By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
The New York Times
Mohamed Abdi, an Ethiopian-American interpreter detained for more than two months without being charged, was released over the weekend, American officials said. He had been working as an interpreter for the American military in the volatile eastern Ogaden region when Ethiopian [Woyanne] troops arrested him and two American soldiers in early May. The Americans were promptly released, but Mr. Abdi was sent to a military camp where he was kept until Sunday. An Ethiopian [Woyanne] military spokesman said he had no information about the events.
By Girma Berhanu
Göteborg University, Sweden
I review the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations, written by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen. I critique the authors’ major assertion that a significant part of the gap between rich and poor countries is due to differences in national intelligence. The authors claim that they have evidence that differences in national IQ account for substantial variation in per capita income and growth of a nation. This essay review debunks their assumptions that intellectual and income differences between nations stem from genetic differences. This critique provides an extended review of the research literature that argues against these assumptions and presents a different picture from that presented by Lynn and Vanhanen about the concept of intelligence, what IQ measures and does not measure. The essay exposes the racist, sexist, and antihuman nature of the research tradition in which the authors anchored their studies and the deep methodological flaws and theoretical assumptions that appear in their book. The low standards of scholarship evident in the book render it largely irrelevant for modern science. This essay specifically deals with the IQ value of Ethiopian immigrants that came from Israel, used by the authors as representing the National Average IQ of Ethiopia. Most of these immigrants had rudimentary knowledge of literacy, and experienced an abrupt transition from rural Ethiopia to Israel with all the accompanying effects that it entails such as trauma, dislocation, and cultural shock. The test was conducted a few months after their arrival. That specific study, conducted by two Israelis, that assigns low IQ to the immigrants is also replete with technical and statistical errors. One might arrive at the conclusion that further action of a legal nature would be necessary to put an end to such postulations, which in my view, do not bear scrutiny… click here to continue reading.
Press Release
Less than a week after expelling the ICRC, the Ethiopian [Woyanne] regime has set its sights on the most active indeginous Non-Governmental Organization in Ogaden killing its leader and another senior staffer in a roadside attack in Northern Ogaden.
A vehicle belonging to the Ogaden Welfare and Development Association (OWDA)was attacked in the Nogob province on a roadway between Segag and Degahmadow on the 29th of July killing Mohamed Dahir Sheik Mohamud (nickname “Sulub”) and an associated were killed by Woyanne troops. OWDA had been seeking to respond to a cholera outbreak in the Nogob province particularly in the town of Fik when the attack happened.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) strongly condemns this act of state sponsored terror against a prominent NGO in Ogaden. This attack clearly demonstrates the extent of the assault on our people by the Woyanne regime and its determination to continue the blockade on humanitarian and commerical goods entering Ogaden. Such acts of deliberate violence targeting our people warrant direct international intervention particularly by the United Nations.
Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)
By Bizualem Beza
Since time immemorial, Ethiopians had not been given a single chance of electing their governents. Given the long history of the nation as a cradle of civilization and the origin of mankind, it could have been exemplified as a symbol of democracy not only in Africa but also through out the world. However, even today, as the current reality shows on the ground, those who rule the nation by force are unable to learn about Democracy from others. As of today, Ethiopia is a long long way from establishing the rudimentary elements of democratic governance. As it had been the case in the remote and near past, monarchical power transition, and in recent times and nowadays, military dictatorship were/are a common practice to seize power. I believe this common practice must be changed and other alternatives should find thier way.
I believe now is the right time for all peace loving Ethiopians to declare a new era of democracy in the upcoming millennium whereby:
*The forces of peace will prevail over the forces of tyranny/evil/
*Unwavering committment for replacing TPLF’s tyrannical rule by the people’s will
*Democracy and the rule of law will prevail over anarchy.
*Hope and Development will prevail over despair
*Equality will prevail over partiality
*Accountability will prevail over impunity
*Tolerance will prevail over arrogance
*Peacefull solution in settling disagreements will prevail over the use of lethal means
*Peace and love will prevail over hatred among the different nations and nationalities
*Unity will prevail over disunity
*Compassion will prevail over animosity
*Belongingness will prevail over division
*committment for building a democratic society will prevail over hesitation and self-interest
*committment for fighting poverty,disease and illiteracy.
*Long term vision will prevail over short sighted one.
*Trust will prevail over mistrust
*Modern way of thinking will prevail over backward looking
For these to happen, the lasting and the best medicine lies within the people itself.
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – While other Israeli spies spent the early 1980s stalking Arab foes through Europe, Gad Shimron was deep in Africa on a secret mission to save lives.
Thousands of Ethiopian Jews had fled the Eritrean conflict to neighboring Sudan, only to be stranded in teeming camps. Shimron, then a young Mossad operative, was sent to the Muslim state to find a way of spiriting the refugees away to Israel.
The resulting mission, codenamed Brothers, became a modern Zionist legend. For Shimron, it was a high-wire mix of the humanitarian and the hazardous about which, a generation on, he has written a book with rare acquiescence from Israel’s censors.
“The feeling is that Sudan was one of our finest hours, the enlistment of an entire defense establishment for a truly altruistic purpose,” Shimron, now 57, told Reuters in an interview promoting the English edition of “Mossad Exodus.”
“We’re the only Westernized country to have brought out Africans in order to liberate, rather than enslave them.”
Other groups of Africans have been invited to leave their countries in emergencies, but this migration aimed to resettle the Ethiopian Jews in their ancestral homeland.
Tens of thousands moved to Israel in Brothers and other, less clandestine operations. Their community in Israel now numbers 100,000, its integration at times hampered by state bureaucracy and allegations of racist discrimination.
But when Shimron and a small Mossad team flew to Khartoum in 1981, posing as entrepreneurs from a Swiss travel firm, they had the blessing of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin — himself a Polish refugee from the Nazi Holocaust.
The Mossad had bought a defunct resort up the coast from Port Sudan, which Shimron and his comrades renovated and staffed with locals. It was a front, yet proved to be surprisingly successful, drawing foreign scuba divers and sport fishermen.
“Most Mossad operations lose money, but we found ourselves making a small profit. We had to come up with all sorts of excuses to get away for our real work — parties in Khartoum, stocking up on provisions, that sort of thing,” Shimron said.
From 1982 to 1984 the Israelis, receiving radio instructions from Tel Aviv, shuttled between the resort and inland areas where they had located 8,000 Ethiopian Jews.
Traveling by night over potholed roads 440 km (260 miles) long, ever conscious of the fact that they were in a country deeply hostile to the Jewish state, the Mossad men took hundreds of refugees to a beach rendezvous where they were collected by Israeli naval commandos and ferried to their new national home.
TRUST
“I still remember how they looked in the back of those trucks — emaciated, dressed in rags, the old and the infants among them clinging to others for support. But they gazed at us with complete trust and they never complained,” Shimron said.
There were many problems. Shimron’s partner was arrested by Sudanese security forces, escaping from their compound through a window. On another occasion, one of Shimron’s trucks — empty at the time — was pulled over by police. Shimron discovered to his dismay that the truck’s previous user had run a checkpoint.
“Luckily, the cop in question had a very macho imagination, and claimed to have shot up the truck when it refused to stop. I pointed out the lack of bullet holes in the vehicle and he had to let me go,” Shimron said.
Such mishaps, and the halting pace of the sea evacuations, persuaded Israel to try something more dramatic. Top Khartoum officials were bribed to look the other way as Israeli cargo planes flew to desert bases, picking up the remaining refugees.
Israel was later to bring in another 22,000 Ethiopian Jews in airlifts known as Operation Moses and Operation Solomon.
Assimilating the new arrivals from Africa has not been without setbacks. Some complained of being abandoned to a life on the poor fringe of Israeli society. The discovery of a Health Ministry policy of dumping blood donated by Ethiopian immigrants — for fear of contamination, officials said — sparked riots.
Yet thousands of Ethiopians, many hard put to prove their Jewish descent under the stringent standards set by the Orthodox rabbinate, still await permission to move to Israel. Israeli authorities say that by the end of 2008, all those who are eligible will have made the move.
“The Ethiopians I have stayed in touch with have no regrets about ‘coming to Zion’, despite the difficulties,” Shimron said.
