As the saying goes, “Lying against the truth is like believing an ant to win a battle with an elephant,” there is no gainsaying the fact that Ethiopia has been passing through a number of ups and downs particularly in relation to its dam construction and the national elections which is going to be held tomorrow on a national scale.
A lot has been said and written in relation to the aforesaid facts. Besides, misinformation and disinformation has been rampant citing unfounded allegations and falsehood fabrications.
Concerning the issues, this writer had a short stay with Laekmariam Demissie, a renowned journalist, researcher and author.
He touched upon a wide range of issues revolving around the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), misinformation that has been spreading in the length and breadth of the world by some irresponsible foreign media outlets that have been perplexing the international community who do not have an inkling of idea about the honest truth.
Laekemariam Demissie Woldetsadik, 68, was born and raised in Holeta Genet Military Camp given that his dad was a member of an Imperial Army. On top of that, he was brought up with his great grandmother. He attended his primary and secondary education at Menilik II Secondary School located around Arat Kilo.
In a similar manner, 35 years ago, he was trained with an international level of journalism and gained a scholarship in German, Berlin, and took training for about a year targeting at making his dream a reality. Before that, he studied Germany language for a year at Addis Ababa University and left for Berlin.
Coming back to Ethiopia, he embarked on practicing journalism at Radio Ethiopia which was broadcast in English. Sad as it may sound, after 16 months of service, he was thrown into the Central prison, which was the most horrible custody in Ethiopia under the guise of unforeseen reasons.
Responding to the sole reason why misinformation and cooked up stories have been taking shape in various part of the world these days bringing into play some international media outlets?, Laekemariam said there were two blocs after the World War II: the eastern bloc led by the Soviet Union in the western bloc led by the United States and other western nations like Britain and others.
Basically, following the invention of mass communication tools such as psychological welfare, disinformation, misinformation, dark propaganda, and subliminal propaganda brought into light.
Back in the day, most people did not have a wee drop of idea about propaganda, which is a means of putting ideas on sale with a view to winning the hearts and minds of people for the sack of achieving their hidden agenda.
The mother of propaganda is believed to be the Catholic Church. Thorough the passage of time, monasteries were converted in to higher learning institutions.
Inch by inch, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) managed to create a wide range of means to capitalize on information dissemination. Radio Voice of the America, which was created by the state department during cold war, was financed by CIA. What is more, they created Radio freely, Radio Liberty for broadcasting western propaganda against the eastern countries.
At that point, there was a heavy psychological war between the west and the east.
Be that as it may, they were spying for their nation in the name of investigative journalism. Now misinformation is a child of that disinformation and there is also sub-luminary propaganda.
During the Derg regime, the Voice of America set in motion broadcasting in Amharic to destabilize the Socialist People Republic of Ethiopia led by Mengistu. Prior to that, VOA Amharic service was able to see the light of the day, but Radio Cairo had already started in Egypt to destabilize Ethiopia.
At that specific point, the beginning of Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) was housed in Cairo. During the emperor regime, Cairo was a center for ELF for countering Ethiopia. And even recently, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) possesses cells in Cairo.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said it has been following the footsteps of the Albanian communist. However, they jump started the CIA method of communication making use of underground radio program to fight the Derg regime as they were good at it.
Likewise, TPLF’s propaganda machine coupled with VOA conspiracy kept on destabilizing Ethiopia employing a wide variety of mercenaries on the pretext of being NGOs.
At first, members of TPLF were very good at countering propaganda and disseminating disinformation and misinformation better than the official propaganda of the government.
As time went by, when Mengistu was toppled, they created a number of puppet organizations serving their purpose in every corner of the country and stayed more than two decades accompanied with instability.
When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power, the TPLF officials turned out to be very sad while the general public was feeling on top of the world. To the surprise of everyone, the terrorist Junta officials hid themselves in Mekelle. It’s not secret that they were once creators of all these regional media houses, Radios and TV stations all over the country.
As far as Ethiopians effort to construct the GERD saying ‘It is my Dam,’ is concerned, Laekemariam said the Dam has a long history. It is not Meles’ baby; it is the emperor’s baby. Even before Emperor Haile Selassie long time ago King Dawit of Ethiopia had this idea. During the Cold war as the Russians were friends of Egypt they managed to build the Aswan Dam with flying colors.
Emperor Haile Selassie was a very diplomatic person; he was one of the founders of OAU. As he was a good friend of Russians and Americans, he had played a vibrant political game.
The Americans were engaged in studying Abbay basin. They had an idea of building the Dam in Ethiopia via helping Emporer Haile Selassie; so the project started that time. Hence, it is not Meles’ project. So the credit goes to Emperor Haile Selassie.
Actually, the Blue Nile or ‘Ghion River comes from the book Genesis in the Holly Bible found in verse 13. Yes, great rivers are the source of civilization.
It is to be recalled that Ethiopia and Eritrea were at loggers head for over twenty years. However, the situation changed when Abiy came to power. They started inking new history in the Horn of Africa at the earliest possible time. Following Abiy’s determination and diligence, the two countries have been creating a new situation in the Horn of Africa and in the Middle East. They are working hand in glove to employ optimal use of the Red Sea and the Nile.
Giving answer to the question ‘United States was eager to help Emperor Haile Selassie to build the dam. What makes it rival now and is supporting Egypt? What is new now?, he said as things stand at present, the world geopolitics has been changing over and over again. For example, America has become a close ally of Egypt as the latter is the ally of Israelis. Actually Egyptians have been playing a double game. They seem sympathetic towards Palestinians and other Arab countries. Quite the contrary, they are good friends of Israelis. They sell water to the Israelis, which comes from Ethiopia, the Nile. They are developing the Sinai desert. Again the Egyptians become good brokers for the Western world in the Middle East and Israel. Abiy has been strong and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The irresponsible utterance of Donald Trump saying ‘Egypt could blow up the GERD’ can be clear manifestation of the US imbalance stance regarding Ethiopia’s development move. Why the solidarity created between Ethiopia and Eritrea has become cancerous to the Western world and the US?
For the sake of truth, the there is no ground for US and some western countries to develop rivalry upon Ethiopia. This country is running a self-financed mega project to lift up many from the quagmire of poverty and defeat the blackout from which over 60% of its population has been suffering.
When the dam sees the light of the day, Ethiopia will generate huge hydropower. Besides, it will begin exporting electricity to neighboring countries and others nations of the globe. Without a shadow of doubt, Ethiopia will be the power house of Africa down the road. Oil is terminable and exhaustible, but water isn’t
BY MENGESHA AMARE
The EthiopianHerald 20 June 2021
