By Hook or by crook

By Tesfu Telahoun

Part one

Ethiopia is perennially second or third from bottom (might as well be on the last rung) on the human development index. This land has never been an easy country in which to live with any semblance of economic, social and other basic securities. This discouraging condition has, since the 1974 'convolution', forced citizens to leave no stone unturned to find a way, any way of fleeing a homeland that is deeply loved yet seemingly so unloving in return.
Currently, there are anywhere from a conservative 1 million to up to 3 million Ethiopians abroad forming a diaspora that grows by tens of thousands yearly. The decades long and ongoing civil social, political and economic dysfunctionality, besides spurring a net out flow of usually the most valuable human resource: the youngest and brightest; has created a migration 'industry' of sorts in which document forgery, various forms of misrepresentation and shocking acts of outright social perversion are now common place. The 'success' is even something to boast about; 'I cheated the U.S.A.!'
The most sought after gate pass out of Ethiopia for the last 15 or so years has been the coveted Diversity Visa (D.V) Lottery issued by the United States. It would not be an overstatement to declare that very few urbanite Ethiopians have not applied for the D.V. Lottery at least once. Since 1995, millions of Ethiopians have applied, making Ethiopia first in the world. The icing on the D.V. cake is that it enables the lucky winner to an immediate Green Card - a huge advantage to have and hardly available to all foreigners who make it to the United States.
The D.V. Lottery's allure (not the fault of the State Department) has added fuel to a wide range of felonious activities that first slithered to life during the Derg years when the national morality barometer of plummeted after arbitrary confiscation (theft) of hard earned property (houses, land, factories, etc) by the Derg set a pattern of societal illegality. In subsequent years, the increasingly wider opportunities offered by globalization and technology (the Internet especially), and with the nation still shrouded under the same old issues of ingrained poverty, a largely dysfunctional (system) of education, as well as weak state, public and other institutions, the urge to 'deceive to depart' has become a perverse culture.
I speak of you know who - perhaps even yourself, dear reader. I speak of the otherwise law - abiding, God fearing father/mother, who have literally (not conjugally….I hope!) married a D.V. winner offspring to their daughter or son, for the sake of securing the children's passage to the United States. I write of the pastors, lawyers, doctors, engineers, high and low officials, etc, who would commit the crime of document forgery as long as its done with the objective of scurrying away yet another Ethiopian.(continues nextweek)