By Prof. Al Mariam

The stalemate along the Ethiopian-Eritrean border benefits almost no-one. Two armies stare at each other across the 1,000 kilometre border – as they have done since June 2000, when the fighting ended. Every so often there is a flare-up. An Eritrean border guard will fire at a refugee attempting to cross the frontier illegally; if the shots are witnessed by an Ethiopian patrol they will return fire and both sides will retaliate with rifle fire and sometimes an artillery barrage.

Mihret Zegeye

Very short message to those whose ears are not yet deaf!

Currently, there is no country without the influence of Satan especially in the leadership of the country in question. Truth be told, Satan has won the hearts and minds of billions of people nowadays including their political and religious leaders. From the US to Russia, from Middle East to Far East, from the Horn of Africa to Australia, every nation on Earth seems to be ruled by this crooked fallen angel, Satan. Of course, one of his headquarters seems to be situated in Ethiopia at Arat Kilo Palace designating Tigray People’s Liberation Front as his ambassadors with full right to exercise his rimless whims.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Let us look forward happily to the new year with confidence in our hearts and resolve in our minds. Let us learn from the lessons of the past year and apply them even more magnificently in the new. Those great lesson are mass civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to T-TPLF black apartheid rule.

Let us make history in 2010! Let’s make sure the T-TPLF (Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) the ash heap of history.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Author’s Note: In March 2013, I wrote a commentary entitled, “The Dragon Eating the Eagle’s Lunch in Africa?”. That commentary 1) lamented the disadvantages of American companies in Africa competing with Chinese state-supported enterprises unchained by anti-corruption laws, 2) the ludicrous idolization of the so-called China Model by African dictators (which to their understanding means suppress democratic institutions and civil liberties at the altar of economic development); 3) defended the idea of an “African Model” patterned after Ghana and 4) offered general ruminations on China’s creeping neocolonialism in Africa.

By Prof. Al Mariam

… We express America’s values from the State Department. We represent the American people. We represent America’s values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over, and that message has never changed… I don’t believe anyone doubts the American people’s values or the commitment of the American Government or the government’s agencies to advancing those values and defending those values…. I’ve made my own comments as to our values as well in a speech I gave to the State Department this past week…. The President speaks for himself [regarding] his values.U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, August 27, 2017.

By Prof. Al Mariam

“These perpetual little panics of the French – which all arise from fear of the moment when they will really have to learn the truth – give one a much better idea of the Reign of Terror. We think of this as the reign of people who inspire terror; on the contrary, it is the reign of people who are themselves terrified. Terror consists mostly of useless cruelties perpetrated by frightened people in order to reassure themselves.”Karl Marx in a letter to Friedrich Engles during the Paris Commune (1870).

These little perpetual panics of the T-TPLF in their terrified state of emergency

Last week the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) declared the end of the “state of emergency” it put into effect on October 9, 2016 following the T-TPLF- sponsored Irreecha Massacres.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Introduction to the series…

This rather long and somewhat discursive introduction to the ongoing series I have dubbed “The Dilemma of U.S. Policy in Ethiopia: Policy Options” [hereinafter “policy options series”] is necessary to set the stage for what I hope will be a cyber platform for ongoing discussions and exchange of creative and innovative ideas for a more effective U.S. policy in Ethiopia.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Author’s Note: If I assembled all of the commentaries I wrote on the T-TPLF’s corruption, it would comprise of at least two solid volumes. Back in 2013, I commented extensively on the range of T-TPLF corrupt practices in a number of sectors of the Ethiopian economy and society based on the World Bank’s 448-page report, “Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia”. (See my commentaries in 2013 at almariam.com.) I even coined a word to discuss T-TPLF corruption. It is “horruption”. Horrible corruption.

Every now and then, the T-TPLF bosses put on corruption show trials to distract the population, panhandle the loaner and donors and draw attention away from their criminality. They have done it again in July 2017.