Protesters and supporters lined up around noon in anticipation of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s arrival at Columbia. He was invited by the university’s President Lee Bollinger, MDG cheerleader Jeffrey Sachs, and fellow Columbia professor Joseph Stiglitz to speak at the World Leaders Forum. The intensity of the crowd, both pro and anti-Zenawi, caught police officers off guard as they were not wholly prepared for the number of people arriving. According to a police officer one of our group members spoke with, when officers arrived, the two groups were pushing and shouting until they were organized across the street from each other, each with signs and songs (of support or protest). Students and passers asked, “Why are these people allowed to do this?”
“Welcome to the United States” was my response.
An Ethiopian in New York wrote this letter
Another relevant article about Meles and Ethiopia is to be found here.
Meles’ bio from the Ethiopian Embassy.
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The USA is involved….
Dear brothers and sisters , all Ethiopians,
I want to share something with you in the hopes that you will do something about it. You don’t have to be from a specific tribe to want to save a fellow ethiopian So I hope you will take this message to heart, whether you are from Norh South east or West. We are all one and suffer together.
I’ve just come back from Ethiopia and i have to say, very sadyly that a terrible thing is happening in Amhara region. I habe a few relatives there from my father’s side and went to visit. what can I say? The people are living miserably. In one are a I visited, it seemed that the entire village was sick. Everybody, young, old, better off or poor- was so ill that I was shocked. Then I started seeing things on the internet.
This controversial report : http://www.aidsportal.org/News_Details.aspx?ID=10669
States that Amhara are dying off because of an HIV rate mych higher than the national average. Okay fine. But why the lower birth rate? Well, i found out. Women in the villages were being given an illegal form of birth control that makes them permanently barren and if a few give birth then their children have serious handicaps and diseases.
Nevermind the imprisonment and the beatings from Gojam to gonder and of course in North Shoa- everywhere Amharas are being specifically targeted by the meles Zenawi regime. Why? I don’t know, I guess they see Amharas as to pro-untity or pro Ethiopia..or as a large population as a threat to them.
former US ambassador Donald Levine stated on Aljazeera that he believed that a genocide was taking place against Amharas by the Zenawi government!
The USA and the EU are somewhat involved in this as well, becasue they feel that ethiopia’s resources would be easier to take if Ethiopia were broken up and they fear that as 30percent of the population and as very firmly pro EthiopiN UNITY , THE AMHARAS AND ALL OTHER UNITY LOVING ETHIOPIANS LIKE YE DEBUB HIZBOCH would be problem for them. So they are allowing and even helping meles Zenawi to kill us. Right now, it is very difficult to get politicalasylum in the US or Eu as an Amhara- the west wants all Amharas to remain in Ethiopia and to be silently killed by MelesZenawi’s govt. Please know that America and Europe do NOT want the unity of Ethiopia and that is why they are helping meles.
What should we do?
call your relatives in the countyr side, ask if they feel ill, sk if they are being given medicine by the government clincis and is that mediicine making them feel worse not better?
Check the internet for reports- last year a meningitis outbreak wiped out many entire village in Amhara killil before the govt. finally asked for a donation of medicine.
Please take this seriously. if you are Amhara and you want to invest in Ethiopia, look around first,. be very careful. Don’t invest all your money at one time- there is ahigh chance the government will try to take your land, money, business away from you…so start with half of your planned investment. Please don’t take my word for all of this. Check, ask people you know you can trust, find out and make your own decision.
I just want you to be careful and please try to find out more about what is going on.
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Good day! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I truly enjoy reading your posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same subjects? Thanks a lot!
Hi there, this blog was started as a class project during the Fall of 2010. While we four have completed our grad school experience, they are moving in different directions but I intend to continue it once I’m settled in Uganda this August. Look forward to having you read up on happenings around town and across the continent at large!
Hi there, this is a wordpress blog so unfortunately I haven’t any suggestions for you. Good luck finding one, perhaps try tumlbr.