Thinking Aloud of Events in the News

1. Another Reporter Expelled, another Hole in the Iron Curtain Plugged

A week seldom passes when we do not hear of the desperate efforts of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s regime to put a complete black out of Ethiopian news from the ears of the Ethiopian people as well as from the international community. We hear of the abolition of the independent private press one week and of the jamming of VOA and Deutsche Welle radio programs the next. That Orwellian task of blanketing the nation with an iron shroud is nearing its completion.

Yesterday, word came that one of the remaining sources of real news on the cataclysmic events unfolding in Ethiopia is no more. The regime apparently expelled one Anthony Mitchell who was serving as a reporter for the Associated Press. In so doing, the regime removed one of the very few remaining reporters not on the government’s payroll. The explanation for the deportation of this reporter was almost comical. According to the government’s mouth piece, Mr. Mitchell was “engaged in disseminating news ‘tarnishing the image of the nation’”.

Mitchell was perfectly welcome to report, right smack in the middle of a political crises of galactic proportions, on the heroic acts of American GIs on a mission to rescue two miserable cheetah cubs (Parable of Two Cheetah Cubs and 77 Million Ethiopians). His report that Ethiopia had caught the international bug and is engrossed in watching the ridiculous for entertainment – with its very own version of American Idol – was proper and in keeping with “journalistic ethics”. Certainly, his reportage of the government’s plea for food to save the millions of our compatriots who are for ever on the verge of starvation was commendable and in line with government doctrine aptly called the Cargo Cult by ethiopundit. But he crossed the line when he reported that the regime is killing again. It is one thing for him to report on “the hooligans” who “throw hand grenades” and make “the police panic”. But reporting that the security forces shot live bullets at a peaceful religious procession with the intent to kill can only do one thing – tarnish the image of the nation. Now it is not as if they have a pristine record to protect. What angered the Great Leader is the exposure of what he and his propaganda network had worked so hard to keep from the public. Like the fictional vampire, the handiwork of the Great Leader and his gang cannot stand the light of day.

Of course, Anthony Mitchell must be thanking the gods. Mr. Meles just punched his meal ticket for him – placing his career on a new trajectory. Mitchell is now one among those reporters who have had the mettle to write stories good enough to irk an entire government to the point of deporting the messenger. He can be proud of the fact that his work was found to be worthy of receiving the same treatment as that of the reporters of VOA and Deutsche Welle – a group the people of Ethiopia call heroes.

The rest of us are now left with such Chinese stalwarts as Xinhua, China Post, and the People's Daily and the new news-for-hire outfits such as AllAfrica.Com's Sponsor Wire and its rival I-Newswire. The last two are newly minted creative outlets presenting adverts and press releases as though they were news items. The Great Leader and his minions have quickly picked up on these opportunities and have repeatedly used them to place “news” that is not news on the internet and elsewhere.

2. “They are Shooting Again!”

Here we go again. It seems as though the very thought of two or more Ethiopians getting together out in the open scares the devil out of our Great Leader. Why else would he try to stop us from hanging out with each other? Remember May 16. That was when he forbade us from coming out on the streets of Addis either to celebrate our victory or to demonstrate against the theft of our vote. We all know what happened when a few people defied a decision that was based only on his irrational fear of large numbers of Ethiopians coming together. On June 6th and 7th he let the blood of the young and the innocent flow over the streets of Addis. We then saw his reaction to people blowing their horns on the streets of Addis on the 1st of November. That too triggered his neurotic fear of Ethiopians coming together and once again he ordered his goons to kill and kill indiscriminately. On the occasion of the annual Demera holiday celebration, we witnessed another episode of a nervous Prime Minister ordering his troops to disrupt that religious event and to hunt down those who dare address their displeasure at those who were usurping the hallowed titles and uniforms of the revered leaders of our faiths.

So no one was surprised when word came that the regimes designated Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church wanted to cancel Timket. Sure, everyone was enraged, but no one was surprised for we have seen it all. But, that must have driven the parish priests throughout Addis to near revolt, for we learned the next day that Timket was on again. I am certain nearly all who visit this page are Ethiopians and so you need no explanation from me about what goes on during the observance of the Timket-Ketera-CanaZegelila holidays. Timket is the only day when believers are allowed – indeed encouraged – to engage in an unabashed display of joy at a Christian religious occasion. It is by far, the biggest open air festival in every town and village across Ethiopia. Heck, many a young man meets his wife here.

The very prospect of this festival where for ages Ethiopians have enjoyed two-days and two-nights of unrestrained celebration must have scared the regime to its wits end. Millions were expected to be out in the open all across the country – hundreds of thousands in Addis alone. So, what is a desperate regime which fears nothing more than its own people coming together to do but order the troops to be vigilant and shoot to kill at the first sign of trouble.

By all account, there was no reaction from the people even when provoked by the heavy presence of security forces. The only act which might be deemed offensive apparently took place when the officially designated Patriarch of the EOC showed up in one of the processions. Apparently, the events of the Demera Holiday of September 26 repeated – worshipers serenading the Patriarch with chants of “leba”. For that, the security forces were ordered to shoot into peaceful religious processions at Sidist Kilo, at Menilik Adebabay, at Yeka, and several spots across the city.