OPINION/ Kaffa

If the terrible internet connection wasn’t enough, now the Voice of America radio is blocked. At least all the people I know couldn’t get it and I couldn’t access it the last three days. It shocks me why the government would block VOA because the drama of the CUD opposition party is a must see (or must hear)


Many government officials are these days celebrating what appears to be an “ongoing near death experience” of the CUD party – if there is such a thing. In other words, CUD is almost dead. Most of my friends are wondering whether to celebrate or to mourn. Not many of us really like CUD, but we don’t like the ruling party either, so it is the better of two evils.  

My wild guess is that the government did not want people to hear the scheduled VOA interviews about the two CUD groups fighting each other. I am assuming this because, since the VOA Amharic is virtually controlled by the Nefxenya opposition, the government might be afraid the VOA correspondents will maneuver the interviews in order to fix the big division inside the CUD. Basically, the government needs Ethiopians to know last that CUD is a laughing stock.

By the way, the last time foreign newscasters were reporting VOA is blocked, it wasn’t really blocked. But this time, it was blocked and nobody is talking about the blockage. Weird.


 
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OPINION/ Kaffa

As usual, I will try to write a collection of stories on my Blogs because of the growing problems facing the internet in Ethiopia. What has become amusing to most of us here is that local administrators claim they will expand the internet REACH all around Ethiopia, while those of us living in the city don’t even have this internet access daily. Similar jokes have been played on us before. The saddest one has been when Ethiopian officials rejoice about the prospect of exporting electricity to Kenya and Sudan, while most of rural Ethiopia doesn’t even have one. 
 

The first story of the week (or the weeks) is the gradual re-domination of the habeshas in the type of information people in Oromia consume. The Oromo politicians claim that things are better than before for us because of the Afaan Oromoo expansion with language programs everywhere in the country, including the capital city (Which has been most dominated by the Amhara for decades) Unfortunately, even though the prospect of Oromo cultural and linguistic empowerment seems entertaining, we are losing the modern war in information technology, particularly the Oromo presence in the media. From what I have witnessed so far, it is my educated estimation that Oromos make up only 6% of those who graduate in journalism profession in Ethiopia. (For those who don’t know, Oromos make up 40% of Ethiopian population, the majority) Despite the Tigrayans having much more influence than ever before, the Amharas still dominate the numbers. Currently, there are several dozens more Amharic written newspapers and magazines than papers in Afaan Oromoo. All of this is unacceptable! Just in the last couple of months, I saw three Amharic language papers getting a license from the government. Some people might claim that my conclusions are unwarranted but I look at how the West has used their media domination to control international opinion, inter... [Read More]

Blogger/Kaffa
Due to the deteriorating situation of internet connection in Ethiopia, I am forced to blog less often times a week. There are a lot of stories that scared poeple this week, but the potential of Eritrea-Ethiopia war tops it all. The idea that another ridiculous war could wipe out 100,000 people is depressing. As usual poor Ethiopians who find joining army as only way for economic survival will make up the majority of the army.

For most Ethiopians, it is an insult to their intelligence when outsiders mention the town Badme because the war is not about Badme. It is about arrogance between the two leaderships.

 

The VOA jamming story was an interesting one this week because the fact is it is NOT jammed. Well, at least this week I have listened to all of them. Actually a friend of mine, from Jima, contacted VOA to comment about the recent Ayele Chamiso vs Temesgen interview/debate. So it doesn't make sense that some claimed it was jammed. The Chamiso vs Temesgen debate was one of the funniest debates about HR 2003 where nothing new about HR 2003 was really discussed ( by the way it doesn’t really qualify as a debate since the pro-opposition VOA journalist lady was mugging Chamiso like I never heard before....She does have a talent of ganging up on someone who doesn’t adhere to her views while staying (appearing) very very CALM.  Anyway, there were stll some people who complained that they couldn’t hear VOA. So I think the transmission level is different from place to place in Ethiopia. (or blocked in some waves?)

 

The Mekelle University row is another one i heard. The story starts with student union’s office that published code of conduct for Muslim students in the university. The regulation was strict in banning the worshipping and praying of Muslim students inside the school. This ignited an excessive reaction from Mus... [Read More]

Blogger/Kaffa

I haven’t blogged for a long time and that is much thanks to the terrible internet connection down here. The state of Ethiopia is not well known for its achievements on providing good internet service and with the Chinese taking over more projects, don’t expect any technical improvements in the near future.

 

Here are some stories I wanted to write about. First of course is the funny story of Al Amoudi. Someone else was scribbling on JimmaTimes by begging Al Amoudi to use his influence to democratize EPRDF. What a joke! That writing itself was nonsense but it seems like Al Amoudi doesn’t have any less intolerance (keyword) for negative news about him at all. According to rumors I heard, he was very mad at Addis Fortune newspaper for publishing about a mass robbery at the Millennium hall. (not good news for this newspaper since his Sheraton hotel advertises on its prints) The Sheik certainly didn’t like his millennium contribution made fun of.  But we have to wonder, if a witness complains about necklace, wallets and watches being stolen under the dim lights of this expensive hall, what’s the big deal?? Anyway, I don’t want to write more about Al Amoudi and risk ****.   After all, he is also a philanthropist that has done too much for Ethiopia to be picked on by us for the littlest things. (?)

 

Also there was a rumor about Jimma university student leader who protested against the government. His name is Hunde Dhugassa and he complained about imprisonments of Oromos and injustice by the Oromia regional EPRDF government. But from what I have seen before, Hunde has been saying these things for many years now. He has even written papers defending OLF and claiming a referrendum for Oromia is the only way to solve the country's problems. Not that what he is saying is false, some of them are true of course. But he has beco... [Read More]

BLOGGER/Kaffa

According to the Eritrean propaganda, an Ethiopian invasion was supposed to have already happened last week. Obviously it hasn’t happened and the endless calls for war by the Eritrean government has truly become irritating, especially for us living in a 3rd world country like Ethiopia. Living in an already poor & unstable region of the world is a big disadvantage in everyway, especially economically, to attract investors from outside. One can’t welcome foreign investors on one hand while engaged in a bloody war on the other hand. (unless that investor is China) So whatever economic progress made in Ethiopia will completely be reversed if another war starts. Certainly, a war with Eritrea will be much more costly than the unnecessary war with the jihadists in Mogadishu. The same way Ethiopia should have never battled the jihadists in Mogadishu, now again, Ethiopia should ignore Eritrea and let the Eritrean government say whatever it wants. Actually, we should not pay attention to what the Asmara government does too. Obviously the Eritrean regime thinks Eritrean evangelical Christians are aliens from space sent by the American imperialist government to topple President Isayas using their bibles and pamphlets. So what? The madness in Asmara is none of our business and we do not have the money to make it our business. America has the extra cash to waste money and establish watchdogs of religious persecution 10 thousand miles. But Ethiopia is an entirely different story.

 

The Ethiopian government supporters keep talking about problems in Eritrea. As reported before, the Eritrean president said there is no opposition group in Eritrea and he said the constitution is useless. Apparently the Eritrean opposition politicians are all in Asmara jails and it is also hard to believe an absence of an opposition in Eritrea while thousands flee. Common sense tells us those thousands of Eritreans fle... [Read More]

BLOGGER
These days some Ethiopians are on offensive and they are preoccupied on exposing the double standard and hypocrisy of western powers. Even though there are many of these blunders coming from the west, these Ethiopians on offensive forget the dirt in their own backyard. Especially self-declared supporters of the so-called peaceful opposition or peaceful movement accused the ONLF rebels for the massacre in Abole. The Ethiopian ambassador to America condemned America for not labeling the ONLF as a “terrorist organization” for killing 70 Ethiopians and Chinese workers. Does the ambassador have values he tried to depict or how genuine are these claims?
 
Not much.
 
First of all, the government supporters started complaining as soon as they heard that the HR 2003 is alive. Many months have passed since the ONLF massacred the innocent Ethiopians which I heard included non-Ogadeni Somalis, mercilessly shot in their sleep. The ONLF act was barbaric, just like the post election 2005 massacre was barbaric. What doesn’t make sense in all of this is, when the ONLF congratulated itself on BBC radio, the Ethiopian government said nothing. As the ONLF leadership continued to live in Europe, the Ethiopian government didn’t take action or complain to UK. But when the HR 2003 moved forward, the Ethiopian government all of the sudden became shocked about what happened 5 months ago, so shocked that Ambassador Samuel started writing protest letters to Washington Times.  Other than the Ethiopian government saying ONLF is a terrorist organization, it didn't take aggressive steps and it didn't take diplomatic actions about the ONLF,  until the HR 2003 gained momentum.

 
The reality is, other liberation movements like the OLF were also accused (by EPRDF) of doing much more killings than the ONLF, the last 15 years.  And the accusation is... [Read More]

BLOGGER
Even before she comes back to Ethiopia people all over were talking about Birtukan Medeksa, the CUD vice-President. She has certainly overshadowed the Chairman Hailu Shawel. I am sure the corruption inside Hailu’s camp has been one of the reasons for her success. Rumors of corruption as crazy as Hailu buying houses in America and wasting the money of innocent supporters of CUD party are spreading around. If these rumors are false, it is a saddening indication that Ethiopians have not stopped using character assassination as a political tool yet. If these rumors are true, how much worst can Hailu’s camp get??

 

Anyway, Birtukan is capturing the hearts of many people. Those who used to say Birtukan Medeksa is Oromo only in her name are now praising her because of her plans for an all-inclusiveness of her CUD party. Until now, some Oromo and other southern people were supporting her CUD party just because they hate the ruling party. But if Birtukan manages to change the one-ethnic face of CUD, her party will unquestionably win any election in Ethiopia. Her party’s Amharic name "Kinijit" meaning Unity has been seen as a unity between Amhara and Gurage ethnicities, but now it can become a unity among all ethnicities. At least that is what most people hope.

 

But there are many important questions to be answered. If her party moves forward to include more ethnicities and thus the interests of more ethnicities, then wouldn’t the foundation, manifesto and identity of the party change also? After all, a notable portion of the Ethiopian population deeply suppports groups like OFDM, ONLF, ONC, OLF and other ethnic based opposition groups. Even though all seek democracy and other common values, there are important specific policies that these ethnic organizations possess. And some of these policies are in deep contradiction to Birtukan’s CUD p... [Read More]

BLOGGER

It seems like most people I know here care about the Oromo struggle part-time. Even talking about it has become a part-time event, a couple of hours at best. Most of these hours are after rumors from OLF’s increasingly “jammed” memorandum arrives via word of mouth. Why is this happening? Has the Oromo struggle lost its mojo? According to our Amara friends, there was never a mojo, there was never consensus and the popularity of the Oromo struggle was a myth in the first place. According to them, all peoples were negatively affected by repressive governments and an all-inclusive all-Ethiopian solution is needed. According to the Tegres, things are perfect right now, we are living in “heaven on earth” and Oromos have “never had it better.” But according to ME, well, OLF is becoming awful !!

 

Currently, OLF is divided into two places. Maybe three (according to Zenawi’s Trojan horse model for OFDM, which has become OLF itself) But I am sorry to say this, but it is an insult on OFDM to say it is like OLF. Unlike OLF, OFDM has one voice, one ideology, one goal. As for OLF, it changes its ideology more than shirts wore by the average Joe in Oromia. (that # might not be a big number, but you get the idea) One time OLF was seeking full separation, no less! Another time, it was becoming like OFDM by seeking Oromia self-governance under Ethiopia umbrella. About one year ago, people here were saying that OLF has become Neftenga itself, working with CUD to bring back old form of federalism. When OLF allied itself with neftenga, OPDO was celebrating, having party every week. Now, OLF seems to be undecided and clueless. Even if it finally decides its policy, OLF is already cut apart into 2 places – one of them working with Eritrea. Even worse, the two OLF groups are throwing lawsu... [Read More]