Saturday, January 28
The Natural Language of Dictatorship
January 23
EthioMedia reports Bomb Blasts in Addis.
If we are to believe the ruling party then we should somehow accept that forces of violence are constantly and relentlessly morphing between diverse identities such as revanchist tribalists bent on genocide and treason, agents of the Dergue, the Eritrean government and of the former Monarchy who do these bad things because they are inspired by the European Union.
We're not making up any of the above charges.
The only thing missing is branding the victims as agents of Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter infamy or as part of an unreformed Klingon / Romulan alliance from the Star Trek universe. Every observer, particular supporters of the government know all of these lies and their profound level of absurdity very well. Every Foreign Ministry and every Embassy who has any conception of the oppostion and the government knows the charges to be lies as well.
As we have said before, for Ethiopia's rulers, Politics is a Continuation of War by other Means. The language that the government is most fluent and the debates it finds most comforting have nothing to do with region or ethnicity but are best translated as the stuttering echos of AK-47s, the wailing of the bereaved and screams of the tortured.
The Ethiopian opposition has never shown any inclination towards violence of any sort and indeed that is their greatest strength. Confronted with a powerful moral national force opposed to it the government has for a decade and a half and most aggressively of late tried to change the subject from the popular will to one of war.
This fits in with the dubious and reflexively unheeded calls for another generation of popular struggle and ruin in guerrilla warfare. All such efforts only serve to further shift the rules of the game exactly to the bloody ground where the government is most free and to serve as a backdrop for discrediting the opposition in cases of staged terror such as these bombings.
When we hear that the opposition can go into the bush and fight for power or that La Lutta Continua from the Prime Minister while other untenable, absurd and fevered charges of genocide are thrown about what we are hearing is the language of war. That is what the government speaks best and what it is best at - that is all far more familiar ground than democracy or human rights for permanent revolutionaries.
For a decade and a half much Western and particularly American attention to Ethiopia have centered on Washington's Lethal Delusions of Stability where the current regime serves as a bulwark against terrorism and other bad things. Like the fake bombings before these at Police stations and elsewhere at the time of the 'election' the purpose is to put that Politburo inflated and purposefully manipulated issue of national disintegration and of the entire Horn of Africa in flames squarely before the West.
It is all meant to be a threat to Ethiopians and the world. In a sense it matters little if anyone believes the government set off the bombs or not. Actually the threat of instability is even more ominous if the government is definitely seen as guilty by those whose larger policy considerations make them want to believe the opposite. This is the equivalent of a Mafia protection racket firebombing a business as a general warning to those who think they don't require that particular brand of protection.
The Ethiopian government has 70 million hostages in its protection racket.
It will kill and threaten tens of thousands to stay in power and kill and threaten millions more just like them for another day at the wheel of a vast machine of corrupt power and cash. It is possible that the grenades used were left over from the Dergue's armories.
More likely they were purchased with Western aid money meant for budget support, siphoned off other aid or taken directly from the massive slush fund that is the reality of the party / government / crony control of an entire national economy and every square inch of land.
Politics of peace, accountability, liberal democracy, the rule of law and responsibility are concepts as utterly alien and undecipherable to this government as whale songs are to street gangs. These bombings certainly do have a lot to do with the opposition - they are meant to discredit the combined will of the Ethiopian people of every ethnicity, region and religion so that all observers will step aside as the vicious Beast of Revolutionary Democracy stalks the land laying waste to all before it.
Why do we even mention the West? Well European, American and Japanese taxpayers are financing this government that cherishes the suffering of its people like the storied clans of beggars who mutilate their children for a better market share of pity. The only constituency of the regime besides the revolutionary feudal aristocracy is abroad leaving Ethiopians themselves far out of the loop of any imaginable civic contract where they simply don't know their place at the bottom of a pyramid of graft and violence.
Watch for the absurd theater coming right up where the words of the government will be repeated as though anyone believes them.
EthioMedia reports Bomb Blasts in Addis.
The windows of a Commercial Bank of Ethiopia were shattered when a bomb exploded in the Teklehaimanot-located building, which also houses the famed Assab Restaurant.Satisfy My Soul {ego} reports Explosions in Addis
Another bomb went off at a medical students' dormitory of Black Lion Hospital but there were no known casualties. Witnesses said students were seen clearing the debris.
The location of the second bomb is now official. ... A grenade was thrown into Black Lion High School Hospital Student Dormatory in the night. Both incidents involve a grenade.Both wonder about who set off the explosions. During every incident so far when the regime has massacred Ethiopians in the streets since the fake election of 2005 there have been claims that government use of combat units with assault rifles, snipers, and .50 caliber heavy machine guns against innocents was justified because grenades were allegedly thrown.
If we are to believe the ruling party then we should somehow accept that forces of violence are constantly and relentlessly morphing between diverse identities such as revanchist tribalists bent on genocide and treason, agents of the Dergue, the Eritrean government and of the former Monarchy who do these bad things because they are inspired by the European Union.
We're not making up any of the above charges.
The only thing missing is branding the victims as agents of Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter infamy or as part of an unreformed Klingon / Romulan alliance from the Star Trek universe. Every observer, particular supporters of the government know all of these lies and their profound level of absurdity very well. Every Foreign Ministry and every Embassy who has any conception of the oppostion and the government knows the charges to be lies as well.
As we have said before, for Ethiopia's rulers, Politics is a Continuation of War by other Means. The language that the government is most fluent and the debates it finds most comforting have nothing to do with region or ethnicity but are best translated as the stuttering echos of AK-47s, the wailing of the bereaved and screams of the tortured.
The Ethiopian opposition has never shown any inclination towards violence of any sort and indeed that is their greatest strength. Confronted with a powerful moral national force opposed to it the government has for a decade and a half and most aggressively of late tried to change the subject from the popular will to one of war.
This fits in with the dubious and reflexively unheeded calls for another generation of popular struggle and ruin in guerrilla warfare. All such efforts only serve to further shift the rules of the game exactly to the bloody ground where the government is most free and to serve as a backdrop for discrediting the opposition in cases of staged terror such as these bombings.
When we hear that the opposition can go into the bush and fight for power or that La Lutta Continua from the Prime Minister while other untenable, absurd and fevered charges of genocide are thrown about what we are hearing is the language of war. That is what the government speaks best and what it is best at - that is all far more familiar ground than democracy or human rights for permanent revolutionaries.
For a decade and a half much Western and particularly American attention to Ethiopia have centered on Washington's Lethal Delusions of Stability where the current regime serves as a bulwark against terrorism and other bad things. Like the fake bombings before these at Police stations and elsewhere at the time of the 'election' the purpose is to put that Politburo inflated and purposefully manipulated issue of national disintegration and of the entire Horn of Africa in flames squarely before the West.
It is all meant to be a threat to Ethiopians and the world. In a sense it matters little if anyone believes the government set off the bombs or not. Actually the threat of instability is even more ominous if the government is definitely seen as guilty by those whose larger policy considerations make them want to believe the opposite. This is the equivalent of a Mafia protection racket firebombing a business as a general warning to those who think they don't require that particular brand of protection.
The Ethiopian government has 70 million hostages in its protection racket.
It will kill and threaten tens of thousands to stay in power and kill and threaten millions more just like them for another day at the wheel of a vast machine of corrupt power and cash. It is possible that the grenades used were left over from the Dergue's armories.
More likely they were purchased with Western aid money meant for budget support, siphoned off other aid or taken directly from the massive slush fund that is the reality of the party / government / crony control of an entire national economy and every square inch of land.
Politics of peace, accountability, liberal democracy, the rule of law and responsibility are concepts as utterly alien and undecipherable to this government as whale songs are to street gangs. These bombings certainly do have a lot to do with the opposition - they are meant to discredit the combined will of the Ethiopian people of every ethnicity, region and religion so that all observers will step aside as the vicious Beast of Revolutionary Democracy stalks the land laying waste to all before it.
Why do we even mention the West? Well European, American and Japanese taxpayers are financing this government that cherishes the suffering of its people like the storied clans of beggars who mutilate their children for a better market share of pity. The only constituency of the regime besides the revolutionary feudal aristocracy is abroad leaving Ethiopians themselves far out of the loop of any imaginable civic contract where they simply don't know their place at the bottom of a pyramid of graft and violence.
Watch for the absurd theater coming right up where the words of the government will be repeated as though anyone believes them.
# posted by ethiopundit : 1/28/2006
