Steel Vises, Clenched Fists and Closing Walls, (Part II)
Note: This is the second installment in a series of commentaries I intend to offer on U.S. foreign policy (or lack thereof as some would argue) in Ethiopia. In this piece, I argue that the price of U.S. lip service to human rights in Ethiopia with...
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Steel Vises, Clenched Fists and Closing Walls (Part I)
Note: This is the first installment in a series of commentaries I intend to offer on U.S. foreign policy (or lack thereof as some would argue) in Ethiopia. In this piece, I explore the human rights rhetoric in U.S. foreign policy and argue that lof...
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Ethiopia: The Truth About the Hummingbirds
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Note: This is my sixth and final commentary on the theme "Where do we go from here?" following the rigged May 2010 elections in Ethiopia in which the ruling dictatorship won by 99.6 percent . In this piece, I emphasize the im...
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Speaking Truth On Behalf of Ethiopian Women
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Note: This is my fifth commentary on the theme "Where do we go from here?" following the rigged May 2010 elections in Ethiopia in which the ruling dictatorship won by 99.6 percent . In this piece, I express deep regrets over the...
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Speaking Truth On Behalf of Ethiopia’s Youth
By Alemayehu G. Mariam:
Note: This is my fourth commentary on the theme, "Where do we go from here?” following the rigged elections in Ethiopia last month in which the ruling dictatorship won by 99.6 percent. In this piece, I express deep anguis...
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Ethiopia: Speaking Truth to Strangers
Note: In my first commentary on the theme, "Where do we go from here?", I suggested that the ruling dictatorship in Ethiopia following its 99.6 percent "victory" in the May 2010 parliamentary "election" will continue to do business as usual in much ...
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Ethiopia at the Crossroads of History
Alemayehu G. Mariam
There is an old morality tale of The Emperor's New Clothes about a king who is so self-absorbed, vainglorious and obsessed with his appearance that he hired two suit makers and gave them vast amounts of money to sew him the ...
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Ethiopia: “Interview” With Birtukan Midekssa
by Alemayehu G. Mariam:
Note: Except for elements inserted in the nature of narrative license, syntax and independently established facts, this “interview” is based on English or Amharic translations of public statements, hearing testimony, sp...
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Ethiopia: Happy Mother’s Day, Birtukan!
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Happy Mother’s Day, Birtukan (Invictus) Midekssa !
As Mother’s Day is celebrated in Ethiopia on the second Sunday in May, I feel privileged to share with my readers a testimonial tribute honoring Birtukan Midekssa, the...
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Ethiopia: The Fire Next Time
By Alemayehu G. Mariam:
Encore performance!
It is the same two act play (farce) of May 2005. The stage is the same. The director is the same. The stagehands are the same. The script is the same. The players are the same stage veterans. The stagecra...
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Ethiopia: Information Without Interference
By Alemayehu G. Mariam :
“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets,” fretted Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, as he summed up the informative powers of an independent press. All dictators and tyrants in hi...
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Ethiopia: The Voodoo Economics of Meles Zenawi
Alemayehu G. Mariam
“There are lies, lies and implausible lies,” to quote Meles Zenawi, the dictator-cum-economic spinmeister of Ethiopia. Last week, Zenawi told a snickering Parliament a story that is the equivalent of the proverbial bull that...
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Ethiopia: The Truth, the Whole Truth and…
“Lies, lies and implausible lies,” blasted Meles Zenawi, the enfant terrible of Ethiopia, in describing the March 11, 2010 U.S. State Department’s “Reports on Human Rights Practices” on Ethiopia. Apparently, the U.S. State Department i...
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Ethiopia: “C’est la Vie? C’est la Vie en Prison!”
Alemayehu G. Mariam:
When Meles Zenawi, the arch dictator in Ethiopia, was asked about Birtukan’s health in his prison on March 23, 2010, he was comically philosophical about it. He said Birtukan health is in “perfect condition”, except th...
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Ethiopia: The A B C’s of Stealing an Election
Alemayehu G. Mariam:
It is a staple of the criminal defense bar to represent thieves, robbers, burglars, muggers, pickpockets, shoplifters, embezzlers, con men, fraudsters and swindlers. It is also the ineluctable lot of the defense lawyer to le...
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Ethiopia: In Defense of the Voice of America
Meles Zenawi seems to have a morbid fascination with genocide. Whenever the going gets tough -- bad news, tightening election campaigns, stiffening political opposition -- he whips out the specter of Rwandan-style “interhamwe” (which in Kinyarwan...
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Ethiopia: “Grow up!” Bob Geldof
Alemayehu G. Mariam :
Sir Bob Geldof told Meles Zenawi to “Grow up!” when he found out that security forces directly under the control and command of Zenawi had massacred hundreds of unarmed protesters following the 2005 elections. It looks like...
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Ethiopia: Licensed to Steal
Alemayehu G. Mariam:
If democracy is a government of the people, kleptocracy is a government of thieves.
Last week the secret world of Meles Zenawi’s kleptocracy, famine aid-sharking and money laundering in Ethiopia was exposed by two of his ...
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Waiting for Godot to Leave?
Last week, a couple of interesting political statements grabbed the cyber headlines. One was a truly entertaining piece entitled “Letter from Ethiopia,” by the indomitable Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega. Eskinder’s “Letter” sought to ma...
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![Must Read Book: Ethiopia – Tiwoldena Kirsu [A Generation and Its Heritage]](http://www.ethiosun.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Book_edited-21.png)
Of Elections and Diapers in Ethiopia