The people’s revolution in Egypt must succeed, otherwise tyrants in the region are going to feast and sharpen their military apparatus and jail thousands of those who camped out on the streets of the great Cairo, home to the pyramids and the great MAAT, queen of Justice.
I can imagine MAAT the queen of Truth praying for the protesters to hold on to the last human being and fight for their rights, die for the sake of creating a genuine moral economy that the Egyptian people have not seen for the last thirty years. I imagine in own my home land, the historic Ethiopia, the ruling regime strategizing in smoke filled rooms, on how to squelch an eminent Ethiopian uprising before it takes root. I imagine the tyranny’s think tanks laughing at writings such as this and defaming any outputs from the Diaspora as infective and idle. … [Continue reading.]
Mubarak is tearing apart his country just so that he can stay 8 more months in power. Despite his claim to be a patriotic Egyptian, he is clearly an evil tyrant who is willing to shed the blood of his countrymen to prolong his grip on power. It’s heartening to witness the unarmed pro-democracy protesters, who have conquered fear and are ready to die for their freedom, chasing away Mubarak’s thugs who attacked them savagely with sticks and knives. The international community must made it clear to Mubarak and his ministers that they will be held personally accountable — face justice at the ICC — for the atrocities they are committing against the peaceful protesters. The Obama Administration in particular has a great deal of leverage, such as freezing the assets of Mubarak’s family and friends in the U.S. Otherwise, it will be Obama’s “Rwanda Moment.”
Latest developments:
* Mubarak supporters attack international journalists, CNN crew attacked.
* The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain have released a joint statement calling for a rapid transition of power, via the French government’s website:
* After savage attack by pro-Mubarak thugs over night which killed seven peopole, the army started showing sings of movement to protect pro-democracy protesters on Thursday morning.
* Egypt’s prime minister apologizes for the attack on protesters.
* General Omar Suleiman, the newly appointed vice president of Egypt, has held talks with “political parties and national forces”, according to Reuters.
* At least 20,000 opposition supporters massed outside the city’s main university a day after Mr Saleh, an important US ally against al Qaeda, failed to pacify their demands with a pledge that he would not seek re-election in 2013. – The Telegraph
The Woyanne ruling junta’s agriculture minister, Tefera Derbew, has sold 1.8 million hectares of Ethiopian farmland to India, according to a report by an Indian journal. Under the deal, India will use the land for 70 years. Read the report below.
NEW DELHI (Prokerala.com) — Ethiopia has offered to Indian investors 1.8 million hectares of farmland, equalling nearly 40 percent the total area of principal grain-growing state of Punjab, in what could give a big push to the country’s food security.
“So far, we have transferred 307,000 hectares of land to foreign and domestic investors. Some 79 percent of this land has been transferred to Indian companies. This land is on 70-year lease,” said visiting Ethiopian Agriculture Minister Tefera Derbew.
“We are now proposing to transfer another 3.6 million hectares of land to investors from overseas. And I am confident that more than half of this 3.6 million hectares will go to Indians,” Derbew, who is here on a three-day official visit, told IANS in an interview.
The land offered by the East African nation, at the horn of the continent, equals 50 percent of the cultivable land of Punjab, often called India’s granary, accounting for 23 percent of its wheat and 10 percent of paddy output.
“How much land will actually go to Indian investors depends entirely on the interest of investors. If they come and take all the land, then also we will be very happy. Indian investors are very welcome in Ethiopia,” Derbew said.
According to the visiting minister, Indian investors have so far committed $4.7 billion investment in Ethiopia and most of it is related to the farm sector. He said the investment was going to rise sharply in the coming years with interests arising in mining as well.
Indian firms have interests in cotton, palm oil, rubber, oilseeds and horticulture.
Derbew said an Indian company was in the process of getting 100,000 hectares of land for sugarcane production. “India has expertise in sugar. We are in talks with several Indian companies to help develop the sugar industry in our country.”
Officials here identified the company as Karuturi Global, one of the largest global players in the organised floriculture industry. The investments planned, they added, could go up to over $100 million for a sugarcane crushing and processing unit in Ethiopia.
The minister said the trade balance, which was hugely skewed towards India, would tilt in Ethiopia’s favour once the projects materialise. “Our bilateral trade is over $500 million. But most of it are Indian exports. Our exports are negligible.”
He said there was also scope for Ethiopia to export potassic fertiliser to India.
Derbew said his government had also liberalised the norms for allocation of land for all major infrastructure projects, including those for roadways and railways, and was in talks with several Indian companies in this regard.
“We target to build over 2,000 km of rail link in the next five years. Similarly, there is also a huge investment potential for road infrastructure,” said Derbew, adding: “We hope Indian companies will take advantage of this opportunity as well.”
The secretary general of Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ), Ato Andualem Aragie, who resides in Addis Ababa, said today that the kind of popular uprising that is currently taking place in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen will also happen in Ethiopia. Ato Andualem told Serkadis News Service that living conditions in Ethiopia are far worse than those in Egypt and that the people of Ethiopia are subjected to gross human rights abuses.
The recent attempts by the Meles regime to prevent similar uprising by trying to to bring down commodity prices through price control and taking further repressive measures will not be effective, according to other observers in Addis Ababa. Read the full report here (Amharic).
On Monday, February 7, Ethiopians in Washington DC will shut down the Woyanne regime- occupied Ethiopian embassy starting at 8:30 in the morning to bring attention to the people of Ethiopia’s demand for an end to Meles Zenawi’s dictatorship.
Similar activities are being planned by Ethiopian civic and political groups around the world. More updates later.
In Ethiopia, the capital city Addis Ababa, where African leaders thieves are currently holding a conference, is tense as tens of thousands of troops patrol the streets. Although there is a news blackout of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the people of Ethiopia are getting information from various sources and are closely watching developments.
With all the repressive measures the Meles regime has been taking to prevent an uprising, many of the regime’s officials know that their time is running out and they have taken their family members out of the country.
The people of Ethiopia need to also start preparing themselves. Ethiopians in the Diaspora have the responsibility to advise their families back home to start preparations. Ethiopian Review recommends the following:
1. Take your money out of banks so that your family will not be stranded without money in the event that the uprising forces the banks to be closed for a long duration. Woyanne is looting the banks, so by the time they are ousted, some of the banks may not exist any more.
2. Stock up on food, drinking water and other basic supplies that could last you several weeks.
3. Identify and expose Woyanne spies who are assigned to neighborhoods. Send their names and photos to Ethiopian Review and other media. They will be the ones who would lead Meles Zenawi’s death squads to the door steps of protest organizers and opposition leaders.
4. Reach out to members of the armed forces and educate them about their duty, which is to the people and not the dictator.
Ethiopian Review is closely monitoring developments in Ethiopia and will update it readers on a regular basis.
March of the Millions is underway in Egypt. It is an unbelievable scene. For Ethiopians it is a reminiscent of the May 7, 2005, rally in Addis Ababa where 4 million people turned out to express their support for change one week before the stolen May 15, 2005 elections. Unfortunately, the Ethiopian march of the millions did not bare fruit as the people still continue to suffer under a brutal dictatorship. Ethiopian Review wishes victory and success to the people of Egypt in their fight for freedom.
Latest developments in Egypt
* African leaders are warily watching Egypt. Frustrated with their political elites, railing against the lack of freedom, angered at unemployment levels, dismayed at the rising cost of food, fuel and other basics, the people of sub-Saharan Africa share many of the complaints that led to the upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt, along the continent’s northern edge. – Global Post
* An undercurrent of anger against the United States appears to be building here because of what many see as the Obama administration’s overly cautious response to the demands of protesters for the resignation of longtime U.S. ally President Hosni Mubarak. – Los Angeles Times
* Mohamed ElBaradei is emerging as a potential replacement for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but like other possible successors, he’s seen as a temporary leader. – USA Today
* China minimized news coverage of Egypt uprising and “warned last week that websites that did not censor comments about Egypt would be ‘shut down by force.” – CSM
* Former U.S. presidential candidate Senator John Kerry urges Hosni Mubarak to step down. – New York Times
* Opposition leader ElBaradei calls on Mubarak to quit in order to spare bloodshed. – Al Arabiya
* Egyptian army has ruled out force against the people. – BBC
* Mubarak authorized the new vice president to start talks with opposition leaders. – Al Jazeera
* Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan called on Mubarak to listen to his people, in the first call by a foreign leader to ask Egypt’s present to step aside.
* Google and Twitter have launched a service which circumvents the ban on net services in Egypt. The so-called speak-to-tweet system allows people caught up in the unrest to post messages without any need to use an internet connection.
* The U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights praised protesters in Egypt Tuesday and said she was alarmed by a rise in casualties during unrest in the country.
On Monday, February 7, Ethiopians in Washington DC will shut down the Woyanne regime- occupied Ethiopian embassy starting at 8:30 in the morning to bring attention to the people of Ethiopia’s demand for an end to Meles Zenawi’s dictatorship.