By Prof. Al Mariam

The People’s Republic of Berkeley, with its capital at UC Berkeley, was once ground zero in the battle to save the soul of free speech in America. That was over one-half century ago. But today, some view UC Berkeley as a bastion of reactionary political correctness.

By Prof. Al Mariam

“Guiding all of our foreign policy actions are our fundamental values: our values around freedom, human dignity, the way people are treated. These are our values … not our policies … Policies change … our values never change.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, “Remarks to U.S. Department of State Employees”, May 3, 2017.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited the Middle East and Africa to “reaffirm key U.S. military alliances” and engage with strategic partners.” Mattis only visited the tiny nation of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa where the U.S. maintains its largest military base. Ethiopia was conspicuously absent from the “strategic partner” lineup.

By Prof. Al Mariam

“Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

The length to which the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation (T-TPLF) will go to scam, hoodwink, bamboozle, con, dupe, deceive, confound and flimflam the Ethiopian people never ceases to amaze me. This is not to suggest that I do not grudgingly admire the T-TPLF guys over their adept use of weapons of mass media distraction and disinformation. Not only do I admire them, I think they are slicker than a can of grease when it comes to using the mass media to manipulate, shape, distort and mislead public opinion.

By Tilahun Afessa (April 30, 2017)

Few months ago, a close-friend of mine forwarded to me a copy of a paper written by Assafa Endeshaw, the title of which is “Nationalism in Ethiopia Revisited.” Assafa wrote the paper for a presentation at the 19^th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies held at Warsaw University in August, 2015. Knowing Assafa by name since my H.S.I.U student days in the early 70^s when he was a prominent student activist and the “national question” was the hottest issue of the time as it has been ever since, I read the paper with added curiosity. Few days later, Assafa made the paper available to the general public by posting it on some Ethiopian websites.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Author’s Note: This is Part I of a two-part translation of an Amharic interview^[1] with a former, now-exiled anonymous T-TPLF “mole” (deep- cover intelligence operative) who was trained to infiltrate prisons in Ethiopia to snitch on political prisoners, persuade them to falsely admit criminal wrongdoing and recruit younger prisoners to give false testimony in court against well-known imprisoned opposition leaders. In the interview, the T-TPLF mole spills the beans to Sadik Ahmed (BBN Radio) on the stockpile of T-TPLF dirty tricks used against political prisoners and military officers who are not part of the ethnic group of the T-TPLF leaders. The mole discussed how he was trained and equipped by T-TPLF intelligence bosses to snoop on political prisoners, extract information from them and do other intelligence and surveillance work on top non-T-TPLF ethnic group military officers.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Houston, we ain’t got NO problem!

I dreamt the nightmare was finally over. It could have been a vision. I am not sure.

There stood I watching the launch pad excitedly, anxiously, happily.

I can hear the robotic voice at Mission Control starting the countdown sequence.

T-May 29, 1991 (the day the T-TPLF [“Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front”] occupied the Ethiopian capital, a day that shall live in infamy) and holding.

By Prof. Al Mariam

On March 29, President Mika Hannula of the Tampere University of Technology issued a statement that announced: "It is the decision of the Academic Board that [Prime Minister of Ethiopia] Hailemariam Desalegn will not be conferred as an Honorary Doctor at the 2017 conferment ceremony." The reason given was that Mr. Hailemariam "will be unable to attend".