UNCRITICAL SHOW. Seldom has a Norwegian industrial concern received as much publicity as cheaply as Yara got yesterday. UN advisor Jeffrey Sachs willingly played along.

Knut Olav Åmås (wrote in the Norwegian version)
Sep 4, 2005

Yara, the world's largest fertilizer producer, an offshoot of Hydro and with the Norwegian State as its main shareholder, has been controversial since it became known that the newly established "Yara Prize for a Green Revolution in Africa" is being awarded to Ethiopia's prime minister Meles Zenawi. There have been strong reactions from human rights organizations and exile Ethiopians, and around a thousand people demonstrated in connection with presentation of the prize yesterday. Ethiopia is characterized by breaches of human rights, political incarceration, mass arrests and killing of demonstrators.

No Criticism
Criticism was in no way allowed to mark Yara's celebration of their existence and of presentation of their prize to the head of the government of a country which may become a lucrative market for Yaras fertilizers.

But it was interesting to hear Norman E. Borlaug, the 91-year-old Nobel laureate who was one of the minds behind the green revolution in Asia. He spoke Yara in panegyric terms.

Jeffrey Sachs, economist and leader of the UN's work to reduce by half the world's most extreme poverty by 2015, praised Yara's societal commitment and proud history even more, and called Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi "one of the world's most brilliant leaders".

Sachs has himself been advisor to Zenawi, who spoke of him as "my friend". The only little inkling of criticism of Ethiopian politics was very polite: Sachs asked how to foster democracy in the country and emphasized that the situation was "risky". In addition he pointed out that it was unnecessary for the security forces, whose job it is to stop demonstrators, to shoot with live ammunition.

No Interest?
Sachs spent only a few hours in Oslo yesterday, because there is a feeling of crisis in connection with the UN's Millennium program, since the USA is attempting to deny the existence of the millennium goals, and want to sabotage all binding agreements. It was surprising to attend an hour-long press conference with Sachs yesterday morning, at which only two Norwegian journalists regarded it as of any interest to speak to him. Here too he emphasized Zenawi's reforms, among other things, agricultural productivity has doubled in 15 years. Sachs view is that only an alleviation of poverty and hunger can prepare the way for democracy in Ethiopia. It is probably this view that makes him so evasive in his criticism.

Sachs' thoughts deserve attention, but it is not to his profit or that of the Yara foundation that the first Yara prize is the cause of debate, since the criticism and Norwegian politicians' boycott of the presentation have caught Yara with their pants down.

Need Fertilizer
This shows how problematic it is for the world's largest producer of fertilizer to award a prize for activities which "alleviate hunger and poverty" by increasing food production. For, what is needed to create Africa's Green Revolution? Fertilizer, as a number of yesterday's speakers pointed out. From Yara.

It is not always easy to hide "raw commerce" behind "societal responsibility".

Translated from an article from www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kommentarer/article1108185.ece, updated 04/09-2005

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Translator's Note:
Any misinterpretations or errors in translation are the sole responsibility of the translator.
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However you encourage a cat, you can not make it a tiger.

Zillions of praises and any amount of ordination by a pope or a rabbi will not add any grain to the truth that the Ethiopian people have already witnessed.

Meles has been spitted out by the vote of the Ethiopian people. The Ethiopian people, will force Meles and his party out of power and establish a democratic government elected by the people and for the people.

The power to eject Meles and his group comes from the the Ethiopians only. In the meantime, Meles can keep on padding his credentials from his busines afflieates at the expense of the Ethiopian people.

None of the help Meles gets from abroad, will sustain his power in the face of the people who already have turned him down.

Email: b159jit@sbcglobal.net

City: berkeley

The days of Meles and his cronies are numbered. A pot with a crack will not last long! The Ethiopian people will show the world yet another victory over tyranny in a not too distant future.

City: San Jose

Ben wrote:

"None of the help Meles gets from abroad, will sustain his power in the face of the people who already have turned him down."

I agree with this statement partly, but with an important modification. It is actually Meles and his junta who turned us - the people of Ethiopia - down primarily.

It has been almost half a century, since Ethiopians started fighting to get their nature-given freedom back from the hands of a serious of dictators. The first major attempt dates back to 1960, when few courageous citizens rose up to challenge the monarchy, but in vain. That event lit, however, the torch for the subsequent dissent that finally brought about the demise of the centuries-old system in 1974.

The victory was soon snatched by a bunch of mediocre soldiers, called The Dergue, who succeeded to rule for 17 years at gun point under a stereotypical system of communist regimes. Ironically, this same system had to fight against a couple of other communist rebel groups, in order to cling to power, one of them being the Meles junta.

The end of the Dergue was inevtable as the communist system was dramatically crumbling in various corners of the world.

Then came Meles and his junta, who, even after the collapse of communism in almost all east Europen countries, claimed itself as a pro-Albanian communist rebel movement (probably then the last remaining regime clinging to communism), to find itself on a fertile ground to overthrow the Dergue. Given the hostile tendency of the Dergue towards the West and vice versa, Meles easily won the support of the superpowers of the west to overthrow the Dergue despite his group's weired ideology. It succeeded to take over power in 1991.

That was a historic event for Meles and Co with a unique opportunity to lift Ethiopia from the economic and political quagmire it had been cursed to stay in for centuries. Everybody hoped that things would change for the better. That hope turned, however, to be a nightmare, when we soon witnessed Meles and Co starting to turn us down.

As the first major blow, Meles worked hard to facilitate and realize the secession of Eritrea with a population of about 4 million from the rest of Ethiopia with a present population of 72 million making sure that the latter is perfectly landlocked and is rendered fully dependant on the former for its communication with the rest of the world. This was a surprise of unprecedented magnitude to the Ethiopian people from someone at the peak of power claiming an ethiopian citizenship. For the first time in history, the country was sealed perfect from its historic water - the Red Sea.

The rest is history. Meles went on turning the Ethiopian people down. Hypocracy became the favorite game of the regime. It tells the world that the citizenry are enjoying the fruits of democracy: that we are free to freely express ourselves, to elect, to organize ourselves, to support, to protest, and so on and so forth.

The fact is, however, that we passed from the hands of one tyrant to another - from Mengistu to Meles; from the Dergue to Woyane (Meles's group). There is, however, a big difference in their way of exercing their absolute power: Mengistu and his Dergue would tell us not to object anything it considered was right for us; Meles and his Woyane preach the benefits of their own version of democracy (revolutionary democracy) day and night without the slightest tendency to practice it.

Then, they were pressed by their financers to open the door a bit for wider participation. It happened that they opened the door by a crack. The opposition pushed in. The citizenry showed their eagerness for a change. They went for the opposition. Meles and Co could not comprhend that, as it seems that they do not understand the essence of democracy. They rigged the ballots. Meles took over the wheel and gave a shoot-to-kill order to his exclusively trained killer security forces to silence protestors. In short, he slammed finally the door closed.

Meles knows now that he can no more get the sympathy of his people. It is now the turn of his own people to turn him down. To put it simple, he has been completely spat out. I am not happy to say this, but he is the most hated individual in the country at this very moment followed by his Minister of Information - Bereket Simon. It is also not difficult to see that the peace-loving world has already known that these guys are evils in disguise.

Meles is now running amok to win support from outside. We have witnessed his success to convince some of his business partners to arrange a way of regaining his popularity. But, it is easy to observe also that this attempt of him has exposed his true personality more than ever.

We are now hoping that we will not loose this third opportunity to lift ourselves from a state of hardship. The choice we have on the opposition side seems to be promising. So, compatriots, we have to rise once again to witness the transfer of power from the hands of the incumbent. We have shown that this is our will, and it has to be respected. Let us hope that all peace-loving peoples are on our side.

Selam

City: A.A

It is with deep seated anger and regret to find out that Mr. Sachs of Columbia University had chosen to stoop so low in presenting bribe money to his brother in arms, the butcher of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi. It is equally embarrassing to Columbia University for failing to reign in both Messrs. Sachs and Sanchez for making a mockery of the Ethiopian people, in giving thumbs up vote to its dictatorial regime to receive such an award.

I am pretty sure both faculty members and the University had something to gain from this deal. May be a flock of foreign students to the Columbia University, or legitimacy and lucrative financial deals to Mr. Sachs' phony book entitled " The End Of Poverty." I would not buy this book, because the basis in which it is written is not based on concrete facts. It is rather based on hypothetical assumptions he gathered from dictators like Meles who lie to the world through their teeth to make themselves feel good, and important. A trash basket is an appropriate location for this kind of publication. So Sachs did what he did to cover his own ass. I hope he learnt his lesson the hard way.

So many Ethiopians in the past attended and graduated from Columbia University. The one person whose name stands out to this date is none other than the late Girmame Neway. A young political scientist, and a graduate of this prestigious Ivy League institution who sacrificed his own life for the betterment of all Ethiopians.

Bear with me for a moment, and let me take you on a journey back on time several years ago, and familiarize you with a brief story about the two brothers that Ethiopians will never forget them. They were referred to as the Neway brothers. The older brother was general Mengistu Neway commander of the elite Imperial Body guard. The younger brother was Girmame Neway, governor general of Ethiopia's Eastern Zone (Harar and its environs).

First and foremost what would the University's response be, if an Ethiopian who graduated from this Ivy League should ever ask why officials from his almamater sided with a dictator, who is a cold blooded killer, liar, robber, and beggar?
This makes Girmame roll over in his grave knowing that his almamater a champion of human rights at one time, end up becoming the prime supporter of an infamous dictator known for his human rights violation.

The Neway brothers did not come from the bushes, rather they came from a well to do family. They were not born dirt poor. They were born to a privileged family, who taught them at an early age the values and norms of human beings. They had fame and fortune, and every thing went very well for them. General Mengistu as a commander of the Imperial Body Guard enjoyed the best lavish accommodations, that present day high ranking officers would never like to give it up at any cost. Girmame as a governor had the opportunity of amassing millions of dollars should he desire to do like wise.

Unfortunately due to the way they were raised, they did not care too much for material possessions as well as financial gains. They wanted to help the less fortunate so they too can enjoy equally like any one else.

Girmame as governor general while touring different parts of his administration, friends who knew him well told us how he broke down in tears to see the wretchedness of life his constituents had to go through on a daily basis. Such a misery had become unbearable for him to see on a daily basis, and wanted to do something about it.

Together he and his brother wanted to change Ethiopia for the better, so the country could pull herself out of economic, social, and political stagnation. So Girmame and general Mengistu who had every thing they wanted under the sun, staged a coup d'etat to change the course of history for Ethiopians to lead a better life filled with prosperity and tranquility.

Although they knocked out of their ways some of the hurdles that hindered the country's progress they did not cross the finish line safe and sound to see the progress they have done. The two brothers sacrificed their lives fighting for the oppressed masses of Ethiopians. How ever the Neway brothers lit a fire in the minds of oppressed Ethiopians, a scorching fire that will never be extinguished for years to come.

How many of Ethiopia's current leadership has the fortitude of doing things that benefit the masses? You all said that right, none of them are. They all are bunch of illiterate disreputable thugs who ascended to power with a barrel of gun, and put their own selfish interest first ahead of the nation's.

Columbia University owes the people of Ethiopia an apology for allowing its officials to present an award, and be associated with a cold blooded killer, and arrogant Meles Zenawi. Girmame is rolling over in his grave in disgust knowing his alma mater is siding with this trash talking, low down scum of the earth who lacks an ounce of decency in his veins.

It could have been Girmame, not Meles who deserve any kind of an award. Columbia University ought to admit they made a grave error, and rectify it by doing the right thing in posthumously presenting an award to its own alumnus the late Girmame Neway. A man who devoted and sacrificed his own life for the betterment of all Ethiopians.

Email: GebregzeeK@hotmail.com

City: southbrookeridge

Jeffery Sucks!

Email: addis_tesfa1997@yahoo.com

City: Addis Ababa