PART ONE
Author’s Note: I invite my readers to review my 10-POINT PROPOSAL for Diaspora Ethiopian Engagement During the Great Ethiopian Diaspora Homecoming. I invite and urge my readers to evaluate and develop these ideas and propose better ones. I offer them only as starting points for discussion.
In this commentary (“travelogue”), I try to articulate my reasons for responding to PM Abiy Ahmed’s “Great Diaspora Ethiopian Homecoming” call and my experience in travelling to Ethiopia from the U.S.
Ethiopia, love it or leave it!
A million-strong diaspora Ethiopians continue to respond to PM Abiy Ahmed’s “Great Ethiopian Diaspora Homecoming” call because they love Ethiopia.
PM Abiy issued a call to diaspora Ethiopians to come home as call in early December 2021 on the heels of a mad and madding call by the U.S., E.U., UN and a few other Western countries to evacuate their citizens and workers out of Ethiopia allegedly because the capital was going to be overrun by the terrorist Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and unravel into a full-fledged civil war.
“Evacuation” was just one of many tricks of the Biden Administration (other tricks including de-listing Ethiopia from AGOA, subversion of UN Security Council to ostracize Ethiopia, demonization of Ethiopia using Western prostitutes, etc.) masterminded by the Princess of Darkness Susan Rice, and other Western powers used to wage a broader psyops/hybrid war on Ethiopia.
The Biden administration calculated that if it could perpetuate a lie about an imminent fall of Ethiopia into the hands of the terrorist TPLF, Ethiopians would believe it, raise a white flag and surrender.
The U.S. thought it could repeat its June 1991 sleight-of-hand and re-install the TPLF to power.
Back then, Assistant Secretary of State Herman Cohen literally walked the TPLF to power by making a lot of noise about Ethiopia imploding into a civil war.
In November 2020, the U.S and the TPLF foolishly tried to restage 1991 and restore the TPLF to power by covertly arranging a “mebreqawi” (blitzkrieg) attack on regional centers and the capital on American presidential election day when world had its eyes peeled on the contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
As Ethiopia’s fair-weather friends called on their citizens to evacuate, PM Abiy Ahmed responded with a masterstroke. Foreigners who do not love Ethiopia can leave because Ethiopians who love Ethiopia will come back a million-strong.
A few expatriates left Ethiopia believing the madding “evacuation” call by the Biden administration and its lackeys.
But I, and hundreds of thousands of other diaspora Ethiopians, have returned home to show our support for the Motherland.
I, like many other Ethiopians, stayed away from Ethiopia for decades (nearly fifty years for me) because I hated the Derg regime and the thug-tatorship of the TPLF. But though I left Ethiopia for nearly a half century, Ethiopia never left me. You can take the boy out of Ethiopia, but you can never take Ethiopia out of the boy’s heart. So, when I heard PM Abiy Ahmed make his “Great Ethiopian Diaspora Homecoming” call, I was delighted and raring to go!
That conspiracy brought Ethiopians at home and in the diaspora into full solidarity and loudly declares, “Those who do not love Ethiopia are free to leave it. Just be careful the door does not hit your rear side on your way out!”
“The best laid plans of mice and men (or should I say the Axis of Evil) often go awry.” The perfect storm of unity and solidarity among Ethiopians foiled the diabolical conspiracy of the Axis of Evil.
Instead of Ethiopia, the TPLF imploded after PM and Commander-in-Chief Abiy Ahmed joined the troops at the front in November 2021. His appearance at the various battlefronts to personally direct operations was electrifying, galvanizing and unprecedented in the history of modern warfare.
No modern head of state democratically elected or otherwise, has ever left the comfort of his office to fight with the infantry for weeks. His extraordinary action led to a massive rush to join the armed forces to fight the TPLF and the U.S. proxy war in Ethiopia.
It took the TPLF six months to capture locations in Amhara and Afar regions but was driven out in less than three after sustaining massive casualties estimated in the hundreds of thousands.
The Axis of Evil claimed the TPLF was not defeated by the Ethiopian military but by drones in a wicked attempt to diminish the sacrifices and achievements of the Ethiopian defense and Special Forces and militia and Fano fighters.
If drones, without military boots on the ground, could win wars, the U.S. would not have left Afghanistan in total humiliation in August 2021.
But the TPLF committed unspeakable crimes against humanity when it invaded Amhara and Afar regions as documented extensively in various human rights reports. The terrorist TPLF in the end was driven out of Amhara and Afar regions because it hated Ethiopia!
Those who love Ethiopia won against those who hate Ethiopia! That is because the power of love reigns supreme over the power of hate.The Axis of Evil will always fail because they hate Ethiopia and its bright and prosperous future.
Ethiopia still stands tall, and shall continue to stand for eons, because Ethiopians love Ethiopia!
Why did I respond to PM Abiy’s “Great Diaspora Homecoming” call?
As I mentioned above, I had been away from Ethiopia for nearly one-half century. I returned to Ethiopia for the “Great Diaspora Homecoming” because I love Ethiopia, just like everyone who responded to the call. Period!
You can take the boy out of Ethiopia, but you can never take Ethiopia out of the boy’s heart. Truth be told, I returned to Ethiopia to accomplish a specific mission. The PM’s call was a personal challenge to me to put my money where my mouth is, as the old saying goes.
To me, the PM was saying, “Answer your own question which you had raised so many times over the years. “Ask not what Ethiopia /ns can do for you but what you can do for Ethiopia/ns?
So, the Great 2022 Diaspora Ethiopian Homecoming is my chance to answer my own question, “What can I personally (and in concert with others) do for Ethiopia/ns?”
I am in Ethiopia during Homecoming 2022 driven by a compelling moral obligation to serve. To serve my brothers and sisters victimized by TPLF terror and crimes and the psyops/hybrid war unleashed by the Axis of Evil.
For the past 16 years, I have used my pen (computer keyboard) to serve Ethiopia by defending her honor, sovereignty and dignity in the court of world public opinion. Few who have sought to dishonor Ethiopia have been spared my rapier commentaries grounded in facts and irrefutable analysis.
This is not empty boasting or self-congratulation. No one has ever challenged any of my commentaries on the facts and analysis. Period!
I have challenged four American presidents and their administrations. No, I don’t have an inflated ego. When I say I have challenged them, I mean it in the same vein as Marian Wright Edelman’s observation: “You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.”
So, I and million-strong diaspora Ethiopian fleas have come home to join 115 million other fleas to fight against the Axis of Evil and ensure Ethiopia prevails and prospers against all odds.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The
BY ALMARIAM
SUNDAY EDITION 14 JANUARY 2022