We all talk about owning a piece of Obama’s campaign. But that kind of talk didn’t hit home with me until my sister a few days after Obama’s historic nomination speech called me and left a voicemail message saying: “Congratulations!”
For a split of a second while listening to the message, I thought I won some kind of award of which I wasn’t aware of. Then, the message continued: “…Obama Selashenefe!” (…because Obama won!)
Frankly, I haven’t spent more than a couple of hours per week (except for those days I just get carried away…) volunteering for the campaign. But, that was all it took for my family to know I was invested in it.
So, whatever amount of time and energy we have put into it, we each own a piece of this campaign. Why is that important? It means we had a say in the direction of this country–a country we call home. As immigrants with a second generation of American-born Ethiopians coming of age, not only is it a privilege but it is a huge responsibility.
With Obama running for President, we have a prime opportunity to have our voice heard in unison and as one of the constituencies politicians would look to for generations to come for policy directions, be it domestic or foreign.
Ethiopians for Obama seized this opportunity like no other that I have known, at least not at a multi-state level. It is the first movement in my opinion that strives on ensuring that we count, primarily through our votes. And the best part about it is that we don’t even have to be “politicians” or political-savvy people or even that much interested in politics, really. We are just exercising our rights and our duties as citizens by voting and ensuring our families, community members and more also vote.
Every time I hear pundits talk about “record number of new voters,” I smile to myself thinking “…and we represent a chunk of that!” Not only do we represent a good number of first-time voters, but we had something to do with it as volunteers, whether it is reaching out to Ethiopian-Americans or other Americans.
To some, the idea of a nation-wide unified Ethiopian political force may seem too ambitious and remote, but great things start with great vision! I am sure I heard or read this great wisdom somewhere, but I certainly also saw it happen in the past few months culminating towards the nomination a couple of weeks ago.
A man, who against, absolutely, all odds, became the first black Democratic nominee for President in the history of this country. Now, that’s a big deal!
But his vision didn’t end there and neither has ours! Our success, as Ethiopians, who seek visibility, and as Americans, who are not immune to the day-to-day struggles we experience in this country, is closely related to Obama’s success. And, even though at this point even a failure would be translated into success for both him and the entire country, we still owe it to Obama and, frankly, to ourselves to see this through!
We owe to him because he led us on an inclusive, irreplaceable and irreversible journey which we took and will continue to take along side all our fellow Americans. We owe it to him for allowing us to forge within our Ethiopian community a movement which will highlight our unified potential in this great nation. We owe it to him for validating our own hopes and dreams for our future and the future of our children and their children, simply by living his hope and achieving his dream.
All this should be reason enough to support him. If not, keep tuning in! Better yet, I challenge all the 80+ members in this group to give me the reasons we should continue or start to support Obama. Let us inspire one another with our stories, our visions and our wisdom! As I always tell even my Ethiopian brothers and sisters who are not U.S. citizens, don’t undermine what you have to offer.
Yes, we can! Yes, we did!
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Hanna Tamrat is a dedicated Ethiopians for Obama member and a brillian author.
Join Ethiopians for Obama at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group /ethiopiansforobama/
Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) has received permission yesterday to hold its general meeting this week, probably Wednesday, according to ER sources. They are also told that they are restricted to their office. They cannot hold a meeting in a hotel or any other place outside of their office.
Woyanne has allowed UDJ to hold its meeting after Professor Ephraim Isaac, along with the U.S. and U.K. diplomats in Ethiopia, had called Addisu Legesse and Meles Zenawi on UDJ’s behalf.
… and they call this peaceful struggle.
Next time they need to sneeze, they may call Prof. Ephraim to get permission for them.
Meanwhile, yesterday security forces had briefly detained Dr Yacob Hailemariam, a senior leader of Kinijit/UDJ, after Ayele Chamiso complained to Woyanne that Dr Yacob insulted him.
About two weeks ago, in a newspaper interview, Dr Yacob referred to Ayele Chamiso as “yemanim mengedegna (የማንም መንገደኛ).”
EPRP web sites have reported today that the discredited former chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit), Ato Hailu Shawel, held a meeting with Addis Ababa’s youth and women. It is reported that some 200 people attended the meeting on Sunday, June 15.
Where are the youth? Where are the women?
As the photo below shows, there were only one person under 60 years old and only three women in the meeting. [Photo is provided by mahder.com, an EPRP web site.]
More revealing as to how much of a joke Ato Hailu made out of himself is that while Woyanne police was dispersing UDJ meeting a short distance away on the same weekend, no body bothered to even notice that he was holding a public meeting. It is too obvious now that even the paranoid Woyanne is not taking Hailu Shawel seriously any more.
Meanwhile, some of those who are partly responsible for Ato Hailu’s downfall, including Ato Moges Brook of Los Angeles, have now turned their back on him. They find him useless, too, after he aligned himself with the EPRP reactionaries. The web site that was hijacked by Ato Moges, Kinijit.org, has stopped reporting any thing about him for several weeks. Currently, Hailu Shawel relies on trashy web sites that are run by retired communists (EPRP) to get his message out. Even among those repeat losers, many are abandoning him after observing that he has no more use to them.
The rise and sudden fall of Hailu Shawel must be carefully studied by all Ethiopian political leaders, so that they do not repeat the same mistake. It is a self-caused down-fall by a person whom we all once held in high esteem.
In his interview with Ethiopian Current Affairs on Sunday, June 15, Ethiopia’s most distinguished human rights activist Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam has made some assertions that Tegbar for Unity and Democracy (Tegbar) respectfully disagrees with.
Issue 1: Prof. Mesfin said: “Ethiopians have not yet started the ‘peaceful struggle’.”
Following the 2005 elections, Woyanne had rounded up 80,000 Kinijit supporters and detained them in Nazi-type, disease-infested concentration camps. Thousands were brutalized and killed. All of Kinijit’s top leaders were thrown in jail. What more does the professor wants from the people of Ethiopia after he and the other Kinijit leaders had abandoned the struggle when they were led to jail without making any contingency plan on how the struggle can continue in their absence? The people of Ethiopia did not fail to struggle or to follow their leaders. It is Prof. Mesfin and colleagues who failed to lead. Now after tens of thousands of Ethiopians paid all that sacrifice, many of them with their lives, the professor tells us that the “peaceful struggle did not start yet.” Tegbar rejects that assertions.
Issue 2: Prof. Mesfin said: “Woyane canceling the recent UDJ meeting in Addis Ababa was a victory for Ethiopians.”
The professor, while failing to acknowledge the huge sacrifices being paid by the people of Ethiopia, now tries to tell us that getting dispersed by two police officers without any argument or semblance of resistance is a victory. What the professor and his colleagues at UDJ are currently engaged in is not peaceful struggle. It is submission to tyranny.
The professor also said in the same interview: “The fact that Woyanne prevented the UDJ meeting from taking place over the weekend will expose it to the world.”
We found this statement to be less than convincing because every one knows about Woyanne’s crimes against the people of Ethiopia and Somalia. Two policemen illegally and arbitrarily dispersing 400 delegates of an opposition party without any hint of resistance exposes the weakness of UDJ’s leadership more than it exposes Woyanne’s lawlessness. Because the world has already witnessed Woyanne as it engaged in mass murder of civilians, including recent satellite photos that show entire villages burned down by Woyanne troops. How much more Woyanne can be exposed?
Issue 3: Prof. Mesfin tried to explain that 400 people taking orders from two Woyanne security agents to shut down their meeting is “Ethiopiawi Chewanet.”
Our forefathers who fought tooth and nail to keep Ethiopia, the oldest independent nation in the world, must be rolling in their graves to hear such a statement from a senior leader of an opposition party.
Issue 4: Prof. Mesfin said: “People and organizations that don’t participate or only follow the peaceful and non-resistance path come from the neftegna culture.”
The professor is telling us that self-defense is a “neftegna culture.” By his definition, OLF, ONLF and other freedom fighters are “neftegnoch.” We disagree. It is a natural right for people to defend themselves against tyranny using any means available to them.
Issue 5: Prof. Mesfin said: “Ethiopia’s feudal culture is an obstacle to the process of fighting Woyanne.”
We find this statement to be off base since a large portion of Ethiopia’s population is under 40 and has not lived through the feudal regimes of the past. In addition, it is this young demographic group that is paying the most sacrifice in the fight against Woyanne.
The professor further explained that organizations that don’t participate or only follow the peaceful or non-resistance path want to take Ethiopia back to the old feudal governance.
One should then ask the professor the following questions: Is self-defense feudalism? Are freedom fighters such as OLF, EPPF, ONLF, TPDM and Genbot 7 fighting to bring feudalism back?
According to Prof. Mesfin, the reason freedom fighters in Ethiopia are chasing Woyanne from all corners is because they want to bring feudalism back. Not because Woyannes are massacring Ethiopians; Not because Woyanne is stealing from Ethiopia’s children and making them hungry to then turning around and use them to beg from its masters.
As much as we respect Prof. Mesfin, we strongly disagree with a series of statements he has made during his interview on Sunday denigrating the sacrifices of Ethiopia’s freedom fighters. The professor can continue with his non-resistance, but when he goes out of his way to label those who are paying sacrifices with their lives as fuedals and neftegnas, we are obligated by our conscience to speak up.
We urge the professor to focus his criticism on Meles Zenawi’s terrorist regime, not the freedom fighters who are fighting to liberate our country from it.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Trade and Industry Minister of Ethiopia plans to develop its vast coal reserves in the west of the country for fertilizer and power generation, at an estimated cost of $730 million.
Girma Birru said his ministry had signed an agreement with state-owned China National Complete Plant Import & Export Corporation (COMPLANT) to develop the coal reserve.
No other details were given of the accord. The firm had earlier conducted a feasibility study of the project.
Ethiopia imports up to 400,000 tonnes of fertiliser annually but the escalating international price of urea, used in the manufacture of fertiliser, is becoming prohibitive for the government.
“The study indicated that the reserve has a potential to produce between 300,000 tonnes of urea, 20,000 tonnes of methanol and 90 megawatts of electric power,” he told reporters.
An environmental assessment study is also being conducted in the thickly forested Yayu region, some 500 kms (312 miles) west of Addis Ababa, he said. (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Wangui Kanina)
The Woyanne dictatorship’s attempt to cover up the ongoing famine in Ethiopia; Woyanne atrocities in Ogaden and Somalia, fighting in Ogaden, TPDM’s congress… and other news from EriTV. Watch below.
We all talk about owning a piece of Obama’s campaign. But that kind of talk didn’t hit home with me until my sister a few days after Obama’s historic nomination speech called me and left a voicemail message saying: “Congratulations!”