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, international news and generally, even the politics. Just to give one example, today politicians from Third world countries feel like they won the lottery when their views are published on western newspapers. Why is that ; we ask? Basically, an event reported on more powerful media outlets like BBC shapes up the decisions of regional and world politics. And it is due to this global example on the importance of media that I believe the Oromo people are currently suffering under a new form of habesha oppression which I call, “Media Dictatorship.” While things seem to improve for the Oromo people in regards to cultural and linguistic empowerment, does all of this matter if habeshas still control the media? To put this in a different and local perspective, today, the ONLY alternative to the EPRDF government media for young Oromos living inside Ethiopia has become the Nefxenya opposition media!! This is the hidden crisis for Oromo and southern people and one of the most dangerous of modern times.

 

The second topic of discussion recently has been the intensification of Ethiopia’s support for the rebels in Eritrea. I wanted to write a blog about this early this week but it was impossible. Even though Meles claimed there will be no war with Eritrea, I believe the war has already begun. It is actually ongoing. Inside sources tell me that there was once a firm belief on the Ethiopian government’s part that it can harm the reputation of the Eritrean government by exposing the Eritrean support for rebels inside Ethiopia (including OLF) and exposing the Eritrean support for the insurgency in Somalia. For a brief moment in fact, Ethiopia had some success in this diplomatic game because the United States publicly condemned Eritrea and declared it will sanction the Eritrean government. But unfortunately for the Ethiopian government, all of this American rhetoric was just speeches and toothless statements by Jendayi Frazer. Since then, America has not made any significant steps to actually sanction the Eritrean government and officially tag it “state sponsor of terrorism.” I believe this American disinterest and lack of action is forcing the Ethiopian government to use the second option and that is doing what Eritrea has been doing –which would be openly supporting Eritrean rebels against the Eritrean government. Basically, the Ethiopian regime is tired of acting for the West and waiting for American sanctions on Eritrea. So the proxy games on Eritrean territory have intensified.

 

The funny story of the week was the crisis inside the CUD opposition party. Only a few weeks ago, Birtukan was about to rescue the dying party but the latest news shows she is now KICKED OUT of the CUD leadership. This is just terrible. But in reality, most people in Oromia careless what happens to the Nefxenya CUD because some of CUD policies are worse than EPRDF. Still many Oromos don’t like OPDO inside EPRDF. In fact some would rather have TPLF than OPDO. Why? Well, because even if TPLF does the ordering, OPDO is always the one carrying out the orders on the ground. So in general, some people in Oromia wanted to see CUD become successful just for the sake of change and also to weaken OPDO/EPRDF. Anyway, CUD is now almost dead. Before its burial, CUD has certainly been doing a lot of damage on EPRDF’s reputation around the world. I believe all of these developments are good news for Oromia. Especially with other positive developments with Macha and Tulama Association's restoration, it has been a very good month for us. We don’t want BOTH CUD and EPRDF and they are fighting each other. This is perfect for Oromia !! Without OLF making Oromia a blood-spattered battle ground like the ONLF has made Ogaden, the Oromo people are still in a good position with both EPRDF and CUD broken without repair!! For most rural Oromos who don’t know (and don’t want to know) any Habesha language, the word “Kinijit” was their first Amharic vocabulary. Now their second Amharic word in their vocabulary is “Teremes.”


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