Meles, is your Daughter part of the ''Somalia Picnic''?

Somalia: Militants Vow to Defeat Ethiopian Incursion: Somalia's Islamist Shebab rebels warned Ethiopia on Sunday they would "break the necks" of their troops inside Somalia, a day after several hundred soldiers crossed into the war-torn country.

Semehal-Meles Zenawi's daughter

Ethiopians are experiencing tremendous human rights, prosperity, freedom of expression, stability, employment opportunities, bumper harvest and the like ever since you came to power and accepted with humiliation the ''new breeds of democratic African leaders'' a buzz word which was coined to you and your counterparts in Eritrea, Uganda and Rwanda by the then American president Bill Clinton back then in 90s. We're deeply indebted for these extra-ordinary jobs executed by you and your hard-working, selfless, devoted and patriot colleagues who continue to work around the clock to make sure we eat three meals/day, express ourselves in various manners and outlets, organize ourselves, criticize our government regardless of its perfect nature, and above all not only protect us but also send our brothers/sisters on picnic to help our neighbors who are in trouble and requested for support- as the saying goes A neighbor in need, A neighbor indeed. Our troops jubilantly came back after they received hospitable welcome by our friendly Somali neighbors and successfully accomplished their picnic in Somalia as it shows in the above clip. However, there're rumors by the likes of allafrica.com, cnn.com, bbc.com etc that

I'm running a Morgue, Ethiopia's Ambassador to Lebanon!!!

RIP sisters,

Unfortunately, you're one of the over thousands of Ethiopian victims of such barbaric killings by oil-rich citizens of middle-eastern countries. These crimes have been going on for decades and they seem to increase as neither supplying countries like Ethiopia nor the petrol-rich Arab nations couldn't care less about the lives and security of people like you. How many million poor & desperate girls/women should die before the world say ENOUGH to these countries by taking tough measures to stop the killings, sexual & physical abuses, exploitation of our sisters and daughters? It seems like our sisters/daughters are the most disposable creatures in this world and organized criminals at Addis Ababa are reaping millions of $$$ profits out of these desperate girls/women. The killings & ''suicides'' of our sisters came just a day after an ''Ethiopian Ambassador'' in Lebanon told CNN that ''I'm no longer running an Embassy, I'm running a morgue''. Ethiopia is a land many surprises, here we go, it assigns an undertaker as an ''Ambassador'', please quite your job and apply for some job which fits your merits; right now you don't qualify for this noble job. How much we can take to be disgraced and laughing stock to the world? Surprisingly, his master at Arat Kilo palace pledged to work with the Saudi business partners to boost modern slavery, after having a regular health check up last August in Saudi-Arabia. The atrocities against Shewaye Mollah by Muammer Qaddafi's daughter and these latest reports , expose the true colors of those allegations of the housemaids committing ''suicides'' in the middle east countries. Sadly, girls like these ones will keep on fleeing to their death row as they have neither hope nor opportunities nor good governance nor justice back home. This is a choice between lesser evil.

Kuwaiti held after Ethiopian maid beaten to death

Breaking News: Ethiopia's ''Mohammed Bouazizi'' died yesterday

Ethiopia's '' Bouazizi''
set himself on fire on 11/11/11

His name is Yenesew Gebre, 29, Ethiopian elementary school teacher at a small village called Waka in Southern region of the country. He was fired and then imprisoned along with over 90 residents of the village last month by local officials for demanding the rule of law, good governance, and other human rights issues. He was released after the court couldn't find evidence against him while it kept the rest of the protesters including the elderly under police custody. Yenesew immolated himself on 11-11-11 in front of the local administration office in protest against the rulings of the court which still keep the rest of the prisoners. Unfortunately Yenesew died yesterday afternoon at a local hospital, called Terecha. Residents of Waka told VOA Amharic service yesterday that

Blame it on the UK, Ethiopia Charges Opposition Figures, Reporter With Terrorism!

Ethiopia Charges Opposition Figures, Reporter With Terrorism

Meles Zenawi already gave the verdict a month ago at his rubber-stamp Parliament; his kangaroo court is nothing but a circus to portray his legitimacy and the prevalence of the rule of law which is otherwise. These people have no shame, otherwise how on earth Ethiopia's best known sluggish judicial system all of sudden charge its ''defendants'' at speed of light. This shows the desperation of Zenawi & co to intimidate the remaining independent journalists, opposition members and above all he is signaling to the duo Swedes that he can do whatever he wants to do. Obviously, this's a preemptive tactic to contain the ever increasing pressure from inside and outside, which in some ways might buy him time but will never spare him from the fate of his fellow dictators. Thanks to Anti-Terrorism Law of England, which our country copied it ''word for word'', three prominent journalists including more than half a dozen opposition leaders and members are now behind bars. Neither English journalists nor opposition figures stopped functioning or the UK government has secret court hearings and prisons for offenders of its ''Anti-Terrorism'' law. The Arab Spring freed Libyans, Tunisians &  Egyptians from decades old shackles and now it's time for Horn Africa's

Adius humanity, Africans' lives worth nothing

Refugees face organ theft in the Sinai

CNN's Fred Pleitgen investigates human organ trafficking in Egypt's Sinai

Bedouin smugglers involved in people trafficking are also believed to be stealing organs from Eritrean refugees who are unable to pay their demands for large amounts of cash to take them into Israel

I thought I saw the worst but this CNN clip proved me wrong. I still couldn't believe how human beings do such barbaric and inhumane things to others. It doesn't get worse than this, it seems like Africans' lives are the cheapest and the most disposable on the whole planet. Most of these victims are refugees who are fleeing from Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Sudan where extrajudicial killings & imprisonments, torture, rape, famine, diseases, corruption, lack of freedom of speech, expression and religion as well as the rule of law are rampant. Unfortunately, a few make their dreams come true while others are end up like this or are being tortured, raped, exploited, imprisoned and killed by Libyan and Egyptian gangs on daily basis. The few ''lucky ones'' who made it to Israel have no guarantee of protection; instead the Egyptian & Israeli authorities are still deporting them back to hell on earth. I still don't understand what kind of crimes we, Africans do/did, to be treated like sub humans by our owns as well as the rest of human race. US led NATO and some of its allies waged war to protect Libyan civilians from Gaddafi's killing machines while they ignored sub-Saharan Africans to be butchered by their Libyan allies or drowned in thousands on Mediterranean sea. I read a story about an Ethiopian dad's plea to save his daughter's life at Yemeni hospital after he lost his wife along hundreds of Ethiopian, Somalian & Sudanese refugees on a capsized boat while on board to the gulf of Aden. The indifference and the silence towards such tragic incidents are so shocking and it feels like this has become so ''normal'' to the wider public and African life worth nothing.

''One becomes a vegetable'' Martin Schibbye

''One becomes a vegetable'' Martin Schibbye- this is how the Swedish Journalist described his, his colleague Johan Persson and other Ethiopian prisoners' daily life- to his wife during her brief recent visit at Kaliti (the worst prison in the world) when she went to attend the Meles Zenawi's kangaroo court hearing last week. Well, that's the whole idea of Zenawi's brutal regime's prisons. Thanks Linnea Schibbye Steiner for sharing what your beloved husband and many other inmates have been through in my country where organized criminals are terrorizing the whole nation under psydo-democracy, sham election and kangaroo courts. This's not something new to us; he did this hundreds times over the last 20years; a case in point: Meles & his clones made sure Ethiopia's renown surgeon Prof. Asrat Woldyes to vegetate in their prison until he was sick fatally, they imprisoned opposition and civil society leaders, journalists, ordinary citizens, teachers, farmers etc just to satisfy his sadistic and megalomaniac misdemeanor. What makes Zenawi's brutality different from the rest of his partners in crimes including his predecessor-Mengistu Hailemariam-is that his viciousness as well as using kangaroo courts and cooked up evidences as guises to torture, humiliate, degrade and kill slowly his victims psychologically and physically by dragging the court hearings for ever with his remote control. He always plays safe especially with cause celebére (not to mention his exceptional killing sprees) to deceive about his legitimacy and the prevalence of independent judiciary which is otherwise. This's what Meles & co. are doing to millions of Ethiopians on daily basis with impunity and ironically the world is parading him at single senseless meetings and conferences as a reward.

If it was Zimbabwe...

This's so typical predictable and laughable behavior of TPLF, it's always the police who is their witness to corroborate the ''cooked up charges''. Meles Zenawi & his stooges used their self-serving kangaroo court to deceive the world about the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law which are otherwise. They've such a short memory and gullible arrogance that they apply the same trick over and over thinking the rest of the world would believe what they're saying/doing at face value. How on earth journalists with camera train guerrilla fighters? It doesn't matter how many times they make a fool of themselves; otherwise they charged leaders of opposition parties and civil societies, peaceful demonstrators including journalists with treason and genocide after they themselves rigged the 2005 election and then in its aftermath killed over 200 people. A year or two later they accused Ethiopian pop star Teddy Afro with ''hit & run'' charge by placing a corpse on a road  he was driving home after arriving in Addis from a foreign tour. There're hundreds of such similar politically motivated cases unfortunately Johan Persson & Martin Schibbye are

Land-grabbing vs Ethiopian Journalists - Conspiracy of Silence or Conflict of Interests?

''Instead of asking per Diem, journalists have been bargaining with urban mayors to grab plots of land. Some of the journalists have grabbed massive plots of lands in different towns. Some of them gained not one or two plots of land; they grabbed eight to nine plots.” (ERTA reporter, personal communication, 14 July 2010). (Birhanu Olana, 482, 2010)*

This is an excerpt that I read on Facebook group (which I created for Ex-ETV journalists)  from a recently published research findings about new corrupt trends of Ethiopian journalists especially those who work for the government media. I'm still in shock and in disbelief (who wouldn't unless s/he is involved in such practices) that  was actually an account  from an Ethiopian TV (where I served myself as reporter/producer from 2000-2004) reporter. One plot of land, usually 200m2, would sell for 60,000 birr (about USD 5,000) on average. This means that a journalist who has grabbed nine plots of land could sell them for 540,000 birr (about USD 45,000) (Birhanu O., 482, 2010) which is unprecedented  fortune for any ordinary Ethiopian journalist.

Even though the findings revealed the wide-spread of corruption practices among Ethiopian journalists of both private and government owned media institutions, according to the researchers- an ex ETV employee, Birhanu Olana (who's doing his PhD at University of Sydney, Australia) and his reviewer Terje S. Skjerdal (a Norwegian media researcher)- those who work for the government media were/are not only involved in land-grabbing practices but also use systematic methods to cover it up. Another research which was conducted

The most Untouchables of the Horn of Africa

Many freedom and democracy loving people across the globe regardless of their- racial, religious, political, geographical creeds- cheered and applauded the courage, determination and sacrifices paid by revolutionaries of the Arab countries to make dictatorship a history even though it's too early to judge how event will turn out to be in due time. What's most striking and astonishing though is that peoples of these countries are much more better off socially, economically, politically than their counterparts in the horn of Africa namely The Sudan, Eritrea & my home country- Ethiopia. Regimes of all these 3 countries came by sword and run their respective countries with iron fist ever since they held power more than 2 decades ago. Genocide; human rights abuses; famine; disease; tortures; modern day slavery; extrajudicial killings and imprisonments, lack of the rule of law and freedom of expression are the hallmark of the trio nations and yet their power is as intact as before thanks to backings which are attached in different forms and shapes from China to USA from Russia to Quatar. What Gaddafi, Ben Ali and Mubarak did combined to their people is less than a quarter of what Al-Basher or Afewerki or Meles are doing each alone. Al-Bashir has been in killing spree ever since he held power, Afewerki take hostage of his ''liberated people'' after 30yrs of bloody war and Zenawi

Guess, who's Nobel Peace Prize winner of 2012?

Yesterday begun & ended with all bad news (blame it on my pessimism) and today it didn't get any better but I read some good news of lately on www.allafrica.com which says "Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been playing and could play in the global effort to resolve the crises in Sudan'', wow the world doesn't get any better. Hmm, it's too late for 2011 but it smells like Nobel Peace Prize winner of 2012 would be...let the world be surprised. Hurray, face it you hate monger diaspora Ethiopians Africa is gonna make history by winning Noble Peace Prize two years in a row. 

Regardless, such a testimony and praise would have been a surprise if it does come from a person other than Mehari Taddele Maru, a person who advocated indirectly against the indictment of Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court and denied his close ties with our pacifist prime minister in 2009. Hmm, maybe Ato Mehari is too busy to observe when Zenwai ordered to massacre peaceful demonstrators in 2005, invaded Somalia to exacerbate the situation, mime, kill, torture, rape civilians in Ogaden, Gambella, Oromia and elsewhere in the country. It's no secret about the recent widespread imprisonments of Ethiopian & foreign journalists, opposition party leaders, members & their supporters and other civilians by our benevolent premier at Arat Kilo unless such local issues are too trivial for your taste, Mr. Mehari. 

Just today the same on-line news provider published about  the 2000 Southern Sudanese  who are fleeing to Ethiopia, and one wonders how two conflicting reports are coming on the same day if Ethiopia's premier and his ''peace keeping'' armies are playing such a commendable role to resolve the conflict in that country. One wonders if our pacifist leader could play a role to resolve conflicts in neighboring countries and across the world, what makes it impossible to do it at home? Isn't charity begin at home?  

''Justice means minding one's own business and not meddling with other men's concerns.'' Plato  

 

I should go to bed and dream how we're gonna celebrate Africa's sorry Ethiopia's first ever Nobel Peace Prize in 2012. Good night/day

   

Ethiopia: Keeping Peace in Abyei - the Role and Contributions of State: Since February 2011, Abyei and South Kordofan, oil rich disputed border areas of South Sudan and Sudan, witnessed an intensive military clash between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) forces and the military of the Government of Sudan (GoS). This reached a tipping point when the GoS forces took control of the town of Abyei in May 2011. Since then violent military confrontations have become the hallmark of the relationship between the North and South Sudan.

Neo-Slavery in the making, Saudi style

My employer (which I don't have:)) tells me what to and not do with my wage? This world is not getting any funnier than never. What's more even surprising is that this news comes from one of oil-rich countries in the world- Saudi Arabia- greed has no limits; as if the existing exploitation of migrant workers is not enough, the country is planning to limit the remittances these poor people are sending back home either to pay their debt and/or support their poor families. When I read this news what came to my mind was the agreement which was recently signed between Saudi & Ethiopian officials to recruit more Ethiopian maids as the Philippines & Indonesian governments banned any agency from sending their citizens to that country. Well, our so called ''government'' doesn't care less about ''its citizens'' even though there're quite good number of well documented evidences that show migrant workers who are/were either underpaid or not paid at all because of various irregularities. Nevertheless, now the Saudi riches don't even have little mercy to allow these poor people to pay their debts or support their families with the little they have left with. Is it another form of Neo-slavery in the making? The Saudis literally own these poor migrant workers by holding their passport & travel documents but that's not enough so they devised a law which controls these poor people's financial privacy to tighten their control on them. They've zillions of money/gold/diamonds everything that money can buy and now they want more, from the last persons, anybody with sane mind can't even contemplate to do so. The day started with bad news and now ending with such heartless & greedy nature of human-being.I hope tomorrow would be a better day, with some good news Incha'allah

Saudi Limits Remittances:
Saudi Arabia announced recently that it will limit the income migrant workers are permitted to send home. The Labour Minister stated the new “Salary Protection Program” will prevent the ‘exodus’ of wealth leaving the nation in the form of remittances. He did not specify the percentage of income required to remain in Saudi, but it will be the majority. The new law represents another mechanism of control beyond the legal and social constraints already imposed onto foreign workers.

Are you still there God?

I woke up today hoping it's gonna be a new and bright day but alas I was wrong the first news that I watched this morning was about court hearings of the homicide of 13years old Ethiopian girl named Hannah by her American adoptive ''parents'' which took place some months ago. I couldn't help myself but thinking how could someone has the courage to resist and dare to switch off such contagious smile from his/her ''daughter''? Some of the evidences show that she was tortured, starved to death before she died of hypothermia left in the cold outside in the field. The "mother" told 911 that her "rebellious daughter" killed herself and all this cruelty is done in the name of God and there's no better place than Ethiopia to execute such sadistic feat on an innocent, helpless and desperate child. The mafiosi @ Arat Kilo sell everything from that country including its ''citizens'' to the least bidder as long as it means $$$. I was like why is life so mean to our girls/women regardless of which continent they live, statistics show Ethiopian housemaids are the majority victims of sexual, physical and other abuses by their middle-eastern employers. Thousands of Adoption and recruitment agencies run by the thugs & co are busy exporting our girls/sisters to whomever without either doing background check or follow-ups about the human-beings they're trafficking. There're thousands of Hannahs all over the world who're doomed to be abused, enslaved, tortured, starved to death due to the greedy adoptions/recruitment agencies and their boss at the top who care about nothing but profit at the expense of desperate and helpless Ethiopians. Some of the children are not even orphans but their parents are being lured by these organized criminals promising them a better life and future for their kids in America and Europe. OK Suppose Hannah was orphan who had nowhere to live or was on the street but I'm sure her death wouldn't have been this tragic if she stayed back @ home or would have been still smiling if there was a responsible adoption agency tracked her updates on a regular base. I wonder what ''God" (if it exists) is doing when such grotesque crimes are being committed on daily basis on his/her children on his/her name. I hope Hannah's blood and others didn't shed in vain and let these criminals & their accomplices pay due prices.

Developmental arrests, coming soon

I was watching ETV (Ethiopian Television) on-line last Sunday morning to relieve my homesickness and get "informed" about recent ''development'' & ''progress'' of my country, while baking Enjera (Ethiopia's traditional spongy bread). I was enjoying listening the music (major slot of ETV) and all of a sudden I heard this intro of the ''Parliament" program which I hate not only to watch but used to detest whenever I was assigned to report on its boring "proceedings" or produce a program about it back then when I was working @ ETV. Anyway, I let it go as I can't afford my Enjera get burned but then I heard this familiar angry voice bullying

A country founded by refugees, is deporting refugees.

Wow, what a day even Israel forgets its past and sending back Eritrean refugees to endanger their lives? The world never gets any better for the refugees. This is one of the worst ridiculous justifications I ever heard to deport refugees without even considering how  human rights records both countries are deteriorating every single day. It doesn't matter from which country they claimed they come from, it's a well documented fact that Ethiopia & Eritrea are led by war time partners turned out arch-foe nemesis dictators who came to power 20yrs ago. These duo tyrants are best known power mongers, human rights abusers, killers, jailers who're starving their own people and running their respective countries with iron grip where dissent and criticism of their brutal regimes are not only crimes but also an excuse to kill, jail, harass, torture, rape and starve. I thought Israel knows best what's going on in these two countries due to its proximity and is one of the safe haven to refugees; it proves me wrong. How could they send back Eritrean youths to one of prison-states in the world where there's indefinite forced military service, no freedom of expression nor religion, no constitution, modern slavery and deliberate food deprivation. I thought Israel, a country founded Jewish refugees across the globe, is the last country to deport refugees. History will judge you for every man/woman's life you put in danger. Don't forget what goes around, comes around.  Eritreans turned down for asylum after Ethiopia claims refugees as their own - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Bad News for Refugees/Migrant workers...

I logged in into my twitter after breakfast (my daily routine) this morning and I started to skim my updates well blame it on my attraction to negative news but I found out that it's yet another gloomy day for refugees/migrant workers which becomes normal these days because of the world's indifference towards fellow "human-beings". I just read on Guardian about the threat to deport Ethiopian and Somali asylum seekers by South African countries and then time chronicles daily horrific ordeals of Syrian refugees who're scared of being  kidnapped by by Assad's cronies on a broad-light from Turkey and then I read on migrant-right about certain housemaids from Africa (I suspect they're from my country as it's the main exporter of humans in that continent) who abscond to their Embassy in Kuwait due to abuse and some work related irregularities with their employers. The list can go on and on but our miseries is getting from bad to worse especially at a time of global economic crisis like this. We are forgotten and ignored as if we don't exist nor deserve to live a decent life like any human-being. How long shall we suffer/die/starved/abused/raped/tortured before the world say ENOUGH to dictators who subject us to such endless miseries? It's a shame fellow mankind become dehumanized at such extreme and show no empathy while others are being forced to flee their country by tyrants like Assad, Abdula Salah, etc and yet we can't even have safe haven and protection in those hosting countries. It seems things don't get to get better, but let's dream the dream, one day we'll be treated like any human-being and live with freedom, respect and dignity.        

Good luck Ali Talebs, but...

Ali Talebs, an Iraqi asylum seeker journalist who was about to be deported last week, got a decision that his case might be seen again by the Swedish immigration board. He sought asylum because of the death threats he received from some of Islamic factions in his home country Iraq some years ago but also followed him even to this country. But all this was not enough for the authorities, it's amazing. They took him to the detention center south of Sweden but due to the pressure from Sweden's branch office of Reporters sans Frontiers and others, they agreed to reopen his case.I hope this time his ordeal will end enjoy life freely.
When I read such news once in a while I can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel; otherwise it's so gloomy and hopeless. I'm stuck where I was 6yrs ago and I don't even know where to start or to end. I lost my past and future, it's the price I'm paying every single day hoping to live in freedom and I know there're millions of people who are in the same or even worse situations. It feels like everyday is a bad nightmare which never ends, my hands are tied, my mouth is sealed, my eyes blindfolded and I was wondering how long should I bare this pain. Life is too short and I'm not any younger, is it time pack up and face the inevitable or die slowly longing for that freedom which I may never experience? Damn, you do it, damn you don't do it as the saying goes. I'm just tired...
Utvisningshotade journalisten Ali Taleb får ny chans
Den utvisningshotade irakiske journalisten och filmaren Ali Taleb får sitt ärende prövat igen. Det beskedet kom från Migrationsverket under fredagen.
– Det är mycket glädjande och nu hoppas att jag att Migrationsverket går igenom Alis fall ordentligt och inser att han har fullgoda skyddsskäl, säger Barbara Alhachami, Ali Talebs juridiska ombud.
Enligt Migrationsverkets beslut så skulle Ali Taleb ha skickats tillbaka till Bagdad tillsammans med flera andra irakier tidigt på onsdagsmorgonen i förra veckan. Men dagen innan fick Ali Taleb, som då tagits av polisen till förvar i södra Sverige, besked...

Ethiopian housemaids are treated much worse than anybody in middle-east.

Hi John Leonard
Thanks a lot for your dedicated and authentic reports about migrant workers in the middle-east which is almost forgotten/ignored by the mainstream media as well as recruiting and supplying countries. Unfortunately, there are not many journalists like who're fully committed to exposing such shameful and barbaric human right abuses which have been perpetrated on our sisters/daughters by the wealthy of mid-east countries for such a long time. What's even worse is that these poor illiterate, desperate girls/women were/are also ignored by staff members of their respective Embassies/consulates who're paid to protect/safeguard their right/lives in those countries. Even though it's very obvious that the situations are much even worse for Ethiopian housemaids than Filipinos in the middle-eastern countries; the government is aggressively exporting its citizens for modern slavery. Would you please also do some stories about Ethiopian housemaids who're languishing at the hands of their ''employers'' or/and prisons in the mid-east countries especially in Lebanon where there're mounting evidences that depict the miseries of our sisters/daughters?

30 Distressed Fililpino workers seek repatriation:
There are 30 plus distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), all women, in Oman temporarily seeking refuge at the Philippine Embassy’s Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC), according to a Filipino migrants rights group providing assistance to distressed and abused OFWs.

Kudos Filipino workers!

This is one of the very reasons why the rich Saudis banned the recruitment of Filipino house-maids, you showed them that you don't take any nonsense and be treated like slaves-thumbs up once again. Unfortunately or fortunately, they're not short of supplies, recently the Saudis revealed their about their plans to import thousands of Ethiopian housemaids to satisfy the ever increasing demands and there's no other best place other than Ethiopia where the country is selling its children to the least bidders as if the sufferings/killings/maims/body mutilations of Ethiopian housemaids in the middle-eastern countries over several years were not enough. Sadly, most of our girls and women are poor, illiterate, desperate and innocent and that's why they were/are subjected to enormous amounts of such abuses by their "employers" for too long and I'm sure fellow expat workers from other countries follow your suits and fight for their rights, freedom, dignity. Endless physical & verbal abuses, tortures, rapes, imprisonments, exploitations, etc of expat workers by their middle-eastern ''employers'' on daily basis were/are given blind eye by the media because of the cursed petrodollar. Because most of expat workers especially domestic housemaids are uneducated, desperate, poor and vulnerable, they're the easiest preys of greedy ''agents'' and their clients in the middle-east. This should ring an alarm bell to the riches of mid-east countries that they will pay a heavy price for every single human-being they abused, mutilated, raped, starved, enslaved, disfigured, exploited without payments, etc sometime soon. The choice is theirs if they want to die ungracefully like their pariah Gaddafi.

‘Overseas Filipino workers joining ‘occupy’ movement abroad inevitable

Thus, said today by a Filipino migrants’ rights group in the Middle East as the ‘occupy’ movement around the world gains support from various groups and sectors denouncing ‘corporate greed’ by big businesses and establishments who got control most of a nation’s wealth.
“The birth of an ‘occupy’ movement in major cities of Third World countries including the Philippines, given the dire socio-economic condition of the workers who are exploited and oppressed, is almost expected,” Monterona ended. # # #
Written by:
John Leonard Monterona
Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator

Don't forget the Ethiopian Journalists jailed along with Johan & Martin!!!

Thanks for your detailed reportage about Ethiopia's infamous ''anti-terrorist law'' and one of its masterminds aka Berket Simon. I heard his partner in crimes-Meles Zenawi- this morning saying that Ethiopia's “anti-terrorist” is a direct copy of such laws of England and the USA but we've never seen these countries arresting their citizen journalists who're interviewing/interviewed leaders of terrorists organizations including Osama Bin Laden-the most wanted and recently killed terrorist in the world. These people are pathological lairs who say something in the morning and negate in the afternoon. It's not about breaking/respecting the law; it's rather how to flex their muscles to everybody including their allies in Europe and America and thereby give a lesson to everyone they're not to mess with. Having said, your report was below my expectations because I was expecting you would mention about other Ethiopian journalists such as Eskinder Nega, Reyoot Aelmu & Woubshet Taye who are jailed with the same charges of Johan & Martin; unless some follow-up stories sometimes ahead. Almost half of the airtime was given to the causes of ONLF which I don't have problem with but I was wondering if you are trying to execute what Johan & Martin were unable to do. I was so hopeful to listen about the chilling effects of this ridiculous law on Ethiopian journalists and the lack of freedom of speech in that country.Here's the link for the full reportage

The Silence of The Swedish Media, Is it conspiracy of silence or political correctness?

I've been (of course many Ethiopians across the globe) passionately following about the jailed Swedish journalists since day one not only because they're fellow journalists but also for the very same reason that they are human-beings whose lives are being endangered like hundreds of thousands of arbitrarily arrested Ethiopian prisoners. Many of us showed/continue our protests in different forms (petitions, demonstration, etc) at home and abroad through different mediums such as social networks & mainstream medias etc. Unfortunately, I see/saw neither empathy nor solidarity nor media coverage from our counterparts in Sweden. I tried to raise this issue by commenting on their websites and blogs but a few are interested even to publish my comments.

Astonishingly, I saw cry baby newstories on twitter these couple of days which complain that J & M court hearings were not covered by the local Ethiopian media. Doesn't that sound so egocentric? I was like seriously and I started to do my little research on Google. For a starter, Ethiopian journalists are living under dictatorship and secondly some of them even dared to publish/air about the hearing; didn't J & M's story get much coverage that's another story. Well, google search results show who's covering whose story as follows. I tried advanced search to minimize search errors and to limit to certain search locations (Ethiopia, Stockholm, Sweden) and languages but unfortunately Amharic- the official language of Ethiopia- is not listed on google's language lists so I chosen any language. Unfortunately, most of media outlets in Ethiopia don't have their own website and mainly use the local languages and for that reason google's result include aggregates from different websites/blogs across the globe even though I tried to limit the location to Addis Ababa. Let's start google's search results of J & M's story coverage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Johan Persson's google advanced search result in Addis Ababa brings 525 hits

His colleague's result on the other hand gives around 511 hits

Here's google search results of Eskinder Nega, Reyoot Alemu & Woubshet Taye in Sweden since last month

surprise, Eskinder Nega the renown Ethiopian blogger/journalists gives 5 hits: Svd & arbetaren zenit were generous

Reyoot Alemu an English teacher/columnist of Fetih newspaper who was arrested on similar charges of J &M and her google search results in Sweden gives 1 hit

Meanwhile Woushet Taye of Awramba who was arrested along with Reyoot gets one hit from google search in Sweden.

Let's see J & M's google search result in their home country and do the math to compare with their counterparts results of Ethiopians

Guess what Johan's results is 400,000 hits and Martin's result isn't far less. Let's be fair the proportion of media coverages of Ethiopians v Swedes is 1 to 100K. On the other hand J & M score a swooping more than 500 google hit results in Ethiopia and as everybody see their Ethiopian counterparts hit results are nowhere in the Swedish media and yet these same media outlets which ignored and are/were indifferent about the miseries of Ethiopian journalists are waynning about the lack of coverages to their kins' case in the Ethiopian media. One can see how the Swedish media foregrounded and out-poured zillions of opinions, expertise, comments about J & M's imprisonment through various methods to earn local and international sympathy while deliberately sidelining/downplaying about the rest of Ethiopian journalists who have been charged with the same crimes. I wonder if it's a conspiracy of silence or political correctness not to anger the spoiled boy in Addis. It's not only untrue that there's a lack of coverage on J & M's case by Ethiopian media but also unfair and selfish to ask them (some of them which risked to do stories) to beat up their chest provided they're living in one of the countries listed as the worst enemy of journalists.