Aug 29, 2010
Genocide On Welkayit Tegede
To listen please go here or you can clik and listen from the player below which has both parts of the interview.
Aug 30, 2009
Ethnicity and Identity: More complex than recognized by the Ethiopian Constitution
Today, Dagmawi has posted an interesting article titled, Neither Ethiopian nor Kenyan, just Gabra, Garre or Borana which is about communities South of the Ethiopian (Northern Kenyan) border who are at Limbaugh of their citizenship. Their case is similar to what is happening to the people of Welkayt Tegede.
Dagmawi puts his analysis in an eloquent comment in a way that he can only do.
"The Ethiopian constitution does not recognize the Boran, Gabra or Garre. Nor does it recognize the rights of individuals to choose how to express their national identity themselves. The constitution has taken that power away. It establishes pre-defined Oromo and Somali nations and assigns all Boran, Gabra, or Garre political membership in either of these nations. These are the only identities that are given national political rights. There is no other option. Thus, key issues regarding the livelihoods of these people are now wrapped up in the agenda of ethnic nationalist elites in far-away Jigjiga or Addis Ababa.
The primary objective of these Oromo and Somali ethnic nationalists is to preserve the territorial integrity of their nation. This objective is translated into reality in the mixed ethnic regions inhabited by the Borana, Gabra, and Garre. These ethnic groups have had a long-history of interaction and two-way assimilation. They are now being forced to "purify" themselves and reduce their identity to either Oromo or Somali. There is no middle ground.
The Ethiopian constitution does not recognize regional identities. It does not recognize the existence of mixed communities sharing the same area. Thus ethnic boundaries are being sharpened and the ideals of harmony between ethnic groups and peaceful coexistence are threatened. The cut-and-paste application of Soviet nationality theory to the Ethiopian constitution is having deadly results,"
As Dagmawi stated it above the indigenous people of Welkait Tegede did not get a chance to choose to which administrative region to be part of. The only single reason for TPLF to annex this regions into to Tigray was simply because the people spoke Tirigna. All other factors such as culture, social identity, historical background and and above all the right of the people to express their choice was simply never even considered.
Jul 18, 2009
Letter to the UN
Jun 21, 2009
Interview with Arbegna Shibabaw Abebe
May 31, 2009
May 9, 2009
VOA Interview with Ristey Mebrahtu - On Welkayt Tegede
Jan 19, 2009
Obama: 'Elections Aren't Democracy'
An excerpt from President-elect Barack Obama's Jan. 15 meeting at The Post.
President-elect Obama: Well, I think it needs to be at a central part of our foreign policy. It is who we are. It is one of our best exports, if it is not exported simply down the barrel of a gun.
And one of the mistakes, I think, [that] has been made over the last eight years, and, by the way, I'm not somebody who discounts the sincerity and worthiness of President Bush's concerns about democracy and human rights, and I think a lot of the ways that he spoke about it were very eloquent, but I think the mistake that was made is drawing an equivalence between democracy and elections.
If people aren't secure, if people are starving, then elections may or may not address those issues, but they are not a perfect overlay.
And, you know, issues like arbitrary arrest or corruption may or may not be addressed by an election. So I think what we need to be thinking about is, in various countries, and I use my father's home country of Kenya as an example, what we should be spending more time thinking about is, how can we provide them tools so that somebody doesn't get stopped on the street by a police officer and shaken down, or how do we create a system in which you don't have to pay a large bribe in order to get a job or get a phone installed?
And if we ignore those things, then oftentimes an election can just backfire or at least won't deliver for the people the kinds of -- it may raise expectations but not deliver what they're looking for. And, you know, so we will be working with -- you know, one of the things that I have pledged to do in foreign policy is to ramp up our State Department and restore some balance between the civilian and the military side, to -- and right now we have already begun conducting a thorough review of our various aid programs, our democracy programs, how do these all fit together and how do we view it through a lens that it is actually delivering a better life for people on the ground and less obsessed with form, more concerned with substance.
Source: washingtonpost.com