Al Mariam’s Commentaries
“When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees,” said Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President of the United States. At the first Republican presidential hopefuls debate on August 6, 2015, we witnessed angry wasps at war. (I did not say WASPs.) “What a piece of…
Get down, like James Brown! Dances with the stars? Dances with wolves? How about dances with thugs! The Godfather of Soul, or as his fans call him J.B. (R.I.P. J.B.) had a song called, “The Boss”. It’s a cut on the soundtrack album for the movie “Black Caesar”. The movie is about an African American…
Warning! Stop! Do not read further if you can’t handle the truth about Barack Obama. “Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.” “I speak my mind because it hurts to bite my tongue.” Bite your tongue, Barack Obama! When President Barack Obama visited Ethiopia last week, he shocked a lot of…
It is said that “smile and the world smiles at you.” Does it follow that if you laugh at the world’s most ridiculous election, the world will join you laughing? Last week, Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser, broke out in uncontrollable laughter when she affirmed the recent 100 percent elektoral victory of…
How the West underdeveloped Africa and is now trying to “finance develop” it The “Third International Conference on Financing for Development” was held in Addis Ababa last week. It was billed as a “gathering of high-level political representatives, including Heads of State and Government, Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, as well as…
Prof. Al Mariam’s VOA Amharic Service Interview, July 22, 2015 Prof. Al Mariam’s 3-Part Interview on VOA Amharic Service, July 9, 2015
July 16, 2015 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Obama: Greetings! Mr. President. I was ecstatic when I heard you will be travelling to Ethiopia in late July “for bilateral meetings with both the country’s government and the leadership of the African Union.” Such a meeting…
Reeyot Invictus! Thus spoke Reeyot Alemu to the Voice of America- Amharic Service on July 9, 2015, a few hours after she was literally thrown out of the infamous Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality (Ethiopia’s “Robben Island”), on the outskirts of Addis Ababa: I will continue to fully struggle to make Ethiopia a good place…
My topic for my Monday Commentary this week was not about a teachable moment for Ethiopian-Americans. I dropped my intended topic and wrote this piece because I was madder than a nest of hornets. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) entitled, “Journalists Assaulted While…
Author’s note: As I was archiving my commentaries from years past for public access on my website (almariam.com), I discovered commentaries and articles I had written in the print edition of Ethiopian Review Magazine (ERM) before that publication went online in 2000. I had vague recollection of various articles I had written on Ethiopia and the…
