Thursday, October 31, 2013

የተበተኑ የኢትዮጵያ ፍርስራሾች October 31, 2013 ዳኛቸው ቢያድግልኝ

Thursday, 31 October 2013

የተበተኑ የኢትዮጵያ ፍርስራሾች October 31, 2013 ዳኛቸው ቢያድግልኝ

 
አገር ማለት ሕዝብ ነው ሕዝብም የሰዎች ስብስብ፡፡ መልክዐምድሩና የተፈጥሮ ሀብት ደግሞ የሰዎችን አኗኗርና አስተሳሰብ የሚቀርጽና ማንነትንም የሚያላብስ ነው። በየመንደሩና አካባቢው ያለው የተለያየ የአኗኗር ሁኔታ የቋንቋና የባህል መስተጋብር ደግሞ ትብብርንና አንድነትን የሚያወርስ እኔነትንና የእኔነትን የሚሰጥ ይሆናል። ኢትዮጵያዊነትም እንደዚያ ነው።
ኢትዮጵያና ኢትዮጵያዊነት ግን በሁሉም አቅጣጫ ጥቃት ተሰንዝሮባቸው ያቺ የሰውን ዘር ትልቅ የመሆን ተስፋን የሰነቀች ምንጭ ትደርቅ ዘንድ የራስዋ ልጆች እኔ እበልጥ እኔ እበልጥ እያሉ በፉክክር ሊያጠፏት ይሽቀዳደማሉ። የቀጨጨ ትውልድና የጫጨ አእምሮ ያለው ዘር ይጠፋ ዘንድ እውነት ነውና ኩራታችንን ተቀምተን አናሳና ሁዋላ ቀርነታችንን ተቀብለን እንድንጠፋ ተፈርዶብን መጥፋትንም ተለማምደን በዚህም ዳር እንቁም በዚያኛው እግር በእግር እየተጠላለፍን እንዘጭ እንዘጭ የምንልም በርካቶች ሆነናል። ከትናነንት በመማር ፈንታ በትናንቱ እያማረርን ቂም አርግዘን ሞት የምናምጥ በየጎጡ የሰፈርንም ብዙ ነን። “ለመጥፋት መጋፋታችን መቆም አለበት! መኖር ይገባናል! እኛ እኮ ምንጮች፤ የሰው ዘር፣ የእህል ዘርና የስልጣኔ ፈር ቀዳጆች ነን!” ብለን በነበረን ላይ ያለችንን አክለን “የነገን ተስፋ ብሩህ አድርገን ማለፍ የሚገባንና ጮክ ብለን የማሰብ ሃላፊነት ያለብን የኢትዮጵያ ልጆች ነን” የሚል መነሳሳት ያስፈልገናል። ኮሎኒያሊስቶች ባሻቸው ቀጣጥፈው የሰሯቸው አገሮች እንኳን አገር ነን ብለው በሚኮሩበት በዚህ ዘመን የፈረንጅ የእውቀት ቃርሚያ የቀመሱቱ የኛው ልጆች  ኢትዮጵያ የምትባል አገር እኮ አልነበረቺም እያሉን መቃብራችንን ሊያስቆፍሩን ይውተረተራሉ። ለመሆኑ ኢትዮጵያዊነት ምን ማለት ይሆን? ኢትዮጵያዊነት ለኔ እንዲህ ይገለፃል ወይም እኔ ኢትዮጵያዊ ነኝ ስል የሚሰማኝ ስሜት እንዲህ ነው።
“ከኢትዮጵያ አፈር ውሀና አየር የተሰራሁ፣ ማለትም የበላሁት የጠጣሁት፣ የተነፈስኩት አየርና የሞቅሁት ፀሀይ ያለኝን ተክለ ሰውነት እውነት ያደረገ፤ አስተሳሰቤን፣ ወግና ልማዴን ስነልቦናዬን ጭምር ያወረሰኝ፣ ሀሳቤን እግለጽበት ዘንድም አፍ የፈታሁበትን ቋንቋ የሰጠኝ የምንነቴ መገለጫ ነው”
ግን በዚህም አላበቃም ከዚህ በላይ የማንነቴ መገለጫ ትልቅ እውነትም አለና። ኢትዮጵያዊ ነኝ እንድል የሚያደርገኝ ሌላው እውነት ከውልደቴ በሁዋላ የተማርኩት ብቻ ሳይሆን በውርስ የተቀበልኩትምእኔነት ነው እላለሁ። ይህም ውርስ….
ከእናቴና አባቴ እኩል በእኩል በተቀበልኩት ክሮሞዞም ይት ድርና ማግ የተሸመንኩ ‘ጂን’ በሚሉት ዝንጉርጉር የዘርማንዘሮቼ አሻራ  ጥበብ የደመቅሁ አንድም ብዙም ሰው መሆኔም ጭምር ነው። አያቶቼን፣ ቅም አያቶቼን ከዚያም በፊት የነበሩትና የመጀመርያው ለተከታዩ ሲያወርሱት የቆዩት አሻራቸውን ሁሉ መረከቤና የዚያም ነጸብራቅ መሆኔ ነው ኢትዮጵያዊነቴ።  ከኔ ጋር በአካል ምንም ግንኙነት ሳይኖራቸው ሳላያቸው ሳያዩኝ ግን እነሱን እንድመስል የሚያደርጉኝን መሰረታዊ የሆኑ ባህርያት የተረከብኩበት መገለጫዬ ነው ኢትዮጵያዊነቴ።”
ስለዚህ እያንዳንዳችን የተሸከምነው ጓዝ ብዛቱ የትየለሌ በመሆኑ ግለሰብም ሕዝብን (ያሉትንና የነበሩትን) ይወክል ዘንድ እውነት ነው።  ዘር ከልጓም ሲሉ፣ የእናት ሆድ ዥጉርጉር ሲሉም ያንን ትልቅ እውነት በሀገራዊ ብሂል የሚገልጹበትና ሳይንሱም ይህንን እውነት የሚመሰክርበት ነው። ለዚህም ነው በሌላ ሀገር ተወልደው፣ የሌላ አገር ማንነትን ይዘው ነገር ግን ምንነታቸውን በሰጣቸው የጂን አሻራ ምክንያት ኢትዮጵያዊ የሚያስብሉ ባህርያትን የሚያንጸባርቁ ወገኖችን የምንመለከተው።
እንዲያም ሆኖ ግን እኔ የተሰራሁበት አፈር፣ ወሀና አየር የኢትዮጵያው ስለሆነ ዛሬ በዐለም ዙርያ በመዞሬ ያካበትኩት እውቀትና ልምድም ተጨምሮበት እንኳን ኢትዮጵያ ከውስጤ ከወጣች ባዶዬን የምቀር ነኝ። መሰረቴ ሀገሬ በመሆንዋ ያለሀገሬ ባዶ ነኝ። ብዙዎች ላይ የሚነበበውና ምትሀታዊ ሀይል የሚመስለው እውነትም ይኸው ነው። ስለዚህ ሀገራችን ከሌለች ሀገርም ከሌለን የኛ መኖር ካለመኖራችን ጋር አንድ ነው። ጎዶሎ ስሜት ያልተሟላ ማንነት ይዞ መንገታገት! በስደት አካላዊ ምቾት እንኳን ቢኖር የተሰበረ ቅስም የመያዛችን ትልቁ ምክንያትም ይኸው ይመስለኛል። ለዚህ ነው አገር አልፈረሰችም ሲሉኝ ስብርባሪዎችዋን ተበታትነው እያየሁ እንደምን አልተነካችም ልበል? አገር ሕዝብ ከሆነ ሕዝብ ሲበተን አገር እየፈረሰ ነው ማለት ምን ውሸት አለው? የሚያሰኘኝ።
የኢትዮጵያ ጠላት ኢትዮጵያን ካስተዳደረ፣ የኢትዮጵያ ምሁራን ለሕዝባቸውና ለወገናቸው ማገልገል ተስኗቸው በስደት ለአፍሪካ ሀገሮች፣ አውሮፓና አሜሪካ እውቀታቸውን የሚሰጡ ከሆነ፣ የነገ ሀገር ተረካቢዎች የሆኑ ወጣቶች በተገኘው ቀዳዳ ሁሉ “በሀገር ተዋርዶ ከመኖር እየሄዱ መሞት” ብለው የሚሰደዱ ከሆነ፤ ወይዛዝርቶች  ወደ አረብ ሀገር ለባርነትና፣ ለግርድና ሲያቀኑ ባዕድ ሀገራት ለም መሬታችን እየተሰጣቸው ሕዝባቸውን ሲመግቡ እንደሞኝ እየተመለከትን እድሜ የምንገፋ ከሆነ አገር ምንም አልሆነች ማለት እንደምን ይቻለናል? እንደ መለስ ዜናዊ “መሬቱ እኮ እዚያው ነው ሱዳኖች መጥተው አረሱት እንጂ” አይነት አባባል እኛም “ኢትዮጵያ እኮ አለች ሕዝብዋ እየተሰደደና እየተፈናቀለ ነው እንጂ …” ብለን በራሳችን ካልቀለድን በቀር እየፈረሰች ያለች አገር ናት።
ይህንን ጽሁፍ ለመጻፍ ስንደረደር የካፒቴን ተሾመ ተንኮሉን ቃለመጠይቅ ኢሳት ላይ እየተመለከትኩ ነበር። የደረሰበት በደል በጫካ ሕግ ላይ የተመሰረተ የጠላትነትና የማንአለብኝነት ተግባር ነበር። ለማመንም ለመቀበልም እጅግ የሚያዳግት ነው። እስከዛሬው ቀን ድረስ ለተቀበለው ስቃይ ምክንያት ምን እንደሆነ አልተነገረውም። ሀገሩን ማፍቀሩና ማገልገሉ በወያኔ ዘንድ እንደ ከባድ ጥፋት ከመቆጠሩ በስተቀር። ከዚያ በደል ሁሉ በሁዋላ ደግሞ አገርህ ትፈልግሀለች መባሉ ይበልጥ የሚያቆስል ነው። እንደ ካፒቴን ተሾመ ተንኮሉ አይነት ኢትዮጵያ በከፍተኛ ወጪ ያስተማረቻቸውና የሀገር መከታ የሆኑት ሁሉ ተሰደው የእለት ጉርሳቸውን ለማግኘት የተገኘውን ስራ እየሰሩ ተበትነው ይኖራሉ። በሙያቸው እየሰሩ ያሉትም ቢሆኑ ለመኖር እንጂ ሀሴትን ለማግኘት እንዳልታደሉ ይታወቃል። በ42 ፕሮፌሰሮች መባረር የተጀመረው ዘመቻ ዛሬ ከየተቋማቱ አገር ጥለው የሚኮበልሉ ምሁራን ቁጥር ከግምትም በላይ ነው። የመውጫ ቀዳዳ አበጅተው አገሬን የሚለውን በርካታ ወገን ከሀገሩ አስጨንቀው አስወጥተውታል እያስወጡም ነው የምንል ከሆነ በዚያች አገር መኖር የሚችለው መከራን ለመቀበልና ለመጋፈጥም ዝግጁ የሆነና ባርነትን በግዱና ምርጫ በማጣት የተቀበለው ነው ማለት ነው። ባለሀገር ነን ባዮቹና የሀገሪቱን ጸጋ እየተቀራመቱ ያሉት ጥቂት የወያኔ አባላትና ተላላኪዎቻቸው ብቻ ናቸው። እነርሱም የቆቅ እንቅልፍ የሚተኙና ሀብት የሚያሸሹቱ ይበዙባቸዋል።
ትውልድን የሚያንጽና የሚቀርጽ አካል ከሌለ የሚጠብቀን ለባርነትና ለውርደት የተመቸ ዜጋን መተካት ግድ ይሆናል።ሀገረገዢዎቹ ደግሞ ከነርሱ የተሻለ የሚያስብ እንዲኖር አይሹም እንዲሁ እየተንገታገቱ ልጆቻቸውና የልጅ ልጆቻቸው ለዘመኑ የሚመጥን እውቀትና ሀብት ይዘው የሚፈነጩበትን አገር እየሰሩ ነው። በቁም መፍረስና መሞት ማለትም ይኸው ነው። በተለያየ የሙያ ዘርፍ በከፍተኛ ደረጃ የሰለጠኑ ወገኖች በውጭው አለም ከእውቀታቸውና ከልምዳቸው ጋር የማይመጣጠን ስራ ሲሰሩ ማየት ትልቅ የሀገር ሀብት ከንቱ መቅረቱን መመስከር ስለሆነ ያማል። በሙያቸው የሚሰሩትም ቢሆኑ ለሀገርና ለወገን የሚገባውን ማድረግ ካልቻሉ በደሉ ያው ነው። በጥቂት የወያኔ ባለስልጣኖች ባለንብረትነት የሚገነባው ሕንጻ ሽቅብ ሲወጣና ወደ ጎን ሲሰፋ ኢትዮጵያዊነት ግን ቁልቁል ሲሄድና የሃገሪቱም ጠረፍ ወደጎን ሲጠብ ማየትስ ምንኛ አሳዛኝ ነው?
ያለው መንግስት ባመነው መሰረት ብቻ እንኳን በሁለት አመት ውስጥ አራት መቶ ሺህ ዜጎች በሕገወጥ መንገድ ተሰደዋል የሚል ዜና ሰምተናል። ምናልባትም ተመሳሳይ ቁጥር በህጋዊ መንገድ ከሀገር ለቀው ወጥተዋል ይህ ከቶ ምንን ያመለክታል? የኢትዮጵያ ወጣቶች ደም የሰሃራ በረሃን እያጠጣው ነው፣ የውቅያኖስ አሳዎችን እየቀለበ ነው። በየመን ሞት ነው፣ በሊቢያም ሞት ነው። በኬንያ፣ ታንዛንያ፣ ማላዊ፣ ዚምባብዌ፣ ሞዛምቢክ የኢትዮጵያ ወጣቶች እስርቤቶችን አጨናንቀውታል። የአለም ደቻሳ የጣር ድምጽ ዛሬን ድረስ ይሰማል። በፈላ ውሃ የተቃጠለችው ሸዋዬ ሞላ ምስል አሁንም አለ፤ የሚደርስላት ጠፍቶ አስፋልት ላይ ደሟ የተነዠቀዠቀው ወጣት ምስል በሃሳባችን ወስጥ ትኩስ ሀዘን አስፍሯል። ኤምባሲዎቻችን ሱቅ በደረቴዎችና ሰላዮችን እንጂ ኢትዮጵያን ጉዳዬ የሚሉ ሰዎችን አልያዘም። ወደ ሞታቸው እየተጋፉ መርከብ ወይም ጀልባ የተሳፈሩ ወጣቶች በላምባዱዛ መርገፋቸው አንገት ያስደፋል። በአንድ ዘመን አረቦች በመላው ኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ተሰደው እየኖሩ የእለት ጉርሳቸውን ያገኙ እንዳልነበር ዛሬ አረቦች በጋጠወጥ ድርጊት ልጆቻቸንን እህቶቻቸንን ሚስቶችንም ጨምሮ እንደ አሻንጉሊት እየተጫወቱባቸው ነው። ቀኑን በስራና በችጋር ለሊቱን በመደፈር እያሳለፉት መጨረሻቸው እብደትና ሞት ሆኗል። በዚህ አይነት መከራ የሚመጣ ገንዘብን የሚጠብቁ ተጧሪዎች ደግሞ ልጆቻቸውንህቶቻቸውን ወንደሞቻቸውን እና ሚስቶቻቸውን ለዚህ መከራ አሳልፈው ከሰጡ በርህራሄና በመተሳሰብ የሚታወቀው ኢትዮጵያዊነት አብቅቶለታል።  መከታነት አጋርነትም በችጋር ምክንያት ተሟጥጦ ሄዷል፣ ክብርም እንዲሁ። ወጣቶቻችን እንደ ባርያ እየተሸጡ ነው፣ የኛው ጉዶችም ባርያ ፈንጋይና ደላሎች ሆነው ወገኖቻቸውን  ያሻሽጣሉ። እንዲህ ከዘቀጥን እውነት ኢተዮጵያ የምንላት ሀገር አልፈረሰችምን? በትክክል እየፈረሰች ነው የሚያሰኘኝ የተበታተኑ የኢትዮጵያ ፍርስራሾች በመላው አለም መበተናቸውን መመስከሬና አንዱም እኔው መሆኔ ነው።
ወድቀናል መነሳት ግን ይቻለናል። ፈርሰናል መልሰን የመጠገን አቅም ግን አለን። ስለዚህ በዚህች በምንወዳት አገራችን ተስፋ ልንቆርጥ አይገባም። ከየተበተንበት ጉድባ ከየወዳደቅንበት ቀዬ ደልቶን ከምንኖርበት የሰው አገርም ቢሆን ቀና ብለን ተስፋችንን ልናለመልም ቃልኪዳናችን ልናድስ ይገባል። ሀገር የሌለው፣ መሸሻ፣ ማኩረፊያና ማረፊያ የሌለው ሰው ያበቃለት ነው። የተቀበልነው ፓስፖርትና የያዝነው ዜግነት አገሮች በመልካም ፈቃድ የሰጡንን ባልፈቀዱ ጊዜም የሚነጥቁን መሆኑን ልናስተውል ይገባል። ባይነጥቁንም ሁለተኛ ዜጎች ጥገኞችም ነን።
በኢትዮጵያ ተስፋ እንዳንቆርጥ ማንነታችንን አሽቀንጥረን እንዳንጥል የሚያደርጉ ክስተቶች ስንመለከት ደግሞ ታላቅ  ብርሃን ይሆንልናል። ኢትዮጵያችንን በዚያም በዚህም ቢቀጠቅጧትና እያንዳንዱ ሰው ሀገሩን እንዲጠላ የሚያደርጉ ሁኔታዎች በቀን በቀን ቢገጥሙት፣ ምርር ብሎት በሰሃራ በረሃም ቢያቋርጥ፣ በኬንያ ቢፈተለክ በሱዳን ቢያቀጥን በቦሌም ቢከንፍ ሃሳቡ አረፍ ሲልለት ኢትዮጵያዊነቱ ይነግስበታል፤ በረሃውን ሲያቋርጥ ድህነት ቢያሸማቅቀውም እንኳን ኢትዮጵያዊ ኩራቱን ይዞ ቀን እስኪያልፍ እያለ የጭለማውን ጊዜ ይገፋዋል። ሰው እንጂ ሀገር አይሞትም የሚል የተስፋ ደወል አድማስ እየሰነጠቀ ግም ድው ኳ ሲል ይሰማዋል። ሰለዚህም ነው ባንዲራውን ሲያሳንሱበት ለብሶት፣ ቆብ አድርጎት፣ የአንገት ልብስ አሰርቶት ጉንጭና ሌላም የሰውነት ክፍሉን አረንጓዴ ቢጫና ቀይ ቀብቶት አደባባዩን የሚያደምቀው። ሀውልቱን ሲያፈርሱበት ታሪኩን አስውቦ ከትውልድ ወደ ትውልድ የሚተላለፍ መጽሃፍ አድርጎ ያወጣዋል። በሃይማኖቱ ሊያናክሱት ሲፈልጉ ተቃቅፎ ይሳሳማል። ይህን ስሜት እንደ ምርኩዝ ይዞ ኢትዮጵያን ማዳን ይቻለናል። መንደርደርያና ማኮብኮብያውን ግብ አድርገው ነገር የሚወናጨፉቱ ይህንን ታላቅ ነገርም ሊገነዘቡ ይገባል። የምቾት ፖለቲካ ለማሻመድ ጊዜው የለንም፣ አገር የማዳን ጥድፊያ እንጂ የምርጫና የድምጽ ብልጫ ጊዜ ላይ አይደለንምና ቀዳሚውን ቀዳማይ ዓላማ አድርገን እንጀግን። ወደ ድል ለሚወስደው ጎዳና መንገድ ጠራጊ እንሁን ያም ቢያቅተን እንቅፋት መሆናችን ይብቃ በማለት ኢትዮጵያችን በነጻነት ለዘለዐለም ትኖርልን ዘንድ ጀግነው የተነሱትን እናበረታታ።
ድል ለኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ይሁን!
biyadegelgne@hotmail.com
Source. http://ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/10098/

Madda Walaabuu Media Foundation is to Launch a New Program to Oromia

Why the name Madda Walaabuu was chosen by the founders?  Historical Significances of Odaa with Special Reference to Walaabuu
October 18, 2013 (ayyaantuu.com) — In September 2013, after extensive consultation, over several months, with various segments of Oromo society, a group of community leaders, human rights activists, feminists, journalists and attorneys who are committed to the principle of democracy, human rights, freedom and justice, formed the Madda Walaabuu Media Foundation (MWMF).
The name “Madda Walaabuu” encapsulates the deepest meaning enshrined in Oromo democratic values as manifested in its democratic institutions – Gadaa, Qaalluu, Ateete, Jaarsummaa. In Oromo language, the word Madda means “source” and the word Walabuu means “independence” and hence, the founders of MWMF adopted the name Madda Walaabuu to embody the essence of these values in this new critical initiative.
MWMF is a non-governmental, non-partisan, and non-profit organization, incorporated and registered in Washington, D. C., USA.  It is operated by board of directors and administrative staff under the direction of Executive Director.  The MWMF media outlets are run by experienced journalists. It is a membership based organization, which seeks the support and participation of all interested and committed Oromo and all persons of goodwill who have the desire to empower the Oromo, so that they can confront the 21stcentury in their own terms. Read more…
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Posted by admin - 18/10/2013 at 12:04 am
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

ዜና የሃዋሣ ዩኒቨርሲቲና የከሰሣቸው ጋዜጠኞች የችሎት ውሎ

የሃዋሣ ዩኒቨርሲቲና የከሰሣቸው ጋዜጠኞች የችሎት ውሎ

ሃዋሣ ዩኒቨርሲቲና
ሃዋሣ ዩኒቨርሲቲና
የፊደል ቁመት 
እስክንድር ፍሬው

Violence, Chaos Let Polio Creep Back Into Syria And Horn Of Africa

In the border town of Wajaale, Ethiopia, a frayed, knotted rope marks the international boundary with Somalia. The rope is ignored by just about everyone.
In the border town of Wajaale, Ethiopia, a frayed, knotted rope marks the international boundary with Somalia. The rope is ignored by just about everyone.
October 30, 2013 (NPR) — Global efforts to eradicate polio have made impressive progress over the past decade. Last year there were only 223 cases anywhere in the world.
But armed conflict and chaos are making it tough for the world to wipe out the virus completely.
Polio has re-emerged in war-torn Syria after more than a decade, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday. “The original cluster of suspected cases was 22 cases,” says the WHO’s Oliver Rosenbauer. “Out of those, 10 have now been confirmed as polio. The others are still being processed in the laboratory.”
Over in the Horn of Africa, an outbreak has ballooned into more than 190 cases. The outbreak’s epicenter is Somalia, where fighting and violence have kept vaccinators from reaching hundreds of thousands of kids in the past few years.
Health officials are concerned that polio could become endemic in Syria and the Horn of Africa. They have launched massive emergency vaccination campaigns in both regions to try to protect millions of children against the crippling virus.
Earlier this year, Ethiopia carried out five mass immunization campaigns against polio along the Somali border. But to be fully protected, kids need several doses of the oral vaccine.
Earlier this year, Ethiopia carried out five mass immunization campaigns against polio along the Somali border. But to be fully protected, kids need several doses of the oral vaccine.
But polio infections in Somalia have already spread toKenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia. A recent visit to the Somali-Ethiopian border highlights just how easily the virus can move silently around rural areas — and eventually find kids who aren’t vaccinated.
The town of Wajaale, Ethiopia, is located along the Somali border. The region around the border here is peaceful. But farther south, armed militants rule the area on the Somali side.
The town of Wajaale, Ethiopia, is located along the Somali border. The region around the border here is peaceful. But farther south, armed militants rule the area on the Somali side.
So far Ethiopia has reported only six cases of polio compared with 174 in Somalia. But the landlocked country shares a thousand-mile border with Somalia. Most of it’s unmarked and uncontrolled. Goat, sheep and camel herders move back and forth across the arid plains between the two countries seeking fresh pastures for their animals.
At the border town of Wajaale, a frayed, knotted rope strung across the road marks the international boundary. The rope is ignored by just about everyone. Young men step over it. Vendors with wheelbarrows full of vegetables scoot under it.
Ethiopian authorities acknowledge that it’s impossible to completely control the flow of people between the two countries. But in an effort to limit the importation of polio, Ethiopia has set up 13 vaccination checkpoints at major crossings. The health bureau has also deployed vaccinators to nearly 40 informal points of crossing along the border.
In Wajaale, the vaccination station is a small shack next to the rope on the Ethiopian side. When I visited the station one morning in early October, the vaccinator was absent. The sign announcing mandatory polio vaccination for all children had been tied back so that it was unreadable.
The goal of these border vaccination posts is to immunize every child, under the age of 15, who crosses in either direction, says Abdulahi Mohamed, who is with the government’s regional health bureau. “They have their vaccines there,” he says pointing to a small ice chest. “They check the children. Everyone under 15, they give one dose of polio [vaccine].”
Abdulahi and other Ethiopian officials say that each border vaccination post is immunizing hundreds of kids every day. But during my visit, only 10 children had been vaccinated by noon.
The vaccinators are poorly paid, Abdulahi says — the equivalent of about $30 a month. He concedes that it’s difficult to keep them motivated.
Nevertheless, Ethiopia’s Health Ministry says that containing this polio outbreak is a top priority. “If you have a house that’s caught fire, you need to extinguish [the flames],” says the country’s health minister, Dr. Kebede Worku. “So we take this seriously.”
Ethiopian health official Abdulahi Mohamed says vaccinators along the Somali border are charged with immunizing all kids crossing who are under age 15. But he concedes that extremely poor pay may sap the workers' motivation.
Ethiopian health official Abdulahi Mohamed says vaccinators along the Somali border are charged with immunizing all kids crossing who are under age 15. But he concedes that extremely poor pay may sap the workers’ motivation.
Soon after polio was detected in Somalia this spring, Ethiopia carried out five mass immunization campaigns against the virus along the Somali border. Earlier this month they launched a national campaign to try to reach every child in the country — some 13 million kids. The World Health Organization and UNICEF have helped to fund the drives and stock them with vaccine.
But the vaccination campaigns are organized, run and largely paid for by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, and the operation has put huge new burdens on an already strained national health system. The Ethiopian government even had to deploy special security details to travel with the vaccination teams in some parts of the country along the Somali border.
“The other side of the border [in Somalia] is totally insecure,” Kebede says. “Some of the areas are governed by militants.” These militants include al-Shabab, which claimed responsibility last month for the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that left more than 60 people dead.
Another challenge of running a polio vaccination campaign in remote parts of the Horn of Africa is that the vaccine needs to be kept cold. Most Ethiopian health clinics in the province bordering Somalia don’t have electricity. The Health Ministry has to use ice packs and portable, kerosene-fired refrigerators to keep the polio vaccine chilled.
The mass immunization campaigns are also complex and expensive logistical operations, Kebede says. They require hundreds of additional staff, hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses, extra kerosene for the refrigerators, and vehicles to deliver supplies to the targeted area. Each immunization team needs tally sheets and maps.
Plus, polio infects some people without ever making them sick. These so-called asymptomatic carriers appear healthy and can spread the virus to new communities.
“With polio … the vast majority of the people who are infected and spreading [virus] are not paralyzed,” says Dr. Walter Orenstein, a vaccine specialist at Emory University in Atlanta. “So there’s a lot of “silent transmission.”
“For every case of paralytic polio, we can assume there are at least 100 to 200 — maybe a thousand people,” Orenstein says, “who are infected and potentially spreading the virus.”
NPR
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Posted by admin - 30/10/2013 at 1:51 pm
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Waamicha Yaadanno FDG (Fincila Diddaa Gabrummaa): Oslo, Norway – Sadaasa 9, 2013


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nternational Commission of Jurists (ICJ): Ethiopian Leaders to Face a Trial for Genocide

October 30, 2013
by Betre Yacob
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) reported to have begun to work to bring Ethiopian authorities to justice for having committed a genocide in the Ogaden region. The International Commission of Jurists is a known international human rights organization composed of jurists (including senior judges, attorneys, and lawyers). The commission is known for its dedication to ensuring respect for international human rights standards through the law.Swedish TV channels showed a movie smuggled out from Ogaden by an Ethiopian refugee
The report came right after different Swedish TV channels showed a movie smuggled out from Ogaden by an Ethiopian refugee, who had been a government official in the region. The 100 hours long movie is said to have many evidences of genocide committed by the Ethiopian government in the region.
Speaking to journalists, Stellan Diaphragm, the commissioner of the Commission, said that he would do everything necessary to bring the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Reports indicate that although Ethiopia is not a member of the ICC, the country can possibly face trial for crimes under international law.
The Ogaden region is a territory in Eastern part of Ethiopia, and populated mainly by ethnic Somalis. Since 2007, the region has been a site of brutal struggle between the government troops and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a rebel group seeking for more autonomy for the region.
Different human right organizations accuse the Ethiopian government of committing grave human right violation (including genocide) against the civilians in attempt to control the ONLF’s public support.
According to the Genocide Wach, the crimes committed in the region include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, rape, torture, disappearances, the destruction of livelihood, the burning of villages and the destroying of life stock.

Ethnic politics versus individual rights

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 @ 09:10 AM ed
By Messay Kebede (PhD)
The prevailing assumption, which originates from the ideologues of ethnic politics, is that identity politics is a direct consequence of social inequalities resulting from the political or/and economic marginalization of groups of people defined by linguistic, racial, cultural, or religious particularisms. In response to the discrimination perpetuated by dominant groups, excluded groups politicize their particularisms to fight back and win equal treatments. They thus draw on their particularisms to forge political organizations that give them unity of purpose, articulate their grievances, and design strategies to implement their demands. on their particularisms to forge political organizations that give them unity of purpose, articulate their grievances, and design strategies to implement their demands.
Let us agree that groups suffering from discrimination have the absolute right to protest and fight to redress the inequalities. The question is to know whether the creation of ethnic parties is a sine qua non for achieving such a goal. There is no doubt that the unification under an ethnic organization has a practical advantage, obvious as it is that no better representative for their demands can be found than an organization led by ethnic kin and exclusive committed to the well-being of the group. The downside, however, is that the strategy advocates the primacy of group rights and tends to devalue the importance of individual rights, without which democracy is simply an empty word.
Indeed, the condition of ethnic politics pushes individual rights into the back scene. The primacy of the groups means that individuals are defined by their membership to the group. In thus being an element of the group, individuals forsake sovereignty or autonomy; whatever rights they have, they are a derivation of the group. In this condition, the group or those who speak in the name of the group are not accountable to individuals. In contrast, modern or real democracy advances the notion of the individual as citizen, thereby investing rights, not in the group, but in the individuals. In fact, the group has no rights; only individuals have rights. The community is a free association of autonomous individuals, that is, an association to which individuals transfer some of their rights to ensure and protect collective well-being.
One undeniable lesson of history is that ideologies based on the primacy of group rights invariably institute dictatorial regimes. Whether the group is defined in terms of class, as in Marxism-Leninism, or ethnicity, as advocated by various ethno-nationalist ideologies, or religion, as promoted by theocratic movements and states, the outcome is always the rise of authoritarian regimes. Ethiopia has consecutively experimented two dictatorial regimes, first in the name of class emancipation and, second, in the name of ethnic liberation. Even though the ethnonationalist ideology resulted in the independence of Eritrea, the outcome was no different: Eritrea is languishing under a terrible dictatorship.
Strange indeed is the Ethiopian response to ethnic marginalization. If one is convinced that the major problem of Ethiopia is the ethnic issue, then the remedy should not have been the creation of ethnic bantustans. How can the disease become its own cure? The right approach should have been the depoliticization of ethnicity through the creation of a political system bringing people together not by ethnicity or religion, but by the shared values of freedom and equality. Unlike ethnicization, which only aggravates the problem, this last solution would remove it by making ethnicity politically irrelevant. This irrelevance would, in turn, allow the protection of ethnicity as a cultural characteristic of Ethiopian diversity. Better yet, it would even advocate the rehabilitation of ethnicity as a prerequisite for the restoration of freedom and equality.
A specific impairment of the ethnonationalist ideology is the undermining of national cohesion, the outcome of which is that the national entity to which ethnic groups claim to belong become permanently infested with political instability and lack of legitimacy. Most African countries regularly remind us that, once the ethnic disease has taken root, the resulting tendency to recognize legitimacy only to the state that has clear ethnic references seriously damages national cohesion and with it the possibility of wide agreement on the workings of a truly representative democracy. So far, democracy has not emerged from political systems comprising groups defined as sovereign entities and probably it will never will.
The question that needs to be asked here is the reason why ethnic politics either institute dictatorial regimes or undermine nations by the constant threat of secession or effectively end up in secession, without however delivering the promised democratic outcome. No need to beat about the bush, we have to question the proclaimed goal of fighting to remove inequalities. The claim is nothing more than the apparent or seeming reason hiding the real intention, which is that ethnic politics is not so much about eliminating embedded inequalities as competing for the control of state power. In other words, ethnic politics is about elites vying for power: it is how elites amplify and use existing grievances to mobilize ethnic groups behind their leadership and try to seize power in their name. Short of power, these elites can also be quite content to become partner of the elite controlling state power, provided that they are given authority over their own ethnic groups. In the language of ethnic politics, the group achieves self-determination when it is ruled by kin elites, regardless of the type of rule to which the group is subjected.
Accordingly, the fundamental shortcoming of ethnic politics is that it does not contain the imperative of intra ethnic freedom and equality. It definitely protests against ethnic inequality, but it does it in the name of the group. This way of positing the problem does not subject emancipation to the effective exercise of freedom and equality by individuals. The group can be promoted to equality or even to hegemony over other groups, without thereby implying that the individuals composing the group should themselves be free or treated equally. This is the gist of the matter: unless individual rights are placed clearly above collective rights, the institutional mechanisms liable to put the representatives of the collective power under a democratic control are simply lacking.
As a matter of fact, the opposite tendency is more in line with ethnicization: those who claim to represent the group are not accountable to the individuals for the simple reason that sovereignty is invested in the group and individuals are not the source of authority. The ethnic constitution of Ethiopia begins with the statement, “We the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia.” What comes first is not the free individual, but the group, that is, the nation or the nationality. And to dispel all misunderstanding, the constitution adds: “All sovereign power resides in the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia.” By contrast, the American Constitution, for example, begins with, “We the People of the United States,” and immediately specifies that the Constitution is ordained and established by the people so that sovereignty belongs to the people, and not to tribal, ethnic, or religious groups. The contrast resides in the singular usage of people by the American Constitution to signify united individuals forming one nation whereas the Ethiopian version refers to a collection of sovereign entities subsuming individuals reduced to the common characteristic of language, race, or religion.
Since ethnicization targets the liberation of the group as a distinct and self-sufficient group, freedom and equality are not natural rights of individuals, but entitlements as members of a group. The dispensator of rights is the group, and so rights are not natural, that is, inherent in individuals as individuals, prior to any membership to a group. Opposing the primacy of the group, the article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Equality and freedom are not derived from affiliation to a group; they are innate rights and, as such, inalienable. It is only as possessors of these natural rights that the ethnic or religious identities of individuals are protected since any discrimination violates article 2 of the Declaration stipulating that individuals enjoy all rights and freedoms, “without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” In other words, group rights are derivation of individual rights, and not the other way round.
A constitution advocating the primacy of group rights misses the fundamental shift in thinking that brought about modern democracy, namely, the notion of individuals as the source of all sovereignty. It belongs to the dustbin of history, given that it is no different from past monarchical systems in which sovereignty was invested in the monarch, the consequence of which was that the people were just subjects of the monarch. The thinking among ethnicist thinkers is that embedded ethnic inequalities cannot be overcome through the primacy of individual rights so that the primacy of group rights is the inevitable path to liberation. Precisely, the whole issue about the choice for a democratic society is that it requires the transformation of natural groups into free associations of sovereign individuals. Only thus can the group itself or those who claim to speak in the name of the group become accountable to the individuals composing the group. The condition of democracy is the dissolution of the group into sovereign individuals, who then recreate the group as a free, that is, as a contractual association.
What is more, without the effective guarantee of the primacy of individual freedom, group equality is meaningless. The ascendency accorded to a group leads to the mistaken thinking that the condition of its liberation is to deny all rights to the oppressor. This is to forget that the shackles by which you oppress the oppressors are also those that will silence you for the simple reason that the policy to oppress requires the establishment of a dictatorial system. Freedom is a special commodity: it exists only to the extent that it is shared. This truth has been stated loud and clear by none other than Nelson Mandela when he wrote: “Freedom is indivisible . . . To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
We catch here the fundamental derailment of the Ethiopian intelligentsia since the 60s, to wit, the thinking that the freedom of some groups is conditional on the taking away of freedom from other groups. This manner of positing the problem invariably results in the institution of dictatorship. Thus, the Derg’s red terror started, not with the massacre of EPRP’s members, but with the educated elite’s approval of the summary execution of 60 dignitaries of the imperial regime. What happened next was simply the reaping of what the same elite had sown.
That is why national reconciliation is the only way out for countries torn by internal conflicts. The pursuit of reconciliation rather than revenge admits the indivisibility of freedom; as such, it targets the generation of a win-win situation, aware as it is that the refusal of reconciliation does no more than invite dictatorship, the end product of which is the loss of freedom for everybody. Freedom gained at the expense of another comes back as a boomerang and shatters itself. Freedom, like charity, begins at home.
What all this amounts to is that the recognition of the sovereignty of individuals, which is, as we saw, the sine qua none of all democratic systems, must have precedence over everything, including the creation of ethnic regions. In Ethiopia, the opposite direction was taken: guerrilla elites, who represented no one but themselves, imposed the ethnic regions on the Ethiopian people by sheer force of arms. Accordingly, undoing this illegitimate act is the first step toward democracy through the restoration of the primacy of individual rights. Only when the people regain their absolute right to decide without any precondition and give their free consent by a majoritarian vote after an open and sustained debate between supporters and opponents of ethnic politics can ethnic regions become representative democratic units.
Those who now rule Ethiopia are quite aware of the severe drawbacks of ethnic politics. That is why we hear them glorifying the Chinese model, even though the ideologue and the founding father of the system, namely, the late Meles Zenawi, had repeatedly asserted in the past that multipartism is a must for Ethiopia owing to its ethnic diversity and protracted conflicts. To take China as a model is not only to reverse the prevailing thinking, but it is also to try to apply a model to a country that has little similarity with China, the most decisive difference being, of course, the Chinese unfamiliarity with ethnic entities. The recent infatuation with the Chinese model is an attempt to find a new justification for dictatorial rule, i.e. the continuous suppression of freedom and true democracy in exchange for economic advancement of the people. Since the divide and rule strategy of ethnicization has exhausted its ability to guarantee the continuous rule of the TPLF elite, there is need for an alternative ideology justifying dictatorship: hence, the exaltation of the Chinese model.
In the face of this futile attempt to delay the inevitable, genuine opposition must continue to demand the restoration of the right of Ethiopian people to decide whether or not they approve the ethnic fragmentation of the country. The divide of the Ethiopian opposition on the question of the acceptance of the TPLF constitution must give way to a unified stand demanding that the Ethiopian people must first be in a position to exercise its full sovereignty. The legitimate order is not first ethnicity and then individual rights; rather, it is first individual rights and then ethnicity, if the people so choose by a clear and free vote. The first method puts the cart before the horse and, as such, gives up legitimacy in favor of a dictate by force of arms; the second starts from freedom and yields a legitimate power, thereby avoiding the deadly contradiction of promising freedom in a political system whose founding act is the denial of freedom by sequestrating people behind ethnic borders.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

15-MONTH SUSPENDED JAIL TERM FOR BLOGGER WHO CAMPAIGNED FOR BROTHER’S RELEASE

15-month suspended jail term for blogger who campaigned for brother's releaseHOME PAGE - ASIA - VIETNAM
15-month suspended jail term for blogger who campaigned for brother's release

15-MONTH SUSPENDED JAIL TERM FOR BLOGGER WHO CAMPAIGNED FOR BROTHER’S RELEASE

PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2013.
A court in the southern province of Long An passed a 15-month suspended prison sentence today on the blogger and activist Dinh Nhat Uy for criticizing the government on Facebook.
He was convicted under article 258 of the criminal code, which penalizes “abusing democratic freedoms against the interests of the state and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”
“We condemn this conviction, which was a reprisal for Uy’s involvement in the online campaign for the release of his jailed younger brother, the blogger Dinh Nguyen Kha,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Although released, Uy will be under surveillance. The sentence is one more example of how the authorities harass the families of jailed cyber-dissidents.
“Like the denial of defence rights during Kha’s appeal hearing, today’s presence of 400 plainclothes police in the courtroom to create the illusion of a public hearing and the harassment of Uy’s lawyers, which led one of them, Nguyen Thanh Luong, to withdraw from the case, highlight the bogus nature of these trials, whose outcome is decided in advance.”
According to the indictment, Uy was prosecuted for four online posts. One was an article entitled “These party members who accept the truth,” in which he described a conversation in which two Communist Party members referred to the abilities of the party’s leaders in offensive terms.
Another was about the activities of “Patriotic Youth,” an organization reportedly critical of the government. The other two were “insulting” about two national corporations – the military telecommunications group and the posts and telecommunications company.
Although these posts dated back to December 2012, Uy was not arrested until June, when the campaign for his brother’s release got under way.
Uy was released at 3 p.m. today but will be subject to a form of a home confinement during the 15 months of the suspended prison sentence and will continue to be subject to close monitoring for another 12 months thereafter.
Manifestants venus soutenie Dinh Nhat Uy
Many demonstrators gathered around the courthouse in a show of support for Uy. Members of his family, whose formal request to attend the trial had been refused, were detained while the hearing was taken place.
The police also briefly detained about 30 activists who had gone to the court to support Uy. They included Le Ngoc Thanh, Hanh Nhan, Miu Manh Me, Phuong Uyen, Nguyen Thi Nhung, Peter Lam Bui, Hu Vo and Hoang Vi.
Uy had been facing a possible seven-year jail sentence under article 258 for using his Facebook page to organize the campaign for the release of Kha, who was given a four-year jail sentence on appeal in August on a charge of anti-government propaganda.
Vietnam is ranked 172nd out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index and figures in the 2013 “Enemies of the Internet” special report on surveillance.
Support independent news providers in Vietnam by signing the petition here.
Read the latest report on Vietnam entitled “Programmed death of freedom of information” here.