Dula's Blog

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.

Meles has received accolades from various sources, especially from western intellectuals and politicians.  On the other hand, many Ethiopian observers see nothing redeeming, but malaise, destruction of Ethiopian nationalism, high inflation, ethnic tension, disfranchised people, and a nation lagging the world in all development benchmark.

The accusations by Ethiopians are numerous. He left a country more destitute and desperate than ever, primarily due to his control of every aspect of the economy, nepotism, and denial of access to technology.

He carved a false image abroad, but remained highly detested at home. He created a unique power based on one party dictatorship or Tigrean monopoly of power primarily by pitting one ethnic group against another. His critics say that  Meles era was a lost and miserable two decades for Ethiopia in all aspects not forgetting absence of economic development, absence of national unity that Meles deliberately promoted.

He might appear brilliant for his supporters and some in the West, but he was perceived as an evil dictator and deeply resentful of the Ethiopian state. Meles used brute force at home and a massive PR machine abroad to crowd out the opposition and to hide his evil designs.

Internationally, far too many individuals have become unintentional victim and a party to the Ethiopian untold tragedy. Meles has on his side notables like, Susan Rice, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, Donald Levine, Dick Army, Nancy Polesi (via Richard Gephardt), Senator James Inhofe and more.

He has hired who is who in America to parlay non-existing achievement. He has become a modern alchemist, who invents something out of nothing, higher GDP in land of abject poverty and starvation, democracy in land of oppression.

Meles sounded great on many fronts on prima facie; however, further scrutiny turns out that he has been a disaster for Ethiopia in many areas: economy, national unity, social cohesion, and hope for the new generation.

Unraveling his economic system shows it is built on wrong statistics and baked to show an illusion of progress, by showcasing big projects such as the construction of the Nile Dam, which is a gigantic misuse of resource that will unravel sooner or later.

Meles’  era will leave a huge cleavage of cicatrize of a scar that will never heal from the wedges he promoted, from making Ethiopia landlocked, denial of access to technology, and from driving the economy into the shades in his attempt to enrich his clan, with little empathy for the rest of Ethiopia.

Despite Meles’ rhetoric about transforming Ethiopia, Ethiopia was found to be one of the failed states following countries like Somalia, Chad, and others.

Meles besides putting or wasting Ethiopia’s meager resources in projects with no investment merits such as the Nile Dam, a Wind Turbine ($220 million Euro) in Tigre, the Tekeze hydroelectric dam ($360 million dollars) in Tigre, and planned Rails from Djibouti to Mekele, failed to articulate or deploy the most important economic tool, efficient allocation of scare resources, such as capital.  This also vindicates those of us who stated that he is leading Ethiopia not only to a failed estate, but close to an economic Armageddon (see Voodoo economics…) at http:www.ethiodemocat.com.

The Index published by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace found that Ethiopia is critically in danger of becoming a failed estate based on demographic pressure, refugee flows, group grievances, human rights violations, uneven development, economic decline, and the continued deligitimization of Ethiopian nationalism. The most vulnerable states next to Ethiopia are Somalia, Chad, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti.

None of these countries had such a flamboyant and arrogant leader like Meles, who brags about a fabricated GDP growth data to keep his wretched rule and continued economic decline of the wretched country.

Though Ethiopia is the birth place of humanity and one of the cradles of civilizations, but for the last four decades, it has been one of the most wretched places on earth with little hope of reversing worst case scenario given the current leadership of the country.

With the arrival of Meles,  secessionist and anti-Ethiopian force mushroomed supported by his ethnic federalism disrupting commerce and the natural flow of trade, destroying institutions and promoting ethnic and religious division once in a very cohesive nation.

To stifle further the country’s economic growth, Meles created ethnic blocks like in Apartheid South Africa, thus creating tensions and making commerce almost impossible among some Ethiopians, cutting existing trades’ relations, while Europe was forming the European Union and the U.S. was pushing the North American Free Trade Agreement. In Ethiopia traders or business people, primarily Gurages were massacred and their possession ransacked by ethnic groups aligned with Meles and by his own cronies. In some cases, TPLF cadres used  their access to import duty free thus driving the competition out of business or outright denial of licenses or charging exorbitant taxes to put mostly Gurages out of business. To his own credit, Meles clearly stated that the Amharas in politics and the Gurages in commerce as his primary enemies that he has to eliminate to take full control of the economy and the country.

To add insult to injury, he confiscated land and denied access to technology for the majority, except in Tigre where Mekele, Adwa University and Mekele Institute of Technology (MIT) are provided unfettered access and grants.

The advent of Internet and technology as a whole was heralded by some as a panacea to ending not only the economic divide between the have and the have-nots, but also between the developing countries and the developed world. Unfortunately, Ethiopia was left out by design by Meles because Meles was afraid that technology will be used to organize against him by the majority of Ethiopians that he knew detested his dictatorship.

Ethiopia land locked, void of access to technology, void of free market and good leadership was toiling on the brink of economic disaster that will lead to further starvation and famine beyond the current millions being fed by World Food Program.

Ethiopia needs an industrial policy that will move it from an agrarian society to a technology driven society. The normal course was from Agriculture, to manufacturing, and industrialization, but with the right leadership, technology makes it possible to move to technological society by skipping all the other steps and create a higher standard of living.

Technology or reengineering has been the most important productivity tools for economic growth, however, like land it is controlled by the government.  In Ethiopia technology is primarily used for spying on Ethiopians and blocking websites.

Access to technology is correlated to a higher standard of living for current and future generation. Government ownership of major resources including land, denial of access to technology, being landlocked remains as a major road block to rapid economic growth.

Land ownership of the state is not for any altruistic reason, it is primarily to manipulate the political currents and to keep the majority of Ethiopians who rely on agriculture a hostage.

Despite creating these roadblocks, Meles has stated that the Ethiopian economy will grow 11-14.5 % in the next five years. No landlocked country or no country in Africa, especially a country estranged within by lack of free market, lack of access to technology, respect for property rights and human rights or forced into tribal polarization can enjoy such phenomenal economic growth.

According to data provided by Meles to the CIA and World Bank, Ethiopia’s GDP per capita was close to $100 in 1991 when Meles starting ruling the country. Now, it is reported to be $324,  better than a threefold increase which is much better than many countries in Asia.  For example, China’s growth is driven by manufacturing, technology and education, but in Ethiopia access o technology or manufacturing has not changed much for the last 20 years. Education has lost ground with the introduction of ethnic education, where the majority of ethnic groups are encouraged or forced to use their own ethnic language without requiring them to learn the official language or English; a recipe for disintegration of the country.

How did Meles got away with such statistical absurdity. My guess that he was adept in charming world leaders from Tony Blair to Jimmy Carter, and built a PR machine at home and abroad using the meager funds the country ill afford. Like other dictators he will fall from grace and his true achievement will be dissected and he will be castigated as one of the worst and strange dictators that ever ruled Ethiopia.

It will be easy to compare Meles with another evil genius, Leopold II of Belgium who committed murder and looting of the Congo from 1865-1909. Leopold II was the most brutal ruler of Congo; he controlled a country many times the size of Belgium as his personal domain through his private army, like Meles. Unlike Meles, he was eventually forced to end his evil rule after the conscience of the Western world could not bear it any more. Meles passed away still charming and fooling the Western world.

Despite Meles or TPLF rhetoric about transforming Ethiopia, the country remains one of the failed states, as demonstrated by its ranking of 174 among 180 countries in terms of human development index.

In the end – Meles may be called just a dictator par excellence with extraordinary charm, and wit, but with a terrible legacy for Ethiopia to deserve an accolade accorded to him by his western allies.

Dula Abdu writes on economics, technology and real estate and he can be reached at dula06@gmail.com. He was a former JPMorgan Chase banker and currently an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Texas Southern University. The article was an adaption of from an original piece entitled  “Evil Genius…”

Whether deservingly or not, Meles Zenawi has gone into history lionized beyond any expectations.

Zenawi was given bigger than life farewell at the end, despite his tarnished legacy. The ruling party, TPLF, could not have scripted a better farewell than was seen in Ethiopia.

By force or by volition, Ethiopians throughout the country were engaged in praising, wailing, crying for Zenawi, exceeding scenes observed in North Korea or anywhere in the world.

The wailing and the crying 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 was excessive. The attempt was to rebrand, redefine and humanize Zenawi by the ruling party to justify its continued control. 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 democrat, a great warrior, a great leader instead of being referred to as an ethnic or Marxist dictator, as the opposition has often called him. So the idea of worrying about ones legacy or doing the right thing goes 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 the last three months, the system in Ethiopia was completely shut, no business license was issued, even no wedding ceremonies were held, though millions of dollars was spent for to materialize Zenawi’s after-life grandiose that 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 travelled 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 benefitted from such practice where hundreds of people were employed to show case his 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 may get 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 21 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 benefitted during his 21 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.

So why is Zenawi memorialized? Comparable to 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, and a democrat despite the facts to the contrary. 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 on earth 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 praise 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 clans.

The truth will come out sooner or later that Zenawi has hoodwinked the West, eviscerated the Ethiopian economy and institutions. As all the facts are revealed, he will eventually be remembered as nothing but a charlatan

Obama’s presidency raised great excitement, hope and pride for the people of Africa. Unfortunately, his invitation of one of Africa’s worst dictator, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia to Camp David on May 18, 2012 dashed any hopes for Obama’s redemption as a friend of Africa or pro human rights stand in the continent. As a Nobel Prize for Peace recipient, he was supposed to stand with the oppressed, not with a dictator like Meles.

Knowing that the root cause of Africa’s problem is lack of good governance and democratic rule, President continues the tradition of wining and dining with African dictators.

Most African dictators are zapping and retarding  political and economic development with their excessive abuse of power and misallocation of resources.

If nothing else, Obama was expected to  stand with the people of Africa unlike many past U.S. presidents who backed bloody dictators in the pretence of fighting  Communism or terrorism.  Although Africa has never been a hot bed of terrorism like the Middle East, but it was used as strategic base to fight terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere.

In the past, variousU.S.leaders stood in collusion with dictators and racist forces like the one inSouth Africaallegedly in promotingU.S.interest.  In some occasions African dictators got ears ofWashingtonby hiring high powered lobbyists to alignU.S.policy with theirs. Such bidding is done by lobbyists such as DLA Piper using  well known political figures  such as Dick Armey, Richard Gephardt and others.

The 2000U.S.presidential election fiasco in Florida gave many dictators inAfricaa cover to steal an election.  This has encouraged many regimes to extend their terms by dubious means or completely defying election results, as was the case inEthiopia,ZimbabweandUganda. In some other African countries election is merely a charade to keep their western friends quiet; some don’t even bother to hold an election.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the world was more hopeful about the spread of democracy. That hope started taking roots under President Bush Sr. and under Bill Clinton, unfortunately, since then it took the turn for the worst, giving rise to dictators for life in Eritrea, Sudan, Chad,  Ethiopia, and other African countries. While some are more egregious than others, in general they have crushed future hope for democracy, as well economic development.

Economic results also have been a disaster for the continent where unelected and unaccountable dictators prevailed.  Many of these countries face starvation, rampant inflation, unemployment, and massive dislocation of human and material capital. Some will end up as failed states imploding with economic woes and public rebellion like inSomalia.

According to the recent published U.S. Dept of Human rights report, a number of African countries have been accused of politically motivated killings and disappearances, but for Obama and previously for the Bush Administration it was just business as usual as far as some of  these countries pretend to support U.S. interest in the region.

Such blind support of dictators in the long run will damageU.S.standing and the fight against terrorism. The invasion ofSomaliaby Meles Zenawi ofEthiopiawas another scheme for a notorious dictator to ingratiate himself with theU.S.and to divert attention from his  own precarious standing at home and poor human rights record. This unnecessary and unjustified invasion has encouraged the rise of  a more radical group.

Meles’  primary reason for the invasion was not to fight terrorism but to distract domestic and international pressure arising from its rigged election and massacre of  hundreds of peaceful protestors. Like Ahmed Chalabi ofIraq, Meles of Ethiopia through its PR machine inWashingtonconvinced theU.S.administration to back its invasion that ended up creating a more radical group, Al Shabab.

According to Jeffrey Gentleman of the New York Times, what goes on inEthiopiaseems starkly different from the carefully-constructed image thatEthiopia-a country thatAmericaincreasingly relies on to fight militant Islam in the Horn.  According to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, paramilitary units continue to use random searches, beatings, mass arrests and lethal force against peaceful protesters. The current Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Africa, Chris Smith, and R- New Jersey referred the current ruler ofEthiopiaas “vicious dictator”. Genocide watch and other human rights organizations have accused Meles for crimes against humanity for atrocities committed  against the  Annuak’s in Gambela and the people of Ogaden.

As long as the U.S.continues to forsake democracy in Africaand elsewhere for the sake of dubious American foreign policy guided by self-serving dictators, like Meles of Ethiopia, it is bound to fail.

The new Obama administration needs to divorce itself from the past and embrace the people of Africa regardless of the powerful lobbyist representing African dictators in the walls of congress or sharing the Lincoln bedroom if President Obama wants to change America’s image and the plight of the people of Africa. Ethiopia, the headquarters of the African Union and seat of many African and international organizations could be a place to flex his muscle for human rights and project new American leadership to bring change to decades of economic malaise and  oppression of the people of Africa by African dictators.  To this end, he needs to stop winning and dinning with the worst African dictator, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia at Camp David or anywhere.

Abdu, originally from Africa, is a Houston-based writer on foreign policy.

http://www.dlapiper.com

The Final Blow to Ethiopiawinet!

The expulsion of the Amharic speaking people from the South is a final blow to Ethiopiawinet. The masterminds of Ethiopia’s demise have eventually succeeded in putting a death knell to what left of Ethiopia, complete segregation by tribe. By  the way, according to the dictionary, a death knell  is the ringing of a bell to announce a death. Literally speaking, the Woyanes are killing Ethiopia economically and as a nation.

All Ethiopians should have the freedom to live anywhere in Ethiopia. There are certain inalienable rights any government has to grant to its people, such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, sense of security, jobs, property rights, and to live and work anywhere in your country. As many of us know, none of these rights exist in Ethiopia. The recent Woyane action on Amharic speaking people clearly demonstrates that. Thus, this is tantamount to ringing of a bell to announce a death of Ethiopia as a nation, the ultimate final plan of  the Woyane regime.

Woyane have been planting the seeds of hate among all Ethiopians for a long time. They have succeeded to make most Woyanes to hate all Ethiopians, they have tried to pit Oromos against Amharas, now they are pitting the South against Amharas with the help of their lackeys, as usual.

At this point, the Woyanes have completed the circle or the strangulation of Ethiopia. This is the final blow in their attempt to undermine the very existence of Ethiopia as a nation. The Amharas are being used as their bogey man, but their aim is to destroy Ethiopia as a nation.

Now, they have completed the circle of  pitting all Ethiopians against each other. There is no stone unturned in their attempt to destroy Ethiopia and to make Ethiopia none existent in the eyes of many Ethiopians. Now, the Amharas have to live in their tribal area and vice versa. Ethiopia is now a tribal state with little or no commonality just tribes  existing to serve the interest of ruling TPLF and their agents.

Nothing left for Ethiopians in Ethiopia to call themselves Ethiopians. By driving the Amharic speaking Ethiopians from the south by calling them Amharas or Amharic speaking people, they have successfully destroyed whatever left of Ethiopia or the unity of Ethiopians. Of course, their aim is clearly to drive a wedge among all Ethiopians so that nobody is left to fight the Woyane oppression or to redirect the blame on each other instead of focusing  the Woyanes who are the real culprit and who are destroying Ethiopia as a nation.

The Woyanes may be targeting one ethnic group, but they are targeting or setting up Ethiopia for genocide. For a while the Southern states resisted or were spared of Woyane driven  ethnic politics to the extent the Woyanes tried to impose on Amharas and Oromos.

Until the Woyanes  masterminded the split of  the Gurages into two  independent groups by absorbing the Siltes as their supporters or surrogates with the help of Hodam Siltes, the South stayed relatively calm and tried to avoid the idea of hyper gerrymandering to pit one group against another. Of course, the full power rested on Woyanes, but most of the leaders stayed in the opposition camps save Siltes, recently the Wolaytas.

CUD’s spectacular failure has become a catalyst for the rise of Woyane influence in the South. With the miserable failure of CUD, and the price most of the smaller tribes paid for their support of CUD, and the quixotic and unprofessional behavior of some of the leaders exacerbated and accelerated the South acceptance of Woyane dominance and rule. .

Most leaders of the region turned  pragmatic and decided to  coexist or acquiesce to the inevitable  subservient relationship to Woyanes.

The recent action by the leader of  Benji Maji goes beyond coexistence with Woyanes, but  completes the circle of capitulation to Woyane agenda, which is the destruction of Ethiopia, and Ethiopiawinet.

For a long time, the Woyanes worked hard to pit Oromos against Amharas, now, they are putting a final blow to the very remaining part of Ethiopia that refused so far to drop Amharic as its national language and to be ethnicized as anti-Ethiopia and anti-Amhara.

The question is what to do next to stop the Woyanes  from creating not just eviction, but genocide throughout Ethiopia. We need to join national organization at the same time, resist the temptation of joining ethnic organizations, but keep fighting  as a nation under siege and under the gun.

So far the opposition reaction has been to join chat room to discuss and to denounce Woyanes. This is not enough.  Ethiopians need to resist eviction, and refuse to flee as refugees.

The Diaspora has to lead in this effort with resources and intellectual power. This is a declaration of war on our people. There has to be  a commensurate response to this not just talk in the chat room.

We  need to find friends who can align with us in times of need  like George Clooney does for the Southern Sudan, we need to find Western politicians who can denounce Woyanes, we need  to find African leaders who can  stand for something and who can stand with Ethiopia. For God’s sake, Ethiopia stood for African liberation and unity, now we have a force destroying Ethiopia, where are our friends and allies.

We need to find a way to get our messages out.   Many countries, Woyanes and individual organizations  have a PAC (political action Committee), Ethiopians needs to have one to get their messages out. Such an organization can articulate our concerns to the rest of the world, not just to Ethiopians.

We need to support organizations that stand for a democratic, non-ethnic and pluralistic Ethiopia. If there is none, create one.  Time has passed to wait for another Woyane time bomb to destroy Ethiopia.

Ethiopian churches, mosques and other civic organizations need to take the lead and stand for something. Hope they  rise to this clarion call before it is too late.

Dula Abdu writes from his blog https://ethiodemocrat.org