By Hiyawkal Gizachew
The things that people value in their life really depend upon many cultural factors. For example, age, family, education, religion, nationality, and personal experiences will influence the things we hold dear. Our identities are formed in our culture. It then stands to reason, that migrating to a different culture may cause someone a great deal of stress and anxiety.
Culture Shock is a term used to describe the stress and anxiety one experiences in a new culture. An individual may be forced to learn a new language and {www:assimilate}. In addition, they may find that some of their own deeply held values may not be equally important to their new host culture. Growing up in Ethiopia, “good girl” qualities included being shy, conservative, and soft-spoken. However, in American culture, the same qualities can be mistaken for a lack of confidence and self-esteem. Young women who transition from Ethiopian culture to American culture may experience culture shock. If their values do not line up with their new environment they may feel like they are forced to choose.
Most people came to America looking for a better life for themselves and their families, some who are well educated and successful in their careers in Ethiopia. Upon arrival in America, they realize that the picture perfect image that media painted was far from the truth. That dream of a country where poverty doesn’t exist and where people reach success with little hard work is not the reality of America. Most people, no matter how well educated or how experienced, will have to start all over again. People who are willing to work hard for success may still face language barriers, value conflicts, and discrimination. The combination of these obstacles and culture shock can cause people to experience sadness, loneliness, anger, and frustration. These feelings bring about anxiety and stress and our thoughts and behaviors are affected.
We all go through ups and downs in our lives. This is a normal reaction to life’s struggles and disappointments. However, if sadness persist too long or impacts daily functioning, it might be a sign of depression. Possible symptoms of depression are as follows: sleeping too much or too little, difficulty concentrating, feeling hopeless and helpless, having negative thoughts, eating too much or too little, or irritability. Negative thoughts about oneself will impact behaviors. People’s thoughts (cognitions, self-statements, beliefs, assumptions, perceptions and schemata) can be distorted. Because of the busy lifestyle in America, having time to talk about our stress with family or friends is difficult to achieve. In some situations people hardly see or talk to the people they live with because of busy work schedules.
Having a counselor will provide clients with the necessary resources and healthy coping skills to deal with the depression, anxiety, and stress. Counselors will provide clients with information on the connection between their thoughts and feelings. They can help the client identify distorted thoughts, examine the validity of their perceptions, and replace faulty thoughts with beneficial thoughts.
If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms they should seek help and consider talking with a professional counselor. It is essential for people to understand that experiencing depression and seeking help is not a sign of weakness. It is the key to a happier life.
(Hiyawkal Gizachew, Mental Health Counselor at Northern Virginia Family Service, can be reached at [email protected])
Artiste Tamagne Beyene highlights the many lies and contradictions in Woyanne propaganda chief Bereket Simon’s documentary, Akeldama, that accuses journalists and dissidents of plotting to carry out acts of terrorism.
Ethiopian Illicit Outflows Doubled In 2009, New Report Says
By Christopher Matthews | Wall Street Journal
Ethiopia lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten gains between 2000 and 2009, according to a coming report by Global Financial Integrity.
That’s a lot of money to lose to corruption for a country that has a per-capita GDP of just $365. In 2009, illicit money leaving the country totaled $3.26 billion, double the amount in each of the two previous years. The capital flight is also disturbing because the country received $829 million in development aid in 2008.
According to GFI economist Sarah Freitas, who co-authored the report, corruption, kickbacks and bribery accounted for the vast majority of the increase in illicit outflows.
“The scope of Ethiopia’s capital flight is so severe that our conservative US$3.26 billion estimate greatly exceeds the US$2 billion value of Ethiopia’s total exports in 2009,” Freitas wrote in a blog post on the website of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development.
The report, titled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries over the Decade Ending 2009,” drew on data from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on external debt and trade mis-pricing to calculate illicit capital leakage. The study, which will be released later this month, measures the illicit financial flows out of 160 different developing nations.
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries on earth as 38.9% of Ethiopians live in poverty, and life expectancy in 2009 was just 58 years.
“The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry,” Freitas wrote. “No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage.”
The 2011 Ethiopian Review Top 20 Non-Ethiopians Who are Best Friends of the Struggle for Freedom in Ethiopia.
- Mohamed Keita, advocacy coordinator for CPJ‘s Africa Program, consistently gives voice to the repressed media in Ethiopia.
- Ana Gomez, member of the European Parliament from Portugal, put other European leaders to shame with her honesty and candor about the Western-backed dictatorship in Ethiopia.
- Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, speaks out the truth about Ethiopia.
- Ted Vestal, professor at University of Oklahoma a long time friend of Ethiopia, refused to be in the service of dictators.
- Patrick Leahy and Russ Feingold, U.S. Senators, oppose the U.S. Government’s anti-human rights policy in Ethiopia.
- Christopher Smith, U.S. Congressman, helped pass a legislation (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007) restricting U.S. assistance to the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia unless it stops violating human rights. Jendayi Frazer and other U.S. Department officials succeeded in convincing some senators to kill the legislation in the Senate.
- Donald Payne, U.S. Congressman, collaborated with Chris Smith.
- Human Right Watch, an international human rights advocacy group, documents human rights violations in Ethiopia.
- Amnesty International, international human rights group, has complied enough documents on atrocities in Ethiopia that could land the perpetrators, Meles Zenawi and gang, in prison for a long time.
- Voice of America, overcomes the signal jamming effort by the Meles regime to provide news and information to over 20 million Ethiopians.
- German Radio, has been serving the people of Ethiopia for over 40 years.
- Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, exposed what the U.S. knows about the TPLF regime crimes against the people of Ethiopia, including exploding bombs among civilians and blaming it on opposition groups.
- BBC, exposed U.K. Government’s complicity in Meles Zenawi regime’s atrocities in Ethiopia.
- Gene Sharp, Albert Einstein Institute founder, educates freedom fighters how to overthrow repressive regimes, translated the manual, From Dictatorship to Democracy into Amharic.
- Mary Ann Jolley, investigative journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, produced a documentary and written about the adoption scam in Ethiopia and corruption inside international NGOs.
- Facebook and Google, made it easier for Ethiopian freedom fighters to communicate and exchange information.
- George Ayittey, internationally renowned economist, professor at American University in Washington DC, a persistent and powerful critic of the dictatorship in Ethiopia, and all African dictators.
- Anthony Mitchell, AP Correspondent in Addis Ababa, expelled by the Woyanne propaganda chief for having the courage — unlike the current foreign correspondents in Addis Ababa — to report the truth. In 2007 Mitchell died in a place crash in Cameroon. RIP.
- Richard Pankhurst, professor, documents Ethiopian history and heritage.
- Reginald and Catherine Hamlin, physicians, moved from Australia to Ethiopia and opened a hospital that serves the needs of Ethiopian women.
We would like to hear your views about the Top 20 List. Your feedback is taken into consideration when preparing the Top 20s. Please leave your comment below. The next Top 20 list will be richest Ethiopians.
By Teklemichael Sahlemariam
I do not doubt Ethiopian Review’s account of what happened to Artiste Debebe Eshetu and there is enormous evidence to suggest that TPLF agents abused him into confessing things he did not do. However, I do not agree with Elias Kifle’s suggestion of waiting for the victims to tell their story in their own time. I think we should urge and push the victims to speak about the abuse they went through, because that is the only guarantee for the other political prisoners.
If Birtukan told us and the world knew about what happened to her in jail, the TPLF would have though twice before trying to apply similar methods on Debebe. It is the silence of the victims that is encouraging and emboldening Woyannes to do it again and again. I do not see how Elias’s claim that victims of abuse, sodomy or any form of sexual assault “are too ashamed to tell even those closest to them,” because it is not something they did voluntarily. In fact, the shame and humiliation is on the perpetrators. Unless the victims speak out, how can we convince the world about our case? I wish Elias Kifle had encouraged the victims to speak about their horrific experience and showed them how speaking about it to the world would free them and help to advance the struggle.
The TPLF is doing what even Apartheid South Africa did not do to the ANC leaders or other political detainees. First, they make arrests alleging some terrorist plot, and then they torture the detainees to produce involuntary confessions and statements as evidence. That has been the TPLF regime’s modus operandi over two decades. They arrested the opposition leaders and journalists after the 2005 election and coerced them into signing a confession and an apology statement for crimes they did not comit. They arrested Birtukan Mideksa in December 2008 for almost two years and forced her (I do not think Birtukan would said what she said voluntarily) to admit on television that she regretted her denial of asking for pardon. And they did similar things to Debebe last week.
In Bereket Simon’s “Akeldama” documentary, something that struck me the most was that although when they detained the Andualem and others a few months ago they claimed to have adequate evidence, there is nothing in the video that shows the basis for their terrorism charge. Every alleged “evidence” they showed on the video is something they found after the arrest. We all know that not only does TPLF lie, but they also fabricate lies and force their victims to lie. The best prevention we have is telling the stories of brutality they perpetrated against the victims, such as Birtukan Mideksa, Debebe Eshetu and others, as they happen. If those who passed through these humiliating practices speak publicly about their experience, it will tilt the balance to our side.
Even a year after Birtukan was released, we do not know anything about what happened to her inside the jail that made her admit the crime she did not commit, other than the solitary confinement. I am not underestimating the solitary confinement. I also do not believe that Birtukan made a confession of the crime she did not commit in front of a camera only because of a solitary confinement. Because based on the story we knew, Birtukan allegedly made the confession long time after she came out of solitary confinement. Since we have not heard anything from her, other than some of the fragments of minor evils she told us about on a couple of occasions, we can only guess or speculate what happened to her. If we succeed in convincing Birtukan to tell her story to the world, then that will be one more piece of evidence of the cruelties this TPLF/EPRDF commits, and it will put the TPLF on the defensive. That will also help our heroes who are currently in jail.
Elias also said in his remark that he would do the same if he is in Debebe’s position. I would do the same if I were Birtukan or Debebe, too. However, I do not agree with Elias’s remark in our private email exchanged that “some people are criticizing me for even writing about Debebe Eshetu’s situation. Right now I want to focus on Woyanne, so I am trying to minimize controversial issues such as this.”
I have two answers for that. First, these days, I do not understand why politician and activists fear to confront controversial issues head-on. For example, TPLF is says working with Eritrea as a great sin, because we are not promoting the idea openly. The TPLF does whatever it wants clandestinely and it does not have a moral, political and legal integrity to set the standard of patriotism for us. Secondly, unless we are brave enough to promote controversial ideas openly, I do not think we will win support to our side when we engage in controversial projects. The Eritrean issue I mentioned earlier is a good example. Furthermore, there will always be some controversial ideas however hard we try to avoid them. If the thing you wrote about Debebe’s family being threatened with sodomy with a bottle or any form of sexual assault is controversial, it is not your problem; it is the problem of those who find it controversial. It is the problem of the TPLF that abused the prisoners and threatened to harm their families.
I know as usual some people will try to distort what I wanted to say. I am not by any means judging any one. In fact, as Birtukan herself told me to my face a few months ago, I may not have the moral capacity to judge these people or anybody for that matter. But, I believe that a politician’s position or action is open to criticism or judgement and I am only making political assessment or judgement. Politicians also consent to be judged when they enter to politics, as Dr Berhanu Nega agreed with me a few months ago.
Unless the people who experienced TPLF’s brutality tell us what exactly happened to them, Reyot, Eskindir, Andualem, Beqele, Woubshet, Olbana and other political detainees are next in line for brutalization and confessions of the crime they did not commit.
I appeal to them to speak out.
(You can reach the writer at [email protected])
