This was e-mailed to blackinformant.com by Sally M. Haile Selassie, President of the group Young Ethiopian Professionals in the Diaspora .
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We came across your blog through Google and very much enjoyed your article, So much for the benefits of Socialism. Brilliant insight. Unfortunately, China’s tentacles are gripping Africa, and in a gargatuan turn of events (and colossal irony) it is THE rising superpower in Africa that considers the continent a potential market and not just a place of misery. We will send you a recent WSJ articulating this concept.
We wanted to forward you the following, as we have all members of the Conservative Brotherhood.
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We are a group of concerned Ethiopian-Americans who are pained by seeing democracy, once again, slipping away from Africa.
When our president Mr. Bush asked Ms. Rice to be Secretary of State, she imposed one condition before she accepted: That Mr. Bush give attention to Africa.
Truly, Mr. Bush is the only leader we have had who understands that TRADE is the way to alleviate poverty in Africa, not just dumping money. Unlike Mr. Blair and Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush seems to understand that throwing money at the situation has actually exasperated Africa’s poverty.
The Ethiopian government, instead of taking advantage of trade policies such as AGOA, has instead preferred begging. (By all account 60% of Ethiopia’s budget this year will consist of foreign aid. 60%! This is no way to run a country.) This is a source of great pain and embarrassment to us Ethiopians, who have long prided our work ethic. The country that was able to beat back fascism without any outside assistance, is now reduced to beggar nation, depending on crumbs thrown its way. It is battling crippling poverty, thanks to a neo-Marxist government that has the endorsement of President Jimmy Carter and Mr. Clinton.
We now are witnessing the government trying to steal elections that it lost. We need to make Ethiopia the Ukraine of Africa, where we in the west rally to save a democracy. With its rich 3000 year history, its strategic location in the Horn and its potential to be a true beacon of democracy in Africa, we cannot sit back and let Ethiopia slip back into tyranny. It has suffered enough…
With much regard,
Sally M. Haile Selassie
President
Young Ethiopian Professionals in the Diaspora
Update: August 24, 2005
The soap opera that is the Ethiopian elections continues to unfold like a cheap, tawdry novel, and here’s a brief update …all we are missing is a long-lost evil twin, but give it time.
We’ve been waiting to see how far the Ethiopian Government would go to snuff out the democratic process in Ethiopia, but even we did not think it would go this far! Alas, we see that Marxists are unable to truly understand what it means to bow to the will of the people. We are shocked, shocked.
You may remember that on May 24, 2005, the European Union put out a statement casting doubts about the vote counting process.
The European Union Election Observation Mission regrets the way in which the counting of the votes at the constituency level is being conducted as well as the way in which the release of results is being handled by the electoral authorities, the government and the political parties, especially the EPRDF.
Ana Gomes, the Chief Observer of the EU, then issued a damning condemnation of the process and of ex-President Jimmy Carter’s premature endorsement of the elections in a report leaked to the AP.
Unless there is a “drastic reverse toward good democratic practice” the observer team and EU “will have to publicly denounce the situation.
“Otherwise, the EU jointly with ex-president Carter will be held largely responsible for the lack of transparency, and assumed rigging, of the elections.”
Well, as situations unraveled and the world became appalled at the government’s killing of 42 unarmed people, it became apparent that the ruling party, the EPRDF, (which has Revolutionary Democracy as its guide [to] a glorified neo-Marxist dogma) had lost the elections.
So, what to do?
For months, the State owned Ethiopian TV has been embarrassingly used as a propaganda machine for the ruling party. This went out of control when on July 29, 2005, the Ethiopian News Agency made up quotes and attributed them to Tim Clarke, Head of the EU delegation in Ethiopia. Ooops. Weichegud, a widely-read Ethiopian blog, has all the gory details.
Mr. Clarke was unhappy and wrote a letter to the Ethiopian Information Minister stating that he has been misquoted. He also made the letter public. Major ooops. A government caught lying red-handed.
But it gets juicer.
The European Union is due to file its report about the Ethiopian Elections by mid September, and word on the street is that it will be pulling no punches. Panicked by this, the Ethiopian Government published an article last week ominously entitled, Gomes, Clarke: Neutral observers or hidden dealers?
Among the memorable lines in the article:
But to the disappointment of many of the people in Ethiopia, she becomes very rude in her handling of the situation.
Some times looking like the British General sitting on the Ashanti Stool during the colonial Africa and ordering the subjects to wash his legs.
Some reliable sources leaked to this writer that she is promised to be paid up to 20% of the money collected from the diaspora provided she writes a critical observation on elections¦
Hmmm.
And Tim Clarke?
Tim Clarke has been doing his level best to help his friends in the CUD. He was working hand in glove with them. While he condemns EPRDR’s party leader, Bereket Simon in an open letter unfairly, he advises each and every EUD leader “you guys grow up.”
This is the state of democracy in Ethiopia today.
Mr. Bush promised the world that: “All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know… the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.”
71 million people are being help hostage by a government that can’t come to terms with losing. Yet, the main stream media still ignores this story.
We are coming to the sad realization that despite what Senator Lugar said of democracy, that maybe all democracies are not created equal.
World News Australia has more details here.
The EU defends Gomes and Clarke here.
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