By Rosa Abadir
I am forced to write my reaction after I read the article by Dr Eleni in regards to her unworkable free market fiasco followed by her childish type presentation of Ethiopiawient titled I am Ethiopian, as truly and wonderfully as that is, and no one has the right to define, reduce, or otherwise dismiss my identity. In fact, I just discovered that she wrote this article http://ethiopianobserver.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/i-am-ethiopian-as-truly-and-wonderfully-as-that-is-and-no-one-has-the-right-to-define-reduce-or-otherwise-dismiss-my-identity-dr-eleni-zaude-gabre-madhin/ a couple years ago, but for some reason it has been circulated through Facebook (FB) as well as some websites for the last few days that captured my attention to react accordingly.
Your entire silly tantrum and hodgepodge regarding Ethiopiawient doesnt hold any water. It is a defect of mind that made you think deserves a reward to yourself by yourself about your own Ethiopiawient. The nativity of talking about Ethiopiawient and measuring your Ethiopiansim doesnt have anything to do with what you currently stand for. Unless someone is sick minded & biased like the current Ethiopian regime officials and their alike, no one dislikes his country Ethiopia and do against his own people. Therefore, its irrelevant to describe our love as well as our connection towards our country instead for a rational citizen what matters the most is what have we done or contribute to a country that we claimed we love? Indeed in elementary description you tried to cover the current undemocratic current regime deeds by writing this tall and disgusting story regarding your Ethiopiawient which is laughable and shows how much you are undermining Ethiopians and lie in front of our eyes by narrating an empty Ethiopiawient. Of course, you may be capable of attracting some gullible Ethiopians who are driven by emotion when you talk about empty Ethiopiawient without giving us tangible facts. However, for the vast majority of Ethiopians your empty debacle wouldnt confirm your true Ethiopiawient. You failed to realize that you cannot be a true Ethiopiawi just because you said it, instead you have to prove it with noticeable and supporting evidence, otherwise what kind of method you use to represent your Ethiopiawient, as long as you are doing contrary to a true Ethiopiawient you will remain to be considered as a self-interested & egoistic Ethiopian in the eyes of many Ethiopians.
Unlike to your explanation, Ethiopiawient requires speaking up the truth to the minimum, let alone we have learned from our forefront fathers that Ethiopiawient means giving ones life to other and giving a priority for freedom & love than being self-centred as Dr Eleni expressed. Seemingly, you also want to paint Ethiopia as a paradise under the current government that everything could be possible while you called the previous government as a regime which shows your own self-interested & selfish behaviour. What makes you to condemn the former regime alone without including the current regime? I believe aside from a number of undemocratic manners the former Derg regime was responsible for the death of many intellectuals including red terror and other horrifying crimes. However, the current government is also committed many shacking crimes against humanity including killing, torturing, jailing and abusing innocent Ethiopians for the last 20 years, though you try to cover your eyes with your hands. Therefore, what is the difference between the former regime Derg and the current regime TPLF?
Uttering half-truth with the intention of misleading the citizens has been TPLFs political tactic to cancel the apparent fact and its incompetency in which you are trapped in the same empty can as you false fully jabbering over and over about Ethiopiawient to divert the core issues inside the current Ethiopia. The truth is that, you have been trying to fill the empty stomach of citizens, farmers in particular with unrealistic hope and dream is not different to chasing rainbows or seeking the pot of gold at the end of rainbows. Removing the farmers from their land by force and auctioning the land to the foreign investors and force them to be starved in the mid of plenty is of course a crime against humanity and no rational mind would think that such ruthless government has the intention to do something beneficial to its citizens. Look Dr. Eleni, your schizophrenic illusion and trying to put castle in the air is of course illogical, however, such kind of big project agenda is a well-intended schema to buy the emotion of few gullible Ethiopians, who are always expecting manna from the sky. However, the majority Ethiopians know the crooked character of the current regime TPLF and their corrupted administration despite trying to sail under false colors, and portray itself as the vanguard of democracy and justice.
One could wonder that why those scholars with such intellectual magnitude failed in the trap of Hitler kind sub-human savage; but the important point here is not the depth of intellectual magnitude or the school you attended, but what makes a different is the value one is holding as a principle. To those who appreciate individual freedom, nothing could stops them from defending individuals right with what cost it takes to show their true Ethiopiansim, however, on the other side to those who are unable to see beyond their self-interest, nothing would be important except their self-serving agenda. Education could open a door for anyone to have accesses the work of others, but to understand what has been said and implement it, is a personal commitment and it needs to be selfless to appreciate the right of others. Indeed, there is a difference between the narcissistic and the magnanimous scholars, and of course the difference is huge and nothing common between them. The vicious crime committed by Nazi scholars proved that how scholars and intellectuals use their potential to advance the criminal activity of their group with the masquerading dogma. So, what intellectuals like you is doing right now is not different to what happened 50 years ago in Germany.
Dr. Eleni, lets be honest to ourselves for a minute and ask simple questions. Indeed, the truth makes us free. Who has embraced the ethnic-based politics in Ethiopia and has legalized ethnic federalism? Who has forced everyone to be identified by their tribe on their personal ID cards? Who has divided Ethiopia with ethnic boundary lines and has created ethnic-based territorial units by given an ethnic name for the regions, like Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and etc.? Who has been deliberately invites ethnic conflict among various tribes in order to elongate his power? Who has de-institutionalized and de-capitalize Ethiopian society by dismantling social relations among the population? So in general who do you blame for facilitating a divide and rule policy as a weapon of destroying your pan Ethiopian nationalism? I leave the verdict to your conscience. I think you have embarrassingly failed to address your issues to the right individuals who are responsible for challenging & destroying your Ethiopianism, however you did it purposely as you didnt want to criticize the master mind criminal members of TPLF as you are the beneficiary from such regime, instead you try to point out your finger as well as accuse others who have nothing to do with filthy ethnic-politics.
Apparently, unlike to your ridiculous statement regarding Ethiopianism, you have observed that how being TPLF member & affiliated group is a license to do everything in the current Ethiopia (a license to kill, to rob, to rape to and etc.). You have also seen few TPLF members are milking the country and accumulate immeasurable wealth inside as well as outside the country while other Ethiopians live under endless poverty. However, you have never stated a single statement regarding these crimes. Of course speaking with forked tongues, you are defending the crime of the TPLF ethno-apartheid rulers and making a toll story to justify their vicious crime with the disguise of free market & hollow Ethiopiawinet. The truth is that Ethiopia is the prison of its citizens, except those who belong to the ruling group, a few TPLF members as well as their affiliated groups, and of course every economic sector exclusively controlled by them, including small business, real estate and export and import. Besides they use the state power to exploit the international Aid money to directly transfer to for their own extravaganza life as well as personal businesses instead of fairly sharing the aid among poor Ethiopians.
Dr Eleni, unlike to your childish Ethiopianism presentation, we Ethiopians have seen enough, and of course we have witnessed that yesterdays guerilla fighter become millionaires, and adopt extravagant life style while million Ethiopians are scavenging in the trash can to fill their growling stomach. We have witnessed that yesterdays guerrilla fighters are spending million dollars for luxury items in western shops, while million Ethiopian children have suffering with manmade malnourishment and end their life before they see their first year birthday and without doubt any rational mind do not have any difficulty to figure out where the richness coming form. Today, you may be one of those very few Ethiopians who is fortunate enough to feed you American born children as many times as they want to as you stated, however the blatant fact is that you live in a country where millions of citizens live in unspeakable poverty and endless misery and a number of family members feed their kids with shift. As a result, you have seen that eating three meal become histories in many house hold families in Ethiopia; no one eats meat except a few people even the price of Shiro and Misir, (the common ordinary Ethiopians foods) become exorbitant, and most Ethiopians could not afford such high price. But the new rulers have so much to waste and most of luxurious restaurants are busy serving them.
Most cars and buildings in Addis Ababa exclusively owned by TPLF members and their affiliated groups, and most Ethiopians would have such privilege unless h/she has TPLF God father protecting him/her. Boling tea and making coffee two or three times a day also become histories, since the price of sugar and coffee are unaffordable. Those we used to take for granted become scarce, and only become affordable by the new rulers. Prostitution seems spread like plague, because there is no job for those who do not belong to the ruling gangs. As a result, most of young girls in elementary and high school age, forced to start their life as a prostitute, as their family could neither feed nor afford to send them school. Even most of the girls support their family instead by being prostitute. Millions are dying of preventable as well as treatable problems. Unimaginable numbers of children are unable to attend school, because their parents could not afford to buy their school materials. Most of young men in the country seem frustrated and in order to alleviate the inescapable frustration they prefer to abuse substances, (Chatt, Cigarette, Alcohol and other drugs) which is of course destroying the mind of young generation. So what kind of Ethiopiawient you are preaching, Dr Eleni?
I understand Dr Eleni you are an economist, but twisted like Nazi scholar that is why you are trying hard to separate the inseparable, Democracy, individual freedom and free market. However, you want to separate the inseparable items, i.e. democracy, freedom, rule of law and development/progress; however the simple truth is that there is not going to be a free market or development with the lack of rule of law. It seems that you are trying to put the cart before the horse. There is no free market without individual freedom and democracy. In fact, rule of law is the centre of free market and in the country where the current TPLF few criminal members are above the law its impossible to have a free market. In general, you were trying to take advantage of your academic achievement and portray yourself as if you deserve to be a guardian of Ethiopian people, unfortunately some naïve followers accept such pompous attitude and believe your philosopher king idea of Plato. Of course, when you are taking the road to lead your personal life in Ethiopia, other courageous Ethiopians took different direction and fights for the common good and have been paying unimaginable price to bring freedom, justice & democracy. Seemingly, your personal life is more important than the common good or the public good.
By the way, Dr. Eleni you could have put your ideas on one sentence instead of wasting your time and writing this long gibberish tall story to verify your Ethiopiawient, which is of course unhelpful in every side. In fact, your tribe is insignificant and should not be a question if you came from mixed or pure tribe. In simple words, no one has ever challenged your identity instead we are challenging your stand and asking you to stop from being a mouth piece as well as a tool for TPLF ethno-apartheid gangs. You should realize that in a society where corruption is a norm instead of hard work and honesty, there is no hope to development as well as a clear sense of free market. You have to understand that you cannot have two self-contradictory ideologies, free market and tribalism at the same time. Therefore, based on this there is no way that free market and ethno-centralism could work at the same time while they are contraries each other. As a result, there is no way that your free market fiasco is possible as long as the power is controlled by a few ethnocentric and rigid groups. Free market needs communication & big market, however, a country like Ethiopia every citizen is watching each other with suspicion and uncertainty free market is impossible and pouring water on the stone. Ethiopia needs democratic government with individual right and rule of law otherwise free market or in general development is unfeasible. However, you keep claiming that you have reduced famine by providing falsified figures; unfortunately this kind of unrealistic as well as impractical scenario is only possible in Weyane/TPLF world but no other parts of the world. I am not an economist however there are plenty of evidence shows that good governance can contribute to economic growth and bad economic governance can certainly impede growth. Moreover, there is no way that half of the population would be starved and at the same time reduction of poverty or economic development claimed by the regimes spokesperson like you.
And yet you should answer why millions of Ethiopians are scavenging in the trash can in daily bases to fill their empty stomach, if there was an economic development or reduction of famine. Perhaps the only economic development is only possible among the TPLF regime officials as they are plundering the country and build their own business empires. In fact, you do not need to have economics degree to figure out this kind of unrealistic story in Ethiopia, surely any ordinary citizens including (the imbecile blind supporters of the regime) would figure it out. Surely whether you accept it or not what Weyane/TPLF is doing is not only hurting this generation, but also will affect the coming generation including your American born children as well. Even the noble prize winner, economist Amartya Sen stated that No substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country with a relatively free press. However, you are a benefactor from this ruthless regime and your criminals chief interest is your interest, so those who are fighting to establish democracy, justice and equality should not surprise by your misleading fallacious rhetoric. Anyhow, your crocodile tears regarding Ethiopianism do not fool anyone except those few gullible Ethiopians who tend to be driven by emotion rather than using logic & reason, because Non-TPLF Ethiopians have enough understanding and experience about the brutal and savage action of the TPLF ethno-fascists. Surely, she will very soon realize the snake in the grass nature of TPLF ethno-apartheid rulers and how they are violating the right of Ethiopian citizens. Thank you!
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