
Commentaries | Aug 21,2021
December 19 , 2020
By Christian Tesfaye (
Christian Tesfaye (christian.tesfaye@addisfortune.net) is a researcher and Fortune's Deputy Editor-in-Chief whose interests run amok in the directions of political thought, markets, society and pop culture.
)
We are outraged and for a reason. Everywhere we look, we feel that we are being attacked. Our attackers feel outraged too. They believe that they are being attacked by us. They are trying to match us outrage for outrage, anger for anger.
The latest iteration of this in Ethiopia’s political landscape came on the back of the armed conflict between the forces of the Tigray and federal governments. Normalcy seems to be returning to the region, if the partial resumption of communication lines, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s (PhD) visit to Meqelle and the opening of airspace over the region are any indication.
But the outrage over it is in full gear, roaring with new energy and vibrancy by the day.
On the one side of the outrage is the #EndTPLFImpunity camp. They are angry over the attack of the TPLF forces on the Northern Command that was camped in the Tigray region. Look no further for proof of this than an admission by a senior official of the party, they say. Adding to their outrage was the massacre that took place in Mai-Kadra by forces loyal to the TPLF, according to the accounts of witnesses gathered by the likes of Amnesty International. They regard their political opponents, the #StopWarOnTigray camp, as trying to give an organisation they believe tried to hold the stability of the country hostage a free pass, perhaps even save it.
The #StopWarOnTigray camp does not see it this way. Like their political opponents, they believe that they are holier than thou, that their cause is the one that deserves the most deafening outrage. They point to ethnic profiling, which has been reported to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, and the cutting of transportation and communication lines (though the federal government insists that the latter is not its doing), as proof of the real target of the military operation – people in the Tigray region. The suffering of refugees, the horrific accounts they are giving to international media outlets, are evidence for this camp that the #EndTPLFImpunity movement will stop at nothing to reach its goal.
Both camps are articulate. They are large and well-organised. They are well connected, and some of them are highly influential. They have even managed to divide Western pundits over their causes. It is nothing short of astounding that there are European and American journalists and academics on both sides of the political divide. Many of them have an embarrassingly limited understanding of the history of the country and the political context of the armed conflict. Thus, they take their talking points from local activists and propagate them to the outside world. They manage to preserve the tone of outrage.
How did we get here? How come we are angry, and why are we unable to be angry about the same thing? How does one injustice trigger us – get us to spout obscenities and slurs – while another barely registers?
There is much to be outraged about, no doubt. Violence answers very few of our problems. We know this. We have seen how it has torn apart families, killed children and displaced millions in the Middle East and close to home in South Sudan. In our country, we have witnessed how it robbed generations of development as it raged for 17 years up to 1991.
Yet, the guns were raised on November 2020 again, for reasons that originate in political differences. We need to be ashamed as a society by this, outraged and angry at our constant failures, at the legacy we are leaving behind.
Unfortunately, we are not outraged together. We are not angry and frustrated at our collective failure. What we are outraged at is one another. We have long stopped engaging; we are talking past each other. We have long preached a politics of tolerance but have practised a politics of 'no mercy' born out of the anger we feel for those that disagree with our views.
In the end, the outrage becomes useless. It is a shouting match, and we are all hoping that the other side burns out.
“There's a level of outrage, then there are people who are outraged about the outrage because it is the wrong type of outrage. Then, you have people who are outraged about that outrage, and then you have another group of people who are outraged because you are not outraged enough,” said Jay Van Bavel, professor at New York University, aptly describing our current state of politics.
By matching outrage for outrage, we will only be leaving everyone deaf. We will be ensuring that our differences could never be settled around a table but through violence.
It is unfortunate that we have concluded that the other side is irredeemable, too biased for us to owe them anything to reach across the aisle.
Let us be clear, we can never persuade the other side, get them to come to the table unless we can be humble and understanding. The more holier than thou we feel - the more contemptuous and smug we are about our opinions - the more we outrage the other side, and the more they outrage us back.
Someone has to be brave, stand up and end this cycle. That would be the true hero.
PUBLISHED ON
Dec 19,2020 [ VOL
21 , NO
1077]
Commentaries | Aug 21,2021
Fortune News | Jan 29,2022
Commentaries | Jun 22,2019
My Opinion | May 18,2019
Radar | Nov 16,2019
Viewpoints | Jun 05,2021
Editorial | Nov 13,2021
Commentaries | Feb 05,2022
Editorial | Sep 27,2020
Fineline | May 04,2019
Photo Gallery | 52059 Views | May 06,2019
Fortune News | 45471 Views | Jul 18,2020
Photo Gallery | 43731 Views | Apr 26,2019
In-Picture | 42058 Views | Dec 14,2019
November 27 , 2021
Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most sa...
November 13 , 2021
Plans and reality do not always gel. They rarely do in a fast-moving world. Every act...
October 16 , 2021 . By HAWI DADHI
Residing in a country with no capital market, an organised marketplace for trading se...
August 28 , 2021 . By HAWI DADHI
The streets of Addis Abeba are as varied as they are many, although too many of them have yet to be named. From the narrow alleyways of the...
May 21 , 2022
There was a great deal of handshaking and patting each other on the back at the Hyatt...
May 14 , 2022
Diana Yohannes is one of those actively engaging in social media platforms with her T...
May 7 , 2022
The Ethiopian Economic Association (EEA) recently proposed the formation of a macroec...
April 30 , 2022
There is no ambiguity in the UNDP's assessment of Ethiopia’s economic performance a...
May 21 , 2022 . By BERSABEH GEBRE
Efforts to form the country's first-ever capital market took a meaningful step last...
May 21 , 2022 . By TSION HAILEMICHAEL
Trade regulators have warned exporters to immediately ship oilseeds and cash crops...
Federal officials are moving forward with a belated initiative to form a regulatory...
May 21 , 2022 . By TSION HAILEMICHAEL
A consortium of agrochemical importers has pleaded with central bank authorities for...
Put your comments here