Double for Gete Wami "Getachene"

Tedla Asfaw

 

After the warm up marathon in Berlin on September 30 and winning it  Gete Wame "Getachene" is going to run for New York City Marathon this coming Sunday on a mild November, about 45-55deg, and if she wins she will be the winner of the two cycle World Majors and will get half million dollars.

 

In Berlin after her win hagging Haile Gebre Selasse for seating a new world record she might got some tips from him about the feel of Central Park and the concretes of New York City and as a New Yorker let me give you some tips for" Getachene".

 

New York City likes new comers and remember the record for the New York City Marathon was set by Tesfaye in 2001 on his firs try and I do believe you will do the same and do not stay behind and hang on with the elite runners especially Paula Redcliffe a one time winner from Great Britain.

 

The race will be decided  on the central park hills and I know as a former five and ten thousands Olympic medalist there is no one better than you "Getachene" and do not forget your fans are waving your country flag  right and left to energize you and make history to win two marathons in two weeks interval.

 

Your beautiful smile will win you many fans and we are looking forward to see that smile at the finishing line this coming Sunday,

 

                                                                                                                      Berche Getachene

Why not Sheikh Mohammad H.Al-Amoudi invest also to bring democratic Ethiopia?

Tedla Asfaw

 

I watched ten parts of video clips posted on ethiopiafirst.com about the billionaire, the worlds eighties according to the Forbes Magazine, Sheik AL-Amoudi who invested  heavily in Ethiopia and  hired more than 15,000 workers.

 

Sheik Al-Amoudi investments are not purely on profit basis in Ethiopia but to establish a ground work for future generations who will follow such experience and also attract foreign investments according to the director who manages most of his investments in Ethiopia.

 

Living in foreign country  and following the news daily I know investment requires stability of a country to attract or keep its domestic educated power locally  and our country failed to establish these  basic requirements.

 

A big country like Ethiopia, its problems demand mobilisation of its brain power with the capital investment like Sheik AL-Amoudi and I have no doubt in my mind that Sheik Al-Amoudi could have  achieved exponentially than the one we are seeing now in Ethiopia if we have a stable political atmosphere in Ethiopia.

 

News according to VOA Amharic this week, more than eighty percent of medical doctors left Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Airlines skilled technicians and high level managers are fleeing to the Arab countries for better payment and if we do not tackle these problems head on what ever investments the Sheik made for his country will not pull us from backwardness.

 

For every Ethiopian he financed to study abroad there are twice or more that number not going back to Ethiopia after the completion of their study and many running away from Ethiopia on every chance they got.

 

Sheik Al-Amoudi is a good and liked man by those who directly got assistance from him and for the thousands who got their paycheck from his company.  I have no reason to hate him even if he supported the TPLF regime and not used his money power to convince the regime to respect the rule of law which is the corner stone of politics in many other countries the Sheik invested in billions of dollars.

 

I would like Sheik Al-Amoudi to be a bridge between the opposition parties and the regime and facilitate peaceful transition to the rule of law because the current situation in Ethiopia is not sustainable for much long and the unemployed thousands in our cities and the unbearable living condition  for millions and the desire to live in a democratic country witnessed by the May 2005 election will all bring change peacefully or otherwise.

 

To be honest with you why not Sheik Al-Amoudi run for office himself or be neutral rather than give support for the bankrupt regime of Melese Zenaw who is hated by Ethiopians and on the way tarnish his image of a good hearted billionaire on par with Billionaire Bill Gate.

 

The highest medal Sheik Mohammad H.Al-Amoudi received from Melese Zenawi on our millennium/Esra Meete celebration last September will be nothing compared to the love he will get from millions of our people if he uses his investment power  and stand with the people to establish a democratic system in Ethiopia.

War to replace Isayas of Eritrea is a war to extend TPLF's rule

Tedla Asfaw

 

The TPLF pending war against Isayas of Eritrea like the current occupation of Somalia should not get Ethiopians support because there is nothing we will get from this adventure and opposition parties at home and Diaspora should come open and articulate their position. 

 

TPLF's war of regime change to install a puppet in Asmara is to revive the "Tygrai Tigrente" or "Greater Tigray"  an old British colonialist blue print as escape route to "holy land", "Greater Tigray" on the eventual collapse of TPLF.

 

Personalities like Ato Abraham Yaye recently on Hager Fiker Radio accused the "Amharas" for bombing "Ayeder" in Tigray ten years ago to divide "Tigreans" on opposites side of the Mereb River.

 

This war of regime change  against Eritrea will be billed for international community as a war on terror similar to the last Christmas Somalia invasion and eventual occupation by TPLF forces which galvanized all Somalis and say no to TPLF occupation and today the resignation of the prime minister Gedi is a sign of more trouble to come.

 

Melese Zenawi's TPLF by establishing a puppet in Asmara will try to deny safe heaven for opposition political activities and as we saw it in Ogaden this is hard to achieve because most of the problems including the Ogaden and the Oromo uprising are not Isayas creations and it will not be going away with his ouster. The only tangible benefit for TPLF might be few more years to hold on to power by diverting attention from its political and economic crisis at home.

 

The Tigray people survival rest with the rest of the Ethiopian people and opening the road from Mekele to Asmara will not bring any economical benefit to the people and the only "economical" benefit  for the regime is to secure the use of Asab in a long term lease with friendly Eritrea.

 

Ethiopians should not die for this war and have not forgotten the huge sacrifice they made in the Badme war more than ten year ago and only to extend the life of the regime, on its wary to crush many patriotic Ethiopians like Seye Abraha  under the cover of "Bonapartism" and still the two regimes are facing each other, this time one of them has to go and for the good of Ethiopia and Eritrea both regimes have to be replaced with the popular uprising of their own people.

 

 

Passionate call for all Ethiopians at home and in exile

Tedla Asfaw

 

This past weekend(Oct 20/21)  for the first time I heard by the visiting Kinijit delegates important policy speeches than the usual apologetic speeches to assure us that Kinijit is one and undivided.

 

Judge Birtukan Medekssa on twenty minutes speech to the crowd in Minneapolis this past Sunday spoke about the spirit of the Miazia 30, May 2005 huge demonstration for a change which angered the EPRDF and accused Kinijit as anti-Tigreans who wanted to bring the rule of "Amharas".

 

This ethnic card has been with TPLF since its inception and became the bedrock of its policy to solve the question of nationalties and convinced movements like OLF and ONLF  to work with the regime,early in the 1990s,  until they found  that the regime is worst than the previous dictators and paying only lip service to the question of nationalities and wanted to replace them by its own  loyal wings, we call it " Gebare " in Amharic.

 

As Judge Birtukan clearly articulated we should oppose all who are trampling on group as well as individual rights of our citizens be it in the name of group rights by the TPLF wings of Oromo or Somali or the Diaspora Ethiopian opposition  movements who fail miserably to organize on multi-ethnic fashion and do not see eye to eye with the many Oromo and Somali exiles here in North America.

 

The nationalist movements should be allowed to organize and operate freely and article 39 of the Ethiopian Constitution which incorporates the right to secede should not be used as a cover to deny these movements their legal right to mobilize their people without violating the individual right of all the citizens. Here in the Diaspora we have to organize joint rallies with Amharas, Oromos, Somalis, Tigrayan  and others based on the spirit of Kinijit  we witnessed in multi-ethnic Addis Ababa two years ago.

 

Diaspora movements like "Hibret" and mainly EPRP had made it clear that they  would not talk with any nationalist movements before they accept to live under one Ethiopia. This Ultimatum is a failed policy and the best option is to accept both the individual and group rights of Ethiopians and give time for the suspicion among the elites to work out on their differences without ultimatum.

 

The argument Judge Birtukan Medekssa brought by citing the last Badme war which took the lives of seventy thousands or more people billed for us as the border war based on the treaty  made by Menelik and Italy almost two hundred years ago would make future wars to make borders be  catastrophic of unimaginable proportion if we go on and try to delineate new borders to partition Ethiopia based on the aspiration of the nationalist movements.

 

Judge Birtukan Medekssa's call for the nationalist movements in Minneapolis, a city where large populations of Oromos and Somalis resided out of Ethiopia is appropriate. If OLF and ONLF leaders and others who care about fellow brothers and sisters in Minneapolis,  Ogaden or Oromia they should convince all Ethiopians that they are not fighting TPLF to establish a new independent republic but rather to live as equals with  other Ethiopians .

 

The ethnic card of Melese as Judge Birtukan alluded on her speech had impacts in the Diaspora and many Tigreans and others see Kinijit as a party of Amhara, Gurages and Orthodox Christians and this perception partly is also encouraged by KInijit.org sites/ KIC who are preaching hate in the name of kinijit and  as the  protector of Ethiopian unity like that of Mengistu Haile Mariam and a lot of hard work remained in the Diaspora to fight such dangerous anti-Kinijit spirit.

 

OLF and ONLF haters are not known individually associating with the Oromos and Somalis for that matter and their noise is always in the name of Ethiopia and such empty rhetoric should be challenged in our everyday routine by our own exemplary character.

 

It is indeed was very important for Judge Birtukan Medekssa to bring the story of a young writer ninety years ago from Adwa/Tigray who wrote about government role under the multi-ethnic Ethiopia   advising Haile Selasse the" Amhara" ruler.

 

However, Ethiopian leaders are not learning from this young author as we witnessed in the past one hundred years of the sad story of power in Ethiopia and the current rulers are following on the foot steps of their predecessors divide and rule, ethnic as well as religious, until they are forced out from power.

 

I hope nationalist movements should also learn from the  EPLF/ Eritrean Nationalist movement who was not only fought more than thirty years  to liberate its people from the "Amhara" domination but kill also individual rights of its citizens in the last sixteen years after "liberation" which led to a call  "Marigne Ethiopia",  forgive me Ethiopia and for many to flee independent Eritrea.

 

We are all in this huge country called Ethiopia and we should reflect that here in the Diaspora as passionately articulated by Judge Birtukan Medekssa's  twenty minutes speech  and correct our antagonistic and suspicious relationship with  fellow Ethiopians based on the origin of ethnicity and let us dismantle this barrier and come together on the matters that concerned the well being of fellow Ethiopians.