Horizontal Inequality!!!!

Will there be equality when an African brother of mine works in a Western toilet literally as a ‘’tissue paper ‘’?

By ©Anko Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

08-04-2011

‘Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior’

Aristotle

In the platforms of academic and democratic liberalism arguments one of the forerunning arguments is what? Group and Individual rights. Liberal democracies such as the United States of America and most Western European countries including this country, I am living in uphold the values and status of individual rights. Liberal democracy is basically about individuals’ right. This has its own critics too “... criticism of liberal democracy is that it can only protect individual freedoms. It cannot protect minorities from prejudice or oppression, especially if it is an accepted form of behaviour for the majority” (brainz.org).

Off all the types of democracies and ideologies currently on the plate; I prefer to be a LIBERAL. Until another one with better options comes or I create MY OWN. But my contention here is on the two types of inequalities: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal inequality is about the inequality of groups while the Vertical one measures the inequality between individuals.

I like most of my Ethiopian friends and age mates, citizens of the world who love justice and equality fight to see an equal Ethiopia, world. The type of inequality in Ethiopia is horizontal-it is not vertical. Women against men, matures against youngsters, and majorly ETHNIC inequalities.

I will be making reference of Gudrun Østby’s 2005 paper entitled “Horizontal Inequalities and Civil Conflict*” hereafter to substantiate my points.

Stewart (2002) in (Østby, 2005) defines horizontal inequalities as ‘systematic inequalities between culturally formed groups’ It also can be of gender, age cohorts and rural vs. urban groups.

Horizontal inequalities are caused by deliberate agency or other factors(Østby,2005).There are many cases in which various kinds of group inequalities seem to have provoked civil conflict – territorial as well as governmental. The conflict between the Senegalese government and the Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de Casamançe (MFDC) may serve as an example where the Dioula ethnic group felt discriminated and less benefiting from their own riches.

The Ugandan civil war when the Baganda group was favored compared to the disadvantaged northern and eastern regions is the second.

In today’s Ethiopia also where members of the Tigrean ethnic group control the social, economic and political power and richness of the country widening the horizontal inequality gap with other major ethnic groups, is the third example very likely to lead into a conflict.

As Østby the effect of these collective grievances caused by continuous horizontal inequalities result in conflicts and civil wars. Members of disadvantaged groups are likely to feel frustration and antagonism, especially when their relative deprivation is the result of actual exploitation and discrimination, which is apparently often the case (for example in Senegal and Uganda).

As we had seen in many Arab countries recently “due to overt discrimination policies or not, the unequal access to economic resources by different ethnic groups can reduce the welfare of the individuals in the relatively deprived groups, provoking collective grievances, and in the worst case, rebellion against the more privileged groups, or the state” (Østby,2005) , protests of the mass due to horizontal inequalities resulted in revolutions.

Ethiopia is one good case where horizontal inequality in politics (political inner circle and top military brass staying under one ethnic group), age, and economy (access to resources and business monopolization held under one ethnic group), social (better educational and health opportunities to one ethnic group) are overt.

“If this is the case, one cannot assume that it is only resentment by the deprived that causes political instability. The relatively privileged can also attack the unprivileged, fearing that they may demand more resources and political power. Both types of reactions point in the direction that a society of high horizontal inequalities has a higher risk of civil war than societies without such inequalities. Furthermore, group leaders may use horizontal inequalities in order to achieve their own political or economic goals” (Østby,2005).

The African in Europe

Last week a good friend of mine (C) had chastised me to go to a night out with her. We went to various clubs, drunk and chilled. In one of the clubs, we danced and drunk a lot, thus I needed to make my nature. When I went to the toilet, I met a young African man sitting in a chair simply between the ‘urines and excretions’. After I finished urinating and washing my hands, this man came towards me sprayed a good perfume, gave me a tissue and offered me chewing gum. For this service, he requested a contribution- I offered him €2.He was doing the same with everyone that came in to the toilet. A weird job ,ain’t it?

I never had imagined in my life that a man would work such a job. Is it creativity? Or inequality? Indeed, this man might make good money by caring for drunken men but can you imagine how dehumanizing such a job is.

In my little research, I have found out that there are over 20 Africans who do this job in many of the pubs and clubs in this town (I won’t tell you it’s name but obviously in Western part of Europe).They go to this clubs carrying their tissue papers, fragrances, and confectionaries around 10pm . They spend the whole night doing this job to club goers who drop into the toilet to make their nature in the middle of partying.They pour all they have as soon as you finish peeing or excretion: fragrance,soft tissue, chewing gum,and all that makes you look fresh when you return to the hall/club.All they take is donation from you.The young African man stays clenched in the corner of the pub until it closes.How would an African party goer feel free to party in a club where another African is doing an 'enslaving' job?

Ade (not his real name), is one of these men who work in the toilets. He comes from Nigeria and he has lived in Europe for over 8 years moving from one country to another as he was unable to get a residence permit. He is an illegal resident in this country too.

I asked him how he got into this business “I have to survive.” Was his answer. Many young Africans who have been denied legal residence or asylum in Europe are engaged in such degrading and dehumanizing jobs. While the females do prostitution. I don’t really know when this inequality thing will be resolved. I don’t really know what the Club owners feel when they let them do this business? Do they tax them? Do they know that they are indirectly contributing to the racial and social degradation of these young Africans and others? Allowing them to work in the toilet in the middle of the night literally as ‘human tissue papers’!

I am one of these Africans in Europe who had run away detesting these horizontal inequalities and related injustices. I had hoped that I would be able to see a vertically unequal West, before my coming here. That was partly drawn upon my head by the Western media or books. Relatively speaking it is true. There is a vertical inequality amongst the native Europeans. The difference is mainly personal – a matter of quality and qualifications. But when it comes to foreigners – the inequality is horizontal. Particularly in the case of Africans. We Africans are horizontally-socially, politically and economically segregated or unequal. In the middle of multiculturalism, interculturalism and integration talks-Africans still grapple with the unwinnable battle of entering the circle of vertical inequality. Mind you here, the horizontal inequality is way better here than it is in Africa.

… simple inequality between rich and poor is not enough to cause violent conflict. What is highly explosive is … ‘horizontal’ inequality: when power and resources are unequally distributed between groups that are also differentiated in other ways – for instance by race, religion or language. So called ‘ethnic’ conflicts occur between groups which are distinct in one or more of these ways, when one of them feels it is being discriminated against, or another enjoys privileges which it fears to lose (Kofi Annan, 1999).

Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led regime in Ethiopia and negligent policy and decision makers in Europe continue to perpetuate horizontal inequality.

And we live.

©Anko Zuta