Everything is Backward in Opposite Land
There is a witty cartoonist in San Francisco named Mark Fiore. A little over a year ago, he produced a short talky about political spin in Washington, DC called OppositeLand (http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/fiore/2004/10/10_201.html). A character bearing a striking resemblance to President George W. Bush welcomes the viewers to OppositeLand, proclaiming it to be a land where fiction is stronger than truth and where wrong is right, weak is strong, bad is good, dirty is clean and where down is up. The character frolics throughout this short clip which ends with an emphatic declaration that “things are really looking up in good old opposite land”.
And then there is a Filmation Associates animation called The Land of Backwards http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/detailed.cgi?film=27324&p=c. Here too, things work quite opposite from the norms we earthly critters are accustomed to. The film plot traces the experience of the Adventurers' Club in The Land of Backwards where everything is said and done the other way around. The young club members have to rescue the famous poet who's been kidnapped by a bad character. Problems arise when the good guys are arrested and thrown in jail for returning stolen jewels. The fate of the gang of adventurers goes from bad to worse until just before the end when the kids figured out how things work in the Land of Backwards.
Either of these satires could easily be depicting Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia. In Ethiopia today, the winner of the peoples vote loses the election. The killer of peaceful protesters prosecutes the victims. In Ethiopia, a call for an investigation into the killings of protestors leads to a trial of those who demanded the investigation instead of the perpetrators. In the opposite land that is Ethiopia, he who violates the constitution he took an oath to uphold, he whose loyalty to country has always been in doubt, he who repeatedly flaunts the national interest in pursuit of his personal interest, he who undermines the nation’s security and territorial integrity charges with treason those who shout “the king has no cloths”.
And so, we learn that Mr. Meles has directed his courts to try 131 upstanding citizens made up of the leadership of the political party known as CUDP as well as more than a dozen journalists and other members of civil society.
The CUDP is of course the party which was winning the May 15, 2005 election by a large margin on the day the vote tally was stopped by order of Mr. Meles under a declaration of state of emergency. The leaders of the CUDP who today find themselves charged with all sorts of atrocities were the very ones the people elected to parliament, to the council of the City of Addis Ababa and for seats in regional councils. One of these leaders was elected mayor of Addis. Had the vote count been allowed to proceed without interference from Mr. Meles, one of the other CUDP leaders would now be seated at Mr. Meles’ desk.
The reporters, editors and publishers Mr. Meles charges with treason and genocide were members of the fragile private press which was making a valiant effort to provide the public with alternative source of news when Mr. Meles decided to deny the opposition access to the state owned media which he deemed worthy of serving only as his partisan propaganda outlet. Interestingly enough, some of the reporters charged with capital offenses work for foreign news outlets and may even be foreign nationals.
At least two anti-poverty campaigners are among those charged with treason and attempted genocide. These individuals crossed Mr. Meles by insisting that he should respect the law which provides for members of civil society to serve as election monitors. In the final weeks of the campaign, when the Meles government sensed danger from the mood of the electorate, it sought to reduce the number of registered election observers who could have access to polling stations and tallying centers. Not only did Mr. Meles’ election board decertify the three highly respected American election monitoring organizations that had been in the country for months setting up their networks, it also refused to certify any Ethiopian civil society organization as an election observer. The two key campaigners charged today with these crimes fought to the very last days of the campaign to get their legal right to serve as election monitors to be reinstated. Although their legal victory came too late for them to take advantage of it, their campaign raised Mr. Meles’ ire so much that they now find themselves in serious trouble.
In defining the nature of the actions of the accused which constitute genocide, Mr. Meles and his boys stated that "the accused … conspired with the intent to cause physical and mental harm to the people of Tigrai region and … to isolate members of the EPRDF from society". The falsehood of the charges notwithstanding, I find the charges themselves to constitute a curiosity. The harms caused are suggested to be mental, physical and isolation…begging for the question just what kind of harm comes from isolation if not mental or physical.
I am no lawyer but I am curious as to how Mr. Meles intends to show any one of the following points. (1) How does isolation from society, if achieved, lead to physical or mental harm? (2) How does an action targeting the EPRDF cause harm only to the people of Tigrai and not the Amara, the Oromo, the Sidama, the Guragie, etc. when the EPRDF supposedly draws the overwhelming majority of its members outside of Tigrai (as evidenced by its majorities in parliamentary delegations of all regions and all regional councils except Addis)? (3) How can anybody isolate the EPRDF from society when, if the election results are to be trusted, the EPRDF is supported by all segments of society? (4) What is it that the CUD, the media people and the civil society leaders did which constitutes an attempt to isolate the EPRDF from society? (5) Finally, if I were a juror in this case, I would like to know what specific action(s) taken by the accused threatened the physical and/or mental well being of the people of Tigrai or of any other group of Ethiopians?
The fact is, although much has happened over the last seven months, most of us recall incidents that hinted at the broad outlines of what was on Mr. Meles’ mind. We saw first Mr. Meles and then his spokesman, Mr. Bereket, liberally invoking the Interhawme code word when speaking of the CUD in particular. This is in spite of the fact that it was Mr. Meles and his gang which insisted on identifying people and organizations by their ethnicity, addressing the CUDP as the Amara Durgists and the Guragie chauvinists, the UDEF as the lapdogs of the Amara and the surrogates of the terrorist OLF, etc. We even recall how things got so bad that the EUEOM had to publicly plead with the PM to desist from hate speech. We also recall the papers which were circulated in Addis on the aftermath of the June killings directing citizens to keep their eyes on Tigrayan residents of Addis. We recall the energy expended by the CUD leadership denouncing those who were trying to incite inter community violence in its name and asking all of its supporters and other citizens to remember that above all else they are all Ethiopians. It is ironic that the very people who valiantly fought against intercommunity violence are now charged with attempted genocide while those who tried to set it off sit in judgment. Such Orwellian absurdity is the norm in the Land of Backwards, in Opposite Land.
And then there is a Filmation Associates animation called The Land of Backwards http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/detailed.cgi?film=27324&p=c. Here too, things work quite opposite from the norms we earthly critters are accustomed to. The film plot traces the experience of the Adventurers' Club in The Land of Backwards where everything is said and done the other way around. The young club members have to rescue the famous poet who's been kidnapped by a bad character. Problems arise when the good guys are arrested and thrown in jail for returning stolen jewels. The fate of the gang of adventurers goes from bad to worse until just before the end when the kids figured out how things work in the Land of Backwards.
Either of these satires could easily be depicting Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia. In Ethiopia today, the winner of the peoples vote loses the election. The killer of peaceful protesters prosecutes the victims. In Ethiopia, a call for an investigation into the killings of protestors leads to a trial of those who demanded the investigation instead of the perpetrators. In the opposite land that is Ethiopia, he who violates the constitution he took an oath to uphold, he whose loyalty to country has always been in doubt, he who repeatedly flaunts the national interest in pursuit of his personal interest, he who undermines the nation’s security and territorial integrity charges with treason those who shout “the king has no cloths”.
And so, we learn that Mr. Meles has directed his courts to try 131 upstanding citizens made up of the leadership of the political party known as CUDP as well as more than a dozen journalists and other members of civil society.
The CUDP is of course the party which was winning the May 15, 2005 election by a large margin on the day the vote tally was stopped by order of Mr. Meles under a declaration of state of emergency. The leaders of the CUDP who today find themselves charged with all sorts of atrocities were the very ones the people elected to parliament, to the council of the City of Addis Ababa and for seats in regional councils. One of these leaders was elected mayor of Addis. Had the vote count been allowed to proceed without interference from Mr. Meles, one of the other CUDP leaders would now be seated at Mr. Meles’ desk.
The reporters, editors and publishers Mr. Meles charges with treason and genocide were members of the fragile private press which was making a valiant effort to provide the public with alternative source of news when Mr. Meles decided to deny the opposition access to the state owned media which he deemed worthy of serving only as his partisan propaganda outlet. Interestingly enough, some of the reporters charged with capital offenses work for foreign news outlets and may even be foreign nationals.
At least two anti-poverty campaigners are among those charged with treason and attempted genocide. These individuals crossed Mr. Meles by insisting that he should respect the law which provides for members of civil society to serve as election monitors. In the final weeks of the campaign, when the Meles government sensed danger from the mood of the electorate, it sought to reduce the number of registered election observers who could have access to polling stations and tallying centers. Not only did Mr. Meles’ election board decertify the three highly respected American election monitoring organizations that had been in the country for months setting up their networks, it also refused to certify any Ethiopian civil society organization as an election observer. The two key campaigners charged today with these crimes fought to the very last days of the campaign to get their legal right to serve as election monitors to be reinstated. Although their legal victory came too late for them to take advantage of it, their campaign raised Mr. Meles’ ire so much that they now find themselves in serious trouble.
In defining the nature of the actions of the accused which constitute genocide, Mr. Meles and his boys stated that "the accused … conspired with the intent to cause physical and mental harm to the people of Tigrai region and … to isolate members of the EPRDF from society". The falsehood of the charges notwithstanding, I find the charges themselves to constitute a curiosity. The harms caused are suggested to be mental, physical and isolation…begging for the question just what kind of harm comes from isolation if not mental or physical.
I am no lawyer but I am curious as to how Mr. Meles intends to show any one of the following points. (1) How does isolation from society, if achieved, lead to physical or mental harm? (2) How does an action targeting the EPRDF cause harm only to the people of Tigrai and not the Amara, the Oromo, the Sidama, the Guragie, etc. when the EPRDF supposedly draws the overwhelming majority of its members outside of Tigrai (as evidenced by its majorities in parliamentary delegations of all regions and all regional councils except Addis)? (3) How can anybody isolate the EPRDF from society when, if the election results are to be trusted, the EPRDF is supported by all segments of society? (4) What is it that the CUD, the media people and the civil society leaders did which constitutes an attempt to isolate the EPRDF from society? (5) Finally, if I were a juror in this case, I would like to know what specific action(s) taken by the accused threatened the physical and/or mental well being of the people of Tigrai or of any other group of Ethiopians?
The fact is, although much has happened over the last seven months, most of us recall incidents that hinted at the broad outlines of what was on Mr. Meles’ mind. We saw first Mr. Meles and then his spokesman, Mr. Bereket, liberally invoking the Interhawme code word when speaking of the CUD in particular. This is in spite of the fact that it was Mr. Meles and his gang which insisted on identifying people and organizations by their ethnicity, addressing the CUDP as the Amara Durgists and the Guragie chauvinists, the UDEF as the lapdogs of the Amara and the surrogates of the terrorist OLF, etc. We even recall how things got so bad that the EUEOM had to publicly plead with the PM to desist from hate speech. We also recall the papers which were circulated in Addis on the aftermath of the June killings directing citizens to keep their eyes on Tigrayan residents of Addis. We recall the energy expended by the CUD leadership denouncing those who were trying to incite inter community violence in its name and asking all of its supporters and other citizens to remember that above all else they are all Ethiopians. It is ironic that the very people who valiantly fought against intercommunity violence are now charged with attempted genocide while those who tried to set it off sit in judgment. Such Orwellian absurdity is the norm in the Land of Backwards, in Opposite Land.
posted by eth4life | 11:19 PM
1 Comments:
speak the truth : truth had been twisted,erased,deleted ....but not from people's hearts and minds.
Thank you for calling a spade a spade....and expose the genocidal PM Meles so that every one knows what they thought of him and his intentions during the elections ...finally come true.
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