Forwarded message
From: Abraha Belai
To: xx

Dear Ebin Nat and friends:

Thank you for your kind words, and I truly feel humbled when you refered to me as “the true son of {www:Ethiopia}.” In these trying moments of our country, I work and live as an ordinary journalist trying to serve in my modest capacity the news and information needs of our people.

About Tesfaye Gebreab’s Yegazetegnaw Mastawesha? I’d be a liar if I didn’t tell you how I enjoyed reading it. I know Tesfaye was a gifted writer, but I never knew he would rise to the degree of comparing him with the great writers of our country, like Sibhat Gebre-Egziabher. The late Ba’alu Girma used to revere Sebhat so much his book, Deraseew, was all about the life history of Sebhat.Tesfaye was lucky to have Sebhat as his editor for his Efoita magazine, as I was lucky that Sebhat was also my editor at Ethiopian Herald. Sebhat is gifted in both English and Amharic editing. He is infact admired as the father of writing short essays. I remember in his book, amist-sidist-sebat, there is one short, memorable story covers only half of the page.While reading Yegazetegnaw Mastawesha, I felt I was reading the works of Sebhat. He has this tremendous ability to describe situations in very short and yet powerful words and sentences. Impressive among Tesfaye’s chapters, for instance, is Ye-quindedo Feresoch. It was phenomenal. I found it full of action, and the description was almost like watching a video clip. Congratulations, Tesfaye!

So far I haven’t responded to Tesfaye’s accusations. As a matter of principle, I don’t use a pen name; therefore, trust me friends that I haven’t said a word about the book. A few guys wrongly thought the article written by Ethiopia Yingalish was mine.But trust me, when the writer’s mood sets in, I will write comment on Tesfaye’s memoir. This is only to clarify things, to add to the literary dialogue, and not to accuse Tesfaye of doing this or that. That is not my concern. I’m a journalist interested in promoting factual information, and not a politician with a vested interest of a certain group.But for the sake of honoring the few friends I see here, like my dear friends Fekade Shewakena, Ephrem Madebo and of course Obang Metho, I’d like to clear a few things that made me really sad:

1. In his book, Tesfaye labelled me a “{www:Woyanne} informant” who jumped onto the TPLF bandwagon when he was chief of the Press Department. When the brutal 17 years of the {www:Derg} regime came to an end, I never thought a regime worse than the Derg would come. Never. The end of the Derg for me was the beginning of a new era of peace, democracy, and justice. As a young man, I was overjoyed, and expressed my support for the “new government in public” at a meeting held on the premises of Berhanena Selam Printing Press (which used to house offices of The Herald and Addis Zemen). There is no secret about it. After TPLF took control of power, Ethiopian Press Department manager was Mezmoor Fente, member of the Central Committee of Tamrat Layne’s Party of the time (Edin?). Then after a while, Mezmoor was transfered to ENA, and Tesfaye Gebreab came in as replacement. Since those Esepa members were expelled, Tesfaye, the new manager, was counting on us the young employees of the press for any information toward getting the job done. Since I clearly expressed my support for the “new government,” I was one of those individuals Tesfaye would ask for information on who is better for the Herald (may be a staff of eight). This is about who is better qualified for being a news editor, sports editor, culture editor etc. I genuinely gave my advice since I’ve lived and worked with the Herald for 7 years. When I was sent to Lake Tana along with a high-ranking delegation led by then Prime Minister Tamrat Layne, I wrote what one farmer said, among other things, about Tamrat Layne: “The prime minister is young, tall and handsome.”I didn’t do this to be favored and get promotion. Never; it is not my nature. In fact, I’m very defiant to bosses and governments. Tesfaye pulled this line out of context and projected me as if I were an “Adir Bai” gazetegna. Even if the words were mine, it was no big deal to describe the prime minister in nice words. After all, the medium is English. It may sound odd in Amharic but it was pretty fine in English. In the meantime, what was in my mind at that time was the “era of writing with fear, the era of self-censorship” was over, and I’m a free man who can write without the fear of government retribution. I was wrong.The problem with EPRDF started early on as the Editor in Chief of the time, Ato Kiflom Adgoi, called me to his office and handed me the phone: The call was from the palace. It was in 1992, and Derartu Tulu had won the Barcelona Olympics: I wrote the story whose headline was something to the tune of: Derartu crowned as the queen of women’s Olympic marathon. Since Derartu was the first African woman to win an Olympic gold medal (Abebe Bikila was the first African to win an Olympic gold medal, 1960 Rome Olympics), it was a fitting headline for the news. But a top EPRDF official scolded me like a kid saying,”Do you know Derartu is the daughter of a poor peasant?” Yes, I do.Why do you then refer to her as a “Queen”? Are you an admirer of the feudal monarchy? No, sir. It is because you don’t want to give credit to EPRDF, which is the guardian of the poor peasants? No, Sir. Then why did you portray her as if she was member of the royal family of Haile-Selassie? It is an English expression that doesn’t have any connection with Derartu’s royalty. Are you trying to teach me English? (The tone this time was threatening). (And honest to God), I shot back, “Are you threatening me for what I wrote?”The call ended there.Shortly, I didnt stay long with the Press, I was sent to ENA, where Amare Aregawi was the manager. If I were an Adir bai gazetegna, how is that I will ran into conflict with Tesfaye, then Amare, and others before I left for the US on my own?

SECONDTesfaye said the cause of his conflict with me was when a certain Mulugetta Ashenafi wrote story on Ethiomedia alleging that Tesfaye had made away with half a million Birr when he fled the country about eight years ago. The normal practice of a journalist is to send a rebuttal, or even ask the editor to post a correction, or remove the material altogether. Tesfaye didn’t do this. He rather waited several years until he wrote his memoir that included a few pages he thought would destroy my reputation. In fact, when Tesfaye called one close friend of mine and asked him if he has read his book, the question from the friend to Tesfaye was: “How come you were more bitter about Abraha than Bereket Simon, the man who you said forced you to flee Ethiopia?” Well, Tesfaye knows what he answered.

THIRD AND THE LAST: When Tesfaye’s interview appeared on EMF, he accused me of disseminating copies of his book to sabotage the sale. This is truly sad. For any journalist worthy of his profession, this is not only ethically shameful but also criminal.I read about the existence of the book like everyone of you – when Elias Kifle posted a few excerpted pages of the memoir on Ethiopian Review. Period. Later in the interview with EMF, Tesfaye added another accusation and said I had asked him to pull out the negative pages about me before he got the book published. He said he ignored my request, and as a revenge, “Abraha disseminated copies of the book to sabotage sales.” Oh, Lord! Can Tesfaye share the email message that he said I begged him to pull out the pages written against me? Can he post it for the public that I begged him? I had no idea he was writing a book, and how is it possible for me to do that?

Tesfaye should answer this. Do I’ve any more to say about the book? Oh, yes, at least on two serious issues: the political murders linked to Hayelom Araya and Kinfe Gebremedhin.Given that Tesfaye had access to top EPRDF officials, I don’t think Tesfaye has been honest, and telling the truth about the killings which for me remained as political murders. Tesfaye dismissed Hayelom’s assassination as the work of a “silly Eritrean” who had smoked hashish, and went to bed directly. That was a slap in the face, Tesfaye. But all said, again, thank you for a wonderful reading.

Abraha Belai, Editor of Ethiomedia.com

From: Ebin Nat
To: xxx

Dear Ethiopia Yingalish,

I read your 6 pages reaction on Tesfaye Gebreab’s book. I have the following observation:

1. First and foremost I liked your pen name, Ethiopia Yingalish. It reflects the reality that Ethiopia is still in the dark and your wish is very good. Amen! Ethiopia Yingalat!

2. You are absolutely right TPLF and Shabia have used Derg to eliminate their enemies. Derg was so useless and did kill many honest Ethiopians on the basis of deliberately disseminated wrong info about individuals. Thank you for bringing this issue. It is quite interesting. Our historians are not writing anything about such diabolic acts so far. Let us hope they will write in the future.

3. I beg you to differ from your cautious reaction on Tesfaye’s book. I wish you could explain to me why you think Meles and Bereket may produce such a book? For “tactical” reasons??? It is very unlikely. I remember each and every details of Tesfaye’s comment about Bereket, Abadula etc? I remember how he characterized Walwa’s teletafi so called “biaden”? What to benefit Meles and Bereket may write such a book. Your suspicion that Tesfay’s book could be Weyane’s tactic to divide the opposition is far fetched, to say the least.

4. Let me tell you a true story. Fascist Italia was surprised by the fighting capability of our Patriots and tried to know about the leaders. Graziani heard about the shumet i.e fitawrari, dejazmach etc. Graziani asked the bandas how much he would pay if he appoints them {the bandas} as dejazmach, fitawrari etc.. The Bandas told him nothing. They told him those shumets are just titles of honor. Graziani ordered people to gather at janmeda and made everybody dejazmach, fitawrari, balambaras etc. Five solid years after Italy was defeated and the Emperor came back to power. The Emperor shamelessly acknowledged the Shumet by fascist Italy and even made those bandas his close aide with their unearned title intact. Our historians kept quiet in fear of retribution from the Emperor. They said, Yewushon neger yanesa wusho yihun and buried it under the rubble. This stupid move of the Emperor made pro Ethiopia forces anti Ethiopia and Jebha and shabia of ertrea came into the picture. Many Pro Ethiopia individuals committed sucide not to see themselves as subordinates of the fascist bandas. I recommend you read Zewde Reta’s ‘Ye-Eritrea Guday”. 30 years after i.e in 1974 during the revolution many patriots expressed their opposition about what the emperor did. I don’t know if you know some of those in power now are sons and daughters of those bandas. If their fathers were rebuked promptly for their treason, those bandas would have drilled Ethiopian nationalism into their off springs and the present anti Ethiopia forces ruling clique would not have had such chance to destroy Ethiopia to the extent of making our beloved country with 80 million people the only landlocked with huge population while leaving (“donating”) the entire red sea to the shabia horses according Meles Zenawi’s explanation on the national TV. Those bandas raised their children in their own image as bandas with banda mentality and another banda generation could be left behind. Please read Prof Mesfin’s Yekihdet Qulqulet in which he blames the parents of the traitors for making them so much anti Ethiopia.

The Emperor had to call a spade spade immediately after victory. His courage failed him to do that and moreover took it as an opportunity to counter balance the challenge from the patriots. He could have accommodated the bandas as a result of national reconciliation, while their crime being documented for posterity. Our society is very secretive and strongly believes THAT IT IS BETTER IF SOME TRUTHS ARE LEFT UNSAID. I say all truths have to be told. I appreciate Tesfaye for telling us ALL HE KNOWS. I encourage him to tell ALL THE REMAINING HE KNOWS in his volume II, the journalist memoir.

5. I have not read what Tesfaye said about Abraha Belai. I got the 400 pages copy, not the 412 pages. I cannot comment until I get those 12 pages. My respect and admiration to Abraha Belai is very great. Leave alone in a situation when Abraha is saying it is not true, even if he says it is true my respect and admiration to Abraha Belai remains undiminished. I believe his ineffable service as ethiomedia editor offsets any real or perceived foul play some years back in the past. I hope either you or Tesfaye will send me the 12 pages missing to make my record complete.5. In your article you have not come up with anything concrete and convincing that disproves any one of the things what Tesfaye said. You only want to cast doubt as to his motive. You want to cast doubt by two ways: (i) his parents happened to be from Eritrea (ii) he was weyane. He knew this would happen and mentioned it in his book. . He told us his parents are from eritrea. he told us too he was weyane. He asked us to evaluate the book just as a memoir i.e an honest narration of a one time event and independent of his parents ethnic affiliation and his own political background. I did that and liked the book very much.

6. Andargachew Tsige was a weyane. He left them and joined the opposition. Nobody questioned his motive. He wrote two books and then accepted by the opposition with open arms. The same logic should apply to tesfaye’s case. He is an out and out Ethiopian. I hope his dream will come true and will live in Busheftu in liberated Ethiopia for the rest of his life.

7. The person severely attacked/exposed in Tesfaye’s book is Bereket Simon. Funny enough you accuse him of being soft on Bereket. You remember what Alemseged said to Tesfaye about his conflict with bereket? Alemseged said, “when it comes to ertrawinet, both of u r from there. it can’t be a bone of contention”.

8. Unlike many of us, Tesfaye confessed all his wrong acts against individuals. He regrtetted. We have to appreciate this also.

9. Above all, he gave us a fantastic book. I kindly urge Tesfaye not to be discouraged by such comments coming from different corners.

10. I read a 25 pages response from weyane to Tesfaye. In that response, weyane wants to widen the rift between Tesfaye and Abraha Belai. My observation is that both are forces of unity. Tesfaye has to play it down and try to reduce distance, rather establish contact with Abraha Belai. Abraha Belai is a true son of Ethiopia and did a great job as ethiomedia editor. We expect a lot more from him. We don’t want him to be discouraged when the neaty greatys of the past resurface in any form. Whatever might have happened some 15 or more years before we have to bear in mind that no human being has a clean, flawless, spotless record. After all we are human beings. We see something, we think it works. We try it, it doesn’t work. We accept mistakes and change our position.

I urge all concerned Ethiopians to intervene and bring these two persons together. One tactic of weyane is to create, widen etc silly antagonisms between individuals, ethnic groups, intellectuals, students etc. When a man joins weyane, they make sure he comes into conflict with different sectors of the population. They order you to say in public that will let you go into conflict with the people or a specific group. Dawit yohannes was once ordered by Meles Zenawi himself to make on a national TV and radio a silly statement. Dawit said, ” ethiopia in her entire history has never won a war. Now under EPRDF leadership won a war for the first time in her history; be it 100 or 3000 years”. Many got angry. Dawit himself was shocked by the reaction. Meles was laughing out loud.

Yours, Sincerely,
Ebin Nat

By WILLIAM YARDLEY | The New York Times

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – It was not the expansive new mural depicting evolutionary history that brought Sandy McKean down to the Pacific Science Center on a rainy winter weekday. Nor had he come to linger over the elegant displays about Ethiopian culture.

The reason Mr. McKean paid the $20.75 admission fee for “Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia” was because he wanted to see the bones. They are 3.2 million years old but, for him, electric with urgency. This was the first American exhibition tour of the famous Lucy fossils, 47 skeletal fragments of a female hominid whose discovery one day in 1974 altered the study of human history.

“This is like a dream come true for me, to see the actual skeleton,” said Mr. McKean, 64, who is retired from a job in computers. “I can’t think of a more amazing and interesting thing than to study human beings and our ancestors.” He added, “I would think people would be lining up and down the block.”

Yet as the exhibition prepared to close on March 8, six months after it opened amid the freefalling economy, lines had been rare. Attendance had been less than half of what was projected.

Instead of being a boon for the Pacific Science Center, the kind of premium-priced blockbuster that would help cover its losses in other areas, the show stands to lose about $1.25 million, according to officials at the science center.

But the sour economy does not seem to explain all of Lucy’s troubles. A rare December snowstorm played a role, and Bryce Seidl, the center’s president and chief executive, has suggested less intuitive reasons like the feverish focus this liberal city had on the election of President Obama and his transition to office.

In addition, an Ethiopian organizer of the show has raised questions about how effectively the science center presented and marketed the show. Ethiopian leaders have long viewed Lucy, and the American exhibition tour in particular, as a way to improve perceptions about their country, and to make money. [The money goes to the dictators’ pocket.]

“Ethiopia has an image problem,” said Gezahgen Kebede, the honorary consul general [{www:Woyanne} cadre] at the Ethiopian Consulate in Houston and one of the leading proponents of bringing Lucy to the United States. He said his country was still defined by the famine of the 1970s, and this exhibition offered a broader view. “The bigger thing in my opinion is to teach people about Ethiopia,” he said.

Although many museums nationwide are struggling, laying off employees and scaling back exhibition plans, the recession has not hurt every blockbuster that has opened over the last year. Since it opened in October at the Dallas Museum of Art, the show “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” has broken all of the museum’s attendance records. At the Field Museum in Chicago, an exhibition called “The Aztec World,” which opened in October, has also been a success. The general adult entrance fees on those shows are higher than admission was to Lucy.

Yet at the end of its six-month run in Seattle, the second stop on what is supposed to be a multicity, multiyear tour of the United States, Lucy had drawn only about 100,000 people. The exhibition has no confirmed next destination, and at least one museum that had considered hosting the show in the future, the Field, has decided against it. But Mr. Kebede said negotiations were under way for the show to open in New York this summer.

Lucy opened in Seattle in early October, just as the breadth of the collapse in the financial markets was becoming clear. “We opened at a time when people were shutting their wallets,” Mr. Seidl said. “Then you add the weather to it.”

In a city that gets little snow, several days of significant snowfall paralyzed streets right in the middle of the holiday season. The weather also inspired parents to push their homebound children, a crucial target audience for the exhibition, out onto sleds rather than downtown to a museum.

Mr. Kebede acknowledged the economy and the weather as challenges but said he had been told by contacts in Seattle that the museum had done a poor job of planning for the show.

“The Seattle people, they just flunked it because they really didn’t do their homework in terms of solid advertising and how to penetrate the demographics,” said Mr. Kebede, who had not seen the exhibition in Seattle. “There are people in Seattle who didn’t know this exhibit was there.”

Mr. Seidl said the science center had spent more promoting Lucy than it had on previous large shows. He noted that an exhibit about the Dead Sea Scrolls in 2005, when the economy was stronger, drew twice as many people in half the time.

Disputes over exhibiting Lucy began long before Seattle. When the show’s organizers, the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Ethiopian government, first agreed to bring Lucy to the United States, several museums and scientists said the fossils should not leave Ethiopia except for scientific purposes. Some accused the Ethiopian government of seeking profit at the risk of damaging Lucy.

“The one thing you heard a lot is that it was too fragile,” said Joel A. Bartsch, the president of the Houston Museum. “Is it important? Absolutely. Is it irreplaceable? Absolutely. But it is not too fragile.”

Lucy spent about a year on exhibit in Houston before going to Seattle. The show drew about 210,000 people over 12 months, Mr. Bartsch said, and was regarded as a success.

“My understanding is they had gone with a younger demographic, a lot of kids,” Mr. Bartsch said of the Seattle show, which he had not seen. “We kind of did a higher-end more adult demographic. You’re trying to explain an idea. Lucy the object and artifact is phenomenal, but really what she’s about is the idea she represents, that she’s an ancestral cousin to the human line.”

Yet Donald C. Johanson, the paleoanthropologist who plucked Lucy out of an Ethiopian ravine 35 years ago and is one of few people close to Lucy who has seen both exhibits, said, “I enjoyed the Seattle presentation much more than I did the Houston one, because I think Seattle put an enormous amount of effort into placing Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, in a broader framework.”

Mr. Johanson said he particularly liked the display of prehuman skulls that suggested a kind of evolutionary ascendance on the way to the exhibit’s focal point, the Lucy fossils. He also noted a lighter feature he liked, a display that used soda bottles, filled with varying amounts of fluid, to show the difference in brain capacity between humans and Lucy.

Those enhancements cost money. The Pacific Science Center paid a fee of about $500,000 to the show’s organizers, Mr. Seidl said, then spent almost $2 million more to renovate its exhibition spaces, add an audio tour and enlarge the exhibition’s section on Ethiopia, including the country’s role in farming coffee. Admission also included tickets to an Imax film about the Nile River.

“This is never a business that’s comfortable,” Mr. Seidl said. “Our job is not to build big bank accounts. It’s to serve underserved people, inspire kids, that sort of stuff.” The science center, in addition to several other museums nationwide, is not planning any exhibitions that charge premium ticket prices. Future shows — like “G.P.S. Adventures,” an exhibition about “geocaching” opening March 28; “Animal Grossology,” opening May 23; and “Animation,” opening Oct. 3 — are “real family-friendly, right for the economy,” Mr. Seidl said. Mr. Kebede, of the Ethiopian consulate, said he hoped Lucy would travel to New York this summer in an arrangement with Running Subway Productions, which has helped host huge shows like “Body: The Exhibition,” the controversial exhibit about human anatomy. A spokeswoman for Running Subway said it was too early to comment on any plans.

“This is going to be a big thing,” Mr. Kebede said. Next year, he said, he hopes Lucy will travel to China for an exposition in Shanghai.

(Ogaden Online) – Reports reaching the Ogaden Online service desk indicate raging battles between the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA) and the {www:Woyanne} regime militias throughout Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia. All the latest battles took place between March 4th and March 7th. Casualties are reported on both sides.

Our reporters on the ground and eyewitnesses confirmed that most casualties were sustained by the Woyanne militias. Multiple reports put the Woyanne casualties around 400 deaths. The reports add that in some places, entire battalions were overrun, garrisons completely taken over, all military supplies taken, and Woyanne militias captured alive and taken as prisoners.

It is reported that most of the Woyanne militias taking part in the renewed battles are from the battalions that have recently been brought back from the failed military escapades in Somalia by the Woyanne regime in Ethiopia. Some captured prisoners have told some of our reporters that they were misinformed about the strength of the ONLA.

More than one prisoner indicated that they were under the impression that the ONLA was just a ragtag army that could not dig in for battle, let alone wage an offensive or a counter offensive.

The service desk is still in the midst of collecting and corroborating the news from the frontlines. So far we have received confirmations for the following battles.

On March 4th in the town of Uubataale which is 12 kilometers to the major garrison city of Wardheer, the ONLA killed 60 soldiers including a high ranking official of Ethiopia’s Woyanne regime. Among the captured military equipment was satellite telephone identification and tracking system and an advanced military communication radio.

In the same vicinity in a town called Afyaraado, it is reported a counter offensive ONLA force killed 40 Woyanne militias who were attempting to come to the aid of the uprooted force in Uubataale. The remainder of the reinforcements reached their main base in Wardheer. They were reported to have dug more defensive trenches, and they were said to have cut off all contact with the so-called local administration in the city for fear of being spied on.

On March 5th, a fierce firefight took place in the town of Qamuuda which is part of Doolo province. In this battle, it is reported that 20 Woyanne militias were killed, more than a dozen taken prisoner, and military supplies taken.

In Hilla, on March 6th, in Hilla which is closer to Mustaxiil, the ONLA ambushed Woyanne reinforcements. It is reported that 35 Woyane militias were killed, and two military transport vehicle of the type known as Urals were destroyed. Other reinforcements were also ambushed by the ONLA in the vicinity of Abaaqorow and Godey. It is reported that 34 Woyanne militias were killed.

On March 7th, confirmed reports indicate a major battle between the ONLA and the Woyanne militias in the town of Goldhebileey which is closer to Garbo. In this battle, eyewitnesses and reporters on the ground confirmed the death of 38 Woyane militias. They also confirm that the ONLA took all the military supplies from the garrison that was deserted by the Woyane militias. Eyewitnesses in Garbo confirmed that few militias who escaped from Goldhebileey have reached the town of Garbo.

It is also reported that the remnants of the defeated Woyanne militias fought with the so-called local administration militias. Eyewitness confirms the death of about 20 militias from the so-called local administration and the remnants of the defeated Woyane militias.

On March 7th in the town of Baarta Jerar, the death of 33 Woyanne militias was reported. There were many injured Woyane militias many of whom were brought to the city of Awaare.

There are ongoing reports of sustained major military battles between the ONLA and the Woyane militias throughout Ogaden. It appears that the Woyanne militias went on the offensive, but are now on the defensive. In some towns, the ONLA are reportedly in firm control. We are in the process of collecting verifiable information about all the battles and will be filing in future reports.

By Simon Vozick-Levinson | Entertainment Weekly

As if 2009 hasn’t already been jam-packed for Beyonce Knowles, the singer-actress is currently preparing a year-long world tour with dates in Canada set to launch later this month. “I’ve been working on this tour for eight months,” Beyonce told EW when we caught up with her on the set of a TV ad she was taping. “It’s crunch time! I’ve been rehearsing and trying to make sure I put my set list together. Right now I’m anxious and I can’t sleep — I’ll be wanting to be at rehearsal. That’s the only thing I can think about. But I can’t wait.” While details are still being worked out, she has dates tentatively penciled in for the U.K., Ethiopia, Japan, Brazil, and more, plus a run through the U.S. this summer. She’ll be backed once more at each show by the all-female band from 2007’s The Beyonce Experience tour.

Beyonce has also finished two new music videos to keep fans happy while she’s crisscrossing the globe: “Broken-Hearted Girl,” from the ballad-heavy I Am… half of her recent double album, and …Sasha Fierce‘s up-tempo “Ego.” Beyonce co-directed the latter clip with her choreographer. “My goal for [the ‘Ego’ video] is simplicity,” she says. “In ‘Single Ladies,’ I saw this old tape of Bob Fosse’s wife, and I used that as inspiration. I thought in this world, with all the technology and everything that’s going on, to strip everything down — great idea. So I kind of did the same thing, but glossy and black, for ‘Ego.'”

One thing that the video for “Ego” won’t share with “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” is a certain animatronic appendage. “I didn’t have the Sasha Fierce hand [in the video],” she laughs. “But I have it on the tour. It’s actually even more wild — I have to figure out how I’m going to perform with that hand!”

EDITOR’S NOTE: We believe that the majority of the poor and exploited people of Tigray must not suffer because of the criminal and anti-Ethiopia acts of the Tigrean elites, including some of those who claim to oppose the Meles regime, but continue to promote Tigrean supremacy. A public dialogue is necessary to avoid potential violent backlash against fellow Ethiopians of Tigrean ethnic group as a result of the evil deeds of the politicians who claim to represent them. It’s is with this spirit that the following article is published.

By Assta B. Gettu

When that Day comes what will happen to the Tegarues (Tigreans)? That Day is to some a Day of doom; to others a Day of Joy and celebration, and that Day is the final Day of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi).

After Meles Seitanawi’s regime is terminated and all of his political gangs have vanished from the face of the earth, I always fear many Ethiopians who have been marginalized for so many years under Meles’ political party whose main purpose has been to enrich the few selected tribes may retaliate disproportionately against the Tegarues, who are also to be Ethiopians but badly misguided by one of their evil sons – Meles Seitanawi.

To protect such fallen victims from being completely erased from the map of Ethiopia, the avengers – the Amharas, the Oromos, the Somalis in the Ogaden and the other Ethiopian tribes – must gingerly take immediate actions against those hot-tampered Ethiopians who want to destroy the Tegarues because of Meles’ vicious political leadership.

As in all wars or conflicts, the victors do not always completely destroy their enemies: some they capture and send them to jail, and some they pardon and send them home without harming them. In this way, all Ethiopians, it is my hope, are expected to do better than this toward the Tegarues, their own people, not their foreign enemies. This does not mean the few criminals must go unpunished, and most Ethiopians well know who these hard core criminals are and who have been terrorizing Ethiopia for almost twenty years. If captured, these evil men and women who have been eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the unfortunate Ethiopians should face justice and should be told what they have done to their own people and why they have done such heinous crimes against humanity.

The conflict in Ethiopia is a family conflict, and as such it could be solved by the Ethiopians themselves; in fact, it could have been solved long time ago if, for instance, Washington’s support for Meles Seitanawi were a legitimate one to help Ethiopia elect a democratic government.

Conflicts occasionally exist in a family, no matter how strong, or spiritual, the family is, and when the family is unable to solve its conflicts, a good neighbor comes in and tries to solve the conflict; however, Ethiopia, at this time, does not have a very concerned neighbor, thanks to Meles Seitanawi for a job well done in rendering Ethiopia almost a friendless nation.

The friendship between Ethiopia and the West is an artificial one on which Ethiopians should not rely at all; if it were a genuine one, the West, with all its overwhelming power and economic might, could have helped Ethiopia to remove the dictator Meles Seitanawi from his corrupt regime as the West helped Iraq by overthrowing Saadam Hussein; rather, the West has emboldened Meles Seitanawi by training his army and by financing his criminal activities continuously and shamelessly.

Therefore, when the conflict in Ethiopia comes to an end naturally or by waging war against Meles Seitanawi, the Tegarues who have not committed any crime should not fear any retaliation from the oppressed Ethiopian tribes, for most Ethiopians could remember the divine words: “Vengeance is mine” – and they should prevent themselves from shedding the bloods of some innocent Tegarues. The Apostle Paul firmly declares: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). These particular divine words should be learned diligently and practiced effectively by every Ethiopian who has the propensity to harm another Ethiopian from the region of Tigray.

When Meles Seitanawi divided the country on ethnic lines, the main purpose was to give the Tigreans an economic and political advantage over the other tribes without first thinking carefully what would happen to them after he leaves office. By doing special favor for them, he is, in fact, isolating them from the rest of the Ethiopian people and making them an easy target to fall into the hands of an angry mob from the other tribes of the Ethiopian people as soon as he is removed from power.

So in the long run, Meles is hurting the Tegarues rather than helping them, and some of the Tegarues may not yet realize the danger they are heading to after their master Meles Seitanawi abandons them and flees the country and asks for an asylum in America or Saudi Arabia to save his life before he is caught and handed over to the International Court for his crimes against his own people.

We may fail to identify all the criminals, but we will never fail to identify Meles, Azeb, Abune Paulos, and Al Amoudi when that final Day – a “Day of Reckoning” – comes, and those who escape from the wraths of the Ethiopian people on that final Day are those who have never given up their struggles to overthrow the Meles regime, and these heroes are the ones who can determine the final fate of the Tegarues.

These well-disciplined Ethiopian heroes will not automatically destroy everyone who speaks Tigrigna but carefully examine if one has been involved with Meles criminal activities when Meles was in power and bring him/her to justice. In this way, the innocent Tegarues are spared from being executed, and they will be reconciled with the rest of the Ethiopian people.

After all, most Ethiopians follow the teaching of Jesus, that is, they can forgive the Tegarues as many times as the Tegarues ask for forgiveness; what matters here the most is not revenge on one’s own people but forgiveness for the sake of Christ, who taught us to forgive our brothers and sisters and live together in peace. As it has been difficult to live in peace with our neighbors during Meles’ reign of terror, it would be possible for every Ethiopian to enjoy freedom and to live in peace under a democratically elected Ethiopian Prime Minister whose priority is the Ethiopian people not his/her own interest.

Someone may say that the Jews persecuted, one by one, the Nazi criminals wherever they had been hiding but forgave the world that failed to protect the Jews, and it would be the same thing with the oppressed Ethiopians: they would hunt the Meles family and his death squads and impel them to confess their atrocities toward the helpless Ethiopians but allow the peace-loving Tegarues to go free and work in their country without a fear of any reprisal from the other oppressed Ethiopians.

Mengistu Haile Mariam and Meles Seitanawi slaughtered many Ethiopian students, priests, and political leaders without giving them a chance to defend themselves in the court, but such offensive and arbitrary killings will never happen again in Ethiopia once Ethiopia has a democratically elected leader from whatever tribe he or she might be. This is my dream, and, I think, it is also the dreams of many Ethiopians in the diaspora and at home; of course, dreams sometimes may not come true, but I hope this time they will come true because Meles is morally, economically, and politically weaker than ever before.

The good Tegarues, the Amharas, the Oromos, and the many other Ethiopian tribes should stick together and work hard never to bring to power the evil leaders to govern them once the Meles regime is over through peaceful negotiation or arms struggles or through what ever means necessary.

No one in his or her right mind wants to see Ethiopians wage an ethnical war except Meles Seitanawi so that he could stay in power indefinitely; an ethnically divided country, like Ethiopia, may not prosper because of the conflict that exists among the different tribes, each tribe claiming superiority over the other tribe instead of thinking as one nation, as one Ethiopia. If, for example, the Tegarues believe in the Abay Tigray; the Oromos in their big number; and the Amharas in their Imperial dynasty, then such conflict of interest would take Ethiopia further to more disintegration and instability. Such uncalled for disintegration and instability would create continuous hostility between each tribe, and each tribe claiming victory over the other tribe and trying to subjugate the weaker tribe. In such rare or perhaps common cases, the weaker tribe may ally itself with the other stronger tribe, and the internal conflict will continue until a lasting solution to the conflict is found through a democratically elected leader, and this democratically elected leader will benefit not only the Tegarues who fear retaliations from the other tribes but all the tribes of Ethiopia after that final Day of doom for Meles Seitanawi and his entire political advisers.

(Originally posted on Aug. 11, 2008)

ETHIOPIA (Garowe Online) – Several of civilian and commercial vehicles are stuck along the Somali-Ethiopian border following deadly battles between {www:Woyanne} regime troops and {www:ONLF} fighters in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, Radio Garowe reports.

The fighting in Mustahil district, in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali-inhabited region, killed at least 25 people and wounded scores last week.

In response, the Woyanne army deployed hundreds of troops backed by military trucks to the area along the border near Somalia’s Hiran region, local sources reported.

Commercial truck drivers who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the movement of civilian and commercial vehicles has come to a standstill, as Woyanne soldiers prepare to engage ONLF fighters.

Woyanne troops also cut off an important road that links Mustahil district to Fer Fer district, which serves as a major Woyanne army base and a crucial point for civilian and commercial traffic traveling between Ethiopia and Somalia.

The Woyanne regime has not commented on the ongoing military operations.

Woyanne troops have been accused of committing war crimes against ethnic Somalis in the vast Ogaden region.