The Golden Lake

The Golden Lake
Langano

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

When is ‘’public shame ‘’ going to have the desired effect in Ethiopia?

A couple of years a go when I was working for a government office, a professor who has lived his great many years in the USA, came with a complaint to lodge. Frustrated and angered by how reluctantly officials respond and how slowly things work in his homeland, he threatened that he is going to go to the papers and splash this scandal all over the media. Some of us, who knew better, knew this was never going to bring about the desired effect, and managed to suppress our laugh. No office has ever pledged to improve its performance as a result of media pressure. No office is ever going to publicly apologize for the problems created in the society due to it's under performance.

 

I was just reminded of all this as a result of power cuts we are having today. About ten of them before four o'clock in the afternoon. And this is after the shifts have  ended and we have proudly celebrated the inauguration of two Hydro Power Stations with such promising capacities J . Ten times, I was forced to re-start my computer. That is ok, until something is damaged. But then, how about everything else? Hospitals, factories, schools…etc?

 

It is funny the kinds of things we Ethiopians are ashamed of. Like eating on the streets, kissing on the streets, speaking out….etc. And the things we are not ashamed of, like peeing on the street. And the things responsible offices and persons are not ashamed of: constantly failing their people!!


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