Tariku's Droplets

Blindness

2021-10-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Blindness is not why the world goes blind;
But by the adjectives our tongues wield to glorify enlightenment.

The year-end balance between truth and desire
Is tipped by the weight and might of words.

Where one basks in the valor and honor of a hero with fervor,
Another aches at the chilling beauty of a neighbor’s Hitler.

'ህገ መንግስት'?

2020-12-23T21:27:00.008-08:00

'ህገ መንግስት'?

ያኔ

መሰረት ሲበጃጅ
ላገር እንዳዲስ ቤት፣
ዳቦ ስም ሲወጣ፣
ለዘመን ህልም ማሸት፤
ምን አሰበን ነበር
ያልነው "ተስማምተናል፣"
ነገድነት ይንገስ
ሰውነት በቅቶናል!

አይደለም ወይ ቃሉ
የሰነዱ አንድምታ
ሃገር ሰው አልባ ይሁን
ነገድ ብቻ እውነቷ?

ዛሬ

ታድያ ደርሰን "አቤት"

"ዋይ" "ዋይ" ምንለው፣
በነገድ ፍርድ ቤት
ሰው መቼ ደም አለው?
በቋንቋስ ምህዋር ውስጥ፣
እልቂት መች ፍች አለው?

ነገ

የሰነዱን ቁመት፤ ወርድና፤ ጥጋጥግ
በልተን፤ሰንጥቀን፤ህመሙን ሳንፈልግ
ሰውነትን ሳንዋጅ፣ ሰውን ሳንደነግግ
እልቂት ብንረግም በደም ብንበረግግ፣
መሆናችህ አይደል በሃሳዊ ብግነት
ላራጅ ለገፋፊ ቢላ ሚያፈላልግ?

....................................................................

=የኢትዮጲያ ህገ መንግስት መስረታዊ ተፋልሶዎች በፈጠሩት መድልዎ ምክንያት በየግዜው ህይወታችውን ለሚያጡ ዜጎች።

መተከል

2020-12-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

መተከል

ልክ እንደ ፍዝ ግጥም፣ ቤት መምቻው ሚደግም፣

የዘመኔ መርገም አንዱ ካንዱ አያርም ፣

ሚደፋ ባንድ ቃል፣ሚመታ ባንድ ቃል፤

ጅግጅጋ መተከል

ድሬ መተከል

አዳማ መተከል

ሻሸመኔ መተከል

ማይካድራ መተከል

መቀሌ መተከል

ሁመራ መተከል

መተከል መተከል

ኮንሶ መተከል

አርሲ መተከል

መ

ተ

ከ

ል

.......

በግፍ ለተገደሉ ኢትዮጵያውያን ሁሉ።

Criminal Impunity: Genesis of the TPLF Initiated Conflict in Tigray

2020-11-25T16:22:00.013-08:00

On November 15, 2020, at 11:55 AM, Senait Mebrahtu tweeted (in Amharic), “From now on, if you don’t cease what you are doing, I will release a video of you being abused in prison and put you to shame forever.” This tweet was directed at the renowned, award-winning Ethiopian journalist and human rights activist Reeyot Alemu. Reeyot was a prisoner of conscience for five years under the TPLF-led government of Ethiopia. Senait is an active member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that held power in Ethiopia for twenty-seven years until it was ousted by a popular uprising in 2018.

That same day, the spokesperson for the TPLF—now the ruling party in the Tigray region—appeared on a regional TV station and threatened to launch rockets into neighboring Eritrea and other targets within Ethiopia, just hours before attacks were carried out on two airports in the Amhara regional state.

There are striking similarities between the two threats: both serve as evidence of criminal intent by the very individuals who issued them, regardless of the public’s awareness. That unawareness, however, was rooted in a deep-seated sense of entitlement to criminal impunity—an impunity long enjoyed by members of the TPLF. It is this mindset that emboldened a former prison torturer to threaten her victims with the release of abuse footage, and a regional government spokesperson to boast about missile capabilities and openly threaten to target the entire Eastern African region.

Torture as a Thing of Pride

Both the tweet and the televised interview glaringly highlight a reality most Ethiopians know all too well—and that many foreigners may not: the TPLF’s entrenched sense of being above the law and its disturbing romance with criminal impunity.

Senait Mebrahtu is not only a card-carrying member of the TPLF, but—just three years ago—was one of the torturers operating in the many prisons and underground dungeons across Ethiopia under TPLF rule. These facilities were used to cripple, shame, and silence opponents. According to firsthand accounts from torture survivors, Senait was among the most sadistic perpetrators. The catalog of horrors included sodomy, amputation, fingernail removal, flogging, and urination on victims. Survivors reported that acts such as “pulling genitals with pliers and flogging while tied to poles were daily occurrences.” Senait, they say, used sexually sadistic acts to humiliate her victims, including verbal abuse and urinating on them while they were in chains.

And now, this very torturer lives freely in Tigray—bold enough to threaten one of her former victims, journalist Reeyot Alemu, with releasing video footage recorded during acts of torture, in an attempt to silence her.

To many outside observers, it may seem unbelievable that a known torturer would publicly threaten victims and still walk free. But this absurdity lies at the heart of the conflict in Tigray. For the past two years, any attempt to bring such criminals to justice has been mischaracterized as an attack on their ethnicity.

Criminals Playing the Ethnic Card to Escape Justice

The last two years in Ethiopia have seen a constant struggle between those pushing for national progress and those nostalgic for the era of unchecked power held by a few over millions.

In any other country, such criminals would have faced public outrage and imprisonment. Instead, former torturers mocked the forgiving gesture of a nation that offered them a second chance. In Tigray, where many of these individuals have taken refuge, they rebranded themselves as “untouchable” and “holy.” Criticizing or even questioning them is twisted into an affront to ethnic identity.

Two years ago, when federal police issued arrest warrants for some of these criminals hiding in Mekelle, the Tigray regional police arrested the federal officers who arrived to serve the warrants. TPLF leadership portrayed the federal government’s pursuit of justice for thousands of torture victims as an attack on the Tigrayan people. This logic is as absurd as Nazi generals claiming that the Nuremberg Trials were anti-German. These individuals—who once wielded power for personal gain while neglecting the people of Tigray—now seek refuge behind the mask of ethnicity as justice approaches.

Today, the former head of Ethiopia’s intelligence agency and central committee member of the TPLF, who oversaw extrajudicial killings and atrocities like those Senait boasts about, is defended simply because of his ethnicity.

Torturers as Heroes

In most societies, such criminals would be imprisoned or at least live in shame. But in Ethiopia, ethnic politics—what might be called “ethnic apartheid”—has enabled them to avoid justice altogether. These individuals can freely threaten their former victims using footage recorded during acts of torture. It’s akin to Nazi officers threatening Auschwitz survivors with video evidence of their suffering to keep them silent. No Nazi would have dared brag about such crimes—because justice would have found them. But in Ethiopia, torturers from just three years ago walk freely, even celebrated as heroes.

A prime example is the "We Are Getachew Assefa" campaign launched by TPLF youth, defending the former intelligence chief wanted for crimes against humanity. Immersed in a culture of impunity, these former leaders now add insult to injury—threatening Ethiopia with rockets and violence.

At the heart of the Tigray conflict is the defense of this criminal impunity—of figures like Senait and Getachew Reda, who consider themselves not only above the law but also expect the world to forget the brutal, repressive regime they upheld just a few years ago. They frame their desire to regain power as a legitimate political cause—when, in truth, it is a desperate effort to escape justice.

Romancing Terrorism While Demanding Negotiation

What the world may glean from headlines is that a renegade regional government ambushed Ethiopia’s Northern Command, looted weapons, and threatened missile strikes on the capital and neighboring countries—and then followed through on those threats. To many outside observers, it seems inconceivable that a political party would attack a national army and demand to be restored to power. But to Ethiopians, this is a familiar playbook—the TPLF’s impunity over the past 27 years.

The global narrative may frame the TPLF’s defiance as a political disagreement or as resistance to authoritarianism. But Ethiopians know that the core TPLF leadership shows no remorse for the atrocities it committed. Instead, it seeks to delegitimize the current government and stage sham regional elections as a way to reclaim power—with no accountability.

The world may have heard about the massacre in Mai Kadra, where TPLF's Samri killing squad slaughtered, hanged, burned, and beheaded more than 600 ethnic Amharas and so-called “Welkait” people. But Ethiopians know this was only one of many brutal acts—part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing and terror designed to intimidate the country into surrendering power.

The world may see only the TPLF’s digital propaganda and its global network of agents. Ethiopians see clearly what the TPLF is: a treasonous, terrorist mafia organization.

The world may hear calls for negotiation and assume both sides are equal. But Ethiopians know that negotiating with terrorists who rejected the country’s forgiveness would mean sacrificing the future of peace in East Africa.

Freedom for Tigray—from the TPLF mafia rule!

By Tariku Abas Etenesh

We are Avatars Gaming Politics of Stereotypes

2019-01-05T14:20:00.002-08:00

“Like all art that arises from culture, games are deeply political,” writes Alfie Down in her Guardian article entitled Video Games are Political. And according to American Psychology Association magazine, 91 % of children in the United States between the age of 2 and 17 play video games and nationally 99% of teenagers play these games. That is why, according to Erika Schickel, who in her article Grand Theft Mommy recounts her love of virtual games, video gaming” is currently framing the argument for the need to tighten restriction on content and rating video games to protect America’s youth from its immoral influences.”

However, the puritan impulses of the society toward sanctifying the field of gaming seems doomed from the start. It appeared not only destined to fail but also headed towards propagating the problem even more. Part of the problem seems to be the fact that “America’s youth” are not a homogeneous group that could be served with “one fits all” protective ruling. This is a challenge mainly because the games are informed by a culture which also lays on the foundations marked according to Sarkisian by favoritism in terms specific gender, color, and class. This makes the “protection of America’s youth” a contested proposition at best. This is to say that the psychology of game designing that relies on narratives of race, culture, and religion can’t be wholly divorced from the implicit and overt biases of the dominant culture.

Although political is not the first thing that comes to mind for the child or the adult player any video games nor are the expressed intentions of the producers, the tacit purposes behind the psychology that informs the designing, the marketing, the promotion and the messaging of games is political in their general sense. Schickel doesn’t subscribe to the ideas that gaming is immoral as she has shown in her story but only that the trapping of gaming is seductive for both adults and the young. Part of it this seduction is attributed to the sense of freedom that the gaming world promises for the child who lives under family sanctions of "dos and don’ts." Through the games introduced to the child wrapped as birthday or holiday gifts, the child draws a ticket for freedom. Because in the gaming world Schickel writes “everyone acts on their impulses, nobody watches their language; nobody has to bring a snack.” This freedom makes gaming perfect escape from the family of rules. Moreover, such relationships of the child playing with the world of the game and the promises of the act of gaming make gaming very complex political tool.

As a result, In the gaming world, the player is not only being political through identification with the already designated characters the storyline, the challenges or opportunities but also personally aggressed or acted upon as an avatar of cultural, religious, economic and political hegemonic voices the game’s politics perpetuates. Like any political tool, games serve the double purpose of offering a pleasurable respite for the player while unconsciously making the player the vessel of the messages the politics would want to impose. This is true for only on adults who feel they have a sense of distinguishing what to take or not but also on the children who are impressionable. Schickel writes, “What is interesting about the games is it forces you to behave in a socially unacceptable manner.” “The unacceptable” behavior, however, doesn’t present itself as such during the game. Because while gaming the individual is transformed. In the process of playing an avatar, the player itself become the avatar for the trapping of the psychology that I find the game designing.

Indeed, there are advantages that gaming brings to the child as Schickel implies in sharpening the child’s mind regarding problem-solving, insistence to complete task and sense of loyalty to peers. In spite of these advantages, Sarkeersian argues that associations made in the games to color, gender, and cultural codes, if they continue to promote the dominant "white good others bad myth," they remain dangerous. Further arguing the politics of games Alfie states games are “often biased – even when their designers intend them to be impartial – towards conservative, patriarchal and imperialist values such as empire, dominion and conquering by force.” For every side one takes, for every solution one searches, for every kill one scores and for every people one is forced to identify as a problem a political decision was made and the player by agreeing to go along with the “rules of the game” is made to condone them. Coercing the player into lending political consent to the popular culture.

As Schickel writes when playing the game, the player is no more partial or objective but subjective avatars acting like “Big Brother trying to mitigate the selfish drive that this game demands.” Everyone becomes a player in the politic of video games. There are works to be done to rid the world of video games of exoticization of women in general and colored women in particular on the one hand and the total misrepresentation or non-representation of diversity on the other.

Gaze as a Grammar of ‘Homo-reflectus’

2019-01-05T14:13:00.005-08:00

Homo-sapiens can be redefined as homo-reflectus i.e. beings living by and for refined reflections of the self. And the 'reflections element' of the species is inherent in what each person ultimately accepts as being human. Examination of this inherent and common reality that one can't avoid living by and can’t imagine life without leads us to the inevitability of transaction of reflection through the currency of given, received, refuted or accepted gazes. An examination into the language we speak, the religion we follow, the philosophies we cherish, the dresses we wear, the lifestyle we follow, the things we feel free to see and the eyes we allow to be seen by, the cinema we prefer to watch, the way we prefer to be seen in the cinema, everything that made us who we are homo-reflectus is a manifested gaze.

As bell hooks in the Oppositional Gaze, puts it,” there is power in looking” because, she quotes Fanon, “This “look’ from - so to speak - the place of the other - fixes us, not only in its violence, hostility, and aggression but in the ambivalence of its desire.” Thus, an act of viewing a film is not just an act of participation in the gaze but also a participation in the power relation, a participation in the manifestation of how one is gazed at and thus defined, aggrieved, glorified and or fixed in the accepted grammar of the community. The gaze becomes as Fanon said more “oppressing “and “fixing” when it is compounded by the vocabulary of race introduced into it. The masculine, patriarchal gaze that sanctions a defined rendition for what 'the woman image' should be and this image is one that takes the woman as reflections of the wishes of the man. The oppression becomes more when the woman factor is coupled with color and racism.

Before cinema or other forms of projected images exercised the power of 'sanctioned looking’, language is the first mirror that the homo-reflectus is introduced into the exercise of the privileges of gaze. Each member of the community of language is offered preordained sets of eyes and perspectives with the grammar as spectacles into the self and into the world and into others. And all languages are statements of the power relations in a community. Language is a power relation manifest in the binaries between the strong and the weak, the privileged and the dispossessed, the man and the women and the master and the slave. It is thus evident to notice that the language of a patriarchal mode of thinking and sanctions a patriarchal mirror as the way of viewing the world in spite of the gender differences of its members.

As a result of the grammar of patriarchy, a woman for millennia, 'should teach' herself to see herself in terms of the secondary station she is given. She is an extension of a man a wo-man, she is the secondary, almost accidental being in the thought of the gods who happen to create her out of the man and for the man. In the patriarchy, religion is the first technology that gave the technical definition for the woman. And every subsequent technology both in ideas and in 'forms' have perpetuated the male gaze as 'the gaze,' the defining gaze that coffers on one the right of acceptance and conformity to be recognized as sane. A catalog of laws and rights that women were not part of the beneficiaries are numerous and are still many. The male universal gaze is the most common mirror awaiting any homo-reflectus as truth if it chose to comply, bow down and rhythm with the system. This is how the gaze works in cinema.

What is true for the man-woman binary is also true for the black-white binary. It is compounded when the double layered identification of black and woman come together into the gaze scene dominated by the patriarchal eyes. In the complex and yet fully unresolved racial scene of motion pictures in the west, where the black body in general and black women’s bodies, in particular, were subject of the centuries of defined set of conjugation in the grammar of the white-male-racist, gaze, the cinema not only projects the same but insists to impose it too. Hooks to this end writes that “Critical interrogating black looks were mainly concerned with issues of race and racism, the way racial domination of blacks by white overdetermined representation.”

That anything produced by the patriarchal grammar being a way to perpetuate its gaze is one thing while adding gender, race, and class makes the gazing dynamics even more complex. That is why a simple act of being at a movie theatre is enough an exercise of projected, accepted, resisted gazes in play both by self and others attesting to our tendency to seek refined reflections of self.

B-urn

2019-01-05T14:08:00.001-08:00

"I have a special gift for you,” my mother said.

It was the day I turned 18.

“Where is it?” I asked,

“Wait till the end of the barbecue," she replied;

It was the yearly Thanksgiving barbecue night,

The urge to fry was high,

And the fire was hungry for flesh;

The day went as usual;

The smell of fried meat churned appetites;

Happiness perfumed the air,

Laughters ignited candles of conformity;

This went on until an eerie silence descended on all at the end of the barbeque.

It was a sacred silence where everyone fell into a trance.

First, my uncle brought a sealed black urn and a white photo album from the living room and put it at the center of the backyard table

Mom told me to sit.

And the ritual started:

Dad turned towards the garden,

where two white Magnolia embraced,

As if they were confiding secrets into each other.

He stared at them like a tree whisperer.

My Mom sat at the table,

covered her eyes,

and in a silent sob sang muffled lines,

whose meaning I did not know until I received the gift:

She sang:

Oh Lord, your eyes have seen,

What happened that morning,

when prayer wane in the church lawn,

And the bells rang calling for Thanksgiving fun,

You have seen how the fire gloved men from the bench in the church,

Ended their supplication for you and dutifully run,

Out to the garden dragging their better-halves for a spot in the frontline,

and urging their little ones to hasten, hurry, hurry,

you should not miss the spectacle in the scapegoats’ wince;

Oh, Lord,

the rush was like a race,

Enough the tree tall,

To view clear from miles,

For all eyes to marvel the tightening nooses,

Squeezing the last words from your children’s pain,

Their necks twisting in the blaze,

the smell of their flesh exciting the crowd,

And bones crackling to amuse,

Lord, your eyes have seen

How your children shouldered a nation’s sin,

Lord your eyes have seen.

At the end of the song, the Black Urn was unsealed,

“This is your gift. Look inside,” my mother said, and I did

“What is this charcoal?” I asked,

Her fingers pointed at an old newspaper cutout. And I read:

‘For the yearly thanksgiving Lynch Party,

Two niggers were beautifully roasted alive this morning

At the Valley Baptist Church.’

“What is this charcoal,” I said again blazing from inside.

“It is your Grandmother’s, right palm,

It was taken as a souvenir by a party goer

and recently bought back by the family.”

"Oh Lord," I said,

"Now your eyes have seen," my mom said.

………………………

All We Need is Excuse -(a Short Story)

2018-07-19T21:12:00.002-07:00

All We Need is Excuse

Tariku Abas Etenesh

..........................................................................................................................................

"The dustbin is outside for a reason,” he heard a voice. He looked back from where he bent. A girl walked in, passed two rows, and threw herself onto the red padded greying middle seat to the left and slowly squeezed towards the window – face away.

"This isn’t what you think.”

“Trash is trash,” she said without turning.

“This is not a simple bottle,” he said and immediately regretted saying it. It made no sense; at least it would not make sense for her.

“Step back, doors closing,” the train chimed.

For a second, he thought of remaining onboard to explain.

“Step back, to allow the doors to close.”

“Good night,” he said and stepped out leaving the bottle rolling on the floor.

When the train slowly slithered away, his eyes were locked with the girl through the window. No hint of accusation was on her face -just a mix of bewildered amusement cuddled by a shy smile. Maybe she was reading his face too.

Walking home, he was overwhelmed; his mind flashed through the past three months like a poem he knew well. A poem whose title aspired to strike a balance between chaos and routine but vacillated into Untitled. A poem with a theme of measured recurrence constituting normalcy. A poem where the only words designated to carry the mechanics of meter, diction, brevity, rhythm, and economy were alarms, waking up, walking, running, tapping, passing, boarding, standing, sitting, arriving, and getting off and repeating. It was just last week he had asked himself, “is this all there is to life?” Now that poem with the theme of recurrence felt for him an archaic word that needed nuanced redefinition.

What if magic is just the mundane perceived in a context of awe. What if it was him who made his experience monotonous and what if there was no monotony in life after all? What if no one is responsible for his happiness?

It happened after the boarding routine of his day, on the way back home. The scene from inside the train was as usual. He knew all the faces. Tension filled, communication staved, blank starves, suspicion tattooed gazes, sternness hooded souls whose eyes artfully trained to avoid seeking one another as if one’s sins were written on the forehead of the other. The train that more and more felt like storage full of punctuations randomly crammed together deprived of the words, sentence and paragraphs they naturally needed to thrive.

A succession of receding scenes punctuated by momentary darkness, incandescent tunnel lights, views of meadows, parks, and skyscrapers begged for ephemeral attentions before they swished back like a just passed second cast into eternity with a lure of permanence yet mocked by the just born second.

He didn’t notice his surrounding for much of the ride until the 14thstop. The crowd that was standing near the door, where he sat had thinned away one stop at a time. A girl about twenty stood near the door holding on to the pillar, her eyes too looking outside like many of the riders. In front of him sat stern-faced youngsters comparing pictures from Facebook on each other’s phones. Two women sat on the opposing side both looking outside. A young man in white short-sleeved shirt and a rainbow tie sat next to him, he knew him from their regular rides together but never had exchanged words. His eyes too stared blankly outside on the fading tunnel light swishing back as the train raced ahead. Tired with that he turned inside the old man to his left gave me the casual smile of recognition that dimmed before it was complete. He did the same and moved his eyes to the floor where he saw an empty water bottle at the corner of the door to his right.

As he was looking, the train turned on a curve moved the bottle to the middle of the floor, right in front of the door - a few inches away from the girl. He read the label on the bottle Purified drinking water500 ml. Feeling a sense of being seen, he looked up, one of the Facebook sharing young men were looking at him looking at the bottle, and they shared a smile. The bottle rolled again and stopped right under the girl’s legs. She looked at it. By now the old man the two youngsters and the girl were looking at the plastic bottle. The girl felt hesitant between kicking the bottle away or leaving it there. Then it started to roll, to the two young men. All eyes seemed to have found a spot to rest without feeling guilty. One of the young men raised his legs to step on it but as if manipulated by an invisible hand the bottle rolled to the old man sitting right in front of him who bent to grab it, but before he could, the bottle rolled out of his hand- generating laughter from everyone.

“Looks like, it likes me after all,” said the older woman who found the bottle rolled down near her feet. But like a strange game of invisible hands, the train stopped at the right time and rolled it away from her hands.

Everyone laughed.

“Funny ha,” said the young man sitting next to him. Today marks their third month riding the same train, and no words except for smiles were exchanged between them.

“Let's see who it prefers,” said the lady.

Suddenly, everyone waited for the train to start moving and see where the bottle would head. It was as if everyone was waiting for it to happen. For some excuse to tear down the wall of sternness. As if the missing sentence that made everyone sad punctuations locked in their self-meaning was miraculously found.

“I am going to post this thing on Facebook,” said one voice.

The fog of suspicion that he knew to hover over everyone in his other rides was not there.

"Good night folks," said the old man before he left.

"Good night, night, bye, have a good one,” a chorus of voices replied.

Just like the old man each rider said his version of goodbye.

He was the last one left when he arrived at his destination. The bottle on the floor. I will let it be there he thought, but then he hesitated to pick it up and throw it away. He bent and again hesitated and dropped it back on the floor.

………………………………

(January 2018, Los Angeles, California)

No, TPLF is not TIGRAY: A Case of Ethiopian Airlines

2018-07-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Part One: Leave and Never Come Back!

Three years ago—on July 3, 2015, around 10:50 AM—a few (and I stress, a few) connected, mafia-like members of the TPLF operating within the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines still considered themselves above the law.

That day, they used a fabricated “security concern” and a vague accusation of “political tendencies” as a cover for their real motive: ethnic profiling. They sent security officers to my office at the Aviation Academy and literally forced me out, saying only, “Leave”—with the unspoken but clear message: “And never come back.”

And I never did.

To an outsider, especially someone unfamiliar with the inner workings of the airline, this may sound unfathomable. How could a civilian airline allow a political group to carry out mafia-style operations against its own employees? But I was not alone. Many before and after me have faced similar intimidation and injustice.

While these individuals acted under the banner of the TPLF, I want to make it clear: for me, Tigray had nothing to do with this. It was the mafia—the corrupt circle within the TPLF—that had everything to do with it.

So why did they do it?

Because they wanted to install someone they deemed "more Ethiopian" than I was—simply because he was a TPLF member. The irony? This person was not only unqualified, but also had zero aviation experience.

This may sound bizarre, especially coming from an internationally respected airline. You might wonder why they didn’t even bother to fabricate a believable reason, as they often had in the past when firing others. But back then, they believed they were untouchable—arrogantly confident that they could do anything without consequence.

That day, they sent in security to intimidate and eject me. I doubt they ever imagined how quickly times would change.

Context: The Farce of “Security Risk”

To understand the root of this “security risk” label, I must go back to an executive management meeting in April 2015. The Airline’s top leaders, including the CEO, Ato Tewolde, were present. At his invitation, I addressed questions on the state of quality in the Aviation Academy. Impressed by the discussion, the CEO approved five new positions in the Training Quality and Safety Assurance Section, where I was acting manager.

Following that decision, I began searching for qualified internal candidates in line with company policy.

Unbeknownst to me, the TPLF-linked mafia had already earmarked those positions for their external candidates—individuals they had handpicked, who had no aviation experience but were politically connected.

The HR manager (a key member of this group) and the security director bypassed my section entirely and claimed to have conducted interviews. I later learned that some candidates were already undergoing medical checks before I had even reviewed applications. Meanwhile, I was continuing the internal recruitment process, seeking the right aviation professionals from within the company.

When the internal vacancy was announced, the mafia group was furious. The HR manager bombarded me with emails demanding I stop the process, as they had already selected their people from outside.

Imagine this: I was looking for a pilot, a cabin crew member, an aircraft technician, and a marketing professional—with real safety and quality assurance experience in aviation. The mafia’s candidate was an unqualified individual looking for a high-paying job with none of the required credentials.

Tigray didn’t do this. The TPLF mafia did.

Standing Firm Against Corruption

I told the HR manager that if they wanted to hire the unqualified external candidate so badly, they should find another position elsewhere. I had specific needs and had already found applicants with the right expertise. One of them was a senior auditor with over 15 years of experience.

That’s when the intimidation machine kicked into full gear.

Suddenly, people I once thought were friends were reporting on my private conversations to security, as though I had “hidden motives.” Even harmless initiatives like launching a Toastmasters Club—intended to help staff and trainees improve communication and leadership—were labeled as suspicious “neo-liberal movements” and blocked. Yes, in an international airline, such ignorance prevailed—because the mafia group believed they were above the law.

Then came pressure from my superiors. They called me into their offices and advised me to “apologize” to the HR manager—the same HR manager who had sent emails claiming the qualifications set by the company were irrelevant and insisting I accept her candidate based on his “analytical skills.” I was even told he was an aide to a government minister, and my refusal could be seen as resistance.

I understood their fear—but I refused. Being a minister’s aide didn’t qualify someone for an aviation position. I continued the proper recruitment process with the designated team, interviewed the right candidates, and selected the most qualified one.

That’s when the mafia began claiming I had ulterior motives.

Tigray didn’t do this. The TPLF mafia did.

The Day They Came for Me

A month later, I successfully filled one of the positions—with a qualified aircraft technician who had over 10 years of auditing experience.

On July 3, I was attending an ACE Management meeting. After the session, I walked to my office on the first floor of the administrative building. I was informed that security was waiting for me at the Managing Director’s office.

I walked in.

The fearful look on the Managing Director’s face said it all. Two security officers sat beside him.

“You are under investigation. From this moment on, leave your office,” they said. When I turned to my boss and asked, “What investigation?” he simply replied, “Do as they said.”

So I left.

They quickly seized my office computer for their so-called investigation.

Within a week, they installed another TPLF member in my position. But that wasn’t enough. They started interviewing my colleagues, hoping to fabricate a non-existent crime to justify their actions.

Through all of this, I never saw the will of the Tigrayan people. What I saw was a mafia group calling itself TPLF, acting with absolute impunity.

Universe Ruined

2016-10-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

Ending an eternal pulse of being,

we cut the rose;

and simulating affection,

we force it into a vase;

The bee was an afterthought,

Nuisance was its flight;

So was the odor implied romance:

A ruined universe.

………………………………..

By TAE

Ethiopian Politics: No happy Ending

2016-10-16T11:24:00.004-07:00

Ethiopian Politics: No happy ending

(Tariku Abas Etenesh)

“There are no happy ending in history, only crisis points that pass,” says the famed science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. History furnishes ample evidence to support his statement especially in the Ethiopian political sphere. This national crisis regurgitation is attributed to not learning from history: much like a fool that does the same thing expecting different results. One such example of a crisis attributed to lessons not heeded from history is currently unfolding in Ethiopian politics: the Ethiopia government’s handling of democracy as synonymous to repression. Conflating state power with the right to stifle people’s rights and expecting people to not react and strengthening the repression. In a country whose leading party controls 100% of parliament seats meeting the demands of the very people with military deployment that morphed into martial law to protect the ruling party from its own people is just a perfect example of a crisis.

Unending State of Emergency

As a country Ethiopia has never been a real democracy. State of Emergency has been the default position for more than half a century of its modern history: emergency begetting another and one not learning from the previous. As a result, the country was forced to recycle crisis heralded as ‘new eras’ to only grow into yet another crisis point.

The first of these crisis points involve the fall of the Solomonic Dynasty in 1979 and the second the fall of the military dictatorship in 1991. In both crisis points, however, the ‘newness’ heralded not only failed far short of their promises but also left strong precedents for upcoming nightmares. When the military junta, aka Derg, (1979-1991) proclaimed a ‘new’ communist Ethiopia; ‘new’ was equated with waking up from the feudal nightmare. Yet, Derg quickly failed on its promises by turning the revolution that ushered it to power bloody through extrajudicial killings, massacres, repressions and civil war. In 1991, the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) led ethnic coalition that declared the country politically ‘new’ again: ‘new’ supposedly meaning a departure from the nightmare of communism and repression. However, they too failed terribly and very swiftly through their repetition of extrajudicial killings, mass jailing, torture, massacres, curtailing of freedom of speech, hatemongering, corruption and ethnic profiling and bigotry.

Ethiopia, in terms of its politics, is a country that wakes up from a nightmare every generation only to realize that it was in a historical act of dreaming in a dream and thus the supposed waking up was a continuation of the dream where the same nightmare recurs. And currently, the country is awake from 25 years of mishandled ethnic federalism nightmare. However, the hope that after 25 years of failed policies and rampant corruption and fake federal government, the government would start to listen to the woes of the people was proved to be unrealistic as the ruling TPLF led government has preferred to turn to a martial law. The hope that the country would finally awake was dashed by the ruling party choosing to protect itself through every means possible and declare war against its own people.

Fueling the Cycle of Crisis:

There is a popular saying in Ethiopia that reads: the hammer thinks everything is nail as the military governments that led Ethiopia – both the past and present - saw the Ethiopian people as their enemy that should be faced by guns and conquered. Their worship of guns and military solutions clouded their judgement sawing the seed for more crises.

Both so called new political experiments (-communism and ethnic federalism) share one major calamitous flaws reflected in the manner they were implemented and the behavior of the key personalities in the two governments Mengistu and Meles. This flaw is the deep seated worship of foreign solutions and foreign political whims to remain in power and the corollary attitude of deep disrespect for their own people. Both Meles and Mengistu were dictators who fought to secure power in the name of the people not out of the legitimacy from people but while sounding to be after ideals such as Marxism and Communism to legitimize their despotic anti-democratic ways.

Mangistu of Derg was willing to turn the country into a satellite communist state for Russia for the military and financial support. Meles of TPLF was servant of the Western interest especially as America’s hit man in the region while securing in return aid and blind eye on the atrocities his regime launched on his people. Derg was in power as far as it was financed by Russia but the day Russian support was withdrawn it faltered. The current TPLF led government too relies on the total support of the western powers and condoning impunity for its atrocities while shrouding its brutality through construction boom financed by China.

Like Derg like TPLF

Both the former military Derg and the current regimes came to power surfing the tides of revolutions that sprang out of the frustration and desperation of the masses and by appealing to people’s questions and interests at their heart. However, after holding state power both the past and present dictatorships have resorted to defining the people into enemy groups and establishing their will as uncontested truth to be accepted by all without opposition. Any one or group opposing them was sure to be labeled as anti-people, antirevolutionary, anti-peace elements. Dictating state of affairs where only celebrating them and the ruling party would be the safest way to survive. Both the past and the present tyrants prided of millions of members whose membership is nothing but attributed to lack of hope and prevailing systemic violence and intimidation that shunned those who are not members.

Violence begets violence

The current TPLF led government’s reliance on lethal force on unarmed citizens for the ‘crime of exercising their inalienable rights’ is pushing political forces who used to follow nonviolent path to reconciliation as away change to opt on military options. This curse of recycling military regimes by military regimes should have been avoided by the current government doing its job as a government not as a tool for a party.

As far as regimes do not learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, we are cursed to go from crisis to crisis punctuated by a lull of preparing for more.

Decadence in TPLF:

The problems of TPLF are the very things it calls my strength: the military and economic might it has achieved and the support it claimed to have among TPLF supporters.

There is a deep-seated arrogance and lack of respect to people by TPLF because the party has helped form a collision that defeated one of the biggest armies in Africa. As they have often been heard saying if they have crashed Derg they could crash any one and anything. This calculation is a lie that was first initiated to self-aggrandizement to create an invincibility aura to recruit fighters for as rebels has now for 25 years been exercised to paint a different image of TPLF as the only solution to the country.

This is flawed for two reasons: first the victory over Derg was never a victory of TPLF alone as portrayed by the late Meles and other TPLF leaders to energize their base. The Derg regime was long defeated because it had lost the support of much of the people who were opposed to its repressive dictatorship. Without the peoples’ support, and the support of other rebel forces that weakened the repressive system from within, the fall would have taken longer and different form. This invincibility myth of TPLF recently debunked by one of the chief architect of the TPLF army- former Chief of Staff of the army -General Tsadkan Gebretinsay. Who said: we are no braver than any ethnic group but we won because he had the support of the general public who were fed up with Derg.

The second calculation of TPLF is to assume that only force could solve all problems of good governance. To this calculation is attributed the control of all major key posts in the military, intelligence, police and the special forces by former rebels from the Tigrayan ethnicity. This dangerous assumption has two major flaws.

First, it relies on a wrong assumption that all Tigrayans support exploiting the death and sacrifice of thousands of Tigryan youth during the fight against Derg for a corrupt end of legitimizing the domination over the rest of Ethiopia. This is not and never true as the chief beneficiaries of the corruption and the domination if these institutions have been the connected few elites who are exploiting the name of Tigray as cover for their indefensible decadence. The signs and evidences are all out there for everyone to witness that former members of TPLF are opposing the repressive direction of the party. TPLF is a decadent party that is festering conflicts between the people of Tigray and other people of Ethiopia as a guarantee to remain in power. The generals who are now billionaires through corruption are no more interested in defending the constitution or -as the say-representing the Tigrayan people; they are interested in defending their wealth as the expense of the people of Ethiopia.

The second mistake of TPLF in the assumption is that the military because it is dominated former TPLF rebels will not revolt against itself. But this is to be seen in short time too low to assume that TPLF members of the army are not able to see the way the repressive regime is taking the country and that their leaders have exploited them and revolt against them.

No happy endings

The currently declared state of emergency reminds Ethiopians of those decrees by the Derg regime as a prelude to the infamous Red Terror by which thousands of civilians were killed, persecuted, jailed and banished because the military, the police and the intelligence forces were above the law. The regime seems to think everything will go business as usual after killings and mass imprisonment as in the past to its own detriment.

It is worrying to see the current declaration of making the military, police and intelligence forces above the law by decree. These institutions were and are -for 25 years- run by revenge seeking former rebels from one political orientation and who are determined to protect the criminal empire and their business interests they built through corruption at the expense of the people and the country.

The regime is no more hiding behind the false theme of building 'revolutionary democracy' as they are nakedly terrorizing the whole nation into submission after a year of fearlessness the people exhibited.

The Ashanti have a wise saying ‘do not call the forest that shelters you a jungle,’ The TPLF regime should take a great lesson by halting the killing of the very people it claims to represent. Repression is the slippery lane of fall that tyrants chose throughout history, and the current Ethiopian regime is no exception.

………………………

Absurdistan' aka Ethiopia IV

2016-10-11T08:36:00.002-07:00

Absurdistan' aka Ethiopia IV

Well, the time has come that I have to say it out loud. I don’t agree with most opposition leaders and political pundits or key detractors, (including myself) of the government of Ethiopia as being democratic.Who are we to blame the government of being Democratic; when time and again it has insisted to be called Demon-cratic i.e. democracy of demonizing others, and that the government deserves our fair share of respect in being referred to as it wants to be called: The Federal Demon-cratic Republic of Ethiopia or in short Absurdistan.

Who are we to deny the government to be called as it wanted to be called?

Who are we to deny the government a thank you for the great gifts it has offered the people of Ethiopia:

1. The gift of Repression of dissent,

2. The gift of Lack of political space (for any politics other than the governing party),

3. The gift the killings and jailing people,

4. The gift of nullifying freedom of speech,

5. The gift of criminalizing freedom of assembly,

6. The gift of shredding the country’s constitution into bits to help a few elites live above the law and- most of all,

7. The gift of Demon-cracy for more than two decades

Who are we to deny what the government earned?

How nicer could a ‘demon-cracy’ get when the government from its very establishment has done its best to be ‘accountable’ and be abide by the ‘universally accepted’ conventions, laws and practices including but not limited to:

· International convention in the experimentation of ‘Orwellian Animal Farm’

· Universal declaration of ‘Orwellian 1984’

· Unilateral/ bilateral/multilateral declaration of hatred of ‘others’

· The universal dictatorial creed of taking people hostage for party and political ends?

· The universal dictatorial creed of threatening to dismantle a country if power is lost.

What more do people need from the government of Absurdistan?

Stop calling the government democratic when they don’t want to be called so.

Let’s show some ‘Absudistan’ respect here!!

………………………..

"Absurdistan" aka Ethiopia

2016-10-10T10:48:00.006-07:00

'Absurdistan' aka -Ethiopia III

I am still trying to understand how the current declaration of State of Emergency by the dictatorial regime in Ethiopia vis-a-vis the legitimate quest of that Ethiopian people that the declaration intends to suppress.

So far, I could -comprehend it well only in an alternative reality where absurdity is a norm. Imagining a situation where I was robbed by a ‘serial thief’ in broad daylight. And I caught him red-handed and cried ‘thief’. But then, the thief did something absurd- he became angry at me for calling him a thief when I actually should have thanked him for offering me his 'robbery service'. He then declared to the world that he is dismayed at my ‘egregious manners of calling him thief” and that I was insulting his parents by doing so, and that I was being instrument for ‘people’ who hate him and who want to tarnish his name. And finally he demands compensation and threatens to strip me naked because I was guilty of not only offering less valuable items -such as liberty, equality and justice- for him to steal but also for not appreciating him for his ‘robbery service.’

For a nation that was not only in state of emergency already but led by a party that just a few months ago declared to have been voted to remain in power by 100% of the electorate, to decide to not listen to the people and declare state of emergency because they did this 'unacceptable absurd thing' called exercising democratic rights!? Absurd?

Welcome to the federal democratic republic of Absudistan aka Ethiopia.

Ethiopia at a crossroads: apartheid, civil war or reconciliation?

2016-10-02T05:56:00.002-07:00

Ethiopia at a crossroads: apartheid, civil war or reconciliation?

( First appeared on This is Africa online magazine)

http://thisisafrica.me/ethiopia-crossroads-apartheid-civil-war-reconciliation

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Tariku Abas Etenesh on September 27, 2016 —

Ethiopia is seeing an increasing number of civilian protests, which are brutally suppressed by the government. It seems that the elite in power needs to heed the lessons taught by the Rwandan genocide: Do not play with ethnic hatred.

The year-long, nationwide and unceasing popular anti-government revolt in Ethiopia has brought the country’s ‘ethno-linguistic federalism’experiment to a dead end. Despite the country’s constitution professing the equality of ‘all the peoples of Ethiopia’, for the past 25 years ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991. As a result of the political atmosphere in the country, where the best armed takes all, all aspects of the federal government (i.e. intelligence, military, police, state banks, airlines and core sectors of the country’s economy) are now dominated by an elite from a Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that represents only 6% of the general population.

Divide and rule

For 25 years, the TPLF elite has guaranteed its grip on state power through the divide-and–rule tactic of festering ethnic animosity. The Amhara and the Oromo are their prime targets. Hate speech against the Amhara (the second–largest ethnic group in the country)was broadcast on state– and party–owned mass media outlets, denigrating millions of people by referring to them as ‘timkehetegna’, which means ‘the conceited’. The killing and jailing of the Oromo (the largest ethnic group in the country) has been normalised, thereby creating an entire generation of people who feel like second-class citizens in their own country.

There is a lesson to be learned from the Rwandan genocide: Do not to play with ethnic hatred.

Threatening the country they lead

Unlike the former military regime, which relied on force to crush any opposition but never compromised on the sovereignty of the nation, the current TPLF–led dictatorship is unprecedented in its threat to wreak havoc if its absolute power is contested. The late Meles Zenawi was often seen using this tactic of bullying the country whenever his party’s reckless corruption and unconstitutional dominance over the federal government was questioned.

One aspect of the mayhem that Meles designed and his colleagues now desire to unleash is that of instilling hatred among the people of Tigray and other ethnic groups by turning any criticism of them as leaders of the country into an attack on the Tigray people. This hate–mongering is evidence that the elite does not have the Ethiopian people at heart, only power. The Tigray people have not only been betrayed by the TPLF elite but they are also being manipulated as the party tries to hide its many failing. Tigray deserves peace and development as much as the other parts of Ethiopia, not to be taken hostage by the corrupt and power-hungry TPLF, which is terrorising them.

Cracks in the ‘divide and rule’ policy

For the first time in the 25 years of minority control of the federal government, the people of the two major ethnic groups, the Amhara and the Oromo, have come together to create a common front of the oppressed. This unexpected show of unity has sent a shockwave throughthe TPLF elite, who is frantic and has sent in the military, armed with tanks, helicopters and missiles, against civilians – as if people who are simply demanding their rights and equalitywere foreign invaders.

Country at a crossroads

The current popular opposition in the Oromia and Amhara regional states is a great opportunity for the government to re–examine its divisive policies, admit to its failings and design a reconciliatory road map that would save the nation from descending further into conflict. The elite, however, still chooses to use special killing squads, military force, burning prisons and killing prisoners in custody.

For the past 25 years, ‘equality’ has been a factor of who has the most firepower among the rebel groups that toppled the former military regime in 1991.

In addition, it is now spending taxpayers’ money and foreign aid on the launching of media campaigns to derail the unity of the Amhara and the Oromo people.

A silent coup

Following the first wave of uprising by the Oromo last year, the Ethiopian military, controlled by the TPLF, has made official its unequivocal allegiance to the ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ policy, which is the governing policy of the ruling party. This act of merging party and government into one practically re-mandated the defence force of Ethiopia into being a mere protector of the minority elite and, by implication, declared the country’s constitution obsolete.

This is a silent coup. This fact becomes evident when one considers the supposed industrialisation of Ethiopia, which is to be led by the military, under the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC). This is a corporation under the Ethiopian National Defence Force that is fully controlled by generals who were former TPLF rebel leaders. They were tasked by the late Meles Zenawi with the industrialisation of the country. This dangerous disregard for the constitution amounts to running a government inside a government and is pushing Ethiopia towards being an ethnic apartheid state. This can only lead to more violence.

Embracing real democracy

Just a few months ago, the government won 100% of the seats in parliament seats. Voterigging is suspected. The whole country erupted in opposition, showing the real danger of authoritarianism.

Sending in an army, equipped with tanks and missiles, against civilians – as the government has done against the people of Amhara – for no reason other than the fact that they exercisedtheir democratic rights, is not how democracy works. Such a display of power is the most cowardly and desperate exhibition of despotism.

It is incumbent on the people of Ethiopia not to fall for the traps set by the elite, who seem more determined than ever to encourage ethnic conflict and hatred through their media propaganda.

The path of national reconciliation

Unfortunately, due to the divide-and–rule policy of the government over the past 25 years,Ethiopians have been targeted for their ethnicity: The Amhara, Oromo, Anuak, Somali, Tigray, Kembata, Konso and many other ethnic groups have been targeted at different times. This is a sad reality and testifies to the policy of hate–mongering that is practised by the elite.

Read: Ethiopia abandons Addis Ababa “master plan” after Oromo protests

The government of Ethiopia needs to stop encouraging further division and animosity. No Ethiopian should be targeted for his or her ethnicity. There is a lesson to be learned from the Rwandan genocide: Do not to play with ethnic hatred.

However, it is incumbent on the people of Ethiopia not to fall for the traps set by the elite who now, more than ever, seem determined to encourage ethnic conflict and hatred through their media propaganda. Our silence today will not save us sorrow tomorrow. We should say no to the machetes of hatred that the country’s leaders are selling in their media. We should say no to the use of our name to justify the killing of any Ethiopian.

The martyrdom of our time is saying no to hatred and ethnic conflict while calling for equality and justice for all.

Ethiopia: Set the People Free!

2016-08-09T06:46:00.004-07:00

Ethiopia: Set the People Free!

It is a dangerous psychological problem when one knows that one is lying but yet believing one's own lies as truth fights to impose them on others despite others knowing the truth.

Right now, as was the case for two decades, the government of Ethiopia is doing exactly that. Imposing the lie it told itself on the people of the country.

The lie of just recently winning 100% of the parliament seats when it was an evidently rigged election through coercion, and intimidation.

The lie of standing for universal justice when the justice it cares about is measured justice for the few and connected elites not for the masses.

The lie that it accepts all people of all ethnicities as equals before the law when time an again it has demonstrated that some ethnic groups are less equal.

The lie that its military stands for the constitution when in reality the military itself has declared its allegiance to the ruling party, its ideology and the few connected elites not to the constitution and to the people as it was supposed to (even to the chagrin of it's own former military leaders and Chief of Staff of the Army.)

The lie that all ethnic groups are given the same power to determine their fate according to the constitution of the country when In reality some can decide on their future while some get their fates decided for them.

The lie that access to participate freely in the economic opportunities of the country are open for all when in reality in almost all major economic ventures the government has shown preferences for a few connected elites to dominate and control.

The result of such pathological disregard for truth and the rule of law begets revolutions. As can be seen in Ethiopia now, despite the repression, despite the total disregard for freedom of expression, especially despite the denial of freedom of assembly, the people are on the streets, their anger spilling out and saying enough is enough.

Things that are common for all tyrannical regimes being their assumption that force and force alone would solve the problem. So was the former military government, so is now. Torture, beatings, arrests, denigration, threats and intimidation are the the practical vocabularies we hear from the government. This mentality of the government brought us no where but to more polarized and hatred festering system the country has ever seen.

Now the government has a great chance to do right if it chose to. Now is not the time to try the old trick of 'discussing with the opposition' just to threaten them to condone your repressive methods, accuse them of being the vessels of foreign interests, and claiming that a few development projects that are actually financed by the people and china could give you the license to oppress the very people that should decide your fate.

Such a mentality has already brought us to the Ethiopia of now. The way forward should not be repeating the way of the past. The governments reliance on its police, undercover hit teams and the military to crush any opposition did not work for the Derg and it will not work now.

The attempts now by the administration of Ato Hailemariam to rally the media under its control and trained social media saboteurs, cadres and party controlled media outlets to paint and derail the legitimate questions of the people for their basic rights into ethnic hatred and conflict of one over the other would only have the feared consequences of self-fulfilling prophecy. This is time for them to act like they are leading a country and not a mafia cell.

The people on the streets have clearly shown that they needed unity and solidarity with fellow Ethiopian brothers and sisters of all backgrounds ethnicities.

For the government to rally behind divisive tactics of setting one ethnic group against the other, as was done for the past 25 years will be a disastrous . It is demonstrated that the people have a matured take of their own future than the hatred laced, fear ladden divisive future the government insists to impose on them.

The time is saying to the government of Ethiopia : Let the people free; only then will you be free!!

Words of a Sage

2016-04-21T12:27:00.001-07:00

Words of a Sage

In my proud African village;

I have the honor of hearing words of a sage,

Saying: Remember this if the air ever smells of war;

Only a stupid cow rejoices at a prospect of a beautiful abattoir;

But examine the spear that landed at your gate before the wound it tore,

For on their ways you might find many more;

Says the sage: If a neighbor’s spear lands at your door,

Spear you could throw but that is a weak way to go;

Swallow this: You have lost his respect and you are to blame;

For neighbor's act is a measure of lost love and unison at your own home;

Says the sage: question instead your own grand chiefs for their laxity and callus visage;

Who, in times of windfall harvest shunned deliberation and seized rancor;

Vesting none for the spirits of love of the living and the departed;

Who in times of peace shunned to plant seeds of honor;

Vesting less sacrifice of unison at the altar of nationhood;

Lacking the wrath to display at the denigration of their people,

In many lands, waters, their homes and yonder;

Says the sage: War could subdue a neighbor but could not install the lost love at your home,

That is yours to work for and to dream,

Love is no out pour of a spear but accepting self no matter how grim;

So preceding the blame, ask why is love not cultivated at home?

That we represent, in the mirror of neighbors, an image of shame?

…………………………….

Just Suitably Blind!

2016-03-10T14:38:00.001-08:00

My countrymen,

When we spoke with puritanical take:

About others', ‘their’ history and ‘their’ dreadful trend,

Saying: how could ‘they’ do that? ‘How could ‘they’ be blind?'

We failed to look into our own mirrors' scornful allusion,

How the shy hatred we chewed,

Silting up in our hearts for decades is now smirking bold;

And how love for fellow men was dimming politics shrouded,

How brothers and sisters loving, sets us offended,

How we stood fooled;

Fooled with denial nurtured assurance;

That ‘we’ constitute matchless feats in the annals of nations;

That 'we' are immune to the paths ‘others’ threaded;

That ‘we' stand on a unique -sublime' morality-rock-solid'

How we stand fooled;

We lived for decades swamped in naked politics of vengeful trance,

That insists to distill enmity among brothers and sisters;

We stood fed each day with a suitable mix,

Of brewing language difference into enemy front lines,

Of preserving own at neighbors' expense;

Of being less unique than more ready to rude-awake,

Just that suitable blindness sought oblivious;

For the final whistle of vengeance blown calling for a strike,

We are not being unique but weak!

When we dared say:

‘How could ‘they’ do that?’

Our puritan fingers at South Africa's Apartheid page;

While we exact same to a brother of a different language,

In our own cities, towns, and village;

Yet sufficiently labeled for us by the propaganda dosage;

Of those self-proclaimed saviors of our ethnicity, our language, our village, our 'self',

Who for decades drugged us with the unearned privilege to shield their power greed,

Veiling us from the ethnic apartheid pillage run on our behalf;

And still dare say:

'How could ‘they’ be blind?'

Our fingers at Rwanda for a dreadful human carnage,

Brothers cutting each other’s throats;

While we trained for just that through neglect,

For injustice of painting brothers as ‘the others’,

Sharpening the machete of compliance in our hands,

Let us not fool ourselves;

Apartheid, genocide, fascism are but human guile,

‘They’ are ‘we’ in the mirror of history staring at us with scorn;

When with silence we stand indifferent, tolerant of ethnic bigoted voices,

Shredding human solidarity to buy wounded ethnic peace,

And pushing brothers on the altar of sacrifice,

We are seeking just the suitable blindness to start cutting throats;

Fooled with denial nurtured assurance;

That ‘we’ constitute matchless feats in the annals of nations;

That we are immune to the paths ‘others’ threaded;

That ‘we' stand on a unique 'Ethiopian' morality-rock-solid'

We just stand fooled;

Till our delight isn't derived out of our own brothers' pain,

Our security isn’t distilled out of our own sisters shirking agony,

Our privilege out of the ravaged poor's penny,

Our guiding compass out of the politicians' genocidal litany,

My countrymen, we stand fooled,

Machete of compliance in our hands.

.............................

By TAE

(For the injustice currently being visited on millions of Ethiopians by their own government; as the mass, stood complicit with our silence because the ruling elites for the past 25 years defined our own brothers and sisters as 'others'.)

Won for the World!!

2016-03-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

Won for the World!!

..........................................

When mountain of injustice melt-trembling,

When gazed with eyes of brave burn of valor- stern,

A victory much like an eagle in the sky is born,

With feathers gracefully tucked in wings of dignity - simply human;

A visage much like an Africa lion carved -roaring,

Self-evident above and across contours of political delineation;

Here stands Adwa a victory with a solemn herald:

Where vile of a ‘white burden’ shun through grace,

Baring decadence of contrived greatness;

Through honor for life and humility before existence,

At the altar of human resilience,

Like a lesson chiming from the ancient residence,

Of the first human step to seek meaning,

Here an African victory is won for the world.

......................

...For the victory of Adwa..

(Tariku Abas Etenesh)

Coveting Apartheid!?

2016-02-25T17:55:00.001-08:00

Coveting Apartheid!?

By Tariku Abas Etenesh

An African proverb says, “The greatest crime in a desert is to find water and keep silent about it.” I borrow its structure to say: the greatest crime a government can commit is to be given the opportunity to do great—and intentionally settle for the worst.

For the past 25 years, the government of Ethiopia has been granted, by historical coincidence, rare opportunities to propel the country toward greatness. Yet it has chosen to squander them for the petty purpose of painting a portrait of grandeur for the ruling elite. These elites, who preach hatred as a foundation for nation-building, came to power without any intention of abandoning the politics of animosity. The inevitable result of their investment in hate has been a narcissistic appetite for adulation—of self, by self, and about self—while silencing all opposing voices.

Over the years, they had the opportunity to undo the deliberate domination of key federal structures by a single ethnic group, but they defaulted. They had the chance to pursue a model of development centered on the rights of citizens—but they intentionally chose not to. They could have pursued progress without robbing the poor of their land to benefit the politically connected—but again, they defaulted. They had the chance not to soil the name of the ethnic group they falsely claim to represent for the narrow interest of clinging to power—but they defaulted. They even had the chance to avoid filling prisons with citizens whose only “crime” was speaking the language of the majority ethnic group—but they defaulted.

Like tyrants throughout history, Ethiopia’s ruling elite point to colorful mottos and slogans—often featuring the word “development”—as answers to demands for the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights. But their greatest crime lies in their utter disregard for their own constitution.

Instead of using historical opportunities to unify the country, they chose to inflame ancient wounds. They opted for complacency in the face of corruption, hatred, mistrust, and nepotism. Most disturbing of all, they created a generation of first-class citizens, nurtured with a false sense of entitlement simply for speaking a certain language, while simultaneously creating a parallel generation of broken hearts—second-class citizens terrorized by the fear of imprisonment and injustice for the same reason.

The ruling elite’s strategy of divide-and-rule is both slippery and suicidal, threatening the very foundations on which their fragile power rests. This looming calamity may not erupt solely because peaceful protests are crushed with live bullets, or because opposition figures preaching nonviolence are jailed. It may not even arise because journalists, bloggers, and everyday citizens are branded as terrorists for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. Nor will it necessarily stem from frustrated opposition forces taking up arms. Rather, the collapse may come from the very structure of the regime’s power base: a base built on the entitlement of a minority elite dominating the military, intelligence services, major industries, airlines, national banks, and key ministerial positions—while displaying open contempt for the nation's diversity.

Such contempt is rapidly moving the country toward a dangerous form of ethnic apartheid, in which entitlement to the nation is reserved for a few. This trajectory risks reaching a point of no return.

Take, for example, the evolving justification for ethnic domination of the military. Once denied, it is now boldly asserted. Just last year, the top army chief stated publicly, “The military is not about ethnic diversity, but about ability,” implying that no change to the status quo is necessary. This is a veiled cry for selective entitlement. But the argument misses the point entirely. In a country with a constitution ratified by all ethnic groups, it is unconstitutional—and unjust—for 99% of military leadership to come from one ethnic group. This same logic of “why not us?” is spreading across sectors, pushing the nation toward the precipice of intolerance. The country deserves more than leaders who rule with a medieval mindset.

And yet—it is never too late.
Never too late to choose love over hate.
Never too late to pursue reconciliation and healing.
Never too late to teach tolerance instead of animosity.
Never too late to renounce the tired rhetoric that only “we”—the elite from a specific ethnicity—know what is best for the country.
Most of all, it is never too late to build a nation where a child’s mother tongue is not a curse, but a blessing—where it represents diversity, not adversity; beauty, not brutality.

The greatest crime any government can commit is to squander the opportunity to foster human solidarity—and instead choose the darkest path of narrow ethnic exclusion.

I Asked February

2016-02-24T20:27:00.000-08:00

I Asked February

........

I asked February, why take a color designation?

And it replied: So I could de-color the rest and mine,

Still curious, I remained;

Thus, the month whispered:

History has optical distortion faculty,

Where colors are kept in captivity,

Deprived of their inherent veracity;

Through a collective myth levying visual sanction,

Forcing each hue and diction into a one-eyed vision;

and lamenting:

The journey from cotton-to-gold-to-steel,

Was a white-hued burden,

No red –black- brown in between;

And this, history does so,

Eclipsing the times of creation of colors:

When cotton needed soaking in red to became white,

And white needed baptism in black to become golden;

And golden needed stolen sweat to harden into steel;

Giving birth to a lavish great dream;

Espoused in the plantation spirituals,

And the slave auction stall vile transactions,

The agony engine of the industrial revolution;

Mixed in rhyme’,

Out of many one - E-Pluribus Unum,

Warranted me in shame.

....................................................

For Black History

Whisper of Life: I am Here to Stay

2016-02-21T15:25:00.000-08:00

The silent voice of life chimes through time and space,

Whose echo like an eternal sonnet rhymes,

With terrains of doubt and dins of feat;

And reigns over oceans of meanings with nuanced isles,

Whose rules as humble maxim relate: I am here to stay;

Thus, make a wise take of yourself in my realm,

While you are here but a delicate wanderer,

For I am solemn to stay through you or without;

As I did,

Past the blaze of randomness eons passed,

Past the debris of bodies of mighty-build,

Of the mammoth and dinosaur,

I take no chance to replicate:

Through forms, types and nature- disregard,

In the air, thoughts and knacks- I reside;

In every act of seeking permanence;

In the question, doubt, answer, and conviction,

In every cave-painting, tablet, scroll, book, chip, and bio-chip,

In the whining, roaring, chirping, bleating, and growling;

In every hello, blip, and clang,

In every alas- Oh- Ouch- Yes- Halleluja- and Hurray,

I am here to stay;

As I did,

Through the sky watchers, masqueraders,

the wailers and meditaters

The inquirers and the oracles

The wise men, the artist and scientists,

Outliving the many pursuits to see me in the eye;

Through the creation of gods by humans,

To the creation of humans by the gods,

Outliving the gods ascendance and dethronement from reverence,

Outliving their lingering shadows of fading glory

Against the judgments of time,

I am here to stay;

As I did,

Journeying through carcass of many prides, melancholy and vengeance,

Through my survival mirage tapping your grandeur illusions;

From the reed houses of Sumer,

To the colonnades of Karnack,

To the Athenian amphitheater,

To the boulders of the Incas,

To the Aksumite stale peaks,

As I did,

Through the shifting shadows of time,

When your wish-driven selective remembrance,

Seeking in zebra the camel’s perseverance,

Threaded the sands of the ancient times;

Like a child would look up for guidance but refuses to follow,

To meet your quest only to blemish it as hollow;

Taking yourself the ultimate measure;

Like in the graveyards of Mesopotamia you whined

The curse of a runaway child,

Coveting Gilgamesh’s quest to grip eternity,

Feigning the old yearning as novelty,

Echoing the breath of Amenhotep, Hannibal and Alexander,

Calling arrival your directionless blunder,

I was there,

When you took me lightly
As if, I stood for a bygone era entity,

As if, the voice, which me: life -and your meaning of me as cousins relate;
I see you forget,

That I - life- a forbidding permanence with singularity on BEING,

Whispering through the veins and cells of all forms and manifestation,

say renounce this simpleton’s cage of definition;

That for my sustenance your presence is implied,

is but writ of consolation in your mind;

Wise up and honor yourself through each breath in my realm,

While you are here but a delicate wanderer,

Rather taking bliss in the knowledge,

That I have labored eternities to exact your form and intellect,

But mistake it not: I am here to stay with you or without.

.........................

To all of us -humans.

(Tariku Abas Etenesh)

Dust,Volcano,Star

2016-02-12T15:08:00.002-08:00

Dust-Volcano-Star

(Tariku Abas Etenesh)

The dust particle whispered to the volcano "looks how I lie;"

You, the volcano, no less wondrous than I,

Spurring the molten synaptic fire of planet earth,

Heralding a deep connect, disconnect, elation and sigh;

Stand might-gilded as the fervor of reality yearning for paradise,

Solid flowing in rivers of reminiscence,

Fluid hardening in neural lee-ways,

Nothingness leaping to the might of being,

Emptying a pent-up but agile drive into the unknown and mysterious,

Rippling like words of a certain messiah of the black hole,

Leaping valor of assurance thrusting cadence of time and forms,

Out of the dictates of cherished limitations guise as a civilization,

Out of the fur garbs of layered worship shielding frostbites of invention,

Out of the stability resting on perpetual chaos of inaction,

Out of the metallic brain negating an elastic cry of evolution,

Out of the currency heart beating dimes stealing pulse of human aches;

I see you rising untamed, unabashed, glorified and certain,

I see you glowing to sever phantom pains of history’s designation;

I see you rippling in wrap-unwrapping time fated ashore toward a waste,

A carcass of glory named yield and effort of a sojourn into me:

In the fire you spat, my sea of ice resides,

In the quest of your explosions, my implosion abides,

In your extinction, my rebirth is guaranteed,

In your eternal question, my answers are written,

I, the dust, levitated in cause and effect cycle,

Of fervor, fire, rock, ash, potent-rage, impotent-intent,

Tamed in alluring terrains of mutational respite,

Lying low, slow, different, and migrant,

Arresting a missed rage for attained calm,

Arresting a lost calm for hardened fate,

Arresting a dying hardness for an attained embrace of dust,

Here you lay volcano of the bygone years,

No less glorious in fate as I,

Nor less composed as the stars,

Those light-year-close cousins, as are air in the expanse,

Those light-years-distant cousins, as are the planet and meteor,

We stand as the eternal bidding of the beginning,

Sons and daughters of bliss in the universe of strife,

Letters in this delicate incident called life.

...........

Why?

2016-02-07T15:22:00.003-08:00

A long lost song II

2016-02-03T11:52:00.001-08:00

Stolen Dreams ?

2016-01-18T15:46:00.001-08:00

Stolen Dreams?

(Tariku Abas Etenesh)

A well-intended praise of Martin Luther King Jr. by a friend who said there would never be someone of greater prominence as MLK, giving him the once in a thousand years sort of phenomenon in the history of the black people’s struggle for freedom and justice in America, caused this reflection. It seems that in regards to the-still-ensuing struggle for equality and justice, there is a danger of not valuing the everyday struggle, little but deserved steps in the direction of justice and the need for more to be done as part of the echoes of MLK’s dreams. Part of this is what seems to be the act of stealing the dream from the person by recreating King of the people into king of the embellishers.

The Peoples’ King

Martin Luther King Jr. was an uncontested great man of the civil right movements and of USA. This was attributed to not only his unique gifts of oratory, great academic background ,his service as a pastor and his uniquely ready-made spirit to lead, but also to the fact that he stood on the shoulders of great men before him as all great men before him did.

As Maya Angelou, the great American poet and who was one of the young volunteers who worked with Martin Luther King, said about MLK, ‘he comes to the stage with two hundred thousand people with him; and you can’t help noticing it.’ This was attributed to him being the man of the moment, the man ready as well as capable to carry the responsibility of a generation and of a black people of USA in order to pass the batons of conciseness’ to the next generation.

The historic March on Washington that led to the most memorable -I Have a Dream- Martin Luther King- moment was like a lap in the relay-race of ‘human solidarity’ that saw the forerunner like Asa Philip Randolph, Baid Rustien, Rosa Parks and others who run their portion with unheard-of stamina and daring defiance against the wind of repression blowing against them from all direction especially from the direction of Washington. They all run as if their shoes were winged with dream which was personified in Martin Luther King Jr.

Propelled by the momentum of those who came before him, who dared to dream, who paid with their blood, who dared to sing while still in shackles’ I open my mouth to the lord and I shall not return; I will go, I shall go, to see what the end is going to be”; who passed 400 years old baton of courage to dream, personified in Martin Luther King Jr who did dream so courageously that he gave his life for it. In his hands the batons of struggle, he was strident because his words rose from the hearts of millions; he was graceful because he reflected the aspirations of millions; and most of all he was the mouthpiece that turned the century old shriek of pain of the black man in America into a potent voice that cracked the icy cave of chilling injustice and ushered in a possibility of resting a firm hand on the wheels of history to cruise through the high tides of difficult times.

The ‘Embellishers’ King

Like most historical accounts or personalities of greater renown such as Mandela and Malcolm X, MLK is not immune to historical and politician embellishers who manipulate his legacies to codify him as the-distant and god-like King. These embellishers seem to have a sane looking intention of establishing King’s historical place firmly. But the unintended, and fatally unlike- King, consequence of such ventures is the creation of the King who was an island who was all but human, who has dared to do the impossible alone. A disconnect that amounts to mythologizing the person and his works. Such was not only contrary to the spirit he had lived on and the great ideal of human solidarity he had always preached, taught, marched, and died for.

The history of the black man’s struggle for freedom and justice both in African and US America declare surplus in regards to the leaders are either cut short and labeled to distance them from their people or are put in towers of mythology.

The embellishers, craft a mythology that alluringly starts by shining the searchlight of historical records only on the crown jewel, the actor that took the lead role of a great movement of a great people, and in doing so cutting him/her out of the stream of connected endeavors that added up to the greatness it became and celebrated. This might sound a bizarre point to make, but it is not. On a serious note, the struggle for human solidarity and equality among all races and colors is not a holiday excursion or a popularity contest where the crowning of one marks the culmination of the tour. When celebration of people replaces the celebration of the ideals they represented, the movement dies and the man starts to become god and distant.

The place MLK has attained in the history of America and the world is deserved. MLK merits the greatness he has deservedly attained but that was not the question; was his goal the popularity and celebration of his name that some seem to portray it be? As he has spoken in his last speech before his assassination, the ‘Mountain Top Speech’, after talking about the promise land of equality he said “….I may not get there with you; but we as a people will get to the Promised Land.” So the question is and always should be and the movement before joined by MLK and after should always have asked “have we reached to the Promised Land of deserved social justice and equality?”

Reducing king of the people to ‘King of history’

Like any historically event with sublime import, the culmination of such movement’s great movements seems to end with the glorification of the great man. And this happens not in the physical death of the individual hero, but in the embellishments that over and above the intent of the movements paints a saintly image of the hero and practically detach him from the psychology of the mass that produced him. The idolization of MLK will be defeating his visions if not coupled with the ground work for the realization of his dreams.

If a child in a kindergarten can’t think that MLK is a man and I can be like him; that he was someone who started from modest beginnings and rose up represent justice and equality for all men, that not because of accident but because of sheer hard work and focus, would this not thwart the coming of the “promised land” of social justice and equality?

The problem of such embellishments is in not telling the facts right, but in telling the selected facts. The MLK who was assassinated was not as passive as the often portrayed. He had indeed, laid out the challenges that are not still wrecking the black man in USA and elsewhere not controlling the fate of his own community, and of breathing through borrowed lungs.

has he was clear in his own words:

If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. …

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say.

Had MLK been around, the peaceful resistance of passivity would have had long been evolved to peaceful resistance of action, whereby an economic as well as social plan of action coupled the passive resistance with progressive economic measures for the practical development of the downtrodden and the unprivileged black people.

As the nation celebrates MLK, the struggle to end mass-incarceration, the struggle to lift the mass from poverty, the struggle to end drugs -violence, the struggle to assert ‘Black Lives Matter’ all should still echo dreams differed and that MLK is still relevant not as a mystified distant personal but as a question mark to the current generation: where is my dream? With the batons of the struggle for better social justice and equality in your hands if you just commemorate days like far gone past, are you not becoming dream stealers.

Justice for all!