Blog Archives

“We Shall Persevere, Ethiopia!”

Eskinder family“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”, decreed Maya Angelou, the great African American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer.

I shall persevere!” wrote Eskinder Nega, the imprisoned and preeminent …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Marriage proposal to Mighty Awash and HMD comes to the US.

Marriage proposal to Mighty Awash and HMD comes to the US. By Yilma Bekele

Our elders know how to tell a story. The way they do it could be compared to like pealing an onion, you have to go thru …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Who is afraid of the E(thiopian) bloggers?

E bloggers Who is afraid of  Eskinder Nega, Reeyout Alemu, Woubshet Taye, Zone Nine bloggers…?

The “dean” of independent Ethiopian journalists and blogger extraordinaire, Eskinder Nega, is serving an 18 year sentence for blogging. The late Meles Zenawi personally ordered Eskinder’s arrest …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

EITI or Clare’s Corruption Club?

Clare Short Clare Short has won! Congratulations, Clare! Brava!

Last week, Clare Short, Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), succeeded in bullying the EITI Board members into voting to admit the ruling regime in Ethiopia into her Club.  She did …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Beyond the Hubris of Evil

Reeyot Alemu When I wrote a commentary on the plight of the imprisoned 32-year old Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu last April, I titled it “The Audacity of Evil in Ethiopia.” At the time, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Corruption in the Ethiopian JUST US Sector

For the past several months, I have been commenting on the findings of the World Bank’s “Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia”, a 448-page report covering eight sectors (health, education, rural water supply, justice, construction, land, telecommunications and mining). In …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Obama came and saw but did he conquer Africa?

Alemayehu G Mariam


Obama UCT(This week my regular Monday commentary is presented for the second time in the form of a “flash drama” on Obama (a sub-genre of theatrical play sometimes described as a “ten minute one-act play”).  The first “act” 

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Keep your eyes on the prize. By Yilma Bekele

We are witnessing a flurry of news from the TPLF party that calls itself the Ethiopian government. Why is the Woyane party so busy and why is the party pushing its …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Abune Petros in our heart.

Abune Petros in our heart. By Yilma Bekele

On July 29th. 1936 Abune Petros was executed by the Italian fascist that were trying to colonize our country for his refusal to submit. On May 2nd. 2013 the monument that was …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Shadowboxing Smoke and Mirrors

 shadowMeles Zenawi when he was alive and his apostles today (“Melesistas”) keep playing us in the Diaspora like a cheap fiddle. They make us screech, shriek, scream and shout by simply showing their mugs in our cities. How do they

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Watching American Diplocrisy in Ethiopia

Hypocrisy America is Watching!?

Diplomacy by hypocrisy is “diplocrisy”.

Edmund Burke, the British statesman and philosopher, said “Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.” We’ve heard many promises on …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

The Audacity of Evil in Ethiopia

Reeyot Alemu Ethiopian Political PrisonerTriumph of Evil?

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”, said Edmund Burke. But what happens when evil triumphs over a good young woman journalist named Reeyot Alemu in Ethiopia? Do good …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Right in Prison, Wrong on the Throne

EskinderLast April, I wrote a “Special Tribute to My Personal Hero Eskinder Nega”.  In that tribute, I groped for words as I tried to describe this common Ethiopian man of uncommon valor, an ordinary journalist of extraordinary integrity …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: The Prototype African Police State

ps2The sights and sounds of an African police state

When Erin Burnett of CNN visited Ethiopia in July 2012, she came face-to-face with the ugly face of an African police state:

We saw what an African police state looked like

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia 2013: Year of the Cheetah Generation

che

Year of the Cheetahs

2013 shall be the Year of Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation.

“The Cheetah Generation refers to the new and angry generation of young African graduates and professionals, who look at African issues and problems from a totally different

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ode to timidity – the Ethiopian experience

By Yilma Bekele

I knew something was missing. It kept nagging at me, the little voice in side kept saying ‘you know you have been here before.’ I was driving south on the 580 Freeway when it hit me. It …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

The Free Press in Ethiopia’s Kangaroo Kourts

Alemayehu G Mariam

kangctThe Triumph of Lies

Over the past six years, I have written numerous columns defending press freedom in Ethiopia. In a 2009 commentary entitled, “The Art of War on Ethiopia’s Independent Press”, I expressed …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Who jailed Eskinder and the rest?

By Yilma Bekele

The headlines screamed ‘Ethiopian court convicts 24 of terrorism charges’. As usual it was a misleading and incorrect statement. There is no such animal called Ethiopian court. There is a TPLF controlled judicial arrangement in Ethiopia. Prime …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: The Sky(pe) is Falling!

Alemayehu G. Mariam

skyThe Sky is Falling!

Most of my readers know how much I enjoy “bedtime stories”. Recently, I wrote about my favortie bedtime story of Pinocchio in Africa. Ever heard of the story of Chicken Little? One …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

The Great Renaissance Dam as a wedge issue

By Yilma Bekele

The Ethiopian government was peddling its ponzi scheme of selling bonds for the pie in the sky project named The Grand Renaissance Dam’ on the Abbay river here in the Bay Area. It was not as lavish …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

My brother Abebe and his WMD

By Yilma Bekele

I doubt there is an Ethiopian in the Diaspora not familiar with what happened last Friday. As they say the video has gone viral. The act has brought deep satisfaction to the psych of the oppressed and …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: A Special Tribute to My Hero Eskinder Nega

Alemayehu G Mariam

eskiEskinder Invictus! 

On May 1, 2012, Eskinder Nega, Ethiopia’s foremost journalist and political prisoner, will be awarded the “Freedom to Write Award”, the highest honor given out by Pen America, one of the great international free press

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Deutsche Welle: A Disgrace to Press Freedom?

Alemayehu G Mariam

In a memorandum sent to Deutsche Welle’s (DW) [Germany’s international broadcaster] “correspondents outside Ethiopia” in late 2010,  Ludger Schadomsky, editor-in-chief of DW’s Amharic program, blasted “ethiomedia and similar sites by extension” as a “disgrace” to press freedom.  …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ato Bereket writes a book?

By Yilma Bekele

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 …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Kangaroo Justice for Two Swedish Journalists

Alemayehu G. Mariam

Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye in Kangaroo Court 

The old adage is that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Could it be said equally that arrogance excuses ignorance of the law? Dictator-in-chief Meles Zenawi recently proclaimed …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Dictatorship is State Terrorism

Alemayehu G. Mariam

Terrorism by “Anti-terrorism Law”

Lately, Meles Zenawi, the dictator in Ethiopia, has been rounding up dissidents, journalists, opposition party political leaders and members under a diktat known as “Anti-Terrorism Proclamation No. 652/2009”. This diktat approved …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Educating a Dictator

Alemayehu G. Mariam

Voice of America is the Voice of the Voiceless

The Voice of America’s (VOA) Journalist Standards & Practices (document 11-023 and 11-024), under the section captioned “WHAT DO VOA’S AUDIENCES HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT? Audiences ‘ …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Profiles in Journalistic Courage

By Alemayehu G. Mariam

Honor Thy Independent Journalists

I often write about the trials and tribulations of Ethiopia’s independent journalists, sometimes in tones of lamentation[1], other times in wistful philosophical reflection[2]. I have always defended the constitutional and human rights …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Waiting for Godot to Leave?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

Last week, a couple of interesting political statements grabbed the cyber headlines. One was a truly entertaining piece entitled “Letter from Ethiopia,” by the indomitable Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega. Eskinder’s “Letter” sought to make sense of the …

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Posted in Ethiopia News