Another War in the Horn?

Ethiopia deploys over 2500 soldiers between Ethio-Sudan borders

Vehicles heading in droves to the border

By Ankober,DebreBirhan Blogspot’s Staffer 18/12/10

It seems another war is gonna break in the horn of Africa possibly in the Ethiopia and Sudan border. The grounding is from the Ethiopian side to attack its own rebel forces in/through the border, escort Eritrean rebels via Sudan to Eritrea or fight a war with Sudan itself. Sources from the Ethiopian Defence Forces revealed that within the past week alone a good number of soldiers have been deployed to metema town, the border town between Ethiopia and Sudan. The forces and stakeholders from the Ethiopian side are being told that the deployment is in preparation of a war with Sudan as “it has been expelling Ethiopians in the border and in Sudan.”

“Over 2500 soldiers are being transported to Metema since last night (17/12/10). Around 38 buses with a holding capacity of 60 people have been contracted between the Ethiopian Defense Forces and private bus transporters to convey the soldiers to North Western part of Ethiopia. They will transport them in two rounds: First Round from Werso Military Training Centre to Metema and in the Second Round from Bersheleko Military Training Centre to Metema .Most of the selected drivers are paid 20-30 thousand per Chauffer .The soldiers and stakeholders are being told as if there was going to be war between Ethiopia and Sudan because Sudan is expelling Ethiopians from Sudan’’ The Source indicated.

Military convoys and tanks have also been moved to Metema within the past two weeks. Metemma (also known as Metemma Yohannes) is a town in north-western Ethiopia, on the border with Sudan. Located in the Semien Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Metemma has a latitude and longitude of 12°58′N 36°12′ECoordinates: 12°58′N 36°12′E with an elevation of 685 meters above sea level. Across the border is the corresponding Sudanese village of Gallabat. According to the British diplomat Hormuzd Rassam, who travelled through Metemma in November 1865 on his diplomatic mission to Emperor Tewodros II. Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia published in 2005, Metemma has an estimated population of 3132 males and 2449 females for a total population of 5581 (Wikipedia).

According to Asmerino.com, between 29 November and 12 December 2010, a delegation of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EDPD) headed by Party chairman, Mr. Woldeyesus Ammar, conducted important discussions with high-level authorities of the fraternal Ethiopian government as well as with organizations and individuals on questions of vital importance to the Eritrean people’s cause for change and democratization.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi responded to the delegates saying the engagement strategy of his regime with Eritrea has changed as of January 2010.

“Till the onset of 2010, we were focused on developing our country without Eritrea [and its ports] and we scored great achievements. It was our policy to ignore Eritrea and its regime as long as that regime did not provoke Ethiopia for a reaction. However, today, and taking into consideration the developments in the region, EPRDF has adopted a new strategy for effective action that can accelerate the downfall of the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ ) regime in Eritrea.” He said

Meles also asserted to the delegates that “Any means of struggle is legitimate and acceptable. But as EPRDF, we can have our own view as to which means of struggle is more effective in the current Eritrean situation. We can say peaceful and democratic means of struggle cannot give quick results in Eritrea.”

This tells that Meles is ready and committed more than ever to overthrow the Eritrean regime by using the Eritrean armed opposition groups as proxy. Both regimes have a strong intelligence force within the status quo and military's of the opposite nations. I remember once an Eritrean former high ranking military officer during the Ethio-Eriterian border war (1998-2000) telling me that Tigrean spies were within the Eritrean army claiming that they are Eritreans deported from Ethiopia. Some of these double agents, as to him “were caught passing information to the enemy forces (Ethiopian)”. Similar scenario exists within the Ethiopian counterpart.

The continuously increasing build up of forces within the Ethio-Sudan border by Ethiopian soldiers and vehicles has puzzled many.

My assumptions on the military build up

Assumption 1. There are apparent intelligence and corporal information that Meles has lumped up all Eritrean oppositions to come together and use only gun to remove the Issayas regime. There are armed Eritrean forces, though few, organised under religion, ethnicity as in the case of Kunama , afar and other small oppositions...now he wants to merge all of them with those that say peaceful only and wage war.... after all this is what he meant by change of strategy towards Eritrea as of Jan.

Similarly as Meles is preparing to hand over a long stretching Ethiopian land area to Sudan, the force might also have been deployed to facilitate this process.

Assumption 2. if war breaks out between Ethiopia and Eritrea,the only perpetrator and wager of the war is the Meles Zenawi side because....Eritrea has no man and economic power, psychologically weakened force, and so on to go to war with Ethiopia at this moment...so if there is ...it will only be Meles attacking Eritrea, and this scenario is still unassented.

Assumption 3. Meles is frightened of the new grouping of forces that are forming unity in Eritrea especially UEDC, the Unity of Ethiopians for Democratic Change. This Unity includes,Tigrean People's Democratic Movement (TPDM) grouping and because Meles knows that Isayas fully supports and wants to concoct another Tigrean puppet in Ethiopia via TPDM and as in the past few weeks and months TPDM has been making an effective and strong attack in Tigrean borders and mobilizing Tigrean youth ,Meles above and all is compelled to avert this and squash the oppositions. To this end he might use the Sudan border.

In this volatile area Ethiopian Peoples Patriotic Front (EPPF),has also been attacking government forces in Quara and Metema borders.

Assumption 4.As the regime in Ethiopia said the war is going to be with Sudan. This is less feasible. The up to date diplomatic and military situations of the Sudan and Ethiopia don’t presage that.

Assumption 5. Last but not least.This assumption sounds to be the most probalable , a Meles regime insider says the forces are being deployed to protect Ethiopia from fleeing Sudanese soldiers and Ethiopian rebels from entering Ethiopia if the January 9 ,2011 Sudanese Referendum ends up a menace '' during the civil war in Ethiopia in 1991 tens of thousands of soldiers fled to Sudan...same thing can happen now, thousands of armed men may desert to Ethiopia...that may be the reason why our troops are moving...to protect Ethiopia.If there is chaos in sudan...other armed opposition groups might attempt to exploit the situation to launch attack against our government (Ethiopia).The proximity of metema to both Eritrea and Sudan could be the cause for the huge deployment in this area '' the source said.

If the Sudanese government can't solve the referendum peacefully and the issue turns out uncontrollable,it can spill over to Ethiopia and may affect Ethiopia's oil import from Sudan as more than 75% of Ethiopia's oil imported from Sudan, '' Whatever bad unfolds, numerous number of Sudanese refugees from Sudan will flock to border towns such as Metema,Gambela,Benishangul and Tigray.Currently,there are tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Gambella.'' he added.

Voice of America reported on the 17th December,2010 that problems remain before the vote can start. As many as six cases have been filed in Sudan's constitutional court challenging the referendum commission and the legality of the vote. The court has agreed to hear one of the cases so far, brought by a group of civil society organizations. They claim southerners in the north have been prevented from registering by the southern ruling party.One of the court cases has the potential to stop the referendum.

The South Sudan Referendum can lead the Horn of Africa into a total civil war,unless handled well.There are direct and indirect effects of the Referendum that can create a fertile ground for rebel groups,oppositions,foreign powers and regimes in the region to achieve their goals or lose their hold.

What IF...

©Ankober 17/12/10

What if wrong was right?

Death was birth

Hate was enjoyable

Harm was help

Torture was contentment

Disease was comfortable

Mischief was proper

Hunger was bearably relieving

Fall out was zealously needed

Pain was borne and sought

What if crime was normal?

Grief was pleasing

Ignorance was knowledge

Promiscuousness was looked up

Insanity was the right way to live

Disrespect was valued

Stupidity was brilliance

War was nice

Repression was correct

Anger was calming

What if fear was not disgusting?

Betrayal was harmless

Inferiority was fine

Jealousy was rejuvenating

Killing was fair

Waste was aromatic

Immorality was moral

All that we think is bad turns out adorable

And good was bad

What if all the sorrows of Ethiopia were well?

How would this world be?

Opposite as it is, this world

Might fit it, like it.

but

Who will first attempt it?

Authoritarian Ethiopia turns out military dictatorship

Major Corporations and Ministries being run by military officers, graduates

By Ankober,DebreBirhan Blogspot's Staffer

December 10, 2010

Ethiopia is slowly changing. It is slowly but surely changing into a full-blown military dictatorship. An arduous investigation conducted by this writer proves the fact. The overhanging notion of a military dictatorship is when the leaders governing the country wear military clothes and militarise their appearance . The late Sadam Hussien of Iraq, General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan , Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan and Romeo Vásquez Velásquez of Honduras are some of the most recent and popular military dictators fulfilling the above characterisation. The militarisation in Ethiopia is different one.

The situation in Ethiopia is one of a Khakistocracy; the military rule of a country often in collusion with the elite and business classes and also a full blown dictatorship. The ever staggering report that has come out of the Ethiopian military since the Meles regime came to power was the recent revelation of the domination of over 96% of the Military’s top brass by one ethnic group. This time, though, the news is of a completely contrary genre. Ethiopia’s major Ministries and Corporations are on the verge of falling under the hands of military cadets and officers. These organisations are Metals and Engineering Corporation (MetEC), the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) (Ethio –Telecom) and The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo).

1. Metals and Engineering Corporation (MetEC)

Nine industries; Dejen Aviation, Bishoftu Automotive and Locomotive, Hibret Machine Tools Engineering Complex, Homicho Ammunition Engineering Complex, Gafat Armament Engineering Complex, Power Engineering, Hitech Industry, Metal and Fabrication Industry, and Adama Garment Industry, some public and some non public have recently formed the Metals and Engineering Corporation (MetEC). MetEC is mandated to undertake the design, manufacture, development, and supply for projects for both state owned enterprises and the private sector and is headed by a Military General from Ethiopian Defence Forces (EDF). MetEC has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation (EEPCo) to repair and maintain its transformers and diesel generators as well as manufacture electro and hydro mechanical equipment. It also signed a 950 million Br deal with Anbessa City Bus Enterprise for the import and assembly of 500 buses, the first ever form of bid and budget in the country. Such agreements and contracts leave the annual budget (four Billion birr) of the Defence Force to another investigation. Of the nine companies' combined 7,000 employees, 1,750 are engineers; most of coming from Defence Engineering College.

“If truth be told, putting private enterprises in the same table of competition with a fully financed and favoured governmental Corporation is demeaning. Moreover, run by military officers, who posses both the psychological and power dominance, it is morally unfair to expect us to make deals and work with them’’ laments a Mechanical Firm owner in Addis Abeba via telephone to this writer.

The top management of this Corporation is now fully held by Generals and high ranking military officers from the Ethiopian Defence Forces and Defense Engineering College now Defense University College.

2. Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) (Ethio –Telecom)

The second Corporation that is in the process of being managed by military officers and staffs and graduates from the Ethiopian Defence Engineering College is the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) , now (Ethio –Telecom).Last week, it was reported that The Ethiopian government has relinquished the management of the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) to a French company: Orange. For the two years contract the Arcueil based company will be paid 30 million euro.
The French Company which will be doing the scientific management of Ethio-Telecom will soon be proffered with new management staffs coming from the top military brass of the Ethiopian Defence Forces and Ethiopian Defence Engineering College. More than 75% of the current ETC Higher Management Members namely; Amare Amsalu, Worku Guta, Tesfu G/Michael, Frehiwot Tamru, Endashaw Getachew, Zelalem Bekele, Hussein Kuru, Engedayehu Tinsaye, Tessema Gadissa, Tsegu Heruy, Efrem Tilahun, Araya Manaye, Jemal Mohammed, Melaku Kassahun, Tasew Abitew, Chalew Demilie, Gosaye Demissie, Tariku Demissie, Tadesse Mola, Abdulhafiz Ahmed and Woldegiorgis Woldu and other middle level staffs will be replaced by the new comers from the Forces and Colleges.

“Most of us at the ETC are worried. We were being told that as soon as the French company kicks of the management in full gear, we might be transferred into regional offices. This is going to affect me big time. My young daughter is in a primary school here in Addis and my wife also works here, so if they transfer me into another region, my family will breakdown.” a senior Administrative staff of ETC informed this writer. Last week students and graduates from Ethiopian Defence Engineering College visited ETC’s head office and met with Orange and they are supposed to take up the places. These novices from Defence will be fashioned as to Orange’s management approaches and continue the management when the Company leaves after two years.

3. The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo)

The third Corporation on the threshold of military governance is EEPCo. One of the most incompetent and failed Corporations in Ethiopia, EEPCo is also going to be called to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Office, sources disclosed. Similar to the other two Corporations, most of EEPCo’s Executive Managing Directors ; Miheret Debebe, Abdul Hakim Mohammed, Melaku Mamo, Girma Mekuria, Mesfin Birhan, Kibrom Kahsay, Shiferaw Telila, Beletu Befirdu, Legesse Dabessa,and Takele H/Meskel, will soon be replaced by military officers from the Ethiopian Defence Forces and graduates from the Ethiopian Defence Engineering College. Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) has a plan to produce 13472 MW of power at a cost of 58 billion birr in the next five years.

Tom Shiferaw studied politics and has been following the political developments in Ethiopia closely, he says “a military dictatorship may be official or unofficial, the Ethiopian Defence Force in its ethnic formatted organisation has been wielding a very strong influence without being entirely dominant in Ethiopian politics. Thus unofficially, the Military has been indirectly dictating citizens psychological, political and socio-economic freedom. The current state of affairs of putting Corporations and Ministries under the hands and management of military officers and graduates makes the unofficial military dictatorship, official and absolute’’

Writers attest that military regimes usually have little respect for human rights and use whatever means necessary to silence political opponents, who are viewed as opposing the army as enemies. A military regime is also rarely willing to leave power unless forced to by popular revolt, whether active or imminent. All typically evident in today’s Ethiopia. The country has turned from its authoritarian form into a military dictatorship with a ‘civilian governments’ in power. As if no other college or university in the Country was graduating professionals in the fields, the reason for preferring ‘indoctrinated’ military graduates is still indistinct.

Further details coming....

Iran, China drive prison tally to 14-year high

The following report is taken from : http://cpj.org/reports/2010/12/cpj-journalist-prison-census-iran-china-highest-14-years.php

Relying heavily on vague antistate charges, authorities jail 145 journalists worldwide. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan are also among the worst jailers of the press. A CPJ special report

From Africa to the Americas, more journalists are imprisoned today than at any time since 1996. (AFP)

Published December 8, 2010

NEW YORK
Iran’s sustained crackdown on critical voices and China’s brutal suppression of ethnic journalism have pushed the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide to its highest level since 1996, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, CPJ identified 145 reporters, editors, and photojournalists behind bars on December 1, an increase of nine from the 2009 tally.

Iran and China, with 34 imprisoned journalists apiece, are the world’s worst jailers of the press, together constituting nearly half of the worldwide total. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan round out the five worst jailers from among the 28 nations that imprison journalists. (Read detailed accounts of each imprisoned journalist.)

“The increase in the number of journalists jailed around the world is a shocking development,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “It is fueled largely by a small handful of countries that systematically jail journalists—countries that are at war with information itself.”

Data from Iran are surprising in that they reflect imprisonments not simply from the post-election crackdown of 2009, but from a sustained assault on critical voices that continues to this day. In the last two months alone, CPJ found, Iranian authorities have detained four journalists. The Iranian detainees range from internationally known writers such as Issa Saharkhiz, a veteran state journalist who became a reform-minded columnist, to Navid Mohebbi, a blogger covering women’s rights who, at age 18, is the youngest person in CPJ’s census.

The number of imprisonments in China was up significantly from 2009, when CPJ found 24 jailed journalists. The increase was propelled by a series of imprisonments of Uighur and Tibetan journalists that began in the latter half of 2009 and continued into 2010, the details of which have emerged only recently in accounts of their court proceedings. The Uighur and Tibetan journalists covered ethnic issues and the violent regional unrest of recent years, topics that are officially off-limits. These journalists are also vulnerable because they are unrecognized by the state or Communist Party, which authorize all news media in China. The detainees include a Tibetan writer known as Buddha who questioned economic disparities between Tibet and the rest of the nation in a now-banned magazine, and Gheyrat Niyaz, editor of a Uighur website who commented on ethnic violence in the far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Mohammad Davari is one of 34 imprisoned journalists in Iran. A CPJ advocacy campaign is seeking their release. (Getty/Michael Nagle)

Both China and Iran rely heavily on the use of vague antistate charges. But CPJ found that the abusive application of antistate charges—such as treason, subversion, or acting against national interests—occurs worldwide and constitutes the single greatest cause of journalist imprisonments. At least 72 journalists are being held on such charges around the world. They include Kazakhstan newspaper editor Ramazan Yesergepov, jailed on “state secrets” charges after he embarrassed the security service by disclosing memos showing it had exerted political influence in a local tax case. Tunisian television journalist Fahem Boukadous is being held on charges of “harming public order” in his coverage of labor protests in a remote mining region. In Burundi, Jean Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, editor of the news website Net Press, faces treason charges for writing an opinion piece questioning whether the country’s security forces are capable of stopping a terrorist attack. And in Vietnam, blogger Pham Thanh Nghien was jailed on antistate charges after criticizing public officials’ handling of a compensation fund for the survivors of deceased fishermen.

“The legal justification for jailing journalists varies from country to country,” said Simon. “But the motivation is nearly always the same: to crush those who challenge the authority of the state.”

The increase reflected in the 2010 census comes despite the release of 17 Cuban journalists who had been held on antistate charges since a 2003 government crackdown on dissent. The Roman Catholic Church, with participation from the Spanish government, struck an agreement in July with the government of President Raúl Castro Ruz that called for the release of all political prisoners still being held from the 2003 sweep. Although Cuban authorities did not explicitly condition the releases on the detainees going into exile, it is clear that is what the government has wanted. All of those freed thus far were immediately flown to Spain. Three journalists arrested in 2003, balking at Cuba’s apparent insistence they leave the country in exchange for their freedom, remained in jail as of December 1. A fourth Cuban journalist, arrested in 2009, also remained in prison.

Eritrea is the world’s third-worst jailer in 2010, imprisoning 17 journalists as of December 1. Eleven of the Eritrean detainees have been held in secret locations without charge for a decade. The Eritrean government has refused to disclose any information about these 11 detainees, who were swept up in a brutal shutdown of the independent press. Unconfirmed reports have said four of the journalists jailed in Eritrea may have died due to mistreatment in custody. CPJ is seeking to corroborate those reports and continues to list the journalists in its 2010 census as a means of holding the government responsible for their fates.

With 13 journalists behind bars, Burma is the world’s fourth-worst jailer. Among those imprisoned is Hla Hla Win, a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, an Oslo-based organization run by Burmese exiles and known for its hard-hitting journalism. Hla Hla Win was arrested after interviewing Buddhist monks for a story pegged to the anniversary of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, a series of monk-led protests that was put down by lethal military force.

Uzbekistan placed fifth on CPJ’s dishonor roll, with six journalists jailed on December 1. The detainees include Dzhamshid Karimov, the president’s nephew, who is being held involuntarily in a psychiatric facility in reprisal for his critical coverage of the government’s social and economic policies.

Iraqi photographer Ibrahim Jassam hugs his mother as he returns home after 17 months in U.S. custody. He was never charged with a crime. (Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani)

At least one journalist died in prison in 2010. Cameroonian editor Germain Cyrille Ngota Ngota was jailed after he and other journalists asked a presidential aide about alleged misuse of state oil company funds. An initial death certificate faulted prison officials for neglect, although the government later denied any responsibility.

For the first time since 2004, the United States does not appear on the census as a nation imprisoning journalists. For years, U.S. military forces held journalists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay in open-ended detentions without charge or due process. All of those journalists were eventually released without criminal charges being corroborated, but at least 14 spent months or years in custody. The last of those detainees, Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer who contributed to Reuters, was freed without charge in February. He had spent 17 months in prison. CPJ advocated extensively over many years to sway U.S. military officials to change their detention practices.

Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ's analysis:

• The worldwide total is at its highest point since 1996, when CPJ recorded 185 journalists behind bars, a figure driven by Turkey’s suppression of ethnic Kurdish journalists. In all, Turkey imprisoned 78 journalists that year.
• The number of imprisoned online journalists leveled off in 2010 after several consecutive years of significant increases. Sixty-nine journalists whose work appeared primarily online were jailed as of December 1, constituting nearly half of all those in jail. Print reporters, editors, and photographers make up the next largest professional category, with 57 cases in 2010. Television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers constitute the rest.
• At least 64 freelance journalists were in prison worldwide, a figure consistent with the 2009 census. Freelance journalists can be vulnerable to imprisonment because they often do not have the legal and monetary support that news organizations can provide to staffers.
• Antistate charges were far and away the most common charge used to jail journalists. Violations of censorship rules, the second most common charge, were applied in 12 cases.
• In 11 cases, governments used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges range from regulatory violations to drug possession. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist's work.
• Charges of criminal defamation, reporting “false” news, and engaging in ethnic or religious “insult” constitute the other charges filed against journalists in the census.
• In 34 cases, governments have bypassed due process entirely, filing no charges and conducting no evident court proceedings.
• Four CPJ International Press Freedom Award winners are on the 2010 census. Awardee Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, a Cuban journalist held since the 2003 crackdown, has refused to leave the island in exchange for his freedom. “He will not let anybody throw him out of his country,” his wife, Laura Pollán, told CPJ.
• Azerbaijani editor Eynulla Fatullayev, anther jailed CPJ awardee, remained behind bars despite rulings by the European Court of Human Rights ordering his release. CPJ research shows authorities fabricated a series of charges against Fatullayev after he accused the government of a cover-up in the unsolved murder of another Azerbaijani editor, Elmar Huseynov.
• CPJ awardees Shi Tao and Mohammad Davari also appear on the census, both held on antistate charges. Shi is serving a 10-year prison term in China for divulging a propaganda department order that was retroactively declared a state secret. Davari is being held in Iran on charges that include “disrupting national security” after he documented the abuse and rape of inmates at the Kahrizak Detention Center. His coverage sparked an outcry so strong that Iranian authorities felt compelled to shut the facility.

CPJ believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. The organization has sent letters expressing its serious concerns to each country that has imprisoned a journalist.

Over the past year, CPJ advocacy led to the early release of at least 46 imprisoned journalists.

CPJ's list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2010. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year. Journalists remain on CPJ's list until the organization determines with reasonable certainty that they have been released or have died in custody.

Journalists who either disappear or are abducted by nonstate entities such as criminal gangs or militant groups are not included on the prison census. Their cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted.”

Moral Nihilism

3/12/10

By Ankober, DebreBirhan Blogspot’s Staffer

The past week was of enormous moral nihilism for both the world of ‘morality’ and ‘norm’ and me. Julian Assange or those ‘regulated leakers’ of the world of ‘morality’ and the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (Ethio telecom as of yesterday), the regime in Ethiopia, in the case of myself were the major causes of it.

Two days ago, I had to send an email to my contact in Addis. I had emailed her two communications at the same; two of differing content and impacts. Failing to receive her replay, I had to ring and ask her ‘’ whatsup?’’. ‘’ I got only one of your emails, the important didn’t reach me yet’’ replies she. Obviously, the most important message I sent was lost in the ‘blue’. This is not the first time that such a thing happened, when I sent an important email that contains crucial information of grand ‘’ content ‘’ and ‘’impact’’ . Understandably, they must have all been read by the Ethio telecom, filtered, intruded and hijacked before they reached their intended destination and thrown to their basket.

Julian Assange or the ‘regulated leakers’ have ‘leaked’ documents that have been classified as secret and confidential this past week. I have heard of comments from four corners; some praising Assange for courageous journalism , upholding transparency and accountability while others argued that he should be indicted for risking the lives of many and disclosing a secret. Some compared the phenomena as ‘’ treason and genocide and so on’’. Amusing was to see how the first group of arguers considered the bringing out of unprocessed, unedited and unresearched documents, as ‘real’ journalism .The later as well shouldn’t have been that exasperated as most of the cables weren’t that dangerous but simple gossips and reviews of diplomats, in any case assumed to have existed behind the curtains.

My take on the issues

My take on both of the cases above is from an angle of morality. A regime that has blocked all Diaspora media, restricted local media and quelled freedom (in all its forms), wouldn’t be viewed with surprise if it openly begins to tap all telephone conversations and filter emails its citizens , as it is even preparing to change the country into a military state (a separate issue being researched by this writer). Agape wouldn’t also engross us if nations that have showed a facade appearance of sincerity, truth and frankness abruptly turn out to be insincere, untruthful and hypocrites; because both of the above are becoming the modes operandi and realities of this ‘demagogues’ world of international security.

I am very worried in that both instances, above, explicitly and typically serve as empirical examples of moral nihilism. If morality is annihilated, then apocalypse boots in. That is my take on them. Explaining moral nihilism in a very simple form, Neil Cooper says ‘’many of us have experienced the kind of mood in which we are inclined to say ‘I don’t care about anything’. Were this to become a settled disposition, it would be naturally expressed by the words ‘Nothing matters’.’’ Neil calls this moral nihilism or indifferentism. Moral nihilism, view that there are no moral truths, has had transcending philosophical arguments with most agreeing to disagree that relative truth at least exists and moral clarity holds. Our planet was thus far governed with this morality. However, the acts of EPRDF or Wikielaks or forces behind it are propelling the world of moral annihilation. Which journalist in the world would approve the filtering and publishing of all his/her email conversations, investigations as acts of democracy, transparency and accountability and openness? The day the journalist says it is alright or the regime savagely infiltrates it or broadcast it, moral nihilism sets in with its grand children.

I fear that this morally nihilistic, bankrupt and damaging proceeds of both EPRDF and the ‘leakers’ would soon demolish our planet.

Powers that be or entities that say ‘I don’t care about anything’ or ‘nothing matters’ match the late Greek poet’s description:-

‘’Naked I reached the world at birth;

Naked I pass beneath the earth:

Why toil I, then, in vain distress,

Seeing the end is nakedness?’’

Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation

OMG

By Ankober

Keith Griffin,1989, on Alternative Strategies for Economic Development says "Lloyd Reynolds has recently surveyed the vast qulaitiave and quanititaive literature on world economic growth and his findings. …Begins by distinguishing between economic ‘extensive growth’ – when population and production increase at about the same pace and ‘ intensive growth’ –when per capita output begins to rise and calls the periods that separate them ‘ the turning point’ … and concludes that the ‘turning point ’ is usually associated with a marked rise in exports.''

Keith on the same page says " .... Thus the end of colonialism and imperialism coincided, for a large proportion of the people of Asia, Africa and Latin America with the period when the capacity to produce first began to rise appreciably faster than population.There is nothing magical about full sovereignty and independence. Ethiopia and Liberia, after all, were independent countries but they failed to develop. Their ruling elites were exploitive of the majority of the population and the regimes can perhaps best be described as a form of internal colonialism. Governments can and do peruse policies which harm the well being of their people, sometimes severely, and Reylonds surely is right when he says that ‘the single most important explanatory variable is political organisation and administrative competence of government’.''

I am highly devastated,decimated,disgruntled and partly despaired. '' Sending a stick over an itching scar'' How do we Ethiopians solve this endlessly dehumanizing privation? When will we have leaders who walk than talk? Watching the video below also compelled me to posit '' is political organisation and administrative competence of government'' nonexistent to at least protect these food ''scavenging'' citizens of ours?

God Help Us!!!!!

Watch the video , below , though the language is dutch - the video speaks all languages of the world.

http://rtl.de/medien/information/rtlaktuell/1146c-0-51ca-21/das-leid-der-muellmenschen-von-goraei.html

Geldof comments about X-mas song and puts us back on the headlines

Editors Note:

'' Gaddafi actually reminds me somewhat of Bob Geldof: he had a couple of early hits, failed to make it into the rebels’ hall of fame and has kept his dimming star alight by projecting himself as a saviour and harbinger of world peace. '' Khaled Diab,2009.

Bob Geldof spoke of his X-mas song (Do they know its Christmas) sung for Ethiopia's famine and put us back on the headlines. In journalism ,when a media or a journalist refurnishes, reanalyzes and reports a news ,already broken , the media gurus label it as a sloppy journalism/t.Would a singer be called too? I was 2 years old when this song was out, I listened to it and knew it was sung for us just recently, what it convinced me was that , it did more damage than benefit.I do not really see the balance of regretting singing it after 2 decades other than '' remixing '' the song to be re-marketed.I don't know when Ethiopia will be free from any compromise.

Here is the youtube link for the song :http://youtube.com/watch?v=w5cX_ncZLls

Bob Geldof has blasted charity single 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' as one of the "worst songs ever".

Published 2010-11-29 10:00:00 by mcbada

The former Boomtown Rats singer and charity campaigner co-wrote the festive staple - which was recorded by a host of the biggest names in pop music in November 1984 and released later that year - with Midge Ure to raise money for the relief of the 1984-1985 famine in Ethiopia.

The song set the record for biggest selling UK single at the time, selling a million copies in the first week and retaining the Number One spot in the charts for five weeks, eventually selling more than 3.5 million copies in the UK.

'Do They Know It's Christmas?' has since become a favourite Christmas track in the UK and continues to receive heavy airplay during the festive season, although Bob - who also helped co-ordinate and appeared on a US equivalent charity track, 'We Are The World' - has long ago stopped being a fan.

He said: "I am responsible for two of the worst songs in history. One is 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' and the other one is 'We Are The World'.

"Any day soon, I will go to the supermarket, head to the meat counter and it will be playing. Every f***ing Christmas."

'Do They Know It's Christmas?' features artists including Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Boy George, George Michael Sting, Bono and Adam Clayton of U2, Phil Collins, Paul Weller, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfittof Status Quo and Bananarama.

Bob added he doesn't even like hearing carol singers perform the track to him.

He added: "Sometimes I think that's wild because I wrote it. Or else I am thinking how much I want them to stop because they are doing it really badly."

Midge - who was in the band Ultravox - has yet to give comment.

QDDR filed; what for Ethiopia?

By Ankober, DebereBirhan's Staffer

Obama's lips cracked.A week before they were injured, his lips and head delved on a new U.S. foreign assistance draft, Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review(QDDR), the document that is meant to chart the long-term strategy for both the State Department and USAID.This new document as to some media and bloggers,might change the whole scenario of US's foreign aid.This reform touches upon our aid addict Ethiopia too.Might it for us?

"To advance American interests and values and to lead other nations in solving shared problems in the 21^st century, we must rely on our diplomats and development experts as the first face of American power. We must lead through civilian power," states the draft, which is marked NODIS (meaning no distribution) but was obtained by the Washington Post.

Though it would be out of the aim and context of this article,were i doing a discourse analysis , the phrases in the above quotation such as '' solving shared problems'' and '' lead through civilian power'' would have consumed my deeper splitting and dissection.What are the shared problems of USA today with Africa or my poor , Ethiopia?, What does leading through a civilian power mean? Weren't ye leading through a civilian power so far(in the development context the least)?

In the light of Human Rights Watch's continuous recommendations and leverages on the necessity of strict accountability and transparency of aid to Ethiopian government,my expectation ,like many of you, was to see a learnt Obamian aid reform.However, skimming through the draft reform(http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/14727/state-department-diplomacy-and-development-review.pdf) ,i was convinced to opine that the recommendations of HRW have fallen into deaf ears.

''Spearheaded by the State Department, the QDDR began 14 months ago to take stock of U.S. foreign assistance and outline reforms meant to streamline and strengthen the department and USAID’s operations. It underscores the need to build USAID as the “world’s premier development agency,” improve interagency collaboration, achieve “high impact” development results and target conflict prevention,Devex analyses.

The draft QDDR recommends the following reforms in recruitment, contracting and procurement, and planning and budgeting processes within the State Department and USAID.

Using smaller contracts

To enhance the competition for contracts, USAID will make “smaller and more focused awards,” while the State Department will divide large contracts “into discrete units.” They should also promote increased use of local partner country systems.

Expanding USAID and State Department workforce.

To “build and rebalance” USAID’s workforce, the agency should recruit more direct hires and triple midlevel hires in its Development Leadership Initiative from 30 to 95 per year. The government will also create expert-level positions to boost USAID’s pool of highly skilled foreign service nationals.

Targeting “high impact”development through a focus on results.

USAID should launch a new evaluation policy starting in January 2011 and introduce more “outcome-level indicators” to monitor its programs.

Promoting conflict response and prevention as a “core mission.”

In line with the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, the draft QDDR calls for investments in sectors where the U.S. has a comparative advantage, including sustainable economic growth, democracy and governance, food security, global health, climate change, humanitarian aid, and women’s welfare. The State Department will lead operations in political and security crises and conflicts, while USAID will spearhead humanitarian efforts in nations ravaged by large-scale natural disasters, famines and disease,good to mark Ethiopia in this case.

Developing a joint State-USAID strategic plan, and creating a unified national security budget.

The joint strategic plan will aid chiefs of mission, or U.S. ambassadors abroad, in putting together integrated country strategies, which will serve as the basis for mission and bureau budget requests.

Reorganizing the State Department and USAID to better coordinate interagency roles and responsibilities and procedures in diplomacy and development efforts.

Two sections that are a bit heavy to frighten aid abusers ,the likes of Meles ,would be sentences that state that the State Department will lead operations in political and security crises and conflicts, while USAID will spearhead humanitarian efforts in nations ravaged by large-scale natural disasters, famines and disease and the reorganization the State Department and USAID.

Nevertheless, with this same state of proposition, QDDR will neither reform the existing top-down aid model or inherent aid abuse prevalent in Ethiopia.State Department sent QDDR to the U.S. Congress on Nov. 17, I wish the Congress deliberates on it and amends it.Some of the amendments could be super scrutiny of aid flow,usage and outcomes and ceasing of direct budgetary to states that are repressive right from this year.In addition to this, the values and merits of project/program and budgetary aids should be well studied to ensure that money is well spent or in a way that enables African governments to break the cycle of dependency.

Let me leave you with Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid positions, she broadly categorizes three types of aid: humanitarian or emergency, charity and government-to-government transfers in the form of concessional loans or grants. It is the latter form of aid that she opposes against and I(the lil guy) urge the Congress to reassess too. “Over the past thirty years…the most aid-dependent countries have exhibited an average annual growth rate of minus 0.2 percent. Between 1970 and 1998, when aid flows to Africa were at their peak, the poverty rate in Africa actually rose from 11 percent to a staggering 66 percent” she found out.

So fellas, what is this aid propagative, Aid Reform all for ?

Hunger in America

Editors Note: All those Westerners I know ,who bother me about the hungriness of Ethiopia and sarcastically speak of Ethiopia's hunger nexus with Ethiopian's individuality : please take your time to read this fact .

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21967

Global Research, November 17, 2010

World Socialist Web Site

By Patrick Martin Some 15 percent of US households, 17.4 million families or about 50 million people, were too poor to buy adequate food last year, according to a new report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). More than a third of these households, with as many as one million children, were missing meals on a regular basis, the study found. The number of families classified as “food insecure” according to the USDA, which administers the food stamp program, has more than tripled since 2006, before the current economic slump which has brought near double-digit unemployment. Because most people are reluctant to admit they have a problem putting food on the table, particularly when they have children, “food insecurity” was calculated from survey questions about skipping meals or running out of food stamps, combined with comparisons of income and food prices. Virtually the sole cause of food insecurity in America—the largest producer of agricultural and food products on the planet—is lack of money. The poverty rate has risen sharply over the past three years, with an estimated 50 million people living below the official poverty line, which grossly underestimates the income needed for basic necessities. Highlighting the significant inequalities in food resource availability across US households, the USDA report noted that the typical food-secure household spent a whopping 33 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. In keeping with the Obama administration’s policy of minimizing the depth of the social crisis, the USDA official who released the report, Under Secretary Kevin Concannon, said the latest hunger survey showed a “stabilization” of the problem compared to the year before. In other words, just as many people were hungry in 2009 as in 2008, as though that represented “progress” rather than making permanent a level of social misery not seen in America for 40 years. Concannon said the report was a hopeful one, since the number of hungry people did not increase even though the number of unemployed Americans rose sharply from 9 million in 2008 to 14 million in 2009. He credited food stamps and other federal programs for staving off any further increase in hunger. “This report highlights just how critical federal nutrition assistance programs are for American families,” he said. The number of Americans receiving food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) rose to 42.4 million. Another one million children received free or subsidized school lunches daily, while some 400,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers received milk, butter, eggs and other food under the WIC program. All told, one quarter of US households have at least one person receiving food stamps or other food aid. However, 43 percent of food-insecure households were not participating in any of these three programs. Despite the complacency voiced by the Obama administration official, there is ample reason to believe that the present nutrition programs, already inadequate to meet the social need, will be further slashed by Congress. The Child Nutrition Act must be reauthorized this year, and the Senate version of the bill cuts more than $2 billion from food stamps in order to pay for the increasing cost of school lunches—essentially robbing children at home in order to feed them in school. Earlier this year, an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless was funded in part by cuts in the food stamp program. In a society which took seriously the value of human life and the future of its children, the spectacle of 50 million people at risk of hunger, including 17 million children, would be a social emergency. Given that the United States once boasted of its ability to feed the planet, the indifference to the growth of hunger at home is a national scandal. But in the America of 2010, the news about hunger was relegated to small items on the inside pages of newspapers (A21 in the Washington Post, nothing in the New York Times), and failed to make a splash on the evening news broadcasts, more concerned with the engagement of Britain’s Prince William. The hunger report provides another dimension for measuring the social irresponsibility, greed and outright cruelty of the US financial aristocracy, which is far more concerned with fattening its own outrageous bank accounts and assets than with alleviating mass suffering in the richest country in the world. The US Congress began its “lame duck” session Monday, to be followed by a bipartisan summit Thursday between President Obama and congressional Democratic and Republican leaders. The food crisis will not be on the agenda in these discussions. The only hunger being discussed is the truly insatiable craving of the rich for even more wealth. The Obama administration and the Republicans are currently negotiating the terms for the Democratic Party’s surrender to right-wing demands for an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. This will cost $700 billion over the next decade, or $70 billion a year, more than the cost of all federal nutrition programs combined. Meanwhile, Obama has praised the proposal from the chairmen of his deficit reduction commission to impose drastic cuts in social programs for the elderly and the poor along with lower taxes for the rich and for corporations and higher taxes for the working class. The mantra of the White House, the political establishment and the media is that the American people have been living beyond their means and must accept a reduction in their consumption. The US ruling elite and both its political parties, the Democrats as well as the Republicans, are indifferent to the growth of hunger and deprivation. Those most intoxicated by “free market” ideology likely regard such social evils as a positive good, since hungry workers are more willing to take any job available, no matter what the wages and conditions. They should be careful what they wish for. The American ruling class is creating the conditions for an explosion from below that all its servants in the political establishment, the trade unions and the media will be unable to prevent. The most urgent task facing working people is to make the necessary preparations to give the coming movement a revolutionary political character. This means the building of the Socialist Equality Party.