Africanidea

Ethiopian Territorial Integrity and Ethiopiawinet: Sudan annexing Ethiopian Territory.  May 4, 2008

By Tecola W. Hagos-It is not a question of enlightened behavior that distinguish the two leaders, for both are dictators and brutal toward their own people; however, there is a world of difference between the two of them when it comes to the vital interest of their respective countries. As seen from their respective national interests, Meles Zenawi is a sell-out, while Afeworki is a patriot.  If we follow Sudan’s logic as the basis of its claims to Ethiopian territory, which is based on colonial defective “treaties” and unresolved negotiations from earlier period from the time of Yohannes IV and Menilik II, and the demography of the affected regions both in the present day Eritrea and Ethiopia, the same type of claims would have been launched against Eritrea.-----

ETHIOPIA'S DIRE TUNE: THE NEW BOSTON MARATHON 2008 CHAMPION CONGRATULATIONS, DIRE TUNE FOR WINNING THE BOSTON MARATHON 2008. YOUR COURAGE, STAMINA, AND FAITH RENEWED US ALL IN OUR ETHIOPIAWINET. YOU MAKE US ALL FEEL GREAT, WE ARE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL TO YOU AND ALL THE ETHIOPIAN LEGENDARY GREAT DISTANT RUNNERS AND MARATHON RUNNERS, AND WORLD AND OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS. THANK YOU AND THANK YOU SOME MORE, ALL OF YOU OUR GREAT HEROES AND CHAMPIONS.

It is also necessary to continue equipping the political, social, and pressure groups that have a stake in our country to hold rational and reasoned policy and political positions that would challenge the political leaders into realizing the ideals of fairness, justice and equality that would lay the foundations for a sustainable nation. It would be a matter of time before the (outwardly strong but decaying) TPLF to acknowledge that there is more to equitable and democratic governance than political expediency of consolidating political tyranny insulated from the interests, will and participation of its subjects. The growing brainstorming and crystallization of the foundations and mechanisms of the TPLF's driving rolled TPLF to crack because of internal rust, its paralysis to change and absence of rational and reasoned agenda and backing.

Reading William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006)   April 21, 2008
By Getachew Mequanent- To conclude, Easterly isn’t really talking about the “ills” of aid, as the title of his book suggests. He is talking about the problems of aid management. As I read the book, I kept remembering a man who was the president of the Canadian International Development Agency in the 1970s, speaking at a conference, angrily asking, “why did we fail the world’s poor children?” Having spent sixteen years at the World Bank, Easterly’s writing style combines both passion and experiences of frustration, as you can see from this quotation (p. 368) telling donors what to do:  Discard your patronizing confidence that you know how to solve other people’s problems better than they do. Don’t try to fix governments or societies. Don’t invade other countries or send armies to one of the brutal armies in a civil war. End conditionality. Stop wasting our time with summits and frameworks. Give up on sweeping and naïve institutional reform schemes.

Very often and invariably, this is what the regime does to the people when it plays the so- called democracy game: the regime invites the people for an election charade only to disabuse them when they vote for the candidates or parties of their choice by harassing those not toeing the official line backed by the military and police might at its disposal. Why the regime prefers to go through the motion of an election, when it has literally zero interest or commitment to honour the choices and voices of the people particularly when they vote for opposition party candidates, strikes any impartial observer as nothing else but activities that are supremely diversionary, opportunistic, cynical and immoral.

Some thoughts on Understanding What Lies Ahead for Ethiopia
By Wardoffa Benti (from Germany)- April 16, 2008                   The title chosen for this short abstract of a bigger idea is daunting and beyond the reach of the intelligence and capacity of this author. The idea is to tip a discussion on the manner of political discourse in the political community for scrutinizing the real issues on political transformation of stakeholders. When people come into some kind of union (unitary, federal, confederate or other forms of governmental structure), the basic notion is that these peoples have agreed to forge a formula where they would strike concessions and compromises that would be fair and workable for the groups and classes of people to be bound by that structure. Thus a Constitution of a country, which in essence means a tool where the various constituencies of people who are living in a relatively coherent and adjacent geographical entity, agree to come under some form of union after by a majority (super-majority) of their people or their elected representatives. -----

COMMENTARY 
Paradigm of poverty and humanism: Undoing Ethiopia's modernity 
By Prof. Tecola W. Hagos -
[Because the crucial issues discussed some five years ago in an article titled “PARADIGM OF POVERTY AND HUMANISM: UNDOING ETHIOPIA’S MODERNITY” (July 25, 2003) posted in this Website are still the most acute issues concerning Ethiopia, we have decided to repost or up-link that article in our archive one more time. Readers are invited to take a fresh look at the article with the current political and economic reality in Ethiopia in mind.]
Instead of revisiting the same old political and economic programs that have been the main stay of every political group and aspiring political leader since the 1960s, I suggest that we start with new approach within a rubric of a Humanistic-Poverty Paradigm. A paradigm is not in itself a political ideology, but a way of looking at distilled consistent and compatible ideas. It has the advantage of satisfying all ideas of truth. This in itself is remarkable. It should not come as a surprise to us, for the humanistic paradigm, after all, reflects the ethos or the zeit-geist of a people (period). Another additional factor to consider is the fact that the Paradigm is not a liberation movement, but rather a creative process; unlike other liberation movements the struggle is not against the State of Ethiopia but against poverty, ignorance, pestilence, greed, exploitation, dehumanization, oppression et cetera.

What the election of Barack Obama would mean to African politics    April 7, 2008

By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)-As an African-American of a Kenyan ancestry, I am reminded of my father’s dream, the dream of putting Kenya on the world map, as a player in world politics. I wish every African nation to abide by International law, and treat its citizens with dignity, with inviolable human rights, and call upon Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi to treat Ethiopians with fairness, respect and dignity. I demand that African leaders either be transparent or move out of the way. No African nation should get our aid if it intimidates, tortures and imprisons its citizens. -----

Tiruniash Dibaba -     Gold Medal;

Kenenisa Bekele -    Gold Medal

Genzebe Dibaba -    Gold Medal (Women Junior)

Ibrahim Jeilan -         Gold Medal (Men Junior)

 Congratulations! You all are the pride of Ethiopia. You brought glory and respect to all of us. This is the quintessential fabulous Ethiopian team winning first place in all divisions. One thing for sure, the Edinburgh highland weather, with its rain and mud, should not have been more welcoming to the Ethiopian team. The Ethiopian cross-country runners were defeated by the stifling tropical weather of Mombassa of last year’s contest. This is a comeback performance.....

THE UGLY AMERICAN: HOPE AND REDEMPTION FOR ALL
By Tecola W. Hagos-It seems we are hearing the voice of reason and witnessing in the person of Obama the emergence of new generations of Americans—coming-of-age, of exquisitely beautiful new generations of Americans who seem to go beyond such contentious racist narrow view of the American identity, who seem to take “the color of water,” if I may borrow an apt phrase from a book title. [James McBride, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, Riverhead Books (1996).] In that book McBride’s White Mother uttered the phrase “the color of water” in reference to God as being not black or white but all, as the color of water that picks up the hue of its container. This philosophy is radically different than the militancy of the civil rights movement; it is not accusatory and vengeful, but refined understanding of the human condition, thus is a precursor of Obama’s generation of African American individuals who see beyond the injustice of white America but the hope of a just and harmonious society due to the healing power of understanding and direct actions.....

A woman was beaten up and shot dead by her father for talking online with a man she met on the website Face book.

The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as an example of the "strife" the social networking site is causing in the Islamic nation. It said the man shot his daughter after discovering she had been chatting online to a young man she had met on Face book.

THE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE: MELES ZENAWI AND MOHAMMAD AL-AMOUDI  March, 23 2008

By Tecola W. Hagos-The secret for our future political success is to be found in our capacity to create bridges of relationships connecting the newly formulated political organizations with all other opposition groups, such as those of Kinijit, Beyene Petros, Merara Gudina, Lidetu Ayalew et cetera. One must find important common interest such as questions of civil rights, territorial integrity and sovereignty, law and order et cetera to champion. Most importantly, the opposition group must identify and focus on one or two personalities in the present Ethiopian government and from those that are collaborators rather than direct its opposition in a generalized form to the entire group. One must be able to create division and dissension within the Government of Meles Zenawi. Meles Zenawi and Mohammad Al-Amoudi must be identified as the two most dangerous individuals who are threats to the very existence of Ethiopia and as enemies of the people of Ethiopia.....

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Prince Rasselas, Fact of Fiction? A Glimpse at our History

By G. E. Gorfu-March, 22 2008

That then is why traditional kings and queens of Ethiopia were highly educated people. Atse Libne Dingel had assumed the throne as a young boy with his mother, Queen Eleni, as Reagent and Caretaker of government. His army, we are told, used to spear Mount Bokan near Dukem, begging and praying for war. He never saw Wohni Amba, and had a poor grasp of his own history or tradition. This, some historians say, was the main reason why he lost his throne to Ahmed Gragn, who defeated him, chased him, and besieged him for several years on Mount Debre Damo, in Tigray, until his death by thirst and hunger.......

The Tigre Question   March, 20 2008

Return to the Source: Aleqa Asres Yenesew and the West.   March, 15 2008- Messay Kebede-For Asres, Westernized Ethiopians may know many things about the West, but they are pretty ignorant when it comes to Ethiopia. In rejecting Ge’ez, they make themselves unable to understand Ethiopia and to use the treasure of accumulated knowledge to further its interests. All they can do is read Ethiopia through the lens of alien and borrowed concepts with the consequence that they come up with distorted notions. Far from being the scouts of the society, renegade intellectuals carry the viewpoint of the colonizer, and so replace real knowledge with critical declarations. Grandfather, 1974
Collection of Ethiopian National Museum 32 x 30 cm oil on board.) Their so-called knowledge does not emanate from their society’s history and defining features; it is made of normative pronouncements deploring the extent to which their society failed to develop the features of the model society, i.e., the Western society........

ANDENET is sparking interest among Ethiopian Readers

March, 14 2008-By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)-However, given the complexities of the problem i.e. the intransigence of the government, the ossified experiences and centrifugal tendencies of some significant opposition groups, the not so conducive international (security more than democracy) and regional (surrounded by authoritarian regimes save Kenya) context, the politics of ANDENET won’t be an easy one.

We share in the sorrow and anguish of all Iraqi Christians who are at this moment under tremendous persecution by local fanatical Sunni Moslem thugs and the Shiite led Government of Iraqi. We deplore, condemn, and totally reject any form of discrimination and persecution based on religious differences. The persecution of Christians and other religious groups throughout the Arab World, especially in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, and also in Iran is the gravest under-reported violation of fundamental human rights and of social injustice in the World for the last thirty years.  

  Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul. Our condolences also to the families of Faris Gorgis Khoder, and Ramy and Samir, three of his assistants (driver, bodyguards) who were martyred in the process of the kidnapping of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho. Requim Eternum.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Thursday condemned the death of the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop in Iraq as "an act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being".

March, 10 2008-  Donald Levine-'Such concerns were central to the recent mission of General Siye Abraha to Ethiopian communities in the United States. The message of candidate Obama is in this vein: do not fear to talk to one another, and see what can be done if you work together. As he expressed the point in a talk given at Martin Luther King's old church in Atlanta, 'We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down.' If the US presidential campaign can produce an inspiring figure like Barack Obama, who projects that transformative vision for Ethiopians, I cannot imagine anything more salubrious.'.......

March, 9 2008   By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)-My dear Ethiopians: there is a misconception of power within our society. The current regime has successfully tied power or leadership of the country with a privilege that comes with one’s ethnicity. For a long time, Amharic and Tigrigna speaking people of Ethiopia have been portrayed as elites who govern the country. In fact the current regime has successfully blamed the oppression and atrocities of the past regimes on Amharic speaking people in general. This illusion has brainwashed some Tigreans, who have been led to believe that Amharas are indeed the privileged enemies of all other Ethiopians.

By Tecola W. Hagos- Tocqueville wrote, with keen insight, about the national characteristics of Americans, which characteristics are a far cry from that assumed by Americans themselves. He wrote:

Americans, in their relations with foreigners, appear impatient at the least censure and insatiable for praise. The slimmest eulogy is agreeable to them and the greatest is rarely enough to satisfy them; they pester you at every moment to get you to praise them; and if you resist their entreaties, they praise themselves. One would say that, doubting their own merit, they want to have a picture of it before their eyes at each instant. Their vanity is not only greedy, it is restive and envious. It grants nothing while demanding constantly. It is entreating and quarrelsome at the same time.” [3] 

by Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)-Menelik was a shrewd sovereign, who intuitively what he had to in order to save Ethiopia from foreign aggression.  In the language of MAAT, the African female principle of governance through political goodness informed by compassion and uprightness, the Emperor managed to control his ego and engage his former rivals and enemies and invited them to join him to overcome a deadly enemy. He appealed to the people for help, for understanding, and the people joined him to do the work.  The Emperor himself internalized reconciliatory comportment and put himself in the mood of work guided by Ethiopia ’s common good. It is precisely this kind of shrewdness that the prevailing Sovereign in Ethiopia is desperately lacking. The prevailing is intent on rejecting reconciliation and intent on doing everything by Orwellian political cruelty and a short-lived arrogance that would one come to haunt it.

by Teodros Kiros (PhD)-The hurt and the divisions are so deep that only time can heal us all, so that we can all willingly live as a united people of a historic nation- drinking from the fountains of Ethiopiawinet mediated by ANDENET. So understood ANDENET for now is only an ideal, but once the wounds of NE are healed, ANDENET can be a realizable idea. Ethiopiawinet, as I understand it, would have to be grounded on Andenet, for the idea to function as a vital force that can unite the Ethiopian people, who remain profoundly divided by negative ethnicity.......

Editorial: February 16, 2008
Continuation of Diplomatic and Economic Disaster in Ethiopia
By Tecola W. Hagos- If the Eritrean Government moves into the area that the Commission had identified on paper and later has asserted that it constituted as the “virtual demarcation” of the boundary, Meles will only protest to the United Nations Security Council, and the Eritrean Government will counter by claiming that it violated no Ethiopian boundary but only is occupying what the Commission has 

  Larger Map
designated as Eritrean territory. The Security Council will be hard pressed in accepting that claim by the Eritrean Government since to do otherwise will be contradicting itself. The maximum reaction by the Security Council might be a very mild censor of the Eritrean Government on protocol (procedure) that it should have waited for a formal diplomatic note rather than marching on its own. Thus, Meles would have once more completed his diabolical mission against Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people. This is very serious challenge to the Sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia.......

For those who do not approve the arrival of Siye Abraha:

By Sabataa Dubbii-Are you ready to think unthinkable? What if the current army as a whole may be supporting what had been argued by Siye group prior to 1998 war between Ethiopia and Eriteria? I believe the situation in all its forms and continents in Eritrea could have angered the armed forces for the last decades; what is your reason that Siye could not play a central role in bringing in such a boiling energy into action if he becomes a formidable force against Meles Zenawi? Meles Zenawi and his government does not wish any confrontations with Eritrea as it has been demonstrated in Tunis at a round table. Meles might have been negotiating with Eritrea to remain in power by burying the central issues of democracy with war cries from Jubilee Palace.....

By Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)-I enjoy writing from the margins, where there is so much pain, so much abuse, and yet, as long as my words flow from the depth of my heart, and are monitored by the Transcendent, and the writing is right and beautiful, I will have obtained a sense of fulfillment which money cannot buy. My recent writings on Seeye are motivated by a single idea, and that is, at this particular moment in time, Seeye, the reconciler, the insider, who has decided to tell it all by risking his life, and correct the mistakes that the party that he and the other members of Woyane made, will save Ethiopia from the path of destruction. Seeye is a symbol of change, of a new beginning, of a new rendezvous with Ethiopian history.

Saudis to execute woman for 'witchcraft 'Human rights group appeals to Saudi king to stop execution

Mr. Seeye Abraha deserves a better treatment other than Surveillance.  By Teodros Kiros (PhD)  February 12, 2008

The Ethiopian regime in power continues to persuade the western world that it is a democratic government, which is honoring human rights, thereby protesting against the passing of HR 2003, the sharp edged blade, which is aiming at shaming the regime and exposing its undemocratic ways...

Seeye Abraha in Virtual House Arrest   February 12, 2008
Chairman of the Human Rights advocate of the horn of Africa
By Desta Hagos-We have received evidence that Ato Seeye Abraha, a bridge to democracy in Ethiopia, appears to be under house arrest. We have come to this conclusion because government personnel have taken it upon themselves to screen individuals who come to visit him. Upon his return from a successful visit to America, where he met with Senators, Congressmen and other citizens, to tell them about human rights abuse in Ethiopia, from his own personal experience, visitors to his home have been intimidated at his front gate...

NES COMMENTARY. No.15

Mammo Muchie-

There is a pervasive and corrosive phenomenon characterized by the gratuitous trading of insults that we believe has been disorientating the Ethiopian opposition lately. Though the opposition is passing through a difficult phase at the moment and life has not been certainly easy, it is clear that it remains (whether it acts fragmented or in a composite fashion!) still strong having entered a state of reflection to find insights with new and invigorated foresight to make realignments that can work better than the alliances that seem to have unraveled with so much public and open hostilities.

Security Council extends UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea    Un News Center 01/30/2008

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council called on the two sides to “show maximum restraint and refrain from any threat or use of force against each other, avoid provocative military activities and put an end to the exchange of hostile statements.” The 15-member body also emphasized that “Eritrea and Ethiopia bear the primary responsibility for achieving a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the border dispute and normalizing their relations.”

The Beauty of Faith : The Most Beautiful Cross in the World - The Lalibela Ethiopian Cross

By Tecola W. Hagos-One may generalize that the genius of the Ethiopian artists who created the Lalibela Cross is not limited to their great structural abstraction, but also extends to their absolute control of the religious symbolism integrated in the cross from overwhelming the over all design. There is absolute balance between each part of the Lalibela Cross. In fact, the Cross seems to be contained by far more profound and subtle narrative just touching the subconscious represented in the general matrix of the artifact. However, one should not forget the fact that the Lalibela Cross is an item of devotion, thus essentially utilitarian. Is that not what religion is supposed to be?  ... 

Siye Abraha's Groundbreaking Tour of the United States  

Laeke Gebresadik  January 26, 2008

Demolishing ethnic barriers-, Siye spoke eloquently, nothing like a slick politician trying to dissipate the lingering question on his role as a former official of the EPRDF. I found it quite a treat to listen to a very sincere man who put such a difficult and complex mission before any political agenda. He was able to engage his audience with his most important mission of demolishing the ethnic walls that, no doubt, Ethiopians themselves helped the EPRDF build around them. After all, Siye did not go to the EPRDF and plead to do away with its divisive ethnic policies. Instead, he came to ordinary Ethiopians and challenged them to do it themselves as the first step for dialogue and nation building.  ... 

Ethiopianity   January 26, 2008

Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)-The modern Ethiopian state is composed of this classical idea, Ethiopianity. Ethnic rivalries are increasingly denuding us of our rich history. Our Ethiopianity is too splendid to be watered down by a one hundred years history of self-determination, a tool of dividing the nation into ever hostile language and ethnic groups. Ethiopianity is to clean our hearts and unapologetically express our differences and similarities as Ethiopians born to different practices born out of culture blended with customs. The new topic of Ethiopianity must pay close attention to the reconciliation and change that Mr. Seeye Abraha is calling from the depth of his heart, without motives...... 

Unveiling the Anatomy of Desperation January 26, 2008

Teodros Kiros (PhD) -By using reason in concert with will and conscience  Ethiopians recently filled the corridors of gatherings in Boston, DC, Denver and Seattle, and they responded to Seeye’s message with a resounding yes, and proceeded to begin organizing civic associations and salons of discussion wherever and whenever they can.  These actions have frightened the regime, and it is sending its handlers to attack writers with the cheapest means at its fingertips. Needless to say the abuse have not stopped the abused writers from the use of the of the silent power of the pen, thanks to the mighty Lord.  ... 

Seeye Abraha:  The Transformative Personality in Ethiopian Politics. January 22, 2008

By Bereket Kiros

No political journey is easy; Seeye’s journey is no exception either. He is giving us alternative views and approaches: a challenge to opposition parties and the EPRDF on how to achieve a democratic Ethiopia through peaceful political processes. He introduced a set of analytical tools and frameworks that show how to navigate on the unchartered and risky political sea of our Ethiopia. He laid the basis of a modern political process through reconciliation and understanding of our political and cultural diversity.  ...