Adal Isaw adalisaw@yahoo.com
October 3, 2009
The Western world is not true to its own rhetoric on democracy and its tolerance for a democratic state, for example Israel, is matched by its cozy and lasting relationship with half-naked dictatorial state, such as Egypt. At times, it even has the temerity to overthrow a democratically elected state to insert its own puppet. There is no need for over-rationalization; the Western world sees its own interest firsthand before it slantingly stares at democracy. By extension, developmentally weaker states are seen primarily for what they can offer the Western world more so than they’re seen for their democratic nature or lack thereof.
So long as a state is suitable to the intricate political and economic interest of the Western world, its protracted stay in power is appreciated and rewarded regardless of its political characteristics and the manner it came to political power. Conversely, a democratically elected state with a clear program of a populist agenda, and a reasonable but not so greatly suitable environment to the intricately intertwined financial interest of the Western world, is subject to allegations, propaganda, and political over-killing. In other words, democratically elected or not, a state that is not the champion of big business and that lacks the glue to assimilate with the interest of the Western world is subject to a lasting political and economic harassment. Of course, there is no need for the Western world to overtly do the political and economic harassment all the time, since there are numerous willing “non-profit” organizations, such as ICG, to do the harassment for a grant—as ICG “field-based study” of Ethiopia suggests.
The Ethiopian state is not the darling of the Western world and it should not be so—so long as its coziness puts the interest of the Ethiopian people in jeopardy. From its inception to date, the characteristics of the Ethiopian state is bent to stay sovereign, authentic, and true in matters that concern the Ethiopian people and this firm stance have not won Western admirers in plenty. To the Western line of thinking, the fact the Ethiopian state is a Front of four political organizations with an acronym that bears the letter “R” for Revolutionary is counterintuitive and detestable. Its focus to better the lives of the great mass Ethiopian farmers, instead of prioritizing to create ten million middle class Ethiopians with purchasing power for Western products makes it a hindrance to the giant business interest of the Western world.
To the West, it is irrelevant that the Ethiopian state had fairly and squarely won the last Parliamentary Election. The simple fact of winning a democratic election will not prevent the West from engaging itself in political pandering of its choosing covertly or overtly. Because, the Ethiopian state is a measurable quantity with a clear program of a populist agenda, and by extension, a hindrance to the giant business interest of the Western world. A populist agenda and a limited access for the West to the resources of Ethiopia in turn makes the Ethiopian state a subject for allegations, propaganda, and political over-killing.
It is therefore under this grandiose scheme of politics that, Western Groups such as ICG negatively describe the political characteristic of EPRDF—with the intent to monger fear and initiate a dangerous drill. The fact of the matter is, nothing will stay unturned till the West takes its last trial to recreate Ethiopia to its liking.
It took a radio talk show host few seconds to signal the genocide in Rwanda, and no sane citizen of the Earth should stay inactive while ICG and future ICG copycats signal their satanic augur to bloody innocent Ethiopians. To repeal the signals of genocide with knowledge and to refute such a Western satanic augur, a deeper inquiry is a must about how the West frames its thinking in relation to non-Western cultures.
Of the many inquiries that one may bear in mind, few come out at ease seeking immediate answers. Why is ICG forecasting an “outburst of violence” few months before the Ethiopian Parliamentary Election? How is it possible for ICG not to see the prevailing beauty of the diverse Ethiopian people arduously working together to better themselves? In other words, why is the “dormant and ugly” side of the diverse Ethiopian people more pronounced to ICG? Is ICG mimicking the radio talk show host of Rwanda who initiated the genocide that ICG’s native country refused to acknowledge?
In order to learn why ICG’s thinking is framed in such a way, further and greatly detailed studies are necessary. Meanwhile, there seems to be a plausible reason that quite many citizens of the Earth may decipher from history—to make sense out of the nonsensical political behavior of ICG. And, the culprit may be is the destructive political culture of the Western World.
It should be noted that, the Anglo-Saxon Western culture still has the same perception of Nazi Germany on some social, political, and economic issues. For example, perceiving its own superiority, Nazi Germany thought of the Jewish culture as the reflection of Jewish biological degeneracy. Nazi Germany’s utterly false assumption about Jewish culture was drawn stereotypically from the perceived physical appearance of the Jew. The perceived physical appearance of the Aryan and the Jew’s “race” in and itself became the template, and Nazi Germany ascribed beauty to itself and ugliness to the Jewish which it thought were biologically degenerative.
The image of the Aryan describes beauty as that that is blond, blue-eyed, tall, athletic, disciplined, loyal, intelligent, and creative. This precise perception of beauty was once the pivotal totem of Nazi propaganda to uplift itself to the zenith and immerse other ‘races” especially the Jewish to the abyss of “biological degeneracy.” To this end, racial features were physically measured and categorized in all manner of scales and graphs to the nitty-gritty. High levels of racial purity were decisive conditions for acceptance into elite Nazi units with the authority to decide about the fate of others. For this sickening reason and not surprisingly, Nazi Germany needed a reference “race,” and its choice was the Jew as it is noted above. The Jew became the perfect contrast—short, bow-legged, hunched, hairy, beady-eyed, and hook-nosed the Jew represented racial inferiority in its entirety with a threatening form.
In the worst logical folly of A is the cause of B rationale, the perceived physical attributes lead Nazi Germany into an utterly false assumption that, superiority in art, science, and political outlook follow ones physical appearance. By extension, Jewish art was grotesque; its music prohibitive and Einsteinian’s Theory of Relativity and Freudian Psychoanalysis, not worthy of German universities.
But, more than any thing else, it was the Jewish political thinking, outlook, and activity that represented the greater threat to the Aryan race. The Jews constituted the dynamic force behind Bolshevism and what it stands for. From Marx to Trotsky and many other thinkers, the drive to social justice, egalitarianism, and internationalism, as far as Nazi Germany is concerned was the grandest conspiracy of Jewish doing. What stood behind these hellish ideas, Nazi racial theorist vehemently argued, had nothing to do with social conscience or moral sensitivity. To Nazi Germany, the Jews propagated egalitarian-universalist ideas in order to undermine the ways and means of Aryan racial superiority. By reducing all peoples to the same mediocre level, Nazi Germany further contended, the Jews only sought to blur and then enervate the patent superiority of the higher race.
In a world where international racism is part of international relations and fascism is purely the progeny of Western culture, revisiting history to unmask the destructive political culture of the Western world is more than tempting. The West still thinks beauty is best defined by the same measurements that Nazi Germany had— blond, blue-eyed, tall, athletic, disciplined, loyal, intelligent, and creative. Although it is not as pervert and as arrogant as Nazi Germany was, the West is still in superiority mode—praising its Capitalist Ideology as the singular irreplaceable way of life and its own culture more desirable than other cultures. To this end, it is waging the culture war unabated until its own culture dictates over all dwellers of the earth.
The West declares itself the beacon of democracy and orders others to follow suit while its own actions are not true to its own rhetoric on democracy. Much like Nazi Germany, challenging ideas and political outlooks become a threat to its ego, culture, and domineering position in the world and it will do anything to abort such ideas from taking hold. People who design authentic ways to resolve their own problems are thus a threat for they’re setting the trend for others to follow suit—to find their own authentic other ways to solve their own problems.
For the West, a solution designed by a people without its decisive input is therefore a problem to its own way. Its sense of superiority dwindles and its hold on the globe weakens, as regions of the world emancipate themselves from asymmetric economic and deeply racist social international relations one nation at a time. The Ethiopian experiment is a real threat for it’s pointed to emancipate its diverse people in its authentic way, by freeing itself from relying on the “superior” Western ideas and ideals. Seen from this perspective, ICG’s inquiry into the “problems” of an Ethiopian affair to foretell a “violent outburst” is thus a suspect that may be the result of an innate destructive political culture held against a non-Western people.