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Ethiopia at 2012 G8 Summit: Abebe Gellaw Only Embarrassed Himself
By Samuel Gebru
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister was recently in Washington, D.C. as part of his participation in the annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8).
Mr. Meles Zenawi was speaking at an agricultural forum moderated by the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Rajiv Shah. During the session, Mr. Meles was asked to elaborate on the priorities of Ethiopia and Africa when it came to agriculture and aid commitments by donor countries (see video time 03:30:30). As the Prime Minister was answering the question, Ethiopian American Mr. Abebe Gellaw disrupted the forum by yelling at the Prime Minister to free the jailed Mr. Eskinder Nega and boastfully declared that Ethiopians need freedom not food (see video time 03:31:35).
Even while Mr. Abebe was yelling, Mr. Meles kept on talking over him (see video time 03:31:46). Dr. Shah of USAID essentially told Mr. Abebe to shut up and called security on him (see video time 03:32:01). The Ethiopian Prime Minister continued answering the question posed by Dr. Shah.
I know Mr. Abebe and was extensively quoted in a critical article he wrote on the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT).
Although I agree with Mr. Abebe that Ethiopia needs a free and functioning private press and political environment, his actions were in all respects immature, insane and quite unprofessional. Professional journalists—which Mr. Abebe claims to be—would know that their job is to professionally report the news without jumping up and disrupting events and meetings. Forget protocol and the fact that this was a high-level panel—Mr. Abebe’s actions served no purpose. If his goal was to embarrass the Prime Minister of Ethiopia then he terribly failed.
Again, if you see the actual video, while Mr. Meles looked shocked, he continued to talk over Mr. Abebe and when that proved difficult, he waited and let Mr. Abebe have his moment. If Mr. Abebe actually wanted to embarrass the Prime Minister, he would have waited and used his press credentials as an opportunity to ask hard questions on freedom and democracy that could have challenged Mr. Meles and his policies. However, the Prime Minister was not embarrassed—and keep in mind, he got what we wanted: a renewal of G8 commitment to food security in Africa through the opening of a new fund of $3 Billion.
Time and again, Ethiopian Americans miserably fail to seize the opportunity to challenge senior Ethiopian government officials. Many senior Ethiopian government officials visit North America and Europe frequently on what I essentially call propaganda tours. That being said, a reasonable person should be able to attend these meetings and ask hard questions that challenge the Ethiopian government’s policies. Instead of that, many in our diaspora community choose to protest and disrupt meetings. This serves no purpose beyond giving the ruling party more reason not to trust or cooperate with the diaspora.
I am truthfully not surprised by the actions of Abebe Gellaw. I just hope that Ethiopian Americans understand that there is another and much better way of challenging senior Ethiopian government officials who visit the United States.
Symposium on global ag and food security Panel discussion
Forward the video clip to 3:30:00
Samuel –
Your holier than thou approach to this event is embarrassing. You sound like an unleashed moron who used his few remaining moments to expose his idiocy. I am not sure if I have to explain to you what heckling means. Heckling is interrupting a public speaker with derisive or aggressive comments to make a point. That’s all my friend! And, that is exactly why Abebe Gelaw used the opportunity to do so. I don’t claim to know any ones motive or heart. However; I don’t have a shred of hesitance to suspect Abebe has a different motive just to disrespect the Prime Minister.
You seem very shocked [may be more shocked than the PM] by Abebe’s action. But, I don’t understand why a person on your caliber gets dazed by heckling, as if heckling is somewhat of a phenomena just invented by Abebe Gelaw. The fact is not, it happens all the time and almost everywhere throughout the western democracy.
Meles is a brutal dictator. If Abebe committed the crime of heckling [as you sir wanted us to believe] back in Ethiopia, he won’t last to see the sun set without being thrown in to one of the dictator’s concentration camps or even systematically eliminated. This is not a new wonder in Meles’s tenure and Abebe’s fate may not be different. You kept repeating yourself by saying “Abebe should have been used the moment to ask civil questions or he should have been challenged the PM in more polite way. But, when is that opportunity going to occur? Do you really think Meles really have the audacity, courage or even the interest to sit down and take challenging questions from any of his true oppositions? Is that even make sense anymore?
To his credit Abebe gave voice for millions of Ethiopians who are under the oppressive regime of Zenawi and his thugs denied their basic rights of speaking and expressing their true beliefs. In exchange he became a symbol of justice for Ethiopians. Every attempt counts!!!
i just so seriously cant stop laughing. Samuel Gebru has dedicated a page for HIMSELF in which he feeds his over inflated grandiosity and calls himself so narcisstically a "public figure". Did you read that guys, Stupid Gebru created a page himself for himself in which he calls himself a public figure. but again, why not? Even meles zenawi calls himself democratically elected prime minister of Ethiopia
. This is where u say WeyGudddd or Egizio Meharenaaa or unbelievable! A public figure with 331 likes, a number much less than my facebook friends lol. yihe title mekeleja hone ende? 




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