Think globally, act locally; Ethiopia's stratgic approach to
building the great renaissance dam.
By Tsehaye Debalkew
May 09 2011
The recent win-win strategy that resonated in the wake of the triumphant culmination of the entourage of a high-caliber Egyptian Public Diplomatic Mission to Ethiopia has triggered off a wave of considered and ill-considered reactions from both sides of the isle.
This hitherto unprecedented momentous public spectacular event will certainly pass down in the annals of contemporary Ethiopian-Egyptian Diplomatic history as a pioneering episode of people to people bond created in the aftermath of a bubble of an aura of schism. The superficially molded rupture was deliberately blown out of proportion by the powers that be and their hirelings, with the wicked intent of hoodwinking the Egyptian society at large. This diabolical scheme was by and large enunciated by the power elite of Egypt alternating at the helm of the political hierarchy for quite a formidable period of time.
The make believe puzzle perpetrated was designed at constructing a fictitious fable, so much so the rank and file Egyptians were cunningly made to think that any attempt at using the Nile waters initiated by Ethiopia will break the back of Egypt precipitating an Armageddon scenario on the populace. However the plausible apt Ethiopian positive measure pursued against the time bomb theory which was planted for years on end entailed an ignominious debacle to the nefarious scheme. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi extended an olive tree, courtesy to a long running Ethiopian traditional mores that echoes the need to appreciate a neighbor in need of understanding by unilaterally extending Ethiopia's ratification of the New Nile Deal.
This gesture allows the Egyptian brothers and sisters a reasonably ample confidence building process and time, to dispel the poison that seemed to have been intrinsically intertwined with their psych to look realistically into the matter with the significance it is imbued with, that it accrues to the equitable and sustainable benefit of the two brotherly peoples inhabiting the two sisterly countries. Ethiopia is not an Island in today's globally interconnected and interrelated world in all its manifestations. Any predisposition that impacts socially, politically or economically on the Ethiopian societal milieu certainly has wider ramifications beyond its frontiers.
What is more, Ethiopia' history of yesteryear is pregnant with solid historical anecdotes that testify to the fact that Ethiopia had the niche as a pioneering state as the vanguard of the anti-colonial struggle by nipping in the bud a technologically and militarily superior European aggressor power. It rose aloft with the burning torch of independence and sovereignty by leading the downtrodden people of the world along a proven venue of national resistance and popular will, not to succumb to the dictates of imperial powers.
Today, we witness that history is repeating itself on an elevated avenue by consciously enabling Ethiopia to again shoulder the gigantic responsibility to lead the arduous path of ascribing the burden of poverty to become the dust bin of history. It is on this realm that Ethiopia as a member of the global family should reckon with its dual mission of being accountable to the events beyond its borders by thinking globally and locally act being answerable to its objective needs. It is against this backdrop that one should view the recent gesture of accommodation displayed by Ethiopia towards Egypt.
Hence the time frame allowed by Ethiopia is to provide Egypt with the sufficient breathing space to consider objectively, the new global developments taking place elsewhere and awake from its misguided slumber inoculated with the wrong poisonous drug by its power elite who were recently set asunder into oblivion by the popular upheaval. This is the kernel that exemplifies the Global thinking of Ethiopia. Although Ethiopia is obliged to think globally it needs to act locally to decisively anchor on its bounty and respond to the yearning call of the time to exterminate the abject poverty that remained its distinguishing feature for millennia on end and enlist itself among the ranks of middle income nations by changing the lot of its people and its image positively in the not too distant future.
The equation and the dire need of pursuing with building the Great Renaissance Dam is not a game of cherry-picking for Ethiopia but is a sine qua none measure in tune with the theory of acting locally. On the other hand, the Ethiopian strategic approach to think globally is not as some few apple-polishers in the category of the fringe extreme elements of the Diaspora want us to believe by deliberately distorting the fact and lamenting by saying that Ethiopia has abandoned its grand project. Is it not quite funny and laughable to witness such elements to at one and the same time stand vehemently opposed to the building of the Great Renaissance Dam and fervently support its continued construction? This I believe is a clear testimony to the lack of agenda they truly subscribe to and definitively exposes their stand as blowing with the wind spinning anything they see fit will last for a day's consumption.