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Volume 11, Number 526 Published On May 30, 2010 Thursday, June 3, 2010 2:51 pm

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News In Brief
Politics Not Ready for Condo Generation
Agenda

Editor's Note

Opinion When considering the sort of political party that may suit the taste of the “Condo Generation,” the question of
what its campaign manifesto would look like arises.
Commentary
How about campaign promises such as these, “Vote for us as we will open 10 new FM radio stations all dedicated
to hip-hop. All the English Premier League matches will be televised free on all of the nine new television
channels that we will allow. It will be a national holiday whenever the top four clubs in the English Premier
View Point
League play against each other. Subsidised Apple iPods will be offered to all citizens. We are the party of the new
Life Matters generation that will bring hope, prosperity, and leisure to this land. Vote for us!”
It might be awkward to read such a manifesto from a political party that intends to lead a nation as complex and
View From Arada diverse as this one. But, the fact remains that all of the prevailing parties running for the upcoming national
elections have failed to attract the attention of the urban youth. This is vividly evident in the principal city of the
Restaurant Review
nation, Addis Abeba.
For anyone who has followed the recent us presidential election, where Barack Obama won by a landslide, it
Business Opportunity would be unarguably obvious that the fate of a nation depends on its youth.
This nation’s own history could also backup this argument, whereby the disenchantment of university students has
Cartoons resulted in a political turmoil and systemic changes in the country. What was evident in the 2005 National
Comic Strips Elections was also similar.
The touch seems to be lost in the upcoming national elections.
Gossip
What has made the youth so reluctant to define its future, though? What have the contending political parties
failed to do to get the youth back on the political track?
Feedback Though attempting to answer these questions would involve risky generalisation, it may be essential to determine
the future of our toddling democracy. Many political pundits, who closely follow Ethiopian politics, claim that the
Letters to the Editor aftermath of the 2005 National Elections is to be blamed for the growing frustration of the Ethiopian youth
towards national politics. That being one of the reasons, though, it could not be the only one, as many other
changes have taken place after that.
Guest Book As reported in this newspaper a few weeks ago, a new generation of youth, dubbed the “EPRDF Generation” has
become eligible to vote for the first time in the upcoming national elections. The generation has brought new
Fortune Forum
expectations, styles, demands, and aspirations to the scene that the old politics of this nation would not be able to
Contribute meet. Some of the political parties, the incumbent being in the frontline, have interpreted these new values only
from a materialistic point of view.
As a result, they have focused their campaign only on what is tangible, pushing the intangibles aside. Roads,
Entertainment condominiums, power plants, schools, and other infrastructure are being used by the Ethiopian Peoples'
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) as success stories to win votes. Opposition parties, on the other hand,
Movie Review are trying to get elected merely by attacking the EPRDF, without having a viable plan to govern, except the
Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) which has thrown out a roadmap.
All of the political parties have failed to understand that the youth value honesty, eloquence, evidence, logic,
Archive charisma, and consistency beyond the list of infrastructure, employment, ports, and land rights.
The arrogance of some EPRDF candidates, the faltering of some opposition candidates, and the overall context of
the election seem to have made the youth less interested, no matter how much anyone may try to deny it. To
witness this, go to one of the football showrooms during Premier League matches and compare the energy there
News Feed with that of Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA) sponsored political debates.
Both the youth affected by the aftermath of the 2005 Election and the newcomers have turned their faces away
Column Feed from politics. The former for being traumatised by their past experience and the latter for being brought up with
new values. Yet, they both seem to have joined similar clubs, watching football, partying, drinking, having fun,
Ads by Google and caring less about national politics.
The disinclination seems to be caused both by the loss of hope for change and the hope for change brought up
by somebody else.
Government

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Addis Fortune-View Point 6/3/10 3:01 PM

Government
Elections That being the case, the root cause of the problem seems to lie in the fact that existing political parties are
dominated by the older generation of the 1960s. For them, ideology matters more than rationality, political capital
Get 2010
is worth more than transparency, and party loyalty weighs more than reason. They want the youth just to give
Election News & them a political mandate to govern. Their policies consider the youth as a collection of human beings searching
Analysis at only for jobs.
"PostPolitics"
washingtonpost.com/politics There seems to be a consensus as reflected in the ongoing campaign amongst parties that the sole promise of
jobs will get votes from the youth. They have all failed to boldly recognise that the nation belongs to the youth.
They all seem to deliberately push the youth away from party ranks. Those who pretend to do so are doing it for
National TV a cover story.
Network Ads Arguably, the older political gurus seem to view the youth as trendy, inconsistent, inexperienced, careless, and too
Professional liberal. Some say that youths lack nationalism, while others say they lack determination. They all fail to recognise
Agency that what matters most is what they, themselves, lack.
Placement The very strategy of a “zero-sum-game” has made the politics of this country a repellent to the youth. Ethiopian
includes 30 sec youths are seeking to get similar values in our politics that they find in fair competition from the English Premier
TV Spot League, freedom of speech from hip-hop songs, adventure from Hollywood movies, reason and rationality from
Production peer discussions, and style from fashion and modeling. The old vehicle of these politics, oiled with class struggle,
www.NationalTVSpots.com do not even know these values.
Hence, even those young leaders, who have joined party structures for a variety of reasons, give politics a second
The Royalist touch. The disparity between the politics and values of the new generation is so huge that the future of this
Party toddling democracy seems to be held at bay.
After royalism, Lack of clear policies and the inability to back them up with concrete technical justification seems to be costing
democrasy: the opposition parties the attention of the urban youth. Continuous allegations of opposition figures, crude
era of self and generalisations, arrogance of some candidates, unwillingness to accept mistakes, and irresponsible political twists
has portrayed the governing party as power-clinging, costing it the attention of the educated youth.
rebelion.
royalistparty.org There has been much development in this country in the past 19 years, initiated by many domestic as well as
international forces, whether or not we believe it. Some are good, while some are bad.
Political Mgmt The majority of the youth continue to pay the price, while only some are taking the prize. The way politics is
Masters being conducted in this poor land has remained the foremost reason for this lopsided cost-benefit trend. Balancing
We Graduate the bias would require embracing the youth in the system. To do so, however, studying the “tide” must be a
priority.
Campaign
Managers, The tide will either be missed or, worse, it will be misdirected in a harmful way. For the sake of our toddling
Political democracy, we should all strive to get the youth onboard and into the ranks of leadership. It is only then that we
can think of a bright future for our poor nation.
Strategists, &
more... BY GETACHEW T. ALEMU
GeorgeWashingtonUniv.gspmOnline.com
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