Meet ETV Interview with Tariku Abas Etenesh - Writer

http://www.diretube.com/meet-etv-interview-with-tariku-abas-etenesh-writer-video_2ede4a535.html

Your Governments not Immigrants are the Problem

Your Governments not Immigrants are the Problem

Tariku Abas Etenesh

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked.” Hermann Wilhelm Göring, one of the trusted advisers of Adolf Hitler, said this about how the mass could quickly be turned into machinery for savagery to do their leaders bidding.

What is happening in Saudi Arabia currently whereby mobs encouraged by their government arbitrarily torture, stab, rape and kill what they called illegal immigrants from Ethiopia, Philippines, Nigeria, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, and India, as if they were not human beings, is the exact reflection of the above Nazi principles.

History is witness to the fact that during great economic upheavals, as the world is currently facing; irrational forces in governments with narrow political interests justify monstrosity under cover of national interests and regiment the mass behind. The Nazi used this technique against the Jews and the gypsies during WWII, as are many countries around the world currently doing it against immigrants.

Now it is the turn of the Saudi Arabian government to use defenseless immigrants who are escaping persecutions, injustice and economic malaise in their own nations as a scapegoat to divert the mounting pressure from their own people for better justice.  

If we ask the Saudi savage mob what made them insane enough to kill fellow human beings who did then no harm and do so in the name of Allah? They could only point to how their government has justified injustice by telling them the Saudi way of life is attacked by the immigrants. 

Problem?

Are not the people you are killing today your sisters who cuddled and breastfed your children? Aren’t these brothers you are axing in public today your employees in your businesses? Aren’t there ‘enemies’ that you stab and kill in public today, your brothers who worshiped Allah with you in the “Holy Land’?

Your government is your real problem.

The government is now telling you that it has found the best solution for your dire economic situations and lack of social justice: Eradicate the defenseless immigrants. The government has a reason to divert your questions and attention from your quest for a better life and better share from the wealth of the land which you are cut off.

Dear Mob, you have been duped. You are made to hate your brothers who are the victims of the same social injustices in their own countries. You are made automatons of savagery trampling over the idea of human solidarity.

For mobs in Saudi Arabia and around the world who are being lured into becoming the tools for savagery: your governments, not immigrants are the problem. 

‘Absurdistan’ (a.k.a Ethiopia) I

The Democratic Republic of ‘Absurdistan’

...Tariku Abas-Etenesh...

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My closest friends call me Tare; that is my nickname.  And I sometimes amuse myself with the question,”if countries could take official nicknames, what would the nickname for Ethiopia be? Recently, while I was reading an Adam Johnson article about the late North Korean ‘Dear’ Leader Kim Jong Il,  I came across a word that could fit Ethiopia as it fits North Korea for different reasons:‘Absurdistan.’

So let's talk about The Federal Democratic Republic of Absurdistan ( a.k.a Ethiopia) where many absurdities are accepted norms.

In the republic of Absurdistan: Telecommunication, TV, radio, and other means of communication were introduced almost as immediately as they were invented; however their state of affairs now is almost as backward as they were when they came here in the old times. Some 'good citizens' of Absurdistan, however,claim that if people could be granted the right to buy cell phones it is a great development and change in the right direction even though the service is not better than the old switchboard Tele service, and that no official ever takes responsibility. In Absurdistan, Television service has three channels all presenting the same programs. Some 'good citizens' of Absurdistan ,however,claim the fact that the republic has a  TV station is enough by itself.

In the republic of Absurdistan: Honoring great deeds of great men is a rarest of treats while decrying and belittling are the normal function of life. If a country's history is to be gauged by the number of statues erected to honor great personalities of the republic, Absurdistan would look like a 15 years old. If anyone is honored in Absurdistan, it is usually because he/she was a person who dared to stand alone and bear the burden of living for his /her vision not because there is enabling systems in place. When the 'good citizens' of Absurdistan do honor someone, especially with a Political power, they do so by turning him/her in to a 'god-like’ creature of an actual little deity.

In the republic of Absurdistan: Political leaders demand embellishments for doing the simplest thing on earth: doing their own job. They call for mass demonstrations to celebrate themselves because they appeared on time to their office; they demand  sainthood vested upon them for every kilometer of road whose construction they supervised and whose financing was done by  the tax payers of  the public; they also demand the public to sing for them because they gave service at a public office financed by the taxpayers' money; they demand  worship for paying the government employee their own deserved salary.  If they build a bridge, it is as if a great unheard of miracle has happened on earth. They also require the public to surrender its right to ask, right to speak, and right to think for the mere reason that they have rebuilt a city. The 'good citizens' of Absurdistan, believe that such is an unheard of great feat deserving the surrender of all inalienable rights of citizens.
   

In the republic of Absurdistan: Political power is a factor of macho- philosophy where any group with the better collection of guns comes to power and feigns to have got the power through the legitimate lanes of democratic elections. Though the story of the republic of Absurdistan in the past century indicates only power of the gun dictating the political will, the 'good citizens' of Absurdistan want to believe that the voice of the citizen was always the catalyst in accession to political power. And the 'good citizens' tell you so while displaying their common characters: the fear of everything including their family members, uncertainty of and parroting what the politicians claim as absolute truth.    

In the republic of Absurdistan: One has to first be identified as member of an ethnic group to be identified as a citizen; and if one does not fit to any one category or does not want to be identified so, no option is on the table of the 'great democracy of Absurdistan'.  But some 'good citizens' of Absurdistan claim this is the best thing a democratic system could offer in the 21st century.

In the republic of Absurdistan: The people have three options when it comes to their reactions towards their political leaders: Fear, More Fear and Extreme dread. And the leaders go from being feared to more feared and to the most feared. But some 'good citizens' of Absurdistan claim all fears the leader of the time is imposing on the country is a bit less than the former leaders of the country; and so should be a great reason for jubilation.  

 In the republic of Absurdistan: everything otherwise regarded as absurd in other places is accepted  norm. The same politician who believes that " the people" under his rule,‘do not need more than one party’; and discourages any dissent, feels confident enough to preach that democratic pluralism is a great thing at the same time.

In the republic of Absurdistan: The definition of corruption is not embezzling public finances and breaking Public trust. The 'Absudrdistan' definition of corruption is speaking up about corruption among public officials. Officials can become as corrupt as they would love to become, and still be invisible to the " democratic system of the Absurdistan's government'; yet the visibility of the corrupt nature of the public officials come apparent only when they oppose the government of Absurdistan.     

In the republic of Absurdistan: the leaders have library full of books. However, the books they have packed in their libraries are only two: Book one: The 'Democratic' practices of Machiavelli’s ideals; Book two: The democratic implementations of 'Animal Farm' .

If after reading the above lines you thought 'this is absurd', I could only say “welcome to the Federal Democratic Republic of Absurdistan, I mean -Ethiopia.

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Reframing ‘The African Renaissance’

Reframing ‘The African Renaissance’

By Tariku Abas-Etenesh

(First appeared on: The EthiopianAmerican:( http://www.theethiopianamerican.com/index.php)

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Africa rising?

Since May 2013, boldfaced and prominent big billboards greet passersby in Addis Ababa reading: Arise Africa. It is arguably the most frequently heard avowal during the recently celebrated golden Jubilee of the African Union (AU), under the theme: Pan-Africanism and African renaissance.

The theme’s comfortingly deserved meaning is attributed to the current economic development, according to IMF data, in various African countries including Ethiopia. What a positive spirit to celebrate the anniversary with! As a Nigerian proverb says it, when a man says yes, his Chi (his personal god) says yes; and so, when a continent says I am rising, the spirits of her citizens rise up with it.

Despite the sense of positivism and audacity the slogan entails, however, I believe it is high time for us, Africans, to deliberate with caution not only the realities that gave ‘Africa rising’ its meaningful context, but also the direction Africa is rising. And allow me one more question, is Africa claiming ‘to be rising’ because it is so, or it is claiming so, because the West declared it? Anyone who knows about the great infrastructure developments and recent discoveries of precious minerals and fossil oil that changed the economic trajectory of a number of African countries might assume the question is ill constructed or playing evasive of the facts on the ground. Well, this is not my intention. Denying the facts would be a self debasing attempt and condescending to AU. Rather, mine is an honest worry that our continent should be insisting on framing its renaissance on a grassroots Pan-African drives in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 1960’s.

Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped

The world is in recession and the corollary challenges are spewing in forms of revolutions against governments, tensions between religions, and xenophobic tendencies against the scapegoat “others” almost everywhere in the world.

Against such backdrops, the rise that is being positively pronounced about Africa could also be regarded as a caution call for the continent. Why? For the obvious and same reason that the liberation movements of the 1960’s were thwarted into not completing the liberation project and ended up being nominal political freedoms. And the dream for economic liberation was stalled by nightmares of mishandled euphoria that gave way for the former colonial masters to hijack the much needed stability and prosperity and turn the continent into hotbeds of coups. Africa was not cautious enough in handling the liberation project with discipline, as a result of which neo-colonial trends became norm as an African proverb puts it ‘when a cock is drunk, he forgets the hawk.’

The year of Africa - the 1960 – was not only a time when Africa woke up free, against all odds, into a hostile world that was not willing to allow the continent enough time to gather her breath. A polarized world that was caught up in the cold war engulfed the continent to not only take sides but also disorient the fragile freedom it just had won. The scares of the cold war coupled with conflict ridden economies, the continent has spent a good part of the past half century wasting indebted to the West and in some terms still paying the price through the malignant dependence on aid.

Now after half a century, Africa is set on another proud stride; yet it does so into a world reality with no less a cause for polarization than was furnished during the 1960’s. It is waking up and flexing its muscles yet in another tumultuous time of tensions. For instance, religious extremism which used to be rare in the African continent has spread, especially after the recession, thus risking the stability of a continent that has just started to positively paint herself. And like the 'cold war' the former colonial powers are exploiting the tensions, as in the case in Mali, to further strengthen their presence as well as safeguard their interests in the continent.

Africa is not an island and what is happening elsewhere directly affects it. And often times, the effects come from the greedy hawks who mean exploitation and filling their pockets. A recently released report on oil and mining industry practices in Africa indicates the continent is suffering from secret deals whereby multinational corporations and elites in various countries cut the mass out of sharing the wealth. And the trends, except in a few countries, seem to be the same and not changing.

Adding fire to fuel is the other face of the development trend that some of the countries like Ethiopia, applauded for being on the rise, are taking growth as excuse for the carelessness to uphold human rights and free speech as stipulated in their own constitutions. In Ethiopia, for instance, the construction section is in a boom that buildings sprout like mushroom and roads spread in a blink. However, the country’s human rights record is one of the bleakest, according to Amnesty International. This is then the challenge, the Africa Rising mantra is facing: authoritarian governments, despite the economic muscle flexing in various sectors, could use the positive trend as license to impose human right abuses and even more.

So where is the worry? One might even ask that the mentioned challenges have been in Africa since independence and what makes them different now? The challenge for me is twofold. The first is the attraction of foreign investors who would like to take part in the positive development in the continent. This is not bad in itself, but inviting investors with no check and balance in place to guarantee the inclusion of the mass in sharing the profit made from the economic development, would only graven the burden of the mass. And such is the reality that would challenge the stability and security of the continent. As seen in many of the land grab trends in various counties in the continent, including Ethiopia, the frontline bearer of the harsh burden of huge infrastructure developments as well as evictions are the disfranchised mass. The people who are being taken out of their farms are not the elites in their palaces but the poor

Any development is both a challenge and opportunity according to the manner it is managed. Avoiding the pitfall of euphoria and creating a tide of galvanizing unity through leadership is required from AU.

The promise to lead the next half century with a vision focused on the people of the continent would bring a different and lasting success only if the means is changed. I say, the involvement of the people must be translated into the involvement of the children, who should be taught the truth about themselves and about the continent.

Reframing African renaissance

One of the new developments during the AU celebrations in May was the announcement of the African Vision 2063. The vision promised to be owned by the peoples of Africa at all of its stages. The strategic plan included priorities such as Growth and transformation, regional integration, peace and stability, gender equality and agriculture.

In line with this 'people led' Vision 2063, I believe that the AU should start to lead the continent into soul-searching. But what sort of soul searching do I mean? I mean a grassroots, committed and honest Pan-Africanism drive that could be spearheaded by the AU that depart from the gradualism and mediocrity of the past. A roaring lion kills no game.

Africa should not set her sail using the Western’s star and thus the experiences on which the designing of the vision should be based should come out of Africa. For the Vision to be, a vision of the mass, the tone of renaissance should be reframed with a take on the continent’s history. The AU should launch drive that commences from examining a metaphorical diorama of the experiences African nations that portray the dreams that the AU should live up to.  As clearly inscribed in the AU anthem that goes:

“Let us all unite and toil together,
To give the best we have to Africa,
The cradle of mankind and fount of culture,

Our pride and hope at break of dawn,

The naive vision, I propose should have three chapters that represent our continents aspirations. The chapter should be named Ethiopia, Ghana and Congo respectively.

Chapter one Ethiopia:

If renaissance is rebirth, the rebirth that Africa seeks to have is an ‘Ethiopian’ reality. I don’t mean just the Ethiopian of today, but the metaphorical representation.  Ethiopia was the name given to the continent in ancient times. AU should start the renaissance by reclaiming Ethiopia. I don’t mean a reality only of the current Ethiopia, but the Ethiopia of the ancient, the word that means African grace and greatness, Ethiopia representing the great African fortitude, civilization, and pride, religion and defiance.

What the present day Africa had and lost due to, the great misfortunes of human history, such as slavery and colonization, has left its hint in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the only surviving African nation that exhibits to the world what colonization and slavery has done to the rest of Africa.

Chapter one Ghana:

Though the worst crime in human slavery perpetrated on the continent and prolonged dehumanizing colonization, Africa has risen. Despite being practically left with nothing to start herself as a continent Africa emulates Ghana as the phoenix the continent has become out of the ashes of subjugation.  Through Ghana, (the first African country to come out of the colonial bondage) the continent can exhibit miraculous rise and readiness to compete in the community of nations after centuries of deprivation. Ghana represents the valor to venture on democracy and a system of government that the rest of the world took centuries to exercise.

Africa should have Ghana in the vision to say that despite the pitfall of coups that raged the rising freedom in the continent, Ghana has proved a rise is possible to put behind the false starts and make strides to development and progress. Africa could raise above all her problems. That is Ghana.

Chapter one Congo:

The Congo basin is the greatest challenges of any attempt at African Renaissance. Despite the great promises in the natural resources and the potential to change the face and fate of the continent, the Congo remains one of the great samples of inaction of the continent and of AU. The OAU as well as AU stand with incomplete project if not daringly solve the ongoing problem of the Congo not as a regional issue but an issue that the continent gives priority to. Like Nkrumah insisted the Congo is a strategic spot that determine the ultimate freedom of the continent. The misery and continuous cycle of war in the region should be restated and nakedly be seen as a mission to “decolonize the Congo from the blood mongering and highly connected multinationals.” As clearly put in the prophetic line of Franz Fanon who said “whoever controlled the Congo basin controls Africa”. But is Africa in control of the Congo basin?    

Reframing the African Renaissance calls for the honesty on the basics, if renaissance is revival we should know what we are reviving and from where.  A revival to be the masters of one own fates, owner of one’s own resources, arbiter of one’s own conflict and the designers of one’s own futures.

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Book Tour in Serbia( Belgrade, Kragujevac, Lozica, Novi Sad)

Book Tour in Belgrade, Serbia  

Book Tour in Novi Sad, Serbia

         Book Tour Kragujevac, Serbia

Conjugating 'Verb-to-Hate'?

Conjugating 'Verb-to-Hate'?

 Tariku Abas Etenesh

………………………………………………………..

Conjugating the ‘verb to hate’

Is -effortless –some say,

Yet, when you venture at it as a grammarian of solidarity,

With care for words and their diction,

With knowledge of the residing souls in words,

And of words that reside in souls,

Simplicity is an understatement,

Trap for gullible spirit;

For when you set out for the reality check,

On the streets and parliament, hovels and palaces,

On the angry faces and bewildered hearts,

Walking and standing with a cause or otherwise,

There comes the rub tinted with lack of grain;

When 'conjugation' is staged at the pulpits of public-opinion,

Not so much for communication,

But with a new found zeal of festering confusion;

Where you stumble on ‘some’ teaching syntax,

Of aching the souring wounds of the mass,

And when you hear them speak, write, rule and confess,  

Of justice, equality and peace,

You almost assume they were,

Paining with the aches of the disillusioned,

And finding respite in the maxim:

‘My verb to be starts with nothing but

A human being-I am’

There and then you get dismayed by voices

Of the self proclaimed ‘elite elixirs’,

Swilling words with the sickening nuances,

Who feed into a credulous mold of crowds,

Glorifying nonentity and everything goes;

Voices insisting that the conjugation

Of the ‘verb to be’ in the present,

Should commence with ‘verb to hate’ in the past,

Trashing ‘wisdom’ and ‘verb-to-compromise’

 While selling freedom of lawful-trance;

Sermonizing carelessness on nuance and word choice,

Teaching ‘libation’ as synonymy for ‘liberation’

And ‘simper’ as equivalent for ‘simpler’ diction;

Insisting peace of standing on a brother’s throat,

And hailing justice written with blood and rot,

Unveiling the verb-to-hate in honor of something great’;

But of what?

They insist, 
What matters in a sentence of 'history'-is the punctuation,

Not the overall meaning and intention,

 furnishing what the sentence needs-dear

 the pauses, intention, intonation and color,

phrases and clauses as failure; 

Lamenting the comma that caused a pause,

Crying foul for a missing colon and parenthesis,

Conjugating the ‘verb to be’

Is -effortless –some say,

Yet, when you venture at it as a grammarian,

With care for words and their diction,

With knowledge of the residing souls in words,

And of words that reside in or ruin souls,

Simplicity is an understatement,

Traps for gullible spirit;

When conjugation of the verb-to be fails to stand bold,

Into a plain sentence naturally composed,

I am a human being (comma) nothing minus,

That is conjugating Verb-to-be in the verb-to-trance.

---

For some who feel it is easy to denigrate, speak, write, politicize ill of their own brothers and sisters who happen to be from ‘the other’ ethnicity, religion, color or sexual orientations.

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Article on African wings magazine

http://www.afraa.org/index.php/media-center/publications/africa-wings-magazine/item/281

Opinion piece on -The African Report Magazine

http://www.theafricareport.com/North-Africa/last-word-dancing-to-broken-rhythms.html

Discussing *Chomsky

Discussing *Chomsky

He taught about the “Surface”- the mentor,

And added that what appearance claims is less,

Than its ‘deep’ structure;

How perfect the teacher was in that,

When I, for the deep search in life set-out,

Through ages, dispositions, trials and feats,

Reached this far to marvel the truth:

When the "deep" lacks a language of its own,

Out of conformity takes the "surface" for a crown.

__________
(AAU -NCR)

*Chomsky  is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political critic, and activist.   

WHY??

Why?

No compliance

Neither had nor was asked I

For my very existence;

            Nor for the suffering

            I passed through the year gone by,

Nor for the briefness of my blissful moments;

Yet I feel like living

knowing not why.

In the realm of existence,

Where life like lightening strikes

Yet to pass by;

And in the portrait of butter fly

By the splendor of flowers guided to the ends

Where end is not certain but sigh.

In the search of eternity

Buried in the quest of the soul is WHY?

Why should I live?

Why should I die?

Why are these ends undetermined?

When what counts in existence is I?

Yet, before the answers came from where ever they could have, behold,

Bearing sad faces veiled in eternal wits the world stood;

Chanting all the farewells and dirges in the graveyard

Where my body upon the laps of earth was laid,

Of the paradox threaded;

And yet, of its mentor-ship what I learned of existence tells:

Life is but a shadow of uncertain body of eternity

That sanctifies conformity

In the absence of obedience:

A mysterious feeble spot in its body of strength

Which attests the Achilles hills

Of its own existence

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The Sick Country Syndrome: has pain got identity?

The Sick Country Syndrome: has pain got identity?

(Tariku Abas Etenesh)

________________________________________

The bizarre news of the recent months in Ethiopia that included the arrest of demonstrators for opposing a fascist Italian leader- Rudolfo Graziani,the eviction of the Amhara people from Benishangula region, the blocking of free press outlets, reminded me of a medical phenomenon called Sick Building Syndrome. Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a phenomenon that occurs when the occupants of a building experience acute health effects that seem to be linked to time spent in a building. Frequently, problems result when a building is maintained in a manner that is inconsistent with its original design or prescribed operating procedures, or when occupant activities create a problem.*

After reading this definition, I wondered if there was anything called Sick Country Syndrome (SCS) for countries whose citizens feel ill to belong to due to the sociopolitical realities at certain point in time. And I wondered if countries undergo medical checkups at a hospital of ‘human solidarity’, how would they measure up against the symptoms of sick country syndrome? 

For me, one pillar of the sanity of a country is how it allows people exercise their free will while consenting to a common identity bound by a covenant (e.g. Constitution) where the covenant they signed  is impartial towards its members regarding their color, race, gender, religion. That is country that rhythms as a community of equals; and where each member lives up to its rights and obligations-taxation with representation. 

However, in a country where the will of any one person or group is imposed on any other person or group, especially when the breach is manifested as naked injustice perpetrated on member of the group for just the simple reason that ‘an entity is what it naturally is’ i.e. black or white, male or female or ethnicity, language and religion it is simply a grave breach of contract that threatens the health  and deemed  enough a symptom to label the country as suffering from a sick country syndrome.   

The sick country syndrome, I believe, has its causes in one of the most common melting pot of human misery: not learning from the lessons of history, coupled with the foolishness of exacting crimes (as perpetrated by dictators of the past), expecting different outcomes. Such countries often suffer from the blindness allowed by propaganda that shapes itself as a fight for the “new nation”, the new political ideal, the new vision worth killing for and worth denying someone else's rights for. These claimed 'new' run on the fuel of the corollary requirement of labeling some of the country’s own members as enemies. Hitler’s new Germany- against Jews, or Ian Smith’ Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)-against Blacks to name just two.

Countries suffering from the sick country syndrome are characterized by a worrying but dangerously-normalized inclinations towards condoning injustice, only because on the receiving end of 'the injustice' is a person, a group or an idea referred to as “the other. The little dose of tolerance that fashions itself as jests of the political elites, later becomes the mantra of the support base of those politicians and before any one realized it, the worst crimes could find themselves entertained at the coffee tables, chat-rooms waiting just a whistle to blow. The sad logical outgrowth of such tolerated 'impunity' to label others (no matter how innocent the subject might be) is producing ‘guilty as charged’ because they belong to the a certain  religion,  ethnicity, political opinion, or language speaking group.

Such countries run the terrifying Sound bits exhibited in the statement: the pain inflicted on others is no pain. This claim reads loud from the book of misapprehension that pain has ethnicity, color, gender or religion.  And thus any pain inflicted upon any group labeled as ‘the other" is supposed to be experienced differently - a pain which is supposed to have identity.

Does pain of such identity exist? No, except in a country where the pain felt by human beings is weighed against odd criteria to be accepted as human pains. Because on the other end of the weighing balance is put ethnicity, color, religion, gender. And in any of these criteria the pain inflicted or injustice perpetrated proved to be done on “the other" the pain is not accepted as being experienced by humans. Thus, the simple naked truth of being considered as human becomes a factor of ones ethnicity, color, religion, and gender. History profiles ample examples of such failings being taken as normal Europe during colonization ans slavery against the pain of Africans, Europe during the second world war against the Jews,Ethiopia for 20 years against the Amharas.        

Such a nation that harbors the sick country syndrome of not making sure that all its citizens feel ‘healthy’ and involved, by not tolerating any intentions or claims that go in the guise of labeling 'some citizens' as not having been paid for, does so at its peril. Only in a sick country could a citizen be told,despite being a citizen, is not paid for and can’t move from one place to the other, can’t be treated equally as the other citizen, can’t be respected as the other citizen, or can be insulted unlike others.

When someone is recognized as a citizen of one country, he or she is already paid for and has every rights and responsibilities of the resources and opportunities of his nation. A reality confessing otherwise is a symptom for being a sick country. 

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*(National Safety Council.USA  1997)

Let the WAR FESTIVAL Begin!( Sadly....)

Let the WAR FESTIVAL Begin!( Sadly....)
(Tariku Abas-Etenesh)

It seems that, rather than the actual realities on the ground, the sad sense of following the media's take of African History as the uncontested source is the rule of the day.

The french came to Mali and the story of the conflict begins. Really?

With the current UN resolution to send Peace keeping mission to Mali, am afraid a war Festival -the likes of which seen in Afghanistan- which has no end but distraction is looming in Northern Africa.

I am a strong supporter of the ideals of UN, but let us  ask these simple questions:

-Has Afghanistan got peace by the war interventions? -NO!
-Has Libya got peace after NATO intervention ? -NO!
-Has the Long time of UN peace keeping mission in the CONGO stopped the wars and suffering  in that country- NO!

But we are still expected to believe that one more war or one more mission will get us neared to peace. It does not! The belief that War could solve the dangers of war is  the absurdity of the way peace is handled in our time.

-What is the AU doing?

Shouldn't the AU have the courage and the strength to garner all the support it needs to make sure African Forces do the peace keeping while negotiations and peace talks  be honored as the primary tools for peace?

That “Someone” that “Something” that “Somewhere”

That “Someone” that “Something” that “Somewhere”

(Tariku Abas Etenesh)

---

How poetic or rather decadent could it sound to assume someone who, intentionally and with feel of no remorse had done you the worst of heinous wrongs in your life, to suddenly show up at your home; and do so with the expectation of graciousness from you for all the ills he has done you?

What would you do?

Well, let me tell you of such a real story that just happened this week.(January 2013)  

That ‘someone’ knocked at the door; and it was opened by the owner.

“What can I do for you, dear brother?” the owner asked.

“Do you remember the ills I caused you some years ago and kept inflicting hence?” that ‘someone’ said with malicious grace.

 “Yes” the owner said.

“I am back with confidence to tell you, lest you forget, that I have no regret for what I have done to you, and I shall promise to keep throwing the ills at you.”

“Sure you know the ills you caused are all unearned?!” with humility and odd kindness the owner replied.

“That is why I fell exalted to even do it again.”

“Guess you have forgotten, dear brother, I forgave all your evils because I value humanity than vengeful rants or acts.”

And dear reader, if you are in the dark about what or who the ‘someone’ or ‘something’ or the ‘somewhere’ really is, please surf the history pages, where you will find the keys written like this:  

……………….

That “somewhere” is Africa where despite blood spattered past that linked the continent with the former colonizers, Africa has denounced vengeance and hatred and embraced former colonizers with humility of human greatness as brothers and sister - as done in Zimbabwe and  South Africa, and all the former colonies. Unfortunate to Africa, the great show of humility and love of human glory it kept on showing, seems to be taken for foolishness. 

Who could be more fit for the reference “that Someone” other than people in the higher political echelons of some former colonial countries, the likeness of which include Francois Holland who just months ago said NO to apologizing for the  crimes France has committed in Algeria during colonization (though Algerians have always been forgiving), now feels justified to send his planes to bomb African villages in Mali (what ever the reasoning might be)

That ‘something’ could never been other than ‘crime against humanity’ and the respect humanity deserves, which seems to have different meanings when applied about African and Africans and the West. What holds as a breach of international law for other continents seems just a play thing where the whims of the Francois  Hollandes of the west become the law in Africa.

Unearned suffering and unearned forgiveness are both malicious to human solidarity.  Africa should brace herself to solve her own problem by herself with dignity and honor .

Long live human solidarity! 

TAE        

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