The events in Tunisia and Egypt have unveiled Washington’s foreign policy flaws in Africa. In both cases, Washington tolerated despotic regimes because they served a particular purpose. However, in the wake of the upheavals in both countries, Washington is now scrambling to devise strategies to control events and to formulate policies to reflect the new political reality. But the crisis seems to be spreading through the region like a wildfire, since the people of Sudan also have joined the bandwagon.
Those of us in the Ethiopian Americans Council (EAC), believe that it is a matter of time before the simmering public anger also erupt in Ethiopia. As the case is always with repressive regimes, there are gross and persistent human rights violations, government corruption and a very shaky economy. The youth that comprise almost two-thirds of the population are unemployed, trapped in poverty, and isolated from the political process. This dismal political, economic and social conditions, is definitely a recipe for riot and violent uprising. Clandestine armed struggles abound in the country, and life for rural Ethiopia is a nightmare.
Washington is presented with a unique opportunity to revaluate its dealings with the Zenawi regime in Ethiopia. In response to the unrest in Egypt, President Obama eloquently said, “What’s needed right now are concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people; a meaningful dialogue between the government and citizens; and a path of political change that leads to a future of greater freedom and greater opportunity and justice for the Egyptian people.” The President should send similar message to Ethiopia since the situation mirrors that of Egypt.
Ethiopians are yearning for political and economic freedom. Because Washington controls the purse, it has the unfettered power to pressure the regime to implement specific political reforms to open up the political system to the opposition groups. The Ethiopian Americans Council hope the Obama administration will take proactive measures to facilitate the much needed political reforms in order to prevent similar social unrest in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Americans Council (EAC)
www.eacouncil.org
Right at this time, most of our African commanders-in-thug have assembled in my hometown, Addis Ababa. Imagine how these thugs would panic if Ethiopians suddenly rise up in unison like the Tunisians and Egyptians. The thugs would automatically abandon their comrade-in-thug, Meles Zenawi. By the way, Ethiopians are not new to making an earth shaking revolution. Had it not been hijacked by the military, in 1974 Ethiopians nearly made history. In 2005, Ethiopians again manifested their civility and maturity to embrace genuine democracy. Unfortunately, due to the egocentricity of the opposition leadership combined with the ever hegemonic geopolitical interest of the West, Ethiopians aspiration faced a temporary setback. Meanwhile, commensurate with the worsening repression by the Zenawi regime, Ethiopian’s anger is also simmering. It’s only waiting for the proverbial last straw or a tiny spark to galvanize it into a huge revolutionary ball of fire.
Just like I get exasperated at the apparent submission of our people to tyranny, a Ugandan journalist friend of mine texted me:
While Tunisians and Egyptians bring their governments down by protests, Ugandans protest by keeping quiet and Ethiopians and Eritreans protest by fleeing their country in thousands!”
To which I replied by concurring fully. On second thought, however, I changed my mind at least on Uganda and Ethiopia. Both in Uganda and Ethiopia, the public had shown its readiness for change and anger against tyranny. In 2007, I witnessed the Mabira demonstration in Uganda. In September 2009, I was in the thick of the Buganda uprising. It’s always the intellectual elite that lag behind the ordinary people’s aspiration for mere crumbs from the establishment. With the pervasive abject poverty vis-à-vis the obscene riches of the few, raging anger is everywhere.
Tolstoy warned long ago by pointing out:
Insurrection is a machine that makes no noise.”
How true! Even CIA and Mossad couldn’t detect the raging contagious revolution in North Africa. So imagining a revolution in Addis Ababa at this time is not that much of a wishful thinking.
What happens to Africa after the mud walls of dictatorship come tumbling down and the palaces of illusion behind those walls vanish? Will Africa be like Humpty Dumpty who “had a great fall” and could not be put back together by “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men”? What happens to the dictators?
When the people begin to beat their drums and circle the mud walls, Africa’s dictators will pack their bags and fly off like bats out of hell. Some will go to Dictators’ Heaven in Saudi Arabia where they will be received with open arms and kisses on the cheeks (Ben Ali of Tunisia, Idi Amin of Uganda, Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan found sanctuary in Saudi Arabia, as will Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan and soon.) Others will hide out in the backyards of their brother dictators (Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia has been holed up in Zimbabwe for the last 20 years; Hissen Habre of Chad remains a fugitive from justice sheltered in Senegal; Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia lived out his last days in Nigeria as did Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko in Morocco). The rest will fade away into the sunset to quietly enjoy their stolen millions. But few will meet the fate of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Central African Republic (CAR) who found sanctuary in France only to return to CAR, face trial and be convicted of murder; or Charles Taylor of Liberia who found refuge in Nigeria before he was handed over to the International Criminal Court and is now standing trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The fact is that the morning after the fall of Africa’s dictators, the people will be stuck with a ransacked economy, emptied national banks, empty store shelves, torture chambers full of political prisoners and dithering and power-hungry opposition leaders jockeying for position in the middle of political chaos.
Who Could Put Africa Together After the Fall?
Where are the “king’s men and the king’s horses” who will put Africa together after the mud walls come tumbling down? Who are Africa’s Knights in Shining Armor who will ride to the rescue? Unfortunately, there have been few African knights and a lot of armor with one general or self-proclaimed rebel leader replacing another to lord over the people. Africa has been a victim of a recurrent case of old dictator out, new dictator in. In 1991, after the fall of the military dictatorship (Derg) in Ethiopia led by Mengistu Hailemariam, a malignant dictatorship replaced it with Meles Zenawi at the helm. Zenawi and his crew came to power promising democracy and ended up establishing a kakistorcatic kleptocracy (a government of incompetents whose mission is to use the state apparatus to steal from the people and enrich themselves and their cronies). Two decades later, the country’s economy is in shambles with galloping inflation and jails full of businessmen and merchants who are made the fall guys for the country’s economic problems.
Laurent Gbagbo succeeded Ivory Coast’s military dictator Robert Guei in a democratic election in 2000. After losing a democratic election by a 9-point margin to Alassane Ouattara recently, Gbagbo refuses to step down and continues to cling to power despite pleas by his own election commission, the African Union, the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union. In 1997, rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, named himself president the day after Mobutu fled, suspended the constitution, renamed the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, moved into Mobutu’s palace and continued Mobutu’s ongoing enterprise of massive human rights abuses and corruption without skipping a beat. A week after Kabila was assassinated by his own body guard in 2001, his 30 year-old son Joseph was anointed president. Lansana Conté replaced dictator Ahmed Sékou Touré in Guinea in 1984, until he was overthrown by another military dictator in December 2008. Omar al-Bashir seized power in the Sudan in 1989, immediately suspended political parties and introduced Sharia law on a national level, a major factor which contributed to the recent breakup of the Sudan. In 1999, he disbanded the parliament, suspended the constitution, declared a state of national emergency and began ruling by presidential decree. Today al-Bashir is a fugitive from justice sought by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes. When Siad Barre’s military dictatorship fell in Somalia in 1991, the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his rebel group took over Mogadishu but were unable to consolidate their power throughout the country, triggering bloody clan wars that have left Somalia as the ultimate completely failed state.
Learning From History: Preparing for Change
It is said that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”; but there is much to be learned from the history of African dictatorships. Africa’s dictators have methodically and systematically wiped out their strongest opposition by demonizing, jailing, intimidating, torturing and outlawing them. They have neutralized rivals even with their own ranks. Zenawi jailed the entire leadership of the opposition, journalists, civil society leaders and human rights advocates in one fell swoop in 2005. The dictators have created their own political institutions and doctored their constitutions to allow for change to come only through the auspices of their own parties and allies. Both Ben Ali and Mubarak amended their constitutions so that no opposition leader or party could run for the presidency or other national office and have a chance to win in a fair and free election. Because African dictators live in an echo chamber they are self-delusional. They convince themselves that they have popular support. Mubarak believes he has the full support of the people, and by reshuffling his cabinet and appointing his army buddies to top posts he could continue his 30 year-old dictatorial rule. Zenawi declared that his 99.6 percent victory in the parliamentary election in May 2010 represented a “mandate” from the people to his party in gratitude for his great leadership and the “double digit” economic growth he had brought the country. African dictators are so arrogant that they believe they can save the day by making a few superficial concessions and grandstanding promises of democratization, reorganization and reconciliation. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Mwai Kibaki of Kenya agreed to a make-believe “unity government” to prolong their dictatorships. Without the support of the West, no dictatorship in Africa could survive even a single day. That is why Mubarak, Zenawi, Kibaki, Musevini and rest of them shake in their boots when the West angles their collective boots towards their rear ends. The West will throw them under a steamroller at the first sign of unrest. President Obama was quick to “applaud” the Tunisian people for overthrowing Ben Ali. He warned Mubarak that unless he takes “concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people”, there will be cuts in the billions of dollars of U.S. handouts to Egypt.
On the other hand, many opposition leaders and parties opposing dictatorships in Africa have been disorganized, fractious, confused, haphazard, self-righteous and duplicitous. Regrettably, there are far too many opposition leaders in Africa who are driven by the singular desire to grab power than are interested in bringing about real change. Truth be told, many African opposition leaders have little faith in the courage and resourcefulness of the people; and the people prove them wrong every time. As Egypt’s Mohamed El Baradei recently observed on the Egyptian popular uprising: “It was the young people who took the initiative and set the date [for the uprising] and decided to go. Frankly, I didn’t think the people were ready… [but what the youth have done] will give them the self-confidence they needed.” Once opposition leaders seat themselves in the saddles of power, they become the mirror images of the dictators they fought to remove. In the eyes of the people, many of these leaders have proven to be wolves in sheep’s clothing; they want to grab power to make sure “it is their turn to eat, their turn at the trough”. That is the reason why people in many parts of Africa have little faith in the opposition leaders or their parties. Laurent Gbago, who fought dictator Félix Houphouët-Boigny and years later led his supporters into the streets toppling General Robert Guei is today the reincarnation of Houphouët-Boigny-Guei. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda are no different. Further evidence in support of the assertion that many opposition leaders are driven by a hunger for power is their inability to present to the people concrete and comprehensive proposals to address the structural problems of poverty, unemployment, inflation, corruption, oppression and human rights violation in their countries. In short, many opposition leaders have no plans to clean up the mess the dictatorships always leave behind, and have failed to become beacons of hope to guide their people out of despair. That is what we seem to be witnessing today in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere.
An African Charter Against Dictatorship (Charter 2011)
The history of the human struggle for freedom offers many lessons. One of the great lessons of the past two decades is that political changes that ensure lasting peace and guarantee freedom and human rights do not come as a result of military or palace coups, rebel victories or the efforts of opposition parties and leaders, but through simple acts of civil disobedience, passive resistance and the spontaneous actions of ordinary people and youth in the streets fed up with corruption, poverty, unemployment and human rights abuses. Who could have imagined that the match young Mohamed Bouazizi lit to burn himself protesting dictatorship in Tunisia would now be torching decades-old dictatorships in Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan? Could one reasonably doubt that the winds of change will not carry the embers of freedom from Tunisia and Egypt to other countries in the region?
In the current context of civil disobedience and mass resistance and the absence of organized parties and leaders to lead peaceful popular uprisings in many African dictatorships, it seems that there is a great role to be played by individuals, small groups, civic society and other informal institutions dedicated to the defense and protection of human rights and the rule of law in Africa. Africans must look to civil society institutions and grassroots organizations to spearhead real change and take charge of their destiny. The first step towards that end is for ordinary Africans committed to nonviolent peaceful change to take a stand against dictatorship openly and defiantly. It has been done before successfully a number of times. The struggle of the Czechoslovakian dissidents who signed the Charter 77 petition is one instructive example of how individuals without political partisanship, affiliation or ideology — but committed to human rights and freedom — were able to change history by simply standing up for their beliefs and defying dictatorships.
In November 1989, riot police violently suppressed student demonstrations in Prague, which in turn triggered a massive popular uprising and a general strike against the communist regime. As a result, Czech president Gustav Husak resigned in early December; and by the end of 1989 a non-communist government was in place. Within a few months, the much vaunted communist system in Czechoslovakia was dismantled completely. The “Velvet Revolution”, as it came to be known, had roots in the tireless efforts of a few hundred Czech dissidents committed to the principles of “Charter 77”, a human rights document prepared in the from a petition demanding respect for basic human rights guaranteed to Czech citizens in their Constitution and other international human rights conventions. The Charter demanded the right to freedom of expression, freedom of association, a stop to politically-motivated prosecutions, humane treatment of political prisoners and other basic rights. Charter 77 was not an organization nor did it have any formal membership. Those who signed it consisted of “a loose, informal and open association of people of various shades of opinion, faiths and professions united by the will to strive individually and collectively for the respecting of civic and human rights in our own country and throughout the world.” Anyone who agreed with the ideas of the Charter and was willing to propagate and participate in its pursuit could take ownership. When the Charter was finalized in 1977, approximately 300 individuals had the courage to sign it. Many avoided openly endorsing the document or showing support for it fearing retaliation, harassment and persecution by the communist regime. When communism fell in 1989, fewer than two thousand Czechs had signed the Charter. Most importantly, during the turbulent days of the “Velvet Revolution”, it was the members of Charter 77 who played a pivotal and decisive role in the transition of Czechoslovakia from totalitarianism to democracy. Member of Charter 77 ensured not only the dismantlement of communism but also became the bulwarks against the rise of another dictatorship. An African Charter Against Dictatorship is long overdue!
Palace of Illusions and Fortress of Freedom
When the mud walls of African dictatorships come tumbling down, the palaces of illusion behind those walls will vanish without a trace. If Africans are to have hope of a better future and fulfill their destiny to become one with all free peoples in the world, they will need to build a fortress of freedom impregnable to the slings and arrows of civilians dictators and the savage musketry of military juntas. African dictators should heed these words: “Those who make peaceful change impossible, make a violent revolution inevitable.”
The domino effect of the Tunisia jasmine revolution reaches Ethiopia’s neighbor Sudan today where protesters who demanded the resignation of the al Bashir dictatorship clashed with police, according to Al Jazeera.
(Al Jazeera) — Sudanese police have beaten and arrested students as protests broke out throughout Khartoum demanding the government resign, inspired by a popular uprising in neighbouring Egypt.
Hundreds of armed riot police on Sunday broke up groups of young Sudanese demonstrating in central Khartoum and surrounded the entrances of four universities in the capital, firing teargas and beating students at three of them.
Police beat students with batons as they chanted anti-government slogans such as “we are ready to die for Sudan” and “revolution, revolution until victory”.
There were further protests in North Kordofan capital el-Obeid in Sudan’s west, where around 500 protesters engulfed the market before police used tear gas to disperse them, three witnesses said.
“They were shouting against the government and demanding change,” said witness Ahmed who declined to give his full name.
Sudan has a close affinity with Egypt – the two countries were united under British colonial rule. The unprecedented scenes there inspired calls for similar action in Sudan, where protests without permission, which is rarely given, are illegal.
Before Tunisia’s popular revolt, Sudan was the last Arab country to overthrow a leader with popular protests, ousting Jaafar Nimeiri in 1985.
Galvanised by social networks
Groups have emerged on social networking sites calling themselves “Youth for Change” and “The Spark”, since the uprisings in nearby Tunisia and close ally Egypt this month.
“Youth for Change” has attracted more than 15,000 members.
“The people of Sudan will not remain silent any more,” its Facebook page said. “It is about time we demand our rights and take what’s ours in a peaceful demonstration that will not involve any acts of sabotage.”
The pro-democracy group Girifna (“We’re fed up”) said nine members were detained the night before the protest and opposition party officials listed almost 40 names of protesters arrested on Sunday. Five were injured, they added.
Opposition leader Mubarak al-Fadil told Reuters two of his sons were arrested on their way to the central protest.
Editor-in-chief of the al-Wan daily paper Hussein Khogali said his daughter had been detained by security forces since 0500 GMT accused of organising the Facebook-led protest.
Pro-government newspapers carried front page warnings against protests which they said would cause chaos and turmoil.
The Sudan Vision daily’s editorial blamed the opposition.
“Our message to those opposition dinosaurs is to unite their ideas and objectives for the benefit of the citizens if they are really looking for the welfare of the Sudanese people,” it read.
Prices, frustration rising
Sudan is in deep economic crisis which analysts blame on government overspending and misguided policies.
A bloated import bill caused foreign currency shortages and forced an effective devaluation of the Sudanese pound last year, sparking soaring inflation.
Early this month the government cut subsidies on petroleum products and key commodity sugar, triggering smaller protests throughout the north.
Sunday’s protests coincided with the first official announcement of results for a referendum on the oil-producing south’s secession from the north showing an overwhelming vote for independence, which many in the north oppose
Police spokesman Ahmed al-Tuhami told Reuters the police did not have figures for any injured or arrested.
“We did not use more violence than necessary – we did not want anyone to spoil this day with the referendum results.”
This is a tribute and in memoriam to the millions of Ethiopians who have been murdered; disposed; driven out of their country and refused reentry on pain of death; subjected to grinding poverty, drought, and famine by two rouge, murderous and dictatorial governments that have been the beasts that devoured Ethiopia in the last 40 years.
Ethiopia became noted around the world as a fallen country that could not take care of its own children, the most prized possessions of any country, or for that matter, humanity as a whole can have. Ethiopia has sold its children in the hundreds of thousands to rich countries through a process called ‘adoption’ to mask the harsh and cruel reality of selling them. Cry, My Beloved Country.
Many Ethiopian young women have been humiliated in their country to become prostitutes (estimated to be 300,000 in Addis Ababa alone). Those with means use their money to pay Weyane agents to leave their country with a lure of employment. These agents sell them cheap to oil rich but primitive Arab countries. There they are engaged in back breaking slave labor in a 12-14 hour day and used as sexual toys at night. They are brutally beaten, burned, murdered by the hundreds. They also commit suicide everyday throughout the Arab world. The Weyane representatives in these Arab countries never take note or care. When the war in Beirut erupted, Ethiopians were the only foreigners who did not get any sanctuary. Some were sheltered by other sympathetic maids who were being assisted by their respective embassies. The vast majority of the 60,000 or so Ethiopian maids sold as slaves were left in the rubble of bombed out buildings of Beirut until the war stopped. Their masters had earlier fled their homes with their dogs leaving the Ethiopian girls behind. Cry My Beloved Country.
Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian refugees have funneled through southern Ethiopia and are stretched out from Nairobi to Cape Town. In the slum of Nairobi, Eastline, Ethiopian girls are dragged from the street and/or their homes by the notoriously corrupt Kenyan police and are repeatedly raped and then passed along to their bosses or any Kenyan who wants to have sex with them. The Ethiopian men in turn are continuously asked to pay bribes or bring Ethiopian girls. Similar things happen to them until they reach South Africa. By that time most have lost their sanity, or have become sterile, or had abandoned their unwanted babies, or are infected with HIV AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases. Ethiopian men are hunted like stray dogs and killed at will all along the way. This is especially severe in South Africa where they are beaten, robbed and killed by roving savage and xenophobic South African Blacks spoiling for a fight. This happens in a country for whose independence Ethiopia has fought so persistently, and for a long time, a matter acknowledged by Nelson Mandela.
By all international standards Ethiopia remains the poorest country in the world. In Human Development Index (HDI) it is at the very bottom. If we only take the needs of children and families, the statistics is quite staggering. Ethiopia is listed in the top 10 countries for the worst human development index worldwide. Five million or 16% of all children in Ethiopia are orphans. One in every 13 children dies before his/her first birthday. One in 14 women will die from complications during pregnancy or childbirth. More than 1/3 of children under age 5 are malnourished. Four out of 5 families live on less than $2 a day. In rural areas, less than 1 in 3 families have access to a clean water source.
The phenomenon of Internet Social Networking such as: twitter, facebook, MySpace, paltalk, Skype and other instant communication is unavailable to Ethiopians. With 80 million population Ethiopia Is probably the most closed society in the world. Please look at Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.
Meanwhile, the absolute potentate and dictator-in-chief Meles Zenawi, continually berates insults and humiliates non-Tigrean Ethiopians and spews his poisonous venom on them. His speeches are filled with filth and garbage deliberately meant to shock and terrorize. Just to touch the tip of the iceberg: He says that he is proud to belong to the Golden Tribe; and glad not to be a piece of rag like the rest. He surely believes, like Hitler believed about the Aryans, that his Tigrean tribe is the “Master Race”. The entire Tigrean elite are on his side believing that “now it is our time to eat”. Even when their tribal ship is about to sink not even one የድል አጥቢያ አርበኛ (patriots on the eve of victory). He openly wonders what Axum is for the Welayta or others; he has said that he can do whatever he likes with anybody even if he does not like the color of his or her eyes. He has said that his Tigreans will not join the others in the mud and roll with them. He has recently warned hundreds of businessmen that he will cut their fingers and pull their nails. At one time while addressing his “parliament” he said that he would “cut the tongues” of whatever group he was referring to at that time. His vulgar language is inexhaustible. I have always maintained that Meles is a cross between Idi Amin and Mobutu. In kleptocracy he has surpassed Mobutu. But Idi Amin has wit and intelligence and is a paragon of virtue by comparison. Just watch the French Documentary “Idi Amin Dada” if one has doubts.
Meles surely suffers from megalomania and psychiatrists would have a field day analyzing him. He wears $7,000 tailor made suits fitted by the world renowned Savile Raw Tailors of London, who had been the dress makers of European kings and princes and present day multi-billionaires. His $300 a piece shirts are also custom made as well as his padded shoes. A tailor from Savile Raw regularly travels between London and Addis to take measurements of Meles and deliver finished ones. Even Emperor Haile Selassie with all his glory and charisma was employing the services of a local tailor. London has now begun selling single flats in an exclusive area for $220 million dollars. Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern Billionaires are buying it fast. Maybe Meles has bought one already. With his propensity of not caring for expenses on himself he will be among the most sought after candidate.
It is said that the wife of the Tunisian dictator has raided the national bank and fled with gold bars. Our guys have upstaged her by many years. The vault of the Ethiopian National bank was raided and its gold stolen. A couple of Gurage retail traders were said to be the culprits and then the trail gets dead. Everybody, even the most loyal Tigrean supporter, knows who stole this gold. The hapless Gurages probably do not even know where the National Bank is located let alone its massive vault. While we salute the valiant youth of Tunisia who started it all and salute the youth of Egypt, Yemen, and more to follow, we say Cry My Beloved Country!
Meles has now embarked on one of his often reformulated trickster games. This time it is price control. The Derg had tried it once and failed. The people said about the Derg then: ደርግ ያስካካል እንጅ እንቁላል አይጥልም (the Derg will cuckoo but does not lay eggs). The Weyane now want EFFORT to devour the hen with her eggs. A lot has been speculated on whether the people’s victory in Tunisia could be repeated in Ethiopia. There is every likelihood that it may happen since the Weyane is sitting on top of a tinderbox which could explode any day. We have also to realize that Ethiopians are the most oppressed and the most isolated people on the face of the earth. The top brass of the military is entirely composed of Tigreans. The security forces are entirely from the Tigrean tribe as well as the majority of the police force. The police have been trained by that arch enemy of the Ethiopian people, the BRITISH. We must remember that the Master Plan of the entire Weyane governing structure down to the Kebele level was drawn up by the British. To prop up the regime they installed, they have cynically given away 600 free MBA’s from Open University of London to be distributed among illiterate Weyane cadres. They were told to frame their fake MBA’s and hung it in their offices. Meles has availed himself of two of them – so low has the prestige of British education fallen that it has been used to buttress an illegitimate dictatorship.
How about education at home. The management of the oldest and most respected higher education establishment has been given to Endreas Eshete. This quintessential “Hodam Amara” who has self –styled himself as “Professor” while in actual fact he is an assistant professor. He never had a steady job in the US, occasionally freelancing as a shoo-in a semester adjunct lecturer at a time, courtesy of some friends. A recent article by concerned professors of the A.A. University have posted their grievances on how Endreas is systematically destroying this august institution of higher learning, which I urge everyone to read. He was put there by Meles just to do that. University education in Ethiopia except in Mekele (MIT) is a joke. To humor Ethiopians Weyane says it has opened dozens of universities all over the country. These are single structure buildings with obsolete textbooks donated by Western countries, books that have been thrown away and shipped free to Ethiopia, like the familiar second hand cloth. These books form what is called libraries. The method of instruction is ተምሮ ማስተማር – the barely educated “graduates” employed as ‘professors’ to teach the new arrivals at a “university”. Beyond qualified professors, a university needs a good library; a reliable internet connection with other centers of learning throughout the world, in order to access their research data base; sophisticated photo copying facilities; and number of pages/semester must be allocated to each student for free so that they can download and print out up to date learning materials. These “universities” are now in the process of ‘the blind leading the blind’ and issuing absolutely useless degrees. And this is deliberate. Endreas knows that. BTW, he is the custodian of the “famous Weyane donkey” or its sibling. His donkey brays in the middle of the night disturbing his neighbors in the upscale neighborhood where he is given a villa by the Weyane. If in doubt, check it out.
What about the Diaspora. It is a reflection of the country. It is fragmented and works at cross purposes most of the time. But it is determined to assist the subjugated Ethiopians in every way possible. The truth of the matter is that the youth have to take the leadership. The Brave New World awaits their leadership. Nobody can give it to them, they have to snatch it just like the valiant and exemplary youth of Tunisia have done! They have to snatch it from the Old Guard. The older generation should know that their time is up. Their role, however, is useful during the transition period. That is to warn, to guide, and to advice. During the Derg time Ethiopians were called “the people who forgot to smile or laugh” – so much and so devastating was the oppression. The butcher Mengistu is singing his swan song “I never even hurt a fly” from his comfortable exile. One of his closest ideological advisors was the Eastern European educated Dr. Ashagre Yigletu, considered by those high Derg officials who have worked closely with him as the embodiment of evil. They interplay with his first name and call him አሻጥሬ (the conspirator) He was to Mengistu as Ribbentrop was to Hitler. He is hiding somewhere in Southern US. His place, like his boss, is to face the World Court in The Hague. It has always been said that people who forget their past are condemned to repeat it in the future. We have to follow the example of Chile.
What can we say about Diaspora “tourists” or euphemistically called “investors” who descend to Ethiopia every year. Most are in fact “sex tourists”. They may have been sex starved and have worked as a mule in their Western abodes. They go to Ethiopia to flout their hard earned money among poor prostitutes, have their way with the benefits that their cash give them, and return to their harsh reality, some with STD or HIV AIDS. The foreign tourists are mostly from rich Arab countries, Europe and America. They are sexual tourists. The Americans in particular are known to have destroyed the culture of countries they have dominated. Look at the sexual tourist havens in Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand and now Ethiopia. It is said that homosexual prostitutes have begun to emerge. An unheard abomination in the past. One of US NGO’s was running an orphanage in Wello for the sole purpose of using the orphans as sexual slaves. He was apprehended. But how many are out there. Ethiopia has 4,600 NGO’s the second largest in the world (the first is Haiti with 10,000 NGO’s and look where it is now)
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church whose followers are the absolute majority of the country has a “Patriarch” who is derelict in his duties and has eyes wandering in taboo places. When the famous pop star Beyonce went to Ethiopia, the Patriarch they say was smitten. A popular joke attributed to him. It was said that he composed this couplet:
በአምስት አቦ ናችው በሰባት ቢዮንሴ
እኔ አንቺን ስወድሽ ትወጣለች ነፍሴ
Byonce is considered the most beautiful woman in the world (and I agree). But Abba GebreMedhin is a cleric who has vowed to celibacy and to turn away from worldly things. What brought him into the business of entertaining Byonce? He was criticized by the timid Synod for this. Another strange case concerns a certain woman who is rumored to be of ill repute and of loose morals who frequents his private living quarters and rides with him in his Hummer. She was once physically forbidden by a wall of Bishops from entering the Patriarch’s private quarters!! A small statuette of him was erected at a corner of a church and the Synod wanted it dismantled. The “Patriarch” refused saying that it was “this woman” who built it for him out of “pure love”. Things are getting stranger and stranger. This is what “rolling in mud” means, Meles. And who is there in the mud, your Patriarch.
Dictators, they say, have feet of clay. Weyane has reached the tipping point and is on the verge of collapse. Its tribal structure will collapse with it. The world is changing and changing very fast. In this era of globalization even the immutable Caste System of India which has endured for thousands of years is falling apart. The Tigrean supporters of the Weyane as well as the other Hodams should abandon their sinking flagship, the Weyane Mafia, before it is too late. Otherwise they will sink with it.
In Ethiopia when the revolution occurs s it may be called the “adey Abeba Revolution”. Until freedom comes, we will continue to repeat aloud the battle cry of those valiant freedom fighters of Angola and Mozambique- who fought for so long and so hard, the most entrenched colonial power in Africa -the Portuguese – until final victory.
A Lutta Continua! -the Struggle Continues!
(Cry My Beloved Country is the title of a book written by Alan Patton, the patriotic South African lamenting about Apartheid. The book was translated into Amharic with the apt title እሪ በዪ አገሪ. The author, Msmaku Asrat, Ph.D., can be reached at [email protected])
Unlike the notorious Egyptian police, the restraint shown so far by the Egyptian army in the face of a nation wide popular uprising is becoming no doubt worrisome to Ethiopia’s tyrant Meles Zenawi who himself is sitting on a ticking time bomb. Meles and his blood thirsty army chief, General Samora Yenus, may have called Hosni Mubarak to ask why the army is not shooting. When Ethiopians held rally following the 2005 fraudulent elections, Meles Zenawi had unleashed his death squads who gunned down civilians indiscriminately, including children and women.
In memory of those Ethiopians who fought for change, and to remind us that positive change is still possible in Ethiopia, Tamagn Beyene has produced the following video.
Right at this time, most of our African commanders-in-thug have assembled in my hometown, Addis Ababa. Imagine how these thugs would panic if Ethiopians suddenly rise up in unison like the Tunisians and Egyptians. The thugs would automatically abandon their comrade-in-thug, Meles Zenawi. By the way, Ethiopians are not new to making an earth shaking revolution. Had it not been hijacked by the military, in 1974 Ethiopians nearly made history. In 2005, Ethiopians again manifested their civility and maturity to embrace genuine democracy. Unfortunately, due to the egocentricity of the opposition leadership combined with the ever hegemonic geopolitical interest of the West, Ethiopians aspiration faced a temporary setback. Meanwhile, commensurate with the worsening repression by the Zenawi regime, Ethiopian’s anger is also simmering. It’s only waiting for the proverbial last straw or a tiny spark to galvanize it into a huge revolutionary ball of fire.