Obelisk in danger

As if to rudely remind the obelisk that went to oversleep over three thousand years ago, lightning struck and almost left it without head. Lighting may be and is indeed the force of nature beyond the work of man and the damage the obelisk sustained can simply be attributed as a predestined ineluctable omen for it to be standing on the way of nature’s force of destruction as it did in Rome on the 28 of May 2002.

But the Obelisk is not autochthonous of Rome and it does not walk from place to place looking for better waterholes or do business as we animals and humans respectively do from time to time. It is a rock; a big rock the Italians might have forgotten to remind themselves and does not walk of its own volition.

So although it appears that there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent the damage from being inflicted on the Obelisk, there is a case that this happened in Rome and those who took it to this place are accountable for its damage. If it had happened at Axum the birthplace of the Obelisk then we would have had accepted the fate.

Likewise, if the Italians were really serious about the priceless Obelisk they deracinated, looted and ultimately unlawfully transported, they could have fitted it with a device, like they do to any shabby buildings, to ground, prevent or deflect the lightning, as all high buildings are fitted with.

It appears that the Italian did not want to spend a scant amount of money to look after the Obelisk, an Obelisk that is a centre of beauty and a source of tourist attraction for profit, contrary to what they tell the world that the Obelisk is in safe hands for generations to come.

The beauty of the Obelisk was that it was carved out of a single rock. The Italians in their haste to destroy and possess other people’s work of art broke it to pieces only to reassemble it again but in their own backyard. Now they exposed it to a destruct force of nature as the only vulnerable single erect amidst others high rising buildings equipped with devices to deflect lightnings. What do you expect then to happen? The lightening, being deflected from the surroundings and having no other place to go, would be attracted to the Obelisk as it did and shatter what stood for thousands of years in memory of brave men and women of the ancient world.

There is no excuse for this. There may not be judges today or tomorrow. And there will not be, we have seen it recently, because the looters, in cahoots with others, are the judges of today and tomorrow. But the judges of the ancient world and ancient time had passed the verdict way back. What is Ethiopian will always remain Ethiopian. And the Obelisk shall be like a thorn in a throat that is served with cornucopia of assorted fruits.

Why should we be told to respect the treaties Ethiopia entered, against its will, with Italy in 1900, 1902 and 1908 when Italy consistently refuses even to return stolen land and properties, putting aside the legality of treaties that were foisted upon us by colonial powers of the day. I think this boarder ruling on the basis of defunct colonial treaties is a travesty of justices and ought to be abandoned altogether and the Ethiopian government will regain lost respect from its people for doing the right thing. No one in a right mind would give a carte blanche authority to a third party that is heavily biased towards own self interest and international balance of power to decide where Ethiopian border ends and Eritrea begins. That decision ought to be hammered out between the two and the third party ought to be given a role to help Ethiopia and Eritrea to come to agreeable decision. Ethiopia cannot sit down and accept what others deem is right for her.

Haileselassie Girmay

May 28, 2002