Embassy intruders need therapy or jail time (Hana Tezara 10-14-14) Two weeks ago, on September 29, 2014, a brief mayhem was created at Embassy of Ethiopia in in Washington D.C. by a small group of opposition thugs. They dismounted the Ethiopian National Flag at the Embassy, threatening the personal security of its diplomats and employees and occupied some quarters of the embassy for a few minutes. Their actions created outrage, disappointment and grave concern among Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia. Not only Ethiopians and Ethiopian-Americans, but also foreigners are asking what is happening with the diaspora extremists. Indeed, the incident was incomprehensible from several perspectives. It was a clear violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and it is also in contravention of the U.S. Criminal Code. It disgraced the decent and respected diaspora community. A community that is known for helping its country through professional associations like the Ethiopian American doctors Group(EDAG). A community that shuns crime and works hard to improve its life and help its loved ones back home about a billion dollar a year. The attack on the Embassy was also contrary to the interests of the Ethiopian people and against the national interest of the U.S. - a country that provided refugee to these thugs. Therefore, people continue to ask: What has gotten into the mind of the diaspora extremists? Surprisingly, the answer is simple. They are unable and unwilling to accept the changes at home and the ever-growing rejection they are experiencing in the diaspora community. This may seem a clich�. But it is true. In light of Ethiopias strengthening multinational federal system, astonishing economic growth and growing international recognition, the diaspora extremists have been suffering consecutive losses on several fronts. The current state of the diaspora extremists block and why they started acting in a very strange manner is fascinatingly described in the K�bler-Ross model. The model, which was proposed by Elisabeth K�bler-Ross in 1969, describes five stages of mourning and grief are believed to be universal and experienced by people from all walks of life when facing a terminal illness, the loss of a close relationship, or to the death of a valued being, human or animal. The five stages are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. 1. Deny, deny, deny! The first reaction of a person who is experiencing a devastating loss is to deny the reality of the situation. As one writer described: It is a normal reaction to rationalize overwhelming emotions. It is a defense mechanism that buffers the immediate shock. We block out the words and hide from the facts. This is a temporary response that carries us through the first wave of pain. The diaspora extremists and their patrons have been in denial for two decades, since the gallant EPRDF fighters demolished the last segment of the outdated parasitic political order in 1991. Nevertheless, the extremists refused to let go their nostalgia and kept the unrealistic belief that EPRDF is one week away from collapse. 1.1 Denial of their defeat Year after year, they kept predicting all types of chaos; with an a labor-division among themselves: some as interviewer, some as interviewee, some as reporters, some as analyst, others as expert, etc. and quoting each-other. interviewing one another, quoting each other as �analyst�, �expert�, etc. and referring to their imaginary insider sources, holding meetings and issuing press statements in some fancy hotels paid for by their patrons. Their denial began with their silly theory that America brought EPRDF to power. (A perfect echo of the dictator in Eritrea who is hanging on to his outlandish conspiracy of CIA and Ethiopia against him.) At other times, they claim it was PFDJ who defeated them rather than freedom-loving Ethiopian youth. The moral of the story is that it shows their state of denial, their refusal to accept the new political order. As a result they spent the last two decades knocking doors in Asmara and Washington rather than formulate a political platform that appeals to the peoples of Ethiopia. 1.2 Denying the development Their fixation with their belief that doom and disaster will fall will come on Ethiopia might have sounded sane at the beginning. In light of the ideological propensity of international experts to be skeptic of Ethiopias home-grown developmental path. and also the dominant cynic view regarding Africa labeled as the hopeless continent. Nevertheless, their habit of denial became evidently chronic when they refused to accept the socio-economic progress made in the last decade. They tried to put down the accomplishments with all sorts of make-believe claims and flawed arguments. At one time, they tried to downplay the growth indicating the low base from which the economy started as if that was the ruling partys doing. At another time, they belittled the effort of the farmers and the gains of agricultural extension services attributing it to increase in rain fall, while knowing climate factors had been much better during the previous regimes. They tried to argue citing inflation, though it is a common knowledge that a booming economy is exposed to inflationary factors. They even attempted to question the government data which they accept only when it brings bad news. The extremists tried to disguise their habit of denial with pseudo intellectualism by citing the conceptual difference between GDP growth and development. But that cloak of intellectualism was exposed several times by the Human Development Index reports which revealed: Ethiopia is rated among these �top movers� at rank 11 out of the 135 countries which registered improvement in Human Development Index that stretched the rating between 1970 and 2010. While assessing the achievement status of same countries between 2000 and 2010, Ethiopia�s status goes up to put the country 2nd rank. Same measurement was also conducted between 2005 and 2010. According to the measurement done between 2005 and 2010, Ethiopia�s position comes at the top of the top movers of the development achievers. Encouraged by these achievements the Ethiopian government and people launched an ambitious 5-years Growth and Transformation Plan(GTP) and registered remarkable achievements. Now, works are underway for the second phase of the transformation - GTP II. At the same time, Ethiopia has become one of the few developing countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) in poverty, maternal health, education, etcetera. Anger, anger and anger A person who is experiencing a devastating loss cannot be fully content with denial. Given the fact that the extremists find loud and louder praises of Ethiopian achievements whenever they open their television or browse the internet, the masking effects of denial has begun to wear, therefore the reality and its pain re-emerges. As the K�bler-Ross model indicates the intense emotion will be deflected from our vulnerable core, redirected and expressed instead as anger. The anger may be aimed at inanimate objects, complete strangers, friends or family. Rationally, we know the person is not to be blamed. Emotionally, however, we may resent the person. We feel guilty for being angry, and this makes us more angry. That is exactly what has started to happen with the fringe diaspora extremist camp in past few years. Their anger have become so irrational that they went as far as opposing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam. They started lobbying the diaspora to stop sending money home. However, the diaspora community snubbed them with an ever increasing positive response to the efforts of the government to engage them in various technological and knowledge transfer, institutional and human development and technical assistance and investment. The Government has done a great deal to firmly establish involvement of the Diaspora community in the country�s affairs, ranging from keeping the Diaspora community abroad properly informed on developments in the country�s economic, social and political environment, to working proactively to make the Diaspora active stakeholders in the country�s renaissance. It had also formulated a Diaspora policy and particular mechanisms for engaging the Diaspora in these processes, with a clear objective of: Building a strong relationship between Diaspora and their country of origin and encouraging and facilitating conducive environment for participation of Diaspora on ongoing peace and democratization building process to benefit their county and to benefit from their engagement and to preserve their rights and interests abroad are the main objectives of the Policy. The diaspora communitys response has been very encouraging. In the economic sphere, as of 2014 alone, nearly 3000 members of the Diaspora community are involved in investment in different sectors The amount of capital involved amounts to close to 23 billion birr. This substantial investment portfolio not only makes its own contribution to the overall economic growth of the country, it also, and as importantly, has created more than 125 thousand jobs in the country. Similarly, the Ethiopian Diaspora continued its indirect support to the national development through remittance. Between July 2011 and March 2014 alone, Ethiopians received more than 5.6 billion US dollars in the form of remittances from friends and relatives living abroad. Blinded by hate, all the extremist could think of is how this progress might prolong EPRDFs stay in power. Blinded by irrational emotional attachment to the past, the extremists could not muster the courage to revise their ideology so as to become relevant in the Ethiopian political landscape. To the contrary, they started projecting irrational anger. They became angry at things that did no harm to them. They started randomly assaulting Ethiopian government dignitaries. They started disrupting meeting for the support of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam. Delusion and bitterness The five stages of grief do not necessarily take place in a linear fashion. Reaching the last stage, acceptance, is not a knack afforded to everyone. People get stuck in one particular phase or continually bounce from between two phases. The diaspora extremists appear to be cycling between denial and anger. As they kept bouncing back to denial and anger, their denial have become delusion and their anger morphed into deep-seated bitterness. Now, they started believing the Ethiopian embassy is EPRDF office in a perplexing denial that both the compound and its diplomats are protected by the 1961 Vienna Convention On Diplomatic Relations: Article 22(1). The premise s of the mission shall be inviolable . Article 29 - The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. Anger and bitterness clouded their judgment so much that they forgot desecrating the flag of their country in a foreign country is an act not only deplorable but also tantamount to treasonous. The collusion of delusion and bitterness reached its peak when they failed to remember that violating the Embassy of Ethiopia is an outright criminal act . The U.S. Criminal Code clearly stipulates on section 18 � 112 - Protection of foreign officials, official guests, and internationally protected persons. (a) Whoever assaults, strikes, wounds, imprisons, or offers violence to a foreign official, official guest, or internationally protected person or makes any other violent attack upon the person or liberty of such person, or, if likely to endanger his person or liberty, makes a violent attack upon his official premises, private accommodation, or means of transport or attempts to commit any of the foregoing shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. Whoever in the commission of any such act uses a deadly or dangerous weapon, or inflicts bodily injury, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. (b) Whoever willfully� (1) intimidates, coerces, threatens, or harasses a foreign official or an official guest or obstructs a foreign official in the performance of his duties; (2) attempts to intimidate, coerce, threaten, or harass a foreign official or an official guest or obstruct a foreign official in the performance of his duties; or (3) within the United States and within one hundred feet of any building or premises in whole or in part owned, used, or occupied for official business or for diplomatic, consular, or residential purposes by� (A) a foreign government, including such use as a mission to an international organization; (B) an international organization; (C) a foreign official; or (D) an official guest; � congregates with two or more other persons with intent to violate any other provision of this section; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. Engaging with lackeys of Shabia and al-Shabaab would not have been the preference of Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia. There are more pressing urgent developmental works to focus on. However, the extremist thugs have proven unable to come to terms with the reality and reach the stage of acceptance. Their denial and anger is making them not only irrelevant and a nuisance but also have become a security threat and a bad example to others as they have started to believe that they are given a free reign to threaten and intimidate Ethiopians in the United States. In fact, the extremist thugs have publicly announced their plan to harass and intimidate Ethiopian government officials, diplomats and their families, and Ethiopian Americans deemed to be supporters of the government Therefore, they need a therapy. A therapy in the form of legal accountability. As the group of Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans who held demonstration in front of the State Department last week requested: The perpetrators of the crime committed against the Embassy of Ethiopia on September 29, 2014 be brought to justice. Investigation be launched into the constant intimidation being made by members and supporters of Ginbot 7 and its media arm , ESAT, on American citizens and Ethiopians resident in this country, as well as visiting High Level Ethiopian officials and Ethiopian diplomats.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:47:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015