Author Archive

   Whether the people of Ethiopia are better off in 2014 than they were in 2010 or in 2005 is the sole question that should be decided in the 2015 parliamentary “election”. If they are not, the people should vote to change diapers. After all, “politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and

The sophistry of history President Obama likes to pontificate about being on the “right side of history” and rhetorically clobber those who are on the “wrong side of history”. Debating Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election and defending his own record, Obama said, “… they can say that the president of the United States

Should we despair over Africa?In March 2004, Nicholas Kristof, the noted columnist for the New York Times declared in frustration,  “Africa is a mess. It is the only continent that has gotten poorer over the last four decades and its  famous for civil wars, genocide and mindboggling corruption. Is there any hope for Africa?” Kristof was commiserating over the

Last week, in a bizarre display of faux outrage and indignation, the regime in Ethiopia unleashed its big “experts” to go after International Rivers, an organization that has been leading the global struggle to protect rivers and the rights of indigenous communities that depend on them for nearly three decades. International Rivers, headquartered in Berkeley, CA.,

 Déjà vu 1994 Rwanda in 2014 Central African Republic Last week, the people of Rwanda began a solemn week of official mourning to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide. On April 6, 1994, Hutu extremist leaders in government, their political supporters and organized militiamen coordinated a systematic killing spree, which lasted over 100