The TPLF thugs are dolling out large tracts of land to foreign commercial interests for nominal prices, particulary in Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz regions and seriously undermining the livelihoods of the people.
The blind argument for this move by the TPLF thugs is that the move will ensure natinal food security and modernize agriculture that could be replicated by the locals. I have no trust in this argument for so may reasons. First and foremost, there is no guaranty that the invesots will sell the food they produced in the domestic market for affordable prices.
On the other hand there is a fact that ownership/access to land provides so amny other seondary rights for the land users that will not be available when the land is transfered to commercial interests. For example, farmers who have had access to the land had not only the right to cultivate the land and harves crops, but also access to grazing for their livestock, wood for energy and other household needs, to grow fruits, etc. to supplement their income. Under the ownership of the commercial investor, the farmers lose all these secondary rights. How is this to be compensated by the investor? Will they have to be forced to sell their livestock for lack of grazing land or are thet to pay for the graing land to the investor? If they are forced to sell, will they get the right price? As all the farmers will be forced to sell at the same time, prices of livesotck will be dipressed and the farmers will lose money. If they have to keep their livestock, they will have extra cost of paying for the investor for the grazing of their livestock. Where will they get the extra money? Will the investor pay the farmers who will be converted to laborers enough salary to pay for all these extra costs?
We are already witnessing that local farmers where land is being dolled out are expressing their grievances and are being silenced and killed by the regime. Supressing these expressions will not halt the grievances. It will only aggravate the simmering of the tensions that will eventually erupt into violence that would be most costly to handle for the nation.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
All Woyanites and their puppets are embarrassing during an uncensored interview
I also support the critical reflection of Ato Efrem Madebo and Genet Mersha regarding the embarrassing interview of DPM and FM Hailemariam Desalegn with Bahl Vickram of the ITMN. I wanted to argue that it is not just Hailemariam Desalegn, but all Woyanites and their puppets who are so embaressing when interviewed by an uncensored journalist.
We have seen Meles Zenawi, Seyoum Mesfin, etal, blabbering, lost, lying, and contradicting themselves when interviewed by BBC, Aljazeera, AFP, etc. journalists of the free media. The only advantage the TPLFites have over their puppets, like Hailemariam, is thier ability to turn their anger on the interviewer and intimidate him/her to soften the qestion or abandon asking them hard questions, because they know they will not be held accountable for how they behaved during an interview with a free and foreign media at home, just because they are Tigre. They also display some sense of confidence because they speak their mind and know the details of the domestic policy issue as they are the ones that cook policy in the their own narrow circle.
Hailemariam and the other puppets do not have that added advantage. Whne they speak they don't speak their mind as they are not free persons. They don't even clearly listen to the question, because their mind is focused on how might Meles Zenawi, Azeb mesfin, or Bereket Simon, react if he/she answer the question this or the other way. They also don't have details as EPRDFites because they are not aware of the real essence of the policy issue they are talking about as it is cooked in the TPLF circles and just brought to the EPRDF polit-bureau for the purpose of rubber stamping.
I have known Hailemariam for many years since my junior secondary years in Areka, where Hailemariam was born and brought up. We were togehter in Catholic Seminary studying for priesthood, and we were close during our university years (he was my junior by one year). He was so genious academically and did well professionally in the years he was serving in the Water Resources Commission.
His moral decline and loss of confidence started when he was recruited by Simon Mechale of the then DPPC Commissioner to become a member of the Woyane's puppet ethnic deomcratic organization for the "Wolayita People" and ascended to become the President of Arbaminch University, and soon the President of the "SNNP Regional State". The guy chose ambition over his freedom.
The trajectory and the ascendance to positions (not power, because they dont have authority in their positions) of all the TPLF puppets is similar. They chose illicit power over their freedom. So, no matter how intelligent you are, once you lose your freedom, which is at the core of your "being", your "self", then you can't be rational, coherent and persuasive.
Thus unless they reclaim thier freedom, none of the puppets nor the TPLFites themselves could escape embarrassement not only during an interview session but at wahtever they do in their daily lives.
We have seen Meles Zenawi, Seyoum Mesfin, etal, blabbering, lost, lying, and contradicting themselves when interviewed by BBC, Aljazeera, AFP, etc. journalists of the free media. The only advantage the TPLFites have over their puppets, like Hailemariam, is thier ability to turn their anger on the interviewer and intimidate him/her to soften the qestion or abandon asking them hard questions, because they know they will not be held accountable for how they behaved during an interview with a free and foreign media at home, just because they are Tigre. They also display some sense of confidence because they speak their mind and know the details of the domestic policy issue as they are the ones that cook policy in the their own narrow circle.
Hailemariam and the other puppets do not have that added advantage. Whne they speak they don't speak their mind as they are not free persons. They don't even clearly listen to the question, because their mind is focused on how might Meles Zenawi, Azeb mesfin, or Bereket Simon, react if he/she answer the question this or the other way. They also don't have details as EPRDFites because they are not aware of the real essence of the policy issue they are talking about as it is cooked in the TPLF circles and just brought to the EPRDF polit-bureau for the purpose of rubber stamping.
I have known Hailemariam for many years since my junior secondary years in Areka, where Hailemariam was born and brought up. We were togehter in Catholic Seminary studying for priesthood, and we were close during our university years (he was my junior by one year). He was so genious academically and did well professionally in the years he was serving in the Water Resources Commission.
His moral decline and loss of confidence started when he was recruited by Simon Mechale of the then DPPC Commissioner to become a member of the Woyane's puppet ethnic deomcratic organization for the "Wolayita People" and ascended to become the President of Arbaminch University, and soon the President of the "SNNP Regional State". The guy chose ambition over his freedom.
The trajectory and the ascendance to positions (not power, because they dont have authority in their positions) of all the TPLF puppets is similar. They chose illicit power over their freedom. So, no matter how intelligent you are, once you lose your freedom, which is at the core of your "being", your "self", then you can't be rational, coherent and persuasive.
Thus unless they reclaim thier freedom, none of the puppets nor the TPLFites themselves could escape embarrassement not only during an interview session but at wahtever they do in their daily lives.
Releasing Derg Officials: Is it really a reconciliation?
A futile debate is going on in the blogosphere and in the Ethiopian local media,as to whether the prospective release of derg officials is a move towards national reconciliation or it is constitutional or unconstitutional.
As to the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the argument, the debate is futile because there is no constitution in woyane's Ethiopia that dictates the law. Woyane rules by whim, not by constitution!
As to whether the move will have a reconciliatory impact, for me it is just another political strategy of the Woyane thugs to appear as peace makers both locally and in the face of the international community and the diplomatic front. Other wise why bother about reconciliation while woyane is still harassing, jailing, and killing opposition politicians and their supports throughout the country. If there is a grain of real intention in the woyane camp to reconcile with the Ethiopian people, the right thing to do is sit and negotate with all opposition groups and chart the way forward for Ethiopia or just allow free and fair election.
Reconciliation happens when woyane leaves the Ethiopian people to freely organize, freely express their voice, freely do their business, when people can hold politicians accountable, when they are equal before the law, when there is justice.
How could releasing old, sick and fragile former derg officials be seen as a sign of national reconciliation? Do these officials pose any threat to woyane's power today? You reconcile with your challengers, your critics, not with those at your mercy. How is the release of a few derg officials going to be national reconciliation, while many thousands of people are suffering in woyane's prisons for their political opinion, most of them with agonizing treatment, while people are losing their jobs or opportunities for advancement and education because of their critical or independent opinion, while thousands are still fleeing the country for their safety and living in exile, when everything below the sky in Ethiopia is controlled by Tigrean minority, when a few arrogant Tigreans enjoy humilating others in all sectors of life. These gross violations have to change for a national reconciliation!!!
I have no problem if derg officials are released on an amnesty on humanitarian grounds, although I am one of millions of Ethiopians, who had been jailed and tortured by the regime, although still many may consider it unjust on legal grounds. But I am certain that their release is not a game changer for the Ethiopian people nor it is a sign of national reconciliation.
As to the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the argument, the debate is futile because there is no constitution in woyane's Ethiopia that dictates the law. Woyane rules by whim, not by constitution!
As to whether the move will have a reconciliatory impact, for me it is just another political strategy of the Woyane thugs to appear as peace makers both locally and in the face of the international community and the diplomatic front. Other wise why bother about reconciliation while woyane is still harassing, jailing, and killing opposition politicians and their supports throughout the country. If there is a grain of real intention in the woyane camp to reconcile with the Ethiopian people, the right thing to do is sit and negotate with all opposition groups and chart the way forward for Ethiopia or just allow free and fair election.
Reconciliation happens when woyane leaves the Ethiopian people to freely organize, freely express their voice, freely do their business, when people can hold politicians accountable, when they are equal before the law, when there is justice.
How could releasing old, sick and fragile former derg officials be seen as a sign of national reconciliation? Do these officials pose any threat to woyane's power today? You reconcile with your challengers, your critics, not with those at your mercy. How is the release of a few derg officials going to be national reconciliation, while many thousands of people are suffering in woyane's prisons for their political opinion, most of them with agonizing treatment, while people are losing their jobs or opportunities for advancement and education because of their critical or independent opinion, while thousands are still fleeing the country for their safety and living in exile, when everything below the sky in Ethiopia is controlled by Tigrean minority, when a few arrogant Tigreans enjoy humilating others in all sectors of life. These gross violations have to change for a national reconciliation!!!
I have no problem if derg officials are released on an amnesty on humanitarian grounds, although I am one of millions of Ethiopians, who had been jailed and tortured by the regime, although still many may consider it unjust on legal grounds. But I am certain that their release is not a game changer for the Ethiopian people nor it is a sign of national reconciliation.
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