Alemayehu G. Mariam

As my readers know, I enjoy watchin’ American diplomats chillin’ out and kickin’ it with African dictators. I like watchin’ ‘em kumbaya-ing, back-pattin’ and fist bumpin’. I have trained myself to decipher their cryptic diplomatese spoken with forked tongue.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” said Nelson Mandela. For the late Meles Zenawi and his apostles (the Melesistas) in Ethiopia, the reverse is true: Ignorance is the most powerful weapon you can use to prevent change and cling to power.

On Ginbot 20, 1983 (Ethiopian calendar 5/28/1991), Meles Zenawi and thousands of his guerilla fighters marched into Addis Ababa toting AK-47s, rocket propelled grenades and hand grenades.

In the days of the Atlantic slave trade, the Middle Passage was the journey of slave trading ships from the west coast of Africa to the New World.

“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets,” fretted Napoleon Bonaparte, dictator of France, as he summed up his determination to crush that country’s independent press.

On 11/11/11, Yenesew Gebre, a 29 year-old Ethiopian school teacher and human rights activist set himself ablaze outside a public meeting hall in the town of Tarcha located in Dawro Zone in Southern Ethiopia. He died three days later from his injuries.

REMEMBER JUNE AND NOVEMBER 2005

The old adage is that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Could it be said equally that arrogance excuses ignorance of the law?

‘IF I WERE THE US’

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH

When the going gets tough, the tough go looking for distractions and diversions.