By Teodros Kiros
Tigrai Onlne December 01, 2013
Our leading scholars and activists have already poured rivers of ink to respond to an Ethiopian tragedy, for which I commend them and by whom I have been historically, legally and psychologically enlightened. I have nothing to add beyond what has been said, but I can modestly contribute on the level of offering solutions.
This tragedy needs actionality propelled by a moral vision for a new Ethiopia.
Now that our Ethiopian sisters and brothers have been killed, brutalized, savaged and traumatized, our momentous task is to remember through the darkness of November by seeing to it that this does not ever happen again to our historical nation- a nation of valiant heroes who resisted fascism, colonialism and niggerazation with inimitable actionality.
We must repeat this valor and we move forward to protect our people from ever, ever again being savaged by barbarism in the twentieth century.
What we must analyze is why are our people leaving the lush and green of beautiful Ethiopia to foreign lands to subject the mselves to niggerization. Perhaps this tragedy is asking us to recover our Ethiopianity and challenge and help our leaders to forge a new National Consciousness and rebuild our institutions to feed, shelter, clothe and employ our people by a means necessary.
One such means is to free our people from the pangs of hunger and the ravishes of famine, so that they can stay home and develop the Ethiopian nation.
Our leaders must put our New House in Order by building responsible economic form, which must inculcate the virtues of patience, compassion, justice and tolerance among its citizens, from early on. These complicated and demanding virtues must be taught at all levels of school. It must be part of economic principles, and be taught as such, and not be pushed to the sidelines, as part of religion and theology, which does not have much to do with morals, and has nothing to do with economics. It is this dogma of capitalist economics that must change.
My argument here is a modest contribution to challenge one of the foundational dogmas of Liberal Democracy and Capitalism. The morals must guide economics and a new moral economy that works in concert with moral philosophy and religion is precisely what the Ethiopian condition requires. More morality, with a distinct religious voice, such as the notion of patient waiting, will strengthen and expand our horizons as we struggle with poverty, famine and other sorrows of modern life.
We need more people who can patiently wait as everything changes, hopeful that no condition is permanent, including the conditions of nations, when their economies get distorted and the citizens are hardened and become cruel towards one another, and that the notion of helping your fellow citizens sounds indeed very strange, to those who are comfortable. Instead, during trying times, citizens do not patiently wait for things to change; instead, they give up altogether, or become irreligious and immoral. Market Socialism must be guided by two foundational principles of justice relevant to the Ethiopian condition.
They are: (1) The procurement of food, shelter, clothing and health must be available to all Ethiopian citizens via making available (a) necessary resources and (b) enabling environment
(2) Freedom and opportunities must be extended to all citizens so as to enhance their capacities in order that they can actually make the right decisions.
Teodros Kiros Professor of Philosophy and English (Liberal Arts) Berklee College of Music
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