Why are you so quiet? My right to live and enjoy life is being wrecked by some oppressors, yet you are just standing by quietly. Ah, you are too quiet when injustice occurs. You are listening to my cries, but you are not speaking up. I know you are not deaf; you are selective about what you listen to. I know you are not mute; you talk about what you like. I know you are not blind; you are avoiding the sights of depression, death, destruction—sights we the oppressed are living in. World, I cannot agree with Camus when he says that your indifference is benevolent. No! Your indifference is pure evil and it is causing our destruction. I hate your silence. I hate your indifference towards the oppressed and the voiceless. I cannot sit until you give me a voice. I will be my own voice, and also a voice for the voiceless. I will not wait for you to change yourself, but we, the victims of society, will change ourselves and stand with and for each other.
World, when Ethiopia was being ruled by the communist Derg regime endless human rights were violated: from illegal executions to pointless imprisonments. The regime, at some point, changed its name to the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, but its injustice never changed. The Ethiopian people were tired of the injustice and they knew that you, World, will just standby. So, they united to exterminate the Derg regime. The regime is now gone, but their injustice still exists in Ethiopia.
World, Ethiopia is divided into nine different regions: different ethnical regions. I belong to a region called Oromia and it is the largest in Ethiopia. Oromo people are the most underrepresented people in Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s current regime denies giving Oromos the same rights “Ethiopians” get—even though Oromia is in the middle of Ethiopia. World, Oromo people could not wait for you to act, so we acted.
Last year, Oromo high school and university students were tortured and killed because they protested for a change in Ethiopia. Oromo students were killed and raped because they protested against a plan that could have endangered Oromo farmers: their fathers and mothers. Young blood was killed and you, World, were quiet. The blood on your back is still warm, but you are still stagnant. It is like you enjoy the red jacket you are wearing. I am an Oromo refugee, and like you, World, the blood of my sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers is on my back too. Unlike you, World, I will not be quiet. I will fight back the oppressive Ethiopian regime.
World, maybe you are not hearing about the injustice that happens to us, Oromo people, because the Ethiopian regime has a tight grip on media and communication. The current Minister of Communication and Information Technology of Ethiopia, Debretsion Gebremichael, fought the previous regime, Derg, with his knowledge of electrical engineering: he jammed, blocked, hacked Derg’s technology. Unfortunately, Gebremichael fought for the sake of his ethnicity, but not for the people of Ethiopia. Now, he, alongside the current regime, controls media in Ethiopia. That is how people are crippled—when their voice is controlled. The Oromo people’s voice did not fit the regime’s ideology so they crippled us.
When my finger feels cold it does not ask permission from the arms to send a signal of “it is cold” to my brain; it just sends. I want to create that kind of communication amongst the people in Ethiopia: like the nervous system. If people were connected like the human body Ethiopia will be better and more united. Unlike Gebremichael and the current regime, I will not deny my body parts. I will learn engineering to build better, nonbiased communication methods in Ethiopia to make the people more connected than ever—no matter where they are. Ethiopia will be united and better. World, Ethiopia will be a role model you will be following.
World, I want to unite Ethiopia then come to you. Your indifference amazes me. How are you quiet when it rains bombs in Palestine? Does not it hurt when people are being exterminated because of who they are? I want to exterminate your indifference and that can happen by making the people more connected. World, I want to make you better. I dream of a World that everyone enjoys living on no matter where they come from. I will build the United World I see in my dreams.
