Ethiopian Airlines, the largest aviation group in Africa and a Skytrax-certified 4-star global airline, has won the “2018 Best Airlines in Africa Award” for the seventh year in a row.

The award, presented by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), was given on Nov. 27 in recognition of its exceptional financial performance at the 50th African Airline Association Annual General Assembly (AFRAA AGA) in Rabat, Morocco.

Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam said: “We are thrilled to win this prestigious award. In the last seven years we have been coming to AFRAA AGA and receiving this continental high-profile award every single year. We sincerely thank AFRAA and our sister African Airlines for the award. The award underscores the continuous efforts and hard work of Ethiopian employees who are highly committed to the extraordinary success of our airline. The accolade also attests the soundness of our fast, profitable and sustainable growth plan, Vision 2025 and the associated business model.”

He added: “Our sincere gratitude also goes to our customers worldwide for giving us the opportunity to serve them, for traveling on Ethiopian in great numbers, for their continued feedback and support which is a critical success factor in continuously improving our award-winning customer services.”

Gebremariam said Africa is registering rapid economic growth and that the industry, governments and all stakeholders should work together to capitalize on the opportunities arising from the business and investment boom on the continent.

“Most of all, we need to synergize our strengths to realize the vision of creating a single and unified African air transport market,” he added.

The post Ethiopian Airlines named best African carrier in 2018 appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Zekarias Ezra

Eight months after the internal “coup” within EPRDF/Woyane that led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Haile Mariam and the subsequent tsunami of change, accompanied by ecstatic euphoria, Ethiopian politics seems to be a mirror image of its former self.

The historical importance of the moment in April 2018 and the months following it cannot be ignored. It was hard for many not to participate in the joy of the withering, it seems at the time, away of TPLF/Woyane/EPRDF from the Ethiopian political scene. For too many, it seems,  it has opened the sprit and imagination to endless possibilities for Ethiopia’s future and rightly so after 27 long years of misery. The June 16, 2018 display of support to the new PM had no parallel in history.

The euphoria was so infectious that the North America Ethiopian diaspora had quickly jumped on the “Medemer’ train.  It was sublime.

However, even then some were raising pointed legitimate questions like what is the essence of this ‘Medemer’? With whom are we supposed to ‘Medemer’? Did we even know what we rallied for in that June Saturday?

Many people were vividly angry that this sea of support was being questioned. Understandably, it felt as though their joy was being questioned, and possibly shamed. Vicious arguments spread in the virtual world with polarized camps.

In the background of this euphoria, behind the powerful visuals telling a story of a “new dawn” for Ethiopia, however, horror stories after stories of people being killed, driven out of their homes because of ethnic clashes have become the staple of Ethiopian news.

In the “The Wretched of the Earth”, Franz Fanon, talks about moments such as these in which the people and the country’s post-independence leaders appears to be One. These post-independence ‘leaders’ promise the people that change is coming, working up the people into a frenzy of excitement. Not only that they effectively used the euphoria as an excellent PR campaign for the consumption of the international community in effect saying ‘Look at how excited are the people…we are making changes… the incidents are minor hiccups on the road to democracy…’

The Ethiopian reform leaders are essentially telling the people the same thing as the post-independence leaders did to their citizens. Yet, today in Ethiopia citizens are still dying daily, displaced from their homes and neighborhood, and are afraid to travel to a part of the country where they perceive they might face problems because of their ethnicity.

As reported in ‘Ethiopis’, OPD/EPRDF led government is busy replacing en masse people who are supposedly from the wrong ethnic lineage from their employment without any justified cause. They are doing the same crime the TPLF/EPRDF had done. Old Faces and New Masks.

We must understand this is a problem. We must understand the cynicism this will create. Many who missed no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn such ethnic based actions in the past, and rightly so, are now quite as mute and you hardly hear a whimper.  It doesn’t work. You can’t have it both ways. This is not good for Ethiopia. We must say, as MLK once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

The ethnic politics TPLF concocted in Dedebit is still alive and well. In fact, it has flourished so much so that every ethnic group is demanding their own ‘sovereign state’. It is despicable to the least!

Just the other day, a self-appointed staunch supporter of the ODP/EPRDF, Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni, had the audacity to write the most undemocratic dictatorial edict ever. He said:

“ኢትዮጵያ ከዚህ በኋላ ተወደደም ተጠላም ኢትዮጵያን እና አዲስ አበባን መምራት እና ማስተዳደር የሚችለው ቢያንስ ብያንስ ኦሮሚኛ እና አማርኛን አቀላጥፎ እና አብጠርጥሮ መናገር፣ መፃፍ እና ማንበብ የሚችል መሪ ብቻ ነው።” (emphasis mine).

Here you have it! The gentle man, who served TPLF/EPRDF in the diplomat corp, later defected, now back in the game in Addis is pontificating such vile and divisive ideas with a green light from the powers-to-be.

If there had been confusion before as to the optics of the June 2018 rally, things better be clearer now.
In the mind-frying euphoria of that historic moment in our country, Ethiopians had mistaken things, laughing with EPRDF fake reformers and crowning them their heroes.

It seems that in the excitement of the ‘reform’ wind, the Ethiopian people had unknowingly aided to legitimize the intra-party politricks of EPRDF and in the process betrayed the struggle for the downfall of EPRDF and ended up with “Old Faces with New Masks”.  What a sad state!

The post Old Faces and New Masks: The ‘Reformed’ EPRDF appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Chombe Teshome

The question why one makes a pledge to the profession he finds himself or herself in is not an easy question to answer, especially if it is self-initiated. Professional pledges are not enforceable or punishable by law. However, pledges of different kinds have been made since time immemorial. Hippocratic pledge (not to be confused with Hypocrite) is an expression of ideal conduct for a physician. Although written in antiquity, its principles are held sacred by doctors to this day. The pledges such as first do no harm ( primum non cocere);  attend for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief;  apply your skill, for the benefit of the sick are just some of Hippocrates pledges. Thus a professional pledge is simply a promise to engage only in honorable and upstanding endeavors by an ethical professional person. At the same time setting up a higher standard of conduct for those who will venture to follow the particular profession. Naturally, pledges are measured by none other than their applications. If the practical application of the pledges is in conflict with the actual pledges given, it is safe to conclude that the intended purpose of the pledge may not be in service of the profession, but for self-aggrandizement and deceit. Here is where Tsegaye Ararsa’s  “pledges of legal academic “ serves  as exhibit A of a Hypocrite of the highest order.

While surfing on internet, I stumbled up on the pledges of a Legal academic, written beautifully in the tone of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, by none other than our own rabble-rouser who we have come to know as Tsegaye  Regassa. Obviously, his pledges were written a particular audience in mind; those who he calls “corps of intellectuals” in Melbourne, Australia, and may be far beyond; I guess, the aim of the writing was to present himself as upright ethical man, and in due course, to impress and to garner the acceptance and respect of those he is writing to.  After reading those holier-than -thou pledges, one would presume, the “corps of intellectuals”, would be very much impressed by Tsegay Ararsa’s pledge to adhere to Ethical excellence; oblivious, of course, to the less couched and more edgy agitator we have come to know on Ormia Media Network and facebook, where he regularly avails himself to conduct his hate propaganda unabated.

What will be attempted here is not ad hominem attacks, which is his preferred tool of argument, rather to show how far apart Tsegaye stands from promises he made to honor these uplifting, inspirational universal values. 

  Tsegaye starts his pledge with pretentious meekery by stating how he has been burdened by privileges bestowed up on him, and how he has been humbled by the responsibility he has come to shoulder as legal scholar; thus, mindful of the debt he owe to the society, Tsegaye promises introspectively to legislate softly, persuasively, and lovingly.

Examples abound to show that despite his claim to contrary, Tsegaye Ararssa has failed ignobly to meet the bear minimum of what he proclaims to be his guiding light in his professional life; in opposition to it though, he has made false statements, stereotypes made up anecdotes to deform historical facts, to agitate and to sow further divisions among Ethiopian communities; especially, between Oromo and Amhara Ethiopians. A short detour to Tsegay’s face book uncannily demonstrates how his actions betray his promised stance; With a show of pumping fist meme way high, and pages full of vitriol, his claim to love and persuasion has proved many times over to be hollow. For now, though, let us return to his pledges.

At first glance, these pledges contain lofty virtues and ideals most people would stand behind in heartbeat. Had Tsegaye failed short of the pledge he made while trying, no one would have hold that against him; because, it’s the principle he is advancing and his good intention that should count more than his shortcomings. Furthermore, adherence to ethical engagement in public discourse is exactly what we Ethiopians expect from a man of jurisprudence, not a violent laced political agitation, which threatens the lives of Ethiopians on grand scale.

This might come as surprised to those “ corps of intellectuals” who don’t speak and write Amharic and Oromaffia language, but for us Ethiopians Tsegaye comes across as very vindictive agitator who wants nothing else except to exact revenge for real and perceived historical misdeeds. If the multinational country, Ethiopia, go up in flames while Tsegay pursues his social engineering agenda, he couldn’t care less. Let’s address some of the agitation tactics he uses  to arouse emotional frenzy in gullible youth, who commit wanton ethnic targeted mob justice on unsuspected civilians.

For instance, he stereotypically portrays   Amharas and Ethiopist (the name he uses interchangeably) as evil incarnate; in one of the anecdotes he repeatedly attempts to prove the devilish nature of Amharas on Oromo Media Network, by telling the story of, how the Benishangul people leave the market place whenever they notice Amharas are entering the market area: He emphatically underlines the significance of that to those who were participating on the panel discussion. What he was trying to insinuate was that the coming of Amharas into the market was considered as a sign of omen, so Benishangle leave the market to avoid the evil that would befall them had they stayed. To hear this kind of negative stereotype spread on Oromo Media network by supposedly the man of jurisprudence is very disconcerting. And for sure, this kind of propaganda stimulates hatred toward the stereotyped community, and it has deadly consequences for many Amharas and other nationalities who living in Benishangul or in other part of Ethiopia. In the recent past many Amharas have been killed or uprooted because of inflammatory ethnic propaganda  Tsegaye and his supporters spread on internet and other mass media outlets unabated. For example, in August of this year in rally that was held  in Shashemene to welcome Jawar Mohammed, the young man who was falsely accused of being a security threat to Mr Jawar was hanged upside down on utility pole and was beaten to death by a mob.

The other propaganda piece Tsegay actively engages in is portraying Addis Ababa residents as others. Although the Ethiopian living in Addis Ababa are from all parts of Ethiopia,and most consider the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa to be the melting pot of  Ethiopian nationalities, this is not true of Tsegay. For him they are Minilik settlers (invaders, blood letters) insinuating that Ethiopians from other part of Ethiopia are aliens and enemies of Oromo Ethiopians. Thus presenting theme as targets to be aimed at.  Tsegay and Co even coined a new name for Ethiopians living in Addis Ababa, “homeless”. He continues to actively involve in labeling them making them a target; what he is preparing the ground for obviously is for a violent retribution against this population. Mind you 40% of Addis Ababa resident are Oromos, even according to Tsegaye,which is the proportional population share of Ethiopian-oromos, that is without counting Oromo-Ethiopians with mixed heritage, which Tsegay is one.

Althouigh Tsegay swears by to legislate softly, persuasively, and lovingly. He has no desire to even engage in healthy debate with Ethiopians. His aversion is aptly captured with what he posted on his facebook recently. Tsegay wrote “ It’s an unfortunate fact of post-colonial reality that one is locked into using the name Ethiopia even in entering the debate”

So if Tsegay is so offended to even engage in discussion with Ethiopians; it begs the question what is Tsegay really up to? Tsegaye’s agenda is not justice, not democracy or equality,but  the destruction of Ethiopia. Whenever he uses catchy words, such as justice, democracy etc, his intention is to camouflage his latent desire to dismantle Ethiopia. Tsegaye wearing his Oromo nationalist clad, with his scorch earth approach, anything Ethiopian has to be assailed; neither facts he doesn’t like nor groups he considers inimical has to be discredited using all the sophistry he could muster. Those who argue with him on substance, he labels them either as Oromo- phobic or dimwits. Since he wears the Oromo nationalist hat, he plays a victim and a defender at the same time in order to silence the Ethiopian nationalist he abhors to engage with.

Tsegaye presents himself as a legal scholar in Ethiopian ethicized constitutional order, and he is a true believer in the full implementation of it. Although he is quite aware the so called constitution has served only the minority TPLF government to overlord the Ethiopian people by pitting one group against the other, Tsegay insists that all cures to what ails Ethiopia can be found only in TPLF’s constitution. Truth to be told, Tsegaye  never shy about putting forward his  service credential  in service of the TPLF government. He was the person TPLF leaders, such as Abay Tehay, turned to for legal advice when crises arises, He was a teacher in Civil Service College, the institution that TPLF established to train its cadres. Thus he is not opposing TPLF’s policies for its divisiveness and the mayhem it brought in the life of the Ethiopian people, but his beef with TPLF is that the sought after destruction of Ethiopia didn’t materialize in TPLF watch, from which he hoped his utopian Oromia supposedly to sprang out.  To accomplish this goal Tsegay knows he can not employ persuasion, surly he knows as well that unity and mutual accommodation also are not going to serve him as well. So he has made a calculated plan to wedge mistrust and hatred among the Ethiopian people so that in the long run the end result will be what he always wanted, the destruction of Ethiopia, which he loathes without reservation.

Like the Greeks Goddess of virtue, Arete, Tsegay’s claim to excellence in virtues is limitless. He pledges to all of us that he will approach public texts with the ethics of reverence to restore hermeneutical sanity , interpretive integrity.

   Having made this lofty, whiter than cloud, pledge, he turns around to make a travesty of historical proportion by disfiguring historical facts, by taking statements out of context to further his antiEthiopan political agenda when he attempted to enlighten us that Minilk’s refusal not to be categorize as a negro was a declaration to be recognize as a Caucasian. If we follow Tsegay’s logic of reductio ad absurdum, Minilik  must have declared I am white (እኔ ፈረንጅ ነኝ), cause Minilke might not be privy to the Carleton S. Coon’s race classification, which Caucasian is just one of five.   The reason Tsegaye makes this kind of outlandish assertion is simple–to dislodge Minilik from the high pedestal the black people of the world sat him on for his anticolonial victory in Adwa, and for upending the stigma of inferior race categorization by utterly vanquishing a white colonial power on its own soil, Ethiopia.

Tsegaya’s glittering pledges are really sights to be hold: He pledges that he has the duty to imagine, and help society imagine a better world, a different world, a new heaven and a new earth” and he takes this as his prophetic duty;  to be a custodian of love, hope and future, to fight hatred, despair and cynicism.

 This would have been a pledge Mother Teresa would make, rather than the hate spewing, know it all megalomaniac, Tsegay Ararrsa . To be fair though let us look at whether his actions withstand the slightest scrutiny of his own declared pledge.

The majority of Ethiopians had been rightly concerned that if and when TPLF collapses of its own weight, this ethnically fractured nation would sink into a civil war from which it would be incapable of recovering. The Ethiopian youth from Oromo, Amhara, and other nationalities, determined to bring democracy have made a great sacrifice and put a tremendous pressure to get rid the government. The Young Oromo-Ethiopian leaders lead by  Lema Megersa and Abey Mohamed took a decisive action in the nick of time to save the country from civil war and complete disintegration. With the concerted effort with Gedu, and Demeke, the country veered away from a national catastrophe. These reformist leaders got unwavering support from all corners of Ethiopia. The actions taken and the changes these leaders brought to Ethiopia don’t need to be enumerated here; However, for Tsegay Ararssa and his radical followers  both Lema and Abey are the epitome of  sellouts.

Tsegay’s  vicious attack against Dr Abey Mohamed and Lema Megersa emanates from his veisiral hatred toward anything Ethiopian.  He harangues Abay as the savior of Ethiopia from Oromo, as if Oromo and Ethiopia are mutually exclusive entities. Tsegays haughtiness doesn’t seem to know bound; he tells for all to hear with chest-thumping triumphalism that Abey is in the position he is because of him, i.e. the king maker. He is remorseful that Abey and Lema had been able to pull Ethiopia from the edge of fragmentation. Tsegay caricature’s Abey by saying “Putting an Oromo in a Menelikan palace won’t do, especially when that Oromo is a Menelik in an Oromo body. That is the hate monger Tsegay’s way to derogate Abey as the Ethiopian version of uncle tom.

This is the most hateful statement one can make against another human being let alone on a national leader who is trying to do his best to save a country of more than one hundred million people from going off the cliff. Despite the well-orchestrated attempt that was made to snuff out Abey Mhamed’s  life  by radical Oromo fringe groups in cahoots with TPLF honchos, the Prime Minster and his reformist colleagues are forging ahead to establish a country where individual and group rights are supplementary, but never contradictory. After all these harangues, hatemongering, Tsegay   still wants to be called the up right man who is a custodian of love and hope and a person who stands against hatred. As Jawaharial Nehru put it “ the person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous”

What Ethiopians need to avoid is to overlook or to underestimate the threat the likes of Tsegay Ararssa poses to our national existence. There is a direct relation between the recent spate of violence in Oromoia and many other parts of the country and the active agitation that has been going on by Tsegay Ararrsa’s and Co on OMN and facebook. Given how close we have come to a national disaster; we don’t have the luxury of letting our guard down or letting this rare opportunity to establish a true democratic governance slip through our fingers.   We no longer afford to be the proverbial “ostrich with its head in sand”.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258152996_Pledges_of_a_Legal_Academic

hypocrite. 1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion.

The post Tsegaye Ararssa’s hypocritical Pledges                                                                                    appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

December 10, 2018
Teshome M. Borago

he ruling Amhara Democratic Party and the newly established National Movement of Amhara have been working hard to get support from the Amharic-speaking Ethiopian population nationwide.

Their key talking points include “restoring” Amhara identity in external territories and providing protection for Amhara living around the country, including by instituting Amhara zones to achieve self-administration.

But a big question remains: what is the future of Amhara nationalism, and by extension ethnic federalism, if and when its proponents realize that they can’t deliver on most of their promises to the people?

In the past, Amhara nationalism failed, as scholars couldn’t even agree on whether an Amhara ethnicity ever existed. During the 2005 polls, the only relatively free multiparty election in our history, the then-Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM, now ADP) was embarrassed, with nearly zero support in the cities and even suffering major electoral losses in Amhara state to the CUD opposition party, which is now represented by Ginbot 7.

For years, the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi supported building up ANDM, because his ultimate success depended on native Amharic speakers buying into ethnic federalism. Yet, ANDM remained the laughing stock of the country for two decades, as it rigged ‘elections’ to stay in power and serve TPLF. And even when Amharic-speaking Ethiopians were repressed, ANDM did nothing.

We’re faced with a half-baked Amhara ethnic identity

Even ideologically, the majority of Amharic speakers have been historically affiliated with Ethiopianism, instead of Amhara nationalism. So ethnic Amhara movements didn’t receive grassroots support—until now that is.

After 27 years of normalizing ethnic differentiation in Ethiopian society, the resulting growth of identity-based youth movements and the weakening of TPLF have finally provided legitimacy to the ANDM, and thus a fertile ground for organizations like NaMAto promote Amhara nationalism.

When it comes to Amhara ethnogenesis, some observers give credit to the forces of “external ascription”; claiming that the current Ethiopian young generation grew up only knowing and breathing tribalism, constantly being told “you are Amhara.”

While this is a major factor, Amhara identity also seems to have emerged out of what sociologists like Max Weber credit as victimhood or, both real and perceived, shared persecution. Thus, Amhara identity was born out of a sense of common adversity, despite the concept of an Amhara nation never existing before.

Therefore, these social constructionist factors helped to cover up the reality that tens of millions of geographically dispersed Amharic speakers who might otherwise be eligible for “Amhara membership” actually do not have the common ancestry, the common custom, values, religion, appearance etc or even the common polity and sense of national identity that are all necessary ingredients to qualify as a real ethnic group.  Their only commonality was facing hardship in the name of Amhara.

Nonetheless, we are now faced with a half-baked Amhara ethnic identity, and both ANDM (ADP) and NaMA have become influential independent actors in Ethiopian politics.

Can ethnonationalists attract Amharic speakers? 

Let’s play the devil’s advocate and take these Amhara nationalists at their own word. One of the prime reasons why ADP and NaMA have gained support is reportedly due to the persecution of Amharic speakers nationwide.

So, ADP and NaMA claim that they can protect Amhara people from these problems. NaMA has even opened up new branches outside Amhara, in Addis Ababa and other cities, where Amharic speakers reside. Despite their critics blaming the rise in Amhara tribalism for causing more death and displacement to Amharic speakers living outside “Amhara state,” NaMA and ADP are still winning many hearts and minds.

Amhara identity protests in Wolkait, Metekel and Raya are some examples of Amhara nationalists demanding their rights outside of Amhara. Accordingly, many Amhara nationalists have been applying a ‘holier than thou’ approach when it comes to the current Ethiopian constitution.

They claim that Amhara state is the most democratic inside the ethnofederal system because minorities have self-administration. The biggest example to support this claim is the Oromia and Agew Awi zones inside Amhara. In the Oromo zone, Afaan-Oromo is the working language and Oromo politicians control local government.

Many urban areas in Oromia are dominated by Amhara

Thus, Amhara nationalists want reciprocal benefits for their people outside Amhara. The prime candidate where new Amhara zones would be established is in Oromia. Historically, just as Oromo speakers have migrated north, Amharic speakers migrated south, or simply intermarried. Therefore, today, many urban areas in Oromia are dominated by Amhara, especially Addis Ababa and Nazret (Adama).

According to the 2007 census, about 60 percent of residents in Adama Special Zone had Amharic as their mother tongue. Therefore, in a country where language-based federalism is the law, Adama (Nazret) would constitutionally comprise one of the Amhara zones inside Oromia. This eventually might disqualify Adama from being the seat of Oromia parliament. Also in Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) City of Oromia, residents with Amharic mother-tongue makeup even higher proportions: at 72 percent. And in Jimma city in Oromia, out of 120,000 residents only about 48,000 were native Afaan Oromo speakers. Even in Mejenger Zone of Gambella, the majority by mother tongue is actually Amhara.

There are more. Other candidates for Amhara zones include small parts of Hawassa, Assosa and Dire Dawa which contain about 100,000 Amhara residents each.

If we include Welkait and other parts of Tigray where a large population of native Amharic speakers live, it is possible to have over a dozen major Amhara zones outside Amhara state.

Will ADP and NaMA deliver Amhara zones? 

Or, as NaMA chairman Desalegn Chane recently said, can they actually restore the “dignity and God given rights of Amhara people”?

Of course not.

Particularly, Amharic speaking majorities living in urban Oromia and other states are abandoned by Amhara nationalists. Yet, even in rural Oromia districts like Dera Woreda, which is the northernmost district of North Shoa Zone, where Amhara makeup between 45 to 55 percent of the population, thousands of Amhara protested for self-rule last week; but both ADP and NaMA have so far done little to meet their demands.

Establishing Amhara zones inside Oromia, Tigray and other regional states is a fantasy, for many reasons. After all, ethnic federalism is created at the expense of both Amhara and multiethnic cosmopolitans, who are either forced to pick a fraction of their ancestral identity during a census or become invisible.

First of all, creating Amhara zones, just like Oromo zones, will lead to more ethnic conflict and territorial disputes. Secondly, it will lead to a more dangerous zero-sum game when it comes to ethnic politics, by weakening moderates and empowering extremists. And this threat of civil war is what keeps leaders like Abiy Ahmed up at night. That is why Oromo leaders like Lemma Megersa, and Abiy, preach unity and “Ethiopiawinet” whenever they are in front of diverse audience.

Abiy did tell the truth about our intertwined history

For example, during his speech in Germany, Abiy was questioned about the fate of Amhara living outside Amhara, particularly in Tigray. His instinctive response was to discourage tribalism among Amhara activists. In his answer, Abiy cited historical accounts about Abyssinian kings who were dependent on thousands of Oromo soldiers who marched to Gondar. Abiy said the northern movement of Oromos has resulted in intermarriages and multiethnic mixture. Thus, Abiy concluded that there is no pure Amhara blood today because people were mixed for centuries.

While Abiy did tell the truth about our intertwined history, one can only imagine the level of outrage if the roles were reversed, and if an Amhara leader said there is no pure Oromo because of post-conflict ethnic fusion. Such a person would have been crucified by Oromo elites and their social media cheerleaders. It seems like for Oromo nationalists, they embrace history only when it is convenient.

Abiy’s speech in Germany was not the first time he rebuked Amhara nationalism. When Abiy was asked about the Welkait-Tsegede issue earlier this year, he was quick to scold and discourage “Amhara tribalism.”

Abiy is not alone, although others have different motives. Jawar Mohammed and like-minded influential ethnonationalists turn on and off the Welkait switch as a bargaining chip against TPLF. Otherwise, they prefer not to push Amhara nationalism too hard to the right. For these tribalists, Amhara nationalism is good only to justify the existence of some ‘foreign’ land where Amharic ‘settlers’ can go back to. Otherwise, it is something bad, something to be discouraged or shunned, because they know it can ultimately backfire on them.

It appears that in the eyes of the Prime Minister, TPLF and most ethnonationalists, the Amhara question of Welkait, Raya and Metekel is dead on arrival.

Amhara nationalism is toothless

So, one must ask: if Amhara nationalists cannot even achieve their basic responsibility of restoring lands they claim to belong to Amhara, what is the purpose for their existence? If Amhara nationalists cannot establish Amhara zones outside Amhara, what is the point of embracing ethnic federalism?

To be blunt, the harsh reality is, the ethnic “Scramble for Ethiopia” was supervised by TPLF, OLF and other similarly minded organizations two decades ago to determine who gets which pieces of the pie.

Let alone Ethiopian nationalists, even independent Amhara were not invited to that party. Unless Amhara nationalists redraw the maps and declare Addis Ababa, Wolkait, Adama and many areas in other states as Amhara zones, their nationalism is meaningless. It has no purpose. They exist only to facilitate the current ethnofederal system and to justify further persecution of Amharic speakers nationwide.

The Amhara revanchists’ rhetoric might appear like an existential threat to neighboring states. But, other than slogans and posters, Amhara nationalism is toothless. So far, Amhara tribalism is only serving its original purpose for its creators: to weaken Ethiopian nationalism.

What is fascinating about Amhara tribalism is the potential for it to be a double-edged sword for its creators.

Meles Zenawi passed away without seeing the fruits of his ethnic federalism vis-a-vis Amhara nationalism. Ironically, he would not have been that excited about the Wolkait rhetoric either. After all, he wanted an Amhara nationalism that he can control and exploit. He wanted Amhara ethnic awareness; not the empowering version, but a self-hating one. He wanted an Amhara population that is forever filled with a sense of imperial guilt.

For him and for Oromo nationalists, all historical problems in Ethiopia are pinned on the Amhara. For that to happen, the Amharic speakers who used to only call themselves Gojjame, Wolloye, Shewan, etc must first embrace the Amhara label and then wear the guilty Amhara costume.

Once Amhara nationalists digest the reality of their powerlessness and gradually realize that tribalism was never created for their benefit, the next natural step should be to consider the alternative: Ethiopian nationalism and individual rights.

By all measures, Amhara nationalism is not the only nationalism that is failing today. Ethnic federalism is slowly unraveling and proving increasingly toxic. Even since Abiy arrived and preached tolerance, peace and democracy, hundreds of deaths and more than a million internal displacements have brought a sense of hopelessness. Hidden behind the media headlines of women appointments is the reality that Ethiopia is now ranked first in the world for the most internal displacement of its own people in the first-half of 2018.

As Berhanu Nega told Addis Standard recently, Ethiopian society is losing its “moral compass.” The last seven months have proven that Oromo lives do not even matter to Oromo elites like Jawar who are ignoring the killing of Oromos in Somali region and Kamashi Zone of Benishangul-Gumuz. In the past, every single Oromo death triggered outrage on social media and it was weaponized for propaganda. But today, it seems some Oromo leaders care more about saving the face of the ethnic federalism system than they care about their own people.

Behind the scenes, Oromo nationalists are doing the same thing the TPLF did to the Amhara over the last 27 years: shifting the demographics. Now that they have gained some power, Oromo elites don’t even talk publicly about Finfinne anymore because they saw how Addis Ababa residents utterly rejected Oromo nationalism and OLF in September.

Individual liberty will lift all boats

Their new focus now is changing the demographics of urban Oromia. They are copying the TPLF blueprint of Tigrayan mass resettlement policy in Wolkait by pushing Oromos into urban and suburban areas in Oromia, where they are a minority. That is why we see so many more ethnic conflicts in Dire Dawa, Adama, Harar, etc.

News of Qeerroo evicting urban neighborhoods and ethnic cleansing kebeles has become the new normal. Even in Bishoftu (DebreZeit), where virtually all residents are native Amharic speakers, Oromo youths are threatening and disenfranchising local citizens.

Therefore, instead of enabling the ethnic-segregation laws of the country, it is now more important than ever that Amharic speakers reject Amhara nationalism, and instead advocate for citizenship-based democracy.

Amharic speakers must thus choose the alternative: give more support to groups like Ginbot 7 who promote individual rights and civic nationalism, instead of wasting their capital on supporting Amhara nationalism.

In the end, individual liberty will lift all boats, resulting in not only benefiting persecuted Amharic-speaking Ethiopians, but also benefiting all Ethiopians no matter their religion, clan, region or ethnicity. When that time comes when we respect the rights of every individual over the rights of an identity-based political group; we can then regain our moral compass and cherish every human life.

For that to happen, let us dream of that future, when all Ethiopians have the right to live anywhere in Ethiopia, when no land has a tribal label on it, and when we all belong everywhere in Ethiopia.

That is also when we can unleash our social and economic potential and guarantee our basic rights as human beings. And that will be a country we can be proud of, which we can all call our home.

Query or correction? Email us

Main photo: NaMA’s founding event in Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara region

The post What is the point in Amhara nationalism? appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

by Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

Leader of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, TPLF, says Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed could not be labeled a reformist because he was presiding over chaos.

The latest round of ‘attack’ by Debretsion Gebremicheal was during an address at a regional rally held across the northern Tigray region over the last weekend.

Dubbed the ‘Respect the Constitution,’ rally, protesters waved the national and regional flags amid calls for the government to stop alleged targeting of Tigrayans in a corruption and human rights crackdown.

“It is bizarre that a leadership that cannot govern people other than causing chaos and violence is termed reformist, but a leadership that properly governs people is termed anti-reform,” Debretsion is quoted to have said.

PM Abiy who came into office in April 2018 has been tagged a reformist for changing the political, democratic and diplomatic landscape of a country that was stressed by incessant anti-government protests.

The protests which were concentrated in his home region, Oromia, have since cooled amid a raft of reforms strongly hinged on a call for peace and unity. More recent protests in Oromia are demanding government gets a grip on rising insecurity that has led to deaths and displacements.

The November 8 rally was the second such in a matter of weeks. During the first, the Tigray chief cautioned against what he said was a political attack on Tigrayans.

The arrests… targeting individuals accused of corruption and human rights has veered from course and is being used to bring Tigrayan people to their knees,”

“We do not compromise on the issue of rule of law, all of us should be accountable for our actions, but the mass arrests should not be used as a cover for political aims,” Debretsion warned.

TPLF is one of four blocs of the ruling coalition, the Ethiopia Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF. The others are the Oromo Democratic Party, the Amhara Democratic Party and the the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement, SEPDM.

The post TPLF chief brands Ethiopia PM ‘anti-reformist’ at regional rally appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

We celebrated freedom in Oakland, and San Jose California this past weekend. ESAT was the obvious choice to invite when it comes to ushering a new era in the history of our precious land. So the folks of Oakland and San Jose got together and decided on inviting the freedom fighters of our media to be our guests of honor. We also wanted to raise money for their new home in Ethiopia. It was also a birthday gift, ESAT is eight years old.

For an eight-year-old ESAT have definitely matured at an incredibly fast rate. Over twenty attempts have been made to burn down, smash, obliterate or close down our precious creation. The struggle to survive made ESAT strong. The enemy was well funded but it was also incompetent, stupid and out of its depth. The Chinese and the Italians couldn’t save it but managed to squeeze millions from our people’s mouth. The hardware and software to jam our satellite transmission was acquired from China while the hacking software to infect institutions and individuals was purchased from the Italian firm “Hacking Team” a firm that peddles offensive security software. It is ironic Woyane choose an Italian firm to attack Ethiopians. Like father like son situation you think?

ESAT has thwarted all attempts to kill it in cold blood and today it is posed to erect the first Independent News Media in the history of our nation. It is not the result of Government funding; it is neither due to the generosity of Fereng alms nor the fruits of a single entrepreneur. ESAT was created, made possible and was nurtured by thousands of dedicated Ethiopians like us in Oakland and San Jose and other Ethiopian sister support groups in every town, village and city on planet earth.

It is difficult for any parent to let go, but it has to be done. ESAT is ready to fly the coop and experience life to the fullest. In exile ESAT enjoyed unlimited adoration like any single child. Total love did not include turning a blind eye. Like any disappointed parent a few were quick to scold for any

Perceived mistake. Well some turned blue at the slight criticism of our perfect child. Some expected the child to learn to walk without falling and others said hush we got an angel here. Those incidents were rare and inconsequential but the experience has fortified ESAT.

We wish it long life and good fortune to serve our people. This is another Diaspora gift to our mother who is recovering from the radiation therapy she is going through to get rid of Woyane virus. Dr. Abiy is administering the dosage in small amounts with the intentions of rehabbing some. He is a kind surgeon, me – I will double the dosage, why stretch the suffering?

Our community in the Bay Area is a very caring and giving one. Here in Oakland we have hosted untold events to honor those that struggle for freedom in our homeland. I believe the hard working Ethiopians have contributed over two hundred thousand dollars the last twelve years to defeat tyranny. It might not be much but we gave what we could. We are pleased that what we fought for has taken roots in our motherland. We are conscious that we are lucky to have escaped that horrible reality to live in peace here on the other side of the earth. But we never forgot. We worked hard to have our people experience such bliss. We fought hard to make it so. We are happy our people asserted their freedom.

We used to meet and plan how to defeat evil. We formed a liberation army, we marched in every capital, we protested with candle light vigil, we signed petition, we prayed, we did not leave anything to chance to win our freedom. Well you get my drift; we did it all to be free. We were pleasantly surprised when the interlocker was set aside without much fanfare. So our get together this afternoon was to celebrate our newfound freedom and plot strategy on how to get out of the deep hole the recently departed left us in.

That is the reason why Ethiopians showed up smiling from ear to ear. Our get together the last few years have always been to complain and rage. You see this is the first time we got together and we were not angry. Our guests arrived on time too. I know it is not natural but they defied the sacred laws of being fashionably late. The support group stacked the deck by inviting top-notch professionals. Comedian Kibebew Geda and author and News analyst Ermias Legese were our top guns on the stage to celebrate freedom in Oakland.

That is when I said to myself change has come to Ethiopia. Our ancient land is entering the twenty first century in a quiet manner. We took our time. When it happened there were no guns blazing away, no drums beating, no fireworks lighting up the night sky to usher the new reality. We woke up one morning and Woyane was no more. We are entering a new era and this is exactly the time we should all wish, pray and hope for a steady hand at the helm. It is a small step for our generation but a giant step for our old country.

It took us two failed experiments to get where we are. True we lost plenty of our precious children. They have become the building blocks for what we call the new Ethiopia and they will be remembered forever. I believe when the final tally is taken by historians Ethiopia has lost more of its children from internal threat rather than a foreign aggressor. We have been our own worst enemy.

Constructing the new Ethiopia is what the weekend agenda was. The fact that we are discussing it is a miracle. The average Ethiopian has never been asked his opinion on how his country should be run. We are used to Kings passing enactments, Ras, Dejazmach, Fitawrari even Balambras enforcing the wish of the crown and the rest of us submitting. We graduated to Military/Socialist People’s dictatorship that morphed into tribal based Mafia organization dictating rules and regulations. The Imperial era lasted very long while the Military and the Tigrai mafia withered away before we

Even got introduced formally. No question both did harm to our country and people. It is also true both left us stronger, smarter and focused. We have harvested good from evil.

What happened about eight months ago is still being digested. What we know for sure is with the exception of a few, most Ethiopians are sleeping peacefully knowing they will wake up in the morning without fear for their safety and well-being. The weapon Woyane used to unnerve our people was ‘Fear’ and it made us unsure of anything. It is an evil weapon. I can tell from the faces of my friends and report from home fear is slowly dissolving away. It is leaving a lingering effect of uncertainty, paranoia and guilt as it washes over our country.

As I said the new reality is not welcomed by a few. Woyane warlords are being schooled on the subject of Fear. I pity their wretched soul. Everyday our people are uncovering new horror perpetuated by the disgraced tribal dogs. The government became a mafia organization and Woyane Tigrai used every arm of the state to advance their criminal activity. Ethiopia was run like Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel or Chapo Guzman’s Mexican drug Empire. Our country was raped legally and with International consent for thirteen years. The 2005 election was what brought out the true nature of the beast we call Woyane.

Today Woyane warlords that were in power illegally are camped in the regional Kilil of Tigrai and taunting us. They are holding marches and rallies decrying the trampling of the Constitution and warning about impending doom that will come upon us. How could such simpletons like Meles, Bereket, Seyum, Abay, Samora and others pull such a feat over a population is a good question to ask? What is it in our character that allowed such gross and shameful behaviors to be played on our people and country?

We allowed it to happen. We have to look deep inside of us to confront the apathy we displayed when our family was disrespected. Some are trying to shift all evil and responsibility on the Tigrai mafia. That is not acceptable. That will not bring closure to the agony. The Woyane group is trying hard to implicate everyone in his or her criminal activity. That will not tell the true story either. The truth has to be told to start a new chapter of civilized discourse. The absence of accountability in the aftermath of the Derg era is what was lacking for true closure. We should do it right this time around so we don’t have to repeat this horror again.

Woyane, a small group of people from Tigrai were in charge for twenty-seven years. They used that authority to do harm to a whole nation including their own ethnic group. Society’s judgment against such criminals is state sanctioned murder or death penalty. Whatever we do to these low life criminals it does not bring back the loved ones we lost, the billions stolen and the decades wasted. Good luck finding a punishment fit for the crime.

What is sad to see is the attempt by Woyane scum to cry victim and force their people to pretend to agree with them. They are so stupid they think by playing that scam they will show the rest how powerful they are. They did the same thing when the nameless tyrant died. They ordered, forced, bused, paid for the population to come for the funeral and they pretended it was real grief.

Today instead of shock, remorse, shame and show of empathy to the victims of their horror show they are attempting to draw their Kilil into their criminal acts. The simple logic why the majority of those arrested happen to be from Tigrai is because they were the only ones in charge of everything in Ethiopia. The National Bank was their ATM, the National Security was their private police, the National Army was their mercenary force to serve foreign interest, the National Airlines was their tribal domain and even the Church became part of the criminal enterprise. This is the reason why when the law is invoked to its fullest, those from Adua, Axum and Mekele won. They say in America “If you don’t want to do the time don’t do the crime.”

Lets us hope for their own sake the residents of Tigrai Kilil will get the strength to listen to the rest of their cousins that suffered untold misery by their children. I am sure Woyane was not a loving force in Tigrai. In fact they perfected the art of hooliganism in Tigrai. No matter, we are not really interested what others think anymore, we have taken matters into our hands and have for the last five months been busy trying to figure out how to undo what Woyane Tigrai has been constructing in our country. The job is coming along very nicely, we have nothing to complain.

In fact just a week a go our PM sat down with leaders of newly being constructed political parties to chart a new road that will include all stakeholders. He did not insult, demean, marginalize or look down at the delegation. In fact he sat down and break bread with his competitors vying for the heart and mind of his people. We are pleased Tigrai was represented.

We don’t want a leader that closes a highway because he is going to use it alone, we do not want a leader that will cheerfully insult our past, we do not want a leader that works day and night to subtract from what we have especially when we found one that is schooled in the art of addition.

Despite what is being said on Tigrai TV the rest of us are marching along on road of freedom at a steady pace. There is some wobble but that is to be expected when you consider we were not allowed to walk straight for over forty years. We do not entertain toxic individuals that have been polluting our airwaves with their talk of telling the rest of us how useless we were before their coming. There are a few that still espouse the dreaded ‘ethnic first’ ideology we pity them, pray for them and we mostly ignore them. Today the winning formula is Ethiopianism. Most of us find ethnic politics to be boring, backward and fit for the feeble brain and we are not feeble. We are Ethiopians!

The post Ethiopia Rising.- by Yilma Bekele appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Drummers came out in force in Ethiopia to celebrate the diversity of the country’s more than 100 million people.

The celebration, officially called the Nations and Nationalities Day, is supposed to highlight Ethiopia’s more than 80 nationalities and ethnic groups.

Troupes from across the country came to the main stadium in the capital, Addis Ababa, in traditional dress playing their cultural instruments.

This man was part of a group from Tigray in the north, who came to the festivities with a traditional flute and horn, or “shambeko” and “trumba” as they are known in the Tigrinya language.

These women, wearing clothes known as “tilfi” in Trigrinya, were clapping and dancing to the rhythm.

The men from Afar came with their swords, known as “dile” in the Afarinya language, strapped to their waists and carrying sticks, or “gebahada”.

Afar is a sparsely populated area in the north-east of the country.

This young man, also from Afar, shows off a hairstyle which is popular in the region.

Tensions between different ethnic or national groups have been on the rise in recent months, causing deaths and mass displacement.

But tensions were not visible during the parade. In fact, at different times the troupes adopted dance styles from other parts of the country.

Oromos make up Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. These women came from Arsi in Oromia, which is a large swathe of territory in the west and south of the country.

What they are wearing symbolises women’s power, including the stick, or “siinque” in the Afaan Oromo language.

It is used is to call the community to offer protection, if women are being threatened.

These men came from central Oromia, the area that surrounds the capital, with their shields and spears.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is from Oromia, has tried to emphasise the unity of Ethiopia since coming to power in April.

There is an ongoing debate in the country about how to balance the importance of ethnicity while identifying as an Ethiopian.

Healing ethnic divisions is one of Mr Abiy’s biggest challenges in the run up to elections in 2020.

People also came from Gambella in the west of the country, which borders South Sudan, and this young woman is from the Nuer ethnic group.

Ethiopia’s Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) is, as the name suggests, made up of many different groups, including the Kambata, represented by these drumming women.

These women came from the Somali region. The beads around their necks and waist help keep their traditional clothes, in green or orange, in place.

While the women sang the men from the Somali region, which is in the south-east, danced.

These women, from the Agew ethnic group, are from the Amhara region in the north-west of the country.

There are many other ethnic groups in the region, but collectively the Amharas are the second largest grouping in the country.

The post Ethiopians drum for unity in pictures appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Ethiopia, UAE governments working to solve issues and abuse faced by maids

Abdulla Rasheed, Abu Dhabi Editor; Aghaddir Ali, Staff Reporter

The post Ethiopia bans domestic workers from taking up jobs in UAE appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

BY JAMES JEFFREY

The post On board the Chinese-built Ethiopia to Djibouti train, a lesson in compromise for clashing cultures appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The post Ethiopia Sets 2022 for Nile Dam’s Completion Amid Delays appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Dec. 13, 2018
Reuters / BY ABDI SHEIKH

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somalia arrested on Thursday a former Islamist militant who seeking election as a regional president, sparking clashes between his supporters and security forces.

The post Somalia Arrests Ex-Islamist Militant Running for Regional Presidency appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Abdi Latif DahirDecember 13, 2018
Quartz

Ethiopia has long had a reputation as one of the worst jailers of journalists in the world, at one point reportedly holding 18 reporters at one time in detention. Yet as of Dec. 1, the country was recorded as not having any imprisoned journalists. This comes after a number of political and economic reforms undertaken by the newly elected reformist leader of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front party.

The last time Ethiopia was recorded as having no journalists in prison was 2004, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2018 annual prison census. The government for years oversaw a media environment that restricted access to independent information and analysis. It shut down newspapers, cut off internet services, banned the use of social media platforms to communicate or document anti-government protests, used sophisticated commercial spyware to target dissidents, and at one point, declared watching opposition, diaspora-run television stations illegal. It has also used harsh anti-terrorism laws to target bloggers, journalists, and human rights defenders, according to digital advocates.

But in January, ex-prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced the closure of the notorious detention center Maekelawi, which had previously housed many journalists. His successor, Abiy Ahmed, who took over in April also released thousands of political prisoners and journalists and dismissed charges against diaspora-based media outlets. Those released included prominent journalists Eskinder Nega, Darsema Sori, and Khalid Mohammed, who were held for years on charges ranging from treason to inciting extremist ideology and planning to overthrow the government.

Yet for all the changes, Ethiopia still has a long way to go. Even though opposition groups and the government have held talks on amending the anti-terrorism law, the act and its provisions are still in place. Under prime minister Abiy, the Horn of Africa nation also blocked internet access twice this year to quell unrest: first in Augustin the eastern Somali region, and then in September amid clashes in the capital Addis Ababa.

The post For the first time in decades, there are no Ethiopian journalists in prison appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Re: Fascist Italian massacre of Ethiopians during February 19-21, 1937 in Addis Ababa and the mausoleum installed for Graziani at Affile, Italy;

Date and Places of Commemorations: February 19-21, 2019 in cities throughout the world;

Participants: All people who believe in justice and respect for human rights;

Main Reasons: On February 19-21, 1937, 30,000 Ethiopians were massacred by Mussolini’s Fascist Italian criminal invading forces in Addis Ababa. During 1935-41, the Italian Fascists have massacred one million Ethiopians as well as destroying 2,ooo churches, 525,000 homes and 14 million animals. Although an Italian court has sentenced the mayor of Affile and two councilors to imprisonments and financial penalties, the case of the removal of the mausoleum inaugurated for the Fascist criminal, Rodolfo Graziani, in Auguest 2012 in the presence of a Vatican representative has not been fully resolved. The Vatican was also complicit as its bishops and clergy blessed the criminal invasion as if it were a holy mission. This international protest will take place in memory of our patriots who were victims of the Fascist Italian war crimes and in order to achieve the following objectives of justice for the Ethiopian people:

JUSTICE REQUIRED FOR THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE:

1. The payment of adequate reparations by the Italian Government to Ethiopia;
2. A Vatican apology to the Ethiopian people for its complicity with Fascist Italy;
3. Restitution of looted Ethiopian properties by the Italian and Vatican Governments;
4. Inclusion in the United Nations records of the Fascist war crimes in Ethiopia;
5. Dismantlement of the Graziani mausoleum inaugurated at Affile by Italy in the presence of a Vatican representative;

JUSTICE FOR ETHIOPIA!

The post COMMEMORATION OF THE 81st ANNIVERSARY OF THE FASCIST ITALIAN MASSACRE IN ADDIS ABABA appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi is in the custody of authorities and has been charged with corruption and bribery, a Saudi official said on Thursday — more than a year after the tycoon was held in the kingdom’s controversial anti-corruption campaign.

During Al Amoudi’s long detention, rumors spread among Saudi Arabia’s business elite that he had died. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was “still alive” and would face trial in a Saudi court on a date yet to be confirmed.

Tim Pendry, a spokesman for Al Amoudi, disputed that the businessman had been officially charged with any wrongdoing and declined further comment.

Al Amoudi was detained in Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel last November along with dozens of princes, officials and businessmen as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman declared a campaign against corruption. Critics denounced the purge as a shakedown and intimidation tactic, a charge the government has vehemently denied, saying it was necessary to clean up the kingdom as part of the prince’s economic transformation program.

Most of the detainees were released earlier this year; however several high-profile figures are still being held. The government has never officially announced who was freed, who remains in custody or what charges they face.

Al Amoudi’s arrest is of particular interest to Ethiopia, where the billionaire owns vast assets. In May, after a visit to Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that he had inquired after Al Amoudi and was “sure” he would be released soon.

(Updates with comment from Al Amoudi spokesman in third paragraph.)

The post Saudi-Ethiopian Billionaire ‘Still Alive’ and Charged With Graft appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

14 December 2018 | By GCR Staff

Possible defects in electro-mechanical work carried out by a now-disgraced state-owned company in Ethiopia will add four more years to the construction schedule of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a project official said yesterday.

A senior minister rued as a “grave mistake” the appointment of the military-run conglomerate, Metal and Engineering Corporation (Metec), which was handed an $853m (24 billion birr) contract in 2011 (reports Reuters) to install turbines and other electrical and mechanical work under the dam’s main contractor, Italy’s Salini Impregilo.

“We have a plan to generate power from the first two units within the coming two years and then probably the dam will be completed in the year 2022,” the dam’s construction manager, Kifle Hora, told The Associated Press (AP).

He said experts were assessing equipment for possible defects, and would devise remediation plan.

Metec was fired from the project in August over delays to the M&E work, following complaints from Salini Impregilo.

In November Metec’s former director general, Major General Kinfe Dagnew, was arrested on corruption charges as he tried to flee to Sudan.

Analysts have interpreted the Ethiopian government’s moves against Metec as new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s determination to clean up politics and balance ethnic interests.

According to The Financial Times, Metec is perceived by some as a tool of Ethiopia’s former governing elite, which had been dominated by the small Tigrayan ethnic group, represented by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

“We first noticed problems with the dam’s electro-mechanical and metal works two years ago but we only started taking detailed measurements in the past few months,” Ethiopia’s Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity Minister, Sileshi Bekele, told AP.

“This corporation has no prior experience and I highly doubt if some of the people have ever seen a hydropower plant. The government made a mistake in assigning a local contractor that has no knowledge and experience of such a complex project.In my opinion, it was a grave mistake and we are paying a price for that,” Kifle said.

According to official estimates, the dam is now 65% complete, AP said. It is Ethiopia’s most important project, and will transform the country’s energy profile by adding 6.4GW to its generating capacity.

It has sparked tensions with downstream Egypt, which views the dam as a threat to its water supply, but in Ethiopia GERD is a totem of national rejuvenation. Only around 43% of Ethiopia’s 100 million citizens had access to electricity in 2016, according to World Bank data.

Mass outpourings of anger and grief ensued when GERD’s chief engineer, Semegnew Bekele, was found shot dead in his car in July in the centre of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Police ruled the death as suicide, but foul play is suspected in some quarters, reports AP.

Image: Work on the Renaissance dam is said to be 65% complete (Government of Ethiopia)

The post Ethiopia’s huge Nile dam delayed to 2022 appeared first on Ethiopian Registrar News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Somalia uproar goes on after former al-Shabab leader-turned-candidate arrested; AU denies role.

The post Somalia Uproar Continues After Former Al-Shabab No. 2 Seized appeared first on Satenaw Ethioopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By LJDemissie

December 16, 2018

Author’s Note: This critic has nothing but love for the Tigrayan people; as such the writer doesn’t intend to diminish the Tigrayan people – who are one of Ethiopia’s umbilical cords – for the crimes the TPLF’s butchers committed against Ethiopians over the last forty years. In the author’s view, the TPLF’s elites and their interrogators inhuman acts don’t represent the Tigrayan people even though the elites and their interrogators masquerade as Tigrayan-pride; instead they are a disgrace to the Tigrayan people. Furthermore, the writer isn’t trying to imply that Tigrayans are a bizarre ethnic group by highlighting the TPLF’s interrogators’ kinky behavior such as “peeing on/near/in front of” detainees. This article is dedicated to the TPLF’s torture victims; its aim is to amplify the author’s stance against the TPLF’s Executive Committee members’ effort to obstruct justice, including the sheltering of Getachew Assefa, the butcher of Ethiopians.

A YouTube channel called Kenya Specific (KS) read to its audience my (the writer’s) article titled “The TPLF is Harboring Its Torture Kingpin, Getachew Assefa”. Follow the hyperlink to listen to KS, which reads news “from Kenya and the world”, in an unconventional way. YouTube said KS has been viewed by more than 2.5 million viewers since it created its channel.

Basing the commentator’s experiences of the Derg and the TPLF’s regimes’ state sponsored reigns of terror, the Derg’s regime’s brutality is more like junior varsity level as compared to the TPLF’s varsity level. The TPLF’s reign of terror is far worse than the Derg’s Red Terror; for example, unlike the Derg, the TPLF:

• Holds prejudices and stereotypes against ethnic group members
• Spreads hatred among people
• Demonizes an ethnic group with false propaganda
• Takes history out of context and then misinterprets it
• Erodes Tigrayan people’s history and goodwill
• It doesn’t spare any body parts from torture

For instance, the TPLF’s security head Getachew Assefa is notorious for torturing his detainees in the most brutal techniques: he ripped off detainees’ fingernails and also tortured wounds with pliers. He tortured prisoners in their most extreme sensitive private areas. For example, he tortured females’ vulva: the labia minora and majora, opening of the urethra, clitoris and vagina with pliers.  He also tormented males’: penis, scrotum and testicles with various objects, including pliers and destroyed prisoners’ manhood related to their sexual power.

Furthermore, one of Assefa’s torture victims said that his interrogators laid him flat on his back on an interrogation room’s floor and tied him up so that he couldn’t move. And his Tigrayan speaking naked female interrogator told him that she sees the Amhara people as if they were a latrine and then she proceeded to soak/shower him with her urine by peeing on/near him. He also said that she gave him a massage while she interrogated him. One must wonder whether she urinated on/near the detainees for a sexual pleasure called a golden shower.

Lastly, most people are aware of that in life, focusing on the future is much better than focusing on the past. And most people would agree that taking revenge against someone to fix past atrocities would make the present outrages much worse than the past. Moreover, most people would also concur that it is vital not to let the TPLF’s elites walk freely after they obstructed and delayed justice by sheltering their butchers, Getachew Assefa and his accomplices. Even though the TPLF’s Executive Committee (EC) members are subject to the law, the Ethiopian government has yet to file a criminal charge against them, namely:

1. Debretsion Gebremichael
2. Fetlework Gebregziabher
3. Getachew Reda
4. Alem Gebrewahd
5. Asmelash Woldeselasie
6. Abrham Tekeste
7. Kerya Ibrahim
8. Addis Alem Balema
9. Beyene Mekru
10. Aklilu Hailemichael.

Note: from bbc.com/Amharic, the writer obtained a copy of Alemayehu Tefera’s art work. To make it more fit with the article’s message, the author altered the art work with Bereket Simon’s image obtained from Google Images. Among Ethiopians, Simon is despised for his malice. For instance, he masquerades as Amhara and Amhara-pride though he is an Eritrean. He championed hate crimes against the Amhara people for more than forty years. He waged misinformation and disinformation campaigns against Ethiopians for decades and enabled Getachew Assefa and his interrogators to arrest and to torment the Amhara and Oromo people.

The writer LJDemissie can be reached at LJDemissie@yahoo.com

The post An Obstruction of Justice charge has yet to be filed against the TPLF’s Executive Committee Members appeared first on Satenaw Ethioopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Tsega Menkir

After reading the good professor’s temper tantrum on the new Ethiopian administration, where he clearly displayed his misogynistic as well as narcissistic traits in the article titled, Abiy Ahmed, ‘the rooster in the chicken coop?’; if you think it was written by a self-serving petulant man-child with unresolved anger issues on women, rather than a renowned professor, who cut his teeth in politics, you will be forgiven.

The grumpy professor started his unsavoury article by accusing, Dr Abiy Ahmed, the new and young prime minister of Ethiopia, who is thought to be a reformist by any standard and a beacon of hope for Ethiopia; for appointing women to almost half of his cabinet ministers positions; on top of the presidency, the chief judge of the Supreme Court and chief of the electoral board.

In the malicious eyes of the pontificating professor, the hundred or so million of us Ethiopians, who are witnessing the renaissance of our beloved nation and enjoying the new found freedom as well as enthralled by these appointments, which is led by the new team in Arat kilo, are sycophants, blinded by the love of the devil; an accusation that is clearly out of bounds.

To understand, the oomph behind what prompted the grumpy professor to write such an obnoxious, misogynistic and narcissistic article, flavoured with his temper tantrums, on an administration that is seen as the only hope for Ethiopia, going forward, led by a person who is filled with love, forgiveness and humility; one needs to peel the professor’s article like an onion, one layer a time to discover the truth.

Misogynistic traits

From the get-go, the good professor couldn’t help to hide his misogynistic traits when he titled his piece by masculinising men as ‘roosters’ and feminising women as ‘chickens’. It is just telling of the man from the past unable to relate with the modus operandi of the present, let alone embracing the future, where gender equality has become more of the norm than a taboo. From his choice of the title, it is easy to figure out that, the professor is so stuck in the era when, ‘men were more equal than women’ that someone needs to wake him up from his coma, and march him to the 21st century.

His criticism of Dr Abiy Ahmed continued unabated, for appointing the new and first Ethiopian woman President, Wzo Seblework Zewde, who served her country as a plenipotentiary ambassador in different countries, and as UN envoy in east Africa.

However, in the spiteful eyes of Professor Hagos, it didn’t even make a difference as he belittles her and throw his unfounded accusations as if she doesn’t know enough about her country and immediately, the pompous professor, disqualified her in his scorecard. Even more so, he went on bemoaning, not knowing a lot about her family’s history, then and now, as if intentionally it is hidden from the public knowledge insinuating a negative perception in the readers mind.

The self-serving professor then goes on audaciously nominating himself as well as some of his handpicked nominees; all of whom happen to be men; and surprisingly enough, he could manage to pick only one woman out of fifty million Ethiopian women, for Presidency, because of her royal heritage. If this professor is not stuck in the 19th century, no one is.

Professor Hagos continued his rampage by collectively denigrating all women in the cabinet, appointed in the recent reshuffle, as ‘unfit for office and questioning their ethics, morality and advancing Ethiopian traditions’. He levied all these accusations without any specificity as to who lacks what ethics, and why someone is unfit for that office and the reason behind it; as one would expect from a learned professor.

Furthermore, he scolded the administration for the appointments of women, who are lacking the necessary experience and proper vetting; as if he was involved in the vetting process.

It was obvious from his article that, Professor Hagos, so consumed with hate, never bothered to pay attention to their credentials. Had he done so, he would have found out that some of whom have a colourful experience he can only dream of.
Saying that, coming to such a unanimous denigration of all the women in the cabinet, without any specificity and evidence to prove his point, but rather relying his argument purely on hearsay and innuendos, is unbecoming of a professor.

Moreover, his portrayal of the working environment of the prime minister, with his esteemed women cabinet members, using the words ‘harem’, ‘sariglio’ and ‘Turkish bath’, implicitly sexualises and belittles women who are our mothers, sisters and daughters, to say the least.

To his dismay, these appointments of women to the very powerful positions in Ethiopian administration has been complemented by everyone across the world, on every reputable newspapers, he could easily lose count of, if only he paid any attention. The fact that the misogynistic professor couldn’t find any thing positive to say about these appointments, speaks volumes of the mindset of the twilight professor.

Narcissistic traits:

Furthermore, contrary to the testimony of many prominent figures such as Dr Kassa Kebede, Professor Mesfin Hailemariam, Artist Tamagn Beyene, Ato Andargachew Tsegie, Professor Berhanu Nega and as recently as a couple of days ago, Ato Bulcha Demeksa, to mention the few about the humility of Dr Abiy Ahmed; it is just beggars belief that the ‘I know it all’ professor’s caricature of Dr Abiy as one of control freak and tyrannical, still based solely, by his own admission, on hearsay and innuendos; displaying a narcissistic trait yet again of unbecoming of a professor.

The condescending professor, further rebukes Dr Abiy, for not nominating a role model for the future generations of Ethiopians; that begs one to ask which planet the hallucinating professor lives in, If the likes of Wzo Birtukan Demeksa, Wzo Meaza Ashenafi, Wzt Dagmawit, Wzo Aisha, Wzo Mufriat Kamil, etc are not the role models for our kids, who will be? I am sure he has not done his due diligence otherwise, he would have discovered that each one of these high caliber women’s credentials is as big as the reference pages of his PhD thesis, of not bigger.

But it is suffice to say that, by judging from his mindset, the role models the nostalgic Professor, who is so consumed by his family’s heritage more than his own, are men and preferably older, preferably from the baby boomers generation; his cohorts, if not an ex-royal.

The pompous Professor Hagos tells us that he is an equal opportunity basher as he was battering the last administration with the same force and vigour. But he bemoaned that Dr Abiy’s administration is the one with a thin skin and hell bent on vengeance as his family have been evicted from the property they have been renting for twenty or so years; without any proof of evidence to back up his claim, whatsoever.

As the saying goes, there are two sides for every story and the truth is in the middle; the government can defend itself on these accusations, if indeed it is true. But it is difficult to believe the grumpy professor, given his irrationality so far.

Last but not least, Professor Hagos, had the audacity to dedicate this mediocre, temper tantrum filled, narcissistic and misogynistic article to the great Ethiopian minds of @Megabi Hadis Eshetu Alemayehu and @Diacon Daniel Kibret, is insulting not only to them but also to all Ethiopians who admire their work.

The Last Layer: Trump-esque Tekola Hagos!

Be that as it may, as much as this writer wants to cut him some slack on the article for having a bad hair day, one of the greatest American presidents comes to mind:

The late great President Abraham Lincoln once said ‘you can fool some of the people all the time, you can fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time’

Therefore, It is not a rocket science to know that the camouflaged professor’s deep rooted contempt of Dr Abiy and the new administration is nothing other than the obvious: ethnic politics.

Contrary to what one expects from a professor, who would be expected to write a piece on facts rather than hearsay and innuendos, the gossiping professor wrote the whole article based solely on ‘his reliable sources’ who are most likely ghosts that are creations of his mind to affirm his confirmation bias with zero, zilch, nada facts and evidences.

His article is typical of today’s ethnocentric Ethiopian politics, where by ethnicity and divisiveness, took over his rationality; even to the extent of blinding a learned professor in anger; while at the same time shielding him from seeing the reality and disclosing his misogynistic and narcissistic traits in the process.

To see ethnic politics on steroids, turning a learned man with great potential, into a simpleton Trump-esque, is just incredible.

The post Peeling Back The Layers of ‘Rooster in The Chicken Coop?’: A Rejoinder to Prof Tekola-Hagos’s Article! appeared first on Satenaw Ethioopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Prof. Alemayehu G. Mariam

On December 15, 2018, we crossed the one-half million dollar mark in our fundraising effort for the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund (EDTF).

It is a moment of great pride accomplishment for all of us who have toiled day and night over the past several months to make EDTF a reality.

On behalf of H.E. Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, the EDTF Advisory Council and in the name of the people of Ethiopia, I would like to thank each and every one of the 2,819 donors who made 3,027 contributions to help us cross the magical threshold of one-half million dollars.

Each one of our honored donors and contributors is listed on our website at ethiopiatrustfund.org

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

I say a multi-million dollar trust fund begins with the first one-half million.

I firmly believe our one-half million dollar Fund will soon become a one million dollar Trust Fund.

In time, it will become a 10 million and even 100 million dollar Trust Fund.

I have absolute faith in the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund becoming a template for African self-help efforts within 5 years.

We began collecting donations for EDTF on October 22, 2018 and hit the one-half million dollar mark in 54 days.

That is about $9,300 a day.

We believe that is a great achievement for an organization that came into existence on August 9, 2018 when H.E. Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed named members of the EDTF Advisory Council.

The Council immediately set to work.

Over the past four months, we established a nonprofit for EDTF.

We negotiated rates with payment processors such as Paypal, Swipe, GoFundMe and others.

We worked with the UN Development Program to secure funding for a secretariat to administer and operate the Fund.

We began coordination to incorporate EDTF in Ethiopia and establish a Board of Directors.

We established a high-quality interactive website.

We assembled a small but highly dedicated force of volunteer IT professionals and social media experts.

We made links with youth organizations who will soon launch EDTF Goodwill Youth Ambassadors.

We began full community engagement by holding a press conference and community town hall meeting in Washington, D.C.

We are planning to meet our global mandate by creating chapters and support groups throughout the world.

We are just taking our baby steps. We have a long way to go.

But we do have our critics, oftentimes individuals who do their lips instead of their dollars do the talking to them.

Our critics believe we have already failed because we should have collected at least $4 million and maybe several times that in 54 days.

They tell us “we are doing it all wrong”.

They say we should hire professional fundraisers who could raise millions for us in a few weeks.

Of course, if we had tens of thousands of dollars to hire professional fundraisers, we would not need a grassroots fundraising effort.

It is not unlike the advice French Queen Marie Antoinette allegedly gave to her starving subjects, “Why don’t they eat cake?”

“Why don’t we hire professional fundraisers?”

Can anyone seriously ask someone asking $1 a day to afford a professional fundraiser?

We are criticized for running a 100 percent volunteer operation. “Volunteers are unreliable.”

We are even told we should use some of the donations to establish offices and hire professionals to do the day to day work for us.

If we had the money to hire professionals employees and staff for hundreds of thousands of dollars, we would just as soon use that money to begin projects.

We are criticized for paying our own costs and expenses in promoting the Fund, including travel and accommodations. “That is just not professional.”

Until we get sponsors to help pay for our costs and expenses, we will have to shoulder that financial burden.

We need resources for many activities including media advertising, web technical support, event planning and coordination and management of volunteers.

We hope our critics will help us raise funds for these vital needs.

The fact of the matter is that we are a grassroots effort, NOT a professional multi-billion dollar fund raising organization like the United Way, the Salvation Army or Food for the Poor raising billions every year.

It is true we are a shoestring operation.

Our efforts rise or fall with the kindness of our Diaspora Ethiopian brothers and sisters who are willing to open their wallets and give us $1 a day.

Truth be told, we don’t mind criticism especially if it is constructive and from people who have donated.

But we shall not compromise on the principles and mission of the Fund.

There will be no compromise on the fact that 100 percent of contributions and donations will go to support EDTF projects.

No donations will be used for administrative or management purposes.

There will be maximum accountability for all donations collected and the finances of the EDTF will be subject to independent audits, including audits by the Ethiopian American Certified Public Accountants, who have pledged to perform the task.

There will be maximum transparency in all aspects of EDTF.

As we move forward with our efforts, some people ask me to look backwards and tell them if I am disappointed by the “low contribution and participation rates” in the fundraising.

I prefer to see the glass half full than half empty.

The noted anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

No, I am not disappointed by the “low contribution and participation rates”.

In my view, the 2,819 donors who made 3027 contributions to help us cross the one-half million dollar  mark are the small group of thoughtful and committed Diaspora Ethiopians that can change Ethiopia one-man, one-woman at a time.

I thank each and every one of them from the bottom of my heart.

I am the eternal optimist I have always been.

I am the same guy who in 2011 set down ten specific things Ethiopians can do to help themselves.

One of them was to strive and create a utopia in Ethiopia.:

Ethiopians must be able to dream of a future free of ethnic strife, famine and oppression; and strive to work together for a little utopia in Ethiopia where might is NOT right but the rule of law shields the defenseless poor and voiceless against the slings and arrows of the criminally rich and powerful. It is true that Utopians aspire for the perfect society, but Ethiopians should aspire and work collectively for a society in which human rights are respected, the voice of the people are heard and accepted (not stolen), those to whom power is entrusted perform their duties with transparency and are held accountable to the law and people.

Going forward…

I am confident Diaspora Ethiopians will participate in large numbers and support EDTF when they truly understand its objectives and mission.

There are many challenges ahead of us, but we shall overcome them.

We know we have our work cut out for us.

We must reach out and educate and create awareness in the Diaspora. As more and more people learn about the objectives and mission of EDTF, they will participate more.

We must clearly communicate our message to different segments of the Diaspora Ethiopian community.

We know that is not an easy task because we have to tailor our message so that it is relevant to our diverse communities including the youth, professional, religious, women’s and civic communities.

We cannot do our outreach and community engagement alone.

We need the support of all segments of the Diaspora Ethiopian communities.

We especially need the collaboration of the social and conventional media.

We also need to get support from groups and organizations who could collaborate with us.

We believe the churches, masjids and civil society organizations can be effective partners to raise finds and enhance community engagement.

As people see the first set of projects being implemented, they will open their wallets to support EDTF.

As people witness we mean what we say and say what we mean by our declaration that EDTF will be the price of our dignity not to ever become the beggar nation of the world, they will line up to help.

But we need support and constructive criticism.

We do not need advice about what we shoudla, coulda and woulda have done about this or that.

As the old Ethiopian saying goes, “The sky is near for those who sit on their butts and point at it.”

We need Diaspora Ethiopians who are willing to put their shoulders to the wheel and noses to the  grindstone and make EDTF a reality.

The difference between those who have contributed and support EDTF and those who have had a chance and did not is the difference between the optimist and pessimist.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

At the height of the space race, President John F. Kennedy saw the opportunity in the difficulty when he said,

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

In the same vein, I say the 2819 Diaspora Ethiopians and others who have given $1 a day in our race to help our long-suffering Ethiopian brothers and sisters choose to support the EDTF now not because they believe it is easy to pull 110 million Ethiopians out of the mire of poverty, but because they believe we can harness one dollar a day and use our energies and skills to show the world that we can help ourselves and will no longer be called the beggar nation of the world.

We support EDTF because we accept a great challenge put to us by our young leader who every day makes things happen we never expected in our wildest imaginations.

My confidence in the success of EDTF

I do not believe in failure.

If I did, I would not have advocated for human rights in Ethiopia for 13 long years cranking out weekly commentaries and making speeches and giving interviews that paralyzed and incapacitated the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

For 13 long years, TPLF leaders and their cyber dogs laughed at me. “What a fool! He is wasting his time with his bootless cries about human rights every week. We will remain in power for 100 years!”

I don’t think they are laughing at me now.

In 2013, I asked a prophetic question of the TPLF:

How long before truth and right crushed to earth rise up again in Ethiopia?

Not long, because truth and right will not remain forever on the scaffold nor wrong and falsehood nest forever on the throne!

Today the truth is catching up with the liars, thieves, cutthroats and torturers.

When I predicted “The End of the Story for the TPLF” in December 2016, the TPLF leaders unleashed their dogs of cyberspace to spar with me asking, have any of

Al Mariam’s seemingly endless prophecies to come true?  Al Mariam [has been]  hazarding predictions of state collapse [TPLF] on every small and big occasion… Al Mariam’s disciples  swear by his every jive as yet another revelation of the end of the ‘thugs’ ruling Ethiopia on a ‘slave plantation’’ model no less…

I ask my readers a simple question: Has TPLF thug rule ended in Ethiopia today?

I mention this instance not to prove my “prophetic powers”. I have none.

I mention it to prove that if we never give up, we will win in the end.

If I had defeated myself by quitting the struggle against TPLF thug rule, perhaps the outcome may be different.

If we stick to PM Abiy’s $1 a day plan to help Ethiopia, in a short time we will be able to help our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia and never ask for penny from anyone else. EVER!

So, I put out another prediction.

In 5 years, the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund will be the template for a diaspora trust fund all over Africa.

I suspect there will be some who will laugh at me today and say I am delusional.

I do not mind if people laughing at me, but I ask that they look through the nearly one thousand weekly commentaries I have written over the past 13 years and point out a single prediction I made that did not come to pass.

So, my fellow Diaspora Ethiopians:

I ask you to support the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund only and only if you believe Ethiopia should no longer be called the “beggar nation of the world” because its children scattered throughout the world are ready, willing and able to take full responsibility for their own.

I ask you to support the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund only and only if you believe you have a personal individual responsibility for your suffering brothers and sisters in Ethiopia.

I ask you to support the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund only and only if you believe Ethiopians need a hand up, not a hand out.

I ask you to support the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund only and only if you believe Ethiopia’s best days are yet to come.

I ask you to support the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund only and only if you believe Diaspora Ethiopians united can never be defeated.

I ask you to support the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund only and only if you are not afraid of failure and are not a prisoner of defeatist thinking that because so many Diasporan efforts in the past have ended in  failure, so will EDTF.

I believe EDTF is about the winners’ circle.

Our PM Abiy has said in Ethiopia there are no losers or winners.

PM Abiy says our Ethiopia house divided between winner and losers cannot stand.

We can be a nation of winners and or losers, but not both.

I believe Ethiopia is a nation of winners.

Ethiopians in the diaspora must believe we are also all winners.

If winners take up the cause of the EDTF, we can’t lose. We can’t fail.

That is my faith in EDTF.

To those we are seared by memories of Diaspora Ethiopian failures, I say to them do not fear failure.

If you must fear anything, it should be not trying. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

I have no fears whatsoever the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund will fail.

I have faith it will succeed beyond our wildest imaginations.

If you really want to know how rock-solid my faith is in the success of EDTF, I invite you to listen to snippets of my remarks before the Ethiopian Society of Certified Public Accountants and Financial Professionals on December 2, 2018 in Springfield, VA. (In Amharic HERE; In English HERE. Full Amharic radio interview on SBS, HERE.)

Again, many thanks to the 2819 donors who helped us pass the one-half million dollar mark!

Please donate at ethiopiatrustfund.org and join the EDTF Winners Circle!

The post THANK YOU All 2,819 Donors Who Helped Us Raise One-Half Million Dollars for the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund! appeared first on Satenaw Ethioopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

A military court in Ethiopia has sentenced 66 soldiers to between five and 14 years in prison for marching on the residence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in October.

The government said the soldiers were asking for a pay rise but Mr Abiy later insisted they had wanted to kill him.

“These sentences delivered today will serve as lessons,” prosecutor Cap Hailemariam Mamo told reporters.

The defendants’ lawyer said he would lodge appeals for a few suspects.

One defendant was sentenced to 14 years in prison, while 65 others were given jail terms ranging from five to 13 years, for “violation of military ethics”, Col Meshesha Areda, head of the military tribunals directorate, said quoted by Reuters news agency.

The 66 were among 200 soldiers in fatigues and red berets who marched to the prime minister’s office in the capital, Addis Ababa.

At the time, Mr Abiy defused the situation by ordering them to do press-ups and joining in but he later told parliament that he was very unhappy with the situation.

“The march of some members of the army to the National Palace [the prime minister’s office] was not only unlawful but very dangerous, because the intention was to abort the ongoing reforms,” Mr Abiy told MPs during a question-and-answer session.

“Meanwhile, after the situation was brought under control, some forces were heard saying: ‘He escaped before we could kill him,'” he added.

Image copyrightAFP

There was no word about the other soldiers who took part in the protest but Cap Hailemariam told reporters on Saturday that the sentences would serve as a lesson.

Since coming to power in April, Mr Abiy has made some dramatic changes – including freeing thousands of political prisoners, unbanning some outlawed groups and making peace with long-time foe Eritrea.

In September, Ethiopian prosecutors charged five suspects with terrorism over an attempt to kill Mr Abiy in a grenade attack at a rally in June.

He escaped uninjured and described the attack at the time as an “unsuccessful attempt by forces who do not want to see Ethiopia united”.

Abiy’s rapid pace of reform

Image copyrightAFP

• 2 April – becomes prime minister after unexpected resignation of Hailemariam Desalegn
• 19 April – replaces the head of the police and internal security
• May – frees thousands of political detainees, including opposition leader Andargachew Tsege
• 5 June – lifts state of emergency two months early
• 5 June – agrees to accept border ruling giving disputed territory to Eritrea
• 9 July – alongside the Eritrean president declares the end of war between the two countries
• 11 September – reopens land border with Eritrea
• 16 October – appoints women to half of ministerial posts

BBC

The post Protesting Ethiopian soldiers given jail terms appeared first on Satenaw Ethioopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.