You can repeat the endless, mind-numbing lies of the extreme opposition and corrupt, totally discredited organizations like HRW until Kingdom Come, but it will NEVER,EVER make true!!
Ok CBS, of course China is not a dictorship. We understand, it holds over trillion dollars of Amercian debt. Won't be surprised if they own a piece of CBS either.
CUT and Paste GIBBERISH form wholly descredited sources -- the oppostion, HRW, and Amnesty International!!
CBS; Joshua Norman:
It is CLEAR you guys do NOT have any idea of what your are talking about. This gibberish about Meles Zenawi is not fit even for a TABLOID rag!!
1) You claim "many" said that the opposition clearly won in 2005. Who is "many", CBS?? The Opposition?? The supporters of the Opposition?? Anti-Ethiopian forces like the terrorist sponsoring Eritrean government?? Of course, they would say the opposition won. Even a 4th-grader knows they would they that, but apparently, not the venerable CBS and Joshua Norman!
Fact: The Carter Election Observers said, though there were some shortcomings during the 2005 election, the result reflected the overall WILL of the people. I believe, like most reasonabe, sensible people, the independent Carter Election Observers any day than the self-serving partisans, unlike you CBS!!
2) CBS, if you are going to determine who is a dictator based on the number of deaths during a war, then George Bush is a BIG, BIG time dictator! Between 150,000 and 200,000 people died during the Iraq War, war declared by George Bush! And so Franklin Roosevelet -millions died during WW2!! So that makes Roosevelt the Dictator of all dictators!!! What about Truman dropping the Nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and killing over 100,000 unarmed civilians?? CBS, you should have included Roosevelt, George Bush and Truman in your list of dictators if you were true to your own criteria or logic!!
I guess the critrea for American Leaders is different!!
3)You claim over 200 oppostion members were arrested. That's a BLATANT LIE!! These are people proven to be members of the outlawed, terrorist OLF group, proven in front of the courts. At least in Ethiopia, they had their days in the courts unlike the US prisoners in Guantanamo.
4) Venezuela's President was elected, so he's not included.
News flash CBS: Meles Zenawi was also elected by the Ethiopian people! He may not be your choice, but he is the choice of the Ethiopian people. And in the end, that is, what matters most!!
Cuban and Chinese leaders are not dictators though they never held an election. On the other hand, African leaders who were chosen by their people are dictators. What could be the cause of that kind of thought process?? Oh, they have to be dictators - after all, they are BLACK!!
Meles has already mentioned he would step down at the end this term in a number of occasions, including on a forum at Colombia University (the forum was on 2010 and the video could be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWoEPK9njWY ). Second, you said the oppositions were close to victory, but that looks far from the truth. In the 2010 election, 25 million Ethiopians came out to vote (that is around 90% of eligible voters), and with one voice choose the EPRDF (Meles's party). The European Union election observer team at the time said they didn't came across any vote rigging. In fact, the team acknowledged the competence and neutrality of the National election board and praised the election process, but only until the votes were counted. After the team saw that it is a landslide win, they said it fell short of some international commitments. But which commitments? For God sake we had 500 hours of televised debit between the oppositions and the ruling party, which was broadcasted throughout all Ethiopia (the 500 hr 9 debits could be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ly5sx0n3k&feature=related). Shouldn't elections be judged by the process but not by the vote count? Isn't it easy to say that EPRDF is a party with 37 years of experience, and almost all of the oppositions were formed within the last 10 years?
Thirdly, you said 200 people died during the 2005 election but you didn't mention that 7 of whom were police officers. According to the policies' testimony, they were outnumbered by the thousands of protestors and they lost 7 of their men and around 40 were injured, so they were forced to open fire. The international investigators from the EU and US mostly said the same thing (personally, I feel very sad over the death of a single civilian, but the story is not how you put it). I could go on for hours on how the opposition took a signed responsibility for the 2005 killing and so on. Please remember that EPRDF is the party that for 17 years fought a communist dictator that killed hundreds of thousands Ethiopians in cold blood. And most importantly, EPRDF is leading an economic policy that made us the fastest non-oil growing country in the world (7.5 % growth a year: rate source IMF and World Bank). Ethiopia is soon going to be changed, so if you really care about us just let us be. Most of the old EPRDF members have already stepped down or they are about to, even Meles will at the end of this term, which will pave way to a democratic transition. But if you pursue your current acts, you would bring instability to the tourist loved and most populated county in east Africa, and cause a greater damage to the region.
500 hrs of televised debate with leader of main opposition party in jail, most prominent oppositions in exile doesn't count...its like south africa holding election without Mandela and the "elected government" expecting an endorsement for that ...
7 police officers killed? were the people have to defend themselves right? when police try to quash their peaceful demonstration with guns they had to defend and I have to point out one of the killed was a 12 year old student...dnt see how police were protecting themselves from a 12 yr old.
Ethiopia tourist loved?? u had me laughing dude check facts about tourists flow in other east african countries and then u can say something... And I am also laughing when u say economic growth and see fact that inflation and poverty is worsening that Meles's government is selling sugar and oil than governing...
The issue is anonymous we had to call things as they are..if Meles is a ruthless dictator worth comparing with his ex mengistu then we have to call him that...And especially now the government is looking like the derg with fixed commodity prices, the one personality cult Meles established and the fear factor in the people there about opposing the government..so deal with it anonymous Meles is no different than Mengistu
Zenawi is a ruthless dictator and no economic gain has been registered under his leadership. There has not been improvement in the life of ordinary citizens, it in fact has declined from what used to be. A very good example is the human development index(HDI),for almost 20 years since the HDI started publishing Ethiopia remains with in the bottom 5-10% countries.Paradoxically, the rank and position held in 1990 is by far better than the rank in 2009. The other point which needs to be considered is that Ethiopia's economy starts from low base and hence the recent so called 'double digit' is more of a result of utilization of capacities which have been reduced due to various shocks than it is a result of capital deepening. The first decade evaluation made by William easterly concludes no significant change due to policy employed by the regime. Meles is a confused fella not a genius economist as his ardent supporters claim.
Unfortunately, those supporters never compare the so called achievements against other similar countries. If they would they may probably stop bragging about it.Ethiopia is a country of 85mln people, what they seem to count is the few construction in the capital which is even below par comparing with other countries.For instance, Ethiopia GDP The construction boom in the last 30-40 years is a worldwide phenomena and in Ethiopia almost all of them concentrate in the capital. However, a country which supports a huge population such as Ethiopia should have Four or three international level Cities. What we have in Ethiopia instead is a slum dominated Addis and regional towns which are poorly served by infrastructure. As you have mentioned, every year about a quarter of the population requires a food aid both under the Productive safety net program and mandatory distributions.Corruption is rampant.In a latest figure On UNDP commissioned Global financial integrity report about 8.4bln(a third of the total aid money during the regime's 20 year in power) has been deposited in western banks.
The major failure of the regime comes from the agriculture sector which employs 85% of the population. Early in 1990s, it declared Agriculture development lead industrialization (ADLI)and after implementing two five year plans,the policy whereby agriculture leads to industrialization process to bring about structural change has failed miserably both among rural and urban community. As the result, only 1% average agriculture improvement has been gained during the decade between 1991-2001. The Program ended before the election in 2005 and had not been evaluated since then both by the internal or external independent group.
The recent strategy of the regime concentrated on construction of power generating schemes. However, the same failures accompanied the construction of hydro power as most newly built schemes are operating significantly below capacity. Technical and engineering defects in construction also characterize the construction. It has been also a major source of corruption since awards do not follow established government and accepted financial procedures during awards and contract management.
In terms of human right and governance, the country has been the subject of serious concern of the US state department, human right organizations and governments. Its 2005 election remains the freest election the country has ever made and while projections conclude a land slide for the opposition, government forces have taken control ballot boxes and changed result to remain in power. In 2010, an 'election' comparable to former soviet regimes and that has improved the record winning percentage in the world's notable despots such as Saddam Hussein of Iraq has been successfully staged and Meles claimed 99.6% votes. During his ongoing office term, he overseen several mass murders and crimes against humanity on ethnic groups such as the Anuak in Gambella, the Sidama in SNNP, the Somalis. He has also been in command when security personnel have killed at least 200 people in 2005 along with mass detention and violations of human rights particularly in Oromiya and in all regions.
We love this guy. He is one of the best if not the best leader Ethiopia has ever seen. It is sad to see unbalanced and one sided report on CBS. Speaking of the Ethio-Eritrean war, ethiopians fought the war willingly and with great passion for the love of their country. Those who were there at the time can wittness that. The war was fought because Ethiopia's soverignity was tarnished, when Eritrea envaded Ethiopia claiming what they thought was thier's, though the region was being administered by Ethiopia. It is the other dictator Issais Afeworki who refused to negotiate peacefuly and Ethiopia had no choice but to go to war at any cost. Any country would have made that decision and that by no means should serve as a basis to label one as a dictator.
Your reporting was so biased, in regards to the 200 or so people who died as a result of the 2005 election. First of all, how did you make the conclusion that they were peaceful demonstrators after we all saw the destruction, looting and confrontation with the peace keepers. One thing you knowingly/unknowingly failed to mention here was the number of seats the government admitted to have been won by the opposition before the riot broke out which was orchesterated by the opposition members to unlawfully take power. Out of 400 seats, one opposition party alone won over 160 seats in the parliament , which was a huge victory for the opposition. They sweeeped the seats in the capital city that would have entitled them to govern the region. All these were never contested by the government. However, the opposition demanded to take the majority seats claimining they won everywhere and abandoned their seats unless they get majority. They eventually incited this violence to have their demand. The purpose of their movement was far from peaceful and it was no surprise when it caused bloodshed in a third world country where crowd management is not as advanced as other developed countries.
As far as I know Meles' tried to constitute democracy in a country where there has never been any election, or right of free speech. If the opposition did not blew it in 2005 the country could have had a balanced and strong opposition. They abandoned their seats and ignored the peoples' vote. Needless to say they ended up in jail because of their stupid move. Yet, they were released after they apologized for the people but the Ethiopian people didn't want to take them back, because they were looked as a distraction from the agressive development initiative the country has emerged itself in.
Meles is not a dictator. He is Progressive. He may have a lot to improve on but he is loved by his people unlike any dictator. The Ethiopian people (not the loud diaspora with other issues)who lived under dictatorship in the previous regimes would know a dictator when they see one. You can do polling and decide that for yourself.
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You can repeat the endless, mind-numbing lies of the extreme opposition and corrupt, totally discredited organizations like HRW until Kingdom Come, but it will NEVER,EVER make true!!
Repeated by ill-intentioned and the LAZY without any effort to verify!
Then George Bush is a dictator according to you - Between 150,000 and 200,000 died during the Iraq war!
Then Franklin Roosevelt is a dictator according to you - millions died during WW2!
Then Truman is a dictator according to you - over 100,000 died after Truman dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima!
Gibberish!!
Then George Bush is a dictator according to you - Between 150,000 and 200,000 died during the Iraq war!
Franklin Roosevelt is a dictator according to you - millions died during WW2!
Truman is a dictator according to you - over 100,000 died after Truman dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima!
CBS; Joshua Norman:
It is CLEAR you guys do NOT have any idea of what your are talking about. This gibberish about Meles Zenawi is not fit even for a TABLOID rag!!
1) You claim "many" said that the opposition clearly won in 2005. Who is "many", CBS?? The Opposition?? The supporters of the Opposition?? Anti-Ethiopian forces like the terrorist sponsoring Eritrean government?? Of course, they would say the opposition won. Even a 4th-grader knows they would they that, but apparently, not the venerable CBS and Joshua Norman!
Fact: The Carter Election Observers said, though there were some shortcomings during the 2005 election, the result reflected the overall WILL of the people. I believe, like most reasonabe, sensible people, the independent Carter Election Observers any day than the self-serving partisans, unlike you CBS!!
2) CBS, if you are going to determine who is a dictator based on the number of deaths during a war, then George Bush is a BIG, BIG time dictator! Between 150,000 and 200,000 people died during the Iraq War, war declared by George Bush! And so Franklin Roosevelet -millions died during WW2!! So that makes Roosevelt the Dictator of all dictators!!! What about Truman dropping the Nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and killing over 100,000 unarmed civilians?? CBS, you should have included Roosevelt, George Bush and Truman in your list of dictators if you were true to your own criteria or logic!!
I guess the critrea for American Leaders is different!!
3)You claim over 200 oppostion members were arrested. That's a BLATANT LIE!! These are people proven to be members of the outlawed, terrorist OLF group, proven in front of the courts. At least in Ethiopia, they had their days in the courts unlike the US prisoners in Guantanamo.
4) Venezuela's President was elected, so he's not included.
News flash CBS: Meles Zenawi was also elected by the Ethiopian people! He may not be your choice, but he is the choice of the Ethiopian people. And in the end, that is, what matters most!!
Cuban and Chinese leaders are not dictators though they never held an election. On the other hand, African leaders who were chosen by their people are dictators. What could be the cause of that kind of thought process?? Oh, they have to be dictators - after all, they are BLACK!!
Second, you said the oppositions were close to victory, but that looks far from the truth. In the 2010 election, 25 million Ethiopians came out to vote (that is around 90% of eligible voters), and with one voice choose the EPRDF (Meles's party). The European Union election observer team at the time said they didn't came across any vote rigging. In fact, the team acknowledged the competence and neutrality of the National election board and praised the election process, but only until the votes were counted. After the team saw that it is a landslide win, they said it fell short of some international commitments. But which commitments? For God sake we had 500 hours of televised debit between the oppositions and the ruling party, which was broadcasted throughout all Ethiopia (the 500 hr 9 debits could be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5ly5sx0n3k&feature=related). Shouldn't elections be judged by the process but not by the vote count? Isn't it easy to say that EPRDF is a party with 37 years of experience, and almost all of the oppositions were formed within the last 10 years?
Thirdly, you said 200 people died during the 2005 election but you didn't mention that 7 of whom were police officers. According to the policies' testimony, they were outnumbered by the thousands of protestors and they lost 7 of their men and around 40 were injured, so they were forced to open fire. The international investigators from the EU and US mostly said the same thing (personally, I feel very sad over the death of a single civilian, but the story is not how you put it).
I could go on for hours on how the opposition took a signed responsibility for the 2005 killing and so on. Please remember that EPRDF is the party that for 17 years fought a communist dictator that killed hundreds of thousands Ethiopians in cold blood. And most importantly, EPRDF is leading an economic policy that made us the fastest non-oil growing country in the world (7.5 % growth a year: rate source IMF and World Bank). Ethiopia is soon going to be changed, so if you really care about us just let us be. Most of the old EPRDF members have already stepped down or they are about to, even Meles will at the end of this term, which will pave way to a democratic transition. But if you pursue your current acts, you would bring instability to the tourist loved and most populated county in east Africa, and cause a greater damage to the region.
7 police officers killed? were the people have to defend themselves right? when police try to quash their peaceful demonstration with guns they had to defend and I have to point out one of the killed was a 12 year old student...dnt see how police were protecting themselves from a 12 yr old.
Ethiopia tourist loved?? u had me laughing dude check facts about tourists flow in other east african countries and then u can say something... And I am also laughing when u say economic growth and see fact that inflation and poverty is worsening that Meles's government is selling sugar and oil than governing...
The issue is anonymous we had to call things as they are..if Meles is a ruthless dictator worth comparing with his ex mengistu then we have to call him that...And especially now the government is looking like the derg with fixed commodity prices, the one personality cult Meles established and the fear factor in the people there about opposing the government..so deal with it anonymous Meles is no different than Mengistu
Unfortunately, those supporters never compare the so called achievements against other similar countries. If they would they may probably stop bragging about it.Ethiopia is a country of 85mln people, what they seem to count is the few construction in the capital which is even below par comparing with other countries.For instance, Ethiopia GDP The construction boom in the last 30-40 years is a worldwide phenomena and in Ethiopia almost all of them concentrate in the capital. However, a country which supports a huge population such as Ethiopia should have Four or three international level Cities. What we have in Ethiopia instead is a slum dominated Addis and regional towns which are poorly served by infrastructure.
As you have mentioned, every year about a quarter of the population requires a food aid both under the Productive safety net program and mandatory distributions.Corruption is rampant.In a latest figure On UNDP commissioned Global financial integrity report about 8.4bln(a third of the total aid money during the regime's 20 year in power) has been deposited in western banks.
The major failure of the regime comes from the agriculture sector which employs 85% of the population. Early in 1990s, it declared Agriculture development lead industrialization (ADLI)and after implementing two five year plans,the policy whereby agriculture leads to industrialization process to bring about structural change has failed miserably both among rural and urban community. As the result, only 1% average agriculture improvement has been gained during the decade between 1991-2001. The Program ended before the election in 2005 and had not been evaluated since then both by the internal or external independent group.
The recent strategy of the regime concentrated on construction of power generating schemes. However, the same failures accompanied the construction of hydro power as most newly built schemes are operating significantly below capacity. Technical and engineering defects in construction also characterize the construction. It has been also a major source of corruption since awards do not follow established government and accepted financial procedures during awards and contract management.
In terms of human right and governance, the country has been the subject of serious concern of the US state department, human right organizations and governments. Its 2005 election remains the freest election the country has ever made and while projections conclude a land slide for the opposition, government forces have taken control ballot boxes and changed result to remain in power. In 2010, an 'election' comparable to former soviet regimes and that has improved the record winning percentage in the world's notable despots such as Saddam Hussein of Iraq has been successfully staged and Meles claimed 99.6% votes. During his ongoing office term, he overseen several mass murders and crimes against humanity on ethnic groups such as the Anuak in Gambella, the Sidama in SNNP, the Somalis. He has also been in command when security personnel have killed at least 200 people in 2005 along with mass detention and violations of human rights particularly in Oromiya and in all regions.
Speaking of the Ethio-Eritrean war, ethiopians fought the war willingly and with great passion for the love of their country. Those who were there at the time can wittness that. The war was fought because Ethiopia's soverignity was tarnished, when Eritrea envaded Ethiopia claiming what they thought was thier's, though the region was being administered by Ethiopia. It is the other dictator Issais Afeworki who refused to negotiate peacefuly and Ethiopia had no choice but to go to war at any cost. Any country would have made that decision and that by no means should serve as a basis to label one as a dictator.
Your reporting was so biased, in regards to the 200 or so people who died as a result of the 2005 election. First of all, how did you make the conclusion that they were peaceful demonstrators after we all saw the destruction, looting and confrontation with the peace keepers. One thing you knowingly/unknowingly failed to mention here was the number of seats the government admitted to have been won by the opposition before the riot broke out which was orchesterated by the opposition members to unlawfully take power. Out of 400 seats, one opposition party alone won over 160 seats in the parliament , which was a huge victory for the opposition. They sweeeped the seats in the capital city that would have entitled them to govern the region. All these were never contested by the government. However, the opposition demanded to take the majority seats claimining they won everywhere and abandoned their seats unless they get majority. They eventually incited this violence to have their demand. The purpose of their movement was far from peaceful and it was no surprise when it caused bloodshed in a third world country where crowd management is not as advanced as other developed countries.
As far as I know Meles' tried to constitute democracy in a country where there has never been any election, or right of free speech. If the opposition did not blew it in 2005 the country could have had a balanced and strong opposition. They abandoned their seats and ignored the peoples' vote. Needless to say they ended up in jail because of their stupid move. Yet, they were released after they apologized for the people but the Ethiopian people didn't want to take them back, because they were looked as a distraction from the agressive development initiative the country has emerged itself in.
Meles is not a dictator. He is Progressive. He may have a lot to improve on but he is loved by his people unlike any dictator. The Ethiopian people (not the loud diaspora with other issues)who lived under dictatorship in the previous regimes would know a dictator when they see one. You can do polling and decide that for yourself.