30. April 2010 by Assimba.

By Hama Tuma

The dictators have not had enough–we call them tyrants, butchers, thieves and robbers, corrupt and adulterers, cruel barbarians and more but they want more. The latest epithet they want us to attach to their unholy names is that of homophobe. All of a sudden, as if coordinated, from the East to the Southern regions of the continent the tyrants have started a chorus of foul words against gays or homosexuals who, by all account, are a few million in the whole of Africa compared to the hundreds of millions wanting their so called leaders to address themselves to the burdensome continental problems of democracy and under development.

The dictator in the Sudan who started out by cutting limbs of petty thieves and appointing bigger ones as ministers has resorted to Sharia and homosexuality leads to death. Sudan? Really? Where even Revolutionary Council members, dour military men, had male lovers? No one has said hypocrisy is dead. Down South, the number one enemy of gays, the man whose president was found to be gay, strongman Mugabe, has gone on record calling gays pigs and dogs and asking the world at large “can men procreate?” and if not then being gay will just “turn our ancestors in their graves”. Something to be avoided as the hapless ancestors in the graves, the very many martyrs of the struggle against the Ian Smith racist regime have been spinning in their graves as Mugabe persistently ruined his country aided and abetted by vindictive Western powers. As Brutus did not say, Mugabe is not an honourable man but the other contender to the title of, no not honourable but, democrat, that is to say the Harvard educated (two weeks course on good governance) Morgan Tsvangirai has also joined his nemesis and attacked gays in no uncertain and rather crude terms (men breathing on top of other men and the like). 38 African countries criminalise homosexual relations and Uganda recently tried to punish gays with the death sentence following a visit to Uganda by well heeled American Christian fundamentalists. Money talks and had not the outcry been very loud Uganda would have been busy these days shooting gays just like Baganda demonstrators opposing the rule of Museveni (going for his third election after amending the Constitution). Down in Malawi two gays tried a symbolic marriage and face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

Now, the uniformed in this world maybe excused if they conclude that the primary problem of Africans is the existence of gays or that African tyrants and legislators have nothing else to do other than turn homophobe and bash the victims. Actually, the loud homophobia comes right out of the very coveted secret manual of African dictators under the chapter of “Diverting Public Opinion”. Diverting public opinion is an art and though few can do it as well as the late Idi Amin and Bokassa (what a show the duo staged over time!) they are trying hard. Massacres and jailing of dissidents have become too ordinary to attract that much attention or to generate much uproar. The world is now used to African genocides and carnages and is only surprised by reports of development for which it has no ears anyway. Hence, the resort o gay bashing. It is not that the tyrants have nothing else to worry about. Uganda has its murderous LRA and serious dissatisfaction by the majority of the populace that considers Museveni’s rule dictatorial to boot. Sudan is a mess and Beshir detested; let us not talk of Darfur and possible secession and war in the South in the near future. Mugabe’s problem is well known and Malawi of Kamuzu Banda fame has more serious problems than two gays getting married and trying to confront their miserable lives as the majority of Malawians. Africa surely has more serious concerns and problems including the very fact that the stigmatization of the gays having a negative impact on the control of the AIDS ravaging many of these countries.

Diversion is a must, though, given the problems. The gays are not many and they are helpless and the macho society has little sympathy for them. For once, the tyrants will be joined by priests, sheikhs and the populace at large (barring South Africa and Burundi that have refused to criminalize gays) to engage in a collective orgy of violence and repression. As the French would say Haro sur les Homos or Curse on their homo heads. There are those who say that some of our literal ( does not mean literate in this instance) top officials believe that gay in this context means happy and refers to people who are happy or gay without the expressed permission of the State that has a monopoly on joy in many African countries. That aside, the gay issue is useful for diversion in that there is a loud and organized gay community in the donor countries and it will raise hell against African leaders persecuting gays instead of attacking them on the absence of good governance or democracy. As the gays in Africa get their own Geldof or Bono and the outcry increases, the shout against, say Museveni, will not be “stop killing demonstrators and protestors” but rather “end the repression against gays” which is a slogan that, sadly or otherwise, will not stir that much of emotion amongst many Ugandans including their Catholic clergy. Ditto for Mugabe and the others, Diversion par excellence. And if the homophobia stops working, the tyrants have many others diversions up their sleeves to hide their real malady which is fear of democracy or “demophobia”, a malady cured only by a revolution, alas for them.

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28. April 2010 by Assimba.

April 26, 2010 at 8:50 pm (Commenatry)
By Obo Arada Shawl

April 23, 2010

Introduction

Using the Latin alphabet to write ADWA, adwa or AADWA appears to portray insignificant difference to the naked eye or rather to the majority of Ethiopian intellectuals aka M’huran. But to a liberated Eathiopian mind and as well as to the Tsinhate M’huran (scholars), there are serious and logical implications.

ADWA, which I prefer to label as ADWA I, is about place name where in 1896, thousands of Ethiopians had volunteered to defend for their centuries old freedom.

Adwa, which I also prefer to call as Adwa II, is about cliques of leaders who were either born or raised in that historic place fought for freedom.

AADWA is an alternative name encoded in five dimensions of place, people, politics, reason and solutions (PPPRS).

Historical background

The last time Ethiopians came together physically was 114 years ago. In 1896, Eathiopians gathered voluntarily at a place called ADWA I in order to halt an invading foreign army. It was in defense of their own country (the land), their government (the king) and for their traditional values.

After the war at ADWA fundamental issues, some events and political consequences, which are documented by the filmmaker professor Haile Gerima, had taken place. The physical geography of Ethiopia was changed. Eritrea was demarcated physically but not emotionally or psychologically. There are no willing people to be colonized despite contrary claims by some quarters.

In 1974, after 78 years, once again, Eathiopians raised in political unison to change their ancient system of government – from an absolute Monarchy to a popular system of government. However, the military junta has played politics of obstruction to deny the Eathiopians to be ruled by civilian popular government. The struggle to topple the Fascist DERG went on unabated for 17 years.

In 1991, 95 years since the battle of ADWA I, or 17 years after the onset of the popular revolution, another clique of leaders of TPLF (a guerrilla peasant organization) came to play politics of obstructionism, the same way the military junta did in 1974.

As if Eathiopians had not had enough confusion especially after the victory of ADWA I, the clique of leaders who came to arrest the Eway Revolution have come to represent the paradox of Ethiopian political history. *

As a footnote to the above background, by and large, the Eathiopian people, despite their victory at ADWA I, have become victims of glory.

During the reign of Haile Sellassie, out of the 14 regions, provinces or Kifle Hagers, only 3 provinces were inaccessible to the outside world. They were Arussi, Shewa and Tigrai (AST) provinces. Arussi despite its rich resources, the people were kept isolated from modern means of transport and communication. The people of Shewa were kept apolitical while the people of Tigrai were kept away from modern industrialization.

I don’t know whether my assertion is in line with the thinking of the power holders or with the opposition parties. But that was the way the people of the three provinces were subjected to.

Whether by design or chance, the military junta had launched projects and plans in Arussi province, possibly to redress the oppression from the inaccessibility.

By the same logic, the adwa clique of leadership may have believed to open a gate to industrialization for the province of Tigrai albeit at the expense of losing access to the entire country.

POLITICAL CONSEQUENCE AS A RESULT OF WAR AND REVOLUTION

ADWA I: Ethiopians had volunteered to defend their freedom

In 1896, Ethiopia, an African nation has defeated Italy, a European nation. How come a peasant nation could defeat an advanced European nation?

“Ethiopia had a legitimate and a just cause not to be colonized”, says a historian.

Where did the war take place? It was fought at place called Adwa that I prefer to label as ADWA I. What has happened after the victory of ADWA I? For the most part,

• The land remained Ethiopian
• The king of kings had consolidated his power and
• Ethiopian families continued to live and continue to keep their traditions and values.

The current meeting being held everywhere around the world including within Ethiopia do not seem to be healthy. There is no forgetting and forgiving – if there is that would be considered reconciliation. A grievance and revenge (GG) will be wasteful to say the least.

For instance, the recent conference that was held in Arlington, Virginia would only add fuels to the followers of ADWA I. There was no issue of the past – the basis of conflict. It was a hash-hash advocacy for normalcy. Why on earth M’hur Akal (PhD) from Eritrea would clash with another M’hur Akal (PhD) from Ethiopia? This shows that they have not yet resolved their age old differences about ADWA I. One is supposedly a colonizer and the other colonized perhaps in reverse order. It is shame for both professors to represent Eathiopia. Why don’t they resolve their personal grievances first before they attempt to indulge in solving Eathiopia’s political problems?

To spell it out loud and clear, Eathiopian elites are presented with three alternative choices.

The path of ADWA I – the victory of freedom against the Italians should be recognized unconditionally by the Eritrean professors. The Ethiopian professors should likewise accept the abandonment of Eritreans to the rule of Italians. Both sides have been harping exclusively on the negative sides of true history. It has been going on for over a century. We need closure, closure and closure.

And why would an organizer who claims that the conference was highly successful demand the editors of a website to censure an opinion of an individual who had claimed to the contrary? Such conferences were held before and they all ended up in failure if not in disaster. Our issue is not the Horn of Africa. First it is about the aftermaths of ADWA I and BAD ME wars and the aftermaths of the Revolution.

In my opinion, we should go back to resolve the case of ADWA I, the adwa II and then move on to AADWA III.

ADWA II: Ethiopians were forced to fight for ethnic power

In 1991, which is after 95 years, cliques of the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that I prefer to call as ADWA II came to power by force of arms. What has happened to the core issues of Ethiopia and Ethiopians after ADWA II? The results are as follows:

• Ownership of land is dead. There is no distinction or it is rather an opaque phenomenon in distinguishing among nationals, nationalities or citizens of Ethiopia

• The materialist “king” of Tigrai has gained land access to the outside world exclusively to the region of Tigrai though at the expense of surrendering a national sea outlet.
• Ethiopian families are disintegrating at a faster rate than any known countries in the world. A moral bankruptcy has set in motion among the Ethiopian societies.

AADWA III: Ethiopians chose to struggle for national politics

The third AADWA (Assimba-Debteraw-Wallelign) is a generation of conscious revolutionaries who has arrived at their conclusion, not through fight but through intellectual study. Their ideas did not come from spontaneity, they learnt them and as they learn they in turn go out to convey consciousness-forming ideas to their peers.

The new had to replace the old. This is true when it comes to society as well as to ideas. The new ideas have actively confronted and exposed the old ideas and became obsolete and bankrupt. Though ideas have no physical life in themselves Wallelign and DEBTERAW must have been engaged in clash of ideas. That became mantra of the Ethiopian Revolutionaries.

In Western Europe, there was the French Revolution – a Revolution for Equality, Liberty and Fraternity (ELF). In the Far East, there was the Chinese Revolution – a closed Revolution until the country feeds itself. In Asia Minor, there was the Russian Revolution – a Revolution to upgrade an agrarian country and in the America’s it was the American Revolution – a Revolution to promote Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (LLP).

In Africa, there was and is the Eway Revolution that was meant to upheld a Flag, a Fidel and many Freedoms (FFFs). What happens to each Revolution and its aftermath is anybody’s understanding. Our interest should be in the Eway Revolution not in the Horn of Africa’s crisis.

What is the Eway Revolution? Although I have attempted to explain in the past using some examples drawn from DEBTERAW’s pattern of life and struggle, we need to comprehend the Eway Revolution in the context of the present as well as in its contextual future.

First of all, those who claim, as ተጋዳይ ታጋይ dichotomy is confusion by itself. It may mean a differentiation those who fought and those who struggled. It was not and still is not clear to the majority of Eathiopians. Whatever is the case, here is the scenario of the Ethiopian Revolution.

The DERG had ideological and operational advisors from the then Soviet Union and the then German Democratic Republic  (GDR). The EPLF leaders had not only supply of literature but also had training from the Chinese government. Neither the ELF nor the TPLF had followed a real Revolution such that I have mentioned above but hodgepodges of rebellious countries as their model and advisors.

The Eway Revolution, which was followed by EPRP, is not a replica of ADWA I, which was a voluntary mobilization by the people of Ethiopian for one country, one king and one family. The AADWA III, on the contrary is about one flag, one alphabet and many freedoms. It was fundamental and unprecedented. It was fundamental as it was based on

• The Ethiopian objective conditions and
• It is still going unabated on many fronts

Conclusion

This is a preliminary reading of our problems, if we really believe we have any.

ADWA I was about unity based on Voluntarism

Adwa II was about power by any means necessary and

AADWA III was and still is about Unity, politics and freedom.

Let everyone and everybody choose to volunteer, to vote and register victory.

TRUTH WILL PREVAIL

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24. April 2010 by Assimba.

By Yilma Bekele

I am sure most of you have heard or read that the leaders of Medrek are on a tour of North America. They have held town hall meetings in Seattle, San Jose, Las Vegas, Washington DC and Atlanta and are coming to Los Angles this coming weekend. The delegation consists of Ato Seye Abreha, Ato Gebru Asrat, Dr. Negasso Gidada and Ato (engineer) Gezachew Shiferaw. All four gentlemen were ex members of TPLF, OPDO or AEUP.

For those not familiar with the alphabet soup, TPLF stands for Tigrai Peoples Liberation Front and OPDO is Oromo Peoples Democratic Union. OPDO is the brainchild of TPLF. That is neither paranoia nor a figment of my imagination. Other TPLF subsidiaries include ANDM (Amhara National Democratic Movement) SEPDM (Southern Ethiopia Peoples’ Democratic Movement) and other minor parties. They call them Teletafi (ተለጣፊ) They are organized as EPDRF (Ethiopian peoples’ Democratic Revolutionary Front).

The current Ethiopian Parliament is composed of 526 members and EPDRF controls 326 seats. That is actually not a true statement. TPLF Party control extends to all the so-called political parties organized as an independent for ‘Ferenjis’ consumption. Thus in reality the Parliament is TPLF’ Party’s’ private playing field. As the Chilean dictator Pinochet said ‘”Not a leaf moves in Chile if I don’t know about it”, nothing in Ethiopian Parliament happens without the permission of the one party state.

If you will forgive me I will start our current story with the 2005 general election as a background. To a majority of Ethiopians May 2005 is day one in the hope of our people for democracy and a better future. May 2005 left the Meles regime physically naked mentally dead and spiritually void of values. The total rejection of ethnic politics and cadre rule unnerved the regime. Meles and company panicked. They communicated with the Ethiopian people with snipers on every roof and concentration camps in every Kilil. The aftermath of 2005 election ushered the quest for a new understanding of the struggle for liberation under a totalitarian state.

Kinijit leaders were forced to forge a new path based on the experience of the 2005 debacle. Kinijit the dragon slayer was an amalgamation of different organization united for the purpose of elections. The two years in Kaliti jail dealt a heavy blow on the young party. The TPLF machine used every evil means at its disposal to create mistrust, mis-information resulting in disarray. Kaliti did a favor to the movement. It differentiated the men from the boys. Ledetu was officially recognized as a subsidiary. Hailu was exposed as spoiler. Merera and Petros became inconsequential. Berhanu reloaded and Bertukan decided to re-calibrate.

Our story revolves around Bertukan Mideksa. Upon her return to Ethiopia from her North American tour, she embarked on the formation of a new political party modeled after Kinijit. If you remember Ato Meles’s court have already handed Kinijit to some obscure individual named Ayele Chamiso. Thus Weizero Bertukan labored tirelessly to form Andenet Party. Despite the many hurdles thrown on her path she was able to dot the I’s and cross the t’s and form Andenet. It was a proud accomplishment that will be told and retold for a long time. Birtukan’s Andenet is a multi national party based on equality and resting on a strong bedrock of Democracy as its foundation.

Weizero Bertukan criss crossed the country forming headquarters in every region and managed to win the trust and respect of the Ethiopian People. Her rising star was eclipsing the faint candlelight of the TPLF cadres. That did not go well with TPLF. Chairman Bertukan was re-hauled back to Kaliti on some funky charge to be kept away until the 2010 election is over.

Her imprisonment created a void in the new party. It was not long before factions were formed and an all out war was declared. The young party was left without a rudder to steer the party in the TPLF shark infested ocean. The battle tested TPLF leaders exploited the weakness of the rookie leaders to the maximum. TPLF was not interested in killing the Party. It just wanted to deliver a crippling blow. It was not long before things degenerated to the extent that Andenet was forced to appeal to the TPLF regime for protection from its own members. Shame is an understatement. It was under these strange circumstances that Andenet joined what is known as Medrek. What exactly is Medrek?

Medrek is a coalition of different parties that include UEDF (United Ethiopian Democratic Forces led by Dr. Beyene Petros and Dr. Merera Gudina) OFDM (Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement led by Ato Bulcha Demeksa) A.R.E.N.A. Tigrai led by Ato Gebru Asrat, and Andenet led by Ato Gezachew Shiferaw. Please note Andenet is the only multi national party in the group. Andenet under the leadership of Chairman Bertukan is the only party with representation in all parts of the country and support organizations in the Diaspora.

The two independent individuals Ato Seye Abraha and Dr. Negasso Gidada joined the weak and wounded Andenet at this critical time. The void felt in the party due to the expulsion of some founding members created a fertile ground for the two ex-officials to assume positions of leadership upon arrival.

Thus, this is the Medrek that is currently touring North America. Some of my esteemed friends have used such expressions as ‘the rebirth of Ethiopia’ and ‘a new political culture in Ethiopia’ to explain the tour. Is this really a Hallelujah or Alhamdulillah moment? It is possible that both declarations are heavy on the cheerleading side but lacking in the friendly but critical assessment option.

The American expression ‘friends don’t allow friends drive drunk’ comes to mind, especially when one is a passenger in the vehicle. We are all passengers in this ship called Ethiopia. The action of the pilot affects the welfare of the passengers. The current tour leaves many questions unanswered and the timing is a puzzle to all well-wishers. The question of raising money is out of the question. The Diaspora is fighting a life and death battle to retain jobs, pay mortgages and raise expensive children. The Diaspora does not vote. Is it possible the expenditure of thousands of hard earned dollars in transporting, lodging and feeding the delegation is not a smart investment?

What exactly is Medrek trying to accomplish in the current election? The short answer is of course win. The next question will be is that possible? The simple answer is a resounding no. That leads us back to the first question, why participate in an impossible, rigged game where the outcome is pre determined? That the TPLF started the preparations for this election way back in May of 2005 is obvious to all. Meles and company vowed not to be caught with their pants down again. Thus the vibrant independent media was destroyed, capable leaders were killed, exiled or jailed, the Constitution was amended to include curbs on NGO activities, a law defining any opposition as terrorism and a new code of conduct was put in place.

In Election Ethiopian style the opposition cannot hold unauthorized meeting, cannot hold a rally, and cannot raise money from outside sources including the Diaspora. It is enough for you to say what a cockamamie idea? Wait there is more; according to the PM candidates cannot criticize the regime under threat of being charged with incitement or sedation. In emerging democratic Ethiopia the opposition cannot campaign except in a few large cities like Addis Abeba and Bahir Dar. Being a candidate or supporter of the opposition is a hazardous duty in most of the Kilils. The only exception seems to be Tigrai where the ex TPLF members can campaign in a limited areas.

Medrek has sacrificed plenty of candidates in this election. Human right activists, foreign correspondents such as VOA, Bloomberg and many others, have recorded party members being prosecuted, hounded in their villages, denied government controlled necessities and even murdered. Ethiopian politics is not for the fain hearted.

The 2005 election was proof that the minority-based regime is a paper tiger. It was resoundingly defeated where the ballot boxes were opened under the watchful eyes of the people and international observers. Thus the lesson learnt was it is not about the campaign but it is all about the counting of the ballots. What we see today is that the regime still controls the election board, recruited trained and is ready to deploy its own cadre observers and have drawn up a strict code of conduct for the Ferenji observers. It is like meet the new situation same as the old situation.

The simple question to Medrek is why do you exactly expect a different outcome when nothing has changed? The truth of the matter is actually things have change in a negative way as far as the opposition is concerned. With its star leader behind bars and its candidates and supporters terrorized by government goons how is it possible to contemplate winning when even trying has become a crime?

Why is Medrek giving legitimacy to a dictatorial regime by its involvement in a rigged game? Some will say half a loaf is better than no loaf, is that Medrek’s philosophy too? Is the idea to win a hundred or so seats in Parliament? Is that considered good whereas the regime with its majority control will continue the abuse of the few opposition members seated for show?

These are the questions Medrek have not addressed both at home and abroad. It was only last October that Ato Gezachew declared ‘The release of Birtukan Mideksa and all Political Prisoners is the main agenda for joining the 2010 Election’. What ever happened to that bravado? How come the political prisoner population of Kaliti and the Kilils has gone up let alone secure the release of our leader?

The lessons of 2005 should not be forgotten. Repeating the same mistake is definitely not a winning strategy. The Ethiopian people have paid a heavy price for an inferior and ugly outcome. We worry that what was done to us five years ago is in the process of being repeated. We ask Medrek to consider the ramifications of kowtowing to a totalitarian state that is hell bent in winning at all cost. We urge Medrek to listen to its constituents that wish it well and include their concerns in its deliberations. We have a very sick regime that considers politics as a game where winning is the only acceptable outcome. They have shown that they will kill to secure their ill-gotten power and wealth.

We feel the pain of the opposition candidates that have sacrificed trying to get involved in the affairs of their nation. We are horrified to witness the death of Ato Aregawi Gebre Yohanes, Ato Beyanza Deba and many other nameless Ethiopians whose crime was wanting to be free. We hope Medrek will take its role seriously and observe the Hippocratic oath like doctors that states ‘do no harm’. Our hope is that they contemplate if their actions bring good or harm on our people.

It is a good possibility the regime will orchestrate an election worthy of an African standard. It is also true that the US and the Europeans will declare ‘a few irregularities’ but ‘an essential first step’. Just like what happened five years ago Ato Meles and company will continue the rape and pillage of our country and sell what is left of it to the highest bidder. We hope Medrek will not be one of those parties that will sit silently in the kangaroo parliament and preach the gospel of ‘working together’ and such crap while dining with killers, psychos and future guests of the International Criminal Court.

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24. April 2010 by Assimba.

Getachew Reda

Please post this letter on your website until I come out with a commentary in Amharic (I am not currently on PC with Amharic font) regarding the Ethiopian Free Press Association lead by the Ato Kifle Mulat. Honestly speaking, I am angry, frustrated by the so many of the called Diaspora opposition media. Hate me or like me, this is my confession. I congratulate Ato Kifle Mulat for coming out from the cave he was hide as a Monk for several years and finally to my surprise appeared with his three page (supposed to be 13 looking at the PDF) (incomplete/cut out) reporting the Houston money contribution and prayers accompanied with a candle vigil to praise Bertukan Mediksa. That is all he can offer all those years of his hiding. What happen to his good writing skill as a journalist of exposing the repressive regime? I have never heard of his pen. Not only him, but also Mulugeta Lule. Are they retired from the press? I doubt. Are they still members of the press? Are they active? Are they on the Satellite TV- where only the elite viewers see them as they are the Geraldo Rivera and the Operah whinfrey show?

Now, Kifle Mulat is officially active on media for all of us to read him after he comes out from his hide out. The former Tobia Editor and president of the so called “Free Press” (?) Kifle Mulat a man who chained his arms with iron chain when he spoke on his public forum speech years back in the Diaspora has now coming out after many free press journalists who are languishing in Yemen, India, Kenya and elsewhere were looking for his leadership but nowhere to be found, (though, he might have contacted them here and there through his third party gangs around him. The man never even heard by the public whom he claimed to speak, represent and concerned to write about their pain and fate for a long time (may be heard and seen by his compatriots of the Diaspora who run gang politics that we all are aware spreading little spiral dusts sprouting to the thin air as if they are shooting canons to Meles Zenawi).

An amazing man! I thought this man was a decent press man who has a gut and humanity and professional, but I guess not.   No one, but he let the press to be swarmed by a “elite gangs” whose business is day in day out posting pictures of Negasso, Gebru, Seye, Gizachew, Merera and Al Mariam , Berhanu Negga and Bertukan, (even a single other prisoners pictures who are languishing for over 18 years never were posted for sample for one day even in the last 5 years) by ignoring posting pictures of citizens who are suffering in the economic, politics, religious, homelessness, sickness, starvation, injustice, racism perpetrated by the TPLF security and malfunction administration . This media gangs are crazily in love with such criminal political leaders. No one but he and his circles with their experience, let the press to failed and open the gate for them the press to be taken hostage by talkative and elite propaganda spreaders using “patriotism” to highlight a toxic elite image and toxic politics shaped by criminals and manipulators.

Here we are now, Kifle Mulat t coming out from where ever he was hide and post news that was heard repeatedly by the elite media pretending as if he is talking about the thousands of prisoners who are languishing in TPLF jail while he was in Addis Ababa (still in Kaliti and elsewhere). As press person, he failed to mention a “single name” of those who sacrifice their life and property and their life to save and defend Ethiopia’s dignity. Indeed, not unusual for papers like this to hold stories for a good news, but the timing served more than one purpose. The release of this story wrote from his pen brings the issue of elite image such as like him (coming out from his hide) into the spotlight. I believe such story is not new for readers to read it, but as I said this was done to elevate his faded image cleverly through the prisoner Bertukan Medikasa. Quite honestly, a very shrewd business , it is also a very irresponsible move on the part of this man by failing not to mention in his paper the so many popular political leaders and civic leaders, journalists in prison who also escaped harassment of TPLF security still continue harassed by TPLF gangs all over the planet.

While we have both the right and responsibility to question the actions the opposition press officials, there are also times when we have to trust them since they said they are talking on behalf of us/the public. But, if the Ethiopian public do not trust those who said they represent us with their press skills, then we need to get off our collective rear-end and replace for those we believe we can trust in future difficulties and challenges.

The media in the Diaspora (I do not know about the media in Ethiopia) is hosting elites not the public. They hijacked the majority fools and ill informed elements to use them on their agenda of pumping up “elite images”. This can’t continue forever like this. They need to know that they are accountable for their actions for what they print. Journalists have a responsibility to their readers (i.e. the ones who keep them in business), but apparently the editorial board and staff writers on Ethiomedia .com /Ethioforum.org/Abugida.org/Addis DimTs radio/Nazret, Abay media and their likes don’t think that responsible journalism is nearly as important as serving their own individual political interests. Those media mentioned above should not sacrifice decent information for the sake of business and circulation numbers. If they want to sacrifice their own decency and political agenda that’s their individual choices. I would appreciate it, however, if they would not sacrifice mine at the same time. My country is hold hostage by TPLF gangs in the country and here the Diaspora media is reflecting elite image by posting pictures and speeches of criminal elements day in day out to elevated them as our New Covenant. This is unacceptable, their action angers many victims.

Who is responsible for such elite hegemony in the media posing elite politics? It is the former press leadership who claimed themselves as “Free Press Journalist Association”. It is Kifle Mulat and the rest! Shame on you Kifle Mulat! Where were you when the journalists are still seeking help from your leadership? Can’t you at least write one paper to UNHCR and the rest of the Humanitarian organization to help journalist Araya Tesfamariam who is suffering in India with his ill 13 years old who have no mother but himself as mother and mother looking after her still harassed by TPLF SECURITY BY THE NAME “Hagos and other hidden spies)? Where were you hiding Mr. Press President? In Asmara or in the Diaspora?

Have you heard the Ethiopian Journalists cry? Did you read us when several friends and I sent you messages on your email provided to us by your close compatriots regarding journalists suffering and seeking to hear your voice? What is “Free Press journalism Association” mean Ato Kifle? Good luck in your hide out political circles where ever you are flirting around with. Finally, (leave my politics alone) I like to thank Dr. Negasso Gidada for helping journalist Eyerusalem Araya. He is the one who helped him to get financial help for his daughter‘s medical expense when he she is referred to India Hospital for further treatment. I thank you sir for your humanity and care for these young girl and her father in a darkest time of his and her life. I am sure; god will forgive you at least in one of your seen. I also want to thank Obang Metho, Addis Voice editor (Ato Abebe Gelaw) for promising they will write to UNHCR to let problem known and expedite his refugee asylum papers to a better country where his daughter will get treatment. I also want Tigringa speaking Ethiopians to hear Dejen radio (Ethiopiancommentator.com) conducted interview with Eyerusalem Araya explaining the crime of TPLF. I thank Dr. Hailemariam Abebe for doing great job on this matter (for your so many cooperation in this matter). I will translate it in to Amharic- stay tune. Let us work hard to expose the failing press in the Diaspora and inside the country. Getachew Reda Getachre@AOL.com www.Ethiopiansemay.blogspot.com

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19. April 2010 by Assimba.

April 18, 2010 at 9:09 pm (Commenatry)

By Hama Tuma

I am sure not many of you know the word bloviator–I did not till someone told me to check it in Google. It means pompous, someone who puffs his chest and makes boastful declarations. The word defines many Ethiopian pseudo and self declared intellectuals of our time. Of course, who is an intellectual is worthy of a debate these days. One who finished Scondary School? Anyone with a diploma or a degree from a foreign institution? Who? Anyone with that Dr or Professor tag? Any fool who speaks averagely coherent English? Anyone with delusions of grandeur? Feelings of elitism?

Sadly, the bloviators are too many. They start out with the assumption that speaking and writing English is expensive to begin with. Not for you and me poor souls with miserable monthly incomes if any. African intellectuals, totally brainwashed alas, boast: “we learnt at the foot of the white man” which, it seems, give them the right and capacity to tell a plant from afar by just sniffing at the air. Ethiopian intellectuals fall in the same pit: their credential is the foreign/ferenji degree, earned in most cases not even from credible or prestigious places, sometimes from correspondence  universities who will give you a degree even if you fail!(check Meles, Tamrat and other mentally challenged TPLF officials). Yet, the Dr or Professor tag is all, supreme, it tell us all to shut up and listen, the bloviators have a degree, they are “intellos” par excellence. Alas, they are shallow, ignoramus to boot, word spinners, not worth the ink on their so called degrees. Take time off to listen to any of the loud pal talk rooms and you will hear many not only punctuating but drowning their Amharic with English phrases. Words like State, information, intelligence, saboteur (actually said “sabotateur” by our hyphenated souls), agenda, diversify, struggle, oppression, etc are words that seem to have no Amharic equivalent.  I had previously attempted to call upon them to be modest and received a tongue lashing for may alleged “jealousy” concerning their degrees which, I am proud to say, will not accept even if offered on  a golden platter.

The half baked “bloviators” use English words to impress, to be unintelligible to my mother and yours, to be pompous. I wish I had written all this in Amharic but as I am trying to deal with those who write  and speak pompously in English I have chosen the foreign language and by implication cornered myself in the dilemma. Why can’t we write our pieces in our own language so that the majority of our people understand what we are trying to say? The hypocritical attempt is to be above the mundane as it were, to rise above the masses, to parade before them with puffed out chest, to show we know and do speak English and can write articles in it no matter the spelling and grammar errors. We boast and silence our own parents and people, and fools as we are we feel proud as we shame ourselves. Delusion is taken as knowledge, ignorance becomes wisdom and we deny our identity to find some mirage of a respect for our demeaned self. The more they bloviate, the more they become incomprehensible, shallow and hollow. The exercise is to say nothing in many words, to use phrases from the Thesaurus, to say perambulate instead of walk, to sound like a Southern USA fiery Baptist preacher, to pepper one’s articles with quotes and references that are either out of place or pedestrian. I remember one “bloviator” who had to refer to Galbraith or Tagore to tell us “yenat hod zingurgur new”. The worth of an intellectual is thus situated firmly in an Ivory Tower, away from the majority of the common people, saying not I fell but declaring my verticality changed to a horizontality. One Weyane scribe, a former “tiraz netek” of the bars in Washington, recently wrote from Addis Abeba a vitriolic attack against Isayas Afewerki (of course in English and  to please his Masters), and informed us of the need to “indigenize democracy in a collectivist African cultural matrix”. Now, what the hell does this mean other than bloviating over our heads parading as a deep thinker, philosopher and a master of the foreign language? There is another Ethiopian who writes incomprehensible regular columns and whom I tried to criticize mildly and provoked his adoring fans (who do not understand what he writes but admire him just for that) to attack me with venom. One asked me in anger “who are you?” and I must admit I was tempted to do a French on her and answer back “I am still searching for my identity” (the French like such replies and will not make it easy where they can complicate).  Fake through and through, inferiority complex of the highest order when our so called intellectuals (many have become professors recently by some collective baptism like the Moonies) look down upon our language, culture, heroes (every political pretender is taken as a Mandela if he or she lands in prison for a month or a year), and our own experience.

The bloviators are also official scribes of the dictatorship. One such pathetic person, a stain on the proud history of her martyred brothers and cousins, recently wrote the following effusive nonsense:

“It is such an incredible win and an amazing era for us to witness the open and fast gain of Ethiopia’s democracy these past eighteen years.  Never in the history of Ethiopia have we witnessed such an open dialogue.   A free expression of ideas among different parties is what we are witnessing for the fourth democratic election.  It is so heartwarming and encouraging for those of us that live outside Ethiopia to have the privilege of being eyewitnesses to the myriad developments that is going on in the country. Thanks to humanity’s elevation of technology we are privy to follow the events of the country on a daily basis” If this is not empty talk what is? Democracy and the Meles regime are anathema, incompatible, opposites. The regime she lauds is known as the predator of the free press, the enemy of free expression, a repressive one holding some thirty five thousand political prisoners behind bars, has committed many massacres, is the one that disappeared dozens in its dungeons and practices systematic and wide spread torture. That makes the woman who wrote the above eulogy either totally ignorant or a shameless sell out. She says nothing in so many words even if she may gain some favors from her Masters in Addis Abeba. The art of saying nothing in five hundred words is often mastered by bloviators and the state of our intellectuals is such that they have all become experts at it. They want to browbeat us with verbosity, with the usage of “hard” English phrases and concepts (which they use not in the correct sense but who cares?), with their determined refusal to use their own language to communicate. I must say I am not amongst those African authors who insist that writers must write in their mother tongue or stop writing ( though the usefulness  of communicating in one’s language cannot be denied) but the impact of a political message is if it reaches a broad cross section of the people and influences them. Last time I checked 95% of Ethiopians are not very familiar with the Queen’s English and if truth be told not many of our self declared intellectuals write proper grammatically correct English either, notwithstanding their tendency to resort to English when they could communicate better in their own language. I could even be mistaken in this assumption of mine as most of them have no clear idea of what they want to utter and whether they do it in English or Amharic ( or any other mother tongue) their mumbo jumbo is not saved from being just that.

Alas, to add insult to injury (be inkirt lye joro degif) our bloviating intellectuals are not funny. Just take the above crazy eulogy and try to say you find it funny. It is actually boring, pathetic, an example of dog- like snivelling and servitude not to say shameful narrow ethnic identification. In other contexts, bloviators can be funny–they are so ridiculous that they become clowns. He was not an intellectual per se but Debella Dinsa comes to mind while in the imperial regime Yilma Deressa was another example of the funny officials. Our present day official scribes cum intellectuals take themselves too seriously as they bloviate and thus are dour and never funny. Otherwise their declaration of democracy under Meles Zenawi should have cracked us up but they believe in it and so they squeeze out the funny in their declaration. George Bush and Rumsfeld were funny with their declarations., they pretended to believe their lies but we all knew they were playacting like their claim of WMDs in Iraq. Take Rumsfeld’s foray into The Unknown:
“As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.

—Feb. 12, 2002.

Is not this a gem? Such bloviators can and should flourish to give grim politics a funny tinge.

Meles Zenawi, who got his degrees from a correspondence course, also plays at being an intellectuals but his feeble bloviating come out disgusting and only fools take his street smart talk as a sign of intelligence.

The redefinition of the intellectual is called for in the Ethiopian context unless we confine ourselves to the basic definition of the intellectual as someone who attempts to speak English, tries to use confusing words, and is irredeemably alien to his own people and lies as a matter of routine. Come to think of it, this defines our intellectuals “indigenized in their own matrix”. Whatever that may mean of course.

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19. April 2010 by Assimba.

April 18, 2010 at 10:15 pm (Commenatry)

By Yelfiwos Wondaya

With all due respect, Dr. Hailu and nameless journalist, Reporter or what have you, every which way you spin it around, terrorism is terrorism. On the contrary, being selfless, generous, and brave in terms of fighting for the weak and vulnerable citizens, and being loyal to friends and causes, and taking a heroic measure as a result to reverse the terror acts unleashed against citizens in defense is moral and conscientious at any rate. Besides, a child killer who lost the battle in disgrace could not have no morale ground to accuse or convict a victim of his own success and would not be allowed to do so either. The declaration of Red Terror against humanity is found in written all over and still is fresh in the minds of all Ethiopians. But was there any declaration named “white Terror” made by any political entity ever against the public in Ethiopia? With all due respect, Dr. and nameless journalist can you come up with anything  printed then that said white terror aimed at massacring the public? Be that as it may, history has it that EPRP conducted itself with Dignity while Hirelings of the Military Junta the Dr. in question had been part of lost status, self-esteem and reputation till this very day. Cadres and kebelle officers were licensed none other than by Derg’s authorities to kill the generation. The Dr. in question was part and parcel of DERG’s executive body that enforced rules and gave orders to those foot soldiers to kill the generation indiscriminately. That is the fact! In other words, the Dr. in question together with his master lost power for another dictatorial regime. But shortly after Mengistu left for Harare and TPLF took over power in Addis Ababa, the Dr. in question continues to live without restrictions while the entire leadership of ESEPA sent to prison. Why?? Does it have anything to do with race or with being espionage from within ESEPA for woyane or both? I leave that for all to judge.  While in power, however, they were pledged to eliminate the entire youth and have done so, so to speak and that is what their history appears to be in a few words. The Bloody Butchers! Come what may, we shall never forget our history and must be told as it is now and as well must be passed down to the generation yet to come.

Yes, history has it that that nearly every family in Ethiopia was behind EPRP. The party that all cynics hate to death had also a total confidence in its ability to organize the youth and had enjoyed the support of the vast majority of Ethiopian people as opposed to those paid hirelings and doubting Thomases. In fact, it did not take him long to become big and wide in Ethiopian political landscape. EPRP moved swiftly and of course with a great deal of organizing skill and became a nightmare for DERG in no time.  EPRP proposed Provisional Government comprising different factions of different views including DERG and civil and professional  organizations like ETA and others to take place in Addis. On the other hand, DERG ignored the call and had set up PMAC single handedly. Meaning it ignored the call of EPRP and the youth at large and instead it had formed its own PMAC (Provisional Military Administrative Council) and continued to control the nation as a whole following a coup d’état it carried out against Hilesslase. And then the so-called PMAC (the Provisional Military Administrative Council) had formed SEDED and WOSELEAGUE as political wings under its own command. Since the Dr. in question was an intellectual himselfe would have been part of the Intellectuals and professionals groups called SEDED and WOSE LEAGUE that became DERG’s political wings overnight. Eventually, though both SEDED and WOSE LEAGUE happened to be at the core of DERG”S political helm and continued to train new recruits and expanded the operations of their own political units across the nation of Ethiopia. And in next to no time, MESON, ECHAT, and MALERED followed the series to join the club and had begun to slay the generation thereafter.

Realistically, though EPRP and the Youth were highly motivated by the lofty notion of Democracy, Land to the Tiller, unity based on equality and social-justice for all as opposed to that of hirelings’ falsified publications against EPRP. On the contrary however, Hirelings were motivated not by freedom but by money and power trip which are menial and unpleasant cause so to speak for one to die for.  As a result, the sphere of EPRP’S influence became invasive and persistent in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the Broad mass.  At the end of the day, however, hirelings realized that the pervasive nature of the moment led by EPRP was beyond them to control.  Wasn’t  that the reason why they became green-eyed and resentful and continue to be bitter about the same party called EPRP to this date? Be that as it may, the party that made all cynics felt devoid of love and grace had won the general level of confidence and optimism and mobilized the public at large and became far more formidable than the Military Regime and its hirelings. That was when the Dr. in question and his master felt that EPRP was embraced by the public at large and had gained far more superior willpower than their article of faith and direction as well. That was also when DERG had grown to be wary and nervous about the development it was forced to accept. Indeed, the sustained political advance of EPRP and the youth was not that easy for the military junta to ignore. So given that EPRP was highly embraced by the public at large, was there any reason why it had to unleash any terrorist act against the public? After all terrorism is defined as “Typically, they stage unexpected attacks on civilian targets, including embassies and airliners, with the aim of sowing fear and confusion”

The paranoid tendency rooted from DERGE’S character; a character it basically inherited from his combatant profession and post became evident when it employed an excessive force against the youth and has done all it can to destroy our generation. Literally though DERG began to take an arbitrary action against whoever it thought was against him without provocation. Afterward, the Military Junta in cooperation with those sub-groupings clustered beneath him under the umbrella of EMALEDH were also suspicious of any movement around them. They were totally shattered with fear of becoming secluded from the community and family of their own. Obviously though they knew that EPRP’s popularity was beyond them to avert. Worst of all, they even became more insane when learned that EPRP’S infiltrators inflicted every center of operation they were in to conduct their reign of terror against the public in general and the EPRP in particular. You see, Dr. Hailu, in this case it was the people in general and EPRP in particular that put a match to the burning oil and ignited the Revolution across the land of Ethiopia.  Consequently, turbulence among the youth, the intellectuals, workers and the peasants across the country reached a new pitch. It was due to this momentum though DERG launched a bloody campaign called Red Terror against the entire generation including the workers, the peasants, the educators, teachers and students across the country.

After all, power was what the junta was falling in love with and the cadres were there serving the powerhouse of DERG. The child killers were hired to follow DERG”S Loyal Order to kill the children and as well they were a core group assigned to control the community for the same Military Junta the Dr. in question had been part of. A Military Junta that merely knew how to hunt and kill its opponents, and the CADRES’ main line of duty was also nothing but stifling the voice of the public by guarding against the activities of the youth and of the EPRP. But to their disappointment, every which way the killers happened to spin around not only the humans, the birds and every moving creature in the land of Ethiopia were there to protest against their cruelty. As a result, the junta together with its several sub-groupings had grown to hate their ugly mirror-image when compared it with that of EPRP’S grace. The good reputation, the high opinion and the good name of EPRP won him recognition all over while the discarded and deprived cadres that the junta happened to fall in line with were became completely rootless. They were too weak to keep on harassing and irritating the hostile youth in every frightening neighborhood in which they were once treated as cynic and agnostic.  Isn’t that the reason why they became extinct along with the system they built in? Answer me if you can Dr. Hilu and Mr. Reporter Addisu.

Shortly after DERG brought the cynics together with the pretext of unity under the umbrella of EMALEDIH, which EPRP then dismissed it as of no use, was turned out to be a scene of carnage. Meaning DERG himself killed, imprisoned, tortured and abused them the same exact way it did to supporters and members of the EPRP. DERG has done so all these cruelties not in self-defense or with any other extenuating circumstances recognized by law but to monopoly power. Isn’t that what happened to those foot soldiers at the end? They were hired to kill the generation by the Dr. in question and his master and have been killed at the end none other than by the regime Dr. Hailu was  part of. That is the fact! And shortly after he wiped out those who resisted its power he converted others to be ESEPA and have them served to the last minute of his time in power. Well, for your surprise Dr. Hailu, the same cadres you hired to kill the generation had been heard of saying that EPRP & affiliates are praiseworthy for they died with their own belief and vision intact. They emulated EPRP with their own words at the end of their time. Too late! Dr. Hailu, the party you continue to hate remains strong and alive to this very day. But the rest are already no more to be seen in Ethiopian political landscape no more.

And yet, whoever was identified as member of anyone of those sub-groupings, and mouthpiece of the DERG as MESON, ECHAT, WOS_LEAG, SEDED Kebele Officers had been totally rejected by the mass and were totally graceless before the eyes of the entire community. And even they were subject to punishment and correction by non-other than their own family including and up to eviction. It was really more of a family matter and a neighborhood sort of link that made the movement led by EPRP unique at that point in time.

In conclusion, the Dr. in question together with his master used the entire apparatus and resources of the nation as a whole to kill the generation indiscriminately including their own loyal recruits and outstanding generals. Although some like to refuse to go along with this true picture of our recent history, we still have to tell it as it is so to pass the true version of our history to the younger generation and the generation yet to come. It was not even one or two organizations alone that had been wronged, mistreated and prosecuted by DERG and hirelings. It was rather the entire generation including hirelings themselves suffered torture and persecution at the end.  Young, old, male, female you name it were suffer Red Terror. And it is those cadres including those who are working both with the TPLF/EPRDF and the current oppositions that committed this horrendous human carnage against EPRP and the public at large. And yet, here they are running for power to carry out another round of terror campaign to finish the wounded victims. So at the end what made Dr. Hailu and hirelings more responsible is that they still are in the mood to kill the generation completely.

Justice shall prevail in the land of Ethiopia!

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16. April 2010 by Assimba.

by Kassahun

Someone close to my taste said, “what is very tragic is to sleep through a Revolution”, doing a Rip Van Winkle on the momentous event shaking the given country. Let me state from the outset that I have not (yet) read the book by Maaza Mengiste (Beneath the Lion’s Gaze) and I do not know the person or the politics of the reviewer of her book, Ato Abebe Gelaw. However, his labelling of the February 1974 Revolution (Yekatit 66) as tragic and brutal spurred me to write the following lines. More motivation has also come from others who have been revising History and projecting that popular revolution in negative terms and also by the denial of the Red Terror made by the lamentable Dr, Hailu Araya (a Derg loyalist now wearing another mask) and criminals trying to hide their past despicable deeds. Read More…

No lie can live forever said another wise man. The same man who penned the poem of the truth on the scaffold and the lie on the throne. Was the February Revolution tragic? Like the Russian revolution of 1917 can it be bombarded with the question: were you premature? Was it brutal? Did it usher in a period of violence and brutality that was, as implied in Ato Abebe’s comment, unknown in our past? Revolutions do not occur out of the blue though they may appear spontaneous. For all Revolutions, the Time comes, none are really premature. The Yekatit 66 Revolution exploded because it was time for it to do so, the feudal system had become moribund, the people were fed up with their condition and more importantly determined to sacrifice all to bring change. And the ruling class was unable to govern as before, its crisis had come to a head, its mechanisms of control totally derailed. The Revolution had to be and thus it came about surprising even those who had been expecting it, it was not, however, premature.

It was not tragic either. It was a people’s revolution that erupted to put an end to a feudal system, to the autocracy of Emperor Haile Sellasie. And it did just that. It was thus a successful revolution that brought victory to the people. The Revolution was hijacked by military officers–that was what became tragic. That was what brought in the brutality as the officers could not peacefully defeat the popular unrest and struggle against the military rule. When it comes to violence, it must be said without any qualms at all that violence has been endemic, part of the Ethiopian systems for decades if not centuries. The campaigns of the Emperor’s (we can mention Tewodros, Yohannes and Menelik) were very brutal, and violence and cruel treatment of the civilian population has been sown into the politics, the means of governance. In this way, the States were all absolute, all were violent. For the people, the State has always been alien, cruel, capricious, something on top of them, heavy. It is in the respect that Ato Abebe’s reference to Hobbes becomes relevant: Here is what he wrote as he reviewed Maaza’s book:

“The tragic 1974 revolution was not just a bumpy transition from a feudo-capitalist monarchy to a more progressive system as we were told time and again. It was also the beginning of untold brutality that has still continued to haunt us. It is a story of man against man, comrade against comrade, citizen against citizen…. It was simply akin to what the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes called a state of nature, where “men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.” In the state of nature life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”.

The February Revolution did not usher in “untold brutality” but the counter revolution just continued what was imbedded in the political system of Ethiopia–rule by violence and terror. The violence did not just begin, it was there, it was revived by a brutal military regime. And what followed was not a state of nature by any stretch of imagination. Hobbes mechanistic view of life or what some called his “philosophy of fear” does not apply here. The Red Terror was not a free for all, citizen against citizen, comrade against comrade. Hobbes state of nature was inapplicable by all accounts¹. The State was neither Leviathan nor the violence haphazard and aimless. After the Revolution was hijacked by the former bosses of Dr, Hailu, that is the Derg, there was popular protest mainly organized by the EPRP. The demand for a provisional popular government was tabled, the Revolution and the people needed no military guardian it was said. This popular protest was confronted in a short while by the violence of the State as the Ethiopian State, almost instinctively, resorts to violence when challenged. I leave out here the futile argument by the criminals of the Red Terror who want to allege that the EPRP launched what they so wrongly call the “white terror” and “forced the Derg to resort to the Red Terror”. The truth cannot be hanged always and the fact remains that the repression and the violence was launched by the military regime and its intellectual allies grouped within the POMOA. The scenario of a peaceful and gentle military clique being catapulted into the realm of violence and terror by provocation on the part of the people is ridiculous and would have been funny had it not involved the deaths of hundreds of thousands. That aside, the violence was not a free for all and haphazard—the State unleashed its terror on the people, on the EPRP and its supporters. The Terror had clear cut aims: to destroy the EPRP and to cow the people unto fearful obedience. On the part of the EPRP, its actions were directed at those perceived as enemies of the people. That the Red Terror was so vast does not belie the fact that it had its aims, knew its targets and objectives. Thus, the Hobbesian State of nature, of a war pitting every man against every other man was not the reality of the Red Terror or the violent period that followed the February Revolution.

Not having read Maaza’s book, I sincerely hope that her rendition of the events of that period (even if fictionalized) does not echo this aspect of the reviewer’s interpretation or the crowning of lies in the form of a memoir attempted by another writer called Nega Mezlekia in “his” first book. The February Revolution is a historic event in the annals of our people as it was practically the first instance of a popular revolt overthrowing a brutal regime. It was historic also because of the fact that the Revolution had noble aims, not the coming to power of another ambitious despot but the transformation of the society in a democratic way, the empowerment of the people for the first time in the history of Ethiopia. Hence, it was neither tragic nor brutal and one should take care not to confuse a revolution with its sequel of a counter revolution that negates the revolution itself to take its place. As one revolutionary put it “Revolution, in history, is like the doctor assisting at the birth of a new life, who will not use forceps unless necessary, but who will use them unhesitatingly every time labor requires them. It is a labor bringing the hope of a better life to the enslaved and exploited masses”. That was the February Revolution. The brutality came after, with the counterrevolution of the Derg.

Admirers and those nostalgic of the dead and gone imperial regime have never pardoned the progressives whom they hold responsible for the end of their beloved regime and monarchy. A vigorous attempt to revise History has been put in place with endearing and eulogizing (Ababa Janhoy) pseudo biographies of Haile Sellasie being printed. That system, that autocracy was rotten to the core and a curse on the majority of the people of Ethiopia. The revision cannot prevail– the time is short and those with the memories and the wounds are still alive and around. The February Revolution was thus a tragedy to the ruling class of that period and a historic and beautiful event for the people who succeeded to get rid of a backward system. What followed is another matter altogether as the fall of the Mengistu regime would not be considered a bad thing just because those that replaced him are not any better. Revisionists may, to quote Brecht, wish “to dissolve the people and elect another” but the people cannot be wished or washed away and their memory, stifled as it may be at any given time, stays vivid and alive. For those of us who fought for a Revolution, Yekatiit 66 was a festival that, we hope, gets repeated against the present regime too.

The age of big ideas and robust ideologies may be over but that period of the Revolution cannot be analysed or investigated devoid of its ideological reality. Those who want to rewrite History and allege that “the intellectuals massacred one another” are not only factually wrong but also intellectually uninformed. The truth is that the military dictatorship slaughtered the people; it was not a mere spectator or a secondary player in the tragedy of the Terror. It was the perpetrator of the carnage it called the Red Performance (key tiryit²). Hailu Araya is feebly trying to cover up this fact when he blatantly denied there was any red Terror in the first place. History will not absolve but condemn him thoroughly along with his former masters and as those who deny the Holocaust are guilty of a crime so is the shameless Hailu who has denied the brutal killing of more than 250,000 Ethiopians by the regime he served so loyally to the end. Yesterday’s Marxists (Hailu and company) are today’s liberals, eulogizing the market, admiring pluralism, swallowing their every spit against the system they had been castigating as anti people. This conversion has not, however, led them to reassess their role and nefarious practices in the fallen system/regime, none of them have recanted or asked forgiveness from the people they had hurt so much. They have just glided smoothly, with no conscience harassing them, from being the loyalists of a Terrorist regime (that of Mengistu) to loyal followers of another equally murderous one but this time conveniently and gratuitously labelling themselves “the opposition”. That being the case they justify their previous crimes by denying it altogether or by alleging that their regime “was provoked” to excesses and also by doing a somersault back to the February Revolution which they firmly castigate as “brutal, a mistake, a curse brought upon us by young devils imbued with a foreign ideology”.

Forget utopian vision for today the very imagination of a better world has been dimmed and the prevailing tendency is to regress into condemning the past during which courageous people not only dreamed of a better world but fought and died to make it real. Valiant citizens who still echo Che’s cry : Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, may have reached some receptive ear, that another hand may be extended to wield our weapons, and that other men be ready to intone our funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine guns and new battle cries of war and victory. 

Long Live the February Revolution!

1 “Hobbes’s view was challenged in the eighteenth century byJean Jacques Rousseau, who claimed that Hobbes was taking socialized persons and simply imagining them living outside of the society in which they were raised. He affirmed instead that people were neither good nor bad. Men knew neither vice nor virtue since they had almost no dealings with each other. Their bad habits are the products of civilization. Nevertheless the conditions of nature forced people to enter a state of society by establishing a civil society”. Other philosophers including Marx have also criticized Hobbes even though “his theory of society and the state contains embryos of a materialistic appreciation od social phenomena“.

2 Another young writer Dinaw Mengistu ( he left Ethiopia when he was 2 years old while Maaza left at four) has, for example, failed to really grasp the dynamics of that period and what really transpired by writing that Mengistu Haile Mariam’s thugs killed people and nailed to their forehead a placard with the writing: “I am a Communist”.

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14. April 2010 by Assimba.

Obo Arada Shawl

April 13, 2010

Why the Horn? The Horn looks like a peninsula and it juts into the Arabian Sea and it lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. Physically it stretches to 2 million sq. km and demographically houses app one hundred million people.

According to the classification by the State Department of USA, the Horn of Africa comprises, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti and currently it includes Eritrea but not the Sudan.

The Horn of Africa is defined by geography and by geopolitics that was why President Bush has established OEF-HOA (Operation Enduring Freedom for the Horn of Africa).

The recent past two conferences on the Horn of Africa - one was held in Arlington Virginia and the other - in San Jose, California were meant to deal with the pure and localized politics of Eathiopia. Whereas, ምሁር አካል the M’hur Akal of Eathiopians define the Horn in terms of Africa’s wholeness, the ጽንሐተ ምሁር Tsin’hattee Muhur Akal class of Eathiopia refers to the politics of Ecountries - the base of our Ethiopian Revolution.

Why is the M’hur Akal class is interested in the so-called Horn countries? I believe because they see the map of Africa protruding into the sea of Somaliland. Ironically, by doing so they seem to symbolize all of us in a country with a non-working government. Their inner feelings reflect in physical geography as opposed to political geography, which is fundamental to our understanding for the success of the two conferences.

The choice of Eathiopia’s Tsin’hattee Muhur Akal ጽንሐተ ምሁር አካል depends on the political geography of SEEDS (Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia). An honest and correct step for people’s integration could follow. For no one in his right mind plant seeds without soil preparation, and this preparation we call it a la DEMOCRACIA.

The conference on the Horn of Africa that was held in San Jose was beneficial in the sense that different alternatives have been presented. They were as follows:

• Federation by Prof. Daniel Kinde – meaning -‘we are all equal’

• Confederation by Professor Tesfazion Medhanie – meaning – ‘separate but equal’

• “Undemocratic atmosphere” prevails in Eritrea emphasizes Prof. Mesfin Araya

• “Under these dictatorial regimes, neither confederation nor federation can be viable alternatives “ says Aregawi Berhe (PhD.)

• “Non-violence struggle” as an alternative by Obo Jawar Mohammed

• ‘Healing and embracing one another’ preaches Ato Obang Metho

• ‘Healing and reconciliation’ as a process says Ato Abebe Gellaw

It is true that the above alternatives are beneficial and viable but the question is how.

First things first, let us have a proper name for our country, then let us delimit boundaries and then address one another by Ato or Weizero. Ethiopia and Eritrea do not represent the Horn, rather they represent themselves, are not creation of men. In order to do these we all need to understand the rudimentary concept of democracy if not DEMOCRACIA.

Democracy in two countries but one system

In our case, the first ADWA has happened 104 years ago. The educated muhur Akal has yet to settle the issue of ADWA First in order to move on. Most of them are stuck with it.

For one, ADWA I became a cause for Eritrean nationalist separation and Somalia’s claim on Ogaden, Oromia’s claim based on Minilik’s victory, and above all – the Shewans glory of Minilik in the name of Ethiopia camouflaged also in Minilik first name.

To settle these issues of claim and counter claim, the second AADWA II came into play not to add fuel to the nationalist contest but to move on the path of development of governance, stability and prosperity via DEMOCRACIA.

AADWA II, was genuinely embarked by the University students of Eathiopia not only to heal the rifts between the victims and victors but also to initiate, develop and transfer the positive aspects of ADWA I.

Unfortunately, despite the huge sacrifice of human, destruction of animals and plants (HAP). The Eway Revolution has been damaged and arrested thanks to the vicious leaders who came from the same place of controversy.

What is to be done?

The first step is to take sides. There are three alternatives if and when good governance, development, peace and security are to prevail.

• Those who want to move on with the concept AADWA II, stay and continue the struggle for justice and the rest of freedoms

• Those who want to stick with ADWA I go and enjoy conferences – it is not a new phenomenon we did it before

• Those who want to follow the current leaders whose leaders were born in the same village but not associated with both ADWA AADWA II and I – please go and vote to be voted out. No excuses. We had enough of it.

In other words, ADWA ONE depicted the past; AADWA TWO reflects the future while the TPLF leadership represents the present moment - make a CHOICE.

TRUTH WILL PREVAIL

For comments and questions

woldetewolde@yahoo.com

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14. April 2010 by Assimba.

Discussion Paper for Seminar presented to the Conference on Good Governance,

Peace, Security, Sustainable Development in Ethiopia & the Horn of Africa, from April 9-11

Introduction

In times of a highly globalised world the essence of a Nation-State does not seem to be an issue for many developing countries. Since many developing countries, especially sub-Saharan African countries are depending on foreign aid, the question of nation-state and its relevance in maintaining social cohesion within given boundaries is not a question to be studied and discussed. It seems that many intellectuals and the political elite in many sub-Saharan African countries are not aware of the relevance of such a crucial question. The economic policies of the last six decades which many African countries had practiced and globalisation have practically eroded the issue of nation-sate from the minds of many leaders.

In this highly complicated and globalised world the issue of national identity and nation-state become more urgent than ever before. Since many African leaders including the Ethiopian government(EPRDF government) are not governing their own affairs any more, even the uneducated people ask themselves, whether they are living in a sovereign country or not. Many people in Ethiopia ask themselves what could be left for the future generation if political vandalism becomes the order of the system. Leaving aside the problem of other African countries, what is going on in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia needs deep studies and scientifically validated answers if all these three nations will have in the future a functioning government, a dynamic economic system and a social order which can accommodate all groups in all these countries. Since the problem in Somalia directly and indirectly affects Ethiopia, we Ethiopians cannot ignore if things are out of control in Somalia. That does not mean that any Ethiopian government must interfere in the internal affairs of Somalia. What I want to say is the chaotic situation in any neighbouring country will have damaging effects for the stability of the entire region. As long as there is no durable peace the people of the region will be compelled to live in poverty and hunger.

The issue of terrorism and economic globalisation and now land grabbing on a higher scale are putting many countries in a defensive position. Especially the war in Somalia which is going on in the name of fighting terrorism and the displacement of innocent people, and the bleak situation in Ethiopia and Eritrea are worrying some which attract many nations to convert the region to a permanent war field. Therefore it is our task to study the causes of war, hunger and underdevelopment so that we can give proper and durable solution. Political vandalism as we see in Ethiopia and Eritrea is culturally rooted in our society, and it is the result of unsolved and accumulated problems. In societies where integrated and well functioning economic structures and a social order do not exist, such kind of situation is suitable for political vandalism. In regions or countries where political disorder is the rule of the system, where political and social consciousness is not developed, foreign forces use the weak situation of such countries and try to manipulate the leaders to be dragged into war. The result will be dislocation of innocent people and wasting of human and natural resources. In this case what is going on in Somalia and the intervention of Ethiopia in the internal affairs of Somalia and the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia destabilise all the people who are living in that region. If we closely study the situation, the war in this region is a proxy war. The people of these countries are simply the victims of their ignorant leaders, who do not understand social history, and who are not capable of creating a system where all the people could freely exercise their creative power.

In order to understand the complex situation that the region faces, we have to connect the problem of consciousness with the issue of economic development and this with the question of nation-state formation. I maintain that only social, cultural and political consciousnesses are the true foundation of genuine economic development and nation building. In the absence of national consciousness and deep understanding of historical and social processes, no country can build a viable nation-state.

The Issue of National Consciousness

Let me ask some questions. Is there anything that can happen without the involvement of the mind? Isn’t it the mind which guides and controls us to do things in a way we like and plan or is it something else? What kinds of things shape our minds to behave irrationally or rationally? How do we perceive the role of culture in shaping our minds? I think these are some of the questions which we have to pose if we want to understand the role of consciousness in our relationship to a particular nation.

In the academic circle, especially among Ethiopians there is a common belief that the absence of a democratic system is responsible for the plight of our people. Some of us may think that our leaders are by nature brutal and are not shaped by the cultural circumstances which prevail in our country. We have been accusing the Military regime to be brutal without taking into account the social and cultural context in which the military leaders are brought up. We forget that before the military leaders in Ethiopia became `socialists` they were trained by a military ideology which was produced outside the socialist block countries. The present regime of Meles Zenawi is being accused for his dictatorial, dived and rule system without trying to understand the circumstances in which Meles and his compatriots are brought up or were socialized. Such kinds of simplistic approach will not solve the problem in which our country finds itself in. We cannot get answer for such complex problems and irrational behaviour from the perspective of political science as if the issue is a pure political problem. In other words, even if we have a certain kind of `democratic rule` as we wish, the problem of underdevelopment and poverty will not easily be solved. Nor can one cope with the issue of war and hunger. If we want to get a definite answer we have to go beyond conventional politics and supposed democratic rules.

It is not without reason that since three thousand years philosophers and psychologists have tried to investigate the role of the mind in understanding the way human beings feel, think and handle. They have well understood that without taking into consideration the role of the mind and the cultural situation of a given country, one could not grasp the nature of political leaders. From pre-Socratic philosophers to Socrates and Plato, and until the 17^th century, the main occupation of philosophers was to investigate the different parts of the mind. Since human beings are different from animals, because they can think rationally and are able to change their environment, some are not in a position to use this God-given mental power to pose questions and behave rationally. They will be driven by emotion and their own will and destroy their own nation. Freud teaches us that there are three parts in our minds which are responsible for our behaviour. The first one is the oldest and most primitive part of the mind. In this part human beings have all sorts of wishes and primitive thinking. This part is devoid of any rational order and is guided by simple egoistic motive. The second part is the part which shapes and characterises the personality of an individual. It can be shaped by circumstances in which certain persons are brought up and are socialized. The role of teachers and parents play crucial roles in shaping this part of the mind. Through time and any kind of positive changes this part will be more and more socialised and becomes conscious. Its thinking and handling will be controlled by the given social circumstances which are prevailing in a given country. There is a permanent struggle between the egoistic or irrational part and the socialized part. In this case the third part takes the role of mediation and tries to balance both of the parts. In other words the egoistic part will be compelled to adapt to the given situation and handles in a way what the given social circumstance expects. According to Freud, the third part is responsible for cognitive thinking of the human mind, planning and decision-making. The problem here is that in certain circumstances the appetitive part will dominate, and irrational behaviour becomes the rule of certain groups. We have seen in history that though certain rulers are brought up in civilized circumstances their thinking and handling become irrational. Hitler is a vivid example of why even education cannot change the already fixed attitude of hate and aggressiveness. Thousands of scientists, philosophers’ musicians and men of theatre blindly followed Hitler and believed in his Nazi propaganda of eliminating the Jews and other minority groups.

Human beings are like monads. They are active and perfect. They are self-contained, independent and act by themselves. They have internal power. Whereas the monads do not have windows, human beings can be influenced by external circumstance. If they are not in a position to question and analyse they will be victims of false ideology. In most cases human beings do not use their internal power to develop as an independent agent and act actively. Due to false education and ideology, the inner power that each possesses by nature will be eroded. In this case individuals will become the victim of false ideology, and their minds will be intrigued by hate and anger. They are not conscious any more of what they are doing. Even if they are educated they lack profound thinking. They will become suspicious and are not ready to accept criticism. Their minds will be closed for new ideas. Because they already have a fixed idea, they distance themselves from the masses. The lack of self-confidence makes them traitors and they are ready to sell their mother land. Such people do not understand the role of an individual in shaping its society and the relationship between an individual and the society in general. Concepts, such as society, individual freedom, genuine economic development and nation-state are not integrated in their minds. They think that a society is a loosely organised structure, in which everybody comes and does whatever he/she likes. When any country is governed by such kinds of unconscious elements, and when it has thousands of so-called educated people, the country in question cannot be an arena in which the citizens exercise their true freedom. Unfortunately, Ethiopia is governed since immemorial by such kinds of elements, and there are thousands of Ethiopians who become the victim of such kinds of manipulated education system.

Now we can come to the role of culture in shaping the human mind. It is well investigated and studied that in early childhood stage proper education has a positive impact on the thinking capacity of a child and its handling. Likewise the entire circumstance, environment, school system, the role of parents and teachers, neighbourhood and other factors have roles in shaping the mind of a growing child. The humanness of a person, his love for others and his country and his entire environment depends on the education system in which one is brought up from the beginning of childhood. Especially the love of the parents is imminent in shaping the behaviour of a given child. One cannot regain the lost opportunity once a person is matured enough. By chance or with special therapy it may be possible to positively shape the character of an individual.

To be concrete, when it comes to our country, why does Ethiopia have to experience such bloody years? Why its people have been suffering all the last four decades by those forces who are born, grown and went to school in Ethiopia? Though going to school means to get proper education in order to behave properly and humanly, why did those children become murderous? What motivates some to become agents of foreign forces which are struggling to dismantle Ethiopia? Why did they raise arms in the name of freedom though there are other means to bring smooth changes into our society? Can we blame as we usually do that a particular ideology did play a role in masterminding the so-called revolutionaries to behave irrationally? In our country and even in many earlier socialist countries communism as an ideology is being blamed for what happened in all these countries. The relative prosperity in many western capitalist countries including the United States over the last 5 decades has blinded our minds. We all have forgotten the atrocities committed by these so-called civilized countries against Africa and other Third World Countries. The First and the Second World War, though it is not a world war in the true sense of the word, had happened in the civilized Europe. It is become common to accuse a certain ideology in order to cover ones` own agenda.

Though ideology has a certain role in shaping the human mind, those persons who became acquaintance with the socialist ideology at the age of twenty or more had a different historical background which is fixed in their minds. In this case I do not blame Marxism for the political vandalism and murderous act that the student movement had inflicted and the Military government including the present have done against our beloved country. I maintain that the cultural context in which we are brought up, that is the rigid feudal attitude is responsible for our inflexible and inhuman attitude. With this the education system, with which we are brought up makes us anti-nationalistic and subversive. Regardless of what the leaders of the student movement wrote on their banners, in essence they have created a situation for anti-Ethiopian sentiments. What matters is not the intention in this case. The bloody war which was committed in the name of the revolution bothers many people. The deaths of their children and relatives have wiped all the joys form their minds and they are condemned to live in permanent sadness. On the other side all ethnic based so-called freedom fighters had one thing in their minds. If we take all the organisations which rose arms in the name of freedom their intention was and is to dismantle Ethiopia. Undoubtedly they became victims of foreign forces, and were mislead to destroy their own people. They are at the same time the victims of their unconscious act. They could not pose questions, or try to behave like normal people to check their thinking and handling. As Freud said they are driven by their irrational motives to take power and install their own dreams. All what is identified as Amhara culture is associated with Ethiopia. Ethiopia as an “Empire state” must be vanished from the map of the world. Though culture and the formation of nation-sates are like biological processes, these so-called freedom fighters could not understand why the supposed Amhara culture had its beginning in the north and could spread southwards. All nations and cultures had taken more or less the same path. When we study and understand the formation of states, we can understand the necessity of building a nation-state.

What makes our country unique is the incomplete nation-state building and the unconscious role of our rulers and the special circumstances that our country has been experiencing over the last thousand years. All these factors including the so-called modern education system are responsible for misguided thinking and handling. In this case our consciousness and our love for our country cannot be seen isolated from the entire socialization process within which we are brought up. The question arises: How can we turn these bad circumstances in which we are finding ourselves, and can behave normally and play a positive role to build a democratic and strong Ethiopia. When certain groups still believe that Ethiopia in general has been ruled over the last thousand or so years by Amharas and Tigrians, how could we convince them that this was not the case and that the situation must be studied thoroughly through a different prism. The issue of ethnic nationalism is not the problem of the masses. It is an elite problem, which cannot understand its own role, and is being languished by an inferiority complex. The Ethiopian masses in general do not have any problem in identifying themselves with their culture and country. The masses are ready to learn new things and change themselves, whereas the elites of different nationalities are not ready to do so.

The Issue of Nation-State

The concept of nation-state is a historical concept and it must be seen as a biological process. In Europe, where the nation-state formation has taken more or less a unique path it is not problematic for the people of Europe to identify themselves with their own nation. In countries like Ethiopia, where some think that the formation of the Ethiopian nation is abnormal and not a historical necessity, it is very difficult to make them understand that all countries have passed difficult roads to come to the situation that we witness today.

By historical chance, some groups or nationalities develop some kinds of division of labour. They develop a language and by that a culture. The development of a certain culture, division of labour, and written languages are sometimes accidental, because some groups may have contacts at earlier time with the outside world. These kinds of cultural developments cannot and will not remain fixed in one area. Through trade relationships and through various kinds of movements, because human beings are mobile, there come contacts with other communities. The expansion and intermingling of culture and language will become a historical necessity. Since all groups could not develop equally, because of social and cultural uniqueness of the various groups, the developed culture will be taken by other groups. In this way all cultures across the glob could develop and march towards the formation of any kind of state system. The development of state, social structure and nation-state are a historical necessity. Since human beings are condemned by nature to live within a community and are compelled to form any kind of social organization, individual self-realization can only be achieved within a given community. For various reasons, like lack of cultural and historical consciousness, the group that holds political power cannot bring the necessary development. In this case, and due to external manipulation and pressure, certain countries could not develop into an accomplished nation-state. The case of our country is a vivid example, why especially the elites of various nationalities do not feel that they are belonging to Ethiopia. They think like this because they misread history and they overstate the consciousness of the political elite that had shaped the history of Ethiopia over the last 800 years.

The Ethiopian feudal system was a unique social structure that did not allow the development of division of labour. Handicraft activities and trading were seen as activities which could only be carried out by inferior groups. The taste and the limited need of the ruling feudal elite could not pave the way for the development of various kinds of commodities. Manufacturing activities were not known. In areas where it was not possible to develop a division of labour based on manufacture activities, it was not possible to develop cities. The absence of a generalised division of labour blocked social mobility. As the people remained confined to their areas, the development of language and culture on a higher scale was practically impossible. Accordingly they could not become creative, and transform their lives. Added to these Ethiopia did not have trade and cultural relationships with the outside world. All these circumstances and the rigid nature of the political system could arrest the entire society. As a consequence poverty, hunger and mass dislocation became the stigma of the society. The ruling classes could not see beyond their own circumstances. Though there were attempts by certain rulers to modernize the system, some had resisted because they felt that their status will be diminished. The transformation and modernization of the Ethiopian society must be postponed.

One could observe that starting in the 14^th century there were attempts to expand the imperial systems to various regions without modernizing the economic foundation. From the 17^th century onwards the struggle became fiercer and nation-state formation became inevitable. With Atse Yohannis, Atse Tewodros and Emperor Menilik II, the crystallization of the system became clearer and Ethiopia was marching towards a kind of nation-state. Atse Tewodros and Emperor Menelik II had clearly understood that without changing the social system and without modernization it was not possible to build an imperial system. Menelik II had laid the real foundation to build Ethiopia as a nation-state. But due to various historical circumstances and because of the changing international politics, it was not possible for him to go further. There were no social forces which could develop his idea and accomplish his mission. Ethiopia did not have any middle class and intellectual force which could grasp the idea of Menelik II and put it into practice. There were no well established social structures in other areas on which one could expand the system of nation-state building. It is therefore unwise to accuse our leaders for what had happened during the middle and late middle ages. We have to understand the nature of social history through the prism of nation-state formation in Europe.

One could admit today that Emperor Haile Selassie did not understand his role as a ruler. Nor did the bureaucracy understand its role. First of all Emperor Haile Selassie had re-installed feudalism and the feudal structure after the defeat of the Italian fascism. Secondly, he let the British steal which the Italians had built over 60 years. The British imperialists had stolen all the infrastructure and industries that the Italians built within a couple of years. Because Emperor Haile Selassie was only interested in his power, he could not understand what steps he should take to build a coherent nation-state on the basis of science and technology. His alignment with America and other western powers did not help him to build a strong and developed Ethiopia. The monetisation of the economy could not pave the way for the development of capitalism. The economy becomes peripheral and subsistence in general. The social structure was contradictory and there was no social cohesion among the various groups and nationalities. There was no cultural development which makes the people creative and innovative. Such a contradictory system gave room for unconscious elements to put their evil dreams into practice. The student movement was born out of this contradictory situation not to challenge the nation-state concept but to build a modern and egalitarian Ethiopia with the help of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. I do no want to dwell on what went wrong with the student movement. Only professional historians and critical researches could answer this part. I want to affirm that the student movement in general is not anti-Ethiopian. Its an uncritical approach to social history and misreading of the Ethiopian history and its meagre understanding of human psychology compelled it to solve the problem by means of arms. This is the greatest crime that the student movement had inflicted upon our society. The past is past. We do not have time to lament on things what happened in the past. Our historical role is to study the Ethiopian social system through a different prism and struggle for a nation-state based on science and technology. Our mission is not to be caught with revenge and accuse against each other. Our main agenda must be to struggle for a nation-state where science and technology flourish and our people live in peace and prosperity. For that we must have a clear understanding of economic mechanisms which help us to shape Ethiopia as a modern and dynamic social structure.

The Issue of Economic Development

As we misread nation-state and the necessity of nation-state we also have problems in understanding the meaning of genuine economic development. This is because we all are trained within the neo-classical paradigm which reduces everything to scarce resources and satisfaction of human needs. As far as I know nobody has tried to attach the problem of economic development with nation-state formation. If we do we completely misunderstand the meaning of economic development, and detach it from nation-state formation and building a genuine social order. In our concepts economic development becomes equivalent to market economy. Not only we Ethiopians have problems in understanding the nature of genuine economic development. The elite of many Third World countries have problems in understanding the true meaning of a genuine economic development. In the time of globalisation, the problem is multiple, economic development is seen dissociated from true human civilization. Globalization is a great challenge for many developing countries, and millions of people are thrown to slave like labour to satisfy the global capitalist system. Third World countries, especially African countries are hindered to see beyond the conventional wisdom of market economy. They are not allowed to formulate an inward looking strategy which enables them to mobilize all the available resources in order to build a coherent and a chained economic structure.

Without having a developed economic structure based on science and technology the concept of nation-state is inconceivable. The true foundation of a nation-state and a well functioning social system is to develop a science and technology based economic system. Only through science and technology could any country become dynamic and will be integrated from within. Only with a developed economic and social infrastructure any nation can be respected. The development of culture on the basis of science is only possible when there is an effort of creating a science and technology driven economic development. True individual freedom can be achieved only through science and technology. People of a given nation will get mental power when they are able to understand the meaning of science and technology. The development of well structured cities and villages is the prerequisite of an integrated home market. In short, without science and technology there is no social transformation. Those countries which still rely on the production of agricultural products and mineral resources will never see the true meaning of civilization. They will remain the victim of their own leaders and foreign forces.

Until now the struggle on a world wide scale is to get supremacy on all fields. Only few countries have taken for granted that they have a monopoly on science and technology while the rest of humanity remains as supplier of raw materials. School books are deliberately written, and teachers are masterminded to spread such kinds of propaganda. The international division of labour and trade system become the foundation of this misconceived ideology, and this becomes equal to science. Science becomes synonymous with exploitation, and enslaving the labour of Third World countries. Unfortunately we are condemned to think in this category. Those who think differently and fight for a science and technology driven economy are seen as abnormal and their approaches is taken as an unscientific. I think we have to reverse this ideology of brainwashing and must unmask the true mission of neo-liberalism. In my capacity I have tried to clarify some of the misconceived ideas in my recent article, in “The Great Confusion”. For further and elaborative clarification, the works of Professor Erik Reinhardt and Prof. Gunnar Myrdal are very interesting and should be studied.

It is important to understand the market economic philosophy of the IMF and the World Bank if we want to bring a science and technology driven social transformation in our society. Experiences in many countries have taught us that the IMF and the World Bank policies do not bring the necessary transformation what we need. The Chinese have clearly demonstrated that without the intervention of the IMF and the World Bank experts they could build a strong economy within three decades. Since the Chinese have the will to develop they could mobilise all the resources that they have at their disposal. Especially a country like Ethiopia, which becomes the victim of international finance oligarchy headed by the IMF and the World Bank, needs genuine transformation based on a holistic approach. As I have tried to analyse in my work, only a conscious economic policy based on philosophy and sociology can help Ethiopia to bring some kind of economic dynamism. With this, as Gunnar Myrdal clearly demonstrates, institutional reform is needed if we want to achieve a dynamic economic structure.

The present Ethiopian government which has sold its soul for the international financial oligarchy has thrown our country into an economic system which is mere service oriented. According to the philosophy of the regime, only trading activities and export of unprocessed agricultural products must be the basis of economic development. Ethiopia must not build a strong home market on the basis of science and technology. The economic policy of the Meles regime is a policy of quick acquisition of money. It is not based on a long term strategy to bring real development through technological development in all areas. The “strategic” part of the economy is being controlled by the ruling class, and the system hinders the development of capitalism. It seems that the government works in the service of foreign forces so that no genuine economic development takes place. Fertile land is allocated for flower plantation and crops which could serve to extract diesel. Peasants are deliberately compelled to divert their attention to crop farming and flower plantation for the world market. On the other hand the government imports dehydrated cereal products from the European community and America. Instead of building an internal market, by creating linkages in all areas the government deliberately destroys the production capacity of the society. Over the last 20 years the country has produced an omnivorous class which absorbs the wealth of the society and lavishly spends the money in bars. This unique and uncultured class becomes a kind of bridge for the infiltration of bad culture from abroad. With its arrogant behaviour and spreading of bad habit it destroys the mentality of the youth. The system becomes out of control.

More or less the situation seems like this, and the Ethiopian people are frustrated by the vulgar nature of the system. They are longing for a system which transforms their lives and make them self-reliant. It is our duty to show the road to true civilization. In this case we have to challenge the neo-liberal economic paradigm which is presented as the only panacea of solving economic and social problems. Over the last 30 years many African countries have been practicing the so-called structural adjustment program of the IMF and the World Bank. None of them could build a dynamic and free economic structure. All countries that have applied this program could not transform the lives of their people. I think this must be a lesson to us. The history of nation building proves that poverty, hunger and underdevelopment cannot be eradicated by market economic instruments, but only through conscious state economic policy. We can eradicate poverty and hunger if we accept this fact and open our mind to new ideas. The experiences of Western Europe after the Second World War, the great efforts of Japan and South Korea are good examples which help us to draw lessons. All these countries could build strong economies not by applying a pure market economic policy but through the combined activities of state intervention and private initiative.

Thank you for your understanding

Fekadu Bekele, April 9, 2010

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14. April 2010 by Assimba.

  April 11, 2010

By Getachew Reda www.Ethiopiansemay.blogspot.com

Who is Bob Goldof? Wikipedia described Bob Goldof “an Irish singer, songwriter, author, and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats.” How does this singer from Ireland became worldwide popular as an activist? Well, here is how Wikipedia explained how the activist is known for. Geldof is widely recognized for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa.^[6] In 1984, he and Midge Ure founded the charity super group Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.^[1]

It is known for the world that our country Ethiopia, particularly, Tigray province, was hit by a vicious famine in 1977 Ethio-Cal. 1984/85 Euro-Cal). During that period, thousands and millions of Tigrayan population suffered, died, destabilized and immigrated. When Tigray was hit by a famine, TPLF (Tigrayan People Revolutionary Front “the current Ethiopian government”) was the only master guerilla and the de facto government in Tigray forests and villages. During that draught period Bob Goldof as a singer and activist, he organized a super concert to collect aid for the draught affected Tigray.

His so called charity known as “Band aid” raised so much millions of Dollars to help the famine stricken population of Tigray. The draught was so catastrophic, thousands and thousands of draught victims died while immigrated (evacuate) to Sudan by TPLF order. That time Bob Goldof claimed, all the money/charity given to TPLF chiefs to ease the draught was implemented correctly and spent only to aid the draught victims. Recently, ex-guerrilla commander of the TPLF and the founder of TPLF along with ex- chief finance of the organization exposed the hidden secret how TPLF leadership used the charity money to support its guerrilla activity expenses and to buy Armaments that the charity money donated to TPLF through Goldof and other agents of charity organizations.

Such Braking News was aired by BBC and other major worldwide media. TPLF denied it didn’t feed its guerrilla fighters by the charity money and didn’t spend to buy any armaments by the donated money. Most of all, Goldof was so furious at the editors of the BBC radio and at the accusers who claimed had full evidences to prove their words. Many of the Ethiopian government opposition groups including me was so shocked by Bob Goldof’s furiousness towards the accusers and the BBC and the behavior and the words he used to degrade and dismissed the claimants’ in front of world media. He acted as a spokes person of the TPLF (current government of Ethiopia –former guerrilla leaders of TPLF) than a neutral sector. Is he political activist? Is he tyrant’s propagandists? Is he spokes person for TPLF criminal gangs? Or he is a charity spokes person? Based on his linkage and the love and relation he still has for the murderous gangs in Mekelle and in Addis Ababa/Menlik Palace- one have to conclude that Bob Goldof is a pathetic, spokes person of the notorious TPLF’s activist.

Is really the singer an activist? What is activist mean? Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. This translation of activism is how Wikipedia translated it. If indeed Activism is intentional action to bring social, political, economic, or environment change; then the intentional action that one wants to involve to bring change to the world or to a community must be guided by principle of moral (In that sense, learning from history). The history of the past and the present is what guided the principle of activism. If the Activist’s goal is indeed to bring a new change to benefit in the field of economics, politics, social or environmental, then, the activist must understand the meaning of “change itself’ and the factors necessary to bring/build the desired change.

In this case, Bob Goldef as an activist described above has miserably failed to show Ethiopians that he is a pure social and political activist by showing support to one of the ten most notorious anti press and Human Right abusers in the world and in Africa. His defense, sympathy and love to the TPLF leadership will go to history along side with these most hated anti Ethiopian gangs. I am not here tried to deal with the Aid money where it went or what to happen to it. I am here trying to show how Goldof in his fifties is still “premature” to know what political/social activist must follow or honor. Goldof knowingly or unknowingly, creating a tight relationship with an organization who is responsible for murdering a nation involved a in a variety National Crimes and Human Rights abuse is really despicable to say the least.

Last few weeks back (March 2010), Goldof flew to Ethiopia/Tigray to visit the development in Tigray. He was warmly received at Mekele Ras Alula Airport by his comrades like Tsegay Berhe and the rest of the TPLF Princes and princesses. A gift of Flower was presented to him in the love and respect from TPLF’s Mesafintee Woyane (Princes and Royal family of Woyane Tigray). His visit in Korom, Tembien and HinTalo (in Tigray) was hailed by the Royal families of the TPLF circle in Tigraya as an Angel and global political activist for denouncing the defamation of these Royal Gangs in Tigray and in Menlik Palace. For loving these criminal gangs of TPLF Royals, he got a gift of TPLF’s status presented by the Royal family of TPLF Tsegay Berhe (Aka: Haleka Tsegay).

Goldof during his tour to different villages in Tigray, he testified that before couple of ten years back, Tigray was a land where misery and a shot of bullets and whistling of artillery’s was constantly heard. Currently, It is a pleasure and especial feeling to see such amazing peace and development flourishing in Tigray” said Goldof the Humanitarian and activist who doesn’t understand what activism and Humanitarian mean?

In Tigray, the peace, that the TPLF Royals and their beloved guest Sir Bob Goldof fully enjoying could be joyous and amazing tranquilizer:- but “The peaceful Tigray that amazed the rock Star with its peace” is not indeed what Goldof trying to manipulate himself in his hallucination. In reality its residents’ tears, screaming for help in search of justice from those who died and tortured by the unpopular TPLF’s group of savages calling themselves “Public Relation Officers” (Kifli Hizbi) in the 70’ and 80s, and still unknown numbers old and new prisoners languishing and hidden inside Fox hole” located in Tigray territory is hidden from the Irish Rock Star, exactly how the whole scenario of the Charity money exploited by the TPLF Royals is hidden from his knowledge and conscious. Does indeed Sir Bob know the character and nature of the group calling itself TPLF? Weighing the man’s constant trust on and relation with these criminal gangs posing themselves “Liberators”, one can conclude that this fellow is illiterate of knowing anything how Tigrayan guerrilla leaders operate with their treacherous tactics and their manipulative nature. Goldof as director of a charity organization, the gift he got from his TPLF comrades in Mekele for defending TPLF’s corrupt leadership will perhaps now make him more to be a fanatic supporter of these racist gangs who are responsible for choking the nation’s throat by land locking the nation. I say good luck for Goldof’s premature adventure of falling love with these moral-less and murderous guerilla gangs currently in power in Ethiopia posing as “Government of Ethiopia”. WWW.Ethiopiasemay.blogspot.com

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