The time has come for an Adwa Spring, what started with a joke of a soccer tournament come cultural sham has transformed into something bigger::

by Teddy Fikre  dated: Tuesday, July 2nd, 2012

Do you feel that? Feel what you ask. That shaking, the tremble below your feet as the upper crust of society suddenly shifts under the sea bed and a new ground pops up overnight to replace the staid landscape. That feeling you feel in your toes and gyrating through your bones is not an earthquake, it is the transformation of the Ethiopian vanguard as the Habesha scene is being mangled and renewed in the most violent way yet in the most serene sense of quietude. The old is giving way to the new, this is a new day and an Addis Moment–what you are witnessing is a Paradigm Shift.

For too long, good and decent everyday folk have been too intimidated by brute force and implied threats to keep quiet or else face eternal banishment. Too often, these words of bluster and hubris have been accompanied by violence as hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians since 1974 have perished overnight and were later buried in unmarked graves. First the ruthless Derg government led by Mengistu Hailemariam ravaged Ethiopians and left us whispering in cold corners and afraid of our own shadows. The unending sense of foreboding and fear can be traced back directly to the Derg regime where everyone suspected their own neighbors—hell, some were even afraid of their own children. Dictatorships are fomented and made permanent by tyrants that cripple leaders and leave the populace in an unending sense of terror.

Where the Derg left off the TPLF junta has perfected. I don’t understand it and I never will, how is it that a people who felt the touch of injustice turn to the very same tactics that brutalized their children to pass on a legacy of horror to the children of their own countrymen? How is it a group that felt oppressed now can oppress the group that they felt oppressed by while knowing full well that all  Ethiopians—without regard to ethnicity—suffered immensely under the Derg. This is the way of humanity though, no people on this earth–putting aside Native Americans and African-Americans–suffered a collective injustice like the Jews. Alas, now they have their own country, which parenthetically robbed Palestinians of their homeland, and the Jews in the name of “Homeland Defense” turn to some of the most horrific tactics to oppress and put down the Palestinians people.

But all things done in the name of injustice eventually give way to equity. Eventually the paradigm changes as people, leery of stifling oppression, revolt and say enough. That moment happened in Tunisia, Egypt, and throughout the Middle East. Look closely, and you might find in the least likely place a seed of a revolt taking place in between a kick and a testa.  A test case is being implemented by a group of outgoing Ethiopians, most based in the DC metro area, to change the paradigm and introduce a new form of non-violent tactics to oust tyranny in Ethiopia. Egsyaber willing, this seed will sprout, Inshalla the community will water the seed planted by these young people and let a new movement develop that will be our version of the Arab Spring. We might call this paradigm shift the Adwa Spring.

If you think that this article is a self-adulation missive, let me first state a disclaimer to dissuade you from that thinking. I promise you that this is not a self-love note. I might be the most visible of those “younger Ethiopians—I say “Younger” because I am 37 and I feel like I am 87 right at this moment—but rest assured that there are hundreds behind the efforts that I am a part of. We communicate and strategize on Facebook, Twitter and text messages. There is an army of Ethiopians behind me; some have family back in Ethiopia so they are leery of coming out in public for fear of putting their relatives in danger. Others are still a bit hesitant to be too public with their “resistance campaign” for fear of being targeted for persecution and intimidation. However, as each day passes, their spines are turning to steel as they slowly come around to realizing that fear is the only thing to fear.

I don’t blame them for their reticence. I myself prayed for days before I decided to wage war on AESA One. I thought of my family and how their lives would be disturbed. To be honest, I built in a 20% chance of bodily harm or death before I decided to leverage all my abilities to bringing down a nefarious and a duplicitous organization by the name of AESA One. And just as I predicted, the threats and harassment followed suit as soon as I started sending out press releases accusing AESA One of being a sham and tying them in to blood money from back home.

On Saturday, as I was going around passing out flyers for the “Free Ethiopia Celebration” where we were planning to feed our people for free and entertain them for free, a coward called my sister with a blocked number, cited where she lived, and made an implicit threat that my life was in danger if I did not back away and leave the AESA One event on Wednesday alone. Then on Sunday, when I arrived to set up the “Free Ethiopia Celebration”, two cowards–one in a blue shirt and a cast on his hand–came towards the African-American Civil War Memorial with a menacing look and called out my name as if though they were itching for a fight. As God would have it, my friend Mastewal and another compatriot showed up at that exact moment and convinced these two TPLF goons to tuck tail and run.

In America, if someone is spreading lies and untruths, there is this thing called defamation and libel and issues are settled in the court. Only in TPLF oppressed Ethiopia are citizens harassed and intimidated with death threats in order to keep quiet. Listen here AESA One, your brutal tactics might work in Ethiopia but this is America. I will NOT be silenced by your tirades and your threats. If what I say is untrue, sue me and I will see you in court. But just know this, I am in talks with the media and contacting the American Journal Association, I am begging you to sue me so that I can turn you into the face of African tyranny and in the process expose what Meles Zenawi did in locking up our brave Ethiopian jegna journalists.

The minute that the paperwork is filed, I will drive immediately to Philadelphia and hold a press conference in front of Liberty Bell with a ts-hirt that has the picture of Eskinder Nega. Moreover, there is this thing called discovery; I will request for 10 years worth of financial records of not only AESA One but each and every one of the AESA Executive Board.  Ask your expensive lawyers about discovery and they will most likey advise you not to sue me or else you will pay a lot more than the PIPER.  I will turn the whole of AESA One, Al Amoudi, and Abinet Gebremeskel and alike into the personification of all that ails Africa. I have 4,000 press releases ready to be sent the second you sue me.

Alas, you know not to sue me, you are smarter than that. So like cowards you turn to intimidation tactics like calling my sister and terrorizing her to death. You turn to calling my phone endlessly with blocked numbers. You turn to sending goons out on Sunday to intimidate me. In the process, you seek to make me go quietly into the night and aim to keep the hundreds who are behind me to never follow the same tactics. But here is what you don’t understand, my grandmother was a hero who fought the Italians during World War II and was given a medal of honor by Haile Selassie. My grandfather was a war hero as well; he was the pride of Gonder for his bravery and courage in the line of fire. I do not scare easily, hell, I don’t scare at all. Keep your mafia tactics up, you do nothing but encourage me to keep pushing because you only verify what I accuse you off each time my sister gets a death threat from a blocked number.  Moreover, the death threat I received gave my press releases extra weight, two lawmakers and one major media outlet that were ignoring my press releases are now seriously looking into my allegations.  I guess I should thank you and that coward who called my sister on Saturday for the Hebret.

But, rest assured that I am not a meek individual. I have read the Art of War over 200 times. So you want to get thuggish with it, here is my warning to you. Stop making death threats at my family, or else. Or else what you say? Well in the past 24 hours, people have sent me the pictures, addresses, names, school addresses, and work places of EVERY AESA One affiliated member’s family from Al Amoudi, Abinet Gebremeskel on down. This information I will guard with my life and will take to my grave, unlike you I have honor and choose not to involve the names and pictures of family members even as you make implicit threats against my nieces and nephews. But I warn you, back away, I have now written an articles that publicizes the names and pictures of EVERY single member of the AESA One family, including the addresses of your homes, your work and on down.

This information was forwarded to me by over 16 individuals who you must have wronged in the past. As my family goes so does your family, as I go so you go. If you want to fight me, fight me in court, but if you turn to the ways of gangsters, I will… CONTINUED