Oromiya's (Ethiopia's) Deriba Merga Wins the Men's Boston Marathon

Most elite athletes who have made Ethiopia globally famous come from the extremely repressed Oromo people of Ethiopia. Their winning credits usually go to the same repressive regime that leverages the athletes' victories to build Ethiopia's national image in favour of the ruling ethnic group.

Ethiopian government excludes the Oromo people from being represented in national economic and political powers. Because most athletes don not have language skills in English, Spanish, French or German, they don not do much to publicize the plight of their people back home. They could have been useful tools in drawing global attention to climate crises befalling the Horn of Africa, poverty, underdevelopment, human rights abuses against Oromo and other peoples.

They have, however, a tremendous potential to create global awareness that can help world leaders and civil society organizations to address the mentioned humanitarian problems once the athletes cross the threshold of basic consciousness. These famous athletes need to take intensive,crash courses in English to be able to communicate their humanitarian ideas after winning, instead of just packing up and going home with medals and cups.

Links:

The Boston Globe's coverage of the victory of Oromo athletes in Boston, USA at http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/running/articles/2009/04/20/theyre_off_at_the_boston_marathon_1240214440/

Watch You Tube video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWfPdR0HnR8

Photo Credit: http://www.universalsports.com