Yachi Neger is a condom called our conscience, if we wear it we can reside in the grace of God or we can disrobe from this same condom and dwell in the abode of Saytan::
by Teddy Fikre dated: Friday, June 22nd, 2012
Tesebsebu lijoch, kuch belu. Sit down and listen to a story that I am about to tell you that might one day either give life to your future children or entomb you a wooden box. This is a story of lust and love intertwined with greed and hubris. This is an article inspired by Jah Lude and written by the blood of millions of Africans as they made love in the midnight sky only to be greeted by death by the morning sun. This is story of disease more pernicious than meqegenet, a lethal virus so deadly that Africa is being whittled into an empty continent because they refuse to use Yachi Neger.
The disease I am talking about is HIV/AIDS. AIDS has decimated Ethiopia and the rest of Africa. It is not fair to be honest, a people who love God like Africans are the ones who always get it the worst. We do as God tells us, yet our children starve and perish in unmarked graves. It breaks my heart and I cry a million tears for million African children who will perish this year because they don’t have anything to eat and they drink from dirty pools of water right outside of Addis Sheraton. There but for the grace of God goes my child in Bole; there goes my child famished and dying from malnutrition as I complain in my posh apartment about eating Ramen noodles. I feel like cursing God at these moments when I see wealthy Ethiopians giving Hebret to our mother country by giving a couple of hundred birrs to a 12 year old innocent girl who was forced to become a prostitute in order to eat.
There, this is the heart of the matter. You see, Yachi Neger is really Yeze Neger. A dear friend let me borrow her Jah Lude CD last night and I have been playing track four on repeat all day as I ponder and wonder how we have become lost as a people. The difference between life and death is information, we Ethiopians in the Diaspora have more knowledge than Google, yet we turn to prostituting Ethiopia for the sake of a couple of birrs. Mata mata you can do your dirty deeds in the darkest nights yene gayta gin nege nege the world will always know what you are up to because you are a rotten injera. So this is my attempt to lift the veil of ignorance from my community and let you see that we are all intertwined under on the mattress called Ethiopia. We were all born in between bed sheets and birthed by our mothers on blankets of hope. Yet we can choose to perish overnight on the same bed sheet and be enveloped in darkness in a blanket of disease if we don’t use protection and protect ourselves from our own demise and our own greed.
All these reflections manifested into my menfes because Jah Lude sang a song about condoms titled “Yachi Neger”. It is for this reason that I am elevating Jah Lude to the status of Teddy Afro and Tilahun Gessesse, one CD and he has joined a pantheon of Ethiopian legends. You see, there is a difference between a singer and a virtuoso. Singers sell products by the way of CDs; virtuosos sell visions by way of redeeming their people. Two-bit crooners sing about “Fiker” while saying nothing but konjo, virtuosos like Tilahun and Jah Lude sing about “Fiker” and in the process apply love to Ethiopia and her people. The difference between Soulja boy and Talib Qweli is the difference between genocide and reclamation. Any denkoro can pick up a mic and sing a song of misogyny and malfeasance, but it takes a true visionary to grab center stage and sing a song of love.
Remember these words when the denkoros at AESA One prostitute our country as they hold their first annual Ethiopian cultural sham while inviting gangster rappers by the names of Jeezy, T-Pain, and Llyod to represent our beautiful country. I wish I could put Yachi Neger on them all and make them go away into the midnight sky. They call themselves AESA One; I call them AESA Dicks because they are useless sperms of Ethiopia who are whoring out our names for the sake of a few dollars. To the AESA crew, you chose to disregard “Yachi Neger”, just remember as you curl your lips between the hips of Al Amoudi that the thousand dollars you make today will not take away from the fact that you just burned yourself with HIV money.
I hope you go buy a double-sided Sealy mattress so that your double-sided tongues can slither at peace while you sleep with the thought of a 13 year old innocent Ethiopia girl being sold into prostitution in Saudi Arabia. The money you are using to plaster DC with AESA One is blood money and for that we will forever remember your dastardly deeds. You justify your greed by saying you are… continued…
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE. PLEASE READ FULL ARTICLE BEFORE FORMING YOUR OPINION. ESGER ESTELEN
After reading the above article by clicking on above link, view MUSIC VIDEO ABOUT YACHI NEGER::
[please click to listen to Yachi Neger -> Ethiopian Killers by name of AESA One]
So Al Amoudi gave you $2,000,000 to put together an ARIF Ethiopian cultural event. You could have gotten performers like Common, Beyonce, John Legend or Lauren Hill to put the most positive light on Ethiopia. Instead you chose to go with T-Pain, Jeezy, BoB, and LloydSo time to focus on the word your feature performers say. This flyer will be translated in Amharic (using GRAPHIC words) and will be plastered all over DMV. I am going to get 10,000 posters and flyers printed myself and plaster EVERY Ethiopian restaurant, church, market, and business in the DMV to show how duplicitious this event is.
Everyone, please share this article to the world and print it out and post it where you can. Let’s be like Adwa Jegnas and defend the honor of our mother Ethiopia and expose those who do wrong by our community….peace and le zelalem Ethiopia and stay away from RFK stadium on July 4th, the event is put together by BLOOD MONEY. Just know that somewhere in Saudi Arabia a 12 year old Ethiopian girl is being raped by an Arab Sultan as you do Eskista at RFK. Any promoter or business person that does business with AESA One is taking part the raping of Ethiopia and they are enemies of the people.
Over my dead body will you advertise this phony event using the clean flag of Ethiopia while the AESA One pimp back in Addis has the dirty Ethiopian flag with the devil’s symbol on it. You are not slick, we see what you are doing, and I will make sure that Washington Post, New York City Times, Congressmen from VA & MD, the DC City Council, Mayor Grey, and Senators all know how you are financing your event. Judgment cometh AESA One. Peace::
Two years ago in America, it was the year of the “metrosexual”, it seems we have arrived at a new day, we have arrived at the age of the “Habeshasexual”::
by Yohannes Aramaji dated: Thursday, June 21st, 2012
[picture provided by AESAOne Habesha men]
(Washington P0st DC Bureau) It is the hottest fashion trend of the summer. All around America and Ethiopia, from DC to Addis, Habesha men can be seen strutting and flaunting their hips as they sway down city streets wearing Habesha Kemis. The scene is omnipresent, Habesha man after man can be seen sipping buna at Starbucks as they gossip about sports and politics wearing Habesha Kemis to keep them cool from the heat of summer dog days. As their wives and girlfriends are at home taking care of the kids and the household, Habesha men everywhere are setting the fashion world upside down as they wear some of the most exquisite Habesha dresses and skirts.
We are not sure where the trend started, most likely it was a trend that started sometime after World War II and has taken on a life of it’s own since the turn of the 21st century. Take a moment today and drive over to Starbucks off Leesburg Pike in Alexandria Virginia or a random Ethiopian restaurant in Addis and there you will see Habsha men sipping Italian cappacino or smoking sheesha wearing the most lovely Habesha kemis. You will see these men sitting on their duffs all day with their legs crossed gossiping all day and night about soccer or debating who is a Woyane or a Shabia as children in Ethiopia die on a minute by minute basis from a lack of hope and nourishment.
The favorite color of these Habesha men in Habesha kemis is the hot pink, they have forsaken the warrior clothing of the past and have now embraced the Habesha kemis as the outward representation of their true manhood. Some Habesha men have taken it even further and have augmented their Habesha kemis with panties and thongs from Victoria Secret as they talk endlessly about overthrowing Meles Zenawi and advocating a war on the TPLF even though it is not them or their children that will be dying in this war they desire so. This is the next iteration of Habesha fashion, Habesha men have embraced their oneness with their femininity as they have lost all semblance of Ethiopian jegnas and are now content on wearing bras instead of adorning shields to protect their country from outside invaders.
By far the biggest consumers of this new trend are Habesha promoters and so called doctors. You can see the Habesha men promoters walking up and down DC passing out flyers as they wear their Habesha kemis and disseminating flyers that have pictures of Ethiopian queens looking like sluts and whores on their flyers as these Habesha men promoters switch their hips while wearing their Prada sunglasses to match their Habesha kemis. You can also see Habesha men who call themselves “doctors” who have no PhD to speak of and are doctors by name only wearing Habesha kemis instead of surgeon’s gear as they bop and flop down 9th Street in DC or while they stay at Addis Sheraton in Addis. These Habesha men doctors are a hit in Addis wearing their Habesha kemis, they arrive in Addis as conquering warriors in the mold of Italian soldiers, they do more damage than Mustard Italian mustard gas, they spend their precious money not to help out starving children back home, instead they help out the local economy by giving a few birrs to young prostitutes in the streets of Addis.
While they are wearing their Habesha kemis, these so-called “doctors” have become the biggest consumers of prostitutes in Ethiopia—they destroy the lives of young and precious Ethiopian girls as they steal their future all while these Habesha men are wearing the hottest hop pink Habesha kemis while they sip the finest wine as these set-a-set “mena” sit next to Al Amoudi. Al Amoudi in fact has bought the most expensive Habesha kemis, the Chinese had to use 400 bales of cotton and 4,000 pounds of silk to make a custom made Habesha kemis for Al Amoudi and you can see him driving in the back of limousines with his legs crossed and sipping Moet with his $4,00,000 Habesha Kemis. In a couple of weeks, you will see DMV invaded by Habesha kemis wearing men as they decend by the thousands to celebrate at RFK stadium for the first ever AESAOne “Ethiopian” soccer tournament sponsored by none other than the $4,000,000 Habesha kemis wearer himself Al Amoudi.
Sweat shops in China cannot keep up with the pace of demand for Habesha kemis, over 100,000 Habesha Kemis are manufactured and shipped from Beijing on a day to day basis to Addis and DC—95% of which are being shipped to Habesha men. This trend of Habesha men wearing Habesha kemis will not go away anytime soon, it seems that both the younger generation and the older generation of Habesha men are loudly and proudly yelling “I am set a set and I’m proud of it!” as they snap their fingers and do… (continued )
Sewoch, this is only 1/3 of the article, please read FULL article before forming your opinion! Click HERE To read full article
PS now watch what will happen, the very same Habesha kemis men will attack the messenger while disregarding the message. This is what Habesha kemis wearing men do, they are best at leflafanet and never follow logic. Watch them reveal their Habesha Kemis with the comments below…
[click to read full article and listen to Brow Condor Radio]
By Yilma Bekele
I am always harking back to the pleasant years of our past. Believe me it not being nostalgic rather it is the lack of good news that makes me reach deep to salvage a little bit of dignity how ever fleeting that might be. One can also make an argument for the fact that my generation has lost the battle to continue on the tradition of leaving intact what was passed on to us. Actually what was expected was a little bit of enhancement but we seem to have managed to degrade and discount. Let us not talk about that today.
What made me despondent is reading about Huajian Shoe factory in Dukem. The story as told by China Post claims ‘Huajian, one of China’s biggest shoe manufacturers, plans to invest US$2 billion in Ethiopia to make shoes for export to Europe and North America.’ On the face of it the story looks perfectly normal and one could even find positive spin in its added value to our country and people. But that will be considered scheming the surface wouldn’t it? We have to put the story in its context to fully appreciate the ramifications as it relates to our future as a country.
Huajian is what got me started to ask why are the Chinese manufacturing shoes in Ethiopia. Have we always been a challenged people that we can’t even make our own shoes? Not so! Said my memory. There was a time we were one cleaver people that knew how to make stuff. For crying out loud, there is no need to be a student of history when it was only yesterday that we excelled in all sorts of enterprises right here in good old Ethiopia. Yes my dear Diaspora cousin we had a whole bunch of entrepreneurs that achieved as never before and galvanized a whole nation. Sad to say the military dictatorship under Mengistu was the beginning of the cause of the total eclipse of individual achievement and national pride.
Before Huajian there was Darmar shoe factory. Darmar shoes were prominently displayed on every shelf. Asko was a brand name from Asmara to Moyale. The cow was Abyssinian, the shoemaker was Abesha and the citizens of Ethiopia wore the product with pride. Azzo, Asko and Darmar were locally manufactured shoe wear. Nothing left our motherland. Capital was raised, invested and recycled right there. That is how you build an economy. That is how you grow capital.
That was shoes, now was there any other enterprise that are the hallmark Ethiopian ingenuity. How can we forget the Hotel business? I am not talking Sheraton here. I am into Ato Bekele Molla, the shining star of the hospitality business. His innovative Hotels from Addis to Arba Minch were the pride of travelers in the beautiful South. So clean, fresh and staffed by well-trained professionals defined the new concept of customer service. He was truly an innovative and inspiring giant of man. He was the definition of by Ethiopia for Ethiopians.
Ato Yenberber Mamo (Mamo Kacha) defined transportation. A self-made entrepreneur, his innovative style of free enterprise pushed all other to excel to catch up with him. His buses were clean, on time and affordable. The music blaring from the speakers on front were loud enough to wake up the dead and you know the bus was here miles before it reaches the little village. His enthusiastic business style gave birth to others such as Awraris, Mekonen Negash and a host of others that followed his footsteps.
Have you heard of Ato Molla Maru? That is another rags to riches Ethiopian saga. Ato Molla Maru was a proud owner of an Ethiopian Liquor factory. To see a made in Ethiopia Cognac, Ouzo etc. in a clean bottle adorned in Amharic labels was something to behold. He was an entrepreneur par excellence that rose from a humble beginning to running a modern factory.
Then there is my friends dad Ato Teka Egeno a business man of special caliber, self made visionary that will put any college educated MBA to shame. He was into coffee since he was a product of Keffa province and put our country on the map and was able to keep stride with big import export houses. Humble and smart is what comes to mind when I think of him.
All of the above giants I recited were imbued with that special God given smarts, common sense and talent that can not be learned but fostered by a sense of vision, love and driven to excel. Their accomplishment rubbed off on all those around them. Growing up I remember dreaming to emulate their accomplishments. Their success was like a beacon calling us to follow the path they were trail blazing. I believe my generation was filled with a sense of hope and can do attitude because they were showing us what is possible with hard work and perseverance.
They in turn gave birth to the new educated modern day giants that built up on their elders’ accomplishments. My role model were my two dear friends the Solomon’s that graduated from Alem Maya Agricultural College and made their marks in the Awash valley turning dust into cash. They were the pioneers that put theory into practice. They pushed the envelope to the limit and in so doing surprised them selves and their nation. A time will come when their story will be told and what an epic it would be.
My friends were visionaries born in a place and time that appreciated their drive to excel. They managed to secure land, were given credit to buy machinery their fuel supply was subsidized and their progress was celebrated. Success breeds success and at one point the sky was the limit to their hopes and dreams. Ato Solomon died a year ago. He died in exile away from his beloved Ethiopia. His funeral was another moment of revelation of how much our country had lost. Those assembled to pay their respect were people who should under favorable circumstances would have been the building blocks of the future Ethiopia. Today our achievers are building another land. Ethiopia’s lose has become Americas gain.
And darkness came. Our country entered a period of untold misery. The Derg’s style of change was not that of building on what works but it was based on finding the common lowest denominator. Why bring everything up when you can reduce all down. All that I mentioned above was smashed to pieces. The innovators and builders were all of a sudden declared enemy of the people and their success was seen as the cause of what is wrong with society. Spring was replaced by the darkness of winter.
Our fathers were emasculated and wilted. Our entrepreneurs and builders of the new society met a different fate. Some resigned to a life of no consequence. A few were killed. While others bid their time and got out to start anew. Ethiopia was a net loser however you look at it.
Huajian and the philosophy behind it is what brought all this lamentation. The TPLF mafia in power is the conduit of this degradation of self-reliance and celebration of individual achievement. According to tyrant Meles hard work is old fashioned while short cut and quick rich schemes are the wave of the future. There is a new culture being encouraged thru out the land and it achievement by corruption. It is not what you know but whom you know. In the land of Meles Zenawi can you think of an Ethiopian that has achieved by hard work and perseverance? I am sure you can name plenty that have emerged as multi-millionaires due to proximity to those in power or belonging to certain ethnic group. Those are the people our children look up to. A street hustler today a millionaire tomorrow is the new reality. It is void of value.
Dear reader let me ask you something. What makes the Ethiopian Nation different from the rest? They say there are over one hundred ninety six countries in the world, what is unique about us? One thing stands out and that is we have never been colonized! No one has occupied our country. We have never submitted. We might be poor, we might be backward in technological terms but we are not a push over. It is even said that when the British left after their excursion to Magdella they were asked to wash their boots least they take our soil with them! That is how much our forefathers disdained foreign intrusion. By fate or design that is what is woven in our DNA.
The Tewodroses, the Yohaneses, the Minilks, the Balchas aba Nefsos, the Abebe Argawis, the Sebaht Aregawi and Sebhat Shumes, the Taitu Bituls were examples of that proud achievement. The Bekele Mollas, the Mamo kachas, the Molla Marus, the Teka Egenos were a continuation of that self-reliant spirit. Born and raised in Ethiopia.
What we got today? Selling land, selling children and selling our soul. Thus instead of making our own shoes we invite shoe makers instead of building our own hotels we contract to multi nationals instead of brewing our own drinks we sell our homegrown to foreign entities instead of building our own houses out of sustainable bamboo and reeds we import cement and recycled metal to construct wasteful ugly boxes instead of growing our own food we lease our virgin and fertile land to grow that we can’t consume instead of educating our children to raise our knowledge we exile our youth to care for some one else’s child. Today the same foreigners that could not conquer our land by force are buying it using dollar and euros. Woyane takes that money and invests in the West and the rest of us cheer from the sidelines.
It was a revealing moment to see Sheik Al Amoudi boasting from the podium how all four star hotels in the Middle East serve fruits grown in Ethiopia and Meles Zenawi with his cadres assembled cheer with pride. That is how brain dead we have become. Today Meles Zenawi a person that has never worked for wages in his life, that has never balanced a bank account, that has never paid rent, that has never ever run a simple kiosk or taken order from a boss is put in charge of a national economy and the joke is on us. Theory is never a substitute for real life situation. Then again the same individual that got all that he knows from the books he reads is actually in the process of defining such concepts as ‘economic growth and democracy’! Of course his ferenji enablers are looking at all this with amusement. Unfortunate for us the individual actually is in the process of trying to prove this utterly simplistic thought in practice and our country is his laboratory.
What is proven by those that have surged ahead and are enjoying the fruits of success is you make your own shoes, you construct your own hotels with locally produced products you encourage individuals that show drive and you invest on your young ones so tomorrow they will build on what you have started. But all this does not come easy. You work for it. You nurture it. There is no short cut. That goes the same for attaining freedom, here again there is no short cut, there is no knight in shining armor nor can it be outsourced. They say if the shoe fits wear it. Would you rather wear Huajian or Darmar, it is your choice my friend.
The Ethiopian Land Giveaway – OpEd
What’s yours is mine, what’s mine’s my own
By Graham Peebles | Eurasia Review
It is a colonial phenomenon, appropriate land for the needs of the colonists and to hell with those living upon the land, indigenous and at home. Might is right, military or indeed economic. The power of the dollar rules supreme in a world built upon the acquisition of the material, the perpetuation of desire and the entrapment of the human spirit.
Africa has for long been the object of western domination, control and usury, under the British, French, and Portuguese of old. Now the ‘new rulers of the World’ large corporations from America, China, Japan, Middle Eastern States, India and Europe, are engaged in extensive land acquisitions in developing countries. The vast majority of available land is in Sub-Saharan Africa where, according to The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues report, ‘The Growing demand for Land, Risks and Opportunities for Smallholder Farmers’ “80 per cent (of worldwide land) –about 2 billion hectares that is potentially available for expanded rain-fed crop production” is thought to be. Huge industrial agricultural centres are being created, off shore farms, producing crops for the investors home market. Indigenous people, subsistence farmers and pastoralists are forced off the land, the natural environment is levelled, purging the land of wildlife and destroying small rural communities, that have lived, worked and cared for the land for centuries. The numbers of people potentially affected by the land grab and its impact on the environment is staggering. The UN in it’s report states “By 2020, an estimated 135 million people may be driven from their land as a result of soil degradation, with 60 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone.”
Ethiopia
This contemporary ‘Land Grab’ has come about as a result of food shortages, the financial meltdown in 2008 and in light of the United Nations world population forecast of 9.2 billion people by 2050, and three main resulting pressures. 1. Food insecure nations – particularly Middle Eastern and Asian countries, seeking to stabilise their food supply. 2. To meet the growing worldwide demand for agro-fuels and thirdly, by the rise in investment in land and soft commodities, such as coffee, cocoa, sugar, corn, wheat, soya and fruit. Often investors are simply speculators seeking to make a fast or indeed slow buck, by ‘Land Banking’, sitting on the asset waiting and watching for the price to inflate, then selling, the Oakland Institute in its report ‘The Great land Grab’ found “along with hedge funds and speculators, some public universities and pension funds are among those in on the land rush, eyeing returns of 20 to as much as 40%”. Land not as home, land as a chip, to be thrown upon the international gambling table of commercialisation.
Chopping trees cutting Costs
As well we know everything and indeed everyone ‘has its price’. Even the people and land of a country, sold into destitution by governments motivated by distorted notions of development, where people, traditional lifestyles and the environment come a distant second to roads, industrialisation and the raping of the land. People too poor to hold on to their dignity, too weak in a world built and run on power and might, to protest and demand justice for themselves and their families and rounded, responsible husbandry for the environment. And the price of land, well as one would expect bargain basement, with 99 year leases the norm and various government incentive packages. In some cases the land is literally being given away, as the Oakland Institute (OI) states in its report, “In Mali one investment group was able to secure 1000,000 hectares (ha) of fertile land for a 50 year term for free. Elsewhere “$2.00 a hectare (roughly equal to two Olympic size athletic grounds) is the going rate.” According to The Guardian (21/3/2011) “The lowest prices are in Africa, where, says the World Bank, at least 35 million hectares of land has been bought or leased. Other groups, including, Friends of the Earth say the figure is higher.”
Ethiopia. For sale
The Ethiopian government, through the Agricultural Investment Support Directorate is at the forefront of this African Land Sale. Crops familiar to the area are often grown, such as maize, sesame, sorghum, in addition to wheat and rice. All let us state clearly, for export to Saudi Arabia, India, China etc, to be sold within the home market, benefitting the people of Ethiopia not.
The Oakland Institute research “shows that at least 3,619,509ha of land (an area just smaller than Belgium) have been transferred to investors, although the actual number may be higher.” The government claims that the land available for lease is unused and surplus, this is disingenuous nonsense. Large areas of land are in fact already cultivated by smallholders subsistence farmers and pastoralists using land for grazing, all of which are un-ceremonially evicted. Villages are destroyed and indigenous people expelled from their homeland and forced into large scale villagization programmes. Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report ‘Waiting Here For Death’ states, “The Ethiopian federal government’s current villagization program is occurring in four regions—Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz, Somali, and Afar. This involves the resettlement of approximately 1.5 million people throughout the lowland areas of the country—500,000 in Somali region, 500,000 in Afar region, 225,000 in Benishangul-Gumuz and 225,000 in Gambella.” Imposed movement then, often applied with force, in order to provide pristine land, free of any inconveniences to the corporate allies.
Level growing field
There are five areas of prime, fertile land up for grabs. Gambella is the largest where unbelievably a third of the region (around 800,000 hectares) is available. Indian corporations have already snapped up 352,000 hectares (ha) and around 900 foreign investors have so far taken advantage of this giveaway. Afar, The Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region, where 200,000 hectares has been leased or sold, Oromia, where three Indian companies have leased a total of 138,000 ha and Amhara, make up the reduced to clear rail.
With the land grab crucially goes water – and the appropriation of this vital resource, both surface and ground water. Investors are allowed to do what they will with the land they lease, this includes diverting rivers, digging canals from existing water sources, building dams and drilling bore holes. The Oakland Institute in its report ‘Land Investment in Ethiopia quotes Saudi Star stating “that water will be their biggest issue, and numerous plans are being established (including the construction of 30 km of cement-lined canals and another dam on the Alwero River).” There are no controls imposed on foreign corporations whatsoever and no payment structure for ‘appropriating’ water is in place. These politically favoured investors are being offered carte blanche. Water supplies in Ethiopia are poor, even in the capital, where irregular mains flow is common in many neighbourhoods. There is water galore 90% of the Nile e.g. flows through Ethiopia, distribution though is inconsistent, maintained to be so some say, the people drained, exhausted and kept firmly in their place.
In Gambella the government in 2011 offered huge areas of land to Bangalore-based food company Karuturi Global for the equivalent of $1.16 per hectare, to lease more than 2,500 sq. km (1,000 sq. miles) of virgin, fertile land for more than 50 years. This cost compared to an average rate of $340 per ha in the Punjab district of India, no wonder then that the CEO of Karuturi described “the incentives available to the floriculture industry in Ethiopia as “mouthwatering,” including low air freights on the state-owned Ethiopian airlines, tax holidays, hassle-free entry into the industry at very low lease rates, tax holidays, and lack of duties,” reports Oakland in its Ethiopia report. Up to 60,000 workers will be employed by Karuturi, who are paying local people less than $1 a day, which is well below the level of extreme poverty set by the World bank. The company will cultivate according to The Guardian 21st March 2011 “20,000 hectares of oil palm, 15,000 hectares of sugar cane and 40,000 hectares of rice, edible oils and maize and cotton… “We could feed a nation here”, says Karmjeet Sekhon, Karuturi project manager. Land and people for a few rupees, cushioned by a cocktail of sweeteners offered by the Ethiopian government, allowing the decimation of the environment and the destruction of lifestyles – generations old. And in a hurry, The Guardian found “the [land] concessions are being worked [by Karuturi] at a breakneck pace, with giant tractors and heavy machinery clearing trees, draining swamps and ploughing the land in time to catch the next growing season. Forests across hundreds of square km are being clear-felled and burned to the dismay of locals and environmentalists concerned about the fate of the region’s rich wildlife.”
Unstable supply of staples
Around five million people in Ethiopia rely on food aid and live with constant food insecurity that will only increase under the land grab bonanza. According to the Oakland Institutes report “commercial investment will increase rates of food insecurity in the vicinity of the land investments” and Open Democracy reports an interview with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, for the Financial Times (7 August 2008), in which he ‘predicted that “large-scale farming could bring some employment, but “not much”. It would not solve the problem of food insecurity.” Intensifying food insecurity is the transfer of vast areas of land used for the cultivation of traditional staples such as Teff to other crops. This is largely responsible for costs of Teff (used to make injera – the daily bread) quadrupling in the last four years. The Guardian (Monday 23 April 2012) reports Friends of the Earth International “The result (of land sell offs) has often been … people forced off land they have traditionally farmed for generations, more rural poverty and greater risk of food shortages” Food security will be realised when local smallholders are encouraged to farm their land, given financial support, machinery and the needed technology, as Oxfam in its report ‘Land Power Rights’ points out, “Small-scale producers, particularly women, can indeed play a crucial role in poverty reduction and food security. But to do so, they need investment in infrastructure, markets, processing, storage, extension, and research.”
Keep development small, for, of, and close to the people in need, and see them flourish.
Land rights, human cost, environmental damage
The land rights of the indigenous people of Ethiopia are, as one would expect somewhat ambiguous. As a legacy of the socialist dictatorship of the 1960s and ‘70s, the government technically owns all land. However there is protection in law for indigenous people. The Ethiopian constitution Article 40, 3 states “Land is a common property of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of exchange. And 4) “Ethiopian peasants have right to obtain land without payment and the protection against eviction from their possession.” And in regard to pastoralists affected by the land sell off, paragraph 5) “Ethiopian pastoralists have the right to free land for grazing and cultivation as well as the right not to be displaced from their own lands.”
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Ethiopia signed in 2007, making it a legally binding document, states in Article 26/1. “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources, which they have traditionally owned, occupied or other- wise used or acquired.” And paragraph 2.”Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.” The declaration also outlines compensation measures for landowners. Article 28/1. “Indigenous peoples have the right to redress, by means that can include restitution or, when this is not possible, just, fair and equitable compensation, for the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and informed consent.” Paragraph 2. “Unless otherwise freely agreed upon by the peoples concerned, compensation shall take the form of lands, territories and resources 10equal in quality, size and legal status or of monetary compensation or other appropriate redress.”
The law it would appear is clear, implementation and respect for its content is required, and should be demanded of the ruling EPRDF by the donor countries to Ethiopia.
Land and People
People are not being consulted or democratically included in the decisions to transform their homeland. This contravenes the Ethiopian constitution, that states in Article 92/3. “People have the right to full consultation and to the expression of views in the planning and implementations of environmental policies and projects that affect them directly”. Hollow words to those being evicted from their land, like Omot Ochan a villager, from the Anuak tribe whose family has lived in the forest near the Baro river in Gambella for ten generations. Speaking to The Observer Sunday 20 May 2012, he “insisted Saudi Star had no right to be in his forest. The company had not even told the villagers that it was going to dig a canal across their land. “Nobody came to tell us what was happening.” He goes on to say “This land belonged to our father. All round here is ours. For two days’ walk.” Well that was the case until the Government in their infallible wisdom leased some 10,000ha to their friend, the Ethiopian born Saudi Arabian oil multi millionaire, Sheik Al Moudi (In 2011, Fortune magazine put his wealth at more than $12bn) to grow rice for his Saudi Star Company. Omot continued, “two years ago, the company began chopping down the forest and the bees went away. The bees need thick forest. We used to sell honey. We used to hunt with dogs too. But after the farm came, the animals here disappeared. Now we only have fish to sell.” And with the company draining the wetlands, the fish will probably be gone soon, too. Sheik Al Moudi plans to export over a million tonnes of rice a year to Saudi Arabia. To ease relations with the Meles regime and as The Observer states “to smooth the wheels of commerce, Amoudi has recruited one of Zenawi’s former ministers, Haile Assegdie, as chief executive of Saudi Star.”
Traditional land rights for people who have lived on the land in Gamabella and elsewhere for centuries are being ignored and in a country where all manner of human rights are routinely violated, legally binding compensations are not being paid.
Government drafted lease agreements with investors state the Meles regime will hand over the land free of any ‘encumbrances’ – people and property that means, anyone living or using the land to graze their livestock or pastoralists moving through. The Independent 18th January 2012 reports “Ethiopia is forcing tens of thousands of people off their land so it can lease it to foreign investors, leaving former landowners destitute and in some cases starving.” The Government says any movement is voluntary and not enforced, a clear distortion of the facts. HRW in their report confirms the government’s criminality “mass displacement to make way for commercial agriculture in the absence of a proper legal process contravenes Ethiopia’s constitution and violates the rights of indigenous peoples under international law.”
A price worth paying it would seem, to the Ethiopian government and those multi nationals appropriating the land, seeing a market and capitalizing on the countries need for dollars. Desperate in a world propelled by growth to maximize the value of every so called asset, even if it means prostituting the land, sacrificing the native people and destroying the natural environment.
About the author:
Graham Peebles
Graham is Director of The Create Trust, a UK registered charity, supporting fundamental social change and the human rights of individuals in acute need. He may be reached at [email protected]
