Author: almariam

Author’s Note: In March 2013, I wrote a commentary entitled, “The Dragon Eating the Eagle’s Lunch in Africa?”. That commentary 1) lamented the disadvantages of American companies in Africa competing with Chinese state-supported enterprises unchained by anti-corruption laws, 2) the ludicrous idolization of the so-called China Model by African dictators (which to their understanding means suppress democratic institutions…

“… We express America’s values from the State Department. We represent the American people. We represent America’s values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over, and that message has never changed… I don’t believe anyone doubts the American people’s values or the commitment of the American Government or…

“These perpetual little panics of the French – which all arise from fear of the moment when they will really have to learn the truth – give one a much better idea of the Reign of Terror. We think of this as the reign of people who inspire terror; on the contrary, it is the reign…

Al Mariam’s Voice of America Interview (Amharic) on Trump’s Comments on White Supremacists, August 16, 2017.

Introduction to the series… This rather long and somewhat discursive introduction to the ongoing series I have dubbed “The Dilemma of U.S. Policy in Ethiopia: Policy Options” [hereinafter “policy options series”] is necessary to set the stage for what I hope will be a cyber platform for ongoing discussions and exchange of creative and innovative…

Author’s Note: If I assembled all of the commentaries I wrote on the T-TPLF’s corruption, it would comprise of at least two solid volumes. Back in 2013, I commented extensively on the range of T-TPLF corrupt practices in a number of sectors of the Ethiopian economy and society based on the World Bank’s 448-page report,…

James Otis, an early instigator of the American revolution, captured the rebellious sentiments and resentments of the colonists when he proclaimed, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” In 1765, Otis organized an intercolonial conference to protest taxes on stamps affixed to legal and other documents in the colonies. That convention issued a Resolution declaring: “That it…

    I cut my “legal teeth” nearly four decades ago pouring over the Magna Carta, Blackstone’s  “Commentaries” and Edward Coke’s legal treatises on the primacy of common law principles and the rule of law. Coke enunciated the principle of judicial review (and supremacy) in Bonham’s Case declaring, “when an act of parliament is against…