The Impudent Shewakena

By: Tadesse T. Tsion

Apri 24, 2006.

Mr. Shewakenna, as Dr. Abarru in his very terse, very powerful piece on AIGA (Mulugeta Asrate-Kassa) pointed out recently is an inveterate blabber with deficient intelligence and murky motives. The website, Ethiomeida, had picked up on the doctor’s comment and to embellish the “blabber”, added in its site on April 22 a very unusual encomium to Fekade, stating what a prolific and sagacious writer he is, etc. Just ask: When was the last time the editors of the Ethiomedia had come out with dainty remarks about a contributing writer, obviously defending his intelligence and covering up his deficiencies?

When George Foreman lost to Ali in Zaire, in 1974, Foreman’s trainers and promoters came quickly to the bleeding and defenseless Foreman’s side and announced: “what a great fighter he is.”

Totally redundant!

Ethiomedia exposed Shewakena, more than the subject normally does to himself. Now we can expect an array of foolish articles by the blabbering Fekade, he to prove himself that he got something in his head (something alright, but not meaningful), and they to show that his messages are profound. 

But let’s admit first the facts. True, Mr. Shewakena is prolific. He too has dished out numerous essays, mostly contaminated and sick articles, savagely castigating the current Ethiopian leadership that drove out his mentor: The deplorable Derg. Nearly three-hundred thousand Ethiopians had been murdered by the previous regime, with almost two million Ethiopians displaced all over the world, and yet, Mr. Shewakena, old enough to witness these atrocities, had no resume (I am looking here the old Ethiopian Review and other magazines and nowhere appears Sehwakena’s name condemning the Derg, calling for the extradition of the alleged criminal, namely Mengistu, but maybe Fekade is a late bloomer) against the Colonel and his nefarious regime. Even today, Mr. Shewakena’s passion, whose association with the remnants of the Derg officials - the ex-ambassadors, the former professors and the aging ex-military leaders who live abroad - is undeniably hands and gloves, tight.

And this is the guy who is preaching us about right and wrong?

C’mon!

In the latest Ethiomedia, the unabashed Fekade, blabbering as usual, is attempting to discredit the amazing economic progress that Ethiopia has shown in the last few years, by calling it a sham. He took an old adage from the early 80s Wendy’s commercial: “Where is the Beef?” trying to show his cuteness. Obviously, he and his cohorts won’t be pleased with any rosy news emanating from Ethiopia, but the truth, no matter how Fekade attempts to mangle it, is undeniable. Fekade and his likes prefer to hear doom, mayhem, civil war and blood than the wellbeing of the Ethiopian people. No, that’s not happening Fekade; sorry to disappoint you.   

And about the economy, let’s make this a capital statement: ETHIOPIA IS HAVING AN UNPRECEDENTED ECONOMIC GROWTH AND FEKADE, EAT YOUR HEART OUT; THERE IS NOTHING YOU COULD DO ABOUT IT!

Fekade’s insinuation in the article, that disbursements of the capital, which he claimed had stunted growth in other regions (mostly Oromia) was a scheme to create strife among the Ethiopians, who for the first time in their histories, are enjoying self-reliance and self-rule, compared to the oppressive previous regimes he covertly supported. For him it’s a bitter pill to swallow that economic development and democratic institutions are materializing by those he vehemently detests, namely, the EPRDF.

“One may add to this the various investment projects owned by the TPLF operating outside of Tigrai. The statistics for the Oromia region, where the government’s support is more than twice less than that of Tigrai, is particularly disturbing as Oromia region is the part of Ethiopia that supplies most of the country’s revenue. I can’t understand how anyone in good faith can tell me that this is a better system of governance than anyone we have before as relates to the rights of ethnic groups (nationalities) in Ethiopia. I am sure there are a lot of sensible Tigreans who would be ashamed of this kind of shameless discrimination by people who shed crocodile tears about ethnic inequality. I am not sure how the OPDO people and the rest of the surrogates kill their own family members under this insulting practice and sleep at night. It is a shame that these people keep telling us with a straight face that they have delivered democracy and equality between ethnic groups…” he writes in his article.

You can read for yourself that Fekade, as quoted above, didn’t conceal his deep affections for the ancient regimes.   “I can’t understand how anyone in good faith can tell me that this is a better system of governance than anyone we have before as relates to the rights of ethnic groups (nationalities) in Ethiopia,” meant: That the killers of three-hundred thousand people, those responsible for two million people dislocated, and the earlier leadership which slept in the comforts of its warm ghabbi while millions of Ethiopians were ravished by famine, were better for the people of Ethiopia than the current state of leadership.

Readers: please give a warm hand to the one and only Fekade Shewakena!