CHICAGO — The men sit around tables, lingering over beer, coffee or tea, after enjoying a dinner of watt, a variety of spicy and mild stews served on top of injera, a pancake-like bread.
The cream-colored walls of the large restaurant are adorned with pictures depicting landscapes, buildings and noble figures.
In the midst of this fragrant and colorful environment, the men often discuss, and sometimes argue, mostly about politics – Ethiopian politics.
This is a common scene at Edgewater’s Ethiopian Diamond Restaurant described by owner Almaz Yigizaw.
Many of these men have been in the United States for more than 10 years, Yigizaw said, but they still show a strong passion for what happens in their country.
A country known for its bad human-rights record and oppressive government, Ethiopia will have local elections this Sunday and again on April 20.
Many Ethiopian immigrants kept up with past elections, but their interest this year is tempered by the lack of a democratic process in their homeland.
Edgewater resident Berhim Melese said he used to be interested, but when the people’s hope was crushed after post-election violence in 2005, he stopped caring.
“At this time everybody is tired of talking about politics,” he said. Many of them, Melese said, are not even aware local elections will soon take place.
During the 2005 elections, the results from the National Election Board showed the opposition parties in a strong lead. However, the board eventually declared the ruling party as the winner.
Protests ensued, resulting in over 60,000 citizens arrested and at least 200 killed. Leaders of the opposition parties were arrested and only released within the last six to eight months.
Erku Yimer said these results have led the East African nation to lose hope in elections in general.
“The election board, it’s appointed by the government,” Yimer, the executive director of the Ethiopian Community Association in Chicago, said. “It’s not neutral. It’s an arm of the government, so [Ethiopians] have no belief in the election board.”
Melese said that while many in Ethiopia’s diaspora may not know about these local elections, they are still very important to the political development of the country. Unlike the 2005 elections, which were national, these elections are for the lower levels of the administration which provides services to the Ethiopian public.
While media like the Voice of America, the BBC and even The Economist have reported on them, Melese said “real information is from the inside, and there is none.”
There is only one media in Ethiopia, controlled by the government, he said. And when he talks to family and friends in Ethiopia, Melese said none of them can speak freely about political situations.
“At this time it’s very hard [to know what’s happening in Ethiopia], because there’s nothing open,” he said. “There’s no clean information.”
“To have democracy, you need media,” he added. “The government now controls all things.”
Assefa Delil, a minster counselor at the Ethiopian Embassy, said he doesn’t expect many Ethiopians in America to be interested in these elections. He compares it to the interest overseas Americans have in the U.S. primaries. However, the interest in the country, located in the Horn of Africa, is very large, he said.
“There’s some 27 million voters registered, and this is even bigger than the national elections in 2005,” said Delis. “In May 2005 we had about 23 million.” In a country with almost 80 million people, the third largest in Africa, he sees this as democratic progress.
“It looks democratic, but it’s not,” Yigizaw said. “People have given up hope, they’ve stopped caring politically.” Of Delis, she said, “He holds a government job; he may feel different internally, but he can’t say so.”
The little news that has gotten out of the country all points to an election that will be just as unfair as the last. The ruling party and its affiliates have more candidates than any of the opposition parties, observers say, and many of the parties have faced problems registering, or have yet to receive a license to legally function as a party.
Almost 5 million seats are up for grabs in this local election, 99% of which are allegedly uncontested, as sources say potential candidates are intimidated by the current government and are afraid of being imprisoned.
Delis said that 27 parties are participating in this current election. Anyone can file, he said, so some of the candidates are also independents. While the ruling party may have more candidates, he said this is because many of the opposition parties are newer and therefore have lesser capacities.
“It depends on the capacity of the party,” he said. “You cannot expect everybody to file the same number of candidates … you cannot blame the party that has more capacity.”
Yimer said many of the opposition parties have found financial supporters in the diaspora, many of whom also help the parties network with human-rights organizations. However, he said these numbers are small.
“I think many of the people think of what is happening in Ethiopia and want to help in any way possible,” he said. “But in many ways, they don’t like the government that is in power now they aren’t fully participating in the help and development of the people.”
A proposed bill in Congress will help establish a democratic process in Ethiopia and rekindle hope in its people, Yimer said, which is what the people want.
Melese said the legislation is good for the Ethiopia’s future, and thinks all Ethiopians should support it.
“For Ethiopia, that’s the key,” he said. “That’s the only hope for Ethiopian people, otherwise you cannot have change.”
In addition to being Beijing’s only Ethiopian restaurant, Ras strikingly sets itself apart from the city’s mid-range and upscale restaurants with its decor. Colorful, Ethiopian umbrellas hang upside down from the ceiling, photographs of Ethiopia cover the walls, and above the bar is a large painting of Chairman Mao holding hands with Haile Selassie.
Traditional Western-style tables line Ras’ perimeter, but at the center floor, there are a number of mesobs, vibrantly colored hand-woven baskets that are traditionally used as tables, especially recommended for diners with short legs. Ethiopian cuisine offers a range of tastes, from chilled bean salads to hot, spicy meats, but the process of eating is forever the same: Injera, Ethiopia’s spongy flat bread, is spread across a large plate, and various entrees are spooned on top. Diners tear off pieces of injera, which they use to scoop up the dishes. For an introduction to Ethiopian cuisine The Taste of Ethiopia (300 yuan) is an excellent sampler of the menu and is sufficient for two to three diners. The We’t Combo (120 yuan) offers four small dishes, of which we recommend the Te’siga We’t (berbere spiced lamb) and Gomen (collard greens). For those wanting to try larger entrees, the Kitfo (120 yuan) is a delectable steak tartare served with kibe (herbed butter).
There are live dances each night at 8. The music may be too loud for casual conversation, but diners looking for a taste of Ethiopian culture over a quiet meal will enjoy the coffee ceremony each night at 7.
(Press TV) — Ethiopian Woyanne army moves toward the capital town of Somalia’s Shabeellaha Dhexe region to fight Islamic Courts Union (ICU) forces in the area.
The soldiers, numbering to thousands, headed for Jowhar some 90 km (55 miles) away from the turbulent Somali capital, Mogadishu, a Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported.
ICU fighters seized the town on Wednesday, without facing any resistance. Upon arrival, the rebels freed prisoners and kept watch over government buildings from potential looters before retreating hours later.
Jowhar, the seat of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, went without a proper administration for a second day on Friday, and is awaiting a possible clash between the Ethiopian soldiers and the remaining insurgents anytime within the few next hours.
Crowds of civilians, fearing their lives, started escaping from their homes in the town where the ICU fighters are said to have built strongholds.
On Thursday, Somali tribal leaders were calling for a crisis meeting to find a solution to end the humanitarian disaster in the African nation, urging the Ethiopian Woyanne troops’ dismissal from the country in order to save civilian lives.
Woyanne is perhaps the most hated regime in the history of Ethiopia. In May 2005, the people of Ethiopia made it clear that they don’t want Woyanne to govern the country. Meles Zenawi & Co. responded by brutally attacking the opposition parties and their supporters. Two years later, this much hated group is still in power and continues to cause death and destruction upon the people of Ethiopia and neighboring countries. ER would like to ask the following:
If Woyanne starts war, the people of Ethiopia, Somalia, and all people of the Horn of Africa will stand with the Eritrean army and crush the tribal junta.
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By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Eritrea’s U.N. envoy said on Thursday he saw no need for U.N. peacekeepers to remain on its border with Ethiopia, despite U.N. fears that a total withdrawal could spark a new war in the Horn of Africa.
“We don’t need UNMEE anymore,” Eritrean Ambassador Araya Desta told Reuters in a telephone interview. He was referring to the U.N. mission on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.
“The UNMEE issue is a dead issue,” he said.
Responding to fears of a repeat of the two countries’ 1998-2000 war, Desta said Eritrea was not planning to attack Ethiopia. But he warned Addis Ababa Woyanne that his country was prepared to fend off any invasions into Eritrean territory.
“If the Ethiopians Woyannes invade us, we’ll be forced to defend ourselves,” Desta said. [Ambassador Araya, please don’t call these Woyannes “Ethiopians.” You know they hate Ethiopia.]
UNMEE has already withdrawn nearly 1,700 troops and military observers who for the past seven years had been trying to prevent another war between the Horn of Africa neighbors.
Some 164 peacekeepers are left in Eritrea to guard equipment, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report circulated to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.
The 1,700 peacekeepers had been stationed in a 15.5-mile (25-km) buffer zone inside Eritrea. But Asmara turned against UNMEE because of U.N. inability to enforce rulings by an independent commission awarding chunks of Ethiopian-held territory, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.
UNMEE pulled most of its troops out of Eritrea after the government cut off access to fuel and restricted deliveries of food and other essential supplies. Asmara denies this and accuses UNMEE of enabling Ethiopia to occupy its territory. that a total withdrawal of UNMEE could lead to a new war.
Most UNMEE troops have been sent home temporarily, Ban said in the report, obtained by Reuters.
There are also still a few peacekeepers on the Ethiopian side of the border, though Addis Ababa Woyanne had indicated that it does not want to be alone in hosting U.N. troops.
Ban’s report said Eritrea was refusing to discuss the issue of the future status of UNMEE and accused Asmara of a “military occupation” of the official buffer zone between the countries established under the cease-fire agreement.
Desta said his government had not prepared an official response to the report but he vehemently denied that Eritrean forces had illegally seized the territory, which he said was land that belonged to Eritrea.
ADDIS ABABA – In the old Falasha village of Ambober, 15 kilometers outside Gondar, there are only Christians living today. All the village’s original inhabitants left for Israel at least 17 years ago. The old ORT school which used to serve the Jewish community is now a government school. Opposite is the compound of the local synagogue. In the Beita Israel custom, there are two separate buildings, and while the women’s synagogue is still the original tuckul, made from lathe walls of mud and wood, someone has made a donation and redone the men’s synagogue as a sturdy, stone-walled building. No one prays there but it is one of the main stops on the routes of Jewish and Israeli groups who tour the Gonder region. Inside, there is a wooden bookcase that contains the siddurim (prayer books) and Hebrew books that served the community decades ago. They all bear the stamp of the religious services department of the World Zionist Organization. Among the dusty and time-eaten prayer books, bibles and Hebrew primers, I found one slim tome that seemed a bit out of place. It was a treatise on the laws of shehita printed by the famous “Brothers and Widow Rohm” Printers of Vilnius, in 1896. The incongruity of finding such a title in a Falasha village, a community with its own distinct laws of ritual slaughter, so different from those practiced by Orthodox Jews in late 19th Century, is incredible. The owners’ scrawl inside the cover leaves little doubt this book used to reside in the private library of a religious Jew somewhere in Eastern Europe before the Second World War. How did it find its way to the Horn of Africa?
The most likely answer is that many holy books that, unlike their owners, somehow survived the destruction of the Holocaust, were sent to organizations like the WZO in Jerusalem in the hope that someone might find use for them. It probably lay in storage for years until someone assembled a shipment of books for the Falashas, and without thinking also chucked in the shehita book. It is unthinkable that anyone in Ambober ever found any use for the book — it probably lay there unopened until the Jews left for Israel — but just think about the passage it made. From the devastation of Jewish life in Europe, to Jerusalem and from there to Ethiopia, only to be forsaken again when another Jewish community ceased to exist. No one has read it for at least 70 years, but what a romantic voyage.
One has only to spend 24 hours in Ethiopia to understand that logic simply does not apply when trying to understand the Jewish story of this land. You can only comprehend it from a romantic perspective. When you review the serious research done on the origins or the Beita Israel, it is almost impossible to escape the fact that there is no real historical evidence connecting this group with the scattered branches of the people of Israel. It is just as much, if not more, plausible that they were simply a sect of the ancient Ethiopian Christian civilization, one of the oldest churches in the world, who believed at the same time that they were the children of King Solomon’s first-born son Menelik. The last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, the “Lion of Judah,” believed himself to be a direct descendant.
The Star of David with a cross in its center is ubiquitous on buildings throughout Addis Ababa, and the Ethiopian “Bible,” Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings), which chronicles Menelik’s voyage to his father in Jerusalem and back to Ethiopian carrying the Ark of the Covenant, contains entire chapters that directly paraphrase the Old Testament. Seeing the Falashas as an outcropping of this culture – believing that instead of Zion moving to the ancient city of Aksum, the children of Israel should return to the original Zion – makes much more sense than imagining a section of the tribe that got lost for a millennium or two in Africa.
And yet the idea is so romantically appealing that normally levelheaded politicians, academics and rabbis just want to believe in it. After all, we are such a small and urban people, just imagine if there were indeed primitive tribes, scattered in exotic places around the globe. It would make being Jewish feel a lot less claustrophobic. That’s why Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, whose Halakha (Jewish law) rulings are usually based on a wealth of evidence, recognized the Beita Israel’s Jewishness in 1973 as the lost tribe of Dan, on the basis only of a ruling of a 16th-century rabbi who in turn based his on the writings of a mystical ninth-century figure, Eldad Hadani, a man who probably never existed, and even if he did, it is highly questionable whether Eldad had anything to do with the Falashas anyway.
In the same way, the current Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, widely seen as Yosef’s anointed successor, ruled that the Falashmura, the members of Beita Israel who converted to Christianity, were “definitely” Jews. But how could he make such a sweeping ruling? Surely this should be a matter for individual judgment. Jewish leaders and activists were quick to sound the alarm on threats facing the Jews of Ethiopia, even when these were far from certain, out of real concern but also because a generation still traumatized by the Holocaust wants to feel as if this time around, it is saving Jews from the jaws of mortal danger.
Israel airlifting 14,000 Jews from Addis Ababa in 1991, at the height of the Ethiopian civil war, felt for many like the closing of the circle. The Jews of the world had been powerless to help their brothers in Poland 50 years earlier, but now had an air force and sufficient funds and influence to organize the airlift overnight. Whether or not the rebel army posed a threat to the Jews is immaterial. However, for the last 17 years, the question of the Falashmura has been anything but romantic. The lack of a clear government policy, combined with the machinations of various lobby groups and unhealthy measure of political interests has abused the whole process of bringing the Falashmura to Israel.
The government now wants to stop them from arriving, in two months. But if they are eligible according to previously-agreed criteria, why can’t the thousands of Falashmura in the Gondar compounds come to Zion? And if this is not enough for them to eventually become Israeli citizens, then why has Israel allowed at least 26,000 of them in so far, at a huge financial and social cost? Shouldn’t someone be called to account? It is about time reality intruded on the romantic dream.
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