The afternoon of Friday,
July 12, saw a somewhat "bizzare" incident at London's Heathrow
Airport. A smoke was seen on the tail of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787
Dreamliner. The international media made the incident their headline story
since late Friday (at least for 24 hours). The amazing thing was, the smoke
(probably caused by a fire ignited by "transmission problem", as
concluded by investigators) was triggered eight hours after the aircraft was
parked at the airport.
I think the Heathrow
incident made the headlines not for the fact that the plane is an Ethiopian
property. Rather, it was for two other reasons; One: the incident happened on
British soil, and two: it happened on a plane that is "equipped with the
latest technology." For whatever reason, the incident turned people's
heads to our country one more time.
What moved me to write
this post wasn't the Heathrow incident. It is rather the comments and responses
that came after the news broke out. A considerable number of people, mainly
from the western world, were amazed by the fact that Ethiopia actually owns a
Dreamliner, even has an airliner. Some even went further to express their
disbelief that Ethiopians manage to "eat at all," let alone having
their own flag carrier.
It makes me sick to hear
and see people from the so-called "First World" to disregard the
"Third World" in an uncivilized way. They sometimes claim to know the
nature, behavior, and fate of the people of Africa, Latin America, and Asia as
the palm of their hands. In the case of Ethiopia, they think the entire nation
became a bare-land after the 1984/85 drought, they were the only ones who saved
the day. They consider a skinny person an Ethiopian, and the people from
Ethiopia are "good-for-nothing." They tend to believe we're doomed to
live and die poor and starved. Hypocrites!
I believe it's time to
tell the facts to those who do not know (or blindfold themselves not to know)
the truth. Their racist and fictionally-driven "superior mentality"
must be eradicated once and for all. It's time to fix the blurry eyeglasses of "the white folks!"
A lesson in History
Aircraft began to flew over Ethiopian skies
long before the establishment of the Ethiopian Airlines. A French
pilot, Andrẻ Maillet, flew a twin-engined Potez aircraft from Djibouti,
and landed at Jan Meda in Addis Ababa on August 18, 1929. With the threat of
the Fascist Italian invasion plans, according to the renowned historian,
Prof. Richard Pankrust, the Ethiopian government of the day has ordered two
more aircraft from Germany, even though the delivery was delayed by
the French authorities at Djibouti in order to make the French aircraft arrive
first.
After the return of the
government after the Italian invasion of 1935-41, Emperor Haileselassie took up
the concept of establishing a national airliner seriously, and asked the
governments of the US, the UK, and France to help in this endeavor. His efforts
have finally paid off, and on 8 September, 1945, the American airliner, TWA,
signed an agreement with John Spencer, who was the foreign affairs advisor to
the emperor, to establish a commercial airline for Ethiopia.(Historical
Dictionary of Ethiopia, 2004).
Over the coming years,
the airline has made tremendous developments in its activities; such as
expanding its routes, replacing personnel from TWA (one such a notable
appearance was the introduction of the first African jet pilot, Capt. Alemayehu
Abebe), and the acquisition of some of the modern aircraft to date, including
the landmark products of Boeing like the B767 (1984) and B787
Dreamliner (2012).
The success of the
Ethiopian Airlines over the last 67 years have placed Ethiopia on the world
map, as one of Africa's modern nations. Unlike some 'ferenjis,' who are
ignorant of such developments, this airline has exhibited strength, dedication,
and commitment as the springboards of its success. It is a success that hasn't
been interrupted by the succession of governments, famine, wars, or any other
mishaps in the country over the years.
I was pretty much amazed
and inspired by the long success story of Ethiopian Airlines for so long,
especially by the time I was doing a research on the passenger transport
services of the airline about 11 years ago when I was a student at the Addis
Ababa University. The success, came with tireless efforts by the staff and
management of the company, and even with sacrifices made by the loss of lives,
are exemplary for all of the "Third World" nations in showing the way
to success without the so-called "Superpowers" breathing at their
necks. And Ethiopians are always proud of their national carrier.
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Africa's
First Dreamliner, "Queen of Sheba". Photo: from Wikipedia
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There has been a lot to
tell those who doubt Ethiopia can achive so much in the airline industry. But I
think it is better to leave that to themselves to find out, since a lot can be
found from the archives, and the internet. Their comments, which might come
just out of jealousy of the fact that we have the Dreamliner before the
Europeans and the Americans, or just of ignorance, are baseless. And so they
need to learn history, and redeem themselves for their racist views.
So there you have it,
you doubters! Believe it or not: We have an airline, and we have the Dreamliner
(five of them, actually). We have pilots, flight attendants, and technicians
that bring our national colors to the sky. We have the facilities to train airline
personnel from all around the world, maintain aircraft from any part of the
globe, and we have more than half-a-century's experience in flying under our
belt. Stop being narrow minded, and start digging for history. We're not only
of famine and poverty. We have so many success stories to tell, and we're a
proud nation. And there's nothing you can do about it!
Long Live Ethiopia!
