Sunday, May 6, 2012
Dear Ethiopians Stand Your Ground: Seize the Moment
Woyane reported that it identified "two Arabs" during the Friday Anwar Mosque protest, who entered the country, and drove right from the airport to the mosque to distribute pamhlets to instigate havoc, but deported them back immediately. What a silly and white lie!!! Is this a move to label the rightful questions of Ethiopian muslmis as a mob instigated by foreign Al Qaida terrorists to destabilize Ethiopia?
Who are these two Arabs? Where did they come from and where were they deported to? How could they be there just a few hours after Woyane's warning on ETV? Or are they Abdula Saleh's (a friend of Meles Zenawi) relatives sent from Yemen to pose as "terorists" to justify Meles's attack on Ethiopian Muslims? Woyane also claimed it has captured a group of terrorists comprised of people from Tigray, Oromia, Amhara, etc, in Kelem, Wollega. All the dictators that fall due to the Arab Springs had lamented similarily. The people's questions were labeled as mobs by few drunken or drugged youth, foreign terrosits, Al Qauida members and sypathisers, islamic fundamentalists, people inspired by destabilizing foreign media (in Woyane's case, the usual suspects: ESAT, VOA and Deutsche Welle), etc.
It looks like that Ethiopians have defeated their fear and not giving in to Woyanes's intimidating and divisive tactics. Despite Woyane's Thursday ETV warning, our Muslim brothers came in 100s of thousands to voice their concers after their Friday prayer, at the grand mosque and other mosques in Addis. Andnet held a meeting in Wolaita Soddo. We have also witnessed people protesting in Dessie, Harar, Dire Dawa, Gambella, Gamo Gofa, Afar, Waldiba, Assasa, etc.
The fear has now really moved from the people to the Woyane thugs themselves. They never had experienced such a concerted and widespread resistance all over the country at the same time. The people's questions are not even political yet. They are just demands for natural and inalienable rights for freedom of religion, association and to property. Woyane has realized that its mercenary militia can not strech across thousands of mosques and churches in the country to sielnce the voices and is trying to stop it through its usual initimidating and divisive tactics.
Did I also hear that Woyane is ready to discuss with Andinet party with the help of groups from the Woodrow Wilson Center and diplomats from the American Embassy in Ethiopia, on issues of avoiding conflict? The usual tactics to buy time, at such critical momnets, as it did after the 2005 election with Kinijit.
My dear fellow Ethiopians, let us stand our ground!!! Momentum is on our side! Let us clinch our freedom from the jaws of the Woyane junta. Never let this moment pass us!!!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Who is Next and Where?
Dear fellow Ethiopians, over the last few weeks, we have witnessed a renewed Woyane instigated displacement of Ethiopians of the Amhara ethnic group from Gura Ferda woreda in southwestern Ethiopia (I hate to call areas in Ethiopia by their ethnic names). That is so sad, scaring and intollerable!!! How can an Ethiopian of a certain ethnic group be denied his or her right to move, live, work, create wealth and establish themselves in different parts of the country? If this is not possible, why do we call ourselves Ethiopians after all?
The reasons Mr. Zenawi, Mr. Shigute, or whoever, gave are unacceptable. If any of those guys whom they accused of destructing the environment in Gura Ferda are alleged to have committed crime, they have to be charged for the crime (if that is a crime under the law) and be convicted, sentenced, and serve their sentence, not be chased away from the region as if they are foreigners!
I remember Woyane accusing Kinijit (CUD) of instigating hatred against Tigreans, during and after the 2005 election, particularly quoting Bedru Adem's words at the historic Kinijit rally on "Miazia 30" in Addis Ababa.
Different ethnic groups of Ethiopia have been integrating and assimilating with each other through intermarriages and through working and living in different parts of the country they don't belong ethnically. I myself as an ethnic "Kembata", lived most of my life in different parts of the country, Oromigna speaking, Wolaitigna speaking, Hadiyigna speaking, Kembatigna speaking, Amharic speaking parts of the country, and had always felt comfortable and enjoyed my life in those parts of Ethiopia. In my choice of a wife, ethnicity never mattered, but love and understanding. My wife, for that matter is from an Amahara ethnic group.
Woyane's Bantustization of Ethiopia is pushing the limit too far and disintegrating our country.
I know there are multitudes of ethnic Kembatas in Sidamo, Wolayita, Gamo Gofa, Shashemene, Wonji and Metehara areas, and so many ethnic Amharas almost all over Ethiopia, and so many ethnic Tigreans almost all over Ethiopia, and so many ethnic Gurages all over Ethiopia, and so many ethnic Oromos, all over Ethiopia, etc.
If Woayane's ethnic policy was in place when I was born, I wouldn't have moved any further than todays' ethnic Kambata capital, "Durame". Nor Hailemariam Desalegn, the current Foreign Minister, would have moved any further than "Soddo", nor Meles/Legesse Zenawi, from "Adwa".
My fellow Ethiopians, we are at a dangerous cross road of history at this time. If we keep quiet in the face of what Woyane is doing right now, we don't know who is next in the current displacement cycle, the ethnic Kembatas in Wonji, Metehara, Nazreth, Arbaminch or Soddo; or the ethnic Amharas in Jinka, Hossana, Assela, Mekele, Jimma, or Nekemte; or the ethnic Oromos in Gondar, Bahirdar, Debrebirhan, Hossana, Areka, or Dessie; or the ethnic Tigres and Gurages, in Addis, Bahirdar, Gonder, Dessie, etc.
It is time to stand united and resist this Bantustization!!!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Dear Ethiopians It Is Time to Rise Up in Unison
Muslims all over Ethiopia are rejecting Woyane's divide and rule tactics and are rising up in unison to protect thier freedom of belief and to stop the regime's interference in their religion. As we have witnessed during the Arab Springs, Ethiopian Muslims are also using the time after the Friday prayers as the platform to voice their opposition to Woyane's move to silence them.
The central issue is not the wahabism, ahbashism or other "isms" woyane is trying to project, but just its desire to control and divide Ethiopian muslims and extending its grip on power, while muslims fight each other, and scaring believers of other religions in Ethiopia by projecting a myth that muslim extremest groups are bent to destroy them, and thereby gain their support. To make innocent followers of other religions believe this, woyane stooges have already burned churches and other sites of worship in different parts of Ethiopia.
Woyane has demonistrated its will of imposing its power in the practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) Synod, in selecting the Church's ptriarch, by politically appointing the woyane cadre, Paulos, as the patriarch of the EOC and populating the senior positions in the Church's leadership by ethnic Tigreans. The opposition to this interference by the laity was crushed through killings, jailings, and further removal of the leaders of the Church from their positions.
Woyane has tried these tactics on Ethiopian Muslims too since its arrival in town. Now, the time has come for Ethiopian muslims to say enough is enough,in unison.
It would have great consequences later if we, followers of other religions, standby and silently watch our muslim brothers and sisters being killed and jailed by woyane mercenaries. If we remain quiet now, we will be collaborators and conspirators in their peril. How can we claim we are one and united with our brother and sisters, if we keep silent when they are perishing?
Quite a number of Christians gather in thousands of Churches every Sunday in all over Ethiopia. Now is the right time to use the Sunday Paryer as the platform to express our support for freedom and to oppose woyane's war against everything Ethiopian.
All Ethiopians, let us stand in unison, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Traditional believers and non believers, and claim our right of freedom. Let us use the moment
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Is Ethiopia Moving Towards a Militaristic or Developmental State?
Meles Zenawi has been bragging about rapid development and poverty reduction since TPLF’s grip of power in Ethiopia. Particularly, since the rejection of his rule in the 2005 election, Meles’ junta has been claiming consistently high levels of economic growth in the country. But a closer scrutiny of credible researches reveals that investment patterns of the government tell a totally different story.
Table 1. Trends in federal government budget allocations in selected African countries 2000-2007
Country Agri. Edu. Health Transp/Comm Social Defense Other*
Ethiopia 9.4 9.2 1.9 4.4 9.9 18.3 46.6
Ghana 0.5 15.1 4.7 1.2 0.0 2.1 76.3
Kenya 4.3 27.7 6.0 5.6 5.6 7.8 43.1
Malawi 5.0 18.2 12.2 4.1 7.0 2.6 50.9
Mozambique 5.1 20.1 12.9 15.4 N.A N.A 46.2
Nigeria 2.9 7.6 4.6 2.4 2.5 6.2 73.8
Uganda 3.9 18.7 10.7 9.6 2.9 10.0 44.1
Zambia 10.8 16.6 7.9 1.0 0.4 12.4 50.9
Source: IFPRI (Jan. 2012 Study Report)
*Other government functions including general administration, fuel and
energy, and manufacturing, construction and mining
From a cursory look at the above table, the following critical observations can be made:
Ethiopia has by far the lowest investment in education (except Nigeria) and health and the highest investment in defense.
Ethiopia’s defense allocation is almost twice the country’s allocation for education and health.
The proportion Ethiopia allocates for defense is almost equivalent to the combined defense allocations of Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria. Ghana is an African democracy now, and the other two had relatively better democratic elections.
While the basic building blocks for a nation’s development are its people’s education and health, it is ridiculous when Woyane puports to making Ethiopia a middle income country in the next decade, while it stands at the tail end even by African standards.
The government’s investment pattern and illicit financial flows shown in other reports tells us that this a regime destined to bleed the country dry by the hench of its military. Adios development.
Table 1. Trends in federal government budget allocations in selected African countries 2000-2007
Country Agri. Edu. Health Transp/Comm Social Defense Other*
Ethiopia 9.4 9.2 1.9 4.4 9.9 18.3 46.6
Ghana 0.5 15.1 4.7 1.2 0.0 2.1 76.3
Kenya 4.3 27.7 6.0 5.6 5.6 7.8 43.1
Malawi 5.0 18.2 12.2 4.1 7.0 2.6 50.9
Mozambique 5.1 20.1 12.9 15.4 N.A N.A 46.2
Nigeria 2.9 7.6 4.6 2.4 2.5 6.2 73.8
Uganda 3.9 18.7 10.7 9.6 2.9 10.0 44.1
Zambia 10.8 16.6 7.9 1.0 0.4 12.4 50.9
Source: IFPRI (Jan. 2012 Study Report)
*Other government functions including general administration, fuel and
energy, and manufacturing, construction and mining
From a cursory look at the above table, the following critical observations can be made:
Ethiopia has by far the lowest investment in education (except Nigeria) and health and the highest investment in defense.
Ethiopia’s defense allocation is almost twice the country’s allocation for education and health.
The proportion Ethiopia allocates for defense is almost equivalent to the combined defense allocations of Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria. Ghana is an African democracy now, and the other two had relatively better democratic elections.
While the basic building blocks for a nation’s development are its people’s education and health, it is ridiculous when Woyane puports to making Ethiopia a middle income country in the next decade, while it stands at the tail end even by African standards.
The government’s investment pattern and illicit financial flows shown in other reports tells us that this a regime destined to bleed the country dry by the hench of its military. Adios development.
Monday, February 20, 2012
An Advice to Meles Zenawi: Exit Before it is Too Late
Mr. Zenawi, on your watch, you have seen the fate of the following dictators:
• Saddam Hussein: deposed and hanged
• Mohammed Gaddafi: dragged muddy and bloody and executed
• Hosni Mubarak:under public trial while on his bed
• Ben Ali: in exile is Saudi Arabia, under ICC warrant
• Abdullah Saleh:in the US,seeking treatment,and probably asylum too,butin vain
• Slobodan Millosovic: died, while on trial in the Hague
• Cahrles Taylor: under ICC trial
• Laurent Bagbo: under ICC trial
• Al Bashir: under ICC warrant
• Bashir al Asaad: no exit strategy yet
Like all of the above, your regime is characterized by brutal dictator ship, silencing of dissent through the use of force, marginalization of the public, inciting ethnic and sectarian violence, and promoting corruption. Particularly, after having learned that the public has rejected you in the 2005 election, you allowed by miscalculation, you have intensified cracking down on dissent in any form, and have been retaliating sections of the society that embraced the opposition.
While you have lost support, even in your traditional ethnic base, in Tigray, you purport to have won the 2010 election, by 99.6%. This is absurd, silly and contradictory, even to your own regime’s complaint of being dragged by “supporters of opposition and terrorists”.
The recent transfer of the nation’s land resource to foreigners, complete clamp down on journalists and opposition members is pushing the Ethiopian population to the limit. You may think you can contain the momentum of an Arab Spring like popular uprising in Ethiopia, just because you have highly bribed and loyal military commanders and multitudes of security and spying networks.
But, believe me, you have made the time ripe for a revolution to be born in Ethiopia. Also, don’t rely on your western enablers for your protection, just because you have jumped onto the anti-terrorism bandwagon. Beni Ali, Mubarak, Gaddafi and Saleh were all claiming to be fighting terrorists. The language of the west you rely heavily on will soon change as something on the ground emerges.
The Americans, know you are a dictator, as we can see from the annual State Department reports on Ethiopia, but sill might consider you the bulwark against terrorism, only until the rise of the Ethiopian people. Now, you have given them even more power to monitor your movement closely with the drone base you have provided them.
The moment Ethiopians become determined to depose you, no matter the amount of blood your armed forces will be willing to spill, the rhetoric from Washington will soon shift to demanding reform or to “step down” . You have seen this too, how America’s ties with Mubarak and Saleh, melted away in just a few weeks after the poplar uprisings in those countries. After he was deposed, that “friendly tyrant”, Saleh, was even refused entry into the United States for medical treatment. After intense negotiations they agreed to let him in but under condition that his stay be brief and confined to the hospital. What a disgrace for Saleh!
Poor Assad, who didn’t learn, from the mistakes of Mubarak and Saleh, is now trapped. He could have exited with a dignified face, had he negotiated in time to transfer power a transition government. He could have also saved the destruction of his country. Now with more than five thousand people killed, he has no way out.
Is there a hope, a model for you to emulate for a peaceful exit?
May be…..
The Apartheid South African regime of F. W. de Clerk, was a minority regime, that oppressed the majority black South Africans for many generations. The apartheid system killed, maimed and jailed thousands of black South Africans with impunity for years. Black South Africans were rendered homeless, jobless and worthless in their home country. De Clerk saw this minority dominance as unsustainable. In de Clerk’s eyes it is was expensive to see the continuous isolation of South Africa, it was expensive to continuously silence dissent, the minority had no security and peaceful future in the status quo. So he started negotiations with his staunch rival, Nelosn Mandela, while Mandella was still in prison, to release Mandella, to hold fair and free elections, and to avoid revenge even if the African National Congress (ANC) won the election. That was the BEST EXIT STRATEGY of the Apartheid regime.
Meles Zenawi, avoid this zero-sum game of you that is to eat you alive. Don’t fool yourself you will be a PM for life and your dictatorship will have no end. There is no point in accumulating wealth if you can’t inherit it to your children, or you can’t enjoy it at home or somewhere in exile.
There is no shame in admitting mistake and asking for forgiveness. Come to your senses and start a reconciliation process involving all actors in the Ethiopian society.
• Saddam Hussein: deposed and hanged
• Mohammed Gaddafi: dragged muddy and bloody and executed
• Hosni Mubarak:under public trial while on his bed
• Ben Ali: in exile is Saudi Arabia, under ICC warrant
• Abdullah Saleh:in the US,seeking treatment,and probably asylum too,butin vain
• Slobodan Millosovic: died, while on trial in the Hague
• Cahrles Taylor: under ICC trial
• Laurent Bagbo: under ICC trial
• Al Bashir: under ICC warrant
• Bashir al Asaad: no exit strategy yet
Like all of the above, your regime is characterized by brutal dictator ship, silencing of dissent through the use of force, marginalization of the public, inciting ethnic and sectarian violence, and promoting corruption. Particularly, after having learned that the public has rejected you in the 2005 election, you allowed by miscalculation, you have intensified cracking down on dissent in any form, and have been retaliating sections of the society that embraced the opposition.
While you have lost support, even in your traditional ethnic base, in Tigray, you purport to have won the 2010 election, by 99.6%. This is absurd, silly and contradictory, even to your own regime’s complaint of being dragged by “supporters of opposition and terrorists”.
The recent transfer of the nation’s land resource to foreigners, complete clamp down on journalists and opposition members is pushing the Ethiopian population to the limit. You may think you can contain the momentum of an Arab Spring like popular uprising in Ethiopia, just because you have highly bribed and loyal military commanders and multitudes of security and spying networks.
But, believe me, you have made the time ripe for a revolution to be born in Ethiopia. Also, don’t rely on your western enablers for your protection, just because you have jumped onto the anti-terrorism bandwagon. Beni Ali, Mubarak, Gaddafi and Saleh were all claiming to be fighting terrorists. The language of the west you rely heavily on will soon change as something on the ground emerges.
The Americans, know you are a dictator, as we can see from the annual State Department reports on Ethiopia, but sill might consider you the bulwark against terrorism, only until the rise of the Ethiopian people. Now, you have given them even more power to monitor your movement closely with the drone base you have provided them.
The moment Ethiopians become determined to depose you, no matter the amount of blood your armed forces will be willing to spill, the rhetoric from Washington will soon shift to demanding reform or to “step down” . You have seen this too, how America’s ties with Mubarak and Saleh, melted away in just a few weeks after the poplar uprisings in those countries. After he was deposed, that “friendly tyrant”, Saleh, was even refused entry into the United States for medical treatment. After intense negotiations they agreed to let him in but under condition that his stay be brief and confined to the hospital. What a disgrace for Saleh!
Poor Assad, who didn’t learn, from the mistakes of Mubarak and Saleh, is now trapped. He could have exited with a dignified face, had he negotiated in time to transfer power a transition government. He could have also saved the destruction of his country. Now with more than five thousand people killed, he has no way out.
Is there a hope, a model for you to emulate for a peaceful exit?
May be…..
The Apartheid South African regime of F. W. de Clerk, was a minority regime, that oppressed the majority black South Africans for many generations. The apartheid system killed, maimed and jailed thousands of black South Africans with impunity for years. Black South Africans were rendered homeless, jobless and worthless in their home country. De Clerk saw this minority dominance as unsustainable. In de Clerk’s eyes it is was expensive to see the continuous isolation of South Africa, it was expensive to continuously silence dissent, the minority had no security and peaceful future in the status quo. So he started negotiations with his staunch rival, Nelosn Mandela, while Mandella was still in prison, to release Mandella, to hold fair and free elections, and to avoid revenge even if the African National Congress (ANC) won the election. That was the BEST EXIT STRATEGY of the Apartheid regime.
Meles Zenawi, avoid this zero-sum game of you that is to eat you alive. Don’t fool yourself you will be a PM for life and your dictatorship will have no end. There is no point in accumulating wealth if you can’t inherit it to your children, or you can’t enjoy it at home or somewhere in exile.
There is no shame in admitting mistake and asking for forgiveness. Come to your senses and start a reconciliation process involving all actors in the Ethiopian society.
Monday, January 30, 2012
The 2011 Arab Springs: Lessons for Ethiopians
There were a number of popular uprisings against dictators that erupted in 2011 in the Middle Eastern and North African Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. So far we have witnessed that at least the dictators on Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are gone, with Gadafi for good.
There are many common features in all these countries: the dictators ruled the people for decades with absolute power, stifling democracy, imposing state of emergencies; whether they were monarchies or otherwise, the rulers were closely knit by kinship, affinity and kleptocracy; they killed, maimed, jailed and forced into exile all those who dared to dissent; they divided their people and opposition along ethnic, tribal and sectarian lines; looted their countries’ resources and became tycoons on the back of their impoverished people.
Doesn't this sound familiar to the Ethiopian dictators? Aren't they their mirror images?
What else is common in those countries? Despite the sufferings of their people the dictators were all being propped up by Western democracies, in exchange for their oil or other security considerations.
People had to rise up and many lives had to be sacrificed, even just to attract western media attention. The people of those countries had to demonstrate that they have reached the point of no return to induce any regional or global intervention.
Unless they see any potential shift in the balance of power on the ground, none of the western powers will come to our rescue just on moral grounds. In politics and international relations, national interest takes precedence over morality. Even when there is an uprising and determination on the part of the opperessed people, they will not intervene until they see the signs of power tipping on the side of the opposition (Bahrain and Saudi).
Dictator Meles Zenawi, “the Ethiopian Caligula” is today the “darling of the West”, a “friendly tyrant” being propped up with injections of billions of dollars aid money and military support. Despite the siphoning of billions by the tyrant for personal enrichment, in amounts unheard in Ethiopian history, money is still being pumped into the dictator’s coffer. They might even rescue him, as they did with Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s deposed dictator, when the day comes.
But we still have to come together and rise up, learning the lessons from the Arab Spring. Change in Woyane's Ethiopia will not come through elections. Never!!! We have to rise up!!!
There are many common features in all these countries: the dictators ruled the people for decades with absolute power, stifling democracy, imposing state of emergencies; whether they were monarchies or otherwise, the rulers were closely knit by kinship, affinity and kleptocracy; they killed, maimed, jailed and forced into exile all those who dared to dissent; they divided their people and opposition along ethnic, tribal and sectarian lines; looted their countries’ resources and became tycoons on the back of their impoverished people.
Doesn't this sound familiar to the Ethiopian dictators? Aren't they their mirror images?
What else is common in those countries? Despite the sufferings of their people the dictators were all being propped up by Western democracies, in exchange for their oil or other security considerations.
People had to rise up and many lives had to be sacrificed, even just to attract western media attention. The people of those countries had to demonstrate that they have reached the point of no return to induce any regional or global intervention.
Unless they see any potential shift in the balance of power on the ground, none of the western powers will come to our rescue just on moral grounds. In politics and international relations, national interest takes precedence over morality. Even when there is an uprising and determination on the part of the opperessed people, they will not intervene until they see the signs of power tipping on the side of the opposition (Bahrain and Saudi).
Dictator Meles Zenawi, “the Ethiopian Caligula” is today the “darling of the West”, a “friendly tyrant” being propped up with injections of billions of dollars aid money and military support. Despite the siphoning of billions by the tyrant for personal enrichment, in amounts unheard in Ethiopian history, money is still being pumped into the dictator’s coffer. They might even rescue him, as they did with Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s deposed dictator, when the day comes.
But we still have to come together and rise up, learning the lessons from the Arab Spring. Change in Woyane's Ethiopia will not come through elections. Never!!! We have to rise up!!!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The Swedish Journalists Will be Released!
There is no doubt in mind that the Swedish jounalists, (Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson)sentenced by the TPLF kangaroo court to 11 years in prison will soon be released. I am sure they or their government will never plead for celmency. These journalists have the international community (their own government and other democratic nations) behind them to defend their rights as free journalists. We are already witnessing the position of US's Department of State aginst this ruling and that of the Swedish media demanding their government to advocate for the unconditional release of the two journalists.
I am glad that by proxy, this sentencing on the Swedish jounrnalists, will help all those TPLF enabler western governments to reflect on how arbitrarly the TPLF junta was handling the case of justice for multitudes of Ethiopians that were detained en-masse in TPLF detention camps since the junta came into power.
I am sure, it should be our duty to push for the release of Ethioipan journalists and other prisiners of conscience, as the west puts pressure on TPLF for the release of these two Swedish jounrnalists.
I am glad that by proxy, this sentencing on the Swedish jounrnalists, will help all those TPLF enabler western governments to reflect on how arbitrarly the TPLF junta was handling the case of justice for multitudes of Ethiopians that were detained en-masse in TPLF detention camps since the junta came into power.
I am sure, it should be our duty to push for the release of Ethioipan journalists and other prisiners of conscience, as the west puts pressure on TPLF for the release of these two Swedish jounrnalists.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Why Ethiopia should be singled out: An Answer to Professor David Shinn
I read a commentary by professor David Shinn, the former US Ambassador to Ethiopia and currently, adjunct professor of international affairs at the George Washington University, titled, "Ethiopia and 2011 Global Financial Integrity Report".
In his commentary, while he admits that there are problems of illicit financial flows from Ethiopia, he questioned the integrity of one of the authors, Sarah Freitas, for "singling out" Ethiopia while there are many other African countries who have higher Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) than Ethiopia.
As to me none of those African countries mentioned by the professor (Nigeria, Egypt, Sounth Africa, Libya, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia) with high IFF values, are comparable to Ethiopia by most standards, except being located in Africa. To mention a few, the economies of these countries are not as dependent on foreign aid as is Ethiopia, none of these are noted for an annual begging of food from the international community, none of these countries are ruled by closely knit kleptocratic junta of one ethnic group.
If I had to coin a word to express the level of IFF in Ethiopia, it would certainly be even more stronger than "bleeding the country dry".
In his commentary, while he admits that there are problems of illicit financial flows from Ethiopia, he questioned the integrity of one of the authors, Sarah Freitas, for "singling out" Ethiopia while there are many other African countries who have higher Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) than Ethiopia.
As to me none of those African countries mentioned by the professor (Nigeria, Egypt, Sounth Africa, Libya, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia) with high IFF values, are comparable to Ethiopia by most standards, except being located in Africa. To mention a few, the economies of these countries are not as dependent on foreign aid as is Ethiopia, none of these are noted for an annual begging of food from the international community, none of these countries are ruled by closely knit kleptocratic junta of one ethnic group.
If I had to coin a word to express the level of IFF in Ethiopia, it would certainly be even more stronger than "bleeding the country dry".
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Hoopla of the Millenium: Woyane's Millenium Dam
The other day I was calling home to speak to my parents on the occasion of the Easter holiday. As usual, after the initial greetings and enquiries about the wellness of immediate and extended family members, we contnued our conversation about the neighborhood, the community and the general frame of issues dominating the small southern town where my parents live.
Unlike other times, what struck me most during this round was, my mother's mention of the "the issue of the Gojam river dam as the deafening news of the time". It didn't take me long to realize that she was talking about the, "The Millenium Dam of the Woyane", the dam that will never be built under the ethnic dicatorship of TPLF.
That this dam is just a hoopla to divert the public's attention from the growing repression, escalating inflation, dissatisfaction, anger, frustration, poverty and famine, and above all, from the increasing signs of a sweeping revolution, can be noticed well from the absence of any mention about such a huge dam as a key energy development strategy in the much purported Five Year GTP of the country, and the conflicting and inconsistent propaganda of the regime's own mouthpieces, like Amare Aregawi's Reporter and Aiga Forum.
The so called Five Year GTP, that was endorsed by the rubber stamp parliament as the offician development plan of the nation in November 2010, does not mention as single word about the "Mellenium Development Dam" as neither a starategic direction nor as an implemetation startegy of the the energy sector development. It would be so absurd not to mention about such a dam, that is supposed to cost hundreds of billions of dollars of tha nations budget, in the plan document that is supposed to direct its implementation.
Another evidence that this dam is just a hoopla is the fact that, of the estimated total Five Year GTP budget of around 700 bln Birr, the whole of the energy sector's budget constitutes, just 177 bln Birr, jus a few billions more, than the cost of cement required to build the dam, as Amare Aregawi tells us.
Over the last couple of months, this "dam" has been the editorial of Amare's Reporter week after week. But the story he has been telling us does not hold water. Just the other day he tells us a delegation of 45 Egyptian diplomats came to Ethiopia to express their support of the launching of the dam and another day, his editorial laments about that delagation trying to sabotage Ethiopia's efforts to develop its river, once they are back in Egypt. One week he tells us the famous PM Mele Zenawi had laid the corner stone of the dam and its construction is in progress, and another week he tells us, that a study team has been established to reasearch about the dam, and again he tells us about the amount and cost of cement required to complete the construction. What a speedy research! And yet gain, he laments the famous Meles Zenawi has agreed to halt the whole implementation of the dam until an elected government is formed in Egypt.
Do you remember how the whole hoopla about the dam started? The dam that was no where in the GTP in Novemebr 2010, just became a "national sensation", following the popular revolutions in Tunisia, in December 2010, in Egypt, January 2011, in Libya, February 2011, and so on....We are already witnessing the start of its death before even its birth, with lots of the lame excuses of its delay escapegoating Egypt.
Dear Ethiopians, for now, let us focus on uniting and getting rid of this ethnocentric dictatorship, using the revolutionar momentum in our region. No distraction by Woyane's hollabaloo!
Unlike other times, what struck me most during this round was, my mother's mention of the "the issue of the Gojam river dam as the deafening news of the time". It didn't take me long to realize that she was talking about the, "The Millenium Dam of the Woyane", the dam that will never be built under the ethnic dicatorship of TPLF.
That this dam is just a hoopla to divert the public's attention from the growing repression, escalating inflation, dissatisfaction, anger, frustration, poverty and famine, and above all, from the increasing signs of a sweeping revolution, can be noticed well from the absence of any mention about such a huge dam as a key energy development strategy in the much purported Five Year GTP of the country, and the conflicting and inconsistent propaganda of the regime's own mouthpieces, like Amare Aregawi's Reporter and Aiga Forum.
The so called Five Year GTP, that was endorsed by the rubber stamp parliament as the offician development plan of the nation in November 2010, does not mention as single word about the "Mellenium Development Dam" as neither a starategic direction nor as an implemetation startegy of the the energy sector development. It would be so absurd not to mention about such a dam, that is supposed to cost hundreds of billions of dollars of tha nations budget, in the plan document that is supposed to direct its implementation.
Another evidence that this dam is just a hoopla is the fact that, of the estimated total Five Year GTP budget of around 700 bln Birr, the whole of the energy sector's budget constitutes, just 177 bln Birr, jus a few billions more, than the cost of cement required to build the dam, as Amare Aregawi tells us.
Over the last couple of months, this "dam" has been the editorial of Amare's Reporter week after week. But the story he has been telling us does not hold water. Just the other day he tells us a delegation of 45 Egyptian diplomats came to Ethiopia to express their support of the launching of the dam and another day, his editorial laments about that delagation trying to sabotage Ethiopia's efforts to develop its river, once they are back in Egypt. One week he tells us the famous PM Mele Zenawi had laid the corner stone of the dam and its construction is in progress, and another week he tells us, that a study team has been established to reasearch about the dam, and again he tells us about the amount and cost of cement required to complete the construction. What a speedy research! And yet gain, he laments the famous Meles Zenawi has agreed to halt the whole implementation of the dam until an elected government is formed in Egypt.
Do you remember how the whole hoopla about the dam started? The dam that was no where in the GTP in Novemebr 2010, just became a "national sensation", following the popular revolutions in Tunisia, in December 2010, in Egypt, January 2011, in Libya, February 2011, and so on....We are already witnessing the start of its death before even its birth, with lots of the lame excuses of its delay escapegoating Egypt.
Dear Ethiopians, for now, let us focus on uniting and getting rid of this ethnocentric dictatorship, using the revolutionar momentum in our region. No distraction by Woyane's hollabaloo!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Woyani Thugs:The Alawites of Ethiopia will face resistance too, soon!
Hafez Al-Asaad of Syria, who was commander in cheif of the Syrian Air Force in the the late 1960s, was a member of the minority Alawite tribe in Syria, who overthrew the then dictatorial government of President Nureidin and became president of Syria from 1971-2000, until he died. Since then his son, Bashar Al-Asaad is ruling Syria as president.
For almost over 40 years Syria has been ruled by the minority Alawites by sytematically alieniating the majority of Syrians from playing the right role the political and economic spheres of the country. The middle easten dictatorships in Iraq, syria, Libya, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, etc. were all built along the same line of marginalizing the majority of the populations in those socieites.
And we have witnessed and are still witnessing what all those years of marginzalizations and extreme repressions of the majority populations in those countries have resulted and resulting in those countries from the recent turn of events.
Meles Zenawi recently bragged that he is immune from the revolutions that are rocking the Middle East and Noth Africa. But his recent futile attempts of rallying the Ethiopian Diaspora and the grandoise talk of building the Millenium Dam on the the Nile are symptoms of in built fear among the Woyane thugs and efforts to appease Ethiopias from rising in unison against his regime. Also the sudenn surge in improsoning opposition members from the ONC and OFDM and warnings to the UDJ and sabre rattling of war with Eritrea are all not signs of confidence and immunity from resistence with in.
For the rest of us Ethiopians, these very desperate attempts of the Woyane should give us even more courage to strengthen our resolve to challenge the thugs once and for all.
Momentum is on our side! We will win and get rid of Woyane soon!
For almost over 40 years Syria has been ruled by the minority Alawites by sytematically alieniating the majority of Syrians from playing the right role the political and economic spheres of the country. The middle easten dictatorships in Iraq, syria, Libya, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, etc. were all built along the same line of marginalizing the majority of the populations in those socieites.
And we have witnessed and are still witnessing what all those years of marginzalizations and extreme repressions of the majority populations in those countries have resulted and resulting in those countries from the recent turn of events.
Meles Zenawi recently bragged that he is immune from the revolutions that are rocking the Middle East and Noth Africa. But his recent futile attempts of rallying the Ethiopian Diaspora and the grandoise talk of building the Millenium Dam on the the Nile are symptoms of in built fear among the Woyane thugs and efforts to appease Ethiopias from rising in unison against his regime. Also the sudenn surge in improsoning opposition members from the ONC and OFDM and warnings to the UDJ and sabre rattling of war with Eritrea are all not signs of confidence and immunity from resistence with in.
For the rest of us Ethiopians, these very desperate attempts of the Woyane should give us even more courage to strengthen our resolve to challenge the thugs once and for all.
Momentum is on our side! We will win and get rid of Woyane soon!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Striking Similarities & Differences: Lessons to Learn from the Egyptian Revolution
Since the rigged election and the standoff between Alassane Ouattara, the legitimate winner of the Ivorian election, and Gbagbo, in Ivory Coast in November 2010, and Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution that culminated with the people’s victory in January 2010, and the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, one of Africa’s most brutal dictators, just yesterday, I was earnestly following the events, at times, with extreme level of emotions as if I were a citizen of those countries. My whole family, my wife and our 14 years old daughter were engulfed, particularly, with the turn of events in Egypt and were constantly comparing what was going on in Egypt now to what happened in Ethiopia in 2005 and what should happen in Ethiopia going forward.
Although this is not a new finding, let me mention some of the similarities of the tactics that the Mubarak regime used to silence the demonstrations/uprising until a few hours earlier to his stepping down to what the Meles Zenawi used to silence opposition prior- and post- the 2005 election in Ethiopia:
• While Mubarak tried to belittle the uprising by calling the demonstrators as young people being manipulated by “sinister” and “terrorist” groups/ the Muslim Brotherhood, Meles Zenawi called the demonstrators in 2005 as “unemployed youth” manipulated by the opposition/Kinijit.
• Blocking the internet, mobile phones, and cable channels. Although there weren’t cable channels in Ethiopia then, the Woyane government blocked SMS, internet and independent newspapers than and continues to jam independent radios like the VOA and Deutsche Welle and independent TV channels like ESAT TV.
• Intimidating and blackmailing the international community and foreign governments as subversive agents and destabilizers in the hope of buying domestic support and dividing the local opposition.
• The complete lying of the state-owned media: TV, radio and newspapers, in reporting what was going on the ground, despite the people’s awareness of the events going by the hour.
• Superficial submission to negotiations with the opposition when the going got tough, as it happened with the TPLF thugs calling for unconditional negotiations on November 8, 2005, just to buy time.
• One striking difference that we witnessed was that the Tunisian and Egyptian armies were on the side of their people while that of the Ivorian and the Ethiopian were with their incumbent dictators.
What is to be learned? Every army of a dictator and the people under those dictatorships are learning from what is going on in their countries and other countries around the world, no matter what dictators do to deny them from accessing information.
By now, at least, we have witnessed that the international community always goes with “wind”: The perceived balance of power on the ground. We have seen how wavering the US government was, changing the statement by the day, reflecting what was going on the ground. They wanted to be part of history in Egypt rather than risk of being in the dust bin.
In Tunisia, it just took just one daring young graduate, Mohamed Bouaziz, who was frustrated of being unemployed, humiliated, to spark the anger of the masses who were going through similar experiences and ordeals. In Egypt, it took just one young Google executive, Wael Ghonim, to inspire the Egyptian masses to rally behind the cause of freedom and democracy.
I remember some Egyptians talking about of being shamed by the uprising of the Tunisians and their toppling down of their 23 old dictator, Ben Ali. I am sure there are millions of Ethiopians who feel being shamed by their Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts who were able to topple down their dictators.
I am also certain that the Ethiopian army is also learning from what is going on in West and North Africa of the people’s thirst for democracy, no matter how it is differently structured in Ethiopia. They also know that they can’t run away with massacring unarmed protesters for the second time if that happened in Ethiopia now. Given what has happened since the rigged election in Ethiopia in 2005 (the Kenyan and Zimbabwean case) and what is currently happening in Ivory Coast, North African and the Middle East, the TPLF thugs are also aware that they can’t run away with the kind of cracking down of a popular uprising they were able to afford in 2005 and its aftermath.
We have witnessed the staunchest ally of the USA, Egypt, in terms of terrorism and Middle East peace, crumbling in our face, and the USA sidelining it and pushing it towards its demise. As to me, Ethiopia’s significance to US’s foreign policy interests would by no means outweigh that of Egypt’s.
Also, as we witness waves of revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East against dictatorships, which western powers are following with intense interest and supporting, it would be impossible for them to deny Ethiopians similar support, if similar revolution arose in Ethiopia at this moment. Since foreigner can’t take the lead on this, it is up to us, Ethiopians to learn the lessons of our time and to take up the leads and initiate the revolution to set ourselves free.
Although this is not a new finding, let me mention some of the similarities of the tactics that the Mubarak regime used to silence the demonstrations/uprising until a few hours earlier to his stepping down to what the Meles Zenawi used to silence opposition prior- and post- the 2005 election in Ethiopia:
• While Mubarak tried to belittle the uprising by calling the demonstrators as young people being manipulated by “sinister” and “terrorist” groups/ the Muslim Brotherhood, Meles Zenawi called the demonstrators in 2005 as “unemployed youth” manipulated by the opposition/Kinijit.
• Blocking the internet, mobile phones, and cable channels. Although there weren’t cable channels in Ethiopia then, the Woyane government blocked SMS, internet and independent newspapers than and continues to jam independent radios like the VOA and Deutsche Welle and independent TV channels like ESAT TV.
• Intimidating and blackmailing the international community and foreign governments as subversive agents and destabilizers in the hope of buying domestic support and dividing the local opposition.
• The complete lying of the state-owned media: TV, radio and newspapers, in reporting what was going on the ground, despite the people’s awareness of the events going by the hour.
• Superficial submission to negotiations with the opposition when the going got tough, as it happened with the TPLF thugs calling for unconditional negotiations on November 8, 2005, just to buy time.
• One striking difference that we witnessed was that the Tunisian and Egyptian armies were on the side of their people while that of the Ivorian and the Ethiopian were with their incumbent dictators.
What is to be learned? Every army of a dictator and the people under those dictatorships are learning from what is going on in their countries and other countries around the world, no matter what dictators do to deny them from accessing information.
By now, at least, we have witnessed that the international community always goes with “wind”: The perceived balance of power on the ground. We have seen how wavering the US government was, changing the statement by the day, reflecting what was going on the ground. They wanted to be part of history in Egypt rather than risk of being in the dust bin.
In Tunisia, it just took just one daring young graduate, Mohamed Bouaziz, who was frustrated of being unemployed, humiliated, to spark the anger of the masses who were going through similar experiences and ordeals. In Egypt, it took just one young Google executive, Wael Ghonim, to inspire the Egyptian masses to rally behind the cause of freedom and democracy.
I remember some Egyptians talking about of being shamed by the uprising of the Tunisians and their toppling down of their 23 old dictator, Ben Ali. I am sure there are millions of Ethiopians who feel being shamed by their Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts who were able to topple down their dictators.
I am also certain that the Ethiopian army is also learning from what is going on in West and North Africa of the people’s thirst for democracy, no matter how it is differently structured in Ethiopia. They also know that they can’t run away with massacring unarmed protesters for the second time if that happened in Ethiopia now. Given what has happened since the rigged election in Ethiopia in 2005 (the Kenyan and Zimbabwean case) and what is currently happening in Ivory Coast, North African and the Middle East, the TPLF thugs are also aware that they can’t run away with the kind of cracking down of a popular uprising they were able to afford in 2005 and its aftermath.
We have witnessed the staunchest ally of the USA, Egypt, in terms of terrorism and Middle East peace, crumbling in our face, and the USA sidelining it and pushing it towards its demise. As to me, Ethiopia’s significance to US’s foreign policy interests would by no means outweigh that of Egypt’s.
Also, as we witness waves of revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East against dictatorships, which western powers are following with intense interest and supporting, it would be impossible for them to deny Ethiopians similar support, if similar revolution arose in Ethiopia at this moment. Since foreigner can’t take the lead on this, it is up to us, Ethiopians to learn the lessons of our time and to take up the leads and initiate the revolution to set ourselves free.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Dolling out land to foreigners in Ethiopia: It will have serious repercussions
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
A Flattering, Self-Serving International Community in Ethiopia Today
The condemnation from the DAG (the Development Assistance Group) in Ethiopia against the recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report regarding Woyane’s abuse of foreign aid forced me to write this article.
I have spent most of my professional life working for government (20%), local non-profit, international non-profit, multilateral organizations and as an independent consultant (80%) in Ethiopia, from 1984-2005, until I was forced to flee my country in 2005.
During that period and the periods following after, I have seen a number of internal documents and local research articles by so many International NGOs (INGOs) and Multilateral organizations (MOs) in Ethiopia (including the UN and the World Bank) that reveal abuse of power and mismanagement of donor resources by the Woyane government in Ethiopia. I have a vivid memory of internal staff level discussions in the INGOs and MOs that criticize the abuse and advocate for the redressing of these abuses. That was until 2005, when I left the country, in the aftermath of the rigged election then. There are a number of reports within the World Bank and local and INGOs that show how donor funds leak and funjibly used within the Ethiopian government structure throughout the country.
But when it comes to publicly discussing and raising these issues of abuse and mismanagement of resources, self and national interests of the staff of the INGOs and MOs take precedence. Just like the local hodams, members of the international community are also afraid of “rocking the boat” and challenging the status quo in Ethiopia.
Invariably speaking, most of the INGO and MO staff in Ethiopia today know the deceptive economic strategies of the Woyane, since its assumption of power in Ethiopia (ADLI= Agricultural Development Led Industrialization in the early 1990s, SPRSP= Sustainable Poverty Reduction Strategic Plan of the early 2000s, the PASDEP= Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to End Poverty, for the period 2005-2010, and the GTP=Growth and Transformation Plan, for the period 2010-2015) that have delivered nothing except a rhetoric. Except the change in the title of the strategies, there has been no change in substance and details of these strategies.
Staffs of INGOs and MOs know how un-mercy the Woyane government is towards its critics whatsoever. They have witnessed a diplomat after diplomat, an INGO staff after an INGO staff being ordered to leave the country within 24/48 hours upon a slight slip of tongue against the government’s handling of economic and political issues in Ethiopia.
Having worked within that sector in Ethiopia, I know the kind of financial freedom, respect and authority they enjoy in that poor county of mine, with very little to no accountability to the Ethiopian people, that they never imagined they would have in their own countries of origin.
As my favorite author, Graham Hancock, described in his famous book’ “Lords of Poverty”, staff of the “development industry’ will continue to pay lip service to causes of poverty and continue to amass their own wealth. They will even go as far as defending the dictatorial Woyane government of Ethiopia against the genuine reports of HRW regarding the mismanagement of donor funds to stifle opposition in Ethiopia.
My fellow citizens, don’t count on this international technocrats to deliver us from Woyane’s yolk of repression. Right now, they are defending Woyane and commending it for its performance in reducing poverty and advancing democracy. What a shame!!!
Count on your own sons and daughters and contribute your share towards the struggle for freedom.
I have spent most of my professional life working for government (20%), local non-profit, international non-profit, multilateral organizations and as an independent consultant (80%) in Ethiopia, from 1984-2005, until I was forced to flee my country in 2005.
During that period and the periods following after, I have seen a number of internal documents and local research articles by so many International NGOs (INGOs) and Multilateral organizations (MOs) in Ethiopia (including the UN and the World Bank) that reveal abuse of power and mismanagement of donor resources by the Woyane government in Ethiopia. I have a vivid memory of internal staff level discussions in the INGOs and MOs that criticize the abuse and advocate for the redressing of these abuses. That was until 2005, when I left the country, in the aftermath of the rigged election then. There are a number of reports within the World Bank and local and INGOs that show how donor funds leak and funjibly used within the Ethiopian government structure throughout the country.
But when it comes to publicly discussing and raising these issues of abuse and mismanagement of resources, self and national interests of the staff of the INGOs and MOs take precedence. Just like the local hodams, members of the international community are also afraid of “rocking the boat” and challenging the status quo in Ethiopia.
Invariably speaking, most of the INGO and MO staff in Ethiopia today know the deceptive economic strategies of the Woyane, since its assumption of power in Ethiopia (ADLI= Agricultural Development Led Industrialization in the early 1990s, SPRSP= Sustainable Poverty Reduction Strategic Plan of the early 2000s, the PASDEP= Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to End Poverty, for the period 2005-2010, and the GTP=Growth and Transformation Plan, for the period 2010-2015) that have delivered nothing except a rhetoric. Except the change in the title of the strategies, there has been no change in substance and details of these strategies.
Staffs of INGOs and MOs know how un-mercy the Woyane government is towards its critics whatsoever. They have witnessed a diplomat after diplomat, an INGO staff after an INGO staff being ordered to leave the country within 24/48 hours upon a slight slip of tongue against the government’s handling of economic and political issues in Ethiopia.
Having worked within that sector in Ethiopia, I know the kind of financial freedom, respect and authority they enjoy in that poor county of mine, with very little to no accountability to the Ethiopian people, that they never imagined they would have in their own countries of origin.
As my favorite author, Graham Hancock, described in his famous book’ “Lords of Poverty”, staff of the “development industry’ will continue to pay lip service to causes of poverty and continue to amass their own wealth. They will even go as far as defending the dictatorial Woyane government of Ethiopia against the genuine reports of HRW regarding the mismanagement of donor funds to stifle opposition in Ethiopia.
My fellow citizens, don’t count on this international technocrats to deliver us from Woyane’s yolk of repression. Right now, they are defending Woyane and commending it for its performance in reducing poverty and advancing democracy. What a shame!!!
Count on your own sons and daughters and contribute your share towards the struggle for freedom.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Bullies and Dictators Rarely Stand Up To Any Heat
By now, we all know that when the dictator of Ethiopia steals an election or his blatant lies are exposed, he invariably resorts to ad hominem attacks. The Honorable Ana Gomes who witnessed the daylight robbery of the 2005 election, the US State Department and the august international rights group (Human Rights Watch) have all earned the ire of the vicious and delusional dictator. And now, the highly respected Bloomberg journalist Jason McLure has been added to the list in the latest Meles.
http://www.jimmatimes.com/article/Latest_News/Latest_News/Ethiopias_PM_Zenawi_attacks_Bloomberg_News_journalist/33571
If, it were Tekeda Alemu, the underling or Patrick Gilkes, the handsomely paid mercenary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who wrote this nonsense, the least these imbecils could do is spell their boogey man’s last name correctly (McLure and not McClure)
In the years that Jason McLure of Bloomberg News has been reporting from Addis he has written well researched, well-documented articles about the political environment in Ethiopia. He could have just kicked back in the sun and practiced yellow journalism like most of the foreign journalists in Ethiopia.
Unlike other ferenji journalists, who can be bribed, wined and dined in Al-Amoudi’s harem to swallow Meles’ lies, hook, line and sinker, and regurgitate the crappy talking points from Bereket Simon’s office when the sun rises, the late Tony Mitchell, Jeffrey Gettleman and Jason McLure never fell into that trap.
It was easy for these serious journalists, who have immense pride in their profession
to determine soon enough that Ethiopia is ruled by a pompous dictator and habitual liar with a coterie of underlings who mix fact with fiction to hide the truth about the political and socio-economic crisis in the country. They became anathema to a dangerous dictator who has effectively decapitated the Ethiopian press to hide his crimes. And there was no way he would allow the trio of these impeccable journalists to bear witness and report his egregious offenses. They had to be declared public enemy # I and maligned, threatened with deportation and even imprisonment for doing their job.
Fortunately, through their hard work and the work of Human RightsWatch, the world has come to learn that Meles is nothing but a criminal thug whose heinous crimes have been well documented. And, in the not too distant future, he will no doubt find himself at The Hague to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As the late Tony Mitchell, Jeffrey Gettleman and Jason McLure will remain heroes among Ethiopians who appreciate their intelligence, compassion and diligence in exposing Meles for what he really is- a corrupt, egomaniac coward who will stoop to the lowest crevices of the cesspool.
Isn’t it really time for the Obama Administration to shut off the spigot to the pig’s trough? Surely, jamming the Voice of America and roughing up American citizens is an egregious offense and a disrespect no U.S. President should tolerate.
http://www.jimmatimes.com/article/Latest_News/Latest_News/Ethiopias_PM_Zenawi_attacks_Bloomberg_News_journalist/33571
If, it were Tekeda Alemu, the underling or Patrick Gilkes, the handsomely paid mercenary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who wrote this nonsense, the least these imbecils could do is spell their boogey man’s last name correctly (McLure and not McClure)
In the years that Jason McLure of Bloomberg News has been reporting from Addis he has written well researched, well-documented articles about the political environment in Ethiopia. He could have just kicked back in the sun and practiced yellow journalism like most of the foreign journalists in Ethiopia.
Unlike other ferenji journalists, who can be bribed, wined and dined in Al-Amoudi’s harem to swallow Meles’ lies, hook, line and sinker, and regurgitate the crappy talking points from Bereket Simon’s office when the sun rises, the late Tony Mitchell, Jeffrey Gettleman and Jason McLure never fell into that trap.
It was easy for these serious journalists, who have immense pride in their profession
to determine soon enough that Ethiopia is ruled by a pompous dictator and habitual liar with a coterie of underlings who mix fact with fiction to hide the truth about the political and socio-economic crisis in the country. They became anathema to a dangerous dictator who has effectively decapitated the Ethiopian press to hide his crimes. And there was no way he would allow the trio of these impeccable journalists to bear witness and report his egregious offenses. They had to be declared public enemy # I and maligned, threatened with deportation and even imprisonment for doing their job.
Fortunately, through their hard work and the work of Human RightsWatch, the world has come to learn that Meles is nothing but a criminal thug whose heinous crimes have been well documented. And, in the not too distant future, he will no doubt find himself at The Hague to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As the late Tony Mitchell, Jeffrey Gettleman and Jason McLure will remain heroes among Ethiopians who appreciate their intelligence, compassion and diligence in exposing Meles for what he really is- a corrupt, egomaniac coward who will stoop to the lowest crevices of the cesspool.
Isn’t it really time for the Obama Administration to shut off the spigot to the pig’s trough? Surely, jamming the Voice of America and roughing up American citizens is an egregious offense and a disrespect no U.S. President should tolerate.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Why Silent After the Day Light Robbery of Ethiopians’ Vote by TPLF Thugs?
I have seen blogger after blogger (including myself) analyzing TPLF thugs’ behaviour after the 2010 “election” and exposing the desire of TPLF to continue to rule Ethiopia by force with one party dictatorship. Multitudes of calls for the unity of the opposition to save this country were also made within the last few days.
But all this rage of Ethiopians, at least by those in the Diaspora, who are totally free to express their anger and concerns, did not come to the fore to touch the hearts and minds of others who might come to our aid. I don’t think at this critical moment blogging is enough to get our message across the wider community. How many non-Ethiopians really read our blogs and understand the level of ordeal we here in the Diaspora, and our people back home are passing through? For example, there wasn’t a mention of the 2010 Ethiopian election on the major cable television channels here in the US. How do we expect the American people to hear and understand what is going on at this moment in Ethiopia and stand on our side?
We have heard that the EU Election Observation Mission and even the US Administration have expressed their concerns that the election in Ethiopia was short of meeting international election standards. This should have given us the courage to go out on the streets of Washington DC, London, Brussels, etc, to loudly express our anger against TPLF’s dictatorship and that we are running out of patience. If we can’t or are afraid to do it here, in the very peaceful and free environment, how can we expect our compatriots at home to go out and demonstrate or organize civil disobedience in the face of the brutal dictators in Addis Ababa.
If we have political or civic leaders in the Diaspora, the time is right now to come together and to organize and call Ethiopians to express their concerns. The web world should help us organize and act not just writing, philosophizing. Organize a public rally immediately! Now! Let the American people hear and see our anger. I remember how effective that expression of anger in the streets of Washington, DC. was in the aftermath of the 2005 election in getting the then opposition leaders out of jail and in temporary holding of aid from the dictators.
Dear Ethiopians, if there is any element of real love for our country left in ourselves, let us forget anything at this moment and at least come out to the fore to express that love of country to our hosts and fellow human beings in the free countries we are living in.
I am aware that street shout in Washington, DC, or else where is not enough to free our people from the complex problems they are in, but let us be wise in using momentum! As the saying goes, “hit the nail when it is hot”. Other wise it would be like the “dog that barked after the hyena left”.
But all this rage of Ethiopians, at least by those in the Diaspora, who are totally free to express their anger and concerns, did not come to the fore to touch the hearts and minds of others who might come to our aid. I don’t think at this critical moment blogging is enough to get our message across the wider community. How many non-Ethiopians really read our blogs and understand the level of ordeal we here in the Diaspora, and our people back home are passing through? For example, there wasn’t a mention of the 2010 Ethiopian election on the major cable television channels here in the US. How do we expect the American people to hear and understand what is going on at this moment in Ethiopia and stand on our side?
We have heard that the EU Election Observation Mission and even the US Administration have expressed their concerns that the election in Ethiopia was short of meeting international election standards. This should have given us the courage to go out on the streets of Washington DC, London, Brussels, etc, to loudly express our anger against TPLF’s dictatorship and that we are running out of patience. If we can’t or are afraid to do it here, in the very peaceful and free environment, how can we expect our compatriots at home to go out and demonstrate or organize civil disobedience in the face of the brutal dictators in Addis Ababa.
If we have political or civic leaders in the Diaspora, the time is right now to come together and to organize and call Ethiopians to express their concerns. The web world should help us organize and act not just writing, philosophizing. Organize a public rally immediately! Now! Let the American people hear and see our anger. I remember how effective that expression of anger in the streets of Washington, DC. was in the aftermath of the 2005 election in getting the then opposition leaders out of jail and in temporary holding of aid from the dictators.
Dear Ethiopians, if there is any element of real love for our country left in ourselves, let us forget anything at this moment and at least come out to the fore to express that love of country to our hosts and fellow human beings in the free countries we are living in.
I am aware that street shout in Washington, DC, or else where is not enough to free our people from the complex problems they are in, but let us be wise in using momentum! As the saying goes, “hit the nail when it is hot”. Other wise it would be like the “dog that barked after the hyena left”.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Habisso’s Self-Defeating Argument on TPLF’s Political Landslide
Tesfaye Habisso, who served as the "First Secretary" in the TPLF’s “Transitional Government” in the early 1990s and as TPLF's Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa and the Republic of Uganda in the early 2000s, has an interesting article on Aigaforum, where he gave his analysis of TPLF’s political landslide in last week’s sham 2010 election in Ethiopia.
In reality, his article reveals how TPLF should have lost the “election” than win it by landslide.
In the first part of his “analysis”, he vaguely jumps from one point to another to show how the TPLF mafia group was able to gain the confidence of the people to win a landslide victory, and how the opposition, except Lidetu Ayalew, lost credibility. Here he also vaguely argued that the Ethiopian people don't care about the illegal accumulation of wealth by the TPLF thugs and their supporters.
But in his concluding remark, Mr. Habisso vividly describes the wrongs of the TPLF over the last twenty years, that are haunting the Ethiopian people in their day-to-day lives. Habisso advises the TPLF from now on to focus on addressing the following issues that are rampant in Ethiopia:
Miserable justice and rule of law
Poor governance
Nepotism
Ethnocentricisim
Corruption and predatory tendencies in the public bureaucracy
Galloping inflation, and
Lack of freedom
How on earth can a party that has inflicted all these woes on its people win by a landslide? Or is Mr. Habisso witnessing that the “election” was really farce?
In reality, his article reveals how TPLF should have lost the “election” than win it by landslide.
In the first part of his “analysis”, he vaguely jumps from one point to another to show how the TPLF mafia group was able to gain the confidence of the people to win a landslide victory, and how the opposition, except Lidetu Ayalew, lost credibility. Here he also vaguely argued that the Ethiopian people don't care about the illegal accumulation of wealth by the TPLF thugs and their supporters.
But in his concluding remark, Mr. Habisso vividly describes the wrongs of the TPLF over the last twenty years, that are haunting the Ethiopian people in their day-to-day lives. Habisso advises the TPLF from now on to focus on addressing the following issues that are rampant in Ethiopia:
Miserable justice and rule of law
Poor governance
Nepotism
Ethnocentricisim
Corruption and predatory tendencies in the public bureaucracy
Galloping inflation, and
Lack of freedom
How on earth can a party that has inflicted all these woes on its people win by a landslide? Or is Mr. Habisso witnessing that the “election” was really farce?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Meles is A Dictator by All Standards!!!
What forced me to write this piece was the effort by Uduak Amimo, a BBC reporter from Addis Ababa, to project Meles Zenawi of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as democrat, progressive and a respected statesman. Why didn’t the reporter try to answer the simplest question as to how could a person who still leads a party to liberate Tigray from the rest of Ethiopia be popularly elected by Ethiopians to lead the country he wants to secede from. For it is by being an elected leader that a person could be considered a democrat, if the reporter believes in this argument.
How could UduaK Amimo sincerely declare Meles as a strong and eloquent African statesmen, I believe after witnessing, how inarticulate and defensive he was in the recent African Economic Summit held recently in Daar Es Salaam, Tanzania? In that Summit, the dictator Meles was just superficially parroting about agricultural policies and institutions, while other African leaders and delegates were giving concrete experiences of how they changed their countries’ food security situations.
How could Uduak Amimo claim Meles as a democrat, when for all practical purposes all western democracies admit that Meles is a dictator but they support him only because of the country’s geopolitical position within the volatile Horn of Africa region, with the hope that he would stabilize the region despite being a dectator.
How is Uduak Amimo going to justify Meles as a democrat, when Meles’ foreign Ministry announced just a few days ago, banning all embassies and international non-governmental organizations from observing the upcoming election and restricting movement of their staff outside of the capital?
I was also wondering why Uduak Amimo identified Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as “opposition groups” while citing about their complaint against the civil society law Meles enacted to stifle political desent.
According to Uduak Amimo, is Mohammar Ghadaffi of Libya, the most respected African statesmen, against whom other African leaders have to be evaluated and rated?
If as Udauk Amimo claimed, Meles has been advising his daughter and other Ethiopians “not to enter into politics for their own health”, why didn’t the reporter ask Meles to leave the office of his premiership, at least on grounds of his own deteriorating health after 19 years of rule, if not for the sake of bowing to the voice of the people?
As to the buildings the BBC reporter saw coming out of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, that is not a sign of development for Ethiopia or will have little benefit to the multitude of poor Ethiopians, since almost all those buildings are owned by a few corrupt Tigriyan officials, their families and cronies, who are amassing the wealth of the country illegally.
And the road networks the reporter is talking about are the perfect mechanisms for TPLF thugs for embezzlement of public money through the bidding process. Schools, clinics, hospitals, universities, and other infrastructure projects TPLF claims to have expanded are all mechanisms of siphoning donor money in the name of development.
From the style of the writing of the piece reported by Uduak Amimo, it looks like the piece was written by a TPLF cadre, but only was read by the BBC reporter. Given that this report came out just a few days before the 2010 “election”, I am not sure if there was no exchange of fat money between the reporter and the TPLF dictators. That time will tell.
At any rate, Uduak Amimo’s reporting wouldn’t change the substance or the image of TPLF and Meles Zenawi. Meles is one of the world’s brutal dictators by all standards!!!
How could UduaK Amimo sincerely declare Meles as a strong and eloquent African statesmen, I believe after witnessing, how inarticulate and defensive he was in the recent African Economic Summit held recently in Daar Es Salaam, Tanzania? In that Summit, the dictator Meles was just superficially parroting about agricultural policies and institutions, while other African leaders and delegates were giving concrete experiences of how they changed their countries’ food security situations.
How could Uduak Amimo claim Meles as a democrat, when for all practical purposes all western democracies admit that Meles is a dictator but they support him only because of the country’s geopolitical position within the volatile Horn of Africa region, with the hope that he would stabilize the region despite being a dectator.
How is Uduak Amimo going to justify Meles as a democrat, when Meles’ foreign Ministry announced just a few days ago, banning all embassies and international non-governmental organizations from observing the upcoming election and restricting movement of their staff outside of the capital?
I was also wondering why Uduak Amimo identified Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as “opposition groups” while citing about their complaint against the civil society law Meles enacted to stifle political desent.
According to Uduak Amimo, is Mohammar Ghadaffi of Libya, the most respected African statesmen, against whom other African leaders have to be evaluated and rated?
If as Udauk Amimo claimed, Meles has been advising his daughter and other Ethiopians “not to enter into politics for their own health”, why didn’t the reporter ask Meles to leave the office of his premiership, at least on grounds of his own deteriorating health after 19 years of rule, if not for the sake of bowing to the voice of the people?
As to the buildings the BBC reporter saw coming out of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, that is not a sign of development for Ethiopia or will have little benefit to the multitude of poor Ethiopians, since almost all those buildings are owned by a few corrupt Tigriyan officials, their families and cronies, who are amassing the wealth of the country illegally.
And the road networks the reporter is talking about are the perfect mechanisms for TPLF thugs for embezzlement of public money through the bidding process. Schools, clinics, hospitals, universities, and other infrastructure projects TPLF claims to have expanded are all mechanisms of siphoning donor money in the name of development.
From the style of the writing of the piece reported by Uduak Amimo, it looks like the piece was written by a TPLF cadre, but only was read by the BBC reporter. Given that this report came out just a few days before the 2010 “election”, I am not sure if there was no exchange of fat money between the reporter and the TPLF dictators. That time will tell.
At any rate, Uduak Amimo’s reporting wouldn’t change the substance or the image of TPLF and Meles Zenawi. Meles is one of the world’s brutal dictators by all standards!!!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Comparing the incomparable
I read with amazement Adal Isaw’s March 29, 2010 article on TPLF’s mouthpiece (Aiga Forum) where he compared the challenge America’s democracy is facing from opposition to the challenge the TPLF’s dictatorship is facing from the "extreme elements" of the Ethiopian “opposition”. The writer bluffed how the United States should learn from TPLF’s handling of opposition in Ethiopia. What an absurd comparison!
What the writer has missed is the fact that the United States is a country governed by the rule of law, where every citizen has a right for the free expression of ideas including expressing opposition to rules, regulations and policies in a peaceful manner (health care policy or any other policy for that matter). There is no way the US government will follow the advice of Adal Isaw to crack down opposition expressed by the Tea Party groups against the health care bill. There were no incidents of detentions, killings or intimidations during the Tea Party group moments launched from civilian or non-civilian security forces.
As we witnessed in the aftermath of the Tea Party events against the health care bill, there have been a number of arguments freely expressed and public debates going on in favor of and against the movement's opinion in a civil discourse in all kinds of free media.
Can the writer give me a single example of an opposition rally in the last five years where Ethiopian "opposition" groups were allowed to freely express their opinion in public demonstrations? Can he give me a single instance, in the last five years, where Ethiopian citizens were allowed to publicly demand for even their basic rights for food, water, shelter, protection, security, job, association, etc, leave alone an expression of opposition to public policy in Ethiopia?
Since the TPLF’s reign of terror in Ethiopia in the last 20 years, there were probably not more than 20 opposition public rallies in Ethiopia and in 99 percent of the cases there were mass detentions, killings or intimidations of citizens. Opposition groups and citizens have always been cornered, ridiculed and cracked down by the TPLF gangsters, with no room for genuine debate and accommodation, resulting in an extreme form of polarization and the kind of quagmire the country is in today.
In the United States, in thousands of places from small towns to big cities, thousands of public rallies are heard where citizens voice their concerns and oppositions daily, public officials are obliged to listen to these concerns and make changes in their polices and practices, other wise they are held accountable and face consequences by being voted out during the regualr free and fair elections held at all levels in the country.
TPLF’s Ethiopia is not such a place to be compared to the US. In Ethiopia, there is no rule of law, no accountability, no free and fair election, no freedom. I can’t understand why in the first place the writer chose to compare American democracy to that of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s system is dictatorship and that of USA is democracy. They are incomparable! Any attempt to do so is just a futile intellectual exercise!! And my fellow Adal Isaw knows it deep inside his heart! But he will also be held accountable for his misinformation on D-day!!!
What the writer has missed is the fact that the United States is a country governed by the rule of law, where every citizen has a right for the free expression of ideas including expressing opposition to rules, regulations and policies in a peaceful manner (health care policy or any other policy for that matter). There is no way the US government will follow the advice of Adal Isaw to crack down opposition expressed by the Tea Party groups against the health care bill. There were no incidents of detentions, killings or intimidations during the Tea Party group moments launched from civilian or non-civilian security forces.
As we witnessed in the aftermath of the Tea Party events against the health care bill, there have been a number of arguments freely expressed and public debates going on in favor of and against the movement's opinion in a civil discourse in all kinds of free media.
Can the writer give me a single example of an opposition rally in the last five years where Ethiopian "opposition" groups were allowed to freely express their opinion in public demonstrations? Can he give me a single instance, in the last five years, where Ethiopian citizens were allowed to publicly demand for even their basic rights for food, water, shelter, protection, security, job, association, etc, leave alone an expression of opposition to public policy in Ethiopia?
Since the TPLF’s reign of terror in Ethiopia in the last 20 years, there were probably not more than 20 opposition public rallies in Ethiopia and in 99 percent of the cases there were mass detentions, killings or intimidations of citizens. Opposition groups and citizens have always been cornered, ridiculed and cracked down by the TPLF gangsters, with no room for genuine debate and accommodation, resulting in an extreme form of polarization and the kind of quagmire the country is in today.
In the United States, in thousands of places from small towns to big cities, thousands of public rallies are heard where citizens voice their concerns and oppositions daily, public officials are obliged to listen to these concerns and make changes in their polices and practices, other wise they are held accountable and face consequences by being voted out during the regualr free and fair elections held at all levels in the country.
TPLF’s Ethiopia is not such a place to be compared to the US. In Ethiopia, there is no rule of law, no accountability, no free and fair election, no freedom. I can’t understand why in the first place the writer chose to compare American democracy to that of Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s system is dictatorship and that of USA is democracy. They are incomparable! Any attempt to do so is just a futile intellectual exercise!! And my fellow Adal Isaw knows it deep inside his heart! But he will also be held accountable for his misinformation on D-day!!!
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