ESAT DC News In Brief Wed 21 Dec 2016

Video footage of Special Forces Command Presidential guards at State House, Entebbe clashed with Egyptian President, His Excellency Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s guards on Sunday.

The short clip seen by TheUgandan shows the SFC Commandoes who guard Gen. Museveni and his family battled with four Egyptian presidential guards who attempted to enter State House armed, contrary to standard security practice.

At President Museveni’s official residence, even bodyguards of Cabinet ministers deposit their firearms at the entrance and collect them once they leave their bosses.

Sources said the Egyptian agents had showed up with members of the international press team that was accompanying Fattah El-Sisi and on being frisked they were found with firearms.

“They identified themselves as El-Ssisi’s guards but they were told it was standard practice nobody enters State House with guns.

A brief standoff between the two presidential guards preceded the calm and collected diplomatic engagement but Museveni’s guards stood their ground and disarmed their Egyptian counterparts.

It is customary for host countries to manage security of a foreign leader and it is unclear why guards of the Egyptian president yesterday felt the pressing need to take care of his security themselves.

In the melee, President Museveni’s guards outsmarted their Egyptian counterparts, blocking entry to those not authorised.

In the video, Museveni’s ever calm Principle Private Secretary Molly Kamukama and his press secretary Don Wanyama were seen moving away from the melee.

However, a top State House official who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter said that after the two presidents had entered the meeting room for bilateral talks on trade, river Nile use, agriculture and security and many of the the Egyptian delegates and security agents wanted to follow Gen. Museveni and Field Marshal Fattah El-Sisi inside immediately which the Ugandan officials could not allow.

This is not the first time El-Sisi’s guards have been filmed acting rowdy leading to much ridicule on social media. In September this year, an awkward encounter between US Secretary of State John Kerry and an Egyptian secret serviceman has become the subject of ridicule in the north African Arab nation.

As well, Museveni’s guards who report to his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainirugaba have been a topic revisited on a few occasions, chiefly because he continues offering less reason to shine a light on their continued superiority.

Source – The Ugandan

In Gondar, a city in Ethiopia’s northern highlands, a lone tourist pauses to take a photo of a fortress built more than two centuries ago. Nearby, past a row of gift shops, lies the wreck of a coach torched during unrest in August.

Gondar, known as “Africa’s Camelot”, was once the centre of the Ethiopian empire – at a time when that empire was defined mainly by Amhara traditions.
Today, the city is facing new tensions that have a complex history. A territorial dispute between elites here in the Amhara region and those in neighbouring Tigray has been simmering for at least 25 years.

Tigrayans have been accused by opponents of wielding undue influence over Ethiopia’s government and security agencies since 1991. In recent months, these and other grievances have led to protests, strikes, vandalism and killings in Gondar, causing a drastic reduction in foreign visitors to the tourism-dependent city and an exodus of fearful Tigrayans.

Shops and schools have reopened in Gondar, after the authorities reasserted control in urban areas by declaring a state of emergency on 8 October. But sporadic clashes with the military continue in the countryside.
“We don’t feel like it is our country. We feel like it is the time when the Italians invaded. We are like second-class citizens,” says a prosperous local businessman. Like all interviewees, he requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals from the authorities. Europeans never colonised Ethiopia, but Mussolini’s army occupied the country from 1936 to 1941.

Gondar’s predicament is a microcosm of Ethiopia’s: a toxic brew of uneven development, polarised debate amid a virtual media vacuum, contested history, ethnic tensions, a fragmented opposition and an authoritarian government. Ethiopia’s rulers show few signs of being able to solve the morass of problems, which many believe the government itself caused.

Trouble began in Gondar in July 2015, when word went around that the authorities intended to arrest Col Demeke Zewdu, a former rebel and retired military officer.When security forces tried to arrest Zewdu, who is a member of a committee campaigning over the contested Wolkait territory, armed Amharas protected him and several people, including security officers, were killed.

Wolkait is an administrative district in Tigray that borders Amhara. The committee says Wolkait and others areas were taken out of Gondar’s control by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front in 1992, when Ethiopia was divided into a federation along ethno-linguistic lines. Allied rebels led by the TPLF, who unseated a military regime in 1991, introduced the system and still monopolise power.

Critics of the committee point out that a 1994 census found more than 96% of the people of Wolkait were Tigrayan , and that the complaints of annexation stem from the town of Gondar, not the district itself. The activists say the TPLF moved Tigrayans into the area during the rebellion.

The issue struck a chord in Gondar. After Demeke’s arrest, rural militiamen paraded through the city on 31 July, firing bullets into the air during a large, peaceful demonstration. It is thought that the demonstration was facilitated by the Amhara wing of the TPLF-founded Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) – a four-party coalition that, along with allied organisations, controls all the country’s legislative seats.

A Tigrayan lecturer at Gondar University said he abhors Ethiopia’s ethnicised politics and believes jostling between the Amhara and Tigrayan EPRDF wings lay behind the Gondar violence. The TPLF is the predominant party in the EPRDF, and Amhara National Democratic Movement politicians are seeking greater power, he said. “I don’t believe in parties which are organised on ethnicity. I prefer it to be based on the individual.” An end to ethnic politics would make a resolution of the Wolkait issue possible, he believes.

Among activists from Amhara, disavowal of the ethnicity-based system is at the crux of disagreements over how to oppose the EPRDF. Because federalism formally protects the rights of communities marginalised during previous eras, when Ethiopia was a unitary state, promoting national unity at the expense of ethnic autonomy is often cast as regressive.

Groups promoting Amhara identity within a democratised federation are therefore at odds with those focused on national cohesion, according to Wondwesen Tafesse, a commentator on Amhara issues. “Since most diaspora Amharas support Ethiopianist political parties, they seem to have this fear in the back of their mind that a resurgent Amhara nationalism, and the possible emergence of a strong Amhara political organisation, might undermine their political designs,” said Wondwesen.

In the weeks after Demeke’s detainment, there was more unrest, amid allegations that Tigrayan businesses were being targeted and Tigrayans attacked. People in Gondar say the companies were targeted because of their connections with the regime, rather than the owners’ ethnicity.

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Unrest in Amhara was preceded by protests by the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, who also complain of marginalisation and repression. In response, the government has reshuffled officials – and intensified repression. During the state of emergency, the government has sent at least 24,000 people to camps for indoctrination under rules that allow the suspension of due process. According to the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia, security forces killed some 600 demonstrators over the past year.

Since the beginning of November, a new federal cabinet has been announced and similar changes made in the Amhara government. But while maladministration and corruption were tagged as the pre-eminent problems, there is little evidence of officials being punished, or of policy reforms. An Amhara government spokesman said systemic changes were not required.

In August, on the outskirts of Gondar near Demeke’s neighbourhood, a crowd looted Baher Selam hotel. It was targeted following a rumour that the Tigrayan security officers allegedly involved in the operation to arrest the colonel were staying there.

Near the wrecked hotel, an elderly lady was roasting coffee beans. On the morning of the incident she was coming home from church when she heard gunshots.Business has since declined and large numbers of unemployed young people have been mobilised against the government, she said.

People here believe Wolkait was part of Gondar throughout history. “If they take that place, where else are they going to take?” the woman asked. “The situation is not going to go back to normal. If you light a match, it’s small – but it can burn a whole area.”

Teshome Abebe*
 
December 23, 2016
 
“Buy land son, they don’t make them anymore”. ‘Tony Soprano’—The Sopranos.
 

In my previous articles and speeches, I had stated that neither Ethiopian scholars nor political parties had provided a clear, concise, and meaningful solution to the problems of land allocation within the Ethiopian context. The issues pertaining to the ownership and distribution of land seemed to have been settled both by the DERG (the military government) as well as the TPLF/EPRDF (the ruling party) with their respective policies. Yet, the debate on the issue seems far from settled for a variety of reasons.

This brief article examines the contributions of the field of economics to the examination of what an economic good is; and based on that, how such goods must be managed (economized); and, if land truly fits in that typology, what the difficulties might be in its allocation and management. Several points of view would be discussed, but the intent of this particular article is to elicit from and prod the intellectual community, practitioners and politicians to contribute to the discussions towards a policy framework of land distribution and management that would see this scarce resource being deployed to its best use throughout Ethiopia.

Theoretical Basis:

What contributions does the science of economics make to the distribution and management of a scarce resource such as land, and what considerations become useful in that understanding?  Let us first begin with the consideration of an economic good. Beginning with Carl Menger and then Lionel Robbins, the characteristics that define an economic ‘good’ include four important criteria: 1) it must satisfy a human need; 2) it must have a causal connection to satisfy the need sought; 3) someone must be cognizant of this causal connection; and 4) someone must have command over the good. When all of these four criteria are met or are present, a ‘thing’ becomes a good. And the corollary holds true as well: a loss of any of these criteria results in a good losing its ‘goods’-character. (David Howden).

A fifth criteria would later be added by Bohm-Bawerk, and thus: 5) that the individual must have knowledge of the object’s usefulness in satisfying a want irrespective of his ownership of the good. According to Howden, this final point allows for not only a physical control over the good, but also that someone must have mental ‘ownership’ (i.e. knowledge) of the good’s usefulness.

These criteria are very important in at least two ways. First, they help us constrain the types of objects eligible to be economized; and Second, the criterion allow us to distinguish between goods that directly satisfy a want—such as consumer goods—and those that are capable of only doing so indirectly—such as producer’s goods. This last point is critical as all goods are valued according to how well they satisfy an individual’s want. Economists have further concluded that time preferences; the rate of interest and an expected value of a consumer’s good, all interact to determine all sorts of prices through out the economy (Rothbard, 1962). Accordingly, therefore, land would not be an exception in this regard. It is a commodity—a good!

As a consequence, fitting land, all land, into the typology of goods that make distinction into consumers’ goods and producers’ goods makes it apparent that land is also an input factor making consumer goods possible. Furthermore, we can also posit that land confers direct utility to the holder, as a commodity of exchange as well as, and this is key in my opinion, a reservoir of wealth, prestige, and social status.

The reader would immediately note and ask: this is well and good except that this classification limits the categories to which we can classify goods. For example, is it possible that a good could be present or future oriented? If we think of the possibility in those terms, land could satisfy both: at present it is a factor of production, and in the future it could be both a source of wealth, enjoyment as well as a factor of production. What makes land different from all other commodities is that it is limited in supply. For instance, we could produce more corn or vehicles if there is a shortage of these goods. But we cannot produce more land. It is of limited supply, and this characteristic makes the management as well as distribution of it very complicated and controversial depending on the specific orientation or ideology.

Foundational Issues:

The simplest and most straightforward economic definition of a commodity is that it is a marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Often, the item can be replaced by another identical item. So, when one buys land, one is simply exchanging the rights from one person to another so that they can use the land as private property—a sort of zero sum game.

But land is a highly valuable commodity because of the value in the fertile soil, the natural resources below that bring wealth and power, the rivers that supply drinking water, the valleys, forests and mountains that adorn it.

On the other hand, there is the argument that land doesn’t really fit the definition of a commodity because it cannot be produced. No matter what the economic incentives might be, it simply is not possible to produce more land and hold it as private property. In addition, on an initial level all private property declarations on land are innately suspect and questionable.

To justify this last claim, we have to define what private property really is: it is a lawfully enforceable monopoly on the use of a certain item. To expand further, the claim to private property arises through two important mechanisms. The first is through the creation of something, and the second, by acquisition through a just transfer.  Your vehicle and your personal belongings are acquired through one of these mechanisms. However, land cannot be created or produced, and as such, is very different than all the other commodities.  To be sure, you can acquire land by means of a just transfer, but at some point in the history of ownership, this was not the case. And in Ethiopia, as is the case in many countries, this chain had broken down multiple times through generations.  At some point in the past, all land was public land. It became private land when detached descendants walled it off, declared it private, and chose to enforce the monopoly using armed forces (Ssekandi). {For a detailed analysis of social, political aspects of land in an African setting and property rights, please see “Social, Political and Equity Aspects of Land and Property Rights”, by Francis M. Ssekandi, undated.}

The Romans knew that when they declared ‘commons’ as resources that belonged to all, never to be owned by a few. They stated, “By the law of nature these things are common to mankind—the air, running water, the sea and consequently the shores of the sea”. Indeed, the Romans didn’t want one to become rich from owning the land, but rather to gain the means for an independent life from it.

What should be Land Policy in Ethiopia?

Given that we have two fundamental problems, namely: someone has to own the available land, and there is a limit to the land that can be owned, what should land policy in Ethiopia consist of?

The Derg nationalized all land, and created farm cooperatives to improve both production as well as political control. The TPLF/ERDF, when it took power in 1991, essentially adopted the Derg policy but allowed for user rights through a lease system in which inheritance to the land is possible.  In both cases, land is owned by the state, and while there have been slight improvements in output, it is not entirely clear whether that improvement is as a result of higher land productivity, more land being brought into production or both. At any rate, there are reputable Ethiopian economists (including two of my friends) who insist that the Ethiopian farmer specifically, and Ethiopian society in general, would be better off if land were completely privatized as private property. They site all the arguments for a private property system and the advantages it would bring to society through the market mechanism.

Among the strongest of these arguments is the claim that the public interest is best served by maximizing the use of land, which is done best by a system of private ownership and exchange rather than public ownership and distribution. In this view, the free market system is preferable because once the land has been fully allocated, competition will emerge in which transfers of land occur where the inefficient sell their land and the efficient buy it from them. Furthermore, a system that simply gives land to the inefficient imposes huge costs to all of society because someone else is not using the land, or for some other purpose.

Finally, contrary to popular belief, free market proponents argue, that it is not necessary for everyone to have access to land in order to benefit from it. For example, many around the world don’t own land in Ethiopia, but drink its wonderful coffee and eat teff injera. Many in Ethiopia also live in apartment buildings and don’t need to own the land. They can access the land through the markets and consume the values that the land offers—it is these values, not the land itself, that is the real economic goal and benefit.

A Right to All Humans:

The alternative view is that land should be thought of as a common, a right to all humans.  Because land is a source of livelihood for many around the world, rights to land directly impact numerous human rights. People all over the world relate their identities to the land on which they live. Their land defines their culture, and when land rights are not respected, poverty rises, humanitarian catastrophes ensue, and economic development is retarded. As a consequence, the UN declared, land not just as “…a mere commodity, but an essential element for the realization of many human rights.”

In this view, land is seen as a necessity, which is why it’s imperative that everyone has access to it and not just the people with the most capital. Indeed, when the former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, was asked about this same question, he essentially stated that he did not wish for only capitalists to be landowners in Ethiopia, and that land policy has been done and dusted for all times.

I am not a land economist, and have only studied the old land tenure system in Ethiopia confined to a Master’s thesis on land reform in that country decades ago. And as can be expected, this brief essay is short on new prescriptions for a successful land distribution and management policy. What is clear to me, and I think would be obvious to all, is that to completely change the system of land rights as they exist today would be an exceedingly daunting task with a huge chance of something going horribly wrong and a definite period of societal upheaval. I am not certain that anything, any system, is worth that cost. I am convinced, however, that solutions within the current societal ownership structure, buttressed by democratic imperatives that lead to a system of reforms to distribute and manage land in Ethiopia is worth the effort.  These new reforms could include considerations of ecological and environmental disasters in the making, for instance.

In the end, we are where we started. I contend that neither the system of private ownership nor state ownership of land would solve the essential problem of scarcity of this essential resource; particularly in the face of a mushrooming population that puts more pressure on the available land as is the case in Ethiopia today. What is desired or hoped for are policies that put available land to its best use so as not to impose an inordinate social cost through mal-distribution or mismanagement. Perhaps that is more of a governance issue as opposed to just a systems problem.

Teshome Abebe, who has served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at two institutions, is currently Professor of Economics, and may be reached at: teshome2008@gmail.com.

• Salem Solomon

  Salem Solomon is a journalist and web producer at Voice of America’s Africa Division, where she reports in English, Amharic and Tigrigna. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Poynter.org, Reuters and The Tampa Bay Times. Salem researches trends in analytics and digital journalism, and her data-driven work has been featured in VOA’s special projects collection.

He is the reason … for what I achieved,’ says double Olympic 10,000m champ Gebreselassie

Miruts Yifter, an Ethiopian running legend who inspired world-class athletes like Haile Gebreselassie, has died in Canada at age 72, his family and Ethiopian Athletics Federation officials told the Associated Press on Friday.

The athlete known widely by the nickname “Miruts the Shifter” won two gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Olympics at age 40 and won bronze medals earlier at the 1972 Munich Games.

“Miruts has been everything to me and my athletics career,” said Haile Gebreselassie, the double Olympic 10,000-meter champion, who struggled with his tears while talking to the AP by phone. “When I started running, I just wanted to be like him. He is the reason for who I’m now and for what I have achieved.”

Miruts’ son, Biniam Miruts, said his father had been suffering from respiratory problems.

Miruts Yifter was the subject of much criticism during Ethiopia’s former military regime, especially for not winning gold medals at the Munich Games, and he was thrown into jail upon his return home. He was soon released but left Ethiopia in 2000 for Canada.

Family members said he was never accorded the dignity and privileges he deserved in Ethiopia, and they called on all Ethiopians to give him a heroic welcome when his body arrives for burial in Addis Ababa next week.

Miruts has seven children, most of whom live outside Ethiopia.

Haile recalled listening to the radio as a little boy during Mirut’s victory in Moscow.

“I used to doubt that he was a human being after all for achieving what he achieved back then,” he said Friday. “For me, he is the best-ever athlete Ethiopia ever had after the great Abebe Bikila.”

© The Associated Press, 2016

Saudis visit to Ethiopia strains ties with Egypt

ESAT DC Morning News Fir 23 Dec 2016 1

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Egypt is harboring terrorist groups that seek to destabilize the country’s stability, which affects the relations between the two countries.

Saudis visit to Ethiopia strains ties with Egypt

Ethiopian Boy Born with Ethiopian Map imprinted on his Forehead

Tsegaye Tegenu, PhD
 
December 24, 2016
 
I read an article written by Professor Teshome Abebe on the policy implication of the land issue research in Ethiopia. The following assertion forced me to write this commentary: “In my previous articles and speeches, I had stated that neither Ethiopian scholars nor political parties had provided a clear, concise, and meaningful solution to the problems of land allocation within the Ethiopian context.” This bold statement is misleading, if it is meant to be taken seriously. I think readers deserve comments for the sake of balanced judgment and awareness. If there is any issue which the Ethiopian scholars have rigorously researched and long-debated suggestion it is the land issue (see selected references below). It is one thing not to understand their suggested solution and ask for further clarification. It becomes completely a different matter to cross the line, underestimate others ability or blame them for the lack of one’s own understanding or failure to get access to their research results.

Needless to mention that in the academic world a claim about such proportion and critic requires conducting two interrelated scientific steps and assignments. First the author has to provide a review of the land tenure and policy research on Ethiopia (reading at least 5000 pages). The review is mainly expected to provide a summary of views and an explanation why the author’s perspective is different from others and significance statement of his approach. The second step, following the first, is to sum up own empirical findings based on case studies. Short of these steps, it is not fair to belittle others efforts that too based on some abstract concepts and old case study (Master’s thesis on land reform conducted decades ago). Clearly, the author is not aware of the existence of massive literature on land tenure issues and policies in Ethiopia. I am proud to say that there are enumerable researchers, policy practitioners and government institutions in Ethiopia which have conducted detailed case studies using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Most of them have spent their entire productive life investigating the issue. Finding and summarizing their results requires much effort and time. The findings are not easily available because of their depth, complexity, time and space variations.

This does not mean that the land ownership and policy issue is not for discussion. In fact it is one of the burning issues which needs urgent solution as pointed out by the author.  The question is what type of solution and when to implement it. Academic researchers (economists, sociologists, lawyers, agricultural scientists, etc.) and practitioners (working in various government institutions in Ethiopia and donners) have proposed different and in some cases overlapping solutions depending on their field of interest, choice of case studies and methods of performance assessment. One important conclusion of that has emerged from the research findings and discussion is that land ownership and land policy is not an end by itself. Most of them suggested forms of ownership and context specific land use policies based on the perspective of tenure security, poverty alleviation objectives and sustainable development in the country.

My perspective and approach to land ownership and land use policy is different. In my case I see land ownership and use for the purpose of economic structural transformation and financing of industrialization in Ethiopia. From my perspective, I found it debatable whether land has to be owned and managed either by the state (Chines model) and/or by the private sector (Taiwan model). Has the Ethiopian state the attribute to accumulate wealth and distribute resources based on rules, laws and merits? Can the state use Chinese production brigade model to finance industrialization in the country? In the case of the domestic private sector, further discussion is needed on entrepreneurship quality and competitive discipline of the sector. I have in mind the Confucian entrepreneurs’ values of Taiwan’s private sector and the zero-sum traditional culture of the rist-gult system of Ethiopia (mind set of a winner and loser). Depending on the context, Professor Dessalegn Rahmato propsed land ownership and management by farmers’ cooperatives.  From my interest on economic structural transformation, I find this suggestion problematic. Do farmers’ cooperatives have capacity to participate and compete in value chains taking into account of the problems of quality control, delivery on time and correct quantity (a good example is the problem faced by Ethiopia’s honey export to Japan).

Whatever the forms of ownership, (state, private or farmers cooperatives), there is one common implementation system applicable to all forms of contractual and economic relationships in the country. According to my understanding land ownership and land use policies do not function as designed in the absence of a meritocracy bureaucracy (departments staffed with non-elected officials with merits) and a legal system which defines rules of securing property rights and obligations of the public and private sectors. To use McNamee and Miller description, “you get out of the system what you put into it”. My observation is that land ownership/use policies do not evolve together with a legal system supposed to promote efficiency, investment and entrepreneurship.  Past experience shows that before embarking on land reform policies, it is at first necessary to establish a legal system that provides the rule of law and a political system which is transparent and accountable.

Selected books and articles on land tenure and land policy in Ethiopia (alphabetical order)

Addis Ababa City Administration 2004, Land Delivery Service Manual, No. 12/2004 E.C.

Ambaye, D.W. (2015), Land Rights and Expropriation in Ethiopia. Springer International Publishing Switzerland

Behailu Gebremanuel, D., (2015)Transfer of Land Rights in Ethiopia. Towards a Sustainable Policy Framework. Eleven international publishing.

Bekure, S., Abegaz, G., Frej, L., and Abebe, S. eds. (2006), Standardization of Rural Land Registration and Cadastral Surveying Methodologies Experiences in Ethiopia Proceedings of a National Conference. Addis Ababa.

Bereket, k. (2002), Land Tenure and the Common pool in Rural Ethiopia. A Study bases in Fifteen Sites. Blackwell Publisher.

Berhanu, A. and Fayera, A. (2005), Land Registration in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. (SOS Sahel, AA. Ethiopia.

Cohen, J. M. 1977. Rural and Urban Land Reform in Ethiopia. Afri. L. Stud., 14,

Committee established for the Fourth Anniversary of the Revolution (1978). Urban Land and Extra House: From Yesterday to Today (Amharic). Addis Ababa.

Crewett, W.  Bogale, A., Korf, B., (2008), Land tenure in Ethiopia Continuity and change, shifting rulers, and the quest for state control. CAPRI working paper.

Crummey, D. 2000. Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia: From the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century, USA, University of illinois Press.

Daniel-Weldegebriel-Ambaye 2009. Land Valuation for Expropriation in Ethiopia: Valuation Methods and Adequacy of Compensation 7th FIG Regional Conference. Hanoi, Vietnam, 19–22 October 2009 FIG (http://www.fig.net/pub/vietnam/papers/ts04c/ts04c_ambaye_3753.pdf).

Deininger, K., Ayalew, D. & Alemu, T. 2009. Impacts of Land Certification on Tenure Security, Investment, and Land Markets: Evidence from Ethiopia. Environment for Development, Discussion Paper Series, EfD DP 09-11 [Online]. Available: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/NEWS/Resources/land_eegistration_in_ethiopia.pdf

Deininger, K., Daniel-Ayalew, Holden, S. & Zevenbergen, J. 2007. Rural Land Certification in Ethiopia: Process, Initial Impact, and Implications for Other African Countries. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4218. World Bank.

Dessalegn-Rahmato (1993). Agrarian Change and Agrarian Crisis: State and Peasantry in Post-Revolution Ethiopia. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 63.

Dessalegn-Rahmato (2006). From Hetrogeneity to Homogeneity: Agrarian Class Structure in Ethiopia since the 1950s. In: Dessalegn-Rahmato & Taye-Assefa (eds.) Land and the Challenge of Sustainable Development in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Forum for Social Studies.

Dessalegn-Rahmato (2009). Land and Agrarian Unrest in Wollo: From the Imperial Regime to the Derg. In: Dessalegn-Rahmato (ed.) The Peasant and the State: Studies in Agrarian Change in Ethiopia 1950s–2000s (collection of articles by same author). Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa university Press.

Dessalegn-Rahmato (2009). Land Registration and Tenure Security: A Critical Assessment. In: Dessalegn-Rahmato (ed.) The Peasant and the State: Studies in Agrarian Change in Ethiopia 1950s–2000s. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa Univrsity Press.

Dessalegn-Rahmato (2009). An Assessment on the Ethiopian Agricultural Policy. In: Taye-Assefa (ed.) Digest of Ethiopian National Policies, Strategies and Programmes (Amharic). Addis Ababa: Forum for Social Studies and The European Union.

Dessalegn-Rahmato (2011). Land to Investors: Large-Scale Land Transfer in Ethiopia. FSS Policy Debate Series. Addis Ababa: Forum for Social Studies.

Dunning, H. C. 1970. Land Reform in Ethiopia: A Case Study in Non-Development. UCLA L. Rev, 18,

EEA/EEPRI 2002. A Research Report on Land Tenure and Agricultural Development in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Economic Association/Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute.

FAO 2002. Land Tenure and Rural Development, Rome, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

FDRE Rural Land Administration and Land Use Proclamation, Proclamation No. 456/2005. Negarit Gazeta. Year 11, No. 44.

Feyera-Abdissa & Terefe-Degefa 2011. Urbanization and Changing Livelihoods: The Case of Farmers’ Displacement in the Expansion of Addis Ababa. In: Teller, C. & Hailemariam, A. (eds.) The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa: The Unique Case of Ethiopia. London: Springer.

Hoben, A. 1973. Land Tenure Among the Amhara of Ethiopia: The Dynamics of Cognatic Descent Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Horne, F. 2011. Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa: Country Report Ethiopia. Oakland, USA: The Oakland Institute.

Huntingford, G. W. B. 1965. The Land Charters of Northern Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Institute of Ethiopian Studies and the Faculty of Law, Haile Sellassie I University.

Kabtamu-Niguse. 2012. Land Tenure and Tenure Security Among Somali Pastoralists: Within the Context of Dual Tenure System. LL.M thesis, Bahir Dar University, School of Law.

Mahteme-Selassie, W. M. 1957. The Land System of Ethiopia. Ethiopia Observer, 1.;

Mahteme-Sellassie, W. M. 1970. Zekre Neger, Addis Ababa

Mekasha-Abera 2012. Ye Eethiopia Meseretawi ye Lease Hig Hasabochna Yemiasketlachew Chigroch (Fundamentals of the Ethiopian Lease Law and its Problems), Addis Ababa, Far East Trading.

Mesganaw-Kifelew 2009. The Current Urban Land Tenure System in Ethiopia. In: Muradu-Abdo (ed.) Land Law and Policy in Ethiopia Since 1991: Continuities and Changes. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Business Law Series, Faculty of Law, Addis Ababa University.

Ministry-of-Information 1968. Yemeret Yizota be Hibretesebawit Ethiopia (Land Possession in the Republic of Ethiopia), Addis Ababa.

MOIPAD 2001. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Rural Development Policies, Strategies and Instruments (Amharic). Addis Ababa: Ministry of Information, Press and Audiovisual Department.

Molla-Mengistu 2009. The Ethiopian Urban Landholding System: An Assessment of the Governing Legal Regime. In: Muradu-Abdo (ed.) Land Law and Policy in Ethiopia since 1991: Continuities and Changes. Addis Ababa: Law Faculty, Addis Ababa University.

Oromia Rural Land Use and Administration, Proclamation 130/2007.

Palm, L. 2010. Quick and Cheap Mass Land Registration and computerisation in Ethiopia. Facing the Challenges—Building the Capacity. Sydney, Australia: FIG Congress.

Pankhurst, R. 1966. State and Land in Ethiopian History, Addis Ababa, The Institute of Ethiopian Studies and the Faculty of Law, Haile Sellasie I University.

Pausewang, S. 1982. Peasants, Land and Society: a Social History of Land Reform in Ethiopia, Munchen, Weltforum-Varlag

Proclamation No. 136/2007. Tigray Negarit Gazeta. Year 16 No. 1.

Samuel-Gebreselassie 2006. Land, Land Policy and Smallholder Agriculture in Ethiopia: Options and Scenarios. Future Agricultures Consortium meeting. the Institute of Development Studies,

Shiferaw-Bekele 1995. The Evolution of Land Tenure in the Imperial Era. In: Shiferaw, B. (ed.) An Economic History of Ethiopia: The Imperial Era 1941–1974. Dakar: CODESRIA

Tesfaye-Olika 2006. Ethiopia: Politics of Land Tenure Policies Under the Three Regimes, a Carrot and Stick Rulling Strategy in Ethiopian Politics. In: Tesfaye-Olika (ed.) Ethiopia: Politics, Policy Making and Rural Development. Addis Ababa: Department of Political & International Relations, Addis Ababa University

The Revised Amhara National Regional State Rural Land Administration and Use Proclamation, Proclamation No. 133/2006. Zikre Hig. Year 11, No. 18.

The Revised Tigray National Regional State Rural Land Administration and Use Proclamation,

The Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State Rural Land Administration and Utilization Proclamation, Proclamation 110/2007. Debub Negarit Gazeta.

Urban Lands Lease Holding Proclamation, Proclamation No. 80/1993. Negarit Gazeta. Year 53, No. 40.

USAID (2004), Ethiopia Land Policy and Administration Assessment. Final Report with Appendices.

Yeraswork-Admassie 2000. Twenty Years to Nowhere: Property Rights, Land Management and Conservation in Ethiopia Asmara, The Red Sea Press, Inc.

The author can be reached at tsegaye.tegenu@epmc.se

By: fox5dc.com staff

SPRINGFIELD, Va. – Fairfax County police are investigating two homicides that happened less than two miles apart that are believed to be possibly connected.

Police say 22-year-old Henok Yohannes was found dead Thursday inside his Springfield home in the 6400 block of Blarney Stone Court after they received a call at around 8:15 p.m. Authorities found Yohannes with apparent trauma to the upper body.

On Friday, police said 22-year-old Kedest Sileshi Simeneh of Springfield was found leaning against a tree and not moving by a homeowner in their yard in the 6500 block of Cordwood Court in Burke. The resident contacted police and medical personnel found the woman deceased at the scene — also with upper body trauma.

Police: 2 separate suspicious deaths in Fairfax Co. ruled homicide; believed to be possibly linked

Police said Yohannes and Simeneh’s deaths do not appear to be random.

“We have almost of all of our homicide squad out here, we have crime scene detectives out here, we have an investigator from the medical examiner’s office and they have divided up both scenes to try to work very diligently through the details to find out what circumstances are surrounding this that may be linking these cases and who could possibly be involved,” said Fairfax County police spokesperson Monica Meeks.

A candlelight vigil was held in Springfield Friday night for Yohannes. People stood together, with some crying, in a silent remembrance. Yohannes, a native of Ethiopia, was remembered as a person who loved soccer. People said he was an amazing person with so much to offer and everyone here was shocked by the sudden loss of two lives.

“It’s really sad that something like that would happen to two young individuals — 22 years old,” said one vigil attendee. “They had their whole lives ahead of them.”

“Henok wasn’t a violent person,” another person said. “He would never get violent with anyone. I don’t think I have ever met a more positive person in my life.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Fairfax County police at 703-691-2131 or Crime Solvers at http://www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org, by texting “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES (274637) or by calling 1-866-411-TIPS(8477).

The family of a British citizen illegally abducted and detained in Ethiopia has appealed to Boris Johnson to step up efforts to secure his release, as they prepare to spend a third Christmas without him.

Andy Tsege, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 1979 and has lived in Britain ever since, was kidnapped and illegally rendered to the east African state in June 2014 at the behest of the Ethiopian government, as part of a widely criticised crackdown on dissidents and civil rights activists.

peaking from the family home in London two years after the family were last allowed a phone call with Tsege, his daughter Menabe said: “We’re so sad that our dad isn’t with us for Christmas. It’s been two years now since we last heard his voice, and we are so worried about him. I was seven when my dad disappeared, and now I’m nearly 10 – I feel like I’m really growing up without him. I can’t believe the government isn’t doing more to help us.”

A prominent figure in an Ethiopian opposition party, Tsege was kidnapped by Ethiopian agents at Sana’a international airport in Yemen, and imprisoned without access to a fair trial.

Four years earlier he had been condemned to death on terror charges at a trial held in his absence. The trial proceedings were described by US diplomats as “lacking basic elements of due process”. Ethiopia has a reputation as one of the most authoritarian and repressive regimes in Africa.

A letter from Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood to the legal charity Reprieve, which is representing the 61-year-old, states: “We are maintaining our focus on seeking to ensure Mr Tsege’s health and welfare, and achieve regular consular access.”

Lawyers say the statement waters down previous claims from the Foreign Office about how much headway had been achieved on the case. Johnson said over the summer that “progress has been made”, and in particular that regular consular access was now in place.

Reprieve said the latest update showed the UK government was retreating from that claim and omitted any reference to the legal representation for Tsege that Johnson’s predecessor, Philip Hammond, said he had secured in June.

The apparently continuing lack of regular consular access means Tsege is unable to freely describe the treatment he has received in jail. Independent experts have raised fears that he has been tortured.

Tsege’s partner, Yemi Hailemariam, said she was despairing at the UK government’s ineffective approach. “It’s heartbreaking to have to prepare my kids for a third Christmas without their dad, and to explain to them why the government isn’t doing more to bring him home. I can’t bear the thought that next year we might be in the same position.”

Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: “It’s nothing short of a disgrace that Andy is spending another Christmas in illegal detention, at the hands of a government that’s subjected him to a series of grave abuses – from a political in absentia death sentence to kidnap, rendition and torture. Enough is enough – Boris Johnson must urgently seek Andy’s return to his partner and kids in the UK.”

Last Tuesday there was cross-party criticism of the handling of cases such as Tsege’s involving Britons who have been detained unjustly abroad. MPs condemned the Foreign Office for declining to intervene strongly in cases involving detained Britons for fear of “interfering” with foreign judicial systems.

Several MPs raised the fact that Ethiopia received significant amounts of UK assistance, including for its security forces. The debate, held amid growing disquiet over a “downgrading” of human rights at the Foreign Office, also confirmed that the Ethiopian government had told MPs that Tsege had no prospect of an appeal.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “The British government has provided significant support to Mr Tsege and his family, and to suggest otherwise is simply incorrect. From the moment we heard about his detention we pressed for consular access and have now been able to visit Mr Tsege a number of times.

“The foreign secretary has made it clear to the Ethiopian government that Mr Tsege must be given access to legal representation, as agreed by Prime Minister Hailemariam [Desalegn Boshe] in June. “And we will press them on this matter until they follow through on their commitment.”

“The people are resentful of the local officials and don’t want to discuss things with them,” he said. The local administrator also had not shown much interest in talking to the people, he said, although he admitted a potential reason: Villagers burned down his house last year.

A middle-aged woman dressed in a floral print dress and white shawl interrupted. “We need the government to respond to the demands of the people,” she said, her voice rising. “What we need is for the killings and imprisonments to stop.”

Villagers described a climate of fear, with late-night raids targeting young people who had been accused of protesting. Few doubted that demonstrations will resume once the state of emergency is lifted. The government has promised a new electoral system with proportional representation so that opposition politicians have a chance to be elected. Currently, the opposition has no seats in the parliament or on local councils.

“What the government says is simply astonishing, what they are saying is totally different from what we see on the ground,” a young Oromo said in a village not far from the capital.

“On one hand, they talk about a dialogue with the opposition. But on the other hand, they are arresting the head of the main opposition party,” he added, referring to the Dec. 1 arrestof the country’s most prominent Oromo opposition leader, Merera Gudina.

Most of his party’s top and midlevel leaders have also been imprisoned over the past year despite the government’s talk of the need for dialogue with all political parties.

“The effect of the state of emergency counteracts the aspirations they have articulated,” Malinowski noted. He acknowledged that while the Ethiopian government is suggesting reforms, little has materialized. “The problem is they haven’t done any of it yet, and even with unqualified commitment and speed, these things are going to take quite some time to achieve.”

As the countryside seethes, time is not on the government’s side. The United States has urged a number of confidence-building measures such as releasing opposition figures.

Video: Miruts Yifter interview by Alebachew Desalegn

​​Israel says it is doing ‘all it takes’ to combat ‘shameful’ anti-settlement resolution passed by UN last week

by Bethan McKernan Beirut

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up retaliatory measures in wake of a UN Security Council vote that condemned Israeli settlements on Palestinian land as a “flagrant violation” of international law

The resolution managed to pass on Friday thanks to an abstention by the US, the country’s closest ally, which has been widely interpreted as a parting shot from outgoing US President Barack Obama.

The US has previously used its veto as a permanent member of the council to scupper similar proposals since 1979, but relations between the Obama administration and the Israeli government have steadily declined over the last eight years.

Mr Netanyahu has said that he will do “all it takes” to ensure Israel emerges “unscathed” by the diplomatic fallout from the vote, on Sunday summoning the ambassadors of 12 of the 14 countries who voted in favour of the resolution, including the UK, France, Russia and China.

The American ambassador Dan Shapiro was also called in for a separate meeting, Israeli media reported. It is unclear when that meeting will take place.

Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman also announced on Sunday that Israel is cutting civilian coordination with Palestinians, army radio said, while maintaining security coordination. Israeli officials have refused to comment on the radio report.

The prime minister told his Cabinet in their weekly meeting that Israel is now looking into a “plan of action” against the UN, without elaborating on what that might look like, but the country has already cut millions of shekels of funding for UN agencies.

On Saturday Israel suspended diplomatic ties with Senegal and New Zealand, who proposed the resolution, as well as cutting off all aid to Senegal and cancelling an upcoming visit from the Senegalese Foreign Minister Mankeur Ndiaye.

The vote, which reiterates that the international community views any Israeli construction over the agreed 1967 Green Line as illegal in the hopes of working towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is largely symbolic, and is unlikely to have any effect on the ground.

However, despite enjoying support from the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald Trump, the Israeli authorities are worried that it could pave the way to other coordinated international action against settlements, such as economic sanctions.

Voice of Amara Radio – 24 Dec 2016

Merera Gudina’s arrest has been criticised by a member of the European parliament

On November 30, 2016, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) announced the arrest of a prominent opposition leader, Dr. Merera Gudina. Dr. Merera was arrested shortly after his arrival from Europe where he testified to the European Parliament about human rights violations and political crisis in Ethiopia.

The arrest comes at a time of high political tension which saw the Ethiopian government declare a six-month state of emergency in October. The emergency was issued after a yearlong protest by the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups opposing governmental policies. Since the emergency took effect, more than 11000 people have been arrested.

In a statement released by the Command Post, the body that oversees the state of emergency, Dr. Merera was arrested for violating article 2 of the state of emergency directive, which forbids any communication with “terrorists and anti-peace groups.” The Command Post alleged that Dr. Merera held discussions with Dr. Berhanu Nega, leader of the banned Ginbot 7 party. Like Merera, many other detainees are also charged for violating one or more prescriptions under the state of emergency directive.

From the beginning, human rights organizations vocalized their concern about the directive, saying it puts vague restrictions that undermine basic rights, including freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and go far beyond what’s allowed under international law.

Ethiopia signed and ratified two major international human rights treaties: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). Although the ICCPR permits for derogation of some rights under extraordinary circumstances that endanger the existence of a nation, the ACHPR has no derogation clauses and hence does not allow its signees to derogate any rights.

The state of emergency directive violates some of the clauses on the ICCPR and completely goes against the instruments under the ACHPR. This shows that either the Ethiopian government does not care about its international duties or the ICCPR and ACHPR lack the proper provision to hold states accountable. In both cases, the situation does not help the current crisis in Ethiopia.

In an attempt to expose human rights violations in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian diaspora organized many mass demonstrations near the White House. But the United States is unlikely to make a major influence on the Ethiopian government as Ethiopia is a long standing ally for the fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

So if there is any change that must come in Ethiopia, it must come internally.

We have seen signs of democracy in 2005, when the opposition party won 137 out of 138 seats in the capital, Addis Ababa, but it did not translate to transition of power for reasons that still remain mysterious. Even though the outcome of that election still remain heartbreaking for many Ethiopians, as long as we keep challenging the government on issues of democracy and human rights, there is no reason why that political movement will not be recreated.

The truth is, Ethiopian politics need a major makeover. We need a government that motivates critical thinking and opposition, not one that creates anti-terrorism laws that undermine and imprison free thinkers. We need a political system that is equal to every racial group, not one that is dominated by one. We need leaders who listen to people’s grievances, not ones who issues a state of emergency to silence them.

We need not look far to find encouragement. We have recently witnessed Ghana hold a successful election that saw a peaceful transition of power. The Ethiopian government must learn from this and open the arena for full and fair elections. The government should open up the political system and allow people with different views to contribute theirs in the pursuit of democracy.

And those who oppose the government must come together and keep challenging the government as a unit.

Like South Africans did after Apartheid, both pro and anti-government groups must find it in their hearts to forgive one another and work for a united, peaceful, and democratic Ethiopia.

I will start.

I for one forgive you, EPRDF, for all the wrongs that you did. I forgive you for the death threats that you used to send my father for expressing his opinions. I forgive you for taking democracy out of our grasp in 2005. I forgive you for all the killings of innocent Ethiopians over the past two decades.

Now, your turn.

Amanuel Lemenih is from Ethiopia. He is currently enrolled in Columbia University in the City of New York.

 Hilary Clinton’s historical defeat is no doubt one for the history books, and it is going to be minced and diced for a while. No body, not even Trump and his supporters, saw it coming. Trump, despite his braggadocio, might even have agonized in his mind to himself, “I didn’t mean to win, I swear to God! Why is it happening to me?” For those who are fond of the outcome, it is a miracle that can be compared to hitting the jackpot at the Taj Mahal Casino that Trump himself once owned; and for those who detest it, it is a calamity – God’s wrath; and still others might have seen it as a freaky phenomenon – an aberration – for it defies logic and common sense.

Setting aside Russia’s alleged hacking and the WikiLeaks revelations, it has now been widely accepted that the media and the pundits that mercilessly attacked Trump – not that he did not deserve it – created an environment of complacency around Candidate Clinton and her supporters killing her dream of becoming the first female president. Both the media and the pundits were so audaciously confident, they encouraged the assumption across the nation that Mrs. Clinton had bagged the victory before the voters had cast their vote. As a result, millions of her supporters let down their guard. Assuming with confidence that their candidate would be the next president anyway, a significant number of them stayed home on November 8, 2016 thus surrendering the most inevitable victory of their candidate to the most unlikely winner – now President-Elect Donald Trump. Even Mrs. Clinton herself was so confident – meaning complacency got the better of her – she failed to set foot in some key states leaving them wide open to be picked up by Trump – a classic case of you lose if you snooze.

I am focusing on the complacency factor for a good reason. Because, it also happens to be our story. The issue of complacency might have been directly or indirectly referenced in Professor Adugnaw Worku’s wisdom packed video that was released not too long ago. Nonetheless, at the risk of appearing holier-than- thou, I somehow convinced myself to share my not so uncommon view on the peril of complacency at this opportune moment.  Admittedly, complacency, which can manifest itself in several forms, is endemic in our community.

Other things being equal, I personally believe that complacency is a major contributor to why we are where we are today. It is so pervasive in our community and deeply engrained in our psychic, its role in the paralysis that has shackled us from moving forward could never be underestimated. Complacency’s scar in our community is like a ravage left by a drug in an inner city somewhere in USA. Its dominance in our daily life is so profound, we have no choice but to accept the verdict that it has calcified into our culture as part of its fabric.

Instances are abundant to prove that complacency is among the worst of the culprits that stand between us and our goals today:

Talking down ones enemy is a propaganda strategy to psyche out the enemy while at the same time raising the morale of supporters and sympathizers.  However, in our case, we tend to underrate our enemy only to complacently feel good about ourselves inversely overrating our strength and how we are coping with our problems in general. Knowing where we are today Vis-a’-Vis our enemy that has outfoxed us in almost every arena, it is not that difficult to see that we have been engaged in self-deception by way of complacency.

If it weren’t for complacency, we would not have the same people in the leadership of major civic or political organizations for two generations plus in a row – at least that seems to be the case in Diaspora. Yes, we do indeed need dedicated and experienced leaders, but do they have to be the same people all the time sacrificing their family, their time, their career, their money and energy while the rest of us limit ourselves to a freeloading bystander status avoiding our obligation to our country and people? Decade after decade, the same people not only are carrying the burden of leadership, they are also running all everyday errands because others who have vowed to chip in have decidedly become absentee supporters. Voting for a leadership and then leaving it hanging on its own without limbs has been an established tradition in our community, and yet we feel entitled to wonder why not so much has not been accomplished. Where there is absence of sharing the load, for sure complacency is lurking in the background.

If it weren’t for complacency, the same few people wouldn’t be attending conferences year after year to discuss issues affecting us all preceded by presentations more or less from the same guest speakers; the same few people wouldn’t always be responding to calls for protest rallies in front of the White House or State Department shouting slogans until their voice gets coarse; and the same few people wouldn’t be dipping into their pockets to fund causes that concern us all.

Lateness our badge of notoriety and consequently among our identifiers as Ethiopians, no doubt, for the most part hails from complacency.  About 50 years ago, the late Professor Donald Levine brilliantly dealt with our ‘concept of time’ in his book “Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture”. I would argue that our concept of time has not changed much since. It appears to be the case that having lived in western societies for years and years has also failed to make a dent in our indulgence in complacency. Our obstinate consistency in being late for conferences and other events is indeed out of this world. Consequently conference organizers are either forced to cancel portions of programs or pay more for extra time to use venues. We don’t even spare brides and bridegrooms from our lateness on the most important day of their life. They are forced to wait forever and ever on the other side of the wall or in their limousine until barely enough of us have trickled into the ballroom. Such occurrences are nothing but disruptions by reason of complacency. What about using others’ lateness as a justification for our own? The lamest excuse of all!

What about the overwhelming majority who never show up to any event at all? Most of them have technology to thank for: “I can watch it on YouTube, I will follow it online, on Facebook, etc.” Add to the mix those who hide themselves behind “It is ok if I don’t go because someone else will.”  The problem is almost everybody thinks the same way giving ‘being on the same page’ a twisted meaning. Ultimately, the usual crowd, always few in number, would be left on their own to grace the conference halls once again. The video cameras would stay trained on the podium for a good and obvious reason – because there isn’t much to show or broadcast in the direction of the scanty audience. We can go on and on. Then, who would argue that our indulgence in complacency is not God-send to our enemy – TPLF?  To be complacent, specially, in this time of great need is simply to be on the side of the enemy by default.

Let’s call a spade a spade! Complacency is opportunism in disguise – sitting on the fence and ready to jump in the direction of the wind. It smacks of a shaky commitment for a cause and betrays buying time to jump ship at the opportune moment. The comfort of complacency also affords the luxury to criticize those who try their best, and yet allows one to refrain from lending a hand to fix a problem by walking the walk. Simply put, to be complacent is to be disingenuous and pretentious. So, wouldn’t you agree that complacency is nothing but hypocrisy in an undercover outfit?

Complacency is responsible for nurturing cynicism among us eroding trust and compounding further the path to unity, and in all seriousness, has to be treated as an existential threat in our community. So, what does it take to wean us off this plague? How should we combat it? Just a suggestion: let’s start by recognizing that complacency emanates from selfishness and is absolutely indefensible. It then follows that the remedy requires conducting a thorough individual soul searching – inward looking. That few are always sacrificing for our common good with almost no input from the rest of us ought to start bothering us, and ought to deny us peace of mind.  If that is the case and we subsequently surrender to our conscience, nothing will deter us from stepping up to the plate to contribute our share. And beating complacency will ultimately be self-rewarding with a win-win outcome.

Author’s Note: In July 2016, I completed my tenth year of uninterrupted Monday Commentaries (and sometimes up to 4 commentaries) a week. Some have amiably characterized my commentaries as “Monday Sermons”.

My first commentary  (in the form a speech), “Awakening Giant”, appeared on July 4, 2006, the 230^th anniversary of the American Declaration Independence.

It has been an extraordinary decade for me. As I look back, I am proud of the struggle I waged against the users, abusers and misusers of power wherever they may be by speaking truth and hoping to keep them honest.

I have been blessed to live out a decade of Satyagraha (satya “truth”; agraha “insistence” or “holding firmly to”), a revolutionary idea of nonviolent resistance popularized by Mahatma Gandhi. To me, Satyagraha means two things: 1) personally resisting and teaching others to resist the arbitrary, unlawful and vicious actions of the powers that be, the power abusers, the powerful, and the superpower, and 2) defending the rights of the powerless, the disempowered and the overpowered.

Over the past decade, I managed to cultivate a substantial readership which follows my commentaries on a variety of websites, social media and bulk email. I thank my readers, website editors and all others on social media who read and propagate my commentaries to audiences throughout the world, and especially in Ethiopia.

Many readers have told me that they have been inspired and informed by my commentaries. They have only one question: How come I never get tired?

Does one get tired of breathing? It has something to do with “soul-force” as  Gandhi would call it.

Other readers are offended, upset and exasperated by my commentaries. They believe I have relentlessly criticized the T-TPLF because of their ethnicity or some other demographic characteristic.  They even complain that I should not call them a “thugtatorship”  or a gang of thugs. I have no ethnic bias  towards the leadership or members of the T-TPLF. But I dislike and passionately oppose their wicked ways, their crimes against humanity. I call it as I see it! If the shoe fits, the T-TPLF must wear it.

Some have complained that my commentaries are too long and I should shorten them. I am amused by such complaints. I do not write for entertainment, pleasure reading, to amuse or for self-promotion. I have tried to present a serious message to my readers on important issues every week. Suffice it to say that my commentaries  are targeted specifically to those who are seriously and sincerely concerned about issues of human rights, justice, good governance, democratic principles and practices, the rule of law, accountability and transparency and so on.

The year of perseverance

I would say 2016 has been a year of perseverance for me and millions of Ethiopians.

In 2006, my “friend” Barack Obama said, “Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.”

Obama was responding to exhausted volunteers who were ready to throw in the towel. They “told me they were quitting – that they had been doing this for two years and had nothing to show for it.”

Indeed, that is what my brother, the inspirational Eskinder Nega said in a letter smuggled out of prison. Unjustly sentenced to serve 18 years in prison by the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front [T-TPLF] (for nothing more than blogging online), Eskinder wrote, “I will live to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It may or may not be a long wait. Whichever way events may go, I shall persevere!”

After 10 years of weekly commentaries, whichever way events went, what do I have to show for it?

I will let the millions of readers who have been inspired and informed by my commentaries over the past decade answer that question.

I will let the T-TPLF answer that question.

I will let those infuriated, exasperated and maddened by my commentaries answer that question.

I will let future generations of Ethiopians answer that question.

My answer is simple: “I have and shall continue to persevere whichever way events may go.”

In doing my annual year in review for 2016, I have selected one commentary from each month which I believe exemplify the virtue of perseverance.

In January, in my commentary “Fly, Ethiopia, Fly”, I tried to answer a question posed by The Economist: “What if they [Ethiopians] were really set free?” The Economist answered its own question: “If the government let people breathe, they might fly.”

That got me thinking about a whole lot of other questions? What if Ethiopia’s young people were really set free? Set to think freely? Speak freely? Write, blog and report freely? Worship freely? Assemble and participate in political parties and civic organizations  freely? Petition for redress of their grievances freely? Own their own land freely, farm it, lease it or sell it freely? Live and travel anywhere in their country without feeling they are bobbing and weaving out of ethnic homelands, or told to “go back to their country”, their kililistan, the contemporary version of apartheid Bantustans?

My answer: By God! Ethiopia’s young people would fly, fly, fly, fly high in the sky like millions of butterflies. They would soar like eagles. “They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

But how can eagles soar when they are under the claws of turkeys?

I know the caged young birds of Ethiopia sing “of things unknown/ but longed for still/ and his tune is heard/ on the distant hill/ for the caged bird/ sings of freedom.

Ethiopia’s young people still sing of freedom and have persevered!

In February, I had the extraordinary chance of meeting Reeyot Alemu and her sister Eskedar. Reeyot was arrested and imprisoned by the personal order of the late T-TPLF  thugmaster Meles Zenawi  in June 2011. It was a memorable meeting.

When I first laid eyes on Reeyot, I blurted out, “You are Reeyot?! I am not scared of you!” She busted out laughing. I wasn’t trying to be funny. I simply could not imagine how Meles Zenawi could be scared of this young woman. In retrospect, I have a good idea why. Meles saw Reeyot as his nemesis. Reeyot is unlike any young Ethiopian I have ever met. She is like a piece of diamond. On the outside she shines and sparkles. On the inside, she is a young woman made up of entirely steel nerves, tungsten will power and titanium determination. She has a defining and disarming attitude. She makes no secret of her life’s mission: “If I don’t stand up for freedom and democracy in Ethiopia, who else will?”

I remember fondly our few days filled with laughter. We laughed almost the entire time as we discussed the childish shenanigans of the T-TPLF, their stupidity and idiocy, their ignorant arrogance, their incompetence and cluelessness, their hate and loathing, their thuggery and buffoonery, their lies, deception and disinformation; their corruption, nepotism and cronyism. We laughed and laughed…

I have to do the second part of Reeyot’s story one of these days.

Reeyot persevered!

In March, I asked the question, “Quo Vadis Ethiopia: Where Are You (not) Going?” I attended a “Conference on the Future of Ethiopia: Transition, Democracy, and National Unity” organized by Vision Ethiopia in Washington, D.C. I argued that to find out where Ethiopia is going, follow the youth.

But that question to me was pregnant with even more questions. Where is Ethiopia going with T-TPLF? (That’s a no brainer! Ethiopia is at a dead end with the T-TPLF.) After the T-TPLF is gone?  Will Ethiopia be an undiscovered country after the T-TPLF is gone? Will Ethiopians be walking  over the minefields the T-TPLF has planted for the past 25 years and implode? Is Ethiopia going in the direction of a civil war?

I proposed a constitutional road map for Ethiopia. It is a road map that has only one  destination: “New Ethiopia”.  The road map has three “landmarks”. First, the Preamble to the Constitution of the New Ethiopia must begin with the following phrase: “We the People of Ethiopia, in order to…” None of that Stalinist-Leninist crap about “nations, nationalities and peoples”.

Second, the Constitution of the New Ethiopia should have language along the following lines: “The powers not delegated to the national Ethiopian government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” In other words, the new national government of the New Ethiopia will function only to the extent that the national constitution grants power to it.  None of that ethnic federalism crap.

Third and straight up, the new constitution of the New Ethiopia should adopt in its entirety Article 55(4) of Ghana’s Constitution: “Every political party shall have a national character, and membership shall not be based on ethnic, religious, regional or other sectional divisions.”  “National character” means none of the exclusionary ethnic and sectarian crap.

Ultimately, the question of where Ethiopia is going will NOT be answered by social media muckrakers, carpetbaggers, hired hands and agent provocateurs and opportunists. Nor will it be determined by professors, lawyers, doctors and self-appointed tribal chiefs. The question of where Ethiopia is going will be answered by Ethiopia’s young women and men, Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation, with the support of Ethiopia’s Hippo Generation of good will. It is going to be answered by the thousands of political prisoners in Ethiopia who are paying the ultimate price for our freedom.

Ethiopia shall persevere until the end of time!

In April, I remembered my brother Eskinder (“Invictus [Aybegere]”) Nega. Eskinder reminds me of Nelson Mandela. The white minority apartheid regime of South Africa sentenced  Nelson Mandela to life in prison in 1964 hoping Mandela would be forgotten and erased from public memory. Mandela emerged triumphant from apartheid prison in 1990 after 27 years and saved South Africa.

There is nothing more the T-TPLF would like to see than the memory of Eskinder Nega erased and obliterated from public memory and consciousness.

Whenever I get low on inspiration and feel drained, I read Eskinder’s handwritten “Musings on the Battle of Mice” smuggled out of prison in 2015 for a quick picker-upper. (It’s more like musings on battling the bubonic plague unleashed on Ethiopia for the past 25 years.)  I have never been able to understand in my own mind how a man imprisoned, maligned and vilified by the T-TPLF could be an endless source of inspiration for me and many others. I do not have the words to thank Eskinder, his wife Serkalem and Nafqot, his son, for their suffering and sacrifices in the cause of freedom, human rights and democracy in Ethiopia. All I can say is that I am proud to call Eskinder my brother and Serkalem my sister. I am deeply humbled by their sacrifices, awed by their courage, tenacity and unimpeachable integrity and inspired by their personal example.

If I could carry a tune, I would sing Michael Jackson’s “You are not Alone” to Eskinder with slight modification: But you are not alone/ We are here with you/ Though we’re far apart/ You’re always in our hearts/ But you are not alone, not alone, not alone…

We will always be with you, Eskinder!

Thus wrote Eskinder Nega: “Whichever way events may go, I shall persevere!”

In May, I protested the trumped-up “terrorism” charges against Bekele Gerba and 21 co-defendants in T-TPLF kangaroo (monkey) court.

When I call T-TPLF judicial process “kangaroo” or “monkey kourt”, some people think I am just being sarcastic and mean-spirted.

But I am telling the truth!  The charges against Bekele and his co-defendants were prepared by a co-prosecutor who is an illiterate, literally. One of the prosecutors who brought charges against Bekele and his co-defendants can neither write nor read!

Associate General Prosecutor Fikadu Tsega signed the official charging document with a thumbprint while his co-prosecutor signed in script.

Only in T-TPLF’s Ethiopia is an illiterate “federal” prosecutor allowed to charge citizens with crimes against the state. How can a prosecutor sign charges that he cannot read? Only in a T-TPLF monkey kourt would criminal charges verified by an illiterate prosecutor be accepted as legitimate.

But no one should be surprised. Many of the functionally illiterate T-TPLF leaders fare no better Fikadu Tsega. There are amply documented cases in which top T-TPLF leaders have purchased fake degrees from online diploma mills to prove they are “educated”. The T-TPLF ignoramuses think they can impress people by listing acronyms after their names. Aaarrgh! The tyranny of ignoramuses!!!

The T-TPLF has long embarked on a mission of legal lynching of its opponents and critics. The T-TPLF pretrial process is perverted. The T-TPLF judicial system is the only one in the world where suspects are arrested of committing crimes after being investigated for 2 years and then the prosecution asks for endless continuances to gather additional evidence to show probable cause.

Bekele Gerba and his 21-codefendants imprisoned on trumped up charges shall persevere!

In June, I celebrated “The Greatest” of all time. Of course, as the champ said, it was all “a publicity stunt”.

But Muhammad Ali was a truth-teller: “I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me.  It would be a better world.”

Muhammad Ali used courage to determine his self-destiny and bring defiant pride to all who felt crushed by a system white supremacy, white democracy, white plutocracy  and white conspiracy.

Muhammad Ali lived the courage of his convictions. Every day Muhammad Ali showed courage under fire. In the boxing ring, he showed courage taking blows and stinging like a bee with his own. In the courtroom, he showed courage.  In the hospital room fighting Parkinsons, he showed courage. Standing up for the downtrodden of America, he showed courage. When he said, “Look at me, ain’t I pretty”, he stood up in courage and declared Black is beautiful.  Look of the definition of courage in the dictionary. You will find the picture of Muhammad Ali.

When Muhammad Ali was floating like a butterfly, he was actually standing up and stinging like a bee.

I learned something from The Greatest. All humans are born with courage. Most lose courage over their lifetimes. The vast majority are willing and eager to succumb to a life of cowardice and die in quiet desperation. A few months after being born, a baby finds the physical and spiritual strength to stop crawling and stand up. That I think is the first act of courage in the human being. The baby struggles to stand up after falling time and again, and even crying in pain. No baby will willingly keep crawling because trying to stand up may prove to be painful in the fall.

As the baby grows older and becomes an adult, it learns that crawling is better and safer than standing up and falling down.

I was that baby who became an adult in 2005 when the late Meles Zenawi massacred hundreds of innocent Ethiopians following the elections in May of that year.

Muhammad Ali is one of the few human beings who was born in courage, lived in courage, stood up in courage, fell down in courage and died in courage. He died with his boots on; better yet, with his gloves on.

The Greatest of All Time persevered!

In July, I registered my opposition to Donald Trump. I first raised my quill against Donald Trump in December 2015 in my commentary “Rise of the Trump-aryans!”

I predicted:

Trump’s strategy is to stoke the anger of white voters so that they will come out in massive numbers to vote for him and offset the demographic shifts in the United States that have handed electoral victories in the last two presidential elections. He thinks he can best accomplish that by spreading fear and loathing against Muslims and undocumented immigrants, the two most vilified and discriminated groups in America, and by promoting Islamophobia and xenophobia.

I was right!!!

I endorsed Bernie Sanders in February because I felt betrayed by Barack Obama and the Clintons and the Democratic Party. After Hillary Clinton got the Democratic nomination, I supported her wholeheartedly because the alternative was too frightening to contemplate.

Trump may be a “good” businessman, if parking a few of one’s business in bankruptcy is an indication of good entrepreneurship.  Trump campaigned as the prophet of doom and gloom. He talked (twitted) about an apocalyptic America that is in the process of total self-destruction. He talked about an America in crises and decline, a dystopia ridden by crime, violence and poverty. He sought to convince Americans that America is Apocalypse Now. Trump reverberated neo-fascist propaganda in his bogus and exaggerated claims of an America humiliated on the international scene, his glorification of American imperial power and violent domination of the world, his promised crackdown on racial and ethnic minorities and immigrants and contempt for constitutional government. Trump sought to channel racial, ethnic and religious hatred into a political campaign and program in his efforts to ascend to the presidency.

I tried to “save the last great hope of humanity from “Truminsanity!”

Donald Trump persevered and became president!

In August, I wrote about the “Volcano, the Beast and the Tiger”.  I applauded the people of Ethiopia fighting back T-TPLF rule by engaging in mass demonstrations and protests, acts of civil disobedience, other nonviolent actions and outright-armed resistance. The T-TPLF’s generic and typical response to peaceful demonstrations and protests has been to engage in indiscriminate shootings and massacres with impunity.

I related the message of the great American revolutionary Thomas Paine to the Ethiopian people:

Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Oppressed societies may remain dormant for decades without giving the slightest indication of  the pressure and heat buildup of deep, widespread, sweeping and pervasive dissatisfaction, anger, resentment and rage. In time, these conditions fermenting and simmering deep in society begin to flare up randomly. I claim no power of prophesy in predicting the end of the T-TPLF. The T-TPLF itself has predicted its own doom long before I have. In 2015, in a secretly recorded conversation which I discussed in my commentary, “The ‘End of the Story’ for the T-TPLF in Ethiopia?”, T-TPLF hench/hatchetmen Berket Simon and “deputy prime minister” Addisu Legesse, plainly talked about the end of times — the final days, the last days — for the T-TPLF to a group of their supporters. “Looking at it from our situation, it is already getting out of our hands. There is no question about that.   We can see that plainly from the way the teachers’ organizations are doing things. When 2/3 of educators are our members (of our party), and they are going out and demonstrating against us, that is the end of the story.”

The T-TPLF did NOT persevere. Instead, the T-TPLF declared a “state of emergency” to protect  itself from the people of Ethiopia!

In September, I examined the disinformation campaigns of the T-TPLF through the forked-tongue of T-TPLF serpent and Chief Disinformation Officer Debretsion Gebremichael.  Debretsion is T-TPLF’s “communications and information technology minster”. He came out of the T-TPLF woodwork to hector the people of Ethiopia that everything is perception. He said, “if someone calls a bright day is a dark night enough times, the bright day will be perceived as a dark night” by the people. Debretsion is reputed to be the mastermind who introduced the use of spyware (“FinSpy) purchased from the Italian cybersecurity firm The Hacking Team to conduct surveillance on T-TPLF opponents in the Ethiopian Diaspora.

Debretsion is a cunning, crafty and scheming T-TPLF political operator. He emerged from the shadows to spread propaganda about the popular uprising. He claimed:  1) the uprising against T-TPLF rule is limited only to Gonder; 2) it is the work of a few foreign agents and criminals; 3) it is triggered by the incompetence of the local leadership and administration who failed miserably in their official duties; 4) the idea of Tigrean supremacy in Ethiopian politics and society is a figment of the imagination of diabolically misguided people; 5) the T-TPLF suffers from a failure of communication in not educating the people of Ethiopia there is no Tigrean supremacy; there is a great need for a media (dis)information campaign telling the Ethiopian people how Tigreans do not practice ethnic supremacy; 6) the reality of Ethiopian politics is that each ethnic group in its own kilil (Bantustan) is supreme; 7) ethnic federalism is the ultimate safeguard against ethnic supremacy and domination (the fox advising the chickens); 8) the Ethiopian people have the wrong perception about the T-TPLF whose only mission has been to pay untold sacrifices for their well-being and 9) if the people of Ethiopia would simply stop believing their lying eyes and lying ears which render the T-TPLF as a bloodthirsty gang of criminals, they could see the kind, friendly, gentle, benevolent, loving and humane  face of the T-TPLF.

But I did thank Debretsion for providing irrefutable evidence to support my claim that the T-TPLF’s ethnic federalism system is the latest and greatest version of South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Debretsion and his TPLF thugmocrats did NOT persevere. They declared a “state of emergency” to protect  themselves from the people !

In October, I condemned the “T-TPLF’s Killing Fields” in Ethiopia. On October 2, 2016, troops under the command and control of the T-TPLF opened fire indiscriminately on crowds attending one of the most important cultural and spiritual events in Ethiopia, the Irreecha (Thanksgiving) Festival  in the town of Bishoftu, some 45 miles southeast of the capital Addis Ababa. An estimated 500 plus people were killed and twice that number severely injured during the event.

The T-TPLF Puppet Prime Minister (PPM) [or is it Crime Minister?] Hailemariam Desalegn went on television and shed crocodile tears: “Evil forces had pre-positioned themselves (to do evil deeds) and exerted great effort to undermine the celebration and make it chaotic and disorderly. As a result of the disorder that was created, a stampede broke out and because the area has cliffs some 52 citizens have lost their lives.”

I conducted a preliminary forensic review of the video evidence from the crime (against humanity) scene and posed a series of questions in the form of interrogatories to the PPM.

I have no doubts that the PPM and his puppet masters will one day stand in the dock and answer some tough questions. I will prophesy that today!

When the Nazi Hunters captured Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi Holocaust organizer, Isser Harel told his men: “For the first time in history the Jews will judge their assassin, and for the first time the world will hear the full story of the edict of annihilation against an entire people”.

Oyez! Oyez! T-TPLF!

The T-TPLF did NOT persevere. The T-TPLF declared a “state of emergency” to protect itself from the people.

In November, I feared there will be “Darkness at Noon in AmeriKKKa” on January 20, 2017 when Donald Trump takes the Oath of Office.

Trump was elected by the same rigged system he so vociferously complained about: “I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest.”

It is an understatement to say Hillary Clinton’s supporters were stunned, shocked and deeply disappointed by her defeat. She did her best and she was best qualified for the job, but she got tripped by the Electoral College system.

I read the tea leaves very early on and decided to endorse Bernie Sanders in my February 2016 commentary, “Why I am Supporting Bernie Sanders for President (and Why You Should Too)”.

During his campaign, Trump clothed his racism, sexism, chauvinism and sectarianism with “populism”. He advanced a veiled neo-fascist agenda. He propagated paranoia about an America in crises. He fed the American public a constant diet (with the active support of the mindless media) of paranoid conspiracy theories, disinformation and misinformation. He demonized Muslims, criminalized Mexicans, condemned immigrants, dehumanized women, mocked the disabled and scorned the poor. Trump’s vision of making America great is by increased militarism globally to vindicate America’s lost honor and glory and restoring American imperial power, cracking down on racial, ethnic and religious minorities and immigrants and flouting civil liberties and constitutional principles.

I gave 13 reasons why Trump will trump himself and the Republican Party in the foreseeable future.

America shall persevere as it has for the last 230 years.

In December, I wrote my 6^th installment of what I called “What Do ‘WE’ Want and Do Now?” It is a series in which I sought to answer some fundamental questions about Ethiopia “gripped in a state of emergency”.

I had a few things to say not only to the T-TPLF but also the “opposition”.  I urged Ethiopians to understand the true nature of the struggle against the T-TPLF, namely the fact that it is a struggle against a black apartheid regime. We must change the way “WE” think and relate to each other. “WE” are not struggling for ourselves but our children. Apartheid “Passbooks” and T-TPLF “identity cards” are the same, actually the T-TPLF’s is worse. We must build an “ETHIOPIAN CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT”. We must fight with our minds!  We must transform ethnic nationalism into civic nationalism. “WE” must know the “enemy” and ourselves. “WE” need to enter into a Covenant to preserve Ethiopia’s integrity. “WE” must speak of ourselves as “WE” are, nothing extenuate. We must be serious about working for political change, democracy, freedom or human rights in Ethiopia. I also explained why I write, teach and advocate instead of engaging in political organizing.  “WE” must shed our bad habit of never missing an opportunity to miss an OPPORT-UNITY! “WE” must change ourselves before “WE” can change Ethiopia. “WE” must be independent thinkers and “non-conformists”.

“WE” persevered!

The power of perseverance

There is political power. There is economic power. There is knowledge power. Then there is the power of perseverance and endurance.

Mahatma Gandhi  said, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”  That is perseverance and endurance.

Perseverance is not the same as being a survivor. Victims survive; those who fight back persevere.

In  the verse of William E. Henley, Nelson Mandela’s favorite verse: “It matters not how strait the gate,/How charged with punishments the scroll,/I am the master of my fate,/ I am the captain of my soul.”

Nelson Mandela persevered!

The race — in politics, business, science, technology or the race track — is not won because one is the strongest, the fastest or the smartest. The race is won because one can endure and persevere till the very end.

Endurance is the flip side of perseverance.

Frederick Douglass said, “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

With perseverance and endurance, there is no mountain high enough that cannot be climbed or a valley low enough that cannot be traversed or an ocean deep enough that cannot be penetrated.

The problem I see among far too many Ethiopians in the human rights struggle is that they lack perseverance and endurance. They start the race and quit after a short run. They get discouraged and lose heart.

It is easy to start. The hard part is finishing the job. It is so easy to quit. It is so easy to make excuses. It is so easy to justify why one should not persevere and endure.

The late T-TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi once said words to the effect that “The Ethiopian Diaspora can start things. But they never finish.” Did he not tell the truth?

Another T-TPLF operator said of the opposition: “They can unite when it is wedding time, funeral time and party time.” Did he lie?

“WE” must be willing, able and ready to go for the long haul. Perseverance is not about winning the big race, it is about racing to chase and catch your dreams. Difficult things take a long time to achieve. There is little success that is not birthed by perseverance and endurance. The T-TPLF succeeded in grabbing power because they persevered and endured in the bush for so long.

Nelson Mandela talked about perseverance and endurance:

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.

That is exactly the kind of perseverance it takes to walk the long road to the destination I call the “New Ethiopia”.  We shall find the New Ethiopia after climbing the great hill where we will find there are more hills to climb. We take a momentary rest and keep on walking the long road to the “New Ethiopia.”

Winston Churchill once said, “If you are going through hell, keep going.”

Well, the T-TPLF has made Ethiopia hell on earth.  I say persevere, endure and just keep on walking to your destination on the horizon, that shining country upon the hill called New Ethiopia.

I have persevered a full decade of struggle in the cause of human rights in Ethiopia. I am vastly more energetic and optimistic today than I was the day I wrote my first commentary.  My life’s motto remains: When the going gets tough, the tough get going and keep walking the long road to freedom  to reach that shining country upon the hill.

Tell me, can you see what I see? That shining country upon the hill?

Come walk with me.

Ethiopians, stay strong!  Persevere and endure! It is darkest before dawn!

Happy holidays one and all!!!

Special thanks to my readers who have persevered my lengthy commentaries for a decade!

Ethiopia: Reshuffling the T-TPLF Deck of (Gu)Cards [By almariam]

El-Sisi: Ethiopia’s Friend in Need, Indeed! – By Alemayehu G. Mariam

Task Force for Human Rights and Justice in Ethiopia – Europe

Petition condemning the vicious and malicious attack against EMP Ana Maria Gomes by Surrogates of the brutal regime in Ethiopia.

Following a litany of gross violation of human rights and political repression for over 25 years, Ethiopians have been protesting since November 2015 for their human dignity, constitutional rights and against economic and political marginalisation. The brutal repressive regime responded using brute force killing thousands and sent over 11, 000 innocent citizens to various prisons around the country^[1].

On October 9^th 2016 the regime, which has lost its legitimacy to rule, declared a six-month country wide state of emergency to inculcate fear among citizens. The state of emergency has effectively put the country under TPLF military rule have shut down mobile Internet service, blocked social media and prohibited public gatherings. The despised minority regime keeps committing crimes against humanity as it fights for its survival.

On December 1^st,   2016 Dr. Merara Gudina, Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) was arrested upon his return to Ethiopia from Brussels after attending a hearing on the political situation in Ethiopia. Ms Ana Maria Gomes wrote to Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Vice President of the Commission^[2], to take strong measures against the Ethiopian government which has absolute disregard for the respect of human rights, namely freedom of speech.

In an absolute travesty of events, the brutal regime has mobilized its surrogates who were granted political asylum under false pretence of fleeing from persecution in Ethiopia and living in Europe in freedom; to launch a petition campaign against the European Parliament and Ms. Ana Maria Gomes for demanding that Ethiopia respect international human rights norms that it is bound to uphold under the Cotonou Agreement.

We the undersigned and the European Task Force for Human Rights and Justice in Ethiopia fully support the request of Ms Ana Maria Gomes, calling for the European Parliament to take a strong action against the repressive regime in Ethiopia and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Merara Gudina.

We strongly condemn the malicious smear campaign against a highly respected member of an EU Parliamentarian by the brutal minority regime of Ethiopia. Ms Ana Maria Gomes is an ardent defender of human rights, freedom and democracy speaking against repression and injustice in Ethiopia. As the distinguished statesman Edmund Burke once said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent”.

remain silent”.