http://www.ethiomedia.com/andnen/2556.html (Ethiomrdia)

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The Unconquered Nation, Crippled By Bureaucrats (Tech Crunch)

It’s not just the censorship, though that’s bad enough: the entire blogspot.com domain is blocked, along with various Facebook pages and newspapers. But it’s not what most angers the people here at iceAddis, the new “innovation/collaboration/entrepeneurship” space modelled after Nairobi’s legendary iHub. (I’ll tell you more about it in a separate post.) What upsets this crowd is ETC’s sheer incompetence. ..Read more..

Protesters Absent as Ethiopia Marks Anniversary of Meles Rule (VOA)

The turnout at Addis Ababa’s Meskel Square was a fraction of the one million predicted. And with thunder clouds hanging overhead, a scheduled four-hour event was cut in half.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s nationally televised anniversary address lasted little more than five minutes. It was largely a patriotic appeal for support of construction of a massive dam that is challenging Egypt’s long-standing monopoly over the Nile River waters...read more..

Inspired by the Arab Spring, Ethiopians gear up for ‘day of rage’ (Al Arabiya)

Much of their frustration is similar to what other Arab nations protested: unemployment, increasing cost of living, charges of mismanagement in governance and poor records of human rights. There is also frustration at the ethnic divisions that they say plague the nation. ..read more..

Ethiopians Celebrate 20 Years of Meles Zenawi Rule(VOA)

Meskel Square is empty on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought a band of Marxist Tigrayan rebels to power in Ethiopia. Only a few workers are here setting up the sound system and stage. ..Read more..

"Beka!" ("enough"). Will Ethiopia be next?( Opend Democracy)

Did Meles Zenawi over-react, as usual, by proving, for the nth time that, in his heart of hearts, he is less confident about the durability of his regime? Does he feel his regime is much more fragile than he proclaims in public or even than most observers assess? In other words, should he be taking these measures at all, even more so when they have largely been counter-productive?..Read more..

Ethiopian Activists Opposed to Meles Claim Power-Cable Sabotage Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/05/23/bloomberg1376-

Tinsae said it and other groups are planning a cam paign of "peaceful civil resistance" to bring about "multiparty Western- style democracy where government exists to serve the people" in Ethiopia. A Facebook group calling for protests on May 28 against the rule of Meles's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front said 3,112 people had confirmed they would attend. The date is the 20th anniversary of when rebels marched into Addis Ababa to remove Mengistu Haile Mariam's Marxist military junta from power.read more

Jailed journalist: 'I will never hesitate from criticizing'(CNN)

"It's my belief that getting outside or preferring exile and living under such repressive situations are the same form, because as far as I go in exercising my professional duty abroad, that doesn't replace the ultimate freedom that I need in my entire life," says Kebede. Read more.

ደርግ የተወገደበት ሃያኛ ዓመት (DW)

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ESAT interview dr Getachew Begashaw may 2011

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በአዲስ አበባ የታክሲዎች ከፊል የስራ ማቆም አድማ (DW)

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An Imaginary Conversation with Nelson Mandela – Alemayehu G. Mariam (ANAASO)

Q. Do you believe an election is a contract between Africa’s iron-fisted rulers and the people?

A. “Only free men can negotiate, prisoners can’t enter in contracts.” .. read more

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Ethiopia censors UNESCO World Press Freedom Day event (CPJ)

New York, May 5, 2011--Officials in Ethiopia hijacked a local UNESCO-sponsored World Press Freedom Day event, installing government-backed journalists as speakers and nixing independent journalists slated to speak. There was no discussion, as originally planned, of this year's global theme on new media and the Internet at the Tuesday forum, according to local sources and news reports...more...

The Mega Nile Dam and the Millennium Bond: Redemption or Deception of the TPLF Government? (Ethiomedia)

Many Ethiopians are wondering why Zenawi’s regime decided to embark on this huge project that could have serious impact on peace, stability, and development of the country and the region. The general sentiment is captured in a paragraph of an article by an anonymous writer that appeared on Ethiomedia, May April 26, 2001:

Undoubtedly, given the topography of the Blue Nile valley, constructing a hydroelectric dam on it requires a high-level engineering technology not to speak of the billions of Birr it requires. Has Meles acquired donor funding for it? We know he hasn’t and in the deputy prime minister’s own admission they have not secured any funding; and it is highly unlikely that donors will ever fund it because of political reasons that can trigger the wrath of Egypt thereby affecting the Middle East peace process. Why choosing this risky business at this time? No funding, political risks: why risk it now? Is it really possible to build a dam of such scale without donors’ grants or loans from them but with contributions from the most impoverished people in the world and by selling bonds to them? We can discern from this that the purpose of the millennium project rhetoric is not development as it is neither serious nor feasible. By now, we can see the dominant feature of the political aspect in this project. It is indeed a political project aimed at deceiving the public and diverting their attention from a possible uprising....more..

TPLF and the art of reverse engineering (Zikkir)

By Yilma Bekele

When you take an object apart to see how it works, or take software and disassemble it to locate the source code it is referred to as reverse engineering. Basically what you are doing is inverting the system by going back wards the developmental cycle all the way to conception. Reverse engineering begins with a final product and works backwards...read more..

Journalists: Ethiopia Hijacked Press Freedom Day Conference (VOA)

Conference co-organizer Argaw Ashine called the incident "embarrassing” "The problem is mistrust between the media and the government. It’s very sad because we had a lot of issues to be discussed during this event," Argaw said....more..

The 10 Tools of Online Oppressors (CJP)

The world’s worst online oppressors are using an array of tactics, some reflecting astonishing levels of sophistication, others reminiscent of old-school techniques. From China’s high-level malware attacks to Syria’s brute-force imprisonments, this may be only the dawn of online oppression. A CPJ special report by Danny O’Brien. ...Read more

Uganda unrest gathers pace despite bloody government crackdown (Guardian.co.uk)

"We know they are going to arrest many people and put them in torture chambers. We know this regime has expired. These are the signs." ...read more..

ANALYSIS : Ethiopia’s usefulness eclipses its repressiveness (The New age)

This close relationship with Ethiopia is coming under the spotlight as the wave of people power in North Africa and the Middle East has inspired Ethiopian opposition movements to follow suit. In March, the Ethiopian Americans Council wrote to US President Barak Obama about the political situation in Ethiopia and the growing political suppression by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). They claim the punitive legislation such as the Civil Society Law, Anti-Terror Law and Press Law hamper the ability to organise public meetings and rallies, and to raise funds. They have warned that Ethiopians are organizing strikes and demonstrations for the coming months, and claim that an uprising has already begun in the southern region. It is alleged that security forces used deadly force against peaceful protestors on March 7 and 9 in the Gamgofa zone. The Council is seeking US support for the opposition’s campaign.....

Compared to Egypt and Tunisia, Ethiopia has a much smaller, less educated middle class, with less access to the internet. Internet connection in Ethiopia is 0.5% compared to 21.2% in Egypt. Somalia, which has not had a stable government for more than 20 years, has a higher internet connection rate than Ethiopia.....read more.