Photo from PM Abiy Facebook page
One tree sapling at at time
PM Abiy instructs Million by planting one tree sapling at a time, to re-forest Ethiopia, and to secure the rain that grows the wheat for the daily bread for his future.
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PM Abiby, of the historic, and biblical, country of Ethiopia, released recent photos of his newly adopted son, Million.
Million is a relatively common Amhara name, but it doesn't make it any less poetic.
Ethiopia has been the centre of international adoption for many years, with rural, impoverished women giving over their infant children to beckoning western women who cannot have children of their own (age, anyone?). Of course, there is also the "third world saviors" syndrome, as was the case for the most famous Ethiopian orphan adoptee, Anjelina Jolie, who found a vulnerable mother to give up her infant daughter.
Million's adoptive mother, PM Ahmed's wife Zinash, saw him in a local orphanage in Addis Ababa, held him in her arms, and immediately started adoption papers. He, PM husband, accepted her decision.
It was as much a political move as a personal, familial one. Let Ethiopia's children stay in their own country. Let them grow up to be Ethiopians.