Shadowboxing Smoke and Mirrors
Meles Zenawi when he was alive and his apostles today (“Melesistas”) keep playing us in the Diaspora like a cheap fiddle.
They make us screech, shriek, scream and shout by simply showing their
mugs in our cities. How do they do it? Every now and then, the
Melesistas suit up a few of their bumbling and bungling zombies from
central casting and unleash them into the Ethiopian Diaspora to “sell
bonds” for the “Grand Meles Dam”
to be built over the Blue Nile. Anytime these zombies show up to
panhandle chump change from their supporters, a welcoming committee of
defiant and patriotic Ethiopian activists show up to chase them out of
town like campers at a national park chasing coyotes scrounging at the
trash bin. For the past several weeks, Diaspora activists have been
routing these imposters across European and American cities; but
incredibly, these brazen con artists show up in the next city like snake
oil salesmen at a carnival. That really piqued my curiosity. Why do
these scammers show up in city after city knowing that they will be
confronted and chased out by young patriotic Ethiopians? Are they really
fundraising by “selling bonds” in the Diaspora or are they using
“fundraising” as a cover for something altogether different? Ummm!!!
First, the irrefutable facts about the Meles Dam hogwash. As I demonstrated in my March 11 commentary, “Rumors of Water War on the Nile?”, the
Meles Dam on the Blue Nile (Abay River) was the exquisite figment of
Meles’ imagination, and now the phantasmic idol of worship for his
discombobulated apostles. Anyone who bothers to study the facts of this
so-called dam project will readily conclude that it is pie in the sky.
It is “self-funded” because the multilateral lending institutions and
private investors who normally bankroll such major infrastructure
projects wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole standing a mile away.
They have determined it is a white elephant. Egypt has also used its
leverage to block funding sources. Egypt has contingency military plans
to undam the dam if it ever comes on line.
The fact of the matter
is that it is impossible for the bumbling regime in Ethiopia, which
sustains itself through international panhandling, to raise the
USD$6-10bn needed from the people of the second poorest country in the
world. The regime does not even have sufficient foreign reserves to
cover the cost of imports for three months. Its foreign debt exceeds
USD$12bn; and despite windbagging about an 11 percent annual growth, the
“fifth fastest growing economy in the world”, yada, yada,
unemployment, inflation, mismanagement and corruption have put on life
support an economy addicted to international handouts. The idea that
nickels and dimes collected from Ethiopians in the country by staging
“musical concerts, a lottery and an SMS campaign” and a buck or two from
Diaspora Ethiopians could build such a project is simply nutty. Because
the dam builders live in a fool’s paradise, they think Diaspora
Ethiopians are all “fools and idiots” who will buy fantasy dam bonds.
(Just as an aside, those who are buying Meles Dam junk bonds should
first consider buying the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.) Anyway,
the Diaspora “bond sales” effort has been a total failure. The regime
recently announced that it had collected $43,160 from its latest bond
sales in San Diego, CA. Yeah! Right!
For domestic public relations
purposes, the Melesistas’ strategic objective in pushing the Meles Dam
hoax is to create patriotic fervor and galvanize the entire population
around an object of national pride while deifying Meles and generating
political support for themselves to prolong their lease on political
power. The Meles Dam would at once be a hydrological temple to worship
“Meles the Great Leader and Visionary” and a symbolic object of national
unity that could rally massive support for the regime.
The Melesistas have convinced themselves that by talking about the Meles
Dam 24/7, 365 days, they can convince the people that the dam is
actually under construction. They blather about building the “largest
dam in Africa” and Ethiopia becoming a middle income country and a
formidable regional economic power in just a few years. They talk about
their “visionary leader” and how they will blindly follow his vision to
the end of the rainbow where they will collect their pot of gold in the
form of Meles Dam bonds. They march on chanting their mantra: “We will
follow Meles’ vision without doubt or question.”
They must really
think the people are “fools and idiots” (to borrow a phrase from Susan
Rice) to be fooled by their silly dog and pony show and talk of pie in
the sky. The Ethiopian people may not know about a “pie in the sky”,
but they certainly know about the “cow they have in the sky whose milk
they never see.” But careful analysis shows the Melesistas have pulled
this one right out of Joseph Goebbel’s bag of tricks: “If you tell a lie
big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to
believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State
can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military
consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State
to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the
mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the
greatest enemy of the State.”
Isn’t this exactly
what the Melesistas are doing in Ethiopia now – repeat the dam lie,
development lie and repress dissent and persecute journalist who tell
the truth?
The Melesistas think they are so smart that they
can hoodwink not only Ethiopians in the country but also those in the
Diaspora. They put on a dam “bond selling” show to convince Diasporans
that the Meles Dam is real and that it is the panacea to Ethiopia’s
economic woes. “Buy dam bonds! Ethiopia will be rafting on a river of
milk and honey once the Blue Nile is dammed.” But only a damned fool
would believe that. According to the World Bank, Ethiopia’s “power
sector alone would require $3.3 billion per year to develop” in the next
decade. Currently, power tariffs are so underpriced that they range
between “$0.04-0.08 per kilowatt-hour” and are “low by regional
standards and recover only 46 percent of the costs of the utility.” For
every dollar they spend supplying power, they lose 54 cents! In other
words, these guys hawking the Meles Dam junk bonds and promising
billions in profits are losing their shirts on the power they are
selling right now! Why would anyone trust and buy dam bonds from those
who can’t even make a damn profit from existing dams? Why would anyone
buy dam junk bonds when the outlook for the energy sector in Ethiopia is
so damn bleak? The Melesistas fantasize that they can pay off
bondholders by selling power from the dam to the Sudan, Egypt and the
Arabian peninsula. Why the hell would Egypt or the Sudan buy power from a
dam that damns them by effectively reducing their water supply for
agriculture and their own production of power?
The real aim of the
Meles Dam is not the construction of a dam over the Blue Nile but to
use the specter of the construction of a gargantuan dam on the Nile to
inspire fear, loathing and dread of an imminent regional water war.
Simply stated, the dam idea is an extortion scheme to scam the
international community and downstream countries for more aid and loans
as a price for continued regional stability, avoidance of conflict and
maintenance of the status quo. Suffice it to say, one has to be a damned
“fool and an idiot” to believe the Meles Dam will ever be built or buy
Meles Dam junk bonds and expect a return. (Buying the Brooklyn Bridge is
a much better investment.)
Shadowboxing Smoke and Mirrors
So,
why do the Melsistas send zombies into the Diaspora on a fool’s errand?
They know they will be shamed and disgraced and chased out of every
American and European city like stray dogs at a bazaar. They know they
will be lucky to squeeze a few hundred dollars at a Diaspora “bond
selling” event. Do they do it because they are professional beggars and
panhandlers?
There is a deceptively simple method to their
madness. They send their zombies in the Diaspora to make us shadowbox
smoke and mirrors. They are playing a simple but clever psychological
game.
The Melesistas are getting hammered everyday by bad
publicity. Hardly a day passes without some report by an international
human rights, press or research organization documenting their
monumental crimes against humanity. Just in the past few months, there
have been numerous reports and press releases by Human Rights Watch, the
Committee to Protect Journalists and a host of newspaper and television
outlets, including Al Jazeera and CNN, on massive human rights
violations, land grabs, ethnic cleansing, suppression of religious
freedom and other issues in Ethiopia. Recently, the World Bank made
public a 448-page corruption report on Ethiopia. A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. State Department released its annual Human Rights Report on Ethiopia documenting the
regime’s “arbitrary killings, torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment
of detainees by security forces, harsh and life-threatening prison
conditions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, detention without charge
and lengthy pretrial detention, illegal searches,
“villagization” (pillagization) program, restrictions on freedom of
assembly, association, and movement, interference in religious affairs…”
This past week, they got clobbered in the international press for a
kangaroo appellate court affirmance of the 18-year sentences of the
internationally-acclaimed journalist Eskinder Nega and dynamic
opposition leader Andualem Aragie.
The Melesistas have become
international pariahs and desperately want to change the topic from
Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemu, Woubshet Taye, Andualem Aragie…,
corruption, ethnic cleansing, land giveaways, suppression of religious
freedom and interference in religious affairs and critical human rights
reports. They want to take control of the international public relations
agenda. They want to shed off their international image as corrupt
thugs who trample on human rights and steal elections. They want to
reinvent themselves as anti-poverty warriors and statesmen of economic
development. They want to be seen as the new “new breed of African
leaders” toiling indefatigably to eradicate poverty and promote economic
development and democracy.
In a Machiavellian maneuver, they
have, to some extent, succeeded in getting Diaspora Ethiopians,
particularly the activists, to promote their “dam development” agenda
for them in America, Europe and elsewhere. Every time Diaspora
activists confront the zombie junk bond dealers and brokers, they are
seen talking (but saying nothing) about development, growth,
infrastructure projects and how the Meles Dam will transform Ethiopia
into an economic powerhouse. (They never mention the massive foreign
debt, the USD$12bn that has left the country illegally since
2001, the massive youth unemployment, accelerating population growth,
etc.). They always sheath their bloody hands in the glove of development
talk. When activists protest and confront these zombies, they appear to
be anti-development obstructionist agitators. That’s is the exquisite
trick of the Melesistas. They want the world to see Diaspora Ethiopians
as a bunch of rowdy, wild, disorderly, loudmouthed, raucous,
uncivil and intolerant bunch who will not even allow civil discussions
of “development”. They aim to create and nurture the image of a
few combative “Diaspora extremists” and an overwhelming number of
silent (as a church mouse) regime supporters who are afraid to come
forward (or attend their “bond selling” events) and show their support
for fear of attack by the “extremists.” In the mix are the hapless
Diasporans who have to go back and forth to Ethiopia to secure their
property and business interests. Those guys are toast; either they pay
protection money (buy dam bonds) or get jacked up on some trumped
up charge and lose their properties or worse.
The
Melesistas’ strategy to counter bad publicity and capture the domestic
and international public relations commanding heights is based on three
principles: Distract, distract and distract some more. Distract
Ethiopians inside the country from critical political, social and
economic issues by bombarding them with inane development propaganda.
State television (which is watched by virtually no one in the country)
is filled with ceaseless barrages of nauseating and mind numbing amateur
development propaganda. It is vintage police state propaganda aimed at
convincing a largely illiterate population that famine is plenty,
decline is development, poverty is wealth, dictatorship is democracy and
the man who destroyed the country is its savior.
The second
strategy is to distract Diaspora Ethiopians from vigorously pursuing an
agenda that promotes democracy freedom and human rights. They unleash a
few smooth-talking empty suits with empty heads and let them wander from
one city to another in the U.S. and Europe just to get Ethiopian
activists emotionally worked up about a fantasy dam and lose their focus
on issues of human rights violations, abuse of political prisoners,
ethnic cleansing, suppression of religious freedoms, and myriad economic
problems. Some Diaspora activists react vigorously whenever they
see these hapless empty suits at “bond selling” events react vigorously
believing they are confronting the master criminals. Therein lies the
trick. The Melesistas are so clever that they have succeeded in making
some of us believe that the puppets are actually the puppet masters. We
need to be aware that the empty suits they send into the Diaspora to
sell the dam bonds are just schmucks and buffoons who do what they are
told; or “zombies” as the great African musician Fela Kuti would have
called them (“Zombie go… zombie stop…zombie turn…zombie think…” ) They
are bait and are offered as scapegoats to the Diaspora. By chasing the
puppets out of town, some of us feel we have chased out the puppet
masters. But the puppet masters laugh at us because our victory is the
victory of the shadow boxer who knocked out the shadow.
The third
strategy of the Melesistas is to distract donors and human rights
organizations from criticizing them on their atrocious human rights
record. They want to justify and convince them that the masses of
ordinary Ethiopians are interested in the politics of the belly and not
the politics of the ballot. Meles declared, “My view is that there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy historically or theoretically.” They
want to convince donors and human rights organizations that the masses
do not care about human rights or democracy; they are concerned only
about filling their bellies. To them, the masses of poor, illiterate,
hungry and sick Ethiopians are too dumb and too damn needy to appreciate
“political democracy.”
Legacy of the great manipulator
Manipulation
of the Diaspora is one of the chief legacies of Meles. Wikileaks
cablegrams portray Meles as a slick, scheming, crafty and cunning
hombre. He could have achieved greatness but undid himself because he
was unable to tame his voracious appetite for extreme vindictiveness and
revenge and could not bridle his bottomless capacity for maliciousness,
viciousness and obduracy. Those who claim to know Meles say he knew his
opposition better than the opposition knew itself. Distraction,
diversion, misdirection, hoodwinking, chicanery, paralogy and sophistry
were the hallmarks of Meles’ strategy. The cunning dictator was able to
shroud his corrupt empire for two decades by pursuing a propaganda
policy of mass distraction and by staging one farcical political theatre
after another. As I have long maintained, Meles’
“attitude was that he can outwit, outthink, outsmart, outplay, outfox
and outmaneuver boatloads of Ph.Ds., M.Ds., J.Ds. Ed.Ds or whatever
alphabet soup of degrees exist out there any day of the week. He
seemed to think that like the opposition leaders, Ethiopian
intellectuals are dysfunctional, shiftless and inconsequential, and will
never be able to pose a real challenge to his power.” In a rare moment
of candor responding to a journalist’s question about Diaspora
Ethiopians protesting his overseas visits, Meles confessed, “We may be
at fault in some way. I am sorry. That maybe we didn’t communicate well
enough to those Ethiopians living abroad what is happening, what we are
doing here.” Meles’ apostles keep making the same mistake. Like
shepherd, like sheep! Like Meles, like Melesistas!
Criminal violations in selling unregistered securities in the U.S.
There
have been questions raised about the legality of the sale of Meles Dam
bonds as “securities” in the U.S. Under federal and most state laws, a
“security” is broadly defined and includes stocks, bonds, debt and
equity securities, notes, investment contracts, etc. Unless exempted,
all securities must be registered with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) and/or relevant state agencies prior to selling or
offering for sale to the public. A security which does not have an
effective registration statement on file with the SEC and/or
the relevant state agency is considered an unregistered security.
Buying or selling unregistered
securities is a crime under federal and state laws. The SEC can
prosecute issuers and sellers of unregistered securities under section
20(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 (which regulates original issuers)
and seek injunctions if the Securities Act has been violated, or if a
violation is imminent. Section 8A also allows the SEC to issue orders to
issuers of unregistered securities to cease and desist and seek civil
penalties under Section 20(d) if an issuer violated the Securities Act,
an SEC rule, or a cease-and-desist order.
Like most states,
California Corporations Code sections 25110-25118 set strict guidelines
for any securities sold in that state. Any person or entity who
willfully sells or transports unregistered securities through interstate
commerce or buys such securities could face serious criminal
liabilities under California Corporations Code section 25540, subd. (a)
with penalties of incarceration for up to three years and a fine up to
$1 million. California prosecutors, like their federal
counterparts, could also seek injunctive relief and civil penalties.
There
are a few limited exemptions to the registration requirement. One of
them is an exemption “for certain foreign government securities brokers
or dealers”. Pursuant to 17 CFR 401.9, “A government securities
broker or dealer (excluding
a branch or agency of a foreign bank) that is a non-U.S. resident shall
be exempt from the provisions of sections 15C(a), (b), and (d) of the
Act (15 U.S.C. 78o–5(a), (b) and (d)) and the regulations of this
subchapter provided it complies with the provisions of 17 CFR
240.15a–6…” In other words, the bond “brokers and dealers” sent to the
U.S. to sell the Meles Dam bonds must meet the multifarious requirements
of federal securities law and other regulatory requirements including
full disclosure, proof of maintenance of required books and records
relating to the bond issues and written consent to service of process
for any civil action arising from disputes in bond related transactions.
It is highly unlikely that the “brokers and dealers” selling the Meles
Dam bonds in the United States qualify under 17 CFR 240.15a–6 and 15
U.S.C. 78o–5(a).
Fight the Power, not the smoke and image in the mirror
Diaspora
activists should keep their eyes on the prize, not on the smoke and
mirrors of the Melesista Road Show, Carnival and Circus.
Ethiopian
Americans are fortunate to live under a Constitution that guarantees
our right to free expression and peaceful protest. As citizens, it is
our moral duty to exercise our constitutional rights. We have recently
seen Americans using their right to protest by launching the “Occupy”
protest movement. Historically, the civil rights movement relied on
sit-ins, sit downs, teach-ins, rallies and marches as a form of direct
nonviolent action to bring about change. Nonviolent mass protests
eventually led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which ended
racial segregation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which removed
barriers to voting. The anti-war and free speech movements relied on
non-violent protests to defend expressive freedoms and end the war in
Vietnam. Nonviolent protests were also used in the anti-Apartheid
movement in the U.S. resulting in boycotts, divestment s in
corporations and spurring legislative and diplomatic action which
hastened the end of Apartheid.
The main point is that Diaspora
Ethiopians should be laser-focused on the prize and make sure that
democracy will in the end triumph over dictatorship in Ethiopia; human
rights are vindicated and human rights abusers are held accountable
and any government in Ethiopia shall fear the people and the
people shall never fear their government. We should not be distracted by
empty suits with empty heads lurking in and out of town to scrounge up
chicken feed. We should not be angry at programmed zombies at “bond
selling” events because they are just wretched flunkies and
bootlickers, who given the opportunity will make a beeline to the
immigration office to file for political asylum. We should not mistake
the puppets for the puppet masters. We should not confuse shadow for
reality.
We should be aware not only when we are being abused but
also used. We should never let them make us do their dirty jobs because
they can cleverly manipulate our psychological disposition to righteous
indignation. We should never react because that allows them to take
control of our emotions and reactions.
We should always act and never react. Most importantly,
we should engage in proactive activism instead of reactive activism. When
we are proactive, we plan things out carefully and strategically.
Nonviolent protest is a highly disciplined effort. Dr. Martin L. King,
Jr. taught, “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps:
collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist;
negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.” We should educate
and train ourselves in the ways of nonviolent protest. When confronting
the zombies, we should maintain a high degree of composure and display
self-dignity in our expressions of defiance. At dam “bond selling ”
events, protesters should adequately prepare pre-event publicity.
Serious attention should given to the development of press kits and
talking points. Press and law enforcement liaisons should be trained
and designated. Well informed and articulate spokespersons should be
selected to give press interviews. Adequate attention should be given to
post-event follow up activities.
It is a great disservice to oneself and to our great cause to engage in nonviolent protest without reading and understanding Gene Sharp’s extraordinary work, “From Dictatorship to Democracy” available online for free. An Amharic translation of Gene Sharp’s book is also available online free of charge (here) for
anyone to download or print. Ignorance cannot drive out ignorance, only
knowledge can. We must educate ourselves in the ways of peaceful
protest, or our efforts will produce few results. We are less likely to
be manipulated if we keep ourselves informed and develop critical
analysis skills that cut through the blather of our adversaries.
While
those of us in the older generation (“Hippos”) wallow in self-pity and
cynicism, it is inspiring to see young patriotic Diaspora Ethiopians
(“Cheetahs”) using their right to peaceful protest to resist the zombies
of tyranny. Just as the task of building a fantasy dam belongs to
the Melesistas, the construction of the new Ethiopia is a task reserved
for the young Cheetahs. It is painful to admit that we Hippos have
not been much of a role model for the Cheetahs. We
have unkindly criticized the Cheetahs for their lack of engagement,
apathy and single-minded pursuit of flash and cash. We grumble that the
Cheetah generation is the lost generation and there is no one to save
Ethiopia (but it has been a long time since we Hippos looked into the
mirror without smoke).
I am afraid there is little that Ethiopians
Cheetahs could learn from Ethiopian Hippos. Perhaps Ethiopian Cheetahs
can get inspiration from other Cheetahs. In the past 2 years, we have
seen inexperienced youth using social media bring down dictators or
force them to make radical changes in governance in North Africa and the
Middle East. The key to their success was their ability to get in
tune and on the same wavelength with each other, and to be able to speak
the same beautiful language of peaceful change and protest. As always, I
believe Ethiopian youth united — across ethnic, religious,
linguistic, gender, and regional lines — can never be defeated!
“Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight.” Bob Marley
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino and is a practicing defense lawyer.
Previous commentaries by the author are available at:
- http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/
- www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:
- http://www.ecadforum.com/Amharic/archives/category/al-mariam-amharic
- http://ethioforum.org/?cat=24
