ETHIOPIA: A PLACE WHERE NAMES SHOULDN’T COUNT FOR MUCH

By Teshome Abebe*


I begin this essay by paying tribute to the men who perished in the hands of the cowardly, ignorant, despicable, and abhorrent criminals who murder men and women and enslave children for political gain in search of power. Though their aim was, in part, to provoke inter and intra-religious antagonism and conflict in Ethiopia, they must have discovered, to their surprise, that in matters of peace and war, Ethiopians do not have a history of begging for mercy. In the spirit of the age-old Ethiopian tradition, the young men who perished never begged for mercy knowing fully that those who plead for it never get it.

Emperors Libene Dingel and Gelawdewos never begged for mercy when Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, (‘Ahmed Gragne’) and his cousin Nur Ibn Miyahid, took turns horrifying the land; Tewodros never begged for mercy in the face of a superior invading foreign force; Yohannes never begged for mercy—instead he presented his neck; Abuna Petros never begged the Fascists of Italy for mercy—he died willingly. The countless ‘arbegnotch’ and scholars whose heads were chopped off by the Italians never begged for mercy—they knew they would be remembered as heroes by the future sons and daughters of Ethiopia.

A man alone is an easy prey even for a hyena, and the men who perished didn’t die rich. But they died stubbornly, committed to their individual faith, and whether we agree with their faiths or not, we admire their resolve and acceptance of their fate. We only wish that the Ethiopian government will do everything in its power to determine who was behind the dastardly criminal act so that we will be able to figure out and understand the real force or forces that perceived a license to spill the blood of its citizens.

Now, to my intended essay. In this essay, I wish to argue that acknowledging one’s errors is never a sign of weakness. Instead, it can be a sign of confidence and the acquisition of new knowledge—i.e. learning. I believe it must have been one of the former presidents of the United States who once said that there could be no effort without error or shortcomings! This is true for every undertaking, and it certainly is true of politics in general. Furthermore, we can safely state that there can be no single authority in a multidimensional world. And there can be no single arbitrating authority in a world with a multitude of issues and multiple identities. Whenever there is some sort of authority, it is usually authority based upon the largest audience or followership. Even a dictator’s authority is divisible in that he or she has to at least have the concurrence or acquiescence of some.

Over the past several years, there have been numerous individuals who have argued as well as counseled that the Ethiopian economy needed to be diversified, and that the private sector needed to be opened up to those with investment potential and capabilities regardless of their domicile. Without ignoring completely the government’s arguments that the infant industry at home needed some protection as well as the compelling argument that there are activities where the private sector would not willingly make investments, like road building, bridges, and other essential infrastructure of the ‘public good’ nature, some adjustment of current policy is essential. It is in this sense that I welcome the news that the government is planning to make changes or a course correction in at least some sectors. For example, it is now common knowledge that the government is going to open up the housing sector for foreign investments, and to make 2.3 million hectares of land available for investors. In addition, even the most strident supporters of the government are raising serious questions about the government’s inability to remain impartial in the market place, and for its perceived inability to curb rent-seeking activities including in the more high-profile cases in the country. This should be viewed as a welcome development, and here are some of the reasons why.

The first of these is the government’s optimistic and erroneous assumption earlier on that the local entrepreneurs have the expertise and capital, and thereby the ability, to satisfy demand. To the surprise of the government, it has now discovered that there is no talent that outsiders possess—including the Diaspora-- which the country cannot now use. In addition, and the second reason, it appears that the government has learned that sometimes it lacks knowledge rather than skills; at other times it lacks skills rather than knowledge to solve problems.

The practical consequence of this condition is that the resolutions for the many problems the government has faced have either been arbitrary or politically inspired and/or dogmatic. This in turn has denied it the ability as well as the flexibility to find irrefutable solutions to current problems. Therefore, overtime, the problems have become dilemmas to which practical solutions have not been considered or available. I am not suggesting that the problems are easy or simple to manage. What I am suggesting is that because the problems are so intractable, ideology and politics should never be allowed to exclude consideration and adoption of potential solutions.

In that sense, let me address the new elephant in the room, as an example. Regardless of what the government and its supporters have to say, in my opinion, the feature of a huge country like Ethiopia with multiple identities, and where people are divided along instrumentalized killil lines based on instrumentalized ethnicity and to the possible detrimental effects on the free and unencumbered movement of skilled labor, capital and entrepreneurial expertise, will always have an instrumentalized shortage of one thing or another.

Add to this the other old elephant in the room—the lack of meaningful, determined initiatives at population control where the norm today is for inflated families that cannot be fed adequately, the impact of geography on absolute poverty will be further accentuated rather than being minimized. If this persists, the current condition of ‘leading’ and ‘lagging’ regions or killils will be the norm—a situation that is contrary to the notion of equal development.

I am in agreement with the government’s conclusions that political stability along with macroeconomic stability is key to economic development. Yet, the concept of instrumentalized killils is contrary to the forces of globalization, which are irreversible. Instead of forging a new enlightened path to more integration where regions are subject to a common freedom of resource exploitation without exercising national sovereignty, the government had in effect decreed that certain things are not object of private rights, and others are insusceptible to being influenced by the natural forces of outside influences. In this sense, the practical effect of the killils is that Oromia, for example, has to rely on its own labor force for economic development, as do Amhara, Tigrai or any of the other killils. The observable result is, for example, not much else is being developed outside of Adama and Addis Ababa in Oromia where the federal government has not taken interest. Stretches of communities from Messela, Tullo, Burka, Deder, Kobo, Kersa, Bedeno, Gara Muleta, and many, many other communities are in some ways worse of today than they were decades ago.

By similar illustration, one can find examples of communities in the other killils through out the country where the regional governments have simply not been able to develop on their own. The inherently unsustainable doctrine of self-sufficiency originating with the creation of the instrumentalized killil system is partly to blame. Just as a country that can draw on the world’s population for its development is far better off than the one that is closed (think of the USA here), a region (killil) is better off when it can rely on the labor force, resources and skills of other regions (killils).

It is admirable that the government talks about national collective unity, and indeed, has made this one of its pillars of economic development and progress but in a perverse way. I assert here that the government can achieve national collective unity by other means as well. A good place to start would be to begin giving people good choices that are meaningful. Economic development, in part, is about giving people good choices.

A third reason for the perceived change of course, I believe, is the government’s realization that it can not continue to be the single largest employer of the labor force in the country. The generation of jobs and creative employment for the multitude of the young unemployed and underemployed requires the cooperation and contributions of the private sector. That the government seems to have recognized this should be of no surprise to anyone as it has created many higher education institutions each graduating many of the young people who in turn expect value for their education. The alternative would be an unwelcome disillusionment followed by cynicism and, in the worst case, chaos.

It is a forgone conclusion that the government will still be in power after the scheduled political ‘contest’ this month. By the end of its next term, the TPLF/FDRE government will have been in power for nearly thirty years—a rule that is one of the longest in the country’s history. This experience should have given it wisdom and knowledge along with confidence to trust and embrace not only just some Ethiopians but also all Ethiopians, and to allow for the correction of some of its missteps and errors. Others would write and speak about the political and social missteps, and could do so in more informed ways than I could. With regard to the economy, however, it is always worth remembering that a healthy respect for market-led resource allocation is essential for economic development. This is so because all economies are guided by macroeconomic goals, but function according to microeconomic rules and principles. To illustrate this point or cite an example, the government has done quite a bit to help farmers export food because of prevailing high prices overseas. The consequence of this is that not all of the poor are worse off: farmers (who happened to be poor for the most part) benefit, but the urban poor suffer. Helping farmers become more productive and sell overseas is good for their income, but does very little for food prices at home. The government collects whatever taxes it levies on exports, never mind the foreign exchange generated, but the poor still pay the higher domestic prices.

Few objective observers could seriously argue that the intractable problems Ethiopia faces today, including absolute poverty, underdevelopment, fleeing citizens and a degree of polarization, are due to lack of theories, facts or knowledge and skills or even thoughtlessness. Instead, it is partly due to the values and beliefs as well as the policies and stories the government allows to be played out. It is these beliefs, policies and stories that are going to serve us as our trust worthy landmarks come the next ‘election’. Once again, every generation holds the promise of a fresh start, and that begins with what we think. And what we think is that names shouldn’t count for much, and that a course correction is both desirable and necessary. It can even be a sign of confidence and maturity!

*Professor Teshome Abebe is a former Provost and Vice President, and may be reached at: teshome2008@gmail.com

LIFT UP YOUR HEADS ETHIOPIANS: YOU ARE THE GREATEST PEOPLE THAT EVER WALKED THE FACE OF THIS EARTH

By Tecola W Hagos

Introduction

The brutal murder of thirty Ethiopians in Libya and the savage attack and burning of Ethiopian Brothers in barbaric “Zululand” in South Africa in the last two weeks reminded me once again that we live among savages and subhuman creatures around the World. I cannot find appropriate words to use in identifying the savages that committed such heinous crimes against absolutely innocent and defenseless peaceful Ethiopians in Libya or in South Africa. These groups of individuals along with their leaders showed behavior no better than primitive wild animals. I cannot consider them as part of the human race of Homo Sapiens Sapiens in light of their criminal deeds. In either case they are a cowardly group of individuals that slaughtered innocent people, and their so called governments did nothing more than lip service to protect peaceful law abiding Ethiopians and other Africans from several countries. The South African Government has violated the Genocide Convention that is jus cogens may be even obligatio erga Omnes.

On Tuesday 28 April 2015, the South African Government has deployed military personnel to round up undocumented immigrants in areas where most of the crimes of murdering and looting of immigrants had taken place. The Government of South Africa is now getting ready to violate the human rights of African immigrants and is setting another purging to satisfy the demented desire of primitive criminals that do not even know who is stripping them of the wealth they aspire for. No matter how immigrants entered South Africa legally or illegally, they have their unalienable human rights and must not be abused, tortured, or murdered by anyone in South Africa. The South African Government and/or its Citizens are not above the Charter of the United Nations and numerous Conventions and Resolutions of the United Nations. The South African Government has signed and ratified such international instruments. It has the utmost duty and international obligation to protect every human being however his/her status might be within its territory from assaults, abuses, torture, and murders.

South Africa is a Member Party to the Genocide Convention by its act of accession of 1998. Ethiopia, of course, is the original signatory of 1948 and ratifying the Convention in 1949, thanks to the legacy of Emperor Haile Selassie I. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. It has now a membership of 146 Sovereign States. Many jurists and legal scholars believe the Genocide Convention has become part of the customary international law and norms and it needs not be limited in its reach only to the Membership of the Convention. A considerable number of legal experts including the ICJ in a noted case hold the Convention as jusc cogens may be also obligato erga omnes. [See Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2007, p. 43. The existence of a jus cogens in genocide cases is also affirmed by the June 2013 decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the Stichting Mothers of Srebrenica and Others v. The Netherlands case. In that case the dispositive issue was on the question of immunity of United Nations authorized peace keeping forces in cases of allegations of genocide for failing to prevent the massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica. In a dictum the court has asserted that the Genocide Convention is indeed a jus cogens principle in international law and norms.]

I have hereunder extracted relevant provisions from the Genocide Convention of 1948 and also relevant provisions on the human rights and human dignity of all persons in South Africa from the Constitution of South Africa as Amended. Take not the fact that King Goodwill Zwelithini is a criminal violator of both the Genocide Convention (Articles 2 and 3) and the Constitution of South Africa (Chapter 2: Bill of Rights in its entirety), so are several political leaders and individuals in the South African Government.

The Genocide Convention

Article 1
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
• (a) Killing members of the group;
• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 3

The following acts shall be punishable:
• (a) Genocide;
• (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
• (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
• (d) Attempt to commit genocide;
• (e) Complicity in genocide.

Article 4

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

Article 5

The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.

Article 6

Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.

Article 7

Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.

Article 8

Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3.

Article 9

Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.

The South African Constitution

Now consider the Constitution of South Africa as Amended in its aspect directly dealing with human rights issues and the responsibilities of the South African Government to protect the lives and well-being of people living in South Africa irrespective of their legal status as legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, or Citizens:
.
Preamble: We, the people of South Africa, Recognise the injustices of our past; Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to - Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law; Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations. May God protect our people.
…
Chapter 2: Bill of Rights

7. Rights
(1) This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.

(2) The state must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights.

(3) The rights in the Bill of Rights are subject to the limitations contained or referred to in section 36, or elsewhere in the Bill.

8. Application

(1) The Bill of Rights applies to all law, and binds the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state.

(2) A provision of the Bill of Rights binds a natural or a juristic person if, and to the extent that, it is applicable, taking into account the nature of the right and the nature of any duty imposed by the right.

(3) When applying a provision of the Bill of Rights to a natural or juristic person in terms of subsection (2), a court -

(a) in order to give effect to a right in the Bill, must apply, or if necessary develop, the common law to the extent that legislation does not give effect to that right; and

(b) may develop rules of the common law to limit the right, provided that the limitation is in accordance with section 36 (1).

(4) A juristic person is entitled to the rights in the Bill of Rights to the extent required by the nature of the rights and the nature of that juristic person.

9. Equality

(1) Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.

(2) Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken.

(3) The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

(4) No person may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds in terms of subsection (3). National legislation must be enacted to prevent or prohibit unfair discrimination.

(5) Discrimination on one or more of the grounds listed in subsection (3) is unfair unless it is established that the discrimination is fair.

10. Human dignity

Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.

11. Life
Everyone has the right to life.

12. Freedom and security of the person

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right -

(a) not to be deprived of freedom arbitrarily or without just cause;

(b) not to be detained without trial;

(c) to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources;

(d) not to be tortured in any way; and

(e) not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way.

(2) Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right -

(a) to make decisions concerning reproduction;

(b) to security in and control over their body; and

(c) not to be subjected to medical or scientific experiments without their informed consent.

The Zulu Factor: Afrophobia not Xenophobia

In a series of articles Zackie Achmat and several other prominent scholars have exposed the disruptive activities and collaboration of Zulu leaders with the White rulers of South Africa throughout the struggle against the Apartheid system of Government. “The late colonial and apartheid state in South Africa was always White dominated but supported ‘tribal’ leaders in the homelands or Bantustans and a minority of Coloured and Indian collaborators.” Achmat further named Gatsha Buthelezi, Kaizer Matanzima, Lennox Sebe, Cedric Mphephu, Alan Hendrickse, Armichand Rajbansi, Lucas Mangope and many others who collaborated with the apartheid state. Everyone of these chiefs were based in the old homelands: Lebowa (North Sotho, also referred to as Pedi), QwaQwa (South Sotho), Bophuthatswana (Tswana), KwaZulu (Zulu), KaNgwane (Swazi), Transkei and Ciskei (Xhosa), Gazankulu (Tsonga), Venda (Venda) and KwaNdebele (Ndebele). [See Zachie Achmat, “Was apartheid only white rule: Bantustans, collabor ators and traditional leaders,” July 24, 2010]

The brutal and savage attack of immigrants (from Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Somalia and other Southern Africa countries) was not Xenophopic but Afrophopic aimed at Black African immigrants. The main culprit of that heinous crimes are some subhuman Zulus upfront doing the gruesome deeds in the main, but the real criminals instigating the primitive Zulu thugs are the “Coloured” and Indian small business owners who are behind the scene. Those are the same groups who have a long history of collaboration with Boers, Afrikaners and the White rulers and in case of the Zulus had even attacked and murdered freedom fighters of the ANC. Achmat opined further, “Now is the time to re-examine the role of ‘traditional’ leaders and collaborators under apartheid. They did not go away, they entered the ANC to continue plundering the state as they plundered the Bantustans and the stooge Coloured and Indian Parliaments.”

The individual responsible for the latest atrocities, where two Ethiopian brothers were burned to death (among several other Black Africans who were murdered and tortured and their property was looted and their homes and businesses vandalized), is the Zulu leader, King Goodwill Zwelithini, who referred to immigrants as “lice” and “ticks” that must be removed. He said, “Let us pop our head lice. We must remove ticks and place them outside in the sun. We ask foreign nationals to pack their belongings and be sent back,” in a speech in Pongola in northern Kwa-Zulu Natal, on 20 March 2015. [See Reuters, 20 March 2015]. It is a fact that his father and Grand Father were all collaborators of the White rulers long before the Apartheid system was enforced in 1948. Zwelithini’s ancestoral family member were also responsible in the assassination of Shaka Zulu, the very founder of Zululand. However, after Zwelithini was installed king in 1968, he did support briefly revolt against the White rulers but later ended up against the international sanction against South Africa and become supporter of Inkatha and Buthelezi the famous anti-ANC politician, the black public face that wanted to continue the Apartheid system.

King Goodwill Zwelithini and His International Crime

People in power and those who have sway on groups of people must be careful with their words. I suggest all victims of atrocities and the Ethiopian Government and other governments of the victims’ home-countries should sue King Goodwill Zwelithini in courts in the United States and in courts of countries signatories who have ratified or acceded to the Genocide Convention for crime of genocide and crime against humanity. This criminal court proceeding can be also pursued in the International Criminal Court (ICC). South Africa ratified the Rome Treaty of the ICC in 2000, Ethiopia has not done that to this day. Nevertheless, one cannot ignore a rabid dog going around biting people of any status from any part of the World.

Civil suits should be brought against Zwelithini wherever his assets are to be found and it is very likely to recover in damages in millions of dollars for the murdered victims and those tortured by thugs and looters in the weeks after 13 April 2015 to date. Zwelithini’s later retraction after the fact is simply a face saving device, and also to portray himself free of criminal intent. Even then he had done a shoddy job, for he simply got himself sink deeper in his own filth of hate and bigotry calling for violence against groups he identified as “illegal” foreigners.

The South African Government seems to be reluctant in investigating and arresting the criminals that murdered innocent Ethiopians and other immigrants. The South African Government and the individual officials too can be sued in foreign courts. The Police in South Africa are a joke, they were/are more of collaborators than law enforcers deliberately not protecting defenseless victims. It is absolutely shameful to watch those subhuman creatures attacking and looting in total disregard of the minimum of standards of civilized behavior.

The Greatness of Ethiopians

My identification of Ethiopians as the “greatest” people that ever walked the face of the Earth is not simply a matter of hyperbole and empty rhetoric. In the aftermath of that horrendous crime committed against Ethiopians by IS in the name of Islam in Libya, there was not a single report of any retaliatory violence against Muslims in Ethiopia or by Diaspora Ethiopians in the rest of the World. In a country that one finds brutal and savage Government, how can we explain such civilized behavior by ordinary Ethiopians? To answer this question one must traverse long distances to far ancient times.

It is a fact that We gave birth to all of human civilizations by planting the seed of basic values and organized society when a handful of Us ventured out into the four corners of the World. Who do you think the Sumerians were, who are accredited for planting the seed of civilization for all of mankind? They are the people of highland Ethiopia from the Great Rift Valley mountain escarpments who trekked on foot across the Afar depression crossing over the land-bridge between Africa and Asia through Southern Arabian Peninsula and settled in the swampy delta of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. They took with them their greatest discovery of all time the cultivation of wild highland grass cereal Barley, Oats, and Wheat seeds and domesticated cattle, sheep and goats, donkeys and the forerunners of horses into the well watered plains of Uruk, Lagash et cetera.

We Ethiopians are builders of civilizations and we spread our DNA of highly evolved Homo- sapiens and replenished the Earth. It is only in Ethiopia that you find the prototypes of every race of the World. We are not sedentary and fearful people. We are adventurous and of a highly dynamic stock. We are not afraid of the unknown, for we are superbly confident of our survival skill. When man ventures out into deep space and encounters the first intelligent life form, he/she will be surprised to find out that he/she was beaten to that frontier by no other than an Ethiopian. We are already spread all over the World planting the seeds of the new humanity to come through in a couple of thousand years. The World is ours, and we do not have to apologize for spreading all over the World. Wherever we go we bring to the area great spirituality, morality and organized life. Anywhere in the World if you find a few Ethiopians, you also find that they have a religious center usually a Church, a community center, a soccer team, a restaurant, a local store et cetera.

This phenomena of instant organization, constructive engagement, and the establishment of civil structure is our singular heritage from ancient times. Throughout our tumultuous history, we fought foreign invaders with one hand and built great churches, cathedrals, cities and palaces with the other hand. The great Cathedrals and Churches hewn from solid rocks were constructed at Roha (Lalibela) during a period of recovery and reconstruction of the Ethiopian Empire after a devastating dynastic upheaval that lasted over a century at the end of the first Millennium.

It is not some fairytale when a number of historians even non-Ethiopians at times grudgingly acknowledge that We are the people who had never been subjugated by any outside force in legend and throughout recorded human history. All of our history is that of a people who only know freedom without foreign yoke or masters. With each other we could be harsh even barbaric, but all that are infightings within a family.

Ethiopians, Lift Up Your Heads in Pride!

I have read several narratives and commentaries written by learned scholars and professionals such as Aklog Birara (PhD) [“ከጩኸት ወደ ተግባር። የሚነገድበት የስደት ማእበል ትውልድ ከየት መጣ? ለማቆም እንረባረብ።”], Alemayehu G Mariam (Prof) [“Ethiopia: cry once again, our beloved country”], et cetera. Whereby, those learned scholars focused on the problems leading to the migration of Ethiopians from the Motherland unprotected nor supported when in trouble by the current Ethiopian Government. They wrongly pilled all the problems of Ethiopians on the TPLF/EPRDF. Moreover, along with some of the video presentations of demonstrations and Memorials for those Ethiopians victims of IS in Libya and victims of street thugs in South Africa seem to present us being humiliated by being victimized or for being immigrants. I strongly object to such portrayal of us to be ashamed of being migrant workers, or victims of violence. There is nothing to be ashamed of being migrant workers if we seek our fortune and comfort anywhere in the World. If we migrate from Ethiopia into the rest of the World for any reason, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Who can say that part of the World that we choose to go to is not for us? If some subhuman creature attacks or torture us there is nothing to be ashamed of. But we must fight back.

The real issue is not why a number of young Ethiopians leave Ethiopia, but is our Government protecting us no matter why we leave Ethiopia? Or is the Ethiopian Government equally guilty for our suffering in the hands of subhuman creatures? If we put the question that way, the Ethiopian Government is even more guilty of the suffering of immigrant Ethiopians in Libya, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. For the Ethiopian Government has the Constitutional duty to protect the citizens of Ethiopia wherever they maybe. When the Saudis over a year ago were murdering and brutalizing Ethiopians, the Ethiopian Government should have declared war and gone to war too. Because the Ethiopia Government failed to stand against the Saudi Government and others when Ethiopian Citizens are abused and murdered by such governments and their citizens, the rest of the World took notice that it is OK to abuse and murder Ethiopians to the point that now some South Africans whom we helped in time of their distress suffering under the yoke of Apartheid by training fighters of the ANC including Mandela are murdering and torturing Ethiopians.

If a dog bites you, there is no reason to be ashamed of. If a donkey kicks you, there is nothing to be ashamed of that. By the same token if the IS or Arabs or Zulu thugs attack Ethiopians, shame on them not on Us. There is nothing shameful in migrating, traveling in different parts of the world. Under a different time frame, Ethiopians would not have traveled that far without their swords and spears. Time has defanged us, the Lions of Africa, and we have become victims of street thugs and hooded cowardly men who murder unarmed peaceful men. Ethiopian immigrants have committed no crimes that leads to being butchered. My fellow Ethiopians, now hold your heads high, and do not be victimized a second time by humiliating yourself believing you are pariah and have done something wrong. You have not done anything wrong. The World is ours to share.

Our pride in ourselves and our history is not empty but backed with historic triumphs of defeating well-armed Western Armies twice in 1896 and in 1941. No other African nation has done that. As to the Zulus of South Africa, no amount of pretention would erase their vainglorious past, for they were defeated by a handful of Boers and later by the British and subjugated for centuries confined to so called “homelands” and insignificant Kraals. They built nothing of permanence. They were just primitive herders or gatherers for most of their history even after their contact with Western civilization in the 16th Century. Even more shameful is their collaboration with the racist White rulers against ANC freedom fighters up to the last days of the Apartheid System in 1994.

The Ethiopian Government

The current Ethiopian Government has failed completely its own Constitutional duties and responsibilities to protect the human rights and human dignity of the Citizens of Ethiopia residing legally or illegally in several foreign countries, such as Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon, Turkey and South Africa, in addition to those passing-through territories of countries, such as Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia et cetera. The Ethiopian Leaders failed miserably from taking appropriate action against Saudi Arabia when Ethiopians were murdered, tortured, and brutally treated by the barbaric Saudi Government and its subhuman citizens. That acquiescence in the face of horrendous brutality and murder committed against Ethiopians, paved the way to other nations to brutalize Ethiopians because they realized the Ethiopian Government will not bother to take care of its citizens. In more ways than one that form of lack of concern for citizens is the hallmark of the leadership of the TPLF from its inception to date.

The Ethiopian Government did not even protest to the United Nations about the brutalizing and murder of its citizens by Saudis. Did it do any better with the current Libyan savagery at the United Nations? Have they protested the continued abuse and murder of Ethiopians in South Africa? What do Ethiopian Diplomats do around the United Nations and the European Union and the African Union or elsewhere in the World? Absolutely nothing. They are busy trading in illegal tax free liquor and tax free goods. Ethiopia’s diplomatic mission is a big joke. They serve no one not even the Government they represent let alone the People of Ethiopia. Let me just illustrate my point, I have not heard any report that someone in the Foreign Ministry nor in the Prime Minister’s office suggesting to call a regional Conference of the States whose citizens have been brutalized and murdered in South Africa. That would have been the first act of seasoned diplomats. Ethiopian Diplomats are just a joke wherever you find them and the worst inapt diplomats you find at the United Nations, in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Africa, the United States et cetera.

I have written at considerable personal risk and threats suggesting that we should give some chance for the new Ethiopian leader Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and his new Administration, and a time to breath and a chance to fix the monumental problems left behind by the late Prime Minster Meles Zenawi. To my chagrin, Hailemariam Desalegn does not seem to have the type of leadership backbone in order to break away from the straightjacket-politics left behind by Meles. To a depth, I can understand the dilemma faced by Hailemariam Desalegn in a pit of vipers what can he do either play dead, or bare false fangs as the vipers around him. He must have forgotten one important thing he can do: if he is a decent man that he can always resign than be boxed in by the likes of Samora, Abaye, Kassu, and the omnipresent Ghost of Meles Zenwi.

I have patiently shouldered the insults and verbal abuses of some of the vocal Diaspora, for my focus is always on what would happen on the morning after overthrowing the current Ethiopian Government. I cannot in good conscience gamble with the lives of millions of Ethiopians by jumping into a dark pit without knowing what awaits us all in the morning after. I have read all kinds of allegations that I am somehow in cahoots with the current Ethiopian Government and/or the TPLF/EPRDF. If truth be easily swallowed, the fact is that the people in leadership position now in Ethiopia hate and wish ill to no one as much as they do to me. The groups that conspired to get me out of the EPRDF/TPLF in 1992 are now in full control without the restraining power of Meles Zenaw. Meles Zenawi was a far more capable politician than those now left behind, who are surviving on his legacy. Meles knew well how to play pitting groups and balancing their influences. In fact, he did not want me to resign and leave the country in 1993.

There is no doubt in my mind that Meles has done some serious harm to the interest of Ethiopia: land locking it, devaluing its currency, selling out its territory to Sudan, forcing local population off their ancestral land and leasing their land to foreigners, degrading the humanity of Ethiopians by killing and incarcerating thousands of Ethiopians during the seventeen years of struggle and during the period of the last twenty years of power and national leadership. In the long run his fate as his legacy will be as dismal as that of Oliver Cromwell. I have articulated the main debacles that Meles left us with. If I were in a position of power, I would deactivate all those political land-mines he left behind. There is no love lost between us. The only item I consider positive in all of his activities is the construction of the GERD, but even that is with reservations, for there are several items about the GERD I would like to know more about. Moreover, it is really pointless to dwell on Meles Zenawi, let him rest wherever, for we have far more pressing needs to solve our complex problems than just lament our lost time and our lost opportunities.

Conclusion

This is a difficult time for us Ethiopians. This is how great people are tested. No one cares what happens in scores of countries around the World let alone hunt their citizens for particularly brutal murder and violence. Such barbaric acts are aimed to great Western nations too. In Ethiopia, we have a great country and people that become targets for cowardly thugs and terrorists. My personal thoughts about such savages and subhuman individuals is not flattering at all. The only terms I find appropriate to describe them and identify them with are Borealopithecus Arabsis for the northern hominid Arabs who brutalized and murdered Ethiopians in Libya (recently) and in Saudi Arabia for years, and Australopithecus Zulusis for the southern hominids Zulus for those who committed the barbaric murders and tortures recently and in 2008 in South Africa.

Although I am digressing from the theme of this essay, nevertheless, I want it to be clearly understood that I am forward looking, I use history and past events as a learning tool to hone up my future plans. Past events must not put us in a box and disable us from being creative and innovative in our dealing with our future. I read also, less now than before, some ignorant narrow minded individuals from some insignificant village from the back woods of Ethiopia trying to define my Ethiopiawnet. I care even for such individuals, for in the final analysis they are part of my Ethiopia the way I know it from its ancient birth to its present precarious existence held between destructive Arabs, South African Zulus, overambitious local politicians in Ethiopia, some Diaspora frustrated immigrants et cetera—a shining example of survival in the face of a deluge threatening our very existence. It is in this understanding of our Ethiopian reality that I am reluctant to dismiss or ignore the huge elephant in the room—the current Ethiopian Government dominated by TPLF.

How does it help if I write declaring the Current Ethiopian Government is dead? The Elephant will still be there the morning after, may be even in a more destructive mood. I do not want to have a power vacuum in Ethiopia. One cannot just use only force to get viable change of governance in Ethiopia. This has nothing to do with my liking or being loyal to the current Leaders in Ethiopia. We need them not because I like them, but because they serve a useful purpose despite the fact of their corruptions, whereby their wives, children, family members, business partners including foreigners, and generals amassing fortune and assets worth millions of dollars. The brutality and violations of human rights by the current Ethiopian Government is no secret. We have to build first some critical mass. Our bickering and amateurish politicking did not take us far to get rid of this deeply entrenched Federalism of ethnicity, if left unattended and reversed will prove to be our undoing. We need to work with existing sources of power. It is not even a question of “must” but of “need,” and you can easily observe the distinction I am making here.

Long live Ethiopia. Lift Up Your Heads Great Ethiopians. .

Tecola W. Hagos