The "Scholars" of Denmark
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By Retta Sissay
September 3, 2005

The final part of the letter by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to the Ethiopian Herald was not even published when I came across Press Release number thirteen of the Network of Ethiopian Scholars. As its title suggests the article was crafted to help the reader find out who lied, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi or EU-EOM persona, Ana Gomez. Needless to say that the title raised my curiosity since it was evident that the authors of the press release haven't even read the entire letter and could not even wait until the following morning to get exposed to what I would call the most crucial part of the arguments and conclusions of the PM's letter.

It would not have a fraction of the effect it had on me in grabbing my attention, if the author happened to be a political group or party or even a government. As I would not expect Bill O' Reilly to have the stomach to sit through the lectures of Michael Moore, I may not expect the Reverend Al Sharpton to read through the neo-con scribbles of Ann Coulter, before either of them come out blasting their cannons. But these were scholars, for all practical purposes, a self-proclaimed Network of Ethiopian Scholars.

First and foremost, I don't know of any scholar of any discipline that will look at a single tree and write his or her dissertation about the entire forest. To make the matter clearer, let us give our scholars from Denmark a bit of a quiz or two: Try to analyze the entire symphony of any composer, dead or alive, based on the first few chord progressions and without listening to the Adagio and the Grand Finale. Better yet, try to analyze a novel, preferably Charles Dickens' Great Expectations without reading its two entirely different endings. How sound would your analysis be? Let alone a professed scholar of our age, any fourth grade student will lay a gag order on your frivolity and blasphemy. It is a shame that the scholars missed the fundamental lesson they happen to have learned in grade school.

Let us be a bit hypothetical and imagine that the PM wrote his letter after he read the first three pages of Ana Gomez's report. His letter would have had a different conclusion (that is, if he even ends up writing the letter.) But as he gets to read pages six, seven and eight, he would certainly want to write a letter contrary to the conclusions of his initial response. I understand it will be too much to ask from this group to bring itself down from the stratosphere and note the lesson from the way the PM dealt with the whole report fiasco. But it would be a reasonable assumption that they would, at least, learn from a most recent embarrassment of their leader, Hailu Shawel, who cried wolf about votes being stolen in Addis Ababa, only to find out a few hours later that his coalition has won all the seats of the capital city. I can only say, with confidence, that they did not fare any better than the buffoonery endowed upon the engineer.

Having observed that the scholars have utterly flanked the very basic test of any discipline of higher education, I feel I will be wasting time and energy if I write a counter point to their chant of patronage to their "immaculate" goddess. However, it would be a mockery, in my part, if I turn a blind eye to their genuflection in front of their "mediator" and their crawling under her knees, which I believe is an even further confirmation of the professors' coups de grâce.

The scholars have lost it big time when they went on all fours to plea to their ‘savior' to prescribe the way our nation should be following. They went on to say, "we call upon you to make the wisest possible recommendation . . . " Excuse my French, but who the hell are these observers to tell Ethiopia and Ethiopians how to run their lives? The farce begins and ends there and then: when states, that were not even around when Ethiopia was a nation by its own right and persevered through three millennia and when the same states who colonized the globe but were unable to establish their tyranny in our home land, are asked to come and show us the way. But the scholars from the Scandinavian chapter go beyond the quest for a recommendation from their European masters and tried to explain why the PM ended up writing his letter by saying that "what the ruling party fears most is the possible punishment that can follow a ****ing report . . . " First of all, I am sorry if the only legacy they kept from their grade school years in Enferaz and Debre Markos is corporal punishment. Secondly, I am not sure if the authors are aware of the fact that they are not dealing with a ***** house in Panama, run by the Mafiosi. If they need a reminder, I will be more than willing to reemphasize that Ethiopia has always been a sovereign nation.

Dear Ethiopians and other readers, I must admit that I have yet to see such a spineless and blatant betrayal of the motherland by anyone's measure. Dear professors from Denmark: Try that "House Negro" we-should-have-been-colonized attitude and you would see how fast you will descend from Purgatory to the Inferno. I suggest you spare your masters from the agony of even considering to adopt your plans, because the whole kit and caboodle have tried to implement your plans on our nation for half a dozen times without the chance of pulling it off. Just the thought of it will make their skin crawl.

I am a bit surprised, however, about this delinquent middle class brokerage firm, when it pronounced that "if the ruling party had come to power through free, fair and just election," the group "would have been one of the first to support them"[sic]. I know of, at least, two short comings of the dwellers of that part of the globe: one of them is an obvious lack of sunshine and the other one is being tongue-tied in the English vernacular. Therefore, I am not going to make a fuss about their singular, ruling party, ending up being the plural, them, in the same sentence. But I can not gloss over the scene that is still fresh in the peoples' memory: These are the very same scholars who jumped on the junta's band wagon, waving the red flag, some thirty years ago and, last time I checked the books, the Dergue did not come to power through a free, fair and just election.

I am finally convinced that the members of the Network of Ethiopian Scholars from Denmark haven't even learned the lessons from the Tragedy of the Prince of Denmark, namely Hamlet, whose two messengers tell the prince how content they were for being neither at the top nor at the bottom of the circle that defines happiness. But again, learning such a lesson is too much to ask from these neurotics and such a wisdom is never the virtue of a narcissist. If this was not the case, they would have been endowed with the necessary humbleness and modesty, instead of straining their bad backs to stay at the zenith of the circle, where the only way to go is the southward slippery slope where the whole kit and caboodle will bite the dust.

City: AA

This letter smells and looks just like Meles.
Meles I hope this coming New Year will be the worst of your life. May the Merciful Allah teach you a lesson for all the misery you have caused. You are the worst leader Ethiopia have ever seen.

I wish you and your family the worst and the saddest New Year. Amen.

The 2005, Green Revolution Nobel Prize winner, Prime Minster Meles Zenawe will be in New york fot he UN meeting, and he will be one of the Top honored speaker on the meeting.

http://www.yara.com

Email: Meskerem@hotmail.com

City: Maryland

U biiiiitch Woyane!
I am from Scandinivia.
Woyane ! what is your point!
It is fo..ing boring

Aziza
When you revers the truth the knife will beat you yourself!!

Email: ababi62@yahoo.com

City: Addis Ababa