Americans & Us, the Tales of Two Worlds

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” 

 George Orwell, Animal Farm

I think this famous saying had been practiced since antiquities and I'm afraid it will continue to be the unwritten rule of human kingdom in the years to come; many of us wish it won't but it seems too far-fetched that it will happen in this generation or in the next one. Even though, we're supposed to be from the same family - human - and should have been treated as equals regardless of our differences; there are some people from certain countries whom we treat them more than equals - the Americans. 

Ethiopian & Swedish Journalists vs an American

Ethiopia found 24 prisoners conscious guilty of terrorism charges on June 27/2012.

The trumped up Ethiopian court found guilty prominent dissident blogger and this years Pen-American honored journalist Eskinder Nega and leading members of the political opposition, Andualem Arage and Nathnael Mekonnen, along with five other men, on charges of "terrorist acts, "encouragement of terrorism", "high treason" and several other charges last week on June 27th 2012. 

16 men were found guilty in absentia, including several exiled journalists and one human rights activist. The verdict follows the conviction of five dissidents on similar charges in January. These innocent citizens will be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted.  

The Duo Swedish Journalists marked their one year imprisonment in Ethiopia on June 30/2012

On a related news the two Swedish journalists namely Martin Schbbiye and Johan Persson marked their one year unlawful imprisonment on 30th June 2012 at the infamous Kaliti prison. The duo Swedes were sentenced to eleven years jail term, are being tortured psychologically and forced to waste their most precious times on herbal farm of the prison since it takes  the "clemency" processes, they've been planning to request might take 2-2.5 years from sentence to release. Their alleged "crimes" were entering the country illegally and promoting "terrorism".  

VOA correspondent and his translator detained and released on May 26 2012 in less 24hours. 

Nobody still knows whether it was out of stupidity or bravado that the shameless Ethiopians authorities arrested on charges “illegal reporting” on the eve of May 26th veteran VOA correspondent Peter Heinlein and translator Simegineh Yekoye as they were leaving a mosque on the outskirts of Addis Ababa;  a government spokesman accused Heinlein, who is married to a Danish diplomat, of improperly using a diplomatic vehicle and refusing to show media accreditation. But wait a minute all those ridiculous charges were dropped at a speed of light and our colleague, Heinlein is now free like a bird unlike we Ethiopians and our counterpart the two Swedes. I think our friends at Arat Kilo palace later on realized that there are some animals who are more equal than others and fortunately Heinlein happened to be one of them. Just one call from the American

Embassy in Addis and he was released; he didn't need no endless demonstrations, condemnations by freedom right groups, petitions or whatever lobbying we've been doing for the release of Ethiopian & Swedish journalists which didn't make any difference to date. I'm not here to contest his release but rather to showcase how this world functions. In Ethiopia, it doesn't matter how big or small your alleged "crime" is; as long as you are from a wrong Animal species, you'll end up in one of the worst prisons of the country. If Heinlein was an Ethiopian, a Swede, a Canadian or another citizen; he could have been cramped in with over 250 dangerous inmates, sleeping on a concrete floor and rats jumping over him.