22. July 2011 by Assimba.

A letter to the people of tomorrow  (an uneducated view)
Ambassador Imru Zelleke

You are in your twenties and thirties, you have grown up in one of the most painful era of Ethiopian history, you have been traumatized by the violence and misery that you have endured and seen since your birth. All you have learned and viewed from your unhappy experience is the ever increasing poverty and wretched existence of your people, including you family and kin.  All this spirit and physical flagellation has certainly left you with some bitter view of your country, especially that it is a home grown calamity that started with good intention and end up into a catastrophic cataclysm.

You identify yourselves mostly as Ethiopians, for better or worst, because it is the only origin, history and culture you can identify with, and for its worldwide recognition. You also enjoy Ethiopian cuisine, music, humor, manner and style, your civilization is second to none in the world. You can quote you history from ancient times, you are repository of two great religions Christianity and Islam. All this heritage, and the gifted talent of our people,  should have given  us a spring board to create a modern and dynamic nation. But instead of building our future on the basis of our wealth and traditions, we fell victim of ideologies and notions that had already failed their own authors.

It is true that our inherited Monarchical system of government had, even by its own reckoning, that it has seen its days. Nevertheless,  in its quest for survival it had introduced many positive elements that constituted a good foundation for the future. Yes it was not democratic, yes it was oppressive, but compared to what followed it might be called almost liberal. (Dr. Minasse Haile’s monograph “Comparing Human rights in two Ethiopian Constitutions”, Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law, Spring 2005.) Thus, began a deconstructions and unbridle mystification of Ethiopian history and the creation of the evil “bully” the “Amara” oppressor. Accordingly to the new legend the Amaras who inhabit the regions of Gondar, Gojam, Wollo and Shoa have a higher standard of living than Americans, which they gained by exploiting the rest of the population.  If you visit those area you won’t see their wealth because they make them invisible by some mysterious magic, you need special three-dimensional eye glasses. Which reminds me, some years ago there was a fashionable song in Ethiopia named “Ayn yeTfeTerew hulun lemayet new”, one day  my five year old daughter asked “why is it that cannot see everything” I told her that it is because she is not yet a Ph.D. 

Coming out into the light from the dark cloud of mystifications, it would be pertinent to ask of what and of whom this Amara polity is made off. As you all know a political group holding power cannot exists without allies and fellow travelers, with vested interest in the system. Even presently Meles has his own Amara, Oromo and other allies. Historically,   the same paradigm stands for Ethiopia. In our part of the world Cushit and Hamitic people have been mixing for thousands of years. (Dr. Fikre Tolossa “Common Factors Uniting Ethiopians”, Ethiopian Review July 2011) Therefore, there has been a continuous population movement in the whole area, resulting in a miscegenation of races and tribes.  throughout the centuries, our rulers stem from the same historical process. Few Ethiopians can claim racial purity and unique ethnic identity; all of us are of mixed origin, but for some cultural trends that differ amongst the many entities that make up the nation. As to political power the dominating group in the late one and half century has been an Amara/Oromo hegemony consisting of the Monarchy down to the lower ranks. Therefore, the claim that there was an oppressive regime composed solely of an Amara ethnic group is utter nonsense. If the Amaric language was preponderant and become the lingua franca of the nation, it is because of its age old alphabet and written religious and literary traditions, in difference to the oral vernacular. The Monarchs Minilik, Zewditu, Yassu, Haile Sellassie, Negus Mikael, and all the great leaders Gobena, Habte Giorgis, Balcha, etc. etc. where of mixed ethnic origin. Hence, if there was oppression and malfeasance  by one ruling regime or another, the guilt must be shared by all and not to some fictitious character created to justify a political agenda. It is perfectly legitimate for one to espouse a particular social group and culture, but to use it as instrument for the deconstruction of a nation that has been built by the bloods and guts of millions of people from many origins is inacceptable, and neither conducive to a healthy and prosperous future. 

This year when Americans are celebrating the 253rd  year of their independence, we should be proud and celebrate our thousands of years of independence, despite the many crisis caused by our faulty governances. Unfortunately, we lament past misdeeds and  negate our own role in the making of our disastrous fate,  without devising solutions for our predicament. We are told to forget the past, as if it was not the foundation of our existence. We are advised to look to some indiscernible future where milk and honey will be plentiful and our whims and wants will be fully met.  Which divine power will bestow upon us all these blessings? Is a good question to ask.  In 1974 we were told to forget the past and look towards a prosperous future in a free and just society, we all know what happened after that. In 1991 we were promised the same, we all know the results. Now we  are promised the same, and asked to consent a priori to the eventual ethnic breakup of the country, and accept a promissory note from political parties of doubtful consistence and popularity. Is this a promising future for a country that is barely striving to get out from abysmal poverty?  Is this what the Ethiopian people aspire for their salvation?

No !! We must build our new Ethiopia on solid bases, on our common history and common heritage. We are not people sown on this Earth as some wild weed. We are civilized people of the first order, our tradition, cultures and values are universal. Our people are talented and our land fertile and rich.  Let’s make the Ethiopian renaissance with a national spirit and rejuvenating outlook, instead of indulging in endless willy-nilly political deals that promise an uncertain future. In 2005 when more than two million people demonstrated openly in Addis Ababa and later when twenty six million voted peacefully without a single incident, they voted as Ethiopian and nothing else. We should stand with them and work unremittingly to liberate them from the TPLF nefarious dictatorship.

I am asking the young people that are the people of the future not to succumb to views vented by false prophets, and to inform themselves properly and judiciously about the realities in Ethiopia before acting. You must all realize that individually and collectively you are responsible for the fate of millions of people.

Reading the above some will probably say that I am an old foggy still anchored in the past. With all humility I say that I am not, I have struggled and fought for Human Rights and Democracy in Ethiopia for over half century, much before many of you were born, and  I intend to do so until the end. I am a nationalist and patriotic Ethiopian, proud of my country of origin and the people of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Lezelalem Tenur.

IZ – July 2011

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5. July 2011 by Assimba.

Hama Tuma

In the Horn of Africa, History repeats itself always as a tragedy. Famine has come around, the guilty regimes point their fingers at the usual “culprit” drought and the preying vultures that call themselves NGOs and charity organization rear their heads in anticipation and glee much like the cruel vulture in that famous photos of a starving South Sudanese child. We have seen it all before and the tragedy continues, the charade is on as the vultures we knew so well warn the world help or else the Africans in the east and the Horn are going to perish!

There is hardly a pip against the main culprits, the corrupt regimes pampered by the West, which exposed their people to starvation and famine. Instead, Africa bashing is warming up (with a nasty drawing of an Africa in the shape of an African heads with the Horn opened as a hungry mouth that appeared in the Times of London, Tuesday July 7), angry articles are written in defense of spreading GM seeds/farming all over Africa (or else they will starve always and be a burden on “us”– in the same Times issue), and the whole cabal ) from Christian Aid to Save the Children, Oxfam UK, etc ) have put out ads soliciting immediate and urgent help. Back in 1984, the same scene was played out over one million Ethiopian corpses. There can be no doubt that Ethiopian (1973-4,1984) and other famine victims are grateful to the sympathy and help they got from the people of the world and that there were and there are NGOs and charity organizations true to their humanitarian mission. Sadly, it is equally true that food aid is part and parcel of politics and many NGOs play the political game and are parts of the Lords of Poverty. Back in 1984, the likes of Christian Aid, Oxfam UK, War on Want, Save the Children, Norwegian Aid and many others were playing politics on the famine victims and giving the food aid to the rebels of the Tigrean Liberation Front (TPLF) and the money to buy arms or to deposit it in their Saudi American bank account in Jeddah. All this is well documented and a hard fact despite the shrill protest from Bob Geldof and Christian Aid (the latter’s representative was even photographed handing over hundreds of thousands of Birr to a high level Tigrean rebel cadre who is now in exile and has exposed the farce and the conspiracy). The TPLF is now in power and the same aid organizations that were passing it the food aid and money are soliciting for money. Something is rotten in there!

The famine that is attacking the East and Horn of Africa has little to do with drought and much to do with corrupt and inept regimes, disastrous agricultural policies and callous disregard for impending catastrophes. The Meles Zenawi regime in Ethiopia was for many years boasting of double digit economic growth, grain surplus (“we are going to export maize to Kenya”!), agricultural policies admired by World Bank and IMF experts, massive handover of land to foreign companies (the size of Israel or Belgium leased over cheaply to Chinese, Indian, Arab and other firms who farm and take all their produce abroad). The reality was quite different. The double digit economic growth was/is fiction. Grain surplus is a white lie. In fact the grain stored was sold on the market and then an attempt made to by grain from South Africa to refill the silos. The disaster prevention the regime boasted about has proved another lie. The regime has supported the foreign land grab that has roved a disaster for the country as there is absolutely no technological transfer, no substantial employment and all the produce is exported or taken out by the firms. The regime’s own companies in the agricultural field enjoy monopolistic control, the so called Ethiopian Commodity exchange sector has assured the control of the agricultural export market (coffee, sesame, etc) by Meles Zenawi’s firms (Guna, etc..). The overall existing bad governance and ethnic discriminatory politics has also agitated against self sufficiency in the production field.

The variations in degree aside, the Somali anarchy aside, the other so called drought affected countries are characterized by being pro West corrupt regimes. Drought is the least of their worries; bad governance is their primary ailment. Existing conflicts and ongoing wars make the situation dire. In Ethiopia, land is owned by the State and dispensed by it irresponsibly. The impending famine is but an opportunity to plunder and fleece, to use food aid for political purposes, a chance for the usual vultures to prey and profit. That is why as things stand it is proper to call for vigilance against the misuse of donors’ food and money by the regimes in place and their callous allies. We saw it in 1984 in Ethiopia, how famine was used for crude political ends and how the aid organizations played along duped or, in most cases, knowingly. This should not be repeated. No food aid or money should be given to the regimes (especially to the heartless and thieving regime in Addis Abeba) and control must be imposed on the aid organizations themselves not to repeat the condemnable experience of the past.

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