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What is politics?

Haile-Gebriel Endeshaw
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What is politics?

What is politics? This is the question that has been twirling in the minds of many people. Let’s say this same question is posed to you. What will you do? Probably you try to say something based on your knowledge on the subject. Or you may open your dictionary and humbly read out some of the definitions listed there. “Politics is the art or science of government… the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government.”
What impressed me most regarding the definition of politics goes like this. “Politics is the art or science of influencing other people on a civic or individual level. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance-organized control over a human community, particularly a state. A variety of methods is employed in politics, which include promoting its own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to international level…”
I hope you readers like this definition for the very reason that the term politics is somewhat elaborated in a much better way than the other definitions we have just read above. Whatever it is, I am not satisfied with all these above given definitions of politics. I don’t mean it is incorrect. I just want to say that these definitions have nothing to do with the politics being exercised in my own country. Therefore, what if I come up with my own free definition? But first let’s read some more strange definitions by others.
I don’t remember right now about the guy who said it, but I know a funny definition given to the term politics. It says that the word politics comes from Greek. It is a combination of two words; ‘poly’ and ‘ticks’. ‘poly’ means ‘many’ while ‘ticks’ is a word with the meaning of blood-sucking parasites. This is very funny and interesting; isn’t it? Ernest Benn says, “God has no role to play in politics except to make sure politicians go where they belong. To hell”. This same individual also said that “politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy”.
My friend, our politics is quite different. It is not the kind of politics that can be explained as ‘art or science’. It is rather the art or science of cruelty and hatred shrouded by ethnicity and segregation. Politics in my country is a multi-faceted art of cruelty. The politicians use it to consolidate their mass base through ethnicity and racism. But why these politicians are interested in ‘their’ people? Someone said that “politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs”. These politicians do their art of cruelty by fabricating wrong history and disseminating lies among the innocent people. In the current Ethiopia, politics is a hot cake for those crooked individuals who get together under their umbrella of ethnicity. They kill innocent people for their destructive cause. They play ethnic politics to wipe away innocent civilians of other ethnic group from their localities. Politics for these individuals is the art of instilling hate in the minds of the young people. It is the art of doing business. These politicians who call themselves intellectuals cause displacements of civilians so that they can get financial gain. They get the land and other illegally looted properties from displaced people…
Our politics is a devilish art in which you will get affected irrationally by those who have the power. You get killed, displaced and incarcerated illegally. You will be hanged with your head down by irresponsible individuals who have been let free across the country. You will be deprived of your right to reside and possess property in any part of this country. What you call liberty, democracy, individual rights do not have place here in your own country.
My fellow country man, so long as you have no power, you can never get acceptance by those who seized the power. Might is power. Who said that? I am of the opinion that whomever said this, it is a very correct maxim. Those who have the power are the most respected ones. (The power acquired illegally.) What is surprising is that the government has not shown any effort to take legal measures against these trespassers. As they have been let free, they can do whatever they like… they kill people, robe government resources like banks, arm themselves illegally… but the government does not raise its fingers to pinch them. They come out on local media to disseminate hate speech, call other ethnic groups names. The entire nations have witnessed that no legal measures have been taken against the individuals who are believed to be major causes of this chaos. This is the real politics we see being practiced openly.
In our country when we are talking about politics, it doesn’t mean the way one and one is equal to two. It is quite the opposite. The so called intellectuals create their own fake history and corrupt the minds of the posterity. So long as it is the simplest way that can help them to attain their goal, there is no need for them to have civil discussions and arguments with other people. What they say and demand must always be taken for granted.
Our present-day politicians do not solve political problems through round table discussions or civil arguments or debates. They rather try to impose their political agendas on others. Violence and terrorism are their favorite ways to achieve their goals, which are not the common agendas of others.
To date many unfortunate people have been forced to watch local television programs that are accustomed to presenting individuals who call themselves intellectuals. These shameless liars are seen wallowing in political corruption. They are busy misleading the people. They use their power for illegitimate gains. There are certain television channels that deliberately arrange the fora for these individuals so that they can disseminate their venomous propaganda and divisive political agendas. These guys declare themselves the enemy of unity. What they are always thinking of is ethnicity.
This is politics our leaders are exercising in this country of ours. They don’t give a damn whether or not the rule of law prevails across the country. The crooked politicians use the opportunity to promote corruption, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft and embezzlement. The parliament or the house of representatives which is responsible to echo the cry of the downtrodden nation doesn’t say a word regarding this political corruption. Still we have not yet been fortunate to enjoy our legal rights. Still we have not yet been blessed with genuine legal personnel who judge citizens equally and in due process of law. How unfortunate we are!

The writer can be reached through gizaw.haile@yahoo.com

Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Ton Haverkort
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We have great ambitions. We want to see sustained double digit economic growth; we want to end poverty and hunger; we want to create jobs for millions. These are good ambitions. To realise them we need realistic goals and the capacity to make things happen. In other words, building capacity at all levels of government and industry is a top priority. And we need to strike a balance between growth and the systems and infrastructures to support that growth.
Ethiopian Airlines, for example, has been growing at a tremendous rate over the past years and its ambition is to grow bigger still, which is great. The capacity of the airport services, its systems and infrastructure are following suit, but at a lesser pace, challenging the efficient flow of the increasing numbers of passengers, beginning at the parking lot outside the terminals. When I observe the constructions going on in the city and the country side, and I consider the rate of population growth and urbanization, I wonder how infrastructure development can keep up, including water & electricity supply, road construction, waste management, etc. Such are the challenges of the Government, which then deserves all our support and capacity to turn its ambitions into reality. This is where we as business owners come in and to play our role well, we ourselves need to make sure we have the capacity to run and control our business effectively. Whether you run a small or big business, you need to be in control and to be in control you need to follow a certain set of management principles and instruments, which provide you the necessary information to make decisions, informed decisions that is. Just how much management is required depends on the size of your business. There are many investors who have a good business idea and start off on a small scale. It normally takes time for any business to recover the initial investment and to make some real profit. Let us assume that the new business is beginning to pick up. By this I simply mean that the business is beginning to get customers and sales figures are slowly growing. The entrepreneur who started the business is pleased by these developments and is anxiously looking forward to making some profit soon. He is the owner and manager at the same time. He is the boss, it is his business. He has all the information he needs, and he makes sure he alone has access to it. After all, others might just run away with it. He keeps all the records, on his stock, his expenses, the income, taxes to be paid, the lot. He also does all the advertising and controls the production process. He is busy. As the business is growing, he is now in a position to employ some staff, which he expects will be able to help him a bit. He needs a secretary, a book keeper and a few sales girls. As he cannot afford higher salaries, he goes for cheaper personnel, who are not really qualified for the job, one of them a distant relative who has no job. They will catch up, is his assumption. To his disappointment, they keep doing things wrong though. He is frequently confronted with blunders by any of them. The accounts don’t reconcile, correspondence is not followed up, customers complain about the service. Our entrepreneur gets upset every time something goes wrong and cries that it is easier to do it himself. He hires and fires, but the situation does not change for the better. Until he managed to get a temporary accountant, who knows what she is doing. After some time, the accountant makes a few suggestions how to improve the administration. He gets upset again: “How dare you interfere with the way I manage things here! This is my business! Just do your work!” The accountant leaves the business and things go back to what they were before. The business has the potential to grow, but how? It just doesn’t seem to work. The customers in their own way contribute to this state of affairs. They want to see the boss; they want to talk to the owner, who takes the decisions.
If a business has the potential to grow, the pace of the growth will be limited by the amount of management time that is available. And with te business owner doing it all by himself, it is clear that he doesn’t have much time left. As long as he holds on to this way of running his business, things will not get any better. So, what are some of the factors that stand in the way? Well, some business owners simply enjoy the position and the power they have created for themselves and they find it difficult to share this with others. We also see often that the workers that are employed are indeed not qualified for the job. This may save money, but it doesn’t help in the long run. As employees make mistakes, the owner/manager may find it easier to keep on doing things himself. Not everybody has the gift to teach and coach staff how to do it right. Disappointments and mistakes in the past sustain the state of affairs. Finally, the employees feel uncertain themselves. They are afraid to make mistakes and they do not want to take responsibility. They continue referring every decision and initiative to the boss. What can be done? In the first place, more time to manage the business needs to be created, by employing professionals who know their job and who can manage their part of the business. A growing business needs professionals like a production manager, a marketing manager and a finance director. Secondly, they must be included in making strategic decisions for the company. The habit of working with a management team needs to be developed. With a professional management team there is more time for management and thus a better chance to do things right. It will allow the owner to concentrate more on leading the company. Remember, leadership is “doing the right things” and management is “doing the things right”. With a professional management team in place, responsibilities can now be delegated. Delegation means entrusting authority to somebody else. It is here where most business owners fear to let go and find it difficult to trust others enough to transfer power. And yet, without delegation the future will not get any better. A few suggestions here:
Make sure your employees have the capacity to carry out delegated tasks: hire professionals.
Accept mistakes. Only by making mistakes we will learn.
Really entrust authority to them. Don’t hover around or go checking behind their backs.
Include them in your management decisions; develop a management team.
Provide the support and information they require. Ask: “How can I help?”
Remember that without proper management, there is no real future, no guarantee for continuation. I have seen many projects, organizations, businesses collapse after the initiator left. Even if it was running well under the sole management of the owner, it collapsed because there was nobody to take over, nobody who knew how to run the business, who the customers were, how the accounts were organized, where the materials came from, what to do in case of a brake down. And that is not what we want, if we want to sustain the business.
Finally, let us have ambitions that have the potential to support the development of the country. But keep them realistic and manageable. Bite off only what you can chew, otherwise you will choke in the process.

ton.haverkort@gmail.com

Yonas Alemu

Staff Reporter
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Yonas Alemu

Name: Yonas Alemu

Education: Nursing Diploma

Company name: Bicolo printing

Title: Owner

Founded in: 2011

What it does: Publishing different materials

HQ: Bahir Dar

Number of employees: 15

Startup Capital: 550,000 birr

Current capital: Growing

Reason for starting the business: To do what I want

Biggest perk of ownership: Managing myself

Biggest strength: Doing quality works and commitment

Biggest challenge: Suitable working place

Plan: To open a big restaurant

First career: Nurse

Most interested in meeting: Warren Buffett

Most admired person: Oliver Napoleon Hill

Stress reducer: Reading

Favorite past-time: Working

Favorite book: Fiker Eske Mekaber by Hadiss Alemayhu

Favorite destination: Hawassa

Favorite automobile: Bentley

Misconceptions about Branding

admin
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By Aschalew Tamiru

The term “Branding” is greatly misunderstood by the general public, business owners, and within the branding industry. Many professionals often misuse the word and therefore have created a broad misunderstanding of what a “brand” is and how “branding” is defined.
The gaps in their knowledge about branding prevent companies from fully appreciating the benefits branding can bring to their business. As most scholars agree these misunderstanding on branding is observed throughout the glob but the level of misunderstanding differ. Various reasons are forwarded from scholars for confusion on branding, youngness of the branding concept is among others.
In this article some of the most common misconceptions that hold people back from embracing the benefits of branding is discussed.
Branding is not only development of logo: it is customary to hear companies say “we need our companies branding done” and asking only for logo designing. So many companies claim that they create brands when all they do is generate logos, business cards or similar design items, so it’s hardly surprising that people are confused by this. In fact, logo design is just one of the many aspects that make up the branding process it’s important but only the tip of the iceberg. Even some designing companies in Addis Ababa, who only develop logos for companies, acclaim themselves as experts on branding and invite companies to let them develop their full-fledged branding guideline and strategies.
Branding is not just how things/Companies look: while the visual identity of a brand its overall aesthetic play key roles in effective branding, even the prettiest designs cannot undo the damage done by a bad customer experience or disorganized business. Branding goes beyond the visual identity and can aid a variety of other aspect of the organization-from management to communications.
Branding provides clarity and focus, but it cannot deliver if the other key ingredients of running a sustainable business such as excellent customer service is not there.
Branding is not the same as marketing: till very recently branding was taken as one aspect of marketing. The fact is the relationship between branding and marketing is interconnected, but compared to branding, marketing is providing more specific goals and measurable outcomes. While marketing is a more natural ally for branding, because it deals with nurturing relationships between brands and their audiences. Marketing communications play a key role in building brand recognition and their effectiveness is influenced by how well defined the brand identity is.
Branding is not similar with advertising: It’s not a baseless belief that branding is related to advertising. Historically, branding projects and tasks were handled by advertising agents and firms, but branding evolved since then. Nowadays branding requires specialist experts to create brands and this involves a different kind of process to advertising. While branding is a long-term work, whereas advertising is usually focused on short-term gains, such as increasing sales of a product in a given time period.
Branding is comprehensive and involves almost all areas of a business, but advertising emphasizes a specific aspect, such as the quality or price of the product. Advertising is the process of informing, persuading or reminding people to buy into the brand.
Branding is not only for big companies: as the most talked about brands tend to be large international corporations, it is no surprise that there exist a widely held view that branding is for big companies.
A more accurate analysis would be that big companies use good branding to grow and maintain their position in the market. The same branding principles apply to both big and small business; the only difference is that the complexity of managing a brand will grow with the size of the organization. A modest budget can do great things for even the smallest of businesses.
Branding adds value to businesses: when coming toface-to-face with the costs of a branding project, a valid question arises-what value does branding add to my business? Many people and companies including our country assume that without a clear and immediate financial return on investment, branding doesn’t provide real value to the company. They forget about the fact that a strong brand is an asset.
Branding adds values to the business by making it protectable through a visual identity system that can be trademarked /legally protected and registered brand/ and licensed. A well designed and developed brand can give a business vitality and make it more attractive to investors, partners and more appealing to new talents.
Branding affects sales: marketing activities are more focused on clearly defined issues and therefore deliver more specific results. For example, if a company want to sell 2,000 more items, it shall try a marketing or advertising push strategy first. If the company wants the people who bought those products to buy from the company again and not from a competitor, build brand loyalty. The direct impact of branding on sales performance is difficult to quantify, because branding reveals in intangible features such as increased trust, higher perceived quality and brand image.
Branding should not delay: including companies operating in well-developed countries, branding is sidelined for so many wrong reasons. When is the right time for companies to enlist the help of a branding specialist? Should they wait until they are successful or until things have started to go wrong? Branding should be there when companies hit the start button on their business, and then adapt to their needs and grow with their demands? In Ethiopia there are exemplary companies which have been working on branding from their

consumption to date. On the other hand, huge companies which have the capacity to compete in East Africa level give little emphasis to branding.
Branding is not obtained by trends:Directing through competition can be a daunting task and can trick the most focused business leader into pursuing approaches for their company’s branding because they are in fashion at the time.
Good branding is enduring – this is one of the guiding principles. Trends change but when a company creates their brand it should be founded on a forward-thinking vision and created following timeless design principles. Frequent changes would createinsecurity and confusion to the public.The most successful brands remain true to their core values and don’t change the central elements of their visual identity as the wind blows.
Branding is not a product to sell:many people would not say they view branding as a product to sell, yet there is a tendency for branding to be treated that way. The misconception is validated by many businesses claiming to offer branding for unfeasibly cheap prices, often combined with the promise of unrealistic amounts of amends. Not only does this undercut businesses that offer genuine expertise: it also projects an image that branding is just a product you can buy off-the-shelf, or subscribe to and never have to worry about again. Branding services should be tailored to your business’ needs and offer unique solutions to address your specific challenges.

Various articles and books written on branding are used as references.
AschalewTamiru, is Manager of Marketing Communication at Bank of Abyssiniaand holds MA in Marketing Management from Addis Ababa University. He can be reached by aschalewt21@gmail.com

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