10 Reasons why Africa should NOT care about Obama inauguration (blog)

Opinion | By Blogger Oromummaa

In many places around the world, especially Africa, people are obsessed and over-excited with the election of Barack Obama. But there is not much historic about his election. We are being played by the Western media into thinking this is meaningful. It is shameful that African people are degrading themselves by acting in such a way. There are many obvious reasons why Africa should STOP the obsession with Obama's inauguration to become the next American president. Here are 10 of them.

1. The cause of happiness about Obama for some Africans seems to be an assertion that Obama is BLACK. However, Obama is half-white and most measurements, like the environment factor (i.e. him growing up with his white parent and family, etc) show that he is more than half-white.
2. Another cause of happiness seems to be that America is no more racist today because the half-white Obama is elected, as opposed to the typical full-white. This is ridiculous! This belief ignores the fact that Obama is half-white, the fact that white-supremacists are still tolerated in America and the fact that an election of a half-black man does not belittle institutionalized racism against the other 60 million black people in America. It is even more ridiculous because (despite the weak Mccain, a supporter of the worst president Bush, being his opponent) Obama won the election only by a very small percentage of votes, 53% to 46%.
3. Stop calling him African-American or "Black President"! Is there a rule that says being 50% black is a requirement to drop the "white-American" label? Obama is no less white-American/European American than he is African-American. Are we going to celebrate if the next president in 2012 becomes 75% LESS white? All of this obesssion over skin color only shows how racist a society is. It seemed like a bunch of American... [Read More]

(Blog) Iraqi officials playing the Ethiopia "pardon" game on shoe-thrower

Opinion/By Blogger Oromummaa

According to the Iraqi prime minister,  the shoe-throwing journalist who missed George Bush is apologizing and seeking "pardon" for his sins. Well, this looks like a drama right out of Ethiopian prison cells. It is likely that the Iraqi journalist al-Zaidi was pressured by the Iraqi "government" to apologize to George bush. When he comes of out of prison, the journalist owes an apology to the rest of the world for not hitting Bush on target with the shoe! How do you miss from just 2 meters away?

Anyway, the "pardon" propaganda by the iraqi government does not fool anyone. It was only a few months ago that another dictator Meles zenawi played the same "pardon" game on opposition party leaders he imprisoned after his security forces killed 200 civilians in Ethiopia's capital. The so-called apology letter writen by the Oromo woman birtuqan mideksa and a bunch of other ethiopian opposition leaders was fake and didn't hide the fact that hundreds of civilians have died in Ethiopia and the dictatorship continues. The so-called apology in Iraq also can not hide the fact that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the invasion by Bush and millions more iraqis have become refugees. Living in the urban, it is highly likely that the journalist al-zaidi lost atleast one close family member or a relative or a close friend. In this case, it is hard to blame the journalist for throwing a shoe at bush.

Bush should be thankful that the journalist didn't throw anything else! If you are this journalist and your close relative or friend was killed because of bush's bloody war, what becomes a definition of peaceful show of dissident? Sitting on a chair and interviewing Bush? the leader who allowed the killing of your relative or friends, as if he is anothe... [Read More]

Why Tigrnya has more weight than Oromiffa & Somali? (Blog)

Opinion/ Oromummaa

During the last near 20 years in Ethiopia under TPLF rule, it is an understatement to say that we have witnessed the highest level of Tigray supremacy in the country. While all of us know about the political and economic domination of the Tigrayans already (especially the endless number of manufacturing industries inside Tigray), some of the regime's supporters have deceived many people about the so-called "linguistic equality" under wayane. It is important to look at this controversial issue because all former OLF members who have visited Ethiopia are giving trophy to OPDO/TPLF and talking about the nonexistent "linguistic equality."

While many more people have been able to freely use their languages, the grim reality is, the Tigrayan language domination and disproportional representation in Ethiopia has been ignored. According to the Ethiopian census done and monitored by the government officials dominated by the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), Ethiopia has a population of almost 77 million. According to this same census, almost 35% of the population is Oromo and 27% are Amharas. After that, the next biggest ethnic group is Somali at 6.2%, followed by Tigrays at 6.1%. Knowing this TPLF monitored census, one would expect the language power and application in the society would proportionally reflect these top ethnicities in Ethiopia. But let alone the Somali language achieving more or equal role to Tigrinya in the Ethiopian public at large, the Tigrayan language appears to be the de facto second official language of the country. From the Tigrayan language's disproportional presence in national radios, TV stations, institutions and big company operations, one would wrongly think that the Tigrayan people are as populous as Oromos by looking at their domination.

One glaring example has been on ETV, where Tigray... [Read More]

OFDM & OPC condemnation of TPLF in Ethiopia only benefits TPLF

Blogger/ Oromummaa

Two of the techniques many African dictators employ to stay in power these days are signing up for the "War on Terror" and playing pseudo-democrats. Those dictators who master in both these techniques are most likely to stay in power longer and Ethiopia is an important case in point, with Zenawi playing the game near flawlessly so far. His TPLF regime has become the most important American ally in this African region, which translates to more economic aid, military assistance and political covers. With the obvious exception of Egypt, TPLF's Ethiopia gets the most military, technical aid in Africa from America, which mostly helps the regime to defeat the various rebels inside Ethiopia like the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) & OLF. In return, the TPLF regime promises to serve the daily interests of America's "war on terror" by sending thousands of troops inside more unstable neighbors.

While America is the sidekick for TPLF to succeed in this first trick, the TPLF's sidekick to succeed in its second ploy are the so-called opposition parties in Ethiopia: namely Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), Oromo Peoples Congress (OPC) and United Ethiopian Democratic Front (UEDF).

In order for the TPLF ruling party to appear like it has even a small degree of democratic credentials (atleast compared to the rival regime in Eritrea), it has used one of the TWO available ways, either allow a free & fair election without massacing people OR give useless parliament seats to a bunch of opposition groups.

Obviously and naturally, the minority TPLF can not allow a free election without intimidating and massacring people before eventually rigging the votes. The 2005 election when 200 people were massacred is a good example of this. Rigging the election was not enough that... [Read More]