The 2nd historical error of Meles and his ruling party

Summery,

Ethiopians voted on Sunday 23 of May 2010 in the first elections since a disputed 2005 poll to elect new parliament members. It is remembered that mentioned previous elections were blamed by allegations of government vote-rigging and nearly 200 people died in post-poll violence
• As per Reuters: Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allied parties had won 534 seats out of 536 declared, giving Meles nearly every seat in the 547-member parliament.
• As per BBC news preliminary vote result the governing party has won 499 of 536 seats declared
• The EU observers, U.S. Department of State officials for Public Affairs and US –Congressman questioned the election process and result ,
Even so the numerical figures are questionable, it is clear that the preliminary result give victory to EPRDF. The present blog give personal comment to this hot issue.

Detail
It is know that Ethiopian voted on last 23 of May, 2010. As per BBC news preliminary vote result the governing party has won 499 of 536 seats declared, which is more than 93%. Also others media like Voice of America (VOA) has noticed similar figure. As per the numbers of news, the senior political parties’ leaders and popular individuals have lost the election except 2 or 3 votes.

About this figure all opposition parties and human right watch clearly declared the voting process was not free and fair. The following reasons were mentioned as problem:
• Intimidation of Political Opposition: violence, arbitrary arrest, and detention of opposition supporters. Uneven political field, the use of government power and means for the election purpose.
• Repression of Civil Society: Witnesses were politically influenced and others was intimidated or removed using various means
• Silencing the media, including the attempt to bug Voice of America (VOA), which is know accepted by Meles. Also, as per the president of Deutsche Walle radio (Germany radio in Amharic language) and numbers of listener from Ethiopia have proved that the radio is bugged by Ethiopian governments.
• Unable to make fair evaluation of abuses and crimes
• Prohibition of USA witness group to rural part of election site
• Organizing the rural people by strategy known as 5 to 1. This means one EPRDF member or sympathizers will lead rural people to force or influence the vote in rural people. This mischief was suspected by US vote observers but their intension of seeing this fact was
Taking into consideration the current Ethiopian political, economical and ethnical condition I believe in whatever measure, if the election becomes free and fair EPRDF never will win. It is shame that 93% vote victory on a country where:
1. The population is has exhausted from economical problem. In most Ethiopian house there is no money to get food. Never the economy of common citizen has been most horrible like the current time of Meles. The inflation in Ethiopia is horrible.
2. In system of governance of Meles based on ethnicity most of Ethiopian are unwilling to be governed by solders predominately from one ethnic group that dominantly concentrated on the unilateral grow of their Tigray region and Tigrary monopoly at nationwide. It is absurd to believe that more than 90% of voters in all over the Ethiopia voted again EPRDF to rule them for more five years
3. On a Country where the opposition leaders, free press writers and free-opinion issuers are in jail or out of the country in asylum it is hard to believe Ethiopian are willing to accept EPRDF as ruling party for next five years
Simple way of indirect means of proofing the election vote un-trueness is just seeing the reader comment about Oppositions parties’ leaders and Meles interview with different media. If you have time read the following public comments. The majority of comments are opposition that for sure they will not give him the reelection vote
1) Meles Zenawi talk to Jazeera – English
http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=talk_to_jazeera_meles_zenawi_video&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
2) Aregash Adane was one of the TPLF's top women fighters during the gorilla-war of EPRDF. She is the opposition candidate challenging to Meles. As per her inteview to VOA, she has more than 2000 party members and supporter at Mekele University but she did get zero vote from the university area polling station.
3) Ethiopia: NEBE announces preliminary election results
http://www.ethiopian-news.com/ethiopia-preliminary-election-results/
4) Zenawi claims election win in Ethiopia despite poll fraud claims
http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?blog=5&title=zenawi_claims_election_win_in_ethiopia_d&page=1&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&disp=single
5) Our real allies are Ethiopians who are fighting Meles – Ed Ryoce (US –Congressman)
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/28088
6) Numbers of comments without names getting the Deutsche Walle radio (Germany radio in Amharic language) show the great oppositions against the number of vote victory issued by EPRDF governments.
U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley on May 26, 2010 slammed the tribal ruling junta in Ethiopia for conducting an unfair election on May 23. Among other things he said "through out the electoral process freedom of choice for voters was constrained by the actions and inactions of Ethiopian government officials, the national elections board of Ethiopia, and the ruling political party."
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/28084
2) As stated on BBC news (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10153216.stm ) EU observers have criticised Ethiopia's election, as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi held a victory rally attended by tens of thousands of people
For my surprise I did not expect such landslide number. I expected that they manage the vote percent on such a way they frequently do. I expected as they take the percent of votes that permit them to dictate in the parliament (house of representative) and distribute others percent to opposition party or individuals so that the international opinion gets the democratic feeling about Meles and his ruling party. I think God has his own reason to happen on this way. I think this is the 2nd historical error of Meles Zenawi and his ruling party. We know the 1st big error is the result of election 2005.
What was the government reaction? As per BBC news, Meles say that “The people's vote will not be overturned by foreign forces” and
They say to international media about the “government has worked hard to improve infrastructure” this few thing they can do in comparison to the money they are getting as loan to be paid by future generation of Ethiopians. Most of the constructions are owned by by Meles (ruling party) ethnic group but the money loaned belongs to all Ethiopian citizens. In addition, consider the power projects and building construction project that waste huge moneys. It is good to see the Takaze and Gilgele Gibe hydroelectric projects. Ethiopian wish to invest more on peace among Ethiopian ethnic group, Ethiopian wish more to investment on equal opportunity of jobs, Ethiopian wish to invest more in real freedom of expression, … the Haity, Chile, and others country with experience of seismic eruption show us buildings may be destroyed in given few mints but the healthily development of citizen is the real development and the real resource of a nation.

Conclusion
As shown above taking into consideration the current Ethiopian political, economical and ethnical condition it is not difficult to proof that if the election becomes free and fair EPRDF no longer will win. The fact can be made hidden for given time and people can be ruled by force but EPRDF cannot say Ethiopians are managed democratically. The USA observer group has discovered that the strategy of EPRDF government vote-rigging at rural area no longer functional. Unless by dictatorial force no longer EMPRDF can say that he has ensured vote at rural area.
In the history of humanity there were times for bad rulers, likewise we the Ethiopians are on one of that case, which will be not forever. This so called national election has proved One-Man-Dictatorship in Ethiopia and who the democracy is going on back-ward direction in Ethiopia.

I have a hope on the next generation of Ethiopian managements.
God blasé to Ethiopia,

The landslide victory propaganda of EPRDEF means the reverse for most Ethiopians

For Ethiopians the elections are not new phenomena. We have been testing the election during the Emperor Haile Selassie, The Derg military regime and under the present regime. In all of them the absences of the basic elements of free and fair election have and continue to be major similarities between all three rulers. When the political space opened, like in the 2005 election, the opposition attempted to mount vigorous challenges to the ruling party, the population got a chance to know who is who and attended the vote station massively without any force. When the ruling party notified their victory on the opposition side their supporters and members were brutally repressed, killed and/or “disappeared”.
Having the past experiences and taking into consideration the current new repression tactics, numbers of obstacles put and untrue propaganda, the majority of Ethiopians have lost a hope of free & fair election during the upcoming May 23, 2010 national election. Now, most Ethiopians are looking forward whether some miracle may come as result of individual effort during the poll day as well as the favorable event that may be originated from the ruling party home-region (Tigray Region) first time opposition parties’ elections paraticipation.
What is the driving force of ruling party to conduct national election? It is clear there are two major reasons:
1. Within the country, justify the ruling system as democratic system and “legalize” their Omni-power in front of any internal opposition.
2. In the international contest, consider them as democratic government to convince developed countries to gent political support and economical aids.

How we can show to the world the mischief, wrong propaganda and use of excessive forces to get their objective of governing forever? It is well known that even so it is not easy the only way is having an internationally and nationally credible witness on the election process.
Witnesses play key roles on making public the fairness of the vote counting and the process of voting in general. When I am thinking on the importance of witness I am wondering why the Carter Center is not participating as witness in the current Ethiopian Election 2010. What is the way US government and public in general get will evaluate the fairness of the present election?
We remember about the President Obama's speeches regarding the African rulers to make free and fair elections, respect the rule of law and win the trust of their population if they want any kind of open alliance with the USA government. If Carter center is not witnessing in this election, do have the Obama administration another means to check unfairness of the election process? When we are at less than a week for vote days nothing is known about except the European Union witness group, African Union election witness group and nationally governments trusted group of person. If I try to evaluate capability of these three groups, the best way is summarizing the public felling regarding to these issues, which are given bellow.
1. European Union witness group has few members nearly 150 persons, which is small quantity compared with the size of Ethiopian territory and populations. EPRDF are well organized to manage this amount of people to do their vote homework
2. African Union election witness group are coming or sent by governments with similar nature where there is no publicly accepted reports from them. They tend to support the ruling party.
3. From the Ethiopian witness, it is very difficult to express ideas against the ruling party and live on the same place on post election.

In addition, EPRDF has made a good preparation to manage wrongly so that the vote become on the side of EPRDF. For examples:
1. As per Dr Beyene Petros at rural population are organized so that the ruling party ensures the winning votes. Organization known as 1 leader to 5 rural peoples. The objective of the organization is ensuring the vote by control of fertilizer, harvest, land .... etc.
2. The media communication is controlled by EPRDF. For the reason of the election the debate was given 20% of air time for the opposition parties and 80% for them self (EPRDF)
3. The people are not expressing them self, they are fearful… probably great majorities will not vote.
4. Repressive laws such as the NGO Law restricting civic society, the so‐called “anti‐ terrorism” law that criminalizes dissent and creates a pretext for suppressing any political opposition have been passed. The opposition parties have been unable to function in any meaningful manner, their members and supporter are jailed, disappeared, tortured and their offices closed/destroyed.
5. The free press has been decimated and many independent journalists forced to exile, jailed or have simply given up and/or exercise fear‐induced self censor.
6. As variously reported by Human Rights Watch, Genocide Watch and others, the government has and continues to be involved in serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity including a possible genocide.
7. The political debates have been conducting by non-neutral chair person while during the 2005 election it was conducted by nationally recognized politically neutral personality.
8. The government on the other hand has been preparing for the upcoming national election in May 2010. Through the use of illegal state power, bribing, intimidation, etc., it has been reported that the ruling party may have already secured every vote to be cast in the election in advance of the election itself.
9. Highly undemocratic practices by the ruling group are currently keeping the opposition not only from the possibility of winning the election but also running freely in the election itself. As recently reported by MEDREK (the coalition of 8 political parties excluded from the ongoing negotiation), their offices are closed, their movements restricted, and their supporters harassed, imprisoned and/or “disappeared”.
10. The judiciary is another problem for it has mainly been a political tool of the ruling party.
For any democratization to take place in Ethiopia, at a minimum, a new mechanism has to be put in place to make sure that the army is restricted from any partisan intervention and the election board stays free from government influences as well as the law be trusted among the poblation and the ruling party members. It is not enough to say that it will be impartial and will remain impartial during the election. Time and again, it has proven to be otherwise. The fact that it is the guerrilla force of the EPRDF/TPLF that was transformed into the current national army is no secret. As such, the top officials of the army continue to be members of the guerrilla force as well as the ruling TPLF/EPRDF.

No Ethiopian needs reminding about the horrors that followed the disputed 2005 election. Nearly 200 protesters killed in the streets by security forces, more than 100 opposition leaders, arrested, convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison before being pardoned.
One of the opposition party leaders called Merera says a big true, EPRDF now controls all local administrations, and this election will be a struggle to prevent Ethiopia from becoming a one-party state. I think, the EPRDF does not like to be called one-party state, so after gaining the required majority vote they will distribute as they want to others opposition parties.
We are tired of looking the same face again and again 40 plus years of Haile Selassie, 17 years of Mengistu and now 18 plus years of Meles Zenawi. It is clear demonstration that Meles Zenawi is pretending to be another Haile Selassie, another Fidel Castro of Cuba nearly more than 50 years in power that ruining the majorities of Cubans. I am so sorry of being a current generation or citizen of a country governed by dictators’.

When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by peaceful struggle

Intoduction
It is well known that since the history, we the Ethiopians are not lucky for peaceful and democratic power handover. From our history it is easy to see that all of our governors have been going from the power by forcing them using the military ways. The biggest chance for the peaceful political power change-over was expected on the previous 2005 national election, which could not be materialized due to unwillingness of Meles Zenaw regimen. So, what is the way to remove Meles´ regimen from the power?

Even so it is much evident that the Meles Zenawi regimen is sub estimating the vote and voice of Ethiopian population to fight for national fair governance, except two or three political part, the majority of Ethiopian´s political parties agree that at the current national and international condition the only visible way to get governiment change in Ethiopia is the peaceful struggle. What is peaceful struggle? It is nonviolent protest and persuasion to get fair and free elections that help to bring democratic governor and democratic system in a nation. Examples are:

1) The African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed to resolve racial discrimination. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968) was an American activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States and he is frequently referenced as a human rights icon today.

2) Liberation from colonialism: Many of liberation fronts from colonialism had started by using non-violent or peaceful struggle. Good example of this Indian liberation history. Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience while working as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. When he returned to India in 1915, he organized protests by peasants, farmers and urban workers over excessive land-tax and discrimination. He became the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He earned the title Mahtma Gandhi or 'Great Soul', and is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation. http://www.newsnet.co.zw/index.php?nID=17162

3) The history of Nelson Mandela and he’s struggle against apartheid is full of peaceful struggle. The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Mandela would be remembered for ever as "the man who no prisons cell, no intimidation, no violence, no show trial, and no threat of execution could ever silence."

If it is so, what are the advantages that the peaceful struggle should gain from the upcoming but apparently already won election? There are many advantages among these the principal are there:
1) Less human life sacrifice
2) Less damage to economy
3) Victory comes with civil struggles without purposely designed war or violence

Ways of peaceful struggles
There are numbers of ways. On http://www.starhawk.org/activism/198ways.html are listed 198 ways. If you observe them the main idea involve about the government is un-able to survive without the citizen support.

The main questions that will be answered on the day of poll are:
1. Will the general public (not incluiding few supporters of EPRDF) go to the vote?
2. Will the general public get generally accepted political party that represents the their interest?

I believe Ethiopians shall to go to the poll just for the peaceful struggle againist the anti-democracy. People should say "NO to Meles regimen again”
No more static governers
Ethiopians, we don´t want static governors like:
· Fidel Castro, Cuban comunist leader from February 1959 to February 2008, for 49 years. He is currently the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
· Chiang Kai-shek, a governor of China from 1928 to 1975 for 46 years
· Kim Il-sung a governer of the North Korea ruled the nation from1948to 1994 for total 45 years
· Omar Bongo politician who was President of Gabon for 42 years from 1967 until his death in office in this year 2009
· Muammar al-Gaddafi who is ruling to Libia since 1969 for more than 40 years
· Robert Mugabe who is governing for 30 years (from 980 upto date)
· King Malietoa Tanumafili II, the head of state, a position that he held for life, of Independent State of Samoa from 1962 to 2007
This is just to mention some of dictators known in the history.

What is looking Meles, breake this records of governing time? Why he is refusing the idea of changing Ethiopian constitution? Why he is refusing the change on Ethiopian National Election administraion rules?

It is better to go to poll than not going
What should be the public reaction to the backward minded idea of Meles to stay in ruling office for ever?
As way of peaceful strugle, I thing people shall to go to the poll like the election of May 2005, just to vote against the Meles regimen and defend the true-vote by any means available. What is the gain for not going? I think there is no gain. By any means the Tigrean people and few people from others region will vote for him. I think, by any means will stay in power for a couple of election terms. Hence, Ethiopian people should go to the vote station to say "NO to Meles dictatorial governance".
Changes that Ethipians should feel and work on
In our world every thing is changing: the earth move and changes happen in it´s contents. On the same ways it is human nature to get change in life: change in our economical income; change in our social relation, change in our works and boss. The same is true and it is good wish to work on changing our political leaders. Generally, in history of ethiopia, politicians keep their office by making election fraud. The question is how to reduce election fraud. The following are some well known methods.
1 Oposition political parties shall be able to win the voters mind by presenting good programs. if so, people does not want to be governed again and again by the same ruler: the same persone and the same teory. Hence the majory of popblation need this change. So if a given political party is able to present a better or at least not so much criticable policies, people will vot for the new competitor by defending thier votes.
2 The new political paty should try to get support from the militray, police and civil services bodies and members because at the end the regimen will try to use the state power though these podies.
3 Try to get the presence of many international observers like UN election observars, USA governiment, Carter center, EU, AU … etc, they can check the voting and counting operations and also to train local personnel to avoid and correct mistakes and to resist pressure of election fraud. As much as possible they can monitor the electoral process to make sure that the rules are followed. If they notice something wrong, they report it to their superiors who give the new to UN and to the press of all the world.

However, Intenational observars have limitations: economical, diplomatic, ethiopian governimet rules .. etc. Hence they can´t cover all the voting place though out the country knowing that Ethiopian government is not comfortable with participation of truly democracy organizations. Examples are the controversial measures of Ethiopian government to expulse a senior European election observer Siegfried Pauswang and three American Organizations during election 2005. Being poor and uneducated,the masses always fall prey to the machinations of politicians as most of them do not know their rights.

Conculsion
The next election in ethiopia looks like already know result and nothing interesting. Major reasons are:
1) Mischief full and layer behavior of ruling party with the aim of being static into the governiment palace,
2) Selfish military, security forces and government based legal system to manage the election process.
3) Exhausted of no result by voters
4) Non experienced, poor and non-spirited opposition parties
5) Unsupportive (unfavorable) international climate for Ethiopian people ... etc

The owner of this blog is strongly convinced that Ethiopians shall to do their historical homework to progress on the democratic and peaceful ways. The war history should be changed by peaceful struggle that may take longer time to wine but more safer. Ethiopian people should go to the vote and should vote against Meles even knowing that his governiment system will steal the vote and he will be on power for next years. We, Ethiopians should do our homework and asks international democratic nations and respected people to support our cause. Nothing is free and we have to pay some sacrifices and challenges. We have seen thought our history how destructive and backward leading is a war, let try a long time peaceful struggle by leaving a destructive short-time war. Let work for the peace and common goal. This is the only way to ensure long term development for our nation.

The Pro and contra of Energy investments in Ethiopia

Abstract

As per the Ethiopian power Authority (EEPCO), in Ethiopia the energy sector statistics show a tendency of grow, which make all Ethiopians very happy. On another hand the secrecy of power data, unclear energy investment bids and reserved public debate in
government policies are facilitating that numbers of energy projects are wasting huge amount of money due to loose study, delay on the project life time due to unseen problem and unclear project bid offer.

The following gives my personal comment based on my study of few available references.

The statistics of energy data as per power Authority EEPCO

As Ethiopian we are happy that many development projects are being conducted. It is one ways of making life better for our population. One thing that is good in Ethiopia power sector is the development of master plan for power system

Expansion where it is thought on such a way the master plan expresses the short, mid and long term expansion needs including the regional interconnection programs.
Probably, this master plan could help to the growth of the energy demand and supply statistically expressed on the reverence. With out going economical, technical and environmental impact analysis, just looking at open source offered by EEPCO we can be happy for continue grow from 1991 up to 2007.

The graphically increasing tendency of energy production, sells and the transmission line done as well as the generation station on project indicates that there are works done by TPLF since their arrival to the tope of Ethiopian power. It is good to know that our electricity industry has embarked on a growth trajectory and huge money is allowed for new investments.

I think it is very appreciable to get such amount of investment. In addition of the investment shown on the table we can see other energy generation investments on the following list

1) $408 million agreement with China Gezhouba Group Company for building the 254MW

Genale Dawa 3 hydroelectric facility in southern Ethiopia

2) $555 million contract with Sinohydro Corporation provides for the construction of Chemoga

Yeda hydroelectric facility in northwestern Ethiopia and includes construction of dams on five rivers.

3) EEPCo also signed a preliminary agreement with HYDROCHINA Company for construction
of two 51 megawatt wind power projects in Adama and Mesobo Harena. The EXIM Bank of

China is providing financing for the projects

4) 210 M€ on Ashegoda investment signed with the french comapany

Problems on power projects

When I was reading news on Ethiopian energy investment in the open source of Internet I was very surprised with the impact of the Gibe III environmental issues. Next I could get few data of some others projects. These data are showing us how far the technical and environmental impacts of energy investments are not gotten serious consideration. It is worries full that in Ethiopia, civil society have no ways of being informed about the project’s potential risks and impacts that may lead our population on unwanted direction. As citizen we can not do any thing to influence and follow the national investment strategies. In many times we have no control at all and many times civil society are informed after issues become irreversible. If you search the internet for Ethiopian hydro-energy projects most of them are criticized by weak project study before starting the implementation. As an example, on this post we can get same basic idea about the real problem and information about Gilgibe environmental issue, the Tekeze project and Ashegoda power project

Tekeze hydropower proyect

Tekeze hydropower was expected to generate 300MW power to the national grid. The construction contract was signed for the construction of the dam by EEPCo with the Chinese National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation (CWHEC) on June 7, 2002. Tekezze was intended to start generating power in 2007 but the concerned companies were forced to reschedule the deadline to the end of 2008 and additional cost of another 400 million birr about 15% of the total project cost. The date was rescheduled again. As per the reference of August 26, 2009 the project of US$224 million have generated 75 MW from one of its four turbines in the test run. Commercial production is expected to begin in a few weeks.

Gilgel-Gibe III hydropower
As per numbers of reference consulted Gilgel Gibe III construction began in 2006 with out properly assessing economic, technical, environmental and social risks as well as ignoring international standards. The Gilgal gibe III dam with the height of 240 meters is considered to be Africa’s tallest dam and Ethiopia’s biggest investment that is already under construction. The construction of this dam is criticized by environmentalists saying the construction will wreak havoc on the Omo River's natural flood cycle. It is believed that post-construction analyses are being written to provide supporting evidence for a decision made years ago.

In July 2006, the government of Ethiopia directly awarded €1.55B ($2.11B) a no-bid Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) contract for Gibe 3 to Italian construction company Salini by violating Ethiopia’s Federal Public Procurement Directive, which requires international competitive bidding.

As per the references I have attached,
1) The World Bank declined to consider project funding because the contract also violated the Bank’s own procurement policy.
2) The European Investment Bank has decided to pull back its funding of Euro 1.55 billion for hydropower dam following pressure calls by environmentalists. According to the reference, the hydropower dam would devastate the ecosystems of Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley and Kenya's Lake Turkana.
3) International Rivers' Africa director Terri Hathaway said the Gibe 3 Dam violates the AfDB's policies on environmental and social assessment, poverty reduction, resettlement, public disclosure, and trans-boundary water management.
4) The project's impact assessment reports were also published long after construction began and are said to disregard the project’s most serious consequences
5) As per numbers of publication, in July 2006, the government of Ethiopia directly awarded a no-bid Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) contract for Gibe III to Italian Construction Company called Salini. As per the reference, the embasy of Italy in Addis posted Lessons Learned from Gibe II saying the Project was defined without a comprehensive sector support strategy. Possible negative consequences are:
1. limited coordination and policy influence for the long-term sector development in

synergy with other interconnected sectors;

2. limited scope for supporting best practices for (socio)environmental impacts of

large infrastructures;

3. absence of an accompanying program for social development and capacity building;

de-link with grant program and projects financed by IDC in Ethiopia

If these are true how the Gibe III will be implemented with out basic study? This is Ethiopian development project, I wish to support the government using all of my ability but there are things that hard to assimilate and write a supportive idea. How could these big companies like European Investment Banks, African Investment Banks and Italian company make investment without reliable data?

Ethiopian government is ruling in Ethiopia since 1991, what is the reason of constant mistake in many of the investments conducted in Ethiopia? As per the Ethiopian power authority, the ambitious power master plan for year 2007-2015 is indicated on the map attached. This map make me more tension when I think the amount of error and money lost if the government continue insisting on his careless and unlawful investments. It make me more worry full when I think on the loan that my children’s and my grand children’s will live paying unseen loan.

Ashegoda wind power project

It known that the Ashegoda wind turbine project are done with wrong site selections. As stated on my blog post, since year 2006 the government is running another energy project of Ashegoda Wind Park and Mesobo-Harena (40-60MW each one) for Tigray development by doing wrong site selection and taking a loan from foreign bank on behalf Ethiopian project. As per consulted references, on this wind project there was no enough time to make the required study before the implementation bides and based on this fact there was few interests on this project by well known international wind companies. Finally, suddenly was announced that the French Loan of 208.6 million Euros from a French financier was obtained to implement the project. This project is about a loan of 210 M Euros to Ethiopian future generation including my recently born kids will pay like many others.

It is common that the EPRDF rulers take what ever decision that comes to their mind and there is no means to discover on time and try making public comments. Reasons are:
a) The TV, radio and major paper publication media are controlled by the government.

Free and independent journalists are persecuted if they publish some thing that is

inconvenient for the government.
b) After the may 2005 national election the political atmosphere in Ethiopia has further

restrained public debate
c) It is said that the NGO law passed of January 2009 force to disengage civil society

from participating and commenting the policy-making process that include

governance and human rights issues

As Ethiopian it is my concerns to comment on these general issues on what ever opportunity occur to me so that ideas become summarized and be more open to the public eye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lolkCgQAUeU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL2SKelDbdQ&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFvJEil1stc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NokDKYheXDw&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48NBDKhqNVg&feature=related

Conclusion
There is no question that Ethiopians needs power and energy investments help Ethiopians to get more jobs and more business opportunity and better life at longer run. We are witnessing a numbers of energy projects of huge investments. Based on:
1. the late control of investments from European and Investments banks and

2. On hurry nature with small consideration to technical and environmental issues on the government side it is good to highlight the need to make enough reflection to check whether invested money is on the right place or not. It is also very important to consider their economical and technical efficiency as well as the environmental impact acceptability.

The idea is the energy investments need more consideration regarding to the study, evaluation and lawful biding and environmental evaluations. I believe there are one reasonable way of doing things, one best engineering design, reasonable economical investment and lawful bid offer, which shall be open to the public comment and discussion. It is believed that public comment on engineering investments make safer, economically stronger and ensures nation development.

The critics originated on Takaze and Gilgel Gibe dams, the critics on Ashegoda wind energy projects suggest doing a big question mark on Ethiopian government’s ways of making investment in Ethiopia.

Reference

1) http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2009/09/23/Ethiopia-embraces-renewable-energy/UPI-43101253752164/
2) http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/3174
3) http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/08/ethiopias-tekeze-dam-begins-generating-power
4) http://www.powermag.com/renewables/hydro/2012.html
5) http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/Gibe3FS_051509final.pdf
6) http://www.afrol.com/articles/33459
7) http://www.itacaddis.org/italy/images/uploaded_pictures/GGII%20-%20Informative%20Note%20-%20Sept%2007.pdf
8) SHORT TO MID TERM POWER SYSTEM EXPANSION NEED(Year, 2007-2015) by EEPCO, Augost 2007, Addis Ababa.

Reasons why Meles Zenawi can´t be re-elected again

Short summary
Ethiopian primer ministers Meles Zenawi have been on the power since 1991 for 18 years and now his party is planning the so-called national election 2010 to rule again for additional five years. Many Ethiopians are saying no vote to him even so the election result will conclude in favor of his victory. This document presents some personal opinion why Meles will not get vote from the majority of Ethiopians if the election become free and fair.

Reasons to qualify Meles Zenaw as not representing the will of most Ethiopians

Democracy succeeds when government, in some broad sense, represents the will of the people. People are rational actors, and thus their actions reveal what their values and preferences have been. It is known that voters have many reasons and many opinions to elect a given candidate but on my opinion the following reasons are the voters driving forces to qualify Meles Zenaw as not representing the will of the Ethiopian people. Hence, people will punish him by voting against him if the election become free and fair.

By nature every body want a positive change: change in cloth, change in food, change in working environment, change of boss, change in education level …etc. Hence, it is human nature that the majority of population wants a modification in law and change of the governer.

As per Vikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States

Observe the trend on political party, the presidents names and the political party on power. Ethiopians deserve the similar things.

a) Like many countries, Ethiopians by nature of human being we need no static democracy. Ethiopian constitution need modifications so that reflect ethiopian current life.

b) The constitution is not a biblical rules, human nature and interest change so should be our constitution. The laws should reflect the current Ethiopian life. Observe on the following link how the most perfect democracy in the earth, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution

the USA democracy is accepting modification or amendiment in their constitution while the imperfect democracy in ethiopia is not accepting amendiment in our constitution.

Democratic representation can be assured if informed citizens freely elect their leaders, and those leaders stand for reelection at some regular interval. The following result is just taken from National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), which is taken knowing that this result is treated favorably to EPRDF (governor). The result was so reported because of international observer and more educated citizen concentration were high. They could no easily change the result. Knowing these if we see the result almost in all major cities they have lost the election. Hence, if in major cities where educated peoples are concentrated they have lost the elections by default in the area where are less informed voters i.e. rural peoples are exposed to some influence. In Ethiopia it is clear that most citizen comes from the rural area and they have constant communication with their parents living in rural area.

The bellow given table 1 show a clear victory in major cities of ethiopa

1) CUD won on 10 cities out of 18, a victory on a total 55.6%, on the other hand

2) EPRDF won on 5 cities out of 18 total 27.8%

3) Others polical parties 16.6%

Table 1
Major capital cities (older and current administration structure)
Winner of election in the city as per NEBE
1 Addis ababa, wone CUD
2 Gonder Ketema, wone CUD
3 Awassa, wone CUD
4 Jimma Ketema, wone CUD
5 Asala wone, CUD
6 Nekemt, wone UEDF
7 Goba wone OPDO (EPRDF)
8 Harar, wone HNL+EPRDF
9 Dase, wone CUD
10 Mekele, wone TPLF (EPRDF)
11 Debere Mrkos, wone CUD
12 Arbaminch, wone CUD
13 Matu, OPDO (EPRDF)
14 Bahirdar, CUD
15 Adama (Naziret), wone CUD+UEDF+OPDO(EPRDF)
16 Asaita, wone ANDP
17 Jijiga, wone SPDP
18 Gambela Medebegr, wone GPDM

Economic issues automaticaly disqualify to Meles to be re-elected. The economy of average citizen is becoming bad. The polarization of nation is becoming clear each time is more visible the poor person becoming more poorer and the rich becoming more richer. The majorities of Ethiopian citezen are unhappy by the economic bad development. The following YouTube video gives an overall opinion about the economical crisis of the common citizen and dialog in parliament of some opposition party members with the dictator Meles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcXFVpP_p84&feature=player_embedded

Some key issues are:
1) 9 million people are on luck of food while Meles is dictating more than 10% economic development for more than 5 consecutive years. The reality and the figure about economic double digit grow are unmatched. Common people complain for shortage of water, no electricity, no medicine, construction stopped due to shortage of cement, import product out-of market due to shortage of foreign currency, which mean people run out of money and the life is becoming hard and hard through the progress of time.

2. As per the foreign based Ethiopian sources, inflation in Ethiopia has reached an more than 35% in 2008 while the government indicate that it is less than 20%. In this condition the salary of common state office workers, teachers, common military staffs, common Police and security staffs are devaluated to indicate salary decrease. Many households are said to be already dependent on the government cereal handouts. In the country where over 80% of the population lives below poverty line, inflationary stress force the basic survival of the majority of the population at stake. According to UN an estimated 9 million Ethiopians needed urgent food aid for 2008.

Similar economic crisis phenomena was seen on both previous regimen that I have seen on my life of 40s years, which conduced both forced government change in Ethiopia.

1) Under the imperial regime, the country's agricultural and industrial performance was poor. An effort to talk about the success of the emperor on bringing Ethiopian development can be mentioned only the development of Ethiopian Airlines. As a result and the big problem on case of Walo´s food deficiency forced many Ethiopians to support the 1974 revolution in hopes that it would improve their standard of living on all over the nation.

2) The Derg (Ethiopia's Marxist government during 1974 – 1991) could do wide range of political, economic, and social reforms. Adding the destruction of Soviet Union and the gain of power on the western country part the internal war got better balance to the Tigrayan and Eritrean´s guerrilla warfare.

Due to these issues, supported by mass that was unsatisfied by economic crisis and Derg´s dictatorship administration EPRDF headed by Meles Zenawi could clamp into the power in Ethiopia. Similar things looks like to happen on the presente situation.

Since for many years of the election in ethiopia involves mainly one candidate (EPRDF) with whom the voters are already quite familiar but since the previous years many Ethiopians could see a new highly compitant candidate (e.g. CUD), now Ethiopian peoples are aware that they will vote to candidates who have not been around for multiple elections... To no elect the same ruling party again and again they may follow the recommendations of trusted politicians or social groups with whom the voters identify trough mass communication advertisements.

Ways of Meles may get few genuine votes
Meles Zenawi has been on power during all these years using different methods and systems. It is a fact that historically all bad rulers are on power by the support of some circle of the population. Hence, on Ethiopian condition, the only way the EPRDF (Meles government) may get few genuine votes are from:

1. Tigrai nationality voters, this is very clear to expect that Meles stand for Tigreans and to develop the “Great tigrai Republic”. No comment is required on this regards.
2. Voters beliving on Cult of personality, the voters who does not know their right due to more than 17 years of massive propaganda. They vote just to vote for the candidate with whom they are already familiar (EPRDF). Generally these voters believe on personality cult because Meles used mass media to create an idealized public image. He said many times there is no one to replace hime, Ethiopia without EPRDF will be on ethic war, Ethiopia without war will be disintegrated and peace will be absent in ethiopia like Somalia, Ruand … etc.

3. Voters wishing to be safe on the current and future EPRDF impair, since the last election was not worked out, they fear that no change will occur. This force them to give the vote to EPRDF. The negative result to him/her self during last election will force them to give a vote to EPRDF.

4. Voters that consider Viability of the case, these voters only consider candidates that have a good chance of winning by their personal judgment. Those probabilities observe our historical result on vote processing and they decide on EPRDF because of his current monopoly on the governance stage, luck of experience of opposition party and similarity of the alternatives to each other on opposition party. Those voters are potentially faced with a real dilemma in coping with cognitive limitations. These may change their

5. Low level of information in rural area force voters to give their vote randomly. since there are limitation on the amount of knowledge, experience or sophistication on election process aided with the government intension of confusing them the rural people may give vote to EPRDF in condition of less vote control strategy and no international observers, it is probable that rural peoples votes be unwillingly counted as vote to EPRDF.

Conclusion
On what ever situation, the majority of Ethiopian people are fed up of the 18 years of the same face, the same talk, the same rule, the same even more tight control, more hopeless on the future, less right to self expression, untrue legal services. Even so it is expected that the election will be unfair, not free and Meles Zenawi have few circle of reliable voters. Most of Ethiopians, we are sure that if favorable condition happen at the time of election, Ethiopians will vote to make a change on ruling person or/& political party. Our planet is under the rule of change, world politics, economics, world leaders, world sport, culture … every thing is changing so by no exception Ethiopians are looking for change in our system of governance. Hence, Ethiopians are chasing for change on our democracy so that the current economical and social crises get better. God bless Ethiopian voters.

Refrences
http://www.photius.com/countries/ethiopia/economy/ethiopia_economy_economic_prospects.html http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/56196

http://www.electionsethiopia.org/Election%20Results.html

Ensuring public communication for vote protection and creating awareness

Introduction
Ethiopian national election, if it is conducted as scheduled will be done on 2010, we are on less than a year. Unfortunately, we have no neutral national electoral system, in fact, the electoral system is apparently neutral but in practice it is managed by the government. There is no way to make amendments on constitution and electoral system since 1994.

The main objective of Meles and his TPLF party is clear to us. It is aimed to stay in power for 5 years for a total of 24 consecutive years and accomplish their dream of constructing the “The Greatest Tigray Republic".

On other hand, I believe, the ethiopians have to do our tasks. We have to resolve these problems by united efforts. The only solution is using the public pressure e.g. establishing lobbing groups or pressures group in all aspect of Ethiopian life. We have seen the result of individual struggles on post election of 2005, which could not conduce to the desired results. The opposition parties should start to unite and mobilize their campaign as soon as possible and as much as they can.

On this massive process, the mass communication is very essential. This post is aimed to give personal opinion on how can be communicated in the peaceful struggle for the upcoming election 2010 victory. I believe that it is time to get in contact with people by esstablishing a system of communication though out the Ethiopia. This sytem should incluid tradictional and current system of the electronics communication.

Traditional information communication and guarding the poll station process

The first easy way to establish good communication in Ethiopia including the rural area is the creation of awareness about the importance of the election in Ethiopia and creating the volunteers to transmit message in person to person. This method was used on the war against the Italy colonialist by Empire Minilik and others governors. The same things can be done on this period of Ethiopian history. It is possible to convince hundreds of thousands of supporters to volunteer on the use of their information to the campaign by joining the network on pre-election and during the polling time to collect information about any thing wrong done by ruling part or during post-election to be used as witness of any thing wrong done. Rural area marketing places and farmers’ recreation area are good places to start the chain of volunteers and supporters. Rural area Teachers have been good examples for volunteering and supporting public reasons. We remember the motion against King Haile Silassie and Military Darg destitution could not be successful without the support from rural area. Hence, on these peaceful struggles and ensuring healthy national election process the rural area networking is very important.

2. Traditional media (TV, radio, paper print)
These kind of traditional way of communication are good and they are effective but it is controlled by the ruling part network, it is expensive service, they can not go all point of rural area due to infrastructures limitation, language barrier, .... radios like VOA and German radio have good reputation and they cover all point in rural area but they are not used to transmit what really the Ethiopians need to transmit … Now a day there are numbers of private radio station, if they are not blocked by political reasons, politiecal parties would focus on them.

Internet and related media
One way of contributing to Ethiopian democracy by Diaspora is searching how the same communication network constructed by the government can be used against him for the benefit of Ethiopian democracy. Major concern of this page is not highlighting how the National election board should use the Internet for the purpose of vote counting and display services but it is the concern of this page to indicate about how to use the communication media, more specifically the electronics communication technology.

The governors are there to govern people based predefined code of laws. On modern society the best way of controlling the job of governor is using the election votes. For the proper use of public votes the media proper usage is very important. It helps to prepare the population to control and protect the sabotage around votes and polling process. At present, the communication technology in Ethiopia is at the very early stage. Probably, most of the rural population has no electronics communications network but you may believe it or not the communication network has expanded and gone to remote rural area on the ways never seen in Ethiopia. Now there are secondary schools and universities using Internet and school-net distributed though out the nation better than ever. Students and teachers have been the leaders in the public motion for the change in political system in Ethiopia. This fact of Ethiopia shall be used on the upcoming election 2010.

We have some experience on the use electronics media on the last national election 2005

One area of the communication that was unconsidered by EPRDF was the use of FM and others radio mass-communication program: - like music selection program, critics program regarding to some sort of problem dealt in the radio program. During this time, I remember one of my friend and CUD supporters was transmitting very-short and funny idea during the song selection to his families and friends.

Web based information and news was available during national-election 2005. I remember I was reading news from ethio-media, Ethiopian review, Ethiopian millennium and some others. I remember also the Ethiopian Review was blocked to be accessed in Ethiopia by the government using the telecommunication technology. Also at the university together with some friend of mine now living in Germany we were trying to read this site using some other website that could help us to open the site.

The use of Internet and others electronics media in developed countries is nothing news. It has been using since long ago but now as the media type increase the communication type also increase proportionally. Also I have no intension to write the importance of websites to give to the public fresh and original idea about the political party program but my intension on this is to highlight what the government opposition parties can be benefited from the use of Information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Type of I-communication that can be established in Ethiopia

When I started to write this topic I understand that many readers will criticize this topic by considering that in Ethiopia there is no sufficient Internet service network all over the countries. I agree on these but my point is that we have some thing, which is nothing negligible, consider:

1. All major cities have connection to internet services and almost in all them there is internet café business on which visitors may have had to wait as much as half an hour before getting a chance to browse the Web and without worrying about the expense it incur on waiting to come the wanted web page. Currently, there are Internet service shops that provide internet café wired by Fiber Optics cable known as broadband Internet café.

2. Where ever you get phone services you can use dial-up connection to the Internet. I remember in 2003 I was working in southern remote area of Ethiopia. I was using dialup connection for email communication and web browsing. On that time it was difficult to down load big files but I could upload and download scanned letters.

3. On the newly established universities, on some of them there are broadband internet connections and some others broadband connection was on proyect faces that at these times they might be completed.

4. I know also the government has installed different networks by using the Internet through VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) satellite connection. I have no detail information but I known the following projects are implemented and they was used on same ways.

a) SchoolNET which supposed to connect all the 545 woredas high-schools in the country to a gateway that provides video and audio streamed educational program. I knew this project is completed and I know some of my related students have used it.

b) WoredaNET which connects government offices in the more than 594 woredas (municipality or smallest cities on the government organization structures) in the country to regional government offices and then to the Federal government.

c) On the same ways AgriNET for agriculture sector and HealthNET for health sector that was on project stage.

I think that these *-net are accessible for management staff only e.g. SchoolNET for the teachers and experts at Minister of Education in Addis Ababa and WoredaNet for the government Woreda offices access only but when the system become familiar to all staff it may be used for sacred purpose of peace-full struggle for democracy, which is morally and legally are valid. With the idea of using the all available resource with out thinking on the quality and the network coverage we can maximize these usages though the following means.

5. Email and mobile phone SMS are used from the begging of the phenomena. On this system, communication with your supporters is in a cost-effective manner with multiple segmenting features that allow you to target your communication. In many developing countries like in Sierra Leone's national election, election observers at polling stations were reporting any irregularities via SMS with their mobile phones. Like wise, independent monitoring of elections is being conducted via cell phone. This trend is growing around the world.
Now, if it is not blocked by the authorities, we can almost instantly view or hear first-hand accounts of situations that are happening. Henece it serves as a vital component of news media and information sharing like up-to-date information about elections or any type of breaking news.

For example,

1. NGOs in Sierra Leone used mobile phones during the country’s 2007 Presidential election to monitor election fraud during voting. The sporadic violence in Freetown prior to the election was largely prevented from recurring through this use of SMS text messaging.

2. Pakistani citizens also utilized SMS technology following President Musharraf’s declaration of a state of emergency in November 2007.

Among these the email system require more preparation in creating list of supporters (volunteers) address and also it is good idea to create free emails from different domain name like Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail... Hope we are not considering unprofessional the use of these free email domains. Using email you can send nicely formatted bulk email to help spread your message and make a fund raising effort very successful. .The most important idea is continuing to explore all option so that the polling result become fair and free. Some example of using email for election are

http://emailelection.com/
http://www.conquestgroup.com/Services/Email.htm?gclid=CPDWo7HexJ0CFR4eDQod519qsA

6. Social networking like Facebook, Tweeter, Paltak which are global utility website that operate to share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world. For example, people use Facebook to keep up with friends, add new friends worldwide, send them messages, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, learn more about the people they meet. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region. Examples are the following

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/election

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2360172394

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2207742130
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Two years before when I was in Ethiopia Skype, Yahoo Messenger and MSN were common for communication at big cities like Awassa and Addis Ababa. Two years later after I started using Facebook friendship invitation is coming from my friends living in Ethiopia.

It should be taken into consideration that the rulling part may block the blogs and social networks e.g. Facebook just like what was done in Iran during the 2009 national election time. In Iran the government took the decision to block access to Facebook in three weeks before nationwide elections. On this case you have to be aware to change to same others social network upto it become clear the intension of the government to no condact a free and fair elections. Read more at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/24/iran-cuts-access-to-faceb_n_207186.html

7. A blog is a website usually maintained by an individual in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. It contain regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Blogging has become an essential part of political campaigns, with campaigns, special interest groups, and national political parities not only creating blogs, but hiring paid bloggers to write on their behalf on "independent" blogs.As per

http://www.cyberethiopia.com/net/docs/internet_repression_in_ethiopia.html

the following blogs are not accessible from Ethiopia because they are blocked by the authorities. AddisVoice Blog, AddisFerenji, Carpediemethiopia, Enset, Ethiopianpolitcs, Ethiopundit, Ethio-zagol, Onethiopia, Urael, Wechewgud, Mehedeya and finally the Ethiopian ruling authorities have restricted access to the whole blogspot.com domain. Examples are:

http://electionsblog.com/

http://www.electiongeek.com/blog/

http://www.fair.org/blog/category/election/

8. YouTube is a new phenomena for video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. An example of application of Youtube in election is the following, which is taken from Newsweek web site. Since I am watching numbers of Ethiopian video music and funny thing about the regimen of Meles, I consider that at this time YouTube in Ethiopia is open for public use. If so using a numbers of mobile phone and photo cameras some one can record key images and uploaded when it is required for public opinion. Witness about human rights abuses, fraudulent election campaigns can be recorded and uploaded as videos news and reports that can be posted when it is required. The Web site features blogs and discussion forums in response to videos, and provides references and resources for getting directly involved for signing petitions or getting help on support of a cause. Examples of video are the following

http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom

http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnMcCaindotcom

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=iran+protest&hl=en&emb=0&aq=0&oq=Iran+#q=iran+protest&hl=en&emb=0

In developing countries YouTube is used inmany ways, Example is has also been censored numerous times in the country, most recently in March 2009 for a video posting of police beating a Tibetan man and killing a young protesting women in

9. Online Petitions: This is another thing used to estimate the fact and support from world wide Internet user. Initiating petitions through the Internet helps to disseminate information and encourage individual engagement. Online petitions provide groups, organizations, and even entire populations with opportunities to publicize their causes and to challenge governments or other bodies at the national, regional, and international level. Example in the web are

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ethiopia/

http://www.petitiononline.com/Dannetsa/petition.html

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/454280214

Conclusion

The use of the internet as a force for both social and political change can not be underestimated. It is known that the common factor on the campaign for election of Barack and John F. Kennedy their use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Mr. Kennedy, it was the television while for Mr. Obama, it was the Internet. They have used the technology available on their particular time. The same thing we have to use applied to our condition. As indicated on the above links, today there are numbers of options to create blogs and social networks that are free for any person usage. If the ruling party does not close the all Internet service in the country, I believe, we have many options to challenge the ruling communication authorities. For this, we have to work on creating awareness and developing strategies in case the government takes different options to block some internet services. More detail is available at my post

http://ethiopillar.blogspot.com/2009/10/censorship-of-popular-websites-in.html

I believe it is the job of all ethiopians concerned to bring long term democarcy and social developments and more specifically it is the home works of the opposition parties’ leaders to take this homework and facilitate easy communication during the election period to lead Ethiopians at the victory.

Reference

http://mediaethiopia.com/photoessay/Photo_Essay_MobilePhones_Ethiopia_06.htm
http://www.mediaethiopia.com/Engineering/Internet_in_Ethiopia_November2007.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7412045.stm
http://people-press.org/report/384/internets-broader-role-in-campaign-2008
http://www.ifes.org/publication/ebcb8f6a4743357c3748b352c68abaaa/2%20IFES%20Challenging%20Election%20Norms%20and%20Standards%20WP%20EMBSINT.pdf
http://campaignsonline.typepad.com/campaigns_online/use_of_the_internet_in_political_campaigns/ http://cpj.org/reports/2009/09/video-report-cuban-bloggers.php
http://www.ethiopians.com/Engineering/Internet_in_Ethiopia_November2007.htm

The censorship of popular websites in Ethiopia

Brief Introduction
As stated on my post http://ethiopillar.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html, Internet is becoming the major source of information communication worldwide. The rulling party in Ethiopia is saying that the national election will be conducted as scheduled on year 2010 but at the same time it is kept blocked a numbers of websites that are focused on ethioian issue and they are credible among the informed peoples. This post try to comment on these very important issues.

Internet in every aspect of human activities

Since long time ago the Internet has become a mainstream as information tool. It is now becoming a common practice to find key information online, on free and democratic countries most find the information they seek and many now search the Internet first before making a important decision.

As per http://ecmweb.com/news/electric_importance_internet_2/ the Intenet was the valuable means of communication in Manhattan when desk and cell phone had failed after the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks on 9/11..

Now Internet contains many facilities in single devices called “Computer with Internet”. it is known taht People are using their computer to communicate with friends and families trough Skype, Messenegers, Facebook, Paltalk, and Tweeter. Though Internet you can get TV, Radio, phone, calendar, Cities guide .... to conduct on line purchase, to find a store or search out a best product to make the purchase decision before they get to the location so that they are saving time, fuel cost, getting comppetitive market and price on a specific product ….. etc it is impossible to list all application of Internet now a day. There are numbers of people The internet is becoming parat of modern where they could no longer live without it.

In ethiopia, it is not a secret that we have no Internet coverage in most of our small cities and the existing websites are not at international service standard. In many places and most users still uses the dial-up slow connection. Being so, we are not sub estimating the importance of the Internet to Ethiopians when it is concerned to information communication. Therefore, the above personalized use of Internet can me translated to Ethiopians too at established tecnology level. The Internet creates global communities that compute in global economy where it is hard to identify given information as useless or very useful.

Top website ranking

Recentily while I was writhing my blog I riced a quesition to my self which blog site is most popular among ethiopian readers. My search conduced me to the web page http://www.alexa.com/topsites/category where tried to see the top ranked sites in each category. A partial view of this page is given here at left side after clicking on the Global tab to list top web site at world wide level. The list of result shown helped me to check the credibility of the information on this page as per the Alexa traffic rank. Observe the 9 top list are Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, YouTube, Windows Live, Wikipedia, Blogger.com, Microsoft Network (MSN) and Baidu.com

Case 1: list of top web site for users located in any country and with Traffic Rank between 1 and 10 000 000

On this page, I filled “ETHIOPIA” on the text box called “Find sites about…”, I selected the option user located in any country and clicked on Go command button. As result, I listed bellow the tope 9 web sites among 821 sites found.
Embassy of Ethiopia ethiopianembassy.org
Cyber Ethiopia cyberethiopia.com
tourismethiopia.org tourismethiopia.org
Ethiopia mfa.gov.et Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia.
nazret.com
Ethiopian Airlines ethiopianairlines.com
MediaEthiopia ethiopians.com
Ethiopian Review ethiopianreview.com
Globe7 globe7.com
allAfrica.com

Case 2: list of top web site for users located in United State and with Traffic Rank between 1 and 10 000 000 and I worked out like case 1. As result, I listed bellow the tope 10 site among 137 sites found about ETHIO

Ethiopian Review ethiopianreview.com
allAfrica.com
Crawler crawler.com
U.S. Embassies and Consulates usembassy.gov
japan-whores.com japan-whores.com
Ethiopian Reporter ethiopianreporter.com
Embassy of Ethiopia ethiopianembassy.org
Cyber Ethiopia cyberethiopia.com
nazret.com
MediaEthiopia

Case 3: list of top web site for users located in Ethiopa and with Traffic Rank between 1 and 10 000 000. and I worked out like case 1. As result, I listed bellow the all 9 sites found about ETHIOPIA for user located in Ethiopia.
1 Ethiopian Airlines
2 Ethiopian Reporter
3 Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation
4 google.com
5 Jimma University
6 ethionet.et
7 ezega.com
8 ethiojobs.net
9 ethiojobs.com

Example of blocked most popular sites

Comparing the three lists, notice that the top 9 web site list with users in Ethiopia and with users in any country or in USA are different. For example, the following most popular Ethiopian focused web site in USA and Europe are not available for the users in located in Ethiopia
1 Ethiopian Review
2 allAfrica.com
3 Cyber Ethiopia
4 nazret.com
5 MediaEthiopia

If you observe the contents of these blocked sites you can understand that they are basically news, blogs and Internet journals that are directly related with Ethiopian life and concerns. Hence, the objective of the government on blocking these Ethiopian focused websites should be hiding content that are critical for the government like economical, social, political … national electoral crime. It is a way to no provide credible information regarding current issue in Ethiopia, On what ever instrument of evaluation the censorship of these web sites are clear indication of the violation Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Conculsion

As indicated in this blog, a numbers of popular web sites like Ethiopian Review, allAfrica.com, Cyber Ethiopia, naziret.com and MediaEthiopia are not accessible to ethiopians located in our natal countries. This is clear indication of the violation of basic human right that establish “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom of ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”. Therefore if the up coming election is planned to make it free and fair the free flow of information shall be recosidered by the governiment and open the blocked websites.

References
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/category
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ http://ecmweb.com/news/electric_importance_internet_2/