AddisFerengi

Because it is time to say good bye.

I have been very silent lately and unusually sad. On September 11th, I left Ethiopia for good.

It does not mean I will never be back, of course I will but not as a resident anymore and I have been busy… mourning.

TPLF or not I would have left anyway, my husbands’ contract comes to an end and he does not wish to renew it. He says he is tired of distributing perdiem and that his job lost all interest. I should not share this confidence of course, but I consider it interesting.

I do not want to stay either. Honestly, openly criticize the government is too much stress, even for a Ferenj. I am safe and sound but could not have made it longer.

Here am I, closing a marvellous, rich, exciting and privileged part of my life.

My last days were about coffee ceremonies, farewell parties, gifts and tears…

I only have to close my eyes to remember the faces, the smiles, the sceneries, the smells, the savours and I am pretty sure it will last. I left a part of my heart there and brought back instead a tiny part of the country’ soul. I will cherish it.

I am still addicted to Ethiopian News and blogs and will go on struggling here whenever and wherever my presence is required but I will close this page and find alternative ways to contribute. I have been thinking and rethinking for days, I do not feel able to go on. I am not a political analyst or a journalist, I cannot report about what I do not feel or witness and the aim of the diary was reporting about daily events.

I cannot decide whether Timket was quite or tense this year, I used to check by myself but I am quite sure it was not “joyful”.

I left a desperate and angry country, with an exhausted, bitter and hopeless population massively opposing the regime. A country in which the cost of life reached unbearable levels even for middle class families, a police state in which freely express an opinion endangers your life or drives you to prison, a country where young protestors are beaten and shot. I left a jail.

The countdown for TPLF’s end has long begun. The sooner, the better.

A few days before my departure, a young man told me: “Tell them, tell them how it is to live here, tell them what we endure.”

That is what I have been trying to do… Adebabay, Seminawork, Urael and I hope… others… will go on. Please guys, take care, we will watch your back.

Allow me a last thought for all those who have fallen, shot by the blue beasts, all those who have suffered in detention camps, all those who have lost a friend, a child, a relative, all those who are still jailed.

It is only a good bye my friends, I know we will celebrate in Addis when the gang will have fled.

AF

Kaliti’s back door or when meeting detainees is an honour…

Honestly I was nervous and tired last Saturday. I am afraid I realized poor interviews.

Visiting CUD leaders appeared like a big taboo, a somehow impossible task. My nerves were shaken by the last attempt to silence me, a new Franco-Italian conjugal row. You’d be surprised at who shouts louder ;-)

Really I wished some genetic eunuchs left my beloved husband in peace and stopped invoking my son’s security. It unnerves us. Some Ferenjis definitely acts as devoted TPFL kadres… Beka !

I had woke up before the sun rises to reach he prison on time. These damned Chinese do not finish this damned road from Asella and I had messed up again, visits were from 9 to 10 sure… but Ethiopian time etc.

Anyway somehow I managed to finally enter Kaliti’s back door a 3:00 PM. This meant a lot to me. I have the greater admiration for prisoners of conscience. Talking to Lech Walesa or Nelson Mandela in their cells would have been a scoop for any journalist and this was mine.

"you are not allowed to talk to more than one prisoner"

I asked to meet Birtukan Mideksa – you are not allowed to talk to more than one prisoner - and soon found guides. “You are Addis Ferengi ?”. Was it so obvious ? Probably, who else ? I followed the path up to the “visiting room”, barriers of wood and an iron sheet roof. You can reach the detainees’ hands but Birtukan’s mother had to climb on the fence to allow her daughter to gently kiss her hand. I was already saddened to tears.

The young judge looked lovely, in white and light blue, casual yet elegant with a discreet gold necklace and her hairs done. That is what I call “classe”.

I felt sorry to meet her again in such circumstances and told her so. I had brought some books I hoped she would appreciate and will give them to her friends since you are not allowed to bring them in during the week-end. How was her health, her moral, the sanitary conditions ?

Birtukan (1) would not complain. Her spirits were high she said and that is what mattered. I wondered how free you are to express yourself with at least two hostile persons listening to your conversations. They are easy to spot, whether they wear a uniform or not, they nonchalantly and arrogantly seat on the gate when you remain on your feet, sending the message “We are the Lords here”, poor Lords actually but certainly able of mean retributions when their prisoners do not behave.

Anyway the whole game is to ignore them.

AF: How do you see your future ?
BM: Oh honestly I do not expect anything positive in the near future.
AF: The trial, do you think it will last for long ?
BM: Oh yes, it will take time. There are yet more than 300 hundred witnesses to hear.

The emphasis on the term “witnesses” was unmistakably ironical.

I recognized the typical Habesha pride in the bold smiles, the head held high and I respect it. Yet I will never believe a young woman separated from her family, husband and child, kept in a squalid and crowded cell does not deeply suffer.

Keep your head held high sister, you committed no crime. You are MY heroine…

I quickly felt guilty to monopolize the conversation, sided apart. “Someone” suggested me to join Dr Berhanu Nega’s group a few meters far…Oh ! this is absolutely forbidden ! You do not move from group without facing serious problems here… but I am a Ferenj and I am AF so I did, “thoughtlessly” ignoring the guards.

AF: Dr Berhanu, Hi, I am Addis Ferenj…

Well… I was most welcome ;-) Looks like information somehow reaches Kaliti ;-)

Seriously, Dr Berhanu Nega made me a strong impression. He lost some weight which suits him well but is composed, unmistakably strong and decided, with bright eyes and great brain.

I heard the next day from Kinfu Assefa, EMF webmaster that the elected mayor of Addis was to be taken to the dark room. Oh ! It came from good source and was certainly true… Woyane have to humiliate and weaken what they cannot break… They are just made this way. By the way, readers, please, convey Kinfu’s greetings to Dr Nega… I forgot…

A lesson I should have learned for long is: Do not ask a jailed Habesha how he feels in jail… because he always feel good ! I managed to learn however Dr Berhanu was not in his crowded and dirty cell anymore and had be moved in a better one… well… so far.

AF: How do you see the future ?
BN: Well mine or the future of the country ?
AF: Yours first.
BN: Well our future and the one of this country are linked actually.
AF: But the trial ?

Dr Berhanu made very clear the trial was a masquerade, a shame we are all conscious of. He is convinced it will last for long too. The man leaves in a concrete world, does not entertain delusions. Positive, concrete, firm are probably good adjectives to describe him. Though the exact words are not clear, I remember telling him how sorry I was for my community’s attitude.

BN: Ferenji are not going to decide anything here.
AF: But I am still sorry they help. The EU is going to give back budget support you know… They are working on that line…

“Someone” (2) asked: You mean the PBS ?

AF: No this is the World Bank, I am talking of the EU.

The latest rumour among the rare Ferenj I talk to here is that the Italian Cardozo – politically: a grandson of Mussolini – and nine commissioners of EU are expected here soon to resume budget support to Ethiopia… Honestly, we –they-, westerners, are not playing a waiting game about who is going to lose or win the country. No, they are actually, actively, supporting Meles’ dictatorship ! We saw during the last months an unheard of number of BIG BOSSES landing here. TPLF, among all African repressive groups, must now detain the record of foreign sympathy.

Dr Berhanu admitted it was disgusting but his main concern is obviously elsewhere. He said that ruthless repression is likely to bring other alternatives than the peaceful struggle Kinijit leaders were advocating.

AF. You mean that armed struggle could…
BN: Oh.. It has already begun…

They were other words of course… His and my own of comfort and sympathy, the massive boycott, the people’s deep feeling… the millions backing, him, them up… Words seem futile sometimes.

At this point, it was high time to “thoughtlessly” present my respect to Professor Mesfin, the last in the row.

This was no interview at all… I had reached my own emotions limits. I do not know exactly when I begun to cry after or before our quick encounter… but sometimes… too much is just too much. Tears of exhaustion, anger but mostly shame.

Lesson #2: The health of an Habesha recovering from pneumonia is just FINE !

However, dear Professor, you were heavily dressed. Do you suffer from cold ? You wore sandals. Do your feet or legs heart ?

I did not ask you this, just tried to… lift your high spirits higher.

Ato Hailu Shawel was still in hospital and Muluneh Eyuol still in Kerchele dark room with two journalists. I could have gone on my exploration of the row, from zone 1 to zone 4 but I was, speechlessly, advised to stop. Fine, I had my article anyway…

A last good-bye to Birtukan and I took the path down… but flashed the V-sign to Professor Mesfin before going. He said: “Thank you”…

The guards (from 20 to 40) remained unshakeable. A Pavlov conditioning to white skin ?

Do not misunderstand me, some looks among Kaliti staff are far, far… to be hostile. So please, have the Diaspora snakes who whisper that Birtukan did not write the letter of Berhanu THE BOOK shut up… because I asked.

I cannot publish any picture, I am not bold enough to even think of taking them. A scan of THE BOOK will illustrate this log.

So long friends…

AF

(1) I call her by her first name as all Ethiopians, hope she does not mind.
(2) Dear “someones” meeting you was a pleasure ;-)

PS: I am on my way back, since I managed to miss my flight, on a waiting-list. I may not write for a while but please do not worry. Many, many Ethiopian friends watch my back.

My visit to Kaliti Prison
Sorry but… I treat my horses better

I was in Kaliti on Saturday afternoon to pay my respects and say good-bye to jailed CUD leaders.
I will fly back soon, Junior is expected in his new Italian school. I will not be back for a while but this time I move because I have decided to. A great satisfaction!

I put my pride in honest reports, so here is the great news. Maeklawi ignorant and brutal Federali and guards have a lot to learn from their Kaliti “alter egos” who are, at least, polite, some even charming... So polite and easy-going I suspect they were instructed to act so ;-)

The Saturday and Sunday afternoon visits are reserved to political prisoners, mine was not a diplomatic visit though the main gates, in cleaned offices but the casual one with mud, wood barriers, guards and security forces listening. The Adebabay description of the whole exercise is better than the one I could write and I will join my voice to his: Go to Kaliti !

Of course you will have to show your ID at the entrance which will put you on the long list of CUD supporters but remember there are mainly CUD supporters in this country, they certainly cannot arrest them all.

I really appreciated the sudden improvements in the attitude of your staff, Woyane. They have guns but do not show them, they do not threaten the visitors with truncheons, and do not bark orders, at least not in my presence. I noticed too I did not receive on this blog’s comments or in my mail-box the usual insults, threats or even… vicious calumnies suggesting my husband is cheating on me with beautiful Habesha ladies.  Thank you so much not to have ruined my holydays ! Yet, I have a few suggestions to lift up the standards even more.

Kaliti is a huge waste ground full of big shacks of iron sheet that look built at random. During the rainy season it is muddy, damp and cold. You are not allowed to check the conditions in which the prisoners are living. Yet some views from outside – see below - give a disastrous impression.

It reminds me, in bigger, of our stable when we first arrived in this country. We had inherited from my husband’s predecessor 5 horses – they are now seventeen -. and I am afraid they live in a better environment and conditions than Judge Birtukan Mideksa, CUD # 2, Dr Berhanu Nega, Phd and elected mayor of Addis-Ababa, Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam, founder of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, most respected Ethiopian scholar and their companions.

According to my experience of stable manager iron sheet shacks are not suitable for horses, they are cold in winter, hot in summer and likely to bring contagious diseases. We preferred rebuilding their house in the Ethiopian traditional way – mud and straw – conscious that other materials would have been indecent.

According to my experience of stable manager, on a waste land (as was our stable before we cleaned up a little) , where there are iron sheet and food, there are rats… and big ones. Cheep products are available to get rid of them.

According to my experience of stable manager, where groups or herds of mammals are kept, flees and parasites prosper. Here again, clean sources of water, a good hygiene, regular use of disinfectants and adapted products for their coats settle the problem. I can forward on request a whole bibliography about. “How to take care of your horses, dogs and other pets”. I do not know any on the correct way to treat prisoners but I suggest you ask a good veterinary.

I was surprised to hear than Woizero Birtukan, for example, was sharing a cell with 70 other female detainees. My horses have their own boxes with their names on it, their own door and wood shutters. I saw very little windows in Kaliti… Finally and sincerely I am not sure it is wise to keep a 76 old man just recovering from pneumonia in your detention camp – honestly THIS cannot be called a jail - unless you want his death.

Of course, you will have understood I have very very fond of horses. There are sensitive, delicate animals, able of sadness, joy, affection and even despair…

Sure, horses’ well-being is not yet a priority for Ethiopian development and I understand it perfectly.

But do not you think that improvements in detainee’s daily life is compatible with the World Bank Protection of Basic Services ? Since Ethiopia is still desperately poor despite your endless “efforts” (1), do not you think than USAID or the EU would be delighted and probably relieved – they care for their public opinion - to grant you a few hundreds of thousands dollars more to buy as soon as possible cement, bricks and anti-parasites?

I am sure you will kindly study my request.

As for the prisoners of conscience I met, I will tell in my next post, how I found them, what they said but if there is a message they want me to forward, it is certainly this one :

“Trial will take a long, long time. They have no illusions about the duration of their unpleasant stay, after almost one year… But they all are in high spirits and will not give up.”

So long friends

AF

(1) I am polite too now 

Back from Addis: AWD, Miscellaneous and more to come….

Sorry I spent two days there and had fun spotting dumb and harmless security forces members.

I demand to be jailed for having “smuggled” 21 Dr Berhanu’s Nega books out of Ethiopia just in front their noses by the way. And through DHL… (lol!)

When cholera crosses the borders… the Kenyan and Sudanese cholera becomes Ethiopian “AWD”.

More seriously, Ferenji(s) are not happy about the “Acute Watery Diarrhea” spreading. They (i.e the OMS) say it is cholera epidemic and a serious one, if the government does not recognize it very soon (as Sudan and Kenya did), they will not be authorized to interfere which will cause more losses in human lives and bring more cash into Woyane cashiers. They fear the cost of a late intervention.

Of course, they are not going to say or write officially that THERE IS a cholera epidemic in Ethiopia….

It would upset Meles !

Mafia methods

On Tuesday 22th of August, in the area called Teka Woreda, an Addis Policeman was shot by members of Federal Police during day-time, in front of many eye-witnesses. Reasons of the execution are unknown but we suppose the policeman was Kinijit as the big majority of his colleagues… Those who have not defected yet – many did -… are “trained” in military camps.

Students

The next term approaching makes Woyane nervous. The youth is all but quiet and resigned… and troubles in Nazret/Adama university were confirmed this morning by neighbours (I live nearby).

All around the country, at the end of the academic year students of grade 9th an 10th were yet “trained” and given a generous perdiem (37 Birr a day!)… with the Party’s membership…

Addis

The contrast between the country’s extreme poverty and the relative well-off of the capital was always shocking though after five years I probably got used to it. During this two-nights stays though, what stroke me most was the incredible changes in the city. Brand new-buildings are mushrooming, the main avenues are cleaner and greener. On Bole,a new supermarket makes our good old Bambis and Novis look like provincial boutiques, - well they are provincial boutiques.

There are new “fashionable” restaurants and bars too. Of course, it is not Paris yet but there is some taste, some originality and more and more Habesha young and beautiful yuppies haunting them. Hotels are fully-booked and if the streets are deserted after 9 PM, some “happy few” have fun.

Who can afford now a 40 Birr Tibs or drink when inflation is so high, when lower and middle classes people hardly survive ? A sack of good quality Teff costs more than 500. Prices of sugar, oil, meat, benzina, kerosene etc. dramatically increased. A kilo of “chiro” powder costs 7 Birr now instead of 1 !

This collective madness reminds me of the gay Paris during war-time.

There is definitely an economic growth in Ethiopia and many foreign investors, a privileged minority can easily be mystified and believe in stability and development.

Yet, in the rest of the country, calamities are spreading…. Dryness, floods, and now cholera… Thousands of hectares are literally given to companies which will exploit an under-paid manpower… for how long ?

I wonder how many, among this new elite, are conscious of the despair and anger of ordinary Ethiopians…Addis prospers on the brink of the abyss.

I’ll finish with a VERY IMPORTANT communication.

Please support Professor Mesfin Woldemariam candidature for Sakharov Prize

Contact makedictatorshiphistory@gmail.com NOW !

So long friends…

AF

Floods, Acute Watery Diarrhea and “ethnic” conflicts

I have been wondering too, dear Urael, ;-) if my apparently tolerated presence in the country could be an alibi, the demonstration of the government’s tolerance towards criticism… and want to dismiss the possibility.

First, it really looks like Addis Ferengi made too many friends, even inside, for them to take the risk of openly targeting the “symbol”, without facing strong discontent and seriously embarrassing their beloved “donors”.

I am amazed by the discreet but unquestionable signs of affection and respect I received, even in my remote countryside. I maintain I do not deserve it, you are such an emotional people…

Secondly, a blogger should be able to log in its own pages instead of sending its texts and pictures abroad; the main page of over-blog.com (ISP of my French blog) should be accessible without proxies, as all opposition websites.

By the way, the domain addisferengi.net I did no renew on time – I did not receive any warning – has been bought and is now pointing to an odd website half science-fiction, half African News. Friendly French-speaking internautes should now link to http://addisferengi.over-blog.com; I lost hundreds of daily visitors.

AF un- gagged on probation ? Fine but with no intention to behave at all ! Actually, after a whole week of bucolic peace, I am longing for action. Annoyances always are an incentive.

***

Nothing will have been spared to Ethiopia this year, floods have killed hundreds at least and displaced tens of thousands. The DPPA is begging for 27 millions dollars (source: ENA) which will probably be granted though optimistic development specialists clearly state that only half of the donations actually reach the population.

But there is worse. The “unknown illness” the residents of my Kebele were not interesting in, was not a lie after all, has now a name: Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) and already a cost for the Federal Ministry of Health (August 2006): 1.521.281 USD, mostly for capacity building, education and information … Read perdiem distribution. It is amazing how a government so slow to address basic peoples’ needs, such as roads and water supplies, is quick when it comes to sell disasters on the stock exchange of human misery.

The AWD syndrome, first outbreak reported in Gambella in April, now confirmed in Arsi, would have already claimed dozens of lives. Thousands of cases are reported in both Oromya and SNNPR. The illness is sometimes given another name: cholera.

Well, considering that in Woyane schizoid vocabulary:

Tegbar member = terrorist
Human Rights’ activist, like Dear Professor Mesfin = traitor and genocide organizer
Muslim citizen = Islamic integralist
Protester = looter
High school student = delinquent and so on…

Could AWD = cholera ?

Let’s hope not…

Seminawork and EMF were first to report about clashes in both Amelaya and Jimma between Oromo and Tygrians students.

I am not sure we should call the clashes “ethnic” though… it serves the governments’ purposes and deepens westerners’ hysterical fear of Al Qaeda and consorts.

They were clashes for sure between EPRDF –TPLF- supporters and students in Jimma and Alemaya. I heard about 40 casualties and no deaths which means little. The facts the provocateurs were or were not from Tigray is irrelevant. TPLF has perhaps more supporters among its own ethnic group but still represents a minority, even in Tigray.

All clashes here are about politics… There are some arrogant, selfish, narrow-minded, ambitious Ethiopian little gangsters, protected by their mafia and entitled to all kinds of abuses, beatings, threats and insults. Retaliation against the whole community is a disastrous move.

I asked some boys – from different ethnic origins - here how it looked like to be young in rural Arsi. Here are some the sentences I heard. I’ll call all of them YE for young Ethiopian.

YE: They do not like us, you know. We are the first they target. They spy on us.

AF: What happens if you are suspected of dissidence ?

YE: They jail you for one month or so, without charges, and when they set you free but you’d better leave the town because they maintain their surveillance and make your life difficult.

I am always using the term Woyane to qualify the government. A YE told me:

YE: Here we cannot say Woyane you know, we say Yeadig , The Party, if we say Woyane, they consider it is an insult and beat us. You know here everybody will tell them, yes I am a Yeadig supporter, I am loyal to you etc… but we have all voted for the opposition.

AF: You too ?

YE: Yes, you tell them “I am with you” and when it comes to vote, you know what you have to do.

AF -to another one-: By the way, how was the election day here ?

YE: Oh ! it was great, they were EU observers, they even horse-rode to remote districts. The party’s observers were nervous and behaved in their presence. I saw one hiding his cell phone, he was obviously giving instructions to somebody in the room where the ballots were counted.

AF: So the elections were not rigged in Asella ?

YE: No, the results were published on the walls the same evening. It was very well organized then…

AF: Then ?

YE: The next day, they were changed.

I heard many other things, a mixture of anger, sadness and resignation. Tales of young men hiding themselves to watch a video or listen to Teddy Afro, young men suspicious of their neighbors, sometimes suspicious of their own family. Young men avoiding bars and Saturday night’s parties where Yeadig spots potential opponents…

My habit to talk to horses and dogs is a matter of gentle mockery here, I do not mind embodying the classical eccentric old Ferenj lady. ;-) A guy I like recently assured me with a shrewd smile: “But you are right, I will do like from now on… it is safer.”

AF