By Tsegaye Ararssa

‪#‎OromoProtests‬-In the interest of introducing a lasting solution, it is time to dare to think of relocating the federal government to another site. Options are many.
The first set of options include:
a) Setting up a Federal Capital Territory/Federal District (e.g. Washington DC, ACT/Canberra, Abuja);
b) Locating it in a City State different or separate from the constituent units (e.g. Berlin);
c) Locating it in a City within a State which is the seat of the Federal Government but ‘owned’ and administered by the State within which it exists (e.g. Berne).
Alternatively, a second set would include:
a) a roving capital city that moves around every ten (or five) years;
b) different seats for the various organs of the Federal Government and assign each to different member States of the Federation. One could be the political capital (where the Legislature sits); another could be an administrative capital (where the Executive–the Government, the military, the and the civil bureaucracy–operates from); and another could be the ‘Legal capital’ (where the judiciary and other tribunals, commissions, etc) do adjudication, grievance hearing, and fact-finding, inquiry, etc from.
In addition, as a large country with a potentially huge market (God knows I hate to use this word!), there could be several business capitals that compete among each other.
For those of us who have long been saying this, it comes as a rather mundane list of recommendation. But to those who, like the TPLF ruling and business class, are intoxicated with boundless arrogance and to those who are otherwise blinded by prejudice, this will come as a shock.
And yet…for anyone who considers these ideas in good faith, one or more of these options is/are the only way out of the quagmire we find ourselves in.
Time for us to think. And think hard.

Amy Elliott Van Steenwyk

Advocates of non-violent direct action and land rights need to seriously step up their public support of #OromoProtests starting now. The scope and creativity of the actions keeps being described as unprecedented. Their commitment to these principled protests despite arrests, kidnappings, intimidation of families, expulsions, beatings, and more is incredibly inspiring.

I hope you will add your voice to those who are calling for an end to the state-sanctioned violence against the Oromo population in Ethiopia as these protests continue. (Some suggestions below)