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Hibret Selamu | July 21st, 2010

When Emperor Haile Selassie I was approached by Saudi Arabia for permission to build a mosque in Axum, a city where one of Ethiopia’s holy Christian sites is located, he had a perfect response for them. New York has now been requested by some entities to build a mosque in the vicinity of the 9/11 massacre. The symbolism of such a daring act cannot be lost on anyone! There is no doubt that His Majesty’s wisdom would be useful for the authorities of New York as well as the government of USA in general.

Eskinder Nega (Addis Ababa) | July 17th, 2010

History will always remember British PM Neville Chamberlain waving a piece of paper, on which rested the signatures of Hitler and himself, as he proclaimed to an eager world, “peace for our time.”

The setting was September 1938, a mere nineteen years after the horrors of the First World War had finally ended, and when Europe faced the dreaded prospect of yet another round of cataclysmic continental war. But only six months later, in March 1939, the greatest war the world has ever seen engulfed Europe. The “peace for our time” was no more than a mirage despite numerous concessions to Europe’s dictatorships. Ever since then, Chamberlain’s policy of avoiding war at any cost—to buy temporary peace—has been universally vilified.

Mela Tebabal Addis Ababa | July 17th, 2010

While the fake elections last May reaffirmed yet again EPRDF’s unrelenting stance to ever cripple a slightest attempt to exercise democratic rights, we all know this is never a new commitment on the part of our dictators. The socio-political horizon within which we live has always been one surely characterized by one party rule enjoying, quite for some time, political legitimacy in the eyes of its Western fatteners. Thanks to, among others, the worthless and weakest opposition that not only narrow mindedly allowed division within itself but also made the totalitarian regime look like fit to multiparty democracy. Needless to mention the West’s shortsightedness expressed in its failure to look beyond its short term gains from Meles Zenawi’s loyal services in the face of long lasting national and regional repercussions implicated in these services devoid of public support.

Fundamentally, social fusion emerged as a subsequent natural interaction process. Attempting to deter such a process is tantamount to blocking a stream of water with a sieve. It is becoming crystal clear that such a process has been going on in all parts of the world, owing to their natural prosperity; people of diverse origin on our planet earth do interact and share values. The existing realities of social and technological advancements are propelling our world intensively towards an inevitable fusion of dynamic proportion; this in turn made our world appear ever smaller.

Note: This is my sixth and final commentary on the theme “Where do we go from here?” following the rigged May 2010 elections in Ethiopia in which the ruling dictatorship won by 99.6 percent [1]. In this piece, I emphasize the importance of individual commitment and effort to help establish democracy, protect human rights and institutionalize the rule of law in Ethiopia. I argue that there is today a struggle between a host of hummingbirds trying to save Ethiopia’s soul and a voracious wake of vultures that have devoured her body. I predict ultimate victory for the hummingbirds following Gandhi’s timeless exhortation that “There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.”

Eskinder Nega (Addis Ababa)| July 10th, 2010

Coming only six years after the Watergate calamity, Ronald Reagan was almsot literally “the man on a horseback” who rode triumphantly in to Washington to save the disconsolate Republican Party.

( And the country, many of his partisans insist.) His victory was celebrated in many capitals around the world, too; but with no more passion than in Pretoria, South Africa, where a morally bankrupt apartheid precariously held sway.

Alemayehu G. Mariam | July 5th, 2010

Note: This is my fifth commentary on the theme “Where do we go from here?” following the rigged May 2010 elections in Ethiopia in which the ruling dictatorship won by 99.6 percent [1]. In this piece, I express deep regrets over the never-ending subjugation of women in Ethiopian society and call for a movement for the advancement of Ethiopian women’s human rights. I urge Ethiopian women to join hands in building the “future country of Ethiopia” that Birtukan Midekssa, Ethiopia’s foremost political prisoner and first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history, dreamed about.

Eskinder Nega (Addis Ababa.)

The preparation for the elections in May 2010 was more than a year in the making in the PM’s office. Abay Tsehaye, once a fixture in popular imagination as one of several mystic leaders who were really running the EPRDF  behind the public persona of Meles Zenawi, but later to be demystified, publicly humiliated and now a grateful underling with a ministerial portfolio as national security advisor approached the PM’s office every morning with a judicious expression. Invariably, he was impeccably attired, and frequently held a thin folder in one of his hands. And for what time they deemed necessary, Abay had almost exclusive access (but not always) to the PM while he briefed him on an range of national security developments; but which, according to sources, often ended up being dominated by the approaching elections. Meles had insisted on preparing thoroughly for mass unrest, particularly in Addis; with a contingency plan even for an emergency evacuation of the palace. Tens of thousands of security personnel were trained and deployed in and around Addis; the latest vehicles and firearms purchased; and intelligence (both human and electronics) was beefed up. All part of a concerted effort “if possible, to deter; if not, to contain and crush riots.” Indeed, each stage of the plan had gone faultlessly; gratifying habitually worrying Meles. And they were all to be rewarded when Election Day came and went peacefully.

CPJ | June 30th, 2010

Ethiopia’s postal service should a conduct thorough and transparent investigation into the tampering of mail addressed to the country’s leading critical newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Awramba Times Editor-in-Chief Dawit Kebede said the paper has complained to the Ethiopian Postal Service at least three times since June 6 after finding opened and destroyed envelopes in its mailbox inside Teklay Posta Bet, the national postal headquarters in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Netsanet Zegeye | June 30th, 2010

We Ethiopians have never been jealous of the prosperity and fast development of the people of China. We are appreciative of their efforts to economically help developing countries including Ethiopia. At the same time we Ethiopians understand that we have never been a threat to the economic and technological advancement of the people of China or any nation for that matter. Rather, we Ethiopians have been admiring and appreciating the overall progress of this great country and of any other nation on the planet, though we have never been reciprocated in the same manner. In connection to what has been done to asphyxiate our citizenship and human rights, we can surmise that people of the same quality befriend each other for the purpose of achieving the same goals based on their shared values. The saying has it: Birds of the same feather flock (fly?) together. In an inclusive way of expression, we the oppressed people of the globe, from all directions irrespective of race or color or religion, have been suppressed by our own dictators for the last innumerable number of years and have been trying to remove the yoke from the nape of our neck. But it is extremely lamenting and heartbreaking to learn that the leaders of this great nation on earth, along with the US and her allies, is involved in stifling the oppressed mass of the planet by being the right hand of despotic and undemocratic leaders such as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia who is known for his chameleonic character in deception and manipulation so that he ‘convinces’ the west to give him their blessings to whatever he does, including vote riggings and massacres.