Ises High
While packing and all the stuff it seems I still got too much time. Well ok, but since this is a serious topic I feel that time is well invested right now.
First of all, what would have changed when Selassie I would have lived like the poor? Would that have made situation better for the poor?
Besides that, from one of His Majesty's most trusted foreign companions, Prof Edward Ullendorf, we know that Emperor personally lived a very frugal life. The thing was, that he had to fit into the "Emperor role" like Ethiopia expected it. You can't compare that to a western kind of thinking. In Ethiopia's history there was always a symbiotic working together of all classes. There were the peasants and the nobles, and all worked together and needed each other.
Even the poorest ethiopian will tell you how proud he is of the pomp and gold and luxury of the Queen of Sheba, Menelik I, Lalibela and all those great kings throughout history. Although he himself is poor, he needs and wants a gloriuos, luxurious and respected History, Culture, Religion, Nation, Kingdom, Government and King. This is the Ethiopian's identity.
Thos people who knew the Emperor personally all told those things of a frugal life, like his friends, schollars, servants, cooks etc. But he realized that he had to fit into Ethiopia's expectations of how an Emperor must be. But he himself was used to a very normal upbringing as Ras Makonnen was also very frugal.
A next thing is, one must overstand that His Majesty said that those who do not work want to be poor.
Selah
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