Open Letter to President Obama

From Yilma Begashaw, an Ethiopian Scholar:

Dear Mr. President,

Wide Expectations:
Although one cannot undermine the power of the outstanding Establishment, millions of genuine and peace-loving world citizens hoped so much that your historical and unexpected Presidency of the United States of America, would make a significant contribution to the world peace, stability and sustainable development, especially in the most troubled Africa. One may call this a naivety or wrong expectation. Any way, things continued to get worse than getting better. Following the news that you are about to visit Ethiopia and the African Union, I am forced to write to you this sad letter.

African Problems:
As you know very well, Africa suffered the most over the past couple of centuries due mainly to negative and devastating external interventions in the forms of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. In the past, the cover-up was the Western expedition to educate and civilise the dark continent. Recently, however, even the most conservative leaders such us David Cameron have started to openly admit that every thing they do is for their self interest. If that is the status quo you wish to maintain, please tell the Ethiopian people during your visit that you wish to continue to support the TPLF brutal dictatorial regime for an American interest.

Ethiopia in the hands of successive brutal dictators:

Ethiopia is a Country that made huge contributions to the World. She is the centre of the beginning of the human race. She is endowed with spectacular wealth of natural resources and bio-diversity. She has a variety of climatic regions spanning from the temperate alpines to lowlands and rift valleys, with thousands rivers (including the Blue Nile). Her vast fertile land had the potential to make her the Bread Basket of the Region. She has peace-loving, God Fearing and hardworking population. Sadly, however, she was denied of her golden opportunities even to feed her own people, due mainly to the suppression by successive brutal dictatorial regimes sponsored by the world powers. The previous dictatorship of the Military Government was armed to its teeth by the then Soviet Block that caused the death, gross sufferings and displacement of her innocent people, especially the educated youth. Things went even worse under the current ethnically based brutal dictatorship under the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF) led government.

This TPLF-led regime is widely accused of the worst criminal records such as:
• Suppression of democracy and human rights
• Genocide, ethnic cleansing and crime against humanity
• Vote rigging (they claimed winning about 100% votes in the recent national election, a record that even Joseph Stalin never claimed!)
• Massive land grab, displacement and gross sufferings of the local populations and destruction of forests in favour of foreign export industrial croppers at a very cheap rate
• Confiscation of the national assets and putting them in the private hands of its few members and supporters. While their individual members count their newly found fortunes in billions, poor youngsters perish on the sea, deserts and in the hands of criminals in the Middle East on their futile journeys to escape injustice and poverty.
• Mass exodus of the population, especially the educated man-power (I am sure you are aware of how the thousands of doctors, engineers, etc. Engaged in the US cheap taxi and McDonalds businesses as they are denied of opportunities to use their higher educations to build their beloved Country.

Despite such appalling records, the regime is fully sponsored in power by the US and European powers. Is that all that you can do for humanity? Now that you are about to complete your terms in Office, what legacy do you wish to leave behind for history, especially regarding the man-made devastations in Ethiopia and similar countries with the American and European tax payers support?

May I also beg you not to insult the Ethiopian people by saying that Ethiopia is not yet ready as building a democratic system takes a very long time. Please do not forget that Ethiopia is a Country that built good political and administrative systems thousands of years ago while Europeans were still living in caves as pagans and barbarians. It has been due to the sponsorships and supports rendered to successive regime by external powers that the Ethiopian people have been denied to exercise their free democratic rights and formation of regimes of their own choices.

Any way, still it cannot be too late for you to learn from past mistakes and take appropriate measures and set a good example for history that would be beneficial for safeguarding the sustainable interests of all – local and global. Otherwise, things can get out of hand go terribly wrong that can threaten even the future interests of the West.

In the name of our Almighty God and the grossly troubled people of Ethiopia and similar others.