Satenaw– The organizers of TEDGlobal 2017 announced the speaker program for its Arusha, Tanzania event held this August 27-30. Ethiopian Sarah Menker is featured on the list.

The full speaker lineup can be found here:

TEDGlobal 2017 marks TED’s first official return to Africa in 10 years, and will feature roughly 40 speakers sharing ideas in the form of short, powerful talks that last 18 minutes or less. The theme of the event is “Builders. Truth-Tellers. Catalysts.”

For more information about the event, check here: https://tedglobal2017.ted.com.

Thank you,

Danny Dolan

The post Ethiopian speaker selected to give TEDGlobal talk in Arusha, Tanzania appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

ArdalanVahidi_Clemson.jpg
(Photo: Courtesy of Clemson University)

Clemson University researches have been awarded roughly $1.16 million to research the use of connected and automated vehicle technology to help boost energy efficiency.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced the investment last week as part of a total $19.4 million investment package through the Vehicle Technologies Office for more than a dozen projects nationwide.

The investments, a release said, are to assist 22 cost-shared projects to accelerate research of advanced battery, lightweight materials, engine technologies and energy efficient mobility systems.

DOE said the Department of Army will also contribute an additional $1 million through the Advanced Vehicle Power Technology Alliance to support the projects.

Clemson is one of three recipients that will conduct research evaluating energy-saving benefits from connected and automated vehicles, DOE said. The other recipients are Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and University of California Riverside.

Clemson’s project will be led by Dr. Ardalan Vahidi, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Science at Clemson.

Collaborating on the project will also be Dr. Beshah Ayalew, professor of automotive engineering and director of the DOE GATE Center of Excellence in Sustainable Vehicle Systems at Clemson’s International Center for Automotive Research, and Dr. Yunyi Jia, director of the collaborative robotics and automation lab and assistant professor in the department of Automotive Engineering at ICAR.

“I was surprised,” Ayalew said of the announcement last Wednesday.

“Definitely exciting,” Jia added.

“I got out of work, got on the train and saw my email. It’s so exciting,” Vahidi said by phone from France last week. “I didn’t expect it, because normally with these grants you just apply and you don’t know what’s going to happen. It was very unexpected and very exciting exciting, because this is research that we’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

Vahidi said he’s worked on aspects of this project for the past 10 years with his students, as have Ayalew and Jia.

“But more recently the focus has shifted as autonomous cars are no longer a futuristic concept anymore. They are going to happen,” Vahidi said. “At least some automated functions are going to happen. Not only in information, but autonomy can help cars do better in terms of energy efficiency.”

While recent developments have focused on safety elements of automated and autonomous cars, Vahidi said there’s more to be done on the research side to find out how those cars can save energy, too.

A provided project description states the project seeks to “demonstrate a 10 percent energy-saving potential from different aspects of the implementation with a focus on reducing unnecessary braking events by anticipatory speed and lane selection.”

The grant will stretch out for two years.

“The grant will allow us basically to integrate this expertise and demonstrate 10 percent energy efficiency by deploying these technologies on cars,” Ayalew said.

The research will also collaborate with the Argonne National Lab and the test track facility at the International Transportation Innovation Center in Greenville.

“Because we want to be safe, we will put one or two real vehicles on the test track to see how they interact in real traffic,” Vahidi said. “But we’ll also simulate in a computer framework other virtual vehicles that talk to these vehicles in real time using cellphones.”

Source: greenvilleonline.com

The post Clemson awarded $1.16M to research use of connected, automated vehicle technology to boost energy efficiency appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Bomb attack reported at Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) owned Selam Bus Garage in Addis Ababa. According to ESAT News followed by bomb blasts gunfire rings out.

The post Bomb attack reported at Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) owned Selam Bus Garage in Addis Ababa appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

by Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

Businesses in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa have refused to open as part of a tax-hike protest that has hit small business operators.

The “resistance” which started sometime last week in the wider Oromia region is said to have reached the capital with Addis Standard (AS) portal reporting that a hitherto bustling business district, Axena Tera was “eerily quiet as businesses have shut in protest of new tax hike.”

The new tax targets businesses with an annual turnover of up to 100,000 Birr (about $4,300), its is aimed primarily at boosting government revenue. But business people insist it is over-estimated and the authorities are demanding too much.

AS described the situation which has been simmering over the past week as a case of ‘testing the streets again.’ The class of protesters are those in category ‘C’ of the taxation bracket.

The relatively peaceful and silent protest started in Oromia region which experienced some of the most violent anti-government protests last year. Reports indicate that there was security deployment in the wake of the protest.

Ethiopia is currently under a state of emergency rule, which is in its ninth month (it was declared in October 2016). Its aim was to quell spreading anti-government protests in two main regions of Amhara and Oromia.

It is unclear whether there will be an extension when it expires this month. Addis Ababa, however, maintains that there has largely been a considerably durable return to peace.

Ethiopia is considered East Africa’s economic giant and a continental powerhouse. The government’s largely public driven investments continue to attract praise from reputable international finance institutions.

Reports also indicate that people in Addis Ababa are weighing their options of returning their business licenses or filing complaints with the tax authorities.

The official government response was from an official of the Ethiopia Revenue and Customs Authority, Netsanet Abera, who said earlier this month that there was some misunderstanding of the tax.

‘‘We have not imposed such taxes. The confusion is due to lack of understanding and the tendency of considering daily incomes as taxes.’‘ There has yet to be an official communication on the current situation.

The country despite its challenges – security-wise, refugee influx and also a biting drought in the horn of Africa region has earned economic praise from global finance outfits, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The World Bank in a recent report report stated that Ethiopia’s economy will be the most expansive on the continent for the year 2017 followed by Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Senegal in that order.

The position was contained in the global finance outfit’s Global Economic Prospect report released in June.

Before the World Bank, the IMF had in April this year ‘crowned’ the country as the new economic giant of the East Africa region dethroning neighbouring Kenya.

Their annual economic output for 2017 was expected to hit $78 billion from $72 billion recorded last year. Ethiopia’s economic growth since 2015 has been pegged at 10.8% putting a significant gap between them and Kenya. In monetary terms, Ethiopia has opened a gap of over $29 million over Kenya.

Photos courtesy of @addisstandard

The post Ethiopia: Tax-hike protest spreads to Addis Ababa appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Hailemariam Desalegn admitted he is making decisions without all the facts

The post Hailemariam Desalegn admitted he is making decisions without all the facts appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Assegid Habtewold[i]

My new book ‘Soft Skills That Make or Break Your Success’ unveiled 12 soft skills that are critical to achieving personal mastery, get along with, and lead others successfully. One of the four vital soft skills necessary to lead others is the ability to negotiate for win-win deals. Unlike in the past, today’s leaders cannot accomplish anything meaningful without engaging in constant negotiation. The days where leaders just give the order to realize their goals are literally over. In the 21^st C, as they set goals, assign tasks to their team members, interact with their peers, superiors, and other stakeholders within and outside of their organizations, they need to excel in negotiating for win-win deals.

In this article, let me share with you one of the insights I shared in the book, which is, not revealing everything at the onset of any negotiation. Negotiation is an art and requires being strategic in our approaches and timing. To illustrate the vitality of this wisdom, I shared the informal negotiation between US President Trump and Mexico’s President Nieto at Twitter.

You might have already read or watched the news about Mexico’s President, Enrique Pena Nieto, canceling a meeting with US President Donald Trump. If you review the events leading to the cancellation, you wouldn’t be surprised. On Wednesday, January 25, 2017, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to build the wall on the southern border of the US believing that Mexico will pay the cost in one form or another.

This decision was unilateral and was made without the consent of Mexico’s government.  The Executive Order offended members of Mexico’s delegate who was in the US at that time to have some forms of negotiations with Trump’s administration. Following the signature, the high-level representatives called their President to cancel the scheduled meeting with Trump.

On Thursday, while this was still going on, Trump tweeted saying: “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.” It didn’t take long for Mexico’s President to just do that- he canceled the planned meeting on Tuesday the following week, like Trump, via Twitter: “This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the POTUS.”

Why he canceled the meeting, you may ask, especially knowing that Mexico is going to lose the most? For your information, according to US Census Bureau, Mexico is US’s 3^rd largest trading partner. Not only that, reports show that Mexico exports more than it imports- $63 billion dollars in deficit.

It is simple. In any negotiation, if you give your counterpart an ultimatum with your walking away price upfront and honestly (in this case, Trump revealed that he walks away if Mexico doesn’t agree to pay for the wall), your counterpart immediately realizes your best and worst scenarios. And, if they figure out that they won’t get a satisfactory agreement from a negotiation and somehow they could be able to live with the worst scenario, they walk away. That is what Mexico’s President just did.

Below are four valuable lessons from the Twitter feud POTUS had with Mexico’s President, which may help you in your future negotiations:

1. Don’t give ultimatum upfront before the start of any negotiation. This applies to you even if you have the upper hand as you enter into any negotiation. Of course, if your desire is a win-win deal. I’m not sure whether Trump was making a tactical move to begin the negotiation from a strong ground or whether that was a misstep and oversight or brutal honesty. Otherwise, you shouldn’t reveal your position honestly at the wrong time; most importantly, you shouldn’t demand concessions before the start of a negotiation. You should wait for the right time to demand concessions, and if necessary to make some concessions.
2. Don’t reveal the bottom-line too soon. This is especially important during negotiations between two nations. Negotiations in business are entirely different than negotiations between nations, especially those from different cultures. In the case of business negotiations, as far as the negotiators get a deal acceptable by the majority of the shareholders, they may be considered successful. Unfortunately, negotiations between countries are complex. There are many stakeholders with diverse, sometimes irreconcilable, interests and priorities. Trump attempted to negotiate on Twitter and revealed his bottom lines honestly for all stakeholders too soon. Sensitive negotiations should be done behind closed doors, at least, at the initial stage. There should be an agreement from both parties on how and when to communicate the progress of the negotiation to their respective stakeholders.

3. Don’t undermine emotions. Negotiations should consider both positive and negative roles emotions play. In their book ‘Beyond Reason’, Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro discussed the critical roles emotions play. They believed that people experience both positive and negative emotions as they negotiate. The authors claimed that people have difficulty to deal with their own and the emotions of others, and that affect the success of negotiations. His inner circle and thousands of ordinary citizens pressured Enrique because they felt that Trump’s publicly displayed tweets did hurt their national pride! According to news from Mexico, the President was forced to cancel the meeting because citizens felt that their country and its people are bullied, and therefore, regardless of the economic consequences of walking away from the negotiation, they demanded their President cancel the meeting. “Emotions of the negotiating parties play critical roles for the success of a given negotiation. Recognizing my emotions and the message they may send, and also reading the emotions of others to recognize where they are in the negotiation.” In this regard, Daniel Goleman also acknowledged, “Without the ability to sense our own feelings- or to keep them from swamping- we will be hopelessly out of touch with the moods of others.” Sharpening one’s negotiation skills requires understanding our emotions and regulating them so that we may not send inadvertent messages that may be used against us. And also the ability to read our counterparts’ emotions and tap into that knowledge to lead the other party where we want to take them without manipulating.
4. Don’t damage long-term relationships. Neighboring countries like the US and Mexico shouldn’t just negotiate to get a better financial deal. They need each other for other collaborations that are critical to their countries, people, and the region. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t aim at getting better deals for their respective countries, but this shouldn’t come at the expense of permanently damaging their relationship. Win-lose negotiations always burn bridges and also injure healthy relationships. For Sunil Mittal- billionaire Indian telecom tycoon, “Relationship is very important. I can lose money, but I cannot lose a relationship. The test is, at the end of a conversation or a negotiation, both must smile.”

At the time of this writing, it’s too early to reach any conclusion, too premature. However, going forward, I’m sure that the two nations may keep working on a win-win deal, at least, behind the scene… I guess they have already realized that negotiation doesn’t succeed on Twitter.

[i] Assegid Habtewold is a coach, consultant, and soft skills and leadership workshop facilitator at Success Pathways, LLC (http://www.successpws.com). His new book is available at Amazon. To download the first part and conclusion of the book for free, and also get more info about the book, check out this link: http://successpws.com/?page_id=2254

The post 4 negotiation lessons from the Twitter feud POTUS had with Mexico’s President appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

You might have been praying the Amara agents of the Tigre People Libration Front (TPLF) would rush to Bahir-Dar to save TANA, where our skeletons, flesh, life, soul, spirit, history, religion, culture, fauna and flora are residing. Instead of rushing to Bahir-Dar, these Amara TPLF agents dash to Mekelle to perform reconciliation drama between TPLF’s base population, and the Amara people. Why the Amara people have to reconcile with Tigre people? Is the Amara People in conflict with Tigre people or with its self-proclaimed enemy, the TPLF? Have the Tigre people approved the TPLF’s Dedeb Manifesto, which declares “crush Amara and build Tigre Republic on its grave”? Do the Tigre people practice this Manifesto as TPLF continues to do so? OR is TPLF trying to prove that TPLF is equal to Tigre minus the born again Gebremedhin Araya plus few others as many Ethiopians think?

TPLF destroyed the prestigious Ethiopian reconciliation tool -Shimglina using Efrem Yishaq and other Yihuda messengers as weapons decades ago. Similarly, TPLF boasted it has crushed the spine of the Tewahido church through infiltrating pseudo monks, priests, deacons, bishops and patriarchs as spies and agents. However, TPLF re-assembles the destroyed shimiglina and the crushed Tewahido church for reconciliation when its victims revolt to choke its throat. Because its victims are revolting to choke its throat, the westerners’ servant-TPLF is gathering its donkeys in Mekelle for “reconciliation” while sending the other donkey, Ephreme Yisaq, to America to start a new “church reconciliation process” intended to demolish the exiled synod. As Wiki leaks exposed, the exiled synod was overthrown by anti-Tewahido Evil Tamirat Layine. Tamirat Layne was admired by Ephrem Yisaq as God’s miracle in his eyes on national TV.
While Epherem Yisak is currently crawling like snake to seduce the weakest Diaspora bishops in USA, TPLF is airing reconciliation drama with Amara people using its donkeys as actors. These donkeys do not understand that respect begets form power, not from reconciliation. In realty, these donkeys are acting to eat hay and chaff after wards. Otherwise, how could hay-eating donkeys that sold their rights for grass reconcile on the behalf of Amaras massacred, tortured, displaced, dehumanized, starved, and sterilized for decades? Which chaff-eating jack ass has the mandate to reconcile on the behalf of murdered and tortured Amaras in Wolkait for more than 40 years? Which hay-eating donkey has the mandate to reconcile on the behalf of the Bedeno Amaras , who were thrown alive in Grand Canyons? Which grass eating- jenny donkey can reconcile on the behalf of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters massacred in Arbagugu, Arsi Ngele, Amba Geiorgies, Gondar, Debreteabor, Bahirdar, Merawi, Dangla, Debremarkos, Debre Birhan, Yifat, Desse and many other places? Which hay-eating donkey has the mandate to reconcile on behalf of Amaras tortured in known and unknown prisons? Which chaff-devouring donkey has the mandate to reconcile on the behalf of mothers and children thrown on the streets of Gura Ferda, Assossa, Metekel, and many other places?
Reconciliation with the TPLF murderers is reconciling with Satan. Satan will remain Satan no matter how many times you reconcile and expect change in his behavior. Reconciliation never transforms Satan to Angle, but it could transform the Angle to Satan.

If you doubt the existence of Satan, look at the leader of Tigre People Liberation Front (TPLF). No one has seen Satan as no one has seen God. Satan is known through his evil deeds as God is known through his good wills. Scriptures teach Satan steals, robs, cheats, lies, betrays, murders, and tortures. The holly books preach Satan worships money, spreads hate and enjoys bloodsheds. These satanic deeds have been the ritual of the TPLF leaders since they started annihilating the Wolkait Amaras 40 years ago.

One of the main architects of the wolkait master plan, Legese Zenawi, once boasted that his first step in the struggle for power was robbing public banks. His disciples, just like their prophet, robbed the wealth of Ethiopians including the six- thousand meters long mountains. The Ethiopian proverb goes: The Satan that ordained an individual as deacon will never leave him until he promotes the individual to priesthood. Satan ordained Legese Zenawi as deacon of bank robbery, and stayed with him until he promoted him to priest of life robbery.

The priest of life robbery, Legese, his comrades and his disciples have massacred, tortured, disabled, jailed, displaced and sterilized hundreds of thousands of Amaras guided by the deddeb manifesto of establishing Tigre Republic at the graves of Amaras. This kind of manifesto is the work of Satan: No human being designs and practices annihilating one ethnic group to establish the republic of another ethnic group.
The graves of Amaras were not enough to establish the Tigre Republic as originally planned. Therefore, TPLF amended the deddeb manifesto to expand the graves to Ambo, Wolega, Jimma, Gambella, Arisi, Bale, Harergae, Sidamo, Afar and other regions. Based on this amended manifesto, TPLF has massacred the people living in these regions since the victims realized the barbaric nature of TPLF and resisted the daylight robbery of their lands and other resources.

The TPLF victims started to rise up in unison to root out the devil that kept them apart for twenty five years. However, TPLF reacted swiftly portraying the metaphor of fire and straw. TPLF swore that it will continue to spray benzene among ethnic groups to compel them burn each other as straw and fire. This type of ritual again is the ritual of Satan: No human being works hard to compel people burn each other.
Having seen all these satanic deeds and leaving justice aside, the donkeys have gathered to pretend reconciliation designed to prolong the existence of TPLF and the suffering of Amaras. The preachers of reconciliation please look at the pictures of the massacred Amara children and parents thrown over the streets, rivers, cliffs, mountains, jungles, valleys, mosques and monasteries of Ethiopia! Pay attention to the blood soaked clothes, the fractured skulls, the disfigured faces, the deformed chests, the perforated bellies and amputated extremities. Please listen to the suffering voices of sisters and brothers in known and unknown prisons.

What types of conscience, heart, and gut you have to sit down and reconcile with these kinds of murderers? Who in the universe gave you the mandate to reconcile with Satan on the behalf of the annihilated, tortured, displaced, starved, dehumanized, and sterilized Amaras?
Do you know any sane person that reconciles with Satan? Do you know any religious individuals except Judah, Gebremedihin, some Sheikhs, Mathias and some of his bishops that work with Satan? Do you know any disciple or prophet who ever reconciled with Satan? Has Christos ever reconciled with Satan?

The writer can be reached at abatebelai@yahoo.com

July, 2017

The post Reconciliation with Whom? Has Christos ever Reconciled with Satan? – by Belayneh Abate appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Ethiopian best 20 writers in the 20th Century

The post Ethiopian best 20 writers in the 20th Century appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

by KIMIKO de FREYTAS-TAMURA

The New York Times,-  BAHIR DAR, Ethiopia

Her life revolves around a psychotropic leaf.  Yeshmebet Asmamaw, 25, has made chewing the drug a ritual, repeated several times a day: She carefully lays papyrus grass on the floor of her home, brews coffee and burns fragrant frankincense to set the mood.

Then she pinches some khat leaves, plucked from a potent shrub native to this part of Africa, into a tight ball and places them in one side of her mouth.

“I love it!” she said, bringing her fingers to her lips with a smack.

She even chews on the job, on the khat farm where she picks the delicate, shiny leaves off the shrubs. Emerging from a day’s work, she looked slightly wild-eyed, the amphetaminelike effects of the stimulant showing on her face as the sounds of prayer echoed from an Orthodox Christian church close by.

Ethiopians have long chewed khat, but the practice tended to be limited to predominantly Muslim areas, where worshipers chew the leaves to help them pray for long periods, especially during the fasting times of Ramadan.

But in recent years, officials and researchers say, khat cultivation and consumption have spread to new populations and regions like Amhara, which is mostly Orthodox Christian, and to the countryside, where young people munch without their parents’ knowledge, speaking in code to avoid detection.

“If you’re a chewer in these parts, you’re a dead, dead man,” said Abhi, 30, who asked that his last name not be used because his family “will no longer consider me as their son.”

Most alarming, the Ethiopian authorities say, is the number of young people in this predominantly young nation now consuming khat. About half of Ethiopia’s youth are thought to chew it. Officials consider the problem an epidemic in all but name.

The country’s government, which rules the economy with a tight grip, is worried that the habit could derail its plans to transform Ethiopia into a middle-income country in less than a decade ― a national undertaking that will require an army of young, capable workers, it says.

Khat is legal and remains so mainly because it is a big source of revenue for the government. But there are mounting concerns about its widespread use.

As many as 1.2 million acres of land are thought to be devoted to khat, nearly three times more than two decades ago. And the amount of money khat generates per acre surpasses all other crops, including coffee, Ethiopia’s biggest export, said Gessesse Dessie, a researcher at the African Studies Center Leiden at Leiden University.

That payoff, and the dwindling availability of land, has pushed thousands of farmers to switch to khat, he said. The changes have come as the government has pushed farmers off land that it has given to foreign investors in recent years.

Men chewing khat near the bank of the Nile River in Bahir Dar. Khat is legal and generates more money per acre than any other crop in Ethiopia. Credit Tiksa Negeri for The New York Times

Often associated with famine and marathon runners, Ethiopia is trying to change its global image by engineering a fast-growing economy, hoping to mimic Asian nations like China. It has poured billions of dollars into industrial parks, roads, railways, airports and other infrastructure projects, including Africa’s largest dam.

In cities across the country, skyscrapers grow like mushrooms, and along with them, dance clubs, restaurants and luxury resorts. According to government statistics, the country’s economy has been growing at a 10 percent clip for more than a decade.

But for all the fanfare surrounding what is often described as Ethiopia’s economic miracle, its effects are often not felt by the country’s young people, who make up about 70 percent of the nation’s 100 million people. There simply are not enough jobs, young people complain, often expressing doubt over the government’s growth figures.

It is because of this lack of jobs, many say, that they take up khat in the first place ― to kill time.

“It’s a huge problem,” said Shidigaf Haile, a public prosecutor in Gonder, a city in northern Ethiopia, which was rocked by violent protests last year, mainly by young people over the absence of jobs.

More than half of the city’s youth now chew khat, Mr. Shidigaf said. Many gather in khat dens away from prying eyes.

“It’s because there is a lack of work,” he added, saying there were numerous cases of people who were so dependent on the leaves, sold in packs, that they turned to petty crime. The government recognizes the problem, he said, but so far it has not been tackled directly.

“It’s bad for Ethiopia’s economic development because they become lazy, unproductive, and their health will be affected,” he said.

Khat’s effects vary depending on the amount consumed and the quality of the leaf, of which there are at least 10 varieties, according to growers. Some people turn hot and agitated. Others become concentrated on whatever is at hand to such an extent that they block out everything and reach “merkana,” a quasi-catatonic state of bliss. Chronic abuse, the American government warns, can lead to exhaustion, “manic behavior with grandiose delusions, violence, suicidal depression or schizophreniform psychosis.”

Dependency on khat is more psychological than physical, according to Dr. Dawit Wondimagegn Gebreamlak, who heads the psychiatry department at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia’s capital. Chewing it “is quite a complex cultural phenomenon,” he said, adding that simply banning it would be difficult, given its role in cultural rites among certain religious groups.

Mulugeta Getahun, 32, studied architecture but works as a day laborer.

“I chew khat when I don’t have a job,” he said. “Nothing entertains me more than khat.” Sitting in a bar here in Bahir Dar, about 340 miles from Addis Ababa, where he was coming off a high, he drank “chepsi,” a home-brewed millet wine that helps neutralize the effects of stimulation.

A group of men sat around drinking the homemade liquor and chewing khat, an act that could be considered illegal under the current state of emergency.

After last year’s protests, and their subsequent violent crackdown by security forces, the government prohibited communal activities because meetings were seen as a threat to public order and a potential gathering place for dissidents.

Still, the young are defiant.

There are “bercha-houses,” secret khat dens, where young people congregate in cramped rooms, bobbing their heads to Teddy Afro, a popular Ethiopian pop singer whose lyrics are considered veiled criticisms of the government.

There are hide-outs on the banks of the Nile River, where young people stretch themselves out under mango and banana trees, chewing khat and throwing peanuts in their mouths.

Even a guesthouse where Mengistu Haile Mariam, the authoritarian ruler ousted by the current governing party 26 years ago, stayed during the summers was recently overrun by young people celebrating the end of their studies, some chewing khat in one of the bleak Soviet-style rooms with the curtains drawn.

Yared Zelalem, 17, and Yonas Asrat, 27, chewed khat on the side of a street in Addis Ababa, waiting for the odd job of washing cars to come their way. They had been chewing for five hours already, and it was still early afternoon.

They both arrived in the capital 10 years ago looking for work, they said, after Mr. Zelalem’s parents died and Mr. Asrat’s family was kicked off its farmland to make way for a resort hotel.

Mr. Asrat looked morose. “Nothing has changed in the past 10 years except for my physical appearance,” he said, showing his home, a beat-up taxi with a foam mattress inside. “This country is only for investors.”

Mr. Zelalem, the 17-year-old, lives next door, in a boxlike structure with just enough space to fit his small frame. He was more determined.

“I want to become prime minister and change the country, and give jobs to young people,” he said, the words “Never Give Up” tattooed on his arm. He opened the door to his abode, which was fashioned out of corrugated metal. A backpack hung on a nail, next to a cutout of Jesus pasted on one wall. He took out his school notebooks, full of his meticulous handwriting.

“I want to study natural sciences, then become a doctor. Then I want to study social sciences to learn about politics,” he said, listing off his ambitions.

“In 20 years, you’ll see,” he added. “I’ll invite you to my office.”

The post For Ethiopia’s Underemployed Youth, Life Can Center on a Leaf appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The post ESAT Latest Ethiopian News July 21, 2017 appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

It is often said, correctly I believe, that being entitled to our own opinion or interpretation of the facts of a situation does not mean that we are entitled to our own facts. We may disagree about the sense we make of historical or contemporary facts while still sharing a common recognition of the factuality of what we observe.

Yet much of Ethiopian ethnopolitics today on the opposition as well as the ruling side suffers from an acute shortage of this basic understanding. On both sides, limited, exclusively partisan constructs of identity politics are commonly passed off as “facts on the ground.” Both sides operate on the basis of their own “facts,” construing ethnocentrism as “reality” pure and simple, something which we can’t do anything about. They see it as the basis on which “Ethiopia” has to be created anew, if at all. This view is more or less shared even by some non-ethnocentric, pro-unity groups and parties in the country.

Left poorly understood here are, first, what the facts of Ethiopian national being and experience are as such and, second, the interpretation that is adequate and appropriate to them. So it may be helpful to the contemporary Ethiopian patriotic resistance against nationally divisive ethnocentrism to reflect briefly on the nature of facts and their interpretation, with an eye toward strategic and practical engagement in the resistance.

On Facts

We may at times be deceived by our senses, as in the case of a mirage, in which objects which are not really present appear to us, but we generally recognize facts when we see them. Still, in a given case or situation, what an individual notices as a fact and what he or she doesn’t is not a matter for the individual’s free choice alone. It is not an absolutely subjective decision.

Instead, socio-economic, cultural, institutional and political circumstances condition what we consider to be factual or true. Data do not come to our attention in a vacuum, but often appear against social-historical background and mediated by religious belief, intellectual tradition, or paradigm of thought and discourse. Commonly, we relate to structures of events and facts through felt and lived experience, including struggles for national survival and change.

Given the interconnectedness and complexity of national and global issues today and the prevalence of clashing interests and opinions, determining facts, let alone agreeing on their interpretation, can be (and often is) a challenging undertaking. One person’s “reality” is often another person’s delusion or political fabrication. So, while interpretation or analysis of social-historical facts can be hard, establishing agreed upon facts is itself no mean task.

An instructive example here is the record of Emperor Menelik II’s achievements and their significance for not only Ethiopians but Africans generally.  TPLF and OLF partisans have generally tended, in a fit of overpoliticized ethnocentrism, to denigrate or deny outright the facts of the Emperor’s multiethnic heritage along with his greatness as an Ethiopian leader.

Here it is worth noting that objective or impartial observation of data does not mean looking at the world from no perspective at all. That is impossible; perspective, including that of an ethnic group centered on a narrative of victimhood, is unavoidable. We can only observe and act upon facts from some experience and vantage point or other, doing so often with a definite intention. What is problematic is not perspective as such, but its absoluteness and exclusiveness, its unenlightened, dogmatic closure.

Levels of Factuality/Observation

A simple fact, say, a narrowly circumscribed event, can be adequately identified and known using only basic description. But, in looking at a complex system (say, a social, economic, cultural or political order), distinct yet related domains of facts may be recognized on various levels of observation and analysis. These domains of facts range from the least involved spheres of high frequency actions and events to the most complex zones of slow moving structures, systems, and cultural and institutional practices.

The level at which facts are established and analyzed may vary depending on the questions posed by the observer/actor. For example, questions regarding Woyane identity politics may be posed at the level of the behavior of an individual political organization, namely that of the TPLF, or in the context of a broader paradigm of ethnonationalism that includes but is not limited to the TPLF, a paradigm of political ideology and practice that extends to the OLF and other ethnic parties and groups in Ethiopia.

Alternatively and at an even broader level of analysis, questions about identity politics in the country may be posed at the level of the Ethiopian revolutionary tradition as a whole, going back to the Student Movement within which “the national question” first gained political currency. Issues raised and facts gathered in relation to one level of observation and analysis or one logical type do not necessarily apply to the others.

The important point here is that the idea of level of observation of facts has to do with the perspective adopted by the observer/actor. Complex systems do not spontaneously present themselves neatly divided into various units of observation or into distinct logical categories (individual ethnocentric party, paradigm of ethnonationalism shared by various parties, an entire revolutionary tradition within which ethnonationalism took political-ideological shape). The division is conceptual and analytical only.

Facts and Interpretation

Gathering data or establishing facts is a vital part of knowing, a key ingredient of enlightenment. But, generally and in the context of the Ethiopian struggle for national survival and renewal today, what we value are not so much faceless, impersonal data as their meaning and significance for us in human, social, economic, cultural, and political terms. And informed interpretation can play a crucial strategic and practical role in generating such significance from established facts.

As intellectual, moral, and political practice, interpretation can be more or less adequate to what it interprets. Its adequacy (or lack thereof) reflects the general level of literacy and cultural development reached in a given society. Within advanced, more literate societies interpretation is engaged in with greater autonomy and effectiveness as a complex, relatively open and reflexive system of establishing operative norms and meanings centered on various classes of textual materials, such as constitutional, legal, philosophical, and scientific.

By contrast, what passes for interpretation under TPLF dictatorship in Ethiopia has no fidelity to texts, particularly to the expressed contents of its own “constitution.” Nor is it attuned in any meaningful way to the historical and contemporary facts of the Ethiopian experience. Be it out of sheer cultural illiteracy, “learned ignorance,” or nationally rootless abyotawinnet, TPLF bosses and cadres remain wedded to the error of “nominal realism” in their attitude toward multiethnic Ethiopian national culture. That is to say, they are given to conflating self-enclosed ideological constructs or definitional categories (for example, the Stalinist terms of “nations” and “peoples”) with actual, intersecting and overlapping Ethiopian communities, particularly Amaras and Oromos).

This process of imposition of insular, kililized “identities” by Woyane Tigres on all other Ethiopian cultural and ethnic communities makes sense to us only as a simulation rather than an interpretation or representation of Ethiopian social realities. The real or the factual has been suppressed from within, giving way to its inauthentic, simulated authoritarian reproduction, its unreal, counterfeit copy.

The Woyanes have, for example, used their own construct of “Amhara” in executing a hostile take-over of not only Amara lands, but also Amara self-identification, which is actually integral to Ethiopiawinnet. The substitution of a distorted model of the real for the actually existent real happens everywhere in Ethiopian government and society, since the Trojan horse of simulation has penetrated nearly all sectors of socio-economic, political, cultural, spiritual and intellectual life in the country.

In this light, it is worth noting that, as keenly remarked by Dr. Dagnachew Assefa and others, recent “negotiations” between agents of the ruling party and dissident parties have constituted a make-believe process, hardly anything more or different. What passes for “opposition” has itself been rendered unreal, having become a simulated activity with no bite, a thinly disguised pretense.

The whole process is intended to undermine from within every sphere of free individual and collective agency in Ethiopian society by its manipulated double under the control of the TPLF regime. In what can be characterized as an internal neo-colonial system of domination, Woyane Tigres aspire to make the entirety of Ethiopian society, in all its diversity and national assets and resources, a hollowed out  extension and object of their partisan-tribal project, a satellite of “liberated” or “greater” Tigray.

In this fatally flawed aspiration, the Woyane dictatorship threatens to erase the difference between fact and fiction, the real and the imagined. In its neo-feudal regionalism, the tribal dictatorship opposes what is broad-based, promising, and progressive in the Ethiopian national experience with what is politically narrow, discouraging, and reactionary.

But Ethiopia shall rise and rally her people!

The post On the way to Ethiopian Reintegration: Facing the “Facts” of Ethnopolitics – Tesfaye Demmellash appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By: Asress Mulugeta

The Ethiopian constitution that came into force in August 1995 divided the country into nine ethnic-based regional states namely Afar, Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz, Gambela, Harari, Oromia, Somali,  Tigray and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region. The largest ethnic groups in the country are Oromo 35%, Amhara 33%, Somali 6%,  Tigray  5%, Sidama 4%, Gurage 2.5%  and Afar 1.7%. Following the adoption of ethno-lingusited based federalism and strict ethinic  ethnicization policy, ethno-linguistic identity has been has been considered as the key instrument in social mobilization and political party formation in the country. Since the adoption of ethnic-based federalism, the absolute political and economic domination of the minority Tigray has been the reason for discontent of the vast majority of other ethnic groups, namely, the Amhara, Oromo, Somali, Afar, Gurage etc.

The ruling minority, the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), has implemented ethnic based federalism as a divide and rule mechanism with the sinister aim of ensuring its dominance at the expense of all other ethnicities. For the last 26 years, TPLF has been insidiously creating and politically manipulating ethnic tensions and conflicts among the dominant groups in order to fracture potential political alliances that might threaten its political supremacy. The political and economic marginalization coupled with the dividing and hate mongering ideology that has been implemented in the country for the last quarter of a century is the main reason behind the current dangerously growing ethnic nationalism in all regions of Ethiopia. To most of the peoples their ethnic belonging is much more important than their national (state) identity. The situation became extremely tense last three years. Almost all major ethnic groups are aspiring to take over the state or to secede in order to have their state. There is a wide spread opinion that the growing ethnic nationalism is going to plunge the country into a serious crisis.

The Somali of Ogaden support the idea of Greater Somalia and are in favour of seceding from Ethiopia and joining their compatriots in neighbouring Somalia. The Ogaden is a region between Somalia and Ethiopia. The Somalis living in the region have been suffering cruel tortures at the hands of the TPLF forces. The situation is hardly known by the rest of the world because media and AID are not allowed in the region. The stories of massacre are many. Women rape is being used as a war weapon. In the region, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) forces are fighting against the government to defend the regions’s natural resources and to achieve an independent state in Ogaden.

The Afars inhabit Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti in the Horn. The Afars inhabit more than 2/3 of Eritrea’s coastline. The majority of the Afars and the biggest chunk of Afar Triangle are in Ethiopia. Afar nationalists want to incorporate their kinsmen living in Eritrea and Djibouti. Afars in Ethiopa and Eritrea had deep grievances about the undemocratic, repressive rule of their respective governments. Currently, the Afar people in Ethiopia are facing bad governance, human rights violations, unlawful land grabbing, forcible removal and eviction of Afar People from their traditional grazing land. They were driven away from the banks of Awash River which has been the lifeline of the Afar population that depend on it for survival since time immemorial to make place for the sugar plantations and large-scale agricultural projects owned by TPLF and foreign multinational corporations, companies and investors. Economic marginalisation such as monopolizing the Afar salts concessions in Afdera predominantly by Tigrai merchants is one of the reasons that the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF) struggling against the regime.

Over the last several decades, Oromo nationalism has evolved from a quest for self-reliance to seeking regime change to fighting for total liberation. The Oromo nationalists have been fighting against the successive regimes with the aims of realizing inalienable right of the Oromo to decide their own political destiny and ultimately liberating the Oromo people from oppression and exploitation. The Oromos, who make up around a third of the population, have long complained that they have been excluded from the country’s political process and the economic development. The resurgent Oromo nationalism, expressed in the historic Oromo protests of the last two years, was built on a shared Oromo identity and a collective consciousness catalysed by deep grievances against Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) increasing authoritarianism, insatiable rapaciousness and land grabbing at the expense of Oromo farmers. The minority TPLF regime has a history of cracking down on the Oromo people, who represent a majority of the population and a perceived threat to its power. Instead of responding to the long-standing grievances of the people, the TPLF government declared a state of emergency which give the security forces and the army new sweeping powers that permeates all levels of social structures, including individual households. All those heavy-handed approaches of the minority TPLF regime are uniting factors for different Oromo nationalists to organize themselves under strong and dangerous ethnic nationalism, that may directed outward at another groups living the in the region.

In the Amhara region, Amhara nationalism developed in response to the myriad of political, economic and social injustices that Amharas have suffered under the TPLF-led regime.  Over the last couple of decades, Amharas have been singled out for a particularly brutal form of mistreatment. Amhara peasants have been forcefully evicted from their farmlands, and their livelihood completely destroyed. Amharas have been mass murdered in Harar, and in other parts of the country. The population statistics of the Amhara Regional State was deliberately suppressed to attenuate the region’s political and economic influence in the country. On a day to day basis, the TPLF regime has for the last 26 years maligned, harassed and persecuted Amahra intellectuals, business owners, and public figures with a particular zeal and viciousness. To put a stop to these series of political, economic and social injustices, growing number of Amharas are organizing themselves under the umbrella of a strong Amhara nationalism. Many say that the rise of Amhara nationalism maybe the beginning of the end to Ethiopian unity.

In conclusion, the rising ethnic nationalism needs an intervention of the government before it is too late. The ethno-political situation in Ethiopia becomes more and more tense.  The government should look for, a new model of governance that can create a strong and universal civil identity while maintaining cultural diversity of Ethiopians.

The post The dangerously rising ethnic nationalism in Ethiopia appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

FILE – Somali diplomat Mohamed Ali Nur, pictured in an interview in Nairobi in September 2013, thanked Ethiopia for releasing 114 prisoners. “Only six Somalis remain in the Ethiopian jails, and we have agreed that they will soon be released,” he said.

More than 100 Somalis, recently released from Ethiopian detention facilities and handed over to the Somali government, arrived in Mogadishu on Saturday, government officials told VOA Somali.

The 114 prisoners smiled and some of them kneeled as they got off the plane and kissed the soil. Parents and relatives waiting for them at the airport cheered and burst into tears.

Government officials told local media that the Somali prisoners had been held in Ethiopian jails for various offenses, including “illegal entry.”

Jamaludin Mustafa Omar, the Ethiopian ambassador to Somalia, who was with the prisoners, said the move was a sign of the good ties between the countries.

“Some of these prisoners had 20-year sentences, and their release represents the strengthening relationship between our two countries,” Omar said.

The release of the Somali prisoners followed talks between Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre and his Ethiopian counterpart, Hailemariam Desalegn, on the sidelines of the recent 29th African Union Heads of States summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Somalia’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Ali Nur, who also accompanied the prisoners, thanked Ethiopia for giving them amnesty.

“We are very thankful to Ethiopia for giving these Somalis their freedom,” said Nur. “Only six Somalis remain in the Ethiopian jails, and we have agreed that they will soon be released.”

Government officials, including the foreign minister, Yusuf Garad Omar, lawmakers and senior security officials, welcomed the released prisoners at Mogadishu Aden Adde International Airport.

The post 114 Somali Prisoners Released From Ethiopia Arrive in Mogadishu – Mohamed Olad Hassan appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Prof. Alemayehu G. Mariam

Tadesse Biru Kersmo

I cut my “legal teeth” nearly four decades ago pouring over the Magna Carta, Blackstone’s  “Commentaries” and Edward Coke’s legal treatises on the primacy of common law principles and the rule of law. Coke enunciated the principle of judicial review (and supremacy) in Bonham’s Case declaring, “when an act of parliament is against common right or reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the common law will control it and adjudge such act to be void.” Blackstone later described the power of Parliament to make laws in England as absolute and without control. Judicial review today is the linchpin of American democracy as President Donald Trump has learned.

More recently, I took great pride in celebrating the 800^th anniversary of the Magna Carta on my campus with my students (arguably the only celebration of its kind on any American campus in 2015). It was an honor to have my commentary, “A Magna Carta for Ethiopia” posted on the official website of the 800^th Magna Carta Committee.

For nearly three decades, I have taught my course on civil liberties and free speech by requiring my students to read John Milton’s tract  Areopagitica, “for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England”,  arguably the most influential and impassioned philosophical defences of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression.

I have always had the highest regard for British jurisprudence in the historical context. I have not had the opportunity to study contemporary English law.

I began to doubt my fascination with British law when I recently became aware of “terrorism” allegations against Tadesse Biru Kersmo, an Ethiopian dissident living in the U.K. Kersmo was charged in several counts with  violation of section 58 of the U.K. “Terrorism Act 2000”.

According to one report, the charges against Kersmo include allegedly possessing documents and materials “deemed to be useful for committing or preparing to commit terrorist acts” and publications “about security and intelligence, urban guerrilla warfare tactics and sniper manuals.” He was also charged for “attending terrorist camp” in Eritrea.

I was flabbergasted by the allegations, but even more stunned by the apparent essential similarity between the Licensing Order of 1643 against which Milton railed in Areopagitica and section 58 of the Terrorism Act which criminalizes the “possession, collection or recording of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” in documentary, photographic or electronic form.   The Licensing Order criminalized and aimed to suppress the publication and possession of  “false, forged, scandalous, seditious, libellous, and unlicensed Papers, Pamphlets, and Books to the great defamation of Religion and Government.”

Ironically, the Licensing Order of 1643 appears to be more enlightened than section 58 of the Terrorism Act in the fact that it imposed blanket censorship subject to exceptions of the official censor. Section 58 uses vague and overbroad language to criminalize any publication deemed “useful in committing terrorism”. An academic researching guerrilla tactics or other forms of asymmetric warfare could easily be charged under section 58 for possession of information likely to be useful for the commission of terrorism. That is the abysmally incomprehensible nature of section 58. It gives the Crown prosecutor unfettered and limitless powers to suppress and criminalize information merely by asserting that it is “likely” to be “useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”

Roll over in your grave, John Milton!

What is utterly incomprehensible is the fact that the “proscribed” publications alleged to be in the possession of Kersmo are all available for purchase online from Amazon.com or could be freely accessed on various websites according to reports in social media. (No, Amazon.com is not a co-defendant in the Kersmo prosecution.)

The publications allegedly possessed by Kersmo deal with “urban guerrilla warfare” and include manuals on sniper training, hand-to-hand combat, and analysis of intelligence principles. Kersmo’s computer(s) allegedly contained photographs  of persons apparently clad in camouflage and Kersmo interacting with persons in military-style uniform, a tract on non-violent struggle against the regime in Ethiopia, documents written in Amharic allegedly providing instructions on making explosives and other sundry documents.

Who is Tadesse Biru Kersmo?

Kersmo is an academic who holds an interdisciplinary doctoral degree in social sciences and Master’s in Economics.  In Ethiopia, Kersmo was department chair of economics at Unity University. He also taught at Addis Ababa University. In the U.K., he taught at the International Leadership Institute, affiliated with the University of Greenwich in London.

For a number of years, Kersmo served on the executive committee of the Ethiopian Economic Association and was a member of a taskforce for higher education reform at the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia.  Kersmo has a weekly public affairs television program “Yetimihirt Bilichita” [Spark of Education] broadcast on Ethiopian Satellite Television and available on the internet. Kersmo has conducted numerous programs on civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance.

In 2005, Kersmo and his wife “campaigned for the country’s pro-democracy party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, which achieved a sweeping victory in the capital of Addis Ababa.” Kersmo’s “ties to the opposition subjected him to continued threats, harassment, and intense monitoring long after the election” and fled to the U.K. in 2009 where he received political asylum. The TPLF is “a regime that shoots street protesters, locks up dissidents and jails more journalists than almost any other country in the world.”

The ruling TPLF regime in Ethiopia has been persecuting Kersmo even after he left the country.

In March 2014, The New Yorker magazine wrote, “Before Edward Snowden sparked a global debate about government surveillance, it was a fact of life for Tadesse Kersmo.” Kersmo was the first identified victim of the TPLF regime’s global hacking campaign against its opponents and dissidents.  Examination of Kersmo’s computer by experts revealed “traces of FinSpy, part of an “intrusion” software suite known as FinFisher.” Kersmo filed a complaint  with British police requesting “a probe of Gamma Group, a Britain-based company that produces the FinFisher software.”

Who is the real terrorist?

The charges against Tadesse Biru Kersmo are the first and only terrorism charges ever brought against a “member of Ginbot 7”, an organization that has members not only in the U.K. but also in the U.S. where it was established and many other countries in Europe and throughout the world.

The Ginbot 7 movement is not listed as a “terrorist group or organization” in any country in the world, except in Ethiopia where the ruling Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) has “outlawed” that organization.

In an ironic twist of the pot calling the kettle black, the ruling TPLF regime in Ethiopia is itself a terrorist organization listed in the Global Terrorism Database.

The last recorded  terrorist act by the TPLF was committed almost a year ago on August 26, 2016 when TPLF “assailants opened fire on protesters in Bure, Amhara, Ethiopia. At least one person was killed and three others were injured in the assault.”

In July 2014, the TPLF “kidnapped” Andaragatchew Tsgie, General Secretary of  Ginbot 7, a British citizen of Ethiopian ancestry from an airport in Yemen.

The TPLF regime triumphantly announced the “Ethiopian national security service coordinating with its Yemeni counterpart had detained and transferred to Ethiopia [Andaragatchew Tsgie] as he tried to enter Eritrea through Sanaa [Yemen].” Reprieve, the British human rights organization, following up on Tsgie reported:

Eight months after Andy Tsege’s abduction by Ethiopian forces, it’s astounding to see that British ministers knew he was being tortured from the start—but still chose to make nice with their Ethiopian counterparts. This is a British citizen facing a death sentence at the hands of a notoriously brutal government—one that appears to face no consequences for its actions. It is high time the UK took decisive action to end his ordeal.”

Tsige is still held captive under a death sentence in Ethiopia in violation of international law and the UK government has made no public call for his release. “The UK government has the power to negotiate Andy’s return home, but has so far failed to do so.”

In 2013, the TPLF jailed Abebe Wondemagegn, an alleged Ginbot 7 member, on trumped up charges of possession of explosives. The U.K. government has failed to call for his release.

In August 2016, Boris Johnson, U.K. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, tried to mislead the public on his government’s failure to demand the release of Tsgie by issuing a statement in which he claimed, “Britain does not interfere in the legal systems of other countries by challenging convictions, any more than we would accept interference in our judicial system.” That is simply not true because in October 2015 British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond twitted his “delight” in getting the release of a British citizen in Saudi Arabia.

TPLF persecution/prosecution by British proxy: I smell a rat!

I am not convinced that the prosecution of Tadesse Biru Kersmo is a genuine “terrorism” prosecution.

I believe it is a sophisticated and highly coordinated legal strategy between the U.K. and the TPLF regime in Ethiopia and the first step to decimate or completely neutralize the Ginbot 7 movement and strike fear and trepidation in its members in the U.K.

This is not the first time for the T-TPLF has tried to coordinate legal action with another country to neutralize its opponents.

The T-TPLF tried to get Ginbot 7 listed on the U.S. terrorist organizations list but was unsuccessful. However, the T-TPLF was successful in getting Obama and other high- level officials to declare de facto that Ginbot 7 a terrorist group.

In 2015, U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman traveled to Ethiopia and declaredthe U.S. has “concerns about all of those terrorist groups that Ethiopia considers Ginbot 7 a terrorist group as well. The United States believes no group, including Ginbot 7 should attempt to overthrow or speak of overthrowing a democratically elected government.”

Obama repeated the same message when he visited Ethiopia in July 2015.  “We are opposed to any group that is promoting the violent overthrow of a government, including the government of Ethiopia, that has been democratically elected.”

The U.K and the TPLF government have longstanding relationships. The U.K. has provided billions of pounds over the years to finance and sustain the TPLF regime and perpetuate its oppressive rule.

On March 18, 2017, the foreign minister of the T-TPLF said, “the long-standing strategic relationship  between Ethiopia and UK is growing year in, year out with the unfolding of emerging issues such as migration and terrorism.”

The T-TPLF openly brags about its “partnership and cooperation in such global forums as the G8 and G20” with the U.K., and the fact that “Ethiopia today is the second largest recipient of the UK’s development support next to India.”

According to a Wikileaks  document, the U.K. government regards the TPLF’s “antiterrorism law” odious and “very bad.” The U.K, government knows and has “continuing concerns about practices and behaviours within the security and justice sector, including incidents of unlawful or arbitrary arrest or detention, mistreatment in custody, and unfair trial. Most citizens and communities across the country experience inadequate access to justice and security.” Yet, the U.K. government is “helping the Ethiopian government buildup its capability to respond effectively to [terrorism] incidents.”

In 2012, the UK Government agreed to “spend £2 million over five years to fund a series of master’s degrees in “Security Sector Management” for 75 Ethiopian officials. In supporting documents, the Department for International Development (DfID) said the country’s police and defence forces were “considered amongst the best in the region in terms of effectiveness and with regards to human rights”.

Describing the T-TPLF’s “police and defence forces” as “among the best” in the region is a shameless hypocrisy or an outrageous insult to the intelligence of those who toil to defend and advocate human rights for all people.

Why I believe the British Government’s persecution by prosecution is a coordinated effort to suppress the Diaspora Ethiopian opposition with the TPLF regime 

First, I have no personal knowledge of “Ginbot 7”, its charter, leadership, membership or activities.

Ginbot 7, a political movement was established in the United States on May 15, 2008. It has been operating in the U.S., U.K, various European countries since that time without any adverse legal or political action by any government, except the T-TPLF regime.

In 2008, Ginbot 7 manifesto set forth its political goals and fundamental values.

Gibot 7 is not mentioned in any official “terrorism list”.

Ginbot 7 is not listed on U.S. Foreign Terrorist  Organizations List  or any other U.S. domestic violent extremist organizations.

Ginbot 7 is not listed on the  U.K. Proscribed Terrorist Organizations List.

Ginbot 7 is not listed on European Union List of Terrorist Persons and Organizations” or the “2017 updated list of  persons, groups and entities involved in terrorism.

Since its establishment in May 2008, Ginbot 7 has conducted numerous fundraising campaigns in the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere without any legal action by any government. 

Indeed, in June 2008, Ginbot 7 held its first meeting in London and generated substantial support from the Diaspora Ethiopian community there.

In August 2015, Ginbot 7 held a major fundraiser in London garnering $50 thousand dollars without any legal complaints or preventive action by the U.K. authorities.  It has conducted similar fundraisers in many states and cities in the U.S., in Norway, Switzerland, Germany and other countries.

The only “legal action” taken against Ginbot 7 from the very beginning has been by the T-TPLF.

In April 2009, the T-TPLF “joint anti-terrorism task force” claimed to have “arrested 35 alleged plotters” of Ginbot 7 “who were in final preparation to launch wide terrorist attacks and to sabotage the government.” Ethiopia’s “state run television today displayed different arms, bombs, satellite facilities, radio communications, computers, military uniforms and planning documents that were seized from the hands of suspects.”

The T-TPLF has made it fashionable to jail its opponents by labeling them “Ginbot 7 members”.

In September 2011, the TPLF “federal police and national intelligence and security service joint taskforce” claimed the world-renowned Ethiopian stage and screen actor Debebe Eshetu was arrested “working undercamouflage for the self-styled Ginbot 7 group.” Eshetu was tortured to give a false confession.

In September 2011, the winner of several prestigious international press awards journalist Eskinder Nega was arrested on trumped up charges of involvement with Ginbot 7 and sentenced to a long prison term.

In 2012, award-winning journalist Reeyot Alemu was sentenced to 14 years in prison, reduced to five years on appeal, for alleged membership in Ginbot 7.

In 2009, the T-TPLF railroaded to long prison terms dozens of innocent citizens as members of  Ginbot 7. The T-TPLF kangaroo “court sentenced five defendants to death, 33 defendants to life terms, and two defendants to 10 years.”

The T-TPLF uses “Ginbot 7” as the terrorist boogeyman to scare U.S. and U.K. officials into dumping the hard earned dollars and pounds of their taxpayers to support its repressive rule.

There are two simple questions that need to be answered at the threshold: 1) If Ginbot 7 is a “terrorist organization”, why is it not included in the U.K. Proscribed Terrorist Organizations List? 2) If Ginbot 7 is a “terrorist organization”, why has the U.K. government rounded up all of the members and charged them with membership in a terrorist organization?

U.K. terrorism prosecutions

I had an opportunity to review terrorism prosecutions of the Counter Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)  between 2007-2016.

Review of cases concluded in 2015 and 2016 produced the following data.

In 2016, there were 31 terrorism prosecutions listed on the Counter Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service’s website. Among the “terrorist” offenses charged include the following:

Transportation of chemicals and components for making fireworks, display of materials of an extremist nature on Facebook, providing a terrorist suspect in Syria funding, providing one’s “brother in Syria with a pair of walking shoes,” “arrangement to make available a pair of ballistic glasses”, sending a book entitled, “Join the Caravan” written by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, making funding arrangements for terrorist purposes, making statement on Facebook about the risks to Sikh girls should they go out with men from the Muslim community,  possession of a handwritten letter of an extremist nature, planning to go on to Syria to fight with Islamic State, posting twitter messages in support for IS and their actions in Syria and Iraq, travelling to Syria with the intention of joining a terrorist group and showing of ISIS propaganda videos, demonstrating “a significant interest in Islamic extremism”, possession of chemicals to make lethal poisons, attempt to  “purchase chemicals in order that a bomb could be manufactured and targeted on British soldiers”, “systematically deleted a number of instructional videos regarding combat fighting”, possession of “substantial quantities of chemical explosives including primary and secondary detonators and relevant paraphernalia”, “disseminating a terrorist publication”,  mailing out “letters praising the actions of Islamic extremists and encouraged the reader to engage in similar activity,” “plotting with an Australian jihadist to commit an attack upon an Anzac Day Parade in Melbourne”, possession of ISIS materials, “publishing written material intending to stir up racial hatred”, “disseminating terrorist publications”, failure to answer  questions at an airport, possessing “handwritten notes entitled ‘Mujahid Minimum Training’, using a forged qualification certificate, sharing “extremist ideological beliefs and supporting the use of serious violence in order to create an Islamic state,” and “social media posting material of an extremist nature.

In 2016, there were 24  terrorism prosecutions listed on the Counter Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service’s” website. Among the “terrorist” offense charged include the following:

Plotting to harm police officers in pursuance of ISIL goals, encouraging terrorism and membership in ISIS, giving assistance to unnamed terrorists in Syria, possession of a magazine called ‘Smashing Borders – Black Flags from Syria’/ information likely to be useful to a person preparing to commit terrorism, sending money to unnamed terrorist elements in Syria, wilfully failing to comply with passport inspection requirement, failure to answer questions at the airport, planning to join ISIL, disseminating pro-ISIS literature and video,  tweeting to encourage others to join Daesh, suspected involvement in a plot to behead a member or members of the public, support for Islamic State, travel to Syria to join and fight with ISIS or the Islamic State, possession of attire that could be of use in Syria, possession of 33 thousand Euros at an airport, use of library computers for materials on Nazis and other racist groups, attempt to leave the UK covertly for the purposes of joining Daesh, soliciting funding for terrorist activity, funds and equipment for Jabhat al Nursra, dissemination of a terrorist publication, travelling to Syria to join ISIS.

Nearly all of the “Crown terrorism prosecutions” over the past decade involved radical and extremist individuals and organizations claiming to operate under Islamic religious principles. The major allegations involved preparation for acts of terrorism, training to commit acts of terrorism, fundraising for terrorist purposes, dissemination of terrorist publications and possessing, collection and or dissemination of information of a kind to provide practical assistance to a person committing an act of terrorism with the clear, imminent and actual (not “likely) possibility of use in terrorism.

Kersmo’s prosecution simply does not fit or even approximate the profile of previous terrorism suspects or defendants in any way, shape or form.

Why is Tadesse Biru Kersmo the object of U.K. government persecution and prosecution? 

I have no doubts that Tadesse Biru Kersmo is being prosecuted and persecuted by the U.K. government because the T-TPLF has made a special deal with the U.K. government to wipe out Ginbot 7. I believe it is a prosecution well-coordinated with the T-TPLF to send a clear message to all Ethiopians in the U.K. that if they continue their support and membership in Ginbot 7, they too should expect prosecution for terrorism. (I hope Kersmo will be allowed to conduct full discovery into the relationship between the U.K. government and the TPLF with respect to their coordinated activities to neutralize Ginbot7.)

Truth be told, for the longest time I have had doubts about the role of the U.K. government in the abduction of Ginbot 7 secretary general Andargachew Tsgie in 2014. The gnawing question that has always bothered me is whether the U.K. government had a role in his kidnapping and subjection to “extraordinary rendition” in Yemen.

There is irrefutable evidence that the U.K. government has been involved in “extraordinary rendition” (the “practice of apprehension and transfer of detainees to foreign countries for interrogation, outside of the law, where there is a risk that the person might be tortured or subjected to other ill-treatment”).

In 2005, U.K.  foreign secretary Jack Straw said, “there simply is no truth” in claims of UK involvement in rendition.

In February 2008, the “UK Government acknowledged that UK airspace and territory (on the small island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean) had been used for extraordinary rendition flights.”

In February 2009,  the “UK Government admitted that it had yet again misled Parliament over extraordinary rendition, acknowledging that UK forces had handed over individuals in Iraq to US authorities who then illegally rendered them to an Afghan prison known for its inhuman conditions.” British complicity in torture.

In January 2017, U.K.’s highest court ruled that “former foreign secretary Jack Straw said, “MI6 and the government will have to defend claims that they participated in the 2004 kidnapping of a Libyan dissident and his wife, the supreme court has ruled.”

Did the U.K. government facilitate or play any role in the extraordinary rendition of Andargachew Tsgie?

Given the lackadaisical attitude and complete indifference to the plight of Andy Tsgie, I am not convinced that the U.K. government did not have a role in his “kidnapping” (extraordinary rendition) in Yemen in 2014.

Three top British legal officials have sent a letter to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, urging him to push for Tsege’s release from detention because he is being held “in violation of international law.”

Johnson responded by  issuing a statement declaring, “Britain does not interfere in the legal systems of other countries by challenging convictions, any more than we would accept interference in our judicial system.”

Johnson simply does not tell the truth because in October 2015 British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond twitted, “Delighted to announce Brit Karl Andree will be released from Saudi custody within a week & reunited with his family.” Andree was imprisoned for possessing alcohol in Saudi Arabia who had been facing a punishment of 350 lashes.

It is also a fact that the U.K. security services and police have been “getting access to advanced travel details on more than 40 million passengers a year who travel on domestic flights” since 2006. They have access to the personal online details of all passengers as they book seats and subsequently check in at the airport under the Terrorism Act 2000.

I ask myself a simple question: What is the role of the U.K. government in the kidnapping and abduction of Andargachew Tsgie?

Suffice it to say that I have my own theories and conjectures based on analysis of specific facts.

What next for Tadesse Biru Kersmo?

I am following the persecution by proxy prosecution of Tadesse Biru Kersmo with considerable interest.

I will conclude this commentary by making two observations.

First, I hope my modest commentary will spark public debate in the U.K. about section 58 of the U.K. Terrorism Act. (No! No! I have no delusions of grandeur.)  My “problem” is and has always been that I speak the inconvenient and unvarnished truth to power!

Second, as a votary of English literature and law (at least historically) and thinking about section 58, I am reminded of  few lines from “Oliver Twist” by the great British author Charles Dickens:

“That is no excuse,” returned Mr. Brownlow. “You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.”

“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass — a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”

That is exactly what I wish for the section 58 of the U.K. Terrorism Act of 2000; that “his” eye be opened by experience.

In his closing argument defending a cabinet minister of a former British colony somewhere in Africa, Rumpole of the Bailey  argued to the jury,

“… When London is nothing more than a memory, and the Old Bailey has sunk back in the primeval mud, my country will be remembered for three things: the British breakfast, the Oxford Book of English verse and the presumption of innocence. That is the golden thread which runs through the whole history of our criminal law… No man shall be convicted if there is reasonable doubt as to his guilt.”

I shall argue that there are a thousand doubts based on reason and facts as to the guilt of Tadesse Biru Kersmo on charges of terrorism.

To be continued….

The post British (In)Justice: The Persecution by Proxy Prosecution of Ethiopian Dissident Tadesse B. Kersmo appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Most members of the Ethiopian-Australian community shared an emotional roller-coaster ride from April 24th to July 2nd 2017 with The Voice contestant Fasika Ayallew. The cheering of her fans started with the blind auditions and progressed into the knockout battle, the live shows and semifinals, and ended in a big disappointment at the Grand Finale. Some say ‘Fasika was robbed of her winner title.’ But, she thinks differently. “It’s not really where you end up, it’s about what you learning and the experiences you draw in the process,” Fasika told SBS Amharic.

Fasika Ayallew’s professional music career dream was not shattered, nor was this chapter of her fairytale story closed at The Voice grand finale.

Judah Kelly became the winner of the Sixth Season of The Voice 2017 with his ‘Count On Me’ song. Other finalists Hoseah Partsch, Fasika Ayallew and Lucy Sugerman lost the title. Many Australians expressed their disbelief when Fasika missed out on The Voice Crown. In exchange, she won their hearts and overnight turned into the Queen of people’s choice.

 

Fasika’s Garand Finale song ‘When Love Takes Over’ could not lead her to hold the crown. Nonetheless, Fasika and her mentor Kelly Rowland best duet performance of Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’ song at the Grand Finale left an unforgettable memory in minds of many viewers and hers.

Fasika remembers that moment “I remember getting off stage wanted to do it again, because, it’s such incredible euphoric feeling. I think that showed and that’s why people really liked it so much. We were having a lot of fun.”

Fasika, a daughter of Filipina mother and an Ethiopian father has a positive view on Australian multiculturalism. “I’m blessed to grow up not only in multicultural Australia but also, in a multicultural household. Because, it has given me a very unique and a very grounded, I guess, a view on the world on perspective on life. And I think that you know I love about myself, and something that I love about Australia how multicultural we are.”

Dr Desalegne Ayallew (Fasika’s Father – L), and Susan Ayallew (Fasika’s mother – R)

Her father Dr. Desalegne Ayallew and her mother Susan Ayallew have given her their blessings to follow her music dream line. As long as finishes her law degree course at Sydney Macquarie University. Fasika promised to do that. Susan also has motherly advice to her daughter “No matter you fly high, don’t forget your roots.”

Right now, for Fasika pursuing a professional music career and conquering the global music industry is a philosophical journey into unknown and a sensible journey into greatness. “It’s a journey into the unknown. But, for me in my life, it’s an unknown I’m excited for. It’s not an unknown I’m fearful of. Hopefully, I can move further into my career, into my life, and into greatness.”

FAsika Ayallew

Some young aspirational artists’ music careers might be driven by fame and fortune, but in Fasika’s pursuit of her dream of superstardom the real prize is not fame and fortune. “It’s just about making music that I would love to listen to. I don’t want to become an artist or a singer just for the sake of it. I don’t want to become a singer for the fame and fortune. It’s not about that. It’s about making music that will stand the test of time.”

We hope the gifted and ambitious rising star will find her way to greatness.

 

The post “I will be pursuing a music career” The Voice Finalist Fasika Ayallew appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

East Africa News

Ethiopian authorities have withdrawn a proposed tax hike for small businesses, the Addis Standard news portal has reported.

The withdrawal comes in the wake of protests by the affected business people. Shops were closed in the Oromia State early last week in defiance of the new tax, by Friday, the action had spread to the capital Addis Ababa, with shops in bustling parts all closed.

The portal cited the head of the Ethiopia Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA), Kebede Chane, as saying the decision to scrap the tax hike was hinged to the complaints they had received from affected persons.

He is also quoted by other local portals to have said that micro business owners including barbers / hair dressers, tailors, laborers, and street coffee vendors will be encouraged to pay “what they agree to pay.” The class of protesters are those

The tax in question targets businesses in category ‘C’ of the taxation bracket. Such outfits had an annual turnover of up to 100,000 Birr (about $4,300), it was aimed primarily at boosting government revenue. Business people said their opposition to it was because it was over-estimated and the authorities are demanding too much.

As at last week, the Addis Standard described the situation on the ground as a case of ‘testing the streets again.’ They report that police and military were deployed to parts of the region as at Monday, July 17, 2017.

The portal also reported some skirmishes in a city located about 120km west of the capital Addis Ababa. Aside the closure of shops in Addis Ababa, people were also said to have weighed options of returning their business licenses or filing complaints with the tax authorities.

Ethiopia’s biggest problems in the recent past has been of political nature with spreading anti-government protests in Amhara and Oromia regions. On the economic front, Addis Ababa has been lauded by major finance institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The post Ethiopia forced to withdraw tax hike that resulted in protests appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Dawit W Giorgis

Introduction

Transnational crime is the most lucrative illegal business on earth. Transnational crimes are motivated by the incredibly huge amount of money they can generate which range from US$1.6 trillion and $2.2 trillion per year—for the 11 crimes identified by Global Financial Integrity 2017 report. These crimes finance terrorism and corruption across the globe. Transnational crimes destroy local economies, undermine all international and domestic laws, destabilize nations and threaten the safety and security of people.

Despite intense and concerted scrutiny and efforts to compel governments and the private sector to adhere to domestic and international laws and promote more transparency, transnational crimes particularly the 11 mentioned below have thrived to an unprecedented level. They succeed because they collude with government and private sector officials. These are real problems that threaten global security more than any other.

Table X1. The Retail Value of Transnational Crime

Transnational Crime Estimated Annual Value (US$)

Drug trafficking $426 billion to $652 billion Small Arms & Light Weapons trafficking $1.7 billion to $3.5 billion Human trafficking $150.2 billion
Organ trafficking $840 million to $1.7 billion
Trafficking in Cultural Property $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion
Counterfeiting $923 billion to $1.13 trillion
Illegal Wildlife Trade $5 billion to $23 billion
IUU Fishing $15.5 billion to $36.4 billion
Illegal logging $52 billion to $157 billion
Illegal mining $12 billion to $48 billion
Crude Oil Theft $5.2 billion to $11.9 billion

Total $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion

‘Global Financial Integrity Report 2017’

This article is about migrants and organ trafficking, listed fourth in the above table, a crime against humanity, against the poor and the helpless, against those who, through no fault of their own, have been pushed out of their country, lost and confused, who needed compassion but face murder and mutilation almost routinely. These are innocent Africans seeking freedom and justice, who have trekked across impregnable harsh deserts and environments for months and reached the coast of the Mediterranean only to be confronted by brutal traffickers who give them the choice of their ‘pound of flesh’ or their lives. In many cases they are not even given these choices but simply murdered and their organs taken in a well-organized scheme that includes brokers, traffickers, physicians, hospitals, shippers and end users.

The slaughtering of innocent young aspiring migrant Ethiopian Christians by ISIS was shocking but not shocking enough to force the international community to address the brutalization of African migrants particularly in Egypt, Libya and the coasts of Europe. It is shocking indeed that the free world pays little or no attention to these heinous crimes of human trafficking and worse, killing and mutilation of migrants to get their organs. The free world is more concerned about the migration rather than the crimes committed against the migrants.

Border walls and legal barriers are being constructed across Europe, America and the Middle East to prevent migrants particularly those from Africa and some Middle Eastern countries ravaged by war, poverty and injustice, from ever reaching the coasts of Europe and border posts of America. But there are no boundaries for trafficking their organs. Organs of immigrants murdered or mutilated move freely and swiftly across national boundaries to save the lives of the rich in Europe, US and in the Middle East. “ Many do not want them within European borders, but they do seem to want their organs.” 1
Egypt the Major Transit Hub for Organ Traffickers

Around the thousands of migrants waiting to sail to Europe are those who are stalking them to get their organs on behalf of the sick in Europe, America, and Middle East. Some manage to enter Europe in exchange of their organs but for some only their organs are allowed to enter ad their bodies decay in the deserts of Africa and in the Mediterranean Sea.

Egypt and Libya are in the spotlight as the primary countries, which are the transit points for migrants traveling to Europe. The organ traffickers “operate openly and freely because they feed on the despair of the most vulnerable,” 2 with total impunity. Egypt, at a crossroads between the Middle East and North Africa and the

1 http://real-agenda.com/organ-trafficking-business
2 http://real-agenda.com/organ-trafficking-business-european/

Thank you for using www.freepdfconvert.com service!

Only two pages are converted. Please Sign Up to convert all pages. https://www.freepdfconvert.com/membership

The post Organ Trafficking and Migrants from Africa – By Dawit W Giorgis appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Aklog Birara (DR)

Part II

The democratizing and integrative role of urbanization

A major demographic trend that makes the formation of multiethnic parties compelling is rapid urbanization. If and when supported by an integrated and inclusive rural modernization and rapid industrialization policy that empowers domestic partners and unleashes potential, urbanization breaks superficial barriers. It forces citizens to think nationally, and internationally and to cooperate in the use of limited natural resources—water, electricity, lands, physical and social infrastructure– as efficiently and equitably as possible. African nations are urbanizing at a rapid rate but not industrializing at the required rate. Nevertheless, national cohesion in these and other countries is the norm and not the exception.

In 2018, Habitat identified “Eight key trends that define two decades of global urbanization” that are revolutionary. “Small and medium cities now account for 59 percent of the world’s population and are growing at the fastest rates.” Among the centers of rapid urbanization is Sub-Saharan Africa of which Ethiopia is a part. Addis Ababa depicts this trend. This world-wide trend tells us that Addis Ababa does not belong to a single ethnic group at all. On the contrary, this seat of the African Union and numerous international and regional organizations belong to all Ethiopians. All Ethiopians contributed to its liberation from Italian fascism; and they together reconstructed it using their collective resources. The poor from all ethnic and religious groups seized the opportunity of open access and moved to “their capital” in droves. The future belongs to those who break barriers to socioeconomic, cultural, spiritual and political inclusion and the welfare of each and every citizen.

Until most recently when numerous colleges, universities and other center of higher education were open throughout the country, Addis Ababa served as a magnet of higher education and learning as well as a destination of choice in terms of job opportunities and advancement. Consequently, Addis Ababa became a cosmopolitan city by forcing citizens to downplay ethnic identify and embrace diversity.

Urbanization is also about power sharing

So, the TPLF’s recent effort to appease and placate the Oromo population by granting “favorable treatment and setting aside special zones” goes against the powerful and inevitable trend of rapid industrialization that is essential for stainable growth and development; and inevitable urbanization that ethnic elites can’t stop even if they wish. “As cities grow, and spread out over the land, they have been the recipients of a worldwide trend to devolve power from the national to the local level.” I accept this trend of urbanization that requires devolution of power to citizens. Given this inevitable trend, Ethiopia’s government leaders should have opted to grant Addis Ababa total administrative autonomy rather than playing the ethnic card to pit the Oromo against the Amhara.

Rural modernization, well-planned and integrated industrialization as well as rapid urbanization that draws citizens from all segments of society, including the rural poor to cities and towns, strengthens the democratization process measurably.

Habitat concludes this inevitable and healthy trend this way. “The fact that so many states have chosen to move along the path of decentralization constitutes a remarkable phenomenon” in the world today. Ethiopia’s rulers are therefore fighting a losing battle that sends contradictory signals. On the one hand, they argue that the country is growing and industrializing fast. On the other, they keep creating artificial barriers that segregate the population into Apartheid like enclaves. In doing so, they refuse to accept  the notion that no group can control a demographic trend that demands greater freedom and autonomy in policy and decision-making. By definition, freedom is indivisible and must apply to each citizen. The proposition of strengthening and prolonging the life of a minority ethnic party by fracturing and subduing ethnic and religious groups is a losing proposition. It is anti-inclusive development. It is anti- empowerment. It counters the trend of integrated and national industrialization as well as decentralization that Ethiopia must pursue in its own self-interest. It is therefore anti-national and anti- democracy.

Fracturing people into smaller and smaller ethnic groups for the sole purpose of dominating them creates far reaching unintended consequences that no one can predict.

In my assessment, the TPLF is determined to reduce the Oromo population to several component pieces in order to suit its narrow political and economic needs today. If you look north of Addis Ababa, the TPLF has been diminishing the Amhara population by legitimizing smaller and less threatening ethnic enclaves, by annexing lands from indigenous people and by committing ethnic cleansing and genocide. Either way, the losers or victims are the majority of Ethiopians. This is why the Amhara and Oromo should never fall victim to this trickery of perpetual divide and rule!

It is time for those who believe in Ethiopia’s durability, the prosperity of all its citizens and in the unity with diversity of its 104 million people to ask these questions and answer them. “For how long can the TPLF get away with the trickster of reducing ethnic groups to pieces by fabricating and promoting new ethnic identities, hate and division, especially among the Amhara and Oromo people? Who benefits and who loses from perpetual division and hatred? Is it not in the interest of all Ethiopians, including Tigreans, to focus on the bigger challenges of eradicating poverty, disease, hunger, intellectual, financial and other flight, environmental degradation and the like by creating a democratic and empowered society? No one will answer these and other questions in political economy but us!!

After half a century of internal fighting, including civil wars, Ethiopians should know the answers. Equally, the diplomatic and donor community in Ethiopia should begin to listen to ordinary Ethiopians by talking to them directly instead of listening to their tormentors or to the “good Samaritans” they post in Addis Ababa. Ethiopians do not need lectures any more. For too long, these “good Samaritans” whose profession and survival compels them to side with the worst of tyrants and state thieves have given the world community a false image of “remarkable stability and growth.” I wish this was true. I wish Ethiopia was not a beggar nation!!

I urge both Ethiopians and the donor and diplomatic community to reject ethnic elite manipulations of facts and trends. Because the data of remarkable growth is not true. Data is manipulated regularly in support of the ruling party, the government and state; and in pursuit of personal and family wealth.

Given this dire and suffocating environment, “Who defends the public good and the welfare of the vast majority of Ethiopians?”

Donors and diplomats face a moral hazard in Ethiopia

Thank you for using      www.freepdfconvert.com      service!

Only two pages are converted. Please Sign Up to convert all pages. https://www.freepdfconvert.com/membership

The post Why the European Union, Canada and the USA Need a Unified and Prosperous Ethiopia appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Tadesse Nigatu

“There are, as we have seen, a number of different modes of technological innovation. Before the seventeenth century inventions (empirical or scientific) were diffused by imitation and adaption while improvement was established by the survival of the fittest. Now, technology has become a complex but consciously directed group of social activities involving a wide range of skills, exemplified by scientific research, managerial expertise, and practical and inventive abilities. The powers of technology appear to be unlimited. If some of the dangers may be great, the potential rewards are greater still. This is not simply a matter of material benefits for, as we have seen, major changes in thought have, in the past, occurred as consequences of technological advances.”
                                                                                                  D. S. L. CARDWELL

Introduction

Taken together, Technology, Science and Democracy are the most powerful enterprises that have changed humanity for the better. The irony is that most of us do not see interdependency and synergy among them all. Democracy is associated with politics alone while science and technology linked with economy.  But a closer look reveals that they are closely related and interdependent.

A holistic approach that involves Science, technology and democracy should be at the forefront to solve societal problems such as poverty, poor public health, lack of good education, environmental deterioration, repression, corruption, and other social ills. Obviously, this is not the case in Ethiopia. EPRDF -the party in power, does not recognize the holistic approach to the solutions of the country’s challenge. To EPRDF, economic development (application of Technology) must be dealt with first before we start implementing democracy. This is a twisted and one-sided approach did not relief Ethiopians from the chronic starvation let alone to move the country forward towards development.

Genuine development comes from the citizens of a country who pursue the scientific approach to democracy and technology. At a granular level, democracy is the application of scientific principle to governance to create a harmonious society. And it is only technology that is in the hands of the citizen that can develop a nation.

This article attempts to show the connection between them and the practical implication of those relations towards a better Ethiopia. Before I do that, I first look at technology, science and democracy separately with bird’s eye view. I then show how they relate to each other and the critical role they play to bring the social change that makes real difference. Let me start with technology.

Technology

Let’s start by asking what technology is? Technology is that human endeavor that seeks to bring nature and its forces under control, to liberate us, humans, from misery and toil, and to enrich our lives. Scholars in the field regard Technology as a human endeavor comprising of artifacts, knowledge, activities and volition [1].

Technology as artifacts refers to material objects such as tools, machines, power plants, and all others humanly fabricated material artifacts and consumer products. Technology as knowledge refers to the skills and know-how of making and using of artifacts and include recipes, procedures, laws, rules and theories. Technology as activity: Technology is more than material artifacts such as tools and machines and mental cognition and knowledge. Technology is also activity or that pivotal event in which knowledge and volition (intent) unite to bring artifacts into existence or to use them. The actions of inventing, designing, manufacturing, constructing and using all comprise technology as activity.

Technology as volition: In addition to artifacts, set of knowledge and activities, Technology is also associated with the desire, will, motivation, drive, aspiration, intentions and choices. Technology expresses itself as a will to satisfy human needs, the will to control nature and society, the will to be free, the will to be efficient.   Therefore, the desire to know and use technology and understanding its consequences is part of technology itself.

Further, ‘technology’ frequently refers to some (but not all) varieties of social organization – factories, workshops, bureaucracies, armies, research and development teams, and the like. For our uses here, the term ‘organization’ will signify all varieties of technical (rational-productive) social arrangements. Another closely related term – ‘network’ – will mark those large-scale systems that combine people and apparatus linked across great distances… (Winner, 1978) [2].

In short, the term technology refers to all activities geared to finding solutions to human challenges and aspirations.

Technology as the foundational human enterprise  

In the very early part of our history, humans could not be distinguished from their ancestral brothers and sisters, the apes and monkeys. Because humans could develop- and use tools, not only they were able to survive the extinction that befell other species but they could also thrive to dominate the earth. Given that humans are physically weak compared other primates, without Technology, they could not have survived the hostile and changing natural environment by biological adaptation alone.

It can be said, then, that modern humans are in many ways a product of their own labor and tools without which they would not be the present-day humankind.   In their struggle to survive, humankind, through their useful tools, have developed from a hunting community (simply a parasite upon nature) to an agricultural community–the start of civilization. Agriculture, in turn, enabled in the development of settled community.  This settlement taught mankind not only to understand and cope with laws of nature, but also to cooperate with other human beings to advance their common well­ being.

Over time, the settled communities developed higher order social systems where the advances of technology began to branch out from farming to taming animals, pottery, metalworks, toolmaking, developing transportation, trade, etc.

People also developed language, art and literature. All these led to the development of full-fledged society as we know it today.   At this stage of its development, human society had realized that their well-being depended on the advancement of technology.  Therefore, although not without interruption and failure, humankind have constantly attempted to improve and develop technology.

Technology is therefore both the creation and creator of human society.  This is to say without technology, mankind, as we know it today, would not have existed, and on the other hand, it is only mankind who can develop and utilize technology.  It is difficult to imagine social progress without the parallel progress of technology. The fact that historians named human civilization according to the materials they dominantly used such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Nuclear Age, etc., shows that the development of society is very closely tied to the development of technology.

In today’s life, almost every society (including societies in the remotest part of the world) is affected by Technology. In fact, if there is any single endeavor that has affected human life in all its facets, it is technology.  Almost every activity in a society is affected–sometimes determined by it.  Production and distribution of goods and services, education, recreation, the conduct of war, health, etc., are but a few examples determined by it. Technological development is a major criterion for categorizing the countries of the world.  Those countries with advanced technologies, known as first world countries, have the power to decide not only their own future but also the futures of countries with less advanced technologies. On the other hand, the starving, the ignorant, the destitute, and the sick are in those countries with the least advanced technologies.  The technologies in these countries are not capable of improving the production goods, distribution of knowledge, health, and other important services which developing communities need.  The difference in technological development has created nations that are strong and influential as well as nations that are weak and dependent. The key-take-away point here is that if we want to defeat poverty and underdevelopment technology is our best partner.

Science

Here too, let’s begin by asking what Science is. A typical dictionary definition of Science goes like this: Science is “The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation [scientific method], and theoretical explanation of phenomena. Such activities to stablish fact-based, objective knowledge include both the natural as well as social phenomena. Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study[3]. Science is accumulated and established knowledge, which has been systematized and formulated with reference to the discovery of general truths or the operation of general laws. It is a set of knowledge that is classified, comprehensive, profound and philosophical the search for truth.

Science is not merely a collection of facts, concepts, and useful ideas about nature and society, or even the systematic investigation of both, although both interpretations are common definitions of science. Science is a method of investigating nature and society–a way of knowing about nature, and society–that discovers reliable knowledge about them. In other words, science is a method of discovering reliable knowledge about nature and society. There are other methods of discovering and learning (knowing) about nature or society (these other knowledge methods or systems will be briefly mentioned below), but science is the only method that results in the acquisition of reliable knowledge.

Reliable knowledge is knowledge that has a high probability of being true because its accuracy has been justified by a reliable inquiry method. Reliable knowledge is sometimes called justified true belief, to distinguish reliable knowledge from belief that is false and unjustified or even true but unjustified. Note that no distinction is made between belief and knowledge at this point. It can be said that what one believes is what one’s knows. The important distinction that should be made is whether one’s knowledge or beliefs are true and, if true, are justifiably true (can be proved). Every person has knowledge or beliefs, but not every person’s knowledge is reliably true and justified. In fact, some individuals believe in things that are untrue or unjustified or both. Many people possess a lot of unreliable knowledge and, still act on that knowledge! Other ways of knowing, and there are many (other than science), are not reliable because their claimed knowledge is not justified. Science is a method that allows a person to possess, with the highest degree of certainty possible, reliable knowledge (justified true belief) about nature, society, knowledge and the process of knowing. The method used to acquire and justify scientific knowledge, and therefore to make it the most reliable, is called the scientific method. 

The Scientific method has three central critical thinking components. 1. Observations, data, hypotheses, testing, and theories, are the formal parts and flow of the scientific method, but these are NOT the only important components of the scientific method. 2. The scientific method is practiced within a context of scientific thinking, and scientific (and critical) thinking is based on three things: using empirical evidence (empiricism), practicing logical reasoning (rationalism), and possessing a skeptical attitude (skepticism) about presumed knowledge that leads to self-questioning, holding tentative conclusions, and 3. Being undogmatic (willingness to change one’s beliefs) when facts prevail. These three principles are universal throughout science; without them, there would be no scientific or critical thinking [4]

Furthermore, the conviction of science is that nature is intrinsically knowable, that it can be probed, that causes can be singled out, that understanding is gained if phenomena and their implications are explored in highly controlled ways⁵.

The scientific method along with its critical thinking components have accelerated the rate at which humans generate tested and true knowledge. Armed with the true scientific knowledge, humans could discover the laws of nature (both physical as well as biological), and society. With the understanding of the natural and social laws, they in turn could build technological systems and operational methods to produce more, travel far, communicate faster, live healthier and longer, understand the deeper secrete of nature, build harmonious social systems etc.

Democracy

Most of us are all familiar that, the word Democracy stands for “government by the people and for the people.”  The principal purposes of democratic government are to promote and protect people’s rights, interests, and welfare so that they live together in harmony (without war and dislocation). So, for democratic government to work, every citizen (minus criminals of course) must be free, equal, responsible, and respectful while participating in the process of governing and being governed. Freedom, equality, respect and responsibility lie at the heart of the concept and practice of democracy.

The following elaborate on democratic systems

• People are the ultimate source of the authority of constitutions and governments—is a fundamental principle of democracy.
• Free elections and other forms of civic participation are essential to democracy.
• The People must be able to monitor and influence the behaviors of government officials in office.
• Elections are at the heart of the practical means for the People to assert their sovereignty.
• Elections in themselves do not fulfill the requirement of democracy; they must be free, fair, and sufficiently frequent if the People’s will to have effect.
• As overseers of government, the People must have alternative sources of information. Freedom of the press is therefore an essential aspect of democratic government.

Now the big question is: how did people come to know and apply the above democratic principles? In other words, how did people discover these democratic principles? There is no clear-cut answer for this question. But, it is important to note that it took humankinds a long time to figure out, identify and solidify the democratic principles mentioned above.

Grounded on freedom and responsibility, the goal of democracy has been to harmonize society by requiring all citizens to respect the democratic principles. To bring harmony to a society, there must be rules of law that enforces those basic principles. Now, people did not come to these concepts, principles and rules right away. It took thousands of years, lots of bloodletting wars between rulers and the ruled, slaves and slave owners, the invaders and the invaded, the farmers and the landlords, between the factory workers and factory owners, between nations etc. For people to discover these principles. The democratic principles were created to avoid the cruel consequences exploitation, operation, discriminations and wars. They are hard earned discovery. They are discovered through the trail-and-error learning process and had to go through countless failures and iterations.  As the result, lots of learning, thinking, hypothesizing and theorizing had taken place to figure out how to best arrange, organize and re-organize people to build harmonized societies. Democracy and its principles are the sweet fruits of all those countless bitter human experiences all over the world.

Just like technology and science, the ideals of democracy had to go through many ups and downs to evolve. Our first encounter of the practice of democracy had its beginning during Greek and Roman civilizations. History also teaches us that Democracy faced a serious setback in the dark ages and regained attention during the Renaissance, and developed during enlightenment and the scientific revolution.  Democracy gained even stronger holding during the industrial revolutions (1760-1840) and the French revolution (1789-1799) and the many revolutions that took place latter in other nations (mostly European nations that advanced technology).

Seen from this perspective, it cannot be far from the truth to say that democracy also follows the footsteps of science in that it developed its principles through observations, data collection, hypotheses, testing, and forming theories. The only difference is while the experiments, data collection and observation in natural sciences are done in controlled atmosphere, the observations, data collection, hypotheses, testing for democracy are done over long periods of times (due to resistance against wars, exploitations, discriminations, invasions etc. by millions of peoples living in different societies at different times in history etc.) The facts and observations which led to the democratic principles were collected from hard-to-control “experiments”.  They were and still are very hard to control (as it is hard to control social unrests or revolutions) and as such the hypotheses and theories and conclusions that resulted in democracy had to take long time to be arrived at.

Such being the difference between the experiments in the natural and social sciences, it is within reason to state that, the Democratic principles that people in democratic countries cherish today are the results of observations and conclusions arrived at, based on the scientific inquiry as applied to society. This is to say that the democratic principles (freedom, equality, respect, responsibility, election, rule of law etc.,) have scientific method as their basis, as they are principles that humanity arrived at through trying, observing and learning to create harmony among people.   If people did not discover those democratic principles and applied them we wouldn’t have democratic governments today. The alternative would be endless exploitation, discrimination conflicts, wars, migration, instability and poverty. In fact, this is what happening in most undemocratic countries including Ethiopia.

 The connection between Science and Technology and Democracy

Technology has been with humankind from the very beginning, when people began to use sharp stones as tools. Then followed series of discoveries and inventions including, bow and arrow for hunting, the discovery of fire, the making of pottery, and metal tools. Moving on, farming, building of shelter, building of cities, weaving, writing etc. etc. showed up. Those valuable early technologies were built only by trial and error and by learning from each other.  Science only emerged after the scientific method was discovered which itself came after scientific revolution that took place late in the seventeenth century.

Science required a certain density of leisured population who are willing to do experiments and accept failures to find the truth. And this educated leisured sector of the population could only come after pre-science inventions such as the advanced plow, the water or wind driven grain mill, and other technologies which allowed surplus of food for large number of people. In other words, science needed prosperity and population growth to emerge⁵. And they both come from technology.

As mentioned, the integral parts of the scientific method are simple. They consist of observation, cataloging, recording and then communicating the observed. Once the scientific method itself was invented and science has taken hold, there came the collaboration between science and technology. Because of the scientific method, the rate of finding the truth, discovering the natural and societal laws and inventing more technologies started accelerating. Just within one hundred years, science and technology gave birth to industrial revolution. Note that 100 years is a very short time compared to the 200,000 years when humans emerged or even the 15,000 years when agricultural revolution took place. From then on, the world (particularly) the western world never looked back.  In our times, science and technology go hand in hand and their relation is strengthening by research and development activities conducted in university, industry and government laboratories, in three-way collaborations.

I need to emphasize here that Democracy cannot be separated from technology and science. I repeat, the role of democracy is to harmonize society and facilitate for societal progress. Society is made of individuals with different interests and perspectives, to harmonize those differences, every individual’s needs (interests and perspectives) must be met or compromise made, otherwise, there is no harmony or peace. Through trial and error, observation, cataloging (recording) and communicating humans discovered (just as in science) that if individuals are treated as equals, free, respected, and are made responsible, a harmonized society emerges. It is that accumulated wisdom that became the foundation for democracy.  If there is harmony in society, there is peace. If there is peace, there is even faster scientific and technological progress because there would not be war or dislocation (which are symptoms of inequality, lack of freedom, disrespect, corruption etc.) that obstruct humans’ scientific inquiry and creativity. Democracy is science applied to society’s governance. The discovery that justice, equality, respect, freedom and responsibility are necessity to peaceful coexistence were made by observing countless social experiments which took place over many centuries by millions of people across the world. As a form of social organization, Democracy is also considered as technology.  In short, technology, democracy and science are inseparable and interdependent human activities and should be dealt with as such.

The Implication of the connections of the three

As Ethiopians, we are all proud to be from one of the oldest and independent countries in the world. At the same time, we are all (or at least most of us) are also humiliated that our country is one of the poorest, unstable and undemocratic nations in the world. We all ask: why?  Different people have different answers to this question. My answer is: we are where we are because, we Ethiopians, have very low regard for the interdependence between science, technology and democracy.   Let me try to explain.

As mentioned above, through technology, people harness nature and develop themselves and their communities. So, to develop is to make technology work for the benefit of humankind. Faster development requires, technology that is supported by scientific inquiry and creative activities. And creativity and the implementation of scientific method require liberated minds. Liberated minds require that democracy must exist. With democracy in place, freedom and rule of law will lend confidence to all citizens to be even more creative in applying the scientific method and discover more natural and social laws that will advance technology even further. The key here is the free participation of citizens. You see, they are all interconnected and interdependent. One cannot flourish without the other.

It took 15,000 years between the agricultural and industrial revolutions. But we saw much faster acceleration of science and technology development after the industrial revolution. The technological progress is even faster during the last fifty years. We see this speedy progress wherever there is the cooperation between science, technology and democracy. This testifies that the three are interdependent and became swift and powerful when they all work together.

Coming back to the low regard we Ethiopians have for the interdependence and synergy between Technology, Science and Democracy, let me site few situations with the hope to convince you that is the case.

1. There are those who say that economic development should precede democracy. They say that Ethiopia should develop its economy first and worry about democracy latter. This is the official position of the EPRDF government. There is no better indicator for the failure of this approach to economic (technological) development. than the lack of economic progress during the last 25 years of EPRDF’s rule. Note that we should not confuse a holistic national development with few tall buildings in big cities. The problem with this position is that it denies the interconnected and interdependent nature of democracy and Technology. There cannot be equitable economic development without wide spread implementation of Technology by significant number of the citizens. Wide use of technology by the masses requires that people feel that they are free to use their nature given talent and creativity to apply the scientific method. At the end of the day, it is the people not the government who make development happen. The role of the government is to facilitate for development by letting free people to be the best that they can be not to block them.   

2. An equally wrong position is the public attitude including that of most political organizations which unofficially or officially state that democracy must come before economic development. Because of such position, it is hard to find a political organization that gives serious attention to bring Technology and Science to public domain and spread its awareness, let alone, helping its development in the farm fields, metal smith, clay-works, wood shops etc. by partnering with working people. It is unfortunate that there is no one political organization that is engaged in technological (economic development) activity even to the level of a small philanthropic organization. To develop technology means to understand how nature and society work. This understanding leads to enlightenment and paves the way for democratic values to come into play. To work on technology means to improve the lives of citizens at the grass-root level. And if you are a political organization and you improve lives, that means you have built your political base. I think the position that denies the interplay between technology and democracy needs to change immediately.

3. Science is the best agreement builder. If you and I used the same method to see a problem, then it is likely we can come up with similar conclusion. With the same token, if most of us apply the same method to find out the facts about an issue, it is likely that we will have similar opinions about them. If the method we use to arrive at the truth is the scientific method, the chance of arriving at the same conclusion is even better. The challenge is that most of us are not using the scientific method to find out the truth about any issue. We form our opinions and conclusions on guess, hear-say or incomplete information. We approach reality with different methods (mostly other than the scientific) so our conclusion is that much different. One consequence of such differing approach to reality is the different understanding that can be arrived at.  Difference in understanding leads to difference in conclusion which leads to different solution to the same problem. Difference in conclusion and solution to a problem leads to disagreements. This is probably why we have so many different political organizations who interpret the reality of our country in different ways and then try to solve it differently.   The scientific method is the best way to find out the truth about the natural and the social world. If we all take the time to understand the realities of our nation using the time-tested method, most us come to the same conclusion about them and what to change and how.  With science, the truth is, but not emotion that guides us.

4. Science guide us to own our responsibility. No one is responsible for our own development, our destiny is in our own hands. It is we the people who can make the change happen. We have seen, how powerful Technology, Science and Democracy can be when they come together and synergize. We noticed how symbiotic these forces are among themselves and with human society. In the end, we should not forget that it is the people who are in the center. It is Humans who built technology, the scientific knowledge and democracy. In the process, they first moved humanity out of the jungle. Then, took them through many revolutions and brought them all the way to the current age- the electronic age.  Humans needed no supper power or miracle to reach this pinnacle. They did it with technology, science and democracy which in turn facilitated for mass education, economic development, better health and good governance. It is true that not all humankinds have become the benefactor of all these achievements yet. However, the process has begun. The path is laid out. Since those who succeeded have shown the way to the rest of us, it is now much easier to follow the path than to start fresh. All we need is the collective will from most of us. I have confidence that Ethiopians can do it. Then the future is Bright!!!

With Technology, Science and Democracy Ethiopians will free themselves from repression and poverty!!!

[1] Carl Mitcham, Thinking through technology: The path between engineering and philosophy university of Chicago press, 1994

[2] www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC10220/whattech.html

[3]  The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition 1996.

[4] www.freeinquiry.com/intro-to-sci.html

[5] Keven Kelley, what Technology wants,  2009

6[i]. Brian Arthur, The nature of Technology, Free press, New York, 2009

[i]

The post Technology, Science and Democracy: Why care about their Synergy? appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Finote Democracy (EPRP) Exclusive Interview With Eyasu Alemayehu | Must Watch

The post Finote Democracy (EPRP) Exclusive Interview With Eyasu Alemayehu | appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.