Burying our head in the sand is what got us where we are as people and nation in the first place to fall under ethnic Apartheid rule. Digging ourselves out to think straight is more important and effective than reacting what a rogue regime does to dodge its surrender.

By Teshome Debalke

I can’t help but be grateful to Professor Berhanu Nega and his colleagues, particularly Andargachew Teige to master the courage and the vision in building a viable democratic movement to put the struggle back on track to challenge the scrooge brought about by the corrupt and atrocious ethnic gang of Adwa known as TPLF.

But, challenging the gang’s ‘surveillance state’ in my opinion is the easy part compared to putting clarity on ‘doublethink of society — the primary cause of why we are where we are not to do something to a dead-and-deadly regime walking.

The term doublethink is defined as “the acceptance or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time as a result of political indoctrination”, according to Oxford Dictionary.

Coined by Eric Arthur Blair better known by his pen name George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four(1949), a political fiction “which describes official deception, secret surveillance and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state” according to Wikipedia.

Orwell is widely recognized for his Animal Farm novel (1945), a satirical tale reflecting events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 led by Joseph Stalin.

According to his Nineteen Eighty-Four novel, Doublethink is defined as;

“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.”

Look, we all can scream the sky is falling– whispering behind closed doors. But, if we can’t take personal responsibility to stop the doublethink that consumed our behavior to leave us handicapped to do something, anything instead of wishing tyranny to go away; we will never be free let alone free our people.

That is what Professor Berhanu Nega hit home eloquently in the Washington DC area gathering of Ethiopians on his recent visit from the battle ground and made it clear for friends and foes as well as for the doers and the talkers — the struggle for freedom isn’t about him or his organization as we are lead to believe from the usual suspects. Nor it is about the nuisance of TPLF regime and its zombie cadres but, to bring individual responsibility to rid doublethink in order to build democratic society for our people. Or in short; doublethink must go and do nothing but talk behind closed doors no more.

If enough Ethiopians do what the distinguished Professor advised, without exaggeration; the struggle would be as easy as cleaning up the reminiscent of TPLF in a matter of days.

Here, I can’t help but poke on the naysayers, the detractors, the scavengers and particularly the hired hands of TPLF that agonize to undermine–demonize, insult, terrorize, dehumanize… decent, charismatic, country- people loving and courageous Ethiopian leaders and their compatriots that have the backbone to put up with all the rubbish thrown at them to hang on and do the right thing, I might add with first class Ethiopian grace and sense of humor never seen in contemporary politics.

Mind you, TPLF alone created whole industry just to undermine Ethiopian leaders like fascist Italy did.  When you think about it; dealing with ‘home grown’ fascist is much harder than foreign fascist for obvious reason. Don’t take my word, dig a little deeper you will find the propaganda machines TPLF’s surveillance state setup and the little Banda foot soldiers it trained and hired just to undermine Ethiopian leaders alone.

Unlike the usual core mouthpiece cadres turn journalists I extensively wrote about, the oversized street clown turn Radio personality overnight in the Atlanta area I wrote about is one that comes in mind. The unemployed freelance journalist wannabe turn internet TV personality overnight — running TGTV in the Washington DC area lately is another surrogate TPLF hired to do its dirty job.

It is like seeing a replica of what Orwell refer as Big Brother (totalitarian state), thoughtcrime (criminal act of holding unspoken beliefs or doubts) Newspeak (controlled language created by the totalitarian state), Room 101 (a torture chamber), telescreen (surveillance) 2 + 2 = 5 (false dogma one required to believe) and memory hole (re-writing all of history to match the state propaganda) are some of the terms Orwell uses on his novel in reference to totalitarian regimes.

Ironically, TPLF ethnic Federal Democratic Revolution is a mini version of fascist totalitarianism Orwell talked about in his novel where its operatives agonize to replicate while fattening their pocketbook with crony capitalism as a compensation for their doublethink. In short, it is the worst of Apartheid, Marxism, Capitalism and Fascism combined.

But, to see other Ethiopians extend helping hand for rogue TPLF Police State to undermine Ethiopian leaders on the expenses of our people is way over the top for me to remain silent.

That said, don’t ask me how but, I knew all along Professor Berhanu and his radiant but yet low-profile collogue Andrgachew Teige I had the privilege to see once were up to something to bring Ethiopians together and put the struggle back on the right track way before G7 inception.

I believe character matters. The way I saw it then; both had character like many good Ethiopians I know. But, their courage to stand tall and be counted was more important. And, most crucially, the clarity of their vision and the ease they reached out to communicate with Ethiopians they hardly knew with confidence and humility was what mesmerized my imagination to say – finally something good is cooking but, couldn’t put my figure on it at the time.

But, it was enough for me to become a freelance defender of their cause knowing what the dead-and-deadly regime walking alone and others with their own agenda would do to stop them. As I expected the barrage of personal attack came from all directions—targeted more on Berhanu Nega – the public face of the movement as soon as Ginbot-Seven was formed that continued to this day.

I recall writing the first articles in May of 2011 titled ‘Why I admire Dr. Berhanu Nega?’ and the last in August 2015 titled  “If you want to lead, do better than Dr. Berhanu Nega and his compatriots” and many more in between ever since G7 inception — defending the movement and the leaders from TPLF tugs, scavengers, do-nothing-but-talk freelancers and aspiring ‘journalists’ running quasi Medias.

I distinctively remember one particular article I wrote in response to a young journalist wannabe trained to doublethink by a name Fetsum Berhane’s article titled ‘Why do Ethiopia’s terrorists hold British passports?’ on the infamous Horn Affair Blog  in reference to the legendary G7 leader Andargachew Tsige’s kidnaping and taken hostage by TPLF.

Feeling sorry for the young aspiring journalist, I wrote “When a little boy grows up to speak the language of Woyane what do you do?”. In it I said;

“It is amazing what 23 years of growing up in the bubble of the Woyane ethnic Apartheid can do to young mind. It is a good reminder of what they call ‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste’. “

Notwithstanding what TPLF attack dogs do; I have soft part for the young that grew up in the bubble TPLF created not to know better — chewing on junk of ethnic Apartheid to advise them to drop their doublethink and lead a normal life. What surprised me most were not TPLF surrogates but, those I never suspected to join the attack club unprovoked — purely to kill the movement via undermining G7’s leaders.

I wrote “Ethiopian Diaspora Medias: Head in the sand journalism?” to challenge those; namely –EthioMedia and Ethiopian Review’s tasteless attempt to undermine G7 leaders.

I continue to expose anyone whenever needed not because I had anything against them or have free time to waste but, I believe in the principle; no one should be allowed to attack any other Ethiopian for doing the right thing, particularly from their hideout but to come up with better alternatives in public to challenge them.

Throwing firebomb and hiding like a coward is for TPLF cadres and apologists not decent Ethiopians. Therefore, the least I can do is to stand guard for those being attacked for no other reason but for showing courage to confront the sorry ethnic tyranny causing havoc.

I highly recommend offenders show some Ethiopian humility and respect (if they are Ethiopians) and apologize for their crimes of character assassinations and reconcile with their own doublethink to move forward. After all, apology also requires character to accept responsibility and courage to act on it — that seems to have been lost among our contemporary elites with empty ego the size of an elephant.

Here I have my own confession and apology to make. Not for character assassination or ill will I wouldn’t even think of doing on my fellow Ethiopians without reasons but, I wrongly underestimated the now PG7 compatriots to break the wall of do-noting-but-talk crowd that literally hijacked the struggle for freedom and democracy from achieving its goals. Again, not even for doubting them they wouldn’t bring down a dead-regime-walking either, that would be the easy part but, for doubting them to inspire my people into the endless possibilities to come for our people.

For questioning their tenacity and persistent under the line of fire; I am guilty as hell not only to apologize but to accept the punishment coming to me with Ethiopian humility and grace. Most importantly, I learned — never underestimate the determination of Ethiopians with bigger vision to do the right thing for our people.

Isn’t our empty ego up in our a… and our doublethink the primary reasons why we don’t right wrongs that are causing all the suffering and the distraction our people and nation is going through under rogue regimes and corrupt associates all these years?

Believe me; there are many good Ethiopians with equal character and vision if not more we might not see and hear about because they are not courageous enough to come out to confront our egos and doublethink.

Knowing what it takes to build institutions in our society (I didn’t say websites) you have no idea what brave Ethiopian souls accomplished in a relatively short time to deal with a mess we are in as people and a nation that was left unattended for decades if not for centuries.  If anyone thinks their effort isn’t worth defending and promoting, I can only say it is the empty ego and doublethink working its way to extend a helping hand for the rogue regime.

Let me tell you my people. There are leaders with bigger vision that build real institutions on rock foundation for their people. And, there are leaders with no vision that build castles on sand foundation for themselves. You pick one and, as Americans like to put it; “you get what you paid for”. After all, isn’t the struggle for freedom and democracy all about building institutions on behalf of the people on rock foundation?

The question is why are we not learning the difference between building institutions on rock than sand foundation all these years?

If you really think about it, it is the rampant ‘doublethink’ that is going on among TPLF apologists as well as many Ethiopians (often out of ignorance or corruption) — chocking over the party line as it was designed witnessing in many front Media establishments where pseudo journalists parroting the surveillance state propaganda across the board with a straight face as if manikins are talking to each other.

I have written about these parasites in society that come in many forms and shapes from lowlife freelancers to the core of TPLF foot soldiers, scavengers, opportunists… etc. The irony they couldn’t comprehend how stupid they look in thinking to outsmart Ethiopians says it all.

But, noting illustrates the depth of contemporary ‘doublethink’ than those in the Diaspora. Having a choice to do the right thing in comfort of their safe zone; they willfully go extra mile to do the unthinkable — suspended in the midair not to do anything right but flees the people of Ethiopia with anything that crosses their mind facilitated by the rogue regime and making too much noises to justify it.

Defiantly, it isn’t ignorance of the consequence of their actions by any stretch. Nor, their political philosophy of any known kind they believe in. In fact, looking at their credential they selectively put out for public consumption to justify their doublethink, they know well what they do will land them in jail for breaking the established laws in one of the dual citizenships of the county they maintain. Therefore, they gravitate to a nation of lawlessness that satisfies their corrupt apatite in one while maintaining their citizenship of safety in another.

They are not only a classic example of doublethink by choice but, they go beyond a call-of-duty  to submit for a corrupt and atrocious surveillance regime — pretending to do something worthwhile for the people they flees as a cover. I can’t thank my friend for coining their behavior in two words what I couldn’t do in many — ‘Citizens of Convenience’.

Take for instance the ‘Citizens of Convenience’ at the Ethiopia Broadcasting Services (EBS) that claims to be a ‘privately’ held Media company established in 2008 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA to provide a niche transmission programming that targets the booming Ethiopian market globally”, according to its website. The owner identified as Amman Fissehazion has dual citizenship courtesy of the regime as many.

Quite frankly; watching few of EBS programs, you can’t help but notice it isn’t what tit claimed to be. I don’t think the people behind EBS understand what private, niche and booming Ethiopian market globally means let alone nonpolitical and impartial as they claim to be and God knows from who and what.

I also don’t believe they are capable of knowing when they contradict what they say and do. But, they are for sure dressed up to ‘kill’ like manikins that entice people to buy cheap garments made for a dollar for hundreds of dollars in a boutique setting. At the other end of the programs are guests selected to entertain the audience —a classic case of doublethink and Citizen of Convince at work.

Here is one of EBS’s program titled “What’s New Pioneer Diaspora Business of the Year” to show the participation of the Diaspora in the drama to judge for yourself.

I also wrote about the same group on September of 2014 titled “The Slash and Burn affair of the Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum & Associates to highlight what is being done in the name of the Diaspora under our nose.

We all have to admit, TPLF operatives are making the best of modern Media to push empty propaganda copied from the best of Marxism and the worst of Capitalism to sustain the worst of Apartheid regime (if there is such thing best of Apartheid). But, you can’t help but feel sorry for them to believe ‘2 + 2 = 5’ like battery operated manikins and go on with their lives hoping there would be no consequence for their actions in a cover of ‘private’ Media. They remind me of several Head in the Sand Medias’ doublethink I wrote about over the years.

I particularly feel sorry for the guests that come on these kinds of ‘private’ Media to be used and abused as manikins. Most don’t even know they are being setup as a propaganda tool of TPLF.

I believe Ethiopians can do wonders to support PG7 movement and many others fighting for freedom and democracy by searching for TPLF operatives and those misguided to involve in the criminal activities of the regime and providing the movement and responsible authorities to make a stop to their activities.  Better yet, setting up supportive groups for specific task in specific sectors to identify and document offenders to take the necessary actions is part-and-partial of the struggle.

As the struggle goes on to unpack the rogue regime’s surveillance state to force it surrender, we should expect its cadres and operative to involve in all kinds of criminal activities to sustain the regime. It is important Ethiopians not to tolerate the slightest attempt by anyone to undermine the democratic movement or divide the community to that end to the benefit of the regime.

But, more importantly; I noticed a lots of intellectuals writing a barrage of  articles reacting to what the rogue regime is doing but little to step out of their safe zone and have courage to support the movement in many ways than one. For instance, instead of wasting time telling the public the same things they know to up it one step up to organize to do investigation in specific and notify responsible authorities and concerned institutions who and the whereabouts of TPLF operatives committing crimes. It not only helps to fight crimes of the rouge regime but free the resources of the movement to continue do the heavy lifting it is doing on the ground.

I hate to be personal. But, to get my suggestion across what can be done; I will use Professor Al Mariam as an example and hope he will forgive me for doing so. I do so with admiration for his uninterrupted education he provides us and knowing his capacity to create a potent advocacy group in law-and-order he is passionate about to put the offenders and collaborators where they belong.

For instance, the legal system in Ethiopia is in a shamble — used and abused as A Weapon of Mass Detention of Ethiopians in a cover of Federal law by the rogue regime. But yet, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) “collaborates with Ethiopian government agencies and civil society organizations as they develop novel approaches to measuring and promoting improvement in justice and safety” according to its website without challenge by anyone.

Who supposed to make Harvard Kennedy School not to prop up the rogue regime known for using the legal system as a weapon? And, who can be a better person like Professor Al Mariam to lead such organization?

Harvard Kennedy School is one of the many examples of collaborators with rogue regime with no whatsoever challenge for lack of legal system advocacy group that is the instrument of mass oppression. If the rogue regime can’t be accountable Harvard Kennedy School should.

The same problem goes in education, Media, the economy and the rest because of lack of advocacy organization that specialize in every sector.

Can Ethiopians count on the silent majority of our contemporary intellectuals to support the democratic movement by forming advocacy organizations beyond writing about the problems caused by the rogue regime and its international supporters? In other words, can freedom and democracy possible without getting our hands ‘dirty’ to do the hard work like Patriotic-Ginbot 7 compatriots are doing in the frontline? If not, what are we waiting for? Or better yet, can complaining about problem enough without making the people and the institution causing it?

I rest my case


This article is dedicated for Professor Berhanu Nega and Andargachew Tsige, (the # 1 hostage of the terrorist regime of Ethiopia) for their sacrifice and tenacity for freedom and democracy. Joining or supporting them in any way we can is a privilege and a pride not a crime as the rogue regime and its apologists wanted us to believe.

Andargachew Tsege is a British man and democracy activist currently being held illegally and without charge in Ethiopia.

He hasn’t seen his three kids since June 2014. This is a film they made for him to watch on his second birthday in prison.

Find out more and help the campaign here: www.freeandargachew.com

Follow us on twitter @freeandargachew

Film made by Mattia Pagura and Ned Glasier

By CapEri

An Eritrean Delegation led by, Mr. Biniam Berhe, Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of the State of Eritrea to the African Union (AU) and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) took part in the 26th AU Summit held at the Headquarters of the Union in Addis Ababa, on 30 and 31 January 2016, according to the Eritrean Permanent Mission to AU and UNECA.

The Summit was held under the theme ‘African Year of Human Rights with a particular focus on Women Rights.’

The Eritrean Mission also stated that one of the decisions adopted by the Summit was the violation of the immunities and privileges of the Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the AU and UNECA, Ambassador Araya Desta, and his spouse by Ethiopian security personnel on 14 May 2014 at the Addis Ababa Airport.

It said that the Executive Council regretted the violations and urged the Ethiopian Government “to accord to the Permanent Mission, its Head and diplomatic staff of Eritrea the same immunities and privileges it accords to the diplomats from other AU Member States as well as to abide by its hosting obligations.”

The Eritrean Delegation also attended the meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council at the Level of Heads of State and Government, held on 29 January, to deliberate on the fight against terrorism and the promotion of peace in South Sudan.

Eritrean representatives took also part in meetings of the Executive Council held from 27-29 January, as well as the meeting of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) that took place from 12-22 January. The Delegation expressed Eritrea’s views on the various issues raised at the meetings, the Mission said.

By Bereket Kidane

President Isaias Afewerki in his January 2016 interview with local journalists broadcast on Eri-TV described the late Ethiopian leader’s decision to build the Renaissance Dam as an emotional one and not well-thought out.

President Isaias recounted how in 1993, while attending the OAU Conference in Cairo, the late Meles Zenawi had mentioned to him that he was going to “show the Arabs” because he felt slighted by Egyptian officials.

A high ranking Egyptian official by the name Omar Suleiman in particular had dismissed the late EPRDF Chief by saying “Who do you think you are?” when Meles tried to bring up the Blue Nile issue with the Egyptian authorities.

In a not-so-subtle reference to the politics of water, Meles had vowed to Isaias that he was going to “show the Arabs” just as “Turkey had brought Syria and Iraq down to their knees.”

There were rumors going around at the time in 1993 that Egypt was selling water from the Nile River to Israel and that a canal was being built to go through the Suez and Sinai Desert for the purpose of selling water to Israel.

President Isaias recalled how he advised Meles against delving into the issue with the Egyptians at the time because he felt that the timing was not right and that there were other priorities the EPRDF Chief needed to pay attention to in his country. Meles nonetheless felt offended by the Egyptians’ dismissal of him and vowed to bring the Egyptians and Sudanese down to their knees just as Turkey had done with Syria and Iraq.

President Isaias pointed to that moment as the beginnings of the Renaissance Dam eventhough there may have been other project plans for a hydro dam by previous Ethiopian governments. Thus, President Isaias explained, the genesis of the Renaissance Dam was rooted in politics and not on a solid long-term study that took the strategic cost-benefits of a mega project like that to the Ethiopian people.

President Isaias further talked about the failure of the so-called mega electrical and hydro power generation projects in Africa that are built for show and don’t serve the average citizen of a country, in part because they are built by foreign companies that are only concerned with their short-term profits from the project and don’t take into account the long-term feasibility of the project to the host country.

Merkato Addis Abeba Ethiopia fire broke out

By DW

Ethiopia is experiencing one of the most severe famines in decades. In several regions of the country a months-long drought triggered by El Niño has destroyed crops and livestock. With harvests ruined, the country is suffering massive food shortages.

By Tadesse Nigatu

In this write-up, I argue that the reason for the unsuccessful attempt to create a democratic Ethiopia was that we worked on a top-down approach to replace the government from the top with the hope to “trickle down” democracy to the people when the better approach would have been a bottom-up, that is, spread the principles of democracy among the people to empower them to shape their own destiny.

Let’s start with definition. The formal definition of Democracy is that it is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections (Merriam-Webster).

The first version of democracy as defined above was first exercised in Athens, Greece two thousand- five hundred years ago. Considering our first ancestors, the Homo sapiens, emerged about two hundred thousand years ago, two thousand and five hundred (when democracy appeared for the first time) is a very short duration. This means that it took humankind about one-hundred ninety-seven thousand and five hundred years of trial and error to forge the first democratic rule of governance. Yet, even today, two thousand and five hundred years after the democracy was practiced first, only a third of the world’s population are abiding by it. The rest of the world’s populations are still longing for it. Even in those societies where democracy is accepted as a form of governance, the people practicing it are still working to refine it and make it better. This is to say, even in democratic countries, democracy is still work in progress.

In its true meaning, Democracy is an agreement (covenant if you will) reached between people of a nation as to how they should conduct their affairs of governance, economy, education, health care and technological development. An agreement or contract between people (even when the involved individuals are only few in numbers) is an emergent property of the interaction of individual citizens of a given country. That why democracy got the phrase “by the people, for the people”

Democracy is a pattern that emerges (comes to exist) from people’s interaction with each other as they attempt to work and live in harmony with each other. Developing a pattern of harmonious living requires countless social experiments, trials, errors, success and failures. So before discussing democracy in detail let’s first look at how patterns emerge in general.

Simple rules and emergence of patterns

Society is dynamic networks of many interacting individuals. Each individual’s behavior is governed by a small set of simple guidelines. Despite the limited capability of an individual human being, the interaction of millions individuals can produce much larger complex emergent structures. Examples of complex structures that are built by actions of millions of individuals include, markets, cities, armies, nations and cultures including democracy etc. The individuals produce those larger entities though simple action which are guided by simple rules. At times, it is not even obvious for the individuals involved to comprehend the aggregate patterns that would result from their own actions.

What are simple rules and how do they contribute to emergence aggregate patterns such as democracy? Simple rules are a set of simple (basic) guides to actions performed in sequence to achieve a result. The basic actions that become simple rules initially emanate from individual’s (agent’s) effort to adapt and fit to their environment’s stimulus. These set of actions (rules) come to play as the result of conscious or unconscious agreement between the individuals involved when cooperation between them is necessary for their common good. When these actions are performed by many and become routine, then we call them simple rules. The repeated implementations of these simple rules by countless individuals over long time become patterns which latter become norms and cultures.

For example, through their life experiences (like realizing the ugliness of discrimination), if people of a one community agreed to abide by a simple rule which says “treat every human being as equal” and everybody practiced it all the time and to all the individuals in that community, a pattern that denies discrimination emerges. And if this pattern persists over long time, it becomes the culture of that community.

Note that small modifications on the agreed upon rules of interaction can lead to significant changes in the behavior of what is going to emerge. So the agreed upon simple rules should be consistently practiced until different agreement is made to modify or replace them with agreement by all those involved.

Examples of real patterns in our society

The Sunday and Friday prayers. The fact that Christians go to church every Sundays and Muslims go to Mosque every Friday to pray is a norm and is taken for granted in our times. But this was not the case all the time. Back in the days, when the religions started (2000 years ago for Christianity and 1400 years ago for Islam) the first leaders (innovators) as well as the followers of the religions had to figure out ways as to how to establish the new belief systems (the religions) and make them resilient against the constant attracts from the then strong belief system-paganism. Through many trials and errors, they came up the simple rule which the believers should practice. One of such rules (there are many rules of course) was to go to prayer places once a week to pray together. Repeated over thousand years, and by millions, the rule has created patterns which become the norm and culture we know today.

The Masinko rule. Those of us who like Ethiopian cultural music know this all well. When we are in a wedding or at a party where Masinko (or any musical instrument for that matter) is played, we all try to match our Eskista (dance) with the rhythm of the Masinko. As varied as our individual movements are, the overall movement of the crowed creates an “averaged” the pattern of movements appear uniform to an observer. The simple rule practiced here is “match your Eskista with the tone (rhythm) of the Masinko” One can cite many examples on the connection between simple rules and patterns. But I will stop here. The lesson to take from both examples is how powerful simple rules can be to create patterns.

Democracy as an emergence pattern

Now back to democracy. I said democracy is an emergent social pattern. As mentioned above, it took human kind close to two hundred thousand years of trial and error, which means that thousands of wars, millions of lives and destruction of countless property etc. had to happen for people to figure out and develop the set of the “required” simple rules that helped avoid war and destruction and the emergence of democracy for the first time. One can speculate the following to be the simple rules that would create the patterns of behavior that became democracy. (Note that these are my assumption, true and practical rules are developed through involvement of many and by trial and error).

• Respect and care for yourself and others,
• Tolerate differences,
• Treat everyone as equal
• Stand for your right
• Recognize your destiny is tied to that of others

Note that there is no one individual who designed the simple rules nor they come down from a super power. The members of the community came to them through trial and error. They are the results of people’s attempt to adapt and fit to their changing environment. The other key point to note is that, at least the majority, if not all, of the members of the society have to accept and operate by these rules for the pattern of democracy to emerge. Once this pattern takes root and become the norm of thinking and acting by the people, it then becomes engrained in the culture. Of course this does not happen overnight and a lot of back and forth, failure and success have to happen.

The practice of the simple rules has to be replicated at every level from an individual, to small groups, all the way to national level organizations in self-similar manner. Only then can they cause the emergence of democracy. The simple rules are literally simple and are not significant when practiced by the individual member alone, but when practiced by millions, their collective impact sets the pattern of democracy. So the emergence of democracy is inherently peoples’ business. Only the People make it happen! It does not come from the above particularly from a corrupt government!!

Asking for Democracy

In countries like Ethiopia, where democracy did not yet emerge, it is a common practice to demand (by the people and opposition organizations) the government to deliver democracy. I think there are a couple of issues we need to consider asking democracy from undemocratic government.
First, the groups that is holding power do not know the true meaning of democracy, let alone, to practice it. It is not engrained in their DNA of simple rules that the rulers operate by. The simple rules they follow and the resultant pattern that emerge from it is totally different from the simple rules for democracy. The simple rules the people in power follow is something like this: “Suppress the people by all means possible to guard the interest of the minority”

The implementation of the ruler’s simple rule produces the pattern of dominance, violence, injustice, unfairness and corruption. The pattern that emerges from the implementation of this simple rule is system of dictatorship. The pattern of injustice, unfairness and corruption is practiced at all levels starting from the strong man of the government, his cronies at highest level, to provincial, regional, and local government branches all the way to individual level. Dictatorship replicates itself from the smallest element, which is the individual, all the way to the center of the government in the same way following the same simple rules for dictatorship. So we are asking what the dictators do not have.

Second, expecting democracy from undemocratic forces is unrealistic because they do not have it to begin with. They operate with a different rule. In doing so the democratic mined people are wasting their meager energy and time when demanding democracy. This is to say that the Ethiopian people wasting their valuable time and resources expecting democracy from the Ethiopian government when we should be building democratic patterns one citizen at a time according to the simple rules for democracy. Democracy is people’s business and we should go to the people and start the foundation of democratic patterns from the bottom up.

The energy and time of democracy promoting agents would be better spent going to the citizens and advocating the practicing of the simple rules that brings democracy. Doing that paves the way for the emergence of a democratic pattern. Advocating for the equality and dignity of people, teaching that rights and responsibilities go hand in hand, that everyone’s voice is as equal as any others’ is tantamount to erecting foundations for the emergence of a society that is free of tyranny, corruption injustice right from the grass-root level.

But this is not to say that demanding democracy from the government in a peaceful manner is wrong. Even if the government does not have it, advocating for democracy will do at least two good things. First, by asking for democracy, it is possible to create awareness among the population. The second is that there may be a chance of converting some members of the government including the army to following the simple rules of democracy.

Democracy is a bottom- up process. This is to say that the emergence of democracy is the business of the grass-roots where individuals discover, practice, and negotiate simple rules and forge them into their everyday working tools. Then, the people would self-organize around these rules to create permanent patterns. Democracy emerges when individual citizens buy into the rules one person at a time and implement them to self-organize and create patterns.

To some democratic forces, the idea that building a democratic system from the bottom up, one person at a time, is too slow of a process and needs to shelved or disregarded. To them, the emergence of democracy in this way takes forever giving dictators opportunity to prolong their time. I say, consider the last forty years that my generation spent chasing political power from the top. What did we get? We got one dictator after another dictator. Had we known and accepted the democratic simple rules approach and worked from bottom up during the last forty years, our Ethiopia would be in a better place.

In fact, once the initial condition is set by the first grass-root group formed on the basis of the simple rules, the principle of self-similarity comes into play and more and more similar groups comes to exist and the democratization process among citizens gets momentum and becomes faster. This is because, people by nature are eager to learn from each other and apply what works to serve their interests. The fact that citizens are networked with each other, before we know it, the experience is replicated by countless individuals and other similar groups formed to become powerful force. For these reasons, working to bring democracy from the bottom up can become much faster than chasing democracy from top- that is from the governments who do not have it to begin with.

Another point that deserves mentioning about the bottom up democratic process is this. Dictators do not come from the sky. They come from among the population. If the population has enough democratically minded members (that is members who have adopted the simple democratic rules) the chance for dictators to be dominant or to have enough followers to pursue their undemocratic behaviors is much smaller or can even non-existent. So by pursuing democracy from the bottom through grass-root movement, to develop fair minded democratically thinking citizens, we can deprive the undemocratic forces the fertile ground they need to flourish.

Lastly but not least we are observing the power of bottom up movement from the current democratic movements of the Oromo people. I think the current grass-root based democratic movement of the Oromo students is a testimony to the power of the bottom-up approach to democracy. A lesson that all who are concerned should register and learn from!!

If we make the Ethiopian Student movement as a starting point, the cry for democracy in Ethiopia is fifty years old and counting. Since then, in pursuit of democracy, the Ethiopian students and the organizations that the movement birthed have made tremendous sacrifices. In the process, Ethiopia lost her best and brightest. Countless were persecuted, tens of thousands jailed, still thousands others fled. Ethiopian also saw three governments during this period. Despite all the sacrifices and changes in government, democracy is still yet to come. As the result, Ethiopians are frustrated to the point of losing hope.

By Graham Peebles

Division and fear are the age-old tools of tyrants; unity and peaceful coordinated action the most powerful weapons against them.

Frightened and downtrodden for so long, there are positive signs that the Ethiopian people are beginning to come together, – peacefully uniting in their anger at the ruling party: – the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF); a paranoid brutal regime, that suppresses the people, is guilty of wide-ranging human rights violations, and has systematically encouraged ethnic divisions and rivalries.

Anti-government protests have been growing over the last few years, and in recent months large-scale demonstrations have taken place throughout Oromia; also in Gondar, where university students have been demonstrating, demanding, academic rights, freedom, democracy and justice.

Tribal groups, particularly the peoples of Amhara and Oromia (the largest ethnic group – accounting for 35% of the population) have come together: thousands have been marching, running, sitting, shouting and screaming.

Government slays Peaceful Protestors 

The EPRDF’s response to the demonstrator’s democratic gall has been crudely predictable: brand protestors ‘anti-peace forces’ and terrorists, then shoot, arrest and imprison them.

Whilst Human Rights Watch (HRW) state that security forces have killed at least 140 people, independent broadcaster ESAT news estimate the number to be over 200. The government, which human rights groups state, authorised the police and military to use “excessive force, including…live ammunition against protesters, among them children as young as 12”, has so far admitted 22 fatalities.

ESAT report at least 1,500 have been injured and to date over 5,000 arrested (in Oromia alone), including Bekele Gerba, deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), Oromia’s largest legally registered political party and his son. Senior members of the OFC, as well as members of other opposition parties and their families, have also been imprisoned; scores more people are harassed, their homes searched. Acting on behalf of an unaccountable government, security forces are “on a mission of wanton destruction of human lives and properties”.

State plan cancelled by protest 

The under-reported protests in Gondar (in the Amhara region) were triggered by two separate, but related issues: government cession of an expanse of fertile land – up to 1,600 square km, to Sudan under new demarcation proposals; and the widespread belief that state forces are responsible for a mass killing that took place in November 2015 against the people of Qimant. Leaders of The Gondar Union Association told ESAT news they believed the murders were “committed by TPLF [government] cadres, who then blamed it on the Amhara people to incite violence among the two groups.”

In Oromia, where protests began in April 2014 throughout the region, it was the government’s plan to expand the capital, Addis Ababa, onto agricultural land: hundreds of smallholders would have been displaced, villages destroyed, livelihoods shattered. Following months of demonstrations the government has announced that the plan is to be scrapped. The official statement virtually dismissed the protestor’s opposition, claiming it was “based on a simple misunderstanding” created by a “lack of transparency”.

Activists reacted with derision to the government’s condescension, and vowed to continue protesting unless their longstanding grievances of political exclusion are addressed. Sit-ins and peaceful demonstrations have continued in various locations across Oromo, evoking more violence from the ruling party’s henchmen.

Oromo Rage 

The Oromo people see the government’s violence as part of a systematic attempt to oppress and marginalise them. As Amnesty International (AI) states in its report ‘Because I am Oromo’: “thousands of Oromo people have been subjected to unlawful killings, torture and enforced disappearance.” People without any political affiliation are arrested on suspicion that they do not support the government – “between 2011 and 2014, at least 5,000 Oromos have been arrested”. Amnesty asserts that recent regime violence was “the latest and bloodiest in a long pattern of suppression”. This description of government intimidation and brutality will sound familiar to most Ethiopians.

Whilst it was the ‘master-plan’ for Addis Ababa that brought thousands onto the streets, anger and discontent has been fermenting throughout the country for years. Feelings fuelled by restrictions on fundamental freedoms, and human rights violations, many of which can only be described as State Terrorism.

Power Hungry 

The EPRDF have been in power for 25 long, and for many people, painful years. The ruling party was formed from the four armed groups that seized power in May 1991, including the now dominant Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Despite the theatre of national “elections” being staged every five years since 1995, the EPRDF has never been elected. Last year’s sham saw them take all 547 parliamentary seats. In order to convince a suspicious, if largely indifferent watching world (the EU refused to send a team of observers to legitimise proceedings) one might have expected a token seat or two for an opposition party, but the government decided they could steal every one and get away with it; their arrogance confirming their guilt.

The Tigrean ethnic group makes up a mere 6% of the countries 95 million population, but the TPLF (or Weyane as they are commonly called) and their cohorts dominate the government, the senior military, the judiciary, and, according to Genocide Watch, intend “to internally colonize the country”. A claim that the ethnic Somalis living in the Ogaden region, as well as the people of Amhara and Oromia, all of whom are subjected to appalling levels of persecution, would agree with.

Undemocratic, repressive regime 

The Government claims to adhere to democracy, but says the introduction of democratic principles will take time. ‘Outsiders’ (critics such as HRW, Amnesty International and the EU) ‘don’t understand’ the country: thus Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn pretends: Ethiopia “is a fledgling democracy – a house in the making”.

Well it is not a house being built on any recognizable democratic foundations: human rights, civil society, justice and freedom for example. Indeed there is no evidence of democracy actual or potential on the government’s part in Ethiopia. On the contrary, despite a liberally-worded constitution, the ruling party tramples on human rights, uses violence and fear to suppress the people and governs in a highly centralised manner: Opposition parties are ignored, their leaders often imprisoned or forced to live abroad; the government, Amnesty International (AI) states, routinely uses “arbitrary arrest and detention, often without charge, to suppress suggestions of dissent in many parts of the country.”

The judiciary is a puppet, as is the “investigative branch of the police”, Amnesty records, making it impossible “to receive a fair hearing in politically motivated trials”, or any other case for that matter. Federal and regional security services operate with “near total impunity” and are “responsible for violations throughout the country, including…the use of excessive force, torture and extrajudicial executions.”

There is no media freedom; virtually all press, television and radio outlets are state-owned, as is the sole telecommunications company – allowing unfettered surveillance of the Internet. The only independent broadcaster is internationally based ESAT; the Government routinely blocks its satellite signal, and employee family members who live in Ethiopia are persecuted, imprisoned, their homes ransacked.

Journalists who challenge the government are intimidated, arrested or forced abroad. Ethiopia is the fourth most censored country in the world (after Eritrea, North Korea and Saudi Arabia) according to The Committee to Protect Journalists, and “the third worst jailer of journalists on the African continent”. The widely criticized, conveniently vague “2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation” – used to silence journalists – and “The Charities and Societies Proclamation”, make up the government’s principle legislative weapons of suppression, which are wielded without restraint.

The 99% 

The vast majority of Ethiopian people – domestic and expatriate – are desperate for change, freedom, justice and adherence to human rights; liberties that the EPRDF have total contempt for: their primary concern is manifestly holding onto power, generating wealth for themselves, and their cohorts, and ensuring no space for political debate, dissent or democratic development.

Without a functioning electoral system or independent media, and given government hostility to open dialogue with opposition parties and community activists, there are only two options available for the discontented majority. An armed uprising against the EPRDF – and there are many loud voices advocating this – or the more positive alternative: peaceful, consistent, well-organized activism, building on the huge demonstrations in Oromia and Gondar, uniting the people and driving an unstoppable momentum for change.

Ethiopia is a richly diverse country, composed of dozens of tribal groups speaking a variety of languages and dialects. Traditions and cultures may vary, but the needs and aspirations of the people are the same, as are their grievances and fears. Tolerance and understanding of differences, cooperation and shared objectives could build a powerful coalition, establishing a platform for true democracy to take root in a country that has never known it.

People can only be trapped under a cloak of suppression for so long, eventually they must and will rise up. Throughout the world there is a movement for change: for freedom, justice and participatory democracy, in which the 99% have a voice. The recent demonstrations in Ethiopia show that the people are at last beginning to unite, and are part of this collective cry.

Graham Peebles is director of the Create Trust. He can be reached at: graham_at_thecreatetrust.org 

By Tefera Dinberu

This question revolves around many folks due to their aspiration for change, common among men and women who participated in the student movement since 1960’s and 1970’s. That generation having been emotionally affected regrets very much as the revolution was hijacked by the military junta/Dergue/  and Weyane/EPRDF/ in a row. After so much material and human sacrifices, the very peoples that were supposed to benefit from changes have rather been negatively affected by dictators that galloped behind their backs. Since the large number of people did not benefit from political developments, a common person typically in reminiscent of the continuous ups and downs is worried about what worse will happen as a new year unfolds anticipating no better days to come. Why? Is it really despairing?

There are two main causes of this loss of optimism:

The first source of fear is created by the ruling regime. The regime intentionally puts the people in danger and simultaneously pretends to play a role of problem solver or pacifier. For example, it was well known that Weyane was behind the Arba Gugu, Bedano, Qelem, Jimma, Asebot, Harar, Ogaden, Gambella mass killings; it was behind the Amhara eviction from Bale, Gura Farda, Jimma, Beni Shangul, etc.  However, after satisfying its interest, it pretended to be neutral and mediator of the issues as if it did not know how they originated at all. It took the blame to other parties in order to calumniate them. It orchestrated the enrichment of its affiliates through different forms of corruption; however, when it found individuals on its way, it simply attacked the personalities that participated in the corruption by using the records in hand at the same time taking advantage to buy popularity from the naive people.

Weyane monitors churches and mosques through its agents to make sure that these institutions preach the people an “achievement of peace” so that they  can accept the present deplorable circumstances of life not only in fear of the past but also of the future as if dooms day would come in the absence of its rule. Since it does not have any national interest, it uses all means and resources to stay on power. It does not have any trust on the people and has recruited millions of party members with no projects other than manipulating better means of spying domestically and overseas. Although it is known that the “Amhara supremacy” is a concept of the past and that “Naftegna” is far from being functional or is obsolete today, while it calls its murderous squad “Agazi” — freedom giver, and the Amhara folks generally are in a dire state of poverty today, Weyane keeps on preaching on the ugly image of  Naftagna and the Amara people since 25 years ago not only to isolate them but as a strategy of keeping dissent among the Ethiopian peoples. They used OLF when they needed it and later used a surrogate Oromo People’s Democratic Organization /OPDO/ just like the Amhara National Democratic Movement /ANDM/ to counter All Amhara People’s Organization, and the Southern Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic Movement to counter the genuine Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Coalition. More proxy political organizations were created by the machinations of the ruling regime and its agents infiltrate into any organizations in the country in order to stifle genuine political organizations and defuse the trust of the people and eventually paralyze political organizations that challenge its tyranny. It allows registration of political organizations only when the ruling regime feels that they are mild and remain only in name; it does not register political organizations that challenge its oppressive authority.

Since Weyane knows that it does not have any basis of support of the people, it consistently opts to create division and conflicts in the society; for example between Anuak and Neur in Gambella, Qimant and the rest of Gondare-ans, Wolaiyta and Kambata, Somali  and Oromo, Silti and the rest of Guragae people, Christians against Muslims and even Christians against Christians and Muslims against Muslims by burrowing through small holes and manipulating things in order to widen sects among the same people to make sure that there is cleavage of suspicion and conflict that gives it secure disunity among them at any time. The government neither resolved nor revealed the conflict between the Girri  and Borana pastoralists.  The 1994 Killings in Qabridahar, Qalaafe, Dhaqax-Madow, Gunagado, Dhagaxbuur were results of ethnic politics. In order to control any notorious contenders from within, it “honorably” retires and allows them enough booties to make sure that they do not stand against it. Such retirees also know that they got what they did not deserve and would prefer the continuation of the status-quo in order to keep their fortunes; good examples are x-generals of the regime.

The second problem that arrested the progress of the country is a significant rift that developed through time and expanded into even wider schism – the controversy on the definition of historical oppression of the Ethiopian peoples. Before the eve of the 1974 Ethiopian revolution, a group of political proponents in the formerly known Haile Selassie I University held that the basic cause of poverty or backwardness originated from the oppressive regimes of the past that created exploiting classes of a few over the great majority of exploited classes.  The other group held that exploitation of classes of people by other few exploiting classes was not the basic problem, but oppression of the Amhara nation over other nations/nationalities was the basic problem. Although some elements of the proclaimed causes were evident from both sides, being unable to compromise on these issues and come to terms on common national objectives by projecting the fate of the whole people in the long run, both sides kept on widening dissidence and ironically created opportune situations for the military dictatorship that ruled for 17 years up to 1991 and since then for the present power monger Weyane in turn.

The pre-1974 student movement had a pivotal role in the revolutionary change  since the student body of that time had a common unwavering stand on the abolition of the monarchy, the question of “land to the tiller”, and basic democratic ideals. Although Eritrean separatists gradually infiltrated into the student body domestically, and internationally,  especially since the Ethiopian Student Association leadership election that took place in Los Angeles in 1971, when the group that would establish EPRP (Berhane Meskel Reda, Dr. Tesfaye Debesay) raced against the looser of the election that would establish MEISON (Dr. Haile Fida, Dr. Senai Likae, Dr Negede Gobeze), the student movement at that time coherently exposed the reppressive nature of the monarchy and pointed out the need for democratic change by its movements that covered all parts of the country and even internationally. The people succeeded in toppling the monarchy in the 1974 revolution since their unity on common issues was at a higher level even in the absence of organized political parties. However, this political difference benefited first the military junta that sided with MEISON that fought against EPRP and eventually paralyzed both after over a hundred thousand casualties. The contention between the two antagonizing concepts that persisted for over forty years rather became suitable for Weyane to make division based on ethnic differences and deepened the abyss of dissidence. Weyane took advantage of this schism; it orchestrated intensification of the division and escalated conflicts among the people to keep its existence for so long. The issue of self-determination of nations and up to cessation added salt to the divide-and-rule policy of Weyane by using it as a catalyst to stir disunity among the people.

On the other side, whereas people expected parties that ran in their names to advance democracy to a higher level, they could not see any fruit out of the organizations.People were able to see manifestiations of concerted efforts of political organizaions in the 2005 election that was turned down by the brutal regime. However, some political parties widened minor differences and intensified conflicts. The 2005 unity manifeted that if all the opposing groups could stand together, the regime could have been powerless and lifeless. Failure to reconcile the two antagonizing concepts mentioned in the previous paragraphs dwindled the solidarityof the people as more political pragmatism culminated into creating more too many political organizations without any solid common strategy and goal.

National liberation is a humble term in the sense of human rights and self-determination of nations is a democratic right. No human rights advocate can deny that nations should be free from all types of oppression, be it foreign or local. According to the preambles of the United Nations Organization, the concept of National Liberation was to free a nation that was colonized by another powerful nation. For example, Africa as whole except Ethiopia and Liberia was colonized. In this way, many Asian, Latin American, and African countries made separate and unified struggles to liberate themselves from colonialism. Djibouti (France), Eritrea (Italy), Somaliland (Great Britain), Somalia (Italy), Cyprus, Bahrain, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Albania, Aden, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Rwanda, Morocco, and many others. The same concept was to liberate colonies from colonial rules. Literally self-determination also refers to all colonies to decide on their destinies through referendum – whether they want to be independent or join former mother nations. The purpose of the UN is maintenance of international peace and security and “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples…” (Chapter 1, Article 1). The UN is clear on this. It does not support secession. Its priority interest is non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign nations; respect of sovereignty of people expressed in deciding their fate without intimidation or any use of force. Chapter XI, paragraph 6 states, “Any attempt aimed at the unity and territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the principles of the charter of the United Nations.”

There was a big debate on the definition of nations and nationalities, the question of self-determination of nations and secession in 1968 in the University. This concept was more pronounced by leftist radicals that followed Marxism-Leninism behind which Eritrean separatists played their role. The important related fact was that the Marxist concept did not accept secession bluntly. It accepted nations to secede from feudal, semi-feudal or capitalist rules as a strategy of advancing proletarian internationalism. Secession was not an end in itself; it’s Marxist-Leninist objective was to create solidarity among the working class throughout the world and eventually re-unite under socialist democracy as a step towards building communism in the World, where it was believed that there would not be annexation of states, federation of republics, or separation of a state from another state since the theory held that there would not be any state or democratic rule at all in communism. We now know this theory remained Utopian just like the ancient Plato’s ideal state.

Therefore, the concept of secession has been obsolete since the theory that brought it up has been obsolete and its purpose has faded away with history.

However, power monger nationalists like Weyane do not want to take this out of their principles; because they want to take advantage of it. Weyane does not follow any ethics of state government, but uses unprincipled Machiavellian style of dictatorship; it uses much of the communist style of totalitarian rule. It uses centralism where a few polit-bureau members being on top of a central committee steer the wheel of Weyane leadership and the nominally elected rubber stamp “peoples’ assembly” under it. “Land to the tiller” was not implemented but remained nationalized as Weyane applies the 1974 rural and urban land proclamations that made all land property of the state and in reality turned peasants into serfs of the state. As a totalitarian state in the symbolism of the pre-1989 USSR, Weyane today arbitrarily makes national borders wherever the polit-bureau seeks; it leases, sells or donates land to anybody including foreigners, and uses Stalinist “self-determination” concept to keep dividing the country into ethnic entities to exploit the division.

This “divide-and-rule” tactic is manifested by the fact that people in one part of the country today see a problem in isolation of a national problem in another part of the country. People could not see violation of basic human rights that could resonate in any part of the society. When Weyane annexed land from Wollo and Godar, the rest of the people were preached to dismember Amhara and any rights associated with it. When many hundreds of Amhara peoples were brutally murdered in Mezenger Zone,  when women were sterilized to reduce the Amhara generation,a great sector of the people did not pay any attention since some political organizations ignored such things that are part of a national issue and did not rally their followers against the repressive actions. We need to ask ourselves as to who stood with Wolqayt-Tsegede, Tselemt, and Armachiho people’s struggle for justice. Who felt the pain of the Ogaden massacre in in September 2014? On the other side, standing monuments of hate, like the one at Anole, were erected to intensify conflicts. It worked since common people accepted what politicians told them in their language.

Narrow nationalists suffer from identity crisis while in developed countries societies concentrate on how to use technology for the social and economic progress of the people; and candidates of state leaderships race with programs of development and good governance. They accept racial identity and faith as individual affairs and language as a medium of communication. The USA uses its former colonizer’s language Western countries are developed since they are done with nation building hundreds of years ago. One can read classical military unification histories of different kingdoms that made developed countries in the world – Portugal (1249), Spain (1492), Iran (1501), Burma (1613), United Kingdom (1707), United States of America (1776), Brazil (1852), Italy (1861), Canada (1867), Germany (1871), Saudi Arabia (1932), and many more other countries. Similarly among many Ethiopian leaders, Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi (Ahmed Gragn), Emperor Tewodros, and Emperor Yohannes tried to reunify Ethiopia. And 1889 was the last one of many reunification eras of Ethiopia. Whoever made it, Ethiopia remains our common country. However, we are collectively responsible for carrying different dictatorships throughout time and retarding our common progress by at least 150 to 200 hundred years back conducting tribal conflicts.

Even some of our professors are preventing social progress by confusing between primitive and civilized thoughts, because formal education alone could not radically change them from the backwardness they had been brought up. Progress cannot take place as long as progressive ideas cannot prevail. A few of our professionals show individual or group efforts to advance the awareness of the people. It is time for change where all sons and daughters of Ethiopia to work together. Many writers and journalists are trying to raise the awareness of our people and calling for unity. However, furthering their steps, they could at least organize civic and professional associations like CPA, Health Professional Associations, bar associations, trade unions, environmental conservation associations, and other independent social organizations that can influence ethical disciplines and public accountability. We cannot blame Weyane while we fail to unite under a civil community in the Diaspora. We have collective responsibility in trying to mediate among folks and try to prevent families from breaking, and children from growing wild, that is devoid of their traditions and historical backgrounds. It is when we use the traditions that kept the bond of our society in different traditional social organizations and pass over to the next generation that we can be proud of belonging to Ethiopia. Respect and care for yourself and others,  One of our writers, Tadesse Negatu put it as “simple rules” from bottom to top in tolerating differences – treating everyone equally, standing for justice, and recognizing the destiny of a single person is tied to the whole, community, and nation.  It is all such added values that contribute to our common cultural development that can be wombs of state leaders.

We should listen to educators like Professor Fikre Tolosa, a proud Ethiopian of Oromo origin, who tells us about our historical unity rather than others who preach and justify disintegration. One can read Nobles of Oromo Descent Who ruled Ethiopiain contrast to the old Stalinist politics of ethnicity and nationality theory that was tested on Poland and failed on Georgia before 80 years ago. We cannot progress while our educated personalities preach on past evils since we cannot live in the past. What is the use of deafening rhetoric on racial discrimination until we do notstand together for our common freedom and basic human rights and stop discrimination? Two wrongs cannot make any right. We need to leave evil deeds for history and adjust our minds to stand for corrections – from discriminatory to non-discriminatory, from prejudice to moderation, from injustice to justice, from inequality to equality, etc. We should recognize and respect our diversity in our unity; we should also realize that social progress takes place when economic and cultural development takes place freely through free social integration and interaction.  The key factor to raise the standard of the people is economic and cultural advancement among which economic development is the base. Whereas religious and racial identity should have been private affairs and nation building a common affair, racial controversies and conflicts took the toll of our energy that could have otherwise built the basis of our progress.

No society can develop without the active participation of citizens at least in civic matters and no party can enshrine a lasting success to the people by running separately with a theory of separation. Therefore, we should stand for one multinational state of Ethiopia disregarding borders made on tribal lines that our enemies devised for our disunity. We should focus on economic development, civic issues, democracy, and how to better make progress. Many folks have reiterated about the need of unity. However, unity cannot be realized by ambitions only. What is expected on the ground is to change our attitudes and compromise on other issues and stand on Common national issues. These are what we should be worried about. Such national issues are what make us a strong bond. It is such farsightedness that can take us to the status of developed nations. Whether one believes it or not Weyane lives on our division; if we could firmly stand together, we could have replaced it with genuine peoples’ government and real federation. So, we need to stop playing primitive games and join hands in civic affairs let our country be a true democratic federation of a “United States Ethiopia”.

By ECADForum


Amharic (Ethiopian official language) has now been included in Google Translate, along with a dozen other languages, according to Google’s blog.

Since 2006, Google Translate has grown to include 103 “machine learning-based translations” encompassing 99 percent of the online population, according to the blog.

The new languages now allow another 120 million people to communicate via Translate using Amharic, Corsican, Frisian, Kyrgyz, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Luxembourgish, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Shona, Sindhi, Pashto and Xhosa.

Google says it scans the Internet for “billions of already translated texts” and uses “machine learning to identify statistical patterns at enormous scale, so our machines can ‘learn’ the language. But, as already existing documents can’t cover the breadth of a language, we also rely on people like you in Translate Community to help improve current Google Translate languages and add new ones, like Frisian and Kyrgyz. So far, over 3 million people have contributed approximately 200 million translated words.”

By Reuters

Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba shattered the women’s world indoor mile record on Wednesday, clocking 4:13.31 to eclipse the time of 4:17.14 set 26 years ago by Romanian Doina Melinte.

It is the third time Dibaba, 25, has broken a world record in Stockholm, having previously set new marks for the 3,000 and 5,000 metres at the Ericsson Globe Arena in the Swedish capital.

Dibaba, who was born 364 days after the previous record was set by Melinte in 1990, set a punishing pace early on before breaking away from the field and powering through the eight laps.

She crossed the line more than 10 seconds clear of fellow Ethiopians Gudaf Tsegay and Axumawit Embaye, who finished second and third respectively.

Earlier in the evening Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman set a new men’s world indoor record for the 1,000 metres, clocking 2:14.20 to beat the 2:14.96 mark set by Wilson Kipketer of Denmark in 2000.

By ESAT

The protest in West Arsi, Oromia region of Ethiopia, continued today despite brutal crackdown by the regime that’s now rolling its American donated Humvees in the streets to boost up its operation against protesters who demanded political and economic rights.

ESAT’s sources in the region say at least 17 people were killed by the Agazi forces, the regime’s snipers, in the last five days of protest in the area that began on Friday when the forces decided to shot at a bus full of wedding goers for the trivial reason that the partiers refused to turn down a music playing on the radio, a favorite song among the protesters. Four were injured in that shooting. Protest against that brutal attack then engulfed Shashemene and the surrounding towns with the local militia responding to fires from the Agazi forces killing at least 7 of them.

Protesters effectively blocked roads in every town to fend off the Agazi forces from reaching their neck of the woods. Reports filed by the Oromo Media Network show regime’s forces using helicopters and American Humvees to try to reach the localities.

In this strongest show of resistance against the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia by one of the largest ethnic groups in the country, the minority regime has lost control of the towns in the Oromia region where protesters effectively blocked roads fending off the forces coming to attack them. Protesters in Dodola took down the portrait of Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s late dictator, and set it ablaze, in a rare show strong rejection to the system and the minority rule.

“The regime has lost control and this protest is one among numerous manifestations that it has lost credibility; and whatever semblance of legitimacy has vanished,” a close observer of political developments in Ethiopia told ESAT today.

“The tyrannical regime uses not only it’s anti-terrorism law to crackdown on opponents, but also weapons it acquires under the name of fighting terrorists in Somalia, against peaceful protesters,” he added referring to the American Humvees being used to clear the blockages by the protesters.

The prison located in Ambo town Kebele, 06 is one of several prisons in the area which holds arrested peaceful protesters without charge, torture is a common practice in such prisons. The cause of the fire believed to be a part of the ongoing protest in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.

In the presence of massive police force at the gate of Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Muslims continue voicing their demands for justice and religious freedom.

ESAT Breaking News: Many people murdered in West Arsi zone of Oromia Region in Ethiopia. The regime forces fired directly at the protesters.

ESAT Breaking Ethiopian News — The Ethiopian regime forces (Agazi), murdered more people in Oromia region.

By Dejenie A. Lakew (Ph.D.)

Ethnic cleansing is defined as the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous.Ethnic cleansing in Gondar, Ethiopia

The forces applied may be various forms of forced migration (deportation, population transfer), intimidation as well as mass murder and rape. Ethnic cleansing is usually accompanied with the efforts to remove physical and cultural evidence of the targeted group in the territory through the destruction of homes, social centers, farms, and infrastructure, and by the desecration of monuments, cemeteries, and places of worship.

This is precisely what happened and is happening now as we speak in northern Gondar regions of Humera, Welkaite Tegede and Telemet for the last two and half decades. We have heard repeatedly (VOA and through other medias) from the people of these regions of Gondar that Tigray liberation front forces them to sign a plain letter and declare they are Tigre and if they are not doing that they are told to leave the place and go where Amhara people live else face severe consequences, they are told the place now is only for Tigre people. They force them not to use their own language Amharic in any form and for any purpose, they prohibit them not to come to towns for otherwise they will be harassed, taken to police courts and being interrogated as criminals and coerced to accept being Tigre or leave the place. They settle millions of people from Tigray on the regions and over populate the Amharas and broadcast through their television, the settled population of Tigray as native residents of the regions.

Those elders who know the history of the region and others who boldly reject the forced annexation of their territories in to Tigray and talk and campaign against it in public were imprisoned, disappeared and killed. This is what ethnic cleansing in the proper sense of the word is.

Consider the decision the Tigray liberation front mercenaries make and said to these people, if they are not willing to change in to Tigre, then they have to leave the place and go to where Amharas live, although, all these places of northern Gondar are their cultural and natural places where they lived for centuries. If this is the mode of argument and socio-political philosophy of TPLF, then all those Tigre people who live in every corner of Ethiopia, stashing illegal wealth and political power in places where they are not from should leave those places and go to Tigray. With their analogy, the one that follows none of the forms of correct thought process which I have given their intuitive definitions below, the Tigre people from Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Gondar, Harar, Awassa, Jima, Diredawa, Gambella, Southern Ethiopia, Eastern Ethiopia Western Ethiopia, in cities and towns across Ethiopia, owning huge businesses occupying government offices with huge majorities through corruption and nepotism should leave all these places and go back to Tigray, the region where only Tigre people live. If what they do to the people of Northern Gondar is just, then this is more than a just action from the people of Ethiopia.

Aristotle outlined fundamental principles where thought process can take place in modern humans. These principles are sometimes called fundamental principles of logic in modern thinking.



Besides these principles of thought, there are what are called principles of inferences – logical argument forms that are used to validate truth to make a reasonable and just decision. Our lives are results of decisions we make on a daily basis.

These laws and principles are vital for modern societies to think properly, and make reasonable and rational decisions in order to make a civilized and modern human living. The ritual and destiny of any society which is devoid of such skills of thought process is chaos and social tornado of unpredictable nature, unable to come out of such social paralysis and senseless existence.

There is no a single principle of valid thought processes stated above that is valid and followed by the arsonist TPLF, instead it violates all forms in every dimension of social, political and economic problems Ethiopians confronted today, as problems require real solutions which are obtained from individuals who follow fundamental laws of thought and make valid arguments to validate truth and make just decisions which TPLF and its hollow members intrinsically cannot.

The questions I pause therefore are: where is the world and the international human rights watch? Where are the voices of conscience and truth when TPLF commits clear crimes of ethnic cleansing on the people of Northern Gondar? TPLF should know better the people of Gondar and the Amharas in particular and the Ethiopian society in general what they are capable off, not only defending their homes and places where they live but dying for their country for centuries along with their fellow Ethiopians alike.

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Dr. Dejenie A. Lakew is an adjunct professor of mathematics at John Tyler Community College, Virginia, USA

By Seleshi Tessema & Abebech Tamene

(ADDIS ABABA) — As Ethiopia remembers thousands of people killed by Italian forces in Addis Ababa 79 years ago, survivors and veterans remain angry that Italy authorized a mausoleum for the man who ordered the deaths.

Rodolfo Graziani, a committed Italian Fascist officer, is widely held responsible for the deaths and internment of thousands of people by occupation forces around Feb. 19, 1937.

Three days of killings and reprisals were triggered after two Ethiopians attempted to assassinate Graziani.

One historian told Anadolu Agency that between 6,000 to 12,000 people were killed over three days of violence.

Italy invaded Ethiopia for the first time in 1896 but was defeated by Ethiopians under the leadership of Emperor Menelik II. Italy attempted to colonize Ethiopia a second time in 1935 but was driven out after five years of fighting.

Ethiopians held remembrance ceremonies held Saturday in the capital and throughout the country, attended by officials, survivors and war veterans.

‘Burned alive’

Zewdu Temtime, a lecturer at the History Department of Addis Ababa University, told Anadolu Agency on Saturday that “the Italians targeted the massacre at the educated, the young and the elites that were engaged in leading the liberation movement”.

According to Zewdu, “the invading forces locked residents of Addis Ababa in their homes and burned them alive and destroyed the city.

“They also continued the massacre to a famous monastery in northern Ethiopia, where they believed that the leaders and collaborators of the assassination attempt took shelter, and massacred 1,500-3,000 monks.”

However, other historians have put the total number of people killed at 30,000.

‘I was there’

Addis Ababa resident Gedame Abate, 92, recalled the massacre to Anadolu Agency: “My parents had a 12-room house in Addis Ababa locally known as the Gullele area.

“Some of the rooms were rented. When the Italians began massacring citizens, all people who were living in that place locked their doors. We ran away to another part of the city.”

“Later I found out that the Italians burnt the house and the occupants to ash.”

She added that she saw corpses littered in the city’s alleyways: “It was the most horrifying thing that lives with me.”

Colonel Tessema Lemma, 81, who was barely two years old at the time, was lucky to survive the killing with his family.

“I grew up with horror stories of the killings and remember how my family and neighbors were hurt by the action of the Italian soldiers,” he said.

Memorial dispute

In 2012, a mausoleum and park in the village of Affile, east of Rome, was dedicated to the memory of Graziani.

The president of the Ancient Ethiopian Patriots’ Association, Daniel Jote Mesfin, told Anadolu Agency that Ethiopians strongly oppose the honor given to Graziani, who led the indiscriminate massacre.

“What does honoring such a person demonstrate? This means supporting fascism and encouraging generations to engage in similar acts,” Daniel said.

According to Zewdu, honoring Graziani, — subsequently dubbed the ‘Butcher of Addis Ababa’ — reflects budding neo-fascist outlooks in western Europe.

Ethiopians are denouncing the honor given to Graziani, however, it depends on Italy’s willingness to stop honoring him, he added.

Ethiopian Muslims held unexpected protest