Welcome to the freelance world where people’s career is freelancing for anything that makes them the highest dough. If you follow them closely, you will find them sniffing somewhere where the money flows and tell you; the economy is growing so fast your head will spin.
By Teshome Debalke
April 22, 2017
The freelance journalist James Jeffrey wrote on Africa Business;
“Ethiopia’s US diaspora: saviour or agitators?”
James Jeffrey
“Despite widespread criticism of these actions the government is far from alone in arguing that elements of the diaspora play a dangerous role, stoking trouble while safely cocooned far away and not taking any of the risks of those they encourage. “The media will kill this country, they really will destroy it,” was the assessment of an Addis Ababa resident, who is half Oromo and half Amhara, on diaspora influences.” http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/region/east-africa/ethiopias-us-diaspora-saviour-agitators/#sthash.j2nOPuPv.dpuf
The rather loaded report with expected spin of a foreign correspondence under a short leash of TPLF intelligence service came across very strange when he sliced-and-diced the Diaspora to show his true color that necessitate further inquiry to find out whether Jeffrey is a freelance journalist as he claimed or a freelance mercenary turn journalists.
According to his own profile at the end of the article, he claims;
“After completing a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin in May 2012, James Jeffrey spent a year freelancing in US focusing primarily on business, including writing for the Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas Business Journals. In October 2013 he moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to write about business-related features primarily, while endeavoring to cover other topics of interest in a remarkable country.”
The too-good-be-true story of what a US jouralist fresh out of college that graduating in 2012 in jouralism with in a year will move to an African country he never been before and with no job offor as a freelance tourist/jouralists further demand to ask who is the real James Jeffrey “endeavoring to cover other topics of interest in a remarkable country” of Ethiopia.
Apparently what James Jeffrey didn’t tell us on his article is he is not even a US national but, “a British journalist based in the United States, where he graduated with a master’s in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, in May 2012. He left the British army as a captain in April 2010, having served over nine years in the Queen’s Royal Lancers, including operational tours in Kosovo (2002), Iraq (2004, 2006) and Afghanistan (2009)”, according to the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/profile/james-jeffrey
That is not all. It appears he was sent to US by African Business to learn journalism and ended up to work as a freelance journalist only for African Business based in London, according to his LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-jeffrey-9a344725/.
Before you get dizzy, how a retired British Capitan in 2010 comes to US to study journalism and to work for one year in local business Media in Texas ended up not in Nigeria or South Africa not even Kenya but, Ethiopia reminded me our own refugee/tourist/freelance journalist Dawit Kebede of Awramba Times.
More interesting is his February 2014 short memoir about his experience in the British army titled ‘A Redaction of Heroism’ from his new assignment as freelance journalist of Africa Business in Ethiopia. At the end he concluded;
“When I left the army, I hadn’t lost faith in the men and women within and I still haven’t. But after Iraq and Afghanistan I’d lost faith in how the army was employed by its leaders and politicians elected by the populace. Will people continue to stand by and not ask questions about what the military is accomplishing and what it’s destroying? And as our armed engagement becomes more and more remote, will we come to feel that the lives taken mean less? Heroism in combat can be tough to square in any situation, but especially from a distance.”
https://thehumanist.com/magazine/march-april-2014/features/a-redaction-of-heroism
Such a powerful statement coming out of an X British army that saw death and distraction instigated by elected British politicians somehow missed what is going on with the rogue regime in Addis Ababa the same British politicians armed to the teeth to kill Ethiopians.
What is even funny is the “half Oromo and half Amhara” guy he randomly found on the street saying; ‘Despite widespread criticism of these actions the government is far from alone in arguing that elements of the diaspora play a dangerous role, stoking trouble while safely cocooned far away and not taking any of the risks of those they encourage’. “The media will kill this country, they really will destroy it,” was the assessment of an Addis Ababa resident, who is half Oromo and half Amhara, on diaspora influences.”
Some of the report of James Jeffrey Briton wrote since he became a freelance journalist from Texas to Ethiopia speaks for themselves see IPS http://www.ipsnews.net/author/james-jeffrey/
I kind of admire how Woyane operatives find strange foreign bed fellows to do the unimaginable. It appears the strategy to collect local losers to work for Woyane applies the same with foreign losers posed as journalists, investors, educators etc.
Take for instance Neil Ford another Freelance journalist and writer who claim to “work as a freelance journalist, consultant and analyst, specializing in African affairs and the energy sector”. In 21 March 2017 he wrote “Ethiopia plots $90m infrastructure spending spree” without mentioning a word about the State of Emergency. He not only made a positive spin but, gone further to ask;
An African China?
“There is some debate over just how closely Ethiopia is following the Chinese model of economic development. Yet with its emphasis on infrastructural investment and average annual economic growth of 10.8% over the past ten years, there is no doubt that its strategy is closer to that of Beijing than any other African country. http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/region/east-africa/ethiopia-plots-90m-infrastructure-spending-spree/#sthash.HiBJDFx9.dpuf
If I didn’t tell you he is a British freelance journalist/consultant/investor with “clients that include international organizations (eg. UNODC); law firms (eg. Leigh Day); news outlets (BBC); political risk companies; energy publishers; and Africa-focused magazines and newspapers, you would think it is a legitimate report and journalist. But, freelance journalists are more and same. Some you find them doing journalism early morning and go out to office to see how their investment is doing and by early afternoon they meet their partner government official to see how they can maximize their investment robbing the nation and by late evening they are writing a report with a sip of whisky about economic growth of 10.8% over the past ten years is similar to Chinese model. Don’t forget these con artists fleecing the country would swear the diaspora terrorists plot slowdown the growth if they don’t get what they want.
The irony is, if they do the same exact thing in their home country, the will be pushing cart on the street or go to jail for corruption. But, welcome to the freelance world where people’s career is freelancing for anything that makes them the highest dough. If you follow them closely, you will find them sniffing somewhere where the money flows and tell you; the economy is growing so fast your head will spin.
