The news regarding the Gold brick scam from Ethiopia is both comical and sad. It is not desirable to be held up for shame and ridicule by the whole freaking planet. It is just another insult to our fragile ego. Go ahead and pile it on. Can we do something right for a change? The only positive news coming out of our homeland is ‘Lucy’. That does not count. It is just too old. In a two weeks time span the UN declared over 9 million Ethiopians are in need of food aid, there is going to be a power shortage for the next 3 months or more, there is water shortage, we are facing grain and beef shortage, the invasion of Somalia is turning ugly, inflation is hitting double digits and the repression is hitting a brick wall of indifference. Nation gone wild!
When you think you have seen it all, out of the blue the minority regime strikes again. The latest incident is humiliating to the maximum. Apparently the TPLF cadre led Régime ruling over Ethiopia has found itself to be at the other end of its natural state. It had been in the giving end up until now. This time TPLF was the receiver. Therefore condolences are in order. In 2006 and 2007 the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) bought 529 KG of gold from some dummy company and transferred $200,000,000.00 Bir (two point two million USD) into the scammers account in Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, which was transferred to a foreign account legally. Unfortunate for NBE out of the 529 KG only 30 KG was gold the rest being lead!
After you get over your initial shock you start to ask. How did this happen? It is conceivable that individuals are sometimes victims of con artists. But how in the world do you con a government? According to Wiki ‘Confidence tricksters often rely on the greed and dishonesty of the mark, who may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that “you can’t cheat an honest man.
It makes sense. Greed and dishonesty are the hallmark of TPLF administration. In today’s Ethiopia there is no rule of law and there is no place for honesty and service. Life has become one big scam. As the Nation became one big killing field during the Derg era, scam and con are a national virtue these days. The gap between the haves and the have not is very wide. The rich have an appetite that cannot be satisfied. The poor have lost all faith. The government is orchestrating all this with zeal.
There is a price tag on everything. Think of Ikea on a national scale. Everything has a price, and anything is possible. Woyane started by handing our Port to a two-bit dictator as a payment for cadre training. Since then fixing a price tag on Ethiopia has become routine. Even our National Army is for hire (Darfur & Somalia). Our daughters are for rent to Arab degenerates. There is nothing sacred anymore. Even the Abuna is a fan of Beyonce and some hip-hop group from the US was the headline performer during Woyane/Sheik Millennium celebration. Lord has mercy.
A one million Bir house is no big deal; a cow costs five thousand Bir, sheep is three hundred and Chicken is bargain at one hundred fifty. A working class lunch is four Bir while the unemployment is over 40% among the youth, a kilo of coffee goes for 40 Bir, butter costs 75 a kilo and berbere will set you back 90 Bir per kilo. With inflation nearing 40% life is a constant struggle.
Conning their ferenji benefactors is a full time job with the TPLF (ferenji is not fooled, it serves its interest). The Ethiopian people are immune to this. They know their TPLF is one uncultured, uncouth wanna be dictator which should be kept at arms length if at all possible. The less you deal with them the better of you are. Last time the TPLF tried conning the people was the general election of 2005. Oh yes the people said, hold an election and of course we will be there for you. Stupid Woyane bought this. Illiterate peasants out coned them. They were forced to reveal their ugly side. Even their loudest supporters were shamed into silence.
The ‘Diaspora’ is the only victim of Woyane con. Greed is its undoing. Woyane dangles the gift of free land for lease and a very low cost as a come on. Once the initial deposit is made and ‘service quarters’ built the real con starts. Cost overruns, material shortage and inflation doubling the cost of construction is normal. And after all this hurdles are overcome then starts the real problem. A monster of a house with shoddy and sub-par construction using inferior material is ready and waiting. Not so fast my dear ‘Diaspora’ we have this little situation of no water and no electricity here. Of course we are an emerging democracy, you just have to be patience with us, could we have the property tax please, dollars will be fine and please use Wogagen Bank.
So, when I came across the Gold brick scam I did not know what to make of it. On one hand it was a national treasure being looted. On the other hand Woyane has been doing that for the last seventeen years so what is new? And when you consider the very cheap nature of the ruling class the whole thing feels like a setup. It could be a new way of scamming the ferenji for a few more dollars.
No matter, I would love to believe TPLF has been had. Due to the culture of greed and dishonesty they planted and nurtured, even the national treasure is fair game. It is a shame everyone talks as if it is Woyane’s gold. Well sort of true since NBE and everything else flows outward from the Prime Minster’s office. In Ethiopia micro management is taken to an insane level. One head is better than two is the guiding principle. The NBE director reports directly to the PM. The PM is ultimately responsible for the actions of NBE. Is this a leadership failure or not? In most Parliamentary Democracies the leader of the party is accountable to such colossal disaster. As they say in any system based on accountability, heads will roll. The only head rolling in Ethiopia is some hapless low-level operators left as sacrificial lamb.
TPLF is shell-shocked. They are discussing which enemy to pin it on. Is it the Opposition or Shabia, OLF or the Diaspora? They can always blame it on one of their inner circle that is in disfavor. My advice to TPLF is get used to it. We are entering an un-chartered territory now. With the Somali invasion a disaster, hyperinflation around the corner, HR2003 marching forward the balance is shifting. We saw Kenya. Zimbabwe is another lesson in the making. We are sure of one thing. The last days are always full of drama. Get used to being on the receiving end my dear Woyane.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]
DJIBOUTI (Reuters) – Djibouti has arrested and repatriated nearly 7,000 immigrants this year, mostly Somalis and Ethiopians, in a crackdown on illegal migration to the Red Sea state, police said on Friday.
Thousands of people in the impoverished Horn of Africa risk death every year trying to cross the shark-invested Red Sea in rickety boats from Djibouti to Yemen, seen as a gateway to wealthier parts of the Middle East and Europe.
Djibouti is one of the closest African countries to Yemen, and is safer than lawless Somalia for migrants from landlocked Ethiopia and the northern parts of Somalia.
“This period is the season to pass through the border because it is the cooler November-to-May season. Otherwise in the summer many immigrants die in the desert from thirst,” Police Lieutenant Abdourahim Ali told Reuters.
The police said 6,723 immigrants mainly from Ethiopia and Somalia have been arrested and sent home this year. Djibouti caught and repatriated 16,091 people in 2007, and 12,579 in 2006.
Earlier this month, at least 53 Somalis drowned off the coast of Yemen while trying to cross from Somalia to the Arabian peninsula.
Near-daily violence in southern Somalia from an Islamist-led insurgency against the Somali government and its Ethiopian allies has displaced hundreds of thousands.
Djiboutian police said a recent surge in violence in Mogadishu had caused increased numbers of would-be migrants to come into Djibouti.
(Reporting by Omar Hassan; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Bryson Hull and Caroline Drees)
The chigaram (beggar) regime in Ethiopia and its poverty-monger partners request $67.7 million for food. Is the money really to buy food? Didn’t Meles last week say his agricultural policy has been successful?
NEW YORK — The Ethiopian government and its humanitarian partners yesterday announced that a total of $67,737,459 is required to fund the country’s humanitarian response to the effects of the prevailing drought.
An estimated 2.2 million people are in need of emergency food assistance following inadequate rainfall in some parts of the country during the 2007 meher rainy season, which runs from June to October. In addition, about 947,000 vulnerable people will continue to receive assistance under the country’s Productive Safety Nets Programme – a relief-to-development project initiated by the government in 2005 in an attempt to end dependency on food aid.
Most of those affected by the effects of the dry weather conditions live in the Somali, the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s State (SNNP), Tigray and Oromia Regions.
‘Conditions in Ethiopia have improved since the beginning of the year. Nevertheless humanitarian situations of various kinds remain of great concern to all of us,’ said Vincent Lelei, head of OCHA, Ethiopia, speaking in Addis Ababa the launch of the Joint Government and Humanitarian Partners’ 2008 Humanitarian Requirement Plan.
‘The continued collaboration by all humanitarian actors in Ethiopia for the benefit of the most vulnerable in the country is highly appreciated, and we look forward to strengthening this collaboration,’ Mr. Lelei added.
The total food aid requirement for those in need is estimated at about 171,646 metric tonnes. Particular attention will also be paid to health and nutrition, water and sanitation, and agriculture to help address the adverse impact of the drought.
Drought in the Horn of Africa is also expected to lead to reduced crop harvests Djibouti, Eritrea, Djibouti, northern parts of Kenya and south-central Somalia.
For further information, please call:
Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 917 892 1679;
John Nyaga, OCHA-NY, + 1 917 367 9262;
Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570.
OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int.
From a distance, the white bed is inviting, with its turned-down covers sprinkled with flower petals. Look closer, though, and you see that South African artist Ilona Anderson has embroidered the pillow case with a gun and floral holster and even pierced one with a bullet hole.
The intrusion of violence into daily life is a theme that connects the works in the exhibit”Reflections in Exile: Five Contemporary African Artists Respond to Social Injustice,” which runs through May 11 at South Shore Art Center in Cohasset.
“This very common domestic object juxtaposes life and death and recalls the high level of violence in South African society,” said co-curator Edmund Barry Gaither of Anderson’s “Forced Removal.” “In every society that has been repressed, there is violence.”
The show also features painting, installation art, graphic design and video by Khalid Kodi of Sudan, Chaz Maviyane-Davies of Zimbabwe and Salem Mekuria and Ezra Wube, both of Ethiopia. In each work of art, the artists are responding to the poverty, displacement, political repression, fighting and, in the worst cases, rape and genocide of people in their homelands.
“The artists humanize these places,” said Abington artist Candice Smith Corby, who is co-curator of the exhibit.
“We hear horrible stories, but they seem abstract. When you see the art, you have an experience that links you to the actual place.”
By using universal objects like the bed and clothing, the artists seem to emphasize the connection between the viewer and the victims.
In “Violence Inscribed,” Khalid Kodi, an internationally known artist from Sudan, turns an ordinary clothesline strung with crusty, dirty clothes into an image of the torture and murder of his countrymen and women. Behind a torn colorful woman’s dress and a child’s T-shirt hangs an undamaged patterned shawl, an image of the vibrancy that has been lost.
On the wall commentary, Kodi wrote, “Violence and sadness are etched onto these garments forever. Will life ever be the same again? … For violence has been inscribed into our collective consciousness and memory.”
The installment is dedicated to a woman from Darfur whose six children were killed by the Janjawid militias.
Chaz Maviyane-Davies, a professor of design at Massachusetts College of Art who left Zimbabwe eight years ago, has created a series of ink jet print bold posters that are overtly political. The abuse of power is expressed by a military jacket festooned with medals of tiny skulls in “Medals of Dishonor.” In “Our Fear,” intense eyes look out beneath a red beret emblazoned with two guns. The black text reads: “Use your vote and be counted. Our fear is their best weapon.”
“They’re alarming images and you can’t deny what he’s trying to say,” said Corby, who also directs the Cushing-Martin Gallery at Stonehill College.
“Any time you use a human face it’s like looking into a mirror. He’s urging you to take a stand. The artists can’t sit quietly and let these things happen without people finding out about them.”
In his oil painting “Exodus,” Ezra Wube depicts masses of people moving back and forth, facing in different directions, as though they are searching for safety. Wube, who came from Ethiopia to study at Mass College of Art, paints with warm reds, oranges and golds and conveys a vitality and beauty despite the suffering.
Filmmaker Salem Mekuria of Ethiopia presents “Ruptures: A Many Sided Story” as a triptych, a reference to the Ethiopian Orthodox religion. Through old footage and recent images that run simultaneously on three screens, you sense the complexity of history and society in Ethiopia. After escaping colonialism, Ethiopia experienced the overthrow of an emperor, famine, imposition of a Marxist-Leninist state, and war with a separatist movement.
“There’s an endless variety of themes. … It’s a comment on urbanization in every big capital in the developing world,” said Gaither, who also is director of The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Boston, where the exhibit will run June 1 to July 27.
In Mekuria’s most recent images, women dig through clothing in a mass grave, looking for their disappeared loved ones, and women dig again through a massive dump, looking for anything to sell or eat. A single woman, with her face turned away from the camera, talks about the devastation and shame of AIDS; another woman speaks of looking for her murdered son. “Ruptures’ is a portrait that is both intimate and disturbing.
An associate professor of art at Wellesley College who has received many fellowships and awards, Mekuria returns to Ethiopia twice a year to continue documenting the lives of fellow Ethiopians.
“I don’t want to tell people what to think,” she said. “I present images so that they will respond and want to find out more.”
Reflections in Exile: Five Contemporary African Artists Respond to Social Injustice at the South Shore Art Center, 119 Ripley Road, Cohasset, through May 11. Admission is free. Artists will participate in a free panel discussion at 2 p.m. April 13. For information, call 781-383-2787 or go to www.ssac.org.
These Ethiopians and Somalis perished trying to escape the hell created by Woyanne in their countries.
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(DPA) Sana’a, Yemen – Eighteen African migrants died after smugglers forced them to jump off a boat at gunpoint Saturday as they neared the end of a trip across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen, Yemeni officials said.
The officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that the boat was carrying 120 refuge-seekers, most of them Somalis, and that 102 of them managed to swim to the coast of Ahwar in the southern Yemen province of Abyan.
A local official in Abyan, some 450 kilometres from Sana’a, said the survivors were 82 Somalis and 20 Ethiopians.
A breakdown for the nationalities of the dead was not available, he said.
The official, who requested anonymity, said local fishermen in the area rescued the survivors and recovered the bodies of the dead.
“Bodies of the victims are being buried by locals in the Malha area of Ahwar district,” he said.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s [fake] opposition accused the government Woyanne of intimidation on Sunday as voters went to the polls for the first time since deadly post-election protests three years ago.
State radio said voters lined up peacefully from dawn to cast ballots. Prime Minister Dictator Meles Zenawi’s government is expecting a big win, having fielded 4 million candidates for some 3.8 million local council and parliamentary seats on offer.
All Ethiopia’s 32 opposition parties fools combined managed only to put forward a few thousand hopefuls.
Bulcha Demeksa, leader of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDP), said most of his party’s candidates had been threatened and forced to pull out of the race.
“We could only run 2 percent of the 6,000 candidates we wanted to,” he said. “And there is a very low turnout today, there is no interest. This is very far from democracy.”
The biggest parliamentary opposition party, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), had already withdrawn its 20,000 candidates before election day, saying many had been prevented from registering by the authorities.
Meles’ special adviser, Bereket Simon, denied there had been any political intimidation or harassment.
“The opposition’s complaints have been investigated by the National Electoral Board and none of them were valid,” he said.
“Despite what happened in 2005, Ethiopians have shown a high commitment to the democratization process,” he told Reuters.
Demonstrators took to the streets after polls in May 2005 that the opposition alleged were rigged. A parliamentary inquiry said 199 civilians and police were killed and 30,000 people arrested. The government denied rigging the ballot.
This week, a report on the current polls by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said its researchers noted “systemic patterns of repression and abuse that have rendered the elections meaningless in many areas”.
Election officials said 26 million people — about a third of Ethiopia’s 77 million population — were eligible to vote.
Casting her ballot in the capital Addis Ababa, 27-year-old secretary Senait Yoseph said she was voting for the government.
“This government is the best we have ever had for development,” she said. “We’ll have no more violence.”
But Eshetu Tsegaye, a 58-year-old shop owner sat smoking outside a school being used as a polling centre, said he would not be venturing inside.
“I don’t support the government and we have no real opposition running this year,” he said. “Who can I vote for?”
