Cyber Journalists

Global NetGeneration of Youth Interview Ethiopian Ambassador Dr. Samuel Assefa

In his large office within the Embassy of Ethiopia, Ambassador Samuel Assefa sat behind his large wooden desk adorned with ornaments unique to the country that sits as the horn of Africa, and with his glasses placed in the middle of his nose he typed on a neon pink rubber keyboard he bought for his daughter at an airport during a visit to Italy.

Dr. Assefa spoke on many important issues including Ethiopia's trade relations, the evolving public perception of the country and the importance of diplomacy. Weaved in with these pressing issues, he spoke about a movement that has taken over the country: the educational revolution.

While many things are on his agenda, Dr. Assefa notes that working with the youth of Ethiopia is a priority. Not only does he acknowledge that they are the future but he speaks of the youth as the present hope of the nation and an investment much greater than the goods that are exchanged with other nations.

While the Global NetGeneration of Youth CyberJournalists were not present at the meeting, they sent questions for the Ambassador.

Mr. Ambassador, what are some ways that my peers in Ethiopian create cultural diplomacy? Tara Gholami, Sir Winston Churchill High School, Calgary, AB

Ambassador Assefa: This question should be greeted with enormous enthusiasm. You'd be surprised by how young our population is. It's a very energetic, resourceful and wide-eyed young population and more than ever before they feel like somehow they are part of something global. Becoming cosmopolitan, becoming global. The youth in Ethiopia are very much like the youth in America. They feel connected and their expectations are high. They no longer compare themselves with the person that is next to them but to a person they may know who came to the U.S. and is now back. It's a universal phenomenon, they feel quite mobile in their identities. The youth now are far more sophisticated, far more knowing, more skeptical of extremes, they are searching and I don't know if they have a very clearly defined sense of image in the same why my generation did--very radical and leftist.

Mr. Ambassador, how has schooling changed in Ethiopia since you were a student? Derick Calbert, Dorsey High School, Los Angeles, California

Ambassador Assefa: Right now we have a massification of education taking over in Ethiopia.

When I went to school around five percent of the youth population was attending school, now we have about 90 percent and we are going to try to make 100 percent school enrollment of elementary school aged children by 2015. That special marker, the millennium goal. I think we beat that schedule except for one community where we are not doing so well and that's a mobile community and we don't have mobile schools or mobile clinics or mobile courts--we don't have many mobile state services so there is a special need for this community. There is an educational revolution taking place and it is much more profound than just political events here and there. Sure when you massify, quality becomes the casualty, but still what you are going to have is a literate and outward looking young rural population and that is going to create new expectations. This is a whole new society and the fabric is going to change. It is changing now and you can feel it.

Mr. Ambassador, what is Ethiopia's progress regarding the Millennium Goals created by the United Nations? How has the nation changed as it moves closer to 2015?

Ressi Miranda, Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Stamford, Connecticut

Ambassador Assefa: The Millennium Goals try to establish clear bench marks for assessing your own success and failure in respect to development in health, education and poverty reduction. Most recently the UN announced that Ethiopia is on target with poverty reduction. We are going to meet our education goal but the question now is how are we going to sustain it? When you have 100 percent enrollment rate up to 8th grade--by the way that's voluntary on our end, we raised it from the 6th grade requirement to 8th. It requires a huge amount of human resources and creates an upward pressure and bump to high school and vocational schools and that has an impact on colleges and universities which in turn necessitates that we train many teachers and professors. It's enormous pressure and it's a wonderful thing to see happen and it's irreversible.

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