By Eyob Asfaw
Recalling I forwarded brief commentary on Tsegaye Gebremedhin as a follow up to last week’s ‘HOHE Chapter’s webinar held on 13 Sept 2020. Today I narrate and discuss the Webinar on Tsegaye Gebremedhin continued also on 20 Sept 2020 with interesting construct on the discourses of Authorship. On this episode, the moderator-Wondwossen Adane, provocatively made an inquiry to the discussants- Michael Shiferaw and Desalegn Seyoum about the validity of interpreting Tsegaye’s work through intermeshing his background.
Desalegn on his counterpart contends that Tsegaye draws his background from those two nations, i.e Oromo and Amhara. According to him, not only Tsegaye’s rigor of authorship but also the works Karl Marx, Simone De bouvoire and Frederich Nitche can’t be understood without gazing at their respective biography. In the instance of the French author-Simone De Bouvoire (lived1908 – 1986), her life experiences undoubtedly charts her literary work and existential feminism. By and large, throughout the discussion on Tsegaye’s works, the discussant conceded that the works of Tsegaye is deeply embedded in his identity. Indirectly, his identity heritage subjects to analyze his works through the prisms of biography other than contextual interpretation. In his works, he tried to uncover the potential and cultural repository of the Oromo culture perhaps in Amharic poetry. Arguably, Tsegaye’s works convinces us an author can be transcendent on ethnic loyalty.
In general, Authorship, as a follow up to Michel Foucault’s ‘What is an author?’, published in 1971, is a constant issue of dialogue and debate among philosophers and literary artists. In pursuant to Foucault essay, a scholar called Chartier– engaged critical dialogue with Foucault – which proposed that the major development in the history of authorship during the Enlightenment was that the writer’s name, image, and often personality became publicly recognizable. Foucault draws attention to ‘the author’ appearing for the first time in the late seventeenth century on title pages, front spaces, and introductory biographies in, especially, editions of collected works. For Foucault, the ‘author’ is a construct’ whose works worth examining how the author became individualized in a culture like ours. What status the author has been given, at what moment studies of authenticity and attribution began, , at what point we began to recount the lives of authors rather than of heroes. The fundamental of ‘Author construction’ will commence the discourse of the criticism ‘the man and his work’. As a result Authorship cannot be having prior explanation without fair understanding to Author’s background.
Coming back to the discussion on Tsegaye, a participant called an author “Meseret Abeje” clearly objects biographical critics downsize ‘Inter-Textual Reading’. Instead, Meseret argued that Tsegaye’s works more portrays the intermarriage and integration of Amhara and Oromo societies other than contradiction among the two neighboring societies. For Meseret, it is not uncommon to forget as to where the authors comes from originally but for our surprise they wrote from shared cultural perspective as they proved how they create their character in their authorship. On the other hand, Michael contend that, without overlooking the authors identity, yet Tsegaye duality was proved to be resilient for the possible eventual contradiction. When Tsegaye laments about Awash in his epic poem he deliberately characterized inquiry subjected Dada and Tulema through his personified dialogue to the low land river called ‘Awash’. In his commentary, Michael demands to attribute as the Tsegaye counts his descent from those two clans. The author and journalist- ‘Abera Lemma’ as a participant shared his observation about Tsegaye confronts several rounds of Censorship bottlenecks during the Dergue regime. From his memory, according to Abera, Tsegaye challenged the then ministry of Information and his play called ‘Gamo’. To his dismay, the play was banned after a one time stage show. Also, Abera shared from his personal encounter that, in his last days Tsegaye engaged fully in series of principled controversies among other fellow literary artists including with so many heavyweight artists.
In conclusion, Authors are emancipatory in their works and Tsegaye transcended through passing the litmus test of personal heritage. Tsegaye left a lesson for contemporary authors to reconcile divisive ethnic loyalty, be able to pay the price for their own principle and ought to portray cross-cultural characters in their quest for authorship.
Transcendence Tsegaye Gebremedhin on Ethnic Loyality
Getu Temesegen
Name: Getu Temesegen
Education: SBA in Journalism and Communications
Company name: Getu Temesgen Media and Communications
Title: Managing Editor
Founded in: 2019
What it does: Online Media Broadcasting
HQ: Around Washington DC Square
Number of employees: Seven
Startup Capital: 100,000.00 Birr
Current capital: 1,000,000.00 BIRR
Reasons for starting the business: Professional Calling
Biggest perk of ownership: Long Live Openness
Biggest strength: Professional Integrity
Biggest challenging: Access to Information
Plan: To Serve With Purpose
First career: Reporter at ETV (Ethiopian Television)
Most interested in meeting: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook
Most admired person: Madiba (Nelson Mandela)
Stress reducer: Mom’s phone call
Favorite past time: Konso, A Living Cultural Tradition
Favorite book: Fikir Eske Mekabir (By Hadis Almayehu)
Favorite destination: Paris, City Of Light
Favorite automobile: Lexus
Inequality, health and wealth in United States and Mexico
A killer virus is raging throughout large parts of North America. Registering the highest COVID 19 cases as well as COVID 19 fatalities in the world, COVID 19 created one of the most difficult health care challenges in the history of the United States. Mexico is also one of the most COVID 19 affected country in North America region. Earlier mid-July 2020, the number of COVID-19 deaths in Mexico surpassed France, making it the country with the fifth highest number of COVID-19 deaths. However, economic analysts and sociologists strongly argued that there is much larger challenge than COVID 19. According to them, this killer virus is inequality. The health effects which the coronavirus has on people is just one of its manifestations.
Martyna Linartas, a Doctoral Researcher at the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script” (SCRIPTS) at Free University Berlin indicates that the debate about inequality in the United States has been going on for a very long time. The sad truth is that the longer the nation has had what is innocuously and revealingly often labeled as a “conversation” about this topic, the worse inequality has become. Talking about it may satisfy certain people’s sense of self-importance, but merely caring rhetorically changes nothing in the hard-core, real-world socio-economic structures of a given country.
And yet, that is all that even many centrist politicians and presumably reform-minded liberal think tanks in the United States have on offer. According to Martyna Linartas, there is a pretty straightforward reason for that: Even merely considering, never mind really advocating serious changes to the economic structure of the country is not what most of their, often ultra-rich, funders would like.
Martyna Linartas noted that “Down south,” across President Trump´s border wall to Mexico, of which 200 miles were constructed and celebrated by the end of June, inequality is even more blatant than in the United States. More than 60% of Mexicans work in the informal sector and have neither access to a social safety net nor do they contribute to the social security system to provide an old-age pension for themselves. On average, they have no wealth at all and live hand to mouth. Hence, the consequences in the event of a sudden income loss are truly existential in nature.
Thus, going into lockdown is not an option for many Mexicans. True, those Mexicans with well-paying jobs can work from home, but the less privileged are doomed to work in the public space, for example as fruit and taco vendors. Increasingly, the stark option poor Mexicans face is dying from COVID 19 or hunger. Since hunger knows no quarantine, there also is no trade-off between the two.
George Tyler, an Economist and the author of “What Went Wrong” and “Billionaire Democracy: The Hijacking of the American Political System.” Noted that in the annals of official policymaking, the Mexican government has established a scale of four COVID-related risk categories. According to this new “traffic-light” system, each of Mexico’s 32 states is meant to resume non-essential activities for a gradual reopening of the country’s economy.
According to George Tyler, another arrangement by which the government seeks to project confidence and competence consists in the new designated COVID 19 hospitals around the country. They now count 900 in total (up from 645 in April). Impressive as that is, these hospitals are really only in reach of those Mexicans who can actually afford them. An increased number of such hospitals can neither remedy Mexico’s fragmented health system nor overcome marked inequality, which in this case expresses itself via access to, and the quality of, the provided health care.
George Tyler further noted that to add insult to COVID injury, Mexico has proportionally more people with underlying medical conditions than even the United States. It matters greatly that COVID-related rates of death not only increase with age, but also with body weight. According to a study by CDC, obesity is the biggest risk factor for death from COVID 19 for people under 50. Against this backdrop, despite their very different levels of economic development and per-capita income levels, the coronavirus hits both United States and Mexico especially hard.
Uwe Bott, Chief Economist of The Global Research Center argued that the United States and Mexico are the two countries which have the populations with the highest level of overweight and obesity in the world. In their neck-to-neck race, Mexico is currently slightly ahead, both in the share of obese people and in the heavy impact on its GDP. Counterintuitive as this may sound, obesity is especially pronounced among the poorest, underscoring that obesity primarily is a disease of the poor. Affecting 34% of Mexico´s population, it has become the country´s number one killer. Directly linked with diabetes type 2, it costs 100,000 lives per year.
Uwe Bott noted that one strange, but very real benefit is that the pandemic has pushed the twin issues of economic and racial inequality from the fringes to the foreground. In the most brutal fashion, the death of George Floyd has sparked a new debate. We have to see whether this time, things are really different and whether all the public attention will yield real changes. Unfortunately, doubts are well-warranted in this regard. Alas, as the case of Mexico, but also that of Brazil underscores, the United States is far from the only nation which is torn by racial and socio-economic divisions. The United States merely stands out for being the wealthiest among them.
According to Martyna Linartas ,the moral of the history: One can only hope that tackling severe levels of inequality will finally take center stage in political debates. The coronavirus pandemic actually helps in that regard because the health effects are asymmetrical and exacerbate long standing levels of economic and social injustice within countries. The later these are faced and tackled, the more dramatic our future struggles will become. That is true for the United States as it is for Mexico. And everywhere else.
Forming a Bank
Currently there are more than a dozen private banks that under formation. From these banks one of them is Ahadu Bank. Tegabu Haileyesus Chairman of the Organizing Committee discussed with Capital how they are planning to enter the market and their strategy to successful years ahead. Excerpts;
Capital: Please tell us about Ahadu Bank and its organizers?
Tegabu Haileyesus: Ahadu Bank S.C. (Under Formation) is a conventional commercial bank to be established by Ethiopians and foreign nationals of Ethiopian decent. Complying with the country’s business law and National Bank of Ethiopia procedures, and comprising of a team of reputable professionals, veteran bankers and, prominent businessmen, have been gathered to make a foot print on the banking sector with a unique business model.
“AHADU BANK” coined its name from the “GE’EZ” alphabet which literally means “THE ONE” “THE FIRST.”
Capital: Considering the fact that it has been more than 100 years since the introduction of modern bank in Ethiopia, how do you see the overall growth of the sector?
Tegabu: The first bank in Ethiopia, the ‘Bank of Abyssinia”, was established in 1905 E.C. during the launch of the modernization effort of Ethiopia by King Menelik II. The banking business, in its long history, has seen a lot of development and changes since then. But the growth of the banking sector hasn’t been reflected by its age due to the varying financial policies that the country has been adopting in the wake of the prevailed ideologies.
Financial development in the banking sector can be measured by the growth of the financial institutions on annual scale, towards the financial market in terms of their accessibility, breadth of services and efficiency. To support the argument we can see the penetration as well as access to banks via the population size and coverage area. In both measurements it is an undeniable fact that there is growth or improvement, but as compared to where other countries have reached internationally as well as regionally Ethiopia has a long way to go and needs a very fast learning curve.
When we also see the technological usage in the sector, Ethiopia is still among the least in the world and also Africa according to studies by the World Bank.
Capital: What are the challenges and opportunities?
Tegabu: What I see as shortcomings of the banking sector are, undeveloped ICT infrastructure, poor customer service, low level of professionalism and integrity, not varying strategy, mixing ethnicity with the business which may affect corporate governance and the financial ecosystem not being designed for young people.
As opportunities: A steady economic growth, 110 M population, a big portion yet un-banked, with 75% productive youth, 2M Diaspora, 60+ Universities with more than 150,000 new graduates to get trained and get into the untapped business opportunities, Development of Industry parks, Increasing number of finance-starved small and medium enterprises, possible accession to WTO, signing of Africa free trade agreements are among those that are critical ones. However, in our views the opportunities outweigh the challenges in the sector and showing that there is still room for more banks.
Capital: As you see recently the formation of ethnicity and religion based banks are becoming common, do you think these kinds of formation can have positive advantage to the immature banking sector?
Tegabu: Yes it is seen that the private banks are having a formation base dominated by shareholders from certain ethnicities and recently religion. It is obvious that a country’s financial strength is based on the public financial capacity and consequently, these people are the investors in the banks to be established. However, it is human nature that, when people need to carry out any kind of team activity, they will primarily seek other people with similar shared ideals, status or from common origins to organize a company intended for a common goal, as the saying goes, “Birds of the same feather flock together.”
But you should keep in mind that the banks serve “ALL” and the deposit is made by “ALL” across the country, by all kind of nationality, race or religion. So the banks in effect do administer the wealth which belongs to the public at large and as a result they all are to be governed by the Country’s law of establishment and to be strictly controlled by National bank of Ethiopia.
Moreover, the share sales are to be floated to everybody with no discrimination allowing people from other sect to participate. We can see from those facts that it is only an issue of domination by certain section of the society during formation. It can be said harmful if only the bank exhibits discrimination in its business, customer or staff handling which is unethical. What is important is that the bank performs professionally to serve all equally and in a fair manner without losing its eye on the values and objectives of the very reason it is established for in the first place.
Capital: Do you think the emerging of new banks can make changes on the sector rather than strengthening the existing banks?
Tegabu: Ethiopian Banking industry is ranking low even in the East Africa region (5th out of 7) and IMF has put Ethiopia 142th in banking technology. Notwithstanding the modernization, it still has too much gap to fill in terms of the number of banks versus the population. The argument usually is the not-so-big bankable population which is the reflection of the economy. Ethiopia is doing great. Don’t get me wrong. As the future has a lot of bright promise in store for us we have to start now and get along with time.
So, yes the emerging of new banks may bring about positive changes by mobilizing domestic capital thereby enhancing public investment, be instrumental to increase hard currency through import/export business, create job opportunity, and contribute to the country’s growth by paying taxes.
When we see the issue of merger, the pros and cons of the objective itself should be carefully evaluated.
The main point should be the purpose of a merger if it is due to series incapacity to function at which stage those lagging behind may be doomed.
Capital: How can AHADU going to add value in the banking sector? And on what stage is the formation?
Tegabu: We believe having a harmonized environment is a key to a successful business through anchored positive cultural and societal values. And that is why our values start with having a shared vision among the families of AHADU who are Customers, Shareholders, Management, Employees and other stake holders. Having an unreserved service to all with a technology platform that has never been deployed through a competent staff that truly believes in the vision set we are planning to make changes using the Youth, vast manpower, the natural resources and the capital we mobilize in through unique products. AHADU will endeavor to use various mechanisms to best utilize the value added chain of agro processing for hard currency acquisition. 
AHADU has been mobilizing shares in a pace that is beyond anyone’s expectation in this difficult time. Though the Covid- 19 crisis has slowed down the movement of people from place to place and has direct impact on the economic condition, we cannot disregard its impact on the mobilization of shares even further.
However, it has come to subscribe over 600 million Birr capital through over 6,000 Shareholders until now starting Ginbot 2012 E.C / May 2020/. It has planned to finalize the share sales until Meskere,m 30, 2012 E.C /October 10, 2020/ and proceed with licensing process assuming the state of emergency is lifted.
Parallels we are working on fulfilling the required studies, policies, procedures and manuals required as per NBE directive and other compliance requirements.
AHADU’s success will go farther and beyond gratifying profit to our shareholders. It is not just good earnings figures but in the contribution we will make to the development efforts i.e. in the number of youth we help get jobs, the public who have access to good quality life. It is when the community grows that AHADU will flourish as the public takes it as its own.
We are set to meet the future with flexible strategies, to get ready for the ever changing economic scenario like financial policies, inter-Africa trade zone and, incoming competitive foreign banks.
We have not made the business plan after we decided to open a bank just to have another bank. It is a gallant idea of the possibility to make changes with the youth if we can put our resources and wisdom into a concerted effort to do both profitability and getting out of poverty i.e., killing two birds with a single stone. This is ensued in the formation of AHADU BANK. This, I believe, is a very good chance not to be missed in joining this great bank.
