Written by: Telile Fikru Badecha on January 24, 2014

Collateral Damage: Social inequality in a Global Age by Zygmount Bauman offers deep insight into the ways the global society has been dealing with social inequality. In the introduction, the author explained social inequality using engineering metaphors: one is fuse, the weakest part of an electrical circuit that is designed to blow as a safety device that protects other parts of the network from burning out and falling permanently out of use and beyond repair. Once the fuse goes, the whole circuit stops working (Kindle Location 60).” In the same way, a bridge “collapses much earlier the moment the weight of the load goes over the carrying capacity of one of its spans – its weakest”   (Kindle Locations 62-63). The author’s point in both metaphors is very clear: the span of the structure and supporting pillars is carried not by its average strength but by one of it weakest spans.  It is true that in any unequal social structure, the weakest, the poor are the one’s who suffer the most where “the quality life of the society is measured by the average quality of its parts ” (Kindle Locations 76-78).

My country, Ethiopia, is one of the poorest countries in the world. There are many factors contributing for epidemic poverty and social inequality that we go through as a nation. One and the main factor for our social inequality is, the oppressive dictatorial, often tribal-based leadership system we have been through since the imperial time. Long before the 16^th century the Oromo, the people I have come from, used to have an independent democratic social system where the heads of the households got together under the tree called oddaa, to discuss both the private and public matter. The concept seems pretty much similar to the purpose of the democracy in agora where the matters of ecclesia (public) and oikos (private) discussed (Kindle Location 209).  But after late 18^th century the Oromo people egalitarian Gadaa system began to denigrate mainly because of war with the Christian Abyssinian King Menelik II who fought with the Arsi Oromo people for more than 7 years to expand his Christian territory and to create a country now we call it “Ethiopia.”  Ethiopians always brag about for not being colonized, but very little is known to the world about how much the indigenous people like mine suffered under the Orthodox Christian kings and priests who came to the Oromos killing, taking their resources, and forcing them to accept their religion. It is all done in the name Christianity which has been a big barrier for my people to know Jesus. So, in the culture I come from, when people think of social inequality or equality, we generally think of interms of land, territories, population, etc. rather than the quality life of individuals in the clan or group. We think and do things collectively, which sometimes overshadows the needs of others among us.

In addition, unlike the Western world where inequality considered interims of law and order and/or financial problem (Kindle Location 106), in Ethiopia inequality is considered as a result of natural catastrophes, our place of birth or  family background and etc.  What defines our equality is if you live in a very rural area where there is no school, running water, electricity, paved roads or pharmacy, that is the challenge that you were born into not only for you as individual but the whole community. This removes the government from taking responsibility for helping the society in their needs. We do not look at the root cause of our poverty, but blame natural catastrophes as the only reason. In Ethiopia’s current land policy, there is no private land; it all belongs to the government. Individuals have no right to sell or exchange their property but they can use it as long as the government does not need that piece of land for what they call “investment” but it is actually land grabbing. The government gives very small compensation to these local farmers and lease a lot of land to the foreign investors. Now the local farmers are out of jobs and their wives are forced to work in these flower farm companies to make a living. The land grabbing is also forcing many of our girls and mothers to immigrate to foreign countries like Lebanon and Saudi Arabia to find jobs. I cannot explain enough, all the hurt, damage and the level of corruption that I see in my country. My hope and prayer is that God would show us how to bring the light of Jesus to our clan and community who are very hurt and divided politically and religiously so that we can heal.

About the Author

Telile Fikru Badecha