The Embassy of Libya in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia has removed its National green flag and hoistedthe flag of the opposition National Transitional Council today (22-8-2011), sources in Addis Abeba informed this Blogger. The Emabssy officals, amabsaodors and diplomats also confirmed that they recognise the National Transitional Council as Libya’s Official Administartion.
Two little known parties : All Ethiopian Democratic Party (AEDP) and Ethiopian Unity Democratic Organisation (EUDO) have finalised their preparation to call for a large scale peaceful demonstration in Addis Abeba in September 2011.
According to our sources within the parties, the public demonstration will be held in the largest square in Ethiopia, Meskel(Cross) Square. Although the specific date has not yet been disclosed , the demonstration will be held after the Ethiopian year (September 11, 2011).
This period was selected convenient, as most religious denominations finish fasting and students and civil servants will start class and work respectively, the sources detailed.
"The peaceful public demonstration would surely be held next month. Our prior plan was to hold it this month, however, reaching these potential participants was impossible due to the above reasons, so we opted to postpone it." said the source.
In Ethiopia public demonstrations have been banned or were systematically denied by the City Government that enjoy the ''rights'' of denying or allowing demonstrations. Since the 2005 election, there was no public demonstration called by opposition parties, most were refused by the Government. According to these two parties, the Government's Constitution doesn't require that demonstrators have to receive a permission from it rather it seeks them to 'inform' it that they will be demonstrating.
"And that is what we will be doing, we will just let them know that we will demonstrate. We don't ask them for permission as their own law doesn't say so. And we are sure that we will make it." the source added.
The main points that the parties will be demonstrating are : lack of justice, high cost of living ,heavy taxation, the implementation of the anti-terrorism and Press Law that is "used to stifle dissent", the sale of Ethiopia's fertile land via land grab,expelling of employees in the name of structural restructuring, lack of education quality are some of them.
Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia or Medrek Party, a consortium of four parties and two dignitaries, refused the call of the two parties to join them in the demonstration fearing infiltration by the Regime.
Addis Ababa, August 18, 2011 (Ezega.com) - After reading about “Sugar Daddies Phenomena in Ethiopia” By Ezega.com Reporter Meron Teklebirhan, I encountered the incident I am about to write in this article. Sugar Daddies are always famous among young women, but, it seems, the concept of Sugar Mommies is also gaining considerable popularity among today’s young men. I learned this occurrence in a gym I visit here and then. The gym mostly is full of young men and older women who seem to be struggling with weight and age at the same time. I have never considered this as something to be concerned about since young men are the ones usually who love to exercise in our culture and older women in most cases are recommended by a doctor or a friend to lose weight for several health and beauty related reasons.
Last week, in the gym I got into talking with one of the trainers. We were discussing about Meron’s article on sugar daddies. The trainer told me that the article impressed him since the issue needs a serious attention from the public in order to protect our young women from destruction at a very early age.
Then one thing led to another and our discussion became about rich and successful women who usually visit the gym. It was at this point that he told me, although the issue might not be as much as sugar daddies, there is also concern about sugar mommies that he witnessed around him. According to him, educated and rich women usually come to the gym not only to exercise but also to pick up younger men. This actually surprised me because I thought our culture is too tight for women to do something like this, especially in public.
However, he explained. “Some of them are educated and they spent most of their youth in schools. Some got married sugar daddies and the husbands got old while these women are still young. So, they will look to other places to fulfill their needs. There are also women who married rich men they do not really like. Therefore, they start looking for some young good-looking men just for the sex. They have the money for that," he said.
Then I asked him if he could introduce me to someone who dates a sugar mommy. He called one of the people who was exercising in the gym and explained the issue to him. The person agreed to talk to me as long as I do not mention his name in my articles. I agreed. He told me to call him Teddy for this purpose.
He is a 25-year young man. Tall and athletic, he is probably the most attractive man in that gym. He told me that he is currently studying to become an accountant. His sugar mommy claims to be 45, but he thinks she is a lot older than that. “I first met her in a wedding. I have never thought things will turn out like this. She was very nice to me and she offered me a job. I was happy because I was unemployed at the time. After I worked for her for a while, she said it is better if I go to college so that she would give me a better job. We didn't have any sexual relationship at this time. I joined collage and it was after that I understood she was looking more than just a friend. I did not hesitate to fulfill her needs since I owe her a lot. She wants me to be the best I can and I really admire her for that. She even forced me to join this gym and to work out. She tells me to take my education seriously, she takes care of me and what more do I want,” he smiled.
I asked him if she is married. “She was,” he said. ”She got divorced about two years ago. Her husband is old and I do not think she likes him at all. They have three children, but fortunately they all live abroad.” I also asked him if the age difference bothers him at all. “At first it did bother me a lot. I thought I was the only one who dates a woman older than his own mom. However, especially after I joined this gym, I learned there are many who do the same. I met many people who are my age and have sugar mommies. Now I am used to it and it does not bother me much. Only some times, when we go in public and people stare that I feel uncomfortable,” he said.
I also asked if he has plans for the future with her. “I am not going to marry her if that is what you are asking,” he smiled. “Nevertheless, I do not really worry much about the future. Right now I am focused on my school and my workouts,”
Teddy was kind enough to introduce me to another man who also has a sugar mommy. He also instructed me not to use his real name and told me to use Abush as his name. Abush is a 28-year man who likes to call himself a musician. He plays drum and he says he has a plan to go a long way and be successful as a drummer. His sugar mommy is in her late 50s and he is certain she is not lying about her age. “I met her about a year a go in this very gym. She used to ask me to show her this and that and we started talking, and we became friends.”
Abush thinks dating Sugar’s is different for men than women. “For women it’s more tricky and complicated. Usually women who date sugar daddies are teenagers who are not in a position to make wise decisions or to be careful in many aspects. Sugar daddies take this advantage and ruin the lives of many young women. In our cases, we are mostly old enough to make wise decisions and to understand the consequence of our actions.”
The thing with Abush is so complicated that he claims he has a girl friend that he loves very much. “I have been together with my girl friend for the last three years. She is the one I want to marry and spend the rest of my life with.” I asked him if she knew that he has a sugar mommy. “No, she does not know. I do not want her to know. I feel like I am doing this for both of us. I am saving money now so that we will have a better life in the future,” he said.
I asked Abush how often he met people like him who dates older rich women. “It’s common these days,” he said. “I have friends who do the same thing I do. Gym is a nice place to meet these women and so many young men are coming knowing this opportunity. There is even a competition to get the richest women in the house,” he laughed.
I wondered if Sugar Mommies hang out around schools like the daddies do. However, Teddy told me that it is highly unlikely. “I don’t think any adult woman wants to have a sexual relationship with a teenager. Older women wouldn’t do that,” he said. Abush and the trainer agreed with him. However, my curiosity forced me to talk to my cousin, who is a freshman at Addis Ababa University. “I hear this happens,” he said. “I’ve never experienced it first hand but there are students who I hear date older rich women.”
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Seble Teweldebirhan is Addis Ababa based Reporter for Ezega.com. She can be reached by sending email through this form.
'TURKANA KILLINGS HAVE BEEN ATTRIBUTED TO INTER-COMMUNAL
STRUGGLE FOR THE SCARCE RESOURCES AROUND LAKE TURKANA, ESPECIALLY FISHING AND GRAZING RIGHTS' .
NAIROBI (Xinhua) --Kenya has deployed 200 security officers to the volatile region of Turkana to guard the area against regular attacks by the Merille tribesmen from Ethiopia, who have killed dozens in recent incursions, Kenya’s Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said Friday.
Saitoti, who insisted recently that the Ethiopian government was not to blame for the regular attacks in Turkana by the Merille tribesmen against the local Turkana of Kenya, said the security forces have recently been deployed to the region to beef up security.
Speaking during a security briefing with top security officials in western Kenya, Saitoti said he recently led a high-level security delegation to Ethiopia to discuss the Kenya-Ethiopia border security.
Kenya and Ethiopia recently agreed on the restoration of the border markings to ensure the beacons marking the boundaries are clearly visible to avert constant security breaches on the territorial integrity of either state.
The border beacons restoration has been under discussions by the directors of departments of survey on both sides.
The Turkana killings have been attributed to the inter-communal struggle for the scarce resources around Lake Turkana, especially fishing and grazing rights.
Kenyan officials ordered the resettlement of the Merille tribe residing inside the Kenyan territory in the aftermath of fierce attacks which killed 20 Turkana traders returning from the Ethiopian side of the border.
In the latest attacks which occurred in early August, eight Turkana women were killed by attackers from the Merile clan militia, forcing the Kenyan government to issue a protest note to Ethiopia.
A series of ministerial meetings have been held since May 2011 to try to resolve the communal stand-off in Turkana, especially in the volatile region of Todonyang, where most of the recent killings have taken place.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki initiated the talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, during which an agreement was reached to restore the border markings and restore peace in the region.
Saitoti, who is also Kenya’s acting foreign minister, said there was no need for a security alarm in Turkana following the deployment of the Kenyan security forces.
His Majesty , Emperor MenelikII is 167 years old today. This King is the favourite King of all Ethiopian Kings and Emperors for many while an 'oppressor enemy ' for others. God Bless his soul.
Last week I was privileged to be a guest at one of my friend’s naturalisation/citizenship ceremony. It was a hilarious event. Liked the whole event, there were many Africans, Asians, Americans and so on who were naturalised on the day. My compatriot friend, being one of them got his EU citizenship via his wife.
What was special about it ? Oh ya what was so special was that one of the words in the wordings of the declaration of fidelity was very extraordinarily attractive. I was saying to my friend that this phrase alone can make you write a thesis. After a short declaration of fidelity, there comes this bombastic phrase. My friend repeats after the judge … says that he will be a good citizen and so on…finally he makes this concluding statement “I undertake to… respect the democratic values”. Wow I loved it. Many European countries have a similar wording of fidelity and declaration for their new citizens. I really loved that statement…EU believes that it has democratic values. I don’t know how many of the newly ordained citizens know the meaning. It is also very democratic and civilised to make one swear in the names of democratic values.
What does Ethiopia’s citizenship fidelity declaration say? Haaaa
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Today’s article spins around the similarities of two grand plans of two states but that are filled with ambition and are similar in their nature of crumbling and adversarial impacts. The two plans are Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward and Meles Zenawi’s Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP).
Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia has been since he left University at a youth age of early 20s’s been a Maoist. He was a big time fan of Mao Zedong. His thoughts, ideologies and actions smell Mao, Mao, Mao…. Meles’ party took power in 1991, when Socialism/communism died out in the world and a unilateral international power started to develop. They had to totally shift and act as liberal democrats that believe in the Western principles of democracy and freedom. They became freedom and democracy redeemers, who knew not what it really meant. The Maoists became the new day democrats. It didn’t actually materialise up until today. They are on shaky ground not knowing who to side with (China or America). Fully dilemmatic double standard. I still find Meles’ Developmental plans and ideologies such the Revolutionary Democracy, Developmental State and the GTP of a Maoist origin and inheritance. He is still intrinsically and overtly a Maoist. Especially, I am finding a greater amount of similarity between the Mao’s Great Leap Forward and Meles’ GTP. Particularly that a large scale of starvation has emerged a just a year after the GTP was released. Let me first summarise what the Great Leap Forward meant from Wikipedia and other sources.
The Great Leap Forward
The GLF of thePeople's Republic of China(PRC) was an economic and social campaign of theCommunist Party of China(CPC), reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from anagrarianeconomy into a moderncommunistsociety through the process of rapidindustrialization, andcollectivization.Mao Zedongled the campaign based on theTheory of Productive Forces, and intensified it after being informed of the impendingdisaster from grain shortages. Private farming was prohibited, and those engaged in it were labeled ascounter revolutionariesand persecuted. Rural industrialization, officially a priority of the campaign, saw "its development … aborted by the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward." The Great Leap ended in catastrophe, resulting in tens of millions of excess deaths.Estimates of the death toll range from 16.5 to 46 million,with estimates by demographic specialists ranging from 18 to 32.5 million.[6]HistorianFrank Dikötterasserts that "coercion, terror, and systematic violence were the very foundation of the Great Leap Forward" and it "motivated one of the most deadly mass killings of human history.” In subsequent conferences in 1960 and 1962, the negative effects of the Great Leap Forward were studied by the CPC, and Mao was criticized in the party conferences. Party members less economicallyleft-winglikeLiu ShaoqiandDeng Xiaopingrose to power, and Mao was marginalized within the party, leading him to initiate theCultural Revolutionin 1966. The government also plunged the country into a deep debt by increasing spending on the development of heavy industry. Government spending on heavy industry grew in 1958 to represent 56 percent of state capital investment, an increase from 38 percent in 1956. People were mobilized to accomplish the goals of industrialization. They built backyard furnaces for iron and steel and worked together on massive building projects, including one undertaken during the winter of 1957-58 in which more than 100 million peasants were mobilized to build large-scale water-conservation works. Although in theory the country was awash in grain, in reality it was not. Rural communal mess halls were encouraged to supply food for free, but by the spring of 1959, the grain reserves were exhausted and the famine had begun."Historical developments during more than four decades of Communist rule in China have again and again shown us how the unanticipated consequences of elite policies subverted their attempts at fundamental social engineering," Dali Yang, Assistant Professor in Political Science in the US, writes in Calamity and Reform in China.
Frank Dikotter’s book Maos Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958—1962, is a good reference to read in this regard. Below in the video hedicuses his book.
How about Meles’GTP,
In its first year of catastrphy now , Meles Zenawi’s GTP is very similar in many aspects with the GLF of Mao.Tamirat Yacob on copmfdrafrica.ning.com writes, ‘Achieving broad-based, accelerating and sustained economic growth and hence alleviating poverty has been and is the objective of the Government of Ethiopia’is the first line that you may read in the introductory part of the GTP. It is the root for the new highly promoted, popular GTP plan and had also been the overarching agenda in the predecessor plan called Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) (2005/06-2009/10). The next five year’s plan GTP (2010/11-2014/15),carries forward important strategic directions pursued under the PASDEP and expected that beyond maintaining the fast growing economy more achievements in all development sectors are anticipated to be registered, the GTP reiterates.
Its vision in the economic sector is:“to build an economy which has a modern and productive agricultural sector with enhanced technology and an industrial sector that plays a leading role in the economy; to sustain economic development and secure social justice; and, increase per capita income of citizens so that it reaches at the level of those in middle-income countries.” Tamirat reports.
And also the major objectives of the plan, as describe in the document, include
· maintain at least an average real GDP growth rate of 11% and meet the Millennium Development goals,
· Expand and ensure the qualities of education and health services thereby achieving the MDGs in the social sectors,
· Establish favorable conditions for sustainable state building through the creation of stable democratic and developmental state
· Ensure growth sustainability by realizing all the above objectives within stable macroeconomic framework.
Critiques
There have been many critiques of the GTP .
“To double agriculture for the following 5 years, the sector has to grow by 14 %(=70/5). This figure is close to the “high-case” scenario of 14.9 percent overall economic growth target of the country. Given the historical 10% or less growth of the agricultural sector and the focus on economic transformation in the current strategic plan (i.e decreasing share of agriculture in the economy and increasing share of the industrial and the service sectors), Doubling agriculture is less likely ” says a commenter on a Reuters Blog.
The commenter also says “The final big challenge which makes the strategy overambitious is the challenge to increase share of the industrial sector. Ethiopia has no industrial sector to speak of (it stands at 13% of total GDP as of now which is far below the African average). Due to extremely low per capita income and very low saving rate, local investment is not big enough to transform such a large country.”
What is boo now?
What is booed about the GTP is many fold. Last time I reported that with the ambition of successfully undertaking the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) the Ethiopian government outlined that it needs over a trillion birr to fully realize it within five years from now. Main sources identified are:
1.Foreign development partners/donors
2.Local sources-taxation
3.Diaspora
Will write next time about the strategies used by the regime to pull money from foreign development partners, for now let me say some on the rest two.
- From the Diaspora – The regime plans to use every means to absorb money from the Diaspora including coercive ones that could end up like the Chinese GLF. Last week the regime sent out this news “After listening to all the feed-backs from the Diaspora community, the Ethiopian government has decided to lower the fee paid for the Ethiopian Origin ID Card from $500 to $100 US Dollars. The renewal fee is also set at $40 US dollars!”The card given to Ethiopians who are naturalised citizens of other countries, acts like a passport and gives many privileges and incentives to the holder except voting and running for an election. This Card also called Yellow Card is now being used as a means of aggressive money collection from the Ethiopian Diaspora.”
- Heavy taxation – If one calls to Ethiopia the present cry that he/she hears is the cry of excessive taxation.According to Addis Fortune , the government has envisioned collecting 437 billion Br in tax revenues between 2010 and 2015, states the GTP. Annual tax revenue is projected to reach 127 billion Br by 2014/15, whereas average tax revenue as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would oscillate around 13.3pc, on average, during the plan period.
Actual tax collection, however, lags behind the plan. The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) managed to collect 50.8 billion Br of tax revenues in 2010/11. The amount comprises 51.5pc in domestic taxes, and 48.3pc of foreign trade tax and tariff. As compared to last year, which has seen revenues of 43.3 billion Br, it has witnessed an increment of 17.3pc, of which direct domestic tax revenue contributed 10.7 billion Br. Businesses complain being forced to pay half (50%) of their profits as tax.
Therefore
As you can comparatively read above there is a huge similarity between the origin, contents and outcomes of the two plans. Although in its nascent stage, Meles’ GTP is going to the direction of the GLF. I envision that the GTP is leading us to that direction. Although I may also ask myself if the timing of the recent report by BBC Newsnight and Bureau for Investigative Journalism on Aid Abuse in Ethiopia was Malthusian strategy of population reduction by forcing donors to shy away from saving the lives of drought affected in the Horn of Africa, I do also agree that the facts on the video are realities and results of the GTP, that mimic the GLF.
Meles is now in China to attend the opening ceremony of the 26th Summer Universiade, World University Games.He was promised of help to the drought by his best friend, Chinese President, Hu Jintao.
This morning as well on ETV, Tadese Mizan of the Print Media Discussion Program criticised David Cameron's call forsocial networkingservices to be shut down temporarily during civil disorder. He and his guest in a tone that sounded as if it was the statement of the Ethiopian regime said that it was a shame for the British to shut down these media of democracy in a country that says ‘is beacon of democracy and protector of freedom of expression ’ the world over. They preferred to applaud China and Aljazeera as good while accusing the UK and BBC of double standards. Saying don’t hound us when we block sites and connections while you were about to do the same against ‘marginalised demonstrators’.
Meles and his ideologues including the likes Tadese Mizan who are the propagandist journalists of the regime are openly siding and supporting China. They are coming out of their closet.
In a similar manner as in China of the GLF, where fake figures of over production were published, the Meles’regime knows too well how to fabricate figures and say we have high GDP. “In a recent paper entitled “In Search of a Strategy: Rethinking Agriculture-led Growth in Ethiopia”, a group of authors found that, according to official figures, Ethiopia had achieved substantial increase in agricultural productivity that even supersedes the achievements of the Asian green revolution. They, however, find in the data no substantial change in input use or technology that seems to explain this. This forces them to request the re-examination of the data by Central Statstics Authority Agency of Ethiopia. Considering the fact that the government appoints strictly party-affiliated people to all offices, and especially to important ones such as CSA’s, it is easy to imagine that cooking numbers would not be that difficult for them.”A commenter opines on Reuters Blog.
This may not save them and be a guarantee though. They need to wake up from their catastrophic GTP that has no political, democratic, social and good governance strategies in it.There has been no media coverage and scrutiny of the Plan so far and this is a sign of the Plan’s foredooming demise.
"Had there been a free press and other institutions of oversight that are commonly found in open political systems, the Great Leap famine would certainly not have attained the magnitude it did," said Yang, who continues to follow events in China through visits there as he develops his academic career in the United States.
Based on the above analysis, I come to induct that the Growth and Transformation Plan is equal to and the same as the Great Leap Forward.
Thy weekend come. So to relax with with music ! I received no music choice from no one in my inbox. So I just simply chose this one for my esteemed readers.This man is little listened and told about. He is called Tsegachew Haileyesus, founder of La Fontaine Music Band. Tsegachew , Berhanu Tezera, Tadele Roba and Abebe Teka were the founders and earliest members of the group.Tsegachew the founder and senior of the four took the lions share in the Band's formation and success.And he was the vocal of all , at least by my standard. Unfortunately, he is not alive now.Since he died and Abebe Teka left for the U.S. for due, the rest of the duet remained representing the La Fontaine .
Listen to his music below , look at his memorable pictures and relax.
American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, fashion designer and television producer , Jennifer Lopez has been screening her new movie " What to expect when you are expecting" that features Ethiopia and Ethiopians last week in Atlanta, United States, sources reported.
Journalist Tewodros Haile,who took part on the screening of her new movie in Atlanta , told the Addis Abeba based entertainment radio program, Tadias Addis,Jennifer is featured on the movie playing a character of a lady who was infertile hence goes to Ethiopia to adopt a child. The source saidthat Jennifer Lopez had built a replica of an Ethiopian rural town in Atlanta and recruited Ethiopian actors and actresses to perform in it.
"Perhaps for reasons of saving ,she chose to screen the movie in Atlanta by recruiting Ethiopian residents living in Atlanta and building an Ethiopian town here " he added.
The film, which also stars Cameron Diaz, Chris Rock and Chace Crawford follows four couples as they begin the road of parenthood.
This Blogger is working on a 30 page independent research on adoption.The Paper investigates the extent of inter-country adoption from Ethiopia,its consequences, contrast to immigration and corruption in the industry. The Paper will be made public as soon as it is completed.
Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), also known by her nickname J.Lo, is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, fashion designer and television producer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller Money Train.Jennifer Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised on Blackrock Avenue in the New York City borough's Castle Hill neighborhood. She is the daughter of Puerto Ricanparents Guadalupe (née Rodríguez), a kindergarten teacher, and David Lopez, a computer specialist, both born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Lopez was raised Roman Catholic.
It is almost half a decade since I left my beautiful but poor Africa/Ethiopia. When there, never been a day that I saw or was exposed to anything pornographic except short erotic sessions that we watch on most Western produced movies. Now that I am in the Western world, I would be compelled to see something that is pornographic while walking to work or surfing the net. The lovers kissing on the road, the billboards, the advertisements and the fetish, interracial, BBW, facials and other types of porn are made familiar to most of us these days by the increasingly virtualised nature of our life. I in fact did some research on it too. Last month I had come to learn through well informed friends that pornography isn’t anymore the exposure of the Diaspora but of the local African population. Like many other African countries, in Ethiopia, the use, rental and sale of pornographic movies, photographs and prints has reached an alarming rate. Movie rental shops and Mini Cinema Houses (video betoch) make their highest income from such movies. It is fair to say that the majority of Addis Abeba’s vis-à-vis Africa’s youth have become an addicted consumer of pornography. No African regime is hunting pornography channels as it is controlling dissident and critical websites and artistic copyright issues. In fact, the Artistic Copyright campaign, headed by the regimes right hand men, has its long-term agenda of controlling the spread of revolutionary,democracy and freedom oriented audiovisuals.
Naomi Wolf wrote a relevant article on Project Syndicate a month ago entitled “Is pornography driving men crazy?” The theme of her article is that the use of pornography by men is increasing and is having very debilitating effects including on decision making.
“What is driving this weirdly disinhibited decision-making? Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain, affecting men’s judgement about sex and causing them to have more difficulty controlling their impulses?”Naomi inquires.
She equates addiction to pornography to addiction of gambling or cocaine and says “As with any addiction, it is very difficult, for neurochemical reasons, for an addict to stop doing things – even very self-destructive things – that enable him to get that next hit of dopamine”.
Even if the article seemed to have been written solely from a feminist perspective, it well does nail the reality of porn addiction of today’s people, “Understanding how pornography affects the brain and wreaks havoc on male virility permits people to make better-informed choices – rather than engage in pointless self-loathing or reactive collective judgments – in a world that has become more and more addictively hardcore” she advises.
Pornography is a war against humanity. In fact it is less spoken or written about. It has waged war against human beings of all races and gender even though some research suggests that men are the highest users of pornography. The actors and actresses in porn movies are at war yes literally conflicting each other with one side winning the other.And us who watch these films are also the directs victims, losers of the cinematic media triggered war against human beings that reduces our virility/fertility, sociability, confidence, ambition and increasing our aggressiveness and abnormal sexuality. These all are big wars waged by pornography. They need an immediate solution.Naomi has, though late, recognized this negative effect and boldly wrote about the matter seeking a sustainable solution that saves humanity from apocalypse.
African Politics Vis-à-vis Porn
Some writers allegorically represent African politics as politics of pornography; don’t ask me who said that. I could be the one who said it. But anyway, the politics of Africa I see today ain’t any different from the belligerence of pornography I put above. Some of the side effects of pornography in similarity to Africa’s politics are :
·Pornography promotes destructive practices and can lead to progressive addiction. Most dictatorial leaders and regimes don’t do anything different from pornography they promote destructive practices, ethnicity, division, corruption, crime and repression that leads them to their own power addiction and elongates their lifetime.
·Pornography intensifies an individual's drive to serve oneself, rather than serve others. Giving the population/subjects love, democracy, prosperity and justice are nightmares of repressive repressive regimes; they live on personal satisfaction, selfishness and lust. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti, Zimbabwe, Libya, Malawi, Algeria, the then Egypt and Tunisia are prime examples.
·Pornography addiction can lead to debt. Many African countries led by money and corruption and power abusiveness addicted regimes are now in debt. Their inability to manage their treasures and policies that are easily manipulated by money lenders makes them highly indebted. Addiction to corruption is equal to addiction to pornography.
·By viewing and/or purchasing porn, viewers are supporting the porn industry and facilitating its growth. By simply being ruled by repressive/undemocratic rulers and also being co-opted by finance or blackmail, many people support and legitimise diactators. Members of the African Diaspora who return to their homeland for investment with the intention of garnering incentives such as free land and huge sum of loan are the prime examples.
·Looking at porn can damage the viewer's family relationships, not to mention increasing the chance of his or her spouse and children finding the material. Mal administration and bad governance damage society and future generations.
·Looking at porn at work could damage the viewer's reputation, decrease his or her productivity and lead to job loss. Same is the case in “pornogrphised’’ organisations and regimes.
·Looking at porn will increase the viewer's tendency to lie, because he or she will have a natural desire to keep it secret to avoid criticism, embarrassment, shame and/or having to surrender their habit. Abusive, corrupt, repressive and “pornogrphised’’ regimes are prone to lie, deception and confusion. They rule by deception and disdain; unwilling to receive criticisms.
These and many other consequences of pornography practically describe repressive regimes in Africa and other continents of the world. Over and above all these, pornography is resulting in 2 major side effects on African youth. One, it is promoting a culture of violence, conflict and war. Second, it is establishing a culture of hopelessness, passiveness and political impotence, I opine.
Peace Journalism
My good Facebook friend, Mandy Luke did a rigorously robust final paper on this issue entitled “Media, Peace and the Conflict of Sexual Abuse” in May 2011.It was kind of her to pass me the paper.
“In the world where media plays a defining role in our lives, it is inevitable that we will encounter conflict in the media. One particular conflict, sexual abuse, has been directly and indirectly been perpetuated by the media through propaganda, objectivity and corporate ownership. Nevertheless, these multiple media outlets have the potential to turn around negative behaviour through peace journalism to help eliminate the effects of sexual abuse Corporate ownership continues to promote sexual abuse through forms of pornography, songs, popular movies, etc, as acceptable. .”She begins her paper.
She then argues that even though this harm is being unleashed by the media (mainly the porn cinema) , a new trend of journalism that serves as a curative or preventive measure of the quandary is popping up: peace journalism. I have found the following definition of peace journalism to be the most agreed and used one “allowing or creating opportunities for society at large to consider and to value non-violent responses to conflict.” This form of journalism takes a completely opposite model of war journalism thus it attempts to report in an objectively balanced and solution finding manner.
Mandy (2011) cites organisations such as RAINN, Love146 and DNA as Projects and Organisations that are applying peace journalism. The organisations use various forms of advertising, reporting, campaigns and educational programs of peace journalism.
“Like all conflicts, sexual abuse may never be completely understood, but the pursuit of peace in journalism is a worthy cause because the media does have such an impact on the people of the world. The media has the potential to positively effect the world and draw attention to sexual abuse in the pursuit to promote peace.” she concludes.
I admiringly applaud and share Mandy’s view and analysis though I may also argue in few of the points. Let me leave the academic argument for another time.
Conclusion
·Porn and Pornography has conquered African youth. The war it waged (both via the violent acts that take place in the movies and its aggressive psychological and cinematic penetration) is having wide ranging side effects.
·The widespread of pornography is likely to cause a huge population reduction in the years to come.
·It is having an aggressive and warring mentality on African youth. It promotes the youth to practically operate the scenes they watch on porn movies. This trickles down a nationwide frame of mind of war and violence.
·Similarly, as scientifically proven, pornography is causing a societal isolation, selfishness and hopelessness within our youth. The spirit of fighting for truth, freedom, objectivity and fairness are relegated by the warring, hegemonic and dominating themes of porn movies. Many African countries especially the ones I have listed above look as if they were allowing the explicit trade and availability of pornography aware of its abilities to cause political impotence.
Recommendations
·Pornography is war journalism and its major solution is peace and peace journalism. An organised, well studied global peace journalism needs to emerge that can robustly challenge this apocalyptic cinematic media.
·African countries should strengthen their control of the illicit transmission of pornographic movies.
·Peace journalism aimed at helping the already porn addicted African youth and preventing future generation from being sufferers should be started.
And finally in essence, African politics ought to be free from its intrinsic “pornographised” nature
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