(WCCO) Crystal, Minn. A man detained in the investigation of a Crystal, Minnesota, woman’s murder has been arrested as the sole suspect in her killing.
According to City of Crystal Police, the 21-year-old man is the brother of Rahina Mohammed, 45, who was found stabbed to death Saturday afternoon.
Mohamed’s husband found her dead of stab wounds shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday when he returned home from working his second-shift job. Police in Golden Valley detained the suspect at about 5:20 p.m. at a gas station, after a report of a person acting irrationally.
Mohamed was described as a prominent member of Minnesota’s Oromo community.
Police did not talk about whether there was some kind of fight inside the home, but they did say there were no signs anyone forced their way into it.
They said at the time of the initial investigation it seemed apparent the victim knew her attacker.
Mohamed came to America from Africa in 1982 at age 18 with her 20-year-old husband. They were among the first refugees from Oromia, a region of Ethiopia, to settle in Minnesota, where the largest contingent of Oromo people in the nation now live.
Many members of Minnesota’s Oromo community grieved at the victim’s sister’s house Saturday, and said that Mohamed had helped many of them adjust to life in America.
Charges are expected to be filed by noon on Tuesday.
Police said they are not currently pursuing any other possible suspects.
The homicide was the first in Crystal since 1996, according to authorities.
This article minces no words, is not constrained by diplomatic niceties and doesn’t pretend to chose polite words in the interest of political correctness. It intends to call things by their proper names because that is what has been lacking. We have had too many equivocations, skirting around issues and debates that often employ the phrases: on the one hand…and on the other hand. It is high time to take the gloves off and slug it out with bare knuckles and challenge those among us who are the betrayers and take urgent action to bring the country back from the brink of disaster or be prepared to face the harsh judgment of history.
Betrayal is a coat of many colors and we have seen it come and go in different shapes and guises. Some are highlighted here to help spot the wolves in sheep’s’ clothing: Ethiopia’s betrayers. But before naming the betrayers it is appropriate to identify the Betrayed.
The Betrayed are the broad Ethiopian masses who toil long and hard, but who are condemned not to reap and enjoy the fruits of their labors. They work under extremely trying conditions to feed and enrich others. They are those who don’t obtain fair prices for their produce, travel to distant towns to pay taxes and are sometimes required to give bribes to corrupt government officials so as to cut short the time it takes to settle their taxes in order not to miss the bus that takes them home.
These masses sent us to schools so that we, their sons and daughters, would be spared the hardship they had to go through and lead a better life than theirs. These are the masses that officials of all stripes tried to dispossess the land they tilled under one pretext or another; they are the ones who have been provided fertilizers on credit and were made to repay the money they owed by selling their entire produce or risk losing their land and become beggars. These are the masses that were told their debts would be forgiven if they voted for the Woyanne, but they voted their conscience!
The Betrayers
The list of the betrayers could be a mile long, but we will address only a few. The incumbent officials are not included in this assessment as their treasonable acts are too well known to require repetition here.
1. The Educated Elite
Some among the educated elite top the list of betrayers. They were educated using taxpayers money, but owe no obligation to the taxpayer. Their preoccupation is how to survive in the system, and do better than “the joneses”. Build better houses, buy better cars, wear better clothes and send their children to elite schools. This seems to be the be-all an end-all of their existence. They will not tolerate anything that prevents the attainment of these goals. They strongly believe these goals are attainable only when the status quo is preserved. Anything that upsets the status quo is anathema to them. They tend to defend the status quo mostly in subtle ways, but when these goals are threatened they come out swinging.
There have been accounts of wives who have told their husbands in no uncertain terms not to challenge their bosses (so that they don’t lose their jobs) even when their husbands were wronged. “Arfen lijochachinin enastemir” appears to be the operative command. Contrast this with our grandmothers who took it upon themselves to prepare provisions for their husbands who had not even declared their intentions to take part in the struggle to defend their country against foreign invaders. Their husbands had no choice but to declare their decision to join the fight as if it were their own. That was how Ethiopia was built.
Distortion of History:
In the past seventeen years, history has been distorted right, left and center with impunity. Our contemporary historians took no visible stand even when rulers such as Menelik II were being vilified for attempting to unify the nation and preserve unity at any cost. Menelik is projected as a colonizer for passing on to us a fully formed country complete with a language, script and flag of its own at a time when the rest of Africa was under colonial rule. Why is it difficult for some of us to be grateful for what we have and celebrate our nationhood? What are the motivations for belittling three thousand years of greatness which even the developed world grudgingly accepts. Is Menelik’s vilification indicative of a desire to have preferred being colonized over staying free? This boggles the mind as Menelik’s detractors have no historical parallels to use as a frame of reference as there were no other African rulers at his time. Who do they compare him with or against?
Some people in Ethiopia maintain that historians, priests, reporters and azmaris have common characteristics in that all four mention the incumbent regime favorably and wait until it falls before they start to openly criticize it. Some self-styled leaders of the Oromos who conveniently forget the wide-spread intermarriage across ethnic groups have been advancing a separatist agenda to keep themselves in the only job they know and in the lifestyle they have come to enjoy. The Eritreans and the Woyannes actively engage in promoting historical inaccuracies against Ethiopia to serve their own ends. What is puzzling is that most of our historians turn their collective deaf ears to all these instead of challenging them and establishing the truth. What is holding them back – self-interest, lack of conviction or defending their country’s history will cast them in the role of enemy of the state? Is our Ethiopianess something to be ashamed of and shy away from defending? If the answer to all of the above is “no” then let’s show them convincingly how proud we are to be Ethiopians!
The Leadership Vacuum:
The leaders of the opposition party who won the May, 1997 elections are languishing behind bars. These leaders are Ethiopia’s best and brightest and their unfair incarceration seems to have provoked no sustained protest or the emergence of other leaders to take on their mantle. What happened to the saying: “the situation creates a leader”? Or is the situation in Ethiopia not yet ripe enough for this to happen or our collective outrage has not risen to the level where such a leader could step forward?
Nothing could be more demoralizing than to see the likes of “Lidetu ( Solomon Tekaligne, Negussie etc.) mixing freely with the public in bars, restaurants and weddings with their heads raised high and speaking loudly with an assertive air. How does a society allow this to happen? Is this tolerance or naked fear? There should be a boundary line where tolerance ends and righteous indignation starts.
2. The Promoters of Democracy : The U.S., the EU and the World Bank
Much has been said about promoting democracy in the world and standing on the side of the oppressed rather than the oppressors. The U.S. and the European Union are at the forefront of this campaign. But no promise has sounded hollower than this as it was honored more in its breach than its performance. Despite such a promise, the U.S. has repeatedly and firmly asserted that “it has no permanent friends, only permanent interests”. In other words, the above promise holds when its interests and the interests of the oppressed coincide. Where the two collide, permanent interest takes precedence over the fate of 77 million Ethiopians or 154 million Pakistanis. This contradiction is brought home vividly by America’s blind support of the embattled leaders of Ethiopia and Pakistan who the U.S. claims are its steadfast supporters in the war against terror.
The European Union is the other promoter of democracy in third world countries. Unlike the U.S., the EU stands by what it says, but does not have the means to deliver on its promise. It is a paper tiger that has no sway over its member states. We have seen the Woyanne leader being invited and feted in European capitals and rubbing shoulders with world leaders at the G-8 summit while his hand was still wet from the blood he shed in the streets of Addis Ababa. We have witnessed most member states bend over backwards to provide funds to the Woyanne government despite the atrocities it commits on its own people.
Wonder of wonders, he was even asked to deliver a speech on governance in Africa. Don’t these countries have any respect for Ethiopians at all or do they hold us in such contempt that we deserve the Woyanne leader? Or does their self-interest overshadow their sense of fairness and justice? What they seem to persistently forget is that Ethiopians have long memories.
The World Bank:
Ethiopians in the Diaspora have had repeated opportunity to bring their case to the World Bank and to dissuade the Bank from providing funds to the Woyanne government which uses the funds to perpetuate its tyrannical rule. Each time Ethiopians protested loudly to dissuade the Bank from lending to the Woyanne regime, the Bank’s determination to provide more funds by employing “creative justifications” intensified. Is the World Bank uninformed about the oppression being perpetrated in Ethiopia? No, but as the Bank’s lending policy is an extension of the U.S’s foreign policy, the Bank obeys the State Department’s bidding. Since the U.S. is the provider of the lion’s share of the Bank’s resources, it is the case of “he, who pays the piper, calls the tune”.
3. The Diaspora
1. The Leaders of “KNA” and “KIL”
What could be more gut-wrenching than to address the leaders of Knijit North America and Kinjit International among the betrayers of the broad masses of Ethiopia? We all know that the Ethiopian people chose Kinijit as the party that could liberate them from poverty, injustice and the dehumanizing degradation Woyanne inflicts on them. Despite this fact, when Woyanne threw the legitimate leaders of Kinjit behind bars, it didn’t take long for a chasm to be formed between the leaders o f KNA and KIL in the Diaspora. Both profess to fight for the release of the jailed leaders and to put back on track the democratization process in Ethiopia. They are both deeply suspicious of one another and have no qualms about one undermining the other. Their professed loyalty to the jailed Kinijit leaders is very much in doubt judged by the suspension of all political activities such as demonstrations, fund-raising activities, lobbying etc. for nearly a year while they squabbled over who should lead whom and who should have control over funds.
The division between the leaders of KNA and KIL was a welcome respite for Woyanne which afforded it the opportunity to regroup and attack the opposition with a vengeance. The recently announced charges by the courts can be directly attributed to the inactions of the feuding factions. Had they set aside their squabbling and concentrated their efforts on intensifying the struggle, Woyanne would not have dared to take the actions it took. With support from Ana Gomes, Donald Payne and Chris Smith, the leaders in the Diaspora could have dramatically altered the political dynamic.
3.2 Leaders of Ethiopian Churches in the Diaspora
As a direct reflection of the political reality in Ethiopia, there is division among the church leaders in the Washington area between those opposed to Abune Paulos and those supporting Woyanne. The perplexing thing is that even those among the congregation opposed to Abune Paulos worship at the church headed by his appointee and contribute money generously. It is widely rumored that some church leaders have developed a taste for the finer things in life and are not ashamed to flaunt it. Those giving donations to the church do not call the church leaders to account for the money collected. Do the contributors assume that it is up to God to conduct an audit?
3. The Diaspora at Large
The Diaspora is a murky brew; an amalgam of Ethiopians from various backgrounds and with differing loyalties. Some are in favor of political change in Ethiopia and actively participate in political activities, and there are those who would like to see change in Ethiopia but are not sure how that change could be brought about; a small active group supports the EPDRF, and there are others who prefer to stay away from politics and are content with making money and living a life better than the one they left behind back home.
One can safely conclude that the Diaspora is an amorphous body that could be pulled in different directions by different interest groups for their purposes. On the other hand, the Diaspora is the life-blood of the various political organizations that are jostling for leadership positions. The financial donations the Diaspora makes provide the resources that drive the activities of the various political organizations. The Diaspora is not fully aware of the pivotal role it plays in shaping the political struggle. It hasn’t so far used its clout and called the various political parties to account.
Ethiopians in the Diaspora can be divided into elites and non-elites and the following are some of the characteristics they exhibit:
The Elites in the Diaspora
Some among the educated elites in the Diaspora have not been shy to take the following stands:
o They worry that there is no group that is prepared to take over the leadership from the Woyanne and therefore would prefer to wait
o There are some who feel that living under colonial rule would have been better than living in abject poverty and would support if white South African farmers were to come to Ethiopia (even with their security forces) and produce enough food to feed the populace. This argument assumes that starvation in Ethiopia is the work of lazy farmers in stead of bad governance
o There are some who feel that the jailed leaders were tactless in that they should have agreed to take their seats in parliament and fight from within to bring about change. Don’t they know the nature of the enemy?
o There are those who attack every article that calls fro unity and preserving Ethiopianess and try to divert the issue and put the writers of such article on the defensive
The Non-elites in the Diaspora
Some in the Diaspora who left Ethiopia during the Derg’s regime hold the following opinions:
o That they are the only ones who could speak authoritatively on oppression and sacrifice and all others should defer to them. They strongly feel that crossing the border to the Sudan or Kenya and making it to safety in the U.S. and other places affords them enough credentials entitles them to the right to voice their opinion on how to bring change in Ethiopia
o They feel that those who had worked under previous regimes are tainted and therefore should be excluded from the political process. They have no respect for age or profession and seem to be emboldened by the fact that no one challenges them when they express their opinions
4. Conclusion
Enough points have been raised to spark nation-wide and Diaspora-wide discussions and come to a conclusion about what course of action to take. The discussions should culminate in actions that should be taken with firm determination and implemented with a sense of urgency. There is no time for hair-splitting and equivocation. We have had enough of that. What is needed is action.
The decisions that emanate from the discussions should be bold and no-nonsense. They should examine the full spectrum of options including the role of diplomacy and armed struggle. After all armed struggle could be justified in the same way as surgery is to remove malignant tumors.
It is strongly suggested that Ethiopians in the Diaspora and back home organize study groups, digest the points raised and embark on courses of actions that bring us closer to our goals.
No worthy daughter or son tolerates seeing a crying mother; so let’s achieve a rejoicing Ethiopia rather than the one crying betrayed by her own children!
Today, Meles Zenawi’s kangaroo court is expected to follow-up its June 11th guilty verdict with harsh penalties on the jailed leaders of CUD-Kinijit. Once again Meles seems to have ignored public opinion, international mediation, and even the pleas of the “shimagles” to release the prisoners unconditionally. His latest decision to take his hostages through the sentencing phase comes after months of back-and-forth mediation by the so-called “shimagles.” Predictably, that effort seems to have succeeded only to lure the prisoners into a compromise agreement that they may have committed some mistakes in the May 2005 election fiasco in which the prime minister ordered the indiscriminate massacre of more than 193 peaceful protesters. In his veiled attempt to share the blame for the crimes he committed, it is little wonder that the shifty prime minister once again has lied to the shimagles and the Kinijit leaders into an agreement that he wouldn’t respect.
There should be little doubt that Meles Zenawi is determined to keep these prisoners of conscience in prison for as long as he wishes through lies and subterfuge. It is high time that Ethiopians, Ethiopian-Americans and their friends roll up their sleeves for a long and all out lobbying and political campaign across the world. If the prime minister refuses to release the prisoners and resolve the political impasse in a round table negotiation, then it is incumbent upon us to begin waging a final assault on one of the worst dictatorships on the African continent. First and foremost, we should go after his international financial spigot which has enabled him to run a vicious lobbying, propaganda, security and corrupt state machinery. There is nothing that concerns Meles more than the filling of his begging bowl by European and American alms givers.
Our campaign should primarily focus on exposing the tyranny, corruption, and inhumanity of the regime, as well as isolating its key leaders from the world community. We should, as never before, show the entire world the lies, cunning and malfeasance of the TPLF leadership who have become the “lords of poverty” in an impoverished land. The campaign will target a handful of the leaders of the regime along with their families to be made international pariahs unwelcome anywhere in the world. Their bank accounts shall be frozen and their travels restricted, and held accountable for their crimes against humanity. For starters, the June 21st European Parliament resolution and the pending Congressional House Rule 2003 should be viewed as big steps forward.
Our fight should continue until our heroes in prison are released and become part of the national political reconciliation process. No one should misunderstand that the purpose of our campaign is a fight against a system that has bondaged our people to unspeakable poverty, disease, civil strife, division and unremitting subjugation. We have to stop the continuing killings, tortures, imprisonments, beatings and muzzling of the people by tyrants whose systematic lies and cunning have never been witnessed before in Ethiopian history.
Each one of us should make a solemn pledge to do our part to contribute to the struggle for democracy, unity and freedom in our homeland. All of us who believe in the principles of democracy should promise that we will support the struggle in any capacity we can. To wage our struggle for democracy, unity and freedom, we shall utilize tried and true tactics used by such successful movements as the liberation of South Africa from the oppressive apartheid system.
Apartheid South Africa and Present-day Ethiopia
The fight against tyranny, division and corruption in Ethiopia should be modeled after the struggle that abolished apartheid in South Africa, because both present-day Ethiopia and apartheid South Africa have a lot in common. Consider the following:
1. Ethiopia is divided into tribal homelands as racist South Africa was during the days of apartheid.
2. Both regimes used age-old divide and rule tactics to subjugate their subjects indefinitely by recruiting local stooges like Buthelezi who cow-tow to their whims. In return the cohorts enjoyed the regime’s largesse and lived in comfort and corruption while holding down the masses under them.
3. Just like apartheid South Africa, the Ethiopian dictators use the bulk of their budgets and foreign donations to finance their extensive network of informants, security and military apparatus.
4. Both regimes made adventurous military forays into their neighboring states presumably to fight against insurgents. In South Africa – Angola, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Zambia, the so-called frontline states, were the targets, while in Ethiopia, it is Somalia now, and who knows where it would be next.
5. The South African government squandered millions of tax dollars on lobbying Washington and Europe just as the despotic regime in Ethiopia does now.
6. Both regimes had the United States government behind their backs to give them diplomatic, military and financial support. You may recall President Reagan’s shameful support of apartheid South Africa in the 1980’s ostensibly to counter Soviet expansionism. He even had a name for his South African policy called “constructive engagement.” Today, the Bush Administration uses a similar policy in Ethiopia with a different name called “counter terrorism.” Once again the Unites States administration is on the wrong side of history.
The Reagan administration made a mockery of justice and democracy by supporting a ruthless and corrupt apartheid system. Consequently the administration’s misguided policy helped galvanize the collective conscience of the American people for justice. Universities and churches played a key role in helping the American people to stand up against the South African tyranny. Congress, state houses and cities passed laws to help freedom fighters and human rights advocates incarcerated in South Africa prisons. We can do the same to raise the consciousness of the American people and the international community to take the side of democracy in Ethiopia. So far, we have achieved success in some cities and states including California, Oregon, Massachusetts, the US Congress and the European Parliament, but the effort needs to expand and intensify to bring about the results we want.
This is just an example of what Ethiopians in the Diaspora can do to help fellow countrymen and women overcome the dictatorship that is suffocating them. All we need are organization, know-how and determination which we have in abundance. We don’t even need to match the all-out South African campaign that did crippled the apartheid system because the European Parliament is already on record condemning the Ethiopian dictatorship and the support of the American administration for the incompetent and half-baked former Marxists in Addis Ababa is lukewarm at best. Most of all, the regime is rejected and despised by many democratic countries and every sector of the Ethiopian society including by its own tribal community of origin.
Today the parasitic regime lives off international handouts and donations. Early in 2006, it was widely reported that the regime’s military and security apparatus were in disarray or crumbling because the European Union and the World Bank had suspended their financial assistance in protest of the regime’s abuse of the human and civil rights of its citizens. What is still needed now to bring the regime down on its knees is to once again turn off the tap of its international financial and diplomatic support. In short, our action plans include:
1. Organizing campaign and lobbying groups in cities, states, universities and churches.
2. Work to get the World Bank and the international community to refrain from propping up the regime with their financial assistance.
3. Identifying the key leaders of the regime, like Meles-Bereket-Sebhat, and expose their crimes.
4. Persuading the United States and European countries to restrict travel privileges of the key leaders and their families.
5. Seeking the assistance of the international community to find the bank accounts of the leaders and persuading them to freeze their assets.
6. Campaigning for the boycott of the businesses of the leaders and their associates.
It is important to know that history is on our side. The world is sick and tired of dictatorships and the poverty, strife, dislocation and human misery they cause. Today, the international community is well aware of the human rights abuse, political turmoil and the attendant misery in Ethiopia. We have lots of conscientious, determined and capable fellow citizens prepared to lead this campaign to free our people from one of the worst dictatorial regimes in the world.
It is sad we have to resort to such extreme measures that may also impact the reputation of our country in the long run. However, we hope against hope that the Meles regime will see the potential damage such a wide range and worldwide protest would engender and come to its senses. If not, then fellow Ethiopians, we have our work cut out for us. Let us get on with it and pledge ourselves to do our part and contribute whatever we can to bring democracy to our long-suffering fellow citizens and gain the release of the elected representatives of the people.
Ethiopians and Ethiopian-Americans for a Democratic Ethiopia (EEDE) [email protected]
A retired Norfolk State professor awaits his fate in Ethiopia. Dr. Yacob Hailemariam left NSU and returned to his native country to run for office. Even though he won he was still jailed by the ruling regime.
That was a year ago. Now an international effort is going down to the wire to save his life. The court process has gone on now for months however the former professor could know his fate as early as tomorrow.
It has been an agonizing year not only for Hailemariam, but for his family.
“It’s very much up and down,” said Hailemariam’s daughter Seyenie Yacob. “You hear things that might be a little bit hopeful here and there, so you get excited and then it doesn’t come through.”
Seyenie worries about her father who is more than 7,200 miles away. He could be sentenced to death by the Ethiopian government. Hailemariam retired from NSU in 2005 and decided to run for a parliament seat in his native country. Not only did he win, he became the instant leader of his party. However he never took his seat in office. The ruling government threw him in jail and charged him with treason.
“We knew that there was going to be many challenges and risks,” added Seyenie.
Hailemariam was convicted in June. He’s now waiting to be sentenced. Seyenie was able to visit her dad in March.
“It was very tough especially cause I had not seen him in over a year,” said Seyenie. “I saw him in a very public setting for the first time with the other fellow prisoners.”
The U.S. is trying to help out. Trying to free a man who just wanted to help people who were in desperate need of help. He did that by taking a risk, a risk his daughter says is worth it.
“Big changes like this don’t happen easily for any country,” added Seyenie. “We are really hoping that he will be a part of something great for Ethiopia one day.”
Seyenie says her father has no regrets about leaving NSU and heading back to Ethiopia. Amnesty International, a human right organization is working very hard to see that he is released. Of course we’ll keep you posted.
Or so it is spoken of by many. So the road from Nairobi to Ethiopia, is supposed to be tough, really tough. I met a guy, the morning I was leaving, who came from North to South, and he simply said, “it’s a test.” So many travelers come in from the journey, beat and worn, with dust on their faces and embedded in their clothes. I will say that in all honesty, I was nervous before setting out. Perhaps that is why I took so long in Kenya. Regardless, however, I did set out last Sunday from Nairobi, entering upon what has been my greatest adventure thus far.
So this is how it works. From Nairobi to the border with Ethiopia (at a town called Moyale) is 901 km. The first 400 or so of that is all good road, tarmack with few potholes. There is constant transport on this stretch of road which starts in Nairobi, and ends in a small trucker town called Isiolo, which by all accounts was supposed to be a very scary place. It was, in some ways, but people like to exaggerate. But I’ll get to that. So I left Nairobi on Sunday, around 11a.m. to Isiolo. I arrived into Isiolo at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. The ride was easy, and once I got there the people were a bit grabby, but it was nothing too bad. This leads to part two.
Part two goes like this. Once in Isiolo it is 508km to the border. The problem, however, is that there is no tarmac, really no road, for all of those 508km. There is nothing, leaving lorries (big cargo trucks) as the only real option for travel. Most lorries arrive into Isiolo from Nairobi between midnight and 4a.m. so obviously when I arrived, I was too early. I met a couple “brokers” (guys who find trucks for people for a small fee), and one agreed that he could get me a ride in the afternoon, around 6. Having nowhere to go, I hung out in some back alley cafe, read and wrote a little, and waited. After about an hour I got antsy and decided to walk around the town a bit (this will become important later, so just bear with me), and I did. The town is poor, most definitely, and there are a ton of street kids puffing glue and grown men chewing mirra (it is a local legal drug), which turns their mouths green and their eyes bright red. Still, I encountered no problems, even as I walked in the back alleys. While walking I met this woman named Mariam, a local shop owner. I sat with her and her sister for a while, stumbling through a conversation. About a half hour later, two young men came by, we were introduced, and I was invited up to their apartment–I went. They were great guys, both of which spoke good English. We hung out, talked about music and politics, and whatever else, and then I left to meet my transport.
Ready to leave I showed up at the stage, and of course, there was no vehicle. I was told something happened but that I should come back around 2a.m. I was pissed, but without options, I started thinking and decided to go back to Ibrahim’s apartment, to ask if I could stay ’till early morning. He obliged happily, thank God, and I was treated to dinner by Mariam. Ibrahim and I watched movies until late night, and then passed out for a couple hours. At 2a.m., I walked back over to the stage, and guess what, there was no vehicle. I waited and waited, drunkards and drugees all around, all of which were friendly though, I must say, and finally the transport arrived, but guess what? It wouldn’t take me, haha. I waited for lorries that were supposedly on their way, but which never came. At 6a.m. I gave up, and went back to Ibrahim’s. I slept most of the day, and waited for phone calls which never came about trucks. Finally at around 7pm I went back out to the stage.
I’ll shorten this up, but it suffices to say that at midnight, I finally got a lorry with a couple of guys I had met heading to Marsabit town, half way to the border. It was an amazing experience. There were about 20 – 25 of us, packed into the cargo bin, surrounded by mounds of sugar and other cargo. I won’t say it was comfortable, but it wasn’t bad. It did rain, but a small tarp covered us partly, so it was alright. It was so beautiful, watching the stars above and the nothingness around. I can’t describe it.
We went on like that for the next 10 hours, passing through small wild west looking towns and national parks, until finally we reached Marsabit. At first I was going to try and catch another lorry immediately to the border, but I was too tired, and there was no transport, so I took a room close by and slept. I’m glad I did. Marsabit is beautiful. It is high in the mountains, which is an amazing contrast to the vast desert and plains that surround the range on all sides. Because it is so isolated the people have maintained their cultures very well, and people dressed in tradtional tribal wear, piercings and all, can be seen all over town. It is really quite impressive. Besides the cultural aspect, I was also told of a Catholic Shrine up on this hill in the mountains, so I went. It is gorgeous, and no doubt one of the holiest places I have ever been. You can feel God everywhere.
Due to liking the place I decided to stay in Marsabit an extra day, making Thursday the day of my next expected travel. Thursday morning I went out to the stage to wait for trucks that were supposed to come by 7am. Surprise, surprise, they didn’t come. I waited and waited, and nothing. I started to get antsy again, especially because my money was running very short, and i was fearing having to pay another night. At about noon, I was starting to give up, but God, who is so good, sent me a great gift. Right after I finished eating my lunch, a small truck came up. I asked if they were going to Moyale, and they said no, but pointed to a small pick up about 400 yards away that was leaving right then. No one has ever seen me run so fast. I got to the truck, and began asking questions. They were going, but the guy managing the truck was not having it. He asked for my passport, made faces at me, and basically said no. Thank God, I had been waiting with this gentleman all morning, a local, who took to my aid. He began asking the man for me, pleading my case, until finally I got the ok. It was the greatest ride ever. What I hadn’t realized was the following. The truck was a government truck, which meant that we were riding for free. Secondly, the ride, which was supposed to take 20 hours or so to the border in a lorry, took six, and a comfortable six at that.
The ride itself was impressive. We dropped out of the mountains into the desert, and for the next 6 hours, that is all we saw–endless desert. Absolute nothingness. There were a few tribes here and there, and tons of camel, but during that whole time, I saw only two towns, both of which could not have consisted of more than 300 people. It felt like Mad Max’s world. (and actually it is in many ways. Throughout the region there has been much fighting. Soldiers can be seen all over. As recently as 3 or 4 months ago there was fighting between tribes, mostly over water and grazing rights. but all was well, and many of the problems that existed do not now, or at least at the present moment.)
I arrived into Moyale at around 7pm (sorry this is so long, but this part is cool), and since the border was closed by that time, I had to stay the night in Kenya. I got a hotel with the man that helped me get the truck (his name was Simon), and woke up as early as I could to cross the border, which was really pointless since, and I didn’t know this before hand, the Ethiopian side didn’t open until 8am. I waited, ha, and actually I forgot, but once I got into immigration, the guy working had no idea, and I mean no idea what he was doing, so I had to process myself, haha. I took over the computer, and began typing everything in, and this at his begging. For some reason the system wasn’t working so someone else processed me, and hour later, manually, but the funny thing, is the original guy kept begging me to come in and explain the system to him. I left.
Ethiopia struck me at once, but there are so many things that I love about this country that it will have to be another blog itself.
So now the next part of the trip. I wanted to get to Addis (the capital) to sort out money and figure out what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. The problem is the distance is like 900km, and transport is scarce. I waited four hours at a roadblock, until finally, at around 2pm, I got a truck carrying camels to take me. We road out of the flatlands and into the mountains. Unfortunately, the truck sucked, and broke down within the first 2 hours. After about a half hour, they fixed it, and we carried on, from town to town, mountain to mountain.
It is important to note that I speak no Amharic (the national language), and the guys I was riding with spoke no English (or Spanish, surprisingly, haha), so communication was difficult. After a while, I did ascertain, however, that they were actually going closer to Addis than I had initially asked them to take me, so I asked if I could ride with them as close to Addis as possible, and they said ok. We rode, and rode, and rode, and rode, and rode. We rode through the night, and the early morning. They asked me if they could borrow $20 for fuel, and I gave it to them, under the condition that they gave me collateral, and promised to pay it back that day. They said ok, and we were all happy. We kept driving north, so I was happy. What I didn’t realize, however, was that they could not pay me back until they made the sale of their camels, and another thing I didn’t know was that that sale, was to take place about 200km east of the capital. I never noticed them taking a right off our main road, and so it came to pass that at 7am or so, I found myself in a town, far off my original course, though unknowing, involved in a camel trade, haha.
I have never been in such a situation. The trade took about 2 hours, because bargaining, and unloading the animals took so long, plus one of the camels died upon arrival (it was sad and gross), and we had to, self included, take it out to the fields where it was to be devoured by vultures (there were carcasses all around). What an experience!!! Finally after the sale, I got my money, we had breakfast, and I was told where we were. I got pissed. They knew I wanted to go to Addis, and they took me so far out of my way. I got really upset, and then I came to a decision. On the map, I was far from the Capital, but I was relatively close to a city I wanted to visit called Harar(about 200km). So, totally off the cuff, I decided to just go to Harar first. I left the guys, and thank God again, got a free ride from a rich local Muslim family, who fed me and let me sleep.
Alas, after another small mini bus ride, I arrived into Harar on Saturday afternoon, six days after leaving Nairobi, and that is where I find myself now. I will say that it has all worked out. It turns out that the city is celebrating it’s thousandth anniversary over the course of these four days, and so it is packed with people and cool cultural things. I have made local friends, and am having a great time.
I am well, I have much more to write, but I have no more time. Take care. Sorry this was so long, but I hope you got some enjoyment from it.
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Insurgents threw grenades at Somali government soldiers in Mogadishu’s Bakara market on Sunday, and the troops responded by firing their weapons indiscriminately, witnesses said.
It was the second straight day of attacks in Bakara, famed as the site of one of the world’s biggest open-air arms markets, which has thrived in the anarchy the Horn of Africa nation has suffered since 1991.
“Five grenade explosions have occurred in Bakara market. Some of them we directed at government forces but they injured no one. I don’t know if there are any civilian casualties,” senior police officer Ali Nur told Reuters.
A Reuters reporter saw troops firing heavy machineguns from their trucks after the grenades were hurled. He saw one land near some troops patrolling near the Shabelle radio station.
“Government troops are firing indiscriminately after several hand grenades were thrown at them. Some of the troops are looting people. It’s total chaos here,” said one shopkeeper who declined to be named.
“I don’t know who they are firing at. Bakara is becoming a battlefield.”
Many businesspeople have complained that soldiers, who are often unpaid for months, have taken their property at gunpoint. The government has declined to comment.
A grenade attack on Saturday in Bakara wounded five people. Somali and allied Ethiopian soldiers on Thursday and Friday swept through the market seizing weapons.
They say it is a hideout for insurgents, including militant Islamists, who have increasingly attacked the government, employing Iraq-style guerrilla tactics including assassinations, roadside blasts and suicide bombings.
(WCCO) Crystal, Minn. A man detained in the investigation of a Crystal, Minnesota, woman’s murder has been arrested as the sole suspect in her killing.