Opinion: Toward a new narrative on the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Mulubrhan Balehegn, egypttoday.com; (original article contains videos.)

Image from article, with caption: A general view of Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam, as it undergoes construction, is seen during a media tour along the river Nile in Benishangul Gumuz Region, Guba Woreda, in Ethiopia March 31, 2015.

Excerpt:

CAIRO - 13 December 2017: I attended the World Youth Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh in early November 2017, where I interacted with some of the brightest and most accommodating young thinkers in Egypt.

The issue of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), of course, was the subject I talked most about with many of my acquaintances. My experience at the Forum gave me hope that the future of our two historically tied countries (Ethiopia and Egypt) is safe in the hands of seasoned and balanced thinkers.

Alas, like everywhere else, the popular narrative on the dam is created not by people like the strong thinkers I met, but by a loud, unhinged media that spews out its unbalanced opinions at audiences hungry for information.

Unfortunately, the latter are led to harbor an unproductive, and at times dangerous, perception. According to the common narrative by the Egyptian media, Ethiopia's intentions on Abbay's (Ethiopia's name for the Nile) waters have always been framed as external intervention by supposedly anti-Egypt forces such as the US, Israel and now Qatar.

Such a condescending attitude toward Ethiopians, as people who cannot do anything about their fate, other than serving as instruments of external anti-Egypt forces, has undoubtedly not helped the attitude of Ethiopians toward Egypt and Egyptians, an attitude that is already riddled with myths and misconceptions. ...

For the Egyptian thought-makers, especially the media, instead of continuing to feed on the external 'enemies of Egypt' and fixating on 'the historical water rights of Egypt' narration—both of which fail to recognize the dynamics of the Nile quest in Ethiopia—it would be more productive to understand the popular psychology and narration of the Ethiopian masses, in order to engage them, and in return help Ethiopians understand the legitimate fears of the Egyptians. ...

Ethiopians have repeatedly suffered from biblical-scale hunger and mass deaths due to droughts and associated crop failures. Though Ethiopians have always loved their country, there have been lingering grievances and bitterness that the land was unable to feed its loving people. Many Ethiopians, deeply religious as they are (or despite their piety), have for centuries accepted their tribulations as God’s wrath for their transgressions. ...

Deep in the hearts of the Ethiopian masses, the bloody, almost half-century long Eritrean war for independence has always been framed as Egyptian and other Arab countries' proxy interventions to weaken Ethiopia. ...

Ethiopians, despite their contrived view of Arabs and, by extension, Egypt, have always wanted a stable and prosperous Egypt as a buffer against extremism in their otherwise highly volatile zone. ...

My point is, therefore, that each of the governments and political actors in both these countries, beyond using rhetoric that helps them gain popular support, should accept this truth. The truth that there is misunderstanding among the people and the elites with respect to the Nile quest and popular thinking. People should be allowed to understand one another and to listen to one another's fears, plights and aspirations.

Public diplomacy, aimed at creating steady understanding among the two countries' peoples, should be pursued. Instead of feeding the public uncensored facts and inflammatory rhetoric charged with hubris and ultranationalism, it would be more productive to allow the two historically tied people and governments to understand one another, and that should start by listening to the other side of the story.