By Belayneh Abate
May 14, 2021
“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied” John Stuart Mill
It was 22 years ago today that His Excellency Professor Asrat Woldeyes, who vividly saw the forthcoming Amara Genocide and the dreadful fate of Amaras if they do not organize and defend themselves died.
On the other hand, many of you the Amara intellectuals are living the lives of pigs even at this time when Amaras are slaughtered and displaced everywhere in the country.
In fact, some of you serve dictators that committed genocide, ethnic cleansing, massacre, torture and forced sterilizations of Amaras. Similarly, some of you bribed and fell under the knees of criminal rulers just to open businesses and buy pieces of lands to build your villas on the coffins of the people your masters massacred.
Some of you supported when Legesse Zenawi, the Iscariot Judas of Ethiopia, barked “a physist who seeks to know about what is happening in Bale is no more a physist.” Majority of you kept silent and continued to eat your Kitfo when this racist traitor picked up the race hammer and dismissed 42 indispensable professors from Addis Ababa University. [1] To make the matter worse, some of you became vocal cadres of Zenawi to take the positions of the dismissed professors and to crush down the voices of students and principled faculty members who stood firm for the unity and sovereignty of our nation.
When professor Asrat established an organization to stop the madness running in the country, many of you picked up your knives and forks to eat him alive. While your tongue was bridled to speak against power, you attempted to teach the veteran physician and surgeon [4 ] about human body, race and gene.
Your shameful story did not stop there: When Legesse’s Ethiopian People Democratic Front (EPRDF) committed genocide and ethnic cleansing on Amaras, Agniwaks and the people of Ogaden, you kept silent driving your luxurious cars in Ethiopia, America, Europe, Canada, Australia, South Africa and many other places. [3-15]
Even the animal pigs grunt in disgust when they foresee omen of slaughter in the communities of pigs. But you refused to breath a word out when Ethiopians’ bodies were hanged upside down, their legs amputated, their skins grilled, their organs sterilized, their ears deafened, and their eyes blinded in infested prisons for nearly three decades. [3-15]
You know you consumed the poor people’s fund for your education, but you slept like Canada bears when the ethnic-based rule of EPRDF displaced three million innocent Ethiopians and massacred hundreds within the last two years. [16] You continue to live your luxurious lives as if nothing has happened to the very people that fed, hugged, kissed and carried you from cradle to adulthood.
You kept quiet and continued to live your luxurious lives when beasts evicted thousands of Amara university students and kidnapped many female students. [17-29] You devote your time and money to overindulge your stomach and acquire material satisfaction in life while the families of the kidnapped students suffer from EPRDF’s ethnic-based Hell of rules.
You continued to hibernate and drink your beer and whisky while Lake Tana and Abay are drying in a speed of electrons. [30-31] Some of you continued to preach about the damn dam non-stop instead of working hard to save the streams. You failed to realize no damn dams in the absence of the graceful Blue Nile falls.
You slept like Canada bear when hundreds of thousands of Amaras were massacred and buried with a lesser dignity than dogs in Kadra Wonz, Metkele, Wolega, Ataye and many other places.
Disgusted by the nature of individuals like you, John Mill once said, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.” This philosopher of the Enlightenment era was right when he juxtaposed glutenous pigs with selfish dudes, who sell their souls for material wealth. Like the story of yours, the history of pigs reads “pigs lived eating everything with no conscience and died leaving no traces of footprints.”
The intellectual Amaras! Your flesh will perish and the extended belly in front of you will be the food of termites in the graves one day! Please stop living the lives of pigs and start living the lives of Asrat and his likes. Thank you .
End Notes:
1. Human Rights Watch, Chilling free expression and free opinion in universities: https://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ethiopia0103/ethiopia0103-06.htm (last accessed on June 10, 2020)
2. The University of Edinburgh Asrat Woldeyes (1928-1999) Eminent surgeon and university dean turned political opponent who stood for unity in Ethiopian https://www.ed.ac.uk/alumni/services/notable-alumni/alumni-in-history/asrat-woldeyes (Las accessed on June 10, 2020)
3. ሰብአዊ መብት ጉባኤ ሪፖርት 2008 ዓ.ም. http://ehrco.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/HRCO-141st-Special-Report-Amharic-Sene-01-2008.pdf (Last accessed in June, 2020)
4. Protest Crack Down killed hundreds, Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/15/ethiopia-protest-crackdown-killed-hundreds (Last accessed in June, 2020)
5. Extrajudicial executions, Arbitray arests and detntions Amnesty International (Last accessed in April, 2020) https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/ethiopia/report-ethiopia/ (Last accessed in June, 2020)
6. Ethiopia, Police Open fire on Protesters https://freedomhouse.org/article/ethiopia-police-open-fire-protesters (Last accessed in June, 2020)
7. Genocide watch documents on Ethiopia http://www.genocidewatch.org/ethiopia.html (Last accessed in June, 2020)
8. Three million Amhars Missing, Berhanu Abegaz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-g-YWYBdbM (Last accessed in June, 2020)
9. Three Million Amara are Missing: An Analysis based on the 1994 and the 2007 Ethiopian Population Censuses , Berhanu Abegaz , http://ethiomedia.com/101facts/4513 9 (Last accessed in June, 2020)
10. Human right violation of Amharas Muluken Tesfaw http://video.ethsat.com/?p=24983 (Last accessed in June, 2020)
11. Amara Genocide in Bedeno Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcZJIfUkx9M (Last accessed in June, 2020)
12. Amara Masscre in Arba gugu video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3v9jcDAmDI (Last accessed in June, 2020)
13. The impact of Cervical Cancer Prevention Vaccine in Amara Region.: Ambar https://www.ambapu.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/አምባ%20HPV%20Vaccine%20in%20Ethiopia_1.pdf (Last accessed in June 2020)
14. Aguak Massacre http://www.anuakjustice.org/(Last accessed in June 2020)
15. Torture in Ogaden Jail: we are like dead” the Guardian https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/07/04/we-are-dead/torture-and-other-human-rights-abuses-jail-ogaden-somali-regional ( last accessed in June, 2020)
16. Los Angeles Times: Ethnic violence in Ethiopia has forced nearly 3 million people from their homes https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-ethiopia-ethnic-violence-millions-displaced-20190530-story.html (last accessed June, 2020)
17. New York Times, January 30, 2020 Abduction of Ethiopian Students Fuels Anger at the Government www.nytimes.com › africa › ethiopia-students-kidnapped (Last accessed in June 2020)
18. BBC kidnapped students https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51411720#:~:text=On%204%20December%20last%20year,Dolo%20University%20in%20western
%20Ethiopia.&text=The%20students%2C%20mostly%20ethnic%20Amharas,is%20located%20in
%20Oromia%20region. (Last accessed in June 2020)
19. Reuters: Kidnaping of Ethiopian Students:https://www.reuters.com/article/ us-ethiopia-students/ kidnapping-of-students-sparks-anti-government-protests-in-ethiopia-idUSKBN1ZV3O5 (Last accessed in June 2020)
20. Christianity today: Ethiopians Protest Church Burnings as Ethnic Tensions Risehttps://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/november/ethiopia-protests-abiy-nobel-peace-tewahedo-meskel-sidama.html(Last accessed in June 2020)
21. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/01/ethiopia-justice-needed-deadly-october-violence# (Last accessed in June 2020)
22. Los Angeles Times: Ethnic violence in Ethiopia has forced nearly 3 million people from their homes https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-ethiopia-ethnic-violence-millions-displaced-20190530-story.html (Last accessed in June 2020)
23.Human Rights Watch: Abiy’s First Year as Prime Minister, Review of Conflict and Internally Displaced Persons
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/09/ethiopia-abiys-first-year-prime-minister-review-conflict-and-internally-displaced (Last accessed in June 2020)
24. U tube video: Interview with Elsa Kebede: Nefitegnas are considered as Invaders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-pzzg4B_Og&fbclid=IwAR1lLfN3LUnOPK1Dd66kAKEvJk3YcJEaNaBNypBXDzYu3sq4h7lXdAvD1sk (Last accessed in June 2020)
25. org: Non-Sidama not wanted? https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2019/11/07/Ethiopia-ethnic-autonomy-Sidama-Abiy (Last accessed in June 2020)
26. The Africa Report: Housing demolitions cause cracks in Abiy’s regime https://www.theafricareport.com/379/ethiopia-housing-demolitions-cause-cracks-in-abiys-regime/
27. Garoweonline: Ethiopian University Suspends Learning https://www.garoweonline.com/en/news/world/africa/ethiopian-university-suspends-learning-after-death-of-another-student (Last accessed in June 2020)
28. Africa News: Ethiopian forces fire at Students demanding peace https://www.africanews.com/2020/01/10/ethiopia-forces-fire-at-students-demanding-peace-in-western-oromia// (Last accessed in June 2020)
29. Ethio telecom.net: Bule Hora Amara students demonstrate in Bahir-Dar https://www.ethio-telecom.net/bule-hora-university-amhara-students-demonstration-in-bahir-dar_4fd106061.html (Last accessed in June 2020)
30. BBC The Death of The Nile: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/death_of_the_nile (last accessed June, 2020)
31. The conversation: Ethiopia’s Lake Tana is losing the fight to water hyacinth
https://theconversation.com/ethiopias-lake-tana-is-losing-the-fight-to-water-hyacinth-82947 (Last accessed in June 2020)
14th of May, 2021
The Writer can be reached at abatebelai@yahoo.com
