Get out! You don’t belong here!

When I
recently heard the sickening news of mass deportation of ethnic Amharas form
the southern regional state, my stomach flipped and somehow I was catapulted back to my
boyhood when I was a student in Awassa Comboni Elementary School. The Comboni
School of my time was home to Amharas, Ormos, Wolayitas, Sidamas, Tigrigna
speakers [ from Tigray and Eritrea] and students of
many other nationalities that enjoyed classes together and called themselves
nothing but Ethiopians. If ethnicity was what really matters in defining who I
am, I don’t belong to the Sidama ethnic group, but I always took pride when I
said – I am from Sidama. I believed and I still believe the group name “Sidama”
defines me more than my actual ethnic group because I was born and raised in
Sidama. So according to the recent troubling news coming from Ethiopia, if I go
back to Ethiopia and settle in Bensa, Shebedino, Aroresa, Arbegona, or in my home town of Awassa,
does it really mean that Meles Zenawi
and his slave Shiferaw Shigute
can tell me “you don’t belong here”? Can they? Where else do I belong? God save
the king- Oh no! 

Here in
the United States, I’m surrounded by law and freedom; hence, saying “yes” or
“no” to the above proposition is so easy. But, the 22 thousand Ethiopians who
were told “you don’t belong here” were told so at gun point and did not have
any option other than running for their lives. Most of them were born and
raised in the south and the south was the only place they called home until Zenawi’s Bantustan like ethnic policy made them
homeless.

Meles Zenawi
is a revengeful
killer.  He left Haile Selassie 1^st
University and went to dedebit to kill, and 17 years later,
he came back to Addis Ababa to kill more. His brutality and his desire to kill don’t
aggravate me anymore because unless I stop him, killing is what he does for
living. What really
aggravates me and makes me sick to my bones is that there are some sadist
creatures who throw a house warming party every time Meles
tortures their countrymen. To be more precise, there are fellow Ethiopians who
enjoy and defend the abuse, torture, forced evacuation, and even the killing of
their own brothers and sisters.

To me,
this highlights the basic tension between the values of individual rights,
personal freedom, social values and shared ownership of a country. I respect
the freedom of all human beings including their choice of entertainment. But, I
have a serious problem when fellow Ethiopians flamboyantly clap their hands
when their own country men are told.  . .
“Get out, you don’t belong here”. We may have ideological or political
differences, but I think we must look beyond our political differences or
even beyond our emotional and visceral reaction when we see people being
abused, tortured, or killed.

Most of the defenders of the TPLF regime, from the
usually tanked-up professor Andreas Eshete to the
rank and files here in the Diaspora, all of them are blind supporters of Zenawi’s actions with little or no regard to the
consequences of the actions.
It really annoys me that however big the fools in Menelik
palace are, there are always bigger fools to appreciate them. The
other annoying thing is that, almost all of the TPLF supporters don’t even bother to know what
the issue at hand is – if the opposition or the Diaspora likes it, they hate
it; or if the opposition/Diaspora hates it, they most likely like it. I guess,
sometimes we should pretend to love what we actually hate so that these fools
start hating it. After all, isn’t this what we call stupidity? 

In the
last three weeks, the forceful eviction of ethnic Amharas
from southern Ethiopia, the displacement of 70K people in Afar, and the
bulldozing of the nation’s sacred places have been hot button issues for
Ethiopians inside and outside the country. But, by the idiots in the Menlik palace and by their blind supporters around the
world, this headline news that troubled millions of Ethiopians is viewed
as a simple publicity campaign.  In Gambella, there
is an army keeping the people of Gambella off their
land. In Waldiba, federal security forces are beating
monks and demolishing sacred lands. In Afar, there is a standoff between 70
thousand Afar farmers and a federal mechanized force. In Bench Maji, federal police is beating locals who protested the
deportation of ethnic Amharas [who lived with them
for decades].  Elsewhere in the country
there is a constant battle between the criminal army of the TPLF regime and the
people. Who is the regime in Ethiopia working for?

 “The regional government of the Southern
Nation and Nationalities is trying to regulate and control the rampant expansion
on of clearing forest by new comers from all parts of Ethiopia including from
its own Kilil. The official told us many people from
highland Ethiopia including Amhara, Oromia, Tigrai and even Sidama and Gurage zone has moved
in to farm in the affected area.  Note:
Those few affected are not of any particular ethnic! They come in all colors so
to speak”

“People who have been farming there for long are not asked to
leave. In fact there is more land to farm in the region and more will be given
with proper guidance and fair allocation. There is no shortage of farm
area” 

Mind you, the article was written to justify the most
recent crime of Meles Zenawi
on the Amhara people. But, thanks to the retarded
writer, the article ended up exposing the despicable crime of the ethnic
minority regime. Albert Einstein, father of the theory of relativity
and arguably the most famous scientist of the 20th century once said:  “Two
things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about
the universe” As stupid as the TPLF regime and its surrogates are, if Einstein was alive today, I’ve no doubt that
he would have concluded the above quote with absolute certainty.   

Let’s have a closer look at the first of the above two excerpts
which according to the writer is fact # one. There are two ill-assorted sentences
in the first paragraph alone [even by the TPLF standard]. In the first sentence
of the first paragraph, there is a part that says new comers from all parts of
the country are engaged in massive deforestation. While the second sentence in
the same paragraph implies that highlanders from Amhara,
Oromia, Tigray, Sidama and Gurage zones have
moved to the affected area through the years; and those who are evicted out are
not just the Amharas, but the Oromos,
the Gurages, the Sidamas
and the Tigreans.

Let me be as stupid as the writer is [at least for a moment] and believe
everything he said, but where are the deportees from Tigray
and Oromia
? Are they invisible? Is aigaforum trying to
tell us that Shiferaw Shigute
is still the governor of SNNP, or still at large after writing eviction letter
to Tigrean settlers in South Ethiopia? Is this a joke
aiga? If it is, please add at least a drop of
Ethiopian humor in it.  The sanitized
version of this sad story states that the order to deport the Amharas from South Ethiopia was issued by the governor of
the SNNP [Shiferaw Shigute],
but the whole world knows that this is the work of none other than Meles Zenawi who left Haile
Selassie 1^st University to take out his long time hate towards the Amhara people. I’ve a copy of Shiferaw
Shigute’s eviction letter written to the Bench Maji Administration office. The letter clearly states that
people who are implicated by the order are people who came from the northern part
of the country with specific reference to the Amhara
people. Who is the liar here? Is it Aigaforum, Shiferaw Shigute, or Meles Zenawi? Well, it is each
and all. Here
as one can clearly see, aigaforum is wagging
its tail like a puppy to cover the lies of its master Meles
Zenawi and his loyal slave Shiferaw
Shigute. But, aiga ends up
ridiculing itself by lying a lie that makes even the devil
feel a little embarrassed.

The second excerpt stated in the article as a note
to the 3^rd fact reads as follows: “People who have been farming there for long are not asked to
leave. In fact there is more land to farm in the region and more will be given
with proper guidance and fair allocation. There is no shortage of farm area” I’m sure no one knows
the meaning of this oxymoron sentence except the morons of aigaforum.
Sometimes I really wonder what kind of country I have and what kind of leaders
my country has. Haile Mariam Desalegn goes to India
and tells the Indians that Ethiopia has unlimited supply farm land. Meles Zenawi evicts domestic
farmers and sells the land to foreign farmers. Aigaforum
tells us SNNP has no shortage of farm land, but yet Sheferaw
Shigute forcefully evicts out tens of thousands of Amhara farmers from SNNP.  Look Mr. shameless editor of aigaforum, you told us that there is no shortage of farm
land, and you also told us that more land will be given with proper guidance
and fair allocation. Does your version of proper guidance and fair allocation
include the 22 thousand ethnic Amharas who are
ordered to live the Bench Maji zone? Does it? If what
you said is right, why can’t the Bench Maji zone
government resettle the deported Amharas from the
areas off-limit to settlement to areas where there is no shortage of farm land
[ instead of evicting them and treating them like animals]? Mr. Editor, you
seem to be a kind of person who happily lives with shame and guilt. Well, that
is your prerogative, but please when you cover the mistake of your masters in
Addis Ababa, at least do a good job that gives you a bang for the buck.

One of the
most disgusting moments in Zenawi’s month old
eviction drama is Shiferaw Shigute’s
insensitivity to people’s felling and his quick change of color like a
chameleon. Mr. Shiferaw let me ask you – are you a
governor as your title suggests, a robot as your action depicts, or are you an
idiot as your attitude portrays you?

Your
master ordered you to deport ethnic Amaharas from
your jurisdiction – you happily took the order and deported 22K
Ethiopians.  Idiocy #1

As the
deportation gets too much national and international attention, your master
tells you to blame the AEUP- you happily took the order and blamed AEUP. Idiocy
#2

You used
two of Zenawi’s mouthpieces [Civility paltalk room and aigaforum] to
deny the very action you took. Idiocy #3  I can keep on saying, but once an
idiot. . .  always idiot.

Mr. Shigute how long do you betray your own people? How many
times do you lie to yourself and to the people you supposedly claim to lead? In
one of your public speeches on ETV, I heard you saying that you are first a Sidama and then and only then an Ethiopian. Good for you
Mr. Shiferaw. I have no problem with that as long as
we both are Ethiopians. But, how can you be a Sidama
before you are Shiferaw; or don’t you think you
should first be the individual “Shiferaw” before you
are a Sidama? Look Mr. Shiferaw,
your real problem is that you are putting the cart before the horse, or letting
the tail wag the dog. If you didn’t get it, you are the ‘dog’ and Meles is the “tail”. I’m not sure how old you are, but I’m
pretty sure you did not live as “Sheferaw” the last
21 years. My dear fellow country man, you’re possessed by Meles,
and it’s funny that it seems your last name “Shigute”
is given to you by Meles. He pulls the trigger you
scream.

Mr. Shigute, do you know that farmers form Amhara,
Sidama, Wolaita, or Kafficho have similar
interests and wishes regardless of their ethnic background?  Do you know that north, south, east or west,
we are all Ethiopians and we live in the context of each other? Do you know
that we are diverse and yet one and many and yet indivisible? Do you really
know this? May be you
don’t and this alone explains your hollowness.  
 

For the
rest of us, this must be the final wake-up call.  Meles and his gangs
are in a rush to obliterate the spirit of  “Ethiopiawinet”
that they have been pounding ever since they set their dirty foot in our
nation’s capital. Meles Zenawi
has time and again displayed his hate towards Ethiopia and Ethiopians, but what
he’s done the last couple of weeks is just beyond the pale. Deporting innocent Amharas from their land and telling them to go to their own
zone is a national tragedy that has shocked our nation to its very core and
left most of us trying to understand why and how this awful act of state
sponsored terrorism took place in our country.   

I
wonder what satisfaction a human soul gets when traditions, beliefs, and
artifacts are demolished for commercial purposes. I wonder what drives a
patriarch who is responsible for the continuity of the church to bond with an
evil force that flattens the very foundation of the church. I wonder how fellow
Ethiopian can sleep in peace when his written orders make thousands of mothers
and children sleepless drifters. For how long do we allow
the physical and psychological suffering of our mothers and fathers? How long
do we let a mother cry because her son is tortured? How long do we watch a
woman cry because her husband is mutilated? 
How do we let a child cry because it’s orphaned? How long should an Amahara boy worry
because he is born to Amhara parents? How long should
a young Oromo choose between servitude and prison? How long should a farmer
from Afar choose between giving-up his ancestral land and his life?  How long do we see our sisters go to the Middle
East and commit suicide?  How long does a
nation tolerate when the physical and mental abuse of an ethnic psychopath
crashes a nine month dream of an expecting mother?  Oh Ethiopia for how long?  … How long?