By Alemayehu G. Mariam Escapees of Conscience or Deserters From a Sinking Ship? Over the past month, there has been a spate of reported official “defections” from Ethiopia. The alleged “defectors” said to be seeking asylum in the U.S. include a high level official attached to the “State Minister of Government Communications Affairs”, an individual…

By Alemayehu G. Mariam The Triumph of Multiparty Democracy in Ghana Ghana has become the poster country for the triumph of multiparty democracy, stability and economic growth in Africa; and sadly, Ethiopia has been rendered the iconic failed African state ruled by a one-man, one-party dictatorship with widespread human rights violation. President Obama traveled to…

Alemayehu G. Mariam End Tyranny Now! “No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.” Thus spoke President Barack Obama last week to Africa’s tin-pot dictators…

Alemayehu G. Mariam Profiles in Courage 2009: Power to the Women of Iran! Even President Obama could not contain his admiration for Iranian women who marched shoulder to shoulder alongside Iranian men armed with rocks to protest the recent fraud-riddled elections. After seeing Iranian women deflect militiamen batons and dodge tear gas canisters, the President…

By Alemayehu G. Mariam Doublethink, Doublespeak George Orwell may have understated the situation in the Big Brother totalitarian state of Nineteen Eighty Four: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” He would be amused to learn that in the police state of Two Thousand and Nine Ethiopia, Big Brother has been unceremoniously replaced…

Alemayehu G. Mariam Inside the Torture Chambers of the Dictatorship in Ethiopia Last week, Barry Malone of the Reuters news agency reported that families of the suspects allegedly involved in a “terror network” against the dictatorship in Ethiopia told him that some of their loved ones had “been tortured and are injured. They have been…

By Alemayehu G. Mariam Fierce Urgency of Speaking Truth to Power Are we becoming an echo chamber for the dictatorship in Ethiopia by repeating its never-ending political babble and lies? In the high-decibel Diaspora critique of oppression, widespread human rights violations and political dysfunction in Ethiopia, I have observed in dismay some pro-democracy activists, civic…

By Alemayehu G. Mariam Our (Home) land on Fire sale A while back, the capo di tutti capi (the “boss of bosses”) of the dictatorship in Ethiopia rebuked Congressman Donald Payne for pushing H.R. 2003 (“Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act”). He quipped with his signature sarcasm, “Ethiopia, this government and this country, are incapable, unwilling…

Alemayehu G. Mariam Human Rights and Fairy Tales For the past several weeks, the noise machine of the dictatorship in Ethiopia has been in overdrive reacting to human rights findings made against it in the February 29, 2009 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report. The official spokesmen of the dictatorship angrily denounced the alleged inaccuracies…