By Alemayehu G. Mariam The inconvenient truth about Africa today is that dictatorship presents a far more perilous threat to the survival of Africans than climate change. The devastation African dictators have wreaked upon the social fabric and ecosystem of African societies is incalculable. Over the past several decades, bloodthirsty dictators like Uganda’s Idi Amin,…
By Alemayehu G. Mariam In his epic autobiography, the great Nelson Mandela used the metaphor of the “long walk” to describe his decades-old struggle against apartheid and minority rule in South Africa. In Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela described, among other things, his labor of love trying to steer his nation away from racial and…
By Alemayehu G. Mariam Transparency International [TI] (the global coalition against corruption) has just released its 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Once again, Africa has the dubious honor of being Kleptocracy Central, the continental home of the most corrupt governments in the world. Leading the parade of kleptocracies are the regimes in Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe,…
By Alemayehu G. Mariam In his book Night, Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and the man the Nobel Committee called the “messenger to mankind” when it awarded him the peace prize in 1986, wrote: For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and the…
By Alemayehu G. Mariam “No alternative in the opposition,” they whispered anonymously. What a disgusting phrase to use in justifying support for a ruthless dictatorship? That is apparently the scuttlebutt on Embassy Row in Addis Abeba. Reuters’ Barry Malone reported last week, “Most Western governments want Meles to continue because there is no alternative in…
Alemayehu G. Mariam It is hard to talk about Ethiopia these days in non-apocalyptic terms. Millions of Ethiopians are facing their old enemy again for the third time in nearly forty years. The Black Horseman of famine is stalking that ancient land. A year ago, Meles Zenawi’s regime denied there was any famine. Only “minor…
Alemayehu G. Mariam Mission Impossible? In the first part of our commentary[1] on the madness of Ethiopia’s 2010 “elections”, we posed the question: “Is it possible to have a fair and free election in a police state?” In light of the persuasive anecdotal evidence presented by former Ethiopian president Dr. Negasso Gidada, which pointed to…
Alemayehu G. Mariam In part I, we explore whether, given the current circumstances in Ethiopia today, a free and fair election is possible in May 2010. In part II, we aim to explore the necessary preconditions for free and fair elections. Free and Fair Elections in a Police State “Is it possible to have a…
Alemayehu G. Mariam Mother of All Troubles It is not only Mother Ethiopia that is in deep trouble today but also the millions of mothers in Ethiopia. Hanna Ingber Win, the World Editor of the Huffington Post, was “invited by the U.N. Population Fund to visit its maternal health programs in Ethiopia, which has one…
By Alemayehu G. Mariam Déjà Vu: Here We Go Again With the Charade Last April, we commented that the whole business of elections in Ethiopia is “much ado about nothing”. We offered a catalogue of reasons why the whole election rigmarole and ritual under the current dictatorship was an exercise in futility and absurdity: The…
