Girma Berhanu (Professor)
A rump Ethiopian Army, encroached by elements of the OLF, opened fire on local people at Gorgora, Gonder, after deliberately scandalizing them by feasting on meat on a fast day –Wednesday, July 26,which coincided with the annual festival of the Archangel Saint Gabriel, one of the most observed religious days in the Orthodox Christian calendar. Armed peasants and nearby Fano units responded to the attack in self-defense and several casualties were reported.
Gorgora is the site of one of Abiy’s white-elephant projects financed by domestic contributions (under the slogan “dine for nation”) and an array of foreign donations, mainly from oil-rich Arab states which are perennially keen to influence events in Ethiopia. This useless project is being used as a bribe to bamboozle Amharas into subjugation under the ruling party’s ‘prosperity gospel’ and the deeper agenda of Oromummaa.
Nevertheless, such is fate that it has backfired. Despite this spectacular failure, Berhanu Jula and his lackeys, mainly Abebaw Tadesse and Alemshet Deguefe, are currently in Bahir Dar trying to cobble together a rag-tag administration and impose it on the entire Amhara killil, the strategy being to fight and defeat Fano Resistance and subjugate the Amharas before extending Abiy Ahmed’s regime to all other ethnicities, including the Afars, the Gurages, the Welayetas, the Sidamas, the Gambellas, the Somalis, the kaffas, the Gedeos and other ethnic groups.
Gorgora is a historic place. It was once the capital city before King Fassilades founded Gonder. It was at Gorgora where one Pedro Paez, a Catholic Jesuit, succeeded in converting King Susenyos to Catholicism, which led to horrific bloodshed. The people prevailed and King Fassilades restored Orthodox Christianity. Gorgora was also the place where Fascist Italians made their last stand by setting up a 1500 -strong garrison in the early 1940’s before they were dislodged by Ethiopian patriots with the help of the British. Above all, Gorgora is an Orthodox Christian shrine where the Debre Sina Church was built over 400 years ago and where several old monasteries are found. May it now be the historic place where Abiy’s kleptocracy and anti-Orthodox Church campaign will be stopped in their tracks?
Theology of Prosperity and Political Decay: At the World Congress of Sociology, a good friend attended a session on the devastating impacts of the theology of prosperity in Latin America. The level of elite corruption and mass misery documented in the presentations was disorienting. For prosperity theologians, showcasing success (even in the face of suffering and catastrophe) is critically important. Foregrounding success as a sign of God’s favor necessitates a strategic ignorance about challenges and bad news. In the case of Abiy Ahmed’s Ethiopia, what is even more worrisome is the theology of prosperity (neo-Pentecostal evangelism) has been entangled with tribal politics and discord.
Abiy’s prosperity gospel is a travesty of the original. Prosperity gospel does believe that good health and material prosperity through hard work are a sign of divine blessings! Every Christian or Muslim believes so, too, provided the prosperity comes through hard work as prescribed! But Abiy and his collaborators believe that prosperity by plunder is equally good as long as a bit of the loot is shared with other people! Hence Abiy’s wife makes a lot of money by laundering it and shares some of it with others by building schools for the public. Adanech Abebe receives a bribe of 40 million birr credited to her secret bank account and shares a bit of the money by giving free lunches to poor people in Addis Ababa. Abiy receives billions of birr from Ethiopia’s historical enemies as prime minister of Ethiopia but uses it as private money to donate some of it for the benefit of the public.
Hence Abiy and his followers practice a corrupted form of prosperity gospel. The worst thing about it all is that they are trying to impose political Oromummaa, a genocidal form of ethnic domination and dictatorship, on all the 85 language ethnicities of Ethiopia by first vanquishing the rising armed opposition of the Amharas who are in fact the largest language ethnic group in Ethiopia. Abiy has worked out a plan to subjugate the Amharas by declaring martial law in Amhara killil under what is called a command -post administration reportedly to be led by the notorious Amhara traitor, Abebaw Tadesse.
I have full confidence that the Amharas can defend themselves and even go beyond that and help all other language ethnicities protect themselves against the inevitable attacks on them Abiy is planning after Abebaw’s campaign against the Amharas, which is doomed to failure. In any case, the Amharas must engage the invading Abiy’s army in all zones and Weredas in Amhara Killil and defeat it by harassing it from all sides in a total people’s war! It is sad that sacrifices must be made for the survival of the Amhara people but they are sacrifices worth making not only to defend Amharas but also Ethiopia from extinction! Trained battalions and brigades of Amhara Fanos in every Zone and Wereda of Amhara Killil, adequate military supplies and provisions, military strategists who know the terrain like the backs of their hands, all other logistical support and, above all, popular acceptance and commitment will ensure that the Great Amhara Resistance and Counter-Offensive spearheaded by the Popular Amhara Front (APF) and led by Eskinder the Lion Hearted will finally triumph. Abiy’s latest attempt to scare the Amharas with yet another atrocious act of genocide has failed to intimidate them! It has backfired! I close my short article with this story. They say that wisdom comes with age, and wise sayings and wisdom quotes will give you better judgment and a sense of purpose in life. We could all use a little more wisdom to help us make it through the day.
An Old Farmer writes to his son who is in Prison:
“Dear Son, this year I won’t be able to plant Potatoes because I can’t dig the field by myself, I know if you are here, you would have helped me”.
The Son writes back,
“Dad don’t even think of digging the field because that’s where I buried all the money I stole.”
The Police read the letter and the next Day the whole field was dug up looking for the money but nothing was found.
The following Day the son wrote again,
‘Now plant your Potatoes dad, it’s the best I can do from here’
Lesson:
You can imprison someone, but you can never imprison their ideas or Wisdom���.
It also shows that even when physically constrained, one’s thoughts and actions can influence and bring about change.
ብዙ አማራዎች ታስረዋል ትግሉ ግን ይቀጥላል::
Author Contact Information:
Girma Berhanu (Professor)
Department of Education and Special Education
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
E-mail: Girma.Berhanu@ped.gu.se
