The guidance provided by outsiders can on occasion be primarily motivated by the desire to achieve the objectives of the outside group giving the advice, instead of the objectives of the population facing the oppression. At times, asking outsiders for guidance on what resisters should do can even result in a loss of control of the struggle to the outsiders… [read more]
Another Ethiopian woman was video-tapped as she cries for help when Saudi Arabia police dragged and forced her into a police van. We don’t know the identity and fate of the woman yet, but her case seems to be similar to that of Alem Dechassa.
By TOBIAS HAGMANN | New York Times
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA — Next time I travel to Ethiopia, I may be arrested as a terrorist. Why? Because I have published articles about Ethiopian politics.
I wrote a policy report on Ethiopia’s difficulties with federalism. I gave a talk in which I questioned Ethiopia’s May 2010 elections, in which the ruling EPRDF party (Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front) won 545 out of 547 seats in the Parliament. As part of my ongoing research on mass violence in the Somali territories, I interviewed members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist rebel group in eastern Ethiopia that the government has designated as a terrorist organization.
In the eyes of the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, my work is tantamount to subversion. Not only do his officials have zero tolerance for criticism, they consider people who either talk to or write about the opposition as abetting terrorists.
In recent years the government has effectively silenced opposition parties, human rights organizations, journalists and researchers. On June 27 a federal court convicted the journalist Eskinder Nega and 23 opposition politicians for “participation in a terrorist organization.” More than 10 other journalists have been charged under an anti-terrorism law introduced in 2009. Among them are two Swedes, Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, who are serving an 11-year prison sentence in Ethiopia. Hundreds of opposition supporters languish in prisons for exercising the very democratic rights that the Ethiopian Constitution nominally protects.
Most people outside Ethiopia associate the country with famine and poverty. They know little about the country’s history and politics — for example that Ethiopia was never colonized, or that it has Africa’s second biggest population. Nor are they aware that Ethiopia is a darling of the donor community, receiving more aid than any other African country. Over the past year alone, the U.S. Agency for International Development has given Ethiopia $675 million in aid. The United States closely collaborates with Ethiopia in covert missions against radical Islamists in neighboring Somalia.
Much of this support comes from the portrayal of Ethiopia as a strong and stable government in a region riddled with political upheaval. The problem, however, is that Ethiopia is plagued by too much state control.
When EPRDF came to power in 1991, it promised to democratize the country. Two decades later the party has a tight grip on all public institutions, from the capital to remote villages. Formally a federal democracy, Ethiopia is a highly centralized one-party state. No independent media, judiciary, opposition parties or civil society to speak of exist in today’s Ethiopia. Many of the country’s businesses are affiliated with the ruling party. Most Ethiopians do not dare to discuss politics for fear of harassment by local officials.
As I found out in dozens of interviews with Ethiopian Somalis, security forces indiscriminately kill, imprison and torture civilians whom they suspect of aiding Ogaden rebels.
How have donors who fund about one third of Ethiopia’s budget and many humanitarian programs reacted to this? They haven’t. They not only continue to support the Ethiopian government but in recent years have increased their aid. The West, most prominently the United States and the European Union, have concluded a strange pact with Meles Zenawi: So long as his government produces statistics that evince economic growth, they are willing to fund his regime — whatever its human rights abuses.
This policy is wrong, shortsighted and counterproductive. It is wrong because billions in Western tax money are spent to support an authoritarian regime. It is shortsighted because it ignores the fact that the absence of basic rights and freedoms is one of the reasons Ethiopians are so poor. It is counterproductive because many Ethiopians resent the unconditional aid and recognition given to their rulers. In Ethiopia — and also in Rwanda and Uganda — the West is once again making the mistake of rewarding stability and growth while closing its eyes to repression.
({www:Tobias Hagmann specializes in East African politics. He is a visiting scholar at the Department of Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley}.)
by Teddy Fikre dated: Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
In times of war, it is vital to understand that all on the other side are not evil and some are taking part and doing part with unethical people because they believe in an ideal beyond what the leaders of the other side espouse. In times of war, it is vital to separate the pigs from the lamb and to treat the redeemable as friends while banishing the useless ones to the periphery of extinction. War is a savage business, those who have God’s light in their cornea seek war not as a grand conquest or a final solution but as a means to bring about a Addis day and a lasting peace for the people.
It is with that statement that I will “expose” Makeda Debebe as the one person in AESA One who is worthy of being treated with graceful words instead of being buried with my fire pen. Makeda is the one person in AESA One who had ethics and who embarked to market and promote AESA One because she believed in the possibility that AESA One offered. She is the one person out of hundreds who did not take blood money to fill her wallet and instead worked with AESA One to help her brother. This is why Makeda is the only ONE in AESA One; while the rest of the blood thirsty mercenaries were paid over $20,000 a piece stained with the blood of raped and tortured 13 year old Ethiopian girls, Makeda broke her back in a million tiny pieces to give AESA One wings while not fully grasping the wings she was providing to this tyrant federation gave flight to Lucifer and his forty Banda bandits.
Let me tell you a bit about Makeda, or as I call her Makiyeyeye (this is copy written by the way), Makeda is a refuge attorney. She has made it her life mission to help those who are in need and she travels the world all over to give aid and comfort to those who have little and live for even less. She helps victims of rape and exploitation; she travels to Africa continuously to assist refugees and walks endlessly in refugee camps to give Hebret to those who are left shivering in dark lit corners. Makeda is the personification of her first name. You see, in Ethiopia most have some poetic names that have meanings so deep that even Pluto and Aristotle get confounded trying to figure out the 
essence of our names.
Unfortunately, most Habeshas spit on the meaning of their names and act in ways that are polar opposite of their names. Some are called Desta but they are the perfection of misery, some are called Dawit but don’t act as Dawit in the bible, some are called Fiker but live in hate, while others are named Emnet but have no faith at all. Makeda it seems is one of the tiny majorities of Habeshas who actually embraces and lives out the meaning of her first name. Her parents made no mistake calling this lovely lady Makeda—they can be proud that their daughter has grown up to be the Queen Makeda of Ethiopia after all. Right now, at this very moment, Habeshas with names like Henok Assefa are asking teenage boys proof of their ethnicity on job applications before they ask them about their qualifications. I told you, genocide in Ethiopia is being born and I am standing with my army of youth revolutionaries to stop it the only way we know how—to fight fight fight until the freedom is won.
The thing that galls me the most is that Makeda was the only Jegna who stood up and stood tall for AESA One. Every “man” in AESA One revealed themselves to be nothing more than Habesha Kemis wearing qamalams as they refused to come out publicly and defend the very “non-profit” that was paying them thousands of dollars in order to feed their blood lusting bellies. However, Makeda—the only one that did not get paid—stood like a soldier in Adwa and faced all incoming heat in order to defend the organization that she believed in. She even took forty scud missiles aimed at Makeda’s big foreheadiye (I say that with love) from Teddisho and refused to let me intimidate her. Imagine that, AESA One, a federation of forty bitches and one true nigist.
It is for that reason, because Makeda is a nigist of the highest order, that I write this article praising her heart. Now, don’t get it wrong, Makeda is still wrong for being part and taking part in an organization that is creating the very turmoil and pestilence that she is trying to erase as a profession. AESA One drinks from the cini of blood red buna as they continue to… (CONTINUED)
[CLICK TO VIEW MY DEDICATION TO MAKEDA DEBEBE]
[click to be a part of Adwa Spring 2012]
This is your chance to be with Woyane bandas or be with the people of Ethiopia. This Adwa Spring will be of the people by the people, Tigray, Oromo, Guragaye, Amhara, all 88 tribes of Ethiopia who believe in a FREE ETHIOPIA are welcome to join this movement. Those those are not a part of the movement and decide to stick with Meles and his TPLF Junta. Those who stay with Meles will disappear into the trash bin of history. Soon, not another child of Ethiopia or Africa will die from hopelessness and hunger::
[click to visit Ethiopian Heritage Society]
If you want to know what our heritage and society is all about, please visit the Ethiopian Heritage Society and make sure you support them when they come to DC on July 27th – July 29th. Leave the “Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum”, a Woyane infested death panel, and support the Ethiopian Heritage Society instead. The Ethiopian Heritage Society supported ESFNA while the “Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum threw their lot in with Meles and AESA One. The choice is simple, choose wisely and choose Ethiopian Heritage Society. Enamesegenalen::
The health and whereabouts of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi have become a subject of much speculation. The situation appears to border on panic, especially among regime loyalists. Addis Fortune, an otherwise compliant pro-government business publication chimes in with its own concerns.
Addis Fortune, July 8, 2012
Not surprisingly, and for obvious reasons, the health and well-being of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi have been the subject of intense discussion among members of the public. This came following photos released recently while he was in Mexico, where he was attending a summit by leaders of the group of 20 major economies (G20), and subsequent TV footage showing him receiving Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of Somalia’s transitional government.
In both images that the public was exposed to, it was clear that the Prime Minister had lost weight and visibly. With speculations wide and persistent, the source of his weight loss was thought by many to be due to failing health.
Such a public perception was only fed by his absence from the public’s view over the past two weeks and was intensified because Parliament has still not gone on recess for the summer, even although the country’s official fiscal year came to an end on Saturday, July 8, 2012. What Parliament was, rather, scheduled to discuss on this day was issues such as approving the minutes from its 43rd session, ratifying a bill on national IDs, and giving recognition to a team of surgeons who successfully conducted an unusual surgery on a child.
MPs have yet to accomplish two of the most important tasks in the year. Listening to the Prime Minister’s address to Parliament on the state of the federation during the just-concluded fiscal year and voting on his report as well as ratifying the federal budget’s bill for the fiscal year that just began, which was approved by the Council of Ministers four weeks ago. Gossip sees that neither of these can take place in the absence of the Prime Minister, indeed, unless, of course, there is a situation that dictates otherwise.
At the heart of all of this lies the issue of whether there is a health challenge that Meles is facing that prohibits him from conducting his official duties. The administration, through its spokesperson, Shimelis Kemal, state minister for the Government Communications Affairs Office, vehemently denied rumours that the Prime Minister has been ill. Some close to the Prime Minister have similar views and attribute his recent loss of weight to a diet that he might have started lately.
Coincidentally, it was at a time of such uncertainty that senior officials at the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development (MoFED) instructed, last week, a recall of letters copied to various federal offices in relation to settling medical bills paid on behalf of the Prime Minister, gossip claims. Meles was in London last year for an official visit, where he had a routine check-up, claims gossip.
The way that such bills get settled through the bureaucratic paper trail is for the Prime Minister’s Office to write a letter of request to the MoFED, upon which the latter transfers the funds to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), which actually undertakes the payment, according to gossip. Such was what the Prime Minister’s Office did to see that the medical bills for the London check-up were settled almost a year after, gossip claims. Accordingly, the guys at the MoFED have already transferred the money to the foreign office, disclosed gossip.
Nonetheless, for reasons not explained, the paper trails circulating within the various federal agencies in order to process the request have been recalled, claims gossip. A couple of days last week were spent on such an effort, fueling a new cycle of speculations on the well-being of the Prime Minister, according to gossip.
It looks like there is a lot more that the administration’s spin-doctors need to do on the public relations front to reassure an otherwise alarmed bureaucracy and public, before the grapevine spins things out of control, those at the gossip corridors agree.
No doubt that he has been outside of the country much of last week; whether that was for recovery due to exhaustion – and for skipping a couple of checkups last year – or something else, gossip disclosed. Nonetheless, some at the diplomatic corridor claim that he is now in a very good health, expected to have been back to Addis Abeba on Saturday night.
If, indeed, the Prime Minister was sick and is now recovering, there should be no reason to keep the public in the dark about the health of their leader, many at the gossip corridor agree.
Former TPLF regime official Abdellah Adem Teki provides an in-depth analysis on why dictator Meles Zenawi has launched an anti-Muslim campaign in Ethiopia. [Read here: Amharic – PDF]