Jimma Times logo
 
 
 Web  Jimma Times 
Letters to Editor

Readers Series - LETTERS is a collection of articles and letters sent to Jimma Times blog section for publication.

08/11/2010 - 1:17 p.m. GMT -- by Readers Series


Cuunfaa fi Ejjennoo Waltajjii Maree Araaraa, Tokkummaa fi Oromoo Humneessu Waldaa Artistoota Oromoon Qopha`ee:


Mooraa Qabsoo Bilisummaa Oromoo keessatti araarri, nagaanii fi tasgabbiin akka jiraatuu fi Oromoo humneesuu akkasumas ABO tokkoomsuuf araaraa deemaa jiru deeggaruuf Caamsaa 29 , 2010 waltajjiin Maree Araaraa ,Tokkummaa fi Oromoo Humnessu Waldaa Artistoota Oromoon (WAO)n qophaa’ee gaggeeffame milkiin xumurame.

Waltajjii kana irratti hawwaasni Oromoo Minnesota fi naannoo isaa jiraatanii fi dhibba baayyeetti lakkawaman kan irratti argamanii irraa qooda fudhatan yoo ta’u, dhaaboleen siyaasaa fi jaarmayoonni Hawaasaa Oromoo kan naannoo Minneapolisii maadheffatanii jiranis waltajjii kana irraa qooda fudhatanii jiru.
Walgahiin kun eebba manguddotaan erga banameen booda, Dura Ta`aan WAO Obbo Amin Jundi hirmaatota walgahii irratti argaman baga nagaan dhuftanii fi dhaamsa WAO eega dabarsanii booda waligahiin tartiiba ka`amee itti fufe.
Bakka bu’oonni Waldaalee amantii sadan Sheik Hassan Safir, Luba Malkaamuu Nagarii fi Obbo Lammii Shunaa waldura dubaa Nagaa, araarii fi tokkumaan akka amantii isaanitti barbaachisaa fi murteessa Moraa Qabsoo bilisummaa Oromoo fi ummata Oromoo giddutti ta`uu isaa addeessan jiru.
Waldaan Dargaggoota Oromoos haala deemsa qabsoo bilisummaa Oromoo kan calaqqisiisu agarsiisa Video gabaabaa dhaamsa guddaa barbaachisumaa araaraa fi tokkummaa jaarmayalee Oromoo fi ummata Oromoo qabu dhiheessan turan. Gama dhaabolee siyaasaa Dr, Fido Ebbaa, Obbo Leencoo Baatii fi Obbo Zelaalem Nagaasaa; haasaa walgahii kana irratti taasisan keessatti “ABOn gargar qoqqoodamuu fi gurmuun qabsaa’ota Oromoo laafachuurraa kan gargaarame diina qofaa akka ta’ee, inni kunis qaabsoo bilisummaa Oromoo gara boodaatti akka harkisee fi tokkummaa hawaasa Oromoo akka laaffise duubbatan. Rakkoo gidduu keenyatti uumamee waggoota kurnan darbaniif nu danqee ture hiikkachuu fi ABO tokkoomee hoggana tokkoon gaggeeffamu deebisnee argamsiisuuf haasaarra jirr... [Read More]

01/01/2010 - 11:54 p.m. GMT


Ixoophiyoota firoota kiyya biyyaa fi ala jirtan: Barri haaraan yeron Krismasee kan gammachu fi eebbaa isiniif haa tahu!

Akkasuma xalayaa iyyannaa kana ulfinaa fi jaalaa waliin isin obboleewwan fi obbolleettowwan: Ixoophiyaanota barmoota politikaa, amantii, barsiisu, nagadaa qabdan fi qondaalota baratoo hunda keessaniif erga.

Ummatni Ixoophiyaa harki sagaltamii sagal kan Kiristaana, Islama, Ihudaa, Amnantii durii taahan - Oromoo, Amaara, Tigree, Guraagee, Somalee, Walayitaa, Hadiyaa, Kafaa, Affar, Nu’er, Anyuwak, fi saboota hafan, kan amantii qabani fi safuu ulfeessaniidha. Hundi keenya hundeen uumama ykn DNA keenya gosa tokko – afaan adda addaa haa dubbannu malee nuti maatii tokko. Ummati keenya dhala namaa kan tahe ni jaallatu, ni ulfeessu.

Maaliif nu, warri baranne kan dhibba irraa harka tokko taanu, ummata keenya irraa hin baranne? Maaliif falasafa alagaa kan akka Makeveli, Hoppis, fi Mark ti if hiine? Maaliif ogesata kennyaa Abba Gadaa, Zara Yaaqb, Kristor Samra hin baranne? Yoom damaqnee daa’imman keenya miliyoonotaan lakkaawaman aannaniif boo’an, jaarsolee nagaan ciisanii nagaatti ka’uu hawwan, fi dargaggoota miliyoonota hedduu beekumsaa fi barachuuf dheebotaa jiran argina laata?

Ixoophiyaan, nu ilmaan isee kan barmoota warra Dhihaa qabu, kan ummata guutuu keessaa harka tokkoo qofa taanu, qabaachuu iseef ayyaana qabeettidha. Akkasuma Ixoophiyaanota karaa teknolojii, nagadaa, seeraa fi beekumsaa barbaachisoota tahanii biroo qabaachuutti milkaahani arguun gammachuu guddaa natti dhaga’ama. Firoota kiyyaa, Ixoophiyaanota barattan baayyee keessaniin nan boona. Waggaan dhufu kun kan milkii fi jabinaa akka nuuf tahu hawwa.

Yaa-Obelototaako:Waan baayyee hojjechuun keenya mul’atullee, akkasuma humna keenyaa waa’ee politikaa falasafuu fi gareedhaa wal jibbuu irratti bal’eessineerra. Dhugaadha, Ixoophiyaanota biyya keenyaaf waan hedduu hojjetan argeera. Akkasuma waggoota 40 dabran keessa garuulee adda addaa kan wal keessatti ham... [Read More]

11/04/2009 - 7:56 p.m. GMT


Opinion | By Fayyis

Few days back, surprising and “shocking” news came out of the Ethiopian empire, i.e. the handshake of the Weyane Tigrai hegemonist Mr. Meles Zenawi with the Amhara conservative unitarist Mr. Hailu Shawel. What do these two persons have in common? Why did the handshake happen? Why was it surprising to most Ethiopians, in general, and “shocking” to Amharas, in particular? Did the “Oromo factor” play a certain role for the handshake to happen? What is the relation of this handshake to the hitherto attempts made to achieve the necessary compromise between Amhara democratic forces and Oromo federalist movements in the formation of the recent alliance aka Medrek?

Looking back at the history of the empire in the last about 150 years, Amhara and Tigrai elites used to compete on the issue of who should be the empire’s dominating force. Till 1991, Amhara elites were the dominating force whereas Tigrai elites had the junior role of cooperating for the common benefit. Both used to oppress and exploit Oromo people, in particular, and all oppressed nations in the empire, in general. Since 1991, they exchanged their roles so that Tigrai elites became the dominating force, and Amhara elites adapted to play the junior role, and yet both elite groups are prospering at the cost of the oppressed nations.

Now, the struggle of the oppressed nations is slowly getting a momentum, and all nations, including the currently-subjugated Amhara poor, are now trying to come together to challenge the ruling Tigrean elites, and also struggle against the few cooperating Amhara and Oromo elites, who are still benefiting from the system. The main goal of the Oromo nation’s struggle, being led by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and that of the struggle of other oppressed nations is to get rid of the Nefxenya system of domination (domination by using Nefx or gun). For the oppressed nations, the 21... [Read More]

09/30/2009 - 11:18 p.m. GMT


Opinion | By Fayyis Oromia

With this article, I want to say to my hitherto readers, including my criticizers, have a life of Ora-Oomo or life of Or-omo i.e life of Oromo aka life of resurrection which meanse life of a NEW beginning and success in the rest of your life journey. To comprehend what I do mean by Oromo life or by life of Ora-Omo, enjoy my short essay here!

First let me try to elaborate what I mean by life of resurrection. This term is used by the three big religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). But its origin seems to be from the earlier beliefs like Waaqeeffannaa as we will look at it below. Resurrection is nowadays used as a metaphor for the new beginning towards success, new start, new plan, new goal-setting, new life journey, after having experienced death (which is also the symbol for unsuccess and failure). Regarding Oromo people, resurecction may mean for us a new start and success after all the collective political failures we had in our hitherto liberation journey. How do the faith system of Waaqeeffannaa look at the process of such ressurection?

To be successfull in a struggle against our enemy, we Oromo people need to empower our Oromo liberation block, that meanse we have to strive to give confidence and power to our selves, so that Oromo people can do its self the job of liberation. As we are now approaching to celebrate Irreechaa (Irreessaa, Irreensa), we have to think at the two meanings of this word. Irreessaa can be defined as both thanksgiving and empowering. Let's celebrate this year's Irreechaa in both senses. Let's give thanks to our Waaqa and as well let's empower our nation Oromo. We can do the second one in two ways, by coming together before Waaqayyoo and commit our selves to Tokkummaa for Bilisummaa and by avoiding all possible thing... [Read More]

09/29/2009 - 5:11 p.m. GMT



Opinion | By Fayyis Oromia

We Oromo nationalists seem to be legitimately quick to accuse and judge our fellow Oromo individuals, who seem to work with our foes, as being politically on the wrong side and so to be possibly guilty. We some times denounce our such fellow Oromo individuals as being collaborators, betrayers of our Kaayyoo and even as criminals who did certain atrocities against Oromo nation. Then all who have been denounced like this are usually denied the recognition of their talents, which we would have respected disregarding the fact to whose service they applied their talents. Who were/are actually the targets of such judgement of ours? Let's look at our history and our status quo in short for this may help us to correct our mistakes in order to achieve our desired future destiny.

Before proceeding in my writing, let me operationally define two important words (innocence and guilt) to be used in this essay. Innocence is a term used to indicate a general lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, sin, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence refers to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. Guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes - whether justified or not - that he or she has violated a legal or moral standard, and is responsible for that violation. There can be a situation where a person can be found guilty by others, including the justice institution, but the person may not feel it emotionally or accept it cognitively.

Regarding our history, we tried to accuse and vilify some of the prominent Oromo individuals like Gobana Dacee, Qusee Dinagde, "Minilik" Caalaa ("our colonizer"), Teferi M. Guddisaa, Teferi Benti, Demise Bulto, Mengistu H. Ayaana, Merid Nigussie, Kasaye Cemedaa...etc. Here to make my position clear, I am not the supporter or fan of these Oromo individuals, but I just would like to recommend t... [Read More]

09/19/2009 - 6:59 p.m. GMT


Opinion| By Fayyis

We Oromos have no luxury and time to be divided and fight against each other now. We need to percieve the reality on the ground, interpret our perception of the reality, think, believe, wish, feel, move, act, behave and live as a one single entity striving in a good service of our national interest and purpose. We need to have clear view about our selves as well about our foes and friends. We need to thank our friends, but fight against our foes in unison. We are Oromos as one people, who do struggle for our right to self-determination. Every other individual or collective promoting our struggle is our friend, and any one trying to hinder our move to our goal covertly or overtly as well directly or indirectly is our foe.
 
Let's leave the other momentarily "harmless" foes aside and take that our main enemy now is Weyane. We fought against all our enemies starting from our subjugation in the end of the nintienth century to the end of the twentieth century to come to our status quo in 1991. A lot of our heros have given their precious life and limb to achieve this status; a lot are still suffering from the sequel of the inflicted injuries. From 1992 on, Weyane is the main enemy of Oromo nation hindering us from moving forwards. No question that we are under the slavery of Weyane and that there are Oromos who contributed to our slavery knowingly or unkowingly. Now the question we need to answer is: how should we deal with our main enemy Weyane, with our other currently "harmless" enemies, with Oromo collaborators, with Oromo "neutrals" and with Oromos doing their best for the liberation movement, while even overtly working with the enemy aka Weyane?
 
Let's look at Oromo nation as one human body. Then, our main enemy Weyane and the other currently harmless foes are not definetly part of this body. But Oromo collaborators, Oromo "neutrals" and Oromo freedom fighters are part and parcel of this one organism. We ca... [Read More]

09/07/2009 - 1:34 p.m. GMT


Opinion | By Fayyis Oromia

This short essay is just presented as a clarification for Oromo foes, who are nowadays delighting by "percieving" a division of the Oromo liberation vanguard in to "three". To their information OLF has got from the very beginning only one Kaayoo (goal), which also at the same time can be interpreted as three Kayyos, in a pocket and it played with the three cards based on the objective reality it is in, aka according to the "here and now" of the situations. Even though the only one Kayyoo is self-determination, the 3 interpretations of the Kaayoo are:

- independence without a union
- referendum on the issue: independence without a union vs independence within a union
- independence within a union.

OLF permanently advocated that it fights for Oromian independence, for Oromos' right to self-determination and for a union of nations in the empire/region. It emphasizes one of the three interpretations according to the condition of the time (Zeitgeist). Whenever Abyssinians become arrogant and start to sing about the unconditional unity of their empire with supression of Oromos' right, it streses independence of Oromia from Abyssinian colonialism underming the possible union. The logic behind this is, where ever there is supression, there will be a move for separation. When reasonable politicians from different nations in the empire start to recognize the God given right of the great Oromo nation to self-determination, it starts to play the card of self-determination (decision per referendum either for independence within a union or for independence without a union).

Now the one structural OLF we Oromos had seems to have been devided in to three, each of them just taking as a goal one of the three interpretations of the Kaayyo:
- OLF1 of Ob Galaassa seems to make no compromise on independence without a union.
- OLF2 of Ob Daud has self-determination as its goal (being open for both independe... [Read More]

09/05/2009 - 5:13 a.m. GMT


Opinion | By Fayyis Oromia

To get rid of the TPLF regime, there is no other way as an alternative to the re-organization of an alliance like AFD (Alliance for Freedom and Democracy)! Now it seems there is a hint to do it. As I heard from an interview given by Obbo Daud Ibsa in VOA Afaan Oromo program, certain liberation fronts are working together as an alliance: OLF, ONLF, SLF, BPLM and GPLM. It is a good restart. Such an alliance is the only way forward. MEDREK aka Forum for Democratic Dialog, FDD, at home and TIBIBIR aka AFD in Diaspora, including the cooperation as well coordination of these two alliances, is the best method to get rid of the dictatorial regime!

It is clear that the above liberation movements do have no problem in finding a common ground to forge an alliance. They all do believe in the right of nations to self-determination, so that they take this as a precondition for fostering the alliance.

The problem is when these freedom fighters try to make an alliance with democratic forces in Diaspora, such as G-7, EPPF, EPRP, TPDM and UEDF, which do want to have an unconditional Ethiopian unity as a precondition for the alliance. How is it possible to solve this problem? I tried to discuss with some people about this issue in forums and per e-mail. All concerned people believe in the necessity of such an alliance against the TPLF regime, but they do differ on the precondition, which is required for the alliance. We can classify all of them in to two blocs. One bloc argues that accepting and respecting the right of nations to self-determination must be the precondition for the alliance whereas the other bloc insists on the precondition to be the unconditional Ethiopian unity. Let’s look at the arguments of the two camps: the camp of self-determination and the camp of unconditional unity.

1) Those in the camp of unconditional unity like Prof. Messay Kebede insist that the unconditional Ethiopian unity is very mand... [Read More]

Readers Series - LETTERS is a collection of articles and letters sent to Jimma Times blog section for publication.