Toxic Notes from ...A Prophet of Regionalism

Toxic Notes from the unpublished diary of a Philosopher
- And a prophet of Regionalism (*

I am a prophet. -Not only a prophet, but also a philosopher of regions1) and regionalism. There used to be a region – an old region called Utopia. This region happened to be an empire. An empire has in the rule an emperor and it is the case with this one too. The emperor wanted to be modern and brought some of us into school. Three of us, among the youth were outstanding; outstanding specially in revolting against the emperor, whom we took to be a proxy for our authoritarian fathers. We were good at teaching; we did that a lot and lead the youth to oust the emperor, because we thought we could make it better, in the project of being modern. 

I was the philosopher and the prophet on regions and so, as true as my prophecy, it happened that regions emerged out of the blues in the region of the emperor’s empire. Out of the three outstanding children of the empire`s region, I was the only one who survived to make it to the top, one year before "the end of the world" in 2012; according to the prophecy of the Mayas –in my capacity as a prophet, perhaps my genetic ancestors. 

I made it to the top in year 2011,  in one of the two regions, which emerged after 1991 – the bigger region,  which is highly contested by other regionalists to construct as many regions as possible in the region, where not less than a hundred regions, with innumerable conflicts, were living together during the era of the emperor.  The bigger region, where I am infamous as a philosopher, managed to exist for 20 years, containing the emergence of other regions; apart from the northern region, which was lost 18 years back, in favour of one top regionalist, who succeeded to outsmart one of my outstanding comrades in arms.

Yes, two of my outstanding comrades in arms, who went astray, counter to my advice have not survived to see the fruits of my project – regionalism. In those beautiful visionary days of my youth, the first outstanding comrade of my youth had an illusion, which he called a vision of social transformation. He wanted to achieve his project by trading on the might of the military for a while; in a similar precedence, like what the military, managed to do in ousting the emperor by undermining our youth movement. The second one promoted, by all costs, persuasion & force, the liberation of the northern region, in a tandem with the top regionalist from the northern region, with the purpose of liberating the rest of the empire’s region thereafter. But he, as well as the other was captured and killed by the military. -The military, which claimed to have the will of saving the region of the lost empire, by all means of brutality; -the military, whose "brave" leader, fled abroad just before my "heroic" regionalists invaded his region. 

So I am the only ONE, of our youth movement, who survived to make it to the top. I am not the biggest but I am embodied to the top and under the tight grips of the biggest in the new region; the southern region.  I.e. south of the independent northern region, which has maintained its own regionalist leader too, for all the years I can recall, beginning from our youth movement up to liberation and after liberation. It may be his life time project.

All to the dismay of my second comrade, who didn’t survive to see the debris of his project, and the betrayal of his tandem ally, this northern region, under its regionalist leader, has become independent -true to my prophecy –and there are therefore two independent regions in the lost region of the empire. And by the way, the biggest leader of the southern region is also said to be outstanding in his way. He was an inconspicuous young nationalist from the north, later a converted regionalist summoned by fate and wit to lead the bigger southern region. He made it to the top, mainly due to a coincidence of political events with international significance, when the military lost its international allies (the breakdown of a political block, which called itself socialist), by winning new friends from the west abandoning all his earlier ideological commitment. He has the hearsay of being outstanding by his supporters - but outstanding in his brutality too, according to his opponents, with a tick for -"chopping fingers"- of all those, who differ to his thoughts. This one has ruled the southern region for the last 20 years, by force and corrupting his opponents, including myself. Nonetheless, may be afraid of my intellect, he resisted the temptation of my advice…refrained  for so long  to call me to the higher realms of power and influence, until today, though he exiled me to the center of my lost passion, education & the youth, where I feel at home. Of course, I am grateful for that bit too.  But at last, he decided now - to summon me to his immediate proximity – to the center of his realm and region, in search of my advice - my expertise- which my last two comrades in arms neglected, to be condemned not to survive their projects. I am the survivor – the survivor prophet of regionalism, who can help, advise and teach the art and philosophy of survivalism.

Alas and at last, I am the recognized advisor of survivalism, who can help all tyrants in danger to develop a cunning instinct of survivalism. Actually the “leader of the south from the north" has enough of this capacity. But thanks to the movement of the youth in 2011, which is ransacking all the tyrannies of our continent in the north and the rest of the Arab world, this leader of the southern region is somehow shaking too, with the consequence of looking for my support.

My expertise-stocks have never been as high as today- as an old guard of the youth movement, who might know the internal dynamics of such a social movement. What an irony! If only they knew that I am more scared than the tyrants themselves deep down to my bones; because of the very three facts, I know in advance: 

1. According to my philosophy of regionalism, all regions are not immune to the dynamics of the youth. It really deserves its new signification: a social Tsunami, not less powerful than the natural tsunami Japan is suffering these days (see Maya Calendar). The last emperor could have a lot to tell on its momentum, if he had survived this dynamics.

2. I know that intellectuals and tyrants are not compatible. I am not the happiest with my new advisor post and the proximity to a tyrant. My first comrade in arms could have a lot to tell, if he had survived the region of the military regime.

3. I know that the new youth movement has learnt a lot from history – the art of non-violence. My late second comrade in arms could have a lot to tell, if he had survived the violence he himself had ignited in our youth movement of our region.

Therefore, if only they, specially my critics, knew, as bony as I look like; that I am scared down to my bones, they would have a pity with me. Oh people of regionalism save the philosopher of regionalism, I am condemned to living in A Bottle. –In a bottle, by the bottle and for the bottle; abandoning all the project of my youth - for the people, by the people, to the people of my region!!!  

One last note, for those who took me for a genius and wonder on my conscience and intellect, at face value: - This is just the face value, behind which I was a victim of my innate feeling, “I feel, therefore I am” – and not “I think therefore I am”- with my unconscious somatic-markers and neural mirror systems, not free of prejudice and bias, with a long history of personalized evolution, working against the mastery of my intellect. - An intellect which once in a while, can make and write beautiful lectures and speeches but a body which resists to live at the level of the rational principles of my intellect, negating – abandoning the higher reality of life, guided by the universal rationality of human reason. Thus, I am not an exception to all those lives driven by their basic instincts!

A very last note: You know philosophers are survival artists. There have never been philosophers who lost their lives in battle fields. If they lose their lives it is mostly because of their fingers, working for the Truth. In my case though, I am sure, if my survival art fails, it is not because of the fingers (threatened to be chopped by the leader of the southern region) but the bottles. -Fingers which I, particularly saved for the toxic bottles. – Bottles which are negating my life in a curious Hegelian dialectics of the bottles and the fingers, to elevate me to the higher realms of the Hegelian Absolute- the Absolute BOTTLE! -The toxic absolute bottle, which ends my life sooner or later. -The sooner the better, before I too, witness the debris of my life project – Regionalism. The New Youth, seem to work hard to turn its illusion of The NEW UTOPIA into a vision of reality, which, I must admit, would sooner or later come true –the only truth I dare to admit, when I am alone with my bottles!

THE END of the story…

1) I apologize for the exhausting reiteration of my concept "region"...This is one of the subtle methods we regionalist philosophers employ to subscribe you to  our creed & breed!
-----------------
 
(* A fictitious parody!

A New "Fire" on SELF- determination

Interesting......is

Rethinking the notion of "self-determination"

By Dimetros Birku

http://www.ethiomedia.com/above/2244.html

****

A New  "Fire" on SELF- determination

This "Fire" on SELF- determination has only left positive marks in my re-perception of the big Ethiopian political point: SELF-Determination. - Specially the fact of the critique from the new perspective, i.e. the  Capitalized "SELF". One can see that it is not the "usual" counterproductive cry and tirade in favor of "unity", which mostly fail to promote the real conscious unity of purpose among those struggling and claiming their rights of self-determination in Ethiopia.  I.e.The PURPOSE of living and developing together in the given historical-geopolitical proximity, in a diversity of cultures to achieve peace and prosperity, within the Ethiopian State. A DEMOCRATIC STATE!


It is a bold critique, if it proceeds with the philosophical and intellectual initials, promising enough to substantiate the point. May be it requires a long discourse, to pin-point and deconstruct the "false faith", within, the unqualified notion of self-determination in a nut-shell, (as an “old guard”) I would say, without questioning  the indubitable legitimacy of the right for self-determination of all oppressed cultures, in the sense of cultural collective-self-realization and peaceful transformation (structural development for prosperity). The mere fact that it has become a long yardstick of contemporary Ethiopian politics makes it difficult, though not insurmountable.  The so-called "identity politics", which is philosophically fake and static (with a societal underpinning of utilitarian morphostasis ) in my opinion is the big problem, though, to speak with Deleuze, "difference and differentials" are "the Real" and healthy.  The point is to manage to live in peace with the interaction of the "difference and differentials", in the process of a morphogenetic social evolution. A social evolution with all the temporal parameters coming out of cultures, nature and the human agency, -as conscious as it could manage to become.  -The critique would be specially fruitful, if the search into the thesis around the dialectics of the "self" and the "other" is well founded to come to a synthesis of socializing the collective, providing an emergent multidimensional cultural project of human dignity and freedom, with authentic universal rights of cultural-self-realization, in a clear contra-distinction to all streams of legacy dualistic philosophical misgivings. Dualistic philosophical discourse of the west, developed through the history of the latter to serve directly or indirectly in maintaining the prevailing power-relations, adapting itself to the evolution of its unfolding economic relations - Capitalism of all varieties and meaningless values (a consuming machine) to contain the "morphogenetic development" of A REAL HUMAN Project! FREEDOM

MIND – Human Agency, Structure and CULTURE

"I feel, therefore  I AM", SPINOZA / ANTONIO R. DAMASIO

 & "I think, therefore I AM" , Rene Descartes

The Interaction of MIND – Human Agency, Structure and CULTURE

Ethiopia is a collective with a diversity of cultures, and no doubt given all the common interaction of history, let alone the struggle for survival and development, but also the fact of our geopolitical proximity, has given us a similar collective mind-set. However, we still do have all somehow differing individual collective mind-sets, depending on the different cultural backdrops (including multifaceted experience, good or bad; presumably with their “somatic-markers” influencing our decision-making process) of our origin.

All the legacy political discourse concerning nationalities and ethnicities are all still actual in our reflection- and memory–set of our generation. -Mind and memory-sets, which have differing impacts in the experience of a common social evolution and cultural development to elevate our overall Ethiopian-national consciousness, unless channeled by a conscious will of universal mind-set based on a modern rationality and human reason. To make an end to autocracy, like what we are enthusiastically witnessing in North Africa and the Middle-East/+Arabian Peninsula, the perception or/and  the coordination of the struggle for Freedom and Dignity in Ethiopia with a diversity of cultural background, demands not only a nation-wide common collective good will but a well-informed mind in social-sciences as well as other periphery-cultural disciplines, like neuroscience. This will certainly help in understanding and containing our basic instincts and feelings in the process of policy design and all encompassing national political activities. - For it is ridiculous to deny that every one of us is not only a social “creature”, possibly conscious but also unconscious with feelings, emotions, affect etc. with an evolving long history of “embodied subjectivity”.

Without losing sight of  (in previous posts), what “neuro-politics” has to say on the theme of Mirror-Neuron System in the realm of human communication and social interaction,  for  the formation of higher consciousness, the role of structure, culture and nurture has of course still to be highlighted.

Nonetheless, in this context,

Exploring the Minded Brain

http://www.tannerlectures.utah.edu/lectures/documents/Damasio99.pdf

By ANTONIO R. DAMASIO; "A well-known researcher in several areas of neurology and neuroscience" has an interesting discourse to provide. A discourse which I think is relevant to complement our knowledge in social sciences.

„When we consider humans, however, and the novel physical and social environments in which humans have thrived, it appears that we rely both on genetically based biological mechanisms and on suprainstinctual survival strategies that have developed in society and that are transmitted by culture. Those strategies require a minded brain, one with consciousness, reason, and willpower. I am not reducing social phenomena to biological phenomena, but rather  calling attention to their powerful mutual interactions. Culture and civilization  obviously arise from the behavior of biological creatures, but that behavior was generated in collectives of individuals interacting in specific environments. Culture and civilization could not have arisen from single individuals and cannot be reduced to biological mechanisms or to genetic messages. The comprehensive understanding of culture and civilization requires biology and the social sciences."  

(cf. p. 19/185;Exploring the Minded Brain)

 *

For social science, this discourse can specially  be an interesting reference in combination with the” social morphogenetic approach” of sociology as promoted by Margaret Archer; may be as seen a quasi thesis-anti-thesis moment with that of Anthony Giddens` in “british sociology”:-

***

-The Morphogenesis of Subjectivity: between constructionism and neuroscience : http://tap.sagepub.com/content/14/6/797

http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~hujc4/Morphogenesis%20of%20Subjectivity.pdf

John Cromby 

SUMMARY

Archer (1995) describes a morphogenetic approach to social theory founded in the work of Bhaskar. She proposes an analytical dualism temporally separating agency and structure, in order to facilitate an understanding of their interaction. On this view, actors inherit pre-existing social structures that they reproduce or transform, so creating the structures that future actors will inherit. However, the activity of transformation or reproduction potentially also transforms (or reproduces) the agency of those who thus act. Archer describes this as a “triple morphogenesis” where “agency leads to structural and cultural elaboration, but is itself elaborated in the process”. Like structuration theory, morphogenesis recognises the mutual constitution of agency and structure, but unlike structuration theory resists their conflation each with the other.

Archer’s account lays emphasis on social theory, but also has implications for psychology. This chapter explores some of these implications with reference to a notion of embodied subjectivity consonant with (critical realist versions of) social constructionist psychology. A notion of subjectivity structured and momentarily completed by discourse in the relational-responsive fashion described by Shotter will be advanced. This will be supplemented by Damasio’s (1994) “somatic marker” hypothesis, a neurological account of how socially-acquired repertoires of feelings condition decision-making in social settings. Damasio proposes that somatic feedback is already central to cognition, so challenging the disembodied character of much contemporary psychology. It will be suggested that a notion of subjectivity derived from the work of Shotter and Damasio is thoroughly non-Cartesian and open to completion and elaboration through successive morphogenetic interactions with elements of social structure.

-The odd couple: Margaret Archer, Anthony Giddens and British social theorybjos_1288 253..260

 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01288.x/pdf

Anthony King

-The Place of Culture in Organization Theory: Introducing the Morphogenetic Approach: 

http://org.sagepub.com/content/7/1/95

Robert Willmott

  

Egypt: Relive the revolution - Features - Al Jazeera English

Egypt: Relive the revolution - Features - Al Jazeera English

Land grab in Africa: The case of Ethiopia

Land grab in Africa: The case of Ethiopia
(A speech delivered at the Commonwealth Club of California on March 1, 2011)

By Fikre Tolossa (Ph.D) | March 3, 2011

A historic moment in the Arab world: Wadah Khanfar on TED.com

Throughout all the 18 days of emotion and affection, I have witnessed how Al Jazeera reporters covered the Revolution of Egypt unfolding; with such a selfless engagement, that I, as a new comer to their media, have all reasons to express my respect.

Please look at the following TED event too,  - the impressive presentation of Al Jazeera's director-general, Mr. Wadah Khanfar, highlighting in very simple terms the sublime value of freedom and change for our universal humanity.

A historic moment in the Arab world: Wadah Khanfar on TED

".....inacceptable”

The “Cachet- ism” of  “…Unacceptable!”

May be you were aware of the leading “expression”, which was dominating the global ruling elite of the west (plus others), represented by their respective governments; - diplomats, spokes-Wo-Men or foreign secretaries etc. during the mass uprisings visiting North Africa, the Middle-East and the Arabian Peninsula during the last weeks – out of the blues! - A social Earthquake taking the global ruling polity by surprise, to find the adequate perception for it.

“………is unacceptable”.

I was not only somehow amazed by the sort of ironical “arrogance”, the way it was expressed on different  medial platforms, but also intrigued by what it would actually mean exactly. What is it, in its nature of philological significance? This is because it was almost  comprehensively expressed by all the global ”powerful”   centers, like USA, EU, France, Germany, UK etc …including the UN, to which I could partially understand its legitimacy.

“The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and unacceptable," said Obama,

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday said violence unleashed against Libyan protesters is 'completely unacceptable'

Guido Westerwelle: „Gewalt gegen friedliche Demonstranten ist inakzeptabel.“

Prime Minister hails "great opportunity" for Egypt ... describes situation in Libya as "deplorable and unacceptable" …

(You see if there is the will, there are some other attributes to avoid the “understatement”… significations, like deplorable….outrageous etc. but that “dummy” – “unacceptable” -must always be reiterated)

To make a contrast or understand the undertone, for instance imagine, the leader of a country like, let us say Ghana’s president giving a statement like   .. “The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and unacceptable," at a press-conference on the issue. You will immediately sense that this is an odd statement and then  it would certainly come to your  mind “what Ghana’s role is in the political “hegemony play ground” of the day.

*

Once you are sick of the monotony of the “unacceptables”, you would ponder:

“What is actually acceptable”,  Your Excellencies? or 
By this Token, are "They" telling us that these regimes have been all the time under their responsibility but these have gone now astray, beyond the "Acceptables"!

*

Therefore I looked in one of the dictionaries at my disposal and found the following diversity of meanings; to wonder in what sense the “expression” is conveyed to reach the public:.

*

Just look at what the dictionary would have to say to the different meanings and wonder as to what purpose and in what way they may have employed “…their …”UNACCEPTABLE” s ; conveyed, in the manner that you would hardly miss the point - the “master”  or the “father” telling his “subordinates” or  “Children” to behave. 

Not to mention, that there are hundred ways of expressing the “unacceptable” expression.  Now just look at what position I put myself all of a sudden in telling what I just meant! Do you sense the understatement? I am positioning myself as an all-encompassing “arbiter”, undermining your position as a reader in an “unacceptable” instance, giving you not the freedom of making your own opinion!

Thus, you can say too this is “unacceptable” to put yourself in a pari-instance, telling us all to look for a better expression “acceptable” for all of us!

I.e. May be philology has always history in it – expressed in “language” as a relation of social interactions and forces – a case for the expert in social science.

One expert along this line, Margaret S. Archer has to say  this on the written script, which I think is equally valid for the "spoken" as well:

"This can be epitomised as placing the author in the Derridian hors texte
which, for all his later equivocations, never involved a restoration of authorial
privileges. From this perspective, authors were seen as loosing texts on the public
and, in so doing, their personal intentionality was transformed into a conduit for
social forces. That is, authorial intentions were subordinated to expressions of
their class position, symptomatic of their engendered standpoint, or subsumed
into that ill-defined but capacious portmanteau, the hegemonic discourse."

THE TRAJECTORY OF THE MORPHOGENETIC APPROACH

http://www.scielo.oces.mctes.pt/pdf/spp/n54/n54a03.pdf

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

The Dictionary has the following to say:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

un·ac·cept·a·ble  (nk-spt-bl, -k-)

adj.

Not acceptable; unsatisfactory.

---

unac·cepta·bili·ty n.

unac·cepta·bly adv.

unacceptable [ˌʌnəkˈsɛptəb^əl]

adj

1. not satisfactory; inadequate the standard was wholly unacceptable

2. intolerable hitting children is unacceptable

Thesaurus Legend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms

Adj.	1.	unacceptable - not adequate to give satisfaction; "the coach told his players that defeat was unacceptable" unsatisfactory - not giving satisfaction; "shops should take back unsatisfactory goods"; "her performance proved to be unsatisfactory"; "life is becoming increasingly unsatifactory"; "our discussion was very unsatisfactory"
	2.	unacceptable - not acceptable; not welcome; "a word unacceptable in polite society"; "an unacceptable violation of personal freedom" unsatisfactory - not giving satisfaction; "shops should take back unsatisfactory goods"; "her performance proved to be unsatisfactory"; "life is becoming increasingly unsatifactory"; "our discussion was very unsatisfactory" unwelcome - not welcome; not giving pleasure or received with pleasure; "unwelcome publicity"; "unwelcome interruptions"; "unwelcome visitors" acceptable - worthy of acceptance or satisfactory; "acceptable levels of radiation"; "performances varied from acceptable to excellent"
	3.	unacceptable - used of persons or their behavior; "impossible behavior"; "insufferable insolence" insufferable, unsufferable, impossible intolerable, unbearable, unendurable - incapable of being put up with; "an intolerable degree of sentimentality"
	4.	unacceptable - not conforming to standard usage; "the following use of `access' was judged unacceptable by a panel of linguists; `You can access your cash at any of 300 automatic tellers'" unaccepted linguistics - the scientific study of language nonstandard - not conforming to the language usage of a prestige group within a community; "a nonstandard dialect is one used by uneducated speakers or socially disfavored groups"; "the common core of nonstandard words and phrases in folk speech"- A.R.Dunlap

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

---

unacceptable

adjective intolerable, unsatisfactory, unreasonable, off (Brit. informal), bad, poor, terrible, offensive, not on (informal), unpleasant, inappropriate, unwelcome, unsuitable, disgraceful, undesirable, improper, distasteful, out of order (informal), obnoxious, deplorable, displeasing, unseemly, objectionable, disagreeable, a bit much (informal), beyond the pale, inadmissible, insufferable, a bit off (Brit. informal), insupportable, impermissible, a bit thick (Brit. informal) She left her husband because of his unacceptable behaviour.
acceptable, desirable, agreeable, pleasing, welcome, pleasant, delightful

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

SO! Summa Sammarium I have come to the following conclusion:

“The Lead Expression of the Excellencies ... unacceptable”, from all the directions it happened to be conveyed into the public, to my understanding, has a taste of an offence to the Dignity of the peoples in Struggle and is a relic of their legacy neo-colonialist psycho-makeup resisting to leave their state of minds!  

I would mean, the “Excellencies” have to look for another “cachet”, “acceptable” to the Dignity of the Movement for Dignity, lest they would lose their “cachets”!

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