About almariam
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino. His teaching areas include American constitutional law, civil rights law, judicial process, American and California state governments, and African politics. He has published two volumes on American constitutional law, including American Constitutional Law: Structures and Process (1994) and American Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights (1998). He is the Senior Editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, a leading scholarly journal on Ethiopia. For the last several years, Prof. Mariam has written weekly web commentaries on Ethiopian human rights and African issues that are widely read online. He played a central advocacy role in the passage of H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007) in the House of Representatives in 2007. Prof. Mariam practices in the areas of criminal defense and civil litigation. In 1998, he argued a major case in the California Supreme Court involving the right against self-incrimination in People v. Peevy, 17 Cal. 4th 1184, which helped clarify longstanding Miranda rights issues in criminal procedure in California. For several years, Prof. Mariam had a weekly public channel public affairs television show in Southern California called “In the Public Interest”. Prof. Mariam received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1984, and his J.D. from the University of Maryland in 1988.
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I was present at the Grand Renaissance Ethiopian Dam (GERD) on February 20, 2022 when the first turbine (#10) kicked into action.
No words can express my feeling of pride, joy, honor and dignity in Ethiopia that day when the GERD produced 375MW of electricity and delivered it to the grid!
On August 11, 2022, the second turbine (#9) kicked into action!
Sitting ten thousands of miles away, I still feel the same pride, joy, honor and dignity in Ethiopia.
I thank the Almighty for this day and for blessing Ethiopia with the River Ghion Abai (“Nile”).
I thank the people of Ethiopia for every penny they paid to make GERD a reality. When the world turned against us, we turned ourselves to the Almighty and to ourselves and made it happen.
I thank the engineers, technicians, laborers and all others who toiled to build the GERD over the past decade.
I thank the Ethiopian National Defense Force and regional militia for their service beyond and above the call of duty.
I thank our GERD negotiators who performed their diplomatic and technical duties with professionalism, skill and ethics.
I thank H.E. Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed (Abiy “Aybegere” Ahmed) for is steadfast leadership, meticulous oversight and guidance, insistence on accountability, and innovation; and ultimately for his decisiveness, determination and dedication to the completion of the GERD!
Above all, I thank PM Abiy for being a man of his word.
On June 11, 2018, PM Abiy assured Egyptian President Abdel Fettah Al-Sisi, “Ethiopia has no, no intention whatsoever to harm our brothers and sisters in Egypt over the use of the Abai (“Nile”) waters.”
Today, the GERD protects Sudan and Egypt from destructive floods and neither country has suffered “substantial harm” (legal language), indeed no perceptible harm to their share of Nile waters.
Congratulations to all of us. እንክዋን ደስ አለን !
GERD: One big step for prosperity in Ethiopia, one gigantic leap for African progress!
ETHIOPIA INVICTUS! ETHIOPIA UNCONQERABLE!
ኢትዮጵያ አይበገሬ !
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