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Saturday, May 20, 2006

Zagol contra Levin
Professor Donald Levin is back with his tiresome "shimagle" views - views that were, I suspect, shaped and influenced by his recent visit to Ethiopia. When the professor was in the country in January, he was usually surrounded by Amare Aregawi, Editor of The Reporter, Constantinos Berhe, brother-in-law of foreign Minster Siyoum Mesfin and Tamrat W.Giyorgis of Fortune. Tamrat escorted the professor to Kaliti when he met the prisoners. We all know the views of these three individuals. Yet it wasn't expected that the writer of "Wax and Gold" would be swayed by the opinion of a few ferenj chasing people.
Let me state the reasons for my suspicion that Donald Levin was influenced by these people.
- On the last article he wrote
On the other hand, to the detriment of that process, some winning opposition candidates cut their participation short. They refused to take the seats in Parliament to which they had been duly elected, despite the unanimous judgment of two public meetings in July with the most educated and mature elements in their constituency that they should do so.
If you followed the August-November editions of the reporter, you would see this same line of argument adumbrated almost in identical wordings. That the "educated and mature" Ethiopians asked the CUD to join parliament was a myth Amare tried to entrench in the minds of foreigners subtly.
In the two discussions that the professor mentioned, less than 40 people participated. Not all of them were that educated or supporters of CUD unlike the professor's unsubstantiated assertion. The case in point was Amare himself. He was neither a supporter of the CUD nor a well-educated individual. He was invited to the first meeting as he owned one of the influential newspapers in the country. There were people like Haile G.silassie and Fitawrari Amede in the first meeting. Invitations were extended to them as prominent personalities. Educated? CUD supporters? Who said...
The second meeting was attended by six private press journalists and some civil society members. The judgment of both sets of participants was, of course, different from the judgment thousands of Addis Ababa residents expressed in the meetings a week later. Here comes another myth.
Amare and co. tell to every ferenj who arrives in Ethiopia that these meetings were exclusively attended by unemployed youth. Fortunately, I was in one of them. With me were my engineer, economist and uni. lecturer friends. There were a lot of people; young and old, unemployed and rich, educated and uneducated. It was a reflection of the composition of the population. These were real supporters of CUD. Most of the participant's message was clear. NO PARLIAMENT! When EPRDF saw the outcomes of four meetings, it banned further meetings. In the meantime, Amare and co. sharpened up their "unemployed youth are leading CUD" propaganda. Constantinos Berhe was also parroting the same views at the office bar of Sheraton Addis.
If Donald Levin really wanted to know the views of the CUD constituency, he would have talked with ordinary guys; bankers, lawyers, unemployed youth, the elderly...
- Another quote
To be sure, some members of the European Observers Election group erred by rushing to judgment prematurely and otherwise acting in an unprofessional way, committing violations of their code of conduct which officers of the EU subsequently acknowledged. Those actions had significant adverse consequences for the aftermath of the election, for which I believe Ethiopian citizens have had to pay an enormous price.
This seems another copy of one of the editorials of The Reporter. ( See Reporter's editorial "Observing the Observers") And it is a white lie. Ana Gomez's preliminary report on the elections came out in mid august. That was three and half months after the voters cast their votes and two weeks after the election board announced the result of the election. If that is a rush, how will the good professor view Mr. Carter's "free and fair election" verdict made even before the ballots were opened.
-On the Nov. protests
They called for protest actions in November that led to the deaths of several civilians and policemen.
Another classic tactic of Amare Aregawi: projecting EPRDF's crime on CUD. In his editorials and other articles, he consistently argued that it wasn't the killer but CUD that should be blamed for the death of civilian protestors. It is a tactic designed to confuse people on two points.
Although Kinijit didn't call for street demonstrations, the assertion tacitly deceives people into believing that it has called for demonstrations.
Although the protestors were unarmed, the assertion deceives people into believing that the government shouldn't be blamed for the killings.
Conclusion:
While he was in Addis Ababa, Donald Levin tried to broker an agreement between the prisoners and Meles. He even went to the extent of telling some people that Meles was ready to release them. He was later forced to eat his words. Trusting and counting on Meles Zenawi is a risky venture. He's yet to learn from his mistakes.
Now with his half-truths and misguided arguments, he is losing the confidence of many Ethiopians.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

EZ,

Glad to see you back in action! What a bombshell, no wonder Levin
is twisted he has been running around with woyane scums.
Anyways,he has lost all credibility in our eyes.

Gashe Liben is dead and buried and the ephitet on his tombstone reads
What Price Integrity?

Anonymous said...

Hi Ethio Zagol,

What a wonderful contribution for the strugle. The day will come where we all will be judged on our deeds. By the way, Amare aregawi's credential is lost way before this election. I know him when he was the mouth piece of shabia where he used to tell us how Esayas is a simple person, how he walks in Asmara, what he eats for breakfast, etc. Then when the war starts he changed his face and start insulting eritreans, esayas, and all. He became a "nationalist" and biting the war drum better than woyane. Then he starts writing some credible editorials to fool many who fall in the trap that "Reporter is the best news paper in Addis". That goes until the lection, then whe he see that EPRDF is losing he lost control and try to cover EPRDF's sins using all his energy and power. His paper is read by those like Coste, abdul and the likes who hang out in the office bar devising what to do next to keep TPLF in power.

Thanks ethio zagol
I am your active reader from Addis

Anonymous said...

The timing of Mr Levin's article is questionable. Not only he wants to serve as mouth piece of a tyrrant regime, he wants to incriminate the whole Addiss Ababians who expressed their dissatisfaction by peacefully protesting on street. It is woyane's army who changed the peaceful demonstration into violence by shooting at protestors. Woyane was not able to produce any evidence except their own to show that there was violence protest. If Levine's have any concise, it the proffessor like him who are in jail for genocide and treason. Their true crime is that they win the hearts and minds of Ethiopians. It is Levins that Levin is dancing woyane's dance. It is, however, suspicious the change of mind after his visit. How come he did not say what he is saying now when all the events already happened before his visit.

Anonymous said...

If LEVINE had told "nothing but the truth", Ethiomedia could have placed his picture next to Addis Ferenji, Chris Smith and Anna Gommez as "Great Friend in NeeD".
It is rather humiliating for himself when he lost "our respect". Let us tell him that Ethiopians will still consider him a "friend indeed" if he can come out and apologize: expose fascism and support the popular struggle

Anonymous said...

Good work man. Ethiopian people should totally forget Amare Aragawi. He is the number one enemy of the Ethiopian people. He has been insulting non-Tigrean Ethiopians for many years.

We duplicate ur articles and read in groups as the CUD webpage is dying. They are shameful not to update the news.

Good work!

Anonymous said...

Coste and his sister the foreign minister's wife are Eritreans by blood, and i don't know how any genuine government give this much access to senstive info to foreign nationals like these people.Coste is also one of the bard of directors for the Orthodox church just like the new Ambassodor(samy)in Washington.How the church appoints drunks,womanizers and politicians to be in their board of directors is beyond any body's imagination.

Anonymous said...

Professor Donald Levin!

Hope you are intelligent enough not to be decive by EPRDF.

All those past years are enough to say something about EPRDF.

Anonymous said...

Ethio Zago

I Thank you for the news update

God bless you

Anonymous said...

People please...

Can we criticize one's opinion without vilifying the individual. I think, we all agree, Prof. Levine is a well intentioned friend of Ethiopia. Disagreeing with his article should not make him an enemy or loose his crediblity. There are times I disagree with what is written at this site... sorry Zagol... but there is no way I would accuse Zagol being a mouth piece of anyone. We should be able to state our disagreement to friend without making him an enemy. If we are not be able to do that then its our fault not his.

I think, he is well informed in Ethiopian history, while Dr. Sachs is totally misguide and has no interest to learn. He has is own agenda... He clear stated that he does not mind dealing with dictators and supplying them as much money as he can. So, Mentioning Prof. Levine in the same breath with Dr. Sachs is unfair, to say the least... menw wogesha, you know better.

Anonymous said...

Selamawi,

When people tell lies they lose their credibility. Da! what don't
you understand about that.

Anonymous said...

Selamawi,
I don't see anyone jumping on the Levin's(neche weshetam)head and punch him with a hammer. You should understand that people like me personalize all his crap because he is just playing on Ethiopia and Ethiopians like any other game. You are trying to protect his name as if he is a friend of Ethiopia but I am going to tell you that he is an enemy and some of us are defending our identity and country. Are you the vilfier that I know of, by the way? You know who I am talking about....

Anonymous said...

Selamawi:
What I despised in Dr. Levine\\\\\\\'s article isn\\\\\\\'t his arguments. It is a public knowledge that most foreign friends of Ethiopia wanted the CUD to join parliament. There were also CUD council members who thought the interest of the party and the country was better served if they joined parliament. It is possible to take on these views without vilifying the opinion holders. What is diappointing in Levine\\\\\\\'s article is the number of distortions and falsehood. What Ethio-zagol tried to assess was how the man who you called \\\\\\\"well-informed in Ethiopian history\\\\\\\" and, I add, Ethiopian culture could get his facts so wrong.

Anonymous said...

Abbo 'kilaligni!

Having a credential is one thing, competence another.

By the same taken, having the people's trust to mediate with honesty and truth is one thing; to side with one and misrepresent the other to push us all into what 'the game' requires is another.

Liben lib yigza!

Anonymous said...

well... the anonymous above (I hope one of this days you guys come up with cute nick names), I am one of the vilified (hell no vilifier)... and I know what you mean. The point is we shall allow some space for disagreement amongst us even in this crucial time... for me that is the sprit of Kinijit. otherwise we won't be any better then the tyrant.

Trust me, I am mad like a dog... I can't not stand one day passing by with our brilliant and descent leaders unjustly incarcerated. But I think it is unwise to call for the head of everyone we disagree with. Have y'all thought it is our duty to tell the true story... remember the truth is in our side it should be much easier to convince one with truth than lies. If they do a better job of that then who is fault is that? I think Zagol doing the right thing with this posting.

Anonymous said...

Neftegna Binchacha Band Mukechia. Our leaders bla bla...

we know very well you are good at talking but when it gets walking you say Dada Dade Dade!

We can match you in every thing. Either you will not prevail forever or we will vanish. No way Amharas and parasitic Gurgahes will be allowed to manipulate Ethiopian politics.

Anonymous said...

The above anonymous. Could you reveal your ethnicity please, if you believe in what you said?

Anonymous said...

I could tell you who he is. He is an agent from TPLF gang

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