MITMITA

How To Train Your Prime Minister: Divest From Meles’ Regime!

2011-12-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

It has been some time since we served up our brand of tongue lashing on the state of madness in Ethiopia; even committed dilettantes like us need a month or nine to recover from the very exhausting process of skewering our esteemed Prime Minister via our

blog.

When last we broached the topic of human rights, Egypt was in the midst of its Arab Spring and the Mitmita Girls asked whether Ethiopia would follow with its own brand of Abyssinian Tsedey. Some nine months later, the devil still refuses to take our Meles back but our courageous young men, jegnoch, have taken to emulating Buddhist monks and have begun setting themselves on fire.

Rest in freedom, Yenesew Gebre. Your soul was no doubt restless in Meles’ hell on earth.

The Mitmita Girls honor the right of a people to protest by any means and we pay homage to those who have given their lives instead of giving into tyranny. Yet we wonder…having been dispossessed of everything by our esteemed prime minister’s junta, must we now give of our very lives—by our own hands?

Historically, individuals in a show of protest or to highlight a grave human rights violation have taken extreme measures. In Ethiopia’s own history, Atse Tewodros, rather than submit to colonial rule, is said to have committed suicide. Whatever his leadership failures may have been, he is noted for his immense bravery and for the pride with which he held his Etiopiawinet. It was in his estimation preferable to die than to live under the rule of the British.

In the United States, in the early 1900’s in the midst of the struggle for the right of (white) women to vote, Alice Paul a renown activist who was imprisoned staged a hunger strike and was put in a mental ward. When a psychiatrist interviewed her as to her protest method, she reportedly explained that the hunger strike was a tradition in old Ireland. You starve yourself on someone’s doorstep until restitution is made and justice is done. The doctor noted that it didn’t sound like an effective method and she allegedly responded “a stinking corpse on your doorstep? What would the neighbors say?”

Drastic protest tactics are effective when you are trying to shock the conscience of a community and propel them to action. Not only does the world community know of our plight, it has decided that it doesn’t care to hear about yet another African country with a faux-Marxist-cum-faux-capitalist dictator. With the West, you have to be the cause célèbre du jour. The only thing en vogue about our country these days are our Ethiopian babies accumulated by netch Americans as though they are the latest stilettos from Blahnik.

Beyond our inability to induce the West to stop funding the Prime Minister’s every whim, these protest tactics—shocking as they may be--will not succeed because two elements are missing: shame and a mass movement.

Self-immolation and hunger strikes are effective for a government that can be shamed. They are compelling for a regime that will be moved to act because endeh? sew min yelal “a stinking corpse? What will the neighbors say?” We do not have such a government in Arat Kilo. With much of the West in Meles’ pocket, stinking, bleeding and burning corpses can litter the road from Kulubi to Debre Zeit to no avail. Knowing their penchant for the ridiculous, the regime is apt to fine the families of the dead for disturbing the landscape.

Second, there is no visible critical mass—there is no mass movement. No doubt everyone is whispering in their homes and the brave ones out loud about the brutality of the regime. But Meles has effectively paralyzed the opposition—they are imprisoned, dead, outlawed, exiled and otherwise demoralized. It may seem as though we have reached the end of our ropes and that nothing on the horizon will rid us of the Prime Minister and his coterie. Bleak as things may seem, our answer cannot be for our people to begin burning themselves. Unless and until we build a mass movement, we cannot allow our jegnoch to self-sacrifice. We don’t caution because we don’t believe in the possibility of creating the environment for change in Ethiopia. We do believe. Indeed it is hope and a sincere belief in such a possibility what sustains us.

Let us survey the situation: The current regime rules the majority of our population through fear. But more importantly, it is the active participation by all of us in the system that supports the government. Meles’ regime flourishes because he has managed to seduce the expats and the upper class with land, investment and access. Still, many a businessman and woman have complained to us that the tax codes are stifling and that the government exercises eminent domain and imposes harsh penalties without due process. And they say this without irony! As though an otherwise bankrupt government would implement “democratic processes” in its version of capitalism!

The reality is we are not quite as fed up as our dearly departed brother, Yenesew Gebre. Meles’ government exists more than twenty years after he boldly strolled into our capital because we allow it to. Because we, you, yes YOU, permit it. It is the investor class, the expats, those of us in the Diaspora, who fuel Meles. We are all complicit. You and the Mitmita Girls. We want to travel to Ethiopia, visit family and friends, enjoy the attractive and comfortable entrapments of pseudo capitalism—the saunas, the restaurants, the resorts, the spas, the hot hotels, the even hotter young and nouveau riche who litter the scene. All of it makes our beloved country so beguiling. A few days in the fashionable metropolis known as Addis and we too are resentful of the poor. We want to divorce ourselves from the machinations of the regime at the same time that we enjoy the byproduct of its policies.

Until we decide that these few platitudes are not enough, that the clubs and the resort traps and five star hotels accessible to the few are not what a nation should be about, Meles will continue to rule. In the interim, our young men and women must employ other protest methods and learn from previous social movements.

Instead of hunger strikes and self-immolation, let’s look at boycotts and divestments. First up is the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In post slavery America, life for people of African descent in the United States was regulated by a series of draconian laws that supported a doctrine known as “separate but equal.” In essence these rules mandated segregation between the races with the proviso that the accommodations (whether they are schools, public transportation, housing, restaurants etc.) must be “equal.” As we know, the accommodations for Blacks were much inferior to those provided for whites and more importantly violence directed at African Americans—including mobs attacks, lynchings and murders—were common place occurrences and were used to brutally sustain this system of second class citizenship.

Appealing to the “hearts and minds” of the white population was not an effective strategy. In December 1955, the NAACP in coordination with local human rights groups in Alabama began a boycott of the transportation system in Montgomery. The arrest of Rosa Parks who refused to give us her seat on a bus for a white patron was the propelling force that united a community and begun the protest. The boycott lasted a little over a year during, which time the Black population en masse refused to ride the buses—a move that crippled the bus system that began losing money within two months of the protests. As a result of the boycott, the buses were desegregated and the fight against Jim Crow scored a major victory.

Let us move from that hemisphere to the African continent for our second example. You are no doubt more familiar with apartheid in South Africa. One of the major factors that contributed to the fall of that unjust system was divestment. Universities, corporations and governments began to systematically remove their investments from the South African regime. Beyond expressing moral outrage, organizers used economics to compel change.

Meles’ ethnocentric policies might not have had quite the same separate but unequal accommodations we saw in Jim Crow America and in Apartheid South Africa. Nevertheless, we think the methods used to move both countries towards a more egalitarian society are appropriate for Ethiopia.

As noble as it is to give your life for a cause, we would rather that we all lived and instead hit Meles and his henchmen where it hurts most: their pocketbooks.

The question is what must each of us do to bring about this change?

Will Ethiopia’s captive population, do like the Algerians in the 1960’s and rebel against this seemingly foreign occupation? Will we wake up one day, elelelele ringing from the voice of all the women, a new flag in hand and the denizens in full support of a boycott?

Will the investors stop supplying the regime with money?

Will the Diaspora refuse to sit on its hands and begin to meaningfully organize for divestment?

Divest? We can hear some of you chuckling and rolling your eyes. But countries and systems much mightier than Meles have been brought down by boycotts and divestments.

It is time for a different strategy; the old tactics have failed. Meles’ conscience is in his pocket: The Mitmita Girls Call for Divestment!

Catching That Freedom Fever

2011-02-03T21:35:00.000-08:00

"You get your freedom by letting your enemy know that you'll do anything to get it. Then you'll get it. It's the only way you'll get it." — Malcolm X

The Mitmita Girls are all atwitter at the auspicious beginning of this new decade. First came the Sudanese vote, then Tunisia, then our brothers and sisters in Yemen and well everybody knows about Egypt, goddam, as Nina Simone would sing.

Now we have Syrian and Yemeni leaders making “concessions” aimed at portraying a relaxing of their autocratic rule in an attempt to stem any of this freedom fever from wafting over the Red Sea and taking hold among their captive citizens.

A little southeast of Egypt, down at the origin of the Blue Nile, hiding in his presidential palace without so much as a squeak is our beloved Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi. He need not make any concessions; the United States has given him carte blanche to keep his steel boots on the necks of eighty million Ethiopians. Here is a very, very brief look into the current conditions in Ethiopia:

v Civil society is practically dead—it is essentially a crime to operate an NGO in Ethiopia. If you are an Ethiopian NGO, there are no means to obtain any funding and if you do get funding, the red tape and obstacles alone, including intimidation, harassment and utter disruption of your work, render you ineffective. If you are wondering why there are still so many ex pats and foreigners claiming to be working at an NGO in Ethiopia, understand that they are there for the macchiatos and to sit poolside at the Sheraton.

v Finding independent media in Ethiopia is about as likely as chasing down that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

v Any opposition has been killed, jailed and silenced through pardons, threats of further imprisonment or violence or forced into exile. The rest of the population is divided into two camps: first, those whose business interests keep them “loyal” to the regime—until the regime betrays them through their eminent domain laws or other legalese which enable them to effectively rob you of your businesses and/or lands and second, the silent majority, those who have watched their daughters being raped, their ancestors’ graves desecrated, their uncles pistol-whipped into submission and fathers disappeared and have relegated themselves into this existence because no amount of demonstrations or elections or martyrdom has brought about the end of this dictatorship.

When is enough enough?

Yet the Mitmita Girls can’t help wondering if our beloved Melese is getting a little restless with all of the goings on around him: Sudan, Egypt, Yemen…Could the fever catch on again in Ethiopia?

We were struck by the similarities between these popular uprisings and the 2005 people’s revolt in Ethiopia. This is particularly the case with Egypt. Here you have a strong ally of the United States for 30 years. Similarly, Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia has been at the beck and call of the United States government since he took power in the early 1990s. It may not be a thirty year relationship but the kind of love affair these two governments share cannot be measured in terms of time.

Then there is the matter of the funding these regimes. The Egyptian government is the second largest recipient of aid from the US, after Israel. Meles’ regime also receives billions in aid from the United States. It’s important to note that that the recipients of the “aid” in these scenarios are the governments and not the people of Egypt or Ethiopia. Meles’ personal coffers, like those of Mubarak are lined with the billions intended to feed, build infrastructure, educate and otherwise “lead” a nation of millions.

That would be your tax dollars at work, Minnesota!

Part of this aid, or rather a substantial portion of it, is military training and equipment. We were therefore not surprised when news emerged that the tear gas that was being used against pro-democracy protestors in Egypt was made in the United States. The State Department was quick to point that that the tear gas was not a part of the aid provided to the Egyptian government.

Is this déjà-vu, wondered the Mitmita Girls?

This is a revolution redux. We have been here before! In 2005 during the massive human rights and pro-democracy uprising in Ethiopia, government security forces used US made Humvees to run over anti-Meles demonstrators. United States officials at the time practically swore on a stack of bibles that the Humvees were not US made. Except that they really were and there was photographic evidence.

The US provides all manner of technical training and military equipment to the Ethiopian regime. Better yet, Ethiopia was allegedly one of the sites for the CIA’s extrajudicial rendition program where all manners of torture were being exacted on alleged terror suspects.

Our Alice in Wonderland feeling of “haven’t we been here before” continued with the official US response to the revolt in Egypt. As with the current situation, in Ethiopia, since the EU and the United States had praised Meles as an exemplary African leader, it was obviously hard for them to call for his ouster just because a rag tag of “unemployed youth” as our Prime Minister branded our popular uprising, called for a regime change. So they never called for his resignation. They instead used the familiar refrain of “condemning violence” and asking both sides to “use restraint.”

This week, Tony Blair, former PM of Great Britain, that hapless dilettante who allowed George Jr. to talk him into the elusive search for those Weapons of Mass Destruction, has decided to crawl out of that ninth circle of hell to which he has been resigned to announce to the world that Mubarak is “immensely courageous and a force for good.” The statement, strangely out of place following nearly a week of massive protests, exposes the singular objective of the West on the African continent: Western national security concerns and corporate interests at the cost of the dignity and human rights of African people. And lest you forget, dear reader, Egypt is an African nation and can be found on the African continent. It is not in the Middle East.

In the next stage of coordinated repression, Mubarak is following the “how to put down the popular uprising” handbook to the letter. Journalists and human rights activists are being attacked and jailed. As one human rights group noted, he is essentially eliminating witnesses to his brutal crackdown against demonstrators.

Rewind to 2005, when Meles also following this handbook, jailed opposition leaders, journalists, attorneys and human rights activists and for his pièce de résistance— charged them with genocide and treason!

Next on the list is ostracizing or downplaying the opposition. Both Meles and Mubarak are using the “outside agitator logic”: Meles in 2005 blamed the Diaspora Ethiopians for poisoning the minds of the good, simple people of Ethiopia into believing that they are being repressed. Likewise, Mubarak is now blaming journalists and outside factions for fomenting revolution.

And finally, we come to the American handling of this “crisis. The United States’ response to the uprising in Egypt, described as cowardly by the brilliant journalist Robert Fisk, is rooted in the same self-interested analysis which resulted in their betrayal of the hopes of the Ethiopian people in 2005. In Ethiopia, they feared that with Meles’ ouster, a “strategic ally” (Read: lapdog) will be removed and replaced with a whole host of bogeymen including: a socialist/Marxist a la Chavez, an “Islamist pariah state” like Somalia or even more unthinkable: a revolutionary leader a la Patrice Lumumba who would put the interests and the rights of her people above the national security and corporate interest of the United States. The latter is the most horrifying of all prospects.

The dialogue surrounding the ouster of Mubarak has taken on the same tone: the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t know. This translates to: the next leader might not be as malleable and do our bidding. This in turn is spun to say: we fear an Islamic state a la Iran being established in Egypt or what about the security of Israel in the event that another leader is elected and she doesn’t honor the peace treaty between the two nations? Nowhere in that reasoning is the interest of the Egyptian people taken into account. They are absent in the analysis as they have been for the past thirty years of US support for this dictatorship.

Mubarak may likely continue to hold firm in his refusal to relinquish power as did Meles because his masters, his funders, the United States have yet to blatantly tell him that its time to make his exit.

But freedom…it may be delayed but it certainly won’t be denied for too long in Egypt.

When the Egyptians yell “Kefaya!” at the top of the Nile, we, at the origin of the longest river in the world, the cradle of civilization should be yelling “Beh'qa!” Enough!

2011 is not 2005. It’s time to catch that freedom fever again.

Ethiopia, can you hear us?

You Don’t Slay?! Do You Have Any Idea What Meles Has Done?

2010-04-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

Alice to the Mad Hatter who is asking her to kill the jabberwocky,

the Queen of Hearts’ evil creature: “I don’t slay.”

The Mad Hatter, incredulously: “You don’t slay?!”

“Do you have any idea what the Red Queen has done”

The Mitmita Girls took in a movie last week and since the personal is the political for us, we can barely participate in a single activity without seeing parallels between any situation and our beautiful land of Ethiopia.

Who else would find a reference to our beloved Prime Minister in an innocent classic children’s tale?

So in the movie, Alice, having fallen into a rabbit’s hole, finds herself cast as an unlikely heroine on whom the entire fate of Wonderland rests: She must slay the Jabberwocky, thereby unseating the Red Queen and returning power to the fairer and just ruler, the White Queen.

Alice, like many of our fellow Ethiopians, is a reluctant activist. She rejects the role and is only concerned with her personal wellbeing—she wants to wake up from this nightmare. She just simply wants to go home and stop all this talk about how she has to slay this evil thing and get rid of that dictator.

How often have we heard similar sentiments from all of you: Zimbelachu serachwn seru! Minyederegal endezeh mawrat! mts! Egziaber yakal!

Basically we should lie down and take it. Grit our teeth and think of England. How bad could this Meles really be?

It is in shunning her role as a warrior that Alice made her pronouncement to the Mad Hatter that she doesn’t slay. Meanwhile, everyone lives in terror of the Red Queen and all of Wonderland burns as she liquidates her opposition by beheading them.

Off with their heads!

Sounds an awful lot like “Off to Kaliti!” doesn’t it?

Alice’s position—the concern with herself and the disregard for rampant injustice—is reminiscent of many Ethiopians today—ask them to utter a word against our benevolent Prime Minister or rise up against his regime and their actions essentially amount to “I don’t slay.”

Oh Ethiopia, as the Mad Hatter said of Alice, you have lost your muchiness. You used to be much more muchier!

Well the Mitmita Girls don’t just slay the forces of injustice; we slaughter.

Because, much like Wonderland, Ethiopia under Meles burns.

Birtukan Mideksa, about whom our erudite Prime Minister offered an incredulous update last week, continues to languish in prison. He informs us that other than gaining some weight (because you know exercising in solitary is just soooo easy!) she is in good condition!

Not only is she a criminal, but now she is a FAT criminal!

An authority no less than the US Department of State indicated that there is credible evidence that her mental health is deteriorating. The mind reels at the possibilities for torture of women political prisoners.

But you don’t slay! Get yourself together for Fasika this week and for whatever ba’al is next week and don’t you be bothered with it at all. Because you don’t slay.

Then there was the jamming of radio waves—those of VOA and the blocking of websites—really we simply don’t know if China is the actual ruler of Ethiopia and Meles is merely a puppeteer or if the dictators of the world have meetings in which they coordinate their repressive activities. China cracks down on Google (innocents by no means as until recently Google was complicit in China’s attacks on freedom of speech!) and at the same time Meles is jamming VOA’s broadcasts. Along with this, bien sûr, is the requisite jailing of journalists and the indefatigable accusations of incitement to genocide.

Now, we know our Prime Minister is a medical school drop out (or something of that sort) but perhaps if he was a law school drop out, he would know that genocide is a very specific charge under international law. One can’t simply toss that word around just because you are having a bad day!

Even the Armenian massacre of early last century which fits all of the elements of being called a proper genocide sends Turkey into an apoplectic fit whenever anyone dares call it the Armenian Genocide.

But you don’t slay! What do you know of political subterfuge and red herrings? You just know that if you pretend hard enough that you don’t see the injustice, it means that it doesn’t exist. That if you shut your eyes and hold your nose as you cross the street, the street children will disappear. Egziaber yistachew, anyway, right?

Besides, Meles has now criminalized giving money to the poor! Remember when God’s law was higher than Meles’ and you were obligated to give money to the poor? Let us cite you Proverb 28:27: "[h]e who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses." Well now you are off the hook! Meles has absolved you of your tedious God-given duty to help the poor and besides You.Don’t.Slay!

Then there is this dam that your government is getting ready to build on the Omo River. Some Italian company with an exemplary record (part of the last dam they built collapsed within 10 days) has been given the contract. We won’t bore you with the details of all of the wonderful things that our gracious leader had promised us with the building of this dam; we are sure fairies, unicorns and angels will descend upon us and Jesus himself will resurrect a second time after seeing this dam!

But instead we will comment on the realities of dams—displacement of people, environmental blights and waste of resources.

Arundhati Roy, architect, brilliant social commentator, activist, historian and feminist has this to say about the building of dams in her native India:

“They're a government's way of accumulating authority (deciding who will get how much water and who will grow what where). They're a guaranteed way of taking a farmer's wisdom away from him. They're a brazen means of taking water, land and irrigation away from the poor and gifting it to the rich. Their reservoirs displace huge populations of people, leaving them homeless and destitute. Ecologically, they're in the doghouse. They lay the earth to waste. They cause floods, water-logging, salinity; they spread disease.”

But why listen to Arundhati when you don’t slay!

Have you any idea what Meles has done?

Emperor Meles’ New Clothes

2010-01-30T14:57:00.000-08:00

Some images are etched in our minds—whether we experienced them first hand or because they are part of a collective memory—Abebe Bekila dashing barefoot to victory through old Rome. Richard Nixon, as he was boarding the plane, turning to face America and giving the country that infamous farewell…wave; Rosa Parks’ mug shot when she was arrested for refusing to bow to America’s Apartheid policy towards people of African descent.

Now to be added to these iconic images is the picture of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia that appeared in the January 21, 2010 issue of the Economist.

Dare we say, Dapper Don? Accoutered for taking on the world, he donned a classic European cap, a smart scarf, peeking underneath is an Armani suit perhaps, topped off with fashionable Palinesque glasses and without a doubt a mobile.

Who dresses, Monsieur is the question du jour. Ethiopians have always been enamored with all things French from Lycee to our French-speaking emperor. Naturally we assumed a French designer was to blame. But wait…we didn’t think that Prime Minister was well versed in the language of love. We then ventured the Italians might be the culprits—having spent a significant amount of time in the jungles of Eritrea, perhaps he had fallen in love with those troublesome invaders. We put the call out to our favorite couturiers to see if anyone will lay claim to this look.

Was it extraordinary confidence that we see bubbling over his scarf? Hermès, Monsieur? Is it a semblance of cowardice? What lay behind those—Prada?—glasses is more mayhem and murder. Try as he might, not even Chanel has invented a cologne strong enough to mask the repugnant nature of his government’s crimes.

We dissect the Prime Minister’s clothing because it is obviously his stunning fashion sense that has charmed the pants off the West. You know what they say: Good clothes open doors! And boy have they for our young boy from Adwa! Who would have imagined that a fine pair of trousers would mean entrée into an exclusive club where the United States and its allies shower you with billions that you in turn use to slaughter your people! Yay for fashion! Of course the Mitmita Girls would never dream of using our Givenchy mascara and stilettos in such a vile manner. And so we are forced to ask, has dictatorship ever looked this damn good? We scoured the historical annals in search of portraits of Pinochet and Stalin, from whom Meles proudly inherits the mantle of repression. No, we assure you, while his predecessors were fascinated with military getups, no one even comes close to achieving that cold calculating look that is Meles’ signature.

Yet we couldn’t help wondering why we are giving the Prime Minister enough credit to get designer duds? Since his governing style is purely counterfeit, it is befitting that his outfits should also be knockoffs! Enter China! In addition to importing Chinese prisoners to build roads and Chinese technology to censor the Internet, his apparatchiks must have also assigned the illustrious job of clothing the leader of our fabled land to those from the Far East. Our poor shmanayWouch! What a discount he must get from China!

As if the threads weren’t impressive enough, it’s the mobile telephone that had us teetering on our four-inch heels. Is that a Blackberry, a Treo, an Iphone, we see pressed against your ear, Prime Minister? We suppose where he lives, he gets better service. Whenever we try our luck with the phones, some Girl 6 sounding operator comes on and says in her most seductive voice: “YedeweLoot silk teyezwal. Ehbakoat Coyetoe YemoeKeroot.” Basically: better luck next time, suckers!

Can you hear us now, Prime Minister?

Curious isn’t it to see our Meles parading around town and abroad with a cell phone when his government has crippled Ethiopian telephonic communications. No adequate and reliable communication lines; yet we are asked to swallow a lie like the commodity exchange. Chinese technology is used to block any websites the government finds objectionable but we have no medical technology to control the outbreak of cholera. You “own” your land only until eminent domain intervenes. This of course means some government honcho just wanted to build a condo for his mistress on your inopportunely placed property. You better be glad that all they took from you is your land—fair market value is hardly a worry when along with your confiscated land, you could be mourning your confiscated freedom.

The machinations of Meles aside, we love our country. As the azmari would sing: Sedet godolonew; WholgeZem aymolah. But for the children of Ethiopia it is either prison a la Birtukan Mideska or exile.

And speaking of our comrades in exile, while the rest of us were taking apart Meles’ closet, the world was enraged over the United States Supreme Court’s most recent decision regarding corporations. What is this! Corporations can influence US elections! How insane! How perverse! Ah! If only Ethiopians had the luxury of such outrage. We are still trying to get the roadmap together to find our way out of electoral buffoonery and into some semblances of freedom.

The Mitmita Girls giggled at everyone’s reaction! Must we be everyone’s financiers, lawyers, freedom fighters AND educators? For the uninitiated, allow us to inform you that corporations have long had greater rights than human beings. (Never mind that lawyers and other scholars have maintained that neither the US Constitution nor any court decision has explicitly provided companies with “corporate personhood.” Even more amazing is that the amendment which corporations have relied on to amass greater rights than the rest of us is the Fourteenth Amendment—the law passed to provide full United States citizenship rights to former enslaved Africans! Oh the irony!)

Allow us to enumerate but a few examples of corporate expansion of power over the years: Governments have been toppled for corporate dominance (See Confessions of an Economic Hitman for an eye opening account of what corporations do in the “developing world”); Wars have been fought and continue to this day for the benefit of corporations (See Bechtel, Halliburton, Blackwater and their profit margins after the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan); The pursuit of the mighty dollar has also led corporation and their representatives—lawyers and bankers—to build countries (See How Wall Street Created A Nation recounting how Wall Street banks and law firms, working to finance the Panama Canal, fomented revolution in Columbia to cause the secession of a province which became the present day nation of Panama); and as ET Recycler reminded us last week, corporations conspire with governments to murder in the name of profit (See history of United Fruit Company).

And here you thought we only read Italian Vogue!

So this latest iteration of corporate domination—that companies now have unfettered ability to contribute to political campaigns—bored us to tears. What we do find worthy of discussion is that in the West and on our beloved African continent, corporate interests reign supreme. To be sure under Meles’ junta, corporate/governmental interests have always had greater rights than the denizens of Ethiopia. Granted the corporate structure in our country is under the larger umbrella of Meles & Co., thus whatever line that would be drawn, in a true democracy, between private companies and the government is nonexistent. Even in the West, despite the illusion of diversity, a minority of companies and individuals control the largest amount of wealth.

Perhaps American outrage has us flummoxed because Ethiopians are used to wealthier interests dominating our politics. Meles even attempted to import that thinking to the States. When he isn’t busy being a fashion plate, Meles has worked overtime to influence US policy towards Ethiopia. Hiring the firm DLA Piper and schmoozing that snake charmer Dick Armey to sink the Diaspora’s legislative efforts were the least of his efforts. We wouldn’t be surprised if Meles & Co. had filed amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs urging the US Supreme Court to allow them to control American elections!

Good clothes open doors, indeed!

The Mitmita Girls’ Naughty Or Nice List

2009-12-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

Basking in the double consciousness that is our Ethiopian hearts and western habits, the Mitmita Girls are in full swing of the holiday spirit! First comes the depravity of the European Christmas, followed by the more sober and deliberate “Gena” celebrations—after all everyone knows that Jesus hails from Nazret, Ethiopia and was born on January 7^th!

So it is with pure delight and the hopes of closing out the year in a reflective mood that we offer you our First Annual Mitmita Girls’ Naughty or Nice List! We will review the past year and provide our faithful readers with our recommendations as to who deserves a present from Santa and whose stockings we will be filling with coal.

We begin our list with a most impressive person indeed.

Name: Meles Zenawi

Title: Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Judge, Jury, Executioner

Designation: The Devil called and wants his job back. Monsieur Premier Minister is doing such a bang up job of screwing over Ethiopia, that Lucifer is wondering if there will be much of anything left for him to do. Ergo our designation for Mr. Meles is Naughty. Naughty as hell.

We never know where to start with our Prime Minister. Researching him is always an exercise in absurdity. For instance, who else, when asked about a prisoner of conscience who was rearrested for no other reason than opining about the conditions of her pardon, would say, “[t]here will never be an agreement with anybody to release Birtukan. Ever. Full stop. That’s a dead issue.”

There is something in the lovely pronouncements of our Prime Minister that brings to mind the misery so aptly described by Charles Dickens.

“But its Christmas season, prime minister!” we say in our most earnest voices.

He would respond, “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”

It seems that Dickens’ tale of cruelty, power, poverty and greed would be most apropos to our current state of Ethiopia. Except unlike the scrooge of the Christmas Carol, Meles will not be visited by the Ghost of Ethiopia’s past, present and future. He has effectively erased our history, is ruining our present and our future has been sold—lock stock and barrel—to the Arabs and Chinese.

Ethiopia under Meles, in addition to being Dickensian-with its street urchins, lack of healthcare—remember Tiny Tim, who because of the lack of access to medical attention was gravely ill—also reminds us of another British author’s view of a dystopia. With Meles’ penchant for arresting journalists, shutting down newspapers, and accusing every Tom, Dick and Shimeles of treason, we think he might have taken George Orwell’s “1984” literally. Where else would he get the idea for the terrorism and the charities and civil society’s bills but in a book where the department of war is called the Ministry of Peace, the state propaganda machine is called the Ministry of Truth and police and security forces are called the Ministry of Love? While the book makes for a fascinating Sunday afternoon read, Prime Minister, we hardly think it is a manifesto on how to run a country!

It is in the hopes that Twenty Ten rids of your machinations and your ethnocentric policies that we nominate you as our inaugural Naughtiest Person of the Year.

On the other end of the spectrum lies our next honoree.

Name: Human Rights Watch

Description: International non-governmental organization (NGO)

Designation: Very, very Nice

The Mitmita Girls are not much for nonprofits and NGO—they usually have their own agendas and at times they implicitly and other times explicitly, conspire with repressive regimes for their own benefits. Nevertheless, it is with extreme pleasure that we applaud Human Rights Watch (HRW) for their recognition of Daniel Bekele as their human rights advocate of the year. As you recall, Daniel was one of the one hundred plus individuals who were arrested in the Meles’ created melee that ensued following the 2005 elections. HRW’s gala celebration honoring our illustrious attorney and human rights defender was held in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History. The Mitmita Girls were fortunate enough to snag a few of the coveted tickets to the grand affair. In attendance were other luminaries of the Diaspora, including a certain charming Professor of a renown New York school who regaled us with fantasies of an Ethiopia under his rule as well as an accomplished PhD who delighted us with discussions of women’s rights, a topic near and dear to our feminist hearts. We were so engrossed with the conversation that we almost neglected to indulge in the culinary delights for which some in attendance donated upwards of $10,000! Who knew human rights work was sexy and oh so rewarding?

Did we mention that recipients of the HRW award are generally short listed for the Nobel Prize? Eat.Your.Heart.Out.Woyanes. We suppose we will have to consult with Michelle Obama on what one wears to Oslo?

Back to the naughty list, our next honoree is a fascinating persona who came into our lives in a whirlwind.

Name: Eleni Gabre-Madhin

Title: CEO of Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), Affectionately known to the Mitmitas as “Madame Financier”

Honors: Introducing ethnicity into the discussion of the ECX; Giving each of us a hearty laugh at the notion that a country still struggling with food insecurity could have a commodity exchange.

Designation: Oh so very Naughty!

This would be mitmita had our hearts at the mention of the word “exchange.” Being Wall Street aficionados in one of our former lives, we welcomed the debauchery that would ensue once a commodity exchange opened in Addis. The parties! The bribery! The hot handsome bankers! Alas! Far from being debauched, we are simply bored. There were the Op-ed pieces, the documentary, and the all out media assault on our senses to convince us what our poor country needed was a fancy new gadget for the plutocrats. Really, Madame Financier, these efforts are akin to when we dress up a drab love affair with jewels—the fancy is lovely cover-up but what lies beneath is still a dull fellow who no doubt can afford the foie gras but can barely keep us entertained through dessert.

And because we are such mean, mean girls who don’t appreciate all that Madame has done for us, her oft-cited cri de coeur traced her lineage. You see, under Meles’ Ethiopia, your accomplishments don’t count; it’s your bloodlines, stupid. Since ethnicity and genealogy have done just so much for Palestine and Israel, as well as for the Hutus and Tutsis we might as well copy that healthy formula in Ethiopia! Oromos, can you hear me? What about Welietas? Amharas, anyone? Woe are those of us of mixed ethnicity! How do we pick? Maybe senyo through hamoose, we can claim Mimi’s grandmother’s Gurage line but only if it is politically advantageous and then on oohood, at church we can find out whether the Abuna’s family is Tigre and we can pray in Tigrinya?

This whole thing is strange for us ex-pats since when the Mitmita Girls were tots and teens, once upon a time, we were simply Ethiopian.

For all her Oscar worthy performances, we think Madame Financier should have headed south from Stanford to Hollywood rather than gracing us with her presence in Addis. We were just not ready for her brilliance, for her valiant attempts to drag us kicking and screaming out of the darkness and into Ethiopia’s Wall Street. Yet, all we ever wanted was access to some clean water, for a start.

No doubt Madame Financier is miffed at being slighted by the Nobel Committee for her contributions to the field of economics. Don’t fret, our little economista, the Mitmita Girls will give you all the accolades you deserve.

Our final list of Nicies are a group of amazing women! Surely you are not surprised! For every Eleni, there are a million Almazs, two million Taitus, and 40 million Sarahs who are committed to liberating Ethiopia.

Name: Ethiopian Women’s Human Rights Alliance

Title: Grassroots human rights organization

Designation: Tres, Tres Nice

The very seriously accomplished ladies of the Ethiopian Women’s Human Rights Alliance (EWHRA) stylishly make up our list of the Nicies for 2009. This is yet another example of women taking charge. Full of moxie, brilliance, sugar and spice, no doubt, EWHRA filed a report with the Universal Periodic Report of the United Nations detailing the violations of human rights committed by the Ethiopian government. You can read the full report here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRETStakeholdersInfoS6.aspx

If we would be so bold as to summarize their findings: International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) violated! Freedom of Speech violated! Convention Against Torture (CAT) violated! You get the gist--across all internationally accepted standards, the Ethiopian government earns a big fat "F" for failure. Their report even provided recommendations for improvements, which no doubt, will be ignored by the illiterates running our country.

And what timing EWHRA had! For years, Ethiopia has neglected its reporting obligations under international treaties; yet all of a sudden Meles’ sycophants are falling all over themselves to submit reports and appear in Geneva to defend their human rights record. It must be those pesky women and their report!

We applaud the women of EWHRA for their perseverance and their genius!

Speaking of women leadership, we remind you that next week marks the one-year anniversary of Birtukan Mideksa’s incarceration. In light of that bleak fact and because actions always speak louder than our words on paper, we pass on the following bit of information from the Free Birtukan and All Prisoners of Conscience (FreeBirtukan.org) Task Force: Please help us reach our goal with your tax deductible donation. Please donate here at http://www.freebirtukan.org by clicking on the Donate button or mail your donation to:

FreeBirtukan.Org

P.O.Box 3158,

Cypress, CA 90630

So there is our list for 2009! You must be wondering what is on the agenda for us in Twenty Ten.

The Mitmita Girls are running for office! We believe the issues of governance in Ethiopia can be resolved if the Mitmita Girls controlled the finances and the politics of our country. In preparation, we are brushing up on our Niccolo Machiavelli, Tzun Tzu, Friedrich Engels and Hillary Clinton. In the event we lose the National Elections of Twenty Ten, we have already made plans to establish a “shadow government” (Thanks Dick Cheney for the idea!) From the comfort of our libraries, cafes, hair salons and blogs, we think we can do a better job governing than the current clowns in office. For starters, we would make sure everyone is very well dressed! You choice of agerlebs on us! We will call you when it is time for the fittings—or as they say in Addis for the “prova.”

Enkuan le Gena abren aderesen and to all a happy new year!

The Mitmita Girls & The Meles Mercenary

2009-10-31T14:34:00.000-07:00

The Mitmita Girls shuttled down to Little Havana from our beloved Manhattan to attend the opening of the über impressive W Hotel in Miami. Inevitably talk of Ethiopian politics crept into the mix and so we found ourselves trying to extricate our four inch Christian Louboutins from between the Anti Castro and the Pro Ethiopian Dictatorship crews.

So how did we end up in this predicament? We were stuck waiting on our friend who is half Ethiopian and half Italian and therefore doubly fashionable and exceptionally late to everything. La Femme Italienne, for whom we had snagged the coveted invitation to opening night, is ill-mannered—which is the problem with these molqaqa...spoiled girls… whose lives are nothing but a series of nights in Addis, Paris, Milan and New York. Which begs the question of why we befriended her? Well…She always has the most delicious gossip from Addis!

When she did finally decide to grace us with her presence, la Femme Italienne, arrived with two unexpected guests. As it turns out, joining our coterie of bon vivants was a dignitary of some sort from the Ethiopian Government. Granted it wasn’t the Prime Minister but rather one of his sycophants. So there we sat, wearing our nicknames as our fashion accessories—Miti, Mimi, Mitu and Mitmitaye—collectively the Mimita Girls—about to engage in verbal jujitsu with a totally. unworthy. opponent.

One of the gentlemen, pointing to his compatriot, announces: “This is a very important man in Ethiopia. He makes things happen.” He nodded knowingly.

My my. What a song to a Mitmita Girl’s ears. Since we are all gold digging social climbing kinda women, we are just charmed, charmed to find out how deeply important this chap was.

Paunchy, sparse of hair up top, plenty of hair on the chest with a fashion palate circa nineteen seventy something, our honored guest, leaned back on the couch trying to deflect what was an intended compliment but what was to our ears an insult; a deeply important man in Ethiopia’s government evoked sentiments of pure terror in our innocent hearts.

And whenever we, Mitmita Girls are scared, we summon from within us warrior women wielding machetes.

We are by nature peace loving girls. Truly we are! However, there is something about the murderous machination of Meles and his crew which induces urges of great violence in us—justice seeking violence, of course!

Back to our important guest. He looked like he could be a mercenary. More importantly, he was disastrously underdressed for the occasion of having drinks with the Mitmita Girls; We are awfully suspicious of people who dress poorly as a way of disguising their theft. He was a definitely a mercenary, we decided.

“Oh? Important?” we quipped. And oozing pure boredom we asked, “Esachew mindenew emitserut?” in perfectly well-honed Amharic with an American accent procured after years of privileged over education “and what is it you doooooooo, Monsieur Very Important?

We have just been dying trying to figure out how to smuggle Ethiopian artifacts out of the country…”

We smile sweetly.

The machete wielding warrior women within us thought it was almost too perfect to have this imbecile sitting before us. We should just let the warriors out and let them have their way with Monsieur Tres Important.

But we just bought these vintage LaCroix and Yves Saint Laurent dresses for the occasion of this opening and no sense in ruining perfectly good couture.

As with all deeply important people, the target of our inquiry deferred to the accompanying and évidement less important gentleman to explain his role in one of Africa’s most vicious plutocracies.

The details are of course inconsequential. The gentleman’s job could have been any number of troubling minamin… things.

For instance he could have been the person in charge of these outrageous land grants to foreigners…suddenly we have an abundance of Ethiopian landowners so we have began gifting our soil to others. Look at Prime Minister trying to convince everyone that he isn’t a land hording communist—its a land giveaway! Are you a foreigner? Do you have cash? Well Melesocracy has a stimulus plan for you! The Mitmita Girls are quite familiar with a few project finance deals ourselves; from what we understand, in these intricate transactions, Third World governments in collaboration with First World financiers orchestrate what are tantamount to beads for Manhattan deals where like the Native Americans, ordinary Ethiopians are bilked out of inheriting our land because a man with an uncanny resemblance to a goat has sold it to the Chinese.

The Warrior Women within us are seriously considering unsheathing a machete. Damn the consequences.

Or he could be the minister in charge of infrastructure—for example electricity and other such frivolities—which would sans doute explain what he was doing in Miami instead of being in Bole… seeing as how electricity is being rationed in Addis Ababa. Which as you know is all the rage in the industrialized and tres sophisticated countries with commodity exchanges. How totally modern! Why does everyone need to use electricity at the same time anyway, you wasteful fools! Everyone knows that we are on the cusp of the green revolution! You didn’t know it but Ethiopia’s Prime Minister is leading the way to greening the planet by conservation! That’s right, this is all about saving mother earth. Who knew the former jungle inhabitants now running our country are a hippie, tree hugging lot!

With the rush to introduce the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange some basic necessities, such as clean water and sanitary conditions have been left by the way side. All of this so that we can achieve that perfection of capitalism and all kneel at the alter of the market. Never mind that cholera has seized the city.

Those Warrior Women are now considering jumping on the table, channeling Legendary Singer Tilahun Gesesse, brandishing his sword and screaming, Zeraf Zeraf!

Or he could be from the Ministry of NGOs which is in charge of ensuring that pesky organizations like the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) stop publicizing such horribly sad depressing news unworthy of coverage! Look at this report from EHRCO’s May 2008 Report on the Human Rights Situation in Ethiopia:

Wubit Legamo Leka: 28, She lives in SNNPR, Wolayita Zone, Boditi town….During the 2005 national election, when her husband was running for Parliament she was an observer. She was arrested on 16 December 2007 and was beaten and tortured as a result of which she had a miscarriage of her four months pregnancy. She told EHRCO that while she was detained her four-year old child was taken by police to a childcare center. She said she was released on bail by the order of the high court.

Yikes! Beatings, tortures, miscarriages, oh my! We can so understand why the Diplomats are working with the Prime Minister to rid us of EHRCO! No one will come to visit our beloved land if every five minutes there are reports of beatings, torture, arrests and murders. Obviously the answer is not for the Ethiopian Security Forces to stop committing these crimes—that would be too absurd or surreal—instead we will put pressure on a human rights organization to stop it from doing work!

Meanwhile did you see where the Economist, oui, THAT Economist, called Birtukan a charismatic young leader and alluded to her unjust incarceration? Do you think Prime Minister just died when he read that? We think he should call back the Ambassador from London and have him summarily tarred and feathered for not blocking the Economist from printing that story. What the hell is it with these Europeans and their inability to control the press anyway!

Monsieur Tres Important might have held all of those positions or he might have been some other overlord. What we did find out was that Monsieur Very important is very loyal to Prime Minister.

Before the appointed mouthpiece could launch into the multitude of sins committed by our guest, La Femme Italienne announced that in all faireness, that we are not at all interested in his life. Elles ne s' interessent pas a sa vie! In fact, each one of them hates the Ethiopian government. Especially Prime Minister.”

Don’t you hate girls from one continent, speaking a language from a second one, sipping Martinis on a third continent while entertaining a murderous regime apparatchik?

“oh no no no.” insisted Monsieur Tres Important. “Surely you don’t mean Meles? No he can’t possibly be who you mean?” He gave us a peculiar look. If we weren’t so versed in Meles’ crimes we might have hesitated for a second under Monsieur’s withering gaze.

We and the warrior girls within us stood our ground as Meles’ mercenary took on the awesome responsibility of defending his boss’ record.

According to the gentleman, our beloved PM is a peaceful man. Not one to hold on to grudges. One that is often misunderstood. Indeed it seems he is a huge yoga practitioner. Believing in forgiveness, nirvana and meditation. Quite a departure from the egomaniacal, prisoner torturing, dissident disappearing, polpot wanna be we have been despising all these years.

As though this bit of tidbit wasn’t enough to sustain our gossip for weeks to come, Monsieur Very Important announced that he is quite familiar with the work of the Mitmita Girls. As it turns out, Monsieur was a huge fan of ours! Perhaps “fan” is too strong an emotion for what he feels. In fact he despises us! (We are shocked!) He thinks the Mitmita Girls’ missives are pure drivel (We are heat broken!) He laments our devious nature. (We are so misunderstood!)

As with apologists for criminal regimes, Monsieur’s quarrel wasn’t so much with any of our accusations of human rights violations leveled against the Ethiopian regime. He believes us to be very cavalier with certain bits of minutae. For instance, he was practically blue in the face when he explained that our writings on water shortage in Ethiopia were subpar because we didn’t know what the role of a water engineer was. Or how shameful it was that we didn’t know that houses in Addis were made out of tin!

What can we say—we are dilettantes! What do we know about engineering! As to the houses, we usually stay at the Sheraton and if forced to, at the Hilton when we are in Addis. Otherwise we spend all of our time being shuttled by black tinted SUVs from one gated community to another. So forgive us if we didn’t translate “korkoro” properly. In any case whether Korkoro means aluminum or tin, the greater issue, we stressed, is the Ethiopian government's inability to provide sustainable affordable housing to the population.

But really monsieur we can’t very well take your criticisms seriously when you have not even considered ours.

What say you about the charge of war crimes? About the torture of human rights defenders? The cold blooded murder of citizens? What say you about the rampant violations of human rights?

Monsieur Tres Important looked at us as though we were discussing eating babies for breakfast. He continued with his accusations.

“You are all “ethnicists!” He spat the word as though expecting us to acknowledge our prejudice and repent. He believes the Mitmita Girls adored Teddy Afro because of his ethnicity. We explained that we understood Teddy’s ethnicity to be “Konjo,” born of the tribe of Konjo Hager to his mother Konjit and his father Konjiyay—so we are totally guilty as charged. We have always maintained that high among the goals of the Ethiopian government, right between completely bankrupting the nation and obtaining a totalitarian control over the lives of ordinary people, is eliminating eligible bachelors from the dating pool.

When we laughed at the ethnicist charge, he moved on to censorship. Monieur thinks we engage in censorship because we don’t post all of the hateful mail that we receive, we asked him if he wanted us to post the comment where people have called us “whores.” He blushed purple.

We laughed. “If the comments calling us ‘whores’ are an attempt to launch into the much neglected issue of sex workers in Ethiopia and more importantly the trafficking of women in and out of the country, then we would be more than happy to engage you in this discussion. Granted as Mitmitas, smart women, women workers, and hell as women generally, we are accustomed to the misguided notion that we screw people for money.”

Then we smiled sweetly. “We just don’t think that people who prostitute themselves for Meles Zenawi, screwing a population of 80 million while they get filthy rich in the process, should be the first ones to throw around the word ‘whore.’”

Monsieur indicated he was tired of our “sarcastic journalism.” We responded that we were tired of our people dying.

Not even crème brule could bridge the divide between us and so we politely ended the cocktail hour.

True to the nature of a mercenary, Monsieur tried to stick us with the bill; it seems whether it is the tab for overpriced cocktails or the looting of our country, ordinary Ethiopians are always charged with picking up after the mess that Meles and his cronies have created.

Love in the Time of Cholera (With profuse apologies to our beloved Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

2009-09-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Just in time for New Years, the Ethiopian capital is abuzz with the latest punishment from God because we just refuse to get rid of Prime Minister! Oh what a love affair we are having with Meles Zenawi and his many games! We were so caught up in the rapture that is the Commodity Exchange that we neglected to notice that some as yet, unclaimed, unidentified and undiagnosed disease has let loose in Addis!

Now that diseases are running rampant, could locusts and the four horsemen of the apocalypse be far behind? Must everyone conspire to ruin our capitalist dreams?

Actually we have decided it is not God that is punishing us! Obviously it is the Diaspora that has conjured up this unnamed, unclaimed, non-epidemic in an attempt to ruin your new years’ plans. Damn Diaspora!

You see this is the problem with the Third World. Just when you introduce something as shiny and as impressive as a commodity exchange, surely an instrument of First World Arrival Status, here comes some Third World Problem like a monstrous disease to ruin everything. Why is it that Africans can’t have nice things? Gosh! We have been so looking forward to initial public offering shindigs and closing deals once we build our stock market! But now it all seems ruined!

Does this mean we should not count on our year-end bonuses?

What is this disease threatening to cause financial and social chaos in Ethiopia? The officials won’t confirm.

We wonder if it is the same way that whenever someone dies of AIDS in Ethiopia, they kept telling us it was Nefas. So at first we thought, WOW why is this disease call “wind?” Then we thought WOW! What a lot of Pneumonia cases there must be in Ethiopia! Then we discovered that every family, every house, every town and village has several Nefas stories. Although the name was innocuous, the disease was deadly and took out generations in the same family.

Isn’t it amusing how fatal diseases have serene names in Amharic—AIDS is wind and diabetes is sugar. No doubt this latest scourge will be called sparkles or cotton candy. Even our language is in denial about our problems.

Since the whole denying AIDS is an issue and refusing to call a rose a rose was such a rousing success not only in Ethiopia but also in Africa, let’s just repeat the same cycle of denial, cover-ups and diversion one more time! With a thousand people catching this waterborne disease daily, won’t it be a hoot to just sit and watch as panic grips an already crippled population. Who has the champagne to toast because clearly we are not touching the water! Ambo, anyone?

According to almost all sources, the Disease Whose Name No One Dare Speak is cholera. Dagmawi even reports that the Ethiopian government has banned use of the word “cholera.” Can the Prime Minister’s regime get any more surreal? George Orwell couldn’t have dreamed up a better setting for his dystopia.

“Today the Ethiopian Government declared that the word “Cholera” will be stricken from Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromiya and all other languages, including Geez, and Jesus Christ’s language of Aramaic. The word is now illegal and its use will be considered treasonous. Punishment for disobedience is Death.”

Yes, Meles. The big boys over in Europe, China and America will be soooo impressed when you tell them you can’t control the outbreak of diarrhea in your capital. Maybe you can still distract them by pointing at the Commodity Exchange and the Sheraton. “Look! Look! We can have dinner for the price of one family’s monthly or heck yearly salary!”

The outbreak of Cholera (let’s call things what they are; it makes things much simpler!) is telling; a brief search into its origins and its impact reveals it is an issue of poverty. One handy internet source explains the issue as follows:

The disease is transferred from person to person through ingestion of water contaminated with the cholera bacterium, usually from feces or other effluent. The source of the contamination is typically other cholera patients when their untreated diarrhea discharge is allowed to get into waterways or into ground water or drinking water supplies.

We bet you are just over the moon with joy that we spent money building fancy hotels and commodity exchanges! Disease prevention be damned! The way to dig ourselves out of poverty is to create a big ole distraction somewhere else and hope no one looks at the huge pink elephant in the room labeled “Utter Disaster."

Can we put aside the ostentatious “development” plans that the junta has in place for us and instead focus on basic necessities? Access to clean water and sanitation are fundamental human rights issues which the government has been reticent to address. Instead, the concentration is on building playgrounds for rich ex-pats and their friends and finding deluded economists to sell pipe dreams of an Ethiopian version of “Wall Street” to the public. Meanwhile, where is our clean water?

What will be interesting is how these code words for the disease, “Acute Watery Diarrohea,” will play out as the cholera fighting and prevention resources arrive from the various international entities. The United Nations has already dispatched its crew. Will the esteemed and all knowing Prime Minister turn them away, assuring them that all is under control? Move along, now. Nothing to see here. Let’s dispense with the euphemisms. A dictatorship is a dictatorship is a dictatorship. A regime that can’t feed a population, prevent an outbreak and stifles even the mere discussion of diseases is a failed state. Face it, Prime Minister. No one is going to laud you for your governance when a disease whose stench reveals your incompetence and ultimately your disdain for the population.

The current tragicomedy state of Ethiopia is too absurd for words. If it wasn’t the lives of 80 million that Meles was playing with, the Mitmita Girls would be dying with laughter. Where else but in Prime Minister’s version of our Ethiopia would a commodity exchange be discussed quite seriously in the same breathe as “cholera.” We understand quite well that looting and pillaging a nation necessitates a docile and demoralized population. We suppose instead of just letting us watch as he pillages our wealth, he has decided it might be better to also watch us die.

We will leave you with this passage from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love In The Time of Cholera. The protagonist of the novel and the love of his life are trying to figure out how to stay on a ship, surrounded by nothing but their love, blocking out the intrusions of a cruel world which judges their union.

“and speaking hypothetically,” [Florentino Ariza] said, “Would it be possible to make a trip without stopping, without cargo and without coming into any port, without anything?"

The Captain said that it was possible, but only hypothetically. The [ship] had business commitments that Florentino Ariza was more familiar with than he was, it had contracts for cargos, for passengers, mail, and a great deal more, and most of them are unbreakable. The only thing that would allow them to bypass all that was a case of cholera on board. The ship will be quarantined, it will hoist a yellow flag and sail in a state of emergency. Captain Samaritano had needed to do just that on several occasions because of the many cases of cholera along the river, although later the health authorities had obligated the doctors to sign death certificates that called the cases common dysentery. Besides many times in the history of the river the yellow plague flag had been flown in order to evade taxes, or to avoid picking up an undesirable passenger or to elude inopportune inspections.”

We wonder for what purpose and to what ends the Prime Minister will use the yellow flag of cholera in Ethiopia.

Even in this time of cholera, we profess our love for the women and men of Ethiopia who despite the unbelievably bad odds against them continue to live, resist and work towards a day free of cholera and Meles Zenawi.

Mar Ena Whehtet: Milk & Honey

2009-08-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Fresh from our return after feting the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange in Addis, we decided to spend a night enjoying our favorite activity of “Mar Ena Whehtet” (Milk & Honey). For those of you with a less active and wildly extraordinary imagination than ours, this is also known as “checking the Mitmita Girls’ Mailbags!” We get cozy with pajamas on, Macs in our laps, in the rocking chairs of our library and with a cup of Milk & Honey, we delve into greeting and salutations from the blogosphere.

From the start, we are reeling from all of the attention that our little innocent piece on the commodity exchange has garnered from those who find Mitmita’s humor so attractive and from those who are well…our detractors. It seems everyone has an opinion on the exchange.

One surly gentleman whose correct and fantastic use of a semicolon was practically orgasmic, vehemently defended the architect of the exchange and demanded that we answer for our selves: “When you look at the mirror what do you have to say you have done for your country?” oooohhhhhh snarky!

Well. Generally we like to think that our existence as simply gorgeous creatures with an out of this world brilliance is enough…mais parceque our fans demand so much more, we take the time to regale you with our thoughts on this blog whenever we can.

So now for our contribution: we want to say a la Dante that in these times of great moral crisis, we did NOT maintain our neutrality; rather that we stood firmly on the side of the oppressed; that we were among the throngs screaming that the Prime Minister has no clothes and a commodity exchange in Ethiopia is not only beyond the pale—it is an affront to our people. And if that doesn’t justify our completely glib position in life, while the rest of the sheep have been oowing and aahhing over the shiny piece of distraction known as ECX, we have been working on behalf of Birtukan Mideska. Remember her? Yes. The political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, who is now entering her seventh month in her reinstated life sentence? She is still there. Languishing in Kaliti…

How about reading up on her Ethiopian story?

When you are done gawking at the Exchange and you realize that we are still not saved from the awful reality that is Meles Zenawi (but Madame architect you swore that the Exchange will feed everyone and make you...err...Ethiopia rich!), maybe you can go to this website http://www.freebirtukan.org/ and read this article and perhaps, if you are feeling particularly like a good citizen, even contact your elected officials and demand that Birtukan be released.

On our end, we are just through, through with the sham trials, the endless Shemagele process and reverse pardons. We have decided that we will opt for a different approach: we are organizing a prison break. So we have begun our recruitment drive for planners, connoisseurs of Ethiopian prison layouts and descendants of those men who broke out of Alcatraz prison. To top it off, we are holding study sessions on the most famous escape by a woman prisoner in history. Send us mail should you have ideas or if you want to join us as we search for couture black cat suits with alligator boots suitable for traversing the eucalyptus trees surrounding Kaliti prison.

But we digress…
Back to our Milk & Honey session…Not all is negative in our mailbox. We do adore our fans: Ethiopian Recycler —we are sooooo crushing!

Several other mail items were spam…Mr. Whittington is a barrister from London and he wants us to confirm our bank account number…Ms. Lucille wants a bone marrow/a green card/to claim the millions left by her husband and could we help her….

Then of course there was that where-did-that-come-from awkward apologia from the architect of the ECX. We were laughing so hard that we almost spit out our mar ena whehtet. All of a sudden the woman is laying out a veritable DNA sequence of her lineage… there was this bishop, that ras mekonen and some dude who did something with Menelik (we admit we fell asleep mid-read) and without a doubt, one must always, ALWAYS for legitimacy’s sake throw in some European connection—hence the reference to Rimbaud. Mais c’est trop! It’s all a bit too much!

One can always tell when privileged Ethiopians have spent too much time in the West—the poor little rich girl syndrome is never too far behind…we are betting that the next set of mea culpa writings she blasts through the blogospehere will be a denunciation of her class status… “oh I’m just a poor misunderstood girl from Harrar who just stumbled upon this theory of a commodity exchange and blah blah blah…”

Not to be outdone by Madame Financier, the Mitmita Girls have decided to trace our lineage just a little bit further. On our Christian side, we have pinned down our history, through His Imperial Majesty, Janhoi, King of King, our fellow Harrar royalty to the Mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That’s right! Mary, mother of Jesus, Qiddist Dingil Mariam herself, the most bless-ed among women, is our ancestor.

On our Muslim side—we are Harrar town girls after all and the walled city has a long history with Islam—our blood extends through various Caliphates right down to Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Finally, for our Beta Israel bona fides, we claim the original Jews through Mak’eda’s journey to see King Solomon and from him right down to Moses.

Isn’t our pedigree much more impressive? And we didn’t even have to bring up Empress Taitu and her anti-colonial battle!

And while we enjoyed our little jaunt and hers though the genealogy pool, we are marveling at this diversionary tactic. Or rather an attempt at a diversionary tactic! What the heck does a Frenchman being holed up in some house in Harrar where her relatives lived have to do with the price of coffee on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange? (Come now! While we know a PhD doesn't necessarily mean you are a genius, darling, don't you go assuming that the rest of us are idiots.) Because despite Madame Financier’s attempts to shroud herself in the proud green of our earth, the gold of our future and the red of our roses grown only to be exported, this is not a discussion of her lineage (or even sadly enough about our impressive ancestors) or identity politics. This concerns the wholesale trickery perpetrated by the Ethiopian government with the assistance of the likes of Madame Financier on the rest of us.

There are plenty of Ethiopians of the various ethnic groups that have conspired with the current regime against the rest of us for their own benefit. Whether you are oromo, tigrai, welaita, amhara or one of the myriad of other groups which makes up the colorful tapestry that is beautiful Ethiopia, complicity with the Prime Minister’s junta renders you an enemy of the Ethiopian people.

And so for the record, the Mitmita Girls could truly care less if Madame Financier was raised by a pack of wolves or if it turns out that her hairs were spun out of silk and placed on her head by angels. It is her choice to align herself with a dictatorial regime that we find completely repugnant.

THE EXCHANGE

2009-07-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to invite you to the one-year anniversary gala celebrating the opening of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange in Addis Ababa. Popularly dubbed “ECX” by the five people who know of its existence, the innovative endeavor catapulted “ECX” into the lexicon of powerful names. Forget Wall Street! The next set of convoluted financial instruments—whether they be derivatives or swaps—will be Ethiopian inspired! The Mitmita Girls, as a public service, offer you an exclusive glimpse into the world of High Finance, Ethiopian Style! True to Wall Street tradition, we will be hosting the “ECX” (affectionately nicknamed by us as simply “The Exchange”) anniversary party at the Sheraton—(drinks and appetizers by the pool followed by dancing!)

Where capitalism and stock markets have in general been crashing and burning in the West, they are being resurrected in the horn of Africa. The US with its Bill of Rights and near fanatical obsession with freedom of the press and individual liberties saw Wall Street teetering on collapse. While many questioned the infallibility of the markets and capitalism as a whole, quite the opposite was taking place in Ethiopia. There, in the birthplace of humankind, no one is bothering with pesky concerns like regulations, oversight provisions or the invisible hand of the market. Discussions of that nature are academic here—by that we mean, they are nonexistent. It seems that we have had it wrong all along: capitalism doesn’t need a free society to flourish! Evidently it can sprout just about anywhere, even in a dictatorship. Much like building the perfect man, all you need is some magic dust known as US dollars, a sprinkle of an inflated Western Education via an Ivy League School and a dollop of that good ole “can do” attitude innate to Ethiopians!

The architects of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange appear to be students of history. It may seem antithetical to many, including we Mitmita Girls, that a ”free market system” can burgeon under the repressive conditions present in Ethiopia. The naysayers have already noted the obvious: lack of press freedom, a silenced opposition, no judicial independence, a petrified population, the government’s near chokehold grip on all aspects of the economy and finally the lack of any institutions that can support healthy trade and development. What we may view as obstacles are seedlings of hope for our potential traders and masters of industry. One need only look at the beginnings of capitalism in the United States to suddenly realize that conditions in Ethiopia are indeed ripe for the so-called unfettered functioning of the market.

Lest you have forgotten, dear reader, the greatest story of free markets began on the backs of African slaves and Native American blood. In short, whether John Adams admits it or not, the Wealth of Nations was secured by an out-and-out genocide. History has proven to us that the origins of the world’s most fabulous example of capitalism were something quite different from the usual themes of freedom, equality and brotherhood.

It is an antiquated and rather misleading notion that markets require a “free society” to function efficiently. In fact, discussions of capitalism in the United States would be quite remiss if they didn’t include a rather blunt admission of the existence of an essential element: slave labor. Institutionalized slavery and the wholesale extermination of indigenous populations on this continent contributed immensely to the wealth of this nation and to the phenomenal success of capitalism.

How? Here is a brief recap. To begin with, the land on which this nation blossomed was stolen from many other native nations. Recall Manifest Destiny? Second, bridges, roads, railroads, monuments and even the hollowed institutions of Washington—including the White House, were built by African slaves. Third, America’s industrious companies benefited from a convict lease system which following the “official” end of slavery, working to preserve the white supremacist status quo for decades. Fourth and most ironic of all, Wall Street, that venerable institution of capitalism is built on sacred soil—that gilded street rests on an African burial ground. Remains of Black slaves, who were brought to New York in the 1600s and who worked as skilled laborers and artisans were found in 1991 as contractors dug up the ground to erect another skyscraper in the financial district. It’s eerie to consider that on trading floors atop African bones, companies such as Aetna, slavery profiteers, bought and sold stock.

It is easy to sing the praises of capitalism and exalt the merits and wealth obtained through market efficiencies if one neglects history. Or as many do, engage in revisionist history, selectively choosing which history to acknowledge and which to discard as irrelevant.

So we surmise that the government of Ethiopia and the designers of the marvelous ECX must be counting on a similar road to success: before them lies a captive audience—80 million to be exact—whose lives and livelihoods exist at the whim of Meles Zenawi’s regime. They provide the free labor and serve as victims of a market experiment concocted by illustrious western educated economists convinced that the answers to chronic hunger in Ethiopia rests with the training of a class of speculators on grain, coffee and seeds.

As though the notion of some Ethiopian-inspired commodities and derivatives exchange isn’t fantastical enough for our big eager eyes to consider, we are reminded time and time again by the exchange mavens that the ECX is modeled after or inspired by the Chicago commodity exchange. This, no doubt, is supposed to inspire confidence in us because that mere fact alone speaks to the brilliance of an exchange in Ethiopia.

It is as if by any stretch of the imagination Chicago can resemble Addis Ababa. Because the last time we checked this metropolitan American city was like a third world capital rampant with corruption, greed and hunger. On second thought, maybe it can resemble Addis. If we hark back to when Al Capone or some other gangster ran the city, then perhaps the Windy city can resemble an African town with its working poor toiling day and night and the glitterati coming out to play only at night.

But we digress…we think that what we are supposed to get from the comparison with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is that our beloved country may yet be saved from its descent into third world shenanigans by shopping! At the end of the day even the founders of the ECX describe a commodity exchange as a “central place where sellers and buyers meet to transact in a organized fashion”—basically a mall! And while we have spent a better part of our youth swearing that not owning a particularly hot pair of shoes would kill us, we are unequivocal in our belief that Ethiopia does not need a commodity exchange. What we need is freedom from Meles Zenawi.

So we will continue to ask the improbable and gauche questions that Western journalists seem reticent to broach as they fall all over themselves to praise forcing a square such as a commodity exchange into a circle such as Ethiopia: will there be an Ethiopian regulatory agency similar to SROs—Self Regulatory Organizations or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission? We ask because the Ethiopian government has just been so exceptional at the whole transparency and accountability thing; we are sure they are quite eager to start up yet another ad hoc committee dedicated to, among other things, ensuring that everyone adheres to generally accepted accounting principles.

Never mind that it is the quite visible hand of the esteemed Prime Minister that orchestrates everything. What is the point of this dog and pony show? The government will regulate the price of sorghum as they see fit, regardless of the existence of a commodity exchange! Being intimately familiar with Wall Street, however, we understand that much of the intrigue of securities is in perception and appearances. Now that we have ECX, aren’t we quite the thoroughly modern Millie?

So perhaps the bells and whistles of the ECX may distract a less worthy adversary but we are keeping our eyes on the prize: you can have your commodity exchange, Prime Minister and we will fight you for our land. Don’t let the stilettos and flippant remarks fool you, we understand quite well plots to steal our wealth and we will be watching you.

“Meles, We are just not THAT into you!”

2009-05-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

We were channeling Mark Anthony, circa his famous speech, when we realized how applicable the words are to our own Prime Minister. How ingenious would it have been if while our esteemed Meles Zenawi was parading all over Europe, the Mitmita Girls had jumped up, took the stage and announced:

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Meles not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Meles.”

Perhaps he would have continued to try to inculcate himself into the jovial pictures that President Obama and that pesky Italian Prime Minister were posing for, but at least he would have had egg on his face! There he was, looking sheepishly like a loser waiting to be invited to the cool kids’ club. So we asked ourselves: why is Meles Zenawi allowed to show his face anywhere and much less at the G-20?

Perhaps like Sarah Palin, Meles’ people don’t let him read any news that they haven’t properly vetted or which doesn’t come from state (read: Meles) controlled press. Last we checked, a rights group based in Washington DC, Genocide Watch, singled out Zenawi for his violations of human rights and specifically asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate evidence of genocide committed by the Ethiopian government in Gambella and in Ogaden. Genocide, despite what the Prime Minister thinks, is not an easy charge. Mitmita knows that our beloved leader has difficulty with these concepts—one need only look at the charges he leveled against opposition leaders, human rights defenders and journalists in 2005. Remember when he charged them with genocide and then the charges had to be dropped because, well, pretty much everyone in the international community agreed that under no acceptable definition would any of the activities of the opposition be deemed genocide?

Fast-forward to when Meles welcomed fellow dictator Omar Al Bashir of the Sudan to Ethiopia. Could it be that the Prime Minister is taking tips from Bashir on how to get indicted by the International Criminal Court? If that is the case, then we most welcome the visit from the Sudanese! Our Prime Minister, we realized, relishes living amidst chaos because he thinks he is the only stable one in the region—Sudan’s dictatorship is a pariah, one step away from being thrown behind bars; Eritrea, which served as Zenawi’s staging ground for his 1991 invasion is an isolated nation, whose dictator is similarly strangling our sister population; and of course Somalia, a beautiful country marred by Zenawi’s war crimes, is a humanitarian disaster. Among those three most appealing choices, our Prime Minister, with his servile attitude towards the West, comes off as the most obvious one to fund to the tune of billions—except of course for the fact that he is a calculating genocidal maniac. His whole existence is akin to a dating expedition—one in which the West is “pursuer” and the Horn of Africa countries are the ones being courted: one fellow has no job, no direction and no clear plan, is in debt up to his ears but is handsome to look at (Somalia); the second fellow just has crazy in his eye and you think he may have a neighbor tied up in the basement (Eritrea); the third dude has a brilliant smile while he is telling you how he has beaten all of his women but you know, obviously, they deserved it; and the last fellow, dresses in designer duds, seems to use the right nomenclature (if you like that kind of a thing) but upon further inspection you see that his clothes are knock offs and you are sure he was once featured on America’s Most Wanted (Zenawi). Less enterprising people would dismiss all of these men as unacceptable. But the West, seeing an opportunity in everything decides to date the last fellow since he seems to be the one who is making the most out of his situation and besides, he talks all pretty and dresses well enough and so what if it turns out he is a monster because he can still take the West out on dates, pay for all the drinks and give the West whatever she wants!

Which is why, undoubtedly, our Meles was seen running around Europe pretending as though he understands economics and turning his nose up at the wretched ICC. After that little escapade, it is only natural that the next logical step is an accusation of a conspiracy. As just about everyone knows, we adore plots of all kinds—for instance a conspiracy between our favorite couture designers and our jewelers is something we can’t resist. But we do suffer from great ennui every time that our Prime Minister believes that the boogeyman is out to get him. Honestly, he is just not interesting enough for people to try to upstage him at all hours of the day and night! Others, much more serious than we, are engaged in real life concerns like food, health, and building a sustainable existence in a country where the populations lives on fear and borrowed time. They have no time to plan a coup d’état.

The Prime Minister must believe in that old adage that the absence of any evidence confirms the existence of a conspiracy. So we of course circled back to the Bard, the expert on conspiracies, murders and corrupt leaders—unlike Caesar, we can’t think of a single good that the Prime Minister has done which would be interred with his bones, yet we know, the evil that he is doing will live long after him.

So why don’t we give him something to really fret about? Contact your elected officials in Congress and ask them to pressure the Ethiopian government to release Birtukan Mideska and to stop funding terrorism in Ethiopia. Now that’s the kind of organized conspiracy to overthrow Meles that we can get behind!

To the barricades!

Why No-One Speaks Out: Politics and Human Rights in Ethiopia

2009-03-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Beloved Readers: The Girls of Mitmita want to share with your our latest piece which we published in the fabulous Pambazuka Newsletter. We have enclosed it below. Enjoy! We have already received quite a few nasty messages from Ethiopian Junta Loyalists so we know we must have hit a nerve! You can also read the article at several other websites including: www.allafrica.com, thewip.net (the women's perspective), opednew.com, dailycensored.com, galbeed.com, freedetainees.org and many others.

We feel exceptionally popular of course but more importantly we are pleased that word is getting out about our fellow Mimita Girl Birtukan Mideksa who remains in solitary confinement. This is the end of her third month in prison.

Read the article. Spread the word. Contact NGOs and Your representatives and demand that the Ethiopian government release her unconditionally and immediately.

Fabulously yours,

The Girls of Mitmita.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

WHY NO-ONE SPEAKS OUT: POLITICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN ETHIOPIA

2009-03-26

Mitmita

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/55150

Ethiopia has no independent judiciary, no free press, no civil society, and individual liberties have been severely curtailed, so why isn’t Meles Zenawi a persona non grata in the international community, asks human rights activist Mitmita. Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge who was charged with treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005, is just one of many people jailed for exercising their fundamental rights, in this case the freedom of speech, says Mitmita. Mideksa is in solitary confinement in Kaliti Prison for allegedly violating the terms of a government pardon granted to her in 2007. The accusations are based on her failure to retract statements made in a speech that she was released from prison through a politically negotiated settlement rather than a formal legal pardon. Western failure to condemn abuses by Zenawi’s government for the sake of their own strategic interests, says Mitmita, comes at the expense of the rights of ordinary Ethiopians.
In the barbed wire existence that is Kaliti Prison, past the mocking eucalyptus trees swaying in the cerulean Addis skies, beyond the square outdoor cages reserved for visitors, away from the prison guards whose hands callously sift through the contents of your food basket, in solitary confinement is a thirty-four year old political prisoner. It is her second stay since 2005 within the infamous walls of the prison that lies on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital.

Ms Birtukan Mideksa’s crime, according to the Ethiopian government, is violation of the terms of her 2007 pardon. She was arrested in 2005, in the post election upheaval during which 200 individuals were killed by government forces and more than 100 opposition political leaders and elected parliamentarians, human rights defenders, journalists, attorneys and civil society members were imprisoned. She was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The charge was treason. International outrage followed. Massive campaigns from around the world drew attention to the case. Amnesty International and other NGOs declared the defendants were prisoners of conscience who had been imprisoned solely for the expression of their fundamental rights.

In 2007, Ms Mideksa and her co-defendants were released as part of negotiations between elders and the Ethiopian government, which allegedly resulted in the following: Signed confessions by Ms Mideksa and others, and a pardon granted to them by the government. The terms and parameters of the pardons as well as the confessions remain murky. What is known and evident is that Ms Mideksa’s December 2008 arrest resulted from the exercise of her right to free speech.

Outside of the two square metre prison cell that she now inhabits, the political prisoner is a former judge, a mother to a four-year-old daughter and the head of an opposition political organisation (arguably Africa’s only woman to hold such a position). In juggling these roles, she was working to avoid the minefields that accompany exercising your rights in Ethiopia. How does a woman who presided over high profile cases as part of the judiciary end up in solitary confinement serving a life sentence for a second time in the span of two years? The answer lies in the tortured reality that is life in Ethiopia.

By all accounts, the country has no independent judiciary, no free press, no civil society, and individual liberties such as freedom of speech, association et al have been severely curtailed if not eliminated. Even artists don’t enjoy freedom of thought – their expressions can’t stray from the party lines. For example, Teddy Afro, a popular singer, is serving time for an alleged hit and run, though his lyrics and pro-democracy stance suggest that the accident might have been mere subterfuge.

A famed author once noted the degree of civilisation in a society is measured by the condition of its prisons. One can add to that a society’s education system. Both are in tatters in Ethiopia. Of the latter, one need only examine Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s policies – tenth grade graduation was considered completion of high school. It is no wonder then that by any economic index, the country lags behind and is an utter development disaster.

The prison system, certainly since 2005 but most likely prior to that date, hosted a who’s who of Ethiopia’s intelligentsia, artist community and human rights defenders. That certainly doesn’t make it unique – totalitarian regimes are apt to discredit those who defy them. Those who were not imprisoned were slaughtered in broad daylight. In the Ogaden, the violence committed by government sources was so egregious that human rights groups have labelled them crimes against humanity. This brand of leadership has not only been exported to neighbouring Somalia but the US also allegedly used Ethiopia as a location for one of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition prisons.

Which brings us back to Ms Mideksa. Solitary confinement, according to Amnesty International, puts Ms Mideksa at risk of ill-treatment and torture. Ms Mideksa has been denied access to counsel and to medical treatment. She is at risk – if not already exposed – to abuse at the hands of prison guards. To be a woman political prisoner is something altogether quite different. The potential for suffering is innumerable.

The world, outside of those who concern themselves daily with the goings-on of Africa, has turned a deaf ear to her and to Ethiopia’s suffering. The leadership’s consistent flirting with disaster – whether it is famine, the ill-fated foray into supposed electoral politics in 2005, or the misadventures in Somalia – provides a clear image of a ruling party holding a nation in an extricable iron grip. Yet somehow the fate of a Mugabe or a Bashir of the Sudan doesn’t befall Meles Zenawi. There has been no international condemnation, no arrest warrants and he certainly isn’t a global persona non grata.

Unlike other dictators, the head of Ethiopia has had an air of legitimacy conferred upon him – to the point that Westerners need to be reminded of his true colours, demonstrated during the 2005 elections. The Prime Minister’s policy appears to be twofold: Firstly, to convey an indispensable willingness to protect the interests of the West in the Horn of Africa and secondly, to display the accoutrements of democracy and free market economics without actually implementing any of the institutions or responsibilities that accompany both.

And it seems his strategy has worked like a charm. Except for a rare rebuke or a slap on the wrist, the West – especially the primary funders of the Ethiopian regime – generally turn a blind eye to the massive human rights violations besieging the nation. Which is not surprising: Even Ethiopians seem tired of Ethiopia’s same old problems. It is much easier to tune out something that has been going on for far too long. For those in need of a crash course in Ethiopian political history, consider the following:

Prior to 1974, Ethiopia was ruled by a succession of kings and emperors and was essentially a feudal state. The United States was an ally.
1974 brought a faux Marxist/Leninist military junta, which terrorised the nation for close to two decades. Highlights include the red and white terrors, during which almost 100,000 civilians are said to have been disappeared. The Soviet Union and its bloc were Ethiopia’s allies.
That dictatorship was ousted by a ragtag band of guerrilla fighters, which included the current Prime Minister. Though the origins of this group were also Marxist Leninist, the group’s chameleon-like nature allows it to don the cloaks of whatever political formation is most expedient. This group has been in power since 1991. Under their ruthless policies, the number of the disappeared is unknown.
Today, almost two decades later, the United States is an ally again and Ethiopia has earned the coveted designation of ‘partner in the global war on terror’. This status is lamentable if not outright laughable – how can a government unable to provide access to clean water, overcome consistent food insecurity, or curb its penchant for liquidating political opposition be entrusted to battle terrorism in the Horn of Africa?

Ms Mideksa’s imprisonment is but a microcosm of the tragedies experienced by the larger population. Fundamentally, her case illustrates the immense power that the Ethiopian government wields over its citizens. Her purportedly offensive statements that led to her arrest were made during a speech in Sweden. Shockingly, her words merely stated facts: That her prior release was not based on a formal legal pardon, but rather a politically negotiated settlement. It was her refusal to rescind these statements that landed her in jail. Since Ethiopia’s state apparatus extends beyond boundaries and across oceans, imagine the control it must wield over the population within its borders. Big African brother is watching. Following the 2005 elections, the government banned SMS text messaging after pro-democracy activists used the tool to organise voters and peaceful rallies. Various Ethiopian blogs, websites and other Internet resources are routinely blocked in Ethiopia. The besieged population is regularly searched before entering malls and restaurants.
Three months into her reinstated life sentence, we must raise some critical questions about Ms Mideksa’s case and the state of Ethiopia as a whole. Are fundamental rights extinguishable at the will of a government? Why isn’t international funding truly linked to a country’s human rights record? Should Western interests, especially purported ‘terrorism’ concerns, supersede the human rights of Africans? And most importantly, where is the outrage?

* Mitmita is a pseudomyn of an Ethiopian human rights activist.

The Original Mitmita Girl

2009-01-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

The Girls of Mitmita have brought in the New Year in our usually fabulous and fantastic way. Between the holidays and inauguration festivities, we haven’t had a moment to sit down and pen our adventures. Nevertheless, we were always thinking of you. By way of appreciation for all of our readers, we thought of sending you many wonderful presents but alas we had just a tad bit invested with Madoff and well… while it wasn't as bad as when we went long in Argentina earlier in this decade, we have been forced to reconsider our financials. Still, we have many, many shoes we can sell should things begin to feel stodgy. And of course we have turned ourselves into bank holding companies a la Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and are standing in line to receive our bailout.

While we have been lamenting our securities losses and deliciously awaiting our government checks, our astute Prime Minister has been as naughty as a little schoolboy during holiday from public school. What with imprisoning fellow Mitmita Girl Judge Birtukan and retreating ahem with his tail between his legs from Somalia, we wondered if this prince of darkness ever sleeps.

Meanwhile internet services had been interrupted due to ummm…a virus, we are told. We are by no means conspiracy theorists—we think it would wreck havoc on our complexion to continuously believe that people are actively working against us. (Besides its much better to contemplate how the layoff at Chanel will affect the 2009 fall collection…) Yet we couldn’t help wondering if this virus was man made. Similar to how SMS not so mysteriously disappeared after it was evident that it was used as an organizing tool during the 2005 “elections” in Ethiopia. Every time the Prime Minister hears rumblings of democracy, he magically violates a fundamental human right. We think it would do him some good if he just included some fiber in his diet. Might ease the tension. Or perhaps he can go to one of those Moroccan baths in Addis that are all the rage nowadays. We are much more partial to the butter (kebay) spas ourselves, but for someone who is not an authentic Ethiopian like our prime minister, perhaps we should start him off with something less potent than our kebay steam baths.

We especially think that some kind of retreat is essential for dear Meles because not only are his military endeavors complete failures, but his supposed “cultural” pursuits are also pure flops. Case in point: we are tickled that miles away from Addis, in Seattle, Washington, our illustrious Prime Minister's policies are being shunned. Remember that ill-fated journey of the oldest woman on the planet from Ethiopia to the display cases of a second rate museum in Houston and then to another one in Seattle? Guess how the mother of humanity is being received? Not royally! Not even with champagne and red carpet. The Guardian is reporting that no one is showing Dinkenesh any love. It seems as though the crowds that were supposed to be flocking to see Meles' ingenious prostitution of the most precious bones in the world didn't get the memo.

He built it and they didn't come.

According to the President of the Pacific Science Center, only 60,000 of the expected 250,000 visitors have made their way to the museum in Seattle that is currently displaying Dinkenesh. Worse yet, the expense of exhibit seems to be a drag for Pacific Science Center. Other institutions have bowed out of consideration for financial considerations and because of the strong opposition by many scientists and curators to the tour. Dinkenesh is too fragile to withstand the arduous schedule set out by Meles’ cabal.

For many museums, it would appear that cost/benefit analysis just doesn't make sense. The exhibit cost the museum in Seattle over two million dollars and the hordes which were supposed to make all of it worth it, haven’t shown up. So the museum will be in the red. But just like a thief who in the midst of chaos, sneaks in and robs you, Meles is getting his share—by hook or by crook. Specifically, as the pimp, he gets $500,000 from Dinkenesh’s work in Seattle. No details are available for his payment from the Houston Museum. The article remarked that the $500,000 would be used for ummm “cultural and scientific programs” in Ethiopia. Our sides are still hurt from all the laughing.

Sure some may argue that it was the bad economy rather than people shunning the exhibit that contributed to the ennui surrounding the whole thing. But we Mitmita Girls know all about the allure of Dinkenesh. We wouldn't put it past her to have haunted the whole thing and cast a vengeful spell that made people stay away. The original Mitmita Girl is crafty!

Perhaps the most interesting piece of the article was the following statement, attesting to the financial challenges of hosting such an expensive artifact: “[Dinkenesh] may not be anywhere other than Ethiopia after Seattle.”

That is Mozart to our ears! Many of you had offered to buy Dinkenesh a ticket home when the tour first began in 2007. Let us do one better and make it embarrassing and more importantly, financially impracticable for the next museum to host her. We understand that the exhibit in Seattle is ending in March and that the Houston Museum of Natural Science is in negotiations with another museum to host Dinkenesh. Not surprisingly the name of the next museum on the tour is not available as of yet.

We will keep sleuthing; in the interim, let us make some noise and send Dinkenesh home!

Write emails or letters to the addresses below and demand that the Houston Museum of Natural Science of Natural Science end this atrocious and widely condemned tour and send Dinkenesh home:

Houston Museum of Natural Science

One Hermann Circle Drive, Houston, TX 77030

webmaster@hmns.org

Let us know what responses you get back. The Mitmita Girls are on the case until Dinkenesh goes back home safely. Perhaps our next outing should be a trip to Houston…

Then There Are The Girls.

2008-12-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

For Birtukan

You didn't know you were supposed to stay in the house.

kitchen.madbet. ye setoch sera.

laughing, your three decades

barely under your belt

you swipe aside centuries

of patriarchy. channeling Taitu.

telling meles to take off his shoes

on his way out. we don't want

even our soil, our dirt, our land

to touch him. much less follow him

from where he came.

pray that devil back to hell.

they didn't know they are

supposed to fear you. what is

Kaliti but barbed wire anyway.

don't our little girls live a barbed wire existence daily?

hustling water from rivers. carrying firewood on their backs.

selling that ounce of dignity (along with that teenage body) for

a better tomorrow. goddammit for some food for the night.

barbed wire caging red hot dreams.passions.

and yellow freedom.

what is prison but an Ethiopian woman's life?

we are exiled in our own land;

we didn't survive three thousand years

for this.

for the Red to be blood running in the street.

for the Green to be owned by starbucks,

for the Yellow, oh that gorgeous yellow,

To be auctioned off to china, whose political

prisoners built that kelebet highway, while

our workers, those orange revolutionaries,

unemployed youth rot. Let them chew chat.

not for this.

for little black girls to watch their fathers riddled

with bullets before their golden eyes. to hold their elders

in their hands and watch their future slip away

not for this.

three thousand years are for you, beautiful girl.

Woman. For dinkenesh, longing to break free

from that seattle museum because

she knows she wasn't supposed to be

tied up. shackled. Displayed and sold.

she has to get back home. Ogaden. Bali, Omo. Harar,

And yes Tigray. They all burn.

but you soldier on. that's what girls do.

what women do.

Ethiopian women.

Jegnoch! Zeraf!

Making hope out of ashes.

Heroines out of bones.

Fire out of our words.

Swords out of tears.

And leaders out of little girls.

We birthed humanity.

We now birth freedom.

Birtukan.... because well behaved Ethiopian women rarely make history!

Of Mud Baths, Martinis and Malnutrition

2008-12-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

Last week brought with it three remarkable pieces of news from Ethiopia: An ever-burgeoning food crisis, the conviction of a popular artist and the introduction of a luxury hotel.

Oh where, oh where, should The Mimita Girls begin?

With the pretty hotel of course!

Tired of the familiarity of the pool at the Hilton? In need of something more alluring than the sauna at the Sheraton? Fret no more, fashinistas of Addis! Next month, a third über swanky hotel will be available to bore you! While Intercontinental Addis was originally slated to open its doors this past September, this latest playground for the glitterati of Bole will seek to outshine its well-established rivals come January. Having played at other InterContinental Hotels including Paris Le Grand and the Willard in Washington, we had practically tracked down the concierge when much to our dismay, news outlets began reporting that this hotel has with no relation with the luxe Intercontinental Hotels Groups.

Leave it to those clever boys in Addis to engage in a little false advertising and fame by association.

By all accounts, much like everything else that is geared towards the plutocrats of Ethiopia, the resort will deliver everything your heart desires: a swimming pool on the top floor, presidential suites, two restaurants and because now it is so au courant to be politically correct, it also features rooms specially designed for physically challenged rich people. If you are still not impressed, we are sure that Intercontinental Addis will seek to completely obliterate the awfully shocking reality that pssssst you are still living under an undemocratic and economically bankrupt dictatorship.

Cheers!

The Mitmita Girls hope that our gold engraved invitations to opening night are in the mail.

On the heels of the announcement of the ostentatious undertaking by Ethiopian hoteliers, as we prepared to make Intercontinental Addis our new haunt, came the news from several United Nations agencies that something is quite rotten in the state of Ethiopia. Famine, that scourge which plagues our fair nation, is expected to be back with a vengeance next year. To many, our previous discussion of luxury hotels would seem incongruous in light of the doomsday scenario painted by the United Nations. (Incidentally do these agencies EVER produce good news?)

One particular article noted the following:

At least 45 percent of Ethiopia's 63 million people live below the poverty line, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with the incidence and severity of poverty higher in rural areas - where 80 percent of the population live.

How dare these malnutritioned children ruin the announcement of mud baths and martinis at Intercontinental Addis? Besides everyone knows that our concern is with the top one percent of the population.

And that appears to be the approach of the regime in Addis. The Ethiopian government, shrewdly replicating the ingenious western model of capitalism, is throwing money at all of the appropriate systems of infrastructure. When the American economy sprinted towards a depression, Congress authorized a Wall Street bailout. When Fannie and Freddie threatened to gobble up mortgages as we knew them, the government rescued them. When the American automobile industry couldn’t compete with the world, the heads of the big three flew in their corporate jets to unabashedly demand a handout.

If the beacon of capitalism can simply throw money at the undeserving, far be it for Ethiopia to tackle its many challenges. Everyone knows the way to cure chronic hunger and failing agriculture infrastructure around the country is to build luxury hotels in the capital!

Many might challenge our approach to ending food insecurity through massages and high tea at Intercontinental Addis. Fine. We never claimed expertise on governance—but neither does Meles’ crew.

What we are quite certain of is that Teddy Afro will not be performing at the grand premiere of the hotel.

The artist-activist was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison last week. Mitmita has already written about Teddy’s saga and the fate of political artists in one of our previous posts and we wont belabor the point here. Yet we have to note that it was almost within a blink of our eyes that Teddy was arrested, imprisoned, subjected to a kangaroo court, sentenced and convicted. There are many, many things that simply don’t function in Ethiopia; but you have to admire the ease with which this corrupt junta dispenses with the lives of our young through the stroke of a pen. Perhaps the upcoming report by Human Rights Watch will afford the regime a most special recognition for this accomplishment.

While this latest development is without a doubt about Teddy—the artist and the politically conscious youth—it is to an even larger degree about a regime that believes it can act with impunity. As one of our favorite Mitmita admirers noted, it is also about what we as Ethiopians—at home and abroad—are willing to take. At what point does a population refuse to be complicit? When is it enough?

Please ponder this most existential of questions over martinis at the Sheraton and drop us a line with your most profound thoughts as you wait for the doors of Intercontinental Addis to swing open.

THE REBEL AND THE MOOSE HUNTRESS

2008-09-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

Having spent our summer months frolicking in the delights of global warming, theMitmita Girls were quite unprepared for the blustery cold front that invaded our senses in early fall. Northern winds have brought us a new twist in our already interesting election season and so Mitmita decided to turn our attention to a most unusual caricature: Sarah Palin.

Since the climate in Addis is so very much controlled by the whims of the United States government, we thought it most prudent of us to examine this moose huntress and how she fares on the topics of the horn of Africa. Unlike you, we were not at all shocked that no one to date has raised the “African Question”; we are quite aware that the mainstream media is simply waiting with baited breath for Mitmita to provide our audience with the most salacious bits of news on the hockey mom’s dreams of Africa. Alas since she cannot quite make out Ethiopia from her home in Alaska, her knowledge on that country might not be as extensive as say, her well established expertise on Russian nuclear proliferation and Vladmir Putin rearing his head into the Alaskan airspace.

Mitmita was privileged enough to arrange the very first full length and (somewhat) unabridged international interview between a head of state and our dudette veep candidate. New as she may be to the national and indeed the international stage, her political views, her adept handling of interviews and her unique vision of her governing style struck us as similar to yet another phenom: Meles Zenawi. We thought a tête-à-tête between Madame “Raised in the Alaskan Wilderness” and Monsieur “Fought in the Eritrean Wilderness” was most apropos.

The Prime Minister extended an invitation to the Governor to visit Addis Ababa, adding a second stamp to her passport. “Awesome!”, the governor squealed.

Prior to meeting Meles Zenawi, Ms. Palin’s only other African friend has been her sublimely delightful spiritual leader Thomas Muthee whose claim to fame is freeing Kenyan villages of witches. Yes. Witches. We are all waiting on tenterhooks for his appointment to the Justice Department in the Palin-McCain administration. So it is rather with a deep fondness for zealots, that Ms. Palin extended an offer of friendship to Mr. Zenawi.

Seeking to avoid all accusations of political pandering or worst yet partisanship, we wanted to present the conversation between these two great thinkers uninterrupted and sans commentary. Yet having had to interpret Ms. Palin’s lingua franca in recent interviews with Katie Couric, we thought it best to paraphrase the conversation. You see as exceptional as we Mitmita Girls are, we just don’t speak “Palinese”.

The Governor and the Prime Minister bonded over some similar guiding principles. For one, he admired her administration’s policy of charging rape victims for rape test kits.

Since Zenawi has succeeded in using rape as a weapon of war in Somalia and Ogaden, he now has an additional way of recouping state expenses. That idea is almost as good as charging victim’s families for the price of the bullets that killed their loved ones!

Following the discussion of fundraising through unconventional means, the pair moved on to the media. Members of the press, those cursed beasts, have hounded both individuals to no end. While Ms. Palin has succeeded in dodging many of them by simply hiding in one of John McCain’s twelve houses, Zenawi has had members of the press imprisoned or assaulted by his security forces. No doubt Ms. Palin lamented the existence of freedom of the press in America. Perhaps she could seek solace and better guidance from her neighbor Putin who while rearing his head into her kitchen window for some homemade moose stew, could speak to her about his penchant for liquidating free thinking Russian journalists.

As the conversations went on, aides of both leaders noted a burgeoning friendship between the one time student who attended five colleges in six years and the college dropout.

Since much of the world is staring down a depression, it is only natural that the global financial status would be of chief concern to Ms. Palin and Mr. Zenawi. Lambasted by learned economists, the two have stoically clung to their talking points. As a former faux Marxist masquerading as a faux capitalist circa 1991, Mr. Zenawi has been an advocate of the market and specifically of a stock market for Ethiopia. This is notwithstanding that we still have an agricultural system that uses an ox-plough. Ms. Palin, on the other hand familiar only with markets that are shopping malls, has struggled to articulate her economic position, urging simply that “it’s gotta be about job creation.” On other financial matters however, the similarities between Palin and Zenawi are quite eerie.

They both received huge amounts of funds from the United States congress. Palin’s stash is courtesy of pork barrel spending while Zenawi’s monies takes the shape of military funding. With her allocations, she builds bridges to nowhere while he burns bridges between Ethiopia and Somalia.

Several hours later, the polite discussions over cappuccinos between the bubbly loquacious governor and the calculating Prime Minister almost ended in disaster. On the mention of Ethiopia as the home of the oldest human, who is 3.2 million years old, Ms. Palin protested vehemently. “Eve was no more than 6,000 years old,” she exclaimed, fishing for her pocketbook copy of Gideon’s Bible. The prime minister’s aides assured the moose hunter that Dinkenesh was indeed much older and that additionally, 6,000 years ago, dinosaurs did not coexist with humans. Seeking proof of their words, she insisted on seeing this Dinkenesh. Mr. Zenawi then informed her that Dinkenesh is on her American tour much like Ms. Palin is on her Ethiopian tour. Ms. Palin remained unshaken from her creationist position and to break the impasse Mr. Zenawi assured her if there was a way for him to make money from an “intelligent design” gimmick, he would also entertain her belief.

As day was ending, Mr. Zenawi wanted to impart some words of wisdom unto the young governor, cautioning her to keep abreast of major developments. “What happens in Tora Bora is just as important to you as what happens in Alaska.” She stared ahead and had that now classic what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about deer caught in headlights look. Then she blinked and she nodded confirming that as a mother, exploring all of the new and exciting rides at Disneyland are definitely on the top of her list.

***

Confirming their new Best Friends Forever status, Ms. Palin and Mr. Zenawi were tickled to discover towards the end of their “getting to know you” session that they in fact had one other item on which to bond: succession. Palin’s family is closely linked to the Alaska Independence Party, a successionist group which advocates Alaska’s independence from the United States. In Ms. Palin, Mr. Zenawi sees a leader who shares his love of dividing up a country into different group and separating it bit by bit! The Governor might be his soul mate after all.

Mr. Meles walked away quite convinced that the little lady from Alaska would one day make a fine African dictator—once Alaska secedes, floats away and attaches itself to East Africa, which we now know Ms. Palin can not see from her tanning bed.

The Day the Music Died or When A Dictatorship Targets Artists

2008-05-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

Seriously, we have put up with quite a bit from this dictatorship in Ethiopia! Economic stagnation. Food crisis. Uncontrollable Inflation. Political prisoners. Intellectual strangulation. Decrepit education system. But the current arrest of musician and man about town, Tewodros Kassahun, popularly known as Teddy Afro, has us at our wits end. Is nothing sacred? First they came for the politicians, then they came for the lawyers and now they are coming for our artists. Must the hot, smart boys suffer along with the rest of us mortals?

The veracity of the accusations against him is hard to swallow. After all this is the same state apparatus which not too long ago accused journalists and human rights defenders of genocide—which would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragically disrespectful to victims of genocide worldwide. The artist stands accused of a hit and run in which the victim died. His real crime however, is not genuflecting to the powers of the tyrannical regime.

Teddy Afro’s popularity among progressive pro human rights Ethiopians is well noted. The antagonism of the regime is also inevitable—they detest anything that is naturally beautiful and gravitate towards the profoundly artificial. It is therefore not surprising that on May 5, 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that an Ethiopian Deputy Editor and two staff writers of the monthly Enku, were arrested in connection with the publication of a cover story on our Teddy Afro. The newspapers, with treasonous materials such as “interviews with [Teddy’s] lawyer and fans,” were confiscated by the police. The supremely important head of the Ethiopian Information Ministry (our country’s Orwellian Ministry of Truth) confirmed the right of the police to “intervene if there are any problems with “content.” Bravo to the supporters of the regime! We feel much safer and smarter knowing that the information we received has been initially culled and properly vetted by the police.

So it is from some of these junta apparatchiks that one can hear the cries for justice for the young man allegedly killed by Teddy Afro and for accountability for the accused artist. Suddenly everyone is an advocate for retribution. Oh that poor boy, they say of the victim. Yes, it is tragic as is any loss of life. Yet those who are most fervently calling for the electric chair in this case, also happen to be the most ardent supporters of the regime. One would be hard pressed to find these same people calling for justice when the government’s security forces mowed down Ethiopians in broad daylight.

Let us by all means prosecute those pesky drunk drivers! What a blight they are on our otherwise pristine existence! What? You can’t afford Teff? You don’t know how to make your meager salary stretch? Well. A government that is failing to feed its own people—that is just economics! We are somehow expected to railroad Teddy to prison for an alleged hit and run but the crimes of Meles and his henchmen against 80 million Ethiopians go unanswered.

Jaded as we are, our first instinct was to think something much more sinister was afoot! Is the Meles regime rounding up eligible young bachelors and locking them up? Do we now have to withstand our diminished wages along with the dwindling prospects of a date with a talented artist? As if life isn’t depressing enough, must they lock up the good-looking boys? Our survey regarding our theory of Teddy’s arrest proved inconclusive. It seems that although the regime has been imprisoning young men en masse for some years, it is not the intent but simply the outcome that the number of free, eligible, good-looking men has dwindled.

Our protest is not against accountability but rather against selective prosecution and implementation of laws. Our opposition is to the silencing of artists whose work is deemed contrary to the interests of the regime.

Revolutionary artists are raconteurs of a people’s suffering, their hopes and their work for change. Some have already written about Teddy and his inspiration, Bob Marley. Before he was co-opted by corporations, hipsters and those unfamiliar with history but enraptured with reggae, Marley promoted African independence through his cri de coeur against white colonial rule in his song “Zimbabwe.” He was a protest musician. South Africa’s Anti Apartheid movement was accompanied by the melodies of Miriam Makeba, Mbgeni Ngema and Vuyisile Mini. In North America, author James Baldwin penned the angst of the Black population while chanteuse Nina Simone belted out tunes of rage during the black liberation movements of the 1950’s through the 1970s. Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu and dead prez provide the soundtrack of the current struggle for human rights in the United States. Bards, authors and songwriters offer an essential element of movements providing visual and vocal representations of the struggle. Teddy Afro falls squarely within that tradition. He is that tradition.

So as a special homage to artists, whose who have stood and continue to stand in solidarity with movements for freedom, we offer, with profuse apologies to the incomparable Nina Simone, a play on her protest song of the black liberation movement of the 1960’s in the United States, “Mississippi Goddam!”

We have renamed it “Meles Zenawi Goddam!”

The name of this tune is Meles Zenawi Goddam

And I mean every word of it

Ogaden's gotten me so upset

Somalia made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Meles Zenawi Goddam

Ogaden's gotten me so upset

Somalia made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Meles Zenawi Goddam

Can't you see it

Can't you feel it

It's all in the air

I can't stand the pressure much longer

Somebody say a prayer

Ogaden's gotten me so upset

Somalia's made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Meles Zenawi Goddam

This is a show tune

But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

Security forces on my trail

Political prisoners sitting in jail

Black cat cross my path

I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine

We all gonna get it in due time

I don't belong here

I don't belong there

I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me

I tell you

Me and my people just about due

I've been there so I know

They keep on saying "Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble

"do it slow"

Free Elections

"do it slow"

Human rights struggle

"do it slow"

You're just plain rotten

"do it slow"

You're too damn lazy

"do it slow"

The thinking's crazy

"do it slow"

Where am I going

What am i doing

I don't know

Just try to do your very best

Stand up be counted with all the rest

For everybody knows about Meles Zenawi Goddam

I bet you thought I was kiddin' didn't you

National strikes

School boy cots

They try to say it's an orange revolution plot

All I want is equality

for my cousin my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years

You told me to come and vote without fear

And talking real free won't land me in jail

And I believed it all without fail

Oh but this whole country is full of lies

You're all gonna die and die like flies

I don't trust you any more

You keep on saying "Go slow!"

"Go slow!"

But that's just the trouble

"do it slow"

Freedom of Speech

"do it slow"

Mass participation

"do it slow"

Free the prisoners

"do it slow"

Do things gradually

"do it slow"

But bring more tragedy

"do it slow"

Why don't you see it

Why don't you feel it

I don't know

You don't have to live next to me

Just give me my equality

Everybody knows about Ogaden

Everybody knows about Somalia

Everybody knows about Meles Zenawi Goddam

That's it!

Water? Let Them have Macchiato!

2008-04-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

One of our loyal fans emailed us some pictures purportedly of a mansion in Ethiopia. Vainly, we gawked at the marvelous architecture, the cerulean water of the Olympic size pool, the absolute luxury of marble baths and the cascading staircases. We imagined many a fancy party, perhaps even a ball or two and definitely some kind of outrageous fundraiser hosted at the lavish residence.

The materialistic girl in us wondered: might we be invited to these shindigs? Could we hobnob with the über elite of a country that is consistently ranked at the bottom of all economic indices?

And what in heaven’s name do you wear to such an ostentatious venue?

In the midst of our deeply important ponderings of whether our stilettos would slip on the marble floors, we thought, finally, we can offer an explanation for the water shortage that is reportedly afflicting millions of people in the land where the Blue Nile originates: the water is all in the pools!

Yet we needn't have bothered with these pictures of a grossly out of place mansion in a city of aluminum (korkoroh) houses. We have the Sheraton, that symbolic embodiment of the bankruptcy of the current regime. The amount of water in those pools could probably irrigate the entire countryside!

But pesky concerns like access to clean water or even the chronic Ethiopian problem of food insecurity need not concern you. That's right. Our esteemed ambassador to Turkey, Ato Malutu Teshome, His Excellency, purveyor of knowledge and such, recently declared that Ethiopia is not in need of political reform. Well. We can all close up shop and sleep soundly now.

It is too banal to speak of an ever-expanding gap between the very rich and the very, very poor in Ethiopia. That would be too kind. It would almost be a capitalist excuse –the kind you hear in the West, which inevitably reverberates with some admiration for the infallibility of the markets and discounts any failures as merely the fault of those not fit to survive.

Oh were it that our Ethiopian problems are so simple!

We do not have some byproduct or residual effect of the market regulating itself, which therefore leads to some inequalities between some classes of people.

Oh dear. Now. We have gone and brought up class, the boogeyman of economics, so we obviously have to disavow certain labels. No, we aren't Marxists; we simply can't be bothered to be that dogmatic. We are, however, unabashedly opposed to the massive accumulation of wealth at the expense of meeting the basic necessities of life. We do know that we can't give some market-induced rationale for our situation. At least not one that sheds any positive light on what is occurring, quietly but surely in East Africa.

Ours is a case of massive human rights violations. It is also a case of greed. Our children are hungry because the regime, prevailing on everyone that they are better than Mengistu, still refuses to feed its people. Yes refuse. Not inability but refusal.

Young women become sex workers in Ethiopia because while the government is busy jailing "unemployed youth", they have done nothing to alleviate poverty in the countryside. Forced to choose between an abandoned and miserable life without food and resources and an uncertain future, young women bank on selling more than their souls for just another form of misery. And we are supposed to denounce them out of some moral indignation that they are sex workers when it is the decadence of the Meles regime that we should be denouncing?

It is this military junta that prostitutes our country: selling her dignity for some paltry gains, trading her geographical location for "strategic" military operations, and peddling her historical joining of Christians, Animists, Muslims and Jews for some unholy alliance with neocolonialists, such as China.

Never mind that with inflation continuing to spiral out of control, the price of teff, that staple grain of Ethiopian life, is beyond the budget of the average citizen.

Those in power in Ethiopia view water as a luxury that is used to fill up enormously useless swimming pools. To the rest of us mere citizens, access to clean water is a fundamental human rights issue. According to the World Health Organization, a meager 11 percent of the rural population has access to clean water. Moreover, 63 % of all infant mortality rates are caused by water borne diseases. Most impacted by the lack of access to clean water are Ethiopian women and girls—those who are not only responsible for transporting water for their families but also disproportionately suffer from water related diseases.

As we were rattling off these statistics at a dinner one night, some enterprising young man informed us that the right to water was "enshrined within the Ethiopian Constitution." We giggled. What to laugh at first? The notion that citizens have "rights" in Ethiopia or that there is a rule of law in the form of the constitution?

Our constitutions have been the love letters of all the dictators. This latest version is no different. The approach to constitutional drafting in Ethiopia is to throw everything and the kitchen sink in—and why not? There is no mechanism for ensuring the implementation of these alleged rights and no accountability when obligations are violated.

But back to our water shortage problem: We are reminded of another regime some time ago where the avarice of the ruling class overwhelmed the impoverished population. What most people remember of the French Revolution is the callous queen and her oft quoted declaration. Forgotten is the fact that the people stormed several places, including the Bastille. Granted the Sheraton isn’t the Bastille—though it is frequented by many of Meles’ sycophants who should be hauled off to court to answer for corruption at the very least!

The current regime rules Ethiopia under the very same sentiments that were expressed by Louis XIV of France or one of his underlings: “après moi le deluge”—after me, the floods. He lived extravagantly while the populace starved. Meles et al now live with wonton abandon while the population starves. The French Emperor built an extraordinary empire while the peasantry suffered; Ethiopia’s pillagers fill their coffers with our wealth, relaxing and swimming in opulent pools while ordinary people wonder how they will buy their next meal and where to get that clean cup of water.

While we are not structural engineers or well diggers, we have a thoroughly appropriate solution to the water crisis. The millions in need of water should descend on the Sheraton with buckets, jars, ensira, jugs, water bottles, mica, and politely demand that before the pools are filled, that the water is first purified and given to the population. It is quite naturally the only fair thing to do.

If all of that should fail, we should all crash the next pool party at the Sheraton and bring a million of our thirsty friends.

YECHALAL! E 4 O!

2008-03-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

We have to be honest. We are not much for electoral politics. This may make us an anomaly in a time of frenzied excitement over the presidential elections. It can’t be helped though. Except for the occasional salacious scandal (Spitzer and his sex workers), or the ranting of a lunatic (Cheney grunting that he doesn’t care if Americans are against the war), there is really nothing to recommend the discipline. Politics has become the bully pulpit of the moralizing majority, the psychotic Christian right coalition and every nut job who wants to blame immigrants, gays and anyone else for their problems. And politics is certainly not glamorous. Well. Not in the classic sense.

Too often we have thought that national elections have had no consequences on our every day lives. We have supported local races with the strategy that we can impact the policies imposes at the city, county and state level with much more effectiveness than we can nationally. However, we know from our struggle for human rights that the fight must be on different fronts. Ethiopians living in the United States have learned many lessons since the so-called elections of 2005 and the subsequent unlawful arrests and massacre of citizens by the Meles Zenawi regime. Chief among them is the importance of participation in the United States electoral process. Influencing American foreign policy toward Ethiopia has to be among the many avenues we pursue as we continue our work. Engagement in American politics is not only critical for our lives here in the states but for the lives of millions of Ethiopians held hostage by the Zenawi regime.

Decisions about immigration, schooling and a myriad of other issues affect our lives tremendously. Our ability to impact the future direction of this country is critical. This is particularly relevant at a time of a massive economic downturn and a worthless yet never-ending war. The "fierce urgency of now" compels us to participate where as we might have otherwise gripped about the lesser of two evils theory or the general bankruptcy of politics.

As people who watched two elections, in 2000 and 2004, manipulated and ultimately stolen, we were reticent to put ourselves back on the line. The Rovian tactics had broken us; the "anything goes" Machiavellian modus operandi of late had demoralized us. Were we the only sane voices amidst a chorus of pro war, pro national security, anti immigration populace enraptured by a manipulative cabal?

Yet to gripe on the sidelines had never been our style. Mitmita believes in being engaged. Being in the mix. Making it spicy.

So we have arrived once again at the gates of electoral politics and we have jumped in saying: Yechalal!

We have always advocated the importance of engaging our opponents on different fronts. In Meles Zenawi and his junta, we do not have a common foe. There is sophistication to the operation, a method to the madness of the minister. It isn't an average dictator who hires the prestigious firm of DLA Piper to lobby against [read: kill and bury] HR 2003, the Ethiopian human rights and democracy bill currently in the Senate.

The United States government funds the Zenawi regime to the tune of millions a year. As citizens we have the right and ultimately the responsibility to petition the government about where our tax dollars are being spent and what is being done in our name. That is what makes our engagement critical.

The vote determines who gets what, when, where and how.

Don't misunderstand us. We do not offer the ballot as a panacea—as a cure all to what ails our communities. The solution to the challenges facing our communities must be multifaceted. As with any strategy, we tread cautiously. No one should place all the eggs in one basket. Supporting a presidential candidate or working for a campaign is simply one of many methods for achieving our objectives.

Through this presidential campaign, we have the ability to shape the future policy towards Ethiopia and to blunt the current trajectory. We can not very well discuss McCain or the Republicans. Not with any sort of seriousness. We also cannot seriously consider Hillary Clinton. Her entire campaign have left many of us wondering what if anything is it that white women have learned about the struggles of women of color over the years? Asking us to make false choices between our race and our gender is not only tired but is engaging the type of political dishonesty that we are not interested in. She is not our feminist candidate. And incidentally why do we wax nostalgic about the Clintons when it was Bill, after all, who christened Meles as “a new breed of African leader”—as if we need a Ferenje telling us what’s good for Africa.

Which brings us to Barack Obama.

No, he is not a panacea either. Yet we can challenge him, provide him with critical information that he may not be privy to and begin with a cleaner slate than we would any of the other candidates. But what will not change the travesty of what’s happening at home is to sit on the sidelines. When engaged, we can make an impact.

Since ballot determines who gets what, when, where and how, let’s make sure that our voice is heard.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN ETHIOPIA

2008-03-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

MITMITA has come across a series of reports and articles that detail a stunning new tool in the fight against injustice: Silence! Yes, it seems as though through this new weapon, international organizations believe that they have hit a most coveted trifecta! First, they can fulfill their organizational roles--be it feed the hungry, shelter the homeless , or observe trials. Second, NGOs can do this while effectively shielding dictators from public criticism and rebuke for their role in the persistence of massive human rights violations. Thirdly (and this dovetails beautifully from the last point), they are permitted by the regime, in exchange for their silence, to remain in gorgeous Ethiopia, to ostensibly continue their "do gooding."

So in what contexts are these international organizations remaining silent? There was that recent story of aid organizations refusing to speak to the press about the human rights violations in Ogaden while at the same time administering assistance to those who have suffered tremendously at the hands of the regime. Then of course there is the ongoing saga of the human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie whose continued incarceration and the silence of NGOs was detailed in a report by Ethiopolitics.com last week.

Ultimately the reasoning of the NGOs when confronted about their decision to remain silent is: "at least we are able to do some good and provide some services. People wouldn't be able to get this help, if we spoke up and if we are kicked out." Some, cynics that they are, might decry these methods as akin to putting a bandaid on a gushing deep wound and patting yourself on the back for all of the great work that you are doing.

Mitmita is not that generous. We don't think that the issue is the inability of the NGOs to understand how silence is detrimental. We believe that above the interest in doing good, above the interest in humanitarianism and human rights is an interest in self preservation. And these international organizations do have a legitimate concern when it comes to that issue. Our Prime Minister is quite fanatical about being obeyed and he certainly doesn't like it when you criticize him. Remember how he rudely told Tony Blair to shove his money some years back? Recall how he has previously kicked out aid organizations? We all know that the foreign press corps in Addis simply fawn over him, reporting with feigned (we hope) genuineness about his elections, his promise to get a handle on the skyrocketing inflation and to root out "economic criminals." Mitmita genuinely wants to know if he will start with himself. If the press didn't comply, they risk the fate of many who have been expelled or barred. So instead of news, we get packaged stories. Instead of agitation and pressure from international organizations, we get silence with the promise that this will buy us some justice.

What justice? And at what price?

Yet more important than the need for these individuals to remain in Ethiopia is the need for the truth. Silence brings with it a false notion of neutrality. It has never been on the side of the oppressed. Silence benefits the oppressor. It shields wrongdoing, instead of exposing it. To argue that you are in Ethiopia to provide aid, to shelter, feed, ensure that basic necessities and fundamental rights are met--yet to remain silent on the ROOT causes of these ailments is to be disingenuous to your cause, to the people that you are providing aid to and ultimately to the principle of justice.

It is silence that fuels Darfur's continuing genocide. It is silence that allowed the massacre in Rwanda. And it is silence that is allowing the brilliant minds of Daniel and Netsanet to rot in prison in Ethiopia. Above all, it is our collective silence that has allowed our country to burn continuously.

One of Mitmita's favorite quotes is from Dante in his discussion of the various circles of hell. He wrote in Inferno, "the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."

There is nothing that deserves the very screaming from our souls and the very agitation of our hearts than the suffering of our fellow Ethiopians. Where international organizations leave off, we must take up for ourselves.

THE FINANCIER AND THE TEFF

2008-03-06T22:04:00.001-08:00

“The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.” George Bernard Shaw

The entire hubbub surrounding the proposed Ethiopian Commodity Exchange has Mitmita tickled and a little atwitter. Nothing gets us girls more hot and bothered than a commodity exchange or a stock market—the most capitalist of tools. We have in fact joked about this possibility since 2001 because we are avid followers of NYSE and the NIKKEI.

Try as we might however, we can’t muster up the requisite enthusiasm for this latest antic from our favorite faux Marxist/Leninist turned über capitalist Prime Minister.

We are sure that people who will no doubt scream “you are ruining opening day at the Exchange for us” will label us as naysayers but our obligation is not to be popular but to report the truth. Well. We would also like to be popular. But sometimes we are willing to sacrifice our eternal need to be liked for the good of the nation.

So we do truly hate to put a damper on the celebrations (we do love us a good party) but we are aghast at the suggestion that Ethiopia is not only ready for a commodity exchange but that the nation is able to begin and sustain such a system. Perhaps someone should clue in some of these would be financiers that what lies within the gates of the Sheraton is not Ethiopia. The hotel in its grotesqueness might have begun to resemble a little province or even a region of the country. Except it’s not. We know for some of you, holding your noses, haughtily complaining that the poor are just simply depressing, averting your eyes to the truth lining the streets leading up to the gates of the hotel has become your reality. Yet it doesn’t mean that because you can get your macchiato just as you like it and the guard’s English is better than yours, that you are now ready for a commodity exchange.

Let us begin with the basics.

First, free markets follow free societies. Having established a free democratic Ethiopia, the regime now boldly enters the free market enterprise! Except they haven’t done the former and the latter is still a twinkle in the Prime Minister’s eye. If the jailing of dissidents, journalists, and members of the intelligencia et al under the surreally absurd charge of treason and genocide are all marks of a free society, then we would have been well on our way. Except they aren’t and we are going nowhere fast. Before we can talk about in what town and in which cities we are planning to house this exchange, we should be concerned about how to have conversations with our neighbors and families that are actually private. A regime that spies on its own citizens, squelches all independent thought and suppresses free flow of information and exchange can only outwardly mimic a so called free market economy.

Second, markets function on perception. More than anything else, what keeps the western markets running is the deep belief that the various institutions of the country are stable. That they are viable. That there is a continuity of sorts. This is the same belief that allows these countries to have elections and seemingly effortless handoffs from one administration to the next (Granted, we will concede that the Bushies have engaged in vast violations of civil rights when it comes to voting but the premise remains: a stable political, economic and social environment allows for a peaceful transition of power). So in essence markets function because the populace has faith in the banks, in the regulators, in their government. Ultimately, they have faith in the transparency of the system. Reader, we know you will be shocked to hear this but we do not have such a system in place and we are millions of Meles, err, miles, rather, away from achieving it with the current regime.

To the imagination of many a ferenji, the country is on it’s way to becoming this hotbed of capitalist activity. The rest of us see a regime that can’t get a handle on inflation, can’t feed its own people and has a pesky penchant for liquidating the opposition. But what do you care about inflation or transparency in governance. Mitmita knows that so long as you are able to get your plot of land in coveted locales in Addis, your sauna at the Hilton and daily manicures/pedicures, you’ll scream, “let them eat cake.” The current Ethiopian regime, on the other hand, is holding the country “steady” with its U.S. imported guns, its chokehold on all fundamental freedoms and its steal boots on the neck of the press.

This leads us to our third point: stable institutions. There are none in the country.

Rampant corruption is about the only thing that has been institutionalized in Ethiopia. Second to it might be the efficient way in which the regime disposes of its opponents. Perhaps the most interesting part of the article detailing the set up of the commodity exchange was the discussion of electronic screens which will be set in “20 market towns” and will project real-time prices. This sentence is followed by discussion of the current method that uses “donkey drawn wagons.” The juxtaposition struck us since we know that not too many miles outside of Addis, not even hours away from the Sheraton, we have seen women carrying water on their heads.

Can we figure out how to institutionalize access to clean water across the country? That would be more beneficial to the population than this artifice of modernization that they are proposing.

Finally, economics divorced from human rights is essentially bankrupt. This regime wants to have all of the accoutrements of a modern society without any of the accountability. People remain in jail on trumped up charges, those disappeared are never discussed and the regime rules with impunity. Much of the country subsists on an average of two dollars daily and in the rural areas, the Economist has reported that villages survive on six cents a day. This economic strangulation is in addition to the erosion of fundamental human rights. Ethiopia's refusal to protect fundamental rights essential to a democracy has created a "brain drain". Potential contributors to the economy, which express views different from the regime, are forced to live in exile or flee to avoid facing imprisonment or death. A society's economic system and social and political institutions are linked, human rights analysis should not be applied as a second prong in a two-step solution to Ethiopia’s economic woes.

Yet. We know this is really about perception. We’ll admit it. Exchanges, markets, stocks are all very sexy. It’s a sophisticated alluring esoteric world. It has a mystique and the gang in Addis is thinking that it will bestow upon them some coveted title—similar to that given the Asian markets a few years back.

Just like the elections in May 2005 bestowed on Ethiopia the title of a democratic state! Remember that?

Except they didn’t.

Just like changing from army fatigues to tailored suits and dropping the antagonistic communist language made our Prime Minister the dapper don that’s the darling of the West.

Except he isn’t. The emperor has no clothes and all that.

We just can’t be bullish on the prospects of the commodity exchange. These folks must be using the “if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quakes like a duck”, then it must be a commodity exchange theory of economics.

We are girls who are very easily bored by people who are seeking to benefit at the expense of the poor. Greed, may be capitalist, but ultimately it is boorish and it is what is at the heart of this commodity exchange proposal.

The charade of modernization must stop.

I HEART DANIEL BEKELE!

2008-02-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

Indulge us a bit, will you, as we lay out our case for this crush, this adoration we have for the mind of a most brilliant man. This love letter is a protest letter. It is as much a love letter about a man as it is about our country.

We are quite sure you thought we meant to write an ode to the ole Prime Minister. The international homage he received of late, honoring his place in the legions of rulers and documenting his resolve to ensure that his government is not treated differently has caused us all to genuflect whenever his name is uttered.

But we don’t intend to canonize him within these pages. Besides, our feelings toward the Prime Minister cannot be adequately captured in any written language. So strong are our emotions that they risk being misunderstood. Yet we think about him quite often. We are also very convinced we have committed thoughtcrime numerous times.

But we digress.

Speaking of criminalizing dissent and other such undemocratic tactics that are obviously beneath our esteemed Prime Minister (see, high praise from the Committee to Protect Journalist for his work), let us return to the subject of our crush.

We were reminded of Daniel earlier this week amid discussions of this proposed law entitled “Charities and Societies Draft Proclamation No. 00/2007” governing civil society organizations in Ethiopia. Daniel Bekele's name has been absent from blogs, websites and news sources as of late and now he returns as the Ethiopian legislature takes aim at their latest victims: charities and civil society organizations.

You see this draft proclamation seeks to "regulate" civil society organizations by making it extremely burdensome for them to function. A renowned attorney has analyzed the most salient parts of this draft legislation and points out that another alternative to this draconian law exists. It is a proposal that was put together by none other than our Daniel. This attorney, who no doubt knows that we have a crush on Daniel, described him as "a young and dynamic anti-poverty civil society activist."

We couldn't agree more. And we can most probably go on about the many wonders that are Daniel Bekele.

What is striking about this latest draft law and Daniel's connection is that it illustrates a pattern on the part of the Ethiopian legislature to thwart progressive attempts by our gallant advocate.

Let us rewind back several years to yet another draft law that shockingly enough sought to regulate the press but ended up curtailing freedom of expression. Our young and enterprising Daniel was at the heart of that brouhaha as well. When does the man get the time?

As a consultant to Article 19 (a London based organization that advocates for free expression) Daniel published a paper entitled “The Legal Framework for Freedom of Expression in Ethiopia.” The report assessed the framework for free expression, identified “key areas of concern” and provided some recommendations for “prospective law reforms or enactment of new laws” to the Ethiopian government and other interested parties. On the eve of the publication of Daniel’s report, in March 2003, the Ethiopian legislature drafted an extremely repressive press law that editors from nine different newspapers described as draconian and would ultimately jeopardize free speech.

Fast-forward five years later and once again the Ethiopian legislature, through this draft law is curtailing what little progress fledgling civil society organizations have made. To add insult to injury, two of the most prominent members of civil society, Daniel Bekele and his colleague Netsanet Demissie, remain in prison. Experts have noted that instead of viewing these organizations as equal partners in the fight for democratization, the government views them as enemies.

In fact, its as though in hearing that Daniel works in public charities, the Prime Minister and his cronies channeled Lord Goring from “An Ideal Husband” and said “In public charities? Oh dear me. What a lot of harm you must have done, [Daniel!]”

What Daniel sought to do was to move the essential elements of a free, democratic society—free speech, free press, and by acting as an election monitor, free elections—from the margins into the center of the Ethiopian Consciousness.

Witness who is imprisoned in Kality; it is not merely some agitators caught in the crosshairs of an election dispute. Daniel is a committed human rights defender.

Who else would risk attacks, public rebuke, fines, imprisonment and the constant threat of harassment? In a country that suffers from undeniable brain drain, you can understand our praise of this man and ultimately our love of Daniel, a man who remains and battles daily for our rights and our country.

It is patriotism itself that languishes behind barbed wires in Kality.