News Feature

Newsletter 17

Why Should We Celebrate the Ethiopian Millennium?

 We already have fallen under its dominion. The Ethiopian Millennium should serve as a focal point for us, reaching down into the end of second millennium and approaching the dawn of the third.   

It would also compel us to re-examine our values, our institutions and ourselves.  Our vision is to celebrate the new millennium as the millennium of love, peace and hope by promoting it with our unity in diversity. 

Launching new approaches based on the desire to increase understanding and respect and diminish poverty, backwardness, ignorance and misunderstanding within and between our diverse  cultures  and  traditions  we hope to reach a new high through communication and practical thinking. 

According to Ato Seyoum Bereded, Director General of the Secretariat for the Preparation of the Ethiopian Millennium, we have dedicated the Ethiopian Millennium celebration to create an urge and a  common  platform  among our  future  generation  and  the  general public on the importance of peace and development by innovating new thinking patterns suitable to each segment of peace and development based on their needs and desires".

The ever eroding image of our country has to be restored, the degrading environment has to be recovered and the thirst for knowledge of our wider population has to be quenched.  We also need to support our people in their quest to a better health, education and suitable environment.

Using action orientated method, we shall be establishing platforms of communication and understanding which would expand our knowledge of each others' needs and respond to shared hopes and dreams we have for the future.

The ultimate aim of the Ethiopian Millennium National  Secretariat  would therefore be to positively engage people to work for the betterment of our country and its people.  It engages us all to live in peace and justice, esteem the value of individuals, respect labour, have a deep sense of duties of citizens and be imbued with an independent spirit as builders of a peaceful and highly developed society which would contribute towards a culture of peace and harmony of our beloved country, Ethiopia.   

We talk about the Ethiopian Millennium because it fills our soul with hope.  Despite the anxieties of our time, we believe that tomorrow can be a better day for our children and us.  The new millennium offers us a unique opportunity to measure the road covered over the past millennia. 

According to Seyoum Bereded, General Director of the Secretariat, the two main reasons why the Ethiopian Millennium will be uniquely celebrated is that it can serve both as a milestone and a threshold.   

As a milestone, the new millennium offers a unique opportunity to measure the road covered over the past 2,000.  It offers us a chance to take stock of how far we have come as a nation and reflect on where we must go to achieve a lasting peace and prosperity -a more developed and peaceful country for all of us. 

Beyond just a new year and a century's end, the year 2000 will also be a millennium's end.  As a threshold it will be significant because it marks our entry into the third millennium. 

For at least a season, we as a nation should breath a bit easier, knowing we have come through the last century, the last millennia.

Much like any other anniversaries or national holidays, the year 2000 is a threshold to pass across.  Crossing over the threshold into the third millennium offers us an opportunity to repack our cultural and historical baggage before we inhabit our new psychological home.   

The question can start with why we should celebrate the Ethiopian millennium, as a milestone or a threshold, but it should soon graduate to a more important one:  "How can this Ethiopian Millennium commemoration truly leave a legacy for future generation?"