Are crimes against children crimes against humanity? According to the latest Failed States Index, 6 out of the top 10 and 18 out of the top 25 “most failed states on earth” are found in Africa. This commentary is not about beating the dead hyena of the failed African “state”. Nor is it about the failure…
On May 2, 2014, BBC reported that the security forces of the regime in Ethiopia had massacred at least 47 university and high school students in the town of Ambo 80 miles west of the capital Addis Ababa. The regime dismissed the massacre and tried to sweep it under the rug claiming that a “few anti-peace forces incited…
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…
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…
Justice delayed, again? In late January of this year, I wrote a commentary entitled, “Kenyatta at the ICC: Is Justice Deferred, Justice Denied?” In that commentary I openly expressed my angst over the endless delays, postponements and backpedalling talk about “false evidence” and “lying witnesses” surrounding the Uhuru Kenyatta trial at The Hague. I felt…
Clare Short has won! Congratulations, Clare! Brava! Last week, Clare Short, Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), succeeded in bullying the EITI Board members into voting to admit the ruling regime in Ethiopia into her Club. She did it the old-fashioned way— arm-twisting, browbeating, bulldozing, rear-end kicking, a little bit of jawboning and…
Open letter or open pandering to corruption? “As I look around the EITI implementing countries, I do not accept that the situation for civil society in Ethiopia is worse than a great many of them.” That was the didactic pronouncement of Ms. Claire Short, Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in her “Open…
People of Omo River Basin sold down the river Exactly two years ago to the month, I wrote a commentary entitled, “The Dam and the Damned: Gilgel Gibe III Ethiopia” focusing on the impact of “development” in the Omo River Basin (ORB) in southern Ethiopia. In that commentary, I echoed the deep concerns voiced…
