The Battle of Adwa Changed Ethiopia and the World

“The Battle of Adwa” (Courtesy of A. Davey via Wikipedia)

February 28, 2014

Abebe Hailu, Special to The Washington Informer

Ethiopia, Yesterday and Today

Ethiopia has a significant history reaching over 3,000 years into the past. The word “Ethiopia” has become a term for the idea of African solidarity and freedom, not just the name of a nation or a region. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus noted the region of Ethiopia as home to “people with burnt faces.” During the Greek and Roman eras, everything south of the Sahara Desert in Africa was generally referred to as Ethiopia or Abysinnia.

Biblical references also label Ethiopia as Cush, Kesh, Ekosh and Shewa (Sheba) in the Hebrew language. These were the names used in Solomon’s courts

Cloaking corruption in international respectability and credibility

February 24, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

The regime in Ethiopia is making a desperate second run to bring international respectability to its corrupt mining sector by re-applying for admission as an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) candidate.  According to Anthony Richter, Chairman of the Board of the Revenue Watch Institute and a board member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Ethiopia’s 2010 application was rejected because the  EITI

board concluded that Ethiopia’s ‘Proclamation on Charities and Society’ would prevent civil society groups from being sufficiently independent and meaningfully participate in the process.  The board decided, in effect, not to admit Ethiopia ‘until the Proclamation on Charities and Society is no longer in place.’

Ethiopian (Woyane) Airlines hijacked

February 18, 2014

by Yilma Bekele

The Name is Ethiopian but that particular property belongs to our Woyane masters. It is there for the TPLF to do what it wants. It started with such promise and grew up to be such a proud achievement by both people and country. That is until Woyane showed up.

That promise of building an organization that belongs to us all was nipped in the bud by Meles Ashebari Zenawi and friends. Like all other institutions, Ethiopian Airlines was absorbed by the TPLF mafia and molded in its own image. Like most other institutions created by earlier generations that the TPLF inherited, the first order of business was to clean house in the name of re organization and install cadres from one tribe.

Democracy and its Trade-off: Ethiopia’s Path to National Reconciliation By Prof. Messay Kebede

In many of my previous articles, even as Meles Zenawi was in absolute control of the country, I have defined the creation of a government of national reconciliation as the best roadmap both for the easing of some of Ethiopia’s socio-economic problems and initiating the construction of a democratic future. My assumption was then that Ethiopia could benefit from Meles’s dream of grandeur: had he taken the initiative of creating a genuine government of reconciliation, he would have marked history in a way similar to Nelson Mandela. The purpose of this article is to confirm that the proposal is still relevant.

Before I go further, there is one basic hurdle that needs to be removed. Every time I propose a government of national reconciliation, I face two different objections. Some pity my naivety and demolish my proposal with a heavy blow of realism by asking, why would the ruling elite invite the opposition parties when it feels strong in the face of a weak and divided opposition? Others tell me that my position does no more than side with the ruling party by throwing cold water on the struggle to remove the EPRDF which, they say, is beyond redemption.

ECADF: Open Letter to Mr. Umar Hassen Ahmad al-Bashir

February 8, 2014

Mr. Umar Hassen Ahmad al-Bashir, President

The Republic of the Sudan

Khartoum, Sudan

Dear: Mr. al-Bashir

The Ethiopian Current Affairs Discussion Forum (ECADF) is a non-for–profit organization where concerned Ethiopians from all over the world discuss matters that affect Ethiopia and Ethiopians.

It is a recorded history that Ethiopia is the only country in African that has never been colonized and pioneered an anti-colonization movement.

Saving Ethiopia From the Chopping Block

February 3, 2014

by Alemayehu G. Mariam*

WE live in a time that gives new meaning to Shakespeare’s line in Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them…” Today we come face to face with the evil Meles Zenawi has done when he lived. A piece of Ethiopia is retailed once again to the Sudan. They call it “border demarcation.” I call it call it border slicing, dicing and pricing — all for thirty pieces of silver!

In July 2008, I gave an impassioned speech in defense of the territorial integrity of the Ethiopian motherland at a conference called by a North American civic society group known as “Gasha for Ethiopia”:

We are here today to help stop Meles Zenawi