Blog Archives

Saving the ICC from African Thugtators

kenyatta  International Criminal Court Prosecutor throws in the towel

It is a dark and gloomy month on the “Dark Continent”! It is the worst of times in Africa when a man in the highest political office accused of egregious crimes against …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Saving the ICC: A Proposal for a Witness Protection Program

ICC WITSEC Justice delayed, again?

In late January of this year, I wrote a commentary entitled, “Kenyatta at the ICC: Is Justice Deferred, Justice Denied?” In that commentary I openly expressed my angst over the endless delays, postponements and backpedalling …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Power Africa? Empower Africans!

youth powerPower, power, power…

When President Obama recently visited Africa, he announced a “Power Africa” initiative.  In his Cape Town University speech, he proclaimed, “I am proud to announce a new initiative. We’ve been dealing with agriculture.  We’ve been dealing with …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Land and Ethiopia’s Corruptocracy

no corrThe silence of Ethiopia’s “beautiful minds”

Professor A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the renowned Indian scientist  (“Missile Man of India”)  and Eleventh President of India (2002-2007) said, “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of

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Posted in Ethiopia News

The Dragon Eating the Eagle’s Lunch in Africa?

ch1Flight of the Eagle and pursuit of the Dragon 

In June 2011, during her visit to Zambia U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pulled the alarm bell on a creeping “new colonialism” in Africa. While dismissing “China’s Model” of authoritarian

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Obama “Moonwalking” Human Rights in Africa?

Kenyatta The great American poet Walt Whitman said, “Either define the moment or the moment will define you.” Will the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as president of Kenya define President Barack Obama in Africa or will President Barack Obama use the …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

The Moral Equivalent of an Anti-Apartheid Movement in Ethiopia?

MPEthiopian Muslims engaged in the moral equivalent of an anti-Apartheid movement?

In her recent commentary in the New York Review of Books, “Obama: Failing the African Spring?”, Dr. Helen Epstein questioned the Obama Administration for turning a blind

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: The Prototype African Police State

ps2The sights and sounds of an African police state

When Erin Burnett of CNN visited Ethiopia in July 2012, she came face-to-face with the ugly face of an African police state:

We saw what an African police state looked like

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia in BondAid?


Alemayehu G. Mariam

“Bondage” is the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control. When people are bound by debt, they are in “debt bondage”. When they are held in involuntary servitude, they are in …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

The Dam and the Damned: Gibe III Ethiopia

Alemayehu G Mariam

Cry Me a River, Cry Me a Lake

Three years ago to the week, I wrote a weekly commentary entitled, “Cry Me a Lake: Crime Against Nature”. That commentary focused on the plight of tens

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Delivering on Donald Payne’s Human Rights Legacy

Alemayehu G Mariam

Donald Payne Was a Drum Major for Democracy and Human Rights

Grassroots Ethiopian human rights groups and activists have been stunned by the death last week of  Donald Payne, our strongest ally and advocate in the U.S. …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Political Prisoners Inside Ethiopia’s Gulags

Alemayehu G Mariam

The Plight of Andualem Aragie and Other Political Prisoners in Ethiopia 

The “Gulag” prison system in the old Soviet Union was infamous for warehousing and persecuting dissidents and opponetns. The gulags were used effectively to weed out …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Deutsche Welle: A Disgrace to Press Freedom?

Alemayehu G Mariam

In a memorandum sent to Deutsche Welle’s (DW) [Germany’s international broadcaster] “correspondents outside Ethiopia” in late 2010,  Ludger Schadomsky, editor-in-chief of DW’s Amharic program, blasted “ethiomedia and similar sites by extension” as a “disgrace” to press freedom.  …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

The Dragon’s Dance with Hyenas

Alemayehu G. Mariam

The Chinese Dragon is dancing the Watusi shuffle with African Hyenas. Things could not be better for the Dragon in Africa. In the middle of what once used to be the African Pride Land now stands a

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Posted in Ethiopia News

African Beggars Union Hall?

Alemayehu G Mariam

AU B1

 

 

 

 

The new African Union (AU) headquarters was inaugurated last week. It was “China’s gift to Africa.” China picked the entire USD$200 million tab for the building, fixtures and furniture. The China State Construction …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

African Dictators: Can’t Run, Can’t Hide!

Alemayehu G Mariam

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is on the chase; and over the past few months, things have taken a slow turn for the worse for African dictators and human rights violators. They are finding out that they …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

An “African Spring” in 2012?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

Waiting for the Dawn of “Africa’s Spring” in 2012?  How about an “Ethiopian Tsedey” in 2012?

In 2011, we witnessed the “Winter of Arab” discontent made glorious by an “Arab Spring” followed by an increasingly hot

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Ethiopia: Land of Blood or Land of Corruption?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

Portrait of A Poor Country

Lately, the portrait of Ethiopia painted in the reports of Transparency International (Corruption Index) and Global Financial Integrity shows a “Land of Corruption”. That contrasts with an equally revolting portrait of  Ethiopia …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

Why is Ethiopia Poor?

First, Why is Africa Poor?

George Ayittey, the renowned Ghanaian economist and president of the Free Africa Foundation swears that “Africa is poor because she is not free”. Like Ayittey, Robert Guest, business editor for The Economist, in his book …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

African Dictators: The People Don’t Love You!

Alemayehu G. Mariam

 

 

 

 

 

In February 2011, at the onset of the Libyan Revolution, Moamar Gadhaffi trumpeted to the world, “They love me. All my people with me, they love me. They will die to protect …

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Posted in Ethiopia News

What Should Starving Ethiopians do to Help Themselves?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

In 1987 when Time Magazine featured a famine-stricken Ethiopian mother on its cover page, it failed to ask the most important question of all: What should Ethiopians do and not do to help themselves?

It is the …

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Posted in Ethiopia News