Singing for our land and water ?

To: ethiopia@ethiopianembassy.org, ben@ethiopiafirst.com


Ato Wondimu Assemnew, Ethiopian Embassy Representative in Washington D.C.,



I heard your interview with Hagerfiker Radio on the question of giving Ethiopian land for long  lease to foreigners this morning posted on www.ethiopiafirst.com. You claim that these lands are barren lands which are too difficult to develop by our own. What I know is that  most of these lands in fact are sources of food for nomads and many  animals also live in these so called "barren lands" which are infact virgin lands sold at cheap price be it in long lease term.

Our new foreign landlords can do to our land whatever they want, pollute, degrade the environment and export their produce for their people. We saw the recent harvest ceremony in Saudi Arabia and more yet to come. Explain to me how this is going to help the poor people in foreign controlled Ethiopian lands. Getting the job as laborers to keep them alive as slave is what you call development ? Development that do not change the life of  people in capital as well as human capacity is not a new thing as you suggested. Colonialists did it in many African countries and now proud Ethiopians are doing it in the twenty first century.

The record of TPLF/EPRDF "development" at any expense for fast cash by ignoring regions/kilil and taking away their land is even illegal under its own constitution. While you are insulting us for singing for our land and water for centuries without any development, it is funny then to leave our regions/kilil  sing for their article 39 without empowering them to use their resources for their own.


                                                                                Ke Akberot Gara,

                                                                               Tedla Asfaw

                                                          






                                                   

Addis Ababa and major cities are in danger !!!!

Tedla Asfaw

I reread the tenth anniversary magazine of the Ethiopian Association of Civil Engineers (EACE) special issue (August 2008 ) after a piece by Samuel Kinde, "Earth quake risks in Ethiopia" posted on Ethiopian websites this week to have a background on our country infrastructure development and what we can learn from the January 2010 devastating earth quake in Haiti which took the lives of more than two hundred thousands of Haitians and more than half million people homeless.

Samuel Kinde informed us most of our structures are not designed taking into account the earthquake factor and on the EACE tenth anniversary report I was surprised that there was no mention of earthquake. Ato Samuel Kinde reported that in 1995 their was adoption of the building code of standards for earthquake and still in most cases buildings are mushrooming without strict adoption of this code.

I wonder why EACE has ignored the 1995 building code as one of a great achievements and call for its enforcement on its ten year anniversary celebration. While we celebrate the great achievements of our civil engineering in both human and physical capacity we can not forget or downplay the earthquake factor.

Ato Samuel Kinde piece is timely for all of us, engineers, ordinary citizens and politicians that in the age of mushrooming and unsafe construction we are multiplying the danger of lives and properties to be lost as we "celebrate development" in major cities. In the last five decades as reported on Ato Samuel Kindie's piece we had eight earthquakes, the recent one in 1999 two hundred fifty miles far from Addis Ababa, measuring more than 6 in Richter scale that affected populated areas with no huge loss of lives. But such pure luck will not be the case in the future when Haiti's capital Port Au prince was devastated which never faced such disaster in more than two centuries.

The last two decades of high rise buildings and major roads development without strict building code for earthquake prone Addis Ababa and other major cities will take the lives and huge displacement of people, the monetary damage for poor Ethiopia will be tremendous.

The danger of flooding from the collapse of dams and the release of poison from the failure of pipes on the industrial section of Addis Ababa were also pointed on Ato Samuel Kinde timely piece, retrofitting has to be done in the hospitals, schools and major public buildings and strict building code has to be enforced on the new to be built structures as he suggested as solution.

Foreign built roads like the one built by Chinese in Addis Ababa and dams newly completed and soon to be finished if not designed according for earthquake should be corrected before it collapses. However, most of the retrofitting as Ato Samuel Kinde argues needs huge financial resources and it can not be done by private or government alone.

International financial assistance is the way to go and that can be achieved if the government authorities present a proposal according to Ato Samuel. A country like Ethiopia which has many problems, politics and corruption seems not ready like we saw in Haiti to tackle these problems honestly currently.

The current regime which call itself a "Development State" without any transparency and legitimacy will aggravate our situation by its trademark of arrogance. However, professionals back home and here in diaspora keep on pressing both the regime and the international community to implement the recommendation of the Addis Ababa RADIUS Project Report of Sept. 1999.

A vote for one Strong Ethiopia !!!

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Tedla Asfaw
The Code of Conduct which was signed by the opposition parties and the regime after became the source of contention for the last months now is set aside and even those who rejected it are now quietly "Competing'" , Code of Competition.

The AEUP which is led by Eng. Hailu has been travelling to Bahir Dar, Mekele and this week UDJ has also made a rally in Bahir Dar which shows that UDJ is now in business of competition and they should be applauded for that. On big cites like Addis Ababa UDJ has already put its candidates on the 23 regions of Addis Ababa.

Dr. Negasso Gidada, Dr. Hailu Araya and Seye Abraha are some of its top candidates and Ato Gebru Asrat promised to win Tigray for Medrek. AEUP is a formidable party in Tigray because the people in Tigray like any other place in Ethiopia are going to vote for change. Nineteen years with TPLF/EPRDF has not improved their life and the talk of development is only the development which enriches government connected people pockets and the majority of Tigray people did not get anything while Gebru Asrat was a governor of Tigray now turned opponent of Meles Zenawi.

The promise of Merara and Bulcha collision winning the Oromo region is also nonsense. These two individuals since they formed their own parties have been known for talking in the parliament not delivering anything. The perception that UDJ led by Eng. Gizachew can not win in Oromo region and has to leave it for their Oromo parties show that Merara and Bulcha are suffering from the Amhara Syndrome for more than two decades officially.

We have four months to go before the general election and we can say many things from our recent experience.. The Miazia 30 million people rally in Addis five years ago is still fresh in our peoples mind. Not only people like Merara, Bulacha and Seye even OLF from distance was shocked by Ethiopian desire for change which was a referendum on failed TPLF/EPRDF Kilil/ethnic federalism policy for fifteen years.

Merara and Bulcha still believe the May 15, 2005 victory was Kinijit's, the Amahra party, victory which in no way they will endorse. For them Oromo is for the Oromos, Amhara for Amharas , Tigray for Tigrayans and the Ethiopian nationalism they witnessed five years ago is very dangerous for their ethnic enterprise. The rejection of All Ethiopian Union Party/ AEUP for being a a torch bearer of kinijit of 2005 is not a surprise.

Gebru Asrat has the same fear like his Medrek friends too. Gebru promised to bring Tigray for Medrek in election to correct the mistake made by TPLF. One of the members of the Lidetu Ayalew led Ethiopian Democratic Party/EDP from Mekele, Tigray recently joined Arena, Tigray party to win Tigray for Medrek. For Gebru non Tigrayans has no business in Tigray and believe Arena is the representative of the Tigray region.

There is no Ethiopian party for them. The future Ethiopia they will form if they are lucky is only going to be by correcting the mistakes of TPLF/EPRDF. TPLF has to be replaced by Arena and the EPRDF which is front of many nations and nationalities have to be replaced by Medrek.

The Merara, Bulcha, Petros and Seye's are not learning from the May 2005 Kinijit victory in 2005. That election was a referendum on TPLF/EPRDF ethnic policy and the idea of bringing it back under new rulers is against millions of peoples vote. The wish of our people like then now is also to live equally in one strong Ethiopia, note on ethnic based weak Kilils/regions which are antagonizing each other controlled by ethnic lords

Ethiopians in millions said it loud and clear. We are Ethiopians first an then we can become Oromos, Amhras, Tigrayans, Somalis etc. Parities like AEUP are rallying behind this slogan, let us build our home together. At present the rallies in different regions of Ethiopia show the positive reaction of our people to this Ethiopian identity after two decades of attack by the regime and some similar organizations who wanted the job started by TPLF/EPRDF to be finished by dismantling Ethiopia and Ethiopian nationalism.

The strongest Ethiopian nationalist party now is AEUP. The struggle in Ethiopia is between the current regime which rules based on ethnic federalism and the other alternative which respects nations and nationalities rights but not make the basis to govern the country.

The Medrek supporters, UDJ and the rest of nations and nationalist parties big enemy is AEUP. AEUP will make these collections out of business and they know that they will rather prefer TPLF/EPRDF to stay in power than AEUP come to power. For them AEUP has to be stopped in their Kilil/regions by false propaganda as party of Amharas who wanted to bring the Amhara domination.

AEUP will go to all regions as they promised except Gambella and Somalia and we are going to test the claim of the Merara, Bulcha and the Seye's soon that AEUP is an Amhara party. Those who spent months in denouncing AEUP for signing the Code of Conduct/Courage are now busy competing against AEUP . One thing is for sure, Ethiopians are going to vote like they did five years ago for one Strong Ethiopia.

Ethiopia, unity with diversity.

Tedla Asfaw


The celebration of nations and nationalities day under TPLF/EPRDF for the fourth time went as usual back home and here in government organized celebration. "Nations and nationalities are using their constitutional right, developing their kilil/region as it fits their need. Colleges, universities, schools, clinics etc. are mushrooming everywhere thanks to the right of nations and nationalities for self determination including secession enshrined on the article 39 of the Constitution".

At the same time there are nationalistic movements like OLF and ONLF who are battling the regime in Ethiopia who they accused for renegading article 39 and involving on their affairs and  regions not benefiting their people but TPLF and its affiliated nationalities.

What I am commenting following here is about the scenario when the above all pro nations and nationalities forces were united and the only people left alone according to Andargatchew Tsige's book "Ye Amaraw Tigel Keyete Wedete"," The Amharas people struggle from where to where" that was written in Amharic seventeen years ago when TPLF and its collaborating nationalist forces, including OLF and ONLF, were enjoying the fruit of their struggle after toppling Derg in 1991.

Ato Andargachew was crying for fellow Amharas who were left on cold, no one to take care of them. He went back on time to Emperor Tewodros who had a good chance to "unite Amharas" and build a foundation for Amhara Nationalism but failed because of Tewodros adventure to extend his power to other nations and nationalities in Ethiopia. Ato Andargatcehew ignored the patriotic death of Tewodros as immaterial. What he forgot was Tewodros died fighting the British Empire and his death robbed the British any dream they had to  subjugate our people. Such disregard from the person who cried for united Amhara organization like that of Andargatchew Tsige and accused Emperor Tewodros for missing the opportunity, using the British industrial revolution to develop Amhara region and bring a strong Amhara Nationalism is indeed suspicious to the very least.

King Menelik who followed Tewodros also failed to bring the Amhara Nationalism. In fact according to Andargatchew, Menelik succeeded in his  campaign to expand his control deep in to south by war and conquer. Menelik brought with him other nations and nationalities to join and brought Ethiopian Nationalism in the process destroying the Amhara Nationalism according to Andargatchew, Amharic name meaning Unite Them.

Ato Andargatchew is not denying the Ethiopia people shining history of dying for Ethiopia in the Adwa battle nor on the five year armed struggle to eject the fascist forces from Ethiopia. Members of all nationalities died on all the battle fronts to defend Ethiopia and that is what I call Ethiopian Nationalism we all share.

The argument that there is no Ethiopian Nationalism because we do not share common language or culture is absurd. Ethiopian Nationalism is deep in Ethiopia which has thousands of years of history and that is the reason why our country remain the only few countries in the world never colonized by foreigners.

We should not feel sad like the writer for people identifying  with Ethiopian Nationalism and consider them  out of touch of the reality in Ethiopia according to Ato Andargatchew piece. As he mentioned on his writings there were Ethiopian People Democratic Movement (EPDM) and All Amhara People Organization (AAPO) led by late professor Asrat Wodleyeses who accepted the reality of nations and nationalities in Ethiopia and started forming an Amhara movement.

Professor Asrat led AAPO was formed not answering Andargatchw's cry for Amhara Nationalism rather to save lives. There is no line written on Andagrgatchew piece on the numbers of Amharas who were murdered viciously in many parts of Ethiopia by the armed nationalities for being on the wrong place and primarily for being Amharas. How could a man who claim deeply caring for Amharas forgetting  such barbarism carried out by armed nationalities to start ethnic war while Andargatchew was going back in time to tell us the wrongs of our Emperors and kings who robbed us Amhara Nationalism ?

Leaders who care for Amharas formed AAPO and saved lives while many elites accused them for submitting to the doctrine of nations and nationalities by forgetting the cause of Ethiopia. For the late Asrat Woldeyese saving lives was his priority and indeed succeeded by establishing AAPO.

The armed nations and nationalities leaders knew very well that some one is watching their ethnic cleansing and many of us rally behind AAPO to save lives while Andargatchew is looking the other way having good time with the new nations and nationalities dictate on poor Amharas, deliberately avoided on his writing. His call for all Amharas  to reject Ethiopian Nationalism, come and develop Amhara kilil created by TPLF/EPRDF by taking away former Gonder and Wello regions into larger Tigrai Kilil.

Ato Andargatchew accused the Derg dictatorship for keeping the Haile Selasaes' time provincial regions, fourteen of them. The Gonder, Gojam, Wello and Shoa division he said has hurt the cause of united Amhara. From this statement it seems that Andrgatchew accepts the former provinces should come as an Amhara Kilil to develop strong Amhara Nationalism why then kept quiet when these provinces were redrawn ?  The philosophy of Derg was based on class, it does not differentiate between nations and nationalities, unrealistic to establish an Amhara nation as a foundation of Amhara nationalism. To its credit however Derg formed the Institutes of Nations and Nationalities chaired by Yugoslavia educated Ashargere Yegletu to establish autonomous regions for the people to develop their languages and cultures and there was not a single line commenting on this project for what it was.

The Badme war ten years ago have shuttered the propaganda of there is no Ethiopian Nationalism by TPLF/EPRDF. Our people rose under one flag speaking their own languages to defend their common home, Ethiopia from Shabia's aggression. The multi ethnic Addis Ababeans rejected TPLF/EPRDF five years ago on national election rallying under Kinijit.

Andargatchew a man who cried for Amhara Nationalism seventeen years ago have written another book "Nestaneten Yemayeawek Nesta Aweche", "Liberator who does not know freedom" in Amharic which I did not read. I am sure on this writing he might have accepted that Ethiopian Nationalism is superior to all types of nationalism in Ethiopia.


As one of the founders of Ginbot7, Andargatchew Tsaige, it is natural for us to read what he wrote in the past that concern us. I read the "Amharaw Tigel Keyete Wedete" after seventeen years it was written  to know if the current thinking of Ginbot7 towards armed liberation movements like OLF and ONLF  is different from what one of its founders wrote seventeen years ago.

The ONLF and OLF supporters in the diaspora who are calling for "colonial" Ethiopia to go to hell are still taking some line from Andargtatcew Tsige , there is no Ethiopian Nationalism. There has not any organization fighting to bring Amhara Nationalism, however, Ethiopian Nationalism is still here with no common language but one mission to keep Ethiopia as one country empowering her nations and nationalities, seventy of them.