The United States will stay the course in Ethiopia, and I hope I can count on each of you [Ethiopians] to do the same.” — U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael Raynor, in his Facebook outreach message message of February 13, 2018. I write this open memorandum on the occasion of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s…
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It hurts too much to cry and it is too funny not to laugh. The T-TPLF will do anything to cling to power. For one more nanosecond. One more second. One more minute. One more hour. One more day. One more month. One more year. One…
BY ALEMAYEHU MARIAM, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 02/21/18 02:30 PM EST 20 Originally Posted on The Hill on 02/21/18 http://thehill.com/opinion/international/374900-to-save-ethiopia-from-civil-war-solutions-must-work-from-the-ground-up Ethiopia teeters on the edge of a precipice. For the past two years, waves of defiant public protests have made the country ungovernable and posed an existential threat to the ruling party that has been in power since…
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The T-TPLF state of emergency declaration is an unjust law! The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress… If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and…
Yesterday, T-TPLF prime minster Hailemariam Desalegn “resigned”. Today, it is rumored the T-TPLF is ready to declare another state of emergency to continue to cling to power. In October 2016, the T-TPLF declared a state of emergency for itself. The T-TPLF is on life support once again. Quick to the state of emergency room! A state…
Holding the Feet (Hooves) of the Wounded Beast to the Fire Author’s Note: This is the fourth installment of what I initially planned to be a three-part series on prospects for truth and reconciliation in Ethiopia. I have explained the purposes of the series in the Author’s Note of Part I and Part II along with other issues. In…
Author’s Note: I am postponing Part IV of my regularly scheduled commentary on truth and reconciliation in Ethiopia to respond to Seyoum Mesfin’s call to arms to the people of Tigray. I find it exceedingly important to record a timely response to Mesfin’s inflammatory, outrageous and alarming battle cry aimed at spreading hysteria and paranoia…
Prof. Al Mariam’s Voice of America Interview (Amharic) on U.S. Government Shutdown, January 28, 2018
Author’s Note: This is the third installment in a three-part series on prospects for “mediation”, “reconciliation” and “negotiation” with the ruling Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF). I have explained the purposes of the series in the Author’s Note of Part I and Part II. In Part III here, I aim to sketch out…
Sex, lies, corruption and hacked emails It has been said that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. The second oldest profession in the world is said to be politics. There are hookers and there are politicians hooked on hookers. What do you call a politician hooked on hookers? A “Polistitute”? If indeed there could be…
