By Tedla Asfaw
Dear John Goddard (reporter for the Toronto Star newspaper)
Who does not want to go home after twenty four years to visit a 100-year old father and 70-year old mother? I myself have been out of Ethiopia the same time Kemer left his home country on foot. Luckily I left by plane. However, the return of Kemer at the time when thousands of Oromos have been jailed and on top of that this week Amnesty International’s strong letter accusing Meles Zenawi for jailing Oromo professionals is not accidental. Kemer’s visit is a well orchestrated propaganda for the unelected regime in Ethiopia and I can assure you that many Oromos will see him as a new cadre from Canada.
Interestingly, Mr. Kemer on John Godard piece on Toronto Star (November 18) accused the former Ethiopian regimes for being anti-Oromo. That is a big lie and the writer should not write such slander. The Mengistu regime killed, imprisoned and jailed all who challenged him to take power and for that all Ethiopians were victims and no Oromo was singled out. In fact there were Oromos who joined Mengistu and kill their political enemies — Oromos and others alike.
Kemer has chosen to join the current unelected regime for financial benefit while popular singers like Teddy Afro are languishing in jail for no crime other than singing for reconciliation and peace. Ethiopia has many Oromo heroes. For that you just have to go and see the recent Beijing Olympics and the love these athletes have throughout Ethiopia. Sadly Kemer chose to serve the enemy of Oromos and all Ethiopians — Meles Zenawi.
Tedla Asfaw
New York City
12 thoughts on “More on the Toronto Star story about Kemer Yousuf”
i am an Oromo. I don’t really like the way this idiot Kemer playing the game. He should have visited quietly and returned to Toronto for his welfare check. I just hate the fact that he is trying to use the western media to support the woyanne region that is killing and torturing Oromos as I type this. I rec’d a call from my cousin last night about my uncle being arrested for no reason. No one knows where he is at. I had to send some money so that his family can eat while his fate is known. So the bottom line is, it’s people like Kemer that is giving an approval for woyane regime to continue their torture of innocent Oromos. Our people don’t have time to dance with Kemer. They are worrying about what to feed their children and wait for their turn to be tortured or killed. Death the sellout and HODAM people like Kemer!
Mulata,
What does a welfare check got to do with this story? How do you know if he is receiving a welfare check or not? Just insulting for no apparent reason shows how ignorant you are.
Let him go and face the starving Oromos, from the start he was not a fighter behalf of Oromos rather he was a greedy self serving idiot just like fat and greedy Solomon. By the way today some confused Oromos think they are better than before. Because of the language based TPLF federal administration they forget to see the suffering of their people, when their language gets small freedom the people who speak the language had been suppressed than ever, because of the language based TPLF led federal administration some Oromos will not see the pain of the majority because of their incurable inferiority feeling from far, some will deny the truth. Do not forget when you are borne you did not have a language on the other hand you were a human being from conception so do not see language alone remember there are other things that differ in a similar language speaking ethnic group people like by religion: such as Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant , by gender women and men, because of health disability, because of wealth or economic status when wealthy Oromo, Amhara, Gurage, Sidama, and other wealthy individuals go for coffee drink to Addis Sharaton and Addis Hilton the poor will go to their grave with empty stomach. The above reasons as well as other factors should make you forget language as the main tying factor among people unless you are super idiot with incurable inferiority complexity. Language similarity among the same language speakingg roup of people should not be the only unifying factor. If language was the main factor to unify similar group of people today Somalia could not be invaded by TPLF.
Bacha Aboki says:
“and other wealthy individuals go for coffee drink to Addis Sharaton and Addis Hilton the poor will go to their grave with empty stomach.”
I always think about this thank you.
But why are you worried about a person who is really insignificant. What where you gonna say if this guy is an internationally known pop star. I think you guys are losing your mind. So the well known nobel prize winner singer from Ethiopia is going back to his country; therefore, there will be a very important summit at the united nations human right office to review Ethiopia’s human right status and also the International human right agencies are going to repeal any thing negative said about the Etiopian government. Is this what you are worried about. First of all this guy is not even worth a penny. Second, most of you guys overestimate both this guy and yourself. He can go to hell. No one is gonna care and nothing is going to change. Focus where you should.
We grew up together at DEDER and I know his family very well. In fact, his father is a respected man and he was one of the beneficiery during the Halielsselasie regiome. I found Kemer’s interview totally a white lie. No one has prevented us not to practice oromigna during the king period. Secondly, I know how his uncle who was first a DERG cadre and then an OLF agent was captured red-handed and killed by the DERG. This guy was literally a bandit and he homself killed many innocent peasants before he was captured. Genertally, KEMER has become another SOLOMON TEKALIGNE.
I am amazed when I read the interview what kemer has given in the so called ethiopia first web page(in reality Hod or stomach first) web site.The interview that kemer has given in my opinion is full of propoganda and white lie.moreover, it revealed trully his arrogance and ideiotness. personally i don´t mind if he go to ethiopia and visit his country and his families and as I belive everybody has the right to do that. however, his false accusation on the imperial and derge regime inorder to make TPLF thugs happy is immorale and sin. As i mentioned it above unless he is arrogant, no one has the right to permit or prohabit somebody in and out of ethiopa. so, it is his legitimate right aswell to return to his country at any time. However, instead of telling us returning to his country is his right ,he prefered the wrong way.i.e blaming the past regimes as anti-oromo. here I want to ask him one question. can you tell us the number of oromos in jail in the regimes you called them anti oromo in comparision with the oromos in jail in the current regime?
so, you idiot think very well before showing us your spoiled mouth. you can´t full anybody except yourself. whether you go or come you can´t bring anything to ethiopia. the fait of you and other hodams like Ali birra, solomon tekalegn, aster Awoqa, epherem tamiru etc is disgrace and hate. when we are at the verg of concluding that the Amharic proverb Azmari ena ….kamokabet new, thanks to God, he sent as geniune and beloved musicians like Tilahun gessese, Tedy afro and Shambel belayneh. If we have these three great artisits, we don´t want any more rascals like you.Go and sing in the mellinuim adarash, you will get the chairs and some individuals who have stomack than head. where as wise and beautiful sigers like Tedy afro prefers the love of people intead of decorated Adarash.so, he presented his great songs with people in stadium. Anyways, you have lost your moral and the respection of others because you had ruined the moral values that you had in the past. shame on you!!!!!
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk denkem artist!!!alqerabekem.
It is less than a year since I return from Ethiopia. I know little bit and have seen little bit betterment or worse about Oromo language at this time. It is amazing when I hear from some people Oromo language is better at this time when it is in last leg to be gone fore sure from Ethiopia. When I was there, almost every week I was traveling between Addis Ababa and Ambo on the bus. As soon as bus leaves from Ambo almost all people traveling on the bus speaking in Afaan Oromoo and the driver turns on Fayyisaa Furii’s song and as soon as we pass Gafarsa, the driver changes music to Amharic song and travelers also change their language to Amharic. I can agree on one thing about Oromo language. Today children can go to school in their own language even in university. But I can say today’s Oromo language is just like animal in the Zoo. Don’t full your self just because afaan Oromoo is in school when it is not even in the society of Oromo as it used to be.
guys, please leave this man alone, he is not a traitor, he didn’t say any thing against oromos or praise wayyanes,he went home to visit his elderly parents. to advance oromo cause you don’t have to always to be confrontational, kemer is not going to perform neither on wayyanes nor opdo’s anniversary, it’s just simple one that makes him earn some money to save for his kids, rather than collecting walefare as mr.mulatu wished him
It is amazing how a minority group organized to destroy Ethiopia can make so many chaos in our people. A singer does not have to lie to be popular, and then what motivated him to lie? The answer can be found with Woyane cadres who recruit weak people like him. It is time to find out who theses cadres are in Canada.
If OLF will never win in battle field they have to cooperate with the regime of melles afer yibla
Please, Oromos stop finger pointing at each other. First of all, Ali and Kemer are free people, and they have the right to perform wherever they want. Ali and Kemer are much better than so-called OLF leader such as Lenco who is the real traitor and sell out. They are artist, and they are free to perform in their home country. The big traitor are OLF leaders who couldn’t bring anything for the last 18 years with enormous support from oromo people. Why don’t you talk about someone like Lencho who was and still working for ethiopia and West to keep Oromo people to come to power. Be advised not to label everybody who doesn’t have the same view as yours a traitor. You need to learn how to respect your views and decision. Again you should know that every oromo is not a politician, and it doesn’t have to be that way. Please leave alone Ali and Kemer, peace upon them!
Elias is as dangerous as any dictator. He does not compromise and ever reports good stories about the Ethiopian government when there is indeed one. He is not helping Ethiopia just putting more fire for one sided Ethiopians…