I understand you had a meeting with Ethiopian Woyanne Ambassador to United States to discuss about the establishment of {www:referral hospital} in Ethiopia. We would be very grateful if you can spend few minutes to elaborate the idea behind establishing a referral hospital. The following questions may only help guide your response.
In one of the world poorest country, Ethiopia, where the health care service already facing daunting challenges to deliver minimum standards of health care, what good is referral hospital doing? Is it referral hospital or regular health care facilities that will benefit the people of Ethiopia most?
When answering these questions think about what a health care specialist said: “referral hospitals should be seen as the {www:capstone} of the health care pyramid.” Do you guys think the pyramid (lower level healthcare facilities) is firmly established to hold the capstone?
I understand you guys can do whatever you want to do with your hard earned money. That is your absolute right. You have all the rights to establish a fancy referral hospital for the powerful and wealthy people of the country and save them a trip to Europe, United States, or Asia. Make good money too. If you are interested in elaborating your idea about your prospective investment, tells us what you are up-to. Implicitly or explicitly, saying “none of your business” is also your right.
The general view is that referral hospitals are often too costly and make very limited contributions to improving the health of the whole population. This is because referral hospitals are usually located in urban areas and are intended to provide costly specialized health care to patients referred from lower levels of the health care system. In a general sense, referral hospital is mainly to the wealthy.
If a referral hospital is established in our country, it does not take a telepathist to predict that the powerful government officials and wealthy urban dwellers would dominate the facilities for regular health care visits when they could be assisted by general practitioners at lower-level clinics. Poor people would not get the chance, because it would be congested with the powerful and wealthy unnecessarily occupying beds and other facilities for long periods.
The other concern associated with referral hospitals is a health care equity issue. Doctors may find it attractive and rewarding to work in referral hospitals, depriving rural health facilities of the expertise they desperately need.
That said, referral hospitals have positive impact on health care system when established at the right place and at the right time. For instance, beyond providing high quality health care, referral hospitals perform broader functions in the health system such as training doctors, conducting research.
On November 11, 2011, Yenesew Gebre was driven to kill himself on behalf of all suffering Ethiopians. He killed himself out of love for his people and country. He made the ultimate sacrifice to wake us up so we can see what it means to be humiliated in your own home. Love can be expressed in so many different ways. Yenesew’s method was that of a teacher. That is what he was in real life. Yenesew was a shepherd and an example-setter to his people.
On March 24, 2012 Ethiopian Review reported about exiled Ethiopian physicians holding a meeting in Virginia, USA, to raise money to invest in a referral hospital in Ethiopia. A very {www:laudable} act you might say. They must love their country and people so much that even after being kicked out, exiled or driven off from their homeland they were willing to help. Isn’t that a sign of generosity and love? I agree. There is nothing like giving. Aren’t we such a blessed people to have caring individuals among us?
Wait a minute, let us not put the cart in front of the horse please. Everything has a {www:context}, otherwise it is meaningless. Our physicians ‘love’ for country has to be put in its context so we can really understand and appreciate their ‘selfless’ act. This is where the problem rears its head. They say the devil is in the details and it is nowhere true than in this instance. Our physician’s act is nothing more than a cheap trick to pad their bank account while looking selfless and honorable. Their act is that of a {www:charlatan}. They are trying to get advantage using deception. It is petty theft and nothing more than the act of a common criminal.
How sad coming from people of such high knowledge that have taken the oath to do good. Well they are Ethiopians aren’t they; the rules don’t work in the land of TPLF Ethiopia. Being a physician is a sign of high achievement. It requires sacrifice, dedication and plenty of work. It is an honorable profession. Doctors are held in high esteem and it is every mother’s dream for her baby. They teach you how to cure the sick in medical school. They make you a technician of the human body. The engineer build bridges, the architect designs house, the mechanic fixes engines, the chauffeur drives a car, the physician cures disease, the politician leads and the shoeshine cleans shoes. All are expert in their field. It is the contribution of each that makes a society work in harmony.
We put physicians on a {www:pedestal}. We ascribe a certain amount of higher intelligence to the doctor. That is more so in a backward society like ours. It is not healthy. We confuse education with common sense. One might be trained to be nuclear scientist but the possibility is there that the individual might be void of common sense or social grace. Those that have spent a major portion of their life pursuing a single goal can sometimes loose sight of the bigger picture.
When it comes to our learned compatriots we are dealing with two aspects of this myopic situation. There are some that are truly attracted to do good and help their people. At he same time there are those that will betray their people for thirty pieces. Isn’t that the situation we got here?
That is what I believe. In a country where one man surrounded with his ethnic group and lords it over eighty million others, in a place where one is judged by his blood line instead of his deeds, in a location where no none is allowed to speak or associate freely and in a land where the young and able are forced to leave due to lack of opportunity our esteemed doctors are collecting money to enable the evil doer.
None other than Ato Girma Birru — our Oromo Ambassador, called them into a meeting. I know it is rude to identify an individual by his ethnic affiliation, on the other hand, Ato Girma owes his position due to his ethnic identity. He was the token OPDO Minster in the TPLF cabinet and today he is the token representative in the US. Before his assignment to his new job he was Minster of Industry and Commerce in emerging democratic Ethiopia. Makes you wonder what he did all day doesn’t it? When you consider that he was a simple student like the rest of us before the arrival of TPLF and today he counts as one of the richest individuals in the country you know what he was busy at in his position. The well-dressed and manicured Ambassador is a picture of well-fed and modern Ethiopian.
Our physicians are the symptom of the disease afflicting our country. We focus on them because they are an easy target to identify. But this disease of discounting Ethiopia is nothing new. It has been going on for so long that it has become part of us. We all have become numb to being humiliated, trampled upon and discarded. No need to point our fingers at the greedy doctors when every house is a source of this virus of selfishness and greed. I do not mean to insult you my dear Ethiopian but isn’t time we reflect on our actions?
Tell me who buys stolen plots of land? Who flies Ethiopian Airlines? Who party’s in Addis among the starving? Who invests in hotels and brothels from Mekele to Moyale? Who turns a blind eye when the Anuaks are massacred in Gambella, the Amharas displaced from Benji Maji, the Oromos imprisoned in mass, the little girls sold into slavery in the Middle East? Don’t tell me you did not know. You knew but you choose to keep silent.
We choose to be upset because Hillary Clinton sat with the monster in Arat Kilo. We seethed with anger because the little dictator inserts himself in every international meeting, we blow our tops when Gambella is leased to grow rice, Professor Asrat was murdered, teacher Assefa Maru is gunned down, Kinijit is imprisoned and elections are stolen. It took all five minutes to cool as down. Our anger was not real. It did not come from deep. Surface anger is so pathetic don’t you think so?
Our esteemed physicians came to the west because they could not serve the people that paid for their training working under the existing regime. Unfortunately they forget why they were driven away. They are just showing us how self-centered and idiots they are. Doctors without borders are in Ogaden tending to the deliberately starved, they are in the rift valley helping the intentionally marginalized and our doctors were assembled in Virginia to serve the less than one percent. Shame is an understatement. When did we loose our moral compass is a valid question?
You know what it took me along time to push send after I wrote this piece. I was worried offending you. I felt like I am not a good ‘chewa’ Ethiopian, rude and confrontational is not our style. Then the picture of the displaced came to me. I saw the children from Benji Maji left to be homeless. I remembered my sister Alem Dechasa alone and helpless in Lebanon. I thought of my people in the jungles of Central Africa to be eaten by wild animals or drawn into harms way in other peoples’ conflict or imprisoned in Yemen and I said enough is enough. I have no reason to please no one.
I have bad news for you my people. Freedom cannot be outsourced. The Americans, the British nor the Norwegians are going to liberate you. Liberation comes from deep inside. It comes from being true to your self. It comes from caring for other as you care for yourself. How could you save others when you are sinking your self? As for our physicians that are deluding themselves about helping our people I have one message for them-kindly shove your PhD’s where the sun does not shine and take two aspirins for the pain. The physical pain will go away but the mental anguish caused by your betrayal will never leave you, ever.
As for me my friends, I am working overtime to bring this nightmare to an end. I support Ginbot 7, I am energized by the new OLF, I help ESAT and I am always there to expose Woyanne atrocities every chance I get. I teach people on the goings in my homeland. I write my Congress representative to remind them of the plight of my people and I will never rest until this cancer is wiped out from my body politic. Sometimes the going gets rough, the road seems impassable but no one promised me a jolly ride. The fact that some individuals or groups betray our trust is no reason to resign and go home. I just reengineer and thrust on because the liberation of my country and people cannot be dumped onto others. What about you are you just complaining insistently, blaming others or are you becoming part of the problem like our educated but reality challenged physicians? It is a choice you have to make.
On the weekend of March 24, 2012, the Woyanne ambassador in Washington DC, Girma Birru, held a meeting with over 70 exiled Ethiopian physicians who reside in the US. As reported by Ethiopian Review previously, the objective of the meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, was to discuss about a plan to build a private referral hospital in Ethiopia, but the hidden agenda is for the Woyanne junta to the doctors for its crude propaganda at home.
The doctors had initially planned the hospital project as a private enterprise and formed an organization named “Ethiopian American Doctors Group EADG.” However, as in every Ethiopian organization, Woyanne agents did not waste time to infiltrate the group with the help of some opportunist individuals. Now, EADG is fully controlled by Woyanne junta agents, including Henock Gebregziabher, Getachew Hagos, Mezgebe Berhe, Abiy Mekoya Gebreselassie Nida, and former physician of Meles Zenawi, Mulai Teklu Yohannes.
Some of the doctors have withdrawn their membership after they found out about Woyanne’s involvement.
Ethiopian Review obtained a list of current active members of the EADG.
Al Amoudi’s private investigator has called me today to inform me that he has a legal paper to give me and that I have to meet him in person to receive it. I received the same paper by email. It’s from DLA Piper lawyer Mary E. Gately. It states:
As you know, DLA Piper is counsel to Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi. We also represent Jemal Ahmed with regard to a defamatory article you published on March 29, 2012 on the website Ethiopian Review (ethiopianreview.com) titled “Al Amoudi’s Human Trafficker in Ethiopia identified.”
The letter demands:
1. immediately remove the Article, and any other iterations of it, from the website
ethiogianreview.com or any other website, internet posting, or public source;
2. immediately cease and permanently desist from making the false and defamatory
statements made in the Article; and
3. publish on ethiopianreview.com a full apology to our clients.
If you fail to take these steps by April 11, 2012, we will have no choice but to pursue all applicable legal remedies available to our clients. We reserve all of our clients’ rights related to the publication of this defamatory Article.
UN urges Lebanon to investigate Ethiopian maid’s death
By the BBC
The UN special rapporteur on slavery has urged the Lebanese government to carry out a full investigation into the death of an Ethiopian domestic worker.
Alem Dechasa, 33, killed herself on 14 March, a few days after she was filmed being beaten by men and dragged into a car in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Gulnara Shahinian said the “cruel” images reminded her of the many migrant workers she met in Lebanon last year.
She urged the country to uncover the truth about such rights violations.
Last month, eight civil society groups called on the Lebanese authorities to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labour law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant workers.
As she tries to resist, he and another man drag her into a car.
LBCI later identified the man beating her as the brother of the head of the recruiting agency that brought her to Lebanon.
He alleged that his brother’s agency had been trying to return her to Ethiopia because she had mental health problems.
Police later found Ms Alem and took her to a detention centre.
Following a request by the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, they transferred her to the Deir al-Saleeb psychiatric hospital two days later, but did not arrest those alleged to have carried out the beatings.
Ms Alem killed herself at the hospital on the morning of 14 March.
After the beating video was circulated, the labour and justice ministries began investigations, but their outcomes have not been made public.
On Tuesday, Ms Shahinian issued a statement strongly urging the Lebanese authorities to investigate the circumstances leading to Ms Alem’s death and make public their findings.
“There are a number of reports circulating about the human rights violations Alem Dechasa experienced as a migrant domestic worker in Lebanon and the facts surrounding her death,” she said.
“States are under an obligation to ensure the realisation of the right to truth about violations in order to end impunity and promote and protect human rights and provide redress to victims and their families.”
The security and intelligence chief of the ruling Woyanne junta in Ethiopia, Getachew Assefa, is reportedly suffering from sever depression.
Getachew, who is a central committee member of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) and head of the notorious criminal organization that operates under the name, “Ethiopian Intelligence and Security Service (ENISS),” is also having a deteriorating relationship with Meles Zenawi because of the increasing power of his deputy, Esayas Woldegiorgis, in the organization, a reliable source inside the TPLF informed Ethiopian Review’s Intelligence Unit.
Esayas, who is half Eritrean like Meles Zenawi, is now the {www:de facto} head of the ENISS, and that Getachew is looking for a way out, according to Ethiopian Review sources.]
Our sources added that Getachew Assefa’s phones have been tapped by Debretsion Gebremichael, former TPLF assassin and current head of Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation.
Analysts who are knowledgeable about the {www:inner workings} of TPLF told Ethiopia Review that after Meles Zenawi consolidated his power by turning TPLF into a one-man show, resentment has spread in the TPLF rank, forcing him to surround himself with half-Eritreans and Tigreans from the Adwa awraja whom he trusts more.
