Dula's Blog

Many Africans have argued that President Obama so far ignored Africa, while giving a strong attention to the Middle East and other hot spots. Even compared to former President George Bush, so far he has little to show in terms of rhetoric urging reform or concrete action like Bush did to fight AIDs in Africa.

What is bedeviling Africa is poor leadership and dictators. Africa has all the resources to be a politically stable and economically viable continent if it were not for the prevalence of corruption and dictators. Most of the conflicts are orchestrated by leaders or originate due to lack of good governance.

For example, ten of the  poorest countries in the world are located in Sub Sahara Africa according to the latest U.N. report. From South Sudan, Central Africa to Ethiopia, the leaders have been poking ethnic tension in order to stay in power. While the U.S. is expanding its military bases throughout Africa, it finds  it problematic to speak against countries where it has such bases such as Ethiopia. U.S. with 35 or more military command centers in Africa is supporting  strongmen, mostly dictators that the militaries are backing.

There is nothing Obama cannot tell some of the dictators on the phone than dragging them to the White House and giving them undeserved red carpet and photo opportunity. It would have been more natural to invite only those countries respecting and applying democratic principles. Winning and dinning with African dictators will mean nothing unless he has a concrete plan and he can make it stick.

For example, he can propose a Marshall Plan for Africa like the way Truman did for Europe to build roads East to West and North to South and to connect Africa and strengthen academic and civic institutions and to promote good governance. Furthermore,  he can tell them to abolish their national armies, because the armies primarily used to keep the one party dictatorship, and spend the money on education, end government ownership of land, industries, the Internet, and mines to end corruption. Adopt English, French and Swahili as national languages  so that Africans can speak to one another, and form a strong economic and political union like Europe.

President Obama was perceived as a transformational figure in Africa, as well as in the rest of the world. It will be a historical  mistake if he does not take advantage  to transform Africa; most of all help it get rid of its worst enemy,  unelected and murderous dictators and vigorously promote the establishment of democratic foundation and rule of law.

On the other hand, the west is obsessed with fighting terrorism in Africa, but not solving the root cause of terrorism, poverty and hopelessness that is translated into a Jihad. For the west promoting democracy is secondary to fighting terrorism, which is self-defeating, but it goes on. Some forget that  dictatorship and hopelessness are the root causes for terrorism, but most western leaders ignore it at their own peril and continue to spend huge sums of money on barricading themselves, screening, surveillance and drones.

Raging ethnic tension primarily instigated by the divide and conquer policy of ruling oligarchy, combined with corruption and misapplication of resources are slowly sapping the economy and the political viability of the continent.

Currently, besides  political oppression, and ethnic tensions, some regimes have strangled the people and the economy through government ownership of land, Internet, telephone, and other vital industries leading to massive unemployment and massive migration especially in countries like Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Some of the culprits in this case, the dictators, only thrive and survive with U.S. largesse.  Some will go by the wayside without massive Western  aid. This gives the U.S. tremendous leverage  to coerce democratic and economic changes in the continent.  For example, the rabid anti-Muslim and anti-homosexual  government of Ethiopia lead by  Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn was forced by Washington to rescind the anti-homosexual legislation and demonstration  despite  overwhelming  support  by rubber-stamped parliament and the public. Despite the failure of the African Diaspora to take advantage of it, this shows  the power of lobby groups in shaping U.S. foreign policy.

President Obama is threatening sanction against Russia and he thinks he can bring Russia to its knees using a sweeping sanction. If he thinks he has this kind of power against a resource rich and powerful country like Russia, why can  he not use the some power on perpetual beggars and tinhorn dictators in Africa to reform, end the misery, the corruption, and the dictatorship if he really cares.

Ethiopia is the key to democracy in Africa. Ethiopia besides being the seat of the African union, cradle of mankind, carries great historical symbol for  people of African origin. Ethiopia earned this position as one of the longest independent nations, and for repulsing Western colonial occupation. Despite this legacy, Ethiopians have never enjoyed rule of law or fair and free election.

Most African leaders look up to Ethiopia and gather every year in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Now representative of warring factions from South Sudan are in Ethiopia to hammer out their differences and to form democratic union. Unfortunately, Ethiopia is not a place to learn or preach democracy or ethnic harmony. The Ethiopian regime pretended for long for things that it is not in order to earn respect and foreign aid.

Human rights records in many African countries are abysmal and are well documented by Amnesty International,  Human rights Watch, and independent media. Some of the African dictators such as the one in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Eritrea appeared along with North Korean dictator in the Dictators of the Month Magazine. Unfortunately, in Washington leaders like the late Ethiopian dictator, Meles Zenawi were wined and dined, as they disguised their “vicious dictatorship” by ingratiating themselves with the U.S. State Department and by hiring high power lobbyist using the money collected from the impoverished people of Africa. For example, Ethiopia spends huge sums of money  to make sure Washington does not notice the cruel and evil system and to portray the regime incorrectly anti-terrorist and democratic.

President Obama has also to avoid past pitfalls. In his book Out of America: a Black Man Confronts Africa, journalist Keith Richburg rebukes some African-Americans for being too cozy with African dictators who bring untold misery to their own people.

To his credit, George Bush stemmed the tide of AIDs in Africa; Bill Clinton pretended to be the first Black President. On the other hand, there is little to brag about Obama yet, as far as his contribution to the welfare or the transformation of blacks in America or in Africa.

It might be that his hands are tied, but not for lack of empathy. Either way, there will be no legacy for Obama to brag about so far.

President Obama can rise to the challenge if he dared too. Pushing democratic values and freer market  economic development strategies are critical to save the continent. With an investment of $13.3 billion under the Marshall Plan from 1948 to 1952, President Truman provided a lifeline to a devastated Europe and created strong democratic allies for the U.S. President Obama has the option to embark on a bold political and economic agenda for Africa, while opening a huge market three times that of Europe for American businesses.

Dula Abdu,  is a U.S-based writer on foreign policy. (article was adopted from previous articles from similar topics).

Over 100 heads of states including Obama and Castro were present for Mandela’s funeral service, while a handful of African leaders like Al-Bashir  of Sudan, Museveni of Uganda were present for Meles’ funeral.  Mandela state funeral  appeared more genuine, spontaneous, full of  love and celebration  unlike that of  Zenawi  which was shrouded with secrecy (cause of death still unknown) and appeared orchestrated and staged managed by the party. Mandela stands out in many ways.

While Mandela fought to end  Bastustanization and oppression in  South Africa, Zenawi on the other hand was the architect of Bastustanization in Ethiopia driving schism and wedges among Ethiopians.

Mandela gave up power peacefully, while Zenawi did everything in his power to keep it including voiding election, jailing opposition leaders, and killing peaceful demonstrators against rigged election.

Mandela brought very diverse people together, while Zenawi  broke the long standing unity and nationalism that made Ethiopia unique and  that  withstood Western colonialism into a breaking point.

A writer for Aljazeera expressed Meles’s legacy as follows ” The late Meles Zenawi ……practically reduced Ethiopia into a landlocked, bantustanized, and impoverished country thanks to his Stalinist organization in the name of TPLF. ” Aljazeera, December 9, 2013 “Ethiopia and Eritrea: Brothers at ware no more” Ethiopia and Eritrea: Brother’s at War

The World and South Africans will dearly miss Mandela, I am not sure that will be said of  Meles by those who really know his true legacy.

Zenawi was given bigger than life farewell at the end by his supporters and some citizens, despite his tarnished legacy. By force or by volition, Ethiopians throughout the country were engaged in praising, wailing, and crying for Zenawi,  The wailing and the crying for Meles was primarily due to the fact that most dictators become father figures for the majority of the people, especially for the youth, with the help of the state controlled media, where such leaders are lionized on a daily basis. So anxiety and fear set in because a vacuum is created by the death of a dictator in Ethiopia or North Korea. This is primarily true when the state controls the media; nobody knows the true state of affairs in the country.

For a country as poor as Ethiopia, the parade, the display and the ceremony  for Zenawi was excessive. The attempt was to rebrand, redefine and humanize Zenawi  to justify continued control by the ruling party. Zenawi was praised for everything in the world, but not for his wrongs, such as for genocide he committed, for the war he waged to make Ethiopia landlocked, for creating ethnic gerrymandering or for excessive control of the economy by his ethnic party and his cronies.

Though no dictator is lionized after death to the extent Zenawi was, however, thanks to re-branding by a well organized party, TPLF, Zenawi’s profile looked better in death than in life. Those who might have expected the TPLF machine to self-destruct after the passing of Zenawi should have a second thought because the machine is highly organized, and exceedingly efficient in manipulating the Ethiopian state in any shape or form it wishes. In a manner similar to a cult, the regime has finessed how to manipulate the media and get the people organized to behave accordingly. A farewell of such depth, organization, fanfare is only possible under a dictatorial regime.

Zenawi was rebranded as a great leader instead of an ethnic or Marxist dictator, as the opposition has often called him. So the idea of worrying about ones legacy  doing the right thing may go out the window provided if one has a well organized party like Meles did. Overall, in life or death, Meles or his party succeeded in hoodwinking many people in Ethiopia and around the world by creating a different persona.

For  three months, the system in Ethiopia was completely shut, no business license was issued, even no wedding ceremonies were held, millions of dollars was spent to materialize Zenawi’s after-life grandiose with burst out of a 21-gun salute. Most leaders in his shoe, such as Benito Mussolini, Nikita Khrushchev, or Joseph Stalin, did not get such honorable departure.

During his reign, Zenawi never met ordinary citizens in public; never traveled without massive security, and if he did, streets were closed, and he was completely isolated from public view. However, in death, he was lionized by ordinary people that he tried to shun for security reasons.

In Ethiopia most people cannot afford Aslekash or hired help to instigate crying or mourning for the dead. However, the rich, kings and dictators, can afford to hire such people, as it appears Zenawi benefited from such practice where hundreds of people were employed to show case his invented  popularity to foreigners and Ethiopians. Would this manufactured and manipulated ceremony dissipate as the public and the world knows the real legacy of Zenawi?

Zenawi’s Ethiopia is a landlocked and impoverished country. At last the world gets a chance to see its true state of affairs, world leaders who praised Meles without checking the facts will be put to shame.

Innocent students were massacred at Addis Abeba University for opposing the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia; hundreds of people were killed in the aftermath of the 2005 election, and hundreds of thousands of people were imprisoned during the same period. During the last 22 years, hundreds of other innocent people were killed in other parts of the country due to ethnic policy of the regime, and the recent killing of Ethiopian Muslims for asking their freedom to worship without government interference has to be also mentioned.

Although Ethiopians throughout the Diaspora held a memorial service for the thousands of victims of Meles Zenawi, but they were given no media coverage, while Zenawi was memorialized in grand scale for weeks by his party and those who benefited during his 22 years of rule. The grand finale for Meles was beyond expectation and more than deserved by a leader who used force to take power and to stay in power.

Zenawi ruled Ethiopia with an iron fist and bloody hand. According to Human Rights Watch, “Ethiopia’s citizens are unable to speak freely, organize political activities, and challenge their government’s policies – through peaceful protest, voting, or publishing their views – without fear of reprisal.” Despite these abhorrent statistics, and dire economic conditions for two (2) decades, resembling other dictatorial regimes such as North Korea or China, Meles Zenawi dared to claim that he received 99.6% of the vote in the last fake election.

Zenawi was a dictator par excellence in applying the Machiavellian system of divide and rule. Unlike other dictators, he carved out a positive image abroad by partnering with top PR firms, opportunistic and ill-informed Americans, despite being highly-detested at home and abroad by the majority of Ethiopians. Like other dictators, he controlled the army, the police, 100% of the land mass, industry, and denied Ethiopians access to technology, thus forcing the greater number of Ethiopians to eke out a meager living, often with the help of Western food aid or flee the country to places like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, South Africa and other places despite facing real and present danger as refugees.

So why is Zenawi memorialized? Like North Korea, his supporters want to maintain the current system by giving one of the bloodiest dictators a facelift and by rebranding him as a great leader. By giving him a humane face, his supporters believe that they can justify staying in power for years to carry the torch of their great leader.

Zenawi’s critics were jailed, killed or chased out of the country. Ethiopia has more journalists exiled or in prison than any country according to New York-based Human Rights Foundation. In addition, Ethiopia was found to be one of the failed states following countries like Somalia, Chad, and ranks 174 out of 180 countries in terms of human development index.

Given these facts, Zenawi should be remembered just as another dictator, except he was exceptionally good in hoodwinking the world to the contrary. In the meantime, he left Ethiopia totally unprepared and desperately behind the curve in access to technology, human and economic development.

In the end Zenawi was just a tyrant beyond comparison who employed voodoo economics to exaggerate his economic achievement, denied Ethiopians their basic freedom, rigged elections, and humiliated and desecrated their religion, history, identity and humanity.

All said and done, the West has to bear some responsibility for piling praises on a dictator without unveiling his dark secret, genocide in Gambella, cyber jamming, and the strangulation and evisceration of the Ethiopian media, intellectuals, as well as monopolizing the economy by his clan.

At the end, the world may find out that Zenawi may have hoodwinked the West, eviscerated the Ethiopian economy, it nationalism,  and its institutions.  If all this is true, unlike Mandela,  Zenawi will eventually be remembered as nothing but a charlatan

The article was based on “Legacy of Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia (1991-2012) by the same author.

Ethiopians brazen the hot sun in Houston to show their solidarity with their Muslim brethrens in Ethiopia, who have been standing up to the Woyanes every Friday for over a year. The Ethiopian regime arrested a number of Muslim leaders in an effort to silence them. Their protest stems from government attempt to appoint their leaders and to force them to follow a brand of Islam that the government prefers.

The Woyane’s hope to divide and conquer Muslim Ethiopians failed miserably. The motto of “united we stand and divided we fall” is abundantly clear among all Ethiopians, but for Muslims, it is part of the religion as observed by Malcolm X during his visit to Mecca.

 Malcolm X said Islam is a religion that “erases from its society the race problem” and one that generates overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races. During his visit to Mecca, he was able to eat from the same plate, drink from the same glass, and slept on the same rug – while praying to the same God – with fellows whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. This was unknown to him in Jim Crow infested America then. He felt comfortable among white Muslims, among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.

The Woyanes can learn from Islam to let and let live in peace with everybody or get consumed by the hate and division they created. Thanks To Muslim Ethiopians, that the table is turning against the Woyane scheme of divide and conquer.

With worldwide solidarity gaining support among Christians and all faiths, the Ethiopian people will prevail against Woyane and may at last live and let leave in peace instead being consumed by Woyane engineered  hate and division. Following the path of Woyanes will generate  economic and political misery and chaos for all Ethiopians save  Woyane, EFORT and their cronies.

The Ethiopian people deserve peace and hope instead of fear and uncertain future. The Ethiopian Muslims are paving the way by taking the risk to confront the Woyanes and we have a god given duty to lend them financial, moral and political support for the sake of Ethiopia.

 Dula Abdu from Houston, Texas

Neil Kerwin, President American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016-8060

Dear President Kerwin,

​R​ecently there were strings of articles hostile to Ethiopia most emanating from Aljazeera. Many Ethiopians are concerned about it in light of remarks by Egyptian politicians to destabilize Ethiopia by planting false propaganda and sabotage.

One of the articles originated from two scholars from American University.  Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington and Frankie Martin, an Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American University’s School of International Service, wrote a piece entitled “The Oromo and the War on Terror in the Horn of Africa” and claimed that Emperor Menelik from 1860-1900 killed 5 million Oromos. This is unknown to many Ethiopians and many historians. Some believe this is part of a propaganda to destabilize and saw the seeds of division as envisioned by the Egyptian government in order to stop the construction of the Nile Dam in Ethiopia.

Akbar and Frankie wrote, “The Amhara under emperors like Menelik II utilised modern weapons and European advisors against their opponents, who fought with spears. The result was devastation and death on an enormous scale. Between 1868 and 1900, half of all Oromo were killed, around 5 million people. The tactics employed were brutal. Following the defeat of the Oromo Arsi tribe of the Bale region, for example, Menelik’s general had the right hands of all strong men cut off and tied to their necks, and the breasts of the women sliced off and similarly worn.”

The article is based on hearsay and lacks credibility and the objective may be to create tension and mistrust among Ethiopians.  Let us analyze the main thesis of the article, “half of the Oromos were killed” or around 5 million of them. According to Wikipedia and all available resources, “The population of Ethiopia was only about 9 million in the 19th century” Source: ​Ethiopia’s Population was only 9 million in the 19th century.  Based on historical data, the Oromo population  represented approximately  3 million or 33%  out of the 9 million Ethiopian population in the 19th century. Therefore, if Menelik killed 5 million Oromos according to Akbar and Frankie, Menelik should have killed more than half of the Ethiopian population not only 3.1 million Oromos at that time.  In 1935 and at the outset of the World War II, the whole Ethiopian population was estimated at 15 million( click here for reference: Ethiopia’s population was 15MM in 1935).  When Ethiopia undertook the first census in 1960’s; the total population was 18 million.  According to 1960 statistics (the earliest available data), Oromos represented 34.4% of the total population or approximately 3.1 million of the Ethiopian population in the 19th century (based on 2.3% average population growth).

​Ethiopia is a country unlike Pakistan and many other countries Muslims, Christians, and other religions lived in peace and in harmony for centuries. Now Aljazeera with the help of Akbar and Frankie and others is trying to light a fire of discord to see if they can change this harmonious existence at the behest of Egypt or some unknown forces.

Ethiopians of all ethnic group and religion are trying their best to forge unity to bring a democratic order in Ethiopia that has been lacking for too long resulting in arbitrary arrest of not only Oromos, but also other Ethiopians and massive economic and political hardship for all Ethiopians. Currently Ethiopian Muslims are taking the brunt of this oppressive regime, as it continues to deny them the right to worship at place of their choice and to manage their own institution independent of government interference.

Most Southerners including my own family were subjugated and humiliated by Menelik’s invasion. My great uncle was killed fighting Menelik’s army led by Ras Goben Dache, an Oromo. Fitawrari Habte Giorgis, Oromo and Gurage descent, led most of the southern conquest for Menelik.  Nonetheless, this is not the time or the place to talk about conflicts in the 19th century, as we have issues that are more pressing on hand.

Most countries have overcome their historical animosities for the sake of developing their economies.  The best example is Germany and the rest of Europe. Europeans do not dwell on Napoleonic wars, First World War, or Second World War. Europeans are trying to create a political and economic union and are pressing forward to solve their current problems than dwelling in the past.​

​Ethiopians are trying to do the same, as division or ethnocentrism has done more harm than good for all parties except the ruling party. However, enemies of Ethiopia are finding any excuses to instill suspicion and hate, sometimes conflict to keep Ethiopia from developing its resources. Among these countries Egypt stands as the main culprit, such as supporting the invasion of Ethiopia by Somalia in the late 70’s, promoting the session of Eritrea, Ogaden,  funding any anti-Ethiopian elements for the sole purposes of keeping Ethiopia from developing the Nile and its tributaries.

According to documents released by WikiLeaks in September, 2012 the Egyptian and Sudanese governments had planned to attack the Grand Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia and some Egyptian legislatures are supporting  others hostile and clandestine operations, like planting false propaganda, arming rebels groups and instructing Egyptian spies to simply destroy the dam altogether. In light of these revelations and unusual resurgence of such distorted reports, we are concerned that Aljazeera may be serving as a conduit for the Egyptian government to destabilize Ethiopia and to create division among Ethiopian Muslims and among all Ethiopians for that matter regardless of their religious affiliation

Instead of exposing the ethnocentric and one party dictatorship in Ethiopia and  the egregious human rights violations, Aljazeera pieces were focused on airing grievances that took place in 19th century instead of  the ” vicious dictatorship” as characterized by  Congressman Chris Smith, Chair Subcommittee on Africa.  In the process, Aljazeera appears to be promoting religious and ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia at the behest of a foreign regime that is recently openly stated such strategy against Ethiopia.

Akbar and Frankie piece violated all the tenets of scholarly work and basic research and it is not worthy of associating it with a great institution like the American University.

 Dear Mr. President,

As known scholar on your own right and to maintain the integrity of the university, please ask  Akbar and Frankie to provide evidence to the Ethiopian community and to the media sources for their article, especially  evidences of 5 million Oromos killed by Menelik, and the atrocities that he may have committed against the Oromos and other Southerners unless it is another scheme to divide Ethiopians.

​

​Sincerely,

Dula Abdu

​https://ethiodemocrat.org

​​Ethiopia’s Population was only 9 million in the 19th century​

Ethiopia’s population was 15MM in 1935

Contact Info. for President Neil Kerwin,

president@american.edu
President’s Office Building, Room 1, 202-885-2121
Fax: 202-885-3279

Those who gravitated to science and technology built great wealth in most recent history. The best examples are the creators of Facebook, Microsoft, EBay, Dell, Google, Yahoo, Apple, AOL, etc.  Liberal art track or the humanities, which majority of Historically Black Colleges and Universities offer, have not proven fruitful in this very competitive job market. Unfortunately, HBCUs continue to perpetuate the same education platform that they inherited from the Jim Crow area that delegated blacks to liberal arts education with the believe that they were not capable of other academic endeavors.

According to Forbes Magazine, among the 15 most valuable college majors, 14 were in sciences, technology and mathematics. According to BBC, 26 April 2012 report, “In the next 10 years, there will be 1.2 billion young people looking for work and only 300 million jobs to go around.” Black people are the last one to be hired and the first to be fired. Therefore, the frightening reality is that things are going to get worse for black people!

The recipe for wealth is simple either you are born into it or you make it yourself. For example, early white settlers in Texas unlike black settlers were allowed to claim 5,000 acres of land anywhere in Texas. Consequently, Black people were not able to build generational wealth and were not able to pass wealth from one generation to another.

Entrepreneurs and innovators such as Michael Dell, and Bill Gates were a product of new age technology, which is lacking in HBCUs. Black people were left out from both aspects of the wealth building processes because of racism and an education system that does not prove to be an innovation incubator.

Many of the HBCUs are maintaining a curriculum implemented by their white patrons, which is primarily designed for teaching liberal art education, whether such education is relevant or transformational or not.

When India gained its independence, it was the first order of Mahatma Gandhi to establish technical and engineering schools. This strategy is propelling India to become an economic juggernaut. China graduates more engineering students than the U.S. and continues to emphasize the use and access to technology to propel the growth of its economy. Many Asian countries including India, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and others know that the only way to catch up with the west is by leveraging technology.

The very reason blacks have not made significant gains in Africa or in the U.S. is primarily for the reason that they don’t leverage or emphasize  the use of technology like Caucasians, Chinese, and Indians, Israeli’s or other advanced nations.

The governments in Africa and the rest of black people get their cue from others what is good for them and about their institutions. Current institutions and colleges are molded from the days past. Blacks willingly or grudgingly accepted the religion and the value system of the West and East, as well as the perception about their identity, status in society, educational system. Because of this distorted reality, Black institutions in Africa and in America produce fewer engineers per capita than any group. There are less and less engineering and IT blacks students in most graduate schools than ever before.

The situation in Africa is no different. The African continent also lags in leveraging technology. Some dictatorial regimes like former colonial masters limit access to technology to their citizens in order to limit their ability for mass communication. Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world is one such example. Due to conscious efforts on the parts of its leaders to deny the estimated 85 million citizens’ access to the Internet, only about 700,000 of its citizens have access to slow Internet connectivity. While many leaders in the rest of world are trying to advance the living conditions of their citizens by harnessing the power of technology, backward and vision-less leaders in Ethiopia and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa keep their citizens in the dark and under the yolk of abject poverty.

Black people will never be able to catch up or improve their standard of living or standing in society unless they leverage technology and entrepreneurship. Parents of the new generation need to emphasize and become fanatic about the advantages of using technologies and start believing in it as their child’s life and future depends on it.

Entrepreneurship and technology has to be a tool to liberate black people from their second-class status economically and psychologically. Blacks have to be identified with something relevant, as people of technology instead of other negatives stereotypes coined for them by others and sold to the rest of the world.

This biased categorization is not their own choice; it is an amalgamation of factors such as legacy of slavery, legacy of Jim Crow education, lack of access to good education and jobs, and the continued discrimination, and miseducation.

The negative stereotypes will not go away without revolutionary actions by leaders of black churches, political and academic institutions. All black churches should have a technology center teaching cutting edge technology, programming, engineering and science in their churches as a tool to liberate their people from mental bondage of the past and poverty. It is too serious to ignore it given the number of black people in jail, unemployed, which is directly related to historical factors and the continued miseducation.

Black people have no choice but to adopt technology and entrepreneurship as their only way to economic salvation on earth. Black leaders and black academic institutions should rise to the challenge and adopt science, information technology, and engineering to uplift and save the next generation from the predicament of the past. Most of encourage parents to inculcate in the minds of their children the advantage of science over sport and other fields of study.

Dula Abdu has been active supporter of bridging the digital and economic divide in U.S. and in Africa.  He is a former JPMorgan Chase Banker and Adjunct Professor of economics. He can be reached at dula06@gmail.com.

Yellow Hijab, Symbol of Resistance

With their beautiful attire and Hijab on the head, Ethiopian Muslim women surprised Woyanes and everyone in Houston on Sunday, April 14, 2013. Instead of usual cordial and subservient Ethiopian woman, who were often absent from such rallies, Woyane Ambassador was  confronted with assertive, and bold Ethiopian women, who at last understood the damage the regime has done to their people regardless of where they hail from.

Unlike in the past the conference was packed, but the Woyane Ambassador might have thought the Muslim audience was his usual allies of the past from Tigre or some allies from the South. To his surprise, he faced a different class of Ethiopian women who at last decided to face the Woyane beast head on.

The Woyane amassed security, for  protection, and to silence the opposition, despite such preparation and the presence of such force, the Ethiopian women refused to be silenced and refused to be kicked out of the audience even after the Woyanes urged the police to do so.

The new face of Ethiopian resistance was no more men with jackets, and pants, but Ethiopian women with Hijab. With their coordinated attire, the women filled over half of the audience, showed their protest banners demanding the release of political prisoner and more.

The Ethiopian community in Houston showed up inside the conference room and on the streets in force to demonstrate its displeasure with the Woyane Ambassador from Washington. After months of advertising and promotion, the Woyane Ambassador Girma Biru showed up to collect funds for the Abay Dam, believing his cadres in Houston sold the idea with an ironclad confidence. At the beginning, Houstonians gave the Ambassador the benefit of the doubt to tell his version of the Woyane story and about the Abay Dam. At the beginning, the confident Ambassador narrated the importance of the dam to Ethiopia and how the Woyanes are pulling Ethiopia out of it darkness, while this assertion is highly debatable and probably patently false.

To the surprise of the Ambassador and many Ethiopians, almost half of the audience was women of the Islamic faith. The turnout was beyond any ones expectation; the conference room was packed and some people were forced to stand up. Besides filling the conference with their beautiful attire and yellow Hijab, the Ethiopian women put the Woyane cadres to the task repeatedly raising the plight of their brethren and forcing the police to ask some of them to leave. However, the women would not have it and refused to budge, and the police were forced to back down as the audience turned to their defense.

To his credit, the Ambassador agreed to answer all questions at the end despite his Woyane handlers’ recommendation that all questions be submitted in advance in writing so that they can dictate which questions to be asked or not to be asked. The audience protested to Woyane handlers’ recommendation and the Ambassador relented and took questions from the audience. Unfortunately, he was unable to give straight answers as the audience was looking forward, and the conference degenerated into chaos and the police were called in intervene a few times.

Another surprise to Woyane and other Ethiopians, most of the audience turned to be from the opposition. When the room was cleared off all the protestors, only small groups of people were left with the Ambassador.

As the meeting become unruly, the ambassador decided to call of the meeting and the Ethiopians audience starting singing “Woyane Leba” and Lelaba Genzeb Ansetim”

When the Ambassador cancelled the meeting, he urged those Woyane supporters stay put to make their contribution. However, an awe struck Ambassador was left with an empty room of few supporters and Woyane cadres who organized the meeting. This should have been the most humiliating moment for him: seeing empty conference full of Police and Woyane cadres.

The demonstration continued outside the building and on the streets to make sure that the Ambassador did not leave without more humiliation and embracement and to make sure that he tells his masters in Ethiopia that the table has turned against them and the rumbling of the new freedom fighters, Ethiopian women with hijab. It should be very clear to Woyanes that the days of using religion and tribe are no more marketable as more people are becoming more aware of the damage the Woyane system has caused to every Ethiopians in the last 21 years.

While many in the audience have no problem with the construction of the dam, but they are keenly aware of what Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN, the U.S. Department of State, and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have documented about the human rights violations committed by the incumbent regime. Using the Federal Police regularly intimidates and kills at will on streets, schools, churches and mosques, as it has done just recently in Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa and in various cities throughout Ethiopia.

Many Ethiopians are aware of the overwhelming evidence about the tyrannical situation in Ethiopia and all believe that it went too far and for too long. The end of the Woyane appears imminent whether they realize it or not; the rising tide of resistance fueled by the unwarranted religious interference and oppression is unstoppable.

The yellow color or a warning sign, a symbol of resistance adopted by the Ethiopian Muslims, will accelerate the downfall of the Woyanes, and restore hope and unity, missing for the last 21 years.

Dula can be reached at dula06@gmail.com

Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman travel to North Korea to prod the regime about the importance of Internet access and technology was commendable; however Ethiopia, a U.S. ally has avoided such criticism and scrutiny despite subjecting its citizens to similar situation.

Ethiopia’s Internet access like North Korea’s is limited, strictly regulated, and allowed only with government approval. The Ethiopian government controls major resources, including land, banking, telecommunication, and keeps a record number of journalist, human rights activists, and opposition leaders in prison.

Both Ethiopia and North Korea suffer perennial famine and remain one of the poorest nations in their respective continents. Ethiopia’s per capita according to 2011 World Bank data is $374, while North Korea is $1200. Recently, the blocking of Skype by the Ethiopian government created uproar by the International community, but fizzled out without causing any major changes in government policy. Blocking access to technology puts Nations like Ethiopia and North Korea at Risk.

In 1996 at the dawn of the Internet, the U.S. government gave a grant through the Mickey Leland Foundation to wire all Ethiopian universities and high schools with broadband Internet services. The grant was in an effort to leapfrog Ethiopia’s access to technology in order to bring about economic growth at rates enjoyed by East Asian countries and help end its food dependency and perennial famine. The late congressman Mickey Leland died in Ethiopia in 1989 as he was trying to stave off hunger and famine in western Ethiopia. This grant was seen as the best chance to end Ethiopia’s perennial famine and backwardness and to transform it into an economically viable nation similar to other countries that improved their economy by leveraging technology

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi blocked the grant because it stipulated open access and competitive bidding for the installation of the network. The regime was afraid that the citizens of Ethiopia would use the power of the Internet to organize against the status quo that has been highly detested by the majority of Ethiopians primarily for the lack of democracy and government control on land and other resources.

During the 1996 project, Mr. David Shinn, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, tried to convince Meles to accept the grant and allow broadband access in order to end Ethiopia’s economic backwardness and perennial famine. Similar efforts by many other groups were aborted because of the regime’s fear of technology as well as lack of interest in leveraging technology for development in most parts of Ethiopia except in the province of Tigre, where Meles was from. In Tigre, the establishment of the Mekele Institute of Technology (MIT) was a break through. Unfortunately, the graduates from MIT are primarily deployed in cyber spying, blocking websites, and filtering email and phone conversations against the opposition.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Ethiopia ranks at the bottom of nations in accessing and leveraging technology (see graph below). Even war torn Somalia has better Internet and mobile services than Ethiopia.

Many countries have been able to propel their economy and living standards by leveraging technology. Five years ago, an initiative to upgrade information technology was undertaken in the southwestern Shoa province in Ethiopia. This initiative was led by Ethiopian expatriates, David Levine and Phillip LeBel, two former Peace Corps volunteer teachers who had taught in Ethiopia in the 1960s, and Appropriate Technology Group where I served as director. The project focused on creating a technology corridor to make Ethiopia the outsourcing center of Africa in 10-20 years and to give alternative development to this highly densely populated and poor region stretching from Gibe River to Awassa.

The plan was to start by equipping 15 high schools in the area with computers and Internet access as part of a technology corridor with the elite of the students going to planned post-secondary institutions to form a  technological innovation center that could help transform the region into a high-technology hub. The initial shipment was sent on July, 2009 to Djibouti with brand new servers, hubs, and various educational software on a container. However, when it reached Djibouti, the Ethiopian government refused to grant a permit to move the equipment into Ethiopia. They demanded an exorbitant tariff, though the organization had an approval from the Ethiopian Embassy and other concerned agencies in Ethiopia to donate the equipment to the schools through a nonprofit agency in Ethiopia. The group was forced to abandon the project after several months of delays and failed negotiations.

Technology has become an important tool in increasing GDP and standard of living for many nations including China, India, and others. In Ethiopia, out of 85 million people, less than 700,000 or less than 1% of the population have limited Internet access. Besides deliberately limiting access, the cost to use the Internet is exorbitant. Most Internet access is extremely slow. Instead of broadband access, the country uses primarily dialup internet connection that costs more than high speed service. In addition, to establish a traditional dialup service often takes over six months. Part of the delay is due to a rigorous application process and in an effort to use censorship that is supervised by the national security agency. The agency keep records, blocks websites, radios, TVs, and maintains a total monopoly on all forms of information technology in use in the country.

Denial of access to technology  can cause incalculable harm to a nation and its citizens. Meles took over Ethiopia in 1991 and a year later the Internet was born. Marc Andreesen from the University of Illinois, my alma Mater, unveiled the Internet browser- Mosaic in 1992 and Netscape in 1994. Since then companies like Amazon, Yahoo, AOL, EBay, Google, Facebook and more, were created and their total revenue alone is over a trillion dollars compared to Ethiopia’s $5.7 billion annual budget for 2011. Out of Ethiopia’s $5.7 billion, 42% or $2.4 billion comes from foreign aids and loans and the rest $3.3 billion from domestic revenues. Incidentally, the city of Houston, with a population 2.2 million has a budget of approximately $4.3 billion vs. $3.3 billion for Ethiopia with 85 million people.

Again according to the Word Bank, Ethiopians survive on a dollar a day as measured by their per capita income of $374 compared to $48,000 per capita income for the U.S.A. Ethiopia is also miserably poor compared with other African countries.

Despite these shocking poverty statistics, the Ethiopian regime like North Korea denies private ownership of Land, Telephone, Internet and other major industries, as well as makes it difficult to obtain education or government jobs unless one is a card carrying members of the ruling party.

One might ask why focus on access to technology or information technology. The answer is that many countries have been able to improve their economy and living standard by leveraging technology as witnessed by many successful economies such as those in East Asia. Overall, Information technology reduces transactions costs and it brings major increase in productivity and enables countries leveraging technology to better compete in the global economy. Despite these factual evidences, Ethiopians have been denied the opportunity to take advantages of this important tool for their economic development.

Many economists believe that there are two main factors that enable a country to enjoy rapid economic growth: discovery of natural resources  or leveraging technology or both. Ethiopia, despite its prime location, so far has not discovered any gas or oil, but it failed to take advantage of one factor that was readily available, leveraging technology, despite many opportunities to do so.

In its continuing effort to impose censorship by limiting access to Internet and technology, the regime is condemning entire generations of Ethiopians to ongoing poverty that could have been redressed by more open and forward-looking choices.

Like North Korea, Ethiopia has a new ruler, Hailemariam Desalegn. Can Eric Schmidt or President Obama pay a visit to Ethiopia to prod this Luddite regime to finally grant unfettered Internet and technology access to create a sustained and rapid economic growth in Ethiopia similar to the Asian Miracle.