Alemayehu G. Mariam

Last week, in a piece reporting on the eerie silence of Western diplomats in Addis Ababa on Birtukan Midekssa, the first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history and Ethiopia’s number one political prisoner, Xan Rice, a reporter for The Guardian wrote:

It is really great to be young; but for those who are not, the next best thing is to be at a Teddy Afro concert and jam late into the night with a ballroom full of irrepressible and euphoric, young Ethiopian Angelinos.

Last week, there was a great deal of teeth-gnashing, knuckle-cracking and gut-wrenching by Ethiopia’s dictators over Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) 2010 report. The dictators belched out much sound and fury that signified nothing.

Since the dawn of African independence from colonialism in the early 1960s, African liberation leaders and founding fathers qua dictators, military junta and ‘new breed’ leaders have sought to justify the one-man, one-party state and avoid genuine multiparty democracy by fabricating a blend of se

Aristotle wrote that ‘man is a political animal’ to suggest that the defining characteristic of human beings is involvement in the civic life of their communities. Today, many Ethiopians across the board are strangely disengaged and alienated from Ethiopian politics.

'Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive,' said Sir Walter Scott, the novelist and poet. Is there 'famine' in Ethiopia, or not? Are large numbers of people 'starving' there, or not? Is convulsive hunger a daily reality for the majority of Ethiopians, or not?

Birtukan Midekssa condemned to life in prison by a vengeful dictator, but unconquered.
Birtukan thrown into the dungeon of wrath and tears, but defiant.
Birtukan beaten, bludgeoned and bloodied, but unbowed.
Birtukan mocked, ridiculed and disrespected, but gracious.

'Ethiopia is the country of the future', Birtukan Midekssa would often say epigrammatically. Ethiopia's No. 1 political prisoner is always preoccupied with her country's future and destiny. Her deep concern for Ethiopia is exceeded only by her boundless optimism for its future.

The 'delegation of African negotiators' rumbled into Copenhagen rubbing their palms and licking their chops to load up tens of billions of dollars in carbon blood money and make a quick exit. They were disappointed. There was no gold at the end of the Copenhagen rainbow.

Use a sledgehammer to smash a butterfly! That is the exquisite art of war unleashed on Ethiopia's independent press by the dictatorship of Meles Zenawi today.