29. June 2011 by Assimba.

HAMA TUMA

A controversial man himself, Kenyan Mutula Kilonzo, has blasted at corruption the hangman’s way.  The corrupt should be hanged, he has recently suggested.

This was the only way the vice could be fought successfully, Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo said.

“Let us have a law that will deal effectively with the question of bribery and kickbacks. In countries like China, they punish (offenders) with death. I am not afraid to propose this too, if at all we want to rid ourselves of the vice,” he said.

The way things usually happen in Kenya the proposal will be bribed away unto the archives and Bwana corruption will continue with vigor. That aside, what about the suggestion that obdurate fools should be punished with vigor and determination to rid our continent of fools that sell their sovereignty for thirty pieces of second hand silver? As we all know, foolishness or stupidity is not painful and half of the time the victim does not even know it. Hence, a reminder should be supplied. This whole thing was made pertinent recently when we were forced to listen to Hilary Clinton (the same woman who years ago went to Asmara, Eritrea and hailed the ruler there as a democrat) warning Africans to be wary of neocolonialism (no, not the American one but that of the Chinese) and preaching the need for democracy in the capital city of one of the most vicious tyrants bankrolled and fully supported by Hilary’s America. Clinton’s holier than thou hypocritical preaching was (you guessed it!) hailed by many Africans from various quarters including Ethiopia where American backing for a dictatorship has wrecked the country for more than twenty years now.

In the beginning there was the Word but overtime the cost of living has risen beyond tolerance while words have become cheap. Meles Zenawi vowed to assure Ethiopians three decent meals per day but deprived them of even one and ended up preaching dieting to a people that has been starving for centuries.  Clinton’s speech in Addis Abeba weaved cheap words and sanctimonious preaching often associated with a sinful and decadent priest. If dictatorship is evil and Africans should rise against their oppressors how come America allies itself with the enemies of the people and smashes the revolt of downtrodden people? How come America backs the killer Meles, the savage Nguema, the Bahrain Butchers, the Saudi retrogrades?  These are not new queries and wonder but age old ones and African has for long been on the receiving side of the hypocrisy. The savage and fury against Gaddafi (who was good friend with Berlusconi, Blair and Sarkozy) does not accord, as the French would say talking of grammar, with the kid glove treatment of Assad, Bahrain and even Yemen for that matter. Clinton talking about the dangers of neocolonialism in Africa is like a rapist condemning the pedophile. The new kid on the block is China and America is only wailing against the competition. Here also some Africans miss the point and like old times they take the Bible from the Clinton woman and bow to pray while she takes away the proverbial land, Africa’s wealth. Did anyone hear her or her big eared Boss crying against the Western sponsored mayhem, rape and murder in Eastern Congo?  The Mr. Ocampo of the International Criminal Court is a sad caricature of a man seeking justice, inclined to attack Africans and Third world targets, oblivious of the real war criminals  from the Balkans to Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Syria. If Kaddafi is a war criminal what about Saleh and Assad, the massacre man in Ethiopia, America and other pro American butchers all over the world?

Trees in a big forest held an assembly, says an Ethiopian fable, and wanted to identify their main enemy. The axe said many; others declared it is the man wielding the axe. A wise old tree counseled all of them in the following words: brothers and sisters, will the axe cut us if it had no handle? Will man wield the axe if it had no handle? That is why you must know that we are our own enemy; we are the handles of the axe, enabling the axe and man to chop us down. “Yerasachin temama” said the old tree in Amharic. Our own crooked piece of wood! Clinton is Clinton, she represents an America we know so well as victimized Africans. Our problem is with our own crooked brothers and sisters, the perennial victims of stupidity, the gullible and foolish ones who believe time and again the same old lie in new garbs. Time and again, the West supplies us with devils and the Satan we are supposed to condemn and hate and time and again we cry curse on the donkey along with them. We say thank you Hilary Clinton the same time she and her government embrace the dictators who are destroying our peoples and continent. Check any African predator and monster and you will find the West standing behind him. Beshir is no saint by any standard but the hue and cry against the Sudan smells partial and foul. Mugabe is not worse than Meles but who is reviled and who is praised?  France continues to play pathetically as an imperial power but it is responsible for the malaise in many so called Francophone African countries and just as it continued to rile against Kaddafi and bomb Tripoli it donated US $600 million dollar of aid to Meles Zenawi. If corruption be the issue (and if we say as the Kenyan minister “hang them all!”) then we have to denounce that America’s friend Meles Zenawi, who has whisked off no less than 8 billion dollars from the country, has substantial stolen money in American banks just as the stolen billions of Sani Abacha are also in British banks.

 Hilary Clinton said: “In several nations, the institutions of democracy are becoming stronger. There are freer medias, justice systems that administer justice equally, and impartially, honest legislatures, and vibrant civil societies. Earlier I mentioned the Arab Spring, a name that suggests the blossoming of something new. And what is now blooming across the Arab states has already taken root in many African nations, commitment to democracy, recognition of human rights, investment in economic health and education programs, and an emphasis on meeting the needs of our young people” .

Was she talking of Africa? Of the Africa we know? And to add insult to injury (or goiter over an ears ailment as we say in Ethiopia) saying all this in Addis Abeba where a brutal regime holds more than 35,000 political prisoners, has banned the free media, controls the judicial system and mocks at justice and the rule of law? Years ago, I went to a book signing event in Paris and heard the late Paul Henze praise the Meles regime to the skies as he presented the French translation of his book called Layers of Time. As questions were not allowed I went to him in the end and asked him if his presentation was about an East European country. This, of course, did not amuse the man who did so much damage to Ethiopia and her sovereignty and history. It was a tumultuous evening he passed in a heated argument with me and most of the Ethiopians present. Reading Clinton’s speech, this was what or who I was reminded of. Reread what she said and wonder of wonders try to find an African country that fulfills her irresponsible and demagogic utterance. Her very host Meles is anathema to what she said or proposed. Those Africans who said thank you Hilary are dangerous fools (is there another kind actually?), candidates for vicious neocolonial plunder from various quarters. The woods that help the axe chop of the trees, as it were.

As Hilary Clinton danced with the Eritrean strongman Isaias and his wife and hailed him as a democrat (her husband added Meles, Kagame and Museveini to the list), a few kilometers away in Sembel prison dozens of political prisoners were suffering. In Addis Abeba, the AU headquarter is not far from the old notorious Kerchiele prison. Meles Zenawi’s secret or ghost prisons are not also far from where Hilary spoke and uttered empty praises. The infamous Kaliti prison is not also in another region. She was out there in her own surrealist world and she was not attempting some absurd humor, no. And that is what makes the whole proceeding a tragedy. The foolish Africans heaping praise on Hilary for her absurd speech push one to demand a punishment for stupidity. Have your say Mr. Mutula Kilonzo!

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29. June 2011 by Assimba.

June 27, 2011
By Yelfiwos Wondaya

One wonders why one makes such a public call without something on hand to
support his plan of action to implement, and even worse the movement absented
itself from the event  it claimed to lead up to the strike for the 28th of May
2011.  Whether or not the movement did it merely to impress its inflated ego or
it believed it can persuade freedom hungry Ethiopians and let the demonstration
go astray with no sense of direction, time will tell us.  In most cases,
however, causing general public outrage such as this very irresponsible public
call is seen as disgraceful and immoral in any given society so is the un-known
movement who called upon the people to rise up in protest against woyane in
Addis and else where in Ethiopia. The call was heard loud and clear but the
clique on the other hand was not anywhere nearby to be seen.  What an irony! 
Although the time has passed the pamphlets in which the messages and propagandas
of the public call, attributed to that of the movement itself are here for us to
review and examine their content.  To begin with, in order to take on leadership
roles one must be in a close range to fight the fight, to walk the walk and of
course, to carry on the mission to the end.  Or else one would conclude that the
said movement is nothing but a national disgrace. As that, the said movement
cannot become a moving force and a force of change for the fact that it is not
destined to find itself in public arenas where the real movements take place. 
One also must be an action oriented force daring to perform outside of his
comfort zone and beyond.  Or else it is fair to conclude that such movement with
such urgency must either have some sort of false impression of the situation in
Ethiopia or have other motives to interfere with the revolution yet to come.
Whatever the case maybe, time will tell us why and history will judge it in
accordance with what has been said and done.  In reality, though the bogus call
heard from afar did not hold any water when checked.  “We must not be led astray
by the small-time deceivers and false teachers we see today who are the
forerunners of the Antichrist and the false prophet”
First and foremost, one won’t win the hearts and minds of the people by
insulting their intelligence and yet undermining the injuring capability of our
enemy shows how naive and armature the movement is.  How Law and Disgraceful one
get than this!  No one in his right mind would promise something out of the blue
moon and get away with anything serious like these public calls. However,
whoever has done it must be held accountable for his own action. Bogus as it
sounds one would also label it nothing but false alarm.  Empty promise of such
nonconforming movement aside, however, the real revolutionary movement led by
the real revolutionaries in Ethiopia is bound to happen.  Eventually though the
civil disobediences that would pave the way for the real revolutionary movement
in Ethiopia are forthcoming.

Secondly, unlike the half hearted revolutionaries the real revolutionaries are
enthusiastic about the revolution and its real results ahead.  So to reach those
results they would rather tend to intensify the conflict amongst enemy camps,
and capitalize more on the wisdom of Ethiopian society.  It is true though that
the wisdom of Ethiopians is prevailing against the unfounded hatred, fear and
mistrust the TPLF has been trying to make us feel.  Thus, continuing to feel and
behave in a manner that benefit all in the family, and adjusting actions and
deeds in response to the desires and needs of their links is what Ethiopians’
wisdom in action like. Together Ethiopians do praise Ethiopian nationalism by
raising their flag higher and higher instead of being divided and weaken by
saboteurs’ act of denial and ploy. Ethiopians must continue to carry on the
unity slogans as unity, democracy, equality and social justice for all
Ethiopians regardless.  Mutually though they give an enthusiastic approval to
the motto of one flag, one nation and one people.  So in this case, Ethiopians’
wisdom says it all that Ethiopians embracing Ethiopian nationalism will come
victor at the end as had had happened in Adwa, Metema, Mekidela and several
other battlegrounds wherein Ethiopians of all walks of life engaged in an armed
conflict and defended their common territory against foreign aggressions in the
past. Likewise, as ever before, Ethiopian national anthem together with
Ethiopian flag will be praised by all Ethiopians regardless.  After all,
Ethiopians’ national anthem and flag are symbolically popular, associated with
their greater Ethiopian identity, characteristics and causes of all time. 
Moreover, Ethiopians’ national anthem will have taken place to celebrate a sense
of solidarity Ethiopians enjoyed for centuries as opposed to that of narrow
nationalists’ song sung to shed tears for a Killil territory.  Thus, on the part
of the people it is time to prove the saboteurs’ claim wrong and move on.
Ethiopians must say no more both for the TPLF/EPRDF and for the agents!!  The
saboteurs joining us in disguise to divert our focus into something else we
believe is not important are our antagonists.

Next, the genuine patriots must use the crisis within the TPLF/EPRDF and move
on.  As started, they ought to call upon the different factions allied with the
current regime:  the military, the civic and political organizations to stand in
solidarity with the people against Mele’s regime, and as well ought to continue
agitating the public to be watchful and ready to deal with whatever comes next. 
For sure, the on going internal conflict would undermine the TPLF/EPRDF’S
organizational strengths and technical support it happens to preserve from
within.  And in due time the civil disobedience popular with both the young and
old, audiences shall reinforce the internal conflict and finally put an end to
the ethnocentric dictatorial regime in Ethiopia and to that of the fake
revolutionaries that declared the war publicly and of course in an emphatic way
but at the end there were not anywhere nearby.  And yet both the current
Ethiopia’s socioeconomic crisis and the internal conflict from within the
TPLF/EPRDF and the church led by Aba Paulos are the real threats revolutionaries
must capitalize on to force Meles out of power too.  Unlike the atypical
movement mentioned above and its bogus call, the upcoming revolution in Ethiopia
is bound to be the only way to do away with Meles’ tyrannical regime.
Historically though what the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the
American Revolution, the Ethiopian Revolution, the Agrarian Revolution, the
Tunisian and Egyptian Revolution had in common was nothing but change.   Radical
Change now!  Therefore, revolution is a must now both to reflect on the current
understanding of our situation in Ethiopia and the complex phenomenon the tyrant
regime brought us to rule our country with an iron fist. 

.

Last but not least, what the false prophets know best and carry on is confusion,
mistaking one for another and gone astray and ended up lost. So here is when we
ought to say enough is enough for them.  We must tell them loud and clear that
they are false prophets for they are deceiving the public and as well
circulating reports, pamphlets and statements without facts to confirm their
truth. Time and time again they tried everything they could to lead the public
into an error of action such as the call they made for the 28th of May 2011. 
“In religion, a false prophet is one who falsely claims the gift of prophecy, or
who uses that gift for evil ends. Often, someone who is considered a “true
prophecy” by some people is simultaneously considered a “false prophet” by
others”  Be that as it may, it is not up to the fake ones but up to the genuine
revolutionaries and the public at large to exploit the situation at hand and
move on. As it happens, a ground breaking revolution is necessary, and then,
unity, organization and strong leadership are the most important continuities
the public need to recognize in order to remove the TPLF/EPRDF out of power.   
Lastly, we must reject the false prophets under way and act in unison to defy
and defy now their act of denial and ploy.  The false prophets aside, we are
expecting a unified force led by Long Standing Political organizations to take
the leadership position ahead; a unified force that is prepared to resist, to
control, and to vanquish that of Mele’s apartheid policy and the system
altogether.  Ethiopians have dethroned the king and unseated the military junta
in the past.  Today what they need is not a bogus call from afar but real
freedom fighters from nearby that would lead the people to victory.   

Down with Narrow Nationalism!!

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