Déjà Vu: Here We Go Again With the Charade

By Alemayehu G. Mariam | September 21, 2009

Last April, we commented that the whole business of elections in Ethiopia is “much ado about nothing”. We offered a catalogue of reasons why the whole election rigmarole and ritual under the current dictatorship was an exercise in futility and absurdity1

The insufferably meaningless [2008] election ritual is now almost over. But for a few more days, we’ll have to put up with the regime’s self-congratulatory blabber and vacuous sloganeering about Ethiopia’s unstoppable march on the road to democracy. Mercifully, in another week or so, no one will even remember there was an ‘election’ in Ethiopia in 2008.

Perhaps we spoke too soon. Here we go again with another election charade!
We are once again being finessed into talking about “the 2010 election” as though it is a real election. It is as real as Mickey Mouse, Pinocchio, Bugs Bunny and Mr. Magoo. It is just crazy: How is it possible that we fall for the same old trick over and over and over…? How can one conceive of contesting an “election” in 2010 that has already been won in 2009? How does any reasonable person believe that the same crooks that rigged the 2005 election will sit in their rocking chairs on the front porch watching a real election being held? Didn’t the same gang of election thieves tell us last April that opposition party members won ONLY 3 seats out of 3.5 million elected seats won by their party? What they call an “election” is the three ring circus where they will be formally announcing their landslide victory in May 2010.
But the charade goes on. It was reported that Ethiopia’s arch dictator “has set up talks with the opposition about drawing up a code of conduct for [elections] next year.” As usual, he tried to pull a fast one by trying to get opposition party leaders to sign it. Ato Seeye Abraha, a former defense minister who is now in the Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia [FDDE] (a coalition of eight opposition parties) said, “The code of conduct assumes a context where there will be independent administration of elections, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, no intervention by security forces.” FDDE members pulled out of the talks. It was a simple case of “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Jamais Vu: What in the World is Going on in Ethiopia?
When the familiar seems new or bizarre, psychologists call it “jamais vu”. Something strange is going on in the relationship between the pro-democracy opposition parties and the one-man, one-party dictatorship in Ethiopia. They seem to have finally come to a complete agreement on political strategy. They have all become Ghandians. Ethiopia’s arch dictator has threatened to use the collective numerical power of African countries and walk out of the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December if the “rapists” of Africa do not pay up $67 billion a year as “blood money” for their centuries-long abuse of the continent:
If need be we are prepared to walk out of any negotiations that threatens to be another rape of the continent… While we reason with everyone to achieve our objective we are not prepared to rubber stamp any agreement by the powers… We will use our numbers to delegitimise any agreement that is not consistent with our minimal position… Africa will field a single negotiating team empowered to negotiate on behalf of all member states of the African Union…

The FDDE “using its numbers” wants to negotiate with the ruling “Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front” to contest the “2010 elections”. But they walked out of the negotiations when the dictatorship began a campaign of arrest and intimidation against their members. Ato Bulcha Demeksa, leader of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement bitterly complained, “The ruling party cadres throughout the country are jailing our potential candidates on false charges… We want to negotiate with the government and ask them to stop arresting and jailing our potential candidates.” The capo dictator in his polished Orwellian gobbledygook was sarcastically dismissive: “Those parties that apparently are concerned about harassment are not concerned enough to participate in the devising of a code of conduct that is designed to put an end to it, if it exists, or to prevent it if it doesn’t… The intent of these individuals is to discredit the election process from day one, not to participate in it.” The dictator’s reptilian consigliere, Bereket Simon, with his signature condescension, contempt and mockery of the opposition quipped, “Nobody is being jailed for being a politician… To walk away from [the talks] is disastrous and is to walk away from democracy.”
Ghandi Rules!

We are now witnessing an epic Ghandian confrontation over how to use “numbers”. To use or not to use one’s numbers, that is question in Ethiopia and Africa today: Whether African countries or opposition political parties in Ethiopia should “use their numbers” in negotiations for a fair outcome in climate change or election negotiations? Whether a group of countries or political parties should “use” their “numbers” to delegitimize a concocted climate change deal agreement or a bogus code of conduct to facilitate rigged elections? Whether “numbers” should be used to resist and fend off Africa’s and Ethiopia’s “rapists”? Whether African countries should rubberstamp a lopsided climate deal agreement with the West or opposition political parties a one-sided code of conduct with a dictatorship?
In a Ghandian confrontation, there are no losers, only winners. Africans will certainly win if they use their “numbers” in the climate change negotiations. So will Ethiopian opposition political parties if they use their “numbers” to insist on holding an open and free election.


Climate Change and Regime Change
Climate change and regime change are actually two faces of the same coin. Think about it. Climate change affects the ecological well-being and survival of the entire planet; regime change is about the political ecology and welfare of human beings in a small corner of the planet. The mechanism for positively transforming both is the same: Attain moral clarity and act decisively and courageously on sound and unassailable moral grounds. If walking out of negotiations is a good and prudent moral act to save Africa from the “Western rapists”, it is also good and prudent enough to rescue Ethiopia from her rapists. If it is moral and prudent for “Africa to field a single negotiating team empowered to negotiate on behalf of all member states of the African Union,” it is moral and prudent for the FDDE to do the same in Ethiopia. If it is a moral act to “delegitimise any agreement that is not consistent with minimal positions on climate change” using one’s “numbers”, why would it not be an equally compelling moral act to delegitimize any “code of conduct,” “election” or “regime” that does not meet “minimal positions” of universally accepted standards of human rights and democratic practices? Those who point an index finger at the Western predators and “rapists” of Africa for hypocrisy, chicanery and underhandedness should look at their own clenched fists and see that three fingers are pointing directly at them. Regime change before action on climate change!
Just in passing…

What is the “2010 election” about anyway?
Is it about famine that is now voraciously consuming one-fifth of the Ethiopian population? The confinement of hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in prisons and secret detention facilities without trial? Prosecution of torturers, murderers and other human rights abusers? The ecological catastrophes facing Ethiopia? The galloping inflation? The rampant corruption and plunder of the public treasury? The complete lack of legal accountability of Ethiopia’s dictators? The millions of dollars worth of gold bars that walked straight out of the bank in 2007? The lack of access to clean safe water (only 24% of the total Ethiopian population has access to “clean and safe water”)? The reckless intervention in the Somali civil war, the squandered resources and wasted young lives? The massive human rights violations and absence of the rule of law? The establishment of an independent judiciary, freely functioning of civil society organizations and press? Improving one of the worst educational systems in the world (only 33% of boys and less then 20% girls are enrolled in school in Ethiopia)? Improving one of the worst health care systems in the world (only about 20% of Ethiopians have any access to some form of primary care, one physician for every 40,000 people, one nurse for every 14, 000 people)?

Or is it about “None of the Above”?
Remember 2005?
Real elections took place in 2005. Back then there were real opposition parties who campaigned vigorously. There were free and open debates. The private free press challenged the dictators and scrutinized the opposition. Civil society leaders worked tirelessly to inform and educate the voters and citizenry about democracy and elections. Voters openly and fearlessly showed their dissatisfaction with the regime in public meetings. On May 15, 2005, the voters did something that had never been done in recorded Ethiopian history. They used the ballot box to clean house. That was a lesson in real elections!
It is time for all Ethiopian pro-democracy forces to wake up and refuse to be pawns in the dictatorship’s silly little game of “elections”. The dictators want the opposition to participate in their “election” so that they could use the “participation” as a stage prop when they go panhandling Western donors for aid. The key to Ethiopia’s future is based on building coalitions and organizations that strive to create strong bonds and linkages across ethnic, linguistic, political, regional and ideological lines. FDDE holds great promise in this regard. Until pro-democracy forces inside and outside Ethiopia develop a consensus and a plan of action for democratic change, the dictatorship will continue to put up election circuses and make puppets of us all in its freak show.

It is foolish to believe the “2010 election” will make any difference in the lives of Ethiopians. It is an election about NOTHING; and we should condemn it as a travesty and caricature of democracy and a shameless mockery of popular sovereignty. We are entertained by Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Pinocchio and Mr. Magoo, but we do not believe any one of them is real. And so it is with the “2010 elections” circus in Ethiopia….

God's Love for Man

Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love. Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. In the beautiful words of the psalmist--

"The eyes of all wait upon Thee;
And Thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest Thine hand,
And satisfiest the desire of every living thing."
Psalm 145:15, 16.

God made man perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came from the Creator's hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is transgression of God's law--the law of love--that has brought woe and death. Yet even amid the suffering that results from sin, God's love is revealed. It is written that God cursed the ground for man's sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle--the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care--were appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God's plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought. The world, though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with roses.
"God is love" is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green--all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy.

The word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, "Show me Thy glory," the Lord answered, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee." Exodus 33:18, 19. This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Exodus 34:6, 7. He is "slow to anger, and of great kindness," "because He delighteth in mercy." Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18.
God has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven and in earth. Through the things of nature, and the deepest and tenderest earthly ties that human hearts can know, He has sought to reveal Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly represent His love. Though all these evidences have been given, the enemy of good blinded the minds of men, so that they looked upon God with fear; they thought of Him as severe and unforgiving. Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice,--one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit judgments upon them. It was to remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God, that Jesus came to live among men.
The Son of God came from heaven to make manifest the Father. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John 1:18. "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matthew 11:27. When one of the disciples made the request, "Show us the Father," Jesus answered, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" John 14:8, 9.

In describing His earthly mission, Jesus said, The Lord "hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4:18. This was His work. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by Satan. There were whole villages where there was not a moan of sickness in any house, for He had passed through them and healed all their sick. His work gave evidence of His divine anointing. Love, mercy, and compassion were revealed in every act of His life; His heart went out in tender sympathy to the children of men. He took man's nature, that He might reach man's wants. The poorest and humblest were not afraid to approach Him. Even little children were attracted to Him. They loved to climb upon His knees and gaze into the pensive face, benignant with love.

Jesus did not suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always in love. He exercised the greatest tact and thoughtful, kind attention in His intercourse with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He spoke the truth, but always in love. He denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity; but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the way, the truth, and the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with pitying tenderness. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful care for others. Every soul was precious in His eyes. While He ever bore Himself with divine dignity, He bowed with the tenderest regard to every member of the family of God. In all men He saw fallen souls whom it was His mission to save.

Such is the character of Christ as revealed in His life. This is the character of God. It is from the Father's heart that the streams of divine compassion, manifest in Christ, flow out to the children of men. Jesus, the tender, pitying Saviour, was God "manifest in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16.

It was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He became "a Man of Sorrows," that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death. "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God--it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.

But this great sacrifice was not made in order to create in the Father's heart a love for man, not to make Him willing to save. No, no! "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the medium through which He could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Corinthians 5:19. God suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane, the death of Calvary, the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption.

Jesus said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again." John 10:17. That is, "My Father has so loved you that He even loves Me more for giving My life to redeem you. In becoming your Substitute and Surety, by surrendering My life, by taking your liabilities, your transgressions, I am endeared to My Father; for by My sacrifice, God can be just, and yet the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus."

None but the Son of God could accomplish our redemption; for only He who was in the bosom of the Father could declare Him. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it manifest. Nothing less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf of fallen man could express the Father's love to lost humanity.
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." He gave Him not only to live among men, to bear their sins, and die their sacrifice. He gave Him to the fallen race. Christ was to identify Himself with the interests and needs of humanity. He who was one with God has linked Himself with the children of men by ties that are never to be broken. Jesus is "not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11); He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our Brother, bearing our human form before the Father's throne, and through eternal ages one with the race He has redeemed--the Son of man. And all this that man might be uplifted from the ruin and degradation of sin that he might reflect the love of God and share the joy of holiness.

The price paid for our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of what we may become through Christ. As the inspired apostle John beheld the height, the depth, the breadth of the Father's love toward the perishing race, he was filled with adoration and reverence; and, failing to find suitable language in which to express the greatness and tenderness of this love, he called upon the world to behold it. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3:1. What a value this places upon man! Through transgression the sons of man become subjects of Satan. Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ the sons of Adam may become the sons of God. By assuming human nature, Christ elevates humanity. Fallen men are placed where, through connection with Christ, they may indeed become worthy of the name "sons of God."

Such love is without a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme for the most profound meditation! The matchless love of God for a world that did not love Him! The thought has a subduing power upon the soul and brings the mind into captivity to the will of God. The more we study the divine character in the light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite and a tender pity surpassing a mother's yearning sympathy for her wayward child.

A Thief Calling, “thief!!” - by Rezene Hagos, Addis Ababa University

Last week, we read on the news that Meles Zenawi warned that African delegates may walk out of the upcoming UN World Summit on Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen in December unless they are assured of a huge sum, like in hundreds of billions a year, by the countries of the West. A number of things may come to one’s mind on reading such warnings. For the sake of this article however, we will only focus on whether or not African leaders, and Meles in particular, have the moral high ground to issue that warning. We believe not.

Let’s unambiguously state from the outset that Western countries, and the US in the main, are largely to blame for the world’s climate change and that they bear the highest responsibility for the consequences that occur globally thereof. That said however, nobody is free from blame either; it is only the degree of the blame that differs. It is true that Africa is at the receiving end of the environmental crisis resulting from climate change. But, Africa also has its part in contributing to the climate change. The cause for climate change is not just the emission of green house gases; it is human activity in general as well as some natural changes occurring within and around earth. Nobody is to be spared of responsibility from the consequences of human activity in general. However, the degree of green house emissions as a result of human activity differs from activity to activity. One thing for sure is that the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) since the industrial revolution has greatly increased and the global temperature has also risen. Industrialization as one human activity is the biggest culprit in this respect. Other human activities that result in emissions of CO2 also contribute to climate change. These are fossil fuel burning, deforestation purposes and other forms of environmental degradation. Now, the industrialized countries are undoubtedly the first to blame for CO2 emissions as a result of industrialization. On this regard, the greatest polluters at the moment are the US, China and India.

The non-industrialized countries are not to be spared from blame either. They do have their share of the blame too. In fact, from the angle of prevalence of poverty and under-development, their mistakes are as detrimental to the existence of their own communities as we are going to see in the case of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary democratic front (EPRDF) government in Ethiopia. In Africa as a whole, the degree of deforestation that results in soil erosion, drying of lakes and reduction of soil fertility and other forms of environmental degradation is extremely high. Until a few daces ago, Africa was well known for its tropical forests and wild animals. Today, it has been observed that the forest land coverage in Europe is much larger than it is in Africa. That means, Europe has more forests and trees than Africa. This is because Europe resorted to massive reforestation while Africa is still in the process of destroying its forests. Europe resorted to policies of massive reforestation while African governments resorted to massive deforestation or displayed utter insensitivity and complicity in face of massive deforestation. Now, here is the crux of the matter: government policies! What have African governments done to conserve the environment and their forests in particular? Let’s focus on the records of Mr Meles’ government in Ethiopia and examine if Meles really has the moral high ground to accuse Western governments on grounds of polluting the world.

Environmental protection or the conservation of nature is absolutely crucial for Ethiopia as the greater part of its social formation is constituted by activities of the natural economy or because more than 85% of its population who live in rural areas depend on what nature provides. The rural population’s survival depends on the environment and it goes without saying that the sustainable use of the environment is the crucial link to food security. From the point of economic growth, social development and indeed of social change, the protection of the environment is crucial for Ethiopia as it is connected with issues of rural development. Social development in rural Ethiopia cannot take place just by “boosting production through the hard work of the peasantry”, but by creating the legal, social and political environment that enables the peasantry to diversify its livelihood system. In other words, development and economic growth that in turn begins with accumulation of wealth also begins with disengaging the peasantry from land and enable it be engaged in other livelihood systems. To enable the peasantry accumulate wealth through production surplus, it is crucial to ensure that its production target succeeds which in turn require availability of rain or irrigated water, conservation of the soil, etc.. And this is what protecting the environment all is about. It is indeed crucial to realize the environment-rural production-accumulation nexus.

In an impoverished country such as Ethiopia that has no capacity to replace nature with some technologically advanced alternatives accessible to a large population, once the environment is destroyed/eroded it is nearly impossible to recover it. In face of an increasing population which still depends on nature and work on it for survival, sustainable use of nature is indeed a very serious issue that requires not only seriousness of purpose on the part of governance but also intellect and capacity. Here, a number of crucial issues are interwoven and interdependent: protecting the environment, strategizing rural development, population control and ensuring food security in the immediate and a comprehensive environmental policy to address these issues. The need for such policy is to prevent further erosion of the environment, ensure food security and generate rural development. In all these, the record of Meles Zenawi’s government is abysmal.

Now, what are Ethiopia’s environmental problems that have direct bearing on prevalence of continued environmental destruction, poverty and under-development? First of all, massive deforestation. Trees and forests have special function in preserving moisture and water and, above all, soil and its fertility. The preservation of forests and trees is absolutely crucial for Ethiopia’s survival. Unfortunately, due to the utter neglect of successive governments in the country, massive deforestation has occurred. Record shows that Ethiopia’s forest coverage by the turn of the century was 40%. By 1987 (under the military government) it had gone down to 5.5% and in 2003 (under Meles’ government) it had gone further down to 0.2%. In terms of area, Ethiopia’s rate of deforestation was between 150,000-200,000 hectares of land a year.

Deforestation has led to massive soil erosion. One of the most important functions of trees is to keep the soil in tact from erosion by running water as a result of rain or from being blown away by strong wind. When soil is preserved, its nutrients are also preserved meaning its fertility is also preserved. Trees also absorb and maintain water and moisture and play crucial role in balancing the ecosystem which has strong bearing on agriculture. When deforestation takes place, all these crucial roles of tress also goes away exposing the land to further erosion of its top soil, to drought with huge negative impact on agriculture. A study by M. Constable suggests that the highlands of Ethiopia contain one of the largest ecological degradations in Africa.

Soil erosion in turn contributes to drying of lakes. In the last few years alone, three Rift Valley lakes have dried up: Lake Alemaya, Lake Adele and Lake Lange. When soil is massively washed into the lake, silt develops underneath pushing the water upwards expanding the area of water coverage. This gives the impression that the lake is having more water and in fact looks like as if flooding takes place. In actual, the reality is exactly the opposite. The water is pushed to a larger surface being exposed to massive evaporation and drying up at the end. The same process is being repeated on Lake Awassa. A study by one international NGO concluded that Lake Awassa is being threatened by the same process through which the other three lakes dried up. The regional government of Mesles Zenawi refused to accept the report and argued that they are actually noticing that Lake Awassa is threatening a flood situation because they see more water in a larger area. (That much for the capacity his officials in the region.) Undoubtedly, the issue of water in general is crucial for Ethiopia as an agricultural society and as it is often hit by drought resulting in a situation of perennial food insecurity. There was no visible sign of seriousness or alarm on the part of Meles’’ government when the three lakes dried up completely. The town of Harrar, probably the fourth fifth or sixth largest town in the country, that depended on lake Alemaya for its water supply was left to suffer from acute water shortage for weeks when the government watched the lake to dry and did practically nothing noticeable to the last minute. This brings us to the policy of Meles’ government.

In 1967, G.C. Last, advisor to the ministry of education warned the imperial government of the alarming environmental destruction occurring in the country at the time. He wrote, “As you are probably aware, this is a most serious issue [conservation of nature, i.e.] in Ethiopia. In some ways the problem has already reached crisis proportion with regard to: a) the loss of soil through erosion, b) the destruction of forests, c) the destruction of wild life, d) the rapid diminution of utilizable water supplies … there is sufficient evidence to show that, unless serious steps are taken, not only will desert conditions develop rapidly in various parts of Ethiopia, but important national resources will disappear. …The question of conservation is usually the subject of a great deal of talk but very little action. It is clear also that really effective measures must be based on a wide spread understanding of a spirit of co-operation among the population”. It has become the scourge in Ethiopia that the role of experts is to warn the successive government of an impending catastrophe, and the same warning is repeated again and again. In the same vein, when Meles Zenawi is threatening Western leaders, he seems to be forgetful of the most serious warnings made by Ethiopian environmentalists made particularly in 2004. In much the same way that Haile Selassie’s government ignored G..C. Last’s warning, Meles’ government also ignored the warnings by Ethiopian environmentalists. Now, to the policies of his government.

To start with, Meles’ and his TPLF/EPRDF had no idea about the environment, sustainable development and the relationship between the two when they entered Addis Ababa in 1991. The awareness came after a government delegation led by Tamrat Layne attended the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. In 1995, they set up the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and much later made two proclamations namely Environmental Pollution Control Proclamation (2002) and Environmental Impact assessment Proclamation (2002) and ratified a number of UN/international conventions on the environment. Apparently, the problem of Meles’ government is the problem of perception. They have an ossified position on their Stalinist/Maoist understanding of revolution that has no room for environmental preservation and the independent role of the peasantry. This constitutes the main gap. The second gap is lack of seriousness on protecting the environment. Like on gender, they pay lip service to environment because of the pressure from donors (who he is now threatening!). The third gap is lack of the legal framework to protect the environment. The EPA is there with a world class scientist, Tewolde G. Egziabher, leading it, but it is a toothless institution and made toothless deliberately. Meles often resort to a well known excuse for his government’s failure: problem of implementation. On the environment, the problem is not lack of implementation but lack of seriousness. NO wonder why the state of the environment in Ethiopia is one of the most alarming in the world, it is alarming because 85% of the population depend on nature for survival. Official neglect on this matter should constitute the most serious crime if not genocide. No wonder why the UNDP and other environmental organizations of international reputation continuously reported on the alarming state of environmental destruction in Ethiopia.

The negative role of Meles’ government on the environment also includes its hostile attitude towards environmental NGOs who try to educate the public and conduct policy advocacy campaigns. Like all other development NGOs, environment NGOs are also seen by Meles as undesired. The recent NGO law that literally outlaws advocacy NGOs also would undoubtedly outlaw environment NGOs or obliterates their role. Indeed, Meles’ policy on the environment should be seen from this light too. We have witnessed for the last two decades that his government is leading the country to a disaster of unimaginable proportions. The International Crisis Group, an institution established and led by ex-politicians and world leaders of international reputation, recently came up with a devastating report on the possible consequences of the government of Meles Zenawi’s ethnic politics. This definitely comes as a blow to his efforts to bolster his tarnished image following the 2005 elections.

Meles is extremely sensitive to his international image. Because more than 62% of Ethiopia’s annual budget comes from aid money, the EPRDF government heavily depends on the donor community for its survival. To keep the flow of aid money, Meles has to keep his image high. His government devotes a lot of money for propaganda purposes and controls the main means of communication in the country. He is extremely wary of activities of the Ethiopian Diaspora and engages in polemics with Diaspora groups as well as foreign journalists and human rights organizations such as Human Rights watch and Amnesty International. Its recent diatribe in response to the devastating report by the International Crisis group can be cited as example in this regard (visit EPRDF’s aigaforum.com for these articles.)
It is for no strange reason that Meles’ government has almost always been at loggerheads with international human rights organizations. His regime has been as repressive and as genocidal (as in the cases of Gambela and Ogaden) as its predecessor, Mengistu H. Mariam. This has become glaring during and after the 2005 elections when his government massacred protesters in their hundreds and imprisoned opposition leaders and round 17,000 persons. He closed down the private newspapers and is now in the process of closing down NGOs. He recently introduced a new “anti-terrorism” law that gives him the “legitimacy” to clamp down against anyone. He has literally closed all avenues for the emergence and development of a civil society without whose participation poverty eradication and development won’t be possible. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations have always exposed such violations of human rights. To keep the outside world blind of the reality in Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi did everything he could. In his endeavour, he has the ingenious support of the British prime minister, Gordon brown, who still seems to think that Meles is an ally in the fight against terrorism. Gordon brown never seemed to ask whether or not the Ethiopian people as a whole are being terrorized by Meles’ regime.

In 2006, a draft bill in the US Congress named Ethiopia freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act, was passed by the House International Relations Committee and was supposed to be passed by the US Congress. As the daily Nation of Sept. 6, 2009 reported, “To counter this effort, the Ethiopian government hired a well-established law and lobbying firm, DLA Piper, to protect its interests in Washington at a cost of $2.3million.” Yet, drought and food insecurity is threatening round twenty million Ethiopians this year alone.

Now, it is such a dictator threatening the donor community to walk out of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change unless Africa walks out from the summit with $ 200 billion annually as if he has an excellent record in preserving the environment and ensured respect for human rights and freedom. It has proven through the experience of the last forty years that aid money has been mismanaged and extorted by politicians who manipulated political power in Africa. Meles’ government has been one of the largest recipients of aid money in Africa. It is indeed because aid money has been mismanaged and stolen that some African economists are compelled to question the validity of aid money in the first place. Some even go to the extent of holding aid money accountable for Africa’s poverty, as one Zambian economist argues strongly. Then, what is this noise about threatening a walk out from Copenhagen? Isn’t this like a thief calling, “thief!”?

Source

Save Lake Koka First Before Saving the Continent of Africa!

By Alemayehu G. Mariam | September 14, 2009
Bluster of the Con Artists
Last week Ethiopia’s arch dictator was in tears, crocodile tears that is, over the unfair and shameful treatment of Africa by the heartless Western imperialists on the issue of global warming and climate change. Frothing at the mouth and brimming with moral indignation, the dictator threatened to go all out Ghandi on the West at the December climate change talks in Copenhagen. With sanctimonious and self-righteous rebuke, he railed:

If need be we are prepared to walk out of any negotiations that threatens to be another rape of the continent… While we reason with everyone to achieve our objective we are not prepared to rubber stamp any agreement by the powers… We will use our numbers to delegitimise any agreement that is not consistent with our minimal position… Africa will field a single negotiating team empowered to negotiate on behalf of all member states of the African Union… The key thing for me is that Africa be compensated for the damage caused by global warming. Many institutions have tried to quantify that and they have come up with different figures. The sort of median figure would be in the range of 40 billion USD a year.
The dictator’s sidekick on climate change, African Union chairman Jean Ping, (the longtime and one of the closest advisers of Omar Bongo, Gabon’s 42-year dictator who died recently) took an even harder line:

It is my expectation that such financial resources must be from public funds and must be additional to the usual overseas development assistance… What we are not prepared to live with is global warming above minimum unavoidable levels… We will therefore never accept any global deal that does not limit global warming to the minimum unavoidable level, no matter what levels of compensation and assistance are promised to us.
The Moral Profundity of Tyrants: Hope Springs Eternal!
It is truly refreshing to hear words and phrases that signal latent moral awakening in the “conscience” of tyrants. Use of such phrases and words as “not prepared to rubberstamp” (in contrast to a rubberstamp parliament), “rape of a continent” (in contrast to the rape of Ethiopia), “delegitimise” (in contrast to delgitimizing rigged elections), “walk out of negotiations” (in contrast to walking opposition parties through make-believe negotiations), “compensation for damages” (in contrast to compensation for damages to families of victims of extrajudicial killings, victims of excessive and unreasonable use of deadly force under color of law and victims of illegal arrests and detentions) give new meaning to the expression, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Mahatama Ghandi could not have been more proud of such resolute declarations of profound moral outrage against the wily Westerners who have been exploiting Africa for centuries.

Indeed as Ghandi taught, “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good.” Therefore, never cooperate with the malevolent Western overlords on issues of fair play, equity, and certainly environmental justice! That is the essence of the bluster of a “walk out” and “delegitimization” of the Copenhagen climate talks. Ghandi argued that the only way to get the British to abandon their evil ways in South Africa and India was to actively resist their colonial rule through civil disobedience, particularly through a campaign of non-cooperation. He encouraged Indian workers, policemen, soldiers and civil servants to go on strike. He called for massive boycotts of public transportation and English-manufactured goods. Ghandi used the moral weapon of Satyagraha (satya, meaning “truth” and agraha, meaning “holding firm to”) to campaign against the myriad crimes and abuses committed by the British colonial masters. He aim was to use “satyagraha to convert the wrongdoer, to awaken a sense of justice in him, to show him also that without the cooperation direct or indirect of the wronged, the wrongdoer cannot do the wrong intended by him.”

Remarkably and commendably, that is the intrinsic logic of the arch dictator’s outburst of moral outrage. By exposing the hypocritical West on climate change to the light of Truth and by threatening to visit moral condemnation upon them, they could be persuaded to change their evil ways. Indeed, by a resolute act of non-cooperation, the West could be held to account for its reckless abuse of nature and make Africans whole by paying them monetary damages. In short, the West could be named and shamed into doing right by Africa. But is the dictator’s pronouncement of moral outrage sincere and made in good faith? Or is it a veiled threat of naked political extortion?
Blood Money, Carbon Money and the Devil Who Can Cite Scripture
Shakespeare wrote, “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek.” Or a villain shedding crocodile tears? The bluster about “walking out” and “delegitimizing” the Copenhagen talks, etc., is nothing more than a cynical and beguiling appeal to lofty moral virtues to guilt-trip and shakedown Western countries into paying billions of dollars every year as “blood money”. That is certainly the conclusion of the Economist Magazine, which in its recent issue stated that the wrath of the African “leaders” is aimed at making the rich world feel guilty about global warming. Mr Meles has made it clear he is seeking blood money—or rather carbon money—that would be quite separate from other aid to the continent.

If the cash were not forthcoming, the African Union (AU) might take a case to a court of arbitration and ask it to judge overall culpability for climate change. In a rare fit of African unity, it was decided at a recent flurry of leaders’ meetings that the United States, the European Union, Japan and others should pay the continent the tidy sum of $67 billion a year, though it was unclear for how long.
In the end, all of the climate change pontification is about African dictators extorting a $67 billion payola (hush money) every year to line their pockets. It has absolutely nothing to do with remedying the environmental degradation of Africa. It has everything to do with Africa’s tin pot dictators striking gold in a modern day El Dorado (also known as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Western donors, etc.,). They know there is a huge pot of glittering gold at the end of the climate change/global warming rainbow. Africa’s dictators are drooling -- literally slobbering at the mouth and licking their chops -- at the prospect of putting their grubby hands on that $67 billion delicious golden pie and sinking their teeth into it.

Save Lake Koka First Before Saving the Continent of Africa
Let’s face hard facts: Ethiopia is facing an ecological disaster! Not from catastrophic climate change (that is macro-climatic changes resulting from variations in solar radiation, deviations in the Earth’s orbit, changes in greenhouse concentrations, etc.,) but from man-made causes. Ethiopia is facing an ecological catastrophe caused by deforestation, soil erosion, over-grazing, over-population, desertification and loss of biodiversity, and chemical pollution of its rivers and lakes. Hundreds of square miles of forest land and farmland are lost every year. According to the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute1 , “Ethiopia loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year and warned that if the trend continues the country would lose all of its forest resources by the year1 2020.” Other data show that “Between 1990 and 2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover (2,114,000 hectares) and 3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat. If the trend continues, it is expected that Ethiopia could lose all of its forest resources in 11 years, by the year 2020.”2 The wild animal population is disappearing at an alarming rate due to deforestation and loss of natural habitat, and hundreds of plant and animal species are facing imminent extinction.
Dr Gedion Getahun, Research Scientist at the Environmental Radioanalytical Chemistry in Mainz, Germany writes3,
According to the UN, Ethiopia’s forests are depleted, at present less than three percent of the entire country is covered with trees… In Ethiopia, biodiversity is treated in very awful manner. The destruction of natural habitat as well as a threat to the flora and fauna and other biological resources diminish the economy of the country. This affects the country’s wealth and with it, the existence and the well being of the nation.
The Lake Koka environmental disaster -- a topic of special coverage by the Al Jazeera Network4 -- a few kilometers outside Ethiopia’s capital is only the tip of the iceberg of Ethiopia’s environmental nightmare. As one resident of the Lake Koka community put it5 :
The main problem here is the water. People are getting sick. Everyone around here uses this water. There is no other water. Almost 17,000 people… come from 10 kilometers away and use this water. The water smells even if you boil it; it does not change the color. It is hard to drink it. The people here have great potential and we are losing them, especially the children. I am upset but I don’t have the ability to do anything. I would if I could, but I can’t do anything.
Another local resident lamented the polluted Lake Koka water in apocalyptic terms:
It is better to die thirsty than to drink this [Koka] water. We are drinking a disease. We told the local authorities our cattle and goats died due to this water, but nobody helped. We are tired of complaining.
Nothing has been done to hold criminally accountable the polluters of Lake Koka, or “compensate for damages” the people living in that community for the devastating health problems they continue to face from using the toxic water of the lake.
Almaz Mequanint, who has struggled for years to bring attention to the devastating environmental pollution caused by the Wonji/Shoa and Metehara sugar factories, wrote six years ago:
I feel helpless and in despair when I think of my whole family and the 100,000 voiceless residents who have been living around the sugar factories of Ethiopia…. I now suffer from asthma because of the air pollution at that time. My teeth are decayed and I have knee and other joint problems. My kids are suffering from tooth decay, cavities and staining.”6
Nothing has been done over the past six years to improve the health conditions of the tens of thousands of people who worked in the sugar factories or community residents, nor has any action been taken to “compensate them for the damages” they suffered as a result of industrial pollution of criminal magnitude. Just this past week, a website was set up to call attention to the plight of these victims.7
Africa’s knights in shining armor should take care of business in their own backyards -- lakes, rivers and factories -- before mounting their steeds on a crusade to save Africa from global warming.
What is Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander!
If truth force (Satyagrha) could be used against nasty Western rapists of Africa, there is no reason why it could not be used against the rapists of Ethiopia. Does it not logically follow that Ethiopians should “use their numbers to delegitimise” any regime “that is not consistent with minimal positions” under universally accepted standards of justice and international law such as protection of basic human rights, respect for the rule of law, free elections, free press, etc.? Aren’t Ethiopians entitled to resist anyone who “threatens to (perpetuate) the rape of” their country? Are they not entitled to “field a single negotiating team empowered to negotiate on behalf of all” the people against a one-man, one-party dictatorship? Is it not true that what is good for the goose is good for the gander?
Doesn’t it make more sense to save Lake Koka FIRST before saving the whole continent of Africa?
The writer, Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. For comments, he can be reached at almariam@gmail.com

Ethiopia: A country behind bars

Opinion
By Ethyopian Simbiro


Ethiopia has been behind bars since its start as a state: Its people the prisoners, its rulers as jailers.
First, the feudalist system incarcerated the poor people, kings and nobles notoriously 'owning' peasants whose existence meant nothing but serving these upper echelons with utmost loyalty. Those who had 'the wrong complexion' were sold in the broad daylight to Arab merchants; internal slavery lasted as late as the 20th century, although abolished eventually. (What a contradiction in a sub-Saharan African nation that was supposed to be a symbol of freedom and hope to enslaved black people around the world!)

Second, the so-called 'socialist Ethiopia' brought another round of incarceration with it, though its rulers promised to end the era of exploitation and human indignity at first. But just like any dictators, the rulers failed to deliver what they promised and made the conditions in the country worse beyond imagination.
Perhaps George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' can best describe what happened in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991. A Soviet-style silencing of dissent reigned in the country, enforcing terror and murder as a daily ritual. During this military era, the number of prisons more than doubled in the country, overflowing with innocent lives, most if not all bullet ridden and thrown in the streets like dogs: Some because they were considered 'anti-Ethiopia' and others 'betrayers of the revolution.'

Myopic army officers and their ill-advised cadres hijacked the poor people's revolution, making it their own to fulfil a short-term goal: Pillaging the country. The unfortunate dissenters died a bitter death at the hands of ruthless security agents who satisfied their ego by castrating men and by raping innocent young women in harsh prison camps, where human life was no more important than a fruit fly; those who had the opportunity left the country to live among strangers, or ran to the jungles to fight back the oppressive system - though themselves to become oppressors later on. In every direction, poor Ethiopia endured chaos.
Third, the former rebels who called the jungle their home, but are today's 'masters', self-ordained 'revolutionary democrats', who won the battle against the military junta, have decided to lock the country behind bars again. They installed a new form of dictatorship, recycling the same old style of oppression.
FROM OPPRESSED TO OPPRESSORS

Yesterday's oppressed have now become today's worst oppressors, invalidating the meaning of fighting for freedom and exacerbating the culture of vengeance, ethnic prejudice, and discrimination. They are also destroying the possibility of a dissenting and freethinking in Ethiopia step by step. They have already let the country down, a country that listened to the wind of change carefully and hoped that a better future would come, free from state-sponsored terror, torture, rape, and murder.

The last 18 years have brought more misery to Ethiopia than what people expected and hoped to see; the minor changes here and there don't really count. Just like in the past, one group still dominates the rest of the population, a one party system deceptively dressed as a multi-party system.

Major opposition groups and their supporters, pro-democracy leader Judge Birtukan Mideksa, many innocents who got caught in the wrong place (some targeted because of their ethnic background and some lost without trace), and all who disagree with the current regime have been thrown to infamous jails such as Kaliti. The concept of free press barely exists. The rule of law remains a joke. Human rights? Nobody cares! 'You are either with us or against us!'-That is pretty much how things work in Ethiopia today.
Disguised as 'revolutionary democrats', it seems that the current rulers are carefully imitating the Communist Party of China (CPC) as their prime example. The way they aggressively recruit members, deal with dissent, and monopolise the economy, has so much similarity with CPC's tactics. CPC is globally known as a notorious party that does not welcome opposition from either inside or outside the country. Limiting and banning local media, violating human rights, jamming and blocking foreign media, using intimidation and force to control dissent, spreading hysteria, pretending pro-democracy, and centralising the economy, characterise the nature of CPC's dictatorship.
Ethiopia's current rulers lecture their audiences that 'revolutionary democracy will eventually wither away, replacing itself with liberalism,' openly accepting that they are truly dictators who have not yet renounced Marxism-Leninism and who will do anything to stay in power.
So what is the solution to the cycle of the oppressed becoming the oppressor, and vice versa? Who will eventually free the country from its confinement? Do we have a guarantee that the next will be better? Will power be eventually returned to the people or will there be another era of dictatorship once more, favouring one's group over another (or better to say: Pretending to favour one's group to further advance one's self-interest)?
DEMOCRATIC FEDERALISM IS THE WAY FORWARD
The way forward: Democratic federalism for a new, liberated, Ethiopia.
Although I have very little knowledge on such complicated issue, I believe that all opposition groups based inside or outside Ethiopia, despite their multitude of differences, have to find a common ground to successfully challenge the current dictatorship, which has done its homework very well to control the 80 million people, using smear campaigns and ethnic federalism as its formidable weapons, and changing its tactics from time to time just like the CPC.
A democratic system that prioritises group and individual rights must replace and end the current system, which applies authoritarianism to enforce its presence. The will of the opposition parties, left or right, determines the success of democratising Ethiopia. The opposition groups have not set a good example yet to be followed.
Many young people, including myself, have nowhere to go. The organisational vacuum that is so obvious in almost all opposition parties disillusions the young. Party chairmen seem more concerned about keeping their chairmanship. The factionalism, the infighting, and the uncompromising behaviours that have been going on within the various parties, make one wonder if a real and meaningful change is really going to come any time soon.
Whatever the future holds for Ethiopia, I believe that democratic federalism is the way forward, where a constitution that every citizen respects and agrees with becomes the supreme law of the land; where present and past injustices are properly acknowledged and never to be repeated; where people are the boss, and leaders just employees who can be fired or replaced; where religious or ethnic tolerance prevails; where democratic institutions flourish, granting the various groups equal political and economic opportunities; where one region can act independently of the other without implementing discriminatory regional policies, allowing the free flow of people and goods, the celebration of one's language, culture, and identity freely - under a central government, which is comprised of the various stakeholders in the country, unlike the present or the past, and which intervenes in regional affairs as stated in the constitution; and, where compassion replaces vengeance. Such and other approaches may finally set Ethiopia free from years of incarceration.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, 'First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.' The poor people of Ethiopia will surely win one day after centuries of bad governance and exploitation.
Etyopian Simbiro is an Ethiopian student based in the US.
Yesterday's oppressed have now become today's worst oppressors, invalidating the meaning of fighting for freedom and exacerbating the culture of vengeance, ethnic prejudice, and discrimination. They are also destroying the possibility of a dissenting and freethinking in Ethiopia step by step. They have already let the country down, a country that listened to the wind of change carefully and hoped that a better future would come, free from state-sponsored terror, torture, rape, and murder.
The last 18 years have brought more misery to Ethiopia than what people expected and hoped to see; the minor changes here and there don't really count. Just like in the past, one group still dominates the rest of the population, a one party system deceptively dressed as a multi-party system.
Major opposition groups and their supporters, pro-democracy leader Judge Birtukan Mideksa, many innocents who got caught in the wrong place (some targeted because of their ethnic background and some lost without trace), and all who disagree with the current regime have been thrown to infamous jails such as Kaliti. The concept of free press barely exists. The rule of law remains a joke. Human rights? Nobody cares! 'You are either with us or against us!'-That is pretty much how things work in Ethiopia today.
Disguised as 'revolutionary democrats', it seems that the current rulers are carefully imitating the Communist Party of China (CPC) as their prime example. The way they aggressively recruit members, deal with dissent, and monopolise the economy, has so much similarity with CPC's tactics. CPC is globally known as a notorious party that does not welcome opposition from either inside or outside the country. Limiting and banning local media, violating human rights, jamming and blocking foreign media, using intimidation and force to control dissent, spreading hysteria, pretending pro-democracy, and centralising the economy, characterise the nature of CPC's dictatorship.
Ethiopia's current rulers lecture their audiences that 'revolutionary democracy will eventually wither away, replacing itself with liberalism,' openly accepting that they are truly dictators who have not yet renounced Marxism-Leninism and who will do anything to stay in power.
So what is the solution to the cycle of the oppressed becoming the oppressor, and vice versa? Who will eventually free the country from its confinement? Do we have a guarantee that the next will be better? Will power be eventually returned to the people or will there be another era of dictatorship once more, favouring one's group over another (or better to say: Pretending to favour one's group to further advance one's self-interest)?
DEMOCRATIC FEDERALISM IS THE WAY FORWARD
The way forward: Democratic federalism for a new, liberated, Ethiopia.
Although I have very little knowledge on such complicated issue, I believe that all opposition groups based inside or outside Ethiopia, despite their multitude of differences, have to find a common ground to successfully challenge the current dictatorship, which has done its homework very well to control the 80 million people, using smear campaigns and ethnic federalism as its formidable weapons, and changing its tactics from time to time just like the CPC.
A democratic system that prioritises group and individual rights must replace and end the current system, which applies authoritarianism to enforce its presence. The will of the opposition parties, left or right, determines the success of democratising Ethiopia. The opposition groups have not set a good example yet to be followed.
Many young people, including myself, have nowhere to go. The organisational vacuum that is so obvious in almost all opposition parties disillusions the young. Party chairmen seem more concerned about keeping their chairmanship. The factionalism, the infighting, and the uncompromising behaviours that have been going on within the various parties, make one wonder if a real and meaningful change is really going to come any time soon.
Whatever the future holds for Ethiopia, I believe that democratic federalism is the way forward, where a constitution that every citizen respects and agrees with becomes the supreme law of the land; where present and past injustices are properly acknowledged and never to be repeated; where people are the boss, and leaders just employees who can be fired or replaced; where religious or ethnic tolerance prevails; where democratic institutions flourish, granting the various groups equal political and economic opportunities; where one region can act independently of the other without implementing discriminatory regional policies, allowing the free flow of people and goods, the celebration of one's language, culture, and identity freely - under a central government, which is comprised of the various stakeholders in the country, unlike the present or the past, and which intervenes in regional affairs as stated in the constitution; and, where compassion replaces vengeance. Such and other approaches may finally set Ethiopia free from years of incarceration.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, 'First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.' The poor people of Ethiopia will surely win one day after centuries of bad governance and exploitation.
Etyopian Simbiro is an Ethiopian student based in the US.

Thugs Gone Wild in Kilil-istan! - Alemayehu G. Mariam

In a recent piece entitled “Mob Disrupts Political Meeting in Adama,” former Ethiopian President Dr. Negasso Gidada described how “an organized mob disturbed a public political meeting of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) in Adama, Oromia, and forced the discontinuation of the meeting.” Dr. Negasso explained:

Around 50 people started to disturb the meeting while Eng. Gizachew Shiferraw, Vice Chairperson of the UDJ was addressing the meeting. The disturbers were shouting, clutching and whistling from the rear of the hall. This mob came up running to the front and damaged a microphone while trying to grab it. They continued to shout: ‘This is Oromia’, ‘Oromo is our Language’, ‘You have to start the meeting by a blessing ceremony in accordance with Oromo culture’, ‘You can hold the meeting in Oromo language’, ‘If you do not speak in Oromo language, and you can not hold meetings in our country’. Several people tried to cool down the mob by promising that what is said would be translated in Oromo. But the mob would not heed the appeal. It even threatened to beat us up. Eng. Gizachew could not continue his speech. He was forced to announce that the meeting is adjourned because of the disturbance… The mob was not a spontaneous disturbing group. There were some OPDO/EPRDF cadres among the mob. I myself could recognize at least two OPDO cadres with whom I worked in the organization before I resigned from it in June 2001. It is obvious that the disturbance was an organized one.

In a separate Amharic piece on the subject, Seeye Abraha (the former defense minister and currently a member of Medrek (Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia) who attended the Adama town hall meeting pointed to a discernable emerging pattern in the use of thugs and hooligans by the “EPDRF” to disrupt opposition meetings. He identified two other similar disruptions a few weeks earlier, one at a UDJ meeting in Debre Markos and another at an Arena Tigray meeting in Mekele. Seeye suggested that a dual strategy is being used to prevent opposition elements from having public meetings: 1) Deny meeting permits on the basis of absurd excuses; or 2) Issue permits but disrupt the meetings using hired thugs and hooligans. Seeye declared that opposition elements will not be intimidated by thugs and “vigilantes” and their outreach efforts to the people will continue. He also put the dictators and the Ethiopian people on notice that should they be victims of thug violence at such meetings, the “EPDRF” should be held responsible.

Thugs and the Triumph of Kilil-istan Chavinism (Tribal-based Ethnic Federalism)

“This is Oromia… Oromo is our Language… You have to start the meeting by a blessing ceremony in accordance with Oromo culture… You can hold the meeting in Oromo language… If you do not speak in Oromo language, and you can not hold meetings in our country….”

The sounds of such atavistic lyrics of ethnic chauvinism must make sweet music to the ears of Ethiopia’s dictators. It must bring them everlasting joy and ecstasy to have these divisive and truculent words become part of the lexicon of Kilil-istan chauvinism, which is the highest stage of ethnic federalism. No doubt, these words represent the purest expression of the capo dictator’s dream: An Ethiopia blinded, deafened and muted by ethnic, linguistic, tribal and cultural chauvinism. BRAVO!

For nearly two decades, the dictators in Ethiopia toiled ceaselessly to shred the very fabric of that ancient civilization and society, and sculpt a landscape balkanized into tribal, ethnic, linguistic and regional enclaves to establish their own version of a Thousand Year Reich (Reign). They crafted a constitution based entirely on ethnicity and tribal affiliation as the basis for political organization. Article 46 (2) of their constitution provides: “States shall be structured on the basis of settlement patterns, language, identity and consent of the people.” In other words, “states”, (and the people who live in them) shall be organized as homogenous tribal homelands in much the same way as the 10 Bantustans (black homelands) of apartheid South Africa were organized to create ethnically homogeneous and “autonomous” nation states for South Africa’s different black ethnic groups, effectively wiping out their South African national citizenship.

The tribal homelands in Ethiopia are officially called “kilils” (enclaves or distinct enclosed and effectively isolated geographic areas within a seemingly integrated national territory). Like the Bantustans, the Killilistans represent territory set aside for the purpose of concentrating members of designated ethnic/tribal/linguistic/cultural groups in nominally autonomous geographic areas. Ethiopia’s dictators have used a completely fictitious and ridiculous theory of “ethnic (tribal) federalism)”, unknown in the annals of political science or political theory, to justify and glorify these Kililistans, impose their atrocious policy of divide and rule against 80 million people and scrub out any meaningful notion of Ethiopian citizenship.

Big Thugs, Small Thugs and the Rule of Law

Article 9 of the dictators’ constitution provides that the “Constitution is the supreme law of the land…. All citizens, state organs, political organizations, other associations and their officials, have the duty to comply with this Constitution and abide by it.” Article 29 of this “supreme law” guarantees that “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression without interference. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,…” Article 30 further ensures, “Everyone shall have the freedom, in association with others, to peaceably assemble without arms, engage in public demonstration and the right to petition.”

In Thugland, no one seems to be particularly concerned about constitutional rights. Dr. Negasso, Ato Seeye, UDJ members and the other community attendees were peaceably assembled at an authorized meeting to engage in important political discussions. They have an absolute right to conduct their meeting peaceably without being molested by thugs, hooligans, criminals, gangsters, hoodlums, delinquents and hustlers. It is the supreme and solemn duty of those in authority to guarantee that the constitutional rights of those peaceably assembled is protected from “interference” by anyone. To be sure, the authorities had a legal duty to arrest the disruptive thugs and “vigilantes” and prosecute them for their egregious violation of the constitutional rights of all those in attendance at the town hall meeting. But as we have seen time and time again, the “supreme law” of the land does not apply to thugs because thugs are above the law of the land; indeed, thugs are the law of the land!

Thugs Here, Thugs There, Thugs Everywhere!

Paraphrasing Mark Twain, one could wonder out loud: “Suppose you were a thug. And suppose you were a member of a dictatorship. But I repeat myself.” The use of rented thugs to disrupt public meetings is the oldest trick in the Book of Dictators and Corrupt Politicians. Not long ago, Robert Mugabe’s (ZANU - Patriotic Front) thugs in Zimbabwe disrupted the Constitutional All-Stakeholders’ Conference (organized to write a new constitution) at the Harare International Conference Centre by lambasting and unleashing a torrent of profanity and vulgarity against the Speaker of Parliament. They also attacked delegates and officials with plastic water bottles. In the early 1990s, organized thugs, galvanized by the political ideology of “Majimboism”, (a Kiswahili concept for “ethnic regionalism”, or “ethno-federalism”) instigated ethnic hatred against the Kikuyu. Recently, Prof. Maurice Iwu, Nigeria’s Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, reported to the Nigeria House of Representatives that the “sporadic outbreak of violence in several parts of the country [in the last election] was a fall-out of political thuggery.” The ultimate African thugs are represented by a militia known as the “Janjawid” – bloodthirsty packs of roving criminals armed and supported by the Sudanese government that have caused widespread atrocities including village destruction, massacres and rapes in the Darfur region.

Thugging it Out!

Seeye Abraha has noticed the Ethiopian people that should they be victims of thug violence, the “EPDRF” is to be held responsible. It may be overly optimistic to expect reason and respect for the law from thugs. The fact of the matter is that thugs will always be thugs; but law abiding citizens can fight back — thug it out, so to speak — by doing the right thing: Always tell the people the truth, and speak truth to thugs. Unite the people where thugs try to put them asunder. Promote harmony wherever thugs sow hatred, division and enmity. Fight to win the hearts and minds of the people wherever thugs seek to crush their hopes, dreams and aspirations. Never lower yourself to the gutter world of thugs, but capture, preserve, protect and defend the moral high ground. Never, never, never abandon the cause of freedom, democracy and human rights in Ethiopia. Always do the right thing, the fair thing, the just thing. As Churchill said, “Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Never yield to thugs! Never forget the truth that if we don’t stand up for the Land of Thirteen Months of Sunshine, thugs will gladly transform it into the Land of Eternal Darkness.

Inherit the Wind

In Proverbs 11 is written, “He who brings trouble on his family will inherit only wind.” Those who have wrought trouble on the Ethiopian family for the last two decades will in the end inherit a tornadic wind. That is foreordained! Their wicked efforts to destroy, dismember, deface and disfigure Ethiopia through the politics of hate and ethnic division will fail just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow. Their diabolical plan will amount to nothing! Like East Germany, ethnic federalism will be there one day and the next day it will be gone forever. Ethiopia’s best days are yet to come because her destiny rests securely in the palms of her bright, patriotic, industrious, conscientious, humble, forward-looking and God-fearing young people.

Is it not ironic that those of us who profess to champion the cause of justice, truth and morality far outnumber those engaged in the practice of evil, yet the few evil doers seem to outdo us nearly every time. As Dr. Negasso pleaded following his confrontation with the Adama thugs: “I call on all those who stand for the respect of democratic and human rights, for peace and stability of this country and for economic development of this country do something TODAY and not TOMORROW!!” That is why we should take to heart the aphorism, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil (thugs) is that good Ethiopian men and women do nothing” TODAY.

ETHIOPIA - LET US BE LIKE THE MARKET~

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

COMMENT
ELLENI AS AN ETHIOPIAN I AM PROUD OF YOU, I HOPE THIS GOVERNMENT WILL ALLOW YOU TO DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO HELP OUR COUNTRY. SOMETIMES I AM WORRIED ABOUT YOUR SAFTY THOSE SHIFTAS THEY DON’T LIKE PROGRESSIVE AND EDUCATED PEOPLE LIKE YOU, REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT TIGERI, THERE IS GOING TO BE AWAYS A CONFLICT THERE. EITHER YOU HAVE TO BE THE CORRUPT “YES WOMAN” OR YOU RISK YOUR LIFE.

AT THE SAME TIME, I BELIEVE YOUR GREAT EXPERIENCE ON THIS CRUCIAL ETHIOPIAN ISSUE ULTIMATELY WILL PREPARE YOU TO BE THE NEXT ETHIOPIAN PRIME MINISTER OR LEADER.
I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST KEEP THE GOOD WORK


By Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin, PhD

Special to nazret.com

Much has recently been made of my ethnic identity although this is a matter of no relevance whatsoever to a reasoned discourse on the existence of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange. However, when the unnecessary gets in the way of the important, however unpleasant it may be, it must be faced. I am Ethiopian, as truly and wonderfully as that is, and no one has the right to define, reduce, or otherwise dismiss my identity. I do not apologize for or defend who I am, as each one of us, whoever we are, has a God-given set of circumstances that uniquely defines us.

My reality is that, born in Addis Ababa, I first left Ethiopia with my family at the age of four to live in New York city, accompanying my father, Zaude Gabre-Madhin, who was a senior United Nations official, prior to which he served in the Imperial government. Upon returning a few years later, my family then left Ethiopia again, escaping the chaos of the new Dergue regime, this time to Rwanda and later Togo, Malawi, and Kenya. I thus grew up in six different countries, going to school in French as well as English, and learning Swahili along the way. Throughout this time, my parents, to whom I owe everything, instilled in me and my sisters the deepest love and pride for our country Ethiopia. As I grew up in different cultures, grappling to understand my adolescent identity, I drew on the stories my parents told me of my heritage and of those who came before me.

My mother, Bizuwork Bekele, who never missed a chance to boast about her beloved Harar, shared stories of my incredible great-grandmother, Imahoy Saba Yifat, from Menz and Gondar by origin, who lived in rural Hararghe as a widow after the Italian invasion and was one of the few women fighters of her time standing up to the invaders to defend the land and her six children. I heard about her son, my grandfather, Ato Bekele Haile, a respected magistrate serving as a judge in Harar town, himself of Gurage and Amhara ancestry, and of my mother’s birth in the historical site today known as the House of Rimbaud. As a young child, I loved to sit for hours with my maternal grandmother, Imahoy Beletshachew Habte-Giorgis, a witty, intelligent,and extremely strong-willed woman who would often exclaim in Afan Oromo which she and her children, including my mother, spoke fluently, as she laughed recalling how she managed her coffee farms in the areas around Jijiga, Fedis, and Deder, where many of my relatives still live today.

My father, for his part, mostly to amuse his daughters, named the water tank in our UN provided house in Kigali, Rwanda, “Bulga Springs” to recall his father’s birthplace in northern Shewa. He would proudly speak of my grandfather, Fitawrari Gebremedhin, a noble and highly disciplined official in Emperor Menelik’s time, who later settled in Wolaita Soddo in the late nineteenth century, marrying my grandmother, Woizero Ayalech Alaye, niece of the great Wolaita King Tona. At the age of seven, I remember visiting Soddo where my father was born and where many of my relatives still live, to spend time in his last years with my grandfather who was then nearly a century old. A tall, dignified, and handsome man, deeply religious, my grandfather showed me and my sister his coffee farm and I remember him speaking of my much loved late grandmother, and of his childhood and the family still in Bulga, and his laughing politely, not understanding, as I chattered to him in English with children’s jokes I had learned in New York.

Thus I grew, within and outside Ethiopia, celebrating all the different identities and cultures that are woven beautifully into the tapestry of my identity as an Ethiopian. To my parents, always , we were Ethiopian and that was something to be deeply proud of, recognizing and cherishing all of our different ethnic strands. I never knew until much later, nor did it matter, which particular ethnic group I should claim. In my extended family, my aunt married a man from Wollega and my uncle married a woman from Asmara, my great aunt married into the Abba Jifar clan in Jimma, and the list goes on. So the Ethiopia I knew growing up with my cousins was a kaleidoscope of identities bound together in one Ethiopia.

This is my Ethiopian story, and it is unique to me, as each Ethiopian would similarly have. It is the story of my Ethiopia, the Ethiopia for which I have enduring love and to which I have returned after thirty years to contribute in the best way I know how. This is my Ethiopia to which I bring all the global experiences which have shaped me, as I have lived my adult years in Mali, Switzerland, and the United States, trained and worked in some of the best institutions, and traveled and explored dozens of countries around the world. This is my Ethiopia that represents all of my heritage, the strong and courageous women and men in my family through the ages whose blood flows in me. This is my Ethiopia for which I am willing to work, fight, and believe all things are possible. This is my Ethiopia to which I have brought my US-born sons, to instill in them the pride and love of all that we are as Ethiopians. I would like to teach them that in our increasingly inter-connected world, they are Ethiopians but also global citizens.

Ethiopia is ours, to claim, to build and to restore. Rather than engage in destructive ethnic bigotry, far better to embrace all of what we are and to build together a better future for our children. My personal identity is irrelevant to my choice or ability to lead an initiative to bring a better marketing system for all Ethiopians, regardless of their ethnic roots or which corner of the country they claim. A market is above all a connection between humans, an exchange of goods and money that links two sides. The market is neutral as to who is on either side, it is the connection that counts. I have alwaysfound traders to be the most pragmatic people in the world. Let us too live by this market principle: we are far richer and far stronger if we build on our connectivity to each other in meaningful ways, and that much weaker if we seek isolation and succumb to narrow divisiveness. Let us be like the market. I believe it is our only hope.