‘I can’t pay’: taxing times for small traders in Ethiopia hit by 300% rate hike
By William Davison, The Guardian Global development, 29 August 2017
Ethiopia’s ruling coalition sweats over insecurity as Oromo, Amhara MPs protest. TPLF’s Finfinnee Card Disqualified. December 22, 2017
Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests.Tags: #OromoProtests, Africa, Africa News, Boycott TPLF and its business, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Down Down Wayane TPLF, Ethiopia, Finfinnee, MPs Protests, Oromia, Social movements
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Kaardiin Finfinnee Woyyaanee harkatti gubate
Itoophiyaa keessatti wanti Oromoon afoo dhaabate kamuu hin milkaayu.
Woyyaaneen tibbana Oromoo kallattii fi xiyyeeffannaa dhabsiisuuf ni hojjata, hariiroo Oromoo fi Amaaraa jiddutti uumamaa dhufe booressuudhaaf furmaata jettee kan yaadde kaardii Finfinnee qabattee gadi baate. Kaardiin isii kuni guyyaa haraa harkatti gubateera, garuu. Kunis kan ta’e siyaasa bilchina qabu, isa fageessuu yaadu Oromoon geggeessuu isaatiin. Kaardiin Finfinnee kan harkatti gubate, wolhubannaan OroMara kan abshaalummaa isii harkaa fudhate, sa’aa kanatti Woyyaaneen taasiyaa irra jirti.
Barana Woyyaaneen hedduu rakkatte. Hallayyaa siyaasa hamatti dhidhimte. Qilee itti badde keessaa harkisee nama baasa jettee waan ol’kaayatte keessaa inni tokko kaardii Finfinnee ture. Dhimmi Finfinnee dhimmi miira Oromoo tuqu akka ta’e beekti. Dhimmi Finfinnee saboota (keessatuu Amaara) birattis bifa addaan ilaalama. Yeroo irreen Oromoo fi Amaaraa hudhee isii qabe kanatti abdiin Woyyaanee dhimmi Finfinnee Oromoo fi Amaara wolnyaachisa, haariiroo amma isaan lamaan jiddutti uumame ni balleessa, qilleensa wolhubannaa biyyaa fi biyyaan alattis mul’ataa jiru ni summeessa jettee amanti ture. Kan ta’e faallaa waan silaa isiin ni ta’a jettee eegaa turteedha. Kaardiin isii himtuu mardoo malee funyoo gaafa rakkoo isiif ta’uu hin dandeenne.
Woyyaaneen ummanni bakkuma durii (diina woloo dhiisanii wolitti wocuu fi wolitti qoxxisuu) jira jettee yaaddi. Woyyaanetu bakka dhaabattetti gogee hafe malee ummanni, sakallaanis ta’u, hedduu tankaarfateera. Woyyaaneen akkanatti yaadaa, siyaasa biyyattii bifa kanaan hubataa yoomuu ariitee ummata kana kan dhaqqabdu hin fakkaatu; hanga ummanni dhaabatee hin eeginitti. Ummanni foollii bilisummaa argu eegale kana booda wolqabatee yoo hedduu funduratti saffise malee carraan wolsakaaluu jira hin fakkaatu. Woyyaanee fi kittillayyoonni isii #Oromaaraa hin dhaqqabdanii abdii kutadhaa.
በስብሰባው ላይ የተገኙትና የመጀመሪያውን የተቃውሞ ደምጵ ያሰሙት የኦሮምያ ኮምኒኬሽን ጵ/ ቤት ሀላፊ አቶ አዲሱ አረጋ ባደረጉት ንግግር ከ600 ሺህ በላይ ህዝባችን በኦሮምያና ሶማሌ ግጭት በተፈናቀለበትና በየቦታው ግጭቶች በቀጠሉበት፣ ረቂቅ አዋጁም ህዝባችን ባልተወያየበት ሁኔታ ይህ ስብሰባ መጠራት እንደሌለበት በመጥቀስ ለሌላ ግዜ እንዲተላለፍ ጠይቀዋል። ይህን የአቶ አዲሱ ንግግር አብዛኛው የኦህዴድ የፓርላማ አባላት በጭብጨባ ድጋፍ ሰጥተዋል።
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Defence Front (EPRDF), the country’s ruling coalition is facing an internal crisis which has led to Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to two main blocs – the Amhara and Oromia, boycotting parliament, the BBC Africa Live page has reported.
The coalition in a statement released on Wednesday admitted that it was facing gradual ‘mistrust and suspicion’ among the four main blocs. OPDO, ANDM, TPLFand SEPDM.
Twenty four later, members of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) boycotted parliament calling for Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to give an explanation on escalation in recent deadly violence.
The statement according to local media sources went on to assert that a weakness of the executive arm was responsible for the current state of affairs. It said the ‘weakness of the executive’ had contributed significantly to the deteriorating security across the country.
The other two EPRDF parties are the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (SEPDM). The coalition holds 100% seats of the parliament.
Ethiopia speaker of parliament quits over govt handling of recent clashes http://bit.ly/2wESpfi
Ethiopia speaker of parliament quits over govt handling of recent clashes
The government deployed Federal security forces to bring the deadly situation under control, a decision that is said to have led to Gemeda’s …
africanews.com
Ethiopia’s three-pronged security crisis
The security situation in Ethiopia is a mix of anti-government sentiment on one hand, ethnic clashes affecting two major regions and a deadly turn of events across some universities in the Horn of Africa country.
Most universities affected by serial deaths of students have closed down due to a lack of conducive atmosphere for studies. The government has said that the deaths were politically inclined and that it was doing everything possible to remedy the situation.
Then last week, sixteen people were reportedly shot in the town of Chelenko in the Oromia region. The regional communications chief blamed it on federal security forces who opened fire on protesters unhappy about the killing of a resident. The government says it has opened a probe.
Then there is the border tensions between the Oromia and Ethiopia-Somali regional states. An escalation in the age-long tension late last week led to the deaths of 61 people on both sides. Scores were also reported to have been injured, houses burnt and hundreds internally displaced.
Taxing times for small traders in Ethiopia hit by 300% rate hike August 30, 2017
Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests, Uncategorized.Tags: Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Ethiopia, Ethiopia: TPLF's corruption empire, Tags: Africa, The Guardian, TPLF, TPLF's thievery in the name of taxation in Ethiopia, TPLF/EPRDF Ethiopian Regime is a Contra to a Developmental State
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In the dense cobblestone streets of Burayu town, outside Addis Ababa, Melaku Abdella* and his family had been making a living selling basic items such as vegetables, cooking oil and soft drinks at competitive prices from their kiosk. But after the Ethiopian government stung him with a more than 300% tax increase last month, Abdella says he was left with no option but to close the business.
Like many low-income traders in the country’s Oromia region, the family didn’t keep accounts, meaning the authorities based their annual tax demand of 7,000 Ethiopian birr (£231) on an estimate of income. “It’s beyond my capacity to pay. I will have to hand in my business licence,” Abdella says.
The hikes on grocers, barbers and cafes were met with widespread anger and protests in parts of the volatile state, which has endured unrest and fatal clashes during the last two years.
The situation creates a dilemma for a government that is desperate to increase income tax and reduce its reliance on aid, but is also wary of further instability. Ethiopia’s parliament only lifted a 10-month state of emergency earlier this month following protests over land disputes and alleged political marginalisation. The unrest since November 2015 involved security forces killing at least 600 demonstrators and tens of thousands being jailed, according to the government.
Although still one of world’s least developed countries, Ethiopia’s economy has grown rapidly in the last decade, as the government used loans, aid and tax revenue to build clinics, universities, roads, railways and hydropower dams. Its budget has increased roughly in line with gross domestic product. Ethiopia’s tax revenue is around 14% of output, according to the International Monetary Fund, which is lower than the sub-Saharan African average. This financial year, almost a third of the federal budget of 321bn birr (£10.6bn) is projected to come from aid and loans.
Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has been credited for overseeing growth and improving infant mortality and life expectancy, but it is also blamed for suppressing democratic rights, maladministration, increasing corruption and, now, the draconian tax swoop.
The root of the dispute is a sizeable semi-formal economic sector – around 80% of the workforce is still employed in smallholder agriculture – entrenched mistrust between the state and traders, and an estimation system for small businesses.
Enterprises with an annual turnover of less than 500,000 birr are not required to produce audited accounts. Instead, officials visit each premise to make an income assessment. That has set up a game of cat-and-mouse with many vendors running down stock in anticipation of the visits. The result has been a large discrepancy between what traders say they earn and what their assessments are based on, even if they made an accurate verbal declaration. “What most people tell the government is too low, so the officials don’t believe anybody. Honesty does not work,” says one Burayu business owner, who also requested anonymity.
Oromia revenue officers take the estimation and multiply it either by 300 days for goods retailers or 360 days for services to produce a turnover estimate. Profits are calculated by applying a standard margin for each type of business, which is then taxed at marginal rates from 0% for profits of less than 7,200 birr to 35% for those earning more than 130,800 birr.
“The assessment has basic technical problems. From the selection of people to assess, to the criteria used for assessment, it does not fit into any objective presumptive tax assessment methodology. It’s just an ad hoc categorisation of taxpayers,” says business consultant Getachew Teklemariam.
At Burayu town revenue department, deputy head Samuel Tadesse explains that business owners were shocked at the new evaluations because the government hadn’t carried out an assessment for seven years.
Annual inflation shot up to 40% in 2011, but has been hovering near 10% recently. Also, last year, the tax thresholds increased. For example, the tax-exempt portion rose from 1,800 birr to 7,000, while the upper margin was previously 60,000. “They are confused because for six years they paid a similar amount,” Tadesse says.
By Lake Hora in Bishoftu town, about 50km south-east of Addis Ababa, a man in a bright yellow T-shirt and matching sunglasses repairs a door with a soldering iron and angle grinder amid a shower of sparks. He’s given up on his business after a 13,000-birr tax bill that he believes was four times what it should have been, and is using a friend’s workshop. “It’s better to be mobile, going here and there. That is better than being licensed,” he says.
Others in the area say the levies on small businesses are another example that the system only works for the rich, who receive favours and tax breaks. Another small business owner believes access to jobs, land and controlled commodities such as sugar requires loyalty to the ruling party. The welder thinks the government wants the extra revenue to buy weapons – one of a number of conspiracy theories about the tax policy, testament to the extent of Oromo discontent, and the difficulty the authorities will have implementing unpopular policies. Protests over the tax, which closed businesses in July, have merged with other grievances and led to widespread strikes in Oromia last week.
Back in Burayu, rather than risk an unaffordable tax demand next year, Abdella says he will try to support his family by working in the construction industry. He has no faith that the ruling coalition will change its ways to make life easier for small businesses. “I don’t think there will be a solution if this government stays,” he says.
*Name changed to protect identity
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Oromian EConomist: Ethiopia: The bankrupted fascist Ethiopia’s regime has imposed huge sums of arbitrary payments and demands on small businesses
OROMIA: A NATION WIDE BOYCOTT & THE STAY-AT-HOME PROTEST HAS BEEN UNDERWAY (23-27 AUGUST 2017): MORMII WALIIGALAA GABAA LAGANNAA MARSAA 3ffaa GEGGEFAMAA JIRA. #HarargheeDebisaa #OromoProtests #OromoRevolution
Oromia: Athletic Nation Report: Oromo athlete Feyisa Lilesa (the global icon of #OromoProtests) wins the Bogota Half Marathon on 30 July 2017 July 31, 2017
Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests, Fayyisaa Lalisaa.Tags: #OromoProtests, #Rio2016, Africa, Against Tyranny, Bogota Half Marathon, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Ethiopia, Fayyisa Leellisaa, Feyisa Lilesa, Half Marathon, Marathon, Oromia, The Feyisa Lilesa Heroic Race
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Gootichi Oromoo Atileet Fayyisaa Leellisaa dorgommii walkaa maaraatoonii adunyaa magaalaa guddoo biyyaa Kolombiyaa, Bogotaatti gaafa Adoolessa 30 bara 2017 hirmmaachuun tokkoffaa bawuun injifate. Fayyisaan dorgommii kana sa’aatii tokkoof daqiiqaa 4iin rawwatte. Harkasaa lamman waliin qaxxaamursuun mirga Oromoof falumaa jiraachuusaa adunyaatti mul’isuu itti fufee jira.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGN2zL5es9c
The Ethiopian prevailed in the competition with a time of 1 hour 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
Feyisa Lilesa, winner of the Bogota Half Marathon 2017.
Photo: Abel Cárdenas / CEET
By: SPORTS,July 30, 2017
This year, the Bogotá Half Marathon celebrated its 18th edition, the race counted with the participation of more than 43,350 athletes, in addition to a general bag in prizes that exceeded 200 million pesos.
The Bogota Half Marathon, in the elite category, proclaimed Feyisa Lilesa, from Ethiopia, who prevailed with a time of 1 hour 4 minutes and 30 seconds. In the second box the podium is the Kenyan Peter Kirui, who arrived 10 seconds after the leader. In the third box, the Ethiopian Shura Kitata.
In the category of ladies, Brigid Jepchirchir Kosgei of Kenya prevailed with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes 20 seconds. Veorincah Wanjiru, also from Kenya, concluded Monday and Ruth Chepngetich, who was third.
The best Colombian athletes in the competition, were of the team Porvenir: Miguel Amador, who got tenth, with a time of 1 hour 7 minutes and 32 seconds; Angie Orjuela that was seventh in its category, with a time of 1 hour 17 minutes and 57 seconds.
Top ten (elite)
Male Open Category
1. Feyisa Lilesa
2. Peter Cheruiyot
3. Shura Kitata
4. Stanley Kpileting
5. Kimutai Kiplimo
6. El Hassan El Abbassi
7. Afewerki Berhane
8. Motoloka Clement
9. Yerson Orellana
10. Miguel Amador
Female Open Category
1. Brigid Jepchirchir
2. Veronicah Nyarruai
3. Ruth Chepngetich
4. Mary Wacera
5. Meskerem Assefa
6. Miriam Wangari
7. Angie Orjuela
8. Janet Cherobon
9. Angela Figueroa.
2017 Bogotá half marathon in pictures
Ethiopian Feyisa Lilesa took the 2017 Bogotá half marathon overall race victory with a time of 1h 4m 30s, we look at the day in pictures.
Ethiopia: The bankrupted fascist Ethiopia’s regime has imposed huge sums of arbitrary payments and demands on small businesses July 15, 2017
Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests.Tags: Africa, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Ethiopia, Ethiopia: TPLF's corruption empire, TPLF, TPLF's thievery in the name of taxation in Ethiopia, TPLF/EPRDF Ethiopian Regime is a Contra to a Developmental State
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“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
― Frédéric Bastiat
TPLF, the unelected and unrepresentative fascist/ terrorist group from Tigray which occupied state power in Ethiopia has imposed heavy arbitrary payments called ‘gibri‘ on small business in the country. The group conducts such fraud activities in the name of taxation and federal state. The bankrupted TPLF is to compensate its income losses from international aid and economic boycotts people imposed on the regime through series of protests (#OromoProtests, #AmharaResistance, #KonsoProtests, #SidamaProtests and resistance in Ogadenia and other parts of the country). Critics claims that in the last 26 years and so the TPLF has engaged in war booty, systematically looting resources and transfers to its group members and its rocky homeland, Tigray, Ethiopia’s north. Click here to read ETHIOPIA: IS TPLF GOVERNING OR EXPANDING IT’S CORRUPTIONS EMPIRE?
And also, protests against this new systematic escalation of TPLF’s thievery in the name of taxation is viral on Ethiopia’s related social and independent media.
BreakingNews: Several districts in Oromia & SNNPR fall from dusk to dawn curfew; night public transport stopped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWYwnfozCMk
The Economist: Africa’s house of cards: Ethiopia enters its seventh month of emergency rule April 24, 2017
Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests.Tags: #OromoProtests, Africa, Bishoftu Massacre, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Ethiopia, Ethiopia: state of emergency, Ethiopia’s secret genocide, Genocide Against Oromo People, Oromia, Oromo, The economist, Tyrannic TPLF Ethiopia, Tyranny
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Its response to the crisis has, therefore, been primarily an economic one. Its top priority is to reduce youth unemployment, of at least 30% in urban areas. It hopes to do so through promoting industrial parks such as the one in the southern town of Awassa, which opened in 2016. It is Africa’s largest and is expected to provide 60,000 jobs. But even the largest industrial parks are still a drop in an ocean of unemployment. And since most of the jobs they provide are low-skilled, they will do little to help the hundreds of thousands of university graduates entering the job market each year. “I’m a graduate in accounting but I work as a hotel cashier,” laments one exasperated Ambo resident.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a 19th-century French historian, argued that the most dangerous time for a bad government is when it begins to reform itself. The EPRDF is not the ancien regime of pre-revolutionary France. But it has taken de Tocqueville’s lesson to heart. It views Ethiopia as a house of cards that might easily topple. So the old model persists: development now, democracy later.
Africa’s house of cards: Ethiopia enters its seventh month of emergency rule
Development now, democracy later
THE three-hour bus-ride to Ambo from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, offers a glimpse into the country’s future. The road is well paved; irrigation ditches and polytunnels criss-cross commercial farmland; electricity lines leap over forested hills. The signal granting access to mobile internet is clear and constant. As the bus pulls into Ambo, a trading centre in Oromia, the largest and most populous of Ethiopia’s nine ethnically based regions, the street is bustling.
But there are signs, too, that not all is well. An army truck rolls down the main road. Federal police surround the entrance to the local university. Unemployed young men playing snooker in bar point at a building across the road: it used to be a bank, but it was burnt down. Three years ago 17 local boys were shot dead by security guards as they protested on the doorstep, the young men say.
Ambo has a reputation for dissent. It was on these streets that protests against authoritarian rule started in 2014 before sweeping across the country. They culminated in the declaration of a six-month state of emergency on October 9th last year.
Students from Ambo University led the charge in opposing a since-shelved plan to expand the capital city into surrounding farmland. Oromo identity is especially powerful here: locals speak angrily about being pushed aside by ethnic Tigrayans, who they say dominate the government despite making up less than 6% of the population.
The country’s leading opposition politician, Merera Gudina—who was charged with inciting terrorism in February and was scheduled to appear in the dock on April 24th—comes from this area. When the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) extended the emergency law for another four months (albeit after watering down its most draconian provisions) on March 30th, it was because of places like Ambo. Hundreds of its citizens have been arrested and subjected to months of “re-education” in military camps. Although stability has more or less returned to Ethiopia there are still young men across Oromia and Amhara, the second-largest region, who talk of protesting once more when the state of emergency is eventually lifted.
Not everyone feels this way. There may have been plenty of raised eyebrows when the prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, told Parliament on March 15th that 82% of Ethiopians wanted the state of emergency extended. But few want a return to disorder, and many admit that further emergency rule might not be so bad. Shopkeepers and restaurant owners in particular recall that businesses—as well as schools—were closed for months during the unrest. “Peace and security is more valuable than anything,” says a weary pharmacist.
Yet the challenge of addressing both the frustrations of angry youngsters and the concerns of anxious property owners is one the EPRDF is struggling to solve. Ethiopia’s economy is still growing at a healthy 7% a year, one of the fastest rates in Africa, even though drought has again hit large parts of the country. Foreign investment, which the government is promoting energetically, has held up surprisingly well. But with political freedom now a thing of the past, the government’s legitimacy rests on it delivering the prosperity it has long promised to all its citizens.
Its response to the crisis has, therefore, been primarily an economic one. Its top priority is to reduce youth unemployment, of at least 30% in urban areas. It hopes to do so through promoting industrial parks such as the one in the southern town of Awassa, which opened in 2016. It is Africa’s largest and is expected to provide 60,000 jobs. But even the largest industrial parks are still a drop in an ocean of unemployment. And since most of the jobs they provide are low-skilled, they will do little to help the hundreds of thousands of university graduates entering the job market each year. “I’m a graduate in accounting but I work as a hotel cashier,” laments one exasperated Ambo resident.
Political reform has been much less of a priority. Only one regional president has lost his job, though many ought to shoulder quite a bit of the blame for the unrest because of poor governance. A cabinet reshuffle in November included some high-profile changes: an Oromo controls the foreign ministry for the first time, for instance. But dialogue with opposition parties has made little progress. They must still ask permission to give a press conference or hold a public meeting. And an expansive anti-terrorism law, which has crimped their activities since 2009, will still be in place even when the last of the emergency provisions are lifted. The government has long promised to tackle corruption, which is the cause of much unhappiness. But there have been no high level prosecutions since October, even though tens of thousands of low-level officials have been sacked.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a 19th-century French historian, argued that the most dangerous time for a bad government is when it begins to reform itself. The EPRDF is not the ancien regime of pre-revolutionary France. But it has taken de Tocqueville’s lesson to heart. It views Ethiopia as a house of cards that might easily topple. So the old model persists: development now, democracy later.
This is Africa: Ethiopia at a crossroads: apartheid, civil war or reconciliation? September 30, 2016
Posted by OromianEconomist in Uncategorized.Tags: Afar, Africa, Amhara, AMHARA PROTEST, Anuak, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Elections, ETHIOIA, Ethnic Cleansing, Ethnic cleansing Against Oromo People, Gambella, Genocide, Ogaden, Oromia, Oromo, Oromo Protests, Sidama, TIGRAY, TPLF
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Despite the country’s constitution professing the equality of ‘all the peoples of Ethiopia’, for the past 25 years ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991. As a result of the political atmosphere in the country, where the best armed takes all, all aspects of the federal government (i.e. intelligence, military, police, state banks, airlines and core sectors of the country’s economy) are now dominated by an elite from a Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that represents only 6% of the general population.Divide and rule: For 25 years, the TPLF elite has guaranteed its grip on state power through the divide-and–rule tactic of festering ethnic animosity. The Amhara and the Oromo are their prime targets. Hate speech against the Amhara (the second–largest ethnic group in the country)was broadcast on state– and party–owned mass media outlets, denigrating millions of people by referring to them as ‘timkehetegna’, which means ‘the conceited’ The killing and jailing of the Oromo (the largest ethnic group in the country) has been normalised, thereby creating an entire generation of people who feel like second-class citizens in their own country.
Ethiopia at a crossroads: apartheid, civil war or reconciliation?
By Tariku Abas Etenesh, This Is Africa, September 27, 2016
Ethiopia is seeing an increasing number of civilian protests, which are brutally suppressed by the government. It seems that the elite in power needs to heed the lessons taught by the Rwandan genocide: Do not play with ethnic hatred.
Oromo Liberation Front fighters. Photo: Jonathan Alpeyrie/ Wikimedia Commons
The year-long, nationwide and unceasing popular anti-government revolt in Ethiopia has brought the country’s ‘ethnolinguistic federalism’experiment to a dead end. Despite the country’s constitution professing the equality of ‘all the peoples of Ethiopia’, for the past 25 years ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991. As a result of the political atmosphere in the country, where the best armed takes all, all aspects of the federal government (i.e. intelligence, military, police, state banks, airlines and core sectors of the country’s economy) are now dominated by an elite from a Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that represents only 6% of the general population.
Divide and rule
For 25 years, the TPLF elite has guaranteed its grip on state power through the divide-and–rule tactic of festering ethnic animosity. The Amhara and the Oromo are their prime targets. Hate speech against the Amhara (the second–largest ethnic group in the country)was broadcast on state– and party–owned mass media outlets, denigrating millions of people by referring to them as ‘timkehetegna’, which means ‘the conceited’ The killing and jailing of the Oromo (the largest ethnic group in the country) has been normalised, thereby creating an entire generation of people who feel like second-class citizens in their own country.
There is a lesson to be learned from the Rwandan genocide: Do not to play with ethnic hatred.
Threatening the country they lead
Unlike the former military regime, which relied on force to crush any opposition but never compromised on the sovereignty of the nation, the current TPLF–led dictatorship is unprecedented in its threat to wreak havoc if its absolute power is contested. The late Meles Zenawi was often seen using this tactic of bullying the country whenever his party’s reckless corruption and unconstitutional dominance over the federal government was questioned.
One aspect of the mayhem that Meles designed and his colleagues now desire to unleash isthat of instilling hatred among the people of Tigray and other ethnic groups by turning anycriticism of them as leaders of the country into an attack on the Tigray people. This hate–mongering is evidence that the elite does not have the Ethiopian people at heart, onlypower. The Tigray people have not only been betrayed by the TPLF elite but they are alsobeing manipulated as the party tries to hide its many failing. Tigray deserves peace and development as much as the other parts of Ethiopia, not to be taken hostage by the corrupt and power-hungry TPLF, which is terrorising them.
Read: Ethiopia: Paralympian Tamiru Demisse gestures in solidarity with Oromo protestors
Cracks in the ‘divide and rule’ policy
For the first time in the 25 years of minority control of the federal government, the people of the two major ethnic groups, the Amhara and the Oromo, have come together to create a common front of the oppressed. This unexpected show of unity has sent a shockwave throughthe TPLF elite, who is frantic and has sent in the military, armed with tanks, helicopters and missiles, against civilians – as if people who are simply demanding their rights and equalitywere foreign invaders.
Country at a crossroads
The current popular opposition in the Oromia and Amhara regional states is a great opportunity for the government to re–examine its divisive policies, admit to its failings and design a reconciliatory road map that would save the nation from descending further into conflict. The elite, however, still chooses to use special killing squads, military force, burning prisons and killing prisoners in custody.
For the past 25 years, ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991.
In addition, it is now spending taxpayers’ money and foreign aid on the launching of media campaigns to derail the unity of the Amhara and the Oromo people.
A silent coup
Following the first wave of uprising by the Oromo last year, the Ethiopian military, controlled by the TPLF, has made official its unequivocal allegiance to the ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ policy, which is the governing policy of the ruling party. This act of merging party and government into one practically re-mandated the defence force of Ethiopia into being a mere protector of the minority elite and, by implication, declared the country’s constitution obsolete.
This is a silent coup. This fact becomes evident when one considers the supposed industrialisation of Ethiopia, which is to be led by the military, under the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC). This is a corporation under the Ethiopian National Defence Force that is fully controlled by generals who were former TPLF rebel leaders. They were tasked by the late Meles Zenawi with the industrialisation of the country. This dangerous disregard for the constitution amounts to running a government inside a government and is pushing Ethiopia towards being an ethnic apartheid state. This can only lead to more violence.
Embracing real democracy
Just a few months ago, the government won 100% of the seats in parliament seats. Voterigging is suspected. The whole country erupted in opposition, showing the real danger of authoritarianism.
Sending in an army, equipped with tanks and missiles, against civilians – as the government has done against the people of Amhara – for no reason other than the fact that they exercisedtheir democratic rights, is not how democracy works. Such a display of power is the most cowardly and desperate exhibition of despotism.
It is incumbent on the people of Ethiopia not to fall for the traps set by the elite, who seem more determined than ever to encourage ethnic conflict and hatred through their media propaganda.
The path of national reconciliation
Unfortunately, due to the divide-and–rule policy of the government over the past 25 years,Ethiopians have been targeted for their ethnicity: The Amhara, Oromo, Anuak, Somali, Tigray, Kembata, Konso and many other ethnic groups have been targeted at different times. This is a sad reality and testifies to the policy of hate–mongering that is practised by the elite.
Read: Ethiopia abandons Addis Ababa “master plan” after Oromo protests
The government of Ethiopia needs to stop encouraging further division and animosity. No Ethiopian should be targeted for his or her ethnicity. There is a lesson to be learned from the Rwandan genocide: Do not to play with ethnic hatred.
However, it is incumbent on the people of Ethiopia not to fall for the traps set by the elite who now, more than ever, seem determined to encourage ethnic conflict and hatred through their media propaganda. Our silence today will not save us sorrow tomorrow. We should say no to the machetes of hatred that the country’s leaders are selling in their media. We should say no to the use of our name to justify the killing of any Ethiopian.
The martyrdom of our time is saying no to hatred and ethnic conflict while calling for equality and justice for all.
FP: Dispatch: The Rotten Foundation of Ethiopia’s Economic Boom. #OromoProtests March 23, 2016
Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests, Africa, Oromia, Oromo.Tags: #OromoProtests, Africa, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Ethiopia’s fake economic growth borrows from ENRON’s accounting, Foreign Policy, Genocidal killings against Oromo people, Land grab in Oromia & Gambella, Oromia, Oromo, The Rotten Foundation of Ethiopia’s Economic Boom
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“There are so many problems facing the Oromo people… “But those who speak about it are getting arrested. Educated people, farmers, teachers, doctors — the government accuses them all of being part of the protests.”
The Rotten Foundation of Ethiopia’s Economic Boom
ADAMA, Ethiopia — For those who would speak frankly about politics in this landlocked East African country, the first challenge is to find a safe space.
But on a recent evening in Adama, a city in the heart of a region reeling from the largest protest movement Ethiopia has faced in decades, most people seemed at ease. University students poured out of the city’s main campus, spilling into claustrophobic bars and pool halls. Others crowded around a cluster of aging taxis, jostling for a quick ride home.
Though it is one of the largest cities in Oromia — where members of Ethiopia’s Oromo ethnic group have taken to the streets in recent months in unprecedented numbers to protest their political and economic marginalization — Adama has remained mostly quiet.
Hidden beneath the casual veneer of daily life, however, lurks a deep-seated suspicion of the government, which has built a massive surveillance apparatus and cracked down violently on its opponents
Hidden beneath the casual veneer of daily life, however, lurks a deep-seated suspicion of the government, which has built a massive surveillance apparatus and cracked down violently on its opponents.
Citizens feel they have to watch what they say, and where they say it. At the hangouts where crowds have gathered, a political statement might be overheard. Out on the sidewalks, government spies could be on patrol. Inside the university campus, security officials are on the lookout for suspicious behavior.
In a way, the recent unrest is rooted in Ethiopia’s rapid economic rise. The federal government claims to have notched double-digit GDP growth rates over the past decade, but its rigid, top-down approach to developing industry, and attracting foreign investment, has resulted in mass displacement and disrupted millions of lives. This, in turn, has heightened ethnic tensions that today threaten Ethiopia’s reputation for stability.
All across Oromia, government security forces have been struggling to control the spate of violent protests that erupted in November, partly in response to the government’s so-called master plan to coordinate development in Addis Ababa with nearby towns in Oromia, a sprawling central region that surrounds the capital on all sides. Like much of the country, the vast majority of Oromia is rural, home to small-scale farmers who feel left behind by the dazzling growth of Addis.
When this latest round of protests began last year, demonstrators seized on the master plan as symbolic of broader encroachments on Oromo autonomy. They also accused the government of taking land from Oromo farmers for little or no compensation, suppressing the Oromo language in schools, and unfairly redistributing the region’s natural resources.
In Adama, a 23-year-old engineering student, whose full name has been withheld for his safety, was initially reluctant to speak with this reporter for fear of reprisal. He relaxed only after he and some close friends sat down in a deserted cafe near campus, where a quiet woman brewing coffee over hot coals was the only person listening in.
“There are so many problems facing the Oromo people,” he said. “But those who speak about it are getting arrested. Educated people, farmers, teachers, doctors — the government accuses them all of being part of the protests.”
His caution was warranted. Less than two weeks later, a confrontation erupted at the university, reportedly in response to a small demonstration by students — though the details, as always, are hazy. One witness who asked not be named said he heard gunshots as security forces descended on the campus. Amid the confusion, at least two fires were sparked — one in the school’s backup generator.
“On campus, students already feared the armed forces,” said the witness, who is a student at the university. “Now, no one feels like they have any right to speak at all.”
Government security forces have been accused of exacerbating the crisis in Oromia by violently suppressing the protests. In a recent report, Human Rights Watch said it had “documented security forces firing into crowds of protesters with little or no warning, the arrests of students as young as 8, and the torture of protesters in detention.” The rights group said military and police forces have killed “several hundred peaceful protesters” since November.
Members of the Ethiopian diaspora have been equally vocal, taking to social media to call attention to alleged atrocities. Jawar Mohammed, who is based in Minnesota, is perhaps the most prominent online activist, manning a number of social media feeds featuring bloody photos of dead demonstrators and grainy videos of police brutality that have become hubs for Oromo diaspora members around the world. His Facebook page has amassed nearly a half million followers.
“We have freelancers embedded in pretty much every district across the country,” said Mohammed, who was born in Ethiopia but works abroad as the executive director of the Oromia Media Network, a news broadcaster whose satellite feed here has been repeatedly jammed by the Ethiopian government. “They infiltrate the system from top to bottom,” he said in a Skype interview.
How much of an impact social media activism has had on the actual protest movement is a matter of debate. In a country with limited Internet penetration, and where the sole government-owned telecommunications provider has the power to shut down signals and block opposition websites, online activists like Mohammed are necessarily limited in what they can do. According to the engineering student in Adama, people on the ground are driving the protests, and social media matters “only a little bit.”
Where online activists have succeeded is in channeling video and photographic evidence of abuses to the outside word
Where online activists have succeeded is in channeling video and photographic evidence of abuses to the outside word. But even this evidence is difficult to verify; several journalists, including this correspondent, have been detained by officials for attempting to report in some of the worst-affected areas.
There are also questions about the direction social media activists have steered the debate surrounding the protests. Comments by Mohammed’s passionate social media followers sometimes advocate violence against members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political party from the northern region of Tigray that dominates the government’s security and intelligence agencies. And because he and other online activists are far from the front lines, some argue that their social media posts are ultimately a distraction. The student who witnessed the altercation at the university in Adama, for instance, said he agrees with Mohammed’s political analysis, but is concerned that the Facebook page has become a magnet for a dizzying array of viewpoints — about religion, regional politics, and ethnic strife — that make the movement more controversial than it needs to be.
Still, Mohammed has a clear strategy in mind. When it comes to human life, he advocates nonviolence. But he encourages demonstrators to block trade routes, destroy the property of companies that are seen as operating against Oromo interests, and avoid bringing crops to market in order to raise food prices.
Might such tactics be unethical during the worst drought Ethiopia has witnessed in decades, which has left 10.2 million people in need of emergency food aid? “Morally, yes,” Mohammed said. “Strategically, no.”
Officials have no time for these “activists on the other side of the Atlantic,” said government spokesman Getachew Reda. He claimed that agitators, some of whom have backing from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s archrival, have infiltrated the ranks of the protesters and are responsible for the current violence. The government security forces, by contrast, have generally handled the situation professionally, he said.
“We may have some bad apples,” Reda said. “Otherwise, the security apparatus that we have in this country is very much oriented towards serving the interests of the public.”
Amid this war of words, normal citizens are caught in the middle. In the quiet café in Adama, the engineering student spelled out a set of remarkably prosaic demands: He would like to see more Oromo professors at the university, for instance, and a fairer allocation of resources for the region. But, he said, he stays quiet for fear of Ethiopia’s pervasive security and intelligence apparatus.
“People don’t feel free,” he said. “We are all psychologically impacted.”
After two months of violent demonstrations, the government announced that it was scrapping the master plan. It wasn’t enough. Some protesters said they didn’t believe it had really been canceled. Others were motivated by grievances that run much deeper than any development scheme, citing marginalization stretching all the way back to the late 1800s, when the Ethiopian emperor Menelik II swept in from the north to expand Ethiopia’s borders and establish the capital city in Oromo lands.
On paper, today’s federal system is meant to ensure some measure of autonomy for all of the country’s ethnic groups, including the Oromos. The ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is made up of four regional parties, including the TPLF and the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO). But the government lost some credibility in May, when the EPRDF and allied parties won every parliamentary seat in a national election. Though the OPDO holds more parliamentary seats than any other party, protesters say the party either cannot or will not challenge the dominance of the TPLF — and Oromos remain marginalized as a result.
Officials say they are trying to promote meaningful dialogue. “It is the government’s responsibility to make sure that people’s legitimate grievances are addressed properly,” Reda said. To that end, OPDO officials have convened meetings with concerned citizens across Oromia, and hundreds of low-level officials have been dismissed for corruption.
But the government has continued to lean on its powerful security apparatus, which has both enabled Ethiopia’s impressive, state-led economic development and imperiled it by bringing ethnic tensions to the fore. The ongoing protests in Oromia point to cracks in the facade, where citizens feel left out as the government pursues its uncompromising vision of modernization.
By continuing to crack down on demonstrators instead of listening to their demands, Ethiopia risks compromising the reputation for political stability that fueled its unprecedented decade of growth and foreign investment. In that way, the government may soon erode the very foundation of its own economic ambitions.
OROMIA: OROMO PROTESTS: MARKING THE NEXT ETHIOPIAN POLITICAL CHAPTER January 25, 2016
Posted by OromianEconomist in #OromoProtests, Africa, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo.Tags: Africa, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Oromia, Oromo, OROMO PROTESTS: MARKING THE NEXT ETHIOPIAN POLITICAL CHAPTER, OromoProtets2016, Social changes, The tyranny of TPLF Ethiopia
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OPINION: OROMO PROTESTS: MARKING THE NEXT ETHIOPIAN POLITICAL CHAPTER
#OromoProtests Special coverage
By Henok Gabisa, Addis Standard, 25 January 2016
The current situation in Oromiya and wider Ethiopia is blusterous. In the words of an anonymous commentator on the ground, “Oromiya is a war zone; we are under effective military control.” From this characterization, I gather that the government security forces’ merciless firing of live ammunition at peaceful protestors has turned the situation into a popular civil rebellion in all of Oromiya. As a matter of fact, protest actions have taken place in more than 170 Oromo cities, towns and villages. As of this writing, Oromo activists have verified and documented the killing of over 100 Oromo persons, the majority of whom are students and farmers. The Associated Press reports that 80 Oromo protestors were killed. Oromo mothers and female students are being kidnapped and transported to unknown locations.
Effective December 15, the Oromo nation has fallen under the administrative jurisdiction of a “Command Post”, an entity chaired by the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. “Counter-Terrorism Task Force”, which is assembled for this particular purpose is also deployed. It remains a major legal question whether the “military administration” constitutes the same effect as declaration of emergency situation-executive decree which should have followed a procedure of its own as under article 93 of the constitution. However, as of now, what we know is that the inception of the “command post” already has obliterated any semblance of legality because it unconstitutionally suspended the bodies that administer (i.e., the State Parliament and the Executive) of the State of Oromiya and the nominal political party in charge there.
On December 16, the federal government released something very close to a national decree. It was read on a national TV during prime time broadcast service. A joint venture of the “Command Post” and “Anti-Terrorism Special Task Force”, the decree’s content was considered by many as amounting to a declaration of war against the Oromo in general. The following day, the communication minister, Getachew Reda, followed up the decree with a presser, in which he described Oromo protesters as “devils”, “demons”, “satanic”, “witches” and “terrorists”, who need special military operation “to be put back in their place”. In his cantankerous statements, Getachew cleared up what many observers already suspected: the deep-seated and systematized dehumanization project of the Oromo by the regime and beyond. Again, PM Hailemariam Dessalegn, in an exclusive interview with the national TV, menacingly vowed for a “merciless” national response against the Oromo protesters if they don’t stop protesting. Now, we are observing synchronized, condescending and patronizing melodrama being translated into collective punishment against the Oromo. Getachew’s sordidly loaded press communication in fact reminded me of Seif-Al Islam Gaddafi’s last taunting moment in one of the notorious TV broadcast in which he called the Libyan protestors “rats” who had to be annihilated. The current military control in Oromiya exactly resembles the famous Nazi Law known as The Third Reich of 1933 that Nazified all German law in order to grant arbitrary power to Hitler to detain and convict Jews. In a similar way, ours is also a regime that has unequivocally and arrogantly displayed that it is not only the enemy of the people, but also of itself.
Why the plan is the reincarnation of perennial Oromo question?
The protest, now turned into an unarmed popular uprising or movement, is a renewed call from Oromo people to object to and demand the unconditional and permanent termination of the implementation of the Addis Abeba Master Plan, which is designed to incorporate surrounding Oromo lands into the capital against the will of owner-operators. The complete absence, on the part of the government, to solicit public consultation or participation since the start of the plan’s preparation in 2009 did not only make it a surreptitious political scheme, but also flagged major questions as to the substantive intent and content of the plan itself. In fact, the plan was viewed among the Oromo as an existential threat to the people and their land. The Oromo see the plan as a danger to their identity, language, culture, environment, and most importantly, their right to property/land security and the right to a sustainable development.
The government’s initial attempt to foist the plan in 2014 faced a stiff resistance from Ambo University students and all corners of Oromiya, triggering a massive crackdown by the government that killed unknown number of Oromo students in April and May of the same year. No judicial investigation or commission of inquiry was established, nor did anyone government official was hold accountable.
Completely disrespecting the peoples’ persistent objection against the plan, as of November 2015, the government came back with an imperious determination to implement the infamous master plan. At this juncture, the Oromo people, indisputably, were convinced of the federal government’s long-term scheme to end the meager economic and political presence, of the Oromo in central Addis Abeba and its surroundings.
The Master Plan, which the regional government said was scarped all together, is an epitome of the major political and economic injustices that have lingered on unresolved for far too long. Political subordination and denial of self-governance, rising poverty and increasing unemployment rate among Oromo households because of the policy of land eviction and language discrimination, are some of the fundamental questions. The ongoing movement is an expression of demand for an international scrutiny towards the Ethiopian regime’s system of wealth distribution and economic regulation in the ethnically structured federal system of the country.
Over the last quarter of century, the Oromo people have been ruthlessly targeted for their identity, falling prey to one of the authoritarian regimes in the continent. For example, various reports indicate that about 90% of the political prisoners in Ethiopian prison are exclusively made up of the Oromo. Not only did this create a deep-seated grievance among the Oromo, but also displayed the inept political leadership of the incumbent, potentially risking long-term stability of the region. The condensed account of political and economic discrimination based on identity, language and culture, the widespread and systematic violation of fundamental rights to property, crumbling land security, complete non-existence of freedom of assembly and of the press are some of the rudiments that are heating up the recent Oromo civil movement. These questions are as old as the coming into power of the current regime itself, or well beyond. The surreptitiously designed Addis Master Plan is the latest iteration of the long-standing policy of dispossessing the Oromo from their property, this time under the shibboleth of “urbanization” and “development.”
Humanitarian Crises: regime’s breach of common Article 3 of Geneva Convention
With the civilian protestors facing a regime that has no hesitation to use the national military force, a humanitarian crises has unfolded at an alarming rate. In some cases the government has deployed military helicopters to transport military personnel to the protest sites. We have witnessed that the regime’s military response doesn’t have moral boundary. I suspect the regime is oblivious to the fact that the whole world is watching.
Material breach-by the regime’s military force-of humanitarian obligation also continues to take place in several other forms. For example, in Wallaga, reports indicate that medical professionals are being beaten and arrested for treating wounded protesters. In Najjo town, Ambo and Burayu, security forces have occupied hospital compounds and other medical facilities in order to detain, deny and refuse admittance of the fatally injured protesters. In fact, the same type of cruelty has been witnessed during the 2014 Oromo protest. Of course, this kind of material breach of international humanitarian duty could also be considered as a constitutive element of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Furthermore, the regime’s moral revulsion against the protestors is well indicated in the pervasive and horrifying acts of group rapes allegedly committed by members of the military in a number of villages and university campuses. Some reports also reveal a disturbing account of a wife who was raped at night in front of her husband. It is clear that rape has always been used as a tool of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in different countries at different times. That is why International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) developed a legal theory under which an act of rape could give rise to a joint criminal conviction for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Any viable solution?
The movement is an expressed demand for sustainable peace, justice, democracy, equality and true development that had been lacking in the country over the last 25 years. Apparently, the existing model of governance couldn’t extend to the greater public beyond the elites and a few members of a group who are affiliated with the regime. In fact, that is why Ethiopia is on the brink of famine with over 20 million Ethiopian people in need of urgent food, the majority of the affected being the Oromo. The number of Ethiopian youths that very frequently perish in the Mediterranean Sea while running away from home should put the lie to the government’s claim of the double digit growth. The stories thousands of our sisters living in an almost slavery-like situation in the Middle East should be a sufficient indication of how the travesty of the assertion Ethiopia’s fast economic growth.
The recent movement filled with ultimate self-sacrifice is the latest episode in Oromo’s quest for a better future and legitimate self-governance. The movement understands that unchecked state power in Ethiopia has been the problem and not the solution to economic development. The movement is an ultimate negation of the regime’s grandiloquent declaration of the recent 100% parliamentary win. It is the movement that is guarding and protecting the constitution from the government that was supposed to defend it. At the end of the day, the movement is a demand for reconfiguration and restructuring of the politics of the country. Of all, the movement is a plea for the permanent removal of the metastasized political cancer that that has diminished the lives and existence of the Oromo.
So, it is possible that the movement will soon culminate in being a sole driving force for the emergence of a new Ethiopia that all can call home. Oromo children’s blood gushing like a river on every street of Oromo city is a timely proof for a well-deserved moral leadership in the country. Over the last two months, the incumbent regime has conveyed a message to the Oromo and all other Ethiopians that it cannot lead the country; that its moral integrity is already corrupted, busted and politically bankrupt. The regime didn’t cash in on the benefit of the doubt it was granted 25 years ago. Now, it is a prime time for the people to step up their games by owning and showing the right leadership. That is the only way out.
Ed’s Note: Henok Gabisa is Visiting International Law Fellow based at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. He can be reached at GabisaH@wlu.edu. The opinions expressed in this article are that of the writer and do not necessarily reflect Addis Standard’s editorial guideline.
Civil Disobedience Can Be A Potent Weapon To Dismantle Fascist TPLF’s Abyssinian Empire December 1, 2015
Posted by OromianEconomist in Uncategorized.Tags: Afar, Africa, Aga'u, Against Tyranny, Amensty International Report: Because I am Oromo, Benishangul, Civil Disobedience Against Tyranny, Ethiopia's Colonizing Structure and the Development Problems of People of Oromia, Gambella and Omo Valley, Genocide against Ogaden People, National Self Determination, Oromia, Sidama, The fascism of TPLF Ethiopia
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Civil Disobedience Can Be A Potent Weapon To Dismantle TPLF’s Abyssinian Empire
By Denboba Natie
Civil disobedience is a potent weapon in the hands of those who understand how to use it’ M. Coxall 2015.
I’m Created Equal….No Less No More!
Haromaya University on November 30, 2015. Let us be the voice of the voiceless Oromo peaceful protesters. Their voice is stifled by fascist TPLF regime again. Time to act by Oromo around the world!
People are differently nurtured in different parts of the world although their biological element known as DNA is over 99.5% the same. Nurturing is the basis for peoples’ way of understanding the world around them. History shows that largely, peoples’ attitudes, behaviours and practices have been socially constructed and deconstructed, shaped and reshaped throughout several centuries. Moreover, our collective and individual beings are shaped with our self-awareness as an individual or community. In psychology also, self-awareness is defined as metacognition, awareness of one’s own ability to reasonably and logically assert realities. In humans, metacognition and other advanced cognitive skills, such as social intelligence, planning and reasoning, are all thought to depend on a region of brain known as the prefrontal cortex. Therefore, we, humans became different from the animals only with the power of our brain and the ability of reasoning and self-awareness which distinguish us from most other earthly species.
We are all created equal and thus deserve our inalienable rights enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration and the 18th century American Independence documents as described:-We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the concerned of the governed.
Contrary to the above, there are groups of morally corrupt and politically and economically powerful individuals who ascribe inferiority to the ruled. They dictate the majority that they are created special and given omnipotent power to rule over the others. This is why there are socially fabricated royalty, super rich, corporate management, and ruling politicians. Such morally corrupt, self-appointed persons make up rules and regulations to impose them on their likes. They do so for their own egocentrism by keeping the majorities as simple usable tools – in spite of the fact that their likes equally deserve dignity and respect, and share the same human needs such as physiological, safety, social esteem, cognitive and self-actualisation needs; in addition, these individuals deprive the rest of the Mankind of basic needs, including the pursuit of happiness, aspiration and hope.
The inhumane practices of the rulers and business corporations have been in place since time immemorial although their barbarism become more sophisticated as European modernisation became a reality. Notwithstanding such abhorring crimes of slavery committed by Europeans, Americans and Arabians since the 16th century; regardless the European technological advancements, slavery has increased exponentially since the mid1750s to 1800s with scope and dimension under the infamous name known as industrial revolution. My personal opinion is not that the industrial revolution has been bad for mankind. I rather argue that this progress has brought its own evils with it. During this period, the sophistication of strategizing the enslavement of the majority under guise of civilisation and capitalism, whilst keeping the ruled majority silent, ended up with the enslavement of the dummies; in the same period the number of the prisoners of conscience increased significantly too. One of famous American Black Civil rights movement leaders defies the silence of the majority as; ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter’ Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968.
Human brain power has got the capacity of either positively or negatively impacting human endeavours. History tells us that this capacity has shaped and unshaped social evolution throughout millennia; therefore humans judge any people or any society, based on their individual or collective contributions and actions to their likes. Ever since humans exist in the form of social entity, some groups of people or individuals have viciously treated their kinds, while within the egalitarian societies people have peacefully and fraternally coexisted with one another and in full agreement with the nature and natural orders. Several establishments across History have repeatedly demonstrated their viciousness by viciously treating their subjects and by erroneously recording and promoting their accounts of history which emphasise their own nobility and superiority, thereby preaching the inferiority of their subjects. Howard Zinn, an authoritative American historian professor advises about such flaws of histories and their repugnant roles in the society as follows:-“I’m worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel – let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they’re doing. I’m concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that’s handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers”.
Human species with capacity to make fair choice and ability to empathise the sufferings of their likes regrettably switch their positive natural abilities to greed, which takes at times diabolic proportions, and to vicious inhumanity and in this manner they do cause further misery to their kinds. These groups of people create extremely repressive regulations, policies and legislations, which they blatantly impose on the systematically silenced majority, who on most occasions obey without any question. And this has been an ongoing exercise of those who have appointed themselves to be the sole beneficiaries of wealth, greed and social hierarchy since time immemorial. Besides, no person on planet has been given such rights by birth as we saw it from the above argument. Neither royalty nor secret societies nor anyone else has been naturally endowed with such right to be a vicious ruler rejoicing with the sufferings of his likes. Evidences reveal that it’s those who are the ruled ones who allow such systems to evolve from century to century as their minds are increasingly obscured as a result of century’s old bombardments with lies and deceits geared to coerce them to accept the imposed inferiority.
A famous singer, Bob Marley, rightly puts this: ‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds! (Bob Marley 1945 – 1981)’. This has been substantiated by Marcus Garvey as follows: ‘Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men, (Marcus Garvey 1887 – 1940)). They both agree with one fundamental fact, namely that people must liberate themselves from various forms of injustice imposed on them by simply rejecting such rules.
The first and foremost priority is unambiguously understanding that no one on planet has got any right under whatsoever definition to oppress people individually or collectively or to impose their rules on them due to their military superiority and financial power- with money expropriated from the wealth of the majority. The next step is understanding the power of unity and having unity of purpose. Cognizant of their fundamental rights, if those who are oppressed are united and agree to persistently and unanimously demand their own rights, those who might impose their will on majority will have no choice apart from unwillingly surrendering. However, as mentioned above, it is imperative to acknowledge that those, who are in power, have got weapons and use them against the majority. They have got money and Media machineries and others governmental apparatuses through which they can systematically impose their evil will. More essentially, they might have already systematically brainwashed the majority with lies and deceptive mantras of generations to obscure historical reality. Regardless, if once such erroneous assertions and beliefs of the majority change and the clouds of falsehood diminish, history will inevitably change. Once the majority wake up and understand that no one has got God-given right to rule over them with iron fist from generation to generation, no rulers on planet can stop such wave of united movement.
Throughout Human History, the frustration of the extremely dissatisfied, disillusioned and oppressed citizens has always resulted in some kinds of public reaction. Such reactions, in the best case take the form of civil disobedience (CD) and the others take some form of an armed struggle. As M. Maxall, 2015, analyses it in more extreme cases, CD results in bloody revolution or what modern politicians prefer to call it ‘Terrorism’. Therefore, civil disobedience is an inevitable human reaction to unacceptably imposed oppression by the oppressors in any part of the world. Effectively utilised, CD has brought down governments and even empires, overturned despots of all levels globally, won great civil and human rights victories throughout centuries, driven the engine of human development and brought dignity and power to the people of the world (M. Maxall 2015).
Using CD as a method of forcing government to listen to people’s voice or removing authoritarian rulers from power will undoubtedly have a phenomenal effectiveness. Another famous intellectual and campaigner of civil rights stresses that no one should remain silent while their rights are stifled and they are oppressed for the sake of peace and security: ‘You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom’. ‘Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to… (Malcolm X, 1925 – 1965).
Emphatically Rejecting Oppression until Asserting Own Rights
Preparing to embark on CD needs minimum or no external resources. All the mass need to do is psychologically and mentally feel liberated and freed. They have to believe that they are exonerated from the prisoning systems. It is all about believing that the mass is not any more the slave of the government or corporations and that no one has got right to brutalise and continually enslave them. The oppressed and subjugated subjects need only an internal strength and understanding of the reality on the ground. They must be prepared to continually and in unison demand their unalienable rights whether the regime in power is likely to shoot and kill or intimidate them by any possible means. Often CD can be conducted in a peaceful and in a very discrete manner without even the regime in power or its loyalists understating what is going on. Neither weapons nor expensive means of communications are necessary to conduct CD. Always preparing to conduct CD on non-violent basis will be the most potent weapon as stated by Gandhi:- ‘Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It’s the mightier than the mightiest Weapon of destruction devised by theingenuity of Man’ (Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 -1948).
Deeply articulating the fact that no one has got right to exploit the resources of the majority, whilst the majorities are left with little or no choice but suffer the consequences, plays a crucial role in bringing together those who are victimised. Once courageous and determined individuals or groups of peoples come together, their unity triggers waves of CD movements with common vision and understanding, who are therefore able to stand own grounds whilst demanding these universal and unalienable rights to equality. No one has got any rights to prevent us from demanding these rights, as a famous American novelist stated: ‘No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow, Alice Walker).
As I have mentioned above, among the various methods of unanimously rejecting the rules of dictators or corporations, the most efficient, cost effective, simple and potent weapon the oppressed can use against their rulers is CD. Effectively used CD can easily shake the foundations of any oppressor in any part of the world. CD manifests itself by unanimously rejecting any regime wherever it might be, whenever possible. CD is nothing but mere refusal to obey governmental demands or commands; it is a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government or removing the government. It is entirely non-violent, and this is the reason it ismore potent than any form of manmade weapons. A famous American intellectual, professor, historian, playwright and human rights activists emphasises the importance of this as follows:-
‘The most formidable military machine depends ultimately on obedience of its soldiers, the most powerful corporation becomes helpless when its workers stop working, when its customers refuse to buy its products. The strike, the boycott, the refusal to serve, the ability to paralyse the functioning of a complex social structure, these remain potent weapons against the most fearsome state or corporate power’, (Howard Zinn, 1922 – 2010).
Effectively used CD obliges the rulers to understand that their subjects are not dummies any longer; thus the rulers will be forced to relinquish their power in order for the majority to decide their ways out of the difficulties. One of the America’s novelists agree with this as follows:-‘The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t possess it anymore’ (Alice Walker, American novelist)
Although those who have placed themselves in upper social strata or hierarchy dictate their accounts of history and stories, philosophically their place in history is inferior, as they utterly lack the key elements that make us humane. They are short of the key humane element which makes us feel and empathise the sufferings of the others. They rejoice when they bomb innocent children and civilian with nuclear and others forms of WMD. This is the reason why sadly those who are in power dictate false accounts of everything to hoodwink their subjects in order for them to exploit their subjects – ignorant of historical realities. Howard Zinn states the above argument as follows: –“History is important. If you don’t know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it”. Human histories are recorded and maintained depending on individual region’s or country’s contexts although the following is a universally binding declaration. Orally narrated histories of traditional societies are much more reliable than the written and serve as valuable in their objective as the written accounts. The question is whether the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are respected in any part of the world
Box 1. Excerpts from ‘UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.
| Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. Article 21. (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Article 27. (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. |
Courageous and Bold Move is Essential whilst affecting CD.
The reason why we need CD is simply because those whose rights are violated by those officials or corporations must unite and demand them. The oppressed subjects must defy the current repressive and exploitative orders, either in Ethiopia or worldwide; the universally self-appointed elites who call themselves the rescuers and governors of our planet must be met with CD, i.e. the most effective manner to have them removed. We should not fear any person on planet as long as we stand for genuine cause and aforementioned universally acknowledged rights. One icon of our century’s struggle for freedom and resistance and renowned African statesman states that we must win over our fear whilst standing for our fundamental rights: ‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear, (Nelson Mandela 1918 -2013)
Box 2 Some of Key Reasons Initiating Civil Disobedience
| Persistent and blatant abuse of power in a number of ways by government officials. Controlling of civilians by spying on citizens via state and corporation censorship. Manipulation of public opinion with lies, deceits and obfuscations. Disallowing room for a political rights and kidnapping and torturing those who choose to be involved. Morally, economically and ethically corrupt government officials. Detention without trials only using kangaroo courts for show trails. Collective punishment of given ethnic groups or nationals for their political views/economic interests of the rulers. Massacre and genocide of given ethnic nationals or groups of people for their political views. Rigging election and promoting state terrorism whilst covering up official misdeeds. Deliberately and systematically impoverishing given ethnic nationals by expropriating their natural resources. Targeting given ethnic nationals for belonging to given ethnic identity or nationals therefore torturing and mass imprisoning them. Denial of justice and arbitrarily arresting non-combatant civilians to keep them jailed for years/decades. Suppression of dissent voices and misuses of police and army power to stifle citizens and keep them silenced. Discrimination against certain groups or ethnic nationals for their political and economic importance. Theft of citizens’ property to enrich politicians and their loyalists. Blackmailing of dissents and human rights activist by authorities. Institutional incompetence and negligence of authorities. Disrespect of citizens and repeated hypocrisy… and more. |
Since time immemorial, Mankind has experienced rewarding progress and advancement, but at the same time IT continues to suffer ever worsening and appalling evils, troubles and ills. This is because man’s problems are man-caused therefore potentially easily resolvable matters. We must fight and overcome manmade injustice that humans imposed on their kinds. We must challenge and overcome man’s capacity of causing deliberate harm to his/her likes. The most effective means of achieving this is CD.
Understanding the World: prerequisite to effectively conduct CD while not expecting any good from big Evils
History affirms that the largest part of human decadence is ascribed to European and American colonial expansionists who have in massive scale developed the concept of humans’ inferiority or superiority and thereby played a key role in advancing concomitant human sufferings. In addition to simple economic and political superiority, these groups of peoples created weapons of mass destruction and continually experimented them all over the world. For instance, to such evil and inhumane competitions is due the notorious Chernobyl’s 1986 nuclear disaster where over a million civilians have been affected. The worst and inherently inhumane examples were the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945), resulting in the death of over 300.000 and consequently over a million civilians and children in the following two decades.
The current ongoing global instabilities are mainly ascribed to West in general and to America’s politicians and corporations in particular. These groups of international and regional powerful economic and military giants and their networks don’t want their dummies to know this fact. This is why they have placed themselves in charge of our society. These are the politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television channels who dominate our ideas so that they will be secure in their power. They didn’t need soldiers patrolling our streets until they have fabricated boggy men known as terrorists to stifle our freedom of expression and assembly. They made us dummies that can easily be controlled so that the mass remains subservient enslaved and conformist. This is why we sit down in front of television sets glued to their endless and deceptive propagandas. The majority of world peoples became addicted to celebrity culture and fizzy yet literally poisonous drinks massively produced by the corporations in addition to junk meals by McDonald’s, KFC, etc. The same trend is being used by all the regimes of the world, including in the Ethiopian empire. Clear understanding of the anatomy of global rulers and their corporations enables the majority to be united in order for them to effectively and successfully conduct CD.
Particular Case of the Ethiopian Empire
When it comes to the Ethiopian empire, it is essential to note that the mentees of American and European colonisers have caused similar sufferings to all the subjugated nations that are found at their disposal. They have crushed dissents of various ethnic nationals who demanded their collective rights. They have demonised such dissents whilst encouraging and praising subservience. The survival of this colonial state has been stitched together by lies and subterfuges. Its history dictates the hegemony of the rulers and the subjugation and the ensuing blackmailing of those who demand their rights. Although historians and social justice activists strongly believe that ‘Dissent is the highest form of patriotism’ and that silence is equivalent to dead walking, while something important to humanity is at stake, Ethiopian TPLF’s regime remain as adamant as all its predecessors.
Those courageous social justice advocates suggest CD as a means of achieving social justice and equality for all – by conquering our fear and uniting with purpose in the following manners: – “CD is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem”. (Howard Zinn)
In the Ethiopian empire, the above account is absolutely correct, and this will never stop unless we prevent the criminals, who call themselves ‘government’, from incriminating innocent majority, impoverishing and enslaving them all. No one has given TPLF’s barbaric regime any rights under whatsoever definition to sell the Sidama land, the lands of the Oromo, Gambela, Ogaden, Afar, Gedeo and other subjugated nations. It is us, the majority who are allowing the regime to freely continue with their criminal acts against the interests of the mass.
Where CD can begin?
CD can begin at home. Stop having any deal with your neighbour, who might be known to you and others for his/her part in torturing and brutalising innocent citizens and expropriating their resources whilst impoverishing them. Systematically stop cooperating with your family member who might have a link with the brutalising regime. Stop allying your pure conscience with the regime whose hands are dirtied with the blood of the innocents. Refuse attending their weddings and funerals. Stop visiting these groups of criminals whilst they are ill, either at home or in hospitals. Systematically stop buying their products and selling yours to them. Stop befriending with such groups of worst quislings.
Never hesitate to surreptitiously offer the necessary support to dissent and never think that it is none of your business. After all, the pain of one person who is targeted today by the regime’ssecurity and army will be yours tomorrow or after tomorrow, if you remain silent today. But if you are courageously and defiantly involved, the regime, though unwillingly, will stop individually targeting innocent civilians or nations’ peoples for their being who they are. If so, the CD will be unanimous. Never think that you don’t have a weapon. Your unity, determination, and indefatigable approach, your effort to underscore of your own rights and your preparedness to persistently demand them is your formidable and lethal weapon. The rulers know this fact, therefore they don’t want you to know about it.
To be able to persistently reclaim your rights until you assert them, unity with likeminded is paramount. Explicitly and implicitly plan your actions and strategize your methods. If the majority can do so, they can easily incapacitate the capability of any brutal regime, let alone the minority of TPLF’s increasingly wobbling bunches of criminal mafias. One of the distinguished Indian human rights activists and author, Arundhati Roy, emphasises about this as follows:-
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” Arundhati Roy, April 2003, War Talk’
It is nearly 25 years since the current brutal regime has assumed power and promised millions of lies and deceitful projects none of which has materialised. Therefore, the only way for the empire’s subjects is standing on own ground and rejecting the regime. The regime has got a lot of weapons, but we have to understand that our weapons are much mightier than theirs. Therefore, open your mind; wake up from your hibernation to reclaim your dignity and pride as a fellow respected human being who has got his own life, aspiration, hope, and dream. These all are denied to all captives of Ethiopian empire by the vicious incumbent. To reclaim your rights, the most potent and long lasting method is CD. If CD progresses, other means of struggle, involving the use of arms, will also have further leverages in their momentum to successfully accomplish their part.
Begin it at home, from your neighbours, colleagues, classmates and friends. Completely, yet surreptitiously ostracise all inhumane members of regime’s criminal networks.
By Denboba Natie, 01 December 2015
References
- http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxznlv13ZW4
- Asmal et al 2003, Nelson Mandela in his words, Little Brown, UK
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
- http://www.history.co.uk/biographies/mahatma-gandhi
- http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/malcolm-x
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Walker
- http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/marcus-garvey
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002490/bio
- Coxall (2015), Civil Disobedience, a practical guide.
- http://www.ejcancer.com/article/S0959-8049(02)00764-5/abstract
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
- http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news/remembering-hiroshima
- https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6134.Arundhati_Roy
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