Ethiopia’s Peaceful Revolution

Ethiopia’s Peaceful Revolution
The uniquely African Empire of Ethiopia has seen itself launched into

a peaceful revolution that promises to transform one of the planets

poorest countries into a modern peoples democracy.
Being that I have spent my entire life living by the principle of

“political power grows from the barrel of a gun”, or as Marx said,

“Force is the midwife of change” to see a peaceful revolution next

door in Ethiopia is almost to much to grasp hold of. I first thought

this was a “soft coup” by the Americans, but this is much more than

that. American aquiesence was necessary, but the new government lead

by Dr. Abiy Ahmed has started what can only be called a revolution.

Prime Minister Abiy, elected such by a parliament 100% appointed by

the former regime is young, charismatic and has put forward a program

of change that is remarkably similar to what Eritrea’s President

Issias Aferworki has been saying for the past 25 years and more.

Calling on all Ethiopians the good Doctor, past soldier, intelligence

officer and for the past 8 years a politician, is urging his country

men and women to learn from socialist Eritrea next door.

He has suggested the Ethiopian diaspora emulate the Eritreans and

start donating $1 a day to their homeland. National service and

national education training centers such as Eritrea’s Sawa are being

discussed. And of course, if Ethiopia is really to begin to break with

its history of debt bondage and beggary, the Ethiopian diaspora, like

the Eritreans, will have to start paying an income tax on their

foreign earnings of 2%. Eritrea, 4 million population, gathers $300

million a year or more from its diaspora so Ethiopia should be able to

make a serious dent in its budget deficit by introducing the 2% income

tax.
P.M. Abiy’s task is a giant one, for Ethiopia is a big country with

many different ethnic groups and like Eritrea next door roughly half

muslim and half christian. A divide and rule policy of instigating

ethnic based conflict by the previous regime has left the country

burnt and bleeding, with almost a million people internally displaced.

On top of this almost perennial droughts and famines have wracked the

land, brought on by western industrialization induced climate change.

Ethiopia should be a thriving country with a well off citizenry for it

has rich lands, lots of water, minerals and even energy. The problem

has been its leaders this past century starting with Haile Sellasie,

“Emperor”. His claim to power was based on his grandfathers use of

Italian supplied firearms to conquer and loot their neighbors, mostly

the Oromo, of whom the new PM derives from. Once in power having

completely subjugated the Oromo, amongst others, Haile Sellasie turned

his eyes toward the coast and the dream of having his own port on the

Red Sea. This meant annexing the Italian colony of Eritrea with its

much more advanced economy and of course, the ports of Assab in the

south and Massawa in the north.
The violent subjugation of Eritrea is central to the modern history of

Ethiopia and todays Ethiopians see the recent development of peaceful

relations as god’s blessing.
The Eritreans fought a 30 year independence war which helped trigger

the overthrow of Haile Sellasie, and eventually would see the Eritrean

rebel army defeat Haile Sellasie’s replacement Colonel Haile Mengistu

Mariam’s army and drive him into exile in ZImbabwe.

The Eritreans left their erstwhile allies the Tigrayan rebel army in

control of Ethiopia and returned to their main task of establishing

their newly independent country. When two years later the Eritreans

formerly declared their independence and joined the UN the Tigrayan

dominated government did its best to sabotage international

recognition for with independence came loss of control of its main

port of Assab. Never mind Eritrea gave Ethiopia rent free use of

Assab, the prestige lost in losing Eritrea to independence drove the

new Ethiopian government controlled by the ethnic minority Tigrayan

regime to reignite Ethiopian national chauvinism and eventually, just

seven years after Eritrean independence, a new war of conquest was

launched in 1998.
After three years of particularly bloody warfare, probably the last

major land war in history, and 123,000 Ethiopian dead alongside 19,000

Eritrean martyrs (these are the official government figures) with 1.4

million Eritreans internally displaced by the Ethiopian invasion (40%

of Eritrea’s population) has left both countries peoples indelibly

scarred. Following the defeat of the Ethiopian invasion the Tigrayan

regime began what came to be known as No War No Peace on Eritrea’s

border, every few years sending division strength military incursions

into Eritrea forcing Eritrea to maintain a large army of national

service military on active duty in its trenches along the border.

The main player in all of this, and something almost entirely excluded

from mention by the MSM, has been Pax Americana, with the Clintonites

and their kissing cousin Barack Obama dominating the list of criminals

who instigated and supported these past 25 years of conflict in the

Horn of Africa.
Today’s revolution in Ethiopia has ended all this and with a young,

dynamic leader, only 42 years old and sounding like a younger version

of Eritrea’s Issias Aferworki, speaking the language of peace and

love, communal and national harmony and cooperation, is still having

to deal with violent outbreaks ie attacks on former regime leaders

businesses and properties, communal violence in the south, and

continued resistance by former regime supporters still occupying

administrative post in Oromia and Afar.
Dr. Abiy is promising a future, and outlining inspiring plans on how

to achieve it beginning with peace with his neighbors and the end to

communal strife in Ethiopia. He speaks directly to the hearts and

minds of all Ethiopians in a way almost religious, addressing the

importance of loving oneself and ones neighbors instead of relying on

the gun to define society. Now I am not a romantic or religious but

his words strike a cord with all people of good heart and gives one

hope that here in one of the most strife torn, famine wracked places

on the planet there is hope.
Of course it takes unity and hard work, something Dr. Abiy uses

Eritrea and Eritreans as role models for the Ethiopian people, going

so far as to only half jokingly declare himself Eritrea’s unofficial

foreign minister the better to fight the lies being spread about our

country.
Eritrean President Issias Aferworki has visited Ethiopia’s capital

Addis Ababa and sealed the deal so to speak, demonstrating to the

Ethiopian people his and our entire country’s sincere desire for peace

and friendship between both of us, all to similar and all too

different.
As Dr. Abiy continues his path of independence and close relations

with Eritrea expect to see a growing wave of criticism, maybe even

demonization, once his “honeymoon” period with the western media goes

stale and the anti socialist zealots in the west raise a hue and cry

alleging “lack of democratic process” and alleged “human rights

abuses”.
Towards the end of his speech at the unity music concert in Addis

Ababa on Sunday, July 15, Dr. Abiy, in addressing the problems facing

the country told his listeners, almost entirely under 30, not to

worry, “Issias is leading us” as in Eritrean President Issias

Aferwerki.
It hasn’t taken long for the cat to get out of the bag so to speak

and the influence of “wedi Afom” as Dr. Abiy calls Issias, is now a

matter of public record. Maybe we should be calling Ethiopia’s

peaceful revolution a “Soft Coup” by Eritrea.

Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and

reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook or

best contact him at thomascmountain at g mail dot com