Monday, October 22, 2007

HR 2003 Advocacy Package

The Coalition for HR2003 has compiled a very interesting document for all of us who wants to get involved. Please do your part. Unless we do it, who will? We should expect a thougher fight in the House of Representatives as EPRDF lobbyists and supporters are working day and night to kill this bill (check aigaforum and hagerfikir).We all need to take part for a final push!!!
here is the document

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

We have posted some of the commentaries on professor Mesfin's recent controversial radio interview on the top right corner of this blog.
listen, read, and decide for yourself.

kinijit and its current leadership crises

Kinijit is a struggling party that is trying to build itself up from a scratch. It is expected to increase its supporter base and raise funds for the various endeavors it is about to indulge into. In light of the multifold challenges the party is faced with, one would expect the leaders to take on this task of reviving the spirit of democracy in harmony. We hoped they understand that their release from prison wasn’t the end of the struggle but the beginning of the even harder struggle to free the entire nation from the grip of dictatorship.
What we are witnessing now, unfortunately, is a more divided leadership that is arguing on very minor things instead of focusing on the issues they are in the struggle to begin with-that is to help dictatorship end and democracy prevail in Ethiopia.
The main blame here lays on the chairman, engineer Hailu Shawl. We have to call a spade a spade. The other leadership might have their own share of blame but the way they are handling the problem is much way classier that the chairman does. We have to give credit where credit is due. Since the start of this crises ato Hailu has been in a very destructive campaign against his colleagues and the party by extension. Instead of trying to solve the issues internally he chose to go on various radio stations and paltalk rooms with repetitive, incoherent, and some times contradicting arguments. He also chose to surround himself with apologists and people who are known for their anti-unity behavior. Instead of focusing on the facts he preferred to trust his personal relationships with certain individuals. Its not personal business he is trying to undertake here, it is a business of a party that is much greater and bigger than personal relationships.
It wouldn’t be a problem if he just went on every media outlets that asked for his interview. But the problem is he was more than available to some and totally unavailable for others. That isn’t the leadership we want to bring to power. Isn’t that what we hate about EPRDF? Either be available to all or available to none. Favoring medias that support him and avoiding others that he thinks might be against his stand is very undemocratic. That is really dictatorship in another form.
On another note, we listened to the October 14 meeting in D.C. It was the most disappointing meeting we ever had to witness. First of, we couldn’t quite figure out why ato Bedru and Wzo Nigist had to fly all the way from Addis, unless it is to surround ato Hailu with even more apologists. These two people were on many medias including newspapers back home and paltalk and websites here in the U.S. We haven’t heard them saying anything different in this particular meeting than what they already said before. Spending the money collected from supporters in this kind of unnecessary ways is so irresponsible.
The meeting in D.C and the speakers on that meeting, including the chairman, shattered our hope to see reconciliation among the leadership. We hope Ato hailu reevaluate his actions and come back to his senses.
Supporters of kinijit expect a much wiser leadership who is not blinded by personal ego- leaders that are willing to sacrifice their own personal interest to the well being of the party and the country as a whole. And we believe the supporters deserve that.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

we will be posting our commentary on the current kinijit leadership crises very soon.
please stay tuned.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Eid Mubarek


We would like to wish our ethiopian brothers and sisters a happy and blessed eid. Eid Mubarek to all!!!!!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The mission is not over yet. Next in line is senate and all of us should start contacting our senators to help HR2003 pass.
In the mean time, we have added some must read articles on this bill at the top right corner of this blog.
enjoy and get enlightned

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Congrats!!!!

The U.S house of Representatives unanimously voted in favor of HR 2003 this morning. All of you who called, emailed, or faxed your representatives and Nancy Pelosi's office deserve congrats for your contribution. Now you in turn need to take a couple of minutes to thank those who heard your voice and voted yes. Pick up the phone, call your representatives, Congressmen Donald Payne, Chris Smith, Tom Lantos and Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer for their hard work and support to get this bill passed.