Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2015 23:44:53 +0200
Alemayehu G. Mariam
2015-08-06, Issue 738
Warning!
Stop!
Do not read further if you can’t handle the truth about Barack Obama. “Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.”
“I speak my mind because it hurts to bite my tongue.”
Bite your tongue, Barack Obama!
When President Barack Obama visited Ethiopia last week, he shocked a lot of people by making the following statement:
“I don’t bite my tongue too much when it comes to these issues. We are opposed to any group that is promoting the violent overthrow of a government, including the government of Ethiopia, that has been democratically elected. We are very mindful of Ethiopia’s history – the hardships that this country has gone through. It has been relatively recently in which the constitution that was formed and the elections put forward a democratically elected government.”
The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected!?!
Say what?!!!
On May 24, 2015, the “government of Ethiopia” held an election and declared it had won it by 100 percent. Yes, by one hundred percent.
Even Kim Jong-un’ of North Korea did not have the gall to claim a 100 percent electoral victory in the March 2014 parliamentary election. At least on paper, Kim Jong-un’s “Worker’s Party of Korea” won only by 88.3 percent (607 of the 687 seats). The “Korean Socialist Democratic Party” won 50 seats. The “Chondoist Chongu Party” won 22 seats. The “General Association of Korean Residents in Japan” won 5 seats. The “Religious Associations” won 3 seats.
In Ethiopia, there are 79 registered political parties who “actively participated in the election”. In May 2015, the “People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front” (EPDRF) party (the front organization for the Tigrean Peoples’ Liberation Front [TPLF]) won 547 of the 547 seats in “parliament”.
No candidate from the other 78 political parties even came close to winning a single seat!
On July 26, 2015, Barack Obama stood up in Addis Ababa and declared, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected.”
OBAMA IN THE LAND OF LIVING LIES OR LAND OF 13-MONTHS OF SUNSHINE?
Barack Obama’s visit to the Land of 13-Months of Sunshine, Ethiopia, reminded me of the magical visit of a little cartoon animation girl called Sandy to the Land of Living Lies. In the Land of Living Lies, Puff the Magic Dragon, introduces Sandy to such famous fibbers as Pinocchio and the boy who cried wolf.
Sandy: Puff, look!
Puff: That is the famous purple cow that no one has ever seen.
Sandy: And the pink elephant.
Puff: That some see too often. Don’t you think it’s odd that I, a dragon, should eat homework for lunch? Of course it’s odd, for it never happened. It was a falsehood, a canard, a prevarication. Oh, why beat about the bush. It was a simple lie told by a little girl named Sandy.
Sandy: Oh, those are silly lies.
Puff: No, those are fanciful lies. And harmless fantasy OK. And it’s fun, too.
If there ever has been an election won by one party by 100 percent that is democratic, then there is indeed the famous purple cow that nobody has ever seen or the pink elephant that some see often.
But a single political party winning an election by 100 percent is a falsehood, a canard, a prevarication.
Oh, why beat about the bush. It is a simple lie told by the mighty President of the United States called Barack Obama.
Silly lies, fanciful lies, harmless lies told by Barack Obama after he met with Hailemariam Desalegn (Pinocchio) and Tedros Adhanom (the boy who cried wolf).
Stop! Not harmless lies, by any stretch of the imagination.
Barack Obama told dangerous lies that could plunge a nation of 100 million into civil strife and destruction!
Barack Obama is an extraordinarily intelligent guy. But in the Land of Thirteen Months of Sunshine transformed into the Land of Living Lies, something happened to Barack Obama.
Barack Obama got on TV and lied right through his teeth. But that was not all.
To cover up his lie and distract attention from the real issue, which is why 78 out of 79 political parties did not win a single “parliamentary” seat, Barack Obama kept blathering about “the violent overthrow of a government that has been democratically elected.”
Ain’t nobody talking about no violent overthrow of anything.
But to justify his statement that the election of the ruling TPLF thug party by 100 percent, Obama kept on talking about a violent overthrow.
Of course, Obama was merely echoing and legitimizing the narrative of the bush thugs who claim they are under siege by terrorists and insurrectionists intent on overthrowing them by force of arms.
Obama’s aim was obviously to elicit international sympathy and support for the TPLF and subtly demonize all who oppose the TPLF as inherently violent and terroristic.
Obama’s implicit message was that any opposition to the TPLF is violent and certain to be terroristic. Thus, the ruling regime is justified in crushing all opposition, with the full support and blessings of America.
I have one simple question for Barack Obama: Assuming for the sake of argument that the regime which claimed 100 percent election victory is not elected democratically, is it ok to overthrow it by “violence”?
Before you answer that question, think of Iraq, Barack!
Is Obama’s statement, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected,” some sort of cruel practical joke played on the people of Ethiopia?
Had Obama lost his marbles when he made that absurd statement?
Did Obama say what he said in a jetlag daze?
The fact is on July 26, 2015, Barack Obama stood in Addis Ababa and declared to the world with a straight face, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected.”
Readers! I am in a real dilemma. Help me out!
I want to disagree respectfully with President Obama.
And I don’t want to insult President Obama’s intelligence by saying that he actually believes his words, “The government of Ethiopia that has been democratically elected.”
But what choice do I have!?
Anyone who believes the “government of Ethiopia” that claimed to have “won” the May 2015 election by 100 percent is “democratically elected” has no business being President of the United States. For that matter, he has no business being the president of the town volunteer stray dog-catchers society.
In 2009, Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Congressman shouted at Obama, “You Lie!” during the state of the union address.
I thought that was disrespectful of President Obama. I had a few choice words for Wilson.
Six years later, I understand. (Sorry, Joe!)
If I had a chance to meet Obama, I would wag my index finger in his face and tell him, “Barack Obama! You lie like a rug!”
Is Barack Obama a pathological liar?
Could it be that Barack Obama is a compulsive liar? That is, he lies out of habit; and through repetition he is hardwired to lie.
Could Obama be afflicted with the Pinocchio’s Syndrome?
There is no way on earth (or in hell) Obama did not know his statement, “The government of Ethiopia that has been democratically elected,” is a lie, a doggone lie!
But he said it without flinching, blinking or cringing. The marks of the practiced liar.
Everyone knows Obama is a lawyer trained at one of the best law schools in the world.
No one doubts he knows the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie.
For crying out loud, he is the President of the United States! He has to know the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie!!!
Obama’s categorical statement, “The government of Ethiopia that has been democratically electe….” is as false as the man who claimed he is ten feet tall. There has never been a human being in recorded history that was 10 feet tall.
There has never been a genuinely democratic election in the recorded history of humanity that was won by a single party by 100 percent.
When Obama stands up, looks into the unblinking eye of the camera and lies through his teeth, what is left for me to do but stand paralyzed in shock and shame?
As Obama’s tongue wagged and weaved a tangled web of lies, his body language was telling a different story.
The video, in contrast to the audio, of the joint press conference told a different story. In the video, Obama’s body language spoke louder than his words; and told the truth that he was lying about what he said. Immediately after he stated, “The government of Ethiopia that has been democratically elected,” Obama’s body language changed in the video.
His eyes gazed to the ground.
He tilted his head up and looked vacantly into the gallery.
He slouched on the lectern to show he is at ease as he lies through his teeth.
He tried to conceal the internal tension between his lying tongue and his virtuous conscience (the microscopic residue of that keen conscience we all voted for).
As Obama embellishes his lies with lawyerly gobbledygook, he struggles to conceal all verbal and physiological clues that he is lying.
He shows no emotional reaction of guilt as he weaves his tale of deceit about a thug-state election. He tries to suppress any disturbance in his speech content or pattern. But his vacant eyes don’t lie. They kept looking at the floor.
Obama flails in “hand shrugs” to cover up the fact that his tongue is saying one thing and his body saying, “That ain’t true. It’s a lie”.
Obama’s body stiffened. For a few seconds, he looked completely wooden, soulless. He was not talking.
He was just reciting talking points written for him by you know who, “Queen Grimhilde”, his National Security Adviser.
As Obama continued to lie, he spoke haltingly. He hesitated. He searched for the right words to embellish his lies, pretending to be cautious in his choice of words.
Obama made a tactical digression and droned on (no pun intended) about using a single standard to judge big and small nations on human rights.
But there was no one talking about China’s human rights record but Obama.
Obama kept on pattering during the press conference like a used car salesman trying to unload a hunk of junk on an unsuspecting customer.
The really funny thing was that when Susan Rice was asked if the election that the ruling regime in Ethiopia “won” by 100 percent was “democratic”, she busted out in the biggest belly laugh by an American official anyone had seen in decades. She simply could not control her laughter!
They say Emperor Nero laughed as Rome burned. I wonder if Susan Rice thought elections in Ethiopia are laughing matters.
But Barack Obama with a straight face stated, “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected.” Twice!
I want to be fair to Obama!
Was he really talking on the basis of informed policy analysis or regurgitating the script written for him by Susan “Svengali” Rice, his National Security Adviser?
In April, a month before the May 24 Ethiopian election, Rice sent Undersecretary Wendy Sherman to Addis Ababa with the exact same talking points. Sherman showed up in Addis Ababa on April 16, 2015 and set the terms of engagement when Obama showed up in July 2015. She declared, “Ethiopia is a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we expect to be free, fair, credible, open and inclusive in ways Ethiopia has moved forward in strengthening its democracy every time there is an election. It gets better and better. The United States believes no group, including Ginbot 7, should attempt to overthrow or speak of overthrowing a democratically elected government.”
When Barack Obama showed up in Addis Ababa on July 26, 2015, he said exactly what Sherman said on April 16, WORD FOR WORD!!!
How is that possible? They must think we are all dumbbells.
Sherman’s statement sparked a firestorm. I took her to task for telling lies.
The Washington Post slammed Sherman and told her point blank to “swallow” her dumb words and “change her approach”. Sherman announced her resignation not long after that editorial.
But I have to hand it to Sherman. She was right in her prediction about the election. It did get better. In May 2010, the ruling regime won by 99.6 percent; in May 2015, it won by 100 percent. It could not get any better than that!
Aah! Susan Rice, the invisible hand that rocks the cradle!
On what theory of democracy does Obama certify the democratic election of the “government of Ethiopia”?
In June 2009, in Cairo, Barack Obama gave the world his definition of democracy:
“I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years…
“There are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others. No matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion; you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party. WITHOUT THESE INGREDIENTS, ELECTIONS ALONE DO NOT MAKE TRUE DEMOCRACY. (Emphasis added.)
When Obama says, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected”, he is obviously saying “elections alone, without the other ingredients, make true democracy.”
By Obama’s own definition, did the ruling regime in Ethiopia “win” the election with 100 percent with Chef Obama’s “ingredients” of democracy?
On July 28, 2015 Barack Obama stood before the African Union and said:
“I believe Africa’s progress will also depend on democracy, because Africans, like people everywhere, deserve the dignity of being in control of their own lives. We all know what the ingredients of real democracy are. They include free and fair elections, but also freedom of speech and the press, freedom of assembly… Yet at this very moment, these same freedoms are denied to many Africans.”
And I have to proclaim, democracy is not just formal elections. When journalists are put behind bars for doing their jobs, or activists are threatened as governments crack down on civil society — then you may have democracy in name, but not in substance.
On July 26, 2015 Barack Obama stood next to the guy in “charge” of the regime ranked “fourth worst violator of press freedoms” in the world and second worst in Africa by the Committee to Protect Journalists and declared, “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected.”
Barack Obama’s African Union speech reminded me of something Adlai E. Stevenson (democratic presidential nominee against Eisenhower) once said: “A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.”
Barack Obama cut down the acacia tree of democracy in Ethiopia on July 26 by declaring, “The Ethiopian government is democratically elected.” On July 28, he mounted the stage at the African Union and pleaded for restoration and conservation of democracy in Africa.
Such is the hypocrisy of Barack Obama, the lumberjack of African democracy.
Does Barack Obama know the difference between a real democracy and a democracy in name!?
In his Cairo speech, Obama also professed his faith in human rights as the foundation of democracy:
“I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.”
When Obama said, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected” by 100 percent, does he mean that the people in Ethiopia today have the “ability to speak their minds”?
Does Obama mean that when the “EPDRF” (real name TPLF) has “won” the election by 100 percent, the people of Ethiopia have a say in how they are governed?
Does Obama mean there is rule of law in Ethiopia when one party controls political, economic and social institutions by 100 percent and “wins” elections by 100 percent?
How could Ethiopia’s election be called “democratic” when the ruling party has jailed, harassed and intimidated opposition leaders?
How could Ethiopia’s election be called “democratic” when the independent press is banned and journalists are jailed by the hundreds?
How could Ethiopia’s election be called “democratic” when the elections commission is in the back pocket of the ruling TPLF party?
How could Ethiopia’s election be called “democratic” when the mass media is exclusively in the hands of the ruling party?
By Obama’s own democratic standards, Saddam Hussein’s electoral victory of “11 million-to-zero” with a 100 percent voter turnout” would be equally democratic.
Did the U.S. declare war on a country that had the most perfect democratic election in human history?
Bear with me folks.
What is the alternative explanation for Obama’s lying declaration that the “government of Ethiopia is democratically elected”?
Obama is willfully ignorant?
Obama is incredibly uninformed and misinformed?
Obama is incapable of differentiating truth from lies?
Obama does not care about the truth or falsity of his public statements?
Obama has a habit of fudging the truth?
Obama is a simpleton?
Could it just be that Barack Obama is just a shameless liar?
I never believed Barack Obama would stoop so low; but stoop he did, lower than a snake’s belly.
The playwright Tennessee Williams wrote, “The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!”
Williams must have foreseen the advent of Barack Obama.
Barack Obama is a liar and hypocrite!
For crying out loud, what happened to my friend Barack Obama on his way to Ethiopia!?
I am talking about Barack Obama who has accomplished so much over the past six years!
He passed health care reform which five presidents of the United States were unable to do over a century. (I believe health care is a human right.)
He ended the war in Iraq. (I opposed the war in Iraq from Day 1.)
He nailed that mass murderer Osama bin Laden. (It was sweet music to my ears when Obama announced in May 2011, “Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”)
He got Iran to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. (I believe in complete nuclear disarmament.)
He appointed the first Hispanic and the third woman to the Supreme Court and reversed Bush’s torture policies. (That is a big deal to me as a lawyer.)
He expanded wilderness and watershed protection by millions of acres. (Yes, I am a tree hugger and proud of it!)
He signed the Fair Sentencing Act reducing the sentencing disparity between crack versus powder cocaine possession from 100 to1 to 18 to1. Under federal law, selling 28 grams of crack cocaine triggered a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison. One gram is 1⁄1000 of a kilogram. (That is a super big deal to me as a criminal defense lawyer who has witnessed so many young black men do long prison time for crack cocaine.)
He saved the American economy from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression!
Of course, Obama has done many things I completely disagree with; too many to list here.
But I have never, never heard Barack Obama lie through his teeth than the time he said, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected.”
For crying out loud, what happened to my friend Barack Obama on his way to Ethiopia!
When I wrote my commentary “Shame On Me For Being Proud of President Obama!” in September 2014, I was very honest and unapologetic.
I argued that in as much as I detested shameless politicians, I made an exception for Barack Obama.
I liked Obama because he was young, charismatically magnetic, eloquent and even idealistic.
I liked Obama as a man and for his achievements and professed values.
I was proud of him, but my pride in the man had little to do with the fact that he could be the “first Black President.” I judged Obama not by “the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.” He exuded the virtues of integrity, probity, sincerity and honesty.
I convinced myself that the Barack Obama I proudly supported in 2007 and helped get elected President of the United States by mobilizing Ethiopian Americans had the character of a rising statesman, not a deceitful and snarly politician.
In July 2015, I finally found out for certain that Barack Obama has the character and moral values of a sleazy, greasy used car salesman in a polyester suit.
A bunch of bush thugs put on an election show and declare to the world they won it by 100 percent and Barack Obama cheerleads for them: “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected.”
Give me a “T”. Give me a “G”. Give me an “O”. Give me an “E”… “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected.” YIPPEE! YIPPEE!
Could anyone tell me on which planet Barack Obama spends most of his time when he is not hanging out with African dictators and thugtators?
They say politics is the second oldest profession in the world after prostitution. Is it possible that occasionally the two professions become one in one person?
What the hell is wrong with Barack Obama!?
A government that won an election by 100 percent is a “democratically elected government”!?
I take that statement as a personal insult.
I have struggled against Obama’s “democratic government” for nine and one-half years writing searing commentaries every single week, without missing a single week, on the crimes against humanity, aggression, genocide and murder committed by that “government”. I am proud of my record of human rights advocacy in Ethiopia.
But I wonder whether Barack Obama knows how he has demeaned, insulted and humiliated 100 million Ethiopians when he said, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected.”
Why would the President of the United States stand in front of 100 million Ethiopians and lie his behind off?
Could it be that he thinks Ethiopians are dunces?
He must believe Ethiopians are so dumb and stupid that they cannot tell the difference between an election and an elektion!?
He must believe Ethiopians are so dumb and stupid that they cannot tell the difference between democracy and democrazy!
Obama’s brazenfaced lie shows his total contempt for Ethiopians.
If he had any respect for the Ethiopian people and cared about how they felt about the May 2015 elektion, he would have handled the issue diplomatically.
But Obama did not give a rat’s behind what Ethiopians thought!
On September 2, 2012, Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Adviser, delivered a nauseatingly sentimental oration at the funeral of the late dictator Meles Zenawi. Rice said Meles was “tough, unsentimental and sometimes unyielding. And, of course, he had little patience for fools, or idiots, as he liked to call them.”
The people Zenawi called “fools and idiots” were opposition leaders, journalists, dissenters and anyone he did not like, which is pretty much all Ethiopians who held him in great contempt.
When Barack Obama said, “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected,” for all intents and purposes he called all Ethiopians, and particularly Ethiopian opposition leaders, journalists and dissenters, “fools” and “idiots”.
In the eyes of Ethiopians, Barack Obama has become Meles Zenawi’s alter ego.
But Ethiopians are neither fools nor idiots.
Truth be told, the “fool” and the “idiot” is he who “struts and frets his hour upon the international stage” and tells tall tales about a democrazy “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Obama said he does not bite his tongue when he defends his “democratically elected government” (of thugs).
Well, get this Barack Obama!
One hundred million Ethiopians are sticking their tongues at you; and you know what, they are flipping you the bird as they stick their tongues at you!
If the Bard of Avon were alive, he would have called Barack Obama a “tedious fool telling a monstrous lie” for saying, “The Ethiopian government is democratically elected.”
If I were a man of the cloth, I would sit Barack Obama down and give him a hell and brimstone sermon on Mark 8:18: “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?”
I would have lambasted him in the words of Jeremiah 5:21, “‘Hear this now, O foolish Obama,/ Without understanding,/Who have eyes and see not,/And who have ears and hear not.”
I would have chastised Obama in the words of Psalm 149, “Barack Obama, your tongue stings like a snake; the venom of a viper dripped from your lips” when you said, “The Ethiopian government is democratically elected.”
If I were a philosopher, I would have lectured Barack Obama on Plato’s “lie in the soul.” Don’t lie about the most important things in life, Barack Obama!
If I were a philosopher , I would have lectured Barack Obama on Kant’s “categorical imperative” that there is an absolute and unconditional requirement upon human beings, particularly leaders of nations, to tell the truth. Without truthfulness by leaders, it is not possible to build a stable, harmonious and law-abiding society.
I know Obama’s favorite philosopher is Reinhold Niebuhr. Obama said, “The Ethiopian government is democratically elected.”
If I were a philosopher, I would have given Obama a discourse on what Niebuhr meant when he said, “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”
If I were a journalist, I would have asked Barack Obama to explain his 2009 statement in Cairo that “There are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others”, in light of his statement that the 100 percent election victory of the regime in Ethiopia makes it a “democratically elected government.”
If I were a polygrapher (lie detector operator), I would ask Barack Obama only one question: “Is the government of Ethiopia democratically elected?”
“Keep it Cool” Obama would pass with flying colors.
He would show no physiological changes in blood pressure, pulse, respiration or skin conductivity.
But I am none of the above.
I am just an average college professor and defense lawyer.
So, I will tell Barack Obama how I feel, my way.
Barack Obama! Your statement, “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected.” is a crock of S _ _T! (Reader, pardon my “French”!)
Is Barack Obama really Barack Obama?
What happened to the Barack Obama who said in July 2009, ”Make no mistake: History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.”
Where is the Barack Obama who said: “When the United States stands up for human rights, by example at home and by effort abroad, we align ourselves with men and women around the world who struggle for the right to speak their minds, to choose their leaders, and to be treated with dignity and respect. The abuse of human rights can feed many of the global dangers that we confront — from armed conflict and humanitarian crises, to corruption and the spread of ideologies that promote hatred and violence.”
Has anybody seen my old friend Barack Obama who said, “No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there. And now is the time for that style of governance to end”?
I have lost all respect for Barack Obama the man, and Barack Obama, the President of the United States.
How can I respect a man who lies through his teeth because he is too cowardly to speak the truth?
I want to be fair to Barack Obama. American presidents have been caught in lies from time to time. John F. Kennedy said the U.S. had no plans to militarily intervene in Cuba as he was planning an invasion of Cuba. He lied.
George Bush Sr. said there will be “no new taxes”. He lied.
Bill Clinton said he smoked pot but did not inhale. He also said he did not have an affair with “that woman” (Monica Lewinsky). He lied.
Richard Nixon said he was not a crook. He lied.
Ronald Reagan said he “did not, I repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else [to Iran] for hostages.” He lied.
(By the way, when Susan Rice said she had no idea about the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, she lied. Her words were, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?”)
But no American president ever told a whale of a lie like Barack Obama who said, “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected.”
In June 2013, Obama the hypocrite ripped into Robert Mugabe who had claimed to have won his election in Zimbabwe by 61 percent of the vote: “Just look at your neighbor, Zimbabwe, where the promise of liberation gave way to the corruption of power and then the collapse of the economy. Now, after the leaders of this region — led by South Africa — brokered an end to what has been a long-running crisis, Zimbabweans have a new constitution, the economy is beginning to recover. So there is an opportunity to move forward — but only if there is an election that is free, and fair, and peaceful, so that Zimbabweans can determine their future without fear of intimidation and retribution. And after elections, there must be respect for the universal rights upon which democracy depends.”
In July 2015, Barack Obama said the regime in Ethiopia won in a free and fair election without fear of intimidation and retribution.
But Barack Obama did not say to the regime in Ethiopia, “after elections, there must be respect for the universal rights upon which democracy depends.” He just said they had a little chat about human rights”, (I suspect along with the weather and the tasty Ethiopian coffee).
When the ruling TPLF regime in Ethiopia declared victory by 99.6 percent in May 2010, Obama’s White House released a statement:
“We are concerned that international observers found that the elections fell short of international commitments. We are disappointed that U.S. Embassy officials were denied accreditation and the opportunity to travel outside of the capital on Election Day to observe the voting. The limitation of independent observation and the harassment of independent media representatives are deeply troubling.”
In May 2015, when that same “government” won by 100 percent, no concerns were expressed by Barack Obama or any member of his administration. They all came out and said it was a “democratic election” (except for Susan Rice who busted out laughing at the suggestion that election was democratic.)
The United Nations said the July 21, 2015 election in Burundi “won” by Pierre Nkurunziza for a third term occurred in an overall environment which was not conducive for an “inclusive, free and credible electoral process”. Nkurunziza “won” by 69.41 percent.
On July 28, 2015, Barack Obama stood before the African Union and said, “When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife — as we’ve seen in Burundi. And this is often just a first step down a perilous path. And sometimes you’ll hear leaders say, well, I’m the only person who can hold this nation together. If that’s true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation.”
On July 26, 2015, Barack Obama stood with the titular leader of the ruling regime in Ethiopia which “won” its election by 100 percent and declared, “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected.”
Does Barack Obama see the absurdity of his own logic?
When one party “wins” an election by 100 percent, isn’t that party saying, “We are the only institution that can hold this nation together”?
Barack Obama, the hypocrite of hypocrites!
What the hell is wrong with Barack Obama, for God’s sake?!?
What message is Obama sending to African dictators and thugtators?
When Obama says, “The government of Ethiopia (which won the elektion by 100 percent) has been democratically elected,” what message is he sending to the rest of the African dictators?
Is he telling Omar Al-Bashir of the Sudan, who this past April won the presidency by 94.1 percent, to pick up the slack and turn in 100 percent next time?
Is Obama telling Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya that he is disappointed with Kenyatta’s 2013 election victory by a measly 50.51 percent when his neighbors to the north are cleaning house by 100 percent?
What is Obama going to tell Paul Kagame of Rwanda who won by 93.08 percent in 2010 and rigged the constitution recently to become president-for-life? “Bro. Paul, learn from the TPLF. You gotta shut’em down cold. Go for the whole enchilada in 2017. Hear?!”
What is Obama going to advise Yoweri Museveni of Uganda who won his election in 2011 by 68.38 percent? “Yo! Yo! Yo! Museveni! What up with this 68 percent _ _ _T? You’re making all your brothers look bad. Jack it up bro. in the 2016 election. Grand slam it! 100 percent. You dig!”
Is Obama going to tell Robert “Methuselah” Mugabe (who will be a thousand years old next year) of Zimbabwe to up his game from 61 percent to 100 percent? (Mugabe is a different case. The other election thieves may be S.O.B.’s, but they are our S.O.B.s. Mugabe ain’t one of our S.O.B.s. Let him go to _ _ll.)
What is Barack Obama telling all of the young people in Africa toiling for democracy? Is he telling Africa’s youth “elections alone make true democracy”? Is Obama telling Africa’s youth the U.S. will embrace and coddle the very dictators who have ruined their lives?
In 1995, in “Dreams of My Father”, Barack Obama wrote:
“I have seen the desperation and disorder of the powerless: how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi in much the same way as it does the lives of children on Chicago’s South Side, how narrow the path is for them between humiliation and untrammeled fury, how easily they slip into violence and despair. I know that the hardening of lines, the embrace of fundamentalism and tribe, dooms us all.”
I really doubt Obama has seen the desperation and disorder of the powerless youth in Jakarta or Nairobi. I know for sure he has not seen the desperation and disorder of the powerless youth in Addis Ababa.
Maybe Obama message’s to Africa’s youth is to chill out and look at their situation his way: It’s all about mind over matter. They should not mind their desperation and disorder, and it does not matter to him.
African lives don’t matter to Obama.
Do black lives matter to Obama? Can you handle the truth?
Barack Obama did not say a single word on July 26 or July 28 about the release of young Ethiopian journalists Eskinder Nega, Woubshet Taye, Temesgen Desalegn, the Zone 9 bloggers, the young Muslim religious rights advocates and so many other political prisoners whose lives have been twisted by the bush thugs he praised as democrats and defenders of liberty against terrorism.
Does Barack Obama have the slightest idea of how the lives of these young journalists and human rights advocates have been “twisted” and “disordered” by the gang of bush thugs he praised as the “government of Ethiopia” and defenders of liberty against terrorism?
Does Barack Obama have the slightest idea of the lives of quiet desperation of millions of young Ethiopians as he proclaims, “The government of Ethiopia has been democratically elected”?
Does Barack Obama have the slightest idea of the humiliation Ethiopians face every day and the untrammeled fury that is brewing to a boiling point in their hearts and minds under the rule of the bush thugs masquerading as a government?
Does Barack Obama have the slightest idea of what is certain to happen in Ethiopia if he continues to support his gang of bush thugs just because they do his dirty work in Somalia and South Sudan?
At the funeral of President Nelson Mandela in December 2013, Barack Obama said Mandela was “a man who took history in his hands, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.” Will history say Barack Obama was “a man who took history in his hands, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.”
Or will history say Barack Obama was a bosom buddy, friend, ally, partner and comrade of Africa’s bloodthirsty dictators?
I truly pity Barack Obama.
Barack Obama was destined for greatness.
But folly became his destination.
Africans had great hopes for Barack Obama. They cheered him on as he campaigned. They even invoked the ancestral spirits to lead him to victory and success.
Barack Obama in turn lifted up their spirits and souls with his lofty rhetoric after he was elected. Today, Barack Obama has fallen from grace in Africa. Barack Obama has returned the love and respect of the African people by embracing their dictators who disrespect their human rights and make their lives miserable.
Barack Obama has insulted the intelligence of the Ethiopian people by telling them an elektion won by 100 percent is a “democratic election.” Barack Obama has incurred the wrath of the Ethiopian people, the African people.
To add insult to injury, Barack Obama stood before the African Union and pontificated about good governance and transparency. He hectored, “Africa must end the cancer of corruption. Africans live in a level of poverty that’s an assault on human dignity. The United States will work with you to combat illicit financing, and promote good governance and transparency and rule of law.”
Right after he completed his speech, he sat and wined and dined with the same corrupt and bloodthirsty thugs.
Barack Obama preaches good governance, transparency and rule of law to the African Union and lies in bed with the continent’s worst human rights violators.
Should I demand an apology from Barack Obama?
First, I owe Barack Obama an apology!!
I apologize for egging him on to visit Ethiopia. When everyone in the human rights community and the media told him not to go, not to do it, I said, “Go ahead! Do it. Go!”
If I had known Obama would go to Ethiopia and stick his foot in his mouth, I would have joined the others and told him not to go. My apologies to Barack Obama!
I also want to apologize for the thug-state honor guard reception Obama got in Addis Ababa. I have seen better honor guard reception at a high school basketball event than the honor guard service given to Obama at Emperor Haile Selassie’s old palace.
The TPLF brought out the Kebele Guards to honor Barack Obama, President of the United States. What a doggone shame!
As I have said before, you can take the thug out of the bush, but you can never take the bush out of the thug!
Just compare Obama’s dignified honor guard reception in India with the reception he got in Addis Ababa by clicking here.
Now does Barack owe the people of Ethiopia an apology? If I thought Barack Obama was a man of conscience and decency, I would ask him to apologize to the people of Ethiopia.
I would ask him to apologize to me personally.
After all, I have spent hundreds of hours mobilizing support for him when he was a presidential candidate. Twice!
If I thought Barack Obama had a shred of decency left in him, I would appeal to his sense of morality.
But I won’t bother to ask.
I know even if he were to apologize, his apology would be a lie.
I am so disappointed in Barack Obama.
I have no words to express my disappointment.
But I can get over my personal disappointment. I should have known better in the first place!
But Obama’s betrayal of the hundreds of millions of Africa’s poor is unforgiveable.
He inspired Africa’s poor to nurture the audacity of hope, only to snatch and switch hope for despair at their most critical moment.
I will be perfectly honest. From this day on, the name Barack Obama will be nothing more to me than a phrase I will use to describe double-talk, forked-tongue talk, sophistry and hogwash.
I swear it! If any politician tries to fool and dupe me to my face, I am going to tell him/her not to “freaking barrack me”!
Barack is an African name which means “blessed.”
But Barack Obama’s name will go down in Ethiopian history as “Baracurse”.
In Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well”, the Second Lord speaks of his “kinsman”: “A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.”
Well, Barack Obama ain’t no kinsman or friend of mine!
All did not end well with Barack Obama’s visit to Ethiopia. All has ended very badly for Barack Obama in Ethiopia!
Barack Obama will be a mere footnote in Ethiopian history.
Barack Obama is already the butt of jokes in Ethiopia.
They are already equating him with the proverbial man who claimed to have seen a bull gave birth to a calf (bere welede) [a local idiom reserved for the worst liar in the community] for saying a regime that won an election by 100 percent is “democratically elected.”
Two years from now after Obama has left office, he will be a simple case of mind over matter for Ethiopians. Ethiopians won’t (re)mind, and Barack Obama won’t matter.
Two years from now Ethiopians will forget Obama’s silly and lying words. They will forget about the meager pomp and circumstance of his visit.
Some Ethiopians, including myself, will forgive and forget what Obama said.
I have to forgive Obama because Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught me to forgive in his sermon, “Loving Your Enemies.”
But Barack Obama is NOT my enemy. No, he is not! I just happen not to agree with him on his policy in Ethiopia and Africa.
Dr. King said, “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.”
Truth be told, I am angry and disappointed at Barack Obama beyond my ability to use words. I don’t want to forgive him!
But I must for the reasons Dr. King explicated in his sermon; and because I believe Barack Obama knows not what he has said and done with his words to the poor nation of Ethiopia.
But I do despair over the fact that millions of Ethiopians will never, never, never forget how Barack Obama made them feel in their home, in their city and in their own country — fools, idiots and jackasses – by telling them the thugs that lord over them today are “democratically elected”.
I can only hope that they too can forgive and forget.
I have also tried to practice Dr. King’s his maxim, “The time is always right to do the right thing.” It is true, “There is never a wrong time to do the right thing.”
I hope Barack Obama will do right by the people of Ethiopia.
As I write this commentary in despair, in distress, in desperation, downhearted and downcast, I thought of Barack Obama, the man who came to public service driven by the audacity of hope.
I thought of Barack Obama the lawyer who spurned the wealthy law firms and went into humble public service.
I thought of Barack Obama who inspired me to stand on the right side of history in 2008 and left me there high and dry in 2015.
Then deepest in my deepest despair, I thought of the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear scientist, upon seeing the rising mushroom of fire and dust:
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu [the Hindu deity of order, righteousness and truth] is trying to persuade the Prince [involved in a power struggle] that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that one way or another.”
Barack Obama, the most powerful man on earth, has no idea of the damage he has done to the nation of Ethiopia by telling lies to impress his “princely” partners in the “war on terrorism”.
He has no idea of the invisible forces he has unleashed, the fury he has uncorked and the passions he has stirred in the souls of millions of Ethiopians with his single sentence, “The government of Ethiopia is democratically elected.”
His seven recklessly deceitful words have sown the seeds of discord and disharmony which Ethiopians shall reap at great cost.
Barack Obama has kindled a fire of bitterness, ill-will, animosity and disgust in the hearts and minds of millions of Ethiopians, which one day will mushroom in fire and dust and even “ignite the foundations of the mountains.”
It is a vision visible to all who have eyes and can see.
Barack Obama has become Death, the destroyer of Ethiopia!
* Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino. He blogs at http://almariam.com/category/al-mariam-commentaries/