At the Nuremberg Trials in 1945, Hermann Goering, Hitler’s right-hand man, told his interrogator:
Naturally the common people don’t want war. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along… Voice or no voice [democratic or non-democratic government], the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
Lately, Meles Zenawi, the dictator-in-chief in Ethiopia, has been beating the drums of war. He charged:
Recently, Eritrea is training and deploying Al Shabab and locally grown destructive forces to terrorize our country. But Egypt is the direct force behind these destructive elements that back them. Until now, our strategy has been defending our sovereignty by speeding up our development. Now, we found that we could not go any longer with passive defense. It’s not possible to take passive defense as the only alternative. Therefore, we have to facilitate ways for Eritrean people to remove their dictatorial regime. We have no intention to jump into their country but we need to extend our influence there. If the Eritrean government tries to attack us, we will also respond proportionally.
In December 2006, Zenawi used the exact same logique de guerre (war logic) at the onset of his unsuccessful 843-day war to dislodge the Islamic Courts Union and crush the Al Shabab in Somalia. He said:
With regard to physical attacks or physical acts of the invasion, what has happened since last summer is that the Islamic courts have been training, equipping and smuggling armed opposition elements into Ethiopia. These elements have been engaged in activities of destabilization in Ethiopia. Hundreds of these have been smuggled and they have been involved in clashes with security forces in Ethiopia. To the extent that the Islamic Courts have trained them, equipped them, given them shelter and transported them to the border for smuggling. To that extent, they are directly involved in an act of aggression on Ethiopia. And that has been going since summer. It is still continuing.
Zenawi asserted the legal doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense (the right to use force in anticipation of an attack, Art. 51, U.N. Charter) to clothe his naked aggression against Somalia:
Ethiopian defense forces were forced to enter into war to protect the sovereignty of the nation. We are not trying to set up a government for Somalia, nor do we have an intention to meddle in Somalia’s internal affairs. We have only been forced by the circumstances.
In 2009, a humbled Zenawi waxed philosophical and struck a grudgingly conciliatory tone as he ordered his defeated troops out of Somalia:
If the people of Somalia have a government, even one not positively inclined to Ethiopia, it would be better than the current situation. Having a stable government in place in Somalia is in our national interests.
Zenawi now bangs the drums of war and says there will no longer be “passive defense” against the “dictatorial regime” in Eritrea and its Egyptian “puppet masters” who are working in collusion to “destabilize” and “terrorize” Ethiopia.
Since “stability” is the hallmark of Pax Zenawi, one could reasonably ask whether “a stable government in place in Eritrea is in our national interest”. The undeniable fact is that Zenawi invaded Somalia to pander to the Bush Administration’s reflexive obsession with terrorism and to deflect criticism for his theft of the 2005 election and the post-election massacre of innocent demonstrators and mass imprisonment of opposition leaders. Zenawi’s three-year occupation of Somalia created more instability in that country, and the so-called transitional government remains weaker than ever. The very elements Zenawi sought to vanquish in Somalia, including Al Shabab, are today stronger than ever. Somali pirates have become a maritime scourge on the Indian Ocean. Somalia is considerably worse off today than it was before Zenawi’s invasion in 2006. That invasion created the worst global humanitarian crisis in the first decade of the Twenty-First Century. In the end, Zenawi did not save the Horn from Al Shabab, Al Queida, the Islamic Courts or whatever phantom enemies he was chasing after over there. If Zenawi could not dislodge a ragtag army of “terrorists” from Somalia after three years of an all-out war, it is illogical to expect a different result against a well-entrenched “dictatorial regime” in Eritrea.
The fact to keep in mind is that Zenawi today is recycling the exact same slick set of arguments he used to justify his invasion of Somalia. But hidden deep in his casus belli (justification for war) against the “dictatorial regime” in Eritrea and Egypt are a complex set of geopolitical and domestic issues. At the geopolitical level, Zenawi is floating a trial baloon to see if the Americans will fall for a second-coming of the Savior of the Horn from the plague of global terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, regional instability and the rest of it. The U.S. will not fall for that old boogey-man-in-the-Horn trick, again. Obama is neither shopping for war in the Horn nor is he willing to bankroll one. So, there will be no war for regime change in Eritrea or a water war with Egypt.
Patriotism, the Last Refuge of the Scoundrel
So, what is the real reason for all the talk about regime change in Eritrea and a looming water war with Egypt? It is all political theater, part of a three-ring propaganda circus intended to distract the Ethiopian population and Diaspora critics from talking about the winds of change that will surely blow southward from North Africa. All the talk of war and regime change is bravado intended to cover something that is deeply troubling Zenawi and his ruling class. It is part of a strategy intended to project invincibility and outward confidence that Zenawi still runs the show in Ethiopia and the upheavals taking place in North Africa will not occur under his watch. But all of the pretentious war talk betrays Zenawi’s obvious preoccupation with loss of control and power as a result of a spontaneous popular uprising. Careful analysis of his public statements reveal the deep anxieties and profound political angst of a delusionally isolated man trapped in a siege mentality.
There is substantial psychological literature which suggests that dictators often resort to bombast and self-glorification to cover up their paranoid obsessions. For instance, dictators who are morbidly fearful of losing power will project that fear on their opponents as a way of reducing their own anxiety. More to the point, a dictator fearful of regime change will threaten others with regime change just to deal with his own anxieties. The wind-bagging about war is intended to conceal Zenawi’s vulnerabilities from public view and enable him to suppress the psychological discomfort of consciously admitting that he could realistically become a victim of regime change in a popular uprising. Metaphorically speaking, the constant fear and nightmare of dictators who ride the back of the proverbial tiger is what the tiger will do to them if they stop riding it. As President Kennedy observed, “In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.” Ending up inside the tiger’s belly is what keeps dictators from sleeping at night and war talk during the day. Suffice it to say that the winds of change blowing over the Horn from North Africa must be spreading sheer panic about a lurking hungry and angry tiger in the land of “thirteen months of sunshine”!
Professor Jerrold Post’s research in leadership trait analysis is particularly instructive in understanding the techniques dictators use to project false confidence, conceal their anxieties about losing power and delusionally reassure themselves that they are omnipotent, invincible and untouchable. Typically, they begin by making grandiose public statements about war and enemies hoping to boost popular support. They magically discover love of country and wrap themselves in the flag and become jingoistic (super-patriotic). They even become revanchist (propose to reverse territorial losses incurred by their country) in an attempt to open the floodgates of popular patriotic emotion. They brazenly pander to the population using nationalistic and chauvinistic sensationalism and try to mobilize public support with cheap sentimentality by manufacturing hysteria about imminent attacks, invisible enemies, lurking terrorists, loss of sovereignty and the rest of it. Every chance they get, they try to trigger paroxysms of public anger against the enemy and inflame public opinion with provocative and outrageously concocted stories designed to make themselves look patriotic and all others unpatriotic. When all else fails, they openly incite fear and hysteria to distract public attention from their crimes and dictatorial rule.
By “facilitating ways for Eritrean people to remove their dictatorial regime”, Zenawi hopes to lay a credible groundwork for a just, moral and humanitarian intervention in Eritrea. But he is only pandering to the Eritrean people by promising to free them from a “dictatorship” just as he pledged the Somali people four years ago liberation from the clutches of Al Shabab and Al Qaeda terrorists and the Islamic Courts Union. By proposing “to extend our influence there”, he is pandering to revanchist elements in Ethiopia who still chafe at the secession of Eritrea and generate war hysteria to punish a “historic” enemy.
There is nothing new in this war propaganda game. From the time of the Roman emperors to the present day, the lords of war have played the “war card” and stirred up patriotic fever in the population to cling to power. Over the millennia, the technology of war may have changed but the deceit, ploys, chicanery, treachery and modus operandi of war-makers has remained the same. Dictators, like schoolyard bullies, are experts in the art of taunting, intimidation, bluffing and teasing. They start a war of words and flood their population with lies, fabrications and half-truths. More often than not, the war of words will not amount to much more than declarations of bravado and hyperbolic accusations and recriminations.
Time will show if there will be war or intervention in Eritrea, and a water war with Egypt. We will monitor the rumors of war over the coming weeks and months. We shall listen to the oratory of war and why it is necessary for two of the poorest countries on the planet to slaughter each other twice in less than fifteen years. Isn’t the 100,000 deaths of the 1998-2000 Ethio-Eritrea war enough? We shall read the dramatic propaganda narratives to be written to create war fever and observe the war hysteria that will be drummed up to bring more misery and suffering to the unfortunate people of the Horn of Africa. We will watch out for the sparks of war, the fabricated lures and lies that will be used as bait for an attack and intervention. If there is war, we shall see the masses of poor people marching to war they do not want. But for now, no one needs to lose sleep over that prospect. The only war being waged today by Zenawi is a war of mass distraction.
Holier-Than-Thou Dictators
It is the scholarly duty of historians, political scientists, journalists, lawyers and others to throw light on repeated historical patterns of war deception to enhance public understanding, and to debunk and unravel the tangled webs of lies and deceit of the war-makers. Herr Goering said, “Voice or no voice the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.” Herr Goering is wrong. The people of North Africa are refusing the “bidding of their leaders.” Is it unreasonable to suppose that the people of the Horn of Africa will also refuse the “bidding of their leaders” to become cannon fodder for their dictators?
The common people of Ethiopia do not want war. If there is war, it will be Zenawi’s War. Zenawi has done one “fantastic Somalia job” . Another fantastic job in Eritrea is not needed. In any case, there needs to be some serious accounting for the war in Somalia in 2006 and the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea and that arbitration matter before starting a new war in 2011.
The holier-than-thou dictators ought to remind themselves that “The camel cannot see the crookedness of its own neck”. Before they go all out to remove other regimes, they should contemplate the simple wisdom of Scriptures: “You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” In less sublime terms, “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones”.
On the other hand, is it possible that when two elephants fight, the grass could come out as the real winner?
Past commentaries of the author are available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/
LIVE UPDATE: WOYANNE N. AMERICA DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN MEETINGS – 10 April 2011
UPDATE: 11:00 PM EST
Over the weekend, the 20-member Woyanne delegation that is sent by dictator Meles Zenawi for a disinformation campaign tried to hold public meetings in 13 North American cities: Washington DC,
New York, Columbus OH, Dallas, Ottawa, Boston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Toronto, San Jose, and Denver.
In Washington DC, the hometown of Ethiopians in N. America, the meeting was a public relations disaster as protesters forced it to disperse. The meeting organizers and Howard University, where the meeting was held, face lawsuits from at least one of the peaceful protesters who was attacked by the Woyanne thugs and had to be hospitalized.
In Los Angeles, Woyanne thugs savagely attacked two peaceful protesters who refused to leave the meeting hall. The meeting had to be stopped 2 hours early because of the growing agitation and risk of injuries.
In the other cities, the 20 Woyanne delegates were confronted by thousands of angry Ethiopians who demanded for an end to the Meles dictatorship.
A meeting at Seattle Center prompted a vocal protest outside the Exhibition Hall on Sunday… The demonstrators said thousands of people have died under Ethiopia’s prime minister. “These people are worse than Mubarak, Gadhafi… and they were supported by the United States government and they’re allowed to carry this kind of forum when they’d been killing kids, arresting people and committing genocide,” said Shakespear Feyissa, Ethiopians In Seattle For Justice.
VOA also reportedly extensively about the Woyanne tour and the opposition they faced by Ethiopians in N. America.
It’s estimated that Meles and his Woyanne junta will have spent well over $500,000 for the one-week propaganda stunt in the U.S. and Canada, while children in Ethiopia have no food to eat.
The Woyanne North America disinformation tour is ending in disaster. They have one more meeting in Las Vegas on Wednesday and will head to London. Las Vegas Ethiopians are known for their bitter opposition to Woyanne.
UPDATE: 8:50 PM EST
Police told the Woyanne thugs to end their meeting and leave the facility 2 hours early. The meeting was scheduled until 8 PM local time, but it ended at 6 PM.
UPDATE: 6:00 PM EST
Shambel Belaineh’s new song, Beka!, is being played by the protesters in Seattle.
UPDATE: 6:00 PM EST
Ethiopians in Toronto threw eggs at the Woyanne thugs and their hodam supporters as they concluded their meeting and started to exit the meeting hall. The Toronto Woyanne meeting is now over. It lasted only 2 hours.
UPDATE: 5:30 PM EST
Woyanne thugs in Los Angeles attacked some of the Ethiopians who entered the meeting hall. Two of them were seen covered with blood. Ambulance has been called. Police detained and released about 5 protesters.
The Los Angeles meeting has been delayed for over 2 hours. The hall is half empty.
UPDATE: 4:17 PM EST
San Jose: There are only 60 – 70 attendees, and over 90 percent of them are Woyannes, and most of them came from Sacramento and other cities, and are members of The Union of Tigreans in North America, an affiliate of the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne).
Woyanne thugs upset at Atlanta police. They are angry that the police is not forcing the protesters to move farther from the meeting hall.
UPDATE: 3:50 PM EST
As usual, Seattle Ethiopians are amazing. They are turning out in large numbers to confront the Woyanne thugs who are trying to hold a disinformation meeting.
UPDATE: 3:50 PM EST
Toronto police arrested one protester who he refused to leave the meeting hall.
In Seattle, hundreds are holding a protest at the Seattle Center. They are chanting “BEKA to Dictatorship!”
UPDATE: 3:10 PM EST
Ethiopians as young as 10-year-old join the Toronto anti-Woyanne protest rally.
In Atlanta, Solomon Tekalign, surrounded by security guards, helps his Woyanne bosses identify and kick out of the meeting hall his former friends who are opponents of the tribal junta.
UPDATE: 2:30 PM EST
TORONTO: Ethiopians from all ethnic groups stand together in confronting the Woyanne junta.
MINNEAPOLIS: Protesters chant “Leba!” “Leba!” (thief) as the Woyanne thugs and hodams are entering the meeting hall at Hilton Hotel.
DENVER: Similar protests is about to start at the Red Lion Hotel.
UPDATE: 2:00 PM EST
TORONTO: Hundreds of Ethiopians are currently holding a protest rally at a meeting hall near the University of Toronto carrying BEKA! posters. Oromo, Ogaden and Somali communities are out in force.
UPDATE: 1:45 PM EST
ATLANTA: Ethiopians in Atlanta are confronting Woyanne thugs and hodams at the Deklb County Technical College. The meeting organizers are allowing only Woyanne members to enter the meeting hall. [more update shortly]
An Egyptian mining company, ASCOM, finds a large gold deposit in Beninshangul, a region in western Ethiopia, according to Reporter.
Ethiopia’s ethnic apartheid junta gave a massive plot of land (8,000 sq km) to ASCOM in 2008 after forming a partnership with a Woyanne-affiliated company named Ezana Mining, whose partners include Meles Zenawi’s wife Azeb Mesfin.
ASCOM found the gold deposit near the site of the newly announced Nile River dam project.
Meles has offered Egypt co-ownership of the Nile Dam.
Meles doublespeak
While signing lucrative business deals with Egypt and selling away Ethiopia’s land, Meles turns around and complains about Egypt — and there are many fools who believe him. The partnership between Meles and Egypt in looting Ethiopia is stronger than ever.
The Federal Police, dictator Meles Zenawi’s death squad, have killed two students and savagely beaten many others at Tepi University in Mizan Teferi, western Ethiopia (560 km from Addis Ababa) on Thursday night, according to Ethiopian Review sources.
Meles sent the Federal Police when Tepi University students protested the {www:mistreatment} of members of the Oromo ethnic group in the hands of ruling party cadres.
The heavily armed Federal Police troopers entered the campus and started shooting at the student. They also detained and took away several students, according to an {www:eyewitness} who spoke with Ethiopian Review sources.
Stop the Woyanne event to be held at DeKalb Technical College Auditorium
Clarkston, Georgia
On the 10th of April, 2011 at 12 pm EST.
It is with great indignation and profound sorrow that the Ethiopian community, in and around Atlanta received the shocking news about the up coming meeting called by the delegation of the brutal regime of Ethiopian to be held in the DeKalb Technical College auditorium on the 10th of April, 2011. The delegation is part and parcel of the totalitarian, blood stained, ethnocentric regime that masquerade its ugly face with the acronym ‘EPRDF’ (Ethiopian People’s Republic Democratic Federation).
The Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF) took over the regime of Ethiopia in 1991 with the power of the gun; secured its control over the military, security, and police forces; the legislator, judiciary and the executive bodies; all the economic pillars of the country, such as the land (no Ethiopian owns land but the regime), industries like mining, banking, agro-business, construction, insurance, communication, etc. and is ruling the country through terror. Because of its contempt to the integrity of the country and its people, the regime was the main actor for the cessation of Eritrea and the give away of its port to Eritrea, its land to the Sudan along the boarder, and contracted out its fertile lands to foreign investors in disregard to local investors, farmers, and the recurring hunger the population faces. To appear democratic to the outside world, the regime holds national elections periodically that concludes with election fraud, public outrage and demonstrations, followed by savagery activities like beatings, imprisonments and killings; denunciations from election observers, humanitarian agencies, and outrage from other democracies around the glob. The last 20 years of the Ethnocentric Regime with Mr. Melese Zenawi at the helm as a prime minister is very well known for its human right atrocities, the suppression of freedom of expression, mobility and individual liberties.
In the 2005 National election, the regime lost the election to the opposition by an overwhelming majority. However, the regime rejected the election results, killed over 193 peaceful demonstrators, injured over 800, threw about 30,000 in concentration camps and prisons, and imprisoned opposition leaders that actually won the election. These human right atrocities, suppression of rights and liberties are documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, European Union (EU), and other organizations that observe elections like the Cater center, and African groups. The 2010 National Election was not different to that of 2005, except this time election observers were not tolerated, and the totalitarian prime minister, Mr. Meles Zenawi declared that his ethnocentric party(TPLF) won 99.6% of the vote, there by, at last, officiating his one party system rule.
Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi is one of the most notorious leaders that Africa has today, preceded only by president Omar AL-Beshir of the Sudan who is wanted by the International Court of justice at the Haig. Among those wanted because of genocide, Mr. Zenawi ranks top in the list because of his human right atrocities all over Ethiopia, and war crimes he committed in the neighboring land of Somalia. In the letter to the United Nations, the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), president of Genocide Watch, Dr. Gregory Stanton said, “The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi and others in his government were probably aware that they too have been implicated in serious human right atrocities.” The President asserted that extensive documents that show violations by the prime minister are available and that the documents were compiled by independent investigators and completed by International Human Right Organizations.
Therefore, we unequivocally condemn and reject the meeting intended to take place in the premise of DeKalb Technical College on the 10th of April, 2011. We urge every body and specially Ethiopians to stop the activities of this delegate of the totalitarian and brutal regime that has no respect for life, human dignity, rights, and liberties.
Coordinating Task force for Ethiopians in and around Atlanta, Georgia.
By all accounts the minority based dictatorial regime in Ethiopia is in big trouble. Circumstances in the neighborhood are a bit disconcerting to Meles and company. You can tell from the flurry of activity being orchestrated the last three months that Arat Kilo is on pins and needles. The Woyane regime is doing its best to keep the Ethiopian people at home and their Diaspora relatives focused on something else other than the vision of an uprising. The events in North Africa and the Middle East have unnerved our TPLF bosses. It is rumored a few of them are in need of diapers, may we suggest Huggies due to their patented leakage protection.
The regime has devised a two-pronged attack to postpone the inevitable uprising. At home the Junta leader is busy wagging his fingers and huffing and puffing to scare and bully. The last two weeks he has put on a performance with the local cadre press to assure his followers that their job is safe due to the phenomenal economic growth that the chances of upheaval is deemed to be non-existent. No one believed him. Looks like it was not enough.
He decided to use his podium in the kangaroo Parliament to vent some more. There is a video posted on his web site. It is as usual two a part series. I listened to part two. Is it possible that all tyrants attend the same school? Castro used to speak for four hours, Mengistu used to speak for hours, Gaddafi was given a fifteen-minute slot to speak at the UN but rambled for an hour and half and our own orator spoke for an hour and twelve minutes in part one and an hour and thirty-four minutes in part two. He must love his voice. Of course it was a captive audience. He knows no one will dare leave his lecture. I am sure most of the cadre parliamentarians have no idea what he is talking about and the fact is he was not actually addressing them. They are just a prop.
This lecture was more focused on preparing the ground for his actions when the people’s demand for democracy begins. He was lining up the new enemies that are going to get the blame. This time around Egypt got the top billing. According to Ato Meles Egypt is in the process of undermining our way of life. Egypt in collusion with archenemy Eritrea and the local opposition including OLF, Andenet and Medrek and others are conspiring to topple our democratically elected government. He was very theatrical when he started waving his fingers and adjusting his glasses. It looks like the subject is dear to his heart. He just wanted to say I told you so when his sharp shooters start the mayhem.
His Diaspora strategy is unfolding as we speak. His cadre representatives are in North America. According to the World Bank the Diaspora sent in remittances $3.2billion USD in 2009 which is about $52 billion Bir. In 2009 Ethiopia earned $375.8 million from coffee, $158 million from flowers, $205 million from Khat and $129 million from sesame seed. You see what I mean. The Diaspora contributes ten times as much as the number one export. We are the premier benefactors of our precious homeland. I can say ‘may the almighty bless the Ethiopian Diaspora’ but I won’t. It is not something to be proud of. If the regime attracts $3.2 billion without working for it the question becomes what is the meaning of the current tour?
The fact that the illegal regime is dispatching its ‘top guns’ to face the fury of the dreaded Diaspora is a little, shall I say strange. Why at this juncture in time is a good question? It is not logical to think the DLA Piper advised regime would send its officials into the lion’s den and in broad daylight without a valid and compelling reason. My hunch is there is more to it than selling land. When you consider the temperature reaching a boiling point against tyranny around the neighborhood I have a feeling Woyane probably felt this to be a good time to shift the attention of the Diaspora away from lighting the fuse.
Nice try but it won’t work this time. Looks like all the vital ingredients for a ‘BEKA’ moment are all present and accounted for. Based on our recent experience in North Africa and the Middle East we pass the test with flying colors. Let us see, the main causes for the peoples uprising were, leaders in power for too long, rampant corruption and runaway nepotism, economic stagnation and recurring high inflation, high unemployment and a vast majority under thirty and under utilized, general hopelessness and resignation with high rate of migration. It is what is commonly referred to as volatile situation.
The weakest link in our peoples yearning for a better future is a small section of the Diaspora. It is a sad fact. To see those that got away due to a matter of chance using their new found success to bring misery on their own people is shameful. Without the cash inflow from the Diaspora the Ethiopian regime will not have been emboldened to be so arrogant. Remittances enable the regime to live for another day. This is not about the few hundred dollars that is sent to keep a family alive. That is a humanitarian act. It is about the big money. The money, that goes to buy stolen land to build a fake foreign looking building in collaboration with government and government affiliated businesses at an inflated price. The dollars that come in without strings attached enable the regime to pay its many employees that exist to torment our people.
Today we have government cadres in our cities promoting the so-called Growth and Transformation Plan. It sounds like something DLA Piper will come up with to give it a positive and friendly spin. What ever it is you can be sure that the Ethiopian people do not have any input in this plan. Their representatives are government cadres chosen for loyalty not ability. They are not capable of understanding the issue and they do not have expert staff to help them. The plan is the brainchild of Meles and company in consultation with IMF and World Bank. Eighty million people are beholden to a handful of cadres that are in power because they have big guns.
What they want from the Diaspora is more cash to be invested in enterprises they choose. Buying land, building a house, establishing bar and nightclub is encouraged. It is not allowed to start an Internet provider company, private television transmission, private radio station, independent newspaper and magazine or a printing press. The TPLF regime is allergic to knowledge-based investment.
So what is the rational for investing? Some say it is patriotic and that it creates jobs. That argument has been tried before. That is what the Western governments said about their investment in Apartheid South Africa. They called it ‘constructive engagement’. It was a big lie. They were just greedy and slave labor was always cheaper. The South Africans response was best delivered by Noble Laureate Albert Luthuli, President of the African National Congress who said ‘“The economic boycott of South Africa will entail undoubted hardship for African. We do not doubt that. But if it is a method which shortens the day of bloodshed, the suffering to us will be a price we are willing to pay.”
The use of economic muscle to modify an adversary’s behavior is common in International dealings. One of the earliest examples is In fact the American Revolution that owes its inception from the movement that erupted when the British Parliament passed what is known as the ‘stamp act’ in March of 1765. The act required printed materials in the colonies to be produced on stamped paper from London and carry revenue stamp. Colonial America revolted. The stamp act was the spark that started the prairie fire that led to the American Revolution. The American colonies took exception to the ‘stamp act’ because they felt they were being taxed without consent. Since they have no representation in the British parliament the colonies felt the act to be an affront to the system of local representation that they have put in place. The colonies said ‘no taxation without representation.’
A few months back here in the US the state of Arizona passed a draconian bill to control the so-called illegal immigration problem. Some people felt it was an attempt to increase the power and intrusiveness of the State and should not be tolerated. Labor organizations, liberal groups and Human Rights advocates went on the offensive and organized boycotts of all business associated with Arizona. They used their economic muscle as a leverage to advocate change.
Mrs. Rosa Parks’s refusal to give her bus seat to a white man sparked the ‘Montgomery Bus boycott.’ Our African people in North America used their economic power to fight injustice. Martin Luther King was in the forefront of using boycott as a weapon to secure the rights of black people in America. The freedom we enjoy here today came because some fought using every means necessary. Today’s Diaspora is working, learning, raising a family and helping their brethren back home because MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and others said BEKA, GEYE, BAS, ALONE, WETANDEM, YAAKEL, GIDES, DETEM!
Dear Diaspora, don’t you think it is a BEKA moment today. Do you really think the cadres that have been in power the last twenty years are capable of bringing change and transformation? Do you think they have the interest of Ethiopia at heart or are they focused in staying in power using any means necessary? I am sure a lot of you went to check on your investment, tell me were you satisfied with what you saw? I know the Woyane regime have prepared all that is necessary to make your stay comfortable and fun. When you consider the vast number of Hotels, nightclubs and whorehouses set in place to suck your dollars did you think that reflected the reality your parents and cousins face everyday? Did you notice the fear permeating the society, the unfriendly stare by cadres and security to remind you of your place? May be you thought that foreign passport afforded you some form of protection but how about your brothers and sisters? No matter how you look at it is a betrayal of country and people to wine and dine with killers and psychos. A mistake has been done but there is no point compounding it further. Today is a BEKA time.
When you consider how India, Korea, Israel and others used the potential of their Diaspora for transforming their country it is sad that we are still fighting against a predator regime that is hell bent in dividing us, setting us against each other and spending our resources in useless, unsustainable projects that do not help our country. Those countries did not invite their Diaspora to come and lease their parents land to build condominium. No they asked for investment in education, agriculture, industry and manufacturing. They wanted brainpower, they encouraged and subsidized knowledge not fell good projects for show and tell.
Change is coming. Mubarak did not stop it. Gaddafi tried but it looks like his days are numbered. Meles is trying to devise new ways of buying another week, another month but it is a useless exercise. He is not stupid, but he is blinded by power and false sense of security. It is the nature of dictators to think they are unique and what ever happened to their neighbor is not possible in their house. History has shown us otherwise. Ato Meles and company will not escape the judgment of their people. For now we will be in their face where ever they show up and say loud and clear BEKA!
