
Radar | Dec 17,2022
Jul 27 , 2019
By Tibebu Bekele ( Tibebu Bekele (tibebu@gmail.com), who is interested in constructive dialogue and civil engagement. )
Whether spoken in London, Washington DC or Addis Abeba, the speeches of populist nationalists have the same theme. It starts with a bleak and depressing account of the current state of affairs, a kind of victimhood Olympics is expressed, and concludes with how everything is just hopelessly screwed up. After working the audience into boiling rage, out comes the list of enemies responsible for this carnage. Now, just before the frenzied gathering goes out of control and to bring the temperature down, a nostalgic remembrance of the good old days when life used to be great commences.
A glorious and a heroic past is trumpeted with poetic flourish, and what this special group of people gifted to the world is spoken of with deep relish. Then the need to bring those glorious days back is preached. Of course, the only person or party endowed to make that happen, the Moses that deliver the people to the promised land is the speaker. With a call to action, with jeering the supposed enemy and roaming the streets, the meeting disbands.
An enraged and emotionally charged mob is discharged into the community, a group given to drama and theatrics and without intellectual discourse rampage the roads and alleyways to commit crimes against peaceful citizens.
The problem with these speeches is the fact that they are usually totally disconnected from reality. Most of the claims are demonstrably false. Let’s start from the fact that there is hardly any group, in totality, that is singularly disadvantaged or worse off than any time in the past.
The advancement in human knowledge and technology has made life in this century much better than previous times. The number of people living in extreme poverty has been cut in half in the last twenty years. Infant mortality has come down to 4 million from 8 million in 1990. Legal slavery is a thing of the past, and human life expectancy is 20 years longer since 1960.
There may be exceptions, but for the most part the reality is that most groups in the world are doing much better than their ancestors. Not less.
It is also good to remember when these false prophets try to picture a bygone era as the golden age for certain groups of people, it may not have been so for others. When white nationalists harp on about the good old days of American greatness, for example, they forget that was the time before the civil rights movement. Life was not that great for Black Americans. When British nationalists talk nostalgically about empire, they forget the sufferings of people under their colonies.
When Ethiopian nationalists hark on about past civilizations, they are not thinking about the fact that slavery was practiced in this country until the 1930s. The point is what is preached by politicians as some idealist time in the past is most likely fictional. And even if it was great to a certain group, it sure was not for others. For both reasons, there is no going back. Fighting to recreate the past is not smart.
The human progress we are enjoying now is a result of the collective wisdom of the species. It is built block by block and passed from one generation to the other, one people to the other. This progress took a leap especially after the enlightenment, which brought the belief that science and reason will advance human life. Globalisation and the international order are the natural extensions of this evolution in human governance. The brotherhood of man, labour mobility and the universality of human rights are just as impressive achievements of the human mind as landing on the moon. They have given mankind the longest time without a world war. Despite what is broadcast on the daily breaking news, there is more peace in the world today than at any time before.
The next time that a populist-nationalist prophet of doom makes a fiery speech, a reasonable person should challenge the facts that are spoken. When they proclaim themselves as the Moses that wants to take us back to the glory days of the past, we should ask which past they are talking about. The days of segregation, colonization or slavery?
PUBLISHED ON
Jul 27,2019 [ VOL
20 , NO
1004]
Radar | Dec 17,2022
Sunday with Eden | Oct 10,2020
Radar | Jun 05,2021
Life Matters | Aug 17,2019
Viewpoints | Jan 16,2021
Viewpoints | Oct 10,2020
Commentaries | Mar 09,2019
Radar | Jun 20,2020
View From Arada | Oct 30,2022
My Opinion | Jan 07,2023
Photo Gallery | 69019 Views | May 06,2019
Photo Gallery | 60861 Views | Apr 26,2019
Fortune News | 52832 Views | Jul 18,2020
Fortune News | 52595 Views | Sep 01,2021
Dec 24 , 2022
Biniam Mikru heads the department of cabinet affairs under Mayor Adanech Abiebie. But...
Jul 2 , 2022 . By RUTH TAYE
On a rainy afternoon last week, a coffee processing facility in the capital's Akaki-Qality District was abuzz with activ...
Nov 27 , 2021
Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most sa...
Nov 13 , 2021
Plans and reality do not always gel. They rarely do in a fast-moving world. Every act...
May 27 , 2023
Tauted as a somnolent giant, Ethiopia's financial scene now stirs, roused by favourab...
May 20 , 2023
The pungent irony wafting from Pretoria last week was hard to miss. Cyril Ramaphosa,...
May 13 , 2023
In March this year, Kamala Harris, the United States Vice President, visited Ghana, T...
May 6 , 2023
The history of the Ethiopian labour movement dates back to the 1940s, marked by perio...
May 27 , 2023
In a triumph over the trials of the pandemic, a rising tide of construction costs and inflation, Zemen Bank has opened a stunning 32-storey...
May 27 , 2023 . By BERSABEH GEBRE
Meqelle is in an animated bid to reclaim control of the management of companies under the Endowment Fund...
May 29 , 2023
Officials at the Addis Abeba City Administration have recently changed the title transfer fees following...
May 27 , 2023 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
The absence of technological equipment to control the contraband trade near national borders and low-qual...