By Netsanet Zeleke

Well, I perfectly recognize the fact that people like me have no power to change the natural or the unnatural, if you will, course of things that may negatively affect billions of people on our planet. But, thanks God, we are, at least, able to air our grievances and feelings whenever we need to do so. This letter from the heart of ‘Ethiopia’, Addis Ababa, is hence, meant to express some timely concerns about who is leading WHO to its demise. As a matter of fact, the demise of an entity/organization may not necessarily happen overnight or may be escaped by hypocrisy and self-righteousness either. Therefore, WHO is free to “elect” Dr. Tedros Adhanom of TPLF, not of Ethiopia, as its GD.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Author’s Note: This month the Ethiopian popular music megastar Tewdros “Teddy Afro” Kassahun released his “Ethiopia” album, which quickly topped the World Albums Billboard chart during the week of May 15. This “commentary” consists of an English translation of Tewdros’ recent Amharic interview with reporter Elias Meseret of EthioNewsflash following the release of that album.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Author’s Note: In this commentary, I make the case against Tedros Adhanom, a top leader of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front, a terrorist organization, who is a finalist for the director-general position at the World Health Organization.

By Tadesse Nigatu

“The symbols of modernity, in the form of steel mills, chemical plants, automobile factories or squadrons military aircraft can be purchased on the international market but development is a complex social process which rests in large part upon internal innovative capacities of a society. Imports of foreign ideas, values and technologies have a major part to play but few societies in history have developed exclusively on the basis of such imports. One of the major tasks of the developing nations is to create, nurture and more often than not to rehabilitate their internal capacity to invent and innovate” Nicolas Jequier^[1]

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.