From NEW EGYPT to The NEW ETHIOPIA with....

...HUMAN Empathy

*

Once the Self is ready for a BIG CHANGE (change yourself and ..everything goes)...

We may look at the big lessons *1),

From NEW EGYPT ...

N.Y.T (Thomas Friedman)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/opinion/13friedman.html

Among many others writes:

They did IT.

TRUE; even more and important,

They did it just by themselves!

And thus the first big lesson from the Movement of NEW EGYPT is that,

Yes; They did it by themselves.

No doubt.

Nonetheless,.....there are indubitable circumstances and conditions at the backdrop, whose coincidence and conjunction, had been so crucial, that without which the victory could have been, I think,  impossible (at the moment in just getting rid of the higher brass of the Mubarak regime; now working hard on constituting the new Democracy).

This can be summarized as follows:

1. The benefit-diversification of the Egyptian ruling clique converging along two attractors of meaning. (The nationally anchored section  /here the military subsumed in this section /with the small share of the wealth vs. the globally affiliated with the lion share of corruption and benefit /the Mubarak clique and "elite" )*

2. The mass base rallied along one main trajectory of common sense of WILL - Mubarak has to go! - The embodiment of the regime

3. The selfless strong will & conviction of the "new" youth and intellectually well versed elite to struggle for Freedom, liberation & fair prosperity;  A big will for change, morally and ethically strongly anchored in universal humanism;  free of any dogma and ideology or religiously or ethnically contaminated prejudice & alienation.

4. The objective deteriorating standard of living for the vast section of the Egyptian people in an apparent contra-distinction  to the extravagant abundant living standard of a section of the ruling class; in a relatively developing economy (I presume).

Thus, with all appreciation and understanding of our (including mine) infatuation and passion, to hope for a similar wave of change to come in the immediate future in similar regions of autocracy, be it in Ethiopia, North Africa and the rest or elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, it is important to reflect, understand and work on the necessary social conditions (similar to the above) to come true, with all the different specifications prevailing in the different regions. Revolutionary romanticism by its own would not bring about social transformation and people's empowerment. At times it would even be adventurous, irresponsible and it would cause a big social set back, backfiring on the social momentum of the change to come. 

TO The New ETHIOPIA:

What are the relevant and crucial questions or inquiries for a serious reflection to promote the transformation, by working on the necessary conditions? Without a big fuss around it and avoiding any obscurity, this can be transparent by a summary of the following highly relevant questions:

1. How can the "higher brass" and the top section of the ruling clique/elite be pinpointed and isolated from a presumable "mass base" it may have succeeded or anticipate to manipulate and/or how can the different attractors of benefits and interests among the ruling clique be differentiated to rule out their co-operation in times of crisis?

2. How can the potentially glowing energy of the whole people, disenchanted through a growing poverty, hunger, destitution and dissatisfaction at all levels, be bundled up under a single line of nationwide struggle for freedom and prosperity, without any distinction of any quality; be it ethnic (extremely important! no discussion, since equality in post-modernity is so evident, that it is anachronistic to question it ), religious (in a similar fashion, extremely important!), ideological controversies, (always stressing the fact that it is as clear as a blue sky, that there is plenty of space and abundant room in the universe or in our Space of modern Ethiopia,  for unfolding, be it ideas or quality of life etc.)
 
3. All talk of transformation is meaningless, without a strong WILL of common sense for change. Thus how, and  through what means can this BIG WILL for Change be cultivated & nurtured, specially in the vast mass of the Youth - the "new"  and modern YOUTH, the embodiment of CHANGE per se, which should be free of any legacy prejudices and bias of ethnic, religious  and ideological nature -  entrenched, enlightened, thrilled and steeped in the only "Faith" it may learn to incorporate -  " The FAITH"  for "FREEDOM, SOVEREIGNTY and LIBERATION" of the "SELF"  to come to a collective WILL of working for a modern empathic Ethiopian community, developing under democratic and humanist principles of the 21st century, eye to eye equally positioned to all the modern youth of the globe?

4. How can the vast mass of Ethiopia, in advance the big urban mass of the Ethiopian Community in all social sections ( very crucial and important - to deprive the ruling clique of all its rallying "catechism") be mobilized to a solidarity of common- purpose - The Purpose of liberation from impoverishment and tyranny by a small - a really small ruling clique, - with specially a strong emphasis of differentiating, the rank and file  from the ruling leadership - letting them / the rank & file/ know,  to be free of complicity; i.e.  without the slightest indication of charging them for complicity in the oppression of the Ethiopian people. - That means, let alone Ethiopians of the Tigrai community (so far I am sorry to notice this all over the promoters of democracy in Ethiopia today.  A non-violent struggle can never win by intimidation but by teaching moral courage and a sense of clemency)…  I would even stress and say - even the rank and file cadres of TPLF and EPRDF ?( fyi. Have you observed how the Egyptian young demonstrators rushed to literally embrace the policemen, who were sent to fight them?   See Non-violence struggle, http://aeinstein.org/organizations103a.html )

Thus a conscious leadership (intellectually well versed, committed and mature) anchored, entrenched and contained  in the spontaneous creativity of the mass is still unequivocally necessary. Moreover, Egypt has not made it either without its Young LEADERSHIP - not leadership to contest for state power but to fight the tyranny.  Contesting for state power comes much much later in the process of the liberation; after the victory. And that would be an unequivocal outcome of democratic procedures, well after the democratic state is constituted by the best minds of the whole nation from all corners of the people for the people! Like what, I hope the Egyptians are now deliberating to do!!! AND to succeed!

People & Power - Egypt: Seeds of change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrNz0dZgqN8&feature=player_embedded

----------------------

* Relevant reflections and analysis along this theme:

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/586/why-egypts-progressives-win

New formations of power, the oligarchiccorporate state, and anthropological ideological discourse :  http://ant.sagepub.com/content/5/3/285.full.pdf+html

What makes a revolution succeed?  http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201121393446561799.html

Please find interesting links and thoughts along this line below; specially some of the links on non-violent struggle like:

* Nonviolent strategies awaiting creative 21st Century applications:
     http://aeinstein.org/organizations103a.html

are in my opinion very useful for our Ethiopian "bewildered " state of affairs!

*1) similar post earlier; H.B.

Anti-Authoritarian Revolution and Law Reform in Egypt: A Jadaliyya E-Roundtable

"Beyond the constitution, which laws must be addressed (and how) in order to advance the goal of anti-authoritarianism and a democratic political system in Egypt?" 1*)
*
"The question, then, is not so much how to amend or reform particular articles of the constitution, but rather, how to maintain the links to this democratic constituting power – a question that cannot be resolved on constitutional grounds." (cf. HUSSEIN AGRAMA, see below)

Egypt caught up tight   in the grips of  "critical support" ,  like Ethiopia decades ago, differing with the "fortune"  that, no section is ransacking the community of their  intellectual elite with bullets. Until now!

Please see the interesting discussion below, with its relevance, awaiting the " future Ethiopia"; without missing the caliber at what intellectual level these people are deliberating on the issue. I wonder where  our  contemporary  "elite"   would take off if the time comes for IT.
In my observation the Initials today are not that promising, but full of volatile handicaps impairing  the liberation of the mind. I hope my observation is not correct!

*

" SAMERA ESMEIR: A revolution is not constitutional reform. The first exceeds the latter and may also contradict it. Revolutions disrupt the taken for granted association between legality and legitimacy, introducing new grounds of legitimacy beyond state law. As Asli writes, revolutions are “extra-constitutional.” And I would add, revolutions are “extra-legal.” Modern law is incapable of sanctioning a revolution. Revolutions, however, maintain an aspiration to constitute a new legal order. Ironically, this order for the most part institutes new relationships of obedience between the law and the citizenry, making it illegal to wage another revolution, or to introduce the political praxis cultivated among the members of the revolutionary movement.

This paradoxical relationship between law and revolution is evident in contemporary debates about legal reform. Specifically, because the revolutionary movement in Egypt is yet to accomplish its declared objectives, the focus on legal reform, and the institution of a new legal order, becomes one way to secure some objectives. But this focus may jeopardize the ongoing revolution in two ways. First, this focus risks confining the sphere of political action and political opposition to the realm of the juridical, and therefore ignoring a much more difficult challenge to the security institutions of the state, including the military. If such narrow focus is to become dominant, Egypt's democratic practice will be mainly centered on the law, like many Western democracies, sidelining other alternatives for democratic politics—ones that do not necessarily pursue politics through the law. Second, this focus also risks translating the revolutionary practice of collective self-organization to the practices of law-drafting that lack the collective, self-organizing element. The experience of the revolutionary movement in Egypt, however, has taught us, as Hussein points out, that collective self-organization is in itself an important political practice and the challenge therefore is not only how to translate collective demands into the law, but how to maintain collective action as a form of political practice.

How did the 18-day revolutionary act get equated, in some circles, with a constitutional crisis, and what does this “rhetoric of crisis” reveal about the relationship between legality, revolutions and the possibilities for democratic politics?" 1*) 

Friday, 25.02.2011 Post Mubarak Demonstration 

 

*1) Anti-Authoritarian Revolution and Law Reform in Egypt: A Jadaliyya E-Roundtable

1*)   

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/714/anti-authoritarian-revolution-and-law-reform-in-egypt_a-jadaliyya-e-roundtable-

After "Egypt" - 11 0220 11 ..... "The PEACE TRAIN" has started

After "Egypt" - 11  0220  11,

I too would like to really think that, with both "Cat Stevens" and "Yusuf Islam" *1) 

"The PEACE TRAIN" has started:

- Specially for Ethiopia, where both reIigions and diversity of ethnic origins prevail !

LIVE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLG91tOLPdQ&NR=1

*1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drPlAYhQth0

*

Human DIGNITY:

21st century is the era of Liberation Movements for Human Dignity, encompassing all other Movements, to make them superfluous – non-dogmatic, non-religious and non-ethnic with the great Common Collective Will for Human Empathy!

11 0220 11 - EGYPT's Dignity Day, the Landmark for a radical break with all Tyrannies!

LIBYA

The wind of Freedom, once it is blowing with the collective spirit of the people , no ruthlessness of any despot can ever contain it!

Muammer Gaddafi - is a synonym for the faschist in Africa!

What a "debut of shame & disgrace" !

His declaration of Genocide against his own people!

A Day of Disgrace for Libya:  22   0220   11  (22.02.2011)...

Even for all those who made their last"peace" with this despot !

May the COMMON COLLECTIVE WILL (CCW) of  Libyans remain firm to get rid of this "Shame" out of Africa, and restore their HUMAN Dignity!

The Dignity Day  of     LIBYA   ??   03- 20  11 ..... COMING SOON!

*

Human DIGNITY:

21st century is the era of Liberation Movements for Human Dignity, encompassing all other Movements, to make them superfluous – non-dogmatic, non-religious and non-ethnic with the great Common Collective Will for Human Empathy!

11 0220 11 - EGYPT's Dignity Day, the Landmark for a radical break with all Tyrannies!

Thanks to

Tunisia -The Heroic Pioneer of Freedom*

A Flash of the Day....11 0220 11.....Next......????????

ከመቃብር በፊት...

ሰው ለመስራት ብቻ ከፍቀደ አየሩ
ክህነት ካላችሁ አሰቡ መርምሩ
ተራ  ከገባችሁ ዘክሩ አስዘክሩ
ያልሆነው እንዲሆን ምከሩ ሞክሩ
ሽቀጣና ሽቀት እንዳይሆን ሃገሩ
አንድ ቀን እንደሆን አይቀር መቃ-ብሩ።

A Flash of the Day (Archive)

1. Working on the big "GOOD SENSE": The sense of Beauty.

( via cf. "The Logic of Sense" /Deleuze) (9/2010)

2. በትርታ ይጀምራል፤ ትር ትር ይልና ይተርታል ወይንም ይተረታል ወይንም ተረት ይሆንና ይተረተራል፤ ተረት ይሆናል።(9/2010)

3. Degrading the other to "none-will" is inhuman and counter productive... The human point is to come to a common "Big-Will"(10/2010)

4. The "inner universe" (mystics) to the "outer universe" (physics) is allegorically related as the conscious mind to the virus in the human body. (6/10/2010)

5. Feeling is the language of the "inner Universe". Music/arts is the interface between the "inner" and "outer" universe.

6. Demoralization is a disgusting political tool -an expression of inhumanity employed in a social evolution, indicating the inhumanity of the employer! A disaster! (7/10/2010).
 
7. "In Girard's language, the law order is "mythical" and as such obeys the logic of the founding murder." (cf. Peter Robert Stork; 2005)

8. "Wenn sich zwei streiten, freut sich der Dritte"/When two people quarrel, a third rejoices... This will be a legacy; and in the 21st century, "Wenn sich zwei einigen, freut sich der Dritte" may take over. /A mutual understanding of two people rejoices the third/.

9. My quotation of the Day (8.11.10):
Baldwin’s thought: ("The Baldwin effect")
“It is as inexorable as the colour of his eyes and the shape of his nose. He is born into a system of social relationships just as he is born into a certain quality of air. As he grows in body by breathing the one, so he grows in mind by absorbing the other.’ (Baldwin, 1906: 69-70)

10. If "I AM" the observer (the conscious entity) so that the quanta of matter/mass (the wave function) would collapse to be a particle /the particle object), enhancing IT to the phase of THE Existing Reality.
Couldn't I -The Self- hope and help the spiritual energy/ my consciousness/ as well, to extend the transformed energy /After Life/to collapse into that existence of "THAT Beyond" Life (1). Life pertaining to "intelligent" energy (spiritual beings in the sphere of the Akashic Field), as the reflection of the "intelligent" matter or mass (human beings in the sphere of "thermodynamics" or gravity ). 17.11.10
*(1) like J.Wheeler's Model of "the participating observer" in the Universe.
 

11. Forget Time! And mind Your Mind only (24.11.10).
I.e. "Talk about "time out of mind"!"(1)

(1) http://www.megafoundation.org/CTMU/Articles/Time.html

12. Wikileaks in Amharic philo-play:
የዊቂ -ሊቅ ሰዋ ስው ...ባልታወቀ ነገር፤ሊቅ ፤ቂል ፤ ቅልቅል ፤ ቅል፤ ቀላል ቂል ወይስ ....በቃኝ ብሎ፤ ቅንጣት ቅብ -ብቅል ቀልቦ ፤ወደ ብቃት ሲቃ፤ ሲግዋዝ ይሁን ፤ ሲያንቀጠቅጥ ወይስ ተቀላቅሎ ሲያንቀለቅል።ያልታወቀ ነገር። 02.12.10

13. Gates and Centres:

Life , nature and actually the whole Universe know nothing about Top and Bottom or Up and Down. There are just centres in reality. Centres and Centres with all of them having their Gates, Gates leading to the Centres. What is wrong with mankind, always with the tick for tops and bottoms or ups and downs and not centres, but fixed to the gates, without the moral courage to move towards the centres -to build the symphony- the symphony in the SPHERE.

The SPHERE:

- The SPHERE of IDEAS is THE WORD of the SOURCE. THE WORD - The PLAY where this ASHORE and that BEYOND of the HARMONY is eternally tuned to exist in the SYMPHONY of ALL, flowing and floating like in the "Ballet piece of Joseph Strauss " -the Dynamiden Waltz- with every being offering its harmonious "musical touch". (cf. The Harmony Model)

Morning, 03.12.10


14. A Flash of the Day  ....................11 0220 11........... A BEAUTY of The MIND!

The COLLECTIVE MIND!

The Dignity Day of          EGYPT          11 0220  11


And... IOPIA AND ETH ? ----->> EIOPIA ----->> ETHIOPIA?

 The Dignity Day  of     ETHIOPIA     ????????

http://berhane-aymero.blogspot.com

 Morning, 18.02.11

King Abdullah - Outsourcing Dictators-Rush

 
A cartoon by Khalil Bendib *1)
 
*1) King Abdullah Announces a Discount for Dictators

If the rush is overwelming, ATTENTION; some of the tasks may be outsourced to ETHIOPIA! The new Neo-Colony of the King;  anticipating that Dictator Melesse Zenawi may stay longer in power, since he has introduced an informal and similar legislation of "Sharia" (as interpreted by fundamentalists) like in Saudi Arabian: Chopping Hands for Offences (video-clip)!

DAYS of COMMON COLLECTIVE WILL

DAYS of COMMON COLLECTIVE WILL (DoCCW)

The Revolution of Egypt, as spontaneous as it may seem at face value, especially for those who were only observers from overseas or the west allies of the Mubarak Regime, has  been on the contrary a product of undeterred creative hard work and perseverance. Conscious and creative perseverant hard work of those well versed and patient genuine young democrats, who have been fighting openly and struggling undercover in the DoCCW for years, by building a common purpose of Collective WILL and Trust, to oust the regime once and for all, to introduce a genuine Democracy free of all prejudices and ideology! *1)

DoCCW               -DAYS of COMMON COLLECTIVE WILL 

1. DoP                                -Days of Protests (lasting several years successively)

2. DoR                                -Days of Rage (lasting several Weeks)

3. DoM                                -Days of Millions (lasting several Days)

4. DoD                                -DAY of Dignity –The Victory – Mubarak ousted!

The next phases are not less challenging, but optimism can always remain a principle.

5. DoC                               -Days of construction and Constituting

6. DoD                               -Days of Democracy –

*

Thus, for all those who are burning with the aspiration of such a Liberation Movement of their People for Dignity, the first BIG QUESTION running through all forces of their respective societies is :

WHAT IS THE COMMON COLLECTIVE WILL sustainable for all times to come? -The DoCCW!

AND 

For ETHIOPIA, what is IT? 

"Make it simple,but not less simple" (cf. Einstein)

It is SO SIMPLE, 
If there is the great,

GOOD WILL of being GOOD!

Make up your MIND (*2
For The DoCCW. 

All what every single SELF 

Wants for its Dignity 

Is ....JUST & GENUINE DEMOCRACY!

What is the sole obstacle to the Rule of Democracy?

A-ONE -Man Rule of Melesse Zenawi - An autocratic mercenary regime *3).

***************************************************************************************

*1) “Their political demands have coalesced around a four-point agenda that has now become the beacon call of the current demonstrations: (1) an end to Mubarak’s rule; (2) rejection of the “succession” of Mubarak’s son, Gamal Mubarak, as president; (3) expansion of political freedoms and the creation of democratic institutions that would yield to free elections; (4) an immediate stop to, and persecution of perpetrators of, state violence. These were demands behind which the vast majority of Egyptians could unite—regardless of their religious and political affiliations.” ( Please see analysis;  The-architects-of-the-Egyptian-uprising-and-the-challenges-ahead; http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/645/the-architects-of-the-egyptian-uprising-and-the-challenges-ahead)

*2) Make up your mind; take side in your mind; even if you are not on the field; even if you are not ready for the field. No one can read your mind except the good ones perhaps (you remember "abatochachin hodih yinegrihal silu"- may be they mean the modern "MNS")

*3) A regime specially distinguished by its prolific achievement a) in the mockery of democracy -the 99.xx% Brigade b) in the top salesmanship skill of Africa in mortgaging the arable land of Ethiopia to the new emerging neocolonialists out of Asia (India, China...) and the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabian, Dubai)... (+ for Africa, Environment Deals with the west ).

"The Ballet " coming , "The Land" leaving - out of Ethiopia -

To help us carrying away the bitter days, such tones like what I would call the "Ballet out of Ethiopia" may do soothe the emotions - singing and dancing on the fertile "land", which don't belong to us - Ethiopians - any more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4nWbihWhDs&NR=1

Until a beautiful Day like 11 02 20 11 (The Dignity Day of Egypt) is also conveyed to us -Ethiopians-  !

http://brahane-matemia.blogspot.com/2011/02/1-1-0-2-2-0-11.html

*

Please look at the news below, which would robe away Y-OUR DIGNITY ....and make you sick:

Deccan Herald, India

February 14, 2011

Punjab farmers to cultivate in Ethiopia, import output to India

Chandigarh:  A group of Punjab-based farmers today said that they are going to grow pulses and oilseeds on 5,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia and import their farm produce to India.

"We will start cultivating 5,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia from September this year and plan to cultivate pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and maize which are always in short supply (in India)," Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers (Poscon) Secretary General Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha said here today.

Additionally, the group wants the government to exempt their farm produce in Ethiopia from duty when imported to India in order to curtail country's dependence on import of such farm products.

"By bringing crops like pulses, oilseeds to India, we will help the country in making it self sufficient in these crops and ensure food security," Sangha asserted. They also want either the Union Minister of Agriculture or Ministry of External Affairs to support them in this endeavour by patronising the farming agreements.

Citing farming in Ethiopia as a 'workable' venture, 15 members of Poscon, the representative body of the state's potato growers, have shown keen interest in cultivating land there he added.

Sangha said, "I have already visited Ethiopia twice along with other members of our association and found huge tracts of land available in there. Farming conditions (in Ethiopia) are also similar to what we have in India."

Also, availability of land in Ethopia at much cheaper cost than in India encouraged farmers to cultivate the land in Ethiopia. "Land is available for farming on lease of 25 to 45 years period. Moreover, in Ethiopia, the cost of land on lease is Rs 500 per hectare, while in Punjab the cost varies between Rs 25,000-30,000 per hectare," he added.

Farmers have zeroed in on a few African areas, including Gambela and Oromia, for cultivating land. Moreover, the Ethiopian government has promised to support farming by Indian farmers in every manner.

Last year, Ministry of External Affairs had arranged a meeting of representatives of several African countries, including Ethiopia, Uganada, Zambia, and Tanzania with Punjab farmers and these countries invited them to develop land and invest in agriculture.

1 1 0 2 2 0 11 - The Dignity Day of EGYPT

11 0220 11
A Beautiful Number 

which The Day of Dignity has even 
managed to get !

DEDICATED

to

THE 

YOUTH

of 

EGYPT

1 1      0 2 2 0      1 1 

The Dignity Day of EGYPT

please don't use otherwise!

From New EGYPT -Short Lessons

The Opinion Pages:

WRITES:

Op-Ed Columnist

They Did It

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: February 12, 2011

CAIRO

"In the end, President Obama made a hugely important but unintended contribution to the democracy revolution in Egypt. Because the Obama team never found the voice to fully endorse the Tahrir Square revolution until it was over, the people in that square now know one very powerful thing: They did this all by themselves. That is so important. One of the most powerful chants I heard in the square on Friday night was: “The people made the regime step down.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/opinion/13friedman.html

***
 

Yes. They did it by themselves. No doubt.

But 

.....there are undoubtedly circumstances and conditions at the backdrop, whose coincidence and conjunction, had been so crucial, that without which the victory could have been, I think,  impossible (at the moment in just getting rid of the higher brass of the Mubarak regime).
 
This can be summarized as follows:

1. The benefit-diversification of the Egyptian ruling clique converging along two attractors of meaning. (The nationally anchored section  /here the military subsumed in this section /with the small share of the wealth vs. the globally affiliated with the lion share of corruption and benefit /the Mubarak clique and "elite" )*
 
2. The mass base rallied along one main trajectory of common sense of WILL - Mubarak has to go! - The embodiment of the regime
 
3. The selfless strong will & conviction of the "new" youth and intellectually well versed elite to struggle for Freedom, liberation & fair prosperity;  A big will for change, morally and ethically strongly anchored in universal humanism;  free of any dogma and ideology or religiously or ethnically contaminated prejudice & alienation.
 
4. The objective deteriorating standard of living for the vast section of the Egyptian people in an apparent contra-distinction  to the extravagant abundant living standard of a section of the ruling class; in a relatively developing economy (I presume).

Thus, with all appreciation and understanding of our (including mine) infatuation and passion, to hope for a similar wave of change to come in the immediate future in similar regions of autocracy, be it in Ethiopia, North Africa and the rest or elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, it is important to reflect, understand and work on the necessary social conditions (similar to the above) to come true, with all the different specifications prevailing in the different regions. Revolutionary romanticism by its own would not bring about social transformation and people's empowerment. At times it would even be adventurous, irresponsible and it would cause a big social set back, backfiring on the social momentum of the change to come. 

What are the relevant and crucial questions or inquiries for  a serious reflection to promote the transformation, by working on the necessary conditions? Without a big fuss around it and avoiding any obscurity, this can be transparent by a summary of the following highly relevant questions:

1. How can the "higher brass" and the top section of the ruling clique/elite be pinpointed and isolated from a presumable "mass base" it may have succeeded or anticipate to manipulate and/or how can the different attractors of benefits and interests among the ruling clique be differentiated to rule out their co-operation in times of crisis?

2. How can the potentially glowing energy of the whole people, disenchanted through a growing poverty, hunger, destitution and dissatisfaction at all levels, be bundled up under a single line of nationwide struggle for freedom and prosperity, without any distinction of any quality; be it ethnic (extremely important! no discussion, since equality in post-modernity is so evident, that it is anachronistic to question it ), religious (in a similar fashion, extremely important!), ideological controversies, (always stressing the fact that it is as clear as a blue sky, that there is plenty of space and abundant room in the universe or in our Space of modern Ethiopia,  for unfolding, be it ideas or quality of life etc.)
 
3. All talk of transformation is meaningless, without a strong WILL of common sense for change. Thus how, and  through what means can this BIG WILL for Change be cultivated & nurtured, specially in the vast mass of the Youth - the "new"  and modern YOUTH, the embodiment of CHANGE per se, which should be free of any legacy prejudices and bias of ethnic, religious  and ideological nature -  entrenched, enlightened, thrilled and steeped in the only "Faith" it may learn to incorporate -  " The FAITH"  for "FREEDOM, SOVEREIGNTY and LIBERATION" of the "SELF"  to come to a collective WILL of working for a modern empathic Ethiopian community, developing under democratic and humanist principles of the 21st century, eye to eye equally positioned to all the modern youth of the globe?

4. How can the vast mass of Ethiopia, in advance the big urban mass of the Ethiopian Community in all social sections ( very crucial and important - to deprive the ruling clique of all its rallying "catechism") be mobilized to a solidarity of common- purpose - The Purpose of liberation from impoverishment and tyranny by a small - a really small ruling clique, - with specially a strong emphasis of differentiating, the rank and file  from the ruling leadership - letting them / the rank & file/ know,  to be free of complicity; i.e.  without the slightest indication of charging them for complicity in the oppression of the Ethiopian people. - That means, let alone Ethiopians of the Tigrai community (so far I am sorry to notice this all over the promoters of democracy in Ethiopia today.  A non-violent struggle can never win by intimidation but by teaching moral courage and a sense of clemency),  I would even stress and say - even the rank and file cadres of TPLF and EPRDF ?( fyi. Have you observed how the Egyptian young demonstrators rushed to literally embrace the policemen, who were sent to fight them?   See Non-violence struggle, http://aeinstein.org/organizations103a.html )

Thus a conscious leadership ( intellectually well versed, committed and mature) anchored, entrenched and contained  in the spontaneous creativity of the mass is still unequivocally necessary. Moreover, Egypt has not made it either without its Young LEADERSHIP - not leadership to contest for state power but to fight the tyranny.  Contesting for state power comes much much later in the process of the liberation; after the victory. And that would be an unequivocal outcome of democratic procedures, well after the democratic state is constituted by the best minds of the whole nation from all corners of the people for the people! Like what, I hope the Egyptians are now deliberating to do!!! AND to succeed!

People & Power - Egypt: Seeds of change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrNz0dZgqN8&feature=player_embedded

----------------------

* Relevant reflections and analysis along this theme:
 
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/586/why-egypts-progressives-win 

New formations of power, the oligarchiccorporate state, and anthropological ideological discourse :  http://ant.sagepub.com/content/5/3/285.full.pdf+html

What makes a revolution succeed?  http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201121393446561799.html

Please find interesting links and thoughts along this line below; specially some of the links on non-violent struggle like:

* Nonviolent strategies awaiting creative 21st Century applications:
     http://aeinstein.org/organizations103a.html

are in my opinion very useful for our Ethiopian "bewildered " state of affairs!

H.B.

*******************
----------------------------------------------

http://tom-atlee.posterous.com/will-egypt-revolutionize-democracy-itself
http://bit.ly/EgyptDemInnov


Will Egypt Revolutionize Democracy Itself?

by Tom Atlee


Thomas Friedman suggests that the special strength of Egypt's youth-led revolutionary movement has been "the fact that it represented every political strain, every segment and class in Egyptian society." But then he turns around and says that diversity "is also its weakness. It still has no accepted political platform or leadership."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/opinion/13friedman.html

Of course, from a majoritarian electoral perspective, he's right. But perspective that may not provide the most potent and useful democratic approaches for Egypt's future -- or ours.

If Egypt's 21st century revolutionaries want their revolution to turn the world, they will make this supposed weakness -- their inclusive diversity -- into the greatest strength of their emergent democracy. They will cherish, develop and institutionalize their cross-section diversity AS a political platform AND AS the principle underlying their new forms of democratic leadership.

My advice: Make random selection as fundamental to Egyptian democracy as majority vote will be. Properly institutionalized, random selection is harder to manipulate and co-opt than elections.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

* Unbeknownst to most citizens in modern democracies, ancient Athens' democracy functioned largely through random selection. Athenians even picked their public officials by lot in a process known as "sortition". Aristotle reported that "it is thought to be democratic for the offices to be assigned by lot, for them to be elected is oligarchic" !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

* While we certainly don't need to choose our public officials by lot -- although it might be good to balance them out with a fourth branch of government made up of randomly selected citizens, as proposed by the Yale School of Democratic Reform
http://services.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=jpd.
We can use random selection to oversee the activities of politicians, to generate public wisdom, and to work through major public issues.
http://co-intelligence.org/CDCUsesAndPotency.html

* Random selection of citizens produces a microcosm of the community through which we can discover an overview of public opinion (through polling) or develop informed public judgment (through deliberation).
http://co-intelligence.org/CIPol_publicjudgment.html

* Ad hoc, randomly selected citizen deliberative councils like Citizens Juries have proven at least as perceptive in policy creation, policy review, and watchdogging democracy as traditional juries have in determining the guilt of accused criminals.
http://co-intelligence.org/CDCUsesAndPotency.html

* Annual, randomly selected citizen "Wisdom Councils" can awaken the citizenry to its "We the People" power and provide grassroots inspiration, guidance and oversight for the functioning of their community or country.
http://tobe.net/DF/DF/DF/wisdom-council.html

* People scientifically selected for their conflicting interests, beliefs, or demographics from a randomly selected survey pool can work through major social tensions in well-publicized, high quality conversations, with a powerful effect on their fellow citizens.
http://co-intelligence.org/S-Canadaadvrsariesdream.html

In the long-term, a revolutionary challenge for Egypt and all the rest of us who love democracy is to create cultures that understand and honor randomly selected forums, that do them well, and that institutionalize and empower them in all parts of our public, private and social sectors.

Even now, high-visibilty forums of randomly selected Egyptians, run independently in parallel, could be competing to generate brilliant ideas for the structure of their new democracy. Then elections and widespread conversations -- online and off -- could decide on the best of the best.

It is time for new and old democracies alike to start tapping the collective intelligence, collective creativity, and collective wisdom of their WHOLE society. Well designed randomly selected citizen forums may be the best and most secure way to do that in the intensely competitive environment of modern politics.


PS: THERE ARE MORE DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS...

Random selection may be my favorite angle on revolutionizing democracy, but hundreds of other democratic innovations are being thought up and tested around the world. Some, like organizing with social networks, are evolving right under our noses in Egypt and elsewhere.

Many such ideas and methods are listed on the Innovations in Democracy Project website http://democracyinnovations.org, which is currently being updated, expanded and transformed into a wiki.

In the meantime, some great sources for democratic innovations to inform grassroots revolutions in Egypt and elsewhere include

  * Innovations in online democracy: http://forums.e-democracy.org/
  * Innovations in collaboration: http://pioneerimprints.com/
  * Innovations in powerful conversations and group process:
     http://tom-atlee.posterous.com/the-best-resources-about-powerful-conversatio
  * Nonviolent strategies awaiting creative 21st Century applications:
     http://aeinstein.org/organizations103a.html

What new versions of these and other democratic breakthroughs will we see from social innovators -- especially tech-savvy, street-savvy youth -- in the months and years to come? Many, I hope.

Together they could evolve into ever more wise and powerful forms of democracy that enable global civilization to finally ripen into a collectively intelligent, sustainable, and mature form of joyful aliveness for all of us on this "little blue dot" of a planet spinning around our average star-sun in its unimaginably vast spiral galaxy sailing through an unbelievably creative universe whose innovative spirit is operating even now within, among, and through the tiny humans alive in your home, at my desk, and in Cairo's Tahrir Square...


NOTE: If you know of democratic innovations we have failed to identify, please send info and links to cii@igc.org with "democratic innovation" in the Subject line.

________________________________

Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, POB 493, Eugene, OR 97440
http://www.co-intelligence.org  /  http://tom-atlee.posterous.com
Read THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY -  http://www.taoofdemocracy.com and
REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISM - http://evolutionaryactivism.com
Please support our work.  Your donations are fully tax-deductible.
________________________________

This is just an astonishing story of how high a firm HUMAN WILL could fly.

The Flight to Freedom and Liberation of a Nation, which we have been witnessing during the last 3 weeks in Egypt, crowned by a success today, the 11th February of 2011.

The Seeds of Revolution in Egypt.

People & Power - Egypt: Seeds of change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QrNz0dZgqN8

EGYPT EGYPT EGYPT

THAT is HISTORY!

TODAY

EGYPT has become a SYNONYM for REVOLUTION in AFRICA !

THAT IS simply COMMON WILL! The sense of common will!

THAT IS THE GENUINE SENSE OF COMMON WILL!

FOR FREEDOM AND HUMAN LIBERTY!

EGYPT has made History in Africa!

Words of Emotion -to- -Egypt-

Words of Emotion -to- -Egypt-

"Make it as simple as possible, but not less simple" (Einstein)

"Oh," said the mouse, "the world is becoming tighter with each passing day. First, it was so wide that I was afraid. I ran and ran on and was happy to finally find a wall in a distance. Left and right in the distance I saw the walls, but these long walls rush so quickly to each other that I already find myself in the last room, and there at an angle, is the trap in which I run."-

" You only have to change the direction, „said the cat and ate the rat.

(Kafka fable…My translation; 1/)

OH! POOR AFRICA? *2)

Lacks the State,
The “Stick and the Stock”?

NO ! NO! NO!

LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE!

DON’T STICK, Mubarak !

To Your CHAIR! To the Demise!

*

Africa lacks DEMOCRACY!

NOT People like you!

The Dead Ends and Heads!

*

FOR EGYPT:

Call the spade by the name!

Let the cat be a cat!

Let the rat be a rat!

For a sufficient LIFE;

Like the Yin and Yang

In the Eastern Wisdom,

Like the Son and Father

In the Christian Faith,

Like the Star and the Moon,

In the Sufi mystics,

In the Muslim Belief.

*

FOR The Democratic Camp –The Protest

Call it, if you like, Demo-Cracy,

But Attention! Demagogy,

“Z” and “c”, Philology.

At times and History,

Demo-craCy goes craZy…

…

At such moments,

Stop TIME,

Go and Go ahead,

To the SOURCE....the best b-reed,

The Origin, the best c-reed.

Change your mind

Challenge your head.

Don’t hesitate,

Break your head,

Break your heart

You would have IT,

It is THE HEAT

A MOMENT bit,

universal, AFRICAN BEAT,

The Cradle, the HUMAN ROOT.

*

For The Military:

Challenge your head,

You will get your bread.

Change your mind,

You will get your state,

You are now at stake.

You may change,

The waters in the seas

A thousand, and a hundred times.

Never could a rock,

And a dead fish swim.

The Shift, the Rift,...the Move,

And the PEACE you lack,

It's in your MIND.

Not the STATE,

The “Stick or the Stock”

YOU! You have to “develop”!

Make your mind,

Mold your set;

Build your head,

Right and left, left and right

Make a set.

Step ahead or backward

Ask the dead or the old,

The Antic, the Polis,

Your meta - the Physics,

Paradigm,

The maxim,

Is as old,... as Mankind.

And the DEAD ENDS,

Are your heads.

Africa, has a LOT,

Of your sort and your lots.

It is Them, the DEAD ENDS,

THE DEAD HEADS.

Africa needs, not a shift In Para-DIGM,

Is a shift and shuffle of the kinds,

That it lacks.

For its peace, for its fate,

Rich in bread,

Healthy child, best YOUTH, best mind...

….

Call it, if you like, Demo-Cracy,

But Attention! Demagogy,

“Z” and “c”, Philology.

At times and History,

Demo-craCy goes craZy…

…

At such moments,

Stop TIME,

Go and Go ahead,

To the SOURCE....the best b-reed,

The Origin, the best c-reed.

Change your mind

Challenge your head.

Don’t hesitate,

Break your head,

Break your heart

You would have IT,

It is THE HEAT

A MOMENT bit,

universal, AFRICAN BEAT.

Challenge your head,

You will get your bread.

Change your mind,

You will get your state,

You are now at stake.

*

For The Military and The People:

Challenge your head,

You will get your bread.

Change your mind,

You will get your state,

You are now at stake.

If you have in mind,

The dead end and the rat

In the KAFKA FABLE (1),

The wall and the cat...

The cat ... is just a cat

Not a friend not a rat.

It is good for the rat

Not to follow suite,

Not to consult the cat.

***

Don’t ache your head,

Don't pose like a cat,

One can live like a rat,

If you are not a cat!

If you are not a rat, nor a cat,

Make a leap, take a ride

You may not need such a state

Nor a shift ...not a shit or a sheet!

Change your mind,

Challenge your head,

Mold your set.

Build your head,

Right and left, left and right

Build a mind, make a set;

The Dead Ends are your Heads

In your Heads,

THE DEAD ENDS ARE THE HEADS.

Not the STATE, nor the RENTS.

Soft is ... the conflict,

The state and private.

Hard are the rocks,

Concrete, the cement, the matter,

The grey in your heads,

Need the shift.

MAKE THE CHANGE – DARE THE SHIFT!

IT IS YOURS, Your DEAREST & New EGYPT!

*

1/) The Kafka fable in the original German:

http://www.hekaya.de/txt.hx/kleine-fabel--fabel--kafka_1

" »Ach«, sagte die Maus, »die Welt wird enger mit jedem Tag. Zuerst war sie so breit, dass ich Angst hatte, ich lief weiter und war glücklich, dass ich endlich rechts und links in der Ferne Mauern sah, aber diese langen Mauern eilen so schnell aufeinander zu, dass ich schon im letzten Zimmer bin, und dort im Winkel steht die Falle, in die ich laufe.« – »Du musst nur die Laufrichtung ändern«, sagte die Katze und fraß sie."

*2) Rephrased from the original below, with dedication to the heroic youth of Egypt!

http://berhane-aymero.blogspot.com/2010/09/paradigm-and-dead-ends.html