The US Ambassador to Ethiopia finished her three-year tour of duty with a speech to the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday 23^rd August. In her speech, Ambassador Aurelia E. Brazeal said that she would cherish the memories of her time in Ethiopia and its people for the rest of her life and talked of the great progress that has been made in Ethiopia in recent years. She went on to warn that people should not concentrate too much on the past.

“There are Ethiopians fixated on the political conditions that existed in 1974, or 1991, or even 2000,” she said. “There are those who want to say there has been no positive changes since then, or even no positive change, period.  There are those who want to bury the undeniable positive central features of Ethiopia’s present and deny the country’s promising future.”

She went on to list the positive features as a permanent multiparty system, a legal constitution and institutions to frame debates, economic reforms to help Ethiopia to join the global economy and a development agenda that promises grassroots results. 

“These are features that, if carried through forcefully and positively, prefigure a redemptive future and national renewal.”

She expressed her belief that a promising future for Ethiopia could be achieved through the reinvigoration of age-old concepts of shared values, by being inclusive and by rejecting the destructive potential of bigotry and prejudice and living together with respect for and tolerance of each other.

Ambassador Brazeal also spoke of her hope that all political parties would take their seats in Parliament and participate within the system, reflecting the wishes of the ordinary Ethiopian people that she has spoken to.

Earlier, the Ambassador had met with President Girma Wolde Giorgis to mark the completion of her tour of duty in Ethiopia. During their meeting she talked of how the cooperation between the US and Ethiopia had grown during her time as Ambassador, and remarked how the peaceful completion of the national elections would have a significant contribution to the maintenance of peace and stability in the country.

ENDS