Author’s Note: What’s in a label? Well, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet…”?  That may be true, provided, of course, those roses are not roses raised on the land-grabbed farmlands of Karuturi Global in Ethiopia, a topic I explored in my recent commentary on Karuturi and the power of India in Ethiopia. This is the third piece in my ongoing commentaries on land-grabbing and land giveaways in Ethiopia. Last week I asked whether there is any country left for Ethiopians after the T-TPLF hands over millions of hectares of land to foreign land grabbing scammers-cum-investors and neighboring countries. In this commentary, I question if the so-called “Addis Ababa Master Plan” is a clever public relations cover for the T-TPLF Masters’ Land Grab Plan.

No more Addis “Ababa Master Plan”?

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) “will scrap plans to expand the capital into surrounding farms after widespread opposition from the public.” The “Addis Ababa Master Plan” was designed to strategically incorporate municipalities and unincorporated areas surrounding the capital in to a rapidly developing metropolitan economy.

But the T-TPLF got serious push back from local residents in the impacted areas and had to resort to its hallmark massacres to suppress the resistance. Human Rights Watchreported that since mid-November 2015, T-TPLF “security forces [had] shot dozens of protesters in Shewa and Wollega zones, west of Addis Ababa”; and in the town of Walliso security forces fired “into crowds of protesters leaving bodies lying in the street.”

Getachew Reda, the crocodilian motormouth T-TPLF communications minister, unashamedly denied  and downplayed the existence of a real “master plan”;  and if there were such a plan, he said only rabble-rousers would oppose it.  “There was not a plan that had taken shape following discussions with the people. There was not a [plan] that was designed in a professional way or scientifically prepared for a final political decision.”  Reda blamed troublemakers for the T-TPLF’s massacres of unarmed protesters and characterized the victims as gangsters: “Elements trying to take advantage of the misunderstanding now have reached the point where they are organizing armed gangs and routinely burning down buildings belonging to private citizens, along with government installations.” (A 24-carat thug-to-the-bone calling unarmed protesters gangsters!)

The popular push back to the so-called Addis Ababa master plan sent shock waves through the T-TPLF rank and file and the parasitic elites who tail behind the T-TPLF bosses gobbling up land and property from increasing numbers of poor farmers who are fast becoming landless, hopeless, voiceless and powerless.

The hand that rocks the T-TPLF cradle in the land grabbing frenzy in the Addis Ababa metropolitan area is none other than, you guessed it, The World Bank, that ruthless gang of money changers I affectionately call “poverty pimps”  and with whom I have locked horns for some years now. (See my November 2015 commentary, “Ethiopia and the World Bank of Lies, Damned Lies and Statislies.”

Truth be told, the Addis Ababa Master Plan is a cover story concocted by The World Bank to justify land grabs, forced evictions and displacement of poor people in metropolitan areas  like Addis Ababa that are growing rapidly. The World Bank argues that the future urban development of cities like Addis Ababa necessarily requires geographic and spatial expansion beyond existing city boundaries to adjoining municipalities and unincorporated areas. The expansion is said to be necessary for efficient service delivery to outlying areas and maintenance of urban sustainability in an ever-expanding metropolitan area.

The Addis Ababa Master Plan is, to put it bluntly, a World Bank/T-TPLF conspiracy calculated to displace poor farmers and convert their land into private estates for the T-TPLF extended “royal families” and parasitical elites.

Of course, World Bank collusion with the T-TPLF to displace local populations in the name of “development” is nothing new. The Bank allowed the T-TPLF to use its so-called “Protection of Basic Services Project” (PBS)  to “villagize” (that is a kinder and gentler word for displace, depopulate, uproot, and evict ancestral landholders) the people of Gambella in western Ethiopia (and other locations) and handover their land to “investors” who eventually proved to be scammers.  (See my commentary, “The Moral Bankruptcy of the World Bank in Ethiopia.”

In May 2014, the World Bank proclaimed, “As cities grow rapidly, strategic planning at the metropolitan level is needed to ensure efficient and sustainable service delivery.”

In February 2015, “a team of specialists from the World Bank Group worked with government officials, experts and stakeholders in Addis Ababa to identify the priority actions and investments that will enhance the city’s resilience to metropolitan approach to urban planning.” The Group allegedly sought to “address the unprecedented urban growth by quickly focusing on the implementation of the new Integrated Development Plan for the city.”

In July 2015, The World Bank issued a report entitled, “Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Enhancing Urban Resilience.”  That report argued Addis Ababa must be a resilient city, and “building a resilient city therefore requires a holistic, multi-sectoral, and flexible approach to urban development.”  How can Addis Ababa become more resilient?  The report says the city must take “priority actions” which include first and foremost, “effective implementation of the Integrated Development Plan and related regulations” and investments in infrastructure projects.

“Integrated development plan” means “connecting people with rapidly growing regions” and connecting “smaller cities” and regions “by transport and linked to the electricity grid, smaller cities can attract industries for which the more advanced cities have become too expensive.”

Simply stated, integrated development means gobbling up land adjacent to urban areas to facilitate urban sprawl and squalor into farmland surrounding the capital.

Is it even theoretically possible to have a genuine “integrated development plan” which absorbs communities surrounding Addis Ababa under the corrupt rule of the T-TPLF? Well, has hell ever frozen over and the devil gone ice-skating?

The answer is found in a 2012 World Bank study “Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia“, pp. 285-326.  I wrote multiple commentaries on that report in 2013; available at almariam.com).

The World Bank Ethiopia land corruption study documents the dangerous implications of the Addis Ababa Master Plan in terms of the negative effects of encroachment on surrounding areas. That study concluded, “land is being allocated that should not be allocated. The master plan for Addis Ababa is being ignored, and most of the green areas and some of the roads in the master plan have been allocated for private use.” (p. 303.)

But for the sacrifices of courageous Ethiopians who protested and temporarily stopped implementation of the master plan, “Oromia would lose  an additional 36 towns and cities to Addis Ababa.” It would also mean the “proposed plan will expand Addis Ababa’s boundaries to 1.1 million hectares, covering an area more than 20 times its current size.”

Simply stated, that would mean hundreds of thousands of farmers and residents, if not millions, in the impacted areas would be subjected to forced evictions and displacement.

The T-TPLF Masters’ Land Grab Plan

To fully appreciate the far reaching implications of the so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan, one has to understand the nature of land ownership in Ethiopia.

The 1995 T-TPLF constitution declares, “The right to ownership of rural and urban land, as well as of all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the State and in the peoples of Ethiopia. Land is a common property of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of exchange.” (Article 40(3).)

If the state has exclusive ownership of rural and urban land in Ethiopia, then the obvious question is: Who has exclusive and complete ownership of the state in Ethiopia today? Who has exclusively owned and operated the state in Ethiopia for the past 25 years?

The answer is a question: Who won the May 2015 election by 100 percent (one hundred percent)?

State ownership of all land in Ethiopia is the fountainhead of land corruption.

The World Bank Ethiopia corruption report states that “the land sector [in Ethiopia] is particularly susceptible to corruption and rent seeking [using social or political institutions to redistribute wealth among different groups without creating new wealth (profit seeking)].”

Wealthy and influential T-TPLF individuals, affiliated groups and assorted parasitical elites seize the land of the poor and marginalized through forced, but “legal” evictions and eminent domain actions.

Land-grab deals with the T-TPLF and international investors-cum-scammers in Ethiopia have gained much international attention thanks to the work of international  human rights and environmental organizations.  The World Bank Ethiopia corruption report stated that “a substantial proportion of expropriated land is transferred to private interests”, but not to smallholders. “The expropriation and relocation of smallholders has been to the advantage of extensive commercial farming, including flower farms, biofuel, and other commodities.”

The internal land-grabbing by the T-TPLF has attracted less international attention but it has been equally devastating.

According to the corruption report, the internal land-grab process often begins by identifying a parcel of land and starting negotiations for a lease with the municipality. Conveniently for the T-TPLF, there are no guidelines. As a result (p. 302):

there is a lot of corruption… The rules for access to land are not clear, and some people have better access than others, largely due to relationships or payment of bribes. The private sector usually cannot rely on or wait for the lease or auction process, so it usually looks to other means. A key method to illegally allocate municipal land was to allocate it to housing cooperatives controlled by developers who then sold off the land informally. The resulting buyers were usually unaware of the legal status of the land they were buying.

Therein lies the answer. Those who own the state own the land. Those who own the land and the state are corrupt to the marrow. I did not say that; the World Bank did!

Corruption in land is indeed the root of all corruption in Ethiopia! Grand corruption in land originates from the upper circles of power in the public and private sectors. The powerful T-TPLF political and economic elites exploit the anarchic, arbitrary, secretive, unaccountable and confused governance system to weave their tangled webs of corruption and profiteering.

The World Bank Ethiopia corruption report explains that sophisticated corruption methods in the land sector in Ethiopia occur in several ways. First and foremost, “elite and senior officials” snatch the most desirable lands in the country for themselves. These T-TPLF fat cats manipulate the “weak policy and legal framework and poor systems to implement existing policies and laws” to their advantage. They engage in “fraudulent actions to allocate land to themselves in both urban and rural areas and to housing associations and developers in urban areas.” These “influential and well-connected individuals are able to have land allocated to them often in violation of existing laws and regulations.”

Another “key method” of land corruption involves the illegal allocation of municipal land “to housing cooperatives controlled by developers who then sell off the land informally.” Often “buyers were unaware of the legal status of the land they were buying” and end up in court before judges who are “aligned (in cahoots) with the corrupt officials”.

Yet another “key method” of land corruption is official falsification of documents:

With limited systems in place to record rights, particularly in urban areas, and limited oversight, officials have plenty of opportunities to falsify documents. It is not uncommon for parcels of land to be allocated to many different parties, sometimes to as many as  different parties, from whom officials and intermediaries collect multiple transaction and  service fees.

Blatant conflict of interest of board members who oversee the lease award process, the absence of a compliance monitoring process for lease allocations and payments and the absence of land use regulations have all served to accelerate the metastasizing corruption in land in Ethiopia.

In the capital Addis Ababa, it is “nearly impossible to a get a plot of land without bribing city administration officials.” These officials not only demand huge bribes but have also “conspired with land speculators” and facilitated bogus “housing cooperatives [to become] vehicles for a massive land grab. It is estimated that about 15,000 forged titles have been issued in Addis Ababa in the past five years.”

That is exactly what the World Bank said!

So, who are the “government officials who demand huge bribes”? Well, who are the officials who own the state?

Management of rural land is similarly deeply infected with T-TPLF corruption. “In rural areas, officials have distorted the definition of ‘public land’ to mean ‘government land’”. Officials define “public purpose” in applying expropriation which is believed to be a leading cause of “landlessness”. Officials have also “engaged in land grabbing to grant land to functionaries” and this is “happening at the woreda (district) level and is being copied by the elected committee members at kebele (subdistrict) level.”  According to the World Bank Ethiopia corruption report, “Almost all transactions involving land most often incorporate corruption because there is no clear policy or transparent regulation concerning land.”

Simply put, there are no “public lands”, only “government lands”. Well, who owns the government and the land?

It is stunning to learn from the World Bank report that the T-TPLF does not even have the most elementary system of land management in place.

Rural areas have no maps of registered holdings… In urban areas, there is little mapping of registered property. Encumbrances and restrictions are not recorded in the registers, and the encumbrances, if registered, are listed in a separate document. Land use restrictions are not recorded in the register. There is no inventory of public land, which affects the efficient management of public land and creates opportunities for the illegal allocation of public land to private parties.

Because existing institutions and laws are evaded, ignored and manipulated for private gain, the system of land management is a total failure making it impossible to hold officials in power legally accountable for their corrupt practices.

But could the apparently chaotic land management system have been intentionally designed to maximize and facilitate T-TPLF predatory land-grab practices?

Land rip-offs or eminent domain?

The T-TPLF constitution empowers the T-TPLF to “expropriate private property for public use with the prior payment of adequate compensation.” (Art. 40.1).  The T-TPLF has also “enacted” Proclamation No. 455/2005 on the Expropriation of Landholdings for Public Purposes and Payment of Compensation and Council of Ministers Regulation No. 135/2007 pertaining to the Payment of Compensation for Property situated on landholding expropriated for public purpose.

Do these “laws” have any teeth? Or are they merely words written (just like the T-TPLF constitution) on paper to put smiles on the faces of the international poverty pimps (and wipe off their crocodile tears) who bankroll the T-TPLF and fund the land-grabbing madness?

The World Bank corruption study in Ethiopia and other studies have shown that such “laws” are nonsense in light of the fact that in cases of urban expansion, location of industrial parks and other projects, local municipalities simply do not have the money to pay “adequate” compensation. As a result, the urban expansion process has largely been based on no compensation, inadequate compensation or straight out forced evictions without appeals or further judicial review. Simply stated, the Addis Ababa Master Plan is the T-TPLF Masters’ Land Rip-off Plan!

The T-TPLF does not want to divest the “state” from land ownership or privatize land ownership. Why should they voluntarily get off the gravy train?

The T-TPLF says Ethiopia’s feudal history combined with complicated systems of traditional landholdings and the risk of absentee landlords returning, potential explosion of landless population, etc., necessitates state ownership of land.

The T-TPLF also claims it can manage the land better. For whom?

Of course, expecting the T-TPLF to manage Ethiopia’s land for the people of Ethiopia is like expecting the fox guarding the hen house to care for the chickens or the wolf in sheep’s clothing to shepherd the sheep. It is utter nonsense!

State ownership of land in Ethiopia is in reality T-TPLF ownership of land because the T-TPLF has exclusive ownership of the state. For the T-TPLF to give up its ownership of land in Ethiopia is tantamount to giving up state power. Without exclusive ownership of all land in the country, the T-TPLF has no power. “Kapish?” (capisce), to borrow an Italian word. Dig what I mean!

For the T-TPLF, ownership of land means ownership of the livelihood of every single one of the 100 million people in Ethiopia.

Land for the T-TPLF is a gift that keeps on giving gifts called bribes.

Controlling land means owning rural “votes” (stolen, that is).

Land is the ultimate source of absolute power for the T-TPLF.  If it is true that power corrupts, then corruption in land corrupts power absolutely.

The T-TPLF control freaks will hang on to every inch of land until they are swept into the dustbin of history.

The fact of the matter is that the T-TPLF owns 100 percent of the votes. It owns 100 percent of “parliament”, the “house of  the people’s representatives”.

The T-TPLF owns 100 percent of the land in the country.

That makes the T-TPLF the new royalty, aristocracy and nobility in a modern day Ethiopian feudal state.

Isn’t “ethnic federalism” merely a 21st century euphemism for a feudal kingdom of the Middle  Middle Ages?

The Medieval feudal King owned all the land in the country and granted use to whomever he pleased. Almost always, the King gave the land only to those he trusted and those who took oaths to remain loyal to him. The King’s men were known as barons and they fought for their King. The barons became wealthy, powerful and had complete control of the land they leased from the King.

Isn’t that what is happening in Ethiopia today with the “regional governments” or shall we call them by their right name, “principalities”?

Hail  to the T-TPLF thieves (I meant chiefs).

The need for eternal vigilance

Those who pushed back the T-TPLF and forced it to declare the Addis Ababa Master Plan null and void after incurring  great cost in human life may now feel jubilant and victorious. They may even feel they have “defeated” the T-TPLF.

Such feelings are not only foolish but could ultimately prove to be fatal miscalculations.

As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, the T-PLF land-grabbers will be back to grab their land like scared off buzzards picking carrion. Sure, they will step away for a while to let the dust settle, but they will be back with a vengeance!

There is no doubt the T-TPLF bosses are rattled by the push back. The lies dripping from the motormouth Getachew Reda tell how shocked and shaken the T-TPLF bosses are in the resistance they faced in their business-as-usual land grabs. (I always find it curious and funny that the T-TPLF bosses NEVER, NEVER step up and explain themselves on what they have done. They always stand behind some dud motormouth frontman like Reda or Redwan to do the talking for them. Isn’t that what Hailemariam Desalegn does for them too?)

The T-TPLF will come back and try again to grab the same land.

Reminds of the old tongue-twister? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Well, how much land would a T-TPLF land-grabber grab if a T-TPLF land-grabber could grab land?

The bottom line is that the T-TPLF bosses and fat cats are salivating at the mouth just thinking about grabbing the land surrounding Addis Ababa. They will do anything to get all, NOW. They operate on borrowed time.

The T-TPLF will be far more sophisticated next time. There will be no wrangling or brouhaha over a “master plan” next time.  There will be no knock-down drag-out street and alley fight to grab land.

It will all be done covertly, systematically and invisibly.

The T-TPLF will try to lull everyone into thinking that they have abandoned their master plan. They will put out more public statement to that effect.  They will say the “master plan” is dead if it had ever lived. They will pledge to “work” with the people of Oromia to get another community project (not plan) implemented. (I am pretty sure the T-TPLF will NEVER use the word “master” in any plan they will present to the public.)

The T-TPLF will bide its time and wait until the people in the affected areas to let their guards down.

They will use the old “frog in the boiling water” strategy. If you drop a frog into boiling water, it will immediately jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and then bring the water to a boil very, very slowly, the frog will stay until it is cooked to death.

The T-TPLF tried to grab all the land at once and the people jumped up and protested.

But if the land-grabbing is done piece by piece, the people won’t even blink. I am afraid, in time, the people in the impacted areas will let their guards down.

In the meantime, the T-TPLF will not sit idle twiddling their thumbs. They will implement “Master Plan B” (bet you did not know they had a Plan B) or the plan to systematically and methodically neutralize those who oppose their land-grab.

The T-TPLF has a variety of methods available to it to implement “Master Plan B” against those opposed to the land-grab: 1) buy them off, 2) scare them off, 3) threaten and intimidate the hell out of them, 4) jail and torture them and 5) kill (massacre) them. That is standard T-TPLF operating procedure — T-TPLF MO (modus operandi).

It is foolhardy for those in the affected areas to think even for a moment that the T-TPLF is gone with its tail between its legs. T-TPLF victims should never forget that the T-TPLF is comprised of some of the most cunning, conniving, wily, scheming, evil, crooked, vicious, diabolical, wicked, shadowy and Machiavellian political operators to be found anywhere on the planet.

They are not the type that will simply walk away from a land-grab fest, the land-grab gravy train. If they can’t gobble up all the land around Addis at once, they will gobble it piece by piece. No problem. The T-TPLF leaders believe that if they cannot physically push the poor farmers off their land and steal it, they can sure as hell outwit and outfox them out of their land.

I have no doubts that the T-TPLF will use any means including local frontmen and bagmen to buy the land for them for later transfer. They will masquerade as private developers partnering with locals to do different “projects”. They will put up make-believe projects to acquire land in pieces. They will mask their “master plan” in some other sweet sounding name. They will do whatever it takes to grab that land. After all, if their plan works they will eat up some 36 cities and towns surrounding Addis Ababa. That’s a lot of “living space”!

I wish I could predict the T-TPLF will lick its chops and walk away. That would be like expecting buzzards to lick their chops and simply fly away from carrion.

It has been said that the “price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” I would say the price of keeping one’s land is also eternal vigilance. Those who could have been impacted by the Addis Ababa Masters’ Plan must remain eternally vigilant and scrutinize any and all land transactions in their areas if they are to have a snowball’s chance in hell to save their lands and protect their children’s future.

I do not object to urbanization and solving urban problems with advanced planning and technology. I have read and carefully studied the “Addis Ababa Master Plan.” It is purportedly a plan for “Addis Ababa and surrounding Oromia special zone, 2006-2030.” It is purportedly drafted by the “Addis Ababa Administration” and “Oromia kilil government”. The plan discusses in great detail all of the issues raised in various World Bank reports and recommendations concerning the “resilience of Addis Ababa” through “integrated development”. It talks about infrastructure development, transportation, services, industrial zones, ecological conservation, green spaces, irrigation and may other things. It provides maps showing future locations of parks, airports, regional development sites, etc. As a technical document, the “plan” is extraordinarily detailed and structured along World Bank urbanization plans.

The one thing the master plan completely disregards is the input of the ordinary people who will be impacted by the plan. What will happen to the people living in areas surrounding Addis Ababa once the capital’s urban sprawl and squalor oozes into their pastoral areas?  Where will they go? How will they support their families? Will they become surplus people for the T-TPLF and its regional compradors to dispose of as they please?

The National Socialist German Workers Party followed a destructive policy of “lebensraum” (living space) and justified its aggressive territorial expansion into neighboring countries by depopulating, displacing and repopulating those areas  deemed to be inhabited by “untermenschen”, those who were not as good as the Aryans. The National Socialists had two primary goals: 1) forcible acquisition of “living space” and 2) a permanent reckoning with the Jews. The National Socialists were stopped in the end.

The T-TPLF dug up “ethnic federalism” to bury Ethiopia and now “ethnic federalism” is about to bury the T-TPLF.

If every “kilil” created by the T-TPLF pushed back as did those in Oromia, what would be left of the T-TPLF?

It is written, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.”

That is an eternal divine truth. Deal with it!!!

Courtesy of ecadforum.com

Ginbot 7 Chairman Prof. Berhanu Nega’s Full speech in Washington D.C – January 31, 2016

Kalkidan Yibeltal

Gayle E. Smith, Chief Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said the US continued to be vigilant over the recent protest and subsequent violent crackdown in Oromiya regional state, the largest of Ethiopia’s nine states.

Speaking at a press briefing in the sidelines of the 26th AU heads of state summit this afternoon, Gayle Smith said that she has discussed the issue with the government in Ethiopia.“We have forwarded our clear concern of the dangers leaving such a problem unattended,” she said.
State Department Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, on her part emphasized the importance of communication. “We have engaged the government [on this regard] and there is a clear recognition on their side [that] the questions raised were legitimate” and the use of excessive force was “a mistake.”
Answering to a question from Addis Standard on whether there was a discussion with the Ethiopian government on the way forward, Ass. Sec. Thomas-Greenfield added that “requests have been made” for an investigation which is “transparent and shared” and for the protesters in police custody to be given “access to justice.”
Tom Malinwoski, Assistance Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, on his part said that “we have had constructive discussions with government officials including the Prime Minister.” The level of recognition of the situation “is a crucial first step,” he said.
While access to justice is important for the protesters, including members of the opposition, who were taken into police custody and if there is anyone who is jailed for peaceful expression of opposition, “we believe should be released,” added Malinwoski.

The Oromo Protests, which began on No 12th last year in Ginchi, a small town some 80 Kms South West of the Capital Addis Abeba, is by far the largest protest against the ruling EPRDF since it came to power in 1991.
The US has previously expressed its concerns against the violent crackdown on the protesters, and urged the government in Ethiopia to permit peaceful protest and commit to a constructive dialogue to address legitimate grievances.
But according to a Human Rights Watch report in early January, the protest has resulted in 140 deaths. However, several accounts from activists and campaigners put the number as high as above 200.
USAID Administrator Gayle Smith led the US delegation to the AU summit. Joining the delegation are Department of States Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield and Assistant Secretary Tom Malinwoski.
Following the Summit the delegation is expected to visit areas where the US government is working to respond to the current drought in Ethiopia that left 10,2 million Ethiopians in need of food assistance.

Speaking of Science

Washington Post

An expedition into a remote national park in Ethiopia has revealed a previously unknown population of African lions, suggesting that the species — which is categorized as “vulnerable” — may be more widespread than conservationists had hoped.

The Born Free Foundation announced the existence of the lions – confirmed with images taken by motion-activated cameras — in a news release Monday. Because the lions were spotted in Alatish National Park, which borders the Sudanese Dinder National Park, the researchers involved with the discovery hope that the population spans both countries. Altogether, the two parks could hold an estimated 200 lions.

That might not sound like a lot, but there are only an estimated 20,000 lions on the entire continent, down from 450,000 less than a century ago. Disease, habitat loss and other hardships could cause those numbers to drop even more in the future.

“During my professional career I have had to revise the lion distribution map many times,” lead researcher Hans Bauer of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit told New Scientist. “I have deleted one population after the other. This is the first and probably the last time that I’m putting a new one up there.”

The find might be even more exciting: These lions could be members of a sub-species with only 900 living individuals. Now that they’ve been spotted, conservationists can work with Ethiopian and Sudanese governments to keep the national park population from dwindling.

“We need to do all we can to protect these animals and the ecosystem on which they depend, along with all the other remaining lions across Africa, so we can reverse the declines and secure their future,” Born Free’s chief executive Adam M. Roberts said in a statement.

Ginbot 7 Chairman Prof. Berhanu Nega’s Full speech in Washington D.C – January 31, 2016

Prof. Seid Hassan- Murray State University

February 1, 2016

Introduction

Admittedly, in all countries of the world, Ethiopia included, the reasons behind rising property prices could be many. In the Ethiopian case, these factors include, among others, demand for and supply of real (estate) assets, rising population and urbanization, the existence of a large number of tenants working for donor communities (NGOs) and multinational institutions, huge influx of money that the diaspora community sends back home (remittances) that largely is poured onto the housing and real estate markets. This commentary, however, focuses on government policy-driven (infrastructure and service sector-focused) and the corruption fueled aspect of the fast-rising real estate and related property prices.

A Short Context

For generations, land has been a pivotal resource and power in Ethiopia and this power is exclusively in the hands of the government and cadre elites who can expropriate land at will. It has been a highly lucrative sector for both the central government, party-affiliated parastatals, top-party elites and individuals and businesses with deep political connections. The lucrative business does not only emanate from a mere possession of land and real estate but also from the shoddy deals and access to lucrative bank loans.

Corruption as a Major Cause for the Roaring Real Estate Prices

The ruling party effectively owns all of the country’s land, coupled with the “ownership” of the commanding heights of the countries productive resources by the numerous party-owned conglomerates subsumed under EFFORT. Currently, a significant portion of popular anger coming out of the private investors happens to be directed towards the state owned military industrial complex (Metals & Engineering Corp. -MetEC) as a result of its deep entrenchment with corruption. Thanks to the monopolistic ownership of both the rural and urban land by the state, the rising real estate market and property prices have been vital sources for both the central government and corrupt cadre elites. The monopolistic ownership of land by local officials is also manifested by self-dealing (the sellers and appraisers being one and the same) which in turn has led to skyrocketing real estate and rental prices, making Addis Ababa one of the most expensive cities in the world to buy property. From time to time, the same local officials are observed in raiding and bulldozing of entire villages (in and around the capital and elsewhere), uprooting thousands of residents at time. A greater proportion of the evictions are in the form of forced methods, even though a limited of them seem to be “induced” ones. Local corrupt cadres and officials then sell the confiscated real estate properties piece-by-piece at inflated prices to both local brokers and real estate developers (“housing cooperatives”), thereby making unbelievably high level profits. As captors of the lands, city administrators and members of parliament at times toss around land proclamations until they get their royalties and rents from land grabbers. Using their power to access cheap bank loans, the highly connected real estate developers and brokers convert the same illegally demolished neighborhoods to hotels, condominiums, shopping centers, etc. Local officials, many of them municipal appointees get their cut both in kind and monetary rewards.

In its chapter dealing with the land sector corruption, the World Bank (Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia…) tells us that the corruption conundrum is manifested in the form of “officials and intermediaries collect[ing] multiple transaction and service fees” (page 303), through the use of “…weak policy and legal framework and poor systems to implement existing policies and laws… fraudulent actions to allocate land to themselves in both urban and rural areas and to housing associations and developers in urban areas” (page 305), by fraudulently forging land documents and illegally selling record rights (page 303), creating opportunities for officials for profiteering (page 307), etc.

What I am describing here are the same folks that the late Prime Minister Zenawi, in his February and March 2012 parliamentary addresses called “elephant owners of corruption,” “thieves within the government” and “robbers within the people,” analogous to eating one’s body like a wounded hyena. These are the same cadres and real estate owners that, again, the late Zenawi, in one of his public addresses which included many private business owners, chastised as corrupt. Raising his voice in a threatening manner, he told his audience that he happened to know that many of them own several real estate properties, registered under their names, their spouses, their small children and even under their dogs’ names. These are the same folks, in mid-2011, that Mr. Zenawi accused stashing $2 billion in overseas banks and/or real estate assets. These are the same cadres that government communication spokesman Getachew Reda, now tells us are involved in ‘massive corruption,” albeit stating the obvious in his attempt to mollify the discontented and implicate the wavering and betraying cadres and perhaps preparing the ground to purge them out of party leadership.

The land and real estate property capture has a vicious circle: Administrators conspire which part of city land to be taken away and which village to be demolished; brokers connect party hacks and local administrators with real estate developers (so-called housing cooperatives) and members of the diaspora; political party-owned firms and party loyalists, in collaboration with banks (whose large portion of business activity is in the real-estate sector), allow their folks to borrow funds at negative real interest rates. Each one of these interconnected groups get their cuts, while those evicted, after crying foul for a while, just “disappear!”

The Diaspora and Remittances Exacerbate the Corruption Conundrum

One can list a number factors, both positive and negative (theoretical and practical) regarding the role of remittances (i.e. funds sent by the diaspora community back home). Here, we focus only on the issue at hand- illustrating some of the observed factors for the rapidly rising property values in Addis Ababa and, to some extent, other regional cities.

Mystified observers repeatedly ask me why property values in Ethiopia not only are already so high but absurdly skyrocket on a continuous basis. Their next question is: “Isn’t this phenomenon a bubble and when do you think it will burst?”  Then, they wonder why the Ethiopian Diaspora is so oblivious to corruption and why the same folks are largely in real estate investment (and not in establishing sustainable factories, extraction of mineral deposits, provision of electricity and telephone services, etc.). They are mystified because, under normal circumstances, real estate investors are supposed to weigh in the returns and risks associated with land-related investments (evaluate the fair-cash-on-cash flow of their investments). That is, the returns of the cash-flow rights to the acquired real estate (expected rate of return) should be one of the major considerations. Secondly, in addition to seriously weighing in the riskiness of an illiquid asset (i.e., real-estate), one has to be concerned with getting involved with the ongoing corruption conundrum. Such a calculation should reveal to them the future flows that the buildings and land are expected to generate, enabling them to compare the returns and risks of their real estate related investments to alternative ones- i.e., liquid financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and CDs which are available to them in the countries they migrated into. Thirdly, in an attempt to minimize the cost associated with attending the acquired properties, proximity to the property must be factored in. Under normal conditions, real estate prices and investments are also driven by the cost of credit.

As it turns out, what is transpiring in Ethiopia happens to be anything but normal or rational. For one, a good portion of the money “invested,” particularly the portion spent on residential structures is ill-gotten, thereby making real estate the home of laundered cash and as a means to cleanse money collected illegitimately. Secondly, the door for other avenues of investment requiring private entrepreneurial endeavors are closed by the Developmental State economic mantra and practice. This fact makes investing in real estate the only option available to citizens. Consider also the real estate “investment” made by a good portion of the diaspora: As indicated above, one of the factors that the “investor” should seriously consider is minimizing the amount of time and money that he/she would spend for attending the property. Our anecdotal but repeated observations of diaspora “investor” behavior (which includes several close friends and relatives) indicate that such thoughts never occur to them. They never consider the thousands of dollars they repeatedly spend every time they travel to the country to attend “their” property, pay taxes and submit their fingerprints. If this is not enough, many of these same folks end up being defrauded by the government agencies (a cunning plan also applied in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Zimbabwe), by their investment advisors, real estate brokers and even the sellers. The scamming of home buyers by the real estate developers is indeed an astoundingly common practice in the country. Even though many of them regretted after the fact, my anecdotal findings and extensive review of the popular version of the literature indicate that a good deal of the diaspora’s engagement in residential real estate investment is largely for its sentimental values, not financial gains. Even though a select few have found ways to enrich themselves, most happen to be building/acquiring residential (“retirement”) structures that they will never use (nor would it make any sense to do so).

Role of Negative Interest Rates and Rising Inflation Rates

Two other factors which have played a big role in driving up real estate and property values are negative real interest rates and rising inflation rates (both of the ruling party’s own making). In addition to discouraging saving, negative real interest rates encourage borrowing and, as a result, have been a means of transferring income from savers to borrowers. As it turns out, many of the borrowers happen to be political party-owned companies and those involved in real estate and related illiquid assets. Rising inflation rates also encourage speculation and the desires for holding commodities and precious metals. Since neither commodities and precious metals nor stocks are available in the Ethiopian case, speculation is largely on land and related assets. Real estate holdings also serve as hedges against rising inflation. For, inflation in general does not erode the (intrinsic) values of real assets such as real estate and precious metals. In general, the prices of precious metals and resale values as well as the rental rates of properties rise in tandem under such circumstances. At a time of rising inflation, land, bricks and mortar are considered safe investments.

Cornered Market

Monopoly position of land ownership by the government has enabled government officials and party-affiliated individuals to effectively corner the real estate market. The cornering emanates not only from the monopolistic access and ownership of land, but also from low interest loans and the funneling of diaspora funds to a certain investment groups who happen to be loyal to the ruling party. As it turns out, such a cornering activity also involves transnational diasporic finance. It is an open secret that, when it comes to the Ethiopian situation, nearly all major remittance intermediary business agencies are either directly or indirectly owned by the ruling party, elite cadres and persons with close ties with the government, which funnel the diaspora funds to kin and party affiliated investments back home.  As practiced, the local authorities evict citizens out their lands, forcing them to leave their country of birth to seek for employment abroad. This act is a concerted policy of the government to sell people to enhance remittance flows. Their collaborators residing outside of the country funnel remittances towards certain preferred routs which are owned by individuals and firms highly connected to the ruling party. As Professor Minga Negash and myself have illustrated elsewhere, a large portion of the human traffickers happen to be individuals who have close ties with the ruling party. The process is effectively a vicious circle: The government policies directly or indirectly force citizens to leave their country in drones; human traffickers, a good portion of them licensed and very close to the ruling party, facilitate the migration process; business intermediaries facilitate and direct remittances to favored coffers- all designed to remain in power and make money. This disdainful and mafia type of practice has been revealed by the practices of Ethiopian authorities and consulate representatives during 165,000 plus Ethiopian migrants from Saudi Arabia and the aftermath of slaughtered Ethiopian Christians by Libyan religious fanatics. When outraged Ethiopians turned the government sanctioned demonstrations for protest against the killings of Ethiopian Christians in Libya, the ruling party used force against the outraged demonstrators, the beatings resulting in several injuries). It is interesting to note that the failure of the ruling party to demand the Saudi authorities to be accountable for their mistreatment and slaughtering of Ethiopian migrants even seem to confounded its loyal supporters and apologists.

Conclusion

Economic activity under the current Ethiopian government has largely focused on infrastructure building and the service sector (which include real estate development). Building infrastructure is indeed vital, especially for a developing country like Ethiopia. Unfortunately, undue emphasis on the aforementioned sectors not only will be unable to lead to prosperity, this writer believes that the policy has led to macroeconomic imbalances and is the cause for the ongoing skyrocketing real estate and property prices. The rise in property values and rental rates have resulted in the pricing and driving out of a huge majority of residents of Addis Ababa and other major regional cities. No doubt these have resulted in the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, thereby increasing the income gaps and public discontents. It is imperative, therefore, for the ruling party to address these serious issues. This writer believes the solution lies in designing land and urban policies, which should include changing the constitution that dramatically affects the ownership of land.

UN News Center

Visiting drought-hit region of Ethiopia, Ban urges support to Government-led humanitarian efforts

ESAT Video – Professor Berhanu Nega speech January 31 2016 Silver spring MD USA

Jan 30, 2016

ኢሳያስ አፎርቄ ስለምርጫ ተጠይቆ የመለሰው እጅግ በጣም አስቂኝ መልስ ” የምን ምርጫ”። እኛ እንባችን እስኪመጣ ነው። እናንተ የተሰማችሁን ደሞ ኮሜንት አድርጉልን። LIKE እና SHARE ያድርጉ

By: IPI Contributor Michael Kudlak

VIENNA, Feb 2, 2016 – Ethiopian authorities should cease an ongoing campaign of persecution targeting journalists and bloggers from the Zone 9 collective and allow them to travel and report freely, the International Press Institute (IPI) said today.

Despite a federal high court’s decision to drop widely criticised charges of terrorism against them last year, members of the group continue to face arbitrary travel bans and other actions against them that hinder their professional activity.

“Members of the Zone 9 collective face a pending appeal of the decision to drop charges against them, ongoing administrative harassment, threatening messages and constant surveillance, all of which appear designed to keep them in a state of fear where re-arrest is imminent,” IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis said. “In addition to silencing the collective, these actions seem intended to muzzle the critical voice of Ethiopia’s independent journalists in general.

“We call, again, on authorities to respect constitutional guarantees of press freedom and freedom of information and to reform the country’s repressive anti-terrorism law, and we urge them to stop the harassment of members of the Zone 9 collective and allow them to do their job as journalists.”

Formed in May 2012, the Zone 9 blogging collective is, by nature, provocative. Described by one of its co-founders as “dedicated to challenging corruption, upholding human rights and promoting government accountability”, the group’s name is a play on the eight zones in Kality Prison, where most of Ethiopia’s political prisoners are held. “Zone 9” refers to the rest of the country.

In April 2014, Ethiopian authorities arrested six of the group’s bloggers – Abel Wabela, Atenaf Berahene, Mahlet Fantahun, Natnael Feleke, Zelalem Kebret and Befeqadu Hailu – and three independent journalists, editor Asmamaw Haile Giorigis and freelancers Tesfalem Weldyes and Edom Kassaye, as a result of their contact with foreign human rights groups and political opposition parties.

The bloggers and journalists were held on charges of terrorism and inciting violence under Ethiopia’s 2009 anti-terrorism law. In addition, they were charged with conspiracy for using basic online encryption tools routinely used by journalists in their work.

Between April 2014 and September 2015, the Zone 9 bloggers’ trial was adjourned some 30 times, and the bloggers spent nine weeks in detention before finally being charged under the country’s controversial anti-terrorism law. Although the last member of the Zone 9 blogger collective was released in October 2015, and all charges of terrorism against them were dropped by a federal high court following international pressure, harassment of the group continues.

An appeal by the state prosecutor is pending and five members of the group – Wabela, Berahene, Feleke and Hailu, as well as Soliyana Shemiles, against whom the hearing will proceed in absentia – are currently due to appear in court on Friday.

Meanwhile, Kassaye, who was set to travel to the United States on Dec. 11 to attend the prestigious Missouri School of Journalism on a five-month scholarship, remains unable to leave Ethiopia following an immigration officer’s seizure of her passport. Almost two months later, her passport has still not been returned and, despite numerous queries, she has received no reason for the confiscation. After explaining to the officials that she had been offered a scholarship, Kassaye was, at one point, simply told that she should “apply again next year”.

Martha Steffens, a member of IPI’s Executive Board and the SABEW Chair in Business and Financial Reporting at the Missouri School of Journalism, said that IPI’s North American Committee “deeply regrets that Ms. Kassaye was barred from leaving her home country and attending the Missouri School of Journalism as a visiting international scholar, thereby denying her both the human right to travel and to receive education”.

Steffens added: “The school plays host to more than a dozen visiting international scholars every year who learn state of the art journalism skills and creating more understanding about the workings of a free press. We hope that Ms. Kassaye’s passport will be returned to her, so she can travel to the U.S. and complete her studies.”

Kassaye was also set to be a speaker at IPI’s World Congress in Doha, Qatar from March 19 to 21. However, she will not be able to attend the event as long as the current, de facto travel ban against her remains in place.

Other members of the group have experienced similar fates. Kebret was unable to travel to France to receive an award from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), after his passport was seized by immigration officers, while Tesfalem Weldyes could not pursue a six-month fellowship in Germany after his passport was also taken from him.

Zone 9 members are constantly subject to widespread surveillance by the government security forces and have also received threatening messages to refrain from their work as journalists or bloggers.

Ethiopia remains one of the world’s largest jailers of journalists, with at least 10 currently serving long prison sentences or facing charges under the anti-terrorism law, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported on Dec. 1, 2015 as part of an annual survey it conducts. Dozens more journalists have fled into exile.

IPI and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) carried out a joint fact-finding mission to Ethiopia in November 2013 to discuss the country’s 2009 anti-terrorism law and the challenges faced by Ethiopian journalists. Unfortunately, despite widespread international calls for reform, the state of press freedom in Ethiopia has seen few subsequent improvements.

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Pime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday afternoon visited the Ashkelon family home of Ethiopian-Israeli Avraham Mengistu, 28, who is being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It was the prime minister’s first visit to the family since their son disappeared into the Palestinian enclave 10 months ago.

“We are doing everything in our ability to return Avra [short for Avraham] to Israel, just as we are in contact with the family of the other Israeli citizen in order to bring him back to Israel as well,” Netanyahu said in reference to a second Israeli citizen, as yet unnamed, who is also in the Strip.

“We will not slacken and we will do everything necessary in order to bring these citizens back home,” he said.

“We face a very cynical and cruel enemy that denies the basic humanitarian obligation to send innocent citizens back to their country,” Netanyahu said after the visit.

Netanyahu’s visit followed a public uproar over Israel’s handling of the case, after a recording of the prime minister’s chief negotiator appearing to threaten the family was aired on Channel 10 on Thursday evening.

Lior Lotan, the PM’s rep, also arrived Friday afternoon to apologize in person for the way the conversation was handled.

Lior Lotan speaking to Channel 2 television in 2011. (screen capture:Channel 2)
Lior Lotan. (screen capture:Channel 2)

“I came here to meet with the Mengistu family and apologize to them. In our last meeting, things were said by me which should not have been said. Therefore, I felt a deep need to apologize [in person] to the family,” Lotan told reporters outside the home.

“The things that were said do not reflect my values, my thoughts or my conduct. And even more so, they do not reflect the opinion of the prime minister,” he said.

“I want to promise the family today that I will continue to act in every way possible and at all times together with the family and the establishment to complete the assignment and bring Avraham home as soon as possible,” he added.

In the recording of their meeting Wednesday, Lotan was heard telling the family that if any attempt was made to connect his fate with recent tensions between the Ethiopian community and the government, it would “cause [Mengistu] to stay in Gaza for another year.”

Lotan later apologized to the family, and the Mengistus accepted the apology.

Netanyahu on Thursday renounced Lotan’s threats, but nevertheless praised his representative’s efforts to advance negotiations over Mengistu’s return.

“Those were utterances that should not have been said,” Netanyahu stated. “Lior [Lotan] works day and night as a volunteer to return our missing soldiers and civilians.”

Netanyahu told the press earlier Thursday that “no effort is being spared” to return Mengistu and another Israeli being held by Hamas. The second hostage is an unnamed member of the Bedouin community in the Negev.

The father of the second Israeli hostage maintained that he had not received formal notice from the Israeli government that his son was in Gaza.

The father told Haaretz Thursday night that he had not been alerted by the authorities that his son was in Gaza, and had tried in vain to track him down several weeks ago through the Palestinian Authority.

“I have no idea where my son is, nobody told me he’s in Gaza and I don’t know if he’s there or not,” he said. The father said his son was “not sane,” and had gone missing on April 20.

“He’s crossed the border to Gaza twice before and was returned. I hope he’s alive and well. If I knew where he was I’d do what I can to bring him home, but I haven’t heard from anyone and no one has contacted me about him.”

In his first public remarks on the issue, Netanyahu said Thursday: “We are working to secure the release of both Israelis who crossed the border fence into Gaza. We see Hamas as responsible for their well-being,”

A gag order on the two hostages had been lifted earlier Thursday, following a court petition by two Israeli media outlets.

Avraham Mengistu (Courtesy)
Avraham Mengistu (Courtesy)

The captivity of the two men is viewed by Israel as a humanitarian issue unrelated to the negotiations over the bodies of the two soldiers, which have been held by Hamas since last summer’s fighting, an official told Walla news.

Hamas has denied holding Mengistu hostage, but Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials made it clear Thursday that they held the group ultimately responsible for the pair’s safety.

Little is known of the whereabouts of Mengistu, who crossed the Gaza security fence in September of last year. Family members have described Mengistu as “unwell” and urged Hamas to consider his condition and return him to Israel immediately.

A senior Palestinian official based in the Gaza Strip denied reports that Hamas was holding Mengistu, and said he was released soon after the group’s interrogators determined that he was not a soldier. According to the official, Mengistu left the coastal strip via a tunnel to Sinai, in an attempt, they said, to reach Ethiopia.

The second hostage, from the Bedouin village of Hura, reportedly entered Gaza via the Erez Crossing in April. According to an Israeli official, the man has mild psychological issues and has a history of entering Jordan, Egypt and Gaza.

The official said that since Hamas refuses to admit that it is holding the men, no negotiations are currently taking place.

 

ESAT Daily News Amsterdam Feb. 02, 2016

Esat News in Oromigna language – Feb. 2, 2016

The Royal Reed Dance or better still know in the Zulu dialect as the Umkhosi woMhlanga is a popular festival ceremony for the Zulus in Swaziland, …    The Swaziland King Mswati III currently has 14/15 wives and 27 children. In marked contrast to Swaziland’s previous queens – who were expected to shy away …

Reed Dance Swaziland For Their King Zulu Tribes SEXY 2015- 2016

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The first known case of Zika virus transmission in the United States was reported in Texas on Tuesday by local health officials, who said it likely was contracted through sex and not a mosquito bite, a day after the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency.

The virus, linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies in Brazil, is spreading rapidly in the Americas, and WHO officials on Tuesday expressed concern that it could hit Africa and Asia as well. Zika had been thought to be spread by the bite of mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, so sexual contact as a mode of transmission would be a potentially alarming development.

Dallas County Health and Human Services said it received confirmation of the case in Dallas from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The county department said on Twitter that the person was infected through sexual contact with someone who had traveled to Venezuela. The person infected did not travel to the South American country, county health officials said.

The Texas Department of State Health Services was slightly more cautious in its assessment, saying in a statement, “Case details are being evaluated, but the possibility of sexual transmission from an infected person to a non-infected person is likely in this case.”

© Natacha Pisarenko/AP A fumigation brigade spray an area of Chacabuco Park in a Aedes mosquito control effort, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016. Zika virus is spread by the same Aedes mosquito as dengue fever and…

County authorities said there were no reports of the virus being transmitted by mosquitoes in the Texas county.

Previously, international health officials had noted one case of possible person-to-person sexual transmission. But the Pan American Health Organization said more evidence was needed to confirm sexual contact as a means of Zika transmission. The medical literature also has one case in which the virus was detected in semen.

The virus has been reported in more than 30 countries and linked to microcephaly, in which babies have abnormally small heads and improperly developed brains.

The American Red Cross on Tuesday asked blood donors who have traveled to Zika virus outbreak areas such as Mexico, the Caribbean, or Central or South America to wait at least 28 days before donating.

The Dow Jones transportation average ended 2.9 percent lower following news of the first U.S. transmission of the Zika virus.

MONITORING NEEDED

The WHO has said the virus could infect 4 million people in the Americas. It said on Tuesday it launched a global response unit to fight the mosquito-borne virus.

“Most important, we need to set up surveillance sites in low- and middle-income countries so that we can detect any change in the reporting patterns of microcephaly at an early stage,” Dr. Anthony Costello said in Geneva. Costello is WHO’s director for maternal, child and adolescent health.

Twenty to 30 sites could be established worldwide, mainly in poor countries without robust healthcare systems.

Brazil is the country hardest hit by Zika. In an address to a joint session of Brazil’s Congress, President Dilma Rousseff said her government will spare no resources in mobilizing to combat the mosquito that transmits the virus. With no vaccine or treatment for Zika, efforts to curb its spread have focused on eradicating mosquito breeding sites.

Brazil, which has more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly that may be linked to Zika, is scheduled to host the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August.

Rousseff also said Brazil and the United States will enter a partnership to develop a Zika vaccine as soon as possible to stem the spread of the virus.

VACCINE EFFORTS

French drugmaker Sanofi SA on Tuesday announced that it has launched a project to develop a vaccine against the virus, the most decisive commitment yet by a major vaccine maker. The company said its Sanofi Pasteur vaccines division would use its expertise in developing vaccines for similar viruses such as yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and dengue.

Other companies also joined the race on Tuesday to develop a vaccine. The University of South Australia said it was working on a Zika vaccine with Australian biotech Sementis Ltd.

U.S. drug developer NewLink Genetics Corp said it has started a project to develop Zika treatment options.

Experts have said a Zika vaccine for widespread use is months if not years away.

Costello said the Aedes mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus “are present … through Africa, parts of southern Europe and many parts of Asia, particularly South Asia.” Africa and Asia have the world’s highest birth rates.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said on Monday it was “strongly suspected but not yet scientifically proven” that Zika causes microcephaly.

The first Irish cases of Zika virus have been detected in two people with a history of traveling to a country affected by the mosquito-borne infection, the Health Service Executive of Ireland said.

Chilean health officials said they have confirmed three cases in Chile of people infected with the Zika virus, all of whom were infected while traveling elsewhere in Latin America.

An Australian state health service said two Australians were diagnosed with the virus after returning from the Caribbean, confirming the first cases of the virus in the country this year.

(Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon in Paris, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Shadia Nasralla in Vienna, Ben Hirschler in London, Anthony Boadle in Brasilia, Jane Wardell in Sydney, Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok, Pedro Fonseca in Rio, Rosalba O’Brien in Santiago, Padraic Halpin in Dublin, Ankur Banerjee and Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Toni Reinhold, Jonathan Oatis and Andrew Hay)

By Alemayehu G. Mariam

I am now declaring my support for Bernie Sanders, the dark horse of the Democratic Party, to become the next President of the United States.

It is refreshing act of moral self-affirmation for me to support a man who lives out his principles.

Before explaining why I am supporting Bernie Sanders, I have some other serious explaining to do to my readers. 

My readers are well aware of my gung-ho support for Barack Obama before and after he was elected president.

Much to my own embarrassment and chagrin, I had to eat crow for supporting Barack Obama.

I believed Obama when he declared in Ghana in July 2009:  “Now, make no mistake: History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.”

I was ecstatic when Obama told Africa’s young people, “You have the power to hold your leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people.”

When the young people heard his message and came out to protest stolen elections and human rights violations, they were shot down like wild animals in the streets by Africa’s strongmen.

Obama was silent as the grave (no pun intended) during his entire presidency in the face of crimes against humanity committed by Africa’s strongmen, except for those who were on Obama’s blacklist like the senile Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. Obama’s attitude during his president has been, “I see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” about evil in Africa.

I did not know that when Obama said, “History is on the side of these brave (young) Africans”, he meant it literally. History is with Africa’s young people, but he is not.

What about being on the “right side of history”?

Obama stood on the side of Africa’s strongmen, whom he said were on the “wrong side of history”.

Silly me!

I completely misunderstood Obama when he said, “Make no mistake.”

I made a gargantuan mistake and believed Barack Obama!

George W. Bush (43) said, “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

Not with me! Barack Obama fooled me again and again and again.

Shame on me? Or is it shame on Obama? I have never been able to figure that one out.

I guess I was living in “Denial-istan” when I went hook, line and sinker for Obama’s fairy tales about the “right side of history.”

Five years almost to the month in 2014, Barack Obama invited Africa’s worst dictators and thugtators to the White House, wined and dined them and rewarded them by announcing he has “major new business deals” for them.

What about human rights in Africa? Human what!?

That’s exactly what Obama asked.

Watching Barack Obama hobnobbing with Africa’s bloodthirsty dictators and thugtators was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.

I have never felt more betrayed in my life. I realized only too late that I had been “took, hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray and run amok” by Barack Obama.

I had to swallow my pride, keep a stiff upper lip and make a public confession in my commentary,  “Shame on me for Being Proud of Barack Obama”.

To add insult to injury, Obama went to Ethiopia in July 2015, exactly 6 years to the month after his Ghana visit, and declared:

I don’t bite my tongue too much when it comes to these issues. We are opposed to any group that is promoting the violent overthrow of a government, including the government of Ethiopia, that has been democratically elected.  It has been relatively recently in which the constitution that was formed and the elections put forward a democratically elected government.”

The “government” Obama said was democratically elected won the “election” in May 2015 by 100 percent (one hundred). Obama became the laughing stock of the New York Times, the Washington Post and other media institutions.

I was not laughing at a hypocrite who was also a smooth, bare-faced liar! What can I say. I have been had, took, hoodwinked…

Why am I talking about Obama in a commentary declaring support  for Bernie Sanders?

Well, I want my readers to know that though I have been “took and bamboozled,” I have learned some important lessons over the past few years which now inform my political judgement.

One of those lessons is not to judge a politician by his/her verbal declaration of lofty principles. How principles are part of  the personal, social, professional, political and spiritual life of a politician (or any person for that matter) should be the objective bases for determining a politician’s fitness for office.

The second lesson has to do with trust. Ronald Reagan said, “Trust but verify”. I say verify and trust.

I have decided to support Bernie Sanders because he is a man who lives out his principles in his words and deeds; and having verified his decades-long record, I can trust him  to say what he means and means what he says.

Bernie Sanders is the real WYSWYG, that is, what you see is what you get. He will tell you the truth even if you can’t handle it. He will politely affirm to agree to disagree on issues but will also remind you that “there are other issues out there that are of enormous consequence to our country and in fact to the world that maybe we do not disagree on and maybe work to resolve them…”

Bernie Sanders has the guts to tell the fat cat billionaires and multimillionaires that “There is something profoundly wrong when the top one-tenth of one percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. There is something profoundly wrong when one family owns more wealth than the bottom 130 million Americans.”

I don’t agree with Bernie Sanders on everything.

But I agree with him on a whole lot of things, things that matter to me and the average American: War must be the “absolute last resort”; big money in politics must be regulated (that is, billionaires should not be allowed to buy and sell elections); the big banks must be broken up just like Teddy Roosevelt broke up the trusts and monopolies between 1901-09; the obscene and immoral income inequality in America must be fixed.  “There is something profoundly wrong when we have a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires at the same time as millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages and we have the highest childhood poverty rate of any developed country on earth.” (Could Bernie be the Teddy R. of our time?)

I agree with Bernie that affordable health care must be available to every American; college education should be made affordable to every young American who desires it, better yet, it should be made freely available to any qualified student. We must take care of our elderly in the twilight of their lives by protecting social security and Medicare. We must support our veterans to reintegrate into civilian society and provide them adequate and timely health care. We must invest in our crumbling infrastructure, lead the world in fighting climate change, decriminalize drugs and rehabilitate those whose lives have been destroyed by drug abuse, dismantle the prison industrial complex and incarcerate serious and violent offenders while allowing nonviolent offenders a chance to reintegrate in society. We must protect American workers from predatory trade agreements that cost jobs in the U.S. We must hold accountable the bad apples in police departments who abuse and misuse their power and violate the public trust and oath to serve and protect. I could go on and on.

There are those who try to demonize Sanders for his ideas and vision of a more fair and just America. They seek to vilify him for standing with the poor and powerless. They say his plan to help the working poor is too expensive. His plan to provide subsidized or free college education and provide relief to students carrying crushing student loans is impractical. (But it is practical to give trillions of dollars to Wall Street econo-criminals who tanked the economy in 2008!)  They say he is unelectable, a radical, a socialist, blah, blah…

Of course, tarring and feathering anyone who challenges the establishment is nothing new. They said the same things about Barack Obama in ’07-’08 only to find out that he is the best friend Wall Street ever had. I dismiss all that as simple politics of personal destruction.

Bernie Sanders is neither an angel nor a demon. He would not be constitutionally eligible to become president of the United States if he were either. He is merely a man with all the flaws, failings and weaknesses of his fellow citizens. Sanders recently told Liberty University students, “I am far, far from being a perfect human being but I am motivated by a vision which exists in all religions… and that vision is so beautifully and clearly stated in Matthew 7:12, “So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you. That is the Golden Rule.” I live by the Golden Rule, at least try my damnest every day!

The one unique thing about Bernie Sanders is that he tells it like it is. He stands his ground and won’t back down. Bernie Sanders is the kind of guy I can personally identify with.

I have always been inspired by Churchill’s exhortation: “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Bernie Sanders will never give in or kneel before the billionaire fat cats and beg for their support. He wants the support of ordinary Americans who “want to take back their country” from the scheming members of the billionaires’ club. A hostile takeover of the billionaire’s club by the American people? Sounds almost Jeffersonian!

What is Bernie’s record?

He has a solid record on civil and human rights. In 1962, Sanders was arrested protesting segregation in public schools in Chicago. He protested the Reagan government’s policy of sending arms to Central America to stoke the raging civil wars and conflicts. He is opposed to warehousing citizens in prison for long periods for nonviolent offenses and the prison industrial complex. He has locked horns with the International Monetary Fund and the other international poverty pimps for their role in maintaining dictatorial regimes in the developing countries. He has opposed both Iraq wars. He has embraced immigrants as an important element of American society. He does not believe in building wall that separate people. He believes in tearing down walls of racism, sexism and sectarianism to bring human beings together.

Heartbroken by the poverty and malaise in Europe following  WW I, Shaw in Act I of his play “Back To Methuselah”, posed the question to end all questions: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” (lines sometimes incorrectly attributed to Robert F. Kennedy).

In the face of a 21st century American malaise, Bernie Sanders dreams of things that never were; and says, ‘Why not?’

But why am I really, really supporting Bernie Sanders?

Well, I will let Bernie tell you why I am supporting him in his 1988 CSPAN interview. The interview was done a couple of weeks before the 1988 Iowa caucuses.

Interviewer: You are a mayor of Burlington, VT. From the perspective of that job, what kind of a person would you like to see become President of the United States?

Bernie Sanders: Well, I would like to see somebody who has the guts to begin to stand up for the people who own this country, recognize in our nation today there is an extreme disparity between the rich and the poor. The elections are bought and sold and controlled by people who have huge sums of money. My first concern is to have a president who has the courage to look reality in the face and say we need some radical changes in this country so that every American can have the opportunity to have a decent standard of living and live a decent life. Talking about presidential politics I always have a little bit of a problem because I am not a Democrat and I am not a Republican. In Burlington, Vermont, I think we have the only three party system in the United States of America. My dream would be we have a strong third party movement in the United States composed of working people and minorities and women’s groups and all of the people who are presently disenfranchised. That does not exist right now… I would like to see someone who speaks for the underdog, for the people who don’t have decent health care benefits, somebody who understands in America today 50 percent of the people don’t even vote anymore and the vast majority of that 50 percent are poor people and working people who have given up on the system. So essentially I would like to see a candidate who has the guts and vision that America could be a land for all people not just a land controlled by the super-rich.

That’s it!!!

Join me in helping Bernie Sanders become the next President of the United states.

Sign up and support Bernie Sanders for President by CLICKING HERE.

(To be continued…)

Prof.  Messay Kebede

In the last article I posted, titled “Unity Overrides Everything,” I urged the Amhara to join the ongoing Oromo protests even if their reluctance is understandable in the face of the protests being confined to ethnic issues. Some of my readers did not like my appeal, arguing that the protests did not assume a national content and were anything but inclusive. In the many emails I received, the absence of references to Ethiopia and Ethiopian people was cited as the main reason that prevented and still prevents the Amhara from closing ranks with the Oromo.

Such an objection is for me quite disturbing. The most important complaint of the Oromo is that the Ethiopian discourse has always marginalized their contribution and identity in favor of a unilateral assimilation that favored Amhara and Tigreans. The demand that Oromo protesters turn their issues into a national or Ethiopian cause seems to repeat the past practice. Following the inescapable reality of the political fragmentation of the country, the Oromo rose up for their own cause, sacrificed their life, and now they are told that they should transfer their heroic deeds to the larger Ethiopian entity even though that entity remained aloof! I want to remind that most of the young Oromo protesters have no idea of Ethiopia as a unitary nation: as the established political system forces them to do, they see Ethiopia as a collection of different nations. Just as Kenyans are not expected to fight for Ethiopians, so too it is not surprising if the Oromo present their demands in terms of Oromo concerns.

The request to append the label “Ethiopia” to the protests is an invitation to commit historical robbery; more importantly, it forgets that Oromo courageous fight against the TPLF machine is how they rehabilitate themselves and become makers of their own history and, through them, of the history of Ethiopia. Clearly, such a request lacks fairness, to say the least. Who would blame the Amhara if they turn their protest against the ceding of tracts of land in Gondar to Sudan into an Amhara issue? Instead, what they should worry about in case protests break out is whether the Oromo will show the same solidarity as the Amhara have displayed to the Oromo. As the Amharic saying goes, the game is “ነግ በኔ”.

Those who expect the Oromo to rebel by assuming the Ethiopian identity forget that the notion of Ethiopia as a unitary nation has receded since the TPLF and the EPLF defeated the Derg and the former implemented the system of ethnic federalism. The fight for a unitary nation should have been waged while the TPLF was battling the Derg. It is now too late and there is no going back. Going back would mean war and, if the Ethiopian state survives, the cost would be the institution of another dictatorial system. How else, if not by blood and fire, would you impose unity after two decades of unrestricted ethnicization?

My unhappy readers seem to be sulking like a child moping in a corner after his wish has been denied. You do not present conditions when people rise and fight an oppressor that also happens to be your own oppressor. You join the fight and only then can you make the issue of unity a common cause. Those who simply watch cannot present conditions to people being beaten, killed, and imprisoned. To make your support conditional is to forget that you are also chained, beaten, killed, and imprisoned by the same oppressor. I find it strange, I repeat, that the sharing of the same fate with the Oromo does not trigger the sense of solidarity.

Nor do I understand how those who rightly claim to be the creators of modern Ethiopia, namely, Amhara elites––of course, in partnership with the Oromo, as evinced by the prominent role of Ras Gobena and other Oromo leaders, to remind those who would be tempted to forget it––do not come to the forefront of the fight for Ethiopia instead of making their intervention conditional on the acceptance of their demands. To pose conditions eliminates the unconditional commitment to Ethiopia, which is precisely what they accuse the Oromo of lacking. If you want an unconditional commitment to Ethiopia, then begin by showing your own unrestricted dedication by joining the Oromo despite the missing Ethiopianism, for only thus you can win them over.

To present condition is also to endorse the divided-and-rule police of the TPLF. Indeed, in being bystanders in this trying and crucial moment for the Oromo, what message are we sending to them? Are we not telling them that their cause and their atrocious mistreatment are not of our concern? How would they feel Ethiopian when those who claim to be Ethiopian turn their back on them? This is to say that the Oromo uprising gives us the unique opportunity both to defeat the TPLF and forge a new unity by our struggle against the common oppressor. Let us remake Ethiopia, this time through the concrete solidarity and unity of the oppressed!