False hope

I’ve written this before in a different way, but it’s an important issue effecting the development of Ethiopia (and I guess other poor* countries):

One of the reasons the country is not developing is because of “False Hope.”

I have based this opinion on many conversations I have had with instructors here in the college, other Ethiopian’s I have met during my travels, NGO workers and the findings of other VSO Volunteers. I am generalising, but this seems to be a very common theme in the country.

It seems that the goal of most people here is not to do things that would develop the country (e.g. learn trades that would improve and maintain the infrastructure, make agriculture more efficient etc) Instead they seem more concerned with how they can get as much for themselves as possible and this includes finding a way to emigrate to “rich” countries.

The reason they don’t try to develop is because they believe outsiders will come and solve the problems for them.

I’m not sure what order they should be in, but the three main outsiders that they believe will help them and change Ethiopia into a rich country are:

1: N.G.O.s (Foreign Non Government Organisations)

2: God

3: Obama

The first one (N.G.O.s) is based on experience. If they need a road or a bridge or electricity, or if they don’t plant enough crops and then there is a famine, don’t worry because some rich country will come along and lay the road, build the bridge or power station or drop bags of grain. Why bother planting and harvesting crops if all you have to do is wait for a plane to drop a bag of processed grain for you. The first thought isn’t “how can we solve this problem” it’s “someone from another country will come and solve the problem for us.”

Number 2 (God.) Well as an atheist, I would call this the first false hope. But I believe even Christians in foreign countries do not think that God is going to suddenly make Ethiopia a rich country with roads, stable power, food and clean water for everyone. Also, I’m sure foreign Christians would disagree with some of the arguments that I have heard along the lines of: “we don’t have to bother because God will come and sort it out.” I guess on the up side, religion does give a lot of hope to Ethiopians who do have a very hard existence; it also binds them together to a common cause. What I find very hard is that it also seems to be used as a control mechanism (like in Victorian times in the UK) with rules on what you can and cannot do and what and when you can eat. And these rules seem not to come from the bible, but from priests. I worry (worldwide) about organised religion and how unelected people, paraphrasing and selecting portions of the bible that fit their aims, can hold so much power. (But I digress – this is another issue.)

Number 3 (Obama.) You may laugh, but when Obama was elected, Ethiopia went crazy. I would even go so far as to say that some of the Ethiopians put Obama above God in the likelihood to save them. “Obama” bunabets, restaurants, Internet cafés and stationery shops sprang up everywhere as did the T-shirts and posters. I have had many conversations with Ethiopians asking “has he done anything yet?” “What do you think he will do?” “If American gives money to all the African nations, it won’t have any money for itself – is that going to happen?” but the false hope is very strong. Personally I think that Obama is the lightest “black” person I’ve ever seem, but that’s beside the point. I believe the U.S.A. is going to look after itself first and although it may donate the odd computer to Africa, it’s not going to make any real change here.

Well that’s pretty much the opinion I have developed over the two years being here. Hard as it is to say and depressing as it sounds, I believe that if Ethiopia (and other poor countries) continue in their attempt to become copies of rich countries, they are doomed to failure. They should concentrate on the foundations of their own society and develop themselves without external influence.

(Off course we’re all doomed anyway because of the oil running out and the greenhouse effect, it’s just that the Ethiopia will go down the pan first.)

*I decided that “poor” is the best description for countries like Ethiopia, even over the “VSO” and other NGO advice that this is not politically correct. They once called countries like Ethiopia “3^rd World” then “developing” and at the training I went to in England they said the latest name is now “south” – as in most of the poor countries are in the Southern Hemisphere and the “north” countries in the Northern Hemisphere are the rich ones. But, as Australia, for example, is in the “south” and also some of the poor countries are not developing (maybe because of wars etc), I think the financial “rich / poor” description is more accurate than any other term.