A New Year and Ethiopia’s future. [By Yilma Bekele ] December 28, 2015

What do we feel when we think of our country? Do you see love, prosperity and a bright future or do you see hate, poverty, endless conflict and a future with no tomorrow? I don’t know about you but the Ethiopians I meet in my everyday life are not a happy people when it comes to matters of their country. That is so not because we are angry people by nature but the situation in our country is turning us to be suspicious of each other, question one another’s motive and dwell on the doom and gloom of what is awaiting us around the corner. I used to think when one considers what our country has gone through the last forty years it is reason enough for an excuse to be in a dark mood. But that is a cover up not to face my own shortcoming.

What about you my Ethiopian brethren are you up to the task of looking deep inside your soul and making a determination for the condition our country is in today and your part in this ugly story that we would be ashamed to tell our children? Do you think each one of us have contributed to the dysfunctional system our country is saddled with at the moment? I am thinking if I am not willing to fess up to my own role in this human catastrophe I as individual have subjected my people to and find a way to make amends then there is no reason for me to speak, involve and have opinion regarding the future. What do you think my friend?

Today there are over fifteen million people facing famine and give or take a few thousands about one hundred thousand will die. This is not some idle talk or something I conjured up in my mind. Take it or not it is a fact. It is sad but true. It is not something willed by God because we have sinned or a condition due to what is referred to El Nino by climatologists but solely due to the fact that our government did not prepare for bad times due to incompetence and abdication of duty that by most well-meaning people could be considered a criminal act.
Today we witness the use of solders that are trained to protect our border from foreign invasion being used to kill peaceful protesters that raised a legitimate question to protect their interest.

Today we have a regime that won 100% seats in the Parliament using trickery and deception negotiating with neighbors and concluding a deal giving our land away for no reason other than prolonging its uneventful life. They are trading land for a few more years of looting. It is of a historical significance when you consider Emperor Yohanes died for the land his children are high fiving each other for a betrayal well done. When Karl Marx wrote “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as farce’ he must have been thinking of what would happen to us.

Do you wonder why in the world this is happening to us? Are we really that bad of a people and we are paying today for our past sins? There has to be an explanation because stuff do not happen in a vacuum. You see the point is that no matter what we feel no matter what we believe and no matter how we view our presence in this vast universe it is our individual action that determines the outcome of any situation. They have a saying ‘No rain drop thinks it is responsible for the flood’ or “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
Do you see what I mean? The Woyane regime is bad and evil and the policy they have been implementing in our motherland is the cause of so much misery for our people and I do not like it is a statement I hear all the time. To be frank I have not met a real live Ethiopian that with confidence and a loud voice support the minority based regime. It is always said with so many qualifications and with eyes down cast, and a hint of shame that it ends up being so confused that one cannot make heads or tail out of the statement. It can be said that we all try to deflect attention away from our own role in this human tragedy. The question is what have you done to deny them that power not to hurt and injure your loved ones? So you say I am just one individual what power do I have? That is what that one rain drop said or a tiny snow flake pointed out to avoid responsibility for the final outcome. This where we find ourselves now. Our individual action has created and sustained this monster but I do not see no one stepping forward to take credit. What Americans call ‘passing the buck’ has acquired new meaning in Ethiopia.

Someone has at last raised an important question and d the regime address the issue. Our Oromo people have started to say no to an act the Woyane regime has been practicing on our people. The Gambelans, the Amharas and the Afars have been victimized by what is known as ‘land grab’. The Gamblenas were forced to abandon their ancestral land, the Amharas have been made refugees in their own country and the Afars have resigned themselves to this modern day of internal displacement. Today the Oromos reached their limit and rose up in an angry fashion and are saying no.

They are blessed to have children that have been forced to flee but did not forget the family they left behind. We all thank them for teaching us the art of standing up and exposing the fraudulent regime in power. They are using technology to raise the consciousness of their own people in particular and all of Ethiopia’s children in general. The hashtag #Oromo protest is sweeping Ethiopian politics both at home and abroad like a prairie fire. There are a few that are reluctant to support the movement due to the mention of only Oromo in the campaign. It is understandable because our African Americans were faced with the same resistance from white people when the hashtag #Black Lives Matter went viral. It took some explanation by the organizers to make people understand the issue.

Some white folks wanted to change it to #All Lives Matter. For a few die hard racists it was an attempt to dilute the message. No one can argue about that. Of course all lives matter but the fact of the matter was that the police were not killing any citizen at random but were focused on young African Americans and all the data showed that to be true. #Black Lives Matter was meant to drive the message home that young Black people were the victims and that was the central [point to be addressed and has to be stopped.

#Oromo Protest is addressing the murder of young Oromo students that were being murdered by the Woyane regime and the organizers were trying to bring the focus on this criminal act. We all agree #Ethiopian Protest is valid and should be supported when it is raised but right now our Oromo children are paying the price.

What we have learnt from our association with Woyane TPLF the last twenty years is that they are the masters of divide and rule. They have refined the art of making us fight against each other while they wait silently to pick up the broken pieces and smash it to powder. What we can predict like a fortune teller is that #Oromo protest as potent as it is will not succeed without the rest of Ethiopia joining this righteous fight to liberate our country once more from the clutches of Woyane flavored fascism.

Like what is said earlier about the ‘drop of water’ or the ‘single snowflake’ our individual action in concert with others like us would turn out to be a storm or an avalanche to sweep the dictators away. In this Holiday season when we call our family and loved ones at home or abroad it is important we stress to them the wisdom of supporting our people that are faced by a regime that does not hesitate to kill in mass. They know their criminal act of the last twenty years is catching up with them and like the cornered animal they are they will fight to death no matter the outcome.

The appeal to all Ethiopians is to do the right thing of opposing dictatorship so our people can leave in peace and prosper. It a very selfish appeal but what is more important than self-preservation. The involvement of all of us in this important cause would make the pain of our people less and the probability of success high. It is an act of love. Let us also make it clear that if by chance the current upheaval falters it will only be a temporary respite for the criminal regime because there are many that have resolved to take the fight to its logical conclusion of the victory of good over evil. Our combatants arrayed under the banner of Arbengoch G7 with their Afar, Amhara, Oromo, Ogaden allies are not waiting for others but have already started the long journey of liberation of body and mind. No one has said it is easy, no one relishes the idea of Ethiopia’s children killing each other but there are times when all well-meaning people have to resort to violent means to secure their freedom to build a harmonious society.

TPLF Woyane has the last few weeks gone berserk to deflect attention from the many failings the minority based organization is facing today. They do not want us to organize and help our millions of starving citizens. They do not want us to witness their barbaric action against our Oromo people. They do not want us to see the coming together of Ethiopia’s children united in a holy cause of national salvation. Instead of buying food for our famine victims they are spending millions to block ESAT from informing our people. Instead of using troops to transport food to hard to reach areas they are using precious petrol and sixteen wheel trucks to bring them to kill our children. This is all done in the name of you my Ethiopian brother and sister. This is your tax dollar and your elected government at work. Our country has reached the proverbial eleventh hour. The clock is ticking and each one of us have to account for our action now. No need to wish you Happy Holidays because no one in Ethiopia is sleeping easy knowing TPLF is on a rampage and is fighting for its life.

http://quatero.net/a-new-year-and-ethiopias-future-by-yilma-bekele/

The "End of the Story" for the T-TPLF in Ethiopia?

 
By Alemayehu G Mariam
December 28, 2015

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The obituary and epitaph for the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean Liberation Front (T-TPLF) was written last year by Bereket Simon, the former “communication minister” and longtime sidekick of the late criminal mastermind of the T-TPLF, Meles Zenawi and Addisu Legesse, “deputy prime minister” to Meles and “deputy chairman” of the T-TPLF front organization called the “Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)”.

In a secretly recorded conversation, Bereket and Addisu talked plainly about the end of times — the final days, the last days — of the T-TPLF in Ethiopia to a group of their supporters.

According to Addisu:

Looking at it from our situation, it is already getting out of our hands. There is no question about that.   We can see that plainly from the way the teachers’ organizations are doing things. When 2/3 of educators are our members (of our party), and they are going out and demonstrating against us, that is the end of the story. I don’t think it is only Arena [party]. Ginbot 7 is also there. In Bahr Dar, I think, [anti-T-TPLF] flyers are being distributed. Haven’t you received any? Papers? [Others present at the meeting chime in response.] It is also [distributed] in Bahr Dar. But we do not know that, if you know what I mean. Flyers are being distributed and they are seen. So, I think they have gone down to the cell level everywhere. It seems like there is something that has organized itself. So I think it is coming from the Ginbot 7 area. (Emphasis added.)

Bereket responded with an example of what he believed is the sign of the end of times for the T-TPLF:

There was a meeting. I went to the meeting. I was eating breakfast. Two individuals came and started talking to me. When they talked to me, they imposed themselves on me. Their appearance did not make me happy (comfortable). When I started to investigate, these individuals are primary beneficiaries of city land acquisition. Primary! These are individuals who will scam left and right and get land beyond what is appropriate. But they had the audacity to accuse our comrades. They were ready to make accusations that so and so did this so and so did that. So when you look at it, what are they talking about? For me, so to speak, I tried to answer them as best as I thought about it. It is not something that one could accept [the accusation]. But the incredible thing is that anyone to have the audacity to say something like this to me, one can see the potential of such individuals to create chaos in the city. So, all those who spread propaganda and people like that must be singled out and we must isolate them. Even those people who have been telling us for a long time that they are our friends in the past are telling us sarcastically (mockingly) , ‘Oh! Don’t worry. We will see each other when it is the election season and stuff like that.’ Such talk does not make you happy… (Emphasis added.)

What exactly is eating Bereket, Addisu and T-TPLF Inc.?
First, it is clear the two T-TPLF head honchos fear the end of the T-TPLF is near. They said so in plain terms. “That is the end of the story” of the T-TPLF.
Bereket, Addisu and T-TPLF Inc. know it is the end of the story because they have used up all of the tricks in their bags to cling to power

For 24 years, the T-TPLF played their game of divide and rule and nurtured ethnic and sectarian hate. Someone once said hate is like a boomerang that misses its target and comes back and hits you in the head. Well, the hate the T-TPLF spread in Ethiopia for the last 24 years missed its target of making Ethiopia a nation of haters. The hate the T-TPLF hate produced is now hammering the T-TPLF on the head.

For 24 years, the T-TPLF played their ethnic federalism game and declared all land belongs to the state.
But to whom does the state belong?
The T-TPLF and the international land scammers, swindlers and poverty pimps bought and sold, pawned and auctioned, peddled and hustled the peoples’ land.
In December 2015, the T-TPLF land scammers and swindlers were served final notice: We are not going to let you steal our land any more. “Enough is enough!”
The larger message to the T-TPLF in December 2015 is resolute:
You stole our dignity for 24 years, and we did nothing but lived in shame. Now, “Enough is enough!”
You stole our human rights for 24 years, and we quietly accepted second-class citizenship. Now,  “Enough is enough!”
You stole our voice for 24 years, and we remained silent. Now, “Enough is enough!”
You stole our children’s future for 24 years, and we watched in quiet desperation. Now, “Enough is enough!”
You stole one election after another for 24 years, and this year you added insult to injury by claiming you won the “election” by one hundred percent. Now, “Enough is enough!”
You stole our humanity for 24 years, and today we question our sanity for allowing you to steal our humanity. Now, “Enough is enough!”

After 24 years, we will be damned if we are going to let you continue to steal our land, the land our forefathers died and shed their blood, so you can sell it for pennies to your swindling and crooked international land grabbers and poverty pimps. “Enough is enough!”

We will stand our ground or we will be underground defending our land.

We will not back down even if you clampdown, crackdown, knock us down, push us down, run us down or break us down!

This time we will not back down until you go down!

To read the rest of the commentary, Click HERE.

http://www.ethiomedia.com/aa2nov15/4781.html