These people deverve to be supported

9-11-2011

God Bless America!

The "Make Addis Ababa like Baghdad" Plot

This voluminous report by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea dated July 18, 2001 is a must-read. A portion of the 417 page report deals with the alleged plot by the Eritrean regime to "make Addis Ababa like Baghdad" during the African Union summit in January of 2011. Here is the report's conclusion on the failed plot.

Only one detainee interviewed by the Monitoring Group, team leader Omar Idriss Mohamed, appears to have been in regular contact with the OLF leadership in Asmara. All other team members were isolated from OLF structures from the moment of recruitment and received all training and orders directly from Eritrean officers. According to Omar, only Dawud Ibsa, Chairman of OLF, was aware of the existence of this special operation and its objectives, and he does not appear to have exercised any command or control over its actions. The Monitoring Group therefore concludes that this operation was effectively an Eritrean intelligence activity, falsely flagged as an OLF initiative.

We must help the famine victims...

...in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and other Horn of Africa countries. There is enough blame to go around why there is a recurring famine in that part of the world. We can have that discussion at a different time. The time now is to help in whatever ways we can.


This NY Times photographer paints a grim picture of the famine condition in Somalia.


The are may ways you can help. Here are the emergency fundraising links to some of the reputable relief agencies I know. There are many more. Just google...

Catholic Relief Services

World Vision

The never-ending famine

The BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have teamed up to expose how the Ethiopian government systematically uses aid from donor nations to punish areas that support its political opponents. The current drought in the Horn of Africa is creating famine conditions that are exacerbated by government and rebel activities. This never-ending cycle of war and famine in that part of the world is demoralizing to put it mildly.

Read all the details here: Ethiopia Aid Exposed

The accompanying BBC video report can be found here: Ethiopia 'using aid as weapon of oppression'

A BBC radio interview with Angus Strickler, the investigative journalist, who went to Ethiopia undercover can be listened to here.

Before and after satellite images of burned villages in the Ogaden region from 2007.

Probability of pregnancy for healthy women

Gene Expression is one of my favorite blogs to read. The blogger recently posted an article on the probability of healthy women getting pregnant by age. A prospective couple who want to have a healthy child should especially take note of the second graph.

Pure Menzie, Mootchoor Hadiya

I heard of these repugnant phrases recently. They were used to describe an Ethiopian ethnic identity. I heard the first one on the internet and the second one in a personal conversation. Both mean the same thing -- mootchoor means 'pure' in the Hadiyissa language.

What does it mean when a person says I am a 'pure' this or that ethnic group? I suppose it means that all of one's known ancestors belong to the same ethnic group.

What then does an ethnic purity constitute? Let's suppose that all of my eight great-grandparents are Menzie. Does that make me a pure (netsooh) Menzie? Or, let's say that all of my 16 great-great-grandparents are Hadiya. Would this be good enough to make me a pure (mootchoor) Hadiya? Why stop at 16? Why not push the ancestor count further out to 32 or 64 or even 128 of my ancestors?

As you can see, sooner or later, this exercise will turn out to be a futile exercise. In fact, it is a foolish exercise, and it is farcical to think of one's ethnicity as pure for there is no such thing. If you go back enough in historical time, it is clear that an overwhelming majority of Ethiopians (for that matter East and Northeast Africans) share the same ancestors. In fact, all humans on the face of the Earth share the same ancestors if you push the time period beyond 60 thousand years.

It is true that Ethiopia's ethnic problems did not start with the current regime. But it is an incontrovertible fact that this regime has used ethnic differences as the linchpin of its divide-and-rule policy over the past 20 years. The results of this policy (economic disintegration, social immobility, etc...) are out there for everyone to see. Isn't it time that Ethiopians put an end to this absurdity once and for all?

Being Birtukan

It is good to see Birtukan in good spirit. Hopefully, there are more exciting and uplifting chapters to her story in the years to come. Stay well.

All come to look for America

Josh Groban did a lame version of this classic Simon and Garfunkel song at the 4th of July concert at the Capitol today and I had to get over my disappointment by listening to the original. Enjoy!

Dictatorship of relativism (Liberalism in overdrive)

Regardless of where you stand on the debate over marriage, I think you will find this National Review article by George Weigel to be a thought-provoking one. Here is a passage from the article:

New York State notwithstanding, the argument over marriage will and must continue, because it touches first principles of democratic governance -- and because resistance to the agenda of the gay-marriage lobby is a necessary act of resistance against the dictatorship of relativism, in which coercive state power is used to impose on all of society a relativistic ethic of personal willfulness. In conducting that argument in the months and years ahead, it would be helpful if the proponents of marriage rightly understood would challenge the usurpation by the proponents of gay marriage of the civil-rights trump card.

This Music is Really Good for You - VII

I am sure you have listened to music from Mali (they are world famous, you know), but I bet you have not heard of Habib Koite and Bamada before. Malian music is similar to Ethiopian music in that they both are rich in melody. But I have to say that Malian music sounds a lot better than Ethiopian music, to me at least. I suspect the reason may be because Malian musicians make a far better use of stringed instruments and their drum beats are much more sophisticated. When will Ethiopian musicians abandon the dreaded keyboard for a real instrument as their main musical instrument? Wasn't this used to be the case just a short two decades ago? Pardon me for the rant, but please enjoy these three great works of music from Habib and his super band mates.

I am for doing good to the poor, but...

Benjamin Franklin, the sage of an amazing group of people who founded America, wrote the following in 1766 which is still relevant today for everyone everwhere. This is from an article he wrote for a London newspaper regarding the price of corn and the management of the poor.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

Netanyahu lectures O'bama

"The Solution is in Tehran"

Peter Robinson of Uncommon Knowledge interviews Michael Totten, a foreign correspondent and author of The Road to Fatima Gate: The Beirut Spring, the Rise of Hezbollah and the Iranian War against Israel.

Paul Simon - "The Afterlife"

Still creating quality music at age 69!

Does Foreign Aid Work? No, It Does Not!

Andrew Mwenda (a Ugandan) at the TED conference in Arusha Tanzania. Please take a note of Andrew's brief interaction with Bono (of U2 fame). I think all would agree that Bono has a good heart and is a man of action. But I would have to say Bono's answer to Andrew's simple question demonstrates how the aid industry has failed Africa.



Dambisa Moyo (a Zambian) author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa



Andrew Mwenda and Karol Boudreaux (an American) of Mercatus Center at George Mason University discussing foreign aid on Stossel at FBN.

"They gave it to us, and we took it!"

Why not? Wouldn't you?

Why Aren't The Rich [in America] Paying 50% in Taxes?

Three Cool Engineering Videos

A walking dog from a project funded by DARPA, the folks who gave us the internet...



The last launch of the space shuttle Discovery as seen from a flying aircraft...



Germans doing what they do best...build cars.

Regime Change

There has been a consensus among Ethiopians for while now that there needs to be a regime change in Ethiopia, but not so much on how to bring about that change. The abrupt changes we have witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt in recent days seem to have given hope for Ethiopians that a similar change may be possible in Ethiopia in the near future.

It would be nice to have a relatively peaceful regime change in Ethiopia as have happened in Tunisia and Egypt. I doubt that will be the case though in Ethiopia as recent history of Ethiopian opposition groups is replete with disorganization and mistrust. I also question the wisdom of bringing about changes in a sudden way since that usually invites chaos and power vacuum.

Regardless, some kind of forced regime change in Ethiopia seems inevitable. If the Ethiopian people decide they had enough like their Tunisian and Egyptian counterparts, there is nothing the Woyane regime can do to prevent its own demise. The only question is whether or not the regime that will take over from the Woyane will be more accountable to the people.