By: ELIAS MESERET, Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Ethiopian garment factory workers are now, on average, the lowest paid in any major garment-producing company worldwide, a new report says.

The report by the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights comes as Ethiopia, one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, pursues a bold economic experiment by inviting the global garment industry to set up shop in its mushrooming industrial parks.

“The government’s eagerness to attract foreign investment led it to promote the lowest base wage in any garment-producing country – now set at the equivalent of $26 a month,” according to the authors of the report, Paul M. Barrett and Dorothée Baumann-Pauly.

In comparison, Chinese garment workers earn $340 a month, those in Kenya earn $207 and those in Bangladesh earn $95.

Drawn by the newly built industrial parks and a range of financial incentives, manufacturers for some of the world’s best-known brands – among them H&M, Gap, and PVH – employ tens of thousands of Ethiopian workers in a sector the government predicts will one day have billions of dollars in sales.

The new report is based on a visit earlier this year to the flagship Hawassa Industrial Park that opened in June 2017 in southern Ethiopia and currently employs 25,000 people. Ethiopian leaders often show off the industrial park, 140 miles (225 kilometers) south of Addis Ababa, to visiting foreign dignitaries.

According to the report, most young Ethiopian workers are hardly able to get by to the end of the month and are not able to support family members. “I’m left with nothing at the end of the month,” one factory worker, Ayelech Geletu, 21, told The Associated Press last year.

The minimum monthly living wage in Ethiopia is about $110), according to Ayele Gelan, a research economist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.

“Given relatively little training, restive employees have protested by stopping work or quitting altogether. Productivity in the Hawassa factories typically is low, while worker disillusionment and attrition are high,” the report says.

Ethiopian politics are also unexpectedly disrupting factory operations. “The Ethiopian government should address ethnic tension in Hawassa and elsewhere,” the report says.

It calls on the government to implement a long-term economic plan for strengthening the apparel industry and establish a minimum wage that ensures decent living conditions.

Abebe Abebayehu, head of Ethiopia’s Investment Commission, told the AP that most garment and apparel factories prefer to locate in places with low labor costs.

“If that was not the case, Chinese companies wouldn’t have come to Ethiopia,” Abebe said. He also questioned the report’s monthly pay figure of $26 per month: “That is a basic salary but in Ethiopia the factories also provide a workplace meal and other services.”

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Ethiopia Andnet Radio Interview with Ato Agere Addis 2019

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By James Jeffrey and Milena Belloni
BBC Business reporters

For decades the Eritrean economy has struggled due to a combination of war, dictatorship and the impact of United Nations sanctions.

But the East African country’s recent rapprochement with its southern neighbour, Ethiopia, and the end of the embargoes, means that its economy now has a chance to grow substantially.

The hope is that the nation will export more to the world than people fleeing the country.

But as Eritrea continues to be an authoritarian one-party state, with a heavily militarised society, substantial hurdles remain. It is also one of the poorest countries in Africa, with a mostly agriculture-based economy.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Yemane, an Eritrean expat living in Europe, is part of the country’s vast diaspora.

An estimated 1.5 million Eritreans now live overseas, more often after escaping poverty, or the country’s indefinite military service. This is more than one in five of all Eritreans.

Yemane was recently back in Eritrea on holiday, in the city of Massawa on the country’s Red Sea coast. He also used the visit to do some business research.

His company imports Ethiopian beer into Europe, and he hopes to start being able to export it via Massawa. “This would be much easier for my business,” he says.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Presently the entrepreneurial ex-pat has to ship the bottles via the the small coastal country of Djibouti, to Eritrea’s south east.

This had been the case for all of land-locked Ethiopia’s ground and sea exports ever since its 1998 to 2000 border war with Eritrea meant the country could no longer access Eritrean ports. It led to a Cold War-style standoff between the two countries for the next 18 years.

But in July 2018, Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister, signed a historic peace deal with Eritrea’s longstanding President Isaias Afwerki, and the border between the two country’s re-opened.

It means that Ethiopian merchandise has once again started flowing into Eritrea, while Eritreans have been heading south to shop in northern Ethiopian towns.

Then, in November of last year, the UN lifted its sanctions against Eritrea that had been in place for nine years.

These included an arms embargo, an asset freeze, and a travel ban. They had been put in place after Eritrea was accused of supporting Islamist militants in Somalia – something it denied.

While the four border crossings between Eritrea and Ethiopia are currently officially closed again, this is said to be a short-term move only.

“It appears a temporary closure until they regulate tax, customs and visa issues,” says Associated Press journalist Elias Meseret, who covers the two countries.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

It comes as the Ethiopian Ministry of Transport says it is moving ahead with plans for bus services across the border. And another reporter, freelancer Elias Gebreselassie, says that “people and goods are still crossing informally” between the two countries.

Eritrea – which gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993 – used to be famous for its entrepreneurialism and trade ties.

This owed much to outside influence – the country has seen influxes of Arabs, Turks and Yemenis throughout its history. Not to forget Italian and British rule.

The Italians were in charge from 1890 to 1941, and the British from 1941 to 1950. Eritrea then became part of Ethiopia.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

“There is a popular saying in Eritrea – ‘let the farmers farm, and the traders trade’,” says Tekle Woldemikael, a sociology professor at Chapman University in California, who was born in Eritrea.

“It means that Eritreans value the possibility to do trade in open and unrestricted markets.”

Sadly, in recent decades the Eritrean economy has been gutted, first by the country’s 30-year fight for independence, then by the 1998-2000 border war.

And the economy is still being profoundly affected by the government’s far left economics.

Image copyrightMILENA BELLONI

“Eritrea’s economic stagnation is rooted in the communist government’s profound antipathy to free trade and capitalism, not the war, and that’s not going to end because of the truce,” says Michela Wrong, who wrote a book on Eritrea’s fight for independence.

Currently, the government limits each person to withdrawing 5,000 Nakfa (about $330; £250) a month from banks, ostensibly to tackle the currency black market, but this hinders private initiatives and entrepreneurialism.

This is compounded by continued mandatory national service, which leaves most young people “serving the nation” in the military or in government ministries for extremely limited salaries.

Nicole Hirt of the GIGA Institute of African Affairs, in Hamburg, is also pessimistic about the possibility of an economic renaissance in Eritrea.

“The problem is the infrastructure has been completely neglected,” she says. “I would warn against being over optimistic, because the ruling elite has always tried to control the economy, and has left very little space for private investors.”

Currently, the country’s only significant export is gold mined in the western Bisha area and sent to China and South Korea. However, there is growing interest in doing business with Eritrea around the world.

At the end of 2018, a group of about 80 Italian investors representing sectors such as energy, construction and agriculture, visited Eritrea with the Italian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emanuela Del Re.

“Of course, Eritrea has huge potential to export,” says Ms Hirt. “After World War Two, it was one of the most industrialised areas in Africa.

“[Today] fish could be exported in large quantities, as well as marble, potash, gold, copper, zinc, textiles, processed food, hides, meat, wine and beer.”

A spokesman for the Eritrean government said that the country’s large diaspora could help boost the economy. Most already send back cash to their families, and, officially, ex-pats have to pay a 2% tax on income earned abroad.

In fact, some estimate that about 30% of Eritrea’s gross domestic product is derived from money sent back to the country.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

But while ex-pats like Yemane are looking at renewing their ties, other commentators warn against any expectation of rapid change in the country.

“Eritrea needs to develop its own basic food security before thinking about exports,” says Victoria Bernal, an anthropology professor at the University of California, and an expert on the country.

“They also cannot do international business without strengthening their ICT [information and communications] infrastructure.”

Ms Hirt adds that most potential international investors are also likely to hold back until they see real political reform in the country.

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The Government of Saudi Arabia today released 1,400 Ethiopians who were serving prison sentences, said, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.

The detainees are pardoned by the Saudi government in relation to the beginning of Ramadan fasting season. In addition, the Government of Saudi Arabia has also announced decreasing the jail period of many detained Ethiopians by 75 percent, according to the state media Ethiopian Press Agency, which quoted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.

Out of the 1,400 released, 300 are expected to arrive Bole International Airport Addis Ababa this evening. The report didn’t mention why the Ethiopians were in Saudi Arabia jails. Meanwhile reports show that Ethiopian immigrants are often arrested for not having the legal papers to work in Saudi Arabia mainly as maids and other labor works.

Some estimates show that there are about half a million Ethiopian domestic servants in Saudi Arabia. Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, began this year on Sunday, May 5.

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By Nebeyou Alemu

The emperors made us speak one language to bring us together. It failed, but it also succeeded.

Participants of the Great Ethiopian Run wear a t-shirt with the message “Empower Women, Empower a Nation” in Amharic on the back. Credit: UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Sewunet.

This is the fifth article in the seven-part series Living In Translation about language and identity. They are guest edited by Nanjala Nyabola and will be published across this week. See all the articles published so far here. 

Like most African nations, Ethiopia brims with difference and diversity. Among our 100 million people, we have around 80 ethnic groups and nearly a hundred languages. These variations in identity form the centre around which much of today’s politics revolve. Ethiopia’s controversial federal structure is just one example of its attempt to recognise complex internal differences while remaining united.

And yet, among all this swirling diversity, one particular language has come to dominate this complex country. Although the Amhara are just one of Ethiopia’s myriad ethnic groups – and only the second largest, accounting for 27% of the population in the 2007 census – Amharic has become the country’s official language. (This is a rarity in Africa, where most official languages are that of the former coloniser.)

Across Ethiopia, regional governments may use different languages appropriate to their constituencies, but the federal government operates in Amharic. The vast majority of the population speaks Amharic, either as a first or second language. The nation’s working language in commerce is Amharic.

How did this language – considered by some scholars to be Africa’s most advanced – come to be so widely used? What does it mean that this tongue – adopted from the ancient Ethiopian language of Ge’ez – has become the country’s official mode of communication? How does the use of this distinctly northern language – with its unique fidel script made up of 33 characters, each with seven forms depending on the vowel sound – affect questions of identity in Ethiopia?

The lyrics to Ethiopia’s national anthem in Amharic.

Amharic has been used in official circles since the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty in 1270, but it was the actions of various emperors in the 19th and 20th centuries that gave the language the significance it has today. In different ways, they used Amharic as a way to help unite their diverse empires.

Teweodros II (1855-1868) was the first to make Amharic a literary language, elevating it into written form. He ensured his royal chronicles were written in Amharic rather than Ge’ez like those of his predecessors. Yohanes IV (1872-89) followed his lead, using Amharic in his correspondence with regional kings; although a Tigrigna-speaker himself, he believed Amharic could help unify the state. Minilik (1889-1913) then further spread the language as he expanded his territory, incorporating new ethnic groups and local elites into his power structures as he went along. Under him, Amharic became the language of Ethiopia’s rulers.

It was Emperor Haile Selassie (1930-1974), however, who declared Amharic Ethiopia’s official language. He came up with a legal framework and language policy with aim of easing communication across the empire’s myriad linguistic groups. While Minilik had focused on making Amharic the mode of communication among the elites, Haile Selassie targeted the general population. During this reign, Amharic was the only language used in primary schools and for government activities.

The ideology behind the policy was to create a centralised homogenous state. Amharic was treated as a symbol of unity, and language was utilised as a tool for nation-building. Many, however, criticised the way in which it forced people to assimilate. They felt alienated by the favouring of one Ethiopian language above all the nation’s vast array of others.

Today in Ethiopia, the legacy of this history lives on. Amharic has become the country’s lingua franca and one has to master it to climb the political ladder. The language dominates politics, education and the media. It is generally perceived to have more prestige than other local tongues.

Among other things, the spread of Amharic has also facilitated the diffusion of northern culture to other parts of Ethiopia. Language is intrinsic to identity and, to some extent, Ethiopian-ness has become closely associated with the culture of the north, where the Amhara and Tigray regions are located.

Language also remains a deeply political subject. Because modern Ethiopia was created through territorial expansion and subjugation, questions of ethnicity and language remain central to today’s political discourse. In the 1960s, the student movement that opposed the government was driven by grievances over nationality as well as land.

Although the exact relations between Ethiopia’s many ethnic groups have shifted significantly over time, many historical and fundamental questions about identity in the country are still yet to be resolved. For many, the legacy of the empire’s Ethiopianisation – or, as some call it, Amharanisation – needs to be re-examined and addressed.

The history of Amharic is thus highly complex and contested. The fact that Amharic was imposed on the people by elites from one particular group is well-known and keenly-felt among Ethiopians. This plays into feelings of marginalisation and emphasises the divisions within the diverse population.

And yet, at the very same time, there is the inescapable fact that Amharic does bind Ethiopian society together as the emperors had envisaged. Its widespread use does allow people from across the vast nation to communicate easily. It is telling irony – and one that encapsulates Ethiopia’s historic uniqueness and contradictions – that even those who decry the dominance of Amharic today must do so in Amharic if they are to reach many of their compatriots.

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By Abdi Latif Dahir/Quartz

An earlier version of this story included The Gap as one of the apparel companies  supplied by the Ethiopian factories based on the NYU Stern report. The authors of the report have since corrected their report and say The Gap is not included.

For years now, Ethiopia has harbored ambitions to become the world’s next big destination for textile and fashion production.

Yet those aspirations are hurting its own people who are working in factories making clothes for the world’s biggest fashion brands including H&M, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein among others. Entry-level workers in the country’s garment industry are the lowest paid in the world—earning a mere $26 a month, according to a studyfrom New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.

While the government has overseen directives to attract global investment in the sector, that hasn’t translated into prosperity for the employees, who struggle to save, send money home, or afford basic necessities like housing or food.

The authors of the report specifically focused on the Hawassa Industrial Park, built to boost exports and house labor-intensive factories including textile, leather, and agro-processing. Located 140 miles south of the capital Addis Ababa, the park currently has 25,000 employees producing garments for global brands also including Levi’s and Guess.

Yet in the process of positioning the Ethiopia up the rungs of the global textile supply chain, the researchers say the government and manufacturers have failed to take into account critical working conditions. Besides low wages, workers complained about being shouted at by their foreign managers and for not receiving adequate training, leading to a hostile working environment.

And with weak trade union presence in the 105-million people nation, that has hindered employees from organizing to get their grievances heard. Attrition levels at the park stood around 100% too, increasing training costs and lowering efficiency rates.

The report’s findings present a quagmire for Ethiopia, which has tried to position itself as a top apparel sourcing and manufacturing destination. Buoyed by the strong global demand for cheap fashion, the relatively modest costs of setting up garment factories, and the abundance of low-skilled jobs, Addis Ababa plans to boost clothing exports to a total of $30 billion a year from its current $145 million.

Under prime minister Abiy Ahmed, the government has also initiated a series of unprecedented reforms aimed at enhancing economic growth, improving competitiveness, and creating employment opportunities.

Regional neighbors like Rwanda and Kenya have also been competing to expand their manufacturing sectors, with Kigali especially adamant about moving from dressing in secondhand hand-me-downs donated from Western nations.

Yet in this pursuit of bold social experiments, low wage levels have persistently come up as an issue in Ethiopia. Another recent survey of more than 1,000 textile and apparel workers across 52 factories in three regions found 65% earn less than $70 a month. As the Horn of Africa nation situates itself as the “New China,” the authors say the challenge will be if they will be able to learn from the past mistakes of nations like China, Bangladesh, and Cambodia to build a sustainable manufacturing model.

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(Serbessa, K ) April  9th,  2019

Until recent years, Ethiopian medical doctors  are known  universally  as well trained  and dedicated professionals. The three medical schools ( Addis Ababa, Gonder and Jimma) select  the brightest and the most academically able young people in Ethiopia  who distinguish in their matriculation with great and very great distinctions to study medicine.  The top cream of every  secondary school, less than 1 % goes  to this competitive field to study rigorous and regimented science  and art for 6-7 years and additional 3-4 more years for specialization.

Most Ethiopian  children and young people aspire when they grow up  to be medical doctors; Teachers at school motivate young people to this great noble profession. Due to only few places were available, the top brightest daughters and sons of Ethiopia goes to these great field  of science, art and  melted away by the abuse of their political masters and their ill deeds.

Ethiopian doctors are one of the least paid medical professionals in the world.  Most of these young doctors live their private life under desperate condition to serve the Ethiopian people. They work long hours with enormous  number of case load in resource limited health facilities. They save the life of very ill child, pregnant mother, traumatised fellow human being  and elderly  people affected by illness and disease.  They expose their life under dire condition to save the life of fellow human beings.

These doctors  material life  is by far inferior to their fellow professionals (engineers, lawyers etc). The only pride they get was personal satisfaction for saving their patients life and also the respect the people give to them and the profession.

They are managed by less educated political appointed  cadres who have no concept about health service provision and the profession itself except personally benefiting from the budget and looting.

After serving many years, some medical doctors couldn’t tolerate the financial, managerial, political  abuse and leave to another country to better their professional and personal life. There are many Ethiopian doctors in USA,  southern part of Africa,  some in Europe and Australia.  Despite being away, most of these diasporas doctors attempt to help  their fellow doctors and medical students  in Ethiopia with materials they need for studies and  better the profession. Some organise  medical tour with fellow  American or European colleague  doctors to help Ethiopians in certain area like rare specialised  science and procedures ( paediatric  or cardiac or ophthalmic surgery, mental health  etc). They also share their expertise and teach  during   leave time to the medical schools they were trained at.

Some doctors leave from the state health system and engage in private health care to better their private live in Ethiopia as the state payment don’t support when they form family or have other responsibilities. Very few may engage  more of business part of medicine than humanity or ethics. They are not the real representative of the majority Ethiopian  doctors.

Ethiopian rulers in the last 28 years, specially the Prime minsters  are anti-medical doctors. The real reason is not clear, it could be personal, organizational or political.

The late Meles Zenawi, who abandoned  medical school  to join  the TPLF bandits  often ignore or minimise or belittle Ethiopian medical doctors role in Ethiopia. At one time he was even considering  not to train medical doctors. While he, his familie members  and friends enjoy best health care abroad, he deny Ethiopians to be seen by their own medical doctors.

Meles could have experienced inferiority complex for not completing his study. he abandoned his study ( noble purpose to save human life) to  the struggle/war, bandit life ( to kill, destroy and assume power). People who knew him personally and also in public observed his distaste to medical doctors and the profession.

Hailemariam Deslagne, the Prime minster  after Meles also expressed at one interview, he abandoned his desire of studying medicine after short experience of seeing or caring a relative of his who was an in patient at Tikur Ambessa Hospital.

He was used as tool  by his masters and at last he left the post when he is longer able to manage it.

The current prime minster Abiy Ahmed who was a child solder, later intelligence officer and  political operatives  with in the brutal TPLF led EPRDF regime  is not different on his view and opinion towards Ethiopian medical doctors. The medical doctors representative (junior and senior doctors) from all over the country  met him recently on 3rd May 2019  to discuss about the appalling condition they are working, training in the new medical schools ( created by TPLF/EPRDF without proper feasible study and resources)  and in general the health service with in the country.

He belittled them, as his master the late Meles Zenawi, he despised them. He tried to lecture them about the profession,medical science and ethics. He tried to steal the only pride these medical doctors have ( Respect  for them and profession). It was bemusing to see him  to lecture them as if they are they are his OPDO cadres. It was sad, sad situation. He revealed his inferiority complex,  negative outlook towards the profession and professionals.

Why Abiy behaved in such way? He is “considered” the most educated of Ethiopian leader to assume premiership (Phd Holder) in the last 40 years, but he is still raw or green or hostile. Hope his academic credential is not questionable. Has he dreamed to be medical doctor and failed? We don’t know. Why that much hate towards medical doctors?

People who observed  Abiy Ahmed objectively in the last one year noted his two way of approach towards his audience. The  polite sweet  way  and street smart  approach.

Compared to his colleagues, Abiy has gained undeserving applause and  clap from Ethiopians and foreigners  beyond his contribution or initiative towards the “reform” we see in Ethiopia . As the majority of Ethiopians were in desperate oppressive systems, any one who is in the front seat or announcer gets the attention for the “relief” measure the regime taken in terms of releasing prisoners, inviting political parties, making peace with Eritrea etc. All these measures were not  Abiy’s bold personal initiatives  but these were agreed and decided  by the executive members of EPRDF party he chairs. The EPRDF  and Abiy didn’t want to bring this changes by themselves but  the peaceful struggle of Ethiopians and specially the youth forced them to do so. It is survival means for the regime, a coping means! They have reached to stage the regime was to be flooded and be out of action by the popular uprising all over the country. The regime  metamorphosis and reform itself to survive with those relief solutions. That is what happening in Ethiopia. It neither genuine nor radical change that the people aspired to achieve by dismantling the divide and rule Policy of TPLF/EPRDF once and for all.

Abiy is good orator and easily capture attention. He knows his audience well and speak sweet words to the mass. He took the lion share of the applause and credit though the real change agent are the Ethiopian youth.

Had it not been for the relief measure the regime took, by these time TPLF/EPRDF would have been history and wouldn’t  exist as the flood was to take them  towards the hell. Once again vicious political circus presenting it self with sweet talk  and do nothing  approach.

As we have noted, the public euphoria didn’t last long. What he preaches  and what is the reality on the ground is different. Most of us trusted  and believed what he preached and gave  him support.  The true picture of PM Abiy and his regime  is now visible. Under his watch, 4 millions of Ethiopians are displaced, thousands are  killed and billions of property destroyed. Under his watch  ethnic  hate agenda and propaganda dominated Ethiopia;  He rules the country in coordination with these agents.  Citizenship based political atmosphere is dissipated.  He failed to use the public support he received in the early days  of his regime for good and new Ethiopia. He failed to  implement reconciliation, justice, forgiveness, people to people and political parties dialogue for better Ethiopia.

The displacement and ethnic clash  was never seen to this extent in modern Ethiopia even in 27 years of TPLF.EPRDF brutal regime.  Abiy and his friends facilitated and gave green light for  armed OLF to reign in Ethiopia, cause terror and mayhem while disarming other oppositions. Abiy changed the state structure for his sake and adulation instead of real, genuine  and functioning organs.

People who observed  Abiy Ahmed’s behaviour  objectively in the last one year noted his two way of approach towards his audience. The sweet polite  and street smart. approach.

He uses his street smart (ብልጣ ብልጥነት- አጉል አራዳናት) approach  when he is confronted by  potential opponents to make them his friend or  induce fear among them. His silly jokes,  too friendly approach, appeasement, sweet talk , disrespect, division   are some of his  mischievous tools.   If you noted when he travelled to North America, he made Tamagne Beyne surrender to him by saying ( he doesn’t pick his phone when I call him, ስልክ ብደውል አልነሳ አለኝ;  ኮራብኝ፤ ጎንደሬ ስለሆነ ነው); he joked on Abebe Gelaw’s weight to look too friendly, he single handily selected Sisiay Agena as best journalist in ESAT  to divide the journalists. He outsmarted and bemused Professor Al Marim that PM came to Los Angles mainly to see Al Mariam.  These people who are known in their Anti-EPRDF struggle easily surrendered to him.

When confronted by much smarter people like Eskinder Ngea, he started to lose his temper, threatens war terror.  When  OLF created mayhem in the country, he didn’t utter any single ward.

He has done similar things against the smartest and bright people (Ethiopian Medical doctors)  who politely confronted him morally, intellectually and professionally. As street smart, he used his approach of belittling, disrespecting  and dividing them to induce fear and dissipate their non ethnic based peaceful  humanitarian quest.

Unless confronted and forced towards good direction, he could led the country potentially to painful disasters. He is developing benevolent  narcissistic and megalomaniac traits as the days pass. He might lose his insight and send us to the usual or more dangerous era or abyss. We need to tell him the truth, confront him  and treat his losing insight while  standing for more human Ethiopia.

Ethiopian medical doctors, do not be demoralised by Abiy’s remark. He is not different from past regime leaders, the same thing. The only difference is he invited you, assembled you and abused you. The saddest part is he tried to steal the pride of your life time, The Respect you and the profession earned from Ethiopians all over the land.

Do what you can do to the poor Ethiopian people. Do struggle peacefully for what is right for the profession and your patients. It is only God and your consciences that can judge you;  not politicians who are corrupt and street smarts up on you.

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By Paul Schemm

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — In a scene that would have been unimaginable just a year ago, some 200 Ethiopians in the capital debated their country’s politics, economics and expressed their fears over the rise in ethnic violence.

The BBC’s “World Questions” current events program came to Addis Ababa on Monday demonstrating how much freedom of expression has changed in Africa’s second-most populous nation.

After decades of authoritarian governments that tightly controlled the press, the new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has transformed the country by taking the shackles off the media and promising wide-ranging reforms.

But the loosening of such restrictions in Ethiopia has been accompanied by an explosion of ethnic conflict in the countryside. Millions of people have been displaced as long-simmering disputes over land boil to the surface — and as Monday’s discussion showed, people are frightened. Just in the week before the show, there were reports of tit-for-tat massacres between the Amhara and Gumuz peoples in the northern part of the country that killed dozens.

“I used to be afraid of the government; now I’m afraid of the people,” said one audience member, citing a common concern over the rise in lawlessness. “Before it was dictatorship we were afraid of; now it’s about the [lack] of rule of law.”

The prime minister himself was not spared criticism, either, with some singling him out for the speed and what they called the recklessness of his reforms and a personal style of leadership that often bypasses the country’s institutions.

“I believe that Dr. Abiy is a problem because we want a systematic change that can sustain itself whether there is a messiah or not,” said one man. “We don’t want another messiah.”

Whether it was ruled by an aging emperor, Soviet-backed army officers or former rebels, Ethiopia was rarely a place where you could criticize leaders so openly. Until last year, there were dozens of journalists and opposition politicians in jail or exile.

“It would be quite impossible in this country until very recently,” said program host Jonathan Dimbleby about bringing his show to Ethiopia. “I’ve been coming here for 45 years, and it would never have been possible in that time.”

Dimbleby first became known in Ethiopia when he broke the official silence over the famine raging north of the capital in 1973 with a documentary called “Unknown Famine” that seared itself across television screens in the West. It would be the first time (though sadly not the last) that images of bloated children’s bellies and stick-thin limbs entered Western living rooms and people’s consciousness.

In the years since, Dimbleby has returned repeatedly to Ethiopia — except for when his criticism got him banned from the country. In a way, bringing his famed “Questions” program to Ethiopia represents a kind of culmination of his years reporting here.

“I came first of all in a very, very troubled period, saw Ethiopia decade after decade going through troubles, seeming to emerge from them, slipping back into trouble.,” he said. “There is a great deal of uncertainty now, hope, trepidation, that could the country go back again.”

The hour-long program, which travels the world and is produced in conjunction with the British Council — the British government’s cultural outreach arm — will air on May 11 at 2 p.m. U.S. East Coast time.

The panelists included a member of the government, a journalist, an activist and an academic who all fielded questions from an audience that seemed most focused on the instability brought about by the government reforms.

“I think this transition is failing,” said panelist Eskinder Nega, a writer and activist who was repeatedly jailed by the previous government and has emerged as one of Abiy’s most forceful critics. If nothing radical is done soon, I think it’s going to be in a far worse position five years from now.”

He criticized the government for maintaining the same coalition of ethnically-based parties to rule the country, maintaining they were fundamentally undemocratic. He also noted that instability in the countryside meant opposition parties couldn’t begin campaigning for next year’s election.

Ethiopia is made up of some 80 ethnic groups, and past governments generally used a harsh centralized authority to rule. More recently the government has been organized as a federal system of states based along the ethnic lines, which many fear is fragmenting the country.

Tsedale Lemma, editor of the Addis Standard newspaper, described Ethiopia with all its different groups not as a “nation state, but a state of nations,” and she warned about what she saw as the loss of government monopoly on violence.

“We have seen the privatization of political violence, which means private citizens acting as if they are the ones who should have the monopoly on violence,” she said.

While she felt that elections scheduled for next year must go forward to give the government legitimacy and a mandate, the overwhelming majority of people in the audience through a show of hands supported postponing the vote until the country was more stable.

Defending the government that evening largely fell to panelist Mustafa Omar, the president of Ethiopia’s Somali region and a former human rights activist appointed by the prime minister. He admitted that there were problems and that security forces weren’t cracking down on unrest the way they used to. But he said they were working on restoring rule of law.

“I couldn’t have put my trust in any [other] leadership than the current leadership,” he said, arguing that the “country is more stable now that in has been in the last 27 years.”

This assertion led to an audible gasp from the audience, and Mustafa was later attacked during the question period as people noted that nearly 3 million had been displaced in interethnic violence.

“We feel the anxiety in people about the unchecked ethnic violence,” said one woman in the audience. “People need to feel what the government is doing in concrete terms so there can be a little bit of confidence. People are still hopeful and have confidence the institutions can steer this country out of this chaos, but along the way we need reassurance.”

Mustafa countered that the current unrest paled in comparison to the tens of thousands murdered and imprisoned by the previous governments.

Striking a rare note of optimism at the end of the discussion, Tsedale said she felt Ethiopia would not fall back into repression or violence as has happened after past attempts at reform.

“I see light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “It will be very daunting. We will see a lot of unpleasantness, we need to brace for that. But I think at least we have consensus over what kind of Ethiopia we want to see.”

The post ‘We don’t want another messiah’: Newly vocal Ethiopians debate an uncertain future appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The new party established by former opposition figures and six opposition parties today elected the former leader of Patriots G7, Dr. Berhanu Nega as its leader.

Dr. Birhanu has got 912 votes of the participants of the founding members of Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice gathered from over 300 weredas (districts) of the country. Over 1200 participants from across the country has been conferring in Addis Ababa since yesterday to launch the new opposition party of Ethiopia that promotes citizens- centered politics in order to bring social justice in Ethiopia.

Following his appointment to lead the party, Dr. Berhanu stated that his priorities will be working with the government to restore peace and order to ensure democracy, laying the foundations of the new party at the grassroots level to make it long lasting and sustainable and contributing to the development of a democratic society in Ethiopia. The founding congress of the new party has also elected Andualem Arage as deputy leader of the party.

After the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), the opposition coalition worn all the seats but one in the capital, Addis Ababa, during the May 2005 national election, Dr. Berhanu was the mayor elect of Addis Ababa.

Meanwhile, as the controversy that followed the lection has ended him in jail and later to exile from where he and his colleagues launched the armed Patriots G7 group, which was fighting the current regime from its base in Eritrea. Dr. Berhanu, who was also a university professor in the U.S. and all Ethiopian opposition party figures have returned home following the pardon announced by the reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahemd who came to power about a year ago.

Today the new party has also elected Yeshwas Aseffa as its chairman who will be in charge of the party’s affairs. Mr. Yeshewas told FBC, the ruling party owned media, that he will be working to make this new party become one major alternative for the people of Ethiopia for the coming 100 or 200 years.

The chairman also stated that they will be working in all parts of the country to prepare candidates for the upcoming May 2020 national election of Ethiopia. The chairman of the party will be working under the leader, who has more power, according to the structure of the new opposition party.

NBE

The post Ethiopia’s New Opposition Elects Dr. Berhanu Nega As Leader appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The bullets were captured from smugglers who were trying to bring into Wollo area of Amhara region and the capital, Addis Ababa. The smugglers were transporting the bullets in two vehicles departed from Harar area, eastern part of Ethiopia, according to report of Federal Police of Ethiopia aired on national broadcaster – ETV – this afternoon.

The bullets were seized this week by the federal police and customs officers at Alberekete customs post. The bullets were seized inside a car – Code 2- B28163 AA – Toyota Corolla vehicle and a van – code 3 -47593 Oro – high roof minibus. The police have arrested the people who were smuggling the bullets and investigation is currently underway, according to the report.

In a related development, Ethiopian Customs Commission has announced that it has captured worth 2.4 million birr (around $84,000) contraband goods from smugglers this week at different customs posts. The items include sugar, shisha, mobile phone apparatus and metal products.

Over the past few years it has become common to hear reports of illegal circulations of weapons, medicines, narcotic drugs, cash of different countries currencies and other manufactured goods. During the first nine months of Ethiopian Calendar started July 8, 2018, Ethiopian Customs Commission has captured around $30 million worth goods, including weapons, currencies of different countries, narcotic drugs and various goods, from contraband traders.

The contraband goods smuggled into the country includes manufactured goods such as electronic and electrical goods, garments of various kinds, perfumes, cosmetics, pornography, habit forming drugs, armaments and others. Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, and Djibouti are identified to be the main sources of these goods.

Coffee, which is the country’s chief export item, a multitude of livestock, cereals of various types, animal skins, fuel and others are some of the goods smuggled out of the country.

NBE

The post The Federal Police of Ethiopia captures 9,711 Kalashnikov bullets from smugglers who were trying to bring into the capital, Addis Ababa appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Prof. Alemayehu G. Mariam

I have a dream that Ethiopia’s young people will put their shoulders to the wheel and take full charge of their country’s destiny; leave behind the politics of hate and ethnicity; turn their backs on those wallowing in moral bankruptcy and create a New Politics for a New Ethiopia based on dialogue, negotiation and compromise.  I dream they will  learn from the wisdom of their ancestors: “Tomorrow belongs to the young people who prepare for it today.” Alemayehu G Mariam, January 4, 2015

Author’s Note: In a different place and a different time, individuals like myself would take an honored place in society and play the role of elders like our ancestors did over the eons. We would be teaching the younger generation the moral values and virtues of peace, justice, fairness, equality, humility, reconciliation, forgiveness, truthfulness, respect, cooperation, and unity.

But that was not in the cards for a lost generation – a generation at once traumatized by prolonged wanton political violence, persecution and forced exile and marginalized by its own silence, cowardice, narcissism and depraved indifference.

Today, I am ashamed to say my generation has little to offer the younger or coming generations.

We have squandered our moral and social capital like a drunken sailor on shore leave.

We have abandoned the commanding moral heights to the lunatic fringe and to the armies of ignorati trolls who today wage a war of words, disinformation and lies on social media and cyberspace.

In America, people who grew up during the Great Depression and helped win World War II are sometimes called the “greatest generation”.

I call Ethiopians who came of age beginning in the mid-1960s and were privileged to receive  modern education and subsequently achieved relatively high professional and leadership positions in their respective fields but did not do diddly-squat for their motherland, the “failed generation”.

We have failed in our moral, ethical, professional, social and political duties.

We have remained silent in the face of outrageous evil for decades.

We have failed to live by moral imperatives and stand up for the little guy who is afraid to speak, and speak truth to the big powerful guys on behalf of the little guy.

As professionals, our ethical standards have been closer to those who practice the world’s oldest profession.  We have sold our souls and skills to dictators and thugs.

We have failed to show social responsibility.

We have failed politically by becoming part of the problem instead of the solution.

We are so shameless we have joined outsiders in pointing an accusatory index finger calling our motherland a “failed state”, a “failed nation” when she is struggling to rise up and yearn to breathe free after decades of tyrannical thug rule.

All along, we forget and we are blinded to the fact that as we point an index finger of failure on our homeland, three fingers are wagging at us as the failed generation.

But Ethiopia is doing alright. The younger generation is in the saddle.

We have a brilliant 43-year old prime minister whom the world admires for his extraordinary and  exemplary leadership.

We have young women in the highest offices in Ethiopia.

We have young people exercising expressive freedoms to such an extent that the world today is calling Ethiopia one of two brightest spots of press freedom in the world.

The young generation of Ethiopian political and civic leaders today are doing a magnificent job of leading the nation into a new era of peace, reconciliation and prosperity.

And they are doing it all against all odds!

In barely a year, they are healing the wounds of ethnic division inflicted on Ethiopians over the past 27 tears.

They are reviving an economy that was left virtually bankrupt by a corrupt, inept and criminal regime.

They are organizing the first free and fair election in the country’s 2000 year plus history.

I am so proud of them.

But I am not proud of what my generation has and has not done to make Ethiopia more equal, more just, more united, more peaceful and more democratic.

I offer my deepest apologies for our failures in writing today as I look forward to the day when I will offer apologies in a public forum someday.

I shall admit my generation is the greatest obstacle to peace, progress and development in Ethiopia today.

That is a hard truth that must be proclaimed.

The greatest crime of my generation is its relentless insistence on continuing the deadly, discredited and shameful politics of polarized identity, ethnic exclusivity, ethnocentricity and tribal territoriality.

We insist on playing the deadly game of ethnic brinksmanship (EB) and mutual assured destruction (MAD) in willful disregard and indifference to the atrocity, brutality and inhumanity of communalism, tribalism and sectarianism.

But there is abundant hope in Ethiopia’s bosom.

Ethiopia’s young leaders are rising to meet the challenge.

I am supremely encouraged because the younger generation are doing their best NOT  to follow in our footsteps that has brought so much suffering, death and destruction to the ordinary people of Ethiopia.

The younger generation does not dance to the beat of the tribal drummer.

They sing songs of peace, love and understanding. Like I did one-half century ago.

But there is one last hope for my generation to save itself before we face the final verdict of history.

One last act of atonement we must perform to save ourselves.

We must teach the younger generation one and only one lesson to pay for our generational crimes of commission and omission:

Starve the Bad and Feed the Good Wolf in Ethiopia.

Learning from a  Cherokee fable of the good and bad wolf

The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is one of the largest native American nations in the United States.

The Cherokee people have been subjected to unspeakable suffering. History remembers their suffering as the ‘Trail of Tears’.

The Cherokee have wonderful folktales and traditional stories.

One of my favorites is the folktale of a grandfather teaching his grandson about good and evil. I used this instructive folktale in my April 2013 commentary.

‘A fight is going on inside me’,  the grandfather told his grandson.

‘It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

‘One is an evil wolf who is full of anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

‘The other is a good wolf. He loves joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

The grandfather added, ‘The same fight is going on inside you and every other person, too.’

The grandson thought about what his grandfather said and asked, ‘Which wolf will win?’

The grandfather replied, ‘The one you feed.’

How the good wolf won against the bad wolf in Ethiopia

Were I to tell the Cherokee folktale to the younger generation of Ethiopians, this would be the story:

For a generation, my generation has been feeding the bad wolf in Ethiopia the raw meat of ethnic hatred, national disunity, communalism and sectarianism.

For the past 27 years, my generation has been feeding the bad wolf  a high caloric diet of hate, anger, division, strife and ethnic superiority.

For the past 27 years, the bad wolf nurtured by my generation has beaten down, bitten to pieces, overpowered and crushed the good wolf living in the hearts and minds of the ordinary people of Ethiopia.

For the past 27 years, our bad wolf tried to make ordinary Ethiopians the proverbial, “Man is wolf to man.” (homo homini lupus) and create a dog-eat-dog world in Ethiopia.

Last year this time, the bad wolf which had grown monstrously big was baring its teeth to consume the nation.

But the doggone bad wolf one day was gone, vanished under the rock from whence it came.

The younger generation must now raise the good wolf.

The good wolf must be raised to be strong, fearless and determined to engage the big old bad wolf and beat him at his own game.

The younger generation must know that it is not the size of the wolf in the fight that determines the winner. It the size of the fight in the wolf that does.

The little good wolf can beat the big, bad evil wolf.

Though the big old bad wolf is damned, doomed and done, its cubs lurk and roam in the dark recesses of the hearts of every Ethiopian.

So, an epic do-or-die battle must be waged with the bad wolf in the hearts and minds of every Ethiopian.

Who shall win?

The victory of the good wolf over the bad is preordained.

For ages and ages, the people of Ethiopia have lived together in holy matrimony, as friends, as neighbors and as compatriots.

They have always been “man to man”, not “man is wolf to man”.

This is true for the common man and woman who live their daily lives in hardship, in fellowship and holy worship.

I wish I could say the same for Ethiopian elites, (the well-to-do, the educated, the privileged, the ones with social media accounts).

We, the elites, cannot help but feed and nurture the bad wolf that has taken up permanent residence in our hearts and minds.

We have weaponized the bad wolf of tribalism, communalism and sectarianism in our feeding frenzy for power, influence and money.

In our obsessive quest for “what’s-in-it for I, me and myself”, we have decided to feed the tens of millions of poor Ethiopians who can barely feed themselves to the bad hungry wolf.

Luckily, we are the last of our breed.

The young good wolf is rising and winning the hearts and minds of the common struggling people of Ethiopia.

Such is the story I would tell the younger generation of Ethiopians.

You are what you think: The power of positive thinking and feeling

Americans like to say, “You are what you eat”.

In other words, if you eat healthy food, you will enjoy good health and longevity.

Philosophers and psychologists tell us we are what we think.

If we think hate, we become haters.

If we think love, we becomes lovers.

Negative thoughts produce negative actions.

Positive thoughts produce positive actions.

Negative energy is disempowering.

Positive energy is empowering.

Fear produces inaction and indifference.

Courage produces action and change.

In the end, we all become what we think.

If we allow the bad wolf of negative thinking and hate to rule our hearts and minds, we will deplete our mental and spiritual energy. We become angry, hateful  bitter and even violent.

If we allow the good wolf in us to feed on love, reconciliation, forgiveness, tolerance, civility and humility, we will be energized and build a great society and shining city upon a hill.

So, we must make efforts to change our minds (thinking) and hearts (feelings).

It has been said those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

Before we can change Ethiopia, we must change our individual hearts and minds.

It is easy to pontificate about how others must change.

But like charity, change must begin at home, at the individual level.

Changing ourselves requires consciously changing the way we think about our beliefs and ideas and how we feel about others we dislike and despise.

But changing our hearts and minds is a most difficult task.

What I have noticed among Ethiopian elites over a period of decades is that the vast majority of them are afflicted by herd mentality/groupthink syndrome.

Groupthink among Ethiopian elites has to do with rational and well-meaning people making irrational  decisions because they feel the urge to conform or not appear to oppose.

In a groupthink situation, group members refrain from expressing doubts and judgments or disagreeing with the consensus.

In Ethiopia today, particularly among the elites, there is groupthink about ethnic and identity politics, which groups in society should be the objects of hate and distrust, who are the “real” Ethiopians, which groups have a birthright to rule and which ones are doomed to be ruled and so on.

Few among these elites are willing to come out in public, stand up, point a finger and challenge such groupthink. As a result, groupthink continues.

Herd (tribal/ethnic) mentality among Ethiopian elites is evident in the fact that well-educated professionals abandon rational thinking just to fit in with other dominant elites who hold a particular point of view poisoned by identity politics.

I am always amazed how these elites tow the line blindly and follow the tribal flock like sheep just because that is what the elite herd does.

Herd mentality is evident in the way the elites circle their ethnic/tribal wagons.

Each ethnic herd is poised to attack the other ethnic herd.

Some Ethiopian elites have been talking about an imaginary genocide about to take place. They seek to infect the wider population with this herd mentality.

Herd mentality among elites could result in mass hysteria.

The issue of “Who owns/to whom does Addis Ababa belong?” fiasco is a great example of herd mentality and groupthink.

One set of elites and their sympathizers claim the capital belongs to them. They want to rename it and make it an ethnic enclave.

Another set claims the capital belongs to the nation and even the continent. They want to set up a defensive vanguard to resist the other group.

Suffice it to say, it is much ado about nothing!

A lot of noise, commotion, fuss and Sturm und Drang about nothing.

But different elites try to use the issue to rouse up their rabble and poison the well of political dialogue and good will by stoking up emotions.

How do we change the negative political energy that permeates the minds of so many Ethiopian elites into positive energy?

THINK SOLUTIONS, FEEL SOLUTIONS, NOT PROBLEMS

If the proposition, “you are what you think”, then it follows that if we think problems, we aggravate existing and create new problems.

Similarly, if we think and feel solutions, we will naturally strive to create solutions to problems.

So, I ask the elites of my generation a few questions:

Why trot out the dead horse of ethnic/tribal politics and beat it?

Why not talk about and present competing solutions to all the problems created by ethnic, tribal, communal and sectarian politics?

Why not talk about and present competing solutions to the structural problems of rule of law and political accountability?

Why not talk about and present competing solutions to the problems of stolen elections?

Why not talk about and present constitutional solutions to constitutional problems?

Why not….

I practice what I preach: Building on successful African experiments

I pride myself as a man who says what he means and means what he says.

In other words, I speak truth to power, the powerless, the power-hungry and -thirsty and anyone who cares to listen.

I talk and write about problems but also present practical solutions.

Over a decade ago, I proposed solutions to the problems Ethiopia is facing today.

It was not a solution imported from the West or the East.

It was not a solution based in abstract theory, political ideology or philosophy.

It was a solution borne of the African experience and created by Africans, for Africans.

It was a solution based on a successful experiment in Ghana.

I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel. Just improving and refining it.

In 2009, I proposed practical and tested constitutional solutions to the TPLF-created problems of identity and ethnic politics in Ethiopia, the flagrant disregard and depraved indifference to the rule of law that has been the hallmark of the TPLF regime and prevention of daylight electoral robberies.

I proposed adoption of proven remedies from the African experience not because Ghana has achieved superlative democratic status in Africa but because it has remained a stable and durable democracy in Africa for well over two decades bu relying on certain remedies.

I. Replace the politics of exclusive ethnicity/identity politics with inclusive democratic politics

The root of all political evil in Ethiopia is ethnic/identity politics planted by the TPLF.

But that is nothing new. Ghana has had inter-ethnic conflict.

What was their solution?

A simple but effective constitutional amendment.

In 2009, I urged adoption of the language of Article 55 of the Ghanaian Constitution as an antidote to the disease of tribal and ethnic-based politics in Ethiopia.

Article 55 (4) of the Ghanaian Constitution provides:

Every political party shall have a national character, and membership shall not be based on ethnic, religious, regional or other sectional divisions.

For the past 27 years, the washed-out and now-in-hiding Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) made ethnicity and tribal affiliation the rock-solid  foundation of its ethnic apartheid divide and rule strategy.

In Article 46 (2), the TPLF devised and inserted the following constitutional language: “States shall be structured on the basis of settlement patterns, language, identity and consent of the people.”

Obviously, the central aim of Article 46 is to ensure party and electoral politics in  Ethiopia will necessarily be based on ethnic, religious, regional or other sectional divisions.

The solution is to purge Article 46 (2) out of the constitution and replace it with the language found in Art. 55 (4) of the Ghanaian Constitution as follows:

The Problem:

Article 46 (2): “States shall be structured on the basis of settlement patterns, language, identity and consent of the people.”

The Solution:

Article…:

Every political party in Ethiopia shall have a national character, and membership shall not be based on ethnic, religious, regional or other sectional divisions.

II. Ensure the primacy and supremacy of the rule of law

For the past 27 years, the rule of law in Ethiopia has meant the rule of one man, one-party pretending to be inclusive of several others and one small group of rapacious and predatory gangsters.

Ghana has a constitutional solution to the problem of disregard for the rule of law.

The Constitution of Ghana is the supreme law of the Republic of Ghana.

Article 125 provides that the Ghanaian “Judiciary shall be independent and subject only to the Constitution.”

The Ghanaian Supreme Court serves as the ultimate guardian of the rule of law.

The Supreme Court of Ghana has judicial review powers (the power of courts to determine if government actions violate the constitution).

That Court ensures the institutional independence of the judiciary and is not timid about overruling unconstitutional legislation and executive policies and decisions.

Article 127 (2) empowers the judiciary by further providing that “neither the President nor the Parliament nor any person whatsoever shall interfere with judges and judicial officers or other persons exercising judicial power, in the exercise of their judicial functions”.

All state organs are constitutionally required to comply with judicial orders.

The executive and legislative branches of government follow and respect the Constitution. They abide by the rulings and decisions of the courts and other fact-finding inquiry commissions.

The government of Ghana has undertaken actions to conform its laws to the standards of international human rights conventions.

Under Article 2 (4) of the Ghanaian Constitution, failure to obey or carry out the terms of a Supreme Court order is a “a high crime”, which in “the case of the President or the Vice-President, constitutes a ground for removal from office under this Constitution.”

Under Article 2 (1), “a person” can seek declaratory relief against an alleged unconstitutional law or act of any person by petitioning the Supreme Court. Amazingly, under Article 64, any Ghanaian citizen has the right to “challenge the validity of the election of the President in the Supreme Court within twenty-one days after the declaration of the result of the election.”

An independent judiciary is vital to the observance of the rule of law and protection of civil liberties is a non-negotiable issue in Ethiopia’s march towards democracy and rule of law.

The Problem:

The constitution drafted by the TPLF is simply not interested in the rule of law. It was designed to ensure the rule of  outlaws and criminal gangsters.

The Solution:

Incorporate the foregoing elements of the Ghanaian Constitution into a new Ethiopian Constitution.

III. Ensure the integrity of electoral politics by institutionalizing an  independent electoral commission

Unlike Ethiopia, Ghana has a competitive multi-party political system.

Ghanaians have shown multiparty democracy is not some fanciful Western ritual but a practical and effective system of governance. They have shown that a non-ethnic, non-tribal multiparty democracy is the only viable option that could guarantee stability, equity and economic development in Africa.

Article 55 of the Ghanaian Constitution guarantees, “Every citizen of Ghana of voting age has the right to join a political party.”

Political parties are free to organize and “disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes of a national character.”

There are some eight registered political parties (not 108), but the two dominant parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are said to represent an estimated 80 per cent of the Ghanaian voters.

Under Article 46, the Electoral Commission is guaranteed independence and is insulated from political interference.

With certain exceptions, “the Electoral Commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority…”

The Electoral Commission and is widely credited in Ghana and internationally for sustaining democracy, political pluralism and constitutional rule.

The Problem:

The problem of elections in Ethiopia is that they are stolen in broad daylight.

In 2005, the TPLF was trounced in the parliamentary elections and had to resort to extreme violence massacring hundreds of unarmed protesters to cling to power.

In 2010, the TPLF stole the election by claiming it had won 99.6 percent of the seats in parliament.

In 2015, the TPLF stole the election by claiming it had won 100 percent of the seats.

The Solution:

The first step is to restore faith in an electoral board that has a history of partiality and unprofessionalism.

The appointment of former judge Birtukan Midekssa as head of the election board is a significant first step. Birtukan was jailed for challenging the TPLF’s kangaroo elections process.

Fixing an election system that has been broken for decades will not be easy.

But it can be done in the run up to the 2020 election.

Independent election management bodies, nonpartisan domestic and international civil society election monitoring groups and independent media services could be established.

Pre-election process that are inclusive of citizens need to eb established.

The informal code of conduct among agreed to by the various parties should facilitate civil political discourse.

Cross-party cooperation is increasingly becoming a reality as coalitions are forming for the 2020 election and should serve to prevent conflict and election violence.

Police and security services should develop a coordinated election security strategy to ensure the election is conducted in a peaceful manner.

Simply stated, there is much to be learned from the practices and experiences of the Ghanaian Electoral Commission.

Let’s teach the children to starve the bad wolf and feed the good one

As I observe Ethiopian elite politics today, it’s all about the unholy trinities of bad wolves, “I, me and myself.”

When the elites are in a generous mood, they include the second set of unholy trinities “we, us and ours”.

But what do we pass on to the children, the next generation?

We should teach them one and only one lesson:

Feed the good and starve the bad wolf in the hearts and minds of Ethiopians!

Help the youth: Create tribal/ethnic/identity politics free zones in Ethiopia. 

The post Save the Children: Starve the Bad and Feed the Good Wolf in Ethiopia appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

BY CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO – 05/13/19</sp

The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines told NBC News he’s not sure if the company will ever fly the Boeing 737 Max aircraft again after a crash that left 157 dead earlier this year.

“If we fly them again, we’ll be the last airline to fly them again,” Tewolde Gebremariam said on an episode of “NBC Nightly News” set to air Monday evening.

“At this stage, I cannot fully say that the airplane will fly back on Ethiopian Airlines. It may if we are fully convinced and if we are able to convince our pilots, if we are ever to convince our traveling public,” he added.

“Because, you know, other airlines have grounded the airplane, but in our case beyond grounding the airplane, we had this tragic accident just a couple of months ago. So it takes a lot of efforts to convince everybody that the airplane is safe,” he said. “But beyond that, I think we have to convince ourselves and we want to do that.”

The Ethiopian Airlines crash, along with a Lion Air crash in Indonesia last year that killed 189 people and involved the same model aircraft, prompted many nations, including the U.S., to ground the Boeing 737 Max plane.

Earlier this month Boeing announced the company knew an alert on its 737 Max aircrafts did not meet alert requirements but determined it “did not adversely impact airplane safety or operation” and failed to notify the FAA until after the Lion Air crash.

Boeing has made software changes on the aircraft and offered additional training for pilots on its new stabilization system as it seeks to have the aircraft recertified for air travel.

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• Queen Maxima, 47, has arrived in Ethiopia for a two day visit in her role with UN
• The royal wore stylish black ensemble including comfortable flat shoes 
• While there Maxima will visit farmers who are shareholders in a beer brewery

By BRYONY JEWELL FOR MAILONLINE

Queen Maxima is visiting Ethiopia in her role as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA).

As the royal left the airport the first stop on tour was a visit to a UN office where Maxima, spoke with partners and private sector representatives.

She sat on a chair, which looked like a crown with a gold embellished patterned back as she spoke and laughed with the representatives.

In late 2017 Ethiopia launched a national strategy aimed at improving access to financial services for its citizens.

Currently around 65 per cent of the adult population do not have access to financial services such as a bank or savings account, insurance, a loan or digital payment methods, reports the Global Findex 2017.

Queen Máxima will begin her visit at the local UN office where she will speak with development partners and private sector representatives.

She will also meet with Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, Dr Getahun Mekuria, Minister of Innovation and Technology, and Dr Yinager Dessie, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia.

The mother-of-three is also scheduled to meet with the President of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde, and Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed.

During her trip Queen Máxima will visit farmers to discuss a new business model that has made some of them shareholders in the Habesha beer brewery.

The brewery also offers them partial prefinancing for barley production in the form of seed, fertiliser and agricultural advice.

The farmers pay this back with a portion of their harvest and the brewery guarantees that it will purchase the rest. This model helps boost yields and farmers’ incomes.

The second field visit will focus on the various digital financial ‘Hello’ services provided by the company Belcash.

Queen Máxima visited Ethiopia in December 2013 on behalf on the UN and at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos she met with Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed.

The royal has been the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development since 2009.

In this role she advises the Secretary-General and works worldwide to promote safe and affordable access to financial services for all.

It has been a busy week for Queen Maxima and on Friday she was seen celebrating April Fair with her family in Seville, Spain.

Maxima, who is often seen in bold outfits opted for a purple and pink look with her blonde hair pulled back and bright flowers in her hair.

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By Damo Gotamo

In a few weeks, the people of Sidama will celebrate this year’s Fiche Chambala holiday. They  are eagerly waiting for the festivity that will be celebrated for two weeks. According to oral tradition, the holiday is the commemoration of Sidama women who would pay a visit to their parents and relatives.The holiday is celebrated annually in a spirit of peace and friendship. While the people of Sidama are preparing for the holiday, the extremists are also working restlessly to repeat their last year’s shameful act. They are again plotting to hijack the holiday to promote their political agenda. Because of the mayhem that took place last year and the ensuing lawlessness that is still prevalent to this day, the government mustn’t allow the holiday to be celebrated in Awassa.

During last year’s holiday celebrations, the Sidama extremists burned people alive and displaced thousands of the city residents. People including those who came out to take part in the festivity with their Sidama brethren were attacked mercilessly. The extremists searched and destroyed houses belong to ethnic Wolitas. Thousands were displaced from their homes. We saw textbook ethnic cleansing at work against the people who have been known for their hard work and magnanimity.

The effect of the previous year’s holiday mayhem is still lingering in the minds of the city’s residents. Many of the victims are still struggling to make ends meet after they lost everything they had worked for. They still can’t live in their ruined adobes because of constant harassment by the extremists and their minions.

Economic activities in Awassa have shown significant slowdowns to the extent that some owners are shutting down their businesses for good. The hotel occupancy rates in the city are less than fifty percent of the normal rates.

Bars and restaurants have laid down many of their employees because they couldn’t make enough money to pay their wages. Banks and other institutions remain closed whenever the extremists order them to close affecting their businesses.

The lawlessness hasn’t spared the Awassa Industrial Park, which is the bread and butter of the country in generating the much needed hard currency.

Tour operators are also suffering because tourists are not coming to Awassa as they used to. Lake Awassa, the main attraction in the city, is as quiet as a grave. The only people who frequent the lake are musicians and people from the entertainment industry to use it as a scene of shooting their music and film. By the way, the latest sensational music,  Kokebey, by Joseph Gebre and Millen Hailu was filmed in Awassa. It is sad to see the beautiful lake sits idle because of ruthless extremists.

The real-estate market has also been affected by the illegal activity of the mob and the  uncertainty that overshadowed the city. Building new homes has ceased affecting thousands of construction workers and their families. The value of  the real-estate property has plummeted at an alarming rate. Once considered the top real-estate market rivaled only by Addis Ababa, Awassa’s real-estate market has stagnated significantly. People can no longer count on their property to make money, and the government has also lost in millions of birr that could have been generated as a result real-estate transaction.

Small businesses have also suffered significantly. Whenever the infamous Ejjeetto lashes its wrath, shops remain closed for fear of being vandalized. The Sidama extremists also harass shop owners constantly asking them to pay bribes. If they don’t comply with the demands of the extremists, their businesses would be closed.

Children couldn’t follow their education on a regular basis. Whenever there is lawlessness in the city, their parents remove them from schools affecting their proper development.

Allowing this year Fiche Chambala holiday to take place in Awassa is a recipe for another disaster. The people and the city can’t afford another catastrophe. It must be clear to authorities that the Sidama extremists will not hesitate to use the holiday once again to unleash havoc on the city. Those who caused last year’s mayhem are still at large and roaming the city plotting another tragedy. They don’t care about human life and property as long as they use the event to highlight their obsolete political agenda.

The extremists are openly bragging that they will declare a Sidama killi anytime. They should be warned of the consequences of another lawless and thuggish acts in the city. If something similar to the last year happens again, it will prove beyond any doubt that the government isn’t capable of maintaining law and order and protecting its citizens. The government must not allow this year’s Finch Chambala holiday to take place in Awassa. Let the peaceful people of Sidama celebrate their holiday in their vicinities peacefully away from extremists who taint the great people of Sidama. They can’t afford another shameful act and embarrassment at the hands of ethnic entrepreneurs who don’t care about anything except their pockets.

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Aklog Birara (DR.)

Part I of III

“If something is not done, this Constitution will not hold the country together”

Dr. Negasso Gidada, the late President of Ethiopia to whom I dedicate this commentary

I decided to dedicate this commentary and the set of recommendations in the summary to Dr. Negasso. This is because, he is among the few Ethiopian political and thought leaders who leaves an enduring legacy for this and coming generations. Among other things, he imparted critical values that often is missed in current Ethiopian political discourse. Most notable of these is his honesty, integrity and courage; and his willingness and courage to admit that he made a mistake in championing the current Constitution. He recognized the dangers of ethnic federalism; and changed his views. I had the opportunity to discuss the pitfalls with Dr.Negasso during his visit to the USA. In fact, I had offered him a huge study on demographic and geographic changes that are shaping the globe making narrow ethnic enclaves irrelevant to rapid modernization. Development can’t take place without social mobility.

Dr. Negasso said “የእኔ አቋም በኢትዮጵያ አንድነትና ማዕቀፍ ውስጥ የኦሮሞም ሆነ የሌሎች ሕዝቦች መብቶች ይከበር፤ የመገንጠል ጥያቄ ይቅር ነው።” His position that heartened me is this. “The human and democratic rights of the Oromo and other people must and can be respected while embracing Ethiopian unity. Secession must stop.”

This leads me to my lead hypothesis. Prime Minster Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s inspirational and aspirational goals notwithstanding, Ethiopia faces policy log jams in almost every sector. Implementation capacity is stretched to the limit. So are federal budgetary resources. The government is in a fire fighting and reactive proactive mode. The federal government and the regional states are at logger heads in resolving ethnic conflicts. The Prime Minister emboldens some ethno-nationalists by either being opaque or by not telling them like it is.

Rightly or wrongly, many Ethiopians argue that the Prime Minister is incapable of pulling the society together; and must therefore resign.

I disagree. No single person no matter how inspiring and dedicated can and should be expected to cleanse Ethiopia of the ethnic elite poison, germ, hate, vitriolic and institutional corruption that has been inflicted on the entire society.

I do not believe that there is any single Ethiopian on the horizon to replace Abiy at this time. The Moses like idolization should, however, be tempered and subjected to a set of criteria that make sense.

If Ethiopians wish to see a unified and prosperous country, they must set aside ethnic and other differences and focus on the singular issues of tackling poverty and backwardness by harnessing their natural and human resources together.

Foreign and other independent experts are right in asking why we, Ethiopians, are incapable of accepting our differences as assets; and why we are not forging ahead with the society’s sustainable and equitable development agenda.

I think of a child in Gedeo and Guji, in Gambella and Beni-Shangul Gumuz, in Tigray and Oromia, in Afar and the Ogaden etc. and always wonder why the country’s political and intellectual elites cannot even sit together around a conference table and come-up with a road map that will serve the entire society.

Like the rest of the globe, Ethiopia possesses ample naturel resources: rain, waters, rivers, arable lands, minerals, human capital with a bulging youth group that is being wasted, cultural assets and sits in a strategic location. Yet decades after the Great Famine that brought down the imperial regime, it is home to 3 million internally displaced peoples (IDPs); and 8.3 million souls who depend on humanitarian aid.

Ethiopia is unable to conduct a credible census. Against this, the governing party and members of Ethiopia’s opposition plan to hold an election in about a year.

I should like to draw your attention to a child who begs for alms to underscore the priority of fighting poverty and backwardness rather killing one another in perpetuity.

Fight Poverty and not one another

(Think of the starving child as your own)

The challenge for the Prime Minister, his government and each one of us who care deeply about Ethiopia’s future is to diagnose problems; and to offer doable and meaningful alternatives. On his part, the Prime Minster needs to reach out to and seek a menu of alternatives from a cross-section of Ethiopians. In terms of policy he cannot afford to be inward looking.

The signals and narratives federal and regional authorities offer the Ethiopian public are inconsistent and contradictory. Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, arguably one of the most inspiring and forward looking leaders in the world, believes genuinely in Ethiopia’s unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty and the prosperity of all Ethiopians. He has demonstrated resolve in numerous areas including respect for fundamental civil liberties, press and political freedom and the formation of pluralist democracy. He has positioned Ethiopia’s regional and global position strategically by reaching out to Eritrea, the rest of the Horn and global investors.

However, Ethiopia is awash with internal ethnic conflicts, theft, graft, corruption, illicit outflow of scarce capital, unemployment, hyperinflation, massive internal displacements of ordinary citizens estimated at 3 million and a humanitarian emergency crisis that requires safety net for 8.3 million Ethiopians. Ironically, Ethiopia hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

The government of Ethiopia is keen in advancing modernization. Among other things, it has opened up the country’s womb to foreign direct investment (FDI) without a clear and transparent regulatory regime that enhances the country’s interests, sovereignty and resiliency; protects workers, boosts domestic private and state owned enterprises such as banks, telecommunications and preserves intact profitable state enterprises such as Ethiopian Airlines.

I have shared my suggestions with the Prime Minister during his visit to the USA concerning the need for caution in privatization under the title of “Why the Rush Now?” I stand by my recommendation that unguided FDI is counterproductive for Ethiopia. The private sector is critical for Ethiopia. I shall come back to this topic in greater detail at a future date.

Ethiopia cannot build a strong and prosperous middle class with paltry wages. As a country, it should dictate policy and not succumb to the temptation of gaining foreign exchange and generating employment for millions of youth. Youth must be paid good wages to prosper.

A recent study by the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights disclosed in early May 2019 an alarming situation. “Ethiopian factory workers are now, on average, the lowest paid in any major garment-producing company worldwide.”  Understandably, Ethiopia must be aggressive in ensuring that its industrial parks built with domestic capital are productive and sustainable. “The government’s eagerness to attract foreign investment led it to promote the lowest base wage in any garment-producing country — now set at the equivalent of $26 a month.”

It behooves us to compare these paltry monthly wages that are equivalent to about 780 Birr (using a lower black market exchange rate per dollar of 30 Birr) to what workers are paid in Kenya next door and China, the most important and powerful investor in Ethiopia. The Center reported that Kenyan garment workers are paid $207 per month; and Chinese garment workers are paid $340 per month, more than ten times what Ethiopian garment workers are paid.

In my professional opinion, development is about improving the human condition. The most critical variable in accelerating modernization is enhancing and empowering human development. To put it differently, human development is the single most important variable in advancing sustainable and equitable development. In turn, this requires public policy that is national, competitive, productive, equitable and non-discriminatory. Ethnic federalism is a barrier to this fundamental principle; and must be addressed.

The only ethnic party that has called on Ethiopia’s ethnic elites, civil society, the federal government and others to review the current Constitution that I believe is a barrier to equity and sustainability is the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP). I commend this initiative and urge the Prime Minister, constituent parties and the opposition to make this call a national priority. The call is essential because it is virtually impossible to make Ethiopia the next global hub for textile and other manufacturing and industrialization unless there is universal peace and stability throughout the country; and unless social capital is treasured.

Pull and Push

The current debate concerning the future fate of Ethiopia and its 110 million peace-loving people is between those who believe that ethnic federalism and the constitution must prevail and those who contend that the constitution and revolutionary democracy (RD) are conflict prone must change. Lines are drawn between these two forces; and no one really knows where the country would end up in the coming two to three years. Recently, the founders of the OLF and three ex-generals of the TPLF argued vehemently that dismantling ethnic federalism, the developmental state and RD would result in the Balkanization of Ethiopia. They believe that the next election ought to be the preservation of the status quo.

This pull and push between the federal center and the regional or kilil periphery is not only holding Ethiopia from modernization and scaled up employment generation; it is also sending contradictory and confusing signals to the population. It emboldens sectarianism and ethno-nationalism.

One unintended consequence of this pull and push is that ethnic federalism cherry-picks winners and losers on the basis of ethnic affiliation; and undermines talent, creativity, innovation and productivity. In turn this dwarfs growth and productivity. East Asia and the Pacific is an excellent example in the use of talent beyond ethnicity.

In a conflicted environment, the government of Ethiopia is reactive rather than proactive with regard to public policy.  Not surprisingly, Ethiopians are confused what and who to believe. There is no national road map in the political or economic development regimes.

Sadly, Ethiopia’s media continues to cater to ethnic parties and to the governing party. There is limited impartial and independent reporting that bridges and advances common values and common policies. Think tanks and civil society organizations are still weak. Alternative policies that would serve Ethiopia as a country and Ethiopians as citizens are literally absent. When they are offered, it is not uncommon to screen them out.

The global community, including experts and NGOs are still wedded to their own narrow private and national interests. They see the Ethiopian dilemma as a nuisance that Ethiopians themselves must tackle.  I agree with them. Ethiopia has the requisite human capital to resolve its national problems. The hurdle is the lack of a shared and common understanding of what is best for Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people as a whole.

I challenge Ethiopia’s disparate, fragmented and competing ethnic and national parties to convene an all-inclusive conference for national consensus, peace, reconciliation and post ethnic politics based solely on citizenship.

Ethiopians and the global community, especially Ethiopia’s Western friends ought to measure and evaluate Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s government on the basis of clear and concrete criteria and outcomes. The most critical criteria is accountability for misdeeds at every level and regardless of power and tribe.  By misdeeds, I mean, undermining the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ethiopia; past and present targeted and deliberate ethnic cleansing; past and present direct or indirect killings of innocent persons; economic and financial sabotage; the deliberate propagation of ethnic or religious hate and destruction as well as unfettered ultra-ethnic nationalism that stimulates utter chaos and destruction.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Albert Einstein

Ethiopia shows all of the ingredients of un-governability and mob rule. African proverbs offer us a rich menu of wisdom if we decide to use them to improve Ethiopia’s conditions. “He who does not seize opportunity today will be unable to seize tomorrow’s opportunity.” We are, in fact, squandering opportunities today. Whether or not they accept it, Ethiopia’s ethnic elites and the intellectuals who champion them are not only squandering the windows of opportunity brought as a consequence of years of sacrifice (2005, 2014-2018 in particular); they are also pushing Ethiopia to break up by championing a broken ethnic and linguistic constitutional system and an administrative structure that strengthens ethnic conflicts, deaths and destruction, separatism and secession. Ethiopia wastes resources it does not even have to preserve peace and stability. Proponents of ethnic federalism want to preserve a system that is literally broken and dysfunctional.

The struggle between two fundamentally contradictory and irreconcilable principles is being fought in Ethiopia’s villages, towns as well as in social media. On the one hand, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed spoke and still speaks inspirationally of a “strong, unified and prosperous Ethiopia.” On the other hand, the ethnic and linguistic federal system that is buffeted by an ethnic Constitution his party created remains uncontested. Ethnic elites who created the current system have benefitted handsomely from the system they want to preserve at a huge cost, including Ethiopia’s dismemberment. In their vehement advocacy of ethnic federalism, RD and the developmental state that gave them power and wealth, they are also making it impossible for the Prime Minister to keep the country together. The best example of this un-governability is the garrison mentality in Mekele where some of the worst party, state and government criminals and thieves are stationed. 

Those who refuse to obey the center (the federal government) believe that the Constitution itself guarantees them the legal right to rebel and to disobey the rule of law. For all practical purposes, the Tigray region is now de-facto an “independent government.”  Dr. Debretsion G/Michael, the leader of the region, defies central authority consistently and arrogantly. On the one hand, he blames the federal government for refusing to avail budgetary largesse to the region that he has sealed off from the rest of Ethiopia. On the other, he holds federal authorities callable and accountable for the abysmal deterioration of human rights that contributes directly to Ethiopia’s balkanization.  Certainly, as an ultra-ethnic nationalist party that still refuses to acknowledge Ethiopia and Ethiopian citizenship, the TPLF does not possess the moral authority to demand accountability from Abiy’s government. The TPLF regime committed atrocities.

In his press conference that he holds freely and uses as a vehicle to prolong the agony of the Ethiopian people including Tigreans, Dr. Debretsion claims that national peace, reconciliation, the stability and sovereignty of Ethiopia are being eroded. He contends directly that the Abiy government is not able or competent to manage Ethiopia’s national and security affairs; to protect the safety and security of Ethiopians; and to accelerate development. He has learned absolutely nil from statesmen such as Ambassador Suleiman Dedifo, an Ethiopian who offered a compelling narrative for unity; and diagnosed thievery, theft, graft, undeserved commissions, corruption and massive illicit outflow of foreign exchange from Ethiopia.

Tragically for the Ethiopian people including Tigreans who believe in the sovereignty of the country and for which Tigrean heroes also died, Dr. Debretsion is accountable for making his region a bastion of “criminals and thieves.” Most prominent of these are Getachew Assefa, former intelligence chief and Abay Tsehay, one of TPLF main architects of ethnic plunder who served, among other things, as Director of a sugar conglomerate that lost or bilked away more than 12 billion Ethiopian Birr. Sebhat Nega, who at one time had boasted that “the Ethiopian Orthodox church and the Amhara were destroyed.” It is this system that they want to defend.

These persons are among the most ardent champions of ethno-nationalism in Ethiopia. They are also defenders of the current Constitution and kilil system. Neither the TPLF nor its adherents and supporters seem to care about the arduous work of preparing Tigrean and other youth for the solutions of tomorrow. Instead, they seem to be wedded to the anachronistic notion of fermenting ethnic conflicts everywhere. To do this, they use the tens of billions of Birr they stole from the public purse, especially from the mid-1990s to 2017/2018 to ferment chaos.

The argument that the TPLF and OLF make that they are defending the sovereign rights of nations, nationalities and peoples is absurd and indefensible. The rights of all citizens irrespective of tribe and where they reside are irreconcilable with ethno-nationalism. An Oromo or Amhara or Gurage or Somali or Wolayta national cannot compete in Tigray. A Tigrean cannot compete in politics in the Oromo region etc. Ethiopia is a polarized country.

I want the world community and Ethiopians alike to appreciate the fact that those who were murdered using bows and arrows in Beni-Shangul Gumuz; killed with machine guns and other modern weapons in Northern Shoa; slaughtered like animals with machete like weapons (ገጀራ) in Burayu and most recently hacked to death in Jimma (Kaffa) are innocent children, mothers, the elderly and peace loving farmers. If you murder productive people; you deepen poverty. It is not implementation that it at issue. It is the system itself.

The fate of the Amhara

The Amhara population is a singular target for assaults everywhere. Following the capture of the state and government by the TPLF, EPLF, OLF and other ethnic groups in 1991, Meles Zenawi was asked why the Amhara population was not represented in London and in the transitional government. His response was that the Amhara did not organize themselves on the basis of ethnicity. The Amhara are ardent supporters of a unified Ethiopia as well as defender of citizenship rights (ኢትዮጵያዊነት).  Because of this, they were exposed to all forms of human rights abuses including ethnic cleansing.

I find it galling, inhumane and shameful that the target population for ethnic cleansing in all parts of the country is the Amhara nationality. Experts estimate that more than 46 percent of the Amhara live and work outside the Amhara region. The spread of the Amhara population serves as a bulwark for integration and economic vitality. It also strengthens Ethiopia’s territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty. The Amhara population has a proven track record for defending the rights of others. The Amhara region hosts all ethnic groups. The Amhara has a proven track record for resisting foreign aggression and occupation. It should not be punished for these attributes.

The Amhara resolve at last to organize and defend its own very survival is therefore legitimate and right. In fact, I hypothesize further that Ethiopia’s future survival and vitality will depend on the wellbeing of the Amhara; and on the peaceful coexistence of the Amhara with the Oromo, Afar, Tigray, Somali, Wolayta, Gurage and other ethnic groups. It is their unity that preserved Ethiopia. Defending and institutionalizing the rights of all citizens is critical for Ethiopia’s survival; and for the modernization of all Ethiopians. So, why destroy such a valuable human capital national asset; for whose benefit?

It is worth repeating that the TPLF and its ally the OLF as well as other ethnic elites targeted the Amhara population from inception. The economic rationale behind ethnic cleansing of the Amhara is land. Ethiopia has ample land. Ethiopians are wasting it through conflicts and carelessness.

Years before the TPLF and its ethnic allies concocted the current ethnic constitution that granted sovereignty to “nations, nationalities and peoples,” thereby abrogating citizenship rights, the TPLF ethnically cleansed the Amhara in numerous parts of Gondar. It depopulated the Amhara from their lands and replaced indigenous people with Tigreans. Subsequently, it engineered internal divisions within the region along sub-ethnic clusters.

From the period 1991 to the present the Amhara have been subjected to the most cruel and unusual punishment of any nationality group in Ethiopia. In Arba Gugu, Amhara children, girls, boys, women and men were literally thrown over the cliff. Decades later in or near Jimma, one farmer (Mr. Getinet)) was hacked to death and buried in conditions that defy human conscience. This chilling inhumanity in today’s Ethiopia is not any different from the slaying of Ethiopian youth in Libya. An untold number of farming families are now housed in a church, the only sanctuary where they feel safe.

The common expression of “fake news” in Western democracies was deployed successfully and effectively by the TPLF and its cohorts to characterize and demean the Amhara population. “Fake news” and all forms of falsehoods are now deployed by the same group to assert the false and unfounded hysteria that the Amhara wishes to take over political and economic power. There isn’t an iota of evidence to suggest that the Amhara alone and exclusively ruled Ethiopia. In fact, the Amhara genius is the ability and commitment to intermarry and live with other Ethiopians. Are there any other ethnic groups outside the Oromo and Amhara that are predominantly mixed and intermingled to the point where one cannot distinguish an Oromo face from an Amhara face? How in the world would an Amhara farmer who was hacked to death near Jimma aspire power? How does one justify killing an Amhara child with bows and arrows in Beni-Shangul Gumuz? This is savagery that defies humanity.

Ethiopia’s ethnic tragedy does not start and end with the Amhara population. It is now widespread and involves innocent people in the Afar, Beni-Shangul Gumuz, Gambella, Ogaden, SNNP and Oromia regions. Once triggered, ethnic hatred, division and conflicts do not have borders at all. Everyone pays a price at one time.

I can provide numerous facts to dispel the notion that the Amhara are out to assume political power.

I therefore find it hypocritical that the TPLF that engineered the ethnicization of Ethiopian politics would now critique Abiy and his team for the disaster to which Ethiopia and its diverse population are subjected; and in which the Amhara are singularly targeted for ethnic cleansing. The killing and plunderers’ party, state and government that the TPLF and OLF crafted to rule Ethiopia is now shattering at its core. What worries me is not the unraveling of the institutions created by the TPLF and its allies and the EPRDF super and supra infrastructure that still dominates; rather, it is Prime Minister Dr. Abiy’s reluctance to deal with the pitfalls of ethnic federalism and revolutionary democracy.

What worries me further is that, despite compelling and chilling documentary evidence of atrocities on innocent Ethiopians, the culprits are allowed to exercise freedom; and to carry out all sorts of crimes against Ethiopia and Ethiopians. In some cases, the Abiy government hosts leaders of political parties in five star hotels. Among these are persons who are suspect of atrocities. It is natural that they defend the status quo. They are the lead beneficiaries.

What is the role of the federal government?

The primary role of the federal government is to protect civilians from any form of atrocity. The sanctity of human life must be supreme. Abiy’s government must be held accountable and responsible for the personal safety and security of persons, families and entire communities; for the durability of the country; for accelerating national consensus, peace, reconciliation and stability; for Ethiopia’s economic resiliency based on the performance of the economy; and for employment generation for Ethiopia’s youthful population.

Regional fiefdoms cannot cure Ethiopia’s ills. On the contrary, Ethiopia will breakup and ethnic cleansing will deepen unless regional authorities are assembled by the federal government and are compelled in writing to vow publicly that they will subordinate their narrow interests to the national interest and to the welfare and wellbeing of all Ethiopians as citizens. It may not be totally clear of conflict; but Nigeria’s federal constitution compels regional governments and governors to swear loyalty to the federal state of Nigeria.

I pose a critical question that each and every Ethiopian and the global community must ponder. What are Ethiopia’s options based on current socioeconomic and political conditions?

In my estimation, Abiy’s Ethiopia has three choices:

1. To continue with its downward spiral to the abyss of “Balkanization,” civil war and potential genocide with far reaching consequences for the country, the entire Horn of Africa and Eastern Africa, North Africa and the Middle East;
2. To revert back to the reemergence of a dictatorial regime akin to or worse than that of the TPLF led rulers of the 1991-2018 period; or
3. To initiate deep and fundamental policy, structural and institutional changes that would pave the way for the Ethiopian people as a whole to realize genuine pluralist democracy, the rule of law, honest and measurable equality among the country’s ethnic and religious groups and to establish a national model for sustainable and equitable development for all.

I have argued above that the first two options have been tried and failed miserably. In fact, the root causes of the current problem are traceable to the periods of brutal regimes following the removal of the Imperial government that had offered Ethiopians a semblance of peace; and certainly national honor and dignity at the global level. An Ethiopian passport was highly respected then. Ethiopians were able to live and work in any part of the country then. Black people all over the world looked up to Ethiopia and Ethiopians with admiration and respect then. It was uncommon for any Ethiopian to complete higher education and to seek asylum then etc. etc. etc.

The Socialist Military Dictatorship ruled with brutality and cruelty. It disallowed dissent and competition and; and it created a fertile ground for Ethiopia’s internal and external enemies to plot, connive and undermine the fabric of Ethiopian society. Socialism was a carbon copy of an alien ideology that was propagated without taking into account Ethiopia’s vast, untapped and unique indigenous assets, including administrative and legal instruments that work.

The Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF), the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other ethnic fronts exceeded even the Socialist regime in terms of breaking down unifying national assets. Ethiopia as a country and the numerous bonds that pulled Ethiopia’s diverse population together were either relegated to secondary status; and or were intentionally and systemically engineered to fall apart into pieces.  How did they do it? Constitutionally!

If you break up socioeconomic, religious and political bonds, isn’t time to revisit the Constitution?

The TPLF, EPLF, OLF and their foreign advisors and backers concocted the current blemished, inconsistent and opportunistic Constitution with the intent of enabling ethnic elites to rule the country for their own narrow personal, family and tribal interests. The culprit or the camouflage deployed as a central galvanizing ideology is the TPLF’s insidious attribution of national oppression of the rest of Ethiopians by the Amhara nationality. This became the basis for massive and continuous ethnic cleansing of the Amhara. You can’t cure the problem unless you deal with the Constitution itself. Continuing the status quo will result in more bloodshed.

The data gathered of these killings, forcible evictions, abductions and expropriation of lands, incorporating them into Greater Tigray began long before the TPLF took power in 1991. Equally chilling is the fact that the TPLF was able to recruit and establish an Amhara political movement that was subservient to it. Proxy wars that are now normalized started to take shape before the TPLF dominated Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) began to rule Ethiopia with an iron fist more than a quarter of a century ago.

As a consequence of the narrative that placed the Amhara at par with colonial and imperial powers, the Amhara became targets of assault throughout the country. To my knowledge, no party or regional or federal official has been held accountable for the crimes against humanity inflicted on the Amhara population. Innocent children, women and men were literally thrown over the cliff to die; tens of thousands were expelled from their homes, lands and property in Gura Ferda, various parts of Oromia, Gambella, Beni-Shangul Gumuz and various towns around Addis Ababa and even in the Amhara region, especially Gondar.

Every single forcible eviction and displacement, killing, maiming, disappearance, jailing without due process of law, rape and confiscation of property from ordinary Ethiopian citizens, most noticeably from the Amhara shows that the rule of law never existed under the TPLF regime; and it does not exist now under the ODP regime either.

What it the rule of law anyway?

Every activist, intellectual, human rights advocate, politician and political party of any kind speaks about the rule of law. Constitutional lawyers have a shared definition that I shall use in this commentary.

First and foremost, the rule of law applies equally to all persons or citizens regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, class, religion or other distinction. It is a core principle. If you don’t apply it in one case it is discriminatory. For example, under Apartheid South Africa or Jim-Craw America, the rule of law did not apply to whites, blacks and browns alike.  It was biased in favor of whites; it still is.

Second, the rule of law is consistent regardless of the issue or the person. Unless they are guided by ethnicity or ideology or class, public authorities do not determine that one case is potentially explosive and thus needs to be delayed for an opportune time; and another is a priority now. This is why experts argue that “Justice delayed is justice denied.” For example, top level thieves, tormentors and killers or corrupt party, regional or federal officials and thieves of state in Ethiopia who had committed crimes over decades continue to enjoy both freedom and livelihoods from stolen wealth. Yet, petty criminals and thieves do not enjoy the same rights and privileges.

Ironically, criminals and thieves who possess ill-gotten wealth, have established a network of impenetrable connections and continue to enjoy unprecedented immunity. In the process, they create havoc and destruction all over Ethiopia. They blame the havoc on the new government. And the central government does not seem to comprehend the problem. It spends more time creating commissions rather than dealing with the core issues first.

Among the missing links is the notion that Ethiopia’s external enemies are gaining ground while Ethiopians fight one another for lands and for political power. I still accept Prime Minister Dr. Abiy as a potential change agent. However, I failed to understand what his road map is for Ethiopia. A road map is virtually untenable unless Abiy’s government recognizes that ethnic federalism and revolutionary democracy are undermining the country’s sovereignty and uprooting the multiple bonds that hold the Ethiopian people together.

Third, the rule of law is predictable and reliable. Predictability and reliability are essentially of clear laws that are implemented consistently by an impartial, competent, merit based, independent, incorruptible and national judiciary system. Judges and other key personnel are selected and appointed to administer the rule of law without reverting to ethnic, religious, class or party affiliation. If you staff the court and judiciary system on the basis of ethnicity, it is predictable that the outcome will be biased and discriminatory. For this reason, ordinary people won’t trust the judiciary at all. They perceive it as an arm of the governing party.

Fourth, the rule of law must enjoy neutrality.  Over the past 27 years of TPLF hegemony, the law was deployed consistently and systematically to punish perceived enemies of the governing party, the state, the government and the Constitution itself. The Anti-Terrorism Proclamation is the best example of the lack of impartiality and neutrality. You write a Constitution with all the trappings of respect for civil and human rights on the one hand; and use fabricated evidence to punish those who fight for justice, equality and the rule of law. Or you condone misbehaviors and misdeeds arguing that proponents want a redress for past mistakes.

Those who hold Ethiopia’s progress forward by deploying different methodologies to capture state power are not helping Abiy in building bridges. As the African wise proverb goes “In the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges and the foolish build dams.” I am not saying that dams are no good; they are. I am saying that the time to build dams and all other economic infrastructure will come when we embrace and accept one another as human beings and as Ethiopians.

The priority now is to build bridges among all Ethiopians. It is the people of Ethiopia as a whole who fought and lost their lives and ushered in a new regime. Ethno-nationalism does the exact opposite. It builds barriers to inclusion.

It is therefore time that the federal government shows muscle and teeth and guarantee the safety and security of Ethiopians without distinction to ethnicity or religion or class. No armed group; no special force of any kind should be allowed anywhere in the country to roam, maim, kill and forcibly evict innocent citizens.

Commissions alone do not work. Setting up all forms of commissions and staffing them with the same cadres of people who are part of the problem is not wise; and won’t produce positive outcomes. Ethiopia must strengthen at any cost its national institutions first.

No accountability! No Rule of law

Fifth, the rule of law holds everyone accountable for harmful conduct and action. If you apply ethnic, religious or class preferences in adjudicating the rule of law, all is lost. Thieves, murderers and other criminals alike feel that they are entitled to impunity; that the rule of law does not apply to them at all. Impunity is the enemy of national unity and justice for all.

Whether affiliated to a municipal, local, regional or federal government or the private sector, every citizen must be held accountable. Disparate or unequal or uneven treatment of individuals based on ethnicity, wealth or political power is anathema to the rule of law. Most critical of all, disparate treatment in the application of the rule of law based on different types of connections diminishes public trust in party and government officials.

An American scholar, democratic activist and patriots summed up the rule of law. “In America, the rule of law is King.” In contrast, the rule of law in Ethiopia is farce. For example the TPLF’s Chief of Security, Getachew Assefa, is described by knowledgeable experts as “corrupt, murderer, inhumane and torturer.” He and his partners have cordoned themselves off from the rest of Ethiopia in the garrison city of Mekele. Who knows what they are plotting next and where? Equally, who knows what the OLF is plotting from its “home base” in Addis Ababa?

What I surmise is this. The TPLF and its allies used public funds and other resources to recruit and staff an elaborate system of institutions in critical parts or regions of Ethiopia, for example, in Beni-Shangul Gumuz, Gambella, Addis Ababa and other locations. I won’t forget the 5 to one surveillance system that was Orwellian; the numerous State of Emergencies that proved to be lethal in the Amhara, Oromia regions as well as in Addis Ababa following the stolen elections of 2005; and during the state of siege from 2014 to 2018.

While the TPLF was dislodged from state power, the grassroots level organizations and traps it planted most often using local proxies and agents have not been dismantled.  There is a plethora of evidence that confirms the existence of parallel authorities, chieftains and some say governments. The TPLF plots in Mekele and the OLF plots in Addis Ababa. What is the distinction between the two?

The Prime Minister ought to recognize that these schemes and plots together are intended to thwart the reform process; and to reinstate the TPLF or a similar ethnic based dictatorship. The severity of a Mafia or mob style resistance differs from one locality to another. You bring Oromo and Somali Ethiopians together artfully and systematically one day; and resolve disputes successfully; and another ethnic conflict erupts somewhere else. The root cause is the same.

The TPLF, OLF and other ethnic allies as well as their foreign backers institutionalized ethnic federalism with the intent of keeping Ethiopia in suspense, threatening it with a break-up when the situation is not favorable to the ethnic elite masters and new land lords. The TPLF and OLF in tandem argue that dismantling the ethnic federal system they established will result in Ethiopia’s Balkanization. The same architects that brought Ethiopia to the brink are now telling us that Ethiopia will balkanize unless the status quo is maintained.

Why not asks the people of Ethiopia to decide the matter in a national referendum?

Proponents of the status quo ante do not, however, tell us why the system is the single most critical source of ethnic cleansing, murders, robberies, internal displacements and land grab. Neither the TPLF nor the OLF gives value and priority to all human life.

For more than 27 years, the TPLF and its ethnic allies including ethnic parties such as the Amhara National Democratic Movement that the TPLF fathered, ruled Ethiopia with a level of cruelty and brutality unprecedented in Ethiopian history. No matter how much I have tried, I find no parallel in modern African history that resembles Ethiopia’s Orwellian party, state and government all blended into one. It is this same system that adherents of ethnic federalism, the developmental state and RD want to preserve at any cost.

Equally, it is this Orwellian system that Abiy and his team must dismantle before it brings down the entire government; Balkanizes Ethiopia; and triggers civil war and possible genocide.

In the Amhara region, the TPLF had successfully recruited, planted and penetrated each and every municipal, regional, sub-regional and regional administrative institution including the now morphed Amhara Democratic Party itself. Colleges and universities are forced to serve as bastions of TPLF propaganda. The ADP must cleanse itself of the monster to which it is a hostage. Peace and stability are unattainable as long as the TPLF infrastructure exists. It operates and breeds like a virus.  The solution to a virus is not appeasement; it is dismantlement at its institutional and constitutional core.

Contrast the Amhara region’s situation with that of the Oromia region where the Oromo Democratic Party has “freed” institutions and civil society of TPLF hegemony, influence and its hateful virus. This does not mean that the rule of law prevails in Oromia either; it does not. Comparisons should be read as relative.

Enablers and financers

This takes me to another phenomenon in Ethiopian politics that we fail to analyze and debate boldly and candidly. For a mobster like political culture to flourish, there must be enablers somewhere. Who are these domestic and foreign enablers of the mobs, thieves, robbers, black marketers, human and weapons traffickers, sharp shooters and saboteurs of economic and financial infrastructure? Do they really care for Ethiopia and for the Ethiopian people?

Why is this taking place in an environment of hope, a pronounced focus on human rights, well-articulated aspirational goals by the Prime Minister, better relations with neighboring countries, especially with Eritrea and a public euphoria for fundamental change? Why is the federal government unable to protect the safety and security of individuals, communities and the country?

Is the onslaught a threat to Ethiopia’s territorial integrity, national honor and dignity and the country’s sovereignty? My answer to this core question is an unequivocal yes.

I do not think that any person or party has the answer. I know from the experiences of other countries in transition that the Prime Minister and his party are genuine and sincere in their aspirations. However, they alone cannot solve this national and human problem. Equally, Ethiopia’s fragmented and weak opposition or so called competitive (ተፎካካሪ ፓርቲዎች) parties cannot either. I am convinced though that, if united and free, the Ethiopian people can save the country. They have done it in the past and will in the future too.

An aspect of Ethiopia’s systemic and institutional hurdle that no one is discussing forthrightly is the pull and push between the federal center and the regional or kill self-governing units. They are not in synch at all. I have shown above in the TPLF example that, on the contrary, elites of regional governments operate as “independent units.” Their loyalty to the center is questionable. In a number of instances, regions or kilil (s) serve as porous entry points for all types of extrajudicial bodies. They provide safety and security to thieves and criminals.

For example, in Gambella, it was reported that there are “three military depots, training camps” etc. In the Afar region, similar extrajudicial movements of armed men have been identified. In Beni-Shangul Gumuz, the marauding bandits of armed men who murdered civilians identifying them as Amhara nationals are described as “unknown.” Similarly, in Northern Shoa a well-armed group with machine guns moved from house to house killing innocent people, torching homes and churches. This armed group was also described as unknown. Federal authorities including defense forces have failed miserably in mitigating these and other atrocities. It is time to ask whether or not these establishments are independent and national or ethnic and biased?

What I recommend as a remedy

My hypothesis from these sets of incidents is this. When regions become porous and uncommitted or ill-equipped to safe guard the safety and security of all Ethiopians civilians in their own region and when “unknown armed groups” are able to roam, kill persons and destroy property, they have essentially failed to implement the rule of law. They have also failed to bear their share of responsibility to the federal government. In the process, Ethiopia’s sovereignty is threatened.

Regional governments and people have an obligation to ensure the safety and security of all citizens. They have an obligation to safeguard Ethiopia’s national interests and its sovereignty.

What I conclude from the chaos and the uneven change process is this. For Ethiopians to enjoy personal security, peace and stability, the rule of law must be enforced throughout the country by local, regional and federal authorities in synch.  No single person or party should be above the law. The social and political glue that will strengthen the rule of law is citizens’ rights.

In any civilized country on the planet, ex-officials such as Getachew Assefa and any others who robbed 17 bank branches, murdered 58 innocent people in Burayu, triggered massive ethnic conflicts and displacements in Gedeo-Guji, Gondar, Oromia, Northern Shoa, Beni-Shangul Gumuz and near Jimma and also took out billions of dollars of Ethiopia’s wealth illicitly would be “wanted men.” They won’t be allowed to live with impunity anywhere in the world. This is the reason why I contend that appeasement won’t work at all.

What would it take to strengthen the rule of law?

First and foremost is public resolve and participation in pursuit of fundamental change.

Second is bold, courageous and imaginative government leadership at all levels; and continuous and proactive popular public engagement and support for peace and stability. More than anyone else foreign or domestic, ordinary Ethiopian citizens especially youth know the facts on the ground.

This leads me to the third recommendation, namely accountability. Youth can pinpoint and identity party, regional and federal officials who have committed crimes against humanity; and have plundered the country. Shouldn’t such persons be held accountable in a court of law regardless of tribe or power? My answer is yes.

How do we achieve accountability?

Ethiopia must use all tools at its disposal including the Magnitsky Act in the United States, the EGMONT Financial Intelligence surveillance system, Interpol and the International Criminal Court and hold those who committed extrajudicial murders of innocent civilians; and those who used their public authority and power to steal and take out billions of dollars illicitly accountable wherever they may hide.

Hemorrhaging through theft and graft

I note with delight and anticipation that the Ethiopian government has decided to join the EGMONT group of countries to track and retrieve the tens of billions of dollars stolen and taken out of the country illicitly. I have been arguing for several years that Ethiopia is hemorrhaging from illicit outflow that averages close to 3 billion dollars per annum. It is not just price mis-invoicing and under reporting that is the culprit. The foreign exchange regime is replete with distortions including black market exchanges of dollars and other hard currencies for Birr, high commissions and kickbacks, unreported and illegal Diaspora transfers of monies etc.

I shall conclude from the above hypothesis and analysis that the implication of lack of accountability for any form of crime in Ethiopia is consequential. It must be dealt with now.

This is the fundamental reason why Ethiopia needs a new Constitutional system with checks and balances: an independent judiciary, an elected legislative body that is solely subservient to the electorate and not to the party; and a top notch and incorruptible executive body appointed through free and fair elections.

I shall reiterate the most critical hypothesis. One of the biggest hurdles the Abiy government faces is lack of accountability for high crimes whether property or human lives. You can talk all you want about the rule of law; but no one will take you seriously if those at the highest level of government (local, municipal, regional or federal) are not held accountable for misdeeds in a court of law.

Transferring criminals, including thieves of party, state and government from one role to another is a form of appeasement. It is not justice. It does not advance the democratization process an inch.

In the light of the above, my advice to the Abiy team is that they need to hold each and every person who has committed high crimes accountable in a court of law now. I am hopeful and optimistic that this will happen.

In part II of this commentary, I shall discuss the pitfalls of ethnic federalism and propose an alternative that will hold Ethiopia together and advance the prosperity of the Ethiopian people.

In the interim, I urge proponents of ethnic federalism to heed to the wise advice of the late Dr. Negasso.

May 14, 2019

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Preparing for the upcoming May 2020 enational election of Ethiopia five opposition political parties have agreed to merge forming anew party, Hibir Ethiopia Democratic Party.

Ethiopian Renaissance Democratic Organization, Ethiopian National Transitional Council, Ethiopian people’s Movement, Omo People’s Democratic Union, and South Ethiopia Green Stars Coalition are the five political parties agreed to form Hibir Ethiopia Democratic Party. The parties are set to officially merge and create the new party on coming Thursday, according to the press statement made by the leaders of the parties on Monday.

Latest report shows that there are ciurrently around 100 politcal parties operating in Ethiopia, of which most are ethnic based. After coming to power about a year ago, the reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahemd has told opposition parties to come together narrowing their differtences.

As a result last week, some of the major opposition figures from half a dozen opposition parties have disolbved their previous opposition parties and announced the establishment of a new opposition front, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice Party.

NBE

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Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

“From a busy business area to a quiet neighborhood in ruins,” the view of Samuel Getachew, an Ethiopian journalist describing the border town of Zalambessa in the northern Tigray region.

The town was one of the main areas (in September 2018) that benefited from the reopening of border crossings between Ethiopia and Eritrea following the peace deal of July 2018.

Samuel, who is with the privately-owned Reporter newspaper, is undertaking a tour of the country and observed that the area had been deserted in the wake of Eritrea’s unilateral closure of the border.

He quoted a business operator as bemoaning the closure for its adverse impact. “Since the re-closing of the border with Eritrea, business has been slow and this is how empty restaurants have become. “

“Added to that is, there is no regular electricity (in Zalambessa),” an unnamed waitress at a hotel in the town told him.

Towns on either side benefited when border crossings reopened as families moved to reunite. Businesses from Ethiopia had largely benefited from the border opening as they crossed with materials that were in hot demand in Asmara.

Conversely, Eritreans came into Ethiopia to escape political and economic conditions back home.

Samuel Getachew@GetachewSS

What the border closing has meant for the City of Zalambessa. In just a year, its has gone from a busy business area to a quiet neighborhood in ruins.

Samuel Getachew@GetachewSS

Zalambessa

In September 2018, two border points were opened in a ceremony that saw Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed join citizens for the official reopenings.

Another border point the Humera-Omhager was opened months later but all three points have been shut on the Eritrean side. The government has not explained why the move and Ethiopia says it had not been communicated to

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ESAT Latest Ethiopian News May 15, 2019

The post ESAT Latest Ethiopian News May 15, 2019 appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News & Breaking News: Your right to know!.

(BBC) — They urged swift action after the first deadly 737 Max crash off Indonesia in October, according to audio obtained by CBS and the New York Times.

Boeing reportedly resisted their calls but promised a software fix.

But this had not been rolled out when an Ethiopian Airlines’ 737 Max crashed four months later, killing 157 people.

Currently 737 Max planes are grounded worldwide amid concerns that an anti-stall system may have contributed to both crashes.

Boeing is in the process of updating the system, known as MCAS, but denies it was solely to blame for the disasters.

In a closed door meeting with Boeing executives last November, which was secretly recorded, American Airlines’ pilots can be heard expressing concerns about the safety of MCAS.

Boeing vice-president Mike Sinnett told the pilots: “No one has yet to conclude that the sole cause of this was this function on the airplane.”

Later in the meeting, he added: “The worst thing that can ever happen is a tragedy like this, and the even worse thing would be another one.”

The pilots also complained they had not been told about MCAS, which was new to the 737 Max, until after the Lion Air crash off Indonesia, which killed 189.

“These guys didn’t even know the damn system was on the airplane, nor did anybody else,” said Mike Michaelis, head of safety for the pilots’ union.

Boeing declined to comment on the November meeting, saying: “We are focused on working with pilots, airlines and global regulators to certify the updates on the Max and provide additional training and education to safely return the planes to flight.”

American Airlines said it was “confident that the impending software updates, along with the new training elements Boeing is developing for the Max, will lead to recertification of the aircraft soon.”

Following the Lion Air crash, Boeing issued additional instructions to pilots in case they faced a malfunction of the MCAS.

But in a letter obtained by the AFP news agency, Mr Michaelis said the instructions weren’t sufficient to help pilots in the event of malfunction.

Mr Michaelis also reportedly asked Boeing executives at the meeting to consider a software upgrade for the 737 MAX 8 – which probably would have required the planes be grounded for some time.

The executives said they didn’t want to rush out a fix, and said they expected pilots to be able to handle problems, according to the New York Times.

Investigators believe in both deadly crashes a faulty sensor triggered the plane’s MCAS anti-stall system, which repeatedly pushed the nose of the plane down.

Earlier this month Boeing admitted that it knew about another problem with its 737 Max jets a year before the fatal accidents, but took no action.

The firm said it had inadvertently made an alarm feature optional instead of standard, but insisted that this did not jeopardise flight safety.

The feature – an Angle of Attack (AOA) Disagree alert – was designed to let pilots know when two different sensors were reporting conflicting data.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said the issue was “low risk”, but said Boeing could have helped to “eliminate possible confusion” by letting it know earlier.

Boeing has been working on a software fix for its flight system and is hoping for quick approval from regulators.

But it is unclear if the planes will be back in the air before the end of the critical summer travel season.

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