That is not the worst that has happened to my beloved cousin but that is good enough point to start this tragic {www:saga}. I know you are the perfect people I can share this sad story with. I can picture you my dear Ethiopian cousins, upon reading the headline you will bow your head a little, tilt it to the left suck on your lips and make that peculiar hissing sound. Knowing that to be the extent of your sorrow and rage I am both touched and grateful.
My cousin is in deep shock. His once big and vibrant household has dwindled to a few young ones with no place to go. The once bigger than life, articulate, graceful head of the family now walks with his head down avoiding eye contact. His wife the most beautiful, generous, vibrant lady God has created has become a sickly woman that spends her days crying and praying. Their children left a long time ago.
Where the children went is another story to be told all by it self. I am not going to burden you with more sad tales. Let us just say no one left that Home in what is considered the proper way…..something like getting married, buying his or her own house or higher education. No, they all left in a hurry. No one was given a proper sendoff. They were dispersed into the four corners of the world. They have become what is known as the ‘Diaspora’ to use a modern phrase to describe those that left out of despair, been pushed out, nudged, escaped or encouraged to ‘leave’ while still alive.
Well because I write from America you are probably thinking that my cousin’s tragedy is a local event. You might think he probably got into drugs, became an alcoholic, was addicted to gambling or he was the victim of the economy or pure random bad luck. I don’t blame you. That does happen. I have seen many lives being ruined like that. I am afraid that is not the situation here.
My cousin became homeless in his own country. He was not a drug user, an alcoholic or a gambler nor did he lose his job. Did I tell you my cousin is a medical doctor? Yes, he is a highly educated, caring and productive member of society if that means anything these days.
He came from a good family. His grand father accompanied Emperor Minilk to the battle of Maichew in Northern Ethiopia. His father, my uncle never got tired of telling us the bravery of our ancestors. When ever we complained his response was to bring out the story of his father marching north walking bare feet, shield and spear as weapon and no food ration but resolved to defend what is his. We used to look at each other and snicker. Upon his return, King Minilk awarded him land to build on. Great uncle settled down and my cousin, the new homeless is his first child. He was the pride of the family. He never disappointed the clan. He lived up to expectations.
He acquired scholarship to a foreign land and returned back educated, handsome and a credit to his country. You should have seen the pride in my uncle’s and his mothers face when they saw their son wearing his clean snow-white jacket with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. They died happy. Their job was done.
My cousin inherited the house he was born in and started a family of his own. I am blessed with two nephews that I keep in touch with sporadically. They are the ones that left their home in the middle of the night. One traveled north to Sudan and now lives in Europe. The girl was accompanied south to Kenya and now lives in New Zealand. That sounds far. That was the day their mother died. Not physical death, but such agony that could only be understood by those that have children of their own.
My cousin and his wife settled to a life of getting old in an empty house. Migrating was not their style. They just wanted to die quietly in their own home. Well, they were resigned to it until now.
They are going to be homeless. The Ethiopian government is going to displace them from their home. The UNHCR will refer to them as “Internally Displaced Persons.” According to the UN the definition consists of two elements. 1) Coercive or otherwise involuntary character of movement 2) Such movement takes place within national borders. They fit both descriptions.
Even during the wholesale Nationalization without compensation crimes of the Mengistu era their house was spared. It was their castle. Their own liberated free zone. The Meles regime first demanded over $20,000 Bir to upgrade the Title and blueprint. They were forced to borrow to pay this arbitrary figure. There was no place to appeal. That was a few years back.
Today, as you read this my poor cousin was presented a bill for $350,000.00 Bir the price of the new lease. Ato Meles and his politburo have decided that amount to be the price of the land his house is sitting on. They have given him the choice to pay it or vacate. How these two retired elders will be able to come up with such outrageous amount of money apparently is not their concern.
The Mayor of Addis Corporal Kuma Demeksa and State Minster Mokria Haile were sent out to explain this new concept of leasing your own freaking property. The two TPLF errand boys have been trying to convince the people of Addis how this new Government sanctioned robbery is good for them. They have been wrecking their brains to convince the public to show enthusiasm while being raped by the TPLF mafia.
What gives the Government the authority to confiscate private property at will is a good question. The simple answer is it is legal. The laws of the land states so. Mengistu started the ball rolling when he was converted to Socialism and made taking what is not yours seem so natural. Ato Meles built on that foundation and added his TPLF’s Home grown enhancements. Callous regard for fellow human is the corner stone. He foresaw the possibility and made sure that the Judiciary he created would not one day mess with his plans. That is why the law prohibited the judiciary from looking into land issues. One can go to court to complain regarding the compensation amount but the Court does not have the authority to rule regarding ownership of land. The Law is clear on that. All land belongs to the Ethiopian Government. The TPLF Party runs the Government. Ato Meles is the de facto owner of the TPLF Party. You can fight all you want on what is on top but the bottom belongs to Ato Meles and his people. You Sir/Madam is subject to evection without notice. There is no appeal process, what Meles and his Party say is the law. No need to split hair, this is a fact.
Hold a minute, how about the Parliament you might ask? That has been taken care of. Kinijit almost rocked this important leg of ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ in 2005. Today it is working like a well-oiled machine. In fact it is ready to handle most situations without overt supervision. Ato Meles is in control of the Judiciary, the parliament and the Executive. He is three rolled in one!
The new Proclamation Land Lease Law 721/2004 is what gives Meles and TPLF Politburo the deeds to all land in Addis Ababa. How it came to be Law is a beautiful story all by itself showing us the workings of a Revolutionary Democracy up close. The Ethiopian Parliament returned from summer break and the President of the country gave a lavish dinner to members to welcome them from their vacation. While the exotic food was being served and liquor flowing like the Nile TPLF cadres were seen distributing the new proposal regarding land. The members were urged to study the brief.
They studied it overnight and the following day’s session of Parliament passed the Law with minimum fanfare. The people of Addis Abeba including my cousin were made home less by Parliamentarians that have not recovered from their hangover. Fifteen hours is the time it took our esteemed Parliamentarians to decide on such an important matter. That is Ethiopia in a nutshell.
I have been trying to come up with rational reasons why Ato Meles will risk getting the population angry at his Party. He has no choice. Running a criminal organization like the Ethiopian Government is a very expensive venture. Everybody has a handout. Most survive by corruption. The party needs money like a drug addict needs his fix.
We just have a very short memory. If you look back you will find so many instances where the search for more money has shown us the dark side of TPLF. To site a few: 1) switching lead and gold in the national Bank. 2) The disappearance of Coffee 3) the sale of part of Gondar to Sudan 3) the ‘Orphan’ adoption scam that generates millions 4) the maid trade to the Middle East 5) Lease of fertile and virgin land to foreigners. So on.
Regarding the new proclamation about Addis and other cities, according to Ato Israel Tesfaye a bureau chief in the Ministry of land Development and Administration the TPLF regime is free to give the land as gift, hold a lottery, ask for bids and lease the land they way it sees fit. You see my poor cousin’s land is in a desirable neighborhood. It became a curse.
The people of Addis were not consulted. The so-called ‘independent’ Kilils or Bantustans were not part of this discussion. The errand boys no matter how hard they tried they could not make the medicine go down easy. No one can explain how your own government can make you homeless in your own land. It is sort of surreal when you are told the house you father inherited from his father and you inherited from him is still not paid for. In fact today in fast growing Ethiopia you cannot afford your own house.
The regime got a few buyers in mind. The first in line is the dear Diaspora. They are the gullible that will pay real cash for stolen property. The local cannot afford any of that. Out of eighty million Ethiopians Seventy million cannot afford this insanity. Be it greed, ignorance or low self esteem those that left the country to make their life better are now destroying the life of those that stayed behind.
The abuse has become so much and frequent that we are completely desensitized to all kinds of atrocities. We feed the monster but we complain about it. We buy stolen property but when he sells it to the highest bidder we complain. Instead of building and strengthening our Associations and Civic Organizations, Churches, Mosques we break them apart and complain about the lack of unity. We make decisions based on Zer and Gosa, marriage, kinship, friendship and other trivia exposing our lack of convictions and stiff spine and we still complain and deny our role in this tragedy.
Hey the view that the sun revolves around the earth is just an alternative theory, right? You can add that selling land, selling people and selling country will bring peace and prosperity to that.
If a person were to {www:maliciously} burn or {www:vandalize} another’s house, it would be regarded as a serious property crime under the laws of any nation. If one were to walk into a bookstore and steal thousands of books and give them away to any passerby, that would also be a major property crime. How about taking a copyrighted book, scanning it and making it available to anyone in digital form online? Is that a serious criminal act? Is it also an immoral and depraved act?
Is it fair?
When a publisher, author or artist produces a book, a piece of music, a painting or other similar work, s/he is creating intellectual property which is as valuable as any other kind of property recognized by law. Just as doctors, lawyers, engineers and others make a living by practicing their professions, those in the literary, artistic and publishing communities make their living from marketing their intellectual creations. But the total disrespect and contempt shown by some individuals to the intellectual property rights of Ethiopian musicians, artists and authors is downright sickening and maddening.
Today, the music of the legendary Ethiopian artists, including Tilahun Gessesse, Mahmoud Ahmed, Bizunesh Bekele, Alemayehu Eshete, Kiros Alemayehu, Kassa Tessema, Ketema Makonnen, Asnaketch Worku, Mary Armede, Hirut Bekele, Ali Birra, Aster Aweke, Kuku Sebsebie, Muluken Melesse, Teodros “Teddy Afro” Kassahun, Shambel Belayneh and so many others, are illegally and casually stored online and made freely available. The artists receive no payments and their work is distributed without their permission and often to the financial benefit (selling ads on websites, subscriptions, etc.) of the music pirates. The individuals who store the music illegally and those who download them illegally work together to not only impoverish these great artists but also destroy their creative potential and ability to enrich the culture.
Crimes Against the Press
This contemptible culture of online piracy passed another shameful milestone recently when an entire book was scanned and posted on the internet in clear violation of international and national copyright laws. The book in question was the recently published memoir of former Ethiopian junta leader Mengistu Hailemariam. The website that scanned and posted the book online justified its action as follows:
Mass murderer and brutal dictator Mengsitu Haile Mariam (exiled in Harare, Zimbabwe) has written a 500+ pages book that has been published by Tsehai Publisher of Los Angeles. This mass murderer has not yet atoned or paid for his horrendous crimes and the mass killings of the Red Terror. He now hopes to benefit from the sale of his book of lies. We strongly feel that this criminal should be tried before a court of law and should be hindered from benefitting from his crime. Thus, we have published the book in PDF and we are posting it for free usage of all interested readers.
The website operators defended their illegal copying and posting by claiming that they had a right to do so under American law:
Our action is protected by Son of Sam Law in the USA which prohibits criminals from profiting from their crimes by selling their stories to publishers. Accessories to such actions are also included in the prohibition and in certain cases the law can be extended beyond the criminal to include friends, neighbors and family members of the lawbreaker. Denying the holocaust is a crime in many countries and Mengistu denies firmly the Red Terror and the mass murders. Concerned Ethiopians are studying the possibility of a law suit against Mengistu and his LA based publisher who may also be a target of boycott by all Ethiopians. Assisting and helping mass murderers to profit from their crimes by publishing their book of lies is a crime by itself.
The illegal posting is allegedly motivated by the desire to prevent Mengistu from getting a “benefit from the sale of his book”, despite the fact that posting the digital copy of the book will give wider dissemination of what they described as a “book of lies”. Ironically, by posting the book online for all to read, the copyright infringers more likely gave great credibility to Mengistu’s claims about them than actually discrediting him. But the real target of the vengeance is the publisher, Tsehai Publishers, and not Mengistu. The copyright violators’ twisted message is simple: If they do not like the message of an author, they will retaliate by scanning and posting the author’s book online and bankrupt the publisher.
One can disagree deeply with Mengistu and the facts or lies contained in his memoir. Having read the book, I am critical of the accuracy and selective recollection of many of his “facts”; and disagree with his attempt to avoid personal and regime accountability for his gross violations of human rights. But that is the way of all dictators. They always try to tell their stories in heroic terms and attempt to justify their crimes as patriotic acts.
Although I disagree with Mengistu on numerous “facts” and unreservedly condemn his human rights record, I will be the first one to stand up and defend his right to write a book and publish it, even if it is all lies. To be sure, I defend Mengistu’s right to express himself just as vigorously as I defended the free speech rights of his successor Meles Zenawi when he spoke at Columbia University in September 2010. Why shouldn’t these two dictators be allowed to express themselves? Who is afraid of their “facts”, “lies”, ideas or opinions? Don’t the people have the right to hear these dictators and make their own judgment?
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” “Everyone” includes dictators and human rights violators. It is the moral duty of those of us who are committed to freedom, democracy and human rights to expose the lies, fabrications and brutality of dictators at every opportunity. By suppressing the views of the dictators, we not only undermine our own moral legitimacy against their lies but also prove to the world that we are indeed their clones. “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
Those who posted Mengistu’s book online are absolutely wrong on the law. The so-called “Son of Sam Law” they tout as authority for posting the book online was adopted in the State of New York in 1983 to prevent convicted criminals from selling their stories to publishers and profiting from the notoriety of their crimes. That law was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. New York adopted a narrowly tailored law in 2001 requiring, among other things, victim notification whenever a person convicted of a crime receives a certain amount of money. A similar law in California was struck down by that state’s highest court in 2002. Under federal law (18 U.S.C. § 3681 (2000) [Special Forfeiture of Collateral Profits of Crime]), the U.S. attorney may seek a federal court order authorizing “forfeiture of all or any part of proceeds from a contract relating to a depiction of such crime in a movie, book, newspaper, magazine, radio or television production…” There is no law in the United States that gives private parties the right to become “Special Prosecutors” to catch “mass murderers” who “profit from their crimes by publishing their book of lies” online, or violate the copyright of publishers in the name of preventing “mass murderers” from profiting. As a matter of law, no state or federal court has personal jurisdiction over Mengistu to deprive him of any “profits” he may get from the sale of the book. Even if such jurisdiction could be had, Mengistu would still be entitled to full due process of law before any court orders denial of proceeds from the sale of his book. Yes, dictators are also entitled to full due process before they are deprived of life, liberty and property.
Crimes Against Copyright Laws
The illegal posting of Mengistu’s memoir is not about lies, truths or criminals profiting from their crimes. It is about criminal infringement of copyrights. Since 1886, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works “Berne Convention”, see Art. 2) has been in place to protect literary and artistic works. Under 17 U.S.C. §506 (a )(1 )(B), “Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed… (B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180–day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000.”
The whole idea in copyright law is to give the creator of an original work exclusive intellectual property rights for a specified amount of time, which in the U.S. is the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. During this period, the owner of a copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, license, and prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work. Under the “fair use” rule, others may make limited use of the material for critical reviews of a work or for news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.
Crimes Against Culture
I suspect there may be some who are not familiar with Tsehai Publishers and the young man who has toiled so hard for so many years to create a publishing outlet to Ethiopian, African and other academics dedicated to scholarship on Ethiopia and the continent in general. Elias Wondimu started Tsehai Publishers in 1998. His aim was to create an institution that will “provide a venue for writers whose works may otherwise go unpublished.” Through these efforts, Elias hopes to achieve our goals of fostering intercultural dialogue and social justice.
Elias has an extraordinary and unrivalled record in seeking to enhance Ethiopian culture. He came to the U.S. in September 1994 to participate in the 12th International Ethiopian Studies Conference held at Michigan State University. Shortly thereafter, he began service as an editor for Ethiopian Review magazine, which appeared in print form until 2000. After closing out the print version of the magazine, he dedicated his time towards the establishing Tsehai Publishers, which is named in memory of his mother who died in Ethiopia in 1997. Over the past decade, Tsehai publishers, now based at Loyola Marymount University in California, has made available nearly 60 scholarly and literary works on a variety of topics, the vast majority of them concerned with Ethiopian and African affairs. The publications cover the entire political cross-section without partisanship and censorship.
Among the dozens of original scholarship and reprints of some classic works on Ethiopian and African history, politics, anthropology, sociology, economics, religion and culture include: Tradition & Change in Ethiopia (2010), Feudalism and Modernization in Ethiopia (2006), Wit and Wisdom of Ethiopia (1999), Enough with Famines in Ethiopia (2006), The Survival of Ethiopian Independence (2004), A Political History of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (2010), A History of the Beta Israel (Falasha) (2010), Protestant & Catholic Missions in Orthodox Ethiopia (2007), Life and Culture in the Townships of Cape Town (2007), AIDS Orphans and their Grandparents (2006), Wax and Gold (2005), Civil Wars and Revolution in the Sudan (2005), Ethiopia in Wartime (2004). A complete list is available here.
In 2004, Tsehai Publishers established The International Journal of Ethiopian Studies (IJES), currently available on JSTOR, the international online system for archiving academic journals. A number of Ethiopian academics and scholars including myself and professors Maimire Mennasemay, Worku Negash and Alula Pankhurst have served as senior editors. IJES is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal which is published twice a year and dedicated to scholarly research relevant to or informed by the Ethiopian experience. IJES publishes articles in English and Amharic. The Journal’s mission statement explains that
IJES will, for the first time, provide Ethiopian scholars with an Ethiopian venue for reflecting seriously on Ethiopian issues from a scholarly perspective… One of the deepest obstacles to African (including Ethiopian) progress towards democracy and economic prosperity is the peculiar situation of Africans being reduced to an object of knowledge by contemporary social science. The absence of Africans, including Ethiopians, as self-examining, self-evaluating, self-defining, and self-propelling subjects of history [has resulted in our] total dependence on external (European and American) definitions, interpretations, explanations, evaluations of who we are and what our problems and their solutions are.”
Tsehai Publishers has also organized a number of number of national conferences covering a wide range of issues and topics and sponsored a film festival for young filmmakers. The list of Elias’ contributions to the intellectual life of the Ethiopian, African and international communities is significant and much appreciated.
Those of us who take great pride in what Elias has accomplished could be faulted for speaking very highly of him. Perhaps others who have looked at his efforts could offer a more objective assessment. Prof. Wendy Belcher of Princeton University writes:
Elias is doing something unusual and important. There are very few publishers from the African continent, and, in the U.S., there are [only] a handful which are run by Africans and are publishing African texts. For an Ethiopian to have a press is more appropriate than almost any other nationality. They’ve had a written language going back 3,000 years and have long been in the business of printing and preserving the written word. He’s in a long, honorable line.
Such is the contribution of Elias and Tsehai Publishers to the preservation, conservation and glorification of Ethiopian and African history and culture. Those who illegally copied and posted the book are not attacking the author of the book, but Elias and Tsehai Publishers. Their crimes are against the very essence of Ethiopian and African culture and those scholars and authors who spend years researching their works. All Ethiopians and Africans are victims of this cowardly crime.
It is important to know that Elias has brought great honor and pride to all Ethiopians. In 2007, he was named Ambassador for Peace by the Universal Peace Federation and the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace to help establish lines of dialogue between African scholars, poets, historians, academics, aesthetes, journalists and scholars. In 2008, he was profiled in the inaugural edition of Who’s Who in Black Los Angeles along with such distinguished individuals as Steve Wonder, Tavis Smiley, Kobe Bryant, Isaiah Washington and Dr. Maulana Karenga. He was also profiled in a special edition of the LA Weekly as one the leading independent presses in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed on the Voice of America, National Public Radio, Deutsche Welle Radio, SBS Australia and other media on various cultural topics.
Let’s Right a CopyWrong: A Special Plea to All Ethiopians and Others Who Value a Free Press
This past week, the U.S. Congress considered two laws aimed at the type of copyright crime committed against Tsehai Publishers. The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (“PIPA”) would have allowed the U.S. Attorney General to require domain name registries to “suspend operation of, and lock, the domain name” of a website “dedicated to infringing activity.” The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would have expanded the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property. While lawmakers wrestle with the issues, we can all do our part to support, protect and preserve a unique and irreplaceable institution in the Ethiopian/African Diaspora. Above all, we should defend the right to press freedom and free speech against not only dictators who shutter newspapers and close down publishing houses but also those who use copyright blackmail and the threat of financial bankruptcy against publishers.
Let us do the right thing!
Those who have downloaded the book in digital or print form aware or unaware of the criminality of the act should delete it permanently from your computers and discard the printed version.
Most importantly, we all need to show moral outrage by speaking out against such copyright criminality and moral courage by doing our part to support Tsehai Publishers for it is a treasure we cannot afford to lose.
On a personal note, I ask those who have followed my weekly commentaries and essays over the past six years to help me help Tsehai Publishers. I believe in Tsehai Publishers and fully support the efforts of Elias Wondimu and his associates who have toiled for years to make a gift of light (Tsehai) to all of us. It is a simple choice we face: We can do nothing and let darkness overwhelm our history, culture and future. Or we can do something and keep the sun shining brightly on Ethiopia, Africa and beyond!
From the International Slave Trade to the International Maid Trade
In the days of the Atlantic slave trade, the Middle Passage was the journey of slave trading ships from the west coast of Africa to the New World. Portuguese, British, French, Spanish, Dutch and other slave traders maintained outposts along the African coast to transact their business with their local slave raiding partners. Millions of African slaves were sold or traded for manufactured goods or raw materials. In the grueling journey, the slaves were often shackled and chained to the floor to gain maximum cargo capacity. Many died from disease, starvation, dehydration and suffocation. Many also committed suicide by jumping overboard. Those who resisted their masters were beaten and even killed. Plantation owners treated the slaves like cattle; and those working in the fields were often flogged and beaten. Female slaves were the objects of sexual desire and abuse by their masters. The law required runaway slaves (“fugitive slaves”) who escaped their bondage to be returned to their masters who punished them severely.
There is a Middle Passage of sorts taking place today from Ethiopia to the Middle East. It is what lawyer Khaled Ali Beydoun and others have described as the Ethiopian “Maid Trade”. Today a network of unscrupulous modern-day slave-traffickers (“human traffickers”) and “private labor employment agencies” operating under license by the ruling regime in Ethiopia transship thousands of young Ethiopian women to various parts of the Middle East to work as domestic servants in what amounts to “contract slavery” with little follow up and monitoring to ensure their well-being and welfare in their host countries.
The plight of Ethiopian women domestic workers in the Middle East has been documented in Bina Fernandez’s survey research (Ch. 7). In 2009, “over 74,000 people risked their lives to enter Yemen en route to Saudi Arabia, of which 42,000 were Ethiopians.” According to official data, 91% of the Ethiopian domestic workers in the Middle East were single women, 83% between the age of 20–30 age group, 63% had some secondary education, 26% were illiterate and 71% Muslim and 93% earned US$100–150 per month. Some of these women “officially registered with the government as a migrant worker”. Others “worked through illegal brokers who are viciously exploitative [and] often take the women’s money and sometimes abandon them in the desert before they even reach Somalia.”
The “Middle Passage” of Middle East “contract slavery” for the young Ethiopian women is unspeakably harrowing. Their working conditions are described as slave-like, except, as Beydoun argues, “Shackles and whips have been replaced by more inventive designs to dehumanize, suppress, and subsequently enslave persons for economic or sexual purposes.” Fernandez reported that the women live-in domestic workers she interviewed were “on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and working between 10 and 20 hours daily.” Some of the women pulled “double duty– that is, cleaning or doing laundry for a second household, usually a relative of their employer.” Most of these women got “only one day off a month, or no break at all.” Many of these women experienced “complete physical exhaustion” and often suffered “mental breakdown” unable to “tell what day of the week it was, or what time it was.” They faced extreme physical, mental and sexual abuse. In August 2011, the world witnessed the shocking video of Shweyga Mullah, a young Ethiopian woman who cared for two of Moammar Gadhafi’s grandchildren in Libya. Because Shweyga refused to beat one of the grandchildren, Gadhaffi’s daughter-in-law “tied her hand behind her back, taped her mouth and poured boiling water on her scalding her entire body.” She suffered first degree burns over her entire body. Extreme physical and sexual abuse of Ethiopian domestic workers is not uncommon elsewhere in the Middle East as documented by Al Jazeera in 2009 in the United Arab Emirates.
Fernadez further found that that “verbal abuse by employers is commonplace” including “racial insults and discriminatory behaviour (such as separate food and dishes for them) as is non-payment or underpayment of wages. To escape their conditions, some are forced to become “runaways”. They end up doing “live-out domestic workers, brewing and selling illicit liquor, or engaging in sex work.” But they are trapped. Fernandez explains, “Their lack of legal status makes them vulnerable to greater exploitation if they are detected, as they risk blackmail, imprisonment, and/or deportation. If they wish to leave voluntarily, they often have to pay highfines for exit visas.”
On the other hand, Beydoun argues that the young Ethiopian women trafficked in the “maid trade” in Lebanon are often clueless about “what their commitment entails, and the imminent risks and hazards they will likely endure during migration and employment.” They face enormous dangers including “overcharging of fees; debt bondage; falsification of documents; deception with regard to the nature and conditions of employment, contract substitution, exploitation and abuse, lack of preparation for employment abroad, including lack of predeparture training; forced/coerced recruitment, including being kidnapped or sold to illegal recruiters or traffickers; hazardous journey to the country of destination.”
Tears of the Ethiopian Maids
In a recent Youtube video, an unnamed young Ethiopian woman confronts a representative of the regime of Meles Zenawi in a meeting hall in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The words of this young woman in the 2 minute video are so powerful, so overwhelming and so penetrating that the listener is brought to convulsive tears. She complains about the mistreatment and dehumanization she and other maids continue to face in life and in death in the UAE, and laments the depraved indifference of her “government” to speak up, defend and protect them from gross abuses of human rights.
…. If we run away from [our abusive employers], there is a chance we can die. There is a woman who tells us to run away. But they don’t help us. If [we] run away, we need money to pay for rent and food. [We] don’t have to run away. As much as possible, it is better to help [us]. When we live in this country [UAE], sometimes we die. Many of us are buried here. Why must an Ethiopian be buried in the Emirates? Why is that our government does not check on us, follow up on our conditions, ask about us? Why should I be buried in a foreign country? It does not matter if we are Christian or Muslim. This question has deprived me sleep. When I bow to pray, I have not been able to do so properly. Only God knows. All I do is cry. Even our dead bodies must not be buried in this country. [There was a domestic worker accused of killing her employer.] It is possible she may have done something wrong. Her government should stand and defend her and advocate for her. She should be punished as appropriate [if she is guilty] by her family or the law… We learned [within a few days of her arrest] that she was killed by the authorities [in the Emirates].
As she concluded her statement, this young woman cries out in pain, her voice quivering, tears in her eyes and pleading for an answer from someone, anyone:
Where is Ethiopia’s flag? I can’t take it anymore. I can’t take it anymore…!!!!
It was enough to make a grown man cry. It would be impossible to find a more patriotic, resolute, unwavering, steadfast and true-to-the-core Ethiopian than this young woman!! When those who have a chokehold on power declare with depraved indifference that “Ethiopia’s flag is a piece of rag”, this unnamed young Ethiopian woman cries her heart out looking of her lost Ethiopian flag. Bless her heart!
The Response of Zenawi’s Regime – Blame the Maids!
The response of Meles Zenawi’s regime to the plight of these women is morally calloused and depraved. Fernandez reported: “The term ‘runaway’ was used in a pejorative sense by one Ethiopian government official and several of the PEA [private employment agency] representatives during interviews, to describe these women as delinquents who abandon their contractual responsibilities because they do not want to work hard, and want an easy life.” Beydoun argues that the ruling regime’s efforts to combat trafficking in Lebanon were symbolic and ineffective despite the fact that an inter-agency anti-trafficking task force had been established to deal with the problem. He concluded, “Trafficked women are particularly vulnerable where their own governments fail to adequately protect them.”
Since 1998, Zenawi’s regime has put in place a “Private Employment Agency Proclamation No. 104/1998”, which provided for licensing of private employment agencies and the prosecution of illegal brokers. In 2009, this Proclamation was repealed and updated by the “Employment Exchange Services Proclamation No. 632/2009”, which required private employment agencies, among other things, “not to recruit a job seeker below the age of 18 years; not to terminate the contract of employment before acquiring the consent of the worker in writing, get approval from the Ethiopian embassy or consular office to form a new contract or to modify the existing one, register a worker sent abroad, within fifteen days, with the nearest Ethiopian embassy or consular office.” The “private employment agency which sends workers abroad” is mandated to ensure that the working conditions in the host country not “be less favorable to an Ethiopian than the rights and benefits of those who work in a similar type and level of work in the country of employment.” The foreign employer is required to pay the “visa fee of the country of destination, round trip ticket, residence and work permit fees and insurance coverage” for the worker. Moreover, “any private employment agency which sends a worker abroad for work” must deposit cash or post bond in the minimum amount of USD$30,000 for up to 500 workers “for the protection and enforcement of the rights of the worker.”
The real penalty for violation of the Proclamation No. 632 is suspension, revocation or cancellation of license of the employment agency. Though various stiff criminal penalties are provided in Article 40, there is little evidence of serious prosecution of human traffickers. According to a 2010 State Department report, “Between March and October 2009, the [Federal High Court’s 11th Criminal] bench heard 15 cases related to transnational labor trafficking, resulting in five convictions, nine acquittals, and one withdrawal due to missing witnesses. Of the five convictions, three offenders received suspended sentences of five years’ imprisonment, two co-defendants were fined, and one offender is serving a sentence of five years’ imprisonment.”
Similarly, according to a 2011 UNHCR report, “The [Ethiopian] government showed only nascent signs of engaging destination country governments in an effort to improve protections for Ethiopian workers and obtain protective services for victims.” Moreover, “although licensed employment agencies must place funds in escrow in the event a worker’s contract is broken, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has never used these deposits to pay for victims’ transportation back to Ethiopia.” But the regime has readily come to the rescue of other victims of human traffickers according to the same UNHCR report: “In 2010, Ethiopia granted asylum to 1,383 Eritrean refugees deported from Egypt, many of whom claim to have been brutalized by Rashaida smugglers operating in the Sinai – including conditions of forced construction labor – or have fled Eritrea to escape situations of forced labor associated with the implementation of the country’s national service program.” While it is noble and morally commendable to assist any victim of human trafficking and human rights abuse, it is also true that charity begins at home.
What Can Be Done to Help Ethiopian Women Caught Up in the “Maid Trade”?
The international movement of labor is a fact of international life. For a poor country such as Ethiopia where unemployment is high, workers who migrate abroad are a source of much needed financial support for their families, and a source of remittances for the country in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. But slavery, by any other name including contract slavery”, is still slavery. It is just as cruel, oppressive, exploitive, dehumanizing and degrading. These women are extremely vulnerable and have no rights and no means of support to vindicate their rights. Various commentators have argued that the demand for Ethiopian domestic workers will continue long-term as they are considered cheaper and more obedient. In other words, they are considered “model maids” who put up with a lot of abuse in quiet desperation.
One can point to international legal and moral obligations to help out these women and effectively combat human trafficking camouflaged as migrant labor. Among the relevant Conventions and protocols include: the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its two related protocols. Discussion of legal and moral state obligations under these Conventions would be an exercise in futility. Talking law to those who sneer and thumb their noses at the rule of law is a waste of time. So is making a moral plea or appealing to conscience as both presuppose the existence of a moral plane of discussion. All that can be done is explain what can be done!
If the problem of “contract slavery” in the Ethiopian “maid trade” is going to be addressed effectively, serious criminal investigations and prosecutions must be pursued against violators. The aggressive crackdown that has long been directed at the independent press in Ethiopia should be re-directed to the gangs of criminal human traffickers. Various scholars and researchers have offered effective recommendations to deal with the problem including the provision of domestic skills training in a Middle Eastern context to Ethiopian women in attempt to lessen their vulnerability, working with NGOs as partner organizations to monitor their working conditions and working with host countries to make it easy for these workers to use the banking institutions. Some have suggested ways of improving access to the criminal justice system of the host country by providing a confidential complaint reporting process for abuse and wage payment related issues and legal assistance, expanding victim services such as shelters and hotlines engaging civil society and faith-based groups to offer assistance. There are lessons to be learned from the experiences of other countries such as the Philippines which maintains an Overseas Employment Administration Agency to secure the interests of Filipino workers throughout the world.
Slavery By Any Other Name
Slavery was not abolished in Saudi Arabia and Yemen until 1962. A year later it was abolished in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the 1950s, Saudi Arabia had an estimated 450,000 slaves, nearly 20 percent of the population. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that “contract slavery” of domestic servants continues in these countries. The deep tracks of slavery do not vanish easily in the desert sand in a mere 50 years. The vast majority of the Ethiopian domestic workers end up in these three countries. In 2009, “over 74,000 people risked their lives to enter Yemen en route to Saudi Arabia, of which 42,000 were Ethiopians.” The “kafala” or sponsorship system in the Gulf States gives disproportionate power to the sponsor (employer) in the “contract” relationship. If the worker breaks her contract, she bears the cost of her return ticket and will likely pay fines and pay debts to the employment agency that arranged the sponsorship. There is no running away from “contract slavery” particularly since the migrant worker is required to surrender her passport (if legally in the country) to the employer. Through the maids may be able to run away from their cruel employers, they cannot hide. They are frequently arrested as fugitive workers, not unlike fugitive slaves of yesteryears. Unable to change their circumstances, these women endure in quiet desperation often for years.
Slavery by any other name is still slavery. In truth, there can be no “contract slavery” since only free men and free women can enter into any contracts, which leaves many of the Ethiopian women domestic workers as nothing but slaves and at best indentured servants. Article 4 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude, slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” We must all do what we can to help our Ethiopian sisters to rise up from “contract slavery”!
“Where is Ethiopia’s flag?”
Previous commentaries by the author are available at: www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ and http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/
Did you see what was coming out of North Korea this week? Someone referred to it as the ‘world’s largest display of uncontrollable grief.’ Kim Jung un ‘the Brilliant Comrade’ succeeded his father Kim Jung il ‘the Dear Leader’ who took over from his Grand Father the ‘Great Leader.’ The Korean people are celebrating sixty years under the stewardship of the Kim family? Do you wonder why? How is that possible in this day and age that one family can control a whole nation?
The Korean people are no different than the rest of humanity. There is no outward sign that sets them apart from the rest of us except the system they live under. That is the key to their dilemma. The Kim family and the system they perpetuate is the cause of all this freaky display being beamed out.
The Korean people are kept in ignorance by design. The Kim family motto is ‘Military first.’ It is not because North Koreans have enemies ready to conquer them. In fact North Korea have no enemies other than the Kim family and those aligned with them. The military ‘s mission is to bully, frighten and intimidate the Korean people into submission. The people are the enemy.
There is no independent Television broadcaster, no independent Radio station, no independent Newspaper and no independent Internet provider in the Kingdom of Korea. The Kim family and friends control all of the communications media. They figure that ignorant people are easier to control. You can’t argue with sixty years of success. I was looking and marveling at this phenomenon when I heard the news that Ato Bereket has written a book. You know me I was delirious with joy with the news. I have found my own Kim in my backyard. For some reason Kim of Korea and Meles of Ethiopia converged.
Mind you Ato Bereket have no compelling reason to stick his neck out and display his normal unfamiliarity with rational thought process and his utter contempt for facts and put all that down on paper for all to see. The only explanation I have is this disease of contempt for truth, self-aggrandizement, ego trip and simple garden-variety madness.
I have not read the book yet. To tell you the truth, I have no intention of reading it either. Judging from the inaugural ceremony when the book was made public I figured reading is not a requirement to talk or write about it. I am not going against convention here and read the damn book. My sincere hope is Ato Bereket himself has read the book.
The setting for the unveiling (Addis Sheraton, Lalibela Room) more than made up for the pedestrian quality of the content. It is reported that ‘who is who’ of the Ruling Party was present. The most esteemed benefactor of our motherland, Dr. Sheik Al Amoudi was there. The report does not say if Ato Meles was present or was watching from a remote site. I know from sources that videotaping is standard procedure. The First lady was not present either. I assume they were watching from their bunker.
The book is titled ‘A tale of the two elections.’ The dilemma faced by librarians all over is which category to file the book under. Fact or fiction is a valid question. It purports to be based on facts but from the reviews I get the feeling there is no research and data to support the thesis presented but rather it is a matter of taking the authors assertion as facts. Simple faith is what is called for.
Dr. Sheik Al Amoudi paid for the printing that was done in Kenya for quality purpose. According to the Dr. Sheik who confessed that he has not read the book it is a work of such importance that he recommended it as a ‘must reading’ for our youth. Judging by the glossy cover, beautiful fonts and pretty soft paper its function, as a doorstop will be invaluable. I know I am hating but deservingly.
Next to give his lofty recommendation was none other than Ato Demeke Mekonen, Minster of Education. Unfortunately he has not read the book either but it did not stop him from offering his praise and opinion. In fact he went a step further and added stuff that was not even in the book. Ato Demeke was glad and praised the author for dedicating the book to his comrades from the liberation movement when the reality is that Ato Bereket dedicated his book to his brother. Needless to say the Minster is in favor of adapting it as a textbook for our children.
I knew my friends at Aiga would add their share of cheerleading to this work of historic proportion. I am grateful to Ato Reta Sisay for his blind review. No adjective was spared in his haste to pile the accolades. He boldly compares and equates the book to the work of the celebrated English author Charles Dickens. I have no idea how and why. The only reason why Charles Dickens would be mentioned can only be due to the similarity of the title because the two works have nothing in common what so ever. The Englishman’s book is a work of fiction while Ato Bereket’s book purports to be a historical analysis of what happened yesterday in front of all of us. Ato Reta got carried away.
In my opinion the best un read review is done by none other than Ben of Ethiopia First. He wanted to stay true to the theme of fiction and continued to weave his own tale. When the book was unveiled in Addis, Ben said he was visiting the Great Wall of China. We are grateful he stopped his tourist activity and stayed in his room to write his Blog. How he got hold of the book in China is not clear and to top it all he was writing a testimonial before he even finished reading the book. He said so himself. Ben, Ben, Ben, how many times have you been told to not make shit up!
I found the review written by an individual named Daniel Berhane to be mildly interesting. He seems to be a Party functionary and goes out of his way to show Ato Bereket in a good light despite his failings as the ‘main strategist’ for the 2005 elections. Daniel seems to take advantage of his ethnic affiliation and gives us inside information regarding the Prime Minster’s plan to be called Doctor and the many fiction he has written and are awaiting publication. Ato Daniel states that there was no need for Ato Meles to review the work since Bereket is a premier ‘spin doctor’ in his own right. It is a little confusing when Bereket claims that Ato Meles is the busiest person in the service of his country and Ato Daniel asserts that the PM is busy studying for his PHD. We got a part time student and Prime Minster, and a part time spin-doctor and historian author.
May be I should also mention the write up by Addis Fortune newspaper ‘gossip’ columnist. We are after all in Ethiopia where a few papers are allowed to function pretending all is honky dory and normal while some are hounded out of existence. Our Columnist took a different take on the whole issue. The concern was not what was in the book but rather the perception. It boldly claims the ‘recently released book, the launch of which, at Sheraton Addis, caused so much furor among members of the public.’ Over the top statement considering ‘members of the public’ are eighty million of which seventy nine million nine hundred thousand are not aware of the book nor do they give a damn. Furthermore the Columnist was ticked off and wrote ‘there has been a passionate disapproval by many after seeing a well-heeled businessman speak of a senior government official in a manner that was distasteful, if not repulsive.’ I am sure this disapproval was not followed by not eating the lavish dinner, not drinking the free booze and not lining up to buy an autographed copy. A room full of spineless sycophants is what it looks like. A little harsh but you know what I mean.
The following paragraph from the Fortune article I would like to leave it intact and you the reader be the judge of this madness:
‘Equally, he has been criticised for reaching out to a businessman while his own party, the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), could have paid for the printing of the book. He could have received the services of Mega Printing, a subsidiary of the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT), a party-affiliated company, others criticised.’ I have nothing to add to this crap.
It will be considered rude to finish without saying something about our dear friend, newly minted author and Head of Government Communications Minster good old Bereket Semeon. I will start from the beginning and rely on Ato Tesfaye Gebreab’s first hand description of the times and events. I have no reason to doubt Ato Tesfaye’s meticulous research and incredible memory. We are lucky.
Ato Bereket was born in Gondar to Aboy Gebrehiwot and Weizero Werknesh. He was named Mebrehatu Gebrehiwot. He came of age when our country was in turmoil. Like the youth of his time he joined the struggle to topple the Military regime or Derg. He has an older brother named Kasahune and the book is dedicated to him. Kasahune was born in the province of Eritrea and grew up in Gondar. He joined the EPRP to liberate his country. In my opinion history will show EPRP to be the first modern multi national movement that understood the richness, diversity and strength of the new Ethiopia to be built. Ato Mebrehatu died in a battle between EPRP (EPRF) militia and TPLF army.
History will also show TPLF was established, formed and founded to liberate the province of Tigrai. George Orwell wrote ‘to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.’ The folks of TPLF have the whole of Ethiopia under their nose but they choose to liberate a small sliver of land. This myopic vision never left our fearless leaders.
Back to our tale, upon joining TPLF Mebrehatu changed his name to Bereket. This was a common practice at the time but Mebrehatu went a step further and changed his fathers name too. He wanted a complete transformation I guess. He choose the name of an EPRP combatant from Eritrea that has mysteriously disappeared. It was normal to assume that he might have been killed in battle. It is good to know that the real Ato Bereket Semeone is still alive and was even the Ambassador to France representing the State of Eritrea. Not even Hollywood can dream of such a tale.
Ato Bereket/Mebrehatu did not bother to go into these matters. His book is about the 2005 election and the 2010 Coronation. It is very strange that TPLF folks are trying hard to revise history right under our nose. They have this guilt feeling if at all possible mixed with real fear and are constantly working hard to make us believe they were the victims. I have this strange notion this fiction is authored by none other than Ato Meles/Legesse Zenawi. I consider myself a skilled observer of The TPLF in general and the Politburo in particular. In fact I specialize on three and half individuals as my object of interest.
Based on extensive review of the reviews I have concluded Ato Meles to be the author. The tone and language is vintage Meles. The length (over 300 pages) is standard Meles diatribe and the evil ways he attacks perceived opponents is familiar to us. The book was written to whitewash the crimes of 2005 settle scores with ‘enemies’ and gauge the reception from the one percent. The 99 percent are not part of the equation. I believe Ato Bereket is not wired to come up with such absurd tale and commit it to paper. It requires someone with a lot of time in his hands and the expertise to think smart and act damn. It is a worthy digression from the current malaise. But it is temporary. The economy is stuck, the remittances are still anemic, the constant jabbering of “Spring” is unnerving and the Gadaffi picture is difficult to shake. Most of all I truly enjoy their paranoia regarding Dr. Berhanu. They imprisoned him again and again, they exiled him and they still obsess about him. The more you hate him the more I love him. Bring it baby let us have some more fiction.
I have a few suggestions to our authors. It is easy to talk trash when you are the only one allowed to speak. I will fight for your right to write any book you want but please let others tell their side of the story too. You see your denial of the same rights to others cheapens your work. No one will believe it. What is the point of writing it if it doesn’t shed some light? You might think forcing schools, work places and associations to buy it might give you boasting rights but what is the point if everyone knew it is fake. It will be like your Tehadso project. You call a meeting of the faithful you give them money to donate and you shout how successful it was. This Mamo Kilo moment is not a wining strategy. I will read Ato Bereket’s fiction when he allows others to write their version of reality.
Let Eskinder out of prison, he will show you how to write. Let Reiyot Alemu and Zerihune Gegziabeher out your dungeon and they will show you how to publish using their sweat. Let Andualem Arage out of his confinement and he will teach you how to organize without using force and bribery. This trash publishing business using welfare is not the way of the Ethiopia we envision. I suggest Ato Bereket read his book if nothing else to know what is being said in his name.
On 11/11/11, Yenesew Gebre, a 29 year-old Ethiopian school teacher and human rights activist set himself ablaze outside a public meeting hall in the town of Tarcha located in Dawro Zone in Southern Ethiopia. He died three days later from his injuries. In an interview with the Voice of America Amharic program, a witness described the horrific event:
Teacher Yenesew Gebre was in the meeting hall telling officials that the young people were being held in detention for 15 days without their right to bail being honored. On Friday, the young detainees were expected to have a hearing. Yenesew said ‘the young detainees have been held for a very long time and their rights should be protected and honored. They must not be imprisoned; they must be released.’ When he demanded that they [officials] told him, ‘here is 200 birr, go and enjoy yourself. We are busy at this meeting.’ He said, ‘I am not going to sell my conscience. I do not want money. I want my people released.’ He told them: ‘In a country where there is no justice and no fair administration, where human rights are not respected, I will sacrifice myself so that these young people will be set free.’ He went outside and set himself on fire. They put out the fire and rushed him to the hospital. He died yesterday and was buried today at 2 p.m. under police cordon.
I want to show to all that death is preferable than a life without justice and liberty and I call upon my fellow compatriots to fear nothing and rise up to wrest their freedom and rights from the hands of the local and national tyrants.
Give me liberty or give me death! Such were the last words spoken by a young Ethiopian patriot and martyr to the ruthless tyrants that cling to power in Ethiopia today.
Yenesew remained under police guard while he was hospitalized for two days. The attending physician recommended that he be transferred to a facility in the capital where he could receive a higher level of care for second degree burns and very likely save his life. That recommendation was disregarded for fear that news of his self-immolation in the capital could spark spontaneous public protests. No one was allowed to visit Yenesew at the hospital (clinic). His family, friends and neighbors were warned to stay away. Officials denied his family’s request for a decent public burial. They also banned family members, friends, neighbors and community folks from attending the funeral fearing a spontaneous public demonstration.
Dictator Meles Zenawi sent a reinforcement of some 300 police officers, imposed a complete news blackout and sealed off the town. Telephone services to the town were cut in a futile attempt to stonewall all news of Yenesew’s sacrifice from spreading throughout Ethiopia.
Yenesew was buried by the very sadistic police and administrative thugs who had harassed, threatened and persecuted him for so long. By preventing a public funeral and burying Yenesew in an unmarked grave, Zenawi hoped the story will blow over and Yenesew soon forgotten. But Zenawi could not have been more wrong! Yenesew lived and died a freedom fighter and a hero. Though Zenawi had his body buried in an unmarked grave, Yenesew’s spirit of liberty, his love for his compatriots, his vision of democracy and his yearning for justice shall live forever in the hearts and minds of 90 million of his fellow citizens. Long Live Yenesew Gebre!
Human Rights Matters in Ethiopia
Yenesews’ self-immolation illuminates not only the serious and widespread human rights abuses by Zenawi’s regime but also Zenawi’s hubris and depraved indifference to the demands of the people at the local and regional levels. According to reports, Yenesew had been a human rights activist for some time and clashed on various occasions with the local representatives of Zenawi’s regime. It is believed that the 50 or so young people in detention on whose behalf Yenesew spoke at the public meeting were suspected of supplying critical information used in a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) in Southern Ethiopia in August. The BIJ and BBC Newsnight covert investigation “uncovered evidence that the Ethiopian government is using billions of dollars of development aid as a tool for political oppression.”
The arrest and detention of the young people came on the heels of a petition submitted by community elders to authorities to reclassify the local area to its previous status as a sub-district (woreda). After local and regional authorities ignored the petition, the elders travelled to Addis Ababa to seek help from “federal” authorities; but their petition fell on deaf ears. When the elders returned, the local authorities jailed them. A second delegation of elders travelled to Addis Ababa to pursue their appeal with high-level Zenawi officials. In the meantime, the local authorities had rounded up and jailed some 50 young people without charge or bail. Yenesew attended that public meeting to protest their imprisonment and to demand their release.
The Mad Man and The Patriot
In a brazen attempt to deny the truth and confuse the population, Zenawi cranked up his pathetic propaganda machine to scandalize Yenesew’s name. To add insult to injury, Zenawi’s propagandists “interviewed” a woman who described herself as the town’s financial officer and Yenesew’s sister. She stated that Yenesew had lived with her family since he was seven years old. She gave very little positive information on Yenesew, but repeatedly emphasized that “since childhood he had a mental disorder” and violent tendencies which she believed caused his self-immolation. She did not indicate that Yenesew had ever been under any type of medical or psychiatric supervision for his alleged long-standing “mental disorder”. But the available evidence suggests that the “sister” was given the option of making the slanderous statement against Yenesew or be booted out of her job as town financial officer. Another man claiming to be Yenesew’s father gave a telephone interview only to nauseatingly repeat the same dastardly allegation. The propagandists also produced an alleged “death certificate” prepared in English which indicated Yenesew’s cause of death to be “severe sepsis” (“blood poisoning”). There is evidence to show that the attending physician in the tiny hospital refused to sign the falsified certificate. The signature on the certificate is said to be that of a hospital administrator with a prior criminal record.
Zenawi took a page straight out of Soviet psychiatry to scandalize, discredit, dishonor and slander the name of a great Ethiopian patriot and martyr. The Soviet state specialized in using dirty tricks to silence dissent and conveniently remove and ostracize critics from the public eye. A favorite trick was to label and portray dissidents and critics as mentally deranged, mad or insane. In 1970, the Soviet state falsely labeled dissident Zhores Medvedev, the most famous of Soviet human rights activists and agitators of his time, as mentally deranged (“split personality”) and committed him to an insane asylum/prison. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, another famed Russian dissident who suffered illegal imprisonment in the Gulag (forced labor), condemned the “servile psychiatrists who are able to describe concern for social problems as mental illness, and declaring a man insane.” Solzhenitsyn warned: “This could happen tomorrow to any one of us. This way of settling accounts has become fashionable [by the Soviet state].”
It is obvious that Zenawi is launching a new fashion to settle accounts with his critics and dissidents who oppose his ruthless dictatorship: Label them all psychotic, deranged, crazed and insane, and soil, scandalize and dishonor their names. But as Zenawi points his index finger at Patriot Yenesew to call him a mad man and mentally ill, he should take note that three fingers are pointing directly at him. Truth be told, it is no vice to be mad as hell at dictatorship and tyranny!
It is hard to imagine how anyone can stoop so low or be devoid of even microscopic traces of moral virtue. It has been said that “the difference between guilt and shame is that we feel guilty for what we do and we feel shame for what we are.” Zenawi is guilty for soiling and scandalizing Yenesew’s name, and he should be ashamed of such a low-down, cheap, mean-spirited, pitiful, despicable, immoral, vulgar, vile and ignominious act of slander.
Yenesew Gebre, True Ethiopian Patriot!
Bertrand Russell, arguably the greatest philosopher of the Twentieth Century and a relentless advocate of world peace and human rights said, “Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.”
Patriot Yenesew not only talked about dying for his country, he died for his country. Yenesew died for his people, for democracy, for freedom, for human rights, for justice and for the rule of law in Ethiopia. That is why Yenesew Gebre shall remain an eternal symbol of patriotism for his generation and his people. A true patriot like Yenesew is outraged by injustice and tyranny. A true patriot is inflamed by attacks on constitutional and human rights and the dignity of any human being. A true patriot rises to defend not only his/her rights, but even more vigorously, the rights of his/her people. A true patriot stands by the side of those in his/her community who are defenseless, voiceless and nameless. A true patriot embraces the unity of his/her nation and appreciates its cultural diversity. A true patriot believes government should fear the people and the people should never fear their government. A true patriot loves his/her people but hates inhumanity, atrocity, cruelty, brutality, barbarity, criminality, illegality, impunity, inequity, immorality, enmity, indignity, duplicity and ethnocentricity. These are the supreme qualities that make Yenesew a true Ethiopian patriot and a world-class human rights defender!
Yenesew is the latest reincarnation of heroic freedom fighters in world history who have sacrificed themselves to oppose tyranny and Evil. Before Yenesew, there was a 27 year-old Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself on fire in December 2010 to protest abuse, harassment, humiliation and violation of his basic human rights by a ruthless dictatorship. The fire that consumed Bouazizi’s body in less than a year consumed the entire Middle East region.
Long before Yenesew and Bouazizi, an American patriot facing similar tyranny, dehumanization, persecution, demoralization and humiliation gave all oppressed peoples of the world a timeless slogan in the struggle for freedom and against tyranny and dictatorship. In 1775, one year before the American Revolution, Patrick Henry affirmed:
We have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! … It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth… in a great and arduous struggle for liberty…
Are we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not?
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
In February 2011, at the onset of the Libyan Revolution, Moamar Gadhaffi trumpeted to the world, “They love me. All my people with me, they love me. They will die to protect me, my people.” He called the rebels fighting to oust him from power “rats and cockroaches”. He believed it was his birthright to rule Libya as “king of kings” and remained in total denial of his own doom until the bitter end in a sewer tunnel. In the end, in an ironic twist of fate, Gadhaffi was served poetic justice. He was trapped like a sewer rat and smashed like a cockroach as he begged for mercy: “Don’t shoot me!”
The man who had played God in Libya for 42 years died a wimpy thug. The man with the absolute power to decide who shall live and who shall die was shot down like a rabid dog in the street by a nameless rebel. The man who had tortured and abused so many thousands of his people in secret prisons and dungeons was himself tortured and abused with unspeakable inhumanity broadcast for the world to see. The man who slaughtered thousands of his people ended up in the meat locker of a slaughterhouse where his victims gloated over his bloodied and half-naked body discarded on a filthy mattress like big game hunters inspecting their kill on an African safari. The man with the golden gun died from a lead bullet. The man-turned-monster who once called himself “brother leader,” “guide of the revolution,” “king of kings,” “Great Leader,” and “keeper of Arab nationalism” was escorted to his unmarked grave in the featureless desert by a swarm of hungry maggot-bearing flies. Only one question remained: Is it possible for Gandhi’s warning about dictators to have momentarily flashed before Gadhaffi’s eyes or echoed in his ears as he prepared to meet his Maker: “I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.”
Gadhafi boasted he will die a hero and a martyr, but died a hated villain and a coward. But the manner of his death left an ugly blotch on the glorious record of the Libyan Revolution. Gadhaffi’s young captors, unable to contain their pent up rage, treated him with such unspeakably inhumanity that their actions spoke very poorly for all of humanity. His execution in the street was an ugly public testament to man’s inhumanity to man. Even the most wicked and depraved dictator is entitled to basic human dignity. But in the euphoria of the moment, Libyans erupted with celebration at the news Gadhaffi’s dehumanization and death. With muted jubilation and a sigh of relief, acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril declared: “We have been waiting for this moment for a long time.” President Obama followed, “This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for Libya.”
Gadhaffi was the ultimate personification of the adage, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Over four decades, he became convinced that he was a god and untouchable by any man or law. He became an egomaniac, a megalomaniac, and a monomaniac. Gadhaffi and members of his family believed that they had a divine right to own Libya and Libyans as their personal property. His son Saif al-Islam threatened to dismember the country and plunge it into a civil war that “will last for 30 or 40 years” if anyone tries to oust his family. The young thug promised a bloodbath: “We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet. I will fight until the last drop of my blood. We have a Plan A which is to live and die in Libya. Plan B which is to live and die in Libya…” Gadhaffi refused to resign and leave the country peacefully. He would not listen to reason and defiantly declared he would never negotiate, mediate, compromise or surrender. He urged his supporters to fight to the last man and watched Libya burn in a civil war holed up in the sewer. As many as thirty thousand Libyans are estimated to have died as a result of Gadhaffi’s futile attempt to cling to power.
The African People Do Not Love Their Dictators
They say love is blind. That is especially true for dictators. Dictators are so blind that they believe the people love them. Long before Gadhaffi announced to the world “my people love me”, his brother-dictator Saddam Hussien of Iraq told the interrogators who snatched him out his spider hole, “The Iraqi people will always love me.” He even authored a romantic novel and spoke through his main character (king): “I’m a great leader. You must obey me. Not only that, you must love me.”
Long before Saddam, the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini pontificated, “With every beat of my heart, I give service to the Italian people. I feel that all Italians understand and love me.” Idi Amin of Uganda was less sentimental: “The people should love their leader!”; and if they don’t he had his own tough love methods to get the job done. Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire would often chuckle and tell foreign correspondents that not only do his people love him, they want him to stay in power because the “people need me.” Mengistu Hailemariam believed that he ruled with an iron fist out of patriotic duty and love of country. No doubt he loved Ethiopia to death, and proved it for seventeen years by killing thousands of its citizens wantonly. Last May, in a victory speech, Meles Zenawi said he won the election by 99.6 percent because the Ethiopian people love his party and implicitly himself as the party leader. He said the people “consider themselves and the EPRDF [Zenawi’s party] as two sides of a coin” and “nothing can ever shake their unwavering support for our organization.” He returned the love by congratulating them for their “high sense of judgment and fairness” and for “giv[ing] us the mandate through your votes.”
African dictators are so tone-deaf that they just don’t get the message no matter how many times it is repeated to them. Perhaps they might understand if told in sign language: T-H-E P-E-O-P-L-E D-O-N-’T L-O-V-E Y-O-U! In fact, they loathe you. It is a raw and visceral feeling that is manifest in the eyes, thoughts and words of the people. African dictators love having absolute power and boundless privilege. They worship at the altar of money. They love themselves and no one else because they are narcissistic. Every day they look into the ghostly mirror in their minds seeking reassurance: “Mirror, mirror!! Who is the smartest, cleverest, boldest, cruelest, wickedest, trickiest, slickest, shrewdest, quickest, savviest, cunningest… of them all? The answer is always the same.
African dictators are all self-delusional and spend most of their time on Planet Denial. In the face of total repudiation by their people, they invent their own mythology of self-grandeur. They reassure themselves that even if the people don’t love them, “history will one day vindicate me”. To avoid facing the truth, they categorically claim that they have “never killed even a fly and all the crimes I’m accused of are all lies perpetrated by my enemies.” They justify their cruelty by making the excuse that “my country is better off under me” than the previous regime. They brag about their accomplishments “successfully managing the transition from military dictatorship to an emerging democracy” and put themselves out as messiahs who “rekindle hope through a renaissance” and “chart a course of optimism” on a “trajectory of fast economic growth.” African dictators are as loveable as an African scorpion.
Perhaps it is a bit of an overstatement to say African dictators do not love their people. They do. They love to kill them; they love to jail them and torture them. They love to intimidate them, and most of all they love to crush them like cockroaches. How they love to rob, steal and cheat them! They thrive on the blood, sweat and tears of their people. African dictators love their people in much the same way as vampires love people. They love the sound of their own voices which resonate with lies, echo with deceit and jangle with hate: Those who oppose them are “rats and cockroaches” and “terrorists and insurrectionists”.
Did Gadhaffi Cheat the Libyan People in Death as He Did in Life?
It was jarring, confusing and troubling to hear acting Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril declare on the confirmation of Gadhaffi’s death that “We have been waiting for this moment for a long time.” I wish he had said, “The day we have been waiting for was the day Gadhaffi is brought to the bar of justice.” I wish the rebel fighter who shot Gadhafi in the face would have said the same thing that young fighter who captured the dictator Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire said a few months ago. “We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker. Gbagbo was there with his wife and his son. He was slapped by a soldier, but was not otherwise hurt.”
The moment to wait for would have been that precious moment when Moamar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi stood in the dock in a Libyan court or at the International Criminal Court in the Hague listening to the long list of criminal charges as his victims paraded in one by one wagging an accusatory finger at him. That would have been a historic moment worth waiting for no matter how long it took.
Gadhaffi is one of the top ten worst human rights abusers and criminals of the post-World War II era. I personally believe he is the apotheosis of evil. Regardless, I fully respect his human rights, including his right to a presumption of innocence and unabashedly defend his basic human right to proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law based exclusively on legally admissible evidence. This I believe to be the true meaning of human rights. Even monsters walking amongst us in human skin are entitled to due process (fair trial) and must be protected from lynching or street, mob or vigilante justice. The line that separates the rule of law from the rule of one man or the rule of the mob is a mighty slender one; and the rule of law must be defended at all costs against those who seek to breach it. It is easy to defend the human rights of Eman al-Obeidy, the courageous Libyan woman who was gang-raped by Gadhaffi’s thugs or Gadhaffi’s revenge killing victims. But it is infinitely more difficult to stand up for monsters like Gadhaffi; but the ironic truth is that the brand of human rights that fully protects Eman al-Obeidy also protects fully the monster once known as Moamar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi.
But I am afraid Gadhaffi in his death, as in his lifetime, got away with murder and torture and all sorts of crimes against humanity. He cheated al-Obeidy and the Libyan people out of justice. He cheated them out of the TRUTH. Now, al-Obeidy will never get the chance to confront Gadhaffi in a court of law, wag her delicate fingers at him as her tears roll down her cheeks and scream with all her might, “Gadhaffi! I accuse of rape and torture!” Her tears which testified before the court of world opinion and seared the conscience of all humanity will never get the chance to testify against Gadhaffi in a court of law and have him held accountable.
The truth is now buried with Gadhafi’s corpse and lost forever in the featureless sand dunes of the Sahara. His humiliation will give no satisfaction to al-Obeidy or the thousands of other innocent victims in Libya or those he blew up on Pan Am flight 103. The ghoulish public display of his corpse as a trophy game animal and all the gloating that went with it might give momentary satisfaction to some but it will never quench Libyans’ thirst for justice that could have come only from bringing Gadhaffi to trial. By taking the truth to his grave, Gadhaffi had the last laugh. He took his last revenge on the Libyan people for he knew that there could be no reconciliation in Libya without the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth laid bare before the people. It is too bad that Gadhaffi was given the easy way out!
The End of African Dictators
Winston Churchill said, “Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.” President John Kennedy cautioned us to “remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.” He warned the “new states” liberated from colonialism that “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
The people of Africa are beating the drums of change and democracy and encircling the mud walls of African dictatorships. The die is now cast and African dictators will have to make a choice. The smart ones will read the writing on the wall and beat feet to enjoy their stolen loot in comfort and luxury in the sanctuary of well-known “dictatordoms”. Ben Ali and Mengustu are doing just that now as did Idi Amin before them. The stubborn ones will stick around and face the scales of justice. Mubarak is doing that now as did Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Central African Republic, before him. The self-delusional ones like Gadhaffi and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire and Samuel Doe of Liberia before them will cause a civil war to cling to power only to find themselves at the mercy of their ferocious and vengeance-thirsty adversaries. The rest will try to hide and hope their crimes will not catch up with them. Like Robert Mugabe and Omar al-Bashir, they will always be looking over their shoulders for the long arm of international law or the sharp tiger claws of the people that will one day surely hook them. African dictators who make peaceful change impossible will make vigilante justice possible as they peek straight through the barrel of a gun whimpering, “Don’t shoot me! Please don’t shoot me!” African dictators, there is a better way. Show your people some love. LEAVE THEM!
There is a Middle Passage of sorts taking place today from Ethiopia to the Middle East. It is what lawyer 
