What do you do when you first wake up in the morning? Some of us cannot move without our first cup of coffee while others require a good breakfast. How about if you went to bed without dinner? I am sure you woke up a few times hungry, you did not have a good restful sleep and it is possible your rest was disturbed by all sorts of dream and nightmare due to an empty stomach.
Food is primary. Food comes first. Without food there is no you. Without food there is no life.
Food is what is lacking in our country. Food has been lacking in our country for eternity. We are famous for not having enough food. Our name has become synonymous with hunger. When you say famine the word that comes to mind is Ethiopia.
Why is there not enough food in Ethiopia? We are lazy? No. Our people are known to farm from sunup to sundown. Farming is a family business. Our land is dry? No. We have plenty of rivers flowing out of our highlands north into Egypt, East to Somalia and west to Sudan. We don’t have enough land. No. We have plenty of virgin land waiting to be developed. We are over populated. No. We have enough land to sustain twice our current population. We are stupid? No. Our dispersed citizens all over the world are proof that we are one clever people that will settle anywhere and thrive.
Thus we are not lazy, we have a beautiful fertile land, we are not over populated and we are not mentally challenged people but we are still hungry and cannot survive without a handout. Why?
There is not enough food because we are not using our resources intelligently. Did I just say resources? As soon as I said resource you automatically thought of mineral or oil or such commodity. No, we have resources more precious than that. The people are the most important resource of a country. We have not figured out a way to harness the abundant resource of eighty million souls in front of our eyes. That, in a nutshell is our problem.
It is nice to have minerals and oil. It is good to be blessed with a vast population. But by themselves they don’t mean much. There is a third important factor that makes the two work in harmony. It is a vital part of the equation. It is what we have been lacking for a long time. That is what we don’t have.
I am glad you asked. What is lacking is good governance. It is enlightened leadership. That is what is missing in our country. Our country goes back thousands of years. Our Ethiopia is not a recent phenomenon. We have such visionaries as Tewodros, Yohanes and Menelik. They have been gone a long time but their legacy still lives.
Today we are lost. We are like a vessel without a pilot but driven by the wind. We stumble from port to port. We travel without knowing our destination, we plan without knowing what we want to achieve and we fail time and time again. We are accustomed to leaders that avoid responsibility. They excel at blaming others for their mistakes and lack of vision but they have this remarkable ability to shake accountability.
Here is a quote from a classic Chinese text (Tao TeChing) written around the 6th. Century BC about leadership:
The best rulers are scarcely known by their subjects;
The next best are loved and praised;
The next are feared;
The next despised:
They have no faith in their people,
And their people become unfaithful to them.
When the best rulers achieve their purpose
Their subjects claim the achievement as their own.
We don’t have that do we? Thus we go hungry. We roam the earth looking for a place to settle. We despair for our country and we fight each other. Whether at home or in a foreign land we have no harmony. There is no peace among the children of Ethiopia. We celebrate our differences and magnify our contradictions. We are one sorry nation.
The way we are going about building our country is not a wining formula. We all know it is not going to happen. You cannot fit a square inside a circle. You can try, but it won’t fit. My son used to try that when he was two. One week with that toy and he figured it is not going to happen. He did not force the issue. He learnt. Here we are responsible adults and we are still trying to fit a square inside a circle.
We are at it again. The current farce billed as an election is bringing out the worst in us. We are stuck with a Party that is unable to let go. It survives from day today. It survives by creating contradiction among its people. It stumbled into power without a clue of what to do with it. It has been improvising for the last seventeen years. It lacks what the American refer to as ‘Exit strategy’. I am sure the TPLF leaders would love to go into the sunset peacefully. Sit back and enjoy their ill-gotten wealth. How is the burning question keeping Ato Meles and company awake at night. Their belly is full but their mind wonders.
Think of it this way. Ato Meles his family a few of his friends can leave. How about their entourage. What is going to happen to the junior abusers that have been doing the actual dirty job? It is a very interesting situation. Lack of ‘exit strategy’ has been the Achilles heel of dictators since time immemorial. Shah of Iran, Ferdinand Marcos, Augusto Pinochet, Mobutu Sese Seko, Alberto Fujimori, Nicolae Ceausescu and so on have all been victims of that simple but vital concept. They always get caught with their pants down.
After all is said and done we are back to square one. Waking up hungry. Fourteen million Ethiopians are in a state of constant famine. Twice that number wake up hungry everyday. When it comes to our children it is said that those that are mal nourished (starved) during their developmental phase, the deficiencies are recognized to have the potential for permanent adverse effects on learning and behavior. A nation of mentally challenged is the outcome.
Everything is inter related. You cannot have food on the table without a good governance that requires a visionary leader. You cannot have a visionary leader without a democratic elections that weeds out the wheat from the chaff. You cannot weed out the chaff without an open transparent competition for the citizen to judge. So we go around this vicious circle we have created.
What do you think the current election is going to accomplish. Definitely it is not going to separate the chaff from the wheat. Why? Because it is all chaff. The wheat knows better. It is going to sit this one out. TPLF is going to win. Medrek will be allowed one hundred seats. The Europeans and the Americans will bless the outcome with ‘some’ reservation. Ato Meles and company will celebrate their emerging democracy.
The Ethiopian people will watch the drama somberly. The hunger will continue unabated. The migration of the young will be accelerated. The sale of our virgin territory will gain momentum.
All is not lost. It might look hopeless but every contradictions carries its own solution. Didn’t the divine Haile Sellasie regime crumble due to internal rot? Didn’t the mighty Derge wither away due its arrogance and abuse? The same fate awaits the criminal TPLF regime. I will leave you with what Tao TeChing said about rebellion:
When rulers take grain so that they may feast,
Their people become hungry;
When rulers take action to serve their own interests,
Their people become rebellious;
When rulers take lives so that their own lives are maintained,
Their people no longer fear death.
When people act without regard for their own lives
They overcome those who value only their own lives.
There will come a time when the people no longer fear death.
“Opposition UDJ party president Birtukan Mideksa, whose pardon was revoked and life sentence reinstated in December 2008, remained in prison throughout the year. She was held in solitary confinement until June, despite a court ruling that indicated it was a violation of her constitutional rights. She was also denied access to visitors except for a few close family members, despite a court order granting visitor access without restrictions. There were credible reports that Birtukan’s mental health deteriorated significantly during the year.”
The above is taken from the US Department of State report on Human Rights in Ethiopia. It is a very depressing document full of verifiable facts with names and places detailing the atrocities committed by the Meles regime against its own people. It is not news to the Ethiopian people. Seeing it in black and white confirms the nightmare is real. I am sure you have all heard of Meakelwi. What do you think they do there? I know I would rather not think about that, but here it is:
Numerous reliable sources confirmed that in Meakelwi, the central police investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa, police investigators often used physical abuse to extract confessions….. Abuses reportedly include being blindfolded and hung by the wrists for several hours, bound by chains and beaten, held in solitary confinement for several days to weeks or months, subjected to mental torture such as harassment and humiliation, forced to stand for more than 16 hours, and having heavy objects hung from the genitalia.
Ato Meles and his militia are nothing but sick gangsters. He has surrounded himself with mentally unstable people that get their fix by inflicting pain on civilians. The Woyane regime has built up an elaborate system to bully the population and have raised the rule by terror into a science. The whole country is one gigantic prison. You don’t think so. Go ahead read what it says in the State Dept. report:
The country has three federal and 117 regional prisons. There are several unofficial detention centers operating throughout the country, including in Dedessa, Bir Sheleko, Tolay, Hormat, Blate, Tatek, Jijiga, Holeta, and Senkele. Most are located at military camps and were allegedly used as overflow detention centers following mass arrests.
Do you notice we have more concentration camps than Universities, factories or research institutions? And the concept of ‘unofficial detention center escapes me. This is Woyane’s Ethiopia. Prison inside a prison.
This past week the Prime Minister gave interviews to both foreign and local reporters. The room is arranged in a horseshoe shape with a little dais for the PM. They always place five or six microphones to give the illusion that there are that many outlets. The fact of the matter is one is enough since there is no independent TV or Radio in the country. I believe one microphone is enough to give one version of the story. Foreign reporters question is handled one at a time. Local press gets no respect. They ask there or four question and our fearless leaders answers the ones he wants. No follow up is allowed.
I am thankful to Jason(?) of Bloomberg news for his question. The sound system is bad but this is what I understood his question to be.
… I just want to ask you about one point from the report because I know you want to give a response to that …Bertukan Mideksa is a political prisoner they mention in that report her mental health have been deteriorating in prison. I want you to respond to that if you have any information about her health status.’
Here is what the Honorable Ato Meles Zenawi, Prime Minster has to say about that:
I am not surprised that they have characterized Bertukan as a political prisoner because I understand they have also characterized the ONLF and OLF terrorists that have been taken to court and sentenced by the court as political prisoners (pause) it may sound strange but terrorists who have been taken to court of law have been characterized as political prisoners by the US which was a country that introduced the world to concept of ‘enemy combatants’ who are expected to live in legal limbo in perpetuity but that is life eh. I think the French say ‘C’est la vie” and that is how we characterize it ..uh.. the health situation of Bertukan the latest I heard she is in perfect health. She may have added some a few kilos but other than that and that may be for lack of exercise other that that I understand she is in perfect health ..’
How callous can one be? How cruel do you have to be to speak of a fellow human being like this? It is a very disturbing way of thinking to dismiss the agony of person with such indifference. Why Ato Meles is a good question? What turned your heart into stone is a valid question. Being entrusted with the welfare of eighty million human beings is a major responsibility. Eighty million starts with one. It is sad to think an elected leader of a party, hope to many mother to one is discussed as an ordinary criminal. Judge Bertukan is no ordinary criminal. She is a highly educated and carrying person with a deep sense of right and wrong.
From his answers it is clear the Prime Minster follows her situation closely. There is no reason to believe that he does not know she is kept in solitary confinement. He also knows despite his own court ordering that she be allowed to have visitors that his prison officials have refused to abide by the ruling. He also knows that she is in bad health and she requires medical attention.
Solitary confinement is torture. It is considered a form of psychological torture. It is illegal and it is a criminal act. It is inhuman. Senator John McCain knows about solitary confinement, here is what he wrote:
“It’s an awful thing, solitary,” John McCain wrote of his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam—more than two years of it spent in isolation in a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot cell, unable to communicate with other P.O.W.s except by tap code, secreted notes, or by speaking into an enamel cup pressed against the wall. “It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.”
Terry Anderson the chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press was kidnapped by Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1985. He was released in 1991. In his memoir ‘Den of Lions” he recounts his bitter experience and ‘solitary confinement’ is a bitter chapter he would rather forget. He wrote ‘“The mind is a blank. Jesus, I always thought I was smart. Where are all the things I learned, the books I read, the poems I memorized? There’s nothing there, just a formless, gray-black misery. My mind’s gone dead. God, help me.”
After sharing a cell with other hostages he was thrown into solitary confinement and after a few weeks he recalled in his memoir “I find myself trembling sometimes for no reason,” he wrote. “I’m afraid I’m beginning to lose my mind, to lose control completely.”
Mr. McCain was an enemy prisoner and Mr. Anderson was a kidnapping victim. On the other hand Judge Bertukan is neither an enemy nor hostage. Judge Bertukan is in jail because the Prime Minister is afraid of her. She is one person in Ethiopia that followed the letter of the law when she was a judge. She took her oath of office very seriously. She refused to bend to the wishes of the Prime Minister.
Now we hear that the confinement and the psychological warfare waged against our sister is having its effects. She is only human and can only resist as much and no more. Last Sunday during a the weekly few minutes visit with her mother Judge Bertukan was trying to alert her visitor about her condition when the ever present female guard whisked her away cruelly. We heard Judge Bertukan was seen crying. That must be a very strange display of weakness for a strong lady like Bertukan. We are all sad to hear such a monstrous story.
We demand the Prime Minster release Judge Bertukan now. That is the right thing to do. We know he is not going to do that. We demand his enablers, the British and US government to use their influence on the rogue regime to allow Red Cross and independent doctors to visit and treat Judge Bertukan.
We put the Prime Minster and his underlings on notice that the Ethiopian people are watching their criminal acts. We might not have the power and resource to stop this insane tragedy at this time but we know in the long run good will triumph over evil. Today’s jailers are tomorrow’s prisoners. We have seen that in our country. Right now our concern is our courageous sister and we will do anything to set her free.
We urge women of Ethiopia to rally to save our strong sister. They should be in the forefront of the struggle to bring about the release of a mother, political leader and future prime minister of Ethiopia.
We urge Ethiopians friends of Ethiopia and all peace and justice loving people to contact their Senators and representative and urge them to demand the release of our leader. Use the following web address to locate the number to your elected official:
US Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
House of representative: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml
I am sure you are familiar with all the big numbers thrown around when it comes to the number of Ethiopians in the US. Hundreds here thousands there add up to make an impressive amount. My travels the last few years have taken me to different parts of the Country. To tell you the truth I was not ready for DC metro area. The sheer number of Abeshas in all walks of life begs the question ‘who is left in Ethiopia?’
Why bother traveling to Addis when you can just drop by U Street. The smell of freshly brewed coffee with a whiff of caramelized onions and itan (እጣን) smoke was permeating the air. On U Street the mind plays tricks on you. One is virtually transported back to Ethiopia. A certain UN describable spirit takes over. It is Merkato tossed with Bole and a sprinkle of Piazza but cleaner. And a procession of never ending Ethiopians. This scenario is repeated in most metropolitan areas of the continent.
From Toronto to Vancouver BC, from New York to LA and from Seattle to Dallas there are Ethiopian enclaves mimicking life at home. Telegraph Avenue of Berkeley/Oakland is the same as Little Ethiopia in Los Angles. 12th. Street of Seattle resembles U Street of DC. It is all about Ethiopians working with Ethiopians making each other proud for being able to create such a vibrant community in exile. The Restaurant owner, the shop keeper, the lawyer, taxi driver, university professor, house wife, Beauty saloon operator, contractor, real estate agent etc. etc. mingling to help their community thrive.
Damn, I said to myself ‘there sure is plenty of us in exile.’ All available evidence points to a resourceful people that have managed to adapt to a new and strange environment. We have also managed to make our new home resemble the one we left behind. We can make any mother proud. But, there is always a ‘but’ isn’t there? That’s life. It is a shock to find out the appearance is what we are into. Just like Hollywood creates illusion to simulate the imagined event we have created our own façade to hide our indifference. We wave the flag to show our love while we feed the monster that devours the flag.
Our behavior is very perplexing. It is very unreasonable. It is just not like us. When did we change? That is what brought the memory of Ato Ketema into my head. The story of Ato Ketema was a ‘teachable moment’ in my life. It was a powerful lesson. It was an incident that was etched in my brain.
I was in my teens in a small town in southern Ethiopia. It was a time an organization called ‘From Alem Gena to Wollamo road building project.’ (ከአለም ገና አስከ ወላሞ የመንገድ ሥራ ድርጅት) was founded. As the name implies the idea was to build a highway between the two cities. They were going to issue stocks to build the road and recover their investment by running a bus system on the new highway. Thus the directors of the organization travel to all the major towns and meet town elders to assess the situation. Based on income they will levy an amount the individual or his family is expected to invest in the project.
So one summer they showed up in our little town. They went about their business of asking merchants for investment. I remember my family being exited about the shares they acquired. There is always one nay sayer in any gathering. Ato Ketema was one. Ato Ketema is a well to do shop keeper with a thriving business. In fact his store was so big that it has two doors. I believe the investment asked of him was not much. It was definitly something he can afford. For some odd reason Ato Keteka refused to buy shares and help his people. His friends, family and neighbors were sent to appeal to him. He refused. What do you think they did? They decided to punish his anti social behavior by utilizing the power of boycott. A gathering was called and his refusal to give back to the community that sustains him was condemned. People were instructed not to enter his store, associate with him and not even invite him to weedings and funerals. He was made a pariahs by the town.
It was not long before Ato Ketema was reduced into a shadow of his former self. His store was empty and his friends were avoiding him like the plague. Within a matter of weeks Ato Ketema was walking down the street talking to himself and dispalying strange behavior. Ato Ketema was finding out the cost of his one man stand against the many. Ato Ketema was forced to come infront of the elders accompanied by religious leaders and beg for forgivness. He was made to pay a fine and the social curse was lifted. No matter, Ato ketema never recovered from the humiliation.
As a young person I was impressed by the powerful show of force by the community. The good of the many can not be overriden by the benifit to the individual. I saw the effect of social sanction to modify a persons anti social behavior.
Imagine my surprise later in life when I found out what the people of my town did was duplicted both by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Our town used the weapon to change the behavior of an individual while our two teachers used it to challange and change an unjust law.
In 1930 the British colonizers passed the Salt Tax. It made it illigal to collect salt from the coast, sell or produce salt. The British assumed monopoly on salt. Gandhi wrote to the viceroy and told him of his plan to march 248 miles to the coast in defiace. He said ‘I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man’s standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil.’ The Mahatma gathered seventy-eight of his pupils and made the jorney attracting many followes along the road. The salt march ushered in the struggle for independence that ultimately succeed and was able to create a stable democracy.
Martin Luther King led the boycott of Montegomery, Albama bus system to oppose the city’s policy of racial segrgation on its transit system. The boycott caused financial hardship on the transit system. The refusal of Mrs. Rosa parks to surrender her seat to a white person led the US supreme Court to rule segregation of the bus system to be unconstitutional.
Gandhi challanged the British law. Gandhi showed the Indian people that un just law does not have to be obyed. Disobdience comes with a price. Being shot at, thrown in jail or exiled is the price leaders pay. That is what is called the burden of leadership. Ask Gandhi, ask Mandella, ask MLK or ask Bertukan. They will tell you freedom by petition is not going to happen. Experience shows freedom is attained using a combination of bullets, boycots, marches and international awareness. That is what is called the stick and the carrott approach.
Martin Luther King took the route of boycott as a weapon of prefrence to challange the system. He was aware that the system will not tolerate killing. They can use water hose, tear gas, police dogs or police battons but not live bullets. He used that to the maximun.
In todays Ethiopia where the dictator has his own Agazi militia, Kilil dogs and the whole military under his command the picture is a little different. He shots to kill. He has been killing the last seventeen years. Whether we like it or not a force will emerge that will successfuly challange the clueless regime. Where there is repression there is resistance. That is the law of nature.
On the other hand one can’t just sit and wait for a redemer. When it comes to our self interest we seem to be action oriented. We walk/fly over oceans and mountains to get away and start a new life. That is why we are here. Because we wanted to do better. To be free. To thrive. How come that is not translated into helping those that were left behind. ‘Is it a case of I got my share the rest be damned?’ (እኔከሞትኩ ሰርዶ አይብቀል እኮ የአሀያ አስተሳሰብ ነው።) That is not going to work. That little voice inside of us can not be silenced.
We should do what we can to help. We should be very careful not to hurt. We should use everything in our power to uphold the sacredness of human life. We should work to shame those that abuse human beings and bring sadness and agony on their people. We are not against individuals. It is their lawless act we fight against. When we say no and deny them our support they will be forced to modify their destructive behavior. When we refrain from being part of their ponzi investment scheme, when we refuse to fly their private airlines, when we do not participate in their illigal land grabs they will be forced to listen to us. Money is their aphrodisiac. Without it they shrivel. My town people knew the power of not rewarding a destructive behavior. We should learn to use the power of “NO”!
It is really great to be young; but for those who are not, the next best thing is to be at a Teddy Afro concert and jam late into the night with a ballroom full of irrepressible and euphoric young Ethiopian Angelinos. On February 13, Proud Teddy brought his triumphant “Love Conquers All” world tour to the Proud Bird, a well-known LA institution for one-half century themed around vintage WW II war birds. Teddy was in top form belting out one hit after another as he almost levitated on stage. His Abugida Band and backup singers bellowed flaming rhythms and roots-style music combining traditional Ethiopian melodies with reggae beats. Teddy was on fire at the Proud Bird, as was his enraptured audience.
I have listened to Teddy Afro on CD and viewed his Youtube videos countless times. His voice, his message and powerful lyrics and his melodies have moved me, rocked me, soothed me and lifted me when I was down. But there is nothing that compares to watching this young musical genius live. The difference between watching Teddy live and listening to him on CD/Youtube is the difference between listening to gospel music on the radio and singing it in the choir with the preacher directing. The Proud Bird concert was a quasi-spiritual experience, almost like being at an old time southern Baptist revival. His audience was not only passionately and emotionally involved with the lyrics and melodies in his music, they were spiritually bonded to him with some invisible gravitational force. There was not a single person at the concert who was not movin’, swingin’, rockin’ and rollin’ and groovin’.
For those us who had never seen Teddy perform live and witnessed the standing-room only crowd go into semi-conscious trance, it was a walk down memory lane. I recall seeing such deep spiritual connection between an artist and his audience decades ago when Bob Marley came to my alma mater, the University of Minnesota, on May 30, 1978 (Kaya Tour) and November 15, 1979 (Survival Tour). Those fortunate enough to have present at a Bob Marley concert know exactly what I mean.
As the show began, for nearly a minute we could only hear Teddy singing from backstage using a remote microphone. It was an electrifying moment of anticipation. As Teddy burst on stage wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Marley’s image, the audience went into total frenzy. I could not help but feel the palpable spiritual presence of Bob Marley on stage that night. Teddy was unbound; he sang and danced and pranced, leaped and twirled and fluttered on stage as streams of sweat flooded down his face. The jam-packed audience cheered, clapped, screamed, shrieked, shouted and hopped; and a sea of upward stretched hands swung side to side in the cavernous hall.
Having seen Teddy live, it is plain that he does not sing just to sing. I really believe the man sings for one reason only: He is hopelessly in love with Ethiopia. How is it possible for anyone to sing for over two hours and manage to include in every song something about Ethiopia, its people, its cities and towns, rivers, mountains and valleys, religions, history, geography, politics and on and on? He sang nearly all of his classic hits, but he ignited the audience on a five-alarm fire when he sang about Africa’s “father” H.I.M. Haile Selassie and Yastesereal. “How is it that thousands of young people who were not even born at the time the Emperor was murdered by the Derg military junta have such connection to him”, I wondered. What is it about the song “Yasteseryal” that drives Ethiopians into near-convulsive ecstasy when they hear it?
To say that there is something extraordinary about Teddy as an artist is to state the obvious. But perhaps what is less obvious is the fact of how Teddy has inherited the mantle from the Bob Marley and adapted it for Ethiopia. Some have indeed compared Teddy to Marley for his ability to bring a political, spiritual, and rhythmic power to his music and his raw ability to electrify his audience. Like Marley whose passion was African liberation and pan-Africanism, Teddy’s passion is the freedom, unity, reconciliation and harmony of the Ethiopian people. Like Marley, Teddy’s music is stirring, thrilling and even heart-wrenching. Like Marley, Teddy sings songs of love, peace, hope, faith, charity, justice, reconciliation, understanding and forgiveness. These are the sources of Teddy’s rhythmic power which enable him to reach deep into the Ethiopian soul and psyche and suture the festering wounds of despair, soothe the unendurable pain of oppression and prophesy the coming of a new day of love, peace and justice in Ethiopia.
To describe the “Teddy Afro musical experience” as a mere concert is to do injustice to the truth. It is really more than that. It is the closest thing to a spiritual revival meeting. Teddy just does not sing about the love he has for Ethiopia and its people, he makes you feel it in your bones. He does not just talk about bringing Ethiopians together, he brings them together in his concerts. He doesn’t just warn against hate, he teaches how love conquers hate. He is not nostalgic about the past, but he wants us all to understand it, learn from it and honor those who have made contributions despite their mistakes. Like any revival meeting, Teddy has the audacity to believe in the coming of a new day, and to prophesy Ethiopia’s redemption. Now I know why this young musical genius is loved by millions of Ethiopians, and why he is a national hero and not just an extraordinary artist.
On stage, Teddy appears to be a man of small physical frame and stature, but he is a powerhouse of endless spiritual energy and musical creativity. He not only can mesmerize his audience with the sheer power and purity of his message, he can actually be seen “curing” souls. His uses his voices to dazzle, his lyrics to seduce, his melodies to spellbind; and combines it all in an exhilarating stage showmanship that captivates, delights, enchants, charms and simply overpowers. He gives everything to his audience, and his audience give back to him all their love.
The virtuosity of the Abugida Band and the sweet chorus of the backup singers is simply spectacular. They just kept the collective ecstasy jah-ming. The event organizers are to be commended and appreciated for coordinating such a magnificent tour and for making it possible for Ethiopians in exile to see and enjoy Teddy live. Teddy will continue with his world tour. As he does so, let us be mindful that he is that strong steel bridge that spans the generation and geographic gap among Ethiopians.
In our youth thousands of miles away from our homeland, Jimi Hendrix, a great superstar from Seattle, Washington taught us, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” Teddy has now traveled thousands of miles to America to teach our children, “When the power of love overcomes those who love power in Ethiopia, Ethiopia will know peace.” It is nice to feel young once again. Proud Teddy, thanks for a great lesson. More Love Power to you, brother, and to all of us.
Thanks for a great revival meeting in L.A.!
Jah, Yasteseryal! Love Conquers All! (Fikir Yashenefal)
Since the dawn of African independence from colonialism in the early 1960s, African liberation leaders and founding fathers qua dictators, military junta and “new breed” leaders have sought to justify the one-man, one-party state — and avoid genuine multiparty democracy — by fabricating a blend of self-serving arguments which converge on the notion that in Africa there is a democracy before democracy. The core argument can be restated in different ways: Before Africa can have political democracy, it must have economic democracy. Africans are more concerned about meeting their economic needs than having abstract political rights. Economic development necessarily requires sacrifices in political rights. African democracy is a different species of democracy which has roots in African culture and history. African societies are plagued by ethnic, tribal and religious conflicts which can be solved not by Western-style liberal democracy but within the framework of the traditional African institutions of consensus-building, elder mediation and conciliation. Western-style democracy is unworkable, alien and inappropriate to Africans because the necessary preconditions for such a system are not present. Widespread poverty, low per capita incomes, a tiny middle class and the absence of a democratic civic culture render such a system incongruous with African realities. Liberal democracy could come to Africa only after significant economic development has been achieved. Any premature introduction or misguided imposition of it by the West could actually harm Africans by destroying their budding faith in democracy itself.
Stripped of rhetorical flourish, such self-serving arguments exploit manifest contradictions and deficits in African societies for the purposes of justifying the consolidation and fortification of the powers of the one-man, one-party state, and preventing the institutionalization of a competitive multiparty democratic process with electoral and constitutional accountability. The claim of primacy of “economic democracy” is based on an impressionistic (not empirically substantiated) assumption that the masses of poor, illiterate, hungry and sick Africans are too dumb to appreciate “political democracy”. In other words, the African masses are interested in the politics of the belly and not the politics of democracy and political rights. Africans live for and by bread alone. Elections, legal rights and liberties are meaningless to the poor and hungry masses. This assumption is pure nonsense as various well designed and executed empirical studies of democratic attitudes in Africa have shown. The claim of ethnic conflict to justify the one-man, one-party system is internally self-contradictory. If indeed the communalism and the institutions of traditional, pre-colonial African societies are the most effective means for dispute resolution and consensus-building, it is illogical to insist on investing a single leader and his party with sweeping and expansive powers.
All the layered sophistry and paralogism of African dictators is intended to mask their insatiable hunger for power and produce one set of self-serving axiomatic conclusions: Africa is not yet ready for genuine multiparty democracy. The one-man, one-party system is the only means to save Africa from itself, and from complete social, economic and political implosion. The one-man, one-party system will evolve into a genuine multiparty democracy at some undetermined time in the future. In the meantime, the one-man, one-party show must go on.
Post-independence African history is instructive in understanding the scourge of the one-man, and the curse of one-party rule in Africa. Ghana’s independence from colonialism as the first sub-Saharan African country in 1957, and the role played by its first prime minister and later president Kwame Nkrumah is central to understanding the pervasive problem of civilian and military dictatorships in Africa. Ghana was undoubtedly the most economically and socially advanced country in sub-Saharan Africa with an advanced educational system and relatively well-developed infrastructures when it gained its independence. Nkrumah was a role model for the dozens of leaders of African countries that achieved independence in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite Nkruma’s status as the unrivalled champion of Pan-Africanism and strong advocacy for a united Africa, he was also the single individual most responsible for casting the mold for the one-man, one-party dictatorship in post-independence Africa. Barely a year into his administration, the once fiery anti-colonial advocate of political rights and democracy had transformed himself into a power-hungry despot. He enacted a law making labor strikes illegal. He declared it was unpatriotic to strike. Paranoid about his opposition, he enacted a preventive detention act which gave him sweeping powers to arrest and detain any person suspected of treason without due process of law. He even dismissed the chief justice of Ghanaian Supreme Court, Sir Arku Korsah, when a three-judge panel Korsah headed acquitted suspects accused of plotting a coup. Nkrumah amended the constitution making his party, the Convention People’s Party, the only legal party in the country. He capped his political career by having himself declared president-for-life.
Other African leaders followed in Nkrumah’s footsteps. Julius Nyrere became the first president of Tanganyka (Tanzania) in 1962 and announced his brand of African socialism built around rural folks and their traditional values in a ujamma (extended family) system. Millions of villagers were forced into collectivized agriculture. He modeled his constitution after Ghana’s and followed Nkruma’s script. Nyrere established a one-man, one-party state around his Tanganyika African National Union, outlawed strikes, nationalized private banks and industries, duplicated Nkruma’s preventive detention act to go after his opponents and greatly increased his personal power.
With the exception of a few countries, Africa had been incurably infected by Nkrumah’s one-man, one-party virus before the end of the 1960s. Most of the leaders of the newly independent African countries followed Nkrumaha’s political formula by declaring states of emergency, suspending their constitutions, conferring unlimited executive powers upon themselves, and enacting oppressive laws which enabled them to arrest, detain and persecute their rivals, dissenters, and others they considered threats at will.
The economic and political outcomes of the one-man, one-party dictatorships by the end of the 1960s were dismal. Nkrumah’s program of rapid industrialization by reducing Ghana’s dependence on foreign capital and imports had a devastating effect on its important cocoa export sector. Many of the socialist economic development projects he launched failed. By the time he was overthrown in a military coup in 1966, Ghana had fallen from one of the richest African countries to one of the poorest. Similarly, Tanzania nose-dived from the largest exporter of agricultural products in Africa to the largest importer of agricultural products. The one-man, one-party state also proved to be ineffective in reducing ethnic tensions and preventing conflict. Civil wars, genocides, low level ethnic conflicts and corruption spread throughout the continent like wildfire.
Waiting in the wings were Africa’s soldiers. Accusing the civilian governments of corruption, incompetence and mismanagement of the economy and claiming a patriotic duty to rescue their countries from collapse, military officers knocked off these governments one by one. Gen. Joseph Mobutu seized power in the Congo (Zaire) following a protracted political struggle between Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasavubu. Col. Houari Boumedienne overthrew Ahmed Ben Bella in Algeria. A group of army officers overthrew the monarchy in Brundi. In the Central African Republic, Col. Bokassa (later Emperor Jean Bedel Bokassa) overthrew David Dacko. Gen. Idi Amin overthrew Milton Obote in Uganda. Nigeria flipped two coups, one by Gen. Johnson Ironsi who was overthrown by Gen. Yakubu Gowon. Many other African countries suffered similar fates.
There is overwhelming evidence to show that the one-man, one-party state has been a total failure in Africa over the past one-half century. Under these dictatorships, African countries have faced civil and border wars and ethnic and religious strife. Famine, malnutrition and insufficient food production have caused the deaths of millions of Africans. The poverty and unemployment rates continue to rise despite billions in foreign aid and loans. Infant mortality is nearly 100 per thousand (compared to 5 in the United States). Africans have the lowest life expectancies in the world. After fifty years of independence per capita income in much of Africa had declined so much that President Obama had to artfully remind Africans in his speech in Ghana: “Countries like Kenya, which had a per capita economy larger than South Korea’s when I was born, have been badly outpaced.” Politically, the one-man, one-party dictatorships have brought neither ethnic harmony nor good governance; and they have failed to forge a common national identity for their people.
Today we still hear the same rubbish about a democracy before democracy recycled by a “new breed” of silver-tongued African leaders. Meles Zenawi, the chief architect of the one-man, one-party state in Ethiopia says:
Establishing democracy in Africa is bound to take a long time and that elections alone will not produce democracy and do not necessarily bring about democratic culture or guarantee a democratic exercise of rule. Creating a democracy in poverty-ridden and illiterate societies that have not yet fully embraced democratic values and are not yet familiar with democratic concepts, rules and procedures is bound to take a long time and to exact huge costs.
Similar arguments are made by Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda; and even the wily old coyote, Robert Mugabe, pulls the same stunt at age 85 to justify clinging to power.
The “new breed” dictators are trying to sell the same old snake oil in a new bottle to Africans. But no one is fooled by the sweet-talking, iron-fisted new breed dictators who try to put a kinder and gentler face on their dictatorship, brutality and corruption. They should spare us their empty promises and hypocritical moral pontifications. For one-half century, Africans have been told democracy requires sacrifices and pain; and they must look inwards to their village communities, traditional elders and consensus dialogue to find the answers. Africans don’t want to hear that “democracy” takes time and they must wait, and wait and wait as the new breed of dictators pick the continent clean right down to the bare bones. Africans want Africa to no longer be the world’s cesspool of corruption, criminality and cruelty.
The fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as democracy before democracy. There could be either democracy or one-man, one-party dictatorships in Africa. We all know exactly what the latter means. The only question is how best to implement constitutional multiparty systems in Africa. On this question, there may be an ironic twist of history. As Ghana was the original model of the one-man, one-party state in Africa, Ghana today could be the model of constitutional multiparty democracy in Africa.
As I have argued previously argued[1], Ghana today has a functioning competitive multiparty political system guided by its Constitution. Article 55 guarantees “Every citizen of Ghana of voting age has the right to join a political party.” Political parties are free to organize and “disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes of a national character.” BUT TRIBAL AND ETHNIC PARTIES ARE ILLEGAL IN GHANA under Article 55 (4). That is the key to Ghana’s political success. The Ghanaians also have an independent Electoral Commission which ensures the integrity of the electoral process, and under Article 46 is an institution “not subject to the direction or control of any person or authority.” Ghanaians enjoy many a panoply of political civil, economic, social and cultural rights. In 2008, Ghana (population 23 million) ranked 31 out of 173 countries worldwide on World Press Freedom Index (Ethiopia- population 80 million ranked 142/173). There are more than 133 private newspapers, 110 FM radio stations and 2 state-owned dailies. Ghanaians express their opinions without fear of government retaliation. The rule of law is upheld and the government follows and respects the Constitution. Ghana has an independent judiciary which is vital to the observance of the rule of law and protection of civil liberties. Political leaders and public officials abide by the rulings and decisions of the courts and other fact-finding inquiry commissions. Ghana is certainly not a utopia, but it is proof positive that multiparty constitutional democracy can and will work in Africa.
Africa’s and Ethiopia’s future in the 21st Brave New Globalized Century lie in genuine multiparty democracy, not in recycled one-man, one-party, pie-in-the-sky-promising dictatorships. Poverty, ethnic conflict, illiteracy and all of the other social ills will continue to haunt Africa for decades to come. Dealing effectively with these issues can not be left to failed-beyond-a-shadow-of-doubt, one-man, one-party dictatorships. If Africa is to be saved from total collapse, its ordinary people must be fully empowered in an open, pluralistic and competitive multiparty political process. For those who have any doubts about Ethiopia’s readiness for genuine multiparty democracy, let them look at the facts of the 2005 election: 26 million eligible Ethiopians were registered to vote in that election out of a population of 74 million.A stunning 90 percent of the 26 million actually voted. NO MORE ONE-MAN, ONE-PARTY DICTATORSHIPS IN AFRICA. GENUINE MULTIPARTY DEMOCRACY, NOW!
[1] http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/10396
Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. He writes a regular blog on The Huffington Post, and his commentaries appear regularly on Pambazuka News and New American Media.
Google is at war with the Peoples Republic of China. Google is a worthy adversary. If I was a betting person I will put all my money on Google. There is no question Google will win. The Peoples Republic is playing the old game of bullying. Too bad for the Chinese those days are gone. It is a new age, a new game and winning comes from using your smarts not your brute force.
Google choose ‘Don’t be evil’ as the company motto. It looks like Google measured the company’s venture in China and the scale tipped towards evil. Google decided evil is not the way forward.
Google is an Internet search company located a few miles from where I live. It has been named as the best place to work in Fortune magazines survey. It is a forward-looking progressive company mindful of its social responsibility. There are plenty of smart Ethiopians working for Google. In fact my friend Tesh might join Google the next few days. We are all happy and proud.
Google entered the Chinese market in 2006. Google.cn agreed to purge its search results of banned topics such as Tiananmen, Tibet and other issues deemed sensitive by the communist government. Most civil right activists were not happy. Google felt having some access was better than no access. What Google CEO Eric Schmidt said was very memorable ‘we actually did an evil scale and decided not to serve at all was worse evil’ he opined.
As is the case with most incompatible marriages the Google –China union is showing cracks. Google is not happy with the sophisticated cyber attacks that are originating from China. The hackers are trying to penetrate computer security systems and steal corporate data and software source codes. Google is forced to revise its earlier decision to play dead and accommodate a repressive system.
According to David Drummond, chief legal officer of Google ‘we have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.
What lesson can we learn from Google’s encounter with an evil system and its response to stop such abuse? I believe Google is following the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Google is practicing the art of peaceful resistance to challenge a formidable looking but at the same time a weak opponent. A paper tiger; to borrow Mao’s phrase. Google can still serve its Chinese customers from outside. Software sophistication has come a long way. The average Chinese can use proxy servers and virtual networks to go around the ‘great Chinese firewall’. Google built its reputation by the quality of its superior search engine. Uncensored Google can beat any competition suffering under the yoke of state supervision. Thus Google felt evil cannot be accommodated. Google tried but found out compromise with dictatorship was a dead end street. Google choose not to participate in a rigged game.
We in Ethiopia are faced with the same situation. We have an opponent that is not willing to practice the art of give and take. Compromise is foreign to our TPLF bosses. Contempt to all others has become second nature to the tribal regime. Just as Google tried with China, the Ethiopian people have tried to accommodate the fears and worries of the minority based government. Time and time again the hand stretched palms up for peace and harmony have been chopped off. Peace is preferable to war, negotiation is superior to confrontation and compromise is more civilized than take it or leave attitude but all are a two way street. It takes the goodwill of both parties in a conflict to come to an understanding.
Google decided playing by the Communist party’s rule is more ruinous than not playing. We in Ethiopia should sit down and weigh the cost of further humiliation at the hands of a few delusional cadres as opposed to saying enough and charting a new path. The harm to our country and to ourselves is greater in the long run than the make believe peace we have conjured up in our head.
Google could have waited out the Chinese politburo. Google could have said ‘we will take this little compromise and hope for more.’ Google knew the longer its patience the more belligerent the demands get. Google said enough is enough. ጉግል በቃ አለ፣እርሶስ ምን ይላሉ?
There are some in Ethiopia that are trying to outlive evil. They talk about the high cost of confrontation. They preach about the virtue of patience. Then they try to raise alarm about the weakness of the opposition. They totally agree about the unfairness of the system but qualify their response by the impossibility of victory. It is true that no one goes to war to lose, but on the other hand when a war is declared by an enemy the only option is to do ones best to win. Rolling over dead is not a winning strategy.
The Chinese Government gave Google the license to operate. But it was a qualified license. Google tried its best to serve its customers with all the restrictions placed on it. It tried to make the best of a difficult situation. Facilitating the open exchange of information is Google’s business. The Chinese government was trying to muzzle that. Google found out you can’t serve two masters at the same time. It is either the Chinese people or the Chinese government.
It sounds like a familiar situation for us Ethiopians. The tribal regime allows formation of political party’s. It sets date and time for elections. Unfortunately there is a big but. You can register your party but you can’t campaign. You can stand for elections but your leaders will be jailed. You can sit and talk in a closed room but you cannot be quoted. It is ok to have election supervisors but they will be appointed by the regime. It is like entering a boxing ring with both hands tied behind your back and the referee is the mother of your opponent.
So Google is in the process of redefining its business contract with the Chinese government. It is willing to abandon working within the system and try its chances from outside China. It looks like Google made the change of course decision without looking at the other actors on the Chinese stage. Yahoo is still there. MSN is staying put. It really don’t matter. Google’s stand is based on its corporate principle of ‘Don’t do evil.’
We Ethiopians always fret about the opinion and stand of others. We shift responsibility and accountability unto others. We avoid answering to our conscience and try to find excuse for our deliberately vague outlook. The minority regime is beating the drums of elections. All the preparations for coronations are in place. The press has been muzzled, opposition leaders are put in jail, exiled, killed or co-opted, the law has been amended to TPLF’s specifications, the country is flooded with cadres bullying the population and the foreign Diplomats are stepping over each other preaching the wonderful art of compromise. The ducks are all lined up!
Be like Google and say no to unfair competition. Dare to say no to humiliation.
