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A New Year, A New Start

What an amazing time it is to celebrate the famous Ethiopian New Year. It almost breaks my heart not being in Addis to be part of this great season, but instead I spent most of New Year's Day explaining to friends why our calendar is different from the one the Western world follows, and having to survive with an Ethiopian dinner where the American injera is not anywhere close to what you had on New Year's Day. But still, it was a great day for all of us, and it brought happiness to many families and households. One thing I love is the way we celebrate such days, and any outsider can say that Ethiopians know how to have a great New Year's Day. I hope you had a happy holiday season, and didn't get too exhausted from all the celebrations to spare your precious minutes to read this column.
As Ethiopians, we have a rich history, very unique cultures, an immensely diverse country, and great traditions we have managed to preserve for centuries. And we have a unique calendar! So the bottom line is, we have every reason to celebrate the marking of the year 2001 and we have a lot to be proud of. The start to a new year is always exciting, as it starts a new period in our lives and the history of our country. With a new year, there comes a lot of celebration, but also new responsibilities.
Let's face the truth. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, some even refer to our country as the poster child for hunger. We are currently facing tons of problems, where we have very high inflation rates, a fast growing population, and a food crisis that is leaving millions in need of help. We can write volumes of books listing all the challenges our country faces, our problems and misfortunes. But still, we continue to smile, to celebrate our great new year.
I see this New Year as a new start, an opportunity to refresh our systems, and a time to look ahead. Celebration is a necessity, it is part of our culture and we cannot ignore it. But I would prefer if we make the celebration sweet and short, and devote most of our energy to making more positive change in our communities so that come next year, we could look back and say 2001 was a fruitful year.
Many people talk of bringing 'positive change' or 'helping our country.' Those expressions have become too vague that we all say it and it feels like it is the responsibility of someone else. When we think of real change, we imagine it being so big, so far from our reach that it requires so much money and power. I believe it is the opposite of that: real change comes from us average citizens, from those of us who work hard and make enough money for our daily expenses. Real change comes from those of us who go to schools and universities to make a living at some point in our lives.
You see, when the world says we are one of the poorest nations in the world, when we help people define what hunger and famine mean, it doesn't translate to "we are hopeless." I see our backwardness as an opportunity and not a burden. If we are backward, that means there is a lot to do in our country, a lot to fix, and lots of gaps to fill. Having a lot to do is always good - when there is work to do, we will need workers, so there will be less of us unemployed. Backwardness brings about a gap to fill, that gap leads to innovative ideas, and those ideas give birth to entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are employers and not job seekers, and that means they create jobs and reduce unemployment even more!
The beauty of being an untouched country is that there is a lot that is not tried; there are fewer people in their offices and shops sitting down and waiting for people to hire. That could potentially alarm people and scare them with the thought, "Oh my God, there are no jobs for me!" But for some, it would be an amazing opportunity to do what hasn't been done before, to start their own things and eventually amass fresh graduates from universities.
Loving our country is not enough. Watching our runners on TV win gold medals is not enough. Celebrating alone, in my opinion is not enough. Forgetting our sorrows by rejoicing with our runners for making us proud is a sign of weakness. We cannot flash our patriotism with the hard work of others- the runners worked for it, not us! We cannot say Addis Ababa is beautiful by pointing at fancy towers that others built - those are other people's towers and not ours. I am not suggesting everyone should start building towers - God forbid there won't be enough cement and no space in our cities. But let us do something individually over the coming year so that at the end of the year, we can look back and we will have something to be proud of - this time it will be our own!
On our New Year's resolutions, let us have aims such as 'I need to come up with innovative ideas' and 'I need to double my income within a year' and 'I am going to educate myself in two new areas...'
We are at a point where we cannot afford to be depending on our athletes for national pride. They are about seven athletes with medals, out of 88 million people. They are heroes, but it would be such a shameful and sad story to tell that they are the only heroes the incoming generation can look up to. We need more heroes: those who were unemployed become entrepreneurs and employ many, families who send homeless children to school, innovative business people who give a new meaning to 'efficiency' in Ethiopia, and even better we need heroes who raise the standard in Ethiopian work ethics.
Before I start depressing everyone with my ideals, I would like to wish all readers a happy new year, and to make the best of 2001.

Yoseph can be reached at askyoseph@gmail.com