Ethiopians right to listen to your radio, Mr. President

Tedla Asfaw

 

VOA Amharic, Oromiffa and German Amharic have been jammed in Ethiopia and callers from Ethiopia are calling and tell their frustration and it seems now VOA is looking for possible solution.

 

VOA is trying to put its programs on different airwaves at least five as we were informed on January 17 and ask for help from listeners in Ethiopia. The objective is to preempt the jamming and make it difficult to jam all the waves and we are going to find if this is going to beat the "Chinese" disruptive technology which is used by the Ethiopian government.

 

Listeners are encouraged to call and inform VOA which line is jammed and which one is clear and the cat and mouse game will go on for the near future. It is sad VOA's board is not coming open and give its ultimatum to the Ethiopian regime.

 

A regime that is jamming information sent from USA with tax payers money which happens to be an ally of USA fighting "terrorists" who are accused of fighting Western democracy among which freedom to hear is  ridiculous.

 

Is USA allowing free radios to Iraq and the Muslim world  and bill it to us as a long term strategy to fight terrorism in par with Bush answer to  "why they hate us ?".

 

Ethiopians do not hate USA Radio broadcasts  and in fact the only source of information and is very popular and by not coming hard on the regime the USA Administration is forcing the seventy million people to question the intent of USA administration and may be once again is time to ask another question, "Why Ethiopians hate the Bush Administration?".

 

The answer is clear Mr. President. We have been always a true friend of Americans and however some USA presidents failed Ethiopia many times. I remember President Carter arming Siad Barre in the 1970s to invade our country and now George Bush support the occupation of Somalia using the unelected regime of Ethiopia and look the other way when our peoples right to listen the VOA and  I want to raise the famous question you brought last time after 9/11. "why they hate us?".

 

You have one chance to get the hearts and minds of Ethiopians Mr. President before you leave office and do it, " A country like Ethiopia that is jamming radios can not be an ally on war on terror because such action will bring more Ethiopians to hate my administration and I want those in Addis Ababa to stop the jamming or else there will be a severe consequence".

 

Well done!! George Bush and if there is a problem we will call VOA twenty four hours line and  will let you know and thank you for saving tax payers money and getting the love of Ethiopian you deserve, bravo George!!

Is Ethiomedia Editor unbiased?

Tedla Asfaw

 

Ethiomedia Editor Ato Abraha Belai's this week interview with Ben covered a lot of grounds and what I found it interesting is his call for the Diaspora Ethiopian media conference. Ato Abraha accused some websites  without giving names who are posting materials which damages the interest of Ethiopia.

 

Ato Abraha Belai condemned those sites that characterize the Ethiopian army in Somalia as "Woyane's" army who went on and congratulationg  those who dragged the dead  soldiers. However, he was not heard taking a clear stand on the Ethiopian army's involvement in Somalia and the innocent Somali lives lost.

 

Dirty things happen during war and journalists should expose both sides in the war and bring these realities to the readers as it is and let the people make their own judgment. We saw few articles from New York Times posted on Ethiomedia which accounts the atrocities committed by Ethiopian soldiers in Ogaden and we should have done a lot of work in exposing on what is going on in Somalia.

 

I remember there was an interview in Chicago Public Radio few months back with Dr. Birhanu Nega and the same day a prominent Somali was interviewed and I found that Ethiomedia only posted Dr. Birhanu's clip.

 

I emailed Ethiomedia editor that It was wrong not to post the Somali part because it was very informative on the crisis going in Somalia which highlights the escalation of war in the Horn and the personal account from inside sources which is hidden from mainstream media. This audio clip would have given listeners a wide perspective who visited www.ethiomedia.com.

 

Luckily some sites put the whole audio clip from the Chicago Public Radio and we learned a lot from it and were it not for other sites we would not have gotten that information. Of course the media conference helps to set the standards for putting all the relevant information for the public to sort it out but media outlets should not also pick what they want  us to read or hear.

Day Light Robbery in Ethiopian National Bank

Tedla Asfaw

 

On January 15 VOA Amharic had interviewed Ato Isayas from Fortune Magazine in Addis Ababa on the editorial they wrote about the hundreds of millions of dollars worth "gold" kept under the National Bank protection that was discovered to be fools gold.

 

The cheating has been going on for the last two years while the country was immersed in the political turmoil and the time was ripe to steal and loot and this made me  believe that this is not ordinary crime may be "political crime".

 

The so called "investigation" now is focusing on individuals who got license to sale for the government and  I do not believe we will get to the bottom of it in a country where there is no investigative journalism and the production, buying and selling is dominated by the government.

 

Do we not have technology to detect gold from other metals? Where is the control mechanism and why this happened after the 2005 election?  These are legitimate questions which will be asked and an inquiry commission is a must at higher level even if it is not independent.

 

The Parliament should establish an inquiry commission and debate about it to find the truth. The people representatives from the Ethiopian gold region should talk to the people there and explain how resources from their region end up in thieves pocket instead of spending it on infrastructure development. Is it not  that article 39 supposed to be, political and economical self determination ?

 

This is what we call it in Ethiopia "Ye Leba Gereger Le Kemagna Yamechale", "Thieves profit from anarchy" and I hope those Ethiopians who are good in investigation can jump on this big theft and expose all behind these day light robbery.

 

I thank the Fortune Magazine for bringing this out and press as much as they can to tell the whole story and no doubt this story will be picked by foreign medias including the Ethiopian Diaspora and it will not go away.

 

If you have a National Bank who can not tell gold from other metals and what does it say about the national establishments of the country, health,education and army etc and all the talk about "Limate", development remains empty rhetoric and people will lose hope in anything government does.

 

 

Right for free assembly is an immediate cause to rally behind!!

Tedla Asfaw

 

On the weekend Ethiopian Review(ER) interviewed Weizero Birtukan  Medeksa's Kinijt faction on their activities in Ethiopia and she informed us about "organizing" supporters out of Addis and the same has been said from Seattle Eng. Hailu's Kinijit  transmitted live by ER yesterday.

 

Kinijit as we all know could not organize its supporters in Addis because the regime did not recognize it as an organization and I wonder how this "right" has been given out of Addis. Is this because the regime believes still it has a solid "support"of the rural people or Kinijit has a "power" to challenge the ban on assembly out of Addis?

 

If that is the case why not move Kinijits' office out of Addis and rekindle the struggle? I do not believe that is the case because one of the founders of "Arena", Weizero  Adaneche on her interview with Reporter confirmed that the regime put all the obstacles on their party not to function as alternative for TPLF which she said is not supported by people of Tigray.

 

The right to organize in Ethiopia is only if you are baptized and blessed by TPLF/EPRDF otherwise you are an outcast and "Arena" which might have many followers in Tigray is not allowed to function freely and the weekend Kinijit factions allegations of "organizing" people out of Addis Ababa is suspicious at best.

 

Well, you might go and talk to representatives of Kinijit out of Addis  and  that is OK! and we are going to see if Kinijit factions can call a general assembly to put pressure on the regime and if we see the case of "Arena" they might be allowed to get "certificates of recognition" under different names but will not be allowed to function freely and organize their constituency for the coming spring local election.

 

The divided Kinijit leadership and new comers like "Arena" can work on this immediate problem by making a joint appearance and call for a demonstration in the coming weeks. If these is not allowed they have to start civil disobedience by mobilizing students and workers through out the country.

 

The spring local "election" is out of question and our people have to boycott it and TPLF/EPRDF does not need to make believe election because there is no one to watch it this time.