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Dear Visitor to Our Ethiopian Political Civility Website!
It’s usually customary for any website to immediately introduce who its creators are and what
they’re trying to accomplish. In our case, the existence of www.ethiocivility.org is a direct
result of our work in the Ethiopian Political Civility chat room, which forms a part of the Paltalk
network. It wouldn’t be fair to us or to the visitors of this website if we didn’t highlight the
links between our existence and contemporary history. So, bear with us for a few more
paragraphs as we explain our background as well as the mission that we envision for this
website.
It was right after the historical third national election in Ethiopia of 2005 that almost all of the
Ethiopian Paltalk rooms, which were primarily motivated by a desire to discuss the current
post-election situation in Ethiopia, developed a trend of becoming hostile, extreme, and
undemocratic in their manner of conducting discussion within their rooms. During this period
of time, fellow Ethiopian patriots and democrats from different walks of life who had a strong
interest and commitment to engage constructively in the Ethiopian Paltalk rooms became
frustrated and eventually their voices were silenced, victims of this extremism. It was out of
this dilemma that a group of Ethiopians who had never met, residing as far apart as Denmark,
the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Australia,Egypt, and Ethiopia, formed a common
bond in advancing the virtues of moderation, decency, and firm principles in the Ethiopian
Paltalk rooms. To do this they formed the Ethiopian Political Civility forum, which was unique in
both its style and content. It’s here in the Ethiopian Political Civility room that moderate
Ethiopian politics prevails over extremist and hateful wings of the Ethiopian diaspora’s political
movement. It’s here that firm principles reign supreme and regardless of ethnic background,
religious differences, and gender all are treated equally and respectfully as opposed to the
prevailing mode of discrimination in other Ethiopian political chat rooms. Finally, it’s only in the
Ethiopian Political Civility Room that fellow Ethiopians with different political views are treated
fairly and respectfully, unlike other Ethiopian Paltalk chat rooms where a culture of intimidation
dominates all discussion. In short, what the Ethiopian Political Civility room was demanding
was nothing short of public reasoning founded on the virtue of decency.
For close to two years, we had an extensive array of topics for lively discussion; this was a
place where we could probe all subjects to the best of our abilities. When we had doubts and
needed to narrow the information gap between the Ethiopian reality and the Ethiopian
diaspora, we had the privilege of bringing close to 140 prominent government officials,
business people, academics and activists to our room on a weekly basis to enlighten the
participants in their outlook and perspective. So now, after two years of hard work
establishing this tradition in our room, we have come to our second endeavor by establishing
this website. In doing so, we have opened up all of our discussion archives in order to provide
visitors with a collection of our work in the Civility room. We will also continue to post major,
relevant news items from Ethiopia and other countries. From time to time, as events require,
the editorial board of the website will post their opinions.
In conclusion, the mission of this website is to fill the desperate need for information and
knowledge which exists within the Ethiopian diasporic community in general. The absence of
concrete factual knowledge is the glaring weakness of the Ethiopian diasporic community. We
hope that our modest efforts can help narrow this gap within our Ethiopian political
community. In the meantime, we hope that our vision for the strengthening and preservation
of the constitutional political order in our country will take hold, in conjunction with the thriving
of this tradition of peaceful political struggle.
We courteously invite all visitors of the website to join us in the Ethiopian Political Civility
room, every Friday evening to Sunday evening. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Aba Mela
Chief Administrator
It’s usually customary for any website to immediately introduce who its creators are and what
they’re trying to accomplish. In our case, the existence of www.ethiocivility.org is a direct
result of our work in the Ethiopian Political Civility chat room, which forms a part of the Paltalk
network. It wouldn’t be fair to us or to the visitors of this website if we didn’t highlight the
links between our existence and contemporary history. So, bear with us for a few more
paragraphs as we explain our background as well as the mission that we envision for this
website.
It was right after the historical third national election in Ethiopia of 2005 that almost all of the
Ethiopian Paltalk rooms, which were primarily motivated by a desire to discuss the current
post-election situation in Ethiopia, developed a trend of becoming hostile, extreme, and
undemocratic in their manner of conducting discussion within their rooms. During this period
of time, fellow Ethiopian patriots and democrats from different walks of life who had a strong
interest and commitment to engage constructively in the Ethiopian Paltalk rooms became
frustrated and eventually their voices were silenced, victims of this extremism. It was out of
this dilemma that a group of Ethiopians who had never met, residing as far apart as Denmark,
the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Australia,Egypt, and Ethiopia, formed a common
bond in advancing the virtues of moderation, decency, and firm principles in the Ethiopian
Paltalk rooms. To do this they formed the Ethiopian Political Civility forum, which was unique in
both its style and content. It’s here in the Ethiopian Political Civility room that moderate
Ethiopian politics prevails over extremist and hateful wings of the Ethiopian diaspora’s political
movement. It’s here that firm principles reign supreme and regardless of ethnic background,
religious differences, and gender all are treated equally and respectfully as opposed to the
prevailing mode of discrimination in other Ethiopian political chat rooms. Finally, it’s only in the
Ethiopian Political Civility Room that fellow Ethiopians with different political views are treated
fairly and respectfully, unlike other Ethiopian Paltalk chat rooms where a culture of intimidation
dominates all discussion. In short, what the Ethiopian Political Civility room was demanding
was nothing short of public reasoning founded on the virtue of decency.
For close to two years, we had an extensive array of topics for lively discussion; this was a
place where we could probe all subjects to the best of our abilities. When we had doubts and
needed to narrow the information gap between the Ethiopian reality and the Ethiopian
diaspora, we had the privilege of bringing close to 140 prominent government officials,
business people, academics and activists to our room on a weekly basis to enlighten the
participants in their outlook and perspective. So now, after two years of hard work
establishing this tradition in our room, we have come to our second endeavor by establishing
this website. In doing so, we have opened up all of our discussion archives in order to provide
visitors with a collection of our work in the Civility room. We will also continue to post major,
relevant news items from Ethiopia and other countries. From time to time, as events require,
the editorial board of the website will post their opinions.
In conclusion, the mission of this website is to fill the desperate need for information and
knowledge which exists within the Ethiopian diasporic community in general. The absence of
concrete factual knowledge is the glaring weakness of the Ethiopian diasporic community. We
hope that our modest efforts can help narrow this gap within our Ethiopian political
community. In the meantime, we hope that our vision for the strengthening and preservation
of the constitutional political order in our country will take hold, in conjunction with the thriving
of this tradition of peaceful political struggle.
We courteously invite all visitors of the website to join us in the Ethiopian Political Civility
room, every Friday evening to Sunday evening. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Aba Mela
Chief Administrator
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