The Young and the brave of Ethiopia, freedom is on your hand

July 28, 2014

“I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists”. Nelson Mandela

by Teshome Debalke

The youth of Ethiopia must come to the realization of the REALITY: your freedom is under siege by a brazen ethnic Apartheid tyranny ruling Ethiopia. Unfortunately most Medias are detachment from the reality and left Ethiopians vulnerable to the brutality of the regime.

Tyranny in general is failed brand. But, when you add ethnicity and organized corruption; you not only find a rotten brand of Apartheid but a stagnant system that make a mockery of liberty, justice, economic freedom and development.

Alex Haley, the American writer known for his bestselling book Roots once wrote;

‘Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you’.

The REALITY is the ethnic Apartheid regime in Ethiopia survives by institutionalizing segregation, violence, injustice, exploitation, and propaganda. Thus, it is not a political entity but an organized mob. That is precisely why it controls public and private institutions to deceit, purloin and torment Ethiopians. Make no mistake, only the beneficiaries nurture it from dying a natural death.

Obviously the benefit of Apartheid is the open season it provides its benefactors on the expenses of the people and doesn’t need much elaboration. After all, Apartheid is fundamentally designed to do just that. But, the costs to society continue to have far more implication for generation to come. Poverty, violation of rights, corruption, division, conflict, migration and nepotisms are visible for necked eye. Furthermore, there are more menacing costs invisible for a necked eye. Among them is maintaining fear society to disfranchise, subdue and subjugate the population in submission.

Here, it worth to note; ethnic based struggle outside the supremacy of the rule of law and the universal suffrage of ‘we the people’ perpetuate fear society became a primary obstacle on the struggle for freedom and the universal suffrage of ‘We the People’.

Therefore, it is not a matter of choice but survival to abandon the hyphenated struggle however intoxicating it may to the elites. It would be self-delusion to expect freedom and democracy from ethnic tyranny or the elites that marginalize justice as a tool for political game.

Nelson Mandela said;

‘Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all’.

Mandela was an extraordinary man not because he brought down Apartheid on its knees but, he did it in the name of justices for all. Had he decided to bargain justice for anything else; he would be another shameless African elite that live off his plunder; as we are witnessing over-and-over again when the people of Africa are reduced as pawn of corrupt elites in a position of power.

The question is; why do our contemporary ethnic elites divert us from justice and the universal suffrage of our people?

The ethnic elites’ crime against the people of Ethiopia

THE REALITY is our contemporary ethnic elites starting from the self-proclaimed Tigray elites that institute the failed brand of Apartheid held our people’s liberty hostage. By putting the cart before the horse they reduce justice and the universal suffrage of our people open for negotiation to sustain power and privilege. Therefore,’ us-against-them’ become their only currency to remain relevant.

The REALITY is the struggle for freedom and democracy is to institute the supremacy of the rule of law and universal suffrage of ‘we the people’. What are the motives of the ethnic elites?

The similarity of the South African Apartheid regime and ethnic elites’ complicity tells the story of our own divide society by the Apartheid regime in many ways than one, and the more reason to dismantle it faster than ever.

“under apartheid (after 1948) the division and control were more rigorous and these areas were called homelands. The idea was that the homelands would be like countries where the Black people could live and vote for their own governments, led by chiefs controlled by the apartheid state. As the White minority state expanded its divide and rule plan of control, there was a homeland for every major Black language in South Africa. These groups were called nations, and all Black South Africans were made citizens of one of these ‘homeland’ ‘countries’, regardless of where they had been born or where they now lived. The devastating forced removal of millions of now non-citizens of South Africa then became part of the history of our country” see South Africa History Online.

Dismantling ethnic Apartheid in Ethiopia

The dilemma Ethiopians faced to dismantle the rotten brand of ethnic Apartheid Woyane brought is the constant ethnic fragmentation of our people to prevent instituting the rule of law and universal suffrage of We the People.

Naturally, unity is incompatible with ethnic elites desire to use our people’s right and liberty as a bargaining chip for power and privilege. In other words, unity guarantees the rule of law supreme for all and ethnic fragmentation guarantees the rule of law as a bargain chip for ethnic elites’ political expediency to sustain the Apartheid regime.

Therefore, our collective inability to stand together on the nonnegotiable universal suffrage of our people left the door open for ethnic elites to bargain our people’s rights and freedom with the ‘devil’.

Institutionalizing the struggle on rule of law and universal suffrage

The REALITY is there is no known guarantee to liberty and universal suffrage but the supremacy of the rule of law of ‘we the people’. Only then we the people are able to choose freely what is best for us.

William Hazlitt, the English literary critic and essayist of the early 1800 said it best

‘The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves’.

Therefore, hyphenated elites love of power delayed our liberty by over two decades. How long should we wait before we stop them from distracting the struggle from achieving its goal?

Freeing public institutions from the jaw of tyranny and interest groups

The Reality is the struggle for freedom is freeing public institutions from the jaw of the Apartheid tyranny and interest groups, noting more. What it is NOT is a war between ethnic elites for power and privilege nor war between the people for the privilege of the ethnic elites as we are witnessing.

Therefore, the youth of Ethiopia have one and only one nonnegotiable task to do; organize under the supremacy of the rule of law and free public institutions from the jaw of ethnic tyranny and interest groups.

There are a dozen of critical political, legal, social, economy and security institutions the regime uses and abuse to torment and robe the people.

Therefore, the struggle for freedom is the war on the stooges of tyranny that run these public institutions.

For example, the Media airwaves the ruling tyranny held hostage are public institutions used as the Weapon of Mass Deception. Therefore, the struggle is not about freedom of the press but freeing the airwave from jaw of tyranny.

Felix Frankfurter, the co-founder of American Civil Liberties Union and US Supreme Court Judge said it best ‘Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of achieving a free society’.

THE REALITY is public institutions are for the benefits of the public not for extending the life of ethnic Apartheid or for the privilege of interest groups.

To illustrate the crime of the ruling ethnic tyranny stranglehold of public institution, take the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology held hostage by Debretsion Gebremichael. The little man with the big crime of depriving access to internet technology for 90 million people is also a Deputy Prime Minister of the Nation and the Deputy Chairman of Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) along many titles under his belt, including cyber spy master to commit more crimes on the people of Ethiopia.

His background speaks for itself. He began early as TPLF combatant learning communication technology way before it was fashionable.

According to Wikipedia “He was sent to Italy by the TPLF and received training in communications technology. He led the team that launched the Dimtsi Woyane Tigray (The Voice of Tigray) radio station in 1980. Debretsion, along with “General Santim”, were famous hackers during the Ethiopian Civil War. They routinely hijacked, jammed and sabotaged the Derg’s radio, TV and military communication systems^”

After TPLF came to power1991 “he joined Addis Ababa university while working full-time as the second man to Kinfe Gebremedhin (TPLF security chief assassinated within). He earned his Bachelors and Masters degree in electrical engineering from Addis Ababa University. While it has been claimed he pursued doctoral studies at (or even received a degree from) Harvard University, he is on record as having received a PhD from a distance program at Capella University in 2011”.

After long career of spying and jamming, Debretsion was appointed as a Director of the Ethiopian Information and Communication Development Agency (EICDA) in 2005. The Agency claim ‘to use information and communications technologies, in such a way that it contributes to the nation’s socio economic development and the building of democracy and good governance’. But, under his leadership depriving the public access to the technology and putting up surveillance on Ethiopians is what the agency and his education and experience was used.

After twenty three years of TPLF rule, access to internet remained the lowest in the world. According to Internet World Statistic, out of the 87,302,819 population of Ethiopia 960,331 (1.1%) have access to internet and 902,440 Facebook users. as of 2012, the latest data found.

To make matter worst, the one percent of the public with access to the technology that is supposedly to be used to ‘contribute to the nation’s socio economic development and building of democracy and good governance’ is used by TPLF functionaries for surveillance and propaganda.

Debretsion Gebremichael’s four decade of education and experience like most of his TPLF’s comrades you see in every public institution is depriving Ethiopians access to technology, information, freedom, rights, education and economic opportunity, sad to say but THE REALITY.

The early Christian theologian and philosopher Saint Augustine noted,’’In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?”

The youth of Ethiopia must mobilize to bring down one little Apartheid man after another in every public institution until there is no more. After all, every little mind in public institution serving the Apartheid tyranny is a menace to society, his profession and humanity at large.

That is why I said, When Sister Samarwit Speaks we better listen. Obviously, talking about The Reality she expressed eloquently is the beginning and the end of the Apartheid regime.

Nelson Mandela said;

“Between the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of the armed struggle we shall crush apartheid and white minority racist rule.”

The article is dedicated for the new causalities of the Apartheid regime, G7 leader Andargachew Tsige and Zone 9 bloggers that joined the list of their ‘terrorist’ compatriots in Woyane dungeons. Your sacrifice to pay for the ugliness of Apartheid is pillar of freedom and democracy. You are our Mandela Apartheid fear most in or out of prison.

posted by Daniel tesfaye

Cirque d’Afrique: 2014 U.S-Africa Leaders Summit By Alemayehu G Mariam

July 28, 2014

Cirque d’Afrique: 2014 U.S-Africa Leaders Summit By Alemayehu G Mariam <!–

… በፌስቦክ Like ማድረጉንም አይርሱ! ..መልካም ንባብ፡፡

–>

 The African Circus is coming to town. It is officially called “U.S-Africa Leadership Summit” (not Ringling African Brothers). It is scheduled to be held on August 5-6 in Washington D.C.  The theme of the “Summit” is “Investing in the Next Generation”.

According to the pre-Summit hype, in the first ever “U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, African leaders will have an opportunity to engage with President Obama, his Cabinet members, and other key leaders, including business executives from the U.S. and Africa, Members of Congress, and members of civil society.” It is expected to be a 5-ring circus with stages for “expanding trade and investment ties, engaging young African leaders, promoting inclusive sustainable development, expanding cooperation on peace and security, and gaining a better future for Africa’s next generation.”

Human rights is definitely not on the menu. So, I must speak up! That is, speak truth to those in power who are indifferent to the powerless, those who abuse and misuse power and those who are “deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity”, as Thomas Jefferson might have said.

President Obama proclaimed on the Whitehouse web page, “I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world – partners with America on behalf of the future we want for all of our children…” Is this some kind of “lawyerese” doubletalk? He specifically referred to “countries and peoples of Africa”. How about “leaders of Africa”? Are they a “world apart”? From a different world? “Partners” with America?

Of course, the “countries and peoples of Africa” are not coming to Washington, D.C. African “leaders” are. That’s where President Obama and I part ways. Maybe not. I do not see “leaders and partners” in the African “leaders”; I see the proverbial pig in lipstick, to borrow a campaign metaphor from President Obama. “You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called ‘change.’ It’s still gonna stink after eight years,” declared candidate Obama on his way to the White House.

I say you can assemble a whole bunch of African criminals against humanity, genociders, torturers and mass murderers in the White House and call them “leaders”, but after the lipstick wears off at the end of the day, they are who they are. You can wrap a whole bunch African dictators and thugtators in a fancy label and call them “partners”, but after rotting in power for decades, they stink to high heavens.

I don’t want to rain on the African Leaders Circus parade. I can almost hear my critics bellyaching, “Here he goes again bashin’ and ribbin’ African leaders. He just never cuts them no slack.” In my defense, I interpose paraphrased wisdom from W.C. Fields. “Never give a dictator an even break”. The point is I have to tell it like I see it. The so-called African leaders meeting in the White House, in my view, are a breed apart who crawled from a planet where the rule of law is anathema and government wrongs are dolled up as human rights.

Guess who’s coming to dinner at the White House?

The guest list of African “leaders” and “partners” includes the names of some of the 21^st Century’s worst criminals against humanity, killers, torturers, con men and scammers in designer suits and sunshades. Here is a partial list:

Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya: In office since 2013, Kenyatta is on trial at the International Criminal Court on various counts of crimes against humanity in connection with the communal post-election violence in 2008. The U.N. estimated some 1,200 people died in Kenya in weeks of unrest between December 2007 and February 2008, and 600,000 people were forcibly displaced. I predict the case against Kenyatta will be dismissed for “lack of evidence”  in October, unless it is continued again for the umpteenth time. (See my commentary, “Saving African Dictators from the ICC.)

Paul Biya of Cameroon: In power since 1982, the 80-year old Biya is Cameroon’s second president since independence in 1960. Biya has decades-long record of  gross human rights violations including torture, extrajudicial killings and brutal crackdown on journalists, authors and protesting students.

Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso: After seizing power in a bloody coup in 1987, Compaore turned Burkina Faso into a private estate for himself and his cronies. His record of human rights violations include excessive use of force against civilians and detainees, maintenance of  harsh and life-threatening prison conditions and massive corruption.

Paul Kagame of Rwanda: In power since 1994 (first as vice president and defense minister), a recent UN report accused Kagame of “stoking a rebellion in eastern Congo, across Rwanda’s border, that has led to the displacement of 300,000 people and the arrest, exile or killing of many political opponents and rivals.” Theogene Rudasingwa, Kagame’s former Ambassador to the U.S. reported hearing “Mr Kagame boast in 1994 that he ordered the shooting down of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana.” Kagame told BBC’s HardTalk programme in 2007 that he did not give a damn one way or the other. “I am not responsible for Habyarimana’s death and I don’t care, I wasn’t responsible for his security and he wasn’t responsible for mine either. He wouldn’t have cared if I had died and I don’t care that it happened to him.”

Yoweri Museveni of Uganda: In power since 1986, Museveni has a long record of human rights violations. Human Rights Watch in 2012 reported, “President Museveni’s government has steadily tightened a noose around the media, civil society, the political opposition, and anyone else who might criticise his governance style. Over a dozen members of parliament have faced police interrogations and in some cases criminal charges for speaking out or participating in demonstrations against government policy.”

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of  Equatorial Guinea: After seizing power in a bloody coup in 1979,  Obiang has rigged every election to stay in office with more than 95% of the vote. Obiang’s son and “crown prince” Teodorin Obiang was the subject of a 46-page civil forfeiture action filed by the U.S. Justice Department in California and the District of Columbia. The allegations included “extortion”, “money laundering” and the “misappropriation, theft or embezzlement of public funds by or for the benefit of a public official” of a foreign government. (See my commentary, “To Catch Africa’s Biggest Thieves Hiding in America!”)

José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola: In power since 1979,  dos Santos has been running his  government like a family business (more like a crime syndicate). His daughter, Isabel Dos Santos is the richest woman in Africa (even richer than the widow of the late Meles Zenawi); and according to Forbes Magazine Africa’s only female billionaire. Nearly 70 percent of the Angolan  population lives below the poverty line of $USD1.7 a day, while 28% live on less than 30 cents. dos Santos paid nearly USD$4 bn to the Chinese to build mixed residential development of 750 eight-storey apartment buildings, a dozen schools and more than 100 retail units. Nova Cidade de Kilamba is today a ghost town!

Idriss Deby of Chad: In power since 1990, Deby has an atrocious human rights record. According to the 2013  U.S. State Department human rights report, “the most significant human rights problems [in Chad] were security force abuse, including torture; arbitrary arrests and lengthy pretrial detentions harsh prison conditions, denial of fair public trial, executive influence on the judiciary, and property seizures.”

Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Inherited the presidency from his father at age 30 in 2001. Kabila is said to be “the highest-paid politician in the world, pulling in an astonishing $75 million between July 2012 and July 2013, a nearly $40 million lead over his closest competition.” His estimated net worth in 2013 was $215 million.

Jacob Zuma of South Africa: Reelected in May 2014, he is currently facing a corruption investigation. The South African public prosecutor accused Zuma of improperly spending nearly USD$7 million to improve his private estate, calling  the expenditure, “unconscionable, excessive, and caused a misappropriation of public funds.” Chump change on the titanic scale of African corruption, but it says something about South Africa’s anti-corruption efforts.

Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria: He finally met the families of the abducted girls 100 days after the event. The terrorist group Boko Haram continues to massacre, maim and abduct thousands of innocent Nigerians every year as Johnathan dithers on whether to crush them, bribe them or amnesty them.  According to the annual U.S. human rights report, “massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affects all levels of government and the security forces” in Nigeria.

Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia: In power since 1994 when he was 29 years old following a military coup, the buffoonish Gambian leader shocked the world in 2007 by claiming that he is able to cure HIV/AIDS with concoctions of natural herbs and urged patients to abandon their retroviral medications. According to a 2014 Amnesty International report, Jammeh’s “government tolerates no dissent and commits serious human rights violations. Human rights defenders, journalists, political opponents and other Gambians who are critical of government policies continue to face intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, ill-treatment, death threats and enforced disappearance.”

Hailemariam Desalegn, the ceremonial prime minster of Ethiopia is expected to attend, though his puppet masters will remain in the shadows and within earshot as he hobnobs with the other African “leaders”.

There are some African “leaders” who apparently were not invited to dinner. Old Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and International Criminal Court war crimes suspect Omar al-Bashir will not be there. It seems the invitations sent out to the “leaders” of Eritrea, Guinea Bissau and the Central African Republic  were lost in the mail.

To be perfectly frank, the thought of being in the same room (city) with these criminals and con men gives me the willies.

African beggars making a beeline at the White House? 

President Obama is optimistic that these African “leaders” can “partner with America on behalf of the future we want for all of our children.” I do not see it that way. I see them as beggars in America who strike a bad example of beggary for future African children.

The culture of beggary among African leaders is not something I discovered. It was foretold decades ago by the famed Nigerian nationalist, author and statesman Chief Obafemi Awolowo.  In 1967, at the 4th Summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity, Chief Awo spoke prophetically: “Today, Africa is a Continent of COMPETING BEGGAR NATIONS. We vie with one another for favours from our former colonial masters; and we deliberately fall over one another to invite neocolonialists to come to our different territories to preside over our economic fortunes.”

African leaders, despite the millions and billions they have stolen and stashed away and Africa’s fabled wealth, are quintessentially beggars in the way they think and act.  When they are not pulling out their guns and knives to rob, cheat and steal from their people, they are holding out their begging bowls for alms from the international community.  Their motto is, “Ask what America, Europe, China… can do for Africa… Always.” They never ask what they can do for Africa by themselves without alms, charity and handouts from America, Europe or China.

Who paid for the new African Union (AU) headquarters inaugurated in 2012 in Addis Ababa? That was “China’s gift to Africa.” China picked the entire USD$200 million tab for the building, fixtures and furniture. The China State Construction Engineering Corporation constructed the building using nearly all Chinese workers. Could “China’s gift to Africa” be China’s Trojan Horse in Africa?

The late Meles Zenawi waxed poetic as he blessed the new building and consecrated the “continuing prosperous partnership” between Africa and China. Meles was the beggar-in-chief for Africa. He was the “step and fetch it” guy  at all of the G-something and climate change summits. I hang my head in shame whenever I think of Africa’s wealth and resources and the supposed inability  of African “leaders” to collectively come up with the chump change needed to build the most symbolic and iconic structure for the continent. They just had to beg!!! (See my commentary, “African Beggars Hall”.)

Africa has long been a bottomless pit for alms and handouts. Dambissa Moyo argues, “In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse.” In 2013, bilateral aid (from single donor country to a single recipient country) to sub-Saharan Africa was USD 26.2 billion. Total bilateral U.S. development assistance from the USAID and the U.S.  State Department to sub-Saharan Africa was over $7.08 billion in FY 2012.

Is the Dragon eating the Eagle’s lunch in Africa?

Is the U.S. finally playing catch-up with China, the European Union and Japan who have been running African leadership summits (some say scams)? There is no question that China is today Africa’s largest bilateral trade partner.  Could it be that the U.S. is finally realizing China is eating its lunch in Africa? ( See my commentary, “The Dragon Eating the Eagle’s Lunch in Africa?”.)

The Obama Administration has been talking about investments, trade, infrastructure development and stuff like that  for a few years. Last year, President Obama announced his “Power Africa Initiative” which was supposed to increase American energy company investments with a $7 billion aid package to back it up. The only kind of power I see in Africa today is abuse and misuse of power by African “leaders”. (See my commentary, “Power Africa? Empower Africans!)

In 2012, President Obama invited a number of African leaders to a “Food Summit” and declared,  “The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is a shared commitment to achieve sustained and inclusive agricultural growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years by aligning the commitments of Africa’s leadership to drive effective country plans and policies for food security.” To implement the “New Alliance” and spark a Green Revolution in Africa, dozens of global food companies, including multinational giants Cargill, Dupont, Monsanto, Kraft, Unilever, Syngenta AG signed a “Private Sector Declaration of Support for African Agricultural Development”. Are Africans more food secure today than they were 20 or 30 years ago? (See my commentary, “Food for Famine and Thought!”)

President Obama launched the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) in 2010 as a signature initiative to support upcoming young African leaders. How many young Africans are being trained in the U.S. today to strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across the continent? It seems the most capable young Africans who could strengthen democracy in Africa — young journalists, bloggers, opposition  leaders and peaceful dissenters — are being prosecuted, persecuted and jailed in large numbers. I wonder how many of the young leaders will actually return to Africa after tasting the good life in America!  (See my commentary, “Will the U.S. Stand by the Side of Brave Africans?”

The “Awolowo Paradox”: How to kick the begging habit and beat the handout addiction

African “leaders” must heed the prophetic and paradoxical words of Chief Awolowo if they are to save Africa and themselves. In his 1967 speech, Chief Awolowo cautioned African leaders:

We may continue and indeed we will be right to continue to use the power and influence which sovereignty confers, as well as the tactics and manoeuvres which international diplomacy legitimatises, to extract more and more alms from our benefactors. But the inherent evil remains—and it remains with us and with no one else: unless a beggar shakes off and irrevocably turns his back on, his begging habit, he will forever remain a beggar. For, the more he begs the more he develops the beggar characteristics of lack of initiative, courage, drive and self-reliance.’”

I believe African leaders are rich beggars. When they look in the mirror, they do not see millionaires, billionaires and a continent brimming with wealth and resources. They see a reflection of themselves and a continent wallowing in an ocean of poverty and drowining in privation made opaque by corruption and human rights violation. They prove the proposition that poverty is not only a physical and economic state but also a state of mind.  Because they are morally bankrupt, they must always beg and endlessly seek to engorge themselves with alms, handouts and charity. It makes them feel better. The “begging habit” and the handout addiction is in their blood stream and the only question is whether they  “will forever remain beggars” as Chief Awo wondered so long ago.

As a human rights advocate, I would only remind President Obama of his own words when he visited Accra, Ghana in 2009.  “…Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change Constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions…” I wonder if President Obama is making a big mistake by standing on the side of Africa’s “strongmen”.

I get the heebie geebies just imaging President Obama standing on the side of Africa’s “strongmen” and wining and dining them in the White House. Eeek!

My only question to President Obama is this: How can African “leaders” invest in the next generation when they are divesting and wasting the current generation? 

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Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino and is a practicing defense lawyer.

posted by Daniel tesfaye