6:30 PM – The demonstration at Columbia against the despot in Ethiopia is now over. The protesters are dispersing. Today’s demonstration has been exceedingly successful in that it has educated Columbia University and others about Zenawi’s dictatorship and the devastation it has caused in Ethiopia, exposed the two professors who are cheerleaders to African tyrants, and brought together several Ethiopians for action. Let’s get prepared for more actions that will defeat and destroy the Woyanne junta.
5:15 PM – Woyanne supporters stage a counter demonstration. Columbia Spectator has reported that Meles’ speech lasted 20 minutes. Read here.
4:50 PM – Hundreds of Ethiopians are currently holding a protest rally at Columbia University in New York where Meles Zenawi is invited to speak. Across the street, about 50 Woyanne supporters accompanied by Solomon Qindibu Tekalign are singing Tigrigna songs in support of Meles.
3:47 PM – A large crowd of protesters have now gathered at 115th and Broadway. Their number is increasing as more Ethiopians are arriving by train and cars. Columbia students with ID card are allowed to enter the campus and they are staging their own protest against the despot in front of Lerner Hall near Ronne Arledge Auditorium.
2:30 PM – The first bus that left DC has arrived in New York. Three other buses from the DC Metro Area and 2 buses from Boston will arrive at Columbia in the next few minutes. About 50 Woyanne supporters are already there to support their boss. We have been informed that some of them are Ethiopian Airlines staff and security guards who flew with him from Addis Ababa. The Woyanne-controlled Ethiopian mission at the U.S. has been sending out instructions to supporters of the regime through out eastern U.S. to come to Columbia.
12:52 PM – Freedom riders head to New York to join the protest against Meles Zenawi at Columbia University. … more update in a few minutes.
The University’s media center told Ethiopian Review that the event will not be broadcast live today, but a video will be posted online in a couple of days.
12:20 PM – One of the 4 large buses that is taking protesters to New York has stopped for break in Delaware. Here Ethiopians pose for photos during the break.
11:05 AM – Ethiopian protesters inside a bus heading to New York’s Columbia University from Washington DC to confront fascist dictator Meles Zenawi. More update shortly…
10:35 AM – The buses that left DC and Virginia are now arriving in Delaware. Prof. Bhagwati of Columbia University sent this message today:
Congratulations to Professor Vestal whose track record on Human Rights, especially in Ethiopia, is praiseworthy. It is good that he has also spoken out.
He endorses (as I did) the idea that Universities should be free to invite even tyrants to their campuses but that this must be accompanied by tough debate with them on their abusive record, rather than by encomiums to them drafted by academic entrepreneurs with personal agendas.
Aside from removing such inappropriate “sucking up” and offensive material from his website, and investigating how it got there so he does not get snookered again, I think that it is enough for President Bollinger (who is a champion of liberal values) to avoid appearing at the event. [Many academics on campus happened to strongly disagree with him when he himself attended the talk and strongly condemned the President of Iran, leading to unfortunate divisions on campus.]
Warm good wishes,
Professor Bhagwati
University Professor, Economics and Law
9:20 AM – Three buses full of protesters have already left the DC Metro Area and are heading to New York to confront Ethiopia’s brutal dictator Meles Zenawi today. A fourth bus is about to leave. Some Ethiopians are driving their own cars and taking train. Columbia University, where Meles will be speaking, is bracing for a large protest rally… more update and photos in a few minutes
Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa are reporting that Meles Zenawi’s Woyanne junta has blocked Columbia Spectator from being accessed in Ethiopia’s capital.
We have independently verified the report with multiple sources. In Bahr Dar and a few other cities, however, the web site can be accessed.
Columbia Spectator has taken a strong editorial position against Meles Zenawi’s human rights records, and posted a number of reports that are critical of University’s invitation to the despot.
Several Ethiopians used the opportunity provided by Columbia Spectator to voice their opinion (see here).
Blocking web sites is not new to the Meles regime. All major Ethiopian news web sites, including EthiopianReview.com, are blocked in Ethiopia, and since May 2010, Voice of America, DW (German Voice), and ESAT broadcasts have been jammed with a jamming station that was built by China at the cost of $250 million.
It’s ironic that as Columbia University prepares to host Meles Zenawi today, a web site that is run by Columbia student is being blocked in Ethiopia.
Columbia University has announced today that Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi is still scheduled to speak Wednesday at 4 PM, but the speech has been moved to a smaller venue, according to Columbia Spectator.
The University did not explain the reason for moving the venue from the stately Low Rotunda (see here) to the class-room-like Roone Arledge Auditorium (see here).
At least 3 buses will take off from Washington DC and Boston on Wednesday morning heading for New York carrying protesters. Others are planing to take train, plane and their own cars.
For more information or to assist the organizers by making financial donations, visit:
Bus 1 (from Virginia) 8:00 am Southern Towers Depart from the parking lot at Southern Towers (in front of the Seven Eleven Store), Alexandria, VA
Bus 2 (from DC) 8:00 am Kidist Mariam Church, Departs from the parking lot at Kidist Mariam Church, Washington, DC.
For the bus leaving from Boston, call 617-785-5495
Facebook is also being used to mobilize protesters. A Facebook page that was setup by 2 Columbia students sent out 1,019 invitations so far (see here).
Ethiopian Review will report tomorrow’s activities live from Columbia University. Stay tuned.
A newspaper run by Columbia students, Columbia Spectator, writes about student reactions to the invitation to Ethiopia’s genocidal tyrant Meles Zenawi to give keynote address on September 22.
Initially, Columbia asked Meles to speak about Ethiopia and African leadership [see here]. That was changed to “The Current Global Economy and its Impact [see here].” The latest is “The Current Global Environment and its Impact in Africa [see here and here].”
Meles is not qualified to speak on none of the three subjects. His expertise is how to come to and stay in power through trickery, deceit, backstabbing, blackmailing, arrest, torture and murder of his opponents, innocent people and even his own colleagues.
Read the full text of Columbia Specator’s report here.
…the leasing of farmland has increased dramatically in Ethiopia the past three years. In what has been called Ethiopia’s great “land lease project”—in an effort to introduce large-scale commercial farming to the country—the government is offering up vast chunks of fertile farmland to local and foreign investors at almost giveaway rates. By 2013, three million hectares of idle land is expected to have been allotted, equivalent to more than one fifth of the current land under cultivation in the country.
The report quotes a journalist describing his experience in Awassa, southern Ethiopia:
The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 1,500 foot rows in computer controlled conditions. Spanish engineers are building the steel structure, Dutch technology minimizes water use from two bore-holes and 1,000 women pick and pack 50 tons of food a day. Within 24 hours, it has been driven 200 miles to Addis Ababa and flown 1,000 miles to the shops and restaurants of Dubai, Jeddah and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The 2,500 acres of land, which contains the Awassa greenhouses, are leased for 99 years to a Saudi billionaire businessman, Ethiopian-born Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi, one of the 50 richest men in the world. His Saudi Star company plans to spend up to $2-billion acquiring and developing 1.25 million acres of land in Ethiopia in the next few years. So far, it has bought four farms and is already growing wheat, rice, vegetables and flowers for the Saudi market. It expects eventually to employ more than 10,000 people.”
In a press release recently, the Oakland Institute stated:
…leaked draft report from the World Bank, The Global Land Rush: Can it Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits, challenges the publicly held position of the World Bank on investments in agricultural lands in poor nations – a trend that has come to be popularly known as land grabbing. Although such investments have been hailed by the World Bank as a way to generate jobs and infrastructure, the report states, “investors are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap, and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments,” and in some cases inflict serious damage on the local resource base.
In an email message sent to Columbia Economics faculty, world-renowned economist, Jagdish Bhagwati, vehemently denounces the ill-advised tribute earlier accorded to Ethiopia’s dictator, Meles Zenawi.
Characterizing the Columbia faculty who were behind the invitation of Zenawi as “entrepreneurs,” Professor Bhagwati writes:
… as soon as you dilute these objectives [i.e., teaching and high-quality research, the twin pillars of universities’ functioning] by giving unaccountable power and funds to “entrepreneurs” whose objective is to use the University to advance their own agendas, you get into situations like the one you object to. It seems probable that the President’s office was merely reproducing uncritically the rubbish that was supplied by one of these Columbia entrepreneurs whose objective is to ingratiate himself with influential African leaders regardless of their democratic and human-rights record, to get PR and “goodies” for themselves at African summits, at the UN where these leaders have a vote, etc.”
He went on to affirm:
In short, the rot begins with these people, NOT with President Bollinger who is merely a victim of these “unacademic” Professors on campus who have gotten close to him, I am afraid.”
Jagdish Bhagwati is a University Professor at Columbia University and a Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been Economic Policy Adviser to Arthur Dunkel, Director General of GATT (1991-93), Special Adviser to the UN on Globalization, and External Adviser to the WTO. He has served on the Expert Group appointed by the Director General of the WTO on the Future of the WTO and the Advisory Committee to Secretary General Kofi Annan on the NEPAD process in Africa, and was also a member of the Eminent Persons Group under the chairmanship of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on the future of UNCTAD. Five volumes of his scientific writings and two of his public policy essays have been published by MIT press. The recipient of six festschrifts in his honor, he has also received several prizes and honorary degrees, including awards from the governments of India (Padma Vibhushan) and Japan (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star). Professor Bhagwati’s latest book, In Defense of Globalization, was published by Oxford University Press in 2004 to worldwide acclaim.
The full text of Professor Bhagwati’s message is cut and pasted below.
Sent: Sat 9/18/2010 6:11 AM
From: Professor Jagdish Bhagwati
University Professor, Economics and Law
Columbia University
I understand the anguish of Professor Nagash over the Columbia University invitation to PM Zenawi of Ethiopia who is allegedly a man deserving of condemnation, especially as regards academic freedom and independence in his country (especially since Columbia is a university).
I understand also that the objection is not to the invitation per se but particularly regarding the encomiums extended to this PM on the Presidential website (without President Bollinger even knowing about its contents, I am sure).
Columbia has correctly decided to be a global university, like some others, like Yale. But this must mean bringing foreign universities and faculties and students, and our own, into mutually rewarding contact: i.e. through teaching and high-quality research, the twin pillars of universities’ functioning through centuries.
But as soon as you dilute these objectives by giving unaccountable power and funds to “entrepreneurs” whose objective is to use the University to advance their own agendas, you get into situations like the one you object to. It seems probable that the President’s office was merely reproducing uncritically the rubbish that was supplied by one of these Columbia entrepreneurs whose objective is to ingratiate himself with influential African leaders regardless of their democratic and human-rights record, to get PR and “goodies” for themselves at African summits, at the UN where these leaders have a vote, etc.
In short, the rot begins with these people, NOT with President Bollinger who is merely a victim of these “unacademic” Professors on campus who have gotten close to him, I am afraid.
In short, the real issues are different from what you worry about. We need a dialogue on how Universities are being “captured” by such entrepreneurs who should NOT be in universities, or at least in prominent positions at Universities. And we need full transparency on their activities and University funding (which is often diverted in effect to them at the expense of scholarly research and teaching.
10:35 AM – The buses that left DC and Virginia are now arriving in Delaware. Prof. Bhagwati of Columbia University sent this message today:
