aqumada

            "Medrek", a discussion board on ethioindex.com, used to be one of my favorite places to visit. Lately, however, a handful of EPRDF cadres and extreme elements of the opposition with specific agendas have turned the forum into "yemender tej bet". It is not only annoying but also discouraging to have to sift through hundreds of posts with regurgitated messages in order to read few with valuable information

            If participants of the boards do indeed reflect the relatively better education Ethiopian population in Diaspora, Ethiopia might be in trouble (better off without them).  It is, perhaps, unfair to make generalizations about Diaspora population based on few extreme individuals who tend to be vocal but the idea of discussing issues in a rational manner seems to be a foreign concept for most of us Ethiopians. I am not sure whether this has something to do with elements of our culture or if it is a trait of condescending "educated" Ethiopians who believe that they are above the rest. It would be unfair to say, however, that there are not any participants that add value to the discussions to the board. I have had a chance to read the writings of few individuals with entertaining and educational messages. Many of the non-political discussion participants in medrek such as the "coffee-house family" have positive participants with valuable contributions as well. Unfortunately, many of the postings of these people get buried beneath the numerous annoying posts of the idiots.

            Whatever the case may be, I wish "medrek" administrators take some more measures to facilitate better exchange of ideas. My suggestion for the administrators of "medrek" was to limit the number of messages one can post in a day to prevent such flooding of the message board.