Mr. Kiflu, the assesment made by Mr. Okungu has no political bias as you and your follower yetale have. You said Mr. Okungus assesment was made on just a two night visit that is true; if he had passed more nights he could have told you lots of facts on what have been done and are being done. So please enjoy your exile until the ruining regime that you are eager for comes.

I see no objective in the argument of Mr. Kiflu. The article can be compared to the ugly monotonous cry of the sheep in "Animal Farm”: "Two legs bad! Four legs good!" Jerry referred Ethiopians’ comment about their country; while kiflu has his evidences hidden somewhere in a CIA abstract. In Ethiopia, English language classes start from primary school. I can safely say that every taxi driver in Addis can comfortably communicate in English language. For that matter, language is of little importance when one needs to express a genuine feeling. By the way, Kiflu, why do you call yourself a refugee? From whom are you seeking refuge? The opposition is free to conduct its struggle inside the country, as long as it denounces violence and accepts The Constitution. I suppose you might have come across some of the funny papers; and enjoyed live un-edited TV transmissions of the debate in the parliament. If you fled the country to avoid criminal charges, the name “refugee” shouldn’t be wasted on you; there is a name that fits your likes: Fugitive.

Well written and well thought-out article! Good job Hussein! Under Meles Zenawi's watch so many people have gone from a comfortable life into poverty, and only very few have become very wealthy. This is part due to his ill conceived policies, but mostly due to his tribal favoritism. according to UN's HDI Ethiopians are not by any measure better of today than they were in 1991 when Zenawi came out of the desert to capture power by shear luck.

What a disgusting display of ignorance and being loose with facts and a misrepresentation of reality. One has to respect and support PM Meles Zenawi's policy of agriculturally led economic development and the main guiding principle being poverty reduction. It has already bear fruit and accepted as fact even by World Bank. It made an assessment just this week that Ethiopian economy is about to to have a duel take off in both economic and service accelerated growth, and will support Ethiopia in that endeavor. Ethiopia today enjoys the fastest economic growth in non oil producing African countries. Unless you bury your head in the sand, it will take a long time to lift millions of Ethiopians from poverty, starvation, lack of educational opportunity, clean water, and treatable diseases. These were problems this government inherited from previous administration including the greedy Emperor and his gang of thieves that stashed billions of dollars in Swiss banks. You may forget this, while millions of Ethiopians were dying of starvation, Teddy Afro's jah had a cake made for him in Europe for his birthday. Ethiopian people have ways to go for ideal democratic system, if there is anything as such. Just think how long it took the mother of all democracies to permit landless whites, women and African American, American Indian people to exercise their right as human beings. The hangings, Jim Crow, gerrymandering, discrimination, sunset rules, and even the 2000 election, and so forth. If you love the Ethiopian people you should do what ever you could to help Ethiopia to have a positive image for investment, tourism and good will from the rest of the world irregardless who is at the top. Government will always change but the reality of our people today is very tough. It's a matter life or death and is very real. What would have been the alternative even if the so called opposition had won the 2005 election. The infighting, jalousies, dictatorial tendencies, greed, disrespect, would have made it ungovernable. We need to be rational and critical thinkers and avoid pitfalls of emotional and subjective mob mentality.

I did not read Mr. Okungu's story about Zenawi's leadership achievements but I believe Mr.kiflu's summary suffices for me to comment on the issue. If Okungu believes that Melese Zenawi is the best leader for Ethiopia then my simple conclusion is that either he (Okungu) has no the faintest idea of Ethiopian politics and/or he is totally ignorant of the socio-political situations currently prevailing in Ethiopia or else ( I regret to say that he must be a hired individual that has little respect to his profession). Melese has been the most hated tyrant in Ethiopia that is ruling our people by the muzzle of the gun. As the people hate him, so does he hate the people of Ethiopia. He demonstrated his hate of Ethiopia and Ethiopians and Ethiopianism by enforcing ethnic politics in the society and by assisting Eritrean Gorillas secede from from its mother land, Ethiopia, without the will of the people of both Ethiopia and Eritrea. He demonstrated his hate for Ethiopia and Ethiopians by delivering congratulatory speech he made in Asmara on the day Eritrea declared its secession. He let Eritrean loot the wealth of Ethiopia and establish its own Government that latter became an arch enemy himself. He then declared a war against Eritrea thereby sacrificing more than 50,000 lives on the part of Ethiopia and 30, 0000 on part of Eritrea. During the war the gallant Ethiopian soldiers galloped with might, gut and stamina to capture the port of Assab that Melese illegally let Eritrean include into their territory even though it was not a part of Eritrea during their secession. But Melese ordered to stop the rush to Assab and ordered a halt that make them return back after sacrificing a number of lives in vain. Thus, Melese again showed his hatred to Ethiopia and Ethiopians by letting the country stay land locked and halting the rush to liberating Assab that that would have enabled our country attain an outlet to the sea. Okungu probably is ignorant of Melese's intention of seceding Tigray to form the Republic of Tigray, in accordance to the original plan of the TPLF. To make this dream come true Melese has dismantled the Ethiopian Military Structure & reorganized it in a way that will be best for Tigray to succeed. Thus, Melese has already transported all defense equipments, vehicles and ammunition to Killil 1 (administrative region)Tigray, dismantled the Ethiopian Air force and transferred its Head Quarter to Makale. The wealth of the nation has been amassed, confiscated and looted the proceeds then has been deposited to an account belonging to Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)Trading House, by the name Effort. Under this huge (Probably the hugest in Africa) trading house, Import and Export, Mining, Industry and Finance activities are processed. By selling the biggest Ethiopian gold mine to a semi-Saudi billionaire who is said to own partnership investment with Meles's TPLF Trade House Ethiopian Gold is being deposited to foreign banks in a Safe-deposit account with the aim of using it later on as a deposit for currency of the Republic of Tigray. Millions and Millions of dollars, the proceeds of which are the transactions that come through EFFORT's Foreign Trade are also being deposited in the same banks never to come back to Ethiopia but probably to Tigray when the process of secession is completed. Huge industrial investments are encouraged in Tigray and an industrial zone planned to connect the Towns of Axum and Adwa is steadfastly proceeding. By Applying Agricultural developments in the fertile lands looted from the provinces of Gondar and Wollo and included to the territory of Tigray, the succeeded Republic of Tigray is expected to be self sufficient in the supply of food to its citizens. The dream that making Tigray the Taiwan of Africa is fast moving by encouraging Industrial, Financial and Mining investments in Tigray. The huge commercial Bank, Woogagan is entrusted in financing such investments in Agriculture, Transport, Construction, Foreign and Local Trade in Tigray. What is going on in Addis Ababa, such as buildings, and other activities compared to that of the looting of other parts of Ethiopia to speed up the establishment of the Republic of Tigray on the grave of Ethiopia is minute indeed. Moreover Mr. Okugu should have mentioned the cost of living in Addis Ababa that is soared to the sky in the reign of Melese before he posted his comments in the News Paper. There is much to say and many, many unsaid in this little note here. Any Ethiopian who has lived in Addis Ababa or else where in Ethiopia during the reign of Melese can write a book on the evils of Woyane and the tyranny of Melese with convincing evidences. All in all I can just say that Mr. Okungu is so much ignorant to tell us that Ethiopians now like Melese. No Ethiopian of a normal mind can love his/her enemy; unless he/she is "Jesus" and especially the enemy that kills the sons and daughters that come out of Ethiopian mothers. Meles is a Killer, a tyrant and a traitor that sold the territory of our motherland including the border regions of Ethiopia surrounding the Sudan. To day the people the people in Gondar along with their compatriots living in other parts of Ethiopia and the democratic forces of the world are challenging Melese Zenawi to return their land exceeding 1600 Km. that Melese exchanged for a favor to his future plan of secession. A deal with his Sudanese counterparts please therefore, Mr. Okungu, do not write what you do not know about because such a daring venture reveals your ignorance. Respectfully Yours, Zenebe G. Tamirat

Give me a break! Mr Okungu gave an objective assesment of the situation in Ethiopia. If you read his article in its entirety, he did mention the problems of Human Rights of the Ethiopian Govt. It is a miracle that one of our own African brothers wrote such an all encompassing accurate discription of the current eoncomic boon in Ethiopia. The World Bank director put it mildly as a dual ladden rocket about to be launched. So did a lot of other objective observers of the facts on the ground. Malaria is to be routed from Ethiopia soon according to the Bank's report. A close relative of a good friend of mine, who was a critic of Zenawi, during a telephone conversation, recently, noted that Ethiopia has become 'America' and what in the heck is his nephew doing in the US? This is the realty in Ethiopia. Kiflu seems to think otherwise. He might have his reasons. For all the economic progress in Ethiopia, the challenge is how to get the concept of respecting human rights in the minds of the low level apparatichks and soldiers on duty in Somalia? It is hard. Don't forget the Nation was under some form of autocratic rule since its inception. Overall, the rapid economic progress overshadows any marginal flaws at the grass root. This is no reason to chasitize the gallant leadership of Mr Zenawi which, according to Mr Okungu should serve as an example for the whole of Africa. I will have to concurr with him!

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