Alemayehu G. Mariam “It is time to stop hating Ethiopia.” In November 2006, in her farewell cable to her replacement Donald Yamamoto and the Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Fraser, former Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Vicky Huddleston warned: “It is time to stop hating Ethiopia.” In November 2007, in a N.Y. Times op-ed piece, Huddleston…
Alemayehu G. Mariam Ethiopia, Famine and the Oxford Dictionary Oxymorons (figures of speech that combine contradictory terms) can sometimes provide unique insights into the cognitive process. Consider, for instance, the phrase “honest politician”. Is there such a thing? It sounds so comical to talk about “efficient government”? How about an “emerging democracy”? That’s like saying a…
Alemayehu G. Mariam End Game Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire arrested! Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in intensive care! Moamar Gadhafi of Libya under siege! Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan, a fugitive from justice. Ben Ali of Tunisia out of Africa! Meles Zenawi, sleepless in Ethiopia. These are heady days on the African continent. These are…
Alemayehu G. Mariam The Common People Don’t Want War At the Nuremberg Trials in 1945, Hermann Goering, Hitler’s right-hand man, told his interrogator: Naturally the common people don’t want war. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to…
Originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 12/27/2010 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ethiopian-groundhog-year_b_801384.html Groundhog Year in Prison Nation In December 2008, I wrote a weekly column entitled “Groundhog Year in Prison Nation” summarizing some of my weekly columns for that year. I used the “groundhog year” analogy following the title of the motion picture “Groundhog Day” in which a…
Originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 11/29/2010 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/reflections-on-thanksgivi_b_789011.html In 1620, one hundred and two prospective settlers left England and set sail for over two months to come to the New World. They landed in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. Nearly one-third of them were religious dissenters escaping persecution. A group of English investors had…
Alemayehu G. Mariam Last week, there was a great deal of teeth-gnashing, knuckle-cracking and gut-wrenching by Ethiopia’s dictators over Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) 2010 report. The dictators belched out much sound and fury that signified nothing. Their fury had to do with HRW’s conclusion that “Ethiopia is on a deteriorating human rights trajectory as parliamentary…
