Bless Up Idren
Here's a little something to meditate on... Keep on absorbing the TRUTH as KNOWN by Rasta..
Nuff Love and Guidance
Higher Education
Monday, September 23, 1963
The Lion of Judah has prevailed
Haile Selassie I, Elect of God
King of Kings of Ethiopia
A well organized education should not be one which prepares students for a good remuneration alone. It should be one that can help and guide them towards acquiring clear thinking, a fruitful mind, and an elevated spirit.
The educated person that Ethiopia and countries of our level needs is not one who had stuffed bits of knowledge into his mind. The needed educated individual is one who uses the ideas he obtained from his lectures, books, and discussions to the best advantage of his own country and his own people. It is he who disseminates new ideas in harmony with the economic and social aspects of his own community so that fruitful results would be realized. This is the educated person who can show segments of knowledge he accumulated in his learning, inventiveness in a new situation.
Ethiopia is a country with her own culture and mores. These, our cultures and customs, more than being the legacy of our historical past, are characteristics of our Ethiopianness. We do not want our legacies and traditions to be lost. our wish and desire is that education develop, enrich, and modify them.
You all know the continuous effort that Ethiopia is exerting for the development of a profound and high standard education. We need educated and trained persons for research, for the study and development of our country's resources, for technology, for medicine, for the law, and the administration for our people according to their custom. These are the needs that constrain us to provide, at all levels, education free of charge. And students, ever mindful of this privilege, should endeavour to recompense their country and nation.
The opportunity for education, afforded to the fortunate in our country, is not given to them for a fashion or a mode. It is given for a purpose, for a task, for a high reponsibility for full and exhaustive use, for the benefit of our country, and the coming generation. We have just explained to you the type of result, and responsibility that we expect from you students. It is on you, the members of the faculty that we must rely for this result. We realize the heavy responsibility we have entrusted to you. We hope that you too, while believing and accepting your responsibilities as your sacred duties, will, produce for Ethiopia persons who take pride in you and their education and are ready for the call of service.
It is you who must mold the minds of your students that they may be wise, farsighted, intelligent, profound in their thinking, devoted to their country and government and fruitful in their work. It is you who must sense as the example.
On their part also, they will have to learn not only formal education but also self discipline that should be worthy to be inherited. May the Almighty God be with you in the fulfillment of your duties.
Posted on: March 14, 2007, 03:52:45 am
Whatever the task may be, man may begin it but he cannot complete it, unless God sustains and supports him. If he fails to accomplish the task on which he has set out, having worked to the best of his ability, he is not to be maligned by being called lazy.
http://www.jah-rastafari.com/selassie-words/show-jah-word.asp?word_id=work Man may, at the onset, control the direction which events take, but once his choice is made, events soon escape his control and history proceeds by its own force and momentum.
Posted on: March 14, 2007, 03:54:44 am
Our programs undertaken in the economic field for augmenting the material welfare of Our subjects, has not made Us forget that, according to the words of the Bible. "man does not live by bread alone." We believe that the spiritual and moral welfare of Our people is as important as their material well-being. Thus, it is that following the liberation of Ethiopia from the yoke of the enemy. We have devoted a very large part of Our budget and national revenues for the establishment and development of schools. During this short period of ten years no less than fifteen secondary schools, of which the last, the General Wingate School, was opened by Ourselves this year, have been established directly as a result of Our initiative and direction. The number of students enrolled in schools in Ethiopia has nearly tripled during that same period. Shortly, the University, the foundation- stone of which We have laid, will be opened under Our direction. We face with confidence the future of public instruction in Ethiopia.
If We have made so many sacrifices for the education of Our youth. it is because We are convinced that only through intellectual progress and universal education can Ethiopia come into its own and make its just contribution to the history of the peoples of the Middle East. We believe that from truth alone is born liberty and that only an educated people can consider itself as really free and master of its fate. It is only with an educated people that representative and democratic organs of government can exercise their influence for national progress. Our Address from the Throne therefore testifies to the importance which We attach to education and, at the same time, to your role as representatives, in the development and progress of Our people....
Posted on: March 14, 2007, 03:55:42 am
In all the countries we have visited, we have noted that education is the basis for the greatness, the power, the pride and prosperity of a nation. This impression, together with the satisfaction that we have had from the students of our own educational institutions, whom we consider the principal instruments for the progress and well-being of Ethiopia, renews and strengthens our belief in education. If, therefore, education is the factor of everlasting significance in the greatness of a nation, it becomes the duty of every Ethiopian to strive for education and progress. What we have seen wherever we went has convinced us that education is as vital as life itself.
The foreign technicians and specialists are only employed to provide us with temporary assistance and training. It is the duty of everyone to strive for self-sufficiency by acquiring knowledge and experience.
To live always in dependence upon the assistance of others not only prevents a people from attaining its ideal, but also deprives life of its true significance and achievement.
We have seen again during our visit that God has not been partial in His divine creation. The difference of colour is a notion which has no significance and the futility of asserting a difference has now become obvious. The way in which Ethiopian youth has assimilated the knowledge of modern art and science, and the high academic achievements of the young men and women we have sent for higher education abroad, justifies our efforts and expectations. Our whole history testifies to the heroic deeds of our gallant people.
The fact that we have sown on fertile ground strengthens our hope that we shall realize the plans we have prepared in order to achieve our high ideals. After all, Ethiopia is second to none in her agricultural tradition. We are proud to say that our plans and achievements compare favorably with those of others.
If we have been able to accomplish what we had in mind to do, it is because the love and prayers of our people have always sustained us.
In conclusion, we would leave with you the thought that Ethiopia belongs equally to each and every Ethiopian, and we rely on you all, young and old alike, to play your proper constructive part in the great common task of fructifying in Ethiopia the results of our visits abroad. Nor will you fail in furthering the success of the program of modernization and development that we have outlined for our beloved country.
The thing that harms a nation most and cripples its strength is lack of enthusiasm and zeal to strive through education to raise itself to the level that other nations have attained. There is nothing we desire more than to see the full development of the natural resources of our Empire and the raising of the standard of living of our people. May the Almighty and Everlasting God continue to protect our people and bless our efforts, so that in His good time we may see the fruits of our endeavours."
Posted on: March 14, 2007, 03:56:38 am
The above link will guide the Idren to dozens (Over 80) of H.I.M.'s speeches and essays. Something that will answer MANY.... MANY...MANY.... (Did InI already say Many?) Questions about what H.I.M. think on this and that..Every GOOD RASTA school NEED to have access to these words spoken by H.I.M.
Blessings and Guidance and Good READING and STUDYING
Sistah Vee