The news broadcasts about Ethiopia that I have been hearing and reading lately sound like those broadcasts during the last few months of the Dergue regime. I remember the broadcasts around the time when the TPLF/EPRDF arrived in Gojjam and the EPLF wasn't in Asmera yet.
The government media was there until it was overtaken and started to broadcast ለህዝብ ጥቅም ተቆጣጥሮታል repeatedly almost all day. While the TPLF/EPRDF was still in Gojjam and probably after they crossed into Wellega, I remember somebody listening to its radio broadcast. It sounded to me a rowdy one. In it was the following catchy expression: ብሄር ኦሮምያ። Hearing that expression was amusing to me for one reason, which was the source of entitlement to speak for others if they struggled for long as TPLF. That was it. ዶሮህን ፈልግ was my unexpressed expression. I am not trying to hammer them down now from a distance after so many years.
Then there was the broadcast by SBO with its searing tune in the beginning.
We thought the VOA and BBC were the more reliable and independent kinds of broadcasts; I did not second guess them if they didn't care if the rebels slugged it out among themselves or against government forces.
A desire for democracy to win was there for sure.
Years later and after a little more reading, I came across a discussion on this forum that suggested something to the effect that democracy is a new concept in Africa. I remember countering it and suggesting that democracy may actually not have originated in the west but borrowed by it from elsewhere. I still remember my counter-argument belittled and a suggestion that it amounted to appropriating other people's heritage. I have had no hard feelings about it.
However, as if to corroborate my suggestion back then, I recently heard self-conflicting arguments by one of the leading American Senators, Ron Johnson, that sounded devoid of the basic precepts of democracy.
If what I heard in the news and attributed to this Senator is accurate, he privately believes that the candidate from a different party won but it would be political suicide to admit it in public.
So, lady or gentleman (no pun intended) who argued against my suggestion back then, does this kind of self-conflicting belief and expression sound to you of any value to democracy? I don't think so. As a matter of fact, if one honestly believes that a candidate from a different party won in a democratic process, the political suicide would be for one to fail to come out to the public and express it graciously immediately after being convinced about who won in the process. My point here is more about the democratic process than the candidate of either party.
A country wins when democracy wins in that country.
When I was in college, we used to watch American basketball games. It was when the Chicago Bulls were dominant. I mostly enjoy watching the best tactics in the games, whether it was soccer or basketball, instead of clapping for a particular team. However, I remember a particular game that was the last game for the top star in the team before his retirement. I have been thinking that it was Michael Jordan. However, I couldn't locate its clip on youtube when I did a brief search recently.
From what I remember, the retiring star's team was trailing by just two points. Then just before the game ended, the star threw for a three-pointer and scored it. That made the other team lose just by one point. We said what a legacy for the retiring star.
I do not remember any complaint at all from the losing team that they were ahead by two points before that final moment, or that the other team's margin of victory was just by a single point, and their so many points should make them the champions, or that they be given more time to lead again. The game ended, the team that was behind won, and the other team accepted it graciously.
I am unsure if there are many people out there who can draw any analogy between game sports and democratic processes. If there are, is Senator Ron Johnson an anomaly or an expression for a fundamental misunderstanding of the basic precepts of democracy? I haven't got a definite answer for that. At the same time, I don't think that it weakens my suggestion years ago that people like this Senator did not invent democracy but borrowed it and started to swear in its name and started to act as if they were its pioneers.