Mereja.Forum

[ittuabafarda]

There is always a question we, the more fortunate in our Diaspora, should ask ourselves. What can we ourselves do to help the old country that produced us all to industrialize itself? I am not asking all of us who have the required resources to go back. For many of us and various legitimate reasons it may be prohibitively difficult to return. But we can always make a useful return by making our assets available to those still inside the country to open businesses that create jobs for the desperately unemployed. Many of us have already done that by giving financial and know-how assistance in opening businesses and factories to relatives and others we know very well to have the entrepreneurial skills. Opening factories can be a tall order for most of us financially but we still can play a part in that role by lobbying companies to open factories there and also by putting together our resources among friends and open small factories of our own. Some of us have done that or at least tried to do that already for decades now.

I am a big believer of industrialization and the spread of factories throughout the country because I had seen first hand what that did to other countries going back to the 1970’s. Industrialization have the means and power to create sizable middle class in a society. It ushers a new way of thinking for the citizens. It shapes up a new outlook makeup in the citizens psyche. They don’t need someone else to give them answers to what, why and how questions they may have. This is the middle class our commies have been bedeviling since 1960’s even before it began taking deep roots in that region. Middle class is a tough cookie for connivers. It knows how to single out a lonely cross eyed bee among a swarm of millions.

The other windfall from major industrialization is its role in liberating the women currently in bondage. It has the wherewithal to create a vast middle class of women which will play a big role in bringing the runaway population to a screeching halt. I had seen it myself in other countries in Asia. Factories will bring vast numbers of women out of their homes into humming factories giving them ‘Now I got it!’ moment. That will give them the power to be part of decisive roles in the affairs at home. Until industrialization starts playing the major role in shaping up the society in every country in the Horn of Africa, the population will continue to explode beyond control creating a haplessly unemployed majority of young population that will avail itself to bigots and connivers to their destructive schemes. That is what we are witnessing now. In a society where industrialization is spreading the youth will be too busy in factories, offices and schools working, adapting and learning. Please don't forget that the old country with its huge and young population it has a potential huge market to consume what it can produce. Again, without industrialization on steroid, the old country will continue to be the poster child violence, instability, internal displacements and killer famines. In other words, the ugly cycle will continue until it goes belly up for good. .

[Geodude]

Build a condom factory to reduce the ever-growing population of poor, helpless, and uneducated


Buy textbooks that teach about the dangerous effects of malnourishment.


Send bidets and toilets.

[Somaliman]

It beggars belief that you're rather worried about poor industrialisation in Ethiopia and how "to create a sizable middle class in a society" at this very juncture in a country where wars are bleeding out the entire nation one after another and tearing the society apart, heightened risk of genocide and atrocity crimes have become the daily stables in the country, safety is nostalgically treated at something of the past, each federal state has shut down itself as a self-defence, and that the whole country is on the brink of disintegration due to the reckless and moronic ambition of a clown!

You remind me of the famous quote, "Let them eat cake" - "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

[ittuabafarda]

The situation in the Horn of Africa except Djibouti looks insurmountable or beyond repair. But I don't buy that. As the old adage goes 'If there is the will, there will be the way'. In this case, if there the will and determination the entire region has the chance to come out of the prevailing predicament. I strongly believe the knowledge is there already. There is a massive size of literate population. That is a huge well of untapped human resources that can be trained into skilled labor with minimal training. Amharas, Oromos, Afars, Somalis, Tigres, Sidamas, Gambellas, Beni Shanguls and the rest of groups of population in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia have shown the ability to learn and adapt to new skills already. All they lack is the opportunities they have been denied. I am not daydreaming about them. I am making their case from my own experience from what I saw during the last 60 years.

If someone tells you around 1977-79 that Taiwan will be one of the most industrialized with very GDP(PPP) by 1990, you would tell the person to see a psychiatrist right there and there, If you tell someone in 1990 that South Korea will be making and exporting automobiles to western world, you would think something is terribly wrong with me and would urge me to seek medical assistance. If I tell you the same about Singapore around 1990, you would warn me that our friendship would be over abruptly. In 1960's thru 1970's Taiwan used to be the favorite destination for the allied forces GI's during their R&R because the island wide brothels. But slowly and surely the brothels began to disappear beginning the late 1970's. Why? It was because, the ladies were then swarming factories. They were going to and spending days and night at factories making products instead of going to the brothels. That liberated the women in just few years. Before that Taiwan was an island of roasting pits of camphor with a serious population explosion. When I first set my foot on that island on business trip, I had seen that transformation on the spot myself. I had come across female factory workers moving up in positions. A female worker I had seen running a machine during one trip, saw the same person as a line lead or foreman during the next trip. I have one example with whom my wife and I went on to forge a lasting friendship to this day. That person went through the stages as a factory worker, foreman, factory manager and since the 1990's has been an owner of a successful company. There are so many women like her who achieved the ultimate liberation because of an all out industrialization that island nation went through. Taiwanese did not stop at becoming just at foremen, managers and factory/business owners, but they are now running the island nation itself. The same goes for South Korea and Singapore. These nations have defined grit and guile through their women.

[Somaliman]

It beggars belief that you're daring to treat the HoA as an interconnected one nation that shares common interests and visions, and thus needs common solutions, when your shithole, called Ethiopia, is in clear violation of the unity, territorial integrity, and independence of one of its immediate neighbours.


All we've in common are borders, and yet we've disagreements on these.


You should better focus on your shithole.

[ittuabafarda]

Make that:
I have one example with whom my wife and I went on to forge a lasting friendship to this day. That person went through the stages as a factory worker, foreman, factory manager and since the 1990's has been an owner of a successful company. There are so many women like her who achieved the ultimate liberation because of an all out industrialization that island nation went through. Taiwanese women did not stop at becoming just as foremen, managers and factory/business owners, but they are now running the island nation itself transforming Taiwan a robust democracy and the envy of freedom yearning world that deprived sleep for the demonic commie despots in Beijing. The same goes for South Korea and Singapore. These nations have defined grit and guile through their women. All this became possible because these countries fixated their eyes on the prize, industrialization and all the transformative power that comes with it. The leaders of all these nations, no matter how authoritarian they were, foresaw the benefits of industrialization and went full blast with it. They had their young people flooding the universities and technical schools in the West and absorb the latest like a sponge. It did not take us too long to read news about a Taiwanese company buying a behemoth American manufacturer. Admiral became AOC(Admiral Overseas Corporation). I was in South Korea in later part of the 1980's to visit factories that made diamond blades and small motors to supplement my company's product line. It did not take too long for Hyundai and KIA to grace car dealers showrooms with bigger motors. Is it too late for countries like the four countries of the Horn of Africa to replicate what these three exemplary Asian nations achieved in less than 2 decades? Not at all. And I am not pulling legs about it!!!

[ittuabafarda]

When I mentioned Singapore as a poster child for industrialization and social transformation, its being a small city is lost on me. But still there is a lot that can be referred to for city developers in charge of metropolitan areas like Dire Dawa, Addis/Finfinne, Jimma, Awasa, Jijgije, Bahir Daar, Mekele and others like these. South Korea, Taiwan and even Thailand and Malaysia have a lot to learn from. I had written about this on comment sections on other websites going back to the early 2000's. That is because I had the chance to witness their blindingly fast transformation on the spot during my several businesses there going back to the 1970's.

I'm aware that some of you may try to invalidate my suggestion using some facts such as the geopolitics of the 1960's which was everywhere including Africa. Those Asian countries I mentioned were ruled by authoritarian regimes just like almost all of the then African nations. In my opinion, those African nations even had more motivating factors(reasons) than their Asian counterparts. Except Ethiopia, Liberia, Egypt and South Africa the rest of Africa had just tossed away the yoke of colonialism in 1960 almost the same time Singapore told Malaysia enough is enough and went on to going it all alone. But South Korean, Taiwan and Singaporean despotic leaders had a doable development plan. They said to the Western Powers 'Yes Sir' and absorb every adaptable technology like a sponge. Chiang Kai-shek was not only busy sniffing out sleeping cells of commies but he had launched the island wide 'Great Construction' of highways, railways and port facilities. He sent young Taiwanese in their tens of thousands to the colleges and technical schools in the Western countries and they did not disappoint. They absorb every technological skill they could put their hands on like a sponge. South Korean and those from Singapore did the same. When they went back to their respective countries, they found workable plan tossed on their lapse. It was like the best music to their ears. Some of you might also to dispute this suggestion by unknowingly to argue that Taiwan or Singapore did not have the ethnic issues and complexities like ours. How wrong you are about that. Chiang Kai-shek had tried everything to make Taiwan a monolingual nation by outlawing the Hokkien and Hakka dialects. My wife's and mine longtime Taiwanese friend told how she was paraded in her classroom as a kid when she was caught speaking in the Hokkien dialect in stead of Mandarin. She was punished with wearing a dog tag that read 'I was a dog today'. That was excessive and cruel but on the other hand his regime was building facilities for factories throughout that island. It all became just like they say 'If you build it, they will come!' That created a massive middle class population that end up being the grave digger of despots. The same happened in South Korea. Park did not disappoint no matter he brutal he was.

But on the other side of the Indian Ocean, it was a different story. It did not take too long for the independence celebration to be abruptly over in every newly independent country in Africa. When those Asian rulers gave their citizens practical development plans tailored specifically to their nations, their African contemporaries were hatching one violent coup d'état after another. In our case of Ethiopia and Somalia violent overthrow of regimes, violent and destructive civil wars with all their massacres and killer famines have become the decals on their faces they are known for. Demonic Marxist/Leninist/Maoist literature became the guiding 'light' for the should-have-known-betters. Even their writings were scripted as photocopies of those by Marx, Lenin and Mao. I remember tracts with headlines like 'Some Notes on' and 'On Questions of' on this or that subject ala Lenin, Stalin and Mao. We were told 'American Imperialism' has been exploiting our old country since the first visit by US Envoy Robert P. Skinner in 1903. When I asked to name one American company controlling the old country's economy, there were none, not even one. Those who wrote those tracts were just reciting their demonic idols/mentors, Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao demonic sermons. The same mumbling and jumbling was in full swing in the rest of Africa. By the time all is said and done once blooming landscapes had turned into scorched earth with millions death due to stupid wars and avoidable nature's calamities. That is where the age old saying 'We missed the boat' perfectly qualifies. But is the boat now out of reach? Absolutely not! All we have to do is wake up to it, get into a state flux, focus on the economy, come up with a workable and go no-holds barred industrialization. Turn that country upside down with factories here, factories there and factories everywhere.

[ittuabafarda]

Make that:

1) When I mentioned Singapore as a poster child for industrialization and social transformation, its being a small city is not lost on me.
2) That is because I had the chance to witness their blindingly fast transformation on the spot during my several business trips there going back to the 1970's.
3) When they went back to their respective countries, they found workable plan tossed on their laps.
4) Some of you might also try to dispute this suggestion by unknowingly to argue that…
5) My wife's and mine longtime Taiwanese friend told us how she was paraded…
6) All we have to do is wake up to it, get into a state flux, focus on the economy, come up with a workable long-term economic plan and go no-holds barred with industrialization.

[ittuabafarda]

Those of us who still care for the peoples who produced us all would like the current conundrum that caused so many deaths, destruction and displacements to end somehow and know how. We dream its end once and for all day and night. Let's assume it ends a week, month or Allah forbids, a year from now. If it ends that means tens even hundreds of thousands of former rebels will go home or gather up in cities and towns. Then, you will ask the cardinal question. What awaits them to keep them busy and making a peaceful living? Toss some bones at them to make sure they are fed and clothed? But for how long? That has proven to be not sustainable in every continent before, especially after WWI and WWII. Reconstruction of factories and infrastructures provided steady jobs that provided sustainable income. Who will forget the Marshall Plan? Both Ethiopia and Somalia are in the best positions to go that route. Both have huge size of infrastructure to rebuild the destroyed and construct new ones. By hook or crook materials needed should be made at home which necessitates to opening of so many factories. I will keep elaborating on that one in the next pow wow.

[ittuabafarda]

If there is nothing awaits those returning to society from years in the bushes, the country will definitely run into another rush of violence. That is what exactly happening in certain central and Latin American countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. It has already happening in the old country. My relatives in the capital who are merchants told me certain parts of Tigray have turned into a lawless Wild West territory. Law and order has completely broken down with a series rush of kidnapping and hostage taking for ransom. The youth that used to tinker with AK47 as his smart phone now has nothing else to get him preoccupied. He has turned the barrels of his gun on his own countrymen. Working at factories would have transformed him in a way any rehabbing sessions would not do in million years. Working at factories and making even a modest living would enable him to understand how the modern world was/is being made. He would not need anybody else to give him the answers to how, why and what questions he may have but he can answer them himself. It is inherent in them that factories will liberate women and that will bring the hopelessly exploding population to a screeching halt faster than just promoting condoms and pills can do in decades. The proof is in the pudding in South Korea, Taiwan, Chile and across Europe.

[ittuabafarda]

It is evident in the old country what the absence of a well thought out plan would do to countries when the size of the population keep exploding. When I left that country more than seven decades ago its population was less than 25 million. Now it is estimated to be more than 130 million and by 2050, just a mere 25 years from now, it is projected to surpass 230 million. As you stated more than 80% of the working age of the population is virtually unemployed providing a cannon fodder for bigots and connivers. The majority of the youth is literate, meaning it has the required education to be an efficient factory worker or a qualified employee in a service economy sector. It can be easily trained. I am speaking for experience. When we set up our first factory in Guangdong province in Dongguan vicinity, all they had was a factory shade and a good supply of unemployed youth. Our intermediaries were from Hong Kong who spoke fluent English, Cantonese and Mandarin. The machinery was ours we took with us. I had to train every young Chinese both males and females in how to operate the fabricating equipment from scratch. I had to repeat myself several times until it sank in with every trainee. It took almost 3 months before products started trickling out of the factory. What was our old country was doing during that time? Mengistu at the helm, it was all about creating the fantasy land of socialism. You can imagine how I was seething inside in anger realizing I was not training my old country's young men and women in mastering the skills of making products at factories. What Deng saw coming straight at him then was more than 500 million unemployed educated youth ready to devour him alive. He came up with a plan that included carving out the entire Guangdong province as a special economic zone. That kept the youth preoccupied with working at factories. More than 42 years later, commies China has become what it is today. If that was our old country, I guarantee you that it would not take half the time it took me to train those Chinese workers to train my countrymen/women. But that was not to be. Commies were running that gem of the colored and ran it to the ground. Even now it is not out of the woods yet. Commies are already gone leaving behind deadly bigots and connivers. The cycle goes on.

[ittuabafarda]

Let's all hope and pray that the old country will somehow be able to find peace with itself very soon. Let's hope and pray that the youth that has been connived to take to the bushes will finally wake up to those who hoodwinked him/her and go back to his loved ones. That is the best wishes we can extend to those noble people who produced us all. They have seen it all. They were mowed down like overgrown lawn, chased out of their domiciles where they have lived for decades and even centuries. They have been denied their dignity by thugs and bigots. When they think that it is all over for them, then suddenly sky start falling on top of them with bloodshed they have never seen before. What else they have not been subjected to? May The Good Lord Bring Peace and Stability for them! If that starts happening soon, they are assured that a better world is awaiting them. Qualified experts both at IMF and The World Bank are projecting an encouraging economic growth for the old country between 6.3 and 7.00. That is great news. With sustained peace and stability we can all say that the country that we still hold very dear to our heart, it has finally got its mojo working. Insha'Allah!!!

[Somaliman]

Let's all hope and pray that the old country will somehow be able to find peace with itself very soon. Let's hope and pray that the youth that has been connived to take to the bushes will finally wake up to those who hoodwinked him/her and go back to his loved ones. That is the best wishes we can extend to those noble people who produced us all. They have seen it all. They were mowed down like overgrown lawn, chased out of their domiciles where they have lived for decades and even centuries. They have been denied their dignity by thugs and bigots. When they think that it is all over for them, then suddenly sky start falling on top of them with bloodshed they have never seen before. What else they have not been subjected to? May The Good Lord Bring Peace and Stability for them! If that starts happening soon, they are assured that a better world is awaiting them. Qualified experts both at IMF and The World Bank are projecting an encouraging economic growth for the old country between 6.3 and 7.00. That is great news. With sustained peace and stability we can all say that the country that we still hold very dear to our heart, it has finally got its mojo working. Insha'Allah!!!

Let's all hope and pray that the old country will somehow be able to find peace with itself very soon.

Please don't count on me, as no amount of fuc'king prayers and hope will save the fake old evil country. which boasts of never have been colonised, while being the largest regular recipient of humanitarian food aid in the whole of Africa, the biggest recipient of U.S. food aid globally, the largest recipient of British aid in Africa and second in the world, the largest recipient of foreign assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa, the largest beneficiary of the International Development Association's (IDA) in Africa, the largest recipient of World Bank funds in Africa, one of the most aid- dependent countries in the entire fuc'king world!

Ethiopia is a persona non grata evil in the HoA, and it's a curse for the other countries in the region to have this cursed land as a neighbour next door.

I wouldn't raise a fuc.king eyebrow if Ethiopia and its people were all burning to the ground, turning into ashes, and disappearing forever. Trust me, I would rather be shouting "Thank heavens" with joy for the whole day and even the rest of the year.

[ittuabafarda]

The economic prospect projected by qualified experts at IMF and The World Bank for several African countries is very encouraging. That small jewel in the Horn of Africa, Djibouti, leads with the highest expected economic growth. The one I found worth celebrating is the prospect for Somalia, a country once written off as a lost cause. It is expected to grow by about 3.5%. It also seems to have got its mojo working. I would like to extend my heart-felt congratulations to my very dear Somali brothers and sisters for this monumental achievement. I am sure you will never forget those young men and women from other African countries who lost their Allah blessed lives helping you find peace and stability in your very dear country. Peace y’all!!!

[ittuabafarda]

Folks, hold on my phone is ringing.
Hello, Ittu speaking.
Hey Ittu! Its me. Do you know who I am?
Yes, its you Af-Mishaar. I recognize the voice. Whatta be like dude?
What it is, man. Very busy as usual.
Any thing news from Jijgige? Any thing what the Somali Region President Mustafa has been doing lately?
Ittu, how many times did I tell to mention that guy’s name?
Why? He is doing fine for what his people had hired him to do. You can hear a pin drop in his region.
I don’t wanna here his name. I hate him because he has Oromo and Amhara friends.
What is wrong with that? They are citizens of the same country.
No, Somalis are not Ethiopians. I hate Oromos, Amharas and everything with and about Ethiopia with a passion.
That is not nice, Af-Mishaar. I think you have a serious thinly veiled bigotry about those two noble people and Ethiopia. You yourself were born in Jijgige which is in Ethiopia. Weren’t you?
No, I was not born in Ethiopia. Jijgige is a Somali property. My birth certificate was issued by the British official who was the governor of Jigjige.
Wo, wo, hold it mister. Are you saying you were when Jigjige was under British administration?
Yes, that is what I’m saying. My parents wedding certificate was issued by the British governor.
Hold it mister. That means you were in or before 1948 because that was the year the British returned the entire Ogaden region to the rightful owner, Ethiopia. Btw, do you still have those British government issued wedding and birth certificates, Af-Mishaar?
No I don’t have them and lost after I left. Ittu, stop mentioning the name Ethiopia. I told you I hate that country with a passion. But that was not the reason I called you.
Okay, go ahead and tell me.
Ittu, I might not have told you this but some of the world leaders are my personal friends.
That is very good.
Just like this morning, Trudea called me asking for some pointers about the Horn of Africa.
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister?
Yes, Justin Trudeau. We talked on the phone for more than 3 hours. He needed directions on how to deal with the situation in the Horn of Africa. I emailed the 16-pages document I wrote for my meeting with a big man from US Department of State two years ago.
What is the name of that big man from the State Department?
I forgot his name. In any case, PM Trudeau had read thru my document and called me back to express his sincere appreciation.
Wow! Are you thinking about moving to Canada?
No I will stay where I am now because I don’t wanna create a traffic logjam by moving there. That is what happening here now where I live. Whenever I leave home that creates a traffic jam because people want to catch just a glimpse of me..
Wow, you don’t have any privacy, Af-Mishaar.
No I don’t. Guess who called me right after I finished talking to PM Trudeau?
Who?
Rishi Sunak.
The PM of Britain?
Yes. He needed some pointers on The Horn of Africa and I sent him the same document. Btw, Sunak and I go back to his days at Stanford. He sees me as his mentor. Angela Merkel used to call me at least one a month to get my opinion about The Horn of Africa.
Wow, you make a lot of people envy of you. Btw, if you were born before 1948 that means you were almost a middle age person when you came to this country. But you mentioned on several occasions that you were barely a teenager. Things are not adding up for you Af-Mishaar.
Whatever, Ittu. Last call for you. Have you and your Itu clan accepted the new designation as Somali Abo?
Listen Smart Aleck Af-Mishaar. I swear to you that you wouldn’t say that to my face and walk away in one piece.

[ittuabafarda]

Af-Mishaar, pardon me for some typos here.

[East African]

Education is the key for industrialization.

[Somaliman]

Are you thinking about moving to Canada?
No I will stay where I am now because I don’t wanna create a traffic logjam by moving there. That is what happening here now where I live. Whenever I leave home that creates a traffic jam because people want to catch just a glimpse of me..

Certainly, such an excessive self-satisfaction does not reflect me, as I'm a very humble person.

Trust me, I know a guy who speaks like that. He even dares to say, "I chat often with the guys at the State Department", even though he's not in any capacity that can have anything to do with the State Department.

Any unbiased and fair-minded critical analysis of yours with regard to the article in the link below, which is elaborating the idiosyncrasies of your clownish cousin!
https://wardheernews.com/wp-content/upl ... ebissa.pdf

[ittuabafarda]

Let's keep hoping and praying that each of the 4 countries of the Horn of Africa is stable with sustained peace. In order to enjoy the dividends of sustained peace and stability all of them have to be peaceful and stable. Their shared history of the last 50 years has shown with no ambiguities that the lack of these conditions in one country would adversely affect the other. If peace is attained and stabilized and with a well thought out development plan, the sky will be the limit for what the peoples of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia can become. They have untapped natural resources, a huge young and literate population and location. That will happen someday soon and hopefully before I take my last breath on this good earth. Insha'Allah!!!!

[ittuabafarda]

I just read a story about a tragic story that took place in Tigray region. The story was about a 16 year old girl who was kidnapped by armed thugs for ransom. The thugs demanded a payment of 3 million in the local currency in exchange for her release. When the parents was not able to come up with the ransom money, the demonic thugs raped and killed her. Some of the thugs were caught and had led the police to where they buried her.

You think this is a rare occasion now? Wait until those armed young men who are now roaming the wilderness of Amhara and Oromia regions start returning home. Both of them have proven to be ruthless to their victims. If something is not awaiting them that switch them to a productive and sustainable means to make a satisfactory living, that country will be El Salvador on steroid. Colombian, Chinese(faceless commies from Beijing) and African drug cartels will have a ready-to-slice hapless youth in its millions. You think Rio De Janeiro and Johannesburg are the most dangerous cities now but Addis, Mekele, Dire Dawa, Jimma and other cities will outdo them overnight. Rapes, kidnappings, random shootings, robberies, mugging and inter gang warfares between armed thugs will be so common that we will all say ‘So what? It is just another kidnapping, rape or murder!’ My dear Ethiopia! You gem of the colored, Ethiopia! You are duly forewarned!!!