Is there a cure for Shaebia’s
Numero Uno!

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By: Getahun Gebre Amlak
March 17, 2006

Ethiopian economy is booming. Its export earnings are growing remarkably and it is being diversified. Both agriculture and manufacturing are growing, attracting local and foreign investors. Ethiopia’s export earnings showed over 30% growth last fiscal year. There is no doubt that it will grow even faster in the next few years as billions of Dollars worth of new projects including over 70 new garment factories are underway throughout Ethiopia. Most promising area of export-oriented growth is the Floriculture boom. Ethiopian Roses and other flowers have proved to be on high demand in Europe and the Middle East. Other products such as sesame are also earning unprecedented amounts of hard currency for the country. Ethiopia is no longer dependent on one product, although earnings from coffee are still substantial.

Moreover, Billions of dollars worth of highways and new international airports are under construction in every corner of the country. The Addis Ababa Bole International Airport is one of the most modern and technologically advanced in the African continent. Electric supply has reached most towns in Ethiopia and all Woreda capitals. In the coming five years, 50% of Ethiopian households will get access to electricity. Ethiopia will also supply electricity to the Sudan and Djibouti. The government’s due attention to the basic needs of infrastructures is quite impressive; today it is possible to call a remote village in Ethiopia because telephone is being introduced nationwide.

Provision of education and health services has grown remarkably. Soon universal Primary Education will be a reality. Secondary education participation rate is over 30%. There are large numbers of Technical/Vocational training centers scattered across the country. Junior colleges are also growing fast. Ethiopia opened 27 new Agriculture Colleges in one year. Business Colleges have equally grown fast. The number of universities, which was only two at the time of the fall of the Derg, had risen to eight by 2005. This year thirteen new universities have been opened. These figures do not include the private colleges that are flourishing rapidly throughout the country.

Agriculture is undergoing total transformation; soon, 50% of rural households will become food self-sufficient. Another interesting area is the building industry, which is booming; towns are changing fast. Anyone that has been away from the country for more than five years will find it hard to recognize certain areas.

Since many people are coming and going on a regular basis, anyone can ask and learn from them about the existing Ethiopian reality. Still better is to come and see for yourself. This is a free country; people can come and go at will unlike that land so beset by the dictator Shaebia’s Numero Uno, the one and only, Isaias Afewerki.

In a nutshell, Ethiopia is a country where the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) will be realized on time. The next phase will no doubt be even easier to realize and dependency will end and be relegated to history.

This is the Ethiopia that the Shaebia is trying to undermine. If this is not a case of sour grapes one does not know what to call it. Today two thirds of the Eritrean people have nothing to eat. Above all the people of Eritrea are suffering from the absence of the rule of law and the total denial of Basic Human Rights. It is an undeniable truth that Eritreans fought a bitter war; paid an inordinate amount of sacrifice. But, all the life lost and the damage the country sustained has been forgotten. To-day Eritrea and its people have nothing to show for their heroic struggle and the sacrifice they paid. Eritreans are the most oppressed people in our continent. They have also been reduced to mere paupers. They have nothing to show for being an independent country. Let us hope that the day Eritrean brothers and sisters will breathe the air of freedom, justice and equality is near. There is no basis to compare Eritrea with Ethiopia. We only hope that the day the people of Eritrea will be rid of the brutal dictator is not too far.

These are the golden days of Ethiopia and there is no turning back. Yes, democracy in Ethiopia is taking firm root. The EPRDF led government of PM Meles Zenawi did not waste time to learn and act on some of the shortcomings observed during the election. Ethiopia has taken steps to learn from the experience of the great democracies of the world and that is why experts from Canada, India, Germany and the United Kingdom were brought and aided to work with the nation’s Election Board and are counseling with changes and recommendations. By the way, the election was open to both local and foreign observers and is billed fair and free by the vast majority of them. The government change will be through the ballot box. Election is nearly five years away.

Isaias Afeworki, the mad Eritrean dictator, and his blind followers are all behaving like a mad dog. They cannot face the truth that Eritrea has become the sick child of Africa thanks to the brutal dictator.

Isaias is so obsessed with his enmity towards Meles and the TPLF. He can’t stand the worldwide respect and popularity that the Meles’ government is enjoying. Painting a dark picture of Ethiopia has become the mad dictator’s full time work and preoccupation. This they carryout in their daily broadcast, radio and TV, and through their websites such as shabait.com. Ethiopia has totally ignored him, as what Isaias and his puppies propagate through these diverse means has nothing to do with the reality in country.

Isaias has become so desperate he is cooperating with former Derg criminals such as Kassa Kebede, yes, Kassa Kebede, co-conspirator and half brother of the notorious dictator and murderer Mengistu Hailemariam, in a bid to undermine Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Government. From expediency, he pretends to have forgotten that these very people committed heinous crimes against the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea. These are the very people that destroyed complete villages, burnt people alive, and over run others with tanks. If he forgets everything else how can he forget Shi-ib? According to his former associates, Kassa Kebede was personally in charge of the procurement of napalm and cluster bombs that were used in the massacres and maiming of tens of thousands of Eritreans and Ethiopians alike. But to Isaias, it is not only that the line “my enemy's enemy is my friend” irrespective of his past crime is a virtue but also it is the case of “birds of the same feather flock together”. They have a lot in common. It is high time that the peoples of the two sisterly countries join hands in fighting the dictator in Eritrea and the likes of Kassa Kebede in Ethiopia. The day we got rid of these two evil groups, Ethiopia and Eritrea can live in peace and harmony, as two brotherly peoples should.

Eritrea has become literally a bankrupt country. It has no foreign exchange earnings to speak off. It cannot buy the amount of petrol and diesel or any other essential supplies it requires. So much so that most car owners in Eritrea have either to walk or cycle to and from work. Most Eritrean towns have no reliable electric power and power supply in Asmara is erratic, an on and off affair. This, any truth loving Eritrean could confirm. As you know Eritreans are voting with their feet and going out to the Sudan and Ethiopia. If you have a chance talk to them.

In contrast Ethiopia, as a booming country, does not show any sign of shortage in petrol and diesel supply. If anything, supply is on the increase. In addition to the old suppliers of fuel, Mobil, Total, Agip, Shell, etc., two new companies have been created, NOC and United, and their stations are expanding across the country at a phenomenal speed. The number of vehicles is growing fast. By the way a new car assembly plant has just opened in Ethiopia and the first out-put will be on sale soon. Again, wherever you are, ask the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the country where you live because the embassies will no doubt tell them of the reality inside Ethiopia.

Sour grapes shall I say! Democracy in this country is here to stay. Despite Isaias’ outrageous statement about the crumbling of the Ethiopian government in a matter of days (“…It is like a car without breaks and down the hill…No one can stop it except some kind of a miracle”), The Shaebia orchestrated disturbances have died a natural death. The elected government is stronger than ever. PM Meles Zenawi is secure in his post and even more popular. He is or should one say has become an internationally acclaimed leader. He is one of a very few African leaders that are consulted regularly on matters of importance pertaining to this continent. He is considered one of the great statesmen and his opinion sought on important issues by all. Today one can safely say that there is no more stable government anywhere in our continent than the elected government of Ethiopia.

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