By Abdisa Salvatore
I understand some of you might get confused with my name; I am an Ethiopian from Italian father and an Ethiopian mother.
I grew up and completed my high school education in Dessie and later at Menilik II comprehensive high school in Addis Ababa, before I left for Italy to complete my higher education. I speak a somewhat good Amharic and these few years I went to Ethiopia twice in the hope of returning something back to the country which gave me a lot. I traveled for the millennium celebration and again this year before the drought become headline news in Italy.
I am writing my eye witness account and relate it to the recent categorization of Ethiopia as a failed state, under ‘Failed States Index Scores 2008’ by The Mission of The Fund for Peace group.
I have interviewed many people and seen multiple places and based on my personal assessment, Ethiopia is a failed state only a single disaster away.
It is futile to compare Ethiopia with Zimbabwe or Eretria and try to present it in a fair light, but the fact of the matter is we Ethiopians do not enjoy the homogeneity that is prevalent in those countries. President Mugabe’s party may collapse next month but Zimbabwe will be available for its citizens after the dust settles.
Ethiopia is a unique country and if and when TPLF decides to call it a day and becomes an independent African state, Ethiopia, as we know it today, would struggle to exist. I do apologize for my conspiratorial claims but here are a few facts I have gathered in those two visits to the country.
EPRDF or TPLF is a party which has been working to weaken the rest of the country through various policies. If you pick the education policy alone, one cannot fail to notice the rest of the country has never produced a viable Economic force for the last two decades due to their insistence of higher emphasis to local languages, as a result of which, only students from Tigray region can speak English to qualify for any type of scholarship or have an opportunity to work in foreign legions and they are the ones welding power in every region in the name of ‘federal officers assisting the regional government’.
The local Universities are also designed to cripple the new generation by producing “PhDs and Masters” by quota system out of the thin air, in great disregard to the quality of a human work force, and it is a sad reality to see policy makers talking about meaningless statistics by comparing the number of PhDs before and after EPRDF. This coupled with contestant harassment of intellectuals, who are challenging these failed policies, into leaving the country is another way to the realization of a government force full of mediocre talents only guided by hate and greed.
I met a number of people with Ph.D. working for the government offices which has nothing to do with their field of studies. This failure is not by lack of manpower or understanding. It looks like it is by a careful design to weaken the next generation.
Before visiting Ethiopia, I always thought that, there got to be a misunderstanding somewhere and the government needed some logistical support to make things better. I myself with a company in Barri- Italy, volunteered for a water resource developing project in the central Amhara region. The drinking water, fetched from a mile away transported by the backs of women and small children, was a source of many bacterial contaminations, but it did not take us to know that no such efforts are needed anywhere unless we pass a rigorous test of bribes equal to Mafioso extortions. We left the country after being ransacked through endless bribery.
The other main issue is the TPLF total disregard to the rule of law and contempt to the Parliament members and the people in general. A case in point is the recent border treaty with Sudan. If there was an independent jury in that country, the Premier would have been impeached for such conduct and the whole cabinet would have been dissolved. But unfortunately the same people are prosecutors, jury and executioners in that country with no check and balance whatsoever. Besides, there has been too much admiration to some of these politicians who have shown particular skill in lying, so much so that, they have now institutionalized the destruction of public ethics, elevating deceit to a statecraft or a talent required to lead that country.
Tigray, which was once a land-locked state, now has extended its border to Sudan by taking some fertile land from Gondar, and according to some information, that is the contingency plan or the end goal if their days of glory comes to an end. It is believed to be a carefully crafted path to their next move after throwing flames to the rest of the country.
In this whole mischievous game, the innocent Tigray people are victims of few high-powered TPLF cadres. The case in point is Seye Abraha, who has never failed in pointing out the problem with the TPLF. He recently spoke heroically on the unilateral border deal with the government of Sudan sighting shortsightedness on the part of the prime minister. Again, he was talking to group of journalists a few days ago, on the importance of working with the coalition of opposition parties to council and save the country from a planned destruction by TPLF. If he survives the next two years, Seye Abraha would be the only chance for the Tigray population to live with the rest of Ethiopians in dignity.
I have followed very interesting interviews on VOA regarding the border deal with Sudan, but there was no reaction from the Diaspora Ethiopians.
If it continues this on this path, the country would become another Yugoslavia. Currently the government of Ethiopia is in big trouble. Their dollar reserve is low, mainly because of unabated corruption and illegal export of wealth. The country is going down the path of abject poverty and the only people whom you see eating 3 times a day are those who have relatives in the west or those who are entitled to stealing from the public fund. They are currently trying to convert the draught into gaining some form of sympathy for themselves, but it did not work so far. There is no one in the world who has not been fooled by TPLF, at least twice. They have over used every card known in politics and now they have to hire a lobbyists abroad to defend themselves; which is a sign of desperation and inability to stand on their own.
I am also aware of a group in Italy who are currently tracking the country’s wealth in foreign banks under the assumed names/numbers of these corrupt individuals and it won’t be long before we hear a full disclosure on this matter.
It is only in Ethiopia you hear a theft of national gold reserve from a bank vault and it is treated as a normal ‘burglary’. If it was anywhere else in the world, you would have seen the whole cabinet dissolving through a vote of no-confidence. Not in Ethiopia.
It is only the government in the world, whose official delegations are still defecting. After being in power for two decades, it cannot convince anyone to stay aboard and work toward a common ideal. Because, there is no common ideal. Only the TPLF agenda served at all the embassies and foreign legions are filled with ailing and mentally decapitated ambassadors who cannot engage the Ethiopians in Diaspora, or bring a change on foreign relations other than serving the TPLF dignitaries and their royal followers to enrich themselves.
The regional elected officials, which are effectively hostages of TPLF cadres in those areas, have been crippled through blackmail and intimidation and do not have any choice but to turn a blind eye for organized robbery by TPLF cadres sitting in those regions as ‘federal officers’. This is what would be fueling the secession movements in every part of the country, in the coming years, which is, of course, seems a part of the end game for the EPRDF/TPLF.
During my last visit I met this loan officer from Ethiopian National Bank and he told me his frustration with the whole system. According to this Ethiopian, the TPLF cadres and their subordinates owe millions of dollars in debt and there is no end to their demand for additional loans and his strict obligation to approve which comes to his desk through certain channels, regardless of their defaults. There is no concern of inflation/deflation and above all there is no public accounting office to explain which wealth belongs to the country and which belongs to the party. TPLF, I learned, ordered confiscations of all vehicles, including type writers from the offices of the City Hall in Addis Ababa, when they lost the election in 2005.
This time, with the heroic engagement from such people like Seye, Berhanu, Negasso, Bertukan and the likes we have that rare chance in history to save that country from becoming a history. We should not fail these individuals or the people just by becoming spectators. There is too much at stake. It is not which party is ruling when, it is a matter of having a country for your children or not.
I want to tell those of you who advocate peaceful negations with the current TPLF rulers: They lived by the sword and they would rather die by the sword than working for a peaceful means. Unless you force them through various ways, including intensive campaigns in the Senates and Congress of these donor nations and keep on exposing their sham rules, it is futile to expect anything Ethiopians from them.
If you love your country like I do, let us march and support all campaigns and initiatives to remove these hateful and deceitful people from power. My father fought Mussolini and lived in Ethiopia until his death and there was nothing gratifying for him to have seen the defeat of Mussolini and fascism in his lifetime; and to me EPRDF/TPLF is no better than Mussolini and they deserve our unified efforts in exposing and removing their grip on Tigray and their planned destruction of Ethiopia as we know it today.
Ethiopia is a failed state and accepting its failed status is the first thing on our part, which would give us a clear vision to engage the real enemy. It also help us to understand the capacity and goal of these mediocre over-appraised tyrants who have been in power for two decades through deception and sheer luck of having a very fragmented opposition. From now on, it should not matter who rules Ethiopia next, as long as there is an Ethiopia!
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I have plans to visit some Italian-American congress members in New York area for this July 4th celebration and in the coming weeks and I will be passing my messages to all that I come in contact with. I want to show some of my materials to the U.S. Senators who are in the way of HR 2003 to bring them aboard. You can reach me at [email protected].