As
the Ethiopian music audience eagerly awaits the release of Tewordos Kassahun’s aka Teddy Afro’s new album
“Tikuer Sew” meaning Black Person rumour has
been circulating in the city of Addis Abeba that the album might have been “censored’’from being distributed.
No authentic source could verify this.
Meanwhile,
De Birhan Media has been informed about the core message/novelty of the track and album title,“Tikur Sew”
from inside sources. According to the sources, the upcoming album “likely to be
contentious” as the previous (Yasteseryal), talks about “King Menelik II, the battle of Adewa
and the history of Ethiopians.” In the the previous albums Teddy Afro had contained
songs that were tributes to King Hailesellaise, this would honour particularly “King Menelik”, Teddy here sings about the heroism and patriotism of Ethiopians as black people in a politically and socially inspired tone, the source added.
These
sources also stated that the video clip of “Tikur Sew” has almost been completed.
Hundreds if not thousands of people participated in the clip making, they
added. Over one hundred students have
been taken from Addis Abeba University (AAU) to take part in the first clip making. Some
of the clip has been filmed in CMC area in Addis Abeba and the remaining part of the video clip will be shot tomorrow morning (11April 2012).
Similarly, the Addis Abeba based Amharic biweekly, the Reporter reported on its 11 April 2012 issue that Teddy Afro has included a poem from the late Ethiopian Poet and Laureate Tsegaye Gebremedhin in his track titled ''Hayel'' meaning Power. The poem is titled "Feran'' meaning "we are afraid" and discusses about the lack of unity, fear of love, censorship and related virtues.
Teddy
lately changed the tentative title of this album “Meharebe” to “Tekur Sew”.
Teddy was paid over four
million Birr for “Tikuer Sew”. The full album to hit the market on 14 April
2012 is promoted by Adika Communications and Events Plc.
Teddy was released from jail
in August 2009 for good behaviour, after he served over two years in jail for
an alleged hit and run which most consider was “politically concocted attempt
of silencing the politically justice minded singer”. After he was released,
many of his fans in the Diaspora have been wondering if he was becoming “too
soft and commercially focused”, Tikur
Sew has an answer to that wonder.
The popular young singer,
Teddy has been acclaimed for his philosophical and humanistic poems, speeches,
interviews and acts. Unlike, most modern day singers, the controversial singer Teddy
Afro sings and preaches about justice, ''unity'' and political reconciliation between
Ethiopia and Eritrea. His
third album, Yasteseryal, released in 2005, resulted in the banning of
his three songs including "Yasteseryal" from being played on State owned
media by the Ethiopian government. The moral of "Yasetseryal"
was that there has been no real change in Ethiopia but the new government's ousting
of the Derg brought no change and was same to the former.
In a related development,
sources informed De Birhan Media that the singer would soon be launching his
own foundation called Teddy Afro Foundation, which would focus and work on
humanitarian and social activities in Ethiopia.
His single, Des Yemil Sekaye, form his upcoming album released two days ago has already been viewed over 27,000 times on Youtube.
Khartoum — A convoy carrying the governor of Sudan's eastern state of Al-Qadarif across the shared borders with Ethiopia on Sunday was attacked by suspected members of the Ethiopian gang known as Shifta, Sudan Tribune has learned.
The attack took place as the convoy of the governor, Karam Allah Abbas, was crossing Um Dabalo area in Abu Sanda Sudanese locality bordering Ethiopia. Abbas was on his way to the neighboring Amhara Region of Ethiopia for a meeting with its governor when he stopped in Um Dabalo after spotting an Ethiopian farmer working in the area.
The governor started an argument with the Ethiopian farmer and told him that the land belongs to Sudan, at which point a group of armed Ethiopian men arrived at the scene and opened fire on the governor's convoy.
Although no one was harmed in the fire, Abbas immediately cancelled his trip to the Amhara region and called in security reinforcements to escort his convoy back to Al-Qadarif.
Sources told Sudan Tribune that the incident had infuriated the governor who later threatened to sever his state's ties with Ethiopia without referring to the central government in Khartoum.
The sources added that the governor had also threatened to lead a military campaign against the Shifta gangs and arm Sudanese tribes to fight them.
Sudan and Ethiopia agreed to demarcate their border, signed a number security agreements and also implementing a number of joint development projects for the population on the border zones.
However, Ethiopian opoosition groups criticized the demarcation saying that Prime Minister Zenawi conceded Ethiopian territory to the Sudan to compensate Khartoum for arresting rebels and banning their activities in the neighbouring country.
The governor of the Amhara Region Ato Ayalew Gobeze officially apologized to Abbas for the attack by the Shifta and promised to cooperate with Sudanese authorities in hunting down the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, local security authorities in Al-Qadarif announced on Monday that 12 suspects had been arrested in relation with the attack.
Al-Qadarif state government also announced that it intends to lodge an official complaint to the Ethiopian government against the attack.
I hope most of you are aware of the legendary story of the The Three Musketeers.
A novel and now a film.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have their own not exact but slightly similar musketeers to the three. Meles and (I)Esayas.
Me
Coming
to Europe as a first generation Ethiopian immigrant some six years ago, I had
to learn a lot from the uncomplicated but learned customs, services and entitlements
to the most bonding vindictiveness against our northerly neighbours. Yeah part
of the learning process was adapting to the new set of mind of reframing my approach
with my new Eritrean acquaintances. I had grown up in the middle of Addis with Eritrean
neighbours, unforgettable “Ameche’’
Addis Abeba born second generation ‘immigrant’ Eritrean best friends and
classmates. Never was there a day, I wondered about their ethnicity and
nationality except that they aligned themselves with so called “Tegadaly (combatant)
uncles and relatives”, thus were feared by the likes of me who never had an “11”
numbered tegadaly relative (agot) but desperately wanted to have had one or form a kinship. Then
came 1998 when being an Eritrean became a demarcated construction- my most loved friends had to sell their stuffs
to us and be deported back to Eretria. You don’t believe how startled I was to
learn that my best class mate and friend that I had competed in Maths and
English grades, new “creation” and “spirit” tracksuits and “Sandal Shoe”, that
were all fashionable then, had to leave me forever. That was it. A full blow
war began between Ethiopia and Eretria. Enmity embroiled me- I said the Eritreans
including my own friend should be defeated- thanks to the media/ETV propaganda.
We tuned to Eritrean radio, which honestly was full of lies (black propaganda they
call it- the communication experts) and laughed.
We spoke of the intrepidness
of Ethiopians and the lousiness of Eritreans. The war ended, many died. Ceasefire has been on up until this second. I also
had completed university and began working in local papers. I had always
assumed that I was one of the most informed, enlightened and well ahead than
others, majorly because I worked in the information sector and my role was
feeding the public on what was new. Eritrea was one of my expertise areas. This
was the image I had of Eritrea, honestly, “a nation that is jealous of Ethiopia’s
development, an enemy state that toiled to terrorise Ethiopia and Ethiopians.
And the people so green-eyed of Ethiopians that they would do their best to
damage any Ethiopian they meet”. This was the construction of a very young man who
worked in the public information arena. I had never thought that I would ever speak or
dine with an Eritrean anywhere…because as I said they were what I described
above i.e. wanted them for fistfight than roundtable. This misinformation, prejudice
and stereotype of me created by the state owned propaganda media, ETV and
public officials about Eritreans was found to be completely false when I arrived
in Europe half a decade ago. In Europe I met many Eritreans who treated me,
loved me, integrated me more than my compatriots would. Although, I always asked my mate from Dire
Dawa who lived in Europe for over a decade often saying “how can you be with
the Eritreans? They are our enemies.” my seclusions didn’t last long as I came
across first hand many untold stories of brotherhood, solidarity and sacrifices
paid by Eritreans for Ethiopians and the vice versa in Europe.
Ciao
Asmera by Justin Hill, is a book written in 2002 by a volunteer aid worker. Justin narrates, when the
Eritrean referendum was tabled to Eritreans, the English version read “Do you
want Eretria to be an independent and sovereign country?” "No" was red and for
those who couldn’t read a poster containing “Ethiopian soldiers with armfuls of
skulls patrolled the perimeter of the poster. Their faces were fierce, their
guns dripped blood. They bit cigarettes in their grinning teeth and cast
lustful eyes over women. ” The Autor states, continued life in Ethiopia would be endless
war-burnt villages, dismembered bodies. “Yes” was blue. It showed happy babies,
fields of abundant wheat soviet-style images of peace and prosperity. The EPLF
soldiers were showing them the Promised Land, Free Eretria. The result of the
referendum was 99.81% voted independence from Ethiopia. A lady called Aster
speaking to the Author says “Eretria will be like Singapore or Taiwan” p.18.
He
then asks her if there were any Amharic loan words from the Ethiopians in the
Eritreans language. “None” Aster said. “The Ethiopians had nothing to teach
us”. He then speaks to another lady
called Semhar. After explaining about the good relations of Eretria and
Ethiopia and their respective leaders since the independence, she says “In fact
the two leaders are cousins”. After the
formation of Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) their offshoot EPLF leaders were
then smuggled to China and were educated the thoughts of Mao, Justin says.
Eritreans
have been negatively indoctrinated about Ethiopians particularly about Amharas
by EPLF during their over 30 years struggle for independence. They were made to
view their own brothers as their arch foe enemies. That indoctrination still
exists in Eritrea though at a milder level and specially geared towards the ruling
party TPLF and its kinship. Since the border wars, likewise Ethiopians have been
negatively indoctrinated about Eritreans and their government. The Meles regime
brought up a generation that saw its closer neighbours as enemies than relatives
and brothers. I was one of them. I don’t know how Ethiopians at home today visualise
Eritreans compared to when I was there – as these days many Eritreans are
returning back to Ethiopian claiming back their assets and joining universities.
But I remember six years ago writing to
my friends at home urging them to change their misconceptions about Eritreans
and how we lived in the Diaspora as one people.
Two
cousins have possibly been the masterminds and perpetrators of all these miseries
of the two nations and region. Infuriatingly, interest driven and gullible Western powers simply support
and side with any existing regime that aligns with their interest not knowing
or ignoring the role of history and kinship in the politics of the two
countries and the region. The two
nations have a blood relationship and especially the two leaders Esayas Afeworki
and Meles Zenawi are cousins. The fight is of cousins too. One of the two boys
wants to show that the ethnic group he hails from is better and superior than
the other and the vice versa with the other. That is the epicentre of the
inherent politics between the two countries since the two years deadly war.
Meles’ TPLF wants to prove that their region, Tigray close to Eritrea is better
than Esayas’ EPLF Eritrea. A fight of ego, racial and ethnic superiority, and
class fight of two intertwined ethnic groups and cousins. Millions out of these
two ethnic groups suffer in-between. Meles’ TPLF region of Tigray and Esayas’
EPLF Eritrea have been gambling just like neighbours where in one jobless “bitch” wanted to show her next door that she got all 'the better-off' and she is much better than her. If Esayas walks and wants to act then it would
be Tigray region that would be its first and last target. Meles’ home region is
prone to the somewhat potent hands of its cousin. As is Esayas too.Therefore, Tigary has been
the focal point of Eritrea’s propaganda, political, economic, cultural and ‘historical’
target for so long now. EPLF accuses the Meles’ regime of disproportionately developing its home
region than the rest of Ethiopian regions. Ethiopia’s rulers categorically
rule it out. But seriously, how have been
the two ‘opposed regions’ been faring in the past few years?
Tigray
Compiled
from the Five Years (2010/11 - 2014/15)
Growth & Transformation Plan of Tigray Bureau of Plan and Finance, Mekele, 2003 Ethiopian calendar.
·Up to 2010, an average of 11 % growth
was registered every year. Thus, as compared to the growth rate achieved in
2002-2004 which was 10.01 %, there is a difference of 0.99 %.
·In the years 2006-2009 over 2 billion
birr credit was given to the farmers who were involved in the food security
package and to those who were engaged in micro and small scale enterprises to
purchase some facilities by the financial institutions such as Dedebit and
other corporate enterprises.
·According to the report of the 2007
housing and population census, the number of population of Tigray region was
4,314,456 and when we compare this with that of the 1994 census which was 3,367
million, the population of the region has grown almost by one million.
·Hence, 226,751 customers/ clients are
able to use mobile phone and the mobile phone network covers 64% of the land.
Similarly, over 153,374 customers are beneficiaries of the land line telephone
and the coverage for wireless telephone is 90% which means one person can get a
wireless telephone in every walk of 5 km.
·Eventually the coverage of potable water
in urban areas has grown from 50% to 72% and in the rural areas it has
increased from 41% to 60%.
·The gross enrollment rate in primary
education has grown from 99.77 % in 2005 to 102.8 % in 2009
·the number of health centres has grown
from 40 to 200 in the years 2005-2009
·In 2004 harvesting season around
1,023,246 ha lands was ploughed and was sown/ covered with different crops. In
the last 5 years strategic plan 2005/6 - 2008/9, every year an average of
1,229,598 ha Land was ploughed and was covered with different crops. Thus, in
2004/5 harvest season 11.35 million, in 2005/6, 14.9 million, in 2006/7, 17 million,
in 2008, 16.4 million, in 2009 19.6 million, in 20010, 34 million quintal was
produced.
·In 2004 G.C, 15,045 ha land was
irrigated and in the years 2006 – 2009, it was planned to irrigate 210, 000 ha
land and out of this at the end of the year 2009, 83,000 ha land or 39.3 % has
already been irrigated.
·Up to 2004, the campaign for soil and
water conservation performed on farm land was 834,478 ha and by escalating this
to 960,000 ha in the last four years (2005-2008), it was able to increase the
coverage to 80%.
·The geological map coverage of the
region has reached 46.2% and around 850 kg gold is already deposited in the
national bank of Ethiopia.
·In Tigray region, up to the end of 2009 by
constructing the sum of 1357km rural road and 1671 km main roads, it was able
to connect all woreda centers with the main roads and with neighbouring regions
as well. In 2009, the density of road at national level was 43km in 1000 km2
and the share of 1000 people was 0.57 km but, in our region, the density was
56km in 1000km2 and 0.69km for 1000 people and hence we can say that Tigray
region is in a better situation.
Industry and service sectors grew at an average of 9.5 and 13.2% respectively, between (2005/06- 2009/10).
As can be read from the
above records, Tigray region did outstandingly better and superiorly well than
the achievements at the national level in many sectors. There has been no famine, hunger or
even drought in the past few years in Tigray. There have been international
experts, investments and developmental works of irrigation, agriculture and
natural resource conservation works done in the region. The drought and hunger
has shifted to the Southern and Eastern parts of Ethiopia now for the first
time. Hunger is caused by neglect, lack of freedom/civil rights, absence of development
works and repression, according to Sen and E.M. Young. Though, unavailable publicly, Tigray region has built three
international standard airports, and a new air force base has also been built. Tigray
as a region has one of the fastest growing economies in Ethiopia. The five year’s
GTP of Tigray sets to double/achieve what was gained so far.
How
did Eritrea fare in the past few years?
·Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was estimated at US$1.87
billion in 2009, for a population of about 5.0 million, of whom an estimated
two-thirds live in rural areas (World Bank).
·The Economist stated that Eritrea would have a 17% economic
growth in 2011, which will largely come from its lucrative mining boom. The
report also highlighted Eritrea would open a newly constructed cement factory
in 2011.
·Eritrea's Economic Facts: |1| 2010: 6% Growth, |2| 2011: 17% Growth, |3| 2012: 7% - 12.5% Estimation Growth (depending on the
different sources).
Eritrea and Tigray have approximately equal population, exhibit similar economic
and social growth trends. Both Tigray and Eritrea discovered gold at around the same
time. Minerals become the backbones of their economies. What one has done the other copies. A typical competition
of two neighbours in Sebategna,
Merkato, Addis Abeba. Although it is difficult to get direct statistical data
from Eritrea, the nation is deemed to have been doing well so far on the
economic front. As two regions of similar heritage, history, generic linage,
culture, intermarriage, economy, population, language and mainly leaders of same family member; their rivalry has cost millions. When evaluated in detail (aside the
17% growth of Eritrea), Tigray region is an economic giant compared to Eritrea or even to
other regions of Ethiopia.
Conclusion
From the above two evidentiary
evaluations, it is easy to make out that there exists a hidden but fierce
economic and power competition between the two regions “countries”- Tigray and Eritrea.
Both are astronomically growing GDP wise, good for them. Alike their policies, the two leaders portrayed similar psychological and leadership
characters; megalomania. They just couldn’t get off their high horses; still
apply their 60s politics of bitterness. Both of them arrested, killed,
persecuted and tyrannised those that were against them or critiqued them. Both have
the worst records in terms of press, civil, political and freedom, human rights
and justice. Both have their own “big” allies. While one sides with the most powerful,
the other raises his iron against his baptisers.
The indoctrination of the mass of the two
countries emanates from colonial and foreign powers influence and mission. The two parties and cousins served as
pipelines of deciphering and sawing odium between the two loving people.
The war and current
animosity is mainly of two individuals full of ego and zero sum games. Unless
these two people go; there will be no peace in that region. It would be
centuries before these two contrarily indoctrinated, stereotyped and prejudiced people wash themselves and make up. Time when cousins and families used to rule nations
is long gone. We don't want kins to lead us. The current attempt of the international community to mediate the
two leaders is also a dangerous move that could cost another regrettable miscalculation.
Both are unelected dictators that came to power through the barrel of the gun
and remain until today solely by it. For Western powers I say, there is no better
evil. Rather the lesser evil is the worst one that will live long- siding with it is making a lesser evil live long to be the worst evil. All evils are evils after all. Two ethnically
minded, bigoted cousins cannot offer us or the world or even Somalia a solution; they have been tested,
examined, analysed, and exhausted; The two Musketeer Cousins have to go NOW. Their future peace deals, apologies or “economic achievements” could
not patch up or solve their misdeeds and ruins they leave as their legacies. In a nut shell, the Horn of
Africa remains a concern, unless otherwise these two scraps of history are entirely deracinated
together with their ideologies and indoctrinations.
I see a top-notch generation
of youngsters who are free from the long ingrained polarisation and hatred
coming together. They will only clean the dust.
Over 500 Ethiopians in Frankfurt, Germany held a protest in front of the Ethiopian Embassy opposing the demolition of Churches and Monasteries in different parts of Ethiopia by the regime today 05April 2012. The protesters held placards and voiced their opposition to the government's policies and acts of demolishing historical heritages in the name of establishing Sugar Factories.
The Protest was organised by Ethiopian Orthodox Churches in Germany. Three reprsentatives from the protesters went inside the Embassy to present their protest letter and messages. The protest lasted for more than three hours.
A bigger protest is planned for April 26, 2012 in Berlin.
In
2008 there were 184 million blogs (Universal McCann http://technorati.com/blogging/a...). This number
might have doubled by now. Blogosphere is embracing the virtual world. Personal
blogs, diary, journals, speciality and the like are some types of blog. Blogs
secured their stable foundation in the cyber world in late 1990s.Matt Drudge’s 1998 coverage of the President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky
scandal spearheaded the blogging world’s immensity.The spontaneity of blogs is their competitive edge against mainstream/conventional
media.Meg
Hourihan (2002), early adopter blogger and subsequently owner of blogging
business, defines blogs as: Blog posts are short, informal, sometimes
controversial, and sometimes deeply personal, no matter what topic they
approach. They can be characterized by their conversational tone and unlike a
more formal essay or speech, a blog post is often an opening to a discussion,
rather than a full-fledged argument already arrived at. Efimova (2009), in her
PhD research, considers bloggers as public intellectuals; she points out the
fundamental difference between the knowledge or professional blogger and the
academic, in which the blogger cites other blogs and links back to them, thus
creating a web of knowledge, whereas the academic anonymises sources. Efimova
treats the bloggers from her study as public intellectuals, and thus asks no
permission, but disseminates the results of her research through her blog,
while linking to the bloggers cited, this was noted by Catherine Fowleyin her 2011 Ph.D. study. Walker (2005c) echoes this definition as
“a frequently updated website consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse
chronological order so the most recent post appears first”.
Catherine also states that the
perceived broadening of the weblog genre to include personal blogs is ascribed
to the development of blogging software, suggesting that “the technical
affordances of the weblog format make it readily adaptable to multiple purposes
of use”. Most researchers and analysts point to the presence of an audience as
an integral and essential part of a blog, a reminder in a way of Lejeune’s
(1975) concept of the “contrat” or “pact” between the author of
autobiographical text and the reader. The easy and user-friendly addition of
icons, pictures, sounds and videos and other newer features ascribe mass media
features to them.
Blogs de Ethiopie
Web
based forum, blogging started around 1997 by Ethiopians based in the Diaspora
such as cyberethiopia.com , ethioline.com and the anonymously written
dagmawi.com. By the end of 2005, the
number of political or quasipolitical websites with multidirectional
participatory platforms was at least 57 (Megenta and Mekonen, 2005) cited in
Abiye (2011). Following the 2005 election home based Ethiopian bloggers begun
to pop out writing mainly in various fields of specialisation and news. Abiye (2011) assesses that the number of
bloggers decreased following the split of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
Party. However, the number of Ethiopian bloggers showed a dramatic increase in
late 2011 and early spring of 2012 possibly due to the Facebook and Twitter
revolutions in the Arab world and increase of Ethiopian Facebook users that has
reached now 509, 740 according to Social Bakers in March 2012. Currently, there are over one hundred blogs
written by Ethiopians and foreigners living in and outside the country. Around 20 bloggers found in Ethiopia are aggreegated under one banner name Ethiopian Blog. Most popularly
Westerners who travel to Ethiopia for a mission or visit have made it customary
to blog about their activities in Ethiopia; one of the famous types of
blogging by foreigners on Ethiopia (http://embracing-ethiopia.blogspot.com/,
http://billyandtarainafrica.wordpress.com/). Writing on
Facebook Notes is also one of the growingly all the rage means of blogging for
Ethiopian citizen writers too.
There
is a trend of downplaying blogs as sites/forum that can easily be created by
any ordinary person with no journalistic training and are less authenticated with no authoritative reporting imputus. However, most blogs including those owned by Ethiopians
are highly critical, highly competent and authoritative than mainstream and
well established websites and forum. Most blogs are established by specialists,
journalists and citizens who detest the institutional control and censorship of
institutional media. They serve as gateways for voices that have been unheard
of due to governmental control or lack of space. Incredibly, some of the most
popular bloggers in the Ethiopian blogosphere are those with little or no
literature or journalism background. Anonymity is also one of the common
characteristics of Ethiopian bloggers. This has to do with different reasons:
safety, privacy and other factors. Nippert-Eng’s (2007) empirical
study showed that most people conceptualise privacy online as control of access
to information and to self. Privacy in diaries is often linked to the concept
of secrecy, harking back to the idea of the adolescent paper diary physically
locked with a small golden key, and containing the most intimate secrets.
Most
Ethiopian bloggers are young males. Their ages are within the ranges of 23 to 35.
There are very few female bloggers as well who fall under this same age category. Most are located in the Diaspora though home based bloggers is surpassing it. Largest number of audience is from U.S.A. followed by Ethiopian readers. Some of the blogs are pro government/ruling
party, most are anti- government blogs and while the remaining are blogs that
attempt to be critical of all sides perusing independent thinking. Another
feature which could be a short coming of most of these blogs is that they
produce very few original materials. Either they serve as aggregators of items
on Ethiopia from other sites or are engaged in sloppy journalism.
There
have been recorded cases of legal consequences when Ethiopian bloggers were
accused for defamation, unaccountability and other concocted media ethics and
law infringements. Pseudo name or anonymous blogging spared some bloggers.
Similarly, as a genre of citizen media, blogs are difficult for regulation
meaning stories can be filed from Ethiopia, written in Australia and posted in
Netherland. Therefore, it becomes difficult to trace the real story teller and
producer and sue him/her. There are countless Ethiopian bloggers who state that
they receive intimidating, abusive, threatening and warning messages.
Endalk on his recent article entitled
an incomplete guide to Ethiopian Blogs said “The control of government
grip on traditional media in the country is far above the ground, but it is
being challenged, and sporadically supplanted, by an embryonic Ethiopian blogs
and social media enthusiasts reversing time-honoured notions of the contours of
informational flows between Diaspora and homelands.” The "unprofessional'' and "unfinelined" nature of most Ethiopian blogs makes putting a clear-cut category of each blog difficult. Adopting Endalk’s model of listings of Ethiopian blogs, I assembled the following blogs list:
Lack of
Consistency: The
most rampant problem that this writer observed on most Ethiopian blogs is lack
of consistency. This can mean gaps in posting new entries (updating blogs) or ceasing
publication all of a sudden. The later is common. Most blogs are personal and with no mandate
for regularity, therefore bloggers update their blogs in a sporadic manner. In
short, they have a dormant presence. Few take blogging as a full time and
regular duty. Secondly, most blogs cease publication after a year or two of
blogging. This could be due to lack of participatory response/comments from
readers, lack of time and engagement with all other sorts of activities. Some
take blogging as a hobby hence stop blogging as soon as they find a “better” hobby. Similarly, most blogs
are engaged in copying and pasting of stories from other linked sites instead
of producing their own original pieces.
Mechanical: The technical
(internal) problem that most “IT poor’’ bloggers find themselves in is what I call internal mechanical problems. Most blogs are not any different from other mainstream websites
in their application and use; therefore it requires at least a basic knowledge of
web design and online writing to be a technically savy blogger. Bloggers need continuous training and have to update
themselves with new features that are introduced by companies and mainly share experiential
learning with fellow citizens.
Promotion: One of the other
daunting factors for budding bloggers to leave blogging is lack of comments,
readership and income from blogs. Although, most blogs offer options of money
making from through advertisements, the meagre income and lack of
promotion makes the effort a hard nut to crack. Established websites and blogs
are less disposed to put budding bloggers link addresses in their links list making the novice
bloggers’ pages “unclickable statues”. Seasoned blogs and websites fear the
anonymity of most bloggers even if their contents are plausibly written and icebreaking.
Therefore, lack of promotion of blogs is one of the main reasons that continue
to derive most bloggers from the blogosphere.
Environmental: such problems
take two forms. They are mainly externally emanating. These are faced by most
bloggers blogging from Ethiopia. Internet connection problem is pervasive
environmental problem that deters most bloggers from timely blogging and drives
them into other types of traditional media. Secondly, intimidation, blocking of
blog urls/addresses, and viruses that disrupt the blogging activity (both by government
and agencies) continue to be the problems most faced by those who blog on/from Ethiopia. The recent jamming/blocking of two popular Ethiopian blogs (https://abetokichaw.blogspot.com/
and https://tgindex.blogspot.com ) from being
viewed in Ethiopia is a good case in point here. Blogging publically, can
sometimes make bloggers prone to prosecution in authoritarian states. EgyptianbloggerKareem Amerwas charged with insulting the
Egyptian presidentHosni Mubarakand anIslamicinstitutionthrough his blog. Following him many bloggers were arrested in Ethiopia and worldwide. There are in fact
countless cases of arrest and prosecution where bloggers have been prosecuted
for their blogging activities. Ethiopia’s Eskinder Nega is one famous case.
Conclusion
Blogging
in Ethiopia is becoming a popular culture. Although the most used domain names
blogspot.com and wordpress.com are being blocked by the Ethiopian regime often,
Ethiopian bloggers should be introduced to new blogging domains (such as www.tumblr.com,
www.weebly.com/,http://www.quackit.com,www.squarespace.com/,
www.joomla.org,http://my.opera.com and many others hosts ) by their fellow citizens living in the
Diaspora. Egypt before the revolution had over 160,000
bloggers (July 2008). Ethiopia
is following the same trend. Blogs are used by citizens (journalists) to vent
out their untold stories freely to the whole wide world. Blogs enlighten. Blogs
entertain. Blogs inform and give us breaking news items available in no other
mainstream media. Blogs teach us about speciality subjects. Blogs organise;
people can create a group blog, discuss, debate and mobilise forces for change
(popular revolutions). There is a promising growth within the Ethiopian
blogosphere. Discussions on social media
mainly Facebook that follow blog links are creating a good political public
sphere of “Blogo-facebook” synergy for the Ethiopian online population. Blogs have numerous advantages for Ethiopians who can bypass some of the stated problems. Unlike traditional media, blogs as types of citizen media help zealous writers and opinion leaders to interact easily. Still with the least level of internet penetration and connectivity, Ethiopians benefit from the ''blogosphere convergence''.
Policy
makers, especially Western refer to blogs when delving on issues that
concern them because most blogs are written by ordinary citizens who tell their
experiences free from corporate or institutional agendas. Cognizant of this
Ethiopian bloggers should strive to produce critical, objective and unbiased
materials. Ethiopian blogs and bloggers have a big role to play in Ethiopia’s
social, political and consciousness revolution; let’s have thousands of Ethiopian bloggers!!!!
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Hourihan,
M. (2002). What we’re doing when we blog. O’Reilly. [Online] 13 June.
Krishnamurthy,
S. (2002). The multidimensionality of blog conversations: The virtual enactment
of September 11. Paper presented at Internet Research 3.0, Maastricht, and The
Netherlands.
Nippert-Eng,
C. (2007). Privacy in the United States: Some implications for design. International
Journal of Design,
1(2),1-10.
Ratliff,
C. (2003). Whose voices get heard? Gender politics in the blogosphere. Paper
presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San
Antonio, TX, March 2004. http://culturecat.net/node/view/303
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J. (2005c) Blog (weblog) In Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory. Herman,
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