Tedla Asfaw
Is Los Angeles ready for Sat. Feb. 2 free entertainment , I am not sure if that includes food and drink , with Dr. Birhanu and artist Shambele Beleayneh and/or the next day Sunday with Engineer Hailu and his buddies by paying $30 entrance fee?
This is similar to the duel we saw few weeks ago in Seattle, Debebe against Hailu. Both groups claimed victory in Seattle and it seems to me here Dr. Birhanu's faction wanted to have a knock out using Shambele Belayneh's music "launcher".
Let us assume that Dr. Birhanu wins by knock out, will this victory help his Kinijit faction? Not at all and in fact after touring earlier with the five visiting delegates, all except him back home, the time of this gathering as suggested on yesterday's piece on www.kinijit.org is nothing more than being a hurdle for Hailu's faction and this will have a negative impression on Dr. Birhanu and his faction and many people who were not questioning him before will be reasoning to why he has not returned to Ethiopia beside bringing us another sequel to "Ye Nestnet Gohe Seikede" maybe is here to "sabotage" the touring calender of Engineer Hailu.
Will there be new developments the Los Angeles Ethiopians will hear from Dr. Birhanu ? Hardly so, Dr. Birhanu has used the air waves and all gatherings efficiently since he has started a "campaign" here in New York last September and it will be appropriate to give the opportunity for Eng. Hailu who has just recovered from illness to speak to the Ethiopian community without "free for all" distraction.
This petty action added with Judge Birtukan's, this week ,interview with "Imbilta" is not good news for Dr. Birhanu. On that interview which is posted on www.aigaforum.com she is not sure if and when Dr. Birhanu will join the struggle back home and according to her and other delegates their effort to organize would have benefited much from Dr. Birhanu's presence and the so called "scholarship" could have been postponed for some other time.
It seems to me that Judge Birtukan is listening to her constituencies back home and her loyalty should be to the millions of Ethiopians and fellow elected delegates back home not to those who would like to struggle by being absent from their constituencies.
It is also true that Eng. Hailu's current tour is just not to bring him any convert from polarized Diaspora Kinijit and it is time for him to go home and join the struggle. Both Eng. Hailu and Judge Birtukan have to convene the general meeting /congress of Kinijit and save themselves and the party.
Judge Birtukan has to trust those who are with her and whatever happened in the Diaspora in the last six months has to be put aside and start reconciling with those determined to sacrifice themselves for the noble cause of May 2005.
Kinijit leadership has one chance to correct its past mistakes and it will come out real strong ,however, if we continue on the misguided path of the Diaspora driven politics characterizeda by "madness" here in North America we will all lose and Ethiopians home have no choice but to look for genuine leaders.
