የጥምቀት በዐልን ለማክበር በቦሌ መድሃኔአለም የተገኙት የቅንጅት ለአንድነትና ዴሞክራሲ ፓርቲ ስራ አስፈፃሚ የሆኑት አቶ ግዛቸው ሽፈራው ለበዐሉ ካደመው በብዙ ሺህ የሚቆጠር ምእመን “በርቱ” የሚል የድጋፍ መልእክት ተላለፈላቸው::

አቶ ግዛቸው በስፍራው የተገኙት ከቤተሰባቸው ጋር በበዐሉ ለመካፍል ቢሆንም በቦታው መኖራቸው እንደታውቀ ብዙ ሺህ ህዝብ ከቧቸው አስተያየቶችንና ጥያቄዎችን ሲሰነዝር የነበረ ሲሆን ህዝቡ የቅንጅት ምልክት የሆነውን ሁለት ጣት ማሳየት ሲጀምር በአካባቢው የነበሩ ፖሊሶች የመደናገጥና ግራ የመጋባት መልክ ይታይባቸው ነበር::

አቶ ግዛቸው በርካታ አስተያየቶችንና ጥያቄዎችን ካስተናገዱ በኋላ ቅንጅት የህዝብ ድርጅት በመሆኑ ጊዜያዊ ችግሮች ቢያጋጥሙትም ተጠናክሮ እንደሚቀጥል አረጋግጠው ወደቤታቸው ተመልሰዋል::

ይህ በእንዲህ እንዳለ የነ አቶ አባይነህ ቡድን በመኢዐድ ስም መንቀሳቀስ በመጀመራቸው ምክንያት ከፍተኛ የህዝብ ቁጣ እየደረሰባቸው በመሆኑ ስልት በመቀየር “ቅንጅት ለአንድነትና ለዴሞክራሲ ንቅናቄ” በሚል ስያሜ የፓርቲ ፈቃድ ለማውጣት በዝግጅት ላይ መሆናቸውን ለጉዳዩ ቅርበት ያላቸው ምንጮች ገልጸዋል::

By Yilma Bekele

A façade is a false appearance that is more pleasant than the reality. Hollywood is good at this sort of stuff. They create illusion to simulate the imagined event. It is called ‘Special Effects’. Such movies as ‘Star Wars’, ‘Close Encounters of The Third Kind’ are the result of a highly refined use of special effects. Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has brought a quantum leap in the creation of illusion. That is why movies like ‘Jurassic Park’ were able to recreate the Dinosaur as real as they existed 250 million years ago. In Hollywood, the line between realty and imagination is very thin.

This brings us back to today’s Ethiopia, where the line between what is real and what is illusion is blurred. On one hand we have all the semblance of a legitimate functioning state and on the other hand we have all the telltale signs of a ‘failed state’. The distortion of reality is a full time endeavor that has been elevated to an art form. The TPLF regime cannot lay claim to this sophisticated ‘officially sanctioned’ practice of lying and façade construction. The ‘Weimar’ Republic of Germany was very good at it thanks to the likes of Herr Gobbles and associates. The Soviet Union raised the bar to such an extent that it was able to fool most of the Planet.

Pravda was announcing a ‘bumper harvest’ while the citizens was standing in line for a loaf of bread. The abundance of freedom in the Socialist Republic, and the love of the population for the ‘Communist’ system was told and retold while ‘Gulags’ were flourishing in Siberia, and the KBG was soldering the Iron curtain to keep the people in.

Back to the ‘Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’ (that is our new name since 1995) where the regime has made an extensive study of rule by coercion, exile, murder, and co-option. This regime has adopted everything necessary to govern by negative means. The system has become as ruthless as Stalinism (concentration camps such as Dedesa, Shoa Robit, Zuai, Bir Sheleko), as meticulous as the East German Stasi (Agazi Force, Meakelawi Prision), as an endless revolution as Maoism (purges, tehadeso campaign), as a manufacturer of lies and falsehood as Nazi Germany (false economic reports, charges of attempted genocide, Interamahwe). Nothing has been left to chance.

The ‘Constitution’

that was shoved down our throat in 1995 is a document which is open to amendment at the Prime Minister’s whim. Laws have been known to be enacted overnight to serve special purposes. Two recent examples are the re-imprisonment of Seye Abraha, and the declaration of ‘State of Emergency’ right after the 2005 general election. Both were delivered by the rubberstamp Parliament in less than 24 hrs. The ‘Constitution’ is at the service of the party in power, not the Nation. The façade of a beautiful ‘Constitution’ is to cover the reality of the ugly face of the Police State.

As far as the outside world is concerned Ethiopia is a multi-party state. In fact, according to the government there are eighty-one legally registered political parties, unfortunately that is the façade. The reality is that Ethiopia is a one party state represented by Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF). When you look at the composition of the Parliament there are seventeen different parties represented but that is an illusion. The fact is all the major parties are ‘clones’ of TPLF. We have Amhara National Democratic Front, the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization, the Southern Ethiopia Peoples Democratic Organization, the Somali People Democratic Party, the Benshangul Gumuz People’s Democratic United Party, etc. All of these were created and are controlled by Tigray People Liberation Front. The cloned organizations owe their existence to the creator. The leaders of these pseudo parties are former prisoners of TPLF. They are nothing but dogs on a leash, and a very short leash too.

On the economic front Ethiopia is viewed as having a free market economy with IMF, World Bank, UNDP pumping loans and credits to encourage the emergence of a free enterprise system. A closer look reveals a different picture. Eighty five percent of the population is rural and exists on subsistence farming, yet the means of production (land) belongs to the State. The poor peasant is leasing the land where he can be evicted at a moments notice. He cannot sell it nor can he use it as collateral to borrow capital. The government and EFFORT (Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray) are the two major players in all aspects of the economic life of the country.

The telephone systems, both land lines and cellular are the monopoly of the state. They are used as cash cows with no chance of reinvestment of the surplus to upgrade the system. As ownership of land is used to control the peasant, ownership of the communication system is used to spy on the citizenry. The single Television Transmitter is used by the government for misinformation and outright lies. Radio is a major government propaganda tool and no independent station is tolerated. All independent Newspapers were shutdown after the 2005 ‘General Election’ and their editors imprisoned or exiled. Even an incipient Internet is cause for fear. The government thinks it wise to spend the taxpayer’s money on foreign technology to block and deny free access. And recently our fearless leaders have started jamming the signals of both Voice of America and Deutsche Welle. Fear is the middle name of TPLF.

Thus when the government puts out the claim that the economy is growing in double digits and that Ethiopia will join the developed countries in a matter of years, it is just all lies. Their statistics are cooked and re-cooked that you can smell the stink all the way from space. As always the stark realty is the exact opposite. Inflation is in double digits and unemployment is hovering around 34%. The few high-rise buildings here and there look like oasis in the Sahara are there thanks to the much-maligned ‘Diaspora’. According to a report by UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Ethiopians in the ‘Diaspora’ sent a total of $591 million in remittance money. The amount is nearly 4.4% of total GDP. Remember, this are the official figures; the real figures must be much much higher.

The following chart shows where we stand as a nation as measured by the UN. They have no axe to grind. They just tell it as it is. Each year since 1990 the Human Development Report has published the human development index (HDI) which looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being. The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income).

ETHIOPIA
UNDP- Human Development Index – – – – – – Rank Out of 131 Countries/economies
Global competitiveness Index 2007-2008 – – 123
Global competitiveness Index 2006-2007 – – 116
Infrastructure – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 103
Macroeconomic stability – – – – – – – – – – – 129
Health and Primary education – – – – – – – – 123
Higher education and training – – – – – – – – 124
Financial and market sophistication – – – – – 119
Technological readiness – – – – – – – – – – – 119
Quality of national business environment- – 113
Judicial independence- – – – – – – – – – – – 107
Telephone lines- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 118
Quality of electric supply- – – – – – – – – – – -84

It is not necessary to bring statistical proof to show that our country is poor, backward, and on welfare. All we have to do is talk to our parents, neighbors, or friends. When we see our little sisters being forced into prostitution to support the family, when we see our brothers feeling hopeless and helpless with no future and chewing kat to hide from reality we despair everyday, when we see our peoples body being washed on the shores of Yemen or being raped and hanged in Dubai; we know that our homeland is a troubled land. This catastrophe befallen on us is man made and it is correctable. This is what the TPLF regime has to show for over seventeen years of absolute power. They replaced a rotten military dictatorship and they were welcomed with open arms. They inherited a system that needed repair and they were given the benefit of the doubt. There was no organized opposition to derail their plans. There was no armed struggle to challenge their hold on power. Unfortunate for Ethiopia their paranoia and distrust of the people was too much to overcome.

Peasants in uniform were thrust into leadership positions with no education or experience to lead a nation of 70 million people. Let alone manage the affairs of a country most of our new leaders have never balanced a checkbook or worked for wages. Taking apart and reassembling an AK47 is not considered a qualification to run a nation. Our current leaders were trained to wage war not peace, create contradictions not consensus, instill fear not love, and resolve problems using the gun not the ballot. They are unwilling to change. This is where we find ourselves today, waging war on our neighbors so we can be a dumping ground for surplus arms and spare change.

It is never too late to change. We make mistakes and we all learn through experience. That is what differentiates us from lesser primates. We are capable of learning. Where we are today as nation is nothing to be proud of. On the other hand our potential knows no bounds. We can build on our negative experience. As people we have traveled out so far and so wide that we have accumulated enough knowledge to be able to transform our country in a short time to be able to join the family of nations who enjoy life to the fullest. The Ethiopian people are willing to let bygones be bygone. We can start a new chapter of cooperation and strive to benefit all instead of a few.

On the other hand for those who are intoxicated with power, need to know that the end is not going to be so pleasant. Nothing lasts forever. Some leaders surround themselves with sycophants and they are unable or unwilling to see their demise. Blinded with arrogance they do not see the writing on the wall. Look at the Shah of Iran who died alone in a Cairo Hospital, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia who died of heart attack in his one room cell, Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania whose last view was a length of rope, and last but not least Alberto Fujimori of Peru who is waiting for justice in a small jail cell. Mr. Fujimori thought he could flee to Japan (his ancestral land) and avoid prosecution. Unfortunate for him in today’s world there is no place to hide. No amount of stolen dollars will protect them from the long arm of the law.

All this could be avoided. It must be avoided. It is not about revenge. It is not about being proven wrong or right. It is about a small piece of real estate we call Ethiopia. The time has come for compromise and consensus building. To quote Albert Einstein ‘the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.’ May God give our leaders the strength to do what is right!
___________________
The writer can be reached at [email protected]

By Alemayehu G. Mariam

What Would Dr. King Say?

Recently, there was a “tempest in a teapot” between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama over Dr. Martin Luther King’s role and contributions in the civil rights movement. Hilary said, “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a President to get it done.” Her husband Bill views Barack Obama as a gadfly, and an interloper. The upstart Obama has unexpectedly become a major stumbling block to Hilary’s coronation. Bill told talk show host Charlie Rose that his irritation with Obama has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with the fact that his wife has paid her dues. Obama has not. He is just a young pretty face. He must wait his turn, as Bill himself did back in 1988. Bill also said the the American people must vote for “the best agent for change”, not merely a “symbol for change… symbol is not as important as substance.” These were fighting words to say the least; and very surprising coming from the “first (former) black president” and his wife, the “first black (former) first lady??).

Many African Americans were troubled, and some even offended, by the apparently patronizing, insensitive and condescending tone of the Clintons’ tag team verbal onslaught against Obama. Was Hilary underrating Dr. King’s long and arduous struggle for equality and justice by giving President Johnson the ultimate credit for the success of the civil rights movement? Was she implying that it took a white president and a white Congress to bring long overdue legal equality to African Americans, and that Dr. King was merely leading the black cheering section? Was Hilary implicitly equating herself with Johnson as the “second great emancipator”, and offering herself as the “third great emancipator”, while Obama like Dr. King plays a stage role as a young dreamer? Do the Clintons really believe that African American leaders including Dr. King and Obama are merely “symbolic” leaders to be manipulated as puppets by liberal white leaders?

Perhaps the brouhaha is just overblown election year political rhetoric. Perhaps not. But there is historic precedent to be concerned about the Clintons’ jarring message to Obama. Dr. King was also told to “wait”. He was just rushing things too much. It’s not just time. He must “wait”, just a little longer. That was the reason he issued his monumental “Letter From Birmingham Jail” back in 1963 to tell his critics that he can no longer wait. Dr. King explained:

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.”

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights…. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim;… when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society…. when you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”, then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. (Italics added.)

Had Dr. King “waited” for someone to bring freedom and civil rights to him, he might still be waiting. For Bill and Hilary, and whoever else offers a promise of freedom. Thank God Almighty, he did not. Were he alive today, he would have probably said, “I hope, Hilary and Bill, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”

Martin Luther King as One of the Greatest Human Rights Leaders of the 20th Century

Dr. King is often referred to as a “great black civil rights leader.” But he was really much, much more than that. He was one of the greatest human rights leaders of the 20th Century. A civil rights leader is concerned with the restoration of legal rights to those who are deprived of it. It is true Dr. King sought restoration of civil rights to African Americans who had endured for too long the dehumanizing effects of segregation and discrimination in America. He wanted laws to insure that African Americans were treated fairly and justly, and accorded equal opportunity in American society. But he NEVER asked for special rights or privileges for black people. He never asked for preferential treatment for them. He just wanted African Americans to have the same rights that other Americans enjoyed. Nothing more. Nothing less. And he keenly understood the limitation of the law. He said, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.” He wanted the law to make sure African Americans were not lynched, discriminated or segregated because of their race and skin color. He wanted African Americans to have what any other ordinary American was guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. Nothing more, and nothing less.

Dr. King was concerned with more than remedial civil rights legislation. He understood that civil rights laws in and of themselves were hollow unless they were fortified with human rights that included guarantees of basic economic security to every citizen. He knew the problem of poverty and economic security was not a unique problem to African Americans. The majority of the people in his time who were under the poverty line were white, not black. He saw the income inequality in the richest country in the world not through racial or ethnic lenses, but through the lens of structural reform of an uncompassionate economic system that created huge disparities between the rich and the poor. He said, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

Until his last day, Dr. King was a drum major for poor people. He led the Poor People’s Campaign and traveled the country with people of all races engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience. He called for an investment in people by creating government employment programs to rebuild America’s cities and schools and communities. He criticized Congress for appropriating “military funds with alacrity and generosity,” but providing “poverty funds with miserliness.”

Dr. King also understood that the “edifice which produces beggars” also produced untold misery and violence throughout the world. In 1967, Dr. King called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” It was a great moral indictment against leaders of a nation that had committed large numbers of its youth and vast resources to wreak havoc on other societies. He said America was “on the wrong side of a world revolution”, and questioned why America had created an “alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America,” and why it was helping suppress revolutions “of the shirtless and barefoot people” from Vietnam to Africa to Latin America. He saw great injustice in the actions of “capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries.”

Dr. King’s Message

Dr. King’s greatness as a leader comes not from his work to get civil rights legislation passed to eliminate lynchings, segregation and discrimination. Rather his universal appeal comes from his message of Love regardless of race, religion, gender or nationality. For this reason, it is important to remember that when we celebrate Martin Luther King Day on the third Monday of January, we are not celebrating a “black” holiday or a “black civil rights leader”. We are celebrating the timeless message of one of the greatest defenders of human rights in the 20th Century.

Like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King was profoundly concerned about the human race, not just the black or brown race. He loved humanity as children of God, not as races, nationalities, ethnicities or gender types. His cause was freedom, justice and equality in America, in Africa, in Vietnam or anywhere else in the world because he deeply understood that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He set out to change America and the world by changing hearts and minds through love, compassion, understanding and knowledge.

Dr. King’s message was that it is possible to change the world without the use of violence. As a Christian minister, he believed in the Christian idea of love. He combined this idea with Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha (truth force, love force). The result was a method of nonviolence that could be an effective tool in the struggle for freedom, equality and human rights in America, or anywhere else. Dr. King initially thought the whole idea of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience was somewhat impractical and counterintuitive. He realized its potential when he used it in the Montgomery bus boycott and successfully desegregated that city’s public transportation system in 1956.

Dr. King learned an essential lesson from the Montgomery boycott experience: Nonviolence and non-cooperation in repressive systems could be important tools of social change. His basic ideas on the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience were simple. He categorically rejected violence as a method of change. He cautioned, “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding. It seeks to annihilate rather than to convert.”

Dr. King was interesting in building and constructing a just society, and in redemption; he was not interested in poking out the eyes of evil doers and piling up the body count of blind people in the community. For this reason, his teachings and message are easily understood. He taught nonviolence is actually a way of life for courageous people, that is, for people who have the courage of their convictions and have a commitment to truth and justice. Practitioners of nonviolent resistance are not interested in vanquishing their enemies; they are interested in converting them to the cause of righteousness. It is necessary to separate those who do evil from the evil they do. They are victims of evil themselves; they need salvation, not destruction. Suffering transforms and instructs the individual. Though suffering it is possible to convert the enemy. One must accept suffering, but never inflict it. Nonviolence avoids hate and upholds love; and one must never sink to the level of the hater. Love is a weapon not only to resist injustice but also restore community. The nonviolent resister always believes the universe and God are on the side of justice. In the end, justice and truth will always prevail. This is the sum and substance of Dr. King’s message.

Dr. King and His Dream of Human Rights

Dr. King’s dream was fundamentally a dream for human rights anchored in the very body and soul of the American credo of freedom, justice and equality so eloquently stated in the Declaration of Independence. In 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Dr. King proclaimed his Dream to the world. He said:

“[E]ven though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope….”

An Impossible Dream?: Carving Out a Stone of Hope From a Mountain of Despair

Nearly 150 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and 44 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Dr. King’s dream of human rights still remains unfulfilled. Far too many African Americans are trapped and stranded on the “mountain of despair”, poverty and prison. Young African Americans suffer the brunt of that despair. The statistics are shocking, but not unfamiliar.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that there are approximately 5 million black men in America between the ages of 20 and 39. But the fate of these young people in American society is bleak. A young black man today has a greater chance of being shot or victimized by violence than going to college. The incarceration rate among black males is mind boggling. Nearly one out of four black males is either in state prison, county jail, on parole, probation or is being sought by law enforcement authorities. Nearly 16 percent of black men between the ages of 20-30 who are not college students are in some form of custodial supervision. Nearly 60 percent of black male high school dropouts in the 20-39 age range have done prison or jail time. African Americans are seven times more likely to go to prison or jail than whites; and the incarceration rate for young black males has continued to rise for the past two decades. There does not seem to be an end to the exodus of young black men to correctional institutions. Even sociologists have invented a new theory to explain the “internal migration” of young urban black males from their communities to prison. The sad truth is that the United States now imprisons more people than any other country in the world; and a disproportionate percentage of these inmates are black men.

Economically, African Americans as a group earn less today than they did fifteen years ago. The jobless rate among black men has remained the highest among all groups in the U.S., and continues to increase. In 2000, approximately 65 percent of black male high school dropouts had no jobs; by 2004, that number had increased to 72 percent. Young African Americans with no criminal records do not seem to do much better in the job market. They have as much chance of getting employed as a white job seeker fresh out of jail. Such is the sad, sad story of young African American males; and it is widely documented in all of the major studies done at Harvard, Princeton and Columbia over the past 2 years.

But there is a human side that some of us see in the trenches. There are real faces behind these statistics. We know them as clients in the state and federal prisons, and county jails. We do our best to defend them in the courtrooms and hearing rooms while they are chained like dangerous wild animals. We listen in muted anger as they are dehumanized and referred to as “bodies”. We are told, “There is one body waiting for you to talk.” Every day we read the same stories written on the faces of these young black men in invisible ink. It is a story of gangs, drugs, poverty and violence. It is a familiar and numbing story. But we have heard it all before. And the criminal justice system has a well-oiled revolving door that spits out young African Americans like widgets in a factory assembly line. From incarceration to parole and probation, and back to incarceration. It is the same story every time.

We also see them, just a very few of them, in the college classrooms. Often we see them for a fleeting moment. A few days, and they are not around anymore. And we wonder. But rarely do we wonder if they had fallen ill or gotten into an accident. No, we worry, and often are resigned to the fact that perhaps they got arrested. It is very sad. Every year, we hope there will be more young African American men in our classes because tens of thousands of them graduate from the high schools all over the State of California; and every year we are disappointed. They don’t come.

In 2006, in Los Angeles County alone 10,487 African American students graduated from high school. Only 210 (2%) were admitted at UCLA! In the same year, the University of California (UC) System admitted 55,242 students. Only 1880 (3.4%) were African American. In 2006, in the California State University System (CSU), there were only 20,000 African American students out of more than 400,000, representing only 6% of the student population system wide. But the admissions percentages are terribly misleading. Among those African Americans admitted, a little over 50 percent actually graduate within 6 years. Among those admitted and graduating, a significant percentage of them are African American women. Imagine: What are the odds of having an African American student in a given course on a UC or CSU campus? An African American male?

MLK’s Human Rights Legacy: Barack Obama Can Lead the People From the Mountain of Despair to the Valley of Hope!

Senator Obama seems ready to pick up Dr. King’s mantle. He uses language that unifies America, not divide it. He appeals to principles of justice, freedom and equality, not to whites or blacks or other races. He declared, “There is no black America. There is no White America. Only the United States of America.” That is in the same spirit of Dr. King’s dream, “a dream deeply rooted in the American dream ‘that all men are created equal.’” It is the same aspiration.

Obama’s message is resonating with people of all races, as did Dr. King’s. Whites, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and others are coming out to vote for him in record numbers. He is revitalizing American democracy, and awakening a new spirit of political participation and involvement among the young. He has struck a chord in the American imagination and spirit. He sounds just like Dr. King when he says, “I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m talking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.” He talks about finding our way out of the wilderness. “That is how Dr. King led this country through the wilderness. He did it with words — words that he spoke not just to the children of slaves, but the children of slave owners. Words that inspired not just black but also white, not just the Gentile but also the Jew, not just the Southerner but also the Northerner.”

Whether Barack Obama becomes president is an important fact. His candidacy and the public support he has generated to date marks a historic milestone in American history. But to many of us, whether he can carry the mantle of Dr. King is equally important. Can he pick up where Dr. King left off? Many of Dr. King’s people are stranded on a mountain of despair. They need someone to lead them out of the wilderness to the valley of hope? Can Obama become the moral conscience and compass for America? He can, if he chooses to become Dr. King’s messenger!

Dr. King Would Have Wholeheartedly Supported Ethiopian Human Rights

Dr. King would have supported H.R. 2003 wholeheartedly. We know this from the fact that he opposed racist violence in Alabama and Mississippi that caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent protesters and imprisonment of thousands more; and from his unflinching opposition to apartheid in South Africa, dictatorships in Latin America and Africa, and in his outrage wherever “injustice threatened justice.” We can still hear the echoes of Dr. King’s words from nearly a half century ago. Back then he spoke out against U.S. support of tyrannical and dictatorial regimes that trampled on human rights in Latin America, Asia and Africa. If he were alive today, he would asked President Bush why America is on the “wrong side” of the struggle for human rights in Ethiopia? Why has America created an “alliance” with a corrupt and dictatorial regime in Ethiopia that tramples on the basic human rights of its citizens? Why is America helping to suppress the freedom aspirations “of the shirtless and barefoot people” of Ethiopia? Why is it that “America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world is not leading the human rights revolution in the world?”

But he would have had a few words for us too. He would have reminded us our obligations: “Every man (and woman) of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his (her) convictions, but we must all protest.” Yes, we must protest against human rights violations. And against tyranny and dictatorships. We must have our voices heard in support of the rule of law, freedom, justice, human rights and democracy. And he would have also taught us the truth about the consequences of our inaction and indifference: “If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

So today we wish Dr. King a happy birthday! Today we celebrate his message and teachings. Today we recommit ourselves to the cause of truth, justice, freedom, human rights and democracy. Today we join Dr. King in reciting one of his favorite poems written by James Russell Lowell:

Truth forever on the scaffold.
Wrong forever on the throne.
With that scaffold sways the future.
Behind the dim unknown stands God
Within the shadow keeping watch above his own.
Long Live the King! Long Live the Dream! Long Live H. R. 2003!
______________________
Prof. Alemayehu Gebremariam can be reached at [email protected]

By Obang O. Metho

In the year 2007, the Anuak Justice Council has come closer to many Ethiopians from all over the country. This was not by accident. Despite the great marginalization and discrimination of the people of Gambella and despite the massacre of the Anuak people who have never really recovered from the losses from one of the worst atrocities planned and carried out by the EPRDF government and despite the indifference that kept most Ethiopians silent following these acts, we were convinced that we must reach out to other Ethiopians.

Our perspective on the crisis convinced us that national solutions are needed and that these cannot be accomplished by focusing on isolated sections of our people, no matter the degree of their suffering and misery at this point. Added work may not produce added benefits, especially added sustainable benefits. Even though it is very hard to take our focus away from this to the larger picture, we believe there is no other way. Ethiopians must join together in strong solidarity of purpose if we are going to overcome our individually experienced pain.

Before we can ever come together in solidarity, we first need to get to know, respect and trust each other, just like we in the AJC have gotten to know so many other Ethiopians during 2007. It has been a year where we have reached out to others and what we have discovered from our fellow Ethiopians, gives us hope and expectation for the coming year. It all started with openness and the belief that we cannot win this battle for freedom alone—Ethiopians need each other.

A recent best selling book about Ethiopia sums it up in its title, “There is No Me Without You.” There is no question that this is the direction in which we must go; however, we did not anticipate what a grand journey it would be simply because of the Ethiopians we met along the way. This is the joy we found in 2007 and the joy we anticipate in 2008 as we look forward to deepening these relationships and still building new ones. Come along with us now, so we can travel this rough road together, sharing with each other the invaluable silver lining of an otherwise difficult struggle. A rough road, filled with obstacles, is always easier with others at your side.

Over four years ago, when the massacre of the Anuak occurred in December 2003, Anuak felt alone and isolated. We Anuak did not really know other Ethiopians; neither did they know us. But as the AJC became convinced that the root problems of the Anuak could not be overcome by only Anuak, we reached out to other Ethiopians, even though some Anuak among us, disagreed. However, as we did, we were touched and inspired by the Ethiopians we met—by their courage, their determination, their love, their care—by you name it!

Now we have met with so many remarkable Ethiopians from many different ethnic groups that we are overwhelmed with the beauty and variety of our fellow-Ethiopians. All of them have touched us and taught us so much more about our shared humanity. These friendships have broken down many of the negative stereotypes that have been promoted and exaggerated in the past. Hopefully, the same applies to us.

Before going on, it must be further clarified as to who is Ethiopian. In the past under Haile Selassie, Hailemariam Mengistu and now under Meles Zenawi, a lot of us were left out, but times have changed for many thinking Ethiopians. When we now speak of Ethiopians, this means anyone who lives within the borders of Ethiopia. All of these people are 100% Ethiopian, 100% African and 100% human! This is a great unifier that God gave to us when He created us—all of humankind—in His image, making us all of equal value, regardless of the superficial differences between us.

Because of this truth, we have a vision for a new Ethiopia, one that would be very changed from what we have had in the past. If we consider how our Creator God has instructed us humans to behave towards each other: it is with love, concern and respect. It is clear, if we do this, we all will benefit from it. In carrying this out in real life, God calls us to love others before they love us, just like He loved us first before we loved Him.

“We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not see…..Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”(I John 4:19-21)

In the past, even today some of us have too often done the opposite—in hating, mistreating or ignoring other Ethiopians, resulting in our all-encompassing misery. “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (I John 3:15) However, as we open up to each other, those new relationships will give fertile ground for a different kind of outcome—one that is absolutely needed for a new and better Ethiopia.

We have seen many examples of this in the past year and as a result, we are seeing the creation of a new kind of Ethiopian family—one of brotherhood and sisterhood—something that has only happened through reaching out to each other. We have realized that we are more alike than different. God certainly intended people to reach out in these ways: to show care, love, support and respect to one another. This is one of those truths God has given us that is reliable in practice. When tried, it does not come back empty.

The AJC was created because of the suffering of the Anuak people who felt singled out by the EPRDF, but as we talked to so many other Ethiopians we learned about the same kind of suffering and deprivation. We heard the similar stories of how others in different groups and areas throughout the country had also faced death by execution, arbitrary detentions, torture, starvation, lack of education for their children, death from malaria, typhoid or cholera—their men, women and children dying just like the Anuak.

Some might have thought that because the TPLF is controlling the government that Tigrayans have not faced such problems, but that is an illusion for the many Tigrayans who are not part of the elite or who are not “pro-government.” We have come to know that some Tigrayans are just as bad off or even worse off than some of the others in ethnic groups without power. We only really found this out after we started meeting and knowing Tigrayans. Our preconceived stereotypes were again broken.

Once we learned these things about them and others, we could no longer only think of the Anuak who died, but saw and heard about the grief of other mothers who had lost their husbands, sons or daughters in Addis, in the Southern Nations or in Benishangul-Gumuz. We heard testimony of the thousands of young men and women, imprisoned for nothing more than speaking out for their rights—the Amhara, the Tigray or Harari, others were shot or imprisoned only because they were suspected of being from some separatist group like the OLF or the ONLF. We heard about the lack of development, medical care and educational opportunities from most everyone. Their suffering has become ours. It doesn’t matter which ethnicity or region someone comes from anymore, they all have left a big hole in our hearts because they are our family. They are Ethiopians, Africans, human beings—they are us.

We think of the refugees who left the country, fearing they would be persecuted; however, many died as they were trying to escape for a better opportunity elsewhere. We think of the thousands of young children near death, with swollen stomachs, dirty faces, no clothes, with flies hovering around their infected, oozing eyes, who do not have any understanding how their hunger and neglect is directly related to governance ruled by greed, corruption and exploitation of the people they are supposed to care about.

We think of the millions of our children who continue to be in rags, picking through garbage, carrying heavy loads, working as young prostitutes, while those at the top of Ethiopian government struggle to enrich themselves, their foreign corporations, governments and aid agencies. We think of Ethiopians who are born and who die before ever seeing any opportunity. We think of all of these and hold these people in our thoughts and hearts. They are our people and being “our people” does not only include our siblings, relatives or tribes.

What we have learned through this is that they are all equal members of our Ethiopian family, but the government or elite has tried to destroy any possible unity by drumming up fear between each other. When is the last time you heard Meles call for real unity? He uses the term only for pressuring conformity to his agenda. Truthfully, has there been any worse regime than this for creating division? We have failed to be human towards each other. When we have listened to Meles it has only hardened our hearts further.

In 2008, if we start reaching out to others, we will form relationships that matter to us. It is only natural then to not be so hard-hearted or indifferent when our fellow-Ethiopians are in danger. We need compassion for each other more than anything else including democracy.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (I John 3:16-19)

We see that more Ethiopian are starting to change because there is a lot more talk than ever before about the suffering of others, but there still is not much follow through—at least, yet. For instance, when Ogadenis are being massacred, why are not other Ethiopians coming out to publicly protest or cry with them? When the Oromo are killed, persecuted, detained and tortured, this is an opportunity to speak out against it, but it is Oromos speaking for Oromos, Tigrayans speaking for Tigrayans, Afar for the Afar, Amhara for Amhara and Anuak for Anuak.

This is not God’s way because in His eyes, superficial differences like ethnicity, region, skin color, gender or culture, do not matter. God has not set the regional borders of Oromo, Afar and of the Southern Nations. What other well-functioning country in the world is divided into ethnic states like in Ethiopia? Can you imagine the United States of America having states named after all its largest ethnic groups, influencing where they live? We have to stop for a minute and think about putting humanity before ethnicity. This is our hope for the New Year.

As I traveled to many cities in Europe and North America, Ethiopians from many different backgrounds, ethnicities and regions have welcomed me so warmly. They may not have connections between each other, but what I have found to be true is that they have much in terms of being beautiful people with the same hopes, dreams and challenges.

Suspicion, stereotypes, propaganda and simply not knowing each other as people, have kept them apart. For instance, some Ethiopians believe the only way to talk to liberation fronts whose agenda is to break away from Ethiopia is to demand that they drop this separation idea before they are willing to dialogue with them. This is wrong.

What happens with this more rigid stance is the opportunity to understand the reasons for why these people created a liberation front in the first place will never occur. In other words, we need to look at the root cause of the problem rather than dictating to them what is best for them.

Additionally, by restricting dialogue, it fails to acknowledge their suffering, pain and oppression, especially since they have been living under regimes that have withheld from them any political representation, equal opportunity to education or development and has failed to respect their peoples’ rights. We cannot resolve our differences by placing limitations on what we can or cannot discuss! We have been among them and know that they have many legitimate concerns, which should not be swept under the carpet.

The time has come for Ethiopians to discover for themselves these bonds that could build new relationships—a first step to solidarity. I have heard many speak about wanting to be unified with other Ethiopians in this worthy struggle. This desire is being spoken and echoed back throughout the world. I have met Ethiopians of every sort—men, women, young, old, Muslim, Christian and of any other breakdown that one might think of and they have almost universally, shared a willingness to become more open and cooperative with others.

They share the goal of having a peaceful Ethiopia where their children could live and work side by side with other Ethiopians without fear. They all want a country where they would have the opportunity to pursue their goals. They are thirsty for righteousness, justice, freedom and equality. These are the people who are the hope for a new Ethiopia. In each one of them, I am seeing a light of promise that is ready to be ignited so as to bring new light to a country in the shadows.

I have also met with Ethiopian Muslims at their mosque and with Christian Ethiopian Orthodox, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, mainline Protestants in their churches as well as non-believers and even Communist Ethiopians. They are all saying that they are ready to work with one another. This is so refreshing and encouraging! In fact, I have repeatedly been told by Ethiopians that they and other Ethiopians, more than every before, are ready to fight tribalism, marginalization, discrimination—and you name it. They are willing to fight the things that have kept Ethiopia backward for so many centuries!

Their support for such a new Ethiopia has been shown in so many ways such as thousands of emails, telephone calls and some have also financially contributed to the AJC, which now has a national focus. You know who you are and we are so grateful for your financial support because without such help, it would be impossible to accomplish what we have done thus far or what we hope to accomplish in the future to make this new Ethiopia.

So, if there is something I have learned it is that every one of these Ethiopian people I have met, has touched me in my life. I have learned how the EPRDF government has tried to prevent us from seeing this beauty in each other—to blind us from seeing the beauty of our own garden of Ethiopian people, created by our God Almighty who delights in the complexities and uniqueness in His creation. We have not realized or appreciated what we have in each other.

I have learned that the present and the future are shaped by those living today and that to create a better Ethiopia will require a commitment from each and every Ethiopian, as we all have been given a shared responsible to create a better Ethiopia where we can live together in a country of which we are proud rather than ashamed.

May this year of 2008 be the year you do your share, making a difference not only to yourself, your loved ones and to your ethnic group, but also to all the other Ethiopians in our garden. This is the reason the AJC brought together Ethiopians from seven different regions on November 17, 2007 in Washington DC, to explore ways to get to know each other better so as to create a atmosphere where Ethiopians could work together in solidarity. These participants are preparing themselves for a larger movement where all Ethiopians will work side by side.

The strategic goal of the movement is to reclaim Ethiopia from its tyrannical rulers and their associates. These tyrannical rulers are deceivers, capitulators, ethnic gadflies ready to sacrifice all Ethiopians in favour of their few ethnic comrades. These dictators grab for themselves and their friends and robbed all of us of our present and our children’s future.

It is sickening to travel through Ethiopia or Africa and see people suffering while those in the government struggle to enrich themselves while foreign corporations and governments, aid agencies and NGOs preach about poverty yet entertain and bribe the leaders for Africa’s riches. The African dictators and their supporters from abroad live in a social cocoon oblivious to our suffering. These autocrats and their supporters are leeches on the soil and soul of Ethiopia and Africa.

We seek is a movement of Ethiopians or Africans to reclaim the essence of Africa. We are not pursuing State sovereignty here but rather people sovereignty, to set our people free from oppressive rule. Our path is not about politics, it is about life enhancement for all not matter their ethnic identity for in the end we are all Ethiopians and Africans.

Our message consists of three core pillars. The first is to promote Ethiopian–ness, or African – ness, to reassert the traditional African values which have been abandoned over time-the central place of community and caring, the significance of the land or mother earth to our very being, respect and reverence for our ancestors, and, the deep spirituality of Africa as the cradle of the human race.

The second pillar draws on our religious faith be it Christian or Muslim which assert the dignity and worth of each human being and, for example, a commitment to a non-violent path.

The third pillar asserts the pre-eminence of fundamental human rights including the right to life; the core freedoms such as freedom of speech, association and assembly; the essential equality of all, male and female; and, critically, the right to a just life within a just society.

We must see every Ethiopian as a valued member in the family of Ethiopia if we are to survive as a nation. This is something that has been overlooked by the previous and some of the current political parties who claim they are for unity when their actions show less than what is desired. An example of this is why we do not have any national Ethiopian political party with strong representatives from all regions or ethnic groups of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia or Africa must move away from the politicization of ethnicity. Celebrate the ethnic and cultural mosaic of Ethiopia and Africa but at the same time create an `a – ethnic’ or non-ethnic politics. Ethiopians or Africans must surrender their ethnic clothes when they move into the political arena and assume positions of power.

It is time for a movement, one shorn of ethnic chauvinism in the world of politics. Unless this happens then political leaders will play one ethnic group off against another for political advantage parallel to the past colonial practice of `divide and rule’ and the current neo-colonial practice of foreign intervention in ethically-based strife; mounting the war on terror; and, driving for control over valued resources.

Africans have been divided for too long and separated from their common heritage by artificial boundaries and the ethnic and regional and religious divides. Africa must re-discover its soul and celebrate its African-ness. The soil of Ethiopia and Africa continues to be stained by the blood of its sons and daughters all in the name of mindless ethnic power struggles.

A politics of collaboration and consensus must be re-asserted drawing on African tradition within the local community. That community must be expanded to become inclusive of all Africans. Otherwise, Africa will continue to be in disarray, in decline, and incur more death and suffering.

In this weakened condition, rapacious leaders can prey on their people and foreign interests can continue to exploit and manipulate for both profit and power. The time has come for a new Ethiopia or Africa, one where its people can see each other as one, as sharing the soul and soil of the continent for their mutual benefit and development. The cloak of ethnicity must be removed in the realm of African politics. Until that day arrives, Africans all suffer for their loss of humanity.

May this be the year we become a people who put our humanity before our ethnicity. May this be the year that we tell Meles and other African dictators we no longer will play his game of dividing and devaluing our fellow Ethiopians or Africans.

May this be the year we stop worshiping our heroes and then quickly discarding them when they do not succeed the way we want them to. May this be the year that we stop following a leader, just because that person is from your region or ethnic group.

May this year be the year of reconciliation! May we fear nothing but the Almighty God who created us. May this be the year we all turn back to God and may He guide us and help us to create an Ethiopia or Africa of which we are not ashamed!
_______________________
For additional information, please contact: Obang O. Metho, Director of International Advocacy:
[email protected]

JIJIGA, Ethiopia (AP) – Ethiopian officials have held an American citizen in custody for over a year in Ethiopia’s restive Somali region, the region’s top security official said Sunday.

Mohammed Farah Hassan has seen no American officials since being jailed in the regional capital of Jijiga, Somali regional security chief Abdi Mohammed Umar said. He said an Ethiopian court had sentenced the man, but did not say for how long or on what charges.

The region’s president, Abdullahi Hassan, said Friday his government had held «many» foreign nationals of Somali heritage, including Americans and Europeans, in regional jails on suspicion of «international terrorism.

The security official said Sunday that Mohammed Farah Hassan was an emigre originally from Ethiopia’s largest region, Somali, which is home to about 4.5 million people, mostly ethnic Somalis. He would not say how long exactly the man had been held, and said he had no information on other foreign detainees.

The official refused to allow reporters to visit Hassan, whom he described as a physically disabled planner for the Ogaden National Liberation Front, an ethnically Somali separatist movement that wants independence from the rest of Ethiopia.

«He’s a mastermind,» Abdi said, estimating his age at about 40. He said he did not know where in the United States the man may have lived.

American officials said they were investigating.

«We’ve seen the reports of the regional official’s comments, and we’re looking into the issue,» U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Darragh Paradiso said in Addis Ababa.

For eight months, the region has been embroiled in a battle between the Ethiopian government and rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front. In April, fighters from the guerrilla movement attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field east of the regional capital, killing 74 workers.