and legal means of getting ahead, most of us are likely to take it.

This though does not mean that we should condone corruption. A growing trend where people we all know to be deeply corrupt but at the same time get our respect is rising. There was a time when people like this were looked down upon and called out for their bad deeds. This is no longer the case.

People that have stolen continue to be respected if they are able to get themselves cleared from the charge irrespective of whether or not they managed to bribe judges. Worse, people may continue to be respected even after having been found guilty, provided they have amassed a good amount of money and if they happened to spend some money for charitable causes.

Although we need to understand the cause of corruption, we do not have to condone these people. In fact, we need to call them out. We need to have the change in attitude to collectively fight against corruption because our institutions are not yet capable of doing that, and nor would they ever be unless an informed public is not created.

If a strong value system is diluted, corruption becomes a common practice as it has now. Our institutions will not be strengthened, and we will fail as a nation. We will continue to reap the bad seeds we have sown.

Changing society is no easy task, but it can be accomplished with good governance. People will always be encouraged at the transparent and honest work that is done at the top. It requires commitment and determination, but in time we will have a more progressive society with a mature sense of justice and a higher value system.

The New Norms that Blight the Nation

Posted on by Web Master

To say that Ethiopia is going through trying times is an understatement. We are in uncharted territory. We can speculate, but we are at a loss to explain just what the future holds.

The political transition that started in April 2018, which came at a significant cost, has faced grave challenges. This was not unexpected. But two years later and after the unraveling of the sociopolitical order, a new normal has emerged. Unless we address it, it is a terrible state of affairs for a country that has long assumed it was on a path of prosperity.

One of these new normals that is hard to overlook is the destruction of property, especially targeting main infrastructure. The most profitable public enterprise, Ethio telecom, is one of the victims. It incurred an estimated 100 million Br in losses due to damage caused by vandalism in the first half of the current fiscal year. This was mainly related to copper cables and optical fiber lines.

There has also been 38 million Br worth of losses incurred due to damage to electric transmitting lines and transformers. Neither has the Ethiopian Railway Corporation been lucky. It had on various occasions issued statements regarding repeated lootings of the infrastructure that stretches across the country, posing a hurdle to its day-to-day operations.

These major institutions, which have repeatedly become targets of vandalism, are among the top contributors of developmental endeavours of the nation through the profits that directly go into government coffers. Such kinds of attacks on these institutions could ultimately weaken, not only their contribution to their already poor service provision, but also their contribution to government revenue.

Illegal smuggling of firearms and foreign currencies across the country is the other new normal of recent years. In the past few years, photos of illegal firearms and foreign currencies captured by the authorities after alleged routine searches have become a regular feature of media coverage.

What is more surprising is that these items were not only seized in border areas, where we would expect them to be rampant. There have been cases where the authorities found illegal arms being smuggled into Addis Abeba.

Where these illegal weapons being smuggled into the country were going or for what purpose they were to be used is not clear.

Perhaps less worrying but deserving of attention no less are bank robberies. Despite underreporting by the mainstream media, it has also become the new normal in Ethiopia in recent times. There have been alleged robberies of various banks, especially of branches located outside of city centres. These are Hollywood-style robberies where the robbers use vehicles and study closing and opening hours of the bank branches.

Where does the money that is robbed from the banks end up? Do we know if these are petty thieves looking for a big score and not terrorists with political agendas? Are we ushering in an era of organised crime?

Another recent norm is kidnapping. For anyone my age, this phenomenon is completely unprecedented. The country may suffer from various problems, but abductions are mostly unheard of. Recently, the Amhara and Oromia regional states have been scenes for such incidents.

The kidnappings involving students of Dembi Dolo University have been at the centre of news in the past couple of weeks. The conflicting accounts of federal and regional government officials have added fuel to the already escalating public outcry.

Another hostage incident in Amhara Regional State last month was also the talk of social media. Some of the children that were kidnapped were reportedly killed by their captors when their parents were unable to pay the requested ransom.

Another new normal is the situation in public higher learning institutions. No doubt, universities in Ethiopia are not new to unrest. Starting in the late 1960s, universities have hosted a wide range of demonstrations. In previous times, students had united to voice their common concerns and had contributed their part in the political changes that Ethiopia desperately needed.

However, the questions raised by students have gradually changed as a result of political transitions. The spirit of solidarity once enjoyed by students, even as late as the anti-government protests that brought about this transition, has vanished. Students have turned on one another.

In the past few years, higher educational institutes in Ethiopia have experienced trying times. Several students lost their lives and many were injured. Properties were also damaged.

Despite having heard about all of this, many of us were still surprised to learn that 35,000 students had fled public universities due to the conflicts. This happened even after federal police were made part of campus security.

The government is taking a number of measures. Students who were found to have been involved in the instability were either suspended, received warnings or got expelled. High ranking officials of universities were also removed from their posts.

Under all of this upheaval of law and order, the increase in crime should not be surprising. It is perhaps the least worrying of these trends, but Addis Abeba, the political capital of the continent, has recently become home to an explosion in car theft. In the first six months of this fiscal year, 155 cars were stolen, according to the Addis Abeba Police Commission. Car owners in Addis Ababa no longer feel safe to leave their vehicles even in secured parking areas.

These are only some of the most pertinent new trends detrimental to peace and security observed in Ethiopia in the past few years. Whatever the new trends, however, we need to focus on the remedies.

The government is the major stakeholder in addressing these challenges. But we have responsibilities on our shoulders too. In fact, a major part of our predicament today is that we expect the government to do all of the heavy lifting. But we too can contribute, mainly by informing ourselves and playing a role in community activities.

With Great Power, Comes Greater Responsibilities for MPs

Posted on by Web Master

The last assembly of legislators under the Dergue, the Shengoas it was known then, was nothing less than an admirable show of courage by representatives in standing up against a totalitarian power that had grown too comfortable in offering up excuses. As rebel forces advanced on the capital and as Mengistu Hailemariam (Col.), then president, was mulling fleeing the country, members of the Shengo expressed the fear and frustration the public felt at an increasingly uncertain political fate.

Hailu Araya (PhD), a member of the Shengo, was one of the handful who displayed courage in the face of power with impunity. He had confronted Mengistu over his administration’s lack of openness and inability to take criticism in good faith. Hailu lambasted the Marxist-military government for not keeping its promise to hold candid discussions and pleaded with strongman Mengistu to allow the public to express its voice.

Perhaps even more memorable was that of a priest. A member of the Shengo, he had called out Mengistu on the rumours that surfaced of his plan to flee the country.

In the years that followed that assembly, parliament under the EPRDF fell into a dispassionate, if not less relevant, mode concerning Ethiopia`s politics. Even in the instances where opposition party members managed to win a few seats, nothing much came out of a hall that was endowed with awesome constitutional powers, except a few amusing remarks that were delivered wryly.

While the country remained relatively stable, the ruling party was wholly cohesive; expressions of opposition to the executive were sanctioned, and MPs’ reticence was intolerable.

Parliamentarians’ passivity in the face of turmoil ought to have been what led Melaku Habtewold, a government official, to reflect on what went wrong. Opining in Ethiopia Insights, Melaku says: “The courts should be courts; and, parliament really should be parliament.”

It appears that no one takes a cue from his piece of advice. As political chaos continues unabated; the ruling party is loosely held together; when the voices of opposition to the administration are growing deafening; and society is increasingly polarised parliamentarians’ passivity has consequences beyond weakening democracy. It puts the country at a loss in its search for dependable leadership.

There have been multiple cases in the past few months that should have given Tagesse Chafo, speaker of the house, and MPs cause for taking the executive to task on its weak performance, if not its dismissive attitude.

Only last week, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) “appointed” ministers to fill seats in the Council of Ministers, an act in direct breach of the Constitution’s provisions under Article 74/2. It is parliament’s role to appoint members for the cabinet, as well as commissioners, presidents for the Supreme Court, judges for federal courts and the Auditor General, who are nominated by the Prime Minister, under Article 74/7.

It will be consequential to a constitutional order should parliament pass this on without holding the administration accountable on its lapses. It will have to be its duty to remind the Prime Minister that the same article obliges him to “obey and enforce” the Constitution.

Nonetheless, parliamentarians have already been mute over a series of developments across the country that caused pain and suffering among citizens.

The most recent of these, and perhaps most contextual of the political state of the country, was the unrest in public higher learning institutions over the past few months. As a result, over 35,000 students have fled their campuses, as Hirut Woldemariam (PhD), minister of Science & Higher Education, recently conceded.

The instability in public universities is a stark reminder that the Constitution’s promise of freedom of movement and the right to reside in any place of one’s choice is not guaranteed. It is evocative of the displacement of millions of people last year, showing that the crisis is deep and nationwide. In the face of it, removing the leadership of the institutions was the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid over a gunshot wound.

There is a bright side to the chaotic state of the country and the sense of despair that has gripped the nation. It can be found in the plethora of individuals, groups and institutions speaking out against the administration’s failure to ensure the safety of citizens and how the administration dodges questions. The media, civic organisations, activists, opposition parties and the communities in the diaspora are all clamouring for an improvement in crisis management and conflict prevention.

It is also to the credit of this administration that these voices are empowered. It is admirable that, despite daily political mud-slinging, non-state affiliated figures and organisations have been resourceful in calling for attention to injustices that would have remained unaddressed if the incumbent had its way.

For all their resourcefulness, these voices are in the end, merely voices. They are powerless over the state. They can only entice; but, they cannot force the administration, the law enforcement establishment or any of the regional and federal agencies to answer questions, reorient their priorities or carry out their duties with more considerable attention.

The Armed Conflict Locations & Event Data Project (ACLED) is a US-based non-profit organisation active in recording and analysing conflicts across the world. Data on conflicts that occurred in Ethiopia in 2019 shows that there were close to 300 conflicts, mainly protests but with a considerable number of armed conflicts as well. They claimed the lives of over 650 people, mostly civilians.

However, the executive was under no legislative obligation to explain itself to the media, opposition parties or civic societies. But it does not mean that it is above the law.

Framers of Ethiopia’s existing Constitution, emulating their liberal democracy-inspired counterparts in the Western parts of the world, have included a provision under which the executive should be held accountable, mainly through Parliament.

Legislators are imbued with powers only a parliamentary system can offer. Any day, MPs can call a session and remove the Prime Minister or any of the members of his cabinet. A less severe show of force would be to compel the Prime Minister or any other federal official to appear before parliament to answer questions. If it is not confident with their conduct, parliament can “take decisions or measures it deems necessary.”

Parliament can even extend its arms and, through a joint session with the House of Federation, take measures against state authorities unable to arrest human rights violations within their jurisdiction.

But a legislative body is only as powerful as the courage of its members in exercising their constitutional duty and powers. Not surprisingly, but sadly, parliamentarians have chosen to take a backseat as the country unravels and the House falls into further irrelevance.

Part of the problem could be the normalisation of the idea of a weak and insignificant legislative body. The executive has shone so brightly in Ethiopia’s political history, it is rare to see MPs play the most significant part if they choose to use the constitutional powers at their disposal. By virtue of their historical passivity, they are not believed to carry half of the responsibilities the executive is regularly criticised for.

The subsequent absence of pressure on MPs to exercise their power to account for the executive has removed a sense of responsibility from a compelling body of the state. The burden does not seem to lie on their shoulders, hence the lack of urgency to act.

The lack of opposition in parliament, except for the TPLF now, also plays a factor. Within the party structure, the incumbents in the executive are, in most cases, their bosses. Even more critically, MPs of the ruling party lack the incentive to grill their party leaders, negatively impacting the image of the party, which would be bad for their standing as elections in August 2020 draw nearer.

But it has always been the hallmark of democracies to put constitutional order over partisan agenda. MPs can take a page out of the courage of the two Shengomembers that once called out a leader who reigned over a government far more intolerant of dissent than the current one. Democracy was never meant to mature under an environment where the goodwill, the forbearance or the earnestness to maintain ultimate loyalty to the electorate did not exist.

If indeed MPs of today maintain that their responsibility is to the public that voted for them, instead of the party that has sponsored their elections, they would grill the administration over its inability or unwillingness to arrest the breakdown of law and order across the country. Then parliament will be parliament!

Overconfident ‘Rips’

Posted on by Web Master

Holiday family gatherings, more often than not, offer a glimpse into the Ethiopian psyche, which may not be homogeneous but it has certain glaring consistencies. Just take our poor work culture, our aversion to reason, our gross incompetence in almost every field of science and our incomprehensible overconfidence.

It was around 10 years ago. I have since forgotten what specific holiday it was (I suspect either Easter or Christmas), but I clearly remember my cousin explaining proudly what “ripping” was.

Amid the eating and the drinking, conversation had veered into a new music album that was being distributed solely on CDs. The content on the disks, it was said, could not be copied and pasted onto a computer hard disk or a smartphone. This was to hinder bootlegging. But what the distributor had not considered, or hoped consumers would not figure out, was that the content could actually be “ripped.”

There are software that can do this as well as any computer with a Windows operating system (OS). The OS is fitted with Windows Media Player, an app that can copy audio content from any CD to a computer hard disk among its range of other features. It is a reminder that stealing always stays one step ahead of protection in the digital world.

My cousin had ripped the contents of the CD and finally copied it onto his phone. It was a feat he was so proud to accomplish he felt the need to explain what “ripping” was.

“Ripping forcefully takes the music from the CD and transfers it to the computer,” he said. “In fact, the same word also means ‘asigedido medifer’ in English. They took the same word and used it to imply the programme forcefully taking the content from the CD. The CD was ripped.”

My cousin, an engineering student at the time, had apparently confused the words “rip” and “rape”, and no one had noticed. They had heard his story and appeared to have come out of it fairly informed about this brave new digital era.

I could have spoken up. I could have said that those two are different words with different spellings and even different pronunciations. I could have pointed out that there was no scenario under which a tech company of Microsoft’s stature would ever give a feature in one of its apps a name with such an overwhelmingly negative connotation.

But I did not want to embarrass him in front of that many relatives, especially because he was older. I was a high schooler, and he was a civil engineering undergrad at a time when civil engineering was considered a respectable field that offered good employment opportunities.

It was, obviously, not that I was smart. It was that he was too confident to speak out loud a theory he did not give any scrutiny to. He had made an association in his mind and was proud of doing as such that he assumed it must be true. His confidence shone so bright that he was blinded to his gross lack of understanding.

Overconfidence is a national problem. It affects the old as well as the young. It is genderless, and neither does it see race, religion or ethnicity. It is an epidemic that has existed since the dawn of modern Ethiopia, and perhaps even before then.

We can best see this national scourge in the comments of almost every politician and activist. These people, on any day, are experts on the economy, history, foreign policy or the constitution. Ask them anything, and they will respond as if they have had years of expertise on the subject matter.

They never say, “I’m afraid to say that I don’t have sufficient knowledge over this matter. I would like to refer you to so-and-so for a more informed answer.”

In fact, acknowledgement of lack of expertise is considered defeat even if it can reasonably be expected that the person should not be expected to have expertise in that specific subject.

But where overconfidence reigns, expertise will be relegated to the shadows. We are giving platforms to those that can shout the loudest but do not necessarily have the best answer. Unfortunately, those with expertise are not as confident as those without it. This is perhaps because the more we know the more we figure out how complicated every single thing is and that even the best of solutions have to continually be updated.

We need to take our confidence down a notch. We need to continuously challenge our own worldview. We should be confident but not so confident that we do not take the time to check the spelling of “rape”.

 

Predatory Religious Leaders Hurt the Disadvantaged Most

Posted on by Web Master

A close friend recently shared with me the scariest moment in his life.

“My sister had breast cancer,” he said as his voice shook at the end of the sentence, as if he was saying it as much to himself as to me.

She was the closest person to him in this world. The idea that she was under all this pain and that he may lose her was something he was not ready to face.

As he began sorting her doctor’s appointments and learning about the experiences of others, he became aware of the limited resources available to support cancer patients in Ethiopia. His sister, having traveled to Addis Abeba to find more suitable care, was still struggling to find the appropriate support.

It was a long and tiring road, but she finally found the opportunity she so desperately needed. But on the day of the scheduled surgical appointment, his sister informed everyone she would not undergo the procedure, because she had been healed.

He was devastated and then angry at learning that his sister was being taken advantage of by preachers. She had been informed that, through their prayer, she had been healed.

This is not isolated to one religion or another. Recently, I heard of a woman that had dug up the corpse of her young son, because she was told he could be brought back to life. This is an injustice being perpetrated on people that find themselves in a moment of desperation.

These are people that should have gotten the help of the state. Instead, religious figures are taking advantage of them. It is the vulnerable groups of society, those in the lower income-class, that are disproportionately affected by this.

My friend’s sister, whose cancer had spread while she procrastinated, was finally convinced to go back to the hospital. If she had not finally been able to go to the hospital, she would have died.

Who would have been held responsible had the worst happened?

I am old enough to remember in 2006 the destructive role played by religious figures when HIV/AIDS prevalence was at its highest. Many were preaching their cure. They promised to offer miracle cures and if the person did not recover, it did not mean that it did not work. It was just that the person did not believe in the divinity of the cure enough. It was a scheme. Their “cure” had no scientific basis whatsoever, and when it did not work, it was blamed on the victim.

The problem is complicated by the fact that religion is one of the most important pillars of identity. In fact, Ethiopia consistently ranks very high on the list of countries with a high percentage of citizens who say that religion is very important in their daily lives. We are usually in the top five list, even higher than countries that have a state religion.

The importance of faith to Ethiopians is undeniable. Religion for many provides answers that science still cannot. This is not necessarily bad and is not intended to harm others. Beyond faith, religious institutions have provided an undeniable service in the preservation of culture, history and language.

These institutions also have immense power. They have large followings, and through them have accrued large resources. It is hard to insist that they can be without flaw, but the proliferation of forces within these religions using their power to prey on the vulnerable is unacceptable. There are those that are cloaked in a facade, whose only aim is personal gain.

Should states not take measures to protect citizens?

It is the government’s and communities’ responsibility to hold a light to those entities manipulating people using their faith. Corruptibility is a human trait; that is why institutions are necessary. To keep those with power in check.

The existence of these kinds of groups or individuals does not sully the whole faith. But each religion needs to condemn such acts. They should not stand by as predatory individuals take advantage of the vulnerable. The longer government and religious institutions ignore this, the worse it is going to get.

Closing the SDG Gap

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As global business and political leaders gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, they should ask themselves one big question.

Will the world achieve the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals for 2030? Or will the SDGs – with their targets for eradicating extreme poverty, ending preventable child deaths, expanding educational opportunity and averting a climate disaster – join the long list of enthusiastically endorsed global pledges that go unfulfilled?

Those suffering from early new-decade SDG blues might take comfort from Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. Building on the core theme of his influential book Enlightenment Now, and citing a familiar barrage of statistics on human progress, Pinker has offered an upbeat assessment: “Progress toward [the SDGs] is continuing,” he wrote. “It is unlikely to do a sudden U-turn.”

He is right, up to a point. Since 2000, there have been extraordinary improvements in human development indicators. Poverty has been decreasing at historically unprecedented rates: the share of the world’s population living on less than 1.90 dollars a day has fallen from 28pc to 10pc. The risk of children born in Africa dying before their fifth birthday has been halved, saving millions of young lives. Out-of-school numbers have fallen dramatically, and gender gaps in school attendance are shrinking. Over 1.6 billion people have gained access to clean drinking water. Such achievements refute the pessimism that often pervades public debates about aid and international development.

So far so good. But here’s the catch: if progress over the next ten years mirrors that of the last decade, the world will fall catastrophically short of the 2030 targets.

Consider child survival. On current trends, there will still be over four million child deaths worldwide in 2030. The vast majority of these fatalities could be prevented through improved nutrition and basic health-care interventions. But progress toward eradicating malnutrition, which is implicated in half of child deaths worldwide, has been glacial, and millions of children are living beyond the reach of health systems. Pneumonia, which is now the single biggest infectious killer of children, claiming a life every 40 seconds, can be prevented with vaccination and treated with basic antibiotics (costing less than 0.50 dollars) and oxygen. Yet, the fatality count is falling far too slowly.

There is a similar yawning gap between current trends and the 2030 targets for education. Although governments have committed to ensuring universal secondary schooling and improved learning, progress toward universal primary education has stalled. In an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, a combination of restricted access to education and abysmal learning outcomes will leave one billion children lacking the skills they need to flourish, and that their countries need to drive dynamic and inclusive growth.

Likewise, for all the success in combating poverty, past performance is no guide to future outcomes. The pace of progress has slowed, and the goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 is drifting out of reach. That is largely because of slow growth, inequality, and demographic trends in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of people living in poverty is increasing. Research by the Overseas Development Institute suggests that more than 300 million African children will be living below the 1.90 dollars day threshold in 2030 – and these children will account for more than one-half of the world’s poor.

The specter of climate change threatens the SDGs just as surely as it does the receding snow line around Davos. If the 2015 Paris climate agreement held out the promise of concerted international action to limit global warming, last month’s COP25 climate-change conference in Madrid was a case study in inertia. The emissions gap between current policies and those needed to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius is widening, and the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people are bearing the brunt of the consequences, as the recent droughts in Zambia and the Horn of Africa illustrate.

This is the decade of no return for the climate emergency. Failure to price carbon out of the world’s economies, safeguard carbon sinks, and – critically – protect the world’s poor against the effects of global warming that are now irreversible will first slow, and then stall and reverse, gains in poverty reduction, nutrition and health.

We cannot allow these challenges’ daunting scale to foster passive acceptance of the inevitability of the SDGs’ failure. Nor should we tolerate the paralyzing complacency that now pervades gatherings like Davos, World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings, and United Nations summits. There is an alternative.

Nothing would do more to bring the SDG targets within reach than a concerted drive to narrow the social disparities currently acting as a brake on progress. To take one example, closing the gap in national death rates between children from the richest and poorest 20pc of the world’s population would save more than two million lives between now and 2030. That will require further investment in universal health coverage, more equitable public spending and service provision, and greater emphasis on the diseases that kill the poorest children.

Greater equity is the rocket fuel for achieving the SDGs. Instead of issuing vague pronouncements about “leaving no one behind,” governments should report on how quickly they are reducing inequalities.

International action has a critical role to play. Later this month, Save the Children, UNICEF, and other partners will convene a global forum on pneumonia aimed at expanding access to life-saving interventions. Toward the end of this year, the United Kingdom and Japan will host global summits on climate and malnutrition, respectively. And former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, has developed a proposal for a new international financing mechanism that could boost education spending by 10 billion dollars. These initiatives represent real opportunities.

Galvanizing action on the SDGs would narrow the chasm between the human condition we can achieve and the world we tolerate. We need smart politics, new partnerships and bold campaigning. Success is not guaranteed – but failure to act is not an option.

Ethiopia’s Politics in the Rabbit Hole

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Unsurprisingly, everyone has opinions about Ethiopia’s politics. Surprisingly, even with that discernable overconfidence of Ethiopians, no one is able to say just what exactly we believe would happen as early as next year. For better or worse, we do not even know if it is going to be good or bad. It is complete uncertainty.

Our current predicament can best be explained through the allegory of the rabbit hole. Like Alice in Lewis Caroll’s 1865 classic, we are heading for the rabbit hole. What there is on the other end, we have absolutely no idea.

And yet all had seemed clear just under two years ago. A political transition was underway and most of us were under the impression that although this would be challenging, the end goal would be a state that is just to its people.

But before we were able to put a handle on the matter, it had become clear that we were heading into confusion. Today, the rabbit’s hole continues to be dug by politicians of all creeds and a government that was unprepared for nationwide instability.

It is hard to deny that there is an opportunity within the nation for growth and stability. There have been few administrations as this one with the goodwill to see fair and free elections take place. That the media and the opposition party are bold enough to raise their voices the way they do now is an indication of this.

The positive image the international community has come to attach to our name is also not something to baulk at. We may not be seen as a nation that is stable or developed, but few are now able to deny the potential for growth and prosperity that lies within.

This though is the light at the end of the tunnel. The path to it is actually filled with obstacles the likes of which we will never be able to recover from once we have been tripped.

We have unemployment, conflicts, climate change hazards, disease outbreaks and youth homelessness. The inequality that exists in urban areas is threatening to break apart social bonds.

These are just the problems we face on even a good day. To that fire, we have added extreme political polarisation. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s (PhD) administration is doing its fair share to bring political transformation, but his administration has consistently failed in its effort to arrest growing instability.

The growing unrest and instability, shrouded by mystery as a result of the government’s lack of transparency, serves as a sign to many of how complicated multiparty democracy is going to be.

As most of us insisted on seeing a nation with multiparty democracy, it never occurred to us how competitive it was going to get and how hard it was going to be to police everyone to play by the rules. We also never anticipated the extent to which the ruling party would be challenged to keep its promises once it vowed to allow democracy to flourish.

“The record of Ethiopia’s prime minister remains incomplete, at home and abroad,” said The Economistin its recent edition, a description that is pretty hard to beat.

It is this incompleteness that leaves us in complete uncertainty. With the national elections expected to take place in August, we have flipped a coin and are already waiting to see just which side it will land.

It does not have to be this way though. We do not have to sit back and see what it is at the other end of the rabbit hole. We can control our own destiny if only we manage to sit around a table and discuss how we can build a better future.

Politicians will always insist on creating noise and digging that rabbit hole deeper. But we can stand our ground and ensure that such parties and individuals fade into irrelevance. The key to our future is in our hands. All we have to do is not give it to power-hungry politicians.

What We want to See in Politicians

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We are living through a never-ending array of political and social crises. There is everything from polarisation to grievances, resentments and self-serving politics.

These problems appear to have common roots in the deepening societal and political polarisation. Instead of addressing our challenges, politicians choose to point fingers and blame each other. No one takes responsibility. We are finding it impossible to put together thinking minds and working hands to build a better country.

The situation in Ethiopia at a national level begs solutions. A nation deprived of the essentials is finding it hard to make freedom and diversity of ideas work, two things indispensable for the progress of the country and its people. Despite promises, respect for human life, social order, solidarity and independent institutions are still a long way off.

Although the election is around the corner, politicians are not bringing to the table proactive ideas that can lead to a progressive society. As a first-time voter who is eager to witness fair and free elections, the reluctance of parties to put forward a policy programme and an action plan is frustrating.

It does not seem that politicians have given enough thought to just what that loss of public confidence entails and why it is happening. Those in office and those political parties taking part in the upcoming election have a responsibility and an important task to clarify their vision for the country. Otherwise, it will be near impossible for the public to make informed decisions.

The public can trust political parties only when they give value to the challenges of citizens, articulate them properly and present strategies on how they can be addressed.

But when political parties fail to live up to the expectations we have of them, when we are persuaded of their dereliction of duty, we will begin losing faith in them, if we have not already.

They should use their voices to provide policy alternatives, condemn injustice and show their support for the rule of law and democracy. They should show us how they plan to address all of our problems instead of endlessly complaining and playing to our prejudices.

No doubt, being a politician in a hostile system is never easy, and running for office in a debilitated civic and political system is a nightmare. There is a crisis at every angle. But those engaged in it must accept this fact and persist to overcome it to address Ethiopia’s poverty and lack of justice.

The public is tired of angry politicians and political agendas that do more harm than good instead of alleviating the social and economic crisis we confront on a daily basis.

We need parties with a vision, courage, integrity, humility, professionalism and focus. We even want them to work together with other political parties for the benefit of Ethiopia.

We want to choose between parties that we are persuaded can live up to their promises and are responsible. We do not want to choose between which parties are the least obnoxious. We want to see from them vital leadership qualities with matured attitudes and sober views. We need them to take responsibility for themselves rather than point fingers at everyone but themselves.

Ethiopia deserves politicians who are determined to inform the public about the truth. Politicians ought to understand that no section of the public is an enemy. They will have as much responsibility if they get elected to citizens that do not share their views but live in their districts as much as the ones that elected them.

Accountability is what we want to see as voters. Without it, we cannot expect fruitful and diligent leadership. We deserve the chance to choose between politicians competing to be the most honest and responsible for their own actions and decisions and who are willing to admit when they have made mistakes.

Unless these politicians focus their energies on presenting a vision and political action plan, it would be hard to make anything fruitful out of the noise. Even with a free and fair election, we will fall on parties whose sole interest is the accumulation of power.

 

BAD BOYS NO MORE

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What I am going to say may sound unbelievable. But I have gone over it several times in my mind. I have analysed, examined and researched. The verdict is clear. Bad Boys for Life, the third instalment of the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence starring Bad Boys franchise, is actually good.

All of a sudden, on the third outing, the franchise developed a soul. I had gone into the theatre expecting explosions, gratuitous swearing and male gazing. I came out deeply surprised. There was a story. Not a unique one by any sense of the word but a story nonetheless. Even more surprising, there was an attempt to develop the two leads into characters that, like the rest of us, are flawed.

The events of this film take place almost two decades after those of Bad Boys II. Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence) are no longer young. They have aged gracefully – like any two movie stars would instead of police detectives on state salaries – but they have aged nonetheless.

Marcus is a new grandfather and plans to retire soon. Not Mike. He is still single and plans to continue to be Mike – one night stands, “muscle shirts and body counts”. This enthusiasm is almost cut short when he gets shot outside a bar.

He survives the assassination attempt, but it is not clear why or who is trying to kill him. He has to enlist the help of a reluctant Marcus and a new division within the police department to capture his would-be assassin. As the duo goes deeper into the investigation, it becomes evident that there is much more to Mike’s history than a womanising, trigger-happy adrenaline junky.

In its third act, the film goes into soap-opera territory. A plot twist is used as a device to allow Mike to mature emotionally. It is admirable that it is an end to a means and not an end in itself. But I wonder if it was necessary to do it that way (if this sounds vague it is only an attempt not to spoil the ending).

There are more subtle, less clichéd ways for characters to grow and see the error of their ways. They do not have to be presented with soapy plot elements. The screenwriters might have come up with interesting character arcs, but I had a hard time swallowing their method of making a straight line arc.

Worse still was the dialogue. It seemed the screenwriters outsourced most of the lines in the movie to their teenage children. By the time the movie was over, I had forgotten what a good dialogue was. I had to watch a Quentin Tarantino move just to compensate.

Despite these glaring flaws, the third movie is still the Citizen Kane of the franchise. This is not saying much considering that the first two movies, as much as I loved them when I was young, were absolutely terrible.

Both were directed by Michael Bay, who has a cameo in this movie, who was then in the process of blunting his directorial skills. This is assuming he had skills to begin with.

He had still not made Transformers 2, but his immaturity, his loathing for original stories and well-developed characters, his worship of explosions and the military in tandem with the objectification of women were still clearly perceptible.

Bay saw both Mike and Marcus as cartoon characters. The latter is the comic relief, mostly making sex jokes, and the former is the womaniser. Lawrence was the early 2000s and late 1990s Kevin Hart, thus Marcus was developed to match those sensibilities. Smith was an up and coming action star that everyone loved. Mike was thus the perfect detective – ripped body, smooth-talking and a pretty face, no one was pretending he was an actual detective.

What the makers of this movie did was reinvigorate the characters. They are no longer caricatures of the public image of the famous actors that play them. They make mistakes, fail and do not look like movie stars when they do it.

Young Smith and Lawrence would not have agreed to play the characters this way. But it speaks to the emotional maturity of the actors themselves – especially Smith, whose mainstream appeal is well and alive – that they agreed to appear in a film that makes them looks so … ungraceful.

The rank and file of the incumbent Prosperity Party (PP) have…

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