Ethiopian Citizens Have the Absolute Constitutional Right to Listen to the VOA
So many lessons to learn from Columbia University! When dictator-in-chief Meles Zenawi spoke unceremoniously at Columbia on September 22, he was talking trash about the Voice of America (VOA). He said he decided to jam VOA broadcasts in Ethiopia “by taking a page from U.S. policy”[1]. He wildly alleged that an evil cabal of supporters of the defunct Ethiopian military regime disguised as journalists had taken control of VOA’s Amharic service.
Now, I don’t know if you know this but VOA [Voice of America] is not allowed to broadcast to the U.S. by law. It is not allowed to broadcast to the U.S. by law. It is allowed to broadcast to other countries, but not to the U.S. because it is supposed to reflect the policy of the government in power of the day. Now, VOA Amharic service happens to be dominated by people associated with the previous regime who tend to have a particularly jaundiced view of events in Ethiopia for understandable reasons.We took a page from the policy of the United States and said VOA is not welcome to Ethiopia either.
This past March, Zenawi made the downright wacky allegation that the VOA’s Amharic service staff had been engaged in plotting genocide in Ethiopia for “many years”:
We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda.
When the Voice of America’s Amharic Service interviewed me on October 1, 2010 to comment on Zenawi’s legal and policy justifications for jamming the VOA by taking a “page from the policy of the United States,” I told them it was a no brainer: “U.S. policy and laws are completely irrelevant to the exercise of expressive freedoms in Ethiopia. Ethiopian citizens have the absolute constitutional right to receive broadcasts of the VOA or “any other media of their choice.” Zenawi has no legal power or authority of any kind to prevent Ethiopian citizens from listening to VOA broadcasts.
The indisputable fact of the matter is that the right of Ethiopian citizens to listen to the VOA or “any other media of their choice” or to seek information from any source does not depend on U.S. policy or the permission of Zenawi. Their right is founded solely and exclusively on the sweeping constitutional guarantees they enjoy under Articles 29 and 13 of the Ethiopian Constitution. The language of these two articles is simple, plain, straightforward, unambiguous and requires no interpretation. Article 29 (reproduced also in the official Amharic text below[2]) states:
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression without interference. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers [the official Amharic version reproduced below literally translates the word “frontier” to “without limits to information originating within the country or outside of the country”], either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through other media of his choice.
3. … Press freedom shall, in particular, include the rights enumerated hereunder: a) that censorship in any form is prohibited. b) the opportunity to have access to information of interest to the public.
In fact, the text of Article 29 (2) is taken almost verbatim from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provides:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 13 bolsters Article 29 by tying the interpretation of all “democratic constitutional rights” enjoyed by Ethiopian citizens to international human rights treaties and conventions to which Ethiopia is a signatory, and explicitly mentions the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which Ethiopia adopted as one of the original 48 members who voted for it in the U.N. General Assembly in September 1948. Article 13 (Scope and Interpretation) provides:
1. The provisions of this Chapter shall, at all levels, apply to the federal and state legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
2. The fundamental rights and freedoms enumerated in this Chapter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights covenants and conventions ratified by Ethiopia.
All of the foregoing legal language can be reduced to four simple but irrefutable propositions:1) Ethiopian citizens have the absolute constitutional right to hear any radio broadcast “or media of their choice”. 2) Ethiopian citizens have the absolute right to hear any radio broadcast “or “media of their choice” under international human rights laws and conventions to which Ethiopia is a signatory. 3) No official or institution in Ethiopia has the legal power to prohibit, exclude or interfere with the delivery of radio broadcasts or information from any other media (including internet sources) because “censorship in any form is prohibited.” 4) Zenawi is in flagrant, brazen and egregious violation of the Ethiopian Constitution and international human rights laws and conventions by jamming of VOA broadcasts in Ethiopia.
Living on Planet Denial-stan?
When Mahmood Ahmadinejad came to Columbia University in 2007 to speak, its president Lee Bollinger, rhetorically wondered why Ahmadinejad would deny the occurrence of the Holocaust, and concluded by telling him: “You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.” One is tempted to offer the same conclusion to Zenawi for saying the United States Government “for many years” has operated a radio broadcast service that had promoted genocide in Ethiopia and seeking to justify his jamming of VOA broadcasts on the basis of a U.S. Government “policy” that does not exist.
It would be easy to dismiss Zenawi’s outrageous allegations against the VOA as mere polemical political theatre but for a consistent pattern of other equally outlandish allegations and assertions he has made over the years. When I wrote my piece “The Grammar of Dictators” in August, 2008, I was fascinated by dictators’ use of language to humanize their cruelties and civilize their barbarism; or as George Orwell put it, to use “political language to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
The cumulative evidence of Zenawi’s double talk and preposterous allegations and assertions unmistakably point to the fact that his manifest perception of the facts is completely detached from reality. Back in April 2008, in a Newsweek interview, Zenawi triumphantly declared that his new press law “will be on par with the best in the world.” That same year he told Time Magazine that there is no famine in Ethiopia, only “pockets of severe malnutrition in some districts in the south and an emergency situation in the Somali region.” In September 2007, Zenawi said there is not a “shred of evidence” that significant human rights violations have occurred in the Ogaden region: “We are supposed to have burned villages [in the Ogaden]. I can tell you, not a single village, and as far as I know not a single hut has been burned. We have been accused of dislocating thousands of people from their villages and keeping them in camps. Nobody has come up with a shred of evidence.” In October 2006, Zenawi denied the existence of political prisoners in his prisons: “There are no political prisoners in Ethiopia at the moment. Those in prison are insurgents. So it is difficult to explain a situation of political prisoners, because there are none.” To make such statements, one must spend a great deal of time on Planet Denial-stan, where the operating principle is, “I think, therefore things exist or do not exist.”
Does Zenawi Really Believe the VOA is the VOI?
It boggles the mind to think that Zenawi actually believes the Voice of America is the Voice of Interhamwe, Rwanda. It is equally incredible why he would make such a statement without backing it up with solid evidence or even giving a single example of a genocidal broadcast of any kind made by the VOA anywhere, anytime. What is stunningly astonishing is the fact that these words rolled off the tongue of an individual lionized for his prodigious intellect and political astuteness. In 2005 at an award ceremony for Zenawi, the internationally renowned Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, the man sworn to ending global poverty by 2015, could barely contain his fawning eulogy of Zenawi’s sagacity and intellectual prowess: “You have distinguished yourself as a one of our World’s most brilliant leaders. I have often said that our many hours of discussion together are among the most scintillating that I have spent on the topics of economic development. I invariably leave our meetings enriched, informed, and encouraged about Ethiopia’s prospects.”
Is it possible that “one of our World’s most brilliant leaders” actually believes the VOA is America’s version of genocide Radio Mille Collines, Rwanda!?!?
I cannot be sure, but I would like to believe Zenawi is being “brazenly provocative” by making such an allegation. I should like to think that he is using a “shock and offend” strategy calculated to trigger the ire of the United States Government and ensnare it in an all-out war of words on a propaganda battlefield over which Zenawi has control of the commanding heights. In other words, if the U.S. could be provoked to respond angrily or defensively to the allegation, it could then be dragged into a mud fight worthy of the proverbial wrestling match with the pig. At the end of the match both combatants will be filthy and exhausted, but one gets the distinct feeling that the pig enjoyed the experience very much. But the U.S. did not take the bait and steered clear off the mud issuing a terse statement: “Comparing a respected and professional news service to a group that called for genocide in Rwanda is a baseless and inflammatory accusation that seeks only to deflect attention away from the core issue. The Ethiopian government may disagree with VOA news, but interfering with its broadcasts undermines the nation’s constitutional commitment to censorship and freedom of expression.”
Why the VOA is Not Allowed to Broadcast Within the U.S.
Zenawi said he jammed VOA broadcasts “by taking a page from U.S. policy.” He must be “astonishingly uneducated” or willfully ignorant of some simple facts about the American system of laws and government. Anyone who has marginal familiarity with the American legislative and judicial process would refrain from making such an inane and thoughtless statement. The VOA (with over 1,500 affiliates throughout the world), is part of a larger system of global information, educational and cultural service created by the U.S. Congress to conduct “public diplomacy or government-to-people dialogue.” In 1948, Congress passed the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act with the purpose of “promoting better understanding of the United States among the peoples of the world and to strengthen cooperative international relations.” By authorizing the creation of a global broadcast service, the U.S. sought to create good will and shape the thinking and attitudes of elites in countries receiving the broadcasts.
Over the years, the VOA has played a central part in the U.S. media strategy to win hearts and minds in the Cold War. One of its central missions today is to uphold U.S. foreign policy objectives by promoting democracy, peace, prosperity, human rights and other programs to new generations in countries receiving VOA broadcasts. As absurd as it sounds, the VOA does not and has never fostered genocide of any kind in any country. In fact, Congress prohibited domestic U.S. broadcasts by the VOA to make sure that it is not abused politically by any individual or groups, and to make sure that the kind of state media abuse seen historically in totalitarian and other communist countries did not happen in the U.S. Because of this concern, Congress authorized the creation of a bi-partisan board consisting of eight members nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, with the Secretary of State as an ex officio member, to oversee its operations. To believe that the President of the U.S. would nominate individuals who would allow or condone genocidal broadcasts to Ethiopia using VOA broadcasts is downright crazy!
The fact of the matter is that whether VOA broadcasts are available domestically is of no consequence. Americans have more than 10,000 radio stations, tens of thousands of newspapers and magazines and millions of websites to get and choose the information they want or need. If they so choose, they can get VOA broadcasts instantaneously online, over satellite dishes, cellular phones and various other modern communications technologies.
But Zenawi’s campaign of fear and smear against the VOA Amharic service professionals is downright unfair and contemptible. If Zenawi has evidence, a molecule of evidence, to prove that these professionals are “people associated with” the defunct military Derg or part of a silent conspiracy with anyone else to promote genocide or anarchy in Ethiopia, he should produce it; and they will surely be held to account before the VOA administration and the law. If Zenawi has proof that their reporting is inaccurate, unfair, unethical or malicious, he should produce that evidence as well. Of course, he cannot produce a speck of evidence to back up any of his claims.
The reality is different. We could all criticize VOA’s Amharic service for whatever we choose, but we would be hard pressed to back up our criticism with substantial evidence of lack of accuracy, objectivity or fairness. Suffice it to say, how many hundreds of times over the years have we heard Amharic service VOA reporters announcing to their listeners: “We tried numerous times to get official comment from the Ethiopian Government but we were unable to do so because… the government official backed out at last minute… declined to comment… was not available for an interview at the appointed time… or…We will keep trying to get official comment from the Ethiopian Government.” That is what usually happens. The fact of the matter is that for whatever reason Zenawi has chosen not to make his people available to engage the VOA and challenge the Amharic service reporters on the air for all Ethiopians to hear.
Zenawi says the VOA operates in “wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda.” That is simply not true, and reflects his lack of knowledge of VOA’s strict legislative mandate. The VOA is a highly professional organization with journalistic integrity, and functions under close supervision of its presidentially-appointed board always guided by its clear legislative mandate set forth in its 1976 Charter which requires the VOA to 1) “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news [by making sure] news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive; 2) “present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions ,and 3) ” present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and … responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.” If anyone at VOA promotes or attempts to promote genocide or “wantonly engages in destabilizing propaganda,” not only will such persons surely find themselves walking the streets without a job, they are guaranteed to do some serious jail time.
There are many things over which people could disagree. But there could be no disagreement over the fact that the sun always rises in the east, the law of gravity or the absolute constitutional right of Ethiopian citizens to listen to broadcasts of the VOA or any other “media of their choice.” Zenawi could learn a sound lesson from VOA’s founding motto: “The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” If the VOA promotes genocide or broadcasts ‘destabilizing propaganda’, the Ethiopian people will be the first ones to vote with their fingers by turning their radio dials in a counterclockwise motion: Click!”
Mr. Zenawi: “Tear down the electronic wall you have built to keep VOA radio broadcasts and ESAT (Ethiopian Satellite Television) service out of Ethiopia! Let Ethiopians hear America’s voice, the Voice of America. Let the VOA tell the truth to the Ethiopian people who have a constitutional and international legal right to hear it and decide for themselves.”
UPDATE ( Oct. 17): A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for November 11 at the DC Superior Court. Also watch the video below.
(Oct. 16) — The owner and 4 employees of DC9, a night club on Washington DC’s U Street, savagely attacked and killed a young Ethiopian named Ali Ahmed Mohammed early Friday.
The owner of DC9 Bill Spieler and his employees were charged with second-degree murder in Ali’s “savage beating,” the DC Police Chief said initially, but at a court hearing today, the charge was reduced to aggravated assault, drawing anger and outrage among Ali’s family and friends. The five individuals chased Ali, tackled him to the ground and beat him to death as he begged them to stop, according to an eyewitness. This is murder, not assault.
Ali’s friends suspect that the charge could have been reduced due to political pressure since the owners of DC9 have strong contacts with some of DC’s most powerful politicians.
Five men were charged with aggravated assault (the charge was reduced from second degree murder) Saturday in the beating of Ali Ahmed Mohammed in front of a club at Ninth and U streets where the men worked.
Mohammed died early Friday at at a hospital, a short time after the alleged assault.
Four of the men were released after a court proceeding Saturday, and the fifth was to be released later in the afternoon. All were placed in a high-intensity supervision program, which includes electronic monitoring.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier on Friday called the incident a “savage” case of “vigilante justice.”
Mohammed, 27, tried to enter DC9 early Friday but was turned away at the door. He became angry, picked up two bricks and hurled them through the nightclub’s front window, witnesses told investigators.
According to a police affidavit filed in court Saturday, the first officer on the scene at 2:30 a.m. Friday found Mohammed, of Silver Spring, “lying on the ground, unconscious and not breathing” and rendered CPR until medics arrived. Officers saw dried blood on Mohammed’s face and noticed that his head was swollen. He was taken to Howard University Hospital and pronounced dead about 3:15 a.m.
The five suspects in the assault are the co-owner of the DC9 club, William Spieler 46 (shown on the photo below), and four of his employees: Darryl Carter Jr., 20; Reginald Phillips, 22; and Evan Preller, 28, the club’s manager, all residents of the District; and Arthur Andrew Zaloga, 25, of Silver Spring.
One witness told police that five men chased Mohammed and that Preller caught Mohammed and threw him to the ground, according to the affidavit. The witness said he watched Carter, Zaloga, Spieler and Phillips “stomp the victim on the head and the body” as Preller held him down, the document states. Spieler kicked Mohammed several times, the witness told police, according to the affadavit.
A second witness told police that he saw Mohammed walking with what appeared to be two bricks. The witness asked Mohammed what he was going to do with the bricks and Mohammed responded: “[Expletive] those people up.” The witness said he also saw Preller catch and throw Mohammed down and that Mohammed was beaten. But this witness was less clear about the role each defendant played.
Second-degree murder charges were initially filed against the men. But the charges had been expected to be reduced because the D.C. medical examiner’s report on the cause of Mohammed’s death is pending, according to law enforcement sources. Although an autopsy was performed, authorities said, lab tests have to be done before a ruling can be made on whether the death was a homicide caused by the beating.
The law-enforcement sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said the charges could be changed back to murder after the medical examiner rules.
Another witness, speaking to a reporter Friday, said the victim cried for mercy during the beating, shouting: “Please! Please! Please!”
Attorneys for Spieler and Preller said that Lanier’s comments Friday had been prejudicial and that she spoke before the incident was fully investigated.
“Chief Lanier jumped to conclusions before a full investigation was completed,” said Danny C. Onorato, Preller’s attorney, who said that his client is “innocent of any crime completely.”
Spieler’s attorney, Steven J. McCool, said his client is also innocent.
“Bill Spieler is a kind and gentle man,” McCool said. “We’re confident that when this investigation is completed, these men will be proven innocent.” He added that Mohammed’s death was a “tragedy.”
Both lawyers tried to enter not-guilty pleas in court Saturday, but Judge Frederick H. Weisberg said that was premature.
Attorneys for Phillips, Zaloga and Carter declined to comment.
Phillips “has never been in trouble,” said a man who identified himself as Phillips’s uncle but would not provide his name. “He’s a skinny kid. He’s nice. He’s docile.”
And a woman who described herself as a frequent patron of DC9 said she was “upset” by the way the police had handled the case.
“These are good kids, these are good people,” said Adrienne Wheeler. “At the end of the day, they were at work. These are professionals,” she said, and they would not have assaulted Mohammed in the way police say they did.
Skip Coburn, the executive director of the D.C. Nightlife Association, said Saturday that he had known Spieler “for years” and that he was one the most responsible club owners in the organization, a regular at safety and security training that the association provides its members.
“I would imagine that if someone throws a brick through your window, you’re going to make some attempt to apprehend the person,” Coburn said. But he said he did not believe that the club employees would then attack the brick-thrower.
Second-degree murder charges were initially filed against the men. But the charges had been expected to be reduced because the D.C. medical examiner’s report on the cause of Mohammed’s death is pending, according to law enforcement sources. Although an autopsy was performed, authorities said, lab tests have to be done before a ruling can be made on whether the death was a homicide caused by a beating. The D.C. medical examiner “did not observe external injuries sufficient to allow it to opine on the cause of death,” according to the police affidavit.
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who represents the area, said Saturday that switching charges was “very perplexing. We need to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.”
The law enforcement sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said the charges could be changed back to murder after the medical examiner rules.
DC9 is a well-known, established club that often features indie bands. Its shows are listed and reviewed in publications across the region, including The Washington Post. The club remains closed after Lanier, acting within her authority as chief, ordered it shut Friday.
(Updated Friday at 4:15 PM) — Officials at the Medical Examiner’s Officer say they have not ruled Mohammed’s death a homicide. They would not elaborate. Police had called a press conference for 3:45 p.m. Friday to possibly amend the charges, according to sources. But that news conference was canceled.
“We don’t have cause of death yet,” Police Chief Cathy Lanier said in an email. The autopsy was not yet complete, she said.
(Original Post) — The owner and four employees of a popular nightclub off U Street chased and then fatally beat and stomped a man after he threw a rock through a window of the club, police said.
Ali Ahmed Mohammed, 27, of Silver Spring was killed outside the DC9 Nightclub in an act of “vigilante justice,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.
One of the club’s owners, Bill Spieler, 46, and four employees have each been charged with second-degree murder in Mohammed’s “savage beating,” the chief said.
The attack occurred about 2:30 a.m. about a block away from the club at 1940 Ninth St. NW, Lanier said, after Mohammed was denied entry to the club at closing time and threw a rock through the window.
The five men came out of the club, chased Mohammed for a block before all five tackled, punched, kicked and stomped him, Lanier said in an interview outside police headquarters. Mohammed, of the 11100 block of Norlee Drive, was barely conscious when police arrived, Lanier said.
“In my opinion,” the chief said, “when you talk about a beating like this as a result of property damage, a loss of life from a savage beating that appears to be vigilante justice, it’s just ridiculous.”
Lanier said she will close down the club Friday: “It will happen today.”
There was no evidence, Lanier said, that the attack was a hate crime. “It appears that the assault was precipitated by the fact that he threw a rock through the window.” She said there was no indication that any of the suspects knew Mohammed before the attack.
Police arrested another bar patron about 1:30 a.m. after the clubgoer scuffled with employees inside the club and was ejected, Lanier said. But police “have nothing to suggest” that incident and Mohammed’s beating “are connected in any way,” Lanier said.
Besides Spieler, the employees arrested were: Darryl Carter, 20, of the 600 block of Morton Place NE; Reginald Phillips, 22, of the 2000 block of Fifth Street NW; Evan Preller, 28, of the 2500 block of Mozart Place NW; and Arthur Zaloca of the12500 block of Epping Court in Silver Spring.
Joe Englert, who owns the club with Spieler, said in a telephone interview that “at least two and maybe three” of his employees had placed a 911 call to police after the window was broken “and were awaiting their arrival.”
Citing the police investigation, he declined to say whether the employees were detaining Mohammed “but we are confident, very confident in the honesty and integrity of the staff. They have been well trained,” said Englert. He said the handling of the earlier incident at the nightclub in which an unruly patron was ejected and later arrested “shows you our people are trained right.”
Mohammed’s death, said Englert is “tragedy and it is sickening that it happened but we are really confident that once everything is known it will all be fine for our people.” He said the club “will help Chief Lanier and work with police however we can.”
(Reported by Paul Duggan, Mary Pat Flaherty, Michael Birnbaum and Paul Duggan of the Washington Post. Staff writers Mary Pat Flaherty, Dan Morse and Clarence Williams and researchers Magda Jean-Louis and Julie Tate contributed to this report.)
ATLANTA (WSBTV) — A limo driver who disappeared nearly a week ago turned up late Thursday night with no explanation.
Negero Debero, a native of Ethiopia, disappeared last weekend, sparking a search when police found his {www:smash}ed Lincoln town car abandoned on Interstate 85 on Oct. 8.
Friends of Debero told Channel 2 Action News the {www:circumstance}s of the disappearance seem very odd, and how he was located was more bizarre. “He was found in the bushes without his clothing. We’re hoping detectives on the case are still going to be working,” said Surafel Asmamaw.
Witnesses claim Debero was drinking at a bar they day he disappeared. During the week more than 100 people handed out flyers and searched the area. A $10,000 reward was even offered for his safe return.
“We still want answers to what happened that Saturday morning when he disappeared,” said Getachew Techill, Debero’s friend.
Debero was being treated at Gwinnett Medical Center.
Ethiopia[‘s dictator] has minted a new ministry of Communication and Information Technology. It is not yet clear what it is officially entrusted to do. The most obvious thing though, the country has largely missed out on information technology. The state’s monopoly on telecommunication didn’t help improve matters. To the contrary, it was part of the problem. Lately there has been some talk of liberalizing the sector. A French company is expected to take over the management of the dreaded Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC).
Words spoken
“We plan to ensure universal access and Internet connectivity to all the tens of thousands of rural kebeles (districts) of our country over the next two to three years.” Prime minister Meles Zenawi. (AP, April 5, 2005). That is the Internet equivalent of three meals a day!
Sometimes back, the newly appointed minister while heading the Ethiopian Information Communications Technology Development Agency (EICTDA) was quoted as saying: “Ethiopia’s investment in Information and Communication Technology is considered to be one of the highest in the world”. Though we don’t know where he got the figure from , he unabashedly added : “the government has invested over USD 14 billion over the last decade.” (The Reporter, August 25, 2007)
Where is the beef?
The Phone – With a motto of “Connecting Ethiopia to the Future”, ETC has actually thrown the country in communication doldrums. Just a little over 3 million people have mobile phones. Ethiopia’s mobile phone penetration rate stands at 5% while that of sub-Saharan Africa is 39%. “Elsewhere in Africa, the debate is about the relative merits of Blackberries and iPhones. In Ethiopia, it is simply about getting a phone,” wrote the Economist in its May edition.
The government has been resisting liberalization on this sector not wanting to share the profits with others. A couple of years back a top government official defending the monopoly was quoted as saying the mobile phone is a cow yet to be milked. That is at the expense of the population. Not only is the number limited, as the government controls the network, it can deny services at will. From 2005 to 07 Ethiopians were denied text messaging services because the ruling party fared miserably in the usage of the medium to garner support while the opposition parties were efficient in mobilizing supporters using the new media. When the government finally felt confident of its firm grip on power, text services resumed.
Internet – When it comes to the internet, the picture is even grimmer. Ethiopians not only are at the mercy of one single provider, but they get the most expensive service. A study on broadband internet connection access sponsored by UN tells a gruesome reality. Ethiopia is the second most expensive place to get a fixed broadband connection only preceded by the Central African Republic.
According to International Telecommunication Union, Ethiopia has around 360,000 internet users which is a mere 0.4 % of the total population. While some countries have already passed a law making broadband internet connection to each household an obligation so government can provide services online (Finland), Ethiopia seems to be in a medieval period. 15 years after the Internet has become a global phenomenon, it is only the lucky few who can chat over Skype or use web cams to communicate. And when it happens, in most cases it is with relatives and friends living abroad rather than Ethiopians living in different corners of the country.
It is not unusual to see people in Internet cafes reading magazines while surfing the internet. So much for the “highest in the world” investment.
Hope you like jammin’ too
If there has been a success in the government’s endeavor to develop the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector so far, it is the blocking of websites and jamming of electronic media broadcasters. Ethiopia began filtering websites well before many countries as early as 2005. ETC’s monopoly helped ease blocking the sites and monitoring personal email exchanges, hosted in its servers. The Open Net Initiative, a leading internet freedom watchdog said of Ethiopia as “the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to actively engage in political Internet filtering.”
And it is right there where the motive of establishing the new ministry lies. To undertake the jamming and filtering more vigorously. Not playing a suicide bomber when jamming broadcasters. Remember when they knocked of poor ETV from the spectrum in their bid to jam ESAT!
As former security chief at the Bole International Airport, the newly appointed minister Mr Debretsion Gebremichael, knows a thing or two about jamming. Some are already calling him jammer-in–chief for the role he played so far. For that “unrelenting service”, last month he has been promoted to the 9 member TPLF executive committee. And his latest appointment is an extension of that. The move tells loads about where the rulers’ priority lies.
Getting by
Even with the abysmal state of the internet connection in the country people have been yearning to tap from the benefit of ICT. Recent studies indicate that there are about 143,000 Facebook users in Ethiopia. (Kenya with less than half the population of Ethiopia has close to a million Facebookers). Not that hooking to the social networking sites is the yardstick for ICT development, but it gives some idea about the level of expansion of the sector. People have long understood the benefits. The government which is supposed to expand the sector is trying their best to control it in every possible way, hindering the growth. Never forget that even with the most minimum access to internet, Ethiopians were among the first bloggers in the Sub Saharan Africa.
What’s to be done?
* The most straightforward thing to do is just expand the broadband connection. There were already talks about ETC signing contract with SEACOM, a Mauritius based company which was supposed to connect the country through submarine fiber optic cable to the rest of the world via Djibouti.
* Avoid ETC’s monopoly. ETC, at its current state, cannot connect Ethiopia to its past, let alone the future.
* Stop filtering online media and jamming electronics broadcasters. The World Wide Web carries information and ideas. ICT is not about the computers and the gadgets, it is about the information carried and transmitted through it.
* Finally, no need to reinvent the wheel by churning out new ministries.
The 22-yea-old daughter of Ethiopia’s despot Meles Zenawi {www:puke}s from over-eating and drinking…
… while over 80,000 resident of the capital city, including children, survive by eating trash (see here) at the city dump. See more photos here about the over-fed and {www:over-indulgent} children of the ruling Woyanne junta. The photo above shows Semehal puking at the side of a road after a night of partying at an exclusive night club where children of the ruling tribal junta throw lavish parties several times per week. The little girl in the photo below looks for food to eat at the Addis Ababa city garbage dump.
Some families whose loved ones are buried at the St. Joseph (Kidus Yosef) Cemetery in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa have contacted Ethiopian Review with information that the land is needed for development and that they need to remove the remains of their relatives.
Families are being told to {www:disinter} their relatives and rebury them on some plot of land located on the road to Jimma.
Obviously the information is terribly upsetting to a lot of people. Yosef Cemetery is about as old as the city of Addis Ababa and almost every resident of the city has some relative buried there.
Addis Ababa Administration, whose mayor is Meles Zenawi’s puppet Kuma Demeks, has warned that the bodies that are not moved by a certain date will be dumped in a mass grave.
Addis Ababa can expand in several directions and there is no shortage of land (see the video below). So it is not clear why the ruling junta is subjecting hundreds of thousands, may be millions of families to the {www:ghoulish} process of exhuming graves.
Kidus Yosef Cemetery is the final resting place for thousands of Ethiopian heroes and patriots such as Abebe Bikila, as well as average citizens. It is a cemetery steeped in Addis Ababa and Ethiopian history.
We invite readers who are knowledgeable about the Yosef Cemetery to share with us what they know about its historical significance to Addis Ababa and the whole nation of Ethiopia.
Friends of Debero told Channel 2 Action News the {www:circumstance}s of the disappearance seem very odd, and how he was located was more bizarre. “He was found in the bushes without his clothing. We’re hoping detectives on the case are still going to be working,” said Surafel Asmamaw.
