What is the purpose of a government?

By Magn Nyang

The purpose of government is to provide a system in which individuals give  portion of their freedom in order to pursue needs and wants without the fears that are inherent in a state of anarchy.

In an anarchic system, individuals must protect and provide completely for themselves, and those with greater power are able to offend those with lesser power without consequence. In a system of government, the freedom to acquire and offend at will is subjugated to the will of the governed; and, in return, the governed are better able to produce without fear of loss. 

Therefore, at its most basic level, the purpose of government is to protect the people from threats, both within and out.

Government also ensures justice within the nation. Meaning, the law must be fair, unbiased, and logical, provides a basic system of defense against enemies of the state, and provides education, infrastructure, and health facilities. The most fundamental of human needs which includes education, food, health facilities are satisfied through the policy of governance. Government provides infrastructure so that these needs are met.  

 Some naïve Ethiopians are foolishly praising the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) for providing education, infrastructure, and health facilities. The EPRDF is expected to provide all these services to Ethiopians. In fact, EPRDF is required to provide more services than it has provided thus far. I, personally, do not see the logic of praising a government when it is minimally doing only what it is supposed to do. Instead of congratulating a dictatorial government, we, Ethiopians, should be asking about human right issues. Where are our freedom, equality, and liberty? 

Meles Zenawi’s legacy for the Horn of Africa

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (R) welcomes Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (L) upon his arrival at Khartoum on September 16, 2011.

Zenawi’s regime will be remembered for holding Ethiopia together as one country even under the centripetal ethnic order.

Any recent visitor to Ethiopia would be struck by the ubiquitous billboards commemorating the late Prime Minister’s life, two months after his demise. Meles Zenawi’s photo form the backdrop to the TV screens and adorns the streets of all the major towns and villages.

These sights were supplemented by the chorus of Africa leaders that attended the PM’s funeral and who lavished praise on this “dedicated son of African soil”. He was depicted as the untiring leader who toiled for the upliftment of the indigent peoples of Ethiopia and Africa.

Among this choir were African presidents and prime ministers whose own policies have degraded the lives of their people. The least distinguished of these visitors were the former President and Prime Minister of Somalia whose tenure in power was marred by their total subservience to the Ethiopia regime.

One wonders if this orchestrated and well managed public love of the late Zenawi reflects the thoughts and feeling of the peoples of Ethiopia and the neighbouring states where the PM’s policies had the greatest footprint.

CALLING ON THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

by Amb. Alemayehu Abebe

Ethiopia a country that existed since millenia before Christ and thrived to today is a country of proud people. Ethiopia, jealous of her independence, defended aggressions from afar and near. The most famous modern day aggression was conducted by the Italian colonialist in the last part of the 19th century. The then illustrious son of Africa, Emperor Minilik II and his famous wife Etege Taitu, with all Ethiopians behind them, defeated the aggressor at the battle of Adwa. It was the first humiliating defeat for any European colonialist. After 40 years Mussolini addressed IL Duce, and his Fascist Party dreamt of avenging the humiliating defeat and thus decided to invade Ethiopia in 1936, in spite of the fact that Ethiopia was a member of the League of Nations.

Mussolini’s right hand man Rodolfo Graziani has been entrusted by Mussolini to suppres the insurgents . But he used his power to eliminate thousands of innocent and peaceful people, to intimidate and squash all elements of opposition. Although the Italians were in the towns the country side was under the Ethiopian Patriots. Graziani massacred some thirty thousand innocent Ethiopians in three days alone and three hundred monks of Debre Libanos, located about 80 kilometers from Addis Ababa. Graziani was also instrumental in using poison gas on innocent people. That is why he earned the infamous name of “the Butcher of Ethiopia”.

It is hard to imagine that such a man can be honored. In 1948 this criminal was found guilty by an International court and sentenced to 19 years of hard labor. For some unknown reason the ‘BEAST’ was released after having served only two years.

When the news from Italy told the world that the village called Affile inaugurated a Mussoulium and a Park in the name of Graziani, it took all by surprise to say the least. One cannot imagine that a country that repudiated Fascism could indulge in such a way. This action cannot be imagined without the consent of the Italian Government. If this is not checked in time we will not be surprised if a grand monument is built to Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, the infamous “Butcher of the Jews”.

Ethiopia: I Remember! (Alemayehu G. Mariam)

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

Never Again!

On June 6-8 and November 1-4, 2005, following the Ethiopian parliamentary elections in May of that year, hundreds of citizens who protested the theft of that election were killed or seriously wounded by police and security personnel under the exclusive command and control of the late Meles Zenawi. An official Inquiry Commission established jointly by Meles Zenawi and the Ethiopian parliament documented that 193 unarmed men, women and children demonstrating in the streets and scores of other detainees held in a high security prison were intentionally shot and killed by police and security officials. An additional 763 were wounded.

The Commission completely exonerated the victims and pinned the entire blame on the police and paramilitary forces.  The Commission concluded, “There was no property destroyed [by protesters]. There was not a single protester who was armed with a gun or a hand grenade as reported by the government-controlled media that some of the protesters were armed with guns and bombs. [The shots fired by government forces] were not intended to disperse the crowd but to kill by targeting the head and chest of the protesters.”

[Important Note: The Commission's list of 193 victims includes only those deaths that occured on June 6-8 and November 1-4, 2005, the specific dates the Commission was authorized to investigate. It is believed the Commission has an additional list of victims of extra-judicial killings by government security forces which it did not publicly report because the killings occured outside the dates the Commission was authorized to investigate.]

Enough in the Nile to Share, Little to Waste, By IRIN

Addis Ababa — As Ethiopia's massive dam-building plans continue to cause disquiet in downstream Egypt, new research suggests there is sufficient water in the Nile for all 10 countries it flows through, and that poverty there could be significantly eased as long as access by small-scale farmers is boosted.

"We would argue that physically there is enough water in the Nile for all the riparian countries," said Simon Langan, head of the East Africa and Nile Basin office of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), at the Addis Ababa launch of The Nile River Basin: Water, Agriculture, Governance and Livelihoods published by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food.

"What we really need to do is make sure that there is access to this water... Poverty rates are about 17 percent in Egypt but for five of the upstream riparian countries it is more like 50 percent. So, this access to water is very important," he added.
According to a media advisory promoting the book, the Nile "has enough water to supply dams and irrigate parched agriculture in all 10 countries - but policymakers risk turning the poor into water 'have-nots' if they don't enact inclusive water management policies."
While better seeds and tools play a key role in boosting agricultural productivity, access to water is even more important, said one of the book's editors, Seleshi Bekele, senior water resources and climate specialist at the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

"The higher water access you have the less the poverty profile... This is not only in comparison between Egypt and upstream countries: within Ethiopia itself, 22 percent less poor were observed in those communities who have access to water," he said.

Access "means that girls can go to school, instead of fetching water from distance that could take hours," he added.

TPLF/EPRDF Talks of Negotiations with All But Declares War on All

Quite few people were hoping that the demise of the Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi will offer a new window of opportunity to open a new chapter in bringing peace to this country. Now everybody seems to have given up on this hope and false expectation that the ruling TPLF EPRDF tried to nurture. Although the Ethiopian officials and spokespersons speak of negotiating peace with guerrilla fighters in Somali Ogaden Region, with neighbouring Eritrea and initiate diplomatic rapprochement with far away tiny Emirate of Qatar, but shows no sign to make peace with its own people inside Ethiopia.

On the contrary, the TPLF/EPRDF regime seems to have declared war on every force at home. On Muslims who requested non–interference in their religious affairs, Christians in monasteries who objected to taking their land for sugar projects, all ethnic groups who want correct implementation of federal arrangement and above on our people, the Afars in the North–Eastern part of the country. 

 

Since announcement of the death of the late dictator Meles Zenawi, in August TPLF/EPRDF tyrannical regime of Ethiopia has been continued to impose their unlawful and discriminatory policy of marginalization and killings on our people. Recently, the TPLF/EPRDF regime had committed arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions, gross violations of human rights, rape and sexual violence and politically motivated killings against the Afar civilians in different districts of Afar Region on the grounds that these people were accused of being ARDUF or sympathizers or what the regimes calls “anti-peace elements” who oppose state commercial projects such as the infamous Sugar Project in their grazing lands.