By CHARLIE TAYLOR, Irish Times
The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) is to make an official complaint to the Garda Síochána today about the publication of what it considers to be a racially offensive article that appeared in the Irish Independent last week.
The ICI said it believed the publication of the article, “ Africa is giving nothing to anyone – apart from AIDS ”, which was written by columnist Kevin Myers and published last Thursday, breached Section 2 of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989.
Section 2 of the Act says it is an offence to publish or distribute written material if it is threatening, abusive or insulting and intended to, or having regarding to all of the circumstances, is likely to, stir up hatred.
In the article, Mr Myers questioned whether it was moral to save an Ethiopian child from starvation, given that it could grow up to face poverty, hunger, violence and possible sexual abuse.
He also described Africa as “almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.”
The ICI said it also intends to lodge an official complaint about the article with the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism.
“We believe the published article does not just overstep the boundary of common decency – it triple jumps right past that – but it also crosses the legal boundaries,” said the council’s chief executive, Denise Charlton.
“The issue at stake here has nothing to do with freedom of speech or expression. It is about respect for, and the upholding of, Ireland’s laws.
“Journalism, like any other profession, operates within the framework of the rule of law in Ireland,” added Ms Charlton.
Read the article by Kevin Myers below
Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS
By Kevin Myers
(Independent.ie) No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia’s (and Bob Geldof’s) famous Feed The World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million today.
So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn’t count.
One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .
Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.
There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this.
It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men in Irish life, like John O’Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it.
But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia’s has more than doubled.
Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts.
Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.
This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense. Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.
Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa.
They are now — one way or another — virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.
Meanwhile, Africa’s peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million: The equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.
So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally devastated and economically dependent country?
How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.
For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.
It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring Bill Gates’ programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating.
If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts. Oh good: then what?I know. Let them all come here. Yes, that’s an idea.
The author can be reached at [email protected]
38 thoughts on “Irish columnist Kevin Myers accused of hate speech”
Hi Kevin Myers,
I understand your frustration. You might have been to Ethiopia. Sorry that you didn’t get the special treatment you thought to expect from Ethiopians. No, no way. You are just a very normal human being. No more and no less. At least you know these people. Btw. your writing is absolutly redicules.
Even Irish, the Gypsy of the Western Europe dares to open his bloody 24/7 alchohol stinking mouth on Africa. 90% of Irish in UK are on welfare, why didn`t they stay in their remote island? I`m going to write to him on the same tune. Please do so as well, and don`t forget to be very harsh with him as he deserves.
Well, I find it inaccurate and cruel. Yet there are hard facts. We have to swallow them. It is shamefful that we cannot feed ourselves. It is not just Dergue or Woyanne or Haileselassie(they are after all our products the product of our culture) or not the Westerners, it is US, the whole country. We are good only at backbiting. I know someone will write after me blaming everything on woyanne. Someone good at throwing bad words.
Hey guys it is time to be ashamed of ourseleves. Enough of that empty talk about the great past Ethiopia. What can you do more than political talk online? Can you help one child in ethiopia through your relatives feed him/her help her to go to school? I prefer to hear Kevin Myers’s hard criticism than from some professor about the lost Arch of Covenant Queen Sheba. Mr. editor you have deleted my comments on many occasions simply because I am not singing the same song as your readers; are my comments worse than mr. Myer’s article?
i love it. somebody who tells it like it is.
Berhanu, I applaud your attitude about Africans taking care of Africans and improving the lives of our brothers and sisters back home, I wish Ethiopia had more people like you who are willing to take charge of their affairs and not blame others for their problems. That being said anyone with a little brain can discern thise Irish guy’s ignorance for what it is, he is simply a racist who wanted to get his cheap shot at the expense of Africans. Calling him a racist is also accurate because he is. I am proud to say the majority of Eritreans help their families and pay a voluntary 2% tax for the development of our country, that is why Eritrea doesn’t bend over and get enslaved by westerners anymore because we decided to take charge of our affairs way before our independence, I hope Ethiopians talk to more and more Eritreans and we will be more than happy to share our experience with our Ethiopian brothers and sisters on how to take charge of your situation and make Ethiopia the bread basket of Africa instead the sick child of the west that it has been for many decades.
I don’t see any inaccuracies in this gentleman’s article or opinion. His observations are correct. Think about it. How did AIDS spread like a wild fire in Africa in such very few years? Was it through blood transfusion? No. Was it because of intravenous drug use? No!!!!! It was through an out-of-control sexual intercourse. I think we should all wake up and face the facts instead of making excuses. We have this tendency of making many historical mistakes just about to ruin ourselves and we are very expeditious in committing those mistakes. But when we are told about the mistakes we become so defensive and stubborn about accepting the responsibilities. We like to consider ourselves victims always and blame others. Just like some of these knuckle and crack heads who think that AIDS was created and intentionally spread by certain “genocide planners/racists’ in DC or some where these knuckleheads only know. You should think about the impending population disaster awaiting Ethiopia and other Sub-Saharan nations. There is no such thing as family planning at all. A farmer may have less than an hectare of land to live on and farm but he is bent in having 12 children. He goes to bed empty stomach but he is not fasting from humping and screwing around all night. If his wife is tired from over-bearing and malnourishment, then he will go out whoring. When comes back he brings the deadly virus and gives it to the mother of his children. Are you telling me that everyone out there has not heard about this? If you deny this fact, then you are lying to me and yourself. In stead of squabbling with me or this writer do something about it. Ethiopia is projected to have a population of more than 140 million in less than 25-30 years. That makes my skin crawl.
Don’t blame the Irish columnist. The TPLF regime in Ethiopia has raised international begging into a new art form.
They have no problem parading emaciated children in front of international alms givers as long as it fills their pockets with money.
And the so-called international donors are propping up corrupt, brutal regimes under the pretense of helping the poor.
It is about time that African leaders are held accountable for stealing and for turning their societies into wards of a condescending Western white world.
Hi Somaliman,
If you felt offended by the author of the article, then the right thing to do is to comment the content of the article or write to the author as you said. However, it is definitely wrong to insult the Irish people who neither delegated Mr. Myers and nor, as stated in the article, do not share the author’s views. In fact, there are those good Irish people who are already launching a complaint against the author. And over the years, I have known many Irish people and they are very friendly, generous, and intelligent people. It simply doesn’t make sense to do to others the same thing that you yourself are so passionately complaining about!.
What is more what wrong did the Gypsies do to earn your wrath?. They did not author the article. Are you not as insensitive as Mr. Myers (If that is what you are accusing him?)in insulting the Gypsies who have nothing whatsoever to do with the aricle?.
His article is nasty, but there are some truths to it. We, Ethiopians, should be willing to take it.
I african and i live in ireland and when i read it i felt that i have to take action against him and those like him.it is really demoralizing piece.Let’s do sthn.
TEBABERU
Dear Africans, specially Ethiopians,
The writer Kevin Myers said explicitly what we talk about ourselves in whisper. We can not deny any of the facts he mentioned. He is not one of us and he can not generate a lasting solution to our problems. We, the people of this endless suffer must come with creative solutions as Jewish people has done it, the Chinese are making it and the Russians are on truck to do it. Then only, only then we can proudly respond to any critic with proud.
Today, we are enslaved by dictators of our own who care little or nothing for us. We shall blame ourselves for allowing dictators to kill us by hunger or kilashinikov. If we fight united we can remove injustice, poverty and backwardness. If we do not act today we will remain where we are today for centuries tocome.
I think what Kevin Myers said absolutely right. What did Ethiopia contribute to the world in the past 30 years except war, violence, poverty, famine, drought and above all Woaynnie hooligans who rape the country? I do not think it is hate speech. Mr. Zenawi and his thugs have been using the mass media to make thousands of hate speech in the past 16 years. Let us congratulate Kevin Myers for telling us the truth without using politically and diplomatically right words. So, let us concentrate on getting rid of these Woyannie beasts rather than cursing the Fernji Kevin Myers!!!
Hi there:
I agree with you completely as far as stopping helping Africa is concerned. The reason for helping Ethiopia is not to help the poor and the needy.In your own language the generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed. Who benefit the most from the donations? You and me know that the collectors take the lion share of the donations. If you just leave Africa alone and stop your help for the corrupt regimes Africa will be fine.Any way Africans are dying more from the direct hit and consequences of western made bullets than natural disasters.
But read your own news paper published May 16, 2006
“The amount flowing in from poor countries in areas such as Africa and South America surged more than $115bn (£61.2bn) last year to $385bn. This is only to UK. You are a journalist and may help us find out how much has gone to America,Asia and Australia from Africa.My imagination? probably total a trillion dollar? When is the last time the westerns helped Africa a trillion dollar? Africa is helping you and you are not helping Africa.If you Freeze the corrupt leaders money and return it to the people, It is more than enough to transform Africa. But you need the money. right?
Remember Ethiopian soldiers are fighting America’s fight in Somalia.No Credit?
Your remarks about sexually hyperactive indigents is outrageous.Are you mad Viagra did not have any market in Africa? Your way of writing Stinks worse than rotten egg.It is fowl,gross and mean.you sound like uncultured trailer trash.
By now.
Meles Zenawi and Co. in huge money laundering and corruption: UK report
By Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent
May 16, 2006
——————————————————————————–
LONDON – Cash deposits in UK bank accounts from the world’s poorest countries have increased dramatically over the past five years, and the government of Meles Zenawi’s share in this massive corruption and money laundering scheme stands at103 %, a report has disclosed. The report from the New Economics Foundation is the first substantial evidence Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi and his officials are heavily involved in corruption and money laundering. Following is a report by Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent of the Independent newspaper:
Money flowing into UK bank accounts from developing countries has surged in the past few years, dwarfing Britain’s official aid budget, figures show.
The amount flowing in from poor countries in areas such as Africa and South America surged more than $115bn (£61.2bn) last year to $385bn.
The scale of the exodus of capital from countries with major social problems will raise fears of massive corruption and money laundering that will hurt the welfare of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The New Economics Foundation said deposits had risen noticeably over the past five years, with inflows from Cameroon up 516 per cent, from Ethiopia rising 103 per cent and Nigeria up by 47 per cent. The UK aid budget has also risen sharply – 37 per cent between 2000 and 2004 – but the $6.4bn paid out in 2004 is tiny compared with the inflows.
Andrew Simms, the NEF policy director, said: “There’s a huge irony that the UK’s aid budget has gone up while there is this scale of money coming back. This is the first time the scale of capital movements has really come to light. It raises the potential for a scandal.”
He said the volume of cash coming out of Africa pointed to the existence of an “awful alliance” between the giant mining companies, the elite in the developing world and agents in rich countries such as the UK. “If there’s evidence of the fingers in the tills of developing countries, the feet are usually well planted in the West,” he said. “There are some legitimate questions to be answered.” The UK Treasury said financial liberalisation could lead to significant gains for developing countries. “The same process of liberalisation that leads capital to flow to the UK also leads to significant flows from the UK to developing countries,” a spokeswoman said.
She said total UK bank claims on South Africa have risen from $1.8bn to $54.1bn in the three years to September 2005, and on India from $9.6bn to $19.3bn over the same period.
The NEF said all the issues magnified the need for transparency in countries benefiting from debt relief and greater aid payments to ensure the money was reaching the intended destination.
It also said the outflows from Bolivia, which recently elected a left-wing leader, had raised the possibility of a repeat of the exodus of money from Brazil after the election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The article contains hard facts.But the problem is why the people is blamed for the failure of the political system and the leadership?.Ofcourse the people is responsible for birth control and protecting it self from HIV. Most of the problems related to the population are due to cultural, ilitracy and backwardnesss. If there was visionary leader and good political system, most of the problems would be under control. There are a lot of countries more populeous than Ethiopia but they never starve.
Still the westerners should take a blame for financing and arming despotic ruthless regimes all over in Africa.
You know what this writer doesn’t know who he was and is. Overall I laughed because this is written by Irish … I want to tell him where was he at the time of ” Potato starvation era”.
Let alone Ethiopia as a great state at the time no other country in the world had no such food crisis. At the time every country were trying to contribute what ever they could to the Irish and also open up their country to accept them as a refugee , not because they are nice but because of humanity.
Starting from that time the Irish people immigrated all over the world, their number is much more bigger outside than inside their homeland up to this time.
Now after half a century they see some economic stability backed by european union long time financing and this biased so called writer opens up his mouth on Africa, he do no what he is talking about and by the way Africa shouldn’t be issuing visa for this kind of arrogant!
Whoever knows the Irish people and Republic of Ireland as a country, the best lord for them is England.
We know you at the time of potato even before and after potato … better know yourself first.
For some reason, most of the respondents for Mr. Myers column are way off mark in pointing the reason for a reasoned and proper response. There are very few facts that one can find in Mr. Myers article. I am not sure why Mr. Myers went to Ethiopia during the past episodes of famine in our country, but finally he pealed his true self and showed the world for the racist he is. His assertion that Africa gave nothing to the world except the AIDS virus does not need any response from any self-respecting human being.
Going back to the issue of famine in Ethiopia, we have witnessed three major and catastrophic ones during three successive governments with some minor ones in between. If we took a look at the history of all these governments, there is one sure thing that remained constants in all three, lack of proper and just governance. Haile Selassie was an absolute dictator, Mengistu was a butcher and a dictator and everyone knows what we have for a government right now. So, there you have it. If the people have no say on how their lives are governed, how do you expect them to solve any of their social problems? Famine is a result of lack of long term planning by a government that has little regard for the welfare of its people. Famine does not suddenly show up in a country like an unwanted and unexpected guest. One can see the sign of famine months before it creeps up and takes a hold on a large segment of the population. Therefore, famine is not a natural phenomenon unlike hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes that we can not see its approach and plan for. Widespread famine among the population is a result of the total neglect of the populace by those who are supposed to plan and avoid such happenings. In places where governments lack accountability to their people, it is not uncommon to see such problems. China, India, Bangladesh and many other countries were famine hotspots where millions of people lost their lives before these countries took the proper and difficult measures of taking care of their people. But in our country, I can make a wild guess and say even in good times, more than half of the population survives in a little better than famine situation for lack of gainful employment. That’s the major reason that most everyone in Ethiopia would be willing to leave his homeland and search a better life somewhere else. Therefore, let us try to understand the problems before jumping to conclusion and giving half-baked ideas as a remedy.
We are short of good governance in Ethiopia for a while now. Although, we may not be able to solve many of our social ills even if we have a government of the people right away, that will be a good start. There were many civilizations running across the width and breadth of Africa millenniums ago while Europe was swimming in the dark ages until recently. The great civilization of the Nubians in Egypt, the Aksum empire that stretched as far as Arabia across the red sea, the land of the Timbuktu in the west of Africa where they had the first university in the world, I can go on and teach a lot of history for Mr. Myers who reduced the contribution of Africa to the a spread of a disease purposely neglecting our priceless and major contribution to make what the world is today. I would rather pour water over a basalt than make sense of a racist view that was full of hatred espoused Mr. Myers. More surprising is the opinion expressed by some readers who are pouring kerosene on their burning house because of their ignorance about their history and a social problem they did not care to examine deeply.
Over the years, I have observed an obsession on the part of many western demographers about the rapid increase of the population of the world. Most of Europe and North America would by now have a negative population growth if there was no migration from the southern hemisphere. And of course, for obvious reasons, the phenomena have worried many westerners because gradually Caucasians will be an endangered species that will be overwhelmed and absorbed by the people of the south who are multiplying rapidly. And I perfectly understand the concern of Mr. Myers who is complaining that even if he was successful in helping Ethiopian through this famine, the end result is the dramatic increase in their numbers five or ten years later. Therefore, the argument goes, why do we go through the trouble? Let the famine and whatever other natural disaster take care of the population problem – since they are not contributing anything anyway – and Caucasian race will have a fighting chance of survival. Anyway you look at the suggestion, the only thing I can say is I believe Mr. Myers would have made a good PR person for the Fuhrer himself; he may still try since the position is vacant since the death of Joseph Goebbels.
There is a deliberate ignorance on the part of Mr. Myers regarding the effect of colonization and neo-colonization on the African continent. When the colonizers left Africa after they pillaged its natural resources, they made sure that each and every nation will fight with each other because of the bizarre border demarcation they left behind. Ethiopia is still fighting to have a fair water usage of the Nile – a major part of which originates in the Ethiopian highlands – because the British gave the Egyptians the lions share of the Nile. And we are watching our people die of hunger while we stare at the beautiful Nile criss-crossing our land and we can not do anything because of international agreements. Well, Mr. Myers, for the most part, the leaders of Europe are standing on our way of progress and have been a hindrance to satisfy the needs of our people. Of course, I am not going to mention the unfair trade practices that the Northerners have imposed on Africa not to compete fairly and export to the closed borders of your nations. Mr. Myers, if you want to have a learned discussion on the matter, we may surprise by bringing so many reasons among which you are also part of the problem. This is not to suggest that our leaders are exempt from blame but try to read and understand the problem before you start hitting your keyboard. Exposing your ignorance and racist attitudes in the open is not something that should be done in haste.
Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir: Frank McCourt
This Irish writer for Irish Indepent paper forgets his history and does seem not to gather enough information. The above titled book written a while ago by an Irish English teacher in New York City about the sorrowful and tragic family history in Irland comes to my memory. The book deals with a specific Irish family which came to USA but failed to survive and the family went back to Ireland and could not survive the harsh reality of the country few decade ago.
It is a true document by the teacher who really beautifully depicted his place under the British Imperialism imposed upon the Irish people until recently. It was an eye opener to the whole world and to any body who wanted peace, freedom and justice for the Irish people. It was a moving story told by a son of Irish family how his father was not able to take care of his dead mother out of poverty and diseases .
Hunger and starvation was one of the biggest guns used by the British to make the Irish people submit to their rules for centuries. The family never had enough food to eat or the father had any job to earn enough money for the family; if he did any, he spent it on alcohol
Frank was very young when his mother passed away and her body was cremated and they were trying to transports it somewhere in Northern Ireland big city and since his father was alcoholic they went to a pub and the father got drank and forget the ashes in one of the pubs in a big city.
When they realized they did leave the ash on the counter top in one of the pubs they kept running around to recover it. Even after death a body of an Irish mother was abused , it had a penetrating message to all of us.
The immediate reason seems to be the alcoholic father but it was the system that had made him so and forced his father to behave so irresponsibly towards his own dead wife.
A man was abused by a colonial system to lose his own respect and respect for the dead. This true story took place in our own life time and the book was a big hit and it was made into a Hollywood block buster movie in late eighties. I loved reading the history of the Irish people and their endurance against tyranny of the British Lords and colonialism. The history of enslaved Irish people is very scary and frustrating history.
But the current writer seemed to forget the history of his own people after mere few decades of prosperity of Ireland and the coming of peace and freedom after they managed to throw away the yokes of British Imperialism . They are very gallant people and if you want to know bravery and endurance go and read the history of the Irish people. Belfast and Dublin from the north to the south they stood up for their freedom and finally they got it.
We must do that and never depend on any kind of help from the west. It is wasting us as an nation and as a people. An economist from London School of Economics once told me he figured out that we did not need spoon feeding but must be self reliant people to fish for own to manage to harvest enough food for our people. To come back to the writer from Irish Independence he seemed to get angry at our leaders and the civil wars that had engulfed the whole African continent for many years now. He is giving us a message that we must be able to create peace in our country as they had managed to stop warring and building Ireland from one of the poorest nation in Europe to the second richest country within just 20 years.
If our people want something new , we may look deeply into the current history of the Irish people and especially their ability to turn around their country in all respects of world economies and within the European union. I am a kind of intrigued about their abilities to attract so much investments to their country. How did they manage to create such a strong economy within two decades.? How did they get the educated class and forced it to be one of the richest modern middle class in the history of the whole Europe?
The writer is talking to us from this point of view and inviting us to do something for ourselves.
One correction to the writer he does not know all parts of Ethiopia and all our people do not depend on
Food aid to make babies. They work hard and produce their foods to live as a nation. Too much exaggeration.
About AIDS, he is just parroting what has been said many years ago on one of major daily’s in USA about the origin of this killer disease. I have never bought the idea that AIDS came from the jungle of Congo in Africa and then passed to human and then a French pilot got infected and passed it to Canada and then it came to San Francisco, California. He is baseless journalistic idiot who accepts what he is told to believe. I am not sure if he is a racist but he sounds like a one.
Sabataa Dubbii
The most famine took place in europe is in irland there was 3 million people stareved to death and went to america.
he talks absolut rubbish to hear this shit article its commen in europe its not new.its not a natural disaster its man made so time will tale we will get over it .
specialy our journalist you don need to let people know their crap.. please even in england we fade up of the metro news paper every monthe a child from 1977 famine stile displaying it and get money out of it they get charity 30 million pound the money goes to help their own people specialy in the poor inferstracter area we even don get quarter of it its businesse as usual.the aim is ovious to put bad image in our country to stop the flow of turist.
thats it.stop trash donation and get real!!!!
It is true and it hurts a lot.
What the tplf and eplf anti-ethiopia elements didn’t tell the world was that, when they were in the desert hundreds of their comgantants were infected with hiv/aids virus due to many unavoidable human circumstances and ill-sexual habit.
The goal of shabya and tplf bosses was that to get what they wanted by any possible and outrageous meanses. Both infectors came into Ethiopia and began to destroy the lives of the youth and the innocents. Ethiopians,think about the circumstances of life before and after the arrival of tplfshabya infectors into Ethiopia. Who brought hiv/aids virus into Ethiopia?
Mr. Myers told us the stark truth and it is bitter to swallow because it hurts our pride as Ethiopians and Africans.
It is not good enough to bombard him the usual talk of racism, of Westerners pillaging us through back door, of old coloniazation, and so forth. Asians, South Americans and even North Americans were equally colonized and pillaged by the same Europians but they kicked them out of their countries and produced decent leaders who had the interest of their people in their heart and not only developed their countries but competed with Europeans and in fact some overtook them. For instance, Look at China now who is the third economy in the world. Look at other Asian and South American countries. Can anyone say that Vietnam did not suffer as much as African countries if not even more and look where they are now. Can we seriously compare Malasia with Ghana and yet both gained their independence the same year.
We should not blame others for our failings. We should take a hard look at ourselves, take responsibility for our failing, if necessary change our way of thinking, learn from our past mistakes and from others who succeeded, and DEMAND from our leaders to SERVE us and if they don’t be prepared to sacrifice our lives to bring about the necessary change.
THANK YOU KEVIN MYERS ! ! !
Everyone who commented so far never tried to dispute the facts Kevin stated. Please focus on what needs to be done.
The least you can do is send the money you are spending on Starbucks’ coffee.
Mr Kevin Myer, the sources of all Afirca’s disaster are the westren countries including your own Iriland. It is very sad that the richest continet [ the source of all natural resources] on earth can not feed it’s children even. But the whole messers behind Africa’s disaster again westren nations. There are over 400 westren NGOs in ethiopia including Irish, Somany NGOs have been doing nothing except living their best life by the money which they collected from their governments and other an international organization in the name of poor ethiopians [the victums of bloody dictator like melese zenawi who is the cl,ose friend of USA, UK and other westren countries] The beggars NGOs are doing now good with the begger melese groups who are shameless and do not have any conscience. melese and his group considere begging as their right . by the way, Mr kevin, do you know did most the westren countries used to eat after the ww2?
whats up mr myers I see darkness in you come to the light. love your neighbor is one of the life principle do you really care about africa? you should find us a solution instaed of insulting us.it is ashame that you called your self irish when I think about BONO(U2) . please think twice before you say something .just to let you know our problem is not food it is dictatorship and powermongers every body cry when mugabe refuse to give up his power no body say anything when meles murderd hundreds and jail thousands instead they invite him in G8 summitt like he is a good man it won’t suprise us we live in unfair world so read more and ask the native africans to understand . For my eritrawi banda I betyou afewerki have your W-2 form every year to know how much you make so he can take your money by force other wise yor family in asmara will be jailed so is this helping a country or a dictator? donot tell me how to help a country.
Guys wait a minute, read it again. It is true we are beggars and the worst beggars on this planet. I couldn’t have said better.
Why are you angry? Don’t you want to hear the truth? Yes, truth hurts and get over it. We have become the shame of this planet. Stop boasting by being the “first christians or the first moslems or the land of Lucy” on empty stamachs while we are begging for food for the white man on this planet.
Yes, we have never been colonized but we are the only people who beg the white man every year for food.Other Africans do it rarely or sometimes but we are professional beggars.
We need change and change comes only if we fight hard to correct governance in Ethiopia.We only talk while few brave people like Dr. Berhanu, Dr Andargatchew, Miss Bertukan and Elias Kifle … do the fighting every day.
Look yourself in the mirror ask what have I done to free Ethiopia.
mR Kevin, Iam affraid that you will tell us africa is the source of homism and lezibianism. The people like you have spreaded HIV/aids in africa like wild fire through medical treatement and in different ways to decrrease the african’s population. Immagine if you are Doctor and working in Africa, how many poor africa’s children could poision by HIV and any other different dissease.? There are so many racists ppl like who are working in africa as a NGO’s workers, they are responsible for the spread of HIV.The same thing so many homos and lezibians from westren countries go to africa and teach the people such un humany sexual relationship like animals. one thing I agrfee with you, those who are in power like melese and others were starved some 50 years ago, an international communities saved them, now they are killing the people, but that doesnot mean any human being should save the children
Do not take what Kevin Meyer wrote word for word. He is known for his provocative ultra far-right ideas. He got his ideas form such figures as Charles Murray (of America) who beleives that blacks are genetically inferior race. This is not the first time he wrote controversial articles, targeting, especially, the most vulnerables of the society. Sometime ago, he called single mothers ‘useless bunches’ and their children ‘bastards’ and caused an uproar, and was barred from writing such articles. Nowadays he is writting more about immigrants, blacks and Africans. He is doing it not out of care or providing information. The man is simply an attention-seeking racist and, I say do not give him credit by contacting him.
yes !yes !he is so wright i am an ethiopian my self and he is telling us the truth whether we like it or not…… thank you for our poor governing power and lazy society we didn’t give nothing to anyone except defining the word “hunger”…..it’s not a hate speech he is just telling the truth…..go back to work!!!
Mr mayer ,I thought Thomas Malthus was deade long time ago but if you are the knew preacher of Malthusian theory to Africans in general and to Ethiopians in particular it is doomed to be afallier,please come with knew ideas rather than singing the same old songs instead tell us please about neo-colonialism and economic protectionsim.
When i first read the article, i was really angry with the guy and saying repeatedly to myself “how dare he?”
I thought about it for a day or so and came to realize that absolutely everything he said i believe we deserve it. We have been begging and asking money, food aid from the west all this time. As beggars we should know that our position is always compromised. He might have said very harsh words out of racism or frustration for such countries, the crux of the matter is we have failed as a nation.
What causes countries like ours to get worse and worse. it is basically bad leadership. we witness this problem all over africa. But then we can ask why such bad leadership? two things need consideration. The leaders are in power not out of a healthy political process but out of a long guerrela struglle which creates a mentality of compensation in their minds. This “should be compensated” mind is what is basically witnessed in Ethiopia. Woyane for example fought the Derg for 17 years and is manipulating the consistituion to its favor so that it can stay in power forever. they feel that they deserve every penny, blood or whatever the country provides because they are the so called freedom fighters. So the party is above the law, the constitution changes everyday, nobody has any so called right. what do you expect ? A nation that has failed and will continue failing.
i always hear this from my friends all the time. the west is to blame for our underdevelopment. The americans want Meles to stay in Power. The Americans are the first ones to hifive Kibaki when he rigged the election. They do not condone any human rights abuses in the continent. But then? with all seriousness, don’t we have a say in all of these? we are ready to be exploited, manipulated etcetra.
So one way or the other, we are to blame. Let us solve our internal problems and then point fingers. Till then, we have to swallow his article without any grain of salt.
It is very sad to see that some Ethiopians agree with this man’s hateful and vile article. He basically is blaming the victims and saying that we should just let them die. How can anyone support an opinion like this? Very sad.
For those who are angry at Kevin Myers, consider the followin:
1) What has Ethiopia achieved since World War II?
2) Why does Ethiopia still needs food aid from other countries?
3) How come Ethiopia does not have population control in place?
4) Why do we still hate and kill each other?
5) How come everyone in Ethiopia wants to leave Ethiopia?
In essence, what Kevin Myers said are all true regardsless of what kind of person he is. Even if he is racist and thinks blacks are inferior, well, we didn’t prove him wrong.
All had been said about this jornalist i will not discur any more . All ethiopian let us came together to help our people to save this inocent kid live .Let us start some kind of movment (campain) throug our , community , cherch, mosqe, including poletical oppositions grup ,let us do something so we can have clear concious.
This for all ethiopian , NO EXEPTION.
What is it with so many Ethiopians who actually agree with this hateful guy? Is it projection, or conforming with another ‘intelligent white man’ or just plain lack of information. There was nothing positive about this man’s atrticle except hate and disdain for Ethiopians. So, how does an Ethiopian, or any human being for that matter, support such garbage? I don’t underastand it.
Thank you Chereka coz I was wondering the same thing. I had to read the derogatory article again to see why all the Ethiopians were approbating the author’s arguments which has clearly shown, as well as many of his other articles, that he just wants a way to stand out whatever the consequences may be. I honestly fail to see earnest intentions in this crap. I am ashamed to see other Ethiopians agreeing with him and I refuse to believe that this is the kind talk needed to wake us up to our problems. We are human beings and not aheyoch thus we need not be verbally whipped to see our direction.
“We are human beings and not aheyoch thus we need not be verbally whipped to see our direction.”
Thank you Milly! Very well put!
Here is an article I wrote for my blog as a response.
Mr Myers, the obvious thing to do to an article like yours would have been to give a well thought out response in hopes of getting a productive dialogue started. But I don’t think your article was designed for such things. No, I think it has a different purpose. I mean I can try and explain as to why the West is mostly responsible for the horrible situations that are happening in Africa today or every other continent for that matter and how it goes as far back as the days of Western colonialism and Slavery. I can also talk about the hypocrisy of the West and how it still exploits the rest of the world through fancily named organizations like “The World Bank”, IMF, WTO etcetera. The hypocrisy was never more evident than at the recent G8 Summit where Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, urged the rest of the world to” not waste food” as he and the rest of the leaders gorged on an 18 course meal . But of course, you already have the pre-canned standard answer, “Why is it’s always the West’s fault?’ or ‘stop blaming others for your own failures’. No, I think there is more to your bile diatribe than just meets the stomach.
I can also start with the title of your article – “Africa is giving nothing to anyone – apart from AIDS” which is deliberately mean spirited but hopelessly flawed. Mr Myers, as you know, we had always been told that the first case of the AIDS virus was apparently discovered in Africa, if one is to believe the Western theory of the origin if the AIDS virus, of course. So, if that is true, the next obvious question is how did it get to the rest of the world? But as you confidently stated in your article, we Africans are incurably ignorant and incapable of doing anything as basic as feeding ourselves let alone come up with a plan to import a deadly disease to the other side of the globe. So, the next question is, did we actually give it to you, or did you take it from us? Yes, Mr Myers, we didn’t give it to you – you took it from us, just like you did and still do with everything else. And who is the less intelligent ‘species’ one in this equation?
I can also talk about how a man, who supposedly has seen it all first hand, can have such mean and hateful things to say about innocent victims? I am curious to know what made you care to ‘tour the territory on foot and financially’ in the first place? Was it the human side, which I’m convinced you have none after reading your article, or your tabloid journalist side? Were you there for a sincere compassion cause or for a Kevin Cater picture moment? At least Kevin Carter took his life, whatever his reason. No, I am not suggesting that you do the same, because you don’t strike me as the type with such conviction.
Your arrogance and pomposity, it seems, has no limit. You seemed to be worried more about your Irish readers than the readers from the rest of the world. How provincial one can get, especially when it comes at the expense of the miserable no good poor Ethiopians who have nothing to give to the rest of the world except a deadly disease.
And what exactly was the purpose of comparing the Irish famine to Ethiopia’s? Aside from the factual inaccuracy you provided on the length of the,” Great Irish Famine” which by most accounts occurred between 1845 and 1849, I really could not understand the logic. First of all, the Ethiopian population did not double, let alone more than double, between the 1980’s and now. But “white lies” and all aside, don’t you think you kind of defeated your own argument there with your point about the Hercules and Mercedes reference – cute to be sure – but so obviously obtuse? Of course we have more means to deliver food to many staving people compared to say 200 YEARS AGO! – thus helping people live longer.
As for the Lockheed Hercules reference, I am sure you are aware, being an accomplished and well travelled Western journalist and all, that when the West sends the Lockheed Hercules to some of these miserable famine regions, it also makes sure that it balances it out by sending a few other Lockheed products like the F-15’s, F-16’s, U2’s etc to that same government for different reason. Right? You know, just to keep the cycle of what you called ‘idiotic wars’ going.
You also had the audacity to write that we Africans are outstripping our resources. And which ones would those be, Mr. Myers? Let me see, could it be the oil that is being pumped out of the Nigerian Delta by Western murderous companies like Shell and Chevron or the diamonds which are being robbed from Sierra Leone and Liberia? How about in our own backyard in Ethiopia where your people are hoarding our indigenous grain, teff for their luxury as if we have a surplus of it? Yeah, ignore the West’s insatiable and voracious appetite for natural resources and the plundering and polluting of the environment. But the facts don’t matter, do they? It’s always us the darkies, isn’t it sir? Well, it’s typical of the West. It’s like beating an innocent man bloody, robbing his money, leave him on the ground and later charging him with loitering for letting his blood run on the ground. Talk about taking responsibility for your own actions.
But that’s not what caught my attention about your article. It is something rather peculiar. Mr. Myers, to be honest, I have never seen such vivid and repeated sexual references for a serious and sobering opinion.
It starts with your bizarre characterization of people as:
“…dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system”.
Sexual system? What is that Mr. Myers, – a new category to define the wretched in poor parts of the world?
Your hateful characterization was not limited just to Ethiopia. Oh no! You wrote of Africa as an entire continent:
“…of sexually hyperactive indigents, (emphasis mine) with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.”
And we don’t even use Viagra! Can you imagine if we did?
You sounded like a white Southern racist during the days of slavery in the US, when you flawlessly managed to infuse your racist tendencies with your curious sexual obsession with Africans and wrote:
“Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against infection.”
Journalism at its best!
There’s more. Recounting one of your many past good deeds, you spoke of a young man in Ethiopia by declaring:
“The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.”
You know Mr Myers, a normal and decent human being would be happy or even proud of his own humanitarian act in extending a helping hand to a child who, through no fault of his own, was put in a miserable situation, no matter how that person turns out as an adult. But I sensed some serious anger and bitterness in that statement of yours. What were your hopes for that wide eyed young man, anyways? Were you hoping he would join the Catholic Church? No, I am not hinting at anything here and yes I do know that you are of the Catholic faith. Stop being so sensitive! Anyway, at least that ‘wide eyed 20 year old’ had, right or wrong, the courage of his convictions to fight for what he believed in. In other words, Mr Myers, he was not a coward like some who have convinced themselves that they are part of the solution by sitting behind a computer and by picking on innocent victims who can not defend themselves. Speaking of cowards, don’t you come from a country where, as recently as 10 years ago, innocent men women and children were being blown up in a cowardly way in the streets in your cities instead of fighting the enemy face to face like the 20 year old you wrote about?
But back to your comment. Priapic? As curious as I was about your comment on the “dysfunctional-ity” of our “economic, social and sexual system”, the word “priapic” jumped out at me like African cheetah at a racist European tourist. And being the uneducated, voodoo riddled, wide-eyed African that I am, I looked it up in the dictionary. And the most common definition of the word is:
Priapic – overly concerned with masculinity and male sexuality.
Are you starting to see the pattern here yourself?
You continued:
“How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse…”
Funny you mentioned sexual abuse because just the other day, I was reading about employees from a Swiss NGO who were accused of child molestation in Addis Ababa, where they were there to supposedly help needy children. Well well, Mr. Myers, it seems that some Europeans have a different opinion than yours. I guess some Africans, especially young boys and girls, may indeed have something to give to the rest of the world especially to Europeans. How is that for a ‘broad-brush stroke’? How does it feel when it brush runs on the other direction?
I also skipped a few sexual references, because I figured you’d get the picture by now. You have more sexual references in one article than a gynecologist diagnosing a patient with STD. Is this just simply your style or perhaps a symptom to a more serious and personal issue like a deprivation of some sort which manifests itself in one’s everyday life? Subconsciously, of course? And I am not being flippant about this; I am very serious.
After I read your article, I was curious about you so I looked you up on the internet, to see your contribution to the world. I even saw your picture and could not help muse how you could have fit real comfortably with those Afrikaners who have been killing and torturing black people in South Africa during Apartheid. But who am I to judge? That is reserved only for you intelligent European types, right?
What is strange about your views is that, for an isolationist, you seem to have your nasty and lascivious fingers caught in almost all parts Africa more often than a six year old’s hand in a cookie jar. And of course, predictably, I found a few more similar hateful articles about this race and that color.
So, what is the purpose of your article? What is the subtext of it? What exactly are you suggesting Mr. Myers? Population control for Africans only especially Ethiopians? Even though you have not come out and told us directly, the only conclusion we – at least speaking for myself, can come to is that you’d rather see these starving people die than see them multiply. In other words, since we Ethiopians only have the AIDS virus to offer to the rest of the world, it is best to let us die and reduce our population to a manageable number so on your next financial tour you do not have to give as much.
But the problem with that approach is that, as stated in your ‘honest’ and ‘factual’ article (according to many readers including, sadly enough, some Ethiopians) we are multiplying faster than we are dying!
So there are, as far as I can tell, two other ways of controlling a population. One is exterminating people in mass, a la Hitler or Stalin, but it appears that the West is having difficulty keeping up with the ‘legal’ or ‘justified’ way of killing innocent people using fake or as you called it, ‘idiotic wars’ in Iraq, which by the way you enthusiastically supported.
The other way is population control through some sort of government policy. But as you have concluded in your article, we Africans are inherently stupid and incapable of implementing such intelligent policies. So, since it is practically impossible to prevent a bunch of “sexually hyperactive indigents” from having intercourse, the only other option is to let them have sex but prevent them from conceiving. I am no expert in this field, but it seems to me that there is only one way to accomplish that. And that is to convert every starving male population in Ethiopia to homos… No you are not suggesting that, are you? Hmmm, now I see where that animosity and bitterness towards that 20 year old came from! Unfortunately for you Mr Myers, that kind of stuff is not only frowned upon strongly in our country, (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but it can also be a source of some undesired pain and discomfort especially for someone like you. I guess you don’t know us Ethiopians as well as you thought you did.
http://lelatensae.blog.com/
The truth hurts, but living in Africa, I come across the “victim” mentality all the time. On the other hand, financial aid is usually just enough to keep the country going, never enough to make a real difference. Seems to me it suits the west to keep africa begging, then it’s easier to obtain minerals/oil etc. NO?
The Ethiopians generally don´t like critics. I don´t know why they never want to tackle any kind of problems. The country is facing the identity problem.People from north of Ethiopia never even believe that they are Africans. Amazingly it was there fathers who spread through out Ethiopia organizing for defense, educating, and creating political borders for all benefits and pride.It is not that simple to forget the roll of Amharic, Tigrigna and Oromia speaking peoples for forming Ethiopia and stopping slave trade. Where ever they go and settle living and marrying the local people. To unite Ethiopia they did every possible things. You the so called Ethiopian to day, you are a disastrous not only for the country for all the world. This poverty makes some of you sadist, psychopath and anarchy, your aggression towards Africans and your own people leads you no where than to the grave of your own.