The retired senior World Bank staffer addressing a gathering in Atlanta last Saturday April 21st, 2012, said at the time that now adays Ethiopians of all walks of life are forced to leave their country and pursue most horrendous life in foreign lands.
The keynote speaker further noted that immigration has become part of our culture in today’s Ethiopia not because the country has become prosperous nor has registered unparalleled economic growth, as the ruling party propagates round the clock.
On the other hand, thousands of skilled and unskilled manpower leave their motherland because life has become so wretchedly difficult to sustain in Ethiopia and a widespread of human rights abuse has reached an unbearable stage, he observed.
The World Bank veteran pointed out that over 45,000 Ethiopians fled their country to Yemen annually in search of basic necessities for life out whom most of the refugees ultimately face a tragic end.
He recalled a simple and basic economic theory by world economists’ that unless the private sector prospers, it is difficult to talk about national development in Ethiopia. He cited a number of statistical data that indicate the stats-qua of socio-economic situation of Ethiopia under the Woyane regime.
Dr. Aklog posed a question: who in the right mind wouldn’t build roads and construct high rise buildings while receiving billions and billions of dollars in aid? According to his fact sheet, EPRDF has received more than $13 billion aid annually.
He drew a comparison of the total annual donation that Ethiopia fetched between the previous two governments and the incumbent regime.
He said during the emperor’s reign, the biggest single foreign aid that Ethiopia received was $ 150 million while the military regime got a total of $3.7 Billion in its 17 years in power. Similarly EPRDF has so far collected more than $ 40 billion in international aid which ranks Ethiopia the highest aid recipient country in Africa.
Referring to the on going infamous land grab scheme, Dr. Aklog said that for the first time in the history of Ethiopia, farm lands were taken away from the indigenous people and handed over to foreign capitalists. He strongly denounced Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s sinister plan of evicting the people from their lands where they have been farming for generations. He emphatically denounced lack of food security in Ethiopian and warned that unless we introduce fundamental change, it is inconceivable to guarantee food security in the country.
Earlier, VOA’s Amharic Program Service journalist Addisu Abebe addressed the gathering who stressed the fact that the principal objective of a journalist is to look and reflect the truth. He further observed that a journalist has to believe that his allegiance is nothing but to the people.
The veteran journalist who claims to serve in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church at his early age stated that before joining Ministry of Information he has also thought in various elementary schools both in Addis as well as in the country side. For him, “teaching” is a source of passion, and said if he retires and returns home, he would love to go back to his teaching profession.
The other guest speaker for the night was Dr. Fisiha Eshetu, former president/owner of Unity University who out rightly rejected to spend a second of his time talking about the injustice and atrocities of EPRDF, ascertained that “the time requires a concerted and unified action not discourse against each other and called on all Ethiopians to develop a new culture.. a culture of positive outlook.
He pointed out that in order to defeat Goliath the enemy that the Ethiopian people currently face, the only best option they have is to forge unity.
Supported by power point presentation, Dr. Fisha underlined the need to form a transitional government that brings representatives of all stake holders in Ethiopian affairs together and work towards the common cause. According to the schedule, the shadow government would be set up at the end of June, he said.
Explaining the powerful role that media play in any society, Dr. Fisha showed the clip of the young Ethiopian girl who sadly committed suicide in Beirut in early March, and recalled the huge attention it attracted and the sympathy that thousands of Ethiopians showed the world over.
Similarly, he said the media is one of the fronts that the new institution would create to wage struggle against the Meles regime.
Opening the celebration, Mitiku Teshome, Board Chairman of Mahidere Andinet, expressed his heart-felt gratitude for supporting the radio program and told the gathering that board members have raised $1500 in support and symbolic gesture of those journalists who are currently languishing in Woyan’s prisons for telling the Ethiopian people and the world at large nothing but the truth.
Members of Mahider-Andinet and invited guests attribute the catch phrase: “mission accomplished” to the candid and hard working Sisy Asfaw, MC for the night, who diligently controlled and managed the stage.
In a similar development, a local support group that works toward the realization of the transitional government in Ethiopia was formed last Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia.
The 8-man local steering committee is entrusted with the task of gathering all rounded support for the shadow government that would be set up after a couple of months.
A meeting was held last Sunday at Dekalb Public Library addressed by Dr. Fisha Eshetu and Elias Kifle, editor in-chief of the well know site, Ethiopian Review.
Both speakers called for a total boycott of items that are directly or indirectly controlled by members of the ruling party in Ethiopia in order to bring an impact on its economic fortunes.
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