Abesha Bunna Bet

Recently, I have been in noticing many Ethiopians living in exile seem to deny the fact that Ethiopia has come a long way both socially and economically.

This pessimistic attitude seems to come from the hate that these Ethiopians share for the current government. However, I beg to differ.

There is not a single doubt in mind that almost all Ethiopians love their country. Ethiopians are patriotic and wear the love for their country on their sleeves wherever they go. I am sure every Ethiopian living abroad knows exactly what I am talking about.

We put our flag in our houses, our cars, our license plates and every where else in between.But I am also afraid that our passion and love for our country is usually intermixed with our feeling for a particular political party.

If we hate any given government, we also hate or denounce any progress made under that government, as a result failing out beloved country. It is clear and safe to say that Ethiopia has changed by leaps and bounds within the last 16 to 17 years.

Some positive and some negative for sure. But we don’t seem to eulogize and celebrate the positive as much as we choose to dwell on the negative.

So I decided to go back and list how far our country has come. All we should ask for is for the foundation to be there so we can build up on it.

Even though, the Derg regime had left Ethiopia as the worst and the lowest economy in the world, since then Ethiopia’s economy has been growing steadily.

• During the last 3 years, Ethiopia’s GDP has shown a growth rate of about 9% a year.
• Ethiopia was also in the top category for “policies of social inclusion and equity“, in the domain of “economic management” and Ethiopia did exceptionally well in the domain of “structural policies” & “public sector management and institutions“.
• Gross primary enrollment rates, a standard indicator of investment in the poor, went up to 93% in 2004 from 72 percent in 1990, contributing to a rise in literacy rates from 50 % in 1997 to 65 % in 2002.
• Africa Development Bank and the Paris-based OECD Development Center stated that Ethiopia has become one of the fastest growing countries in Africa.

I say AMEN to that.

To those who choose to ignore the facts because of politics, I feel terribly sorry for you.I am an Abesha guy whose primary goal in life is to see my country pull itself out of poverty.

I understand that won’t happen overnight, but I am fully convinced that we are taking the baby steps necessary to get to the finishing line.

Let’s celebrate our accomplishments.

I’d love to hear your perspectives on this- leave a comment if you have anything to say…