Imagine the impact US Presidential Elections on the US-Ethiopia/Africa and Middle East
Many people including educated geographers do not appreciate that the Continent of Africa includes the Middle East both physically in terms of geographic extension and the population mix of Africa and Middle East share the same pool of cultural and economic dynamics.
There has been a new attempt to redefine Africa in its aggregate parts than its whole. Instead of referring to Africa as part of the whole Middle East and African Continent, many are seen referring to Sub-Saharan Africa as real Africa and then trying to dismember its parts as North Africa, East Africa, South Africa and West Africa, etc.
The US Presidential Candidates have shown a lot of ignorance. The experience of Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate was appalling when she could not distinguish between the African states and the continent. It is amazing how poor the knowledge pool of the so called educated people in the West and especially the US is when it comes to the globe we live in. Leave alone very complex topics such as Global Warming, the global map and its inhabitants be it human or animals are not respected nor recognized.
When it comes to the US Presidential election, the facts of the so called African and Ethiopian expert in the person of Professor Donald Levin was also found to be lacking.
Professor Levin's attempt to spin the language competency factor is a gross error for all to see. In his article on why he thought Presidential Candidate Obama was good for Ethiopia he suggested an aggressive rather interference mode of US interests in Ethiopia in the name of good governance, human rights and now what he refers to capacity building. Any one who has read the ignorant rambling of Donald Payne and Finegold cannot miss Donald Levine's brain waves.
Ethiopians can discriminate between the word aggressive interests and rather interference in their sovereignty. Here Donald Levin and Donald Payne have been found wanting. The lesson is learn fast and correct your mistakes before it is too late. The age of ignorance or grammatical smartness is over. We all read the same English language and can refer to any one of British and American dictionaries. What Professor Levine said in his previous article is pure and simple aggressive interference in the affairs of Ethiopians and that will not go down well in history to the man who authored Wax and Gold and Greater Ethiopia.
It is a shame, he was and remains to be my hero, but in this one, it is better like McCain to accept responsibility and move on.
DrB
The US Presidential election and anti-Ethiopian lobbying
(MFA Oct 31 2008):-The US presidential campaign between rival candidates’ Barrack Obama and John McCain is arguably the most fiercely contested in living memory.
It is also unique as one of the contenders, and the one the polls favor to win, is an American of African origin – a fact that automatically qualifies as history in its own right no matter what happens next Tuesday.
It has drawn sustained interest and curiosity throughout the world as much to the identity of and contrast between the two candidates as to the unprecedented exposure of the world to the campaign by state-of-the-art media outlets. Of course, because this campaign is about who will take over still the most powerful position in the world it is incumbent for politicians and ordinary citizens alike to follow the campaign trail closely.
As a nation that has enjoyed decades of friendly ties with the United States of America, Ethiopia is no exception. The support Senator Obama has among Ethiopians both in the Diaspora and at home is palpable.
The campaign of Senator Obama is, of course, a matter for the domestic policies of the United States and it is not for us to comment on. However, when lobbying undertaken around the campaign involves accusations against the Government of Ethiopia, and inaccurate and unfounded allegations at that, it is a matter of concern.
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Response to MFA post in Aiga Forum, November 1, 2008:
"The US Presidential election and anti-Ethiopian lobbying"
Donald N. Levine
University of Chicago
The statement posted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in your November 1 issue affords me a welcome occasion to clarify not only the message of my most recent piece on Obama and Ethiopia but, even more important, to revisit an issue that has engaged me in studies of Ethiopia over the past fifty years.
Although comments on my work in that article seem unexceptionable, I beg to differ on one crucial claim: "an Obama administration should play a significant role in promoting good governance and human rights in 'a more aggressive manner' than its predecessor. No matter how phrased, this is a clear call for a confrontational foreign policy." The fact that I do not and never did call for a "confrontational" U.S. policy toward Ethiopia is obscured by that assertion.
Indeed, I consistently opposed HR 2003, a position which has disappointed many of my Ethiopian friends. In fact, there is some evidence that those who organized the one-sided hearings which launched that bill deliberately excluded me from participating, knowing that my reputation is that of searching always for an objective and balanced account.
For example, just as I criticized the EPRDF regime for its destructive overreaction to the June 2005 protests–and have encouraged them to make some public apology–I criticized the failure of the CUD leadership to take up their elected offices.
The MFA's description of me as espousing confrontation turns on an interpretation of the term "aggressive." The fact is that in ordinary English usage, "aggressive" has multiple meanings.
As used, for example, in a New York Times front-page headline on November 5, which notes that Democrats will pursue their economic agenda in an aggressive manner, the term means "with energy and focus." The Webster dictionary states that "aggressive" can mean "marked by driving forceful energy or initiative; enterprising." In other words, aggressive may but need not mean combative.
My longstanding interpretation of the warrior ethos in Ethiopian culture holds that Ethiopians, at least Amhara-Tigrayan, if not Oromo and Southern peoples, have tended to think that the only way to be aggressive politically is to be combative.
As everyone who followed president-elect Obama's discourse realizes, what he stands for is precisely open dialogue, not combativeness. The latter was the approach of retiring president Bush who declared in January 2000, well before he won the Republican nomination: "When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world. . . It was us vs. them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there."
Ethiopians are right to reject a Bushian doctrine of intrusive intervention. Part of the grandeur of Ethiopia's legacy lies in its age-old determination to protect its independence. Recall the jibes of Emperor Tewodros II regarding the encroachments of British imperialists, or the scorn with which Emperor Yohannes IV commented on Italy's pretense that they had any rights to take over the Eritrean coast, inasmuch as it belonged to Ethiopia for millennia.
In that spirit, friends of Ethiopia can only admire the steadfastness with which the present Ethiopian government, just like the government of Emperor Haile Selassie, has upheld the need for Ethiopia to chart its own course.
In so doing, Ethiopia naturally wants to keep abreast of developments elsewhere in the world, as when she abolished slavery in 1923 as a condition of entrance into the League of Nations. So now, in a global era of growing respect for universal human rights, Ethiopian leaders have done well to say they want to fortify democratic process and civil liberties. One golden word for such efforts is "capacity-building." My hope is that the incoming Obama administration will be aggressive in making available capacity-building resources to the Ethiopian people and government that advance this important objective.
Certain individuals and lobby groups have been working on behalf of and at the behest of the small extreme elements in the Ethiopian Diaspora and the Government of Asmara. Their campaign has little or nothing to do with the presidential campaign but is aimed at influencing potential officials of the next administration against the Government of Ethiopia.
These are people attempting to push their own narrow political agenda on Ethiopia as part of Senator Obama’s political platform as Congressman Payne has demonstrated. Indeed, Congressman Donald Payne is some one who has developed a routine of Ethiopia-bashing when campaigning as he demonstrated when speaking at a gathering of Diaspora Ethiopians, purportedly to rally support for Obama in September.
His most recent effort has been in a press release in the name of his position as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. In his press release, calling the Ogaden and Somalia “forgotten tragedies”, Congressman Payne repeats his usual series of accusations against Ethiopia, claiming that the Ethiopian security forces “are deliberately targeting innocent civilians” in the Ogaden.
As usual he offers no evidence to support his allegations. Indeed, there is none. The Ethiopian National Defense Forces have never targeted civilians in the Ogaden or anywhere else. They try hard to avoid any harm to non-combatants. They respect the democratic and human rights of the people wherever they are deployed. From its own experience the Government of Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian Defence Forces, know very well that the easiest way to lose any counter insurgency effort is to alienate the civilian population.
The Ethiopian Defense Forces have, over the last decades, developed a tradition of working closely with the people. This remains a guiding principle for the armed forces of Ethiopia wherever they operate.
The Ethiopian Defence Forces have demonstrated their professionalism and discipline in their peacekeeping roles in Rwanda, Burundi and Liberia. By contrast, while Congressman Payne repeats uncritically any and all allegations against Ethiopian forces and Government, he fails to mention, let alone condemn, the acts of a terrorist organization, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) which has murdered numerous innocent civilians in the area, repeatedly bombing hotels, open markets, and other public gatherings.
The Congressman has never even condemned the ONLF’s brutal massacre in April 2007 when it killed over 70 innocent Ethiopian and Chinese oil workers in cold blood, as they slept. In fact, the Congressman is always remarkably careful not to disparage terrorist organizations.
In his latest press release he even uses the benign term “insurgent groups” to refer to Al-Shabaab whose terrorist activities in Somalia have included the widespread slaughter of civilians, assassinations of UN representatives, members of various aid groups, and journalists as well as roadside bombs and suicide operations. Al-Shabaab, as the Congressman is well aware, has been linked to Al-Qaeda and is also listed as an international terrorist organization by his own Government.
Some academics, although their position is far from that of Donald Payne have also been making efforts which cannot be seen as helpful to Ethiopia/US relations, even though their motives may be benign. A leading member of this group is Professor Donald Levine, who cannot be described as unfriendly to Ethiopia or even to the present government, but who has apparently been trying to influence a would-be Obama administration to take a more confrontational approach towards the Government of Ethiopia on a number of issues.
Professor Levine has been a respected Ethiopianist for several decades, authoring a number of books on Ethiopia. He has earned widespread respect for his works. However, some of his more recent critiques have been less than fair and balanced. One of the clearest examples of this is his recent “Five Reasons why ‘President’ Obama is good for Ethiopians”, one of which is of particular concern, that an Obama administration should play a significant role in promoting good governance and human rights in “a more aggressive manner” than its predecessor.
No matter how phrased, this is a clear call for a confrontational foreign policy, suggesting the use of arm-twisting tactics against a sovereign state. Professor Levine as an expert should know that Ethiopia and Ethiopians are not prepared to accept pressures of this kind. The person who wrote “Wax and Gold” and “Greater Ethiopia” should certainly be assumed to be knowledgeable about Ethiopia. It is a considerable and surprising disappointment to find him taking this sort of approach. Ethiopians are not submissive and remain prepared to defend their rights. Partners are friends not masters.
Democracy is to be nurtured and developed at home: it is not a prescription to be pushed down the throats of developing states by powerful nations. A contribution to the development of democratic culture and human rights, should not involve arm-twisting. Imposing democracy from outside is nothing but a contradiction in terms, whether by the next US administration or any other.
The Ethiopian government pays special attention to its friendly relations with the United States. It is a relationship that is based on a broad range of interests. It is a relationship we will pursue in the future and in a consistent manner. Ethiopia looks forward to working with the next administration, whoever wins it, in a way that promotes mutual interests.
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