Cross Square 1

By Tesfu Telahoun

Maskal Square, the symbolic heart of the city is fast resembling a lazy teenager’s cluttered and chaotic bedroom. Before it earned its current unique centrality among Addis Ababa’s many designated squares, Maskal was first the venue of the public celebration of the Ethiopian Christian holiday of Maskel (The finding of the True Cross). The traditional Demera signifies the first one, the smoke of which, according to orthodox Christian tradition, pointed Queen Elena to the spot where the crucifixions cross was buried. The huge bonfire is blessed and lit by the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, accompanied by beautiful chanting that would make Saint Yared the father of Ethiopian liturgical music, very proud. To this day for the last 2000 years the Demera draws hundreds of thousands of believers as well as an army of excited tourists to Maskal square.
Maskel Square was one of the first victims of the outbreak of name changing after 1974. “Maskel” meaning cross in Semitic Ethiopic was an intolerable symbol of religion- anathema to the New Socialist Ethiopia, which believed only in dialectical materialism according to the gospels of Marx, Engels, Lenin. The square changed to Abyot - revolution, and very quickly its modest space was vastly expanded. Huge tracts of land were summarily gobbled up from the helpless legal owners. Among them the Ras Birru family (including the classic building that houses the Addis Ababa City Museum), Saint George’s (Catholic Boys) school, Italian community club Juventus and others.
The radical landscaping required massive earthworks and the incessant dragging gave rise to many tart jokes, including the one about the ‘rumors’ that the entire project was a ruse to cover up the real purpose – finding Mengistu’s lost 8th grade national exam certificate. (In those days, it was conventional wisdom that our courageous leader was not exactly what one might call an educated politician and jokes about his intellectual challenges abounded).
Ever since it was renamed Revolution Square the site was heavily utilized by the state as the central venue of endless rallies and mass demonstrations, usually held to affirm Ethiopia’s international solidarity with all things east, red and bloody. This was graphically and memorably demonstrated by the chairman himself. Incensed at enemies and eager to underscore his regime’s convictions, he lobbed to the pavement several bottles filled with red paint, each designated one enemy - U.S. Imperialism, anti-revolutionary revisionists, capitalist dogs and other favorites.
In a few years the new name had become so established that even today many people refer to it as Abyot.
The square reverted to its original name after 1991 and has become a….hmm…yes, a vaguely defined shape, often neglected and an unsightly gap in the city’s heart. Certainly, the current state of Maskal Square does not do justice to either the new architectural and other infrastructural attributes of this great city of ours nor to Addis Ababa’s stature as a national and continental capital city.
The square and its clones (virtually every town and village boasted its own Abyot Adebabay) elicit memories from recent Ethiopian history. To some, the recollections are sweet, to many others bitter and to all Ethiopians; regardless of ideology or creed, poignant and profound Itsup keep is important and a public duty.
Maskal Square has to some extent been touched up for the new Ethiopian millennium. A swarm of Chinese took all of a couple of weeks re-surfacing the former moonscape asphalt and added two crowning touches-huge flower pots molded from styrofoam and, gaudier plastic tree-things that lit up. Despite the weak attempt at a Maskal face lift, the final effect was not all that terrible for a time as the tackiness of it all was somewhat reduced by the real trees lined behind the high posterior stone wall enclosing the square. The Chinese must have had a moment of Confucian inspiration when they placed green flood lights at strategic points, so that as the evening wind sways the trees, the effect is mesmerizing.
I popped down to Maskal square and slowly strolled he edges of the expanse of the semi-circular mass assembly terrace. Long ago I had developed the habit of walking in a straight line from the podium (now gone) opposite the VIP gallery and up, to where the three stooges (Marx, Engels and Lenin) now the imposing gate of the current Addis Ababa exhibition center, all without looking back. This was because I didn’t want to dilute the visual effect of Addis Ababa which opened like a pop-up book when I finally turned to the square.
Sadly this is no longer possible because of what I feel is the improper orientation and mounting of the rather uninspired installation erected for the new millennium. The entire set up could have had better impact had it been placed higher up, along the surrounding stone wall. How long the installations is going to stay what with the flags becoming unrecognizable and dirtier by the day, the obses pigeons and metal works showing rust stains and the garbage (plastic bags, wrappers, rags, discarded running shoes chat twigs etc…) that the wind swirls in from the parking area and impales on the metal structure and billboards is a good question.
Given that we still have 6 months remaining in this millennium celebration year, those responsible for the temporary installation should consider conducting some renovations and clean up work. In its present state the millennium installation looks more like a circus which has just performed and is packing up in haphazard manner. It certainly doesn’t look as if its only 5 months old…..

(Next week – Martyrs’ Monument to the rescue?)

‘Masterful Obama Campaign ahead for the first time’

Barack Obama, claiming a “new American majority,” is focusing more and more on the likely Republican candidate in the November presidential election as he continues to rack up big victories over Hillary Rodham Clinton in their race for the Democratic nomination. According to experts recent Obama speeches target to emphasis not only his victory over Clinton but readiness to take on John McCain too, who is almost certain to be the Republican presidential nominee.
Obama surged to the fore in the delegate race for the party prize for the first time with reverberating primary victories last Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. His victories Tuesday were by overwhelming margins - 75 percent of the vote in the nation’s capital, nearly two-thirds in Virginia and approximately 60 percent in Maryland.
Clinton, considered the overwhelming Democratic favorite just a few weeks ago, was left to turn her attention to Texas and Ohio in an attempt to pump new life into her suddenly stumbling campaign.
“There’s a great saying in Texas, all hat and no cattle,” she told a boisterous crowd of about 12,000 at a college basketball arena in El Paso Tuesday evening as the shape of the latest Obama ballot victories were unfolding. “Well, after seven years of George Bush, we need a lot less hat and lot more cattle.”
Before flying into Texas, she told a Cincinnati television station that “Ohio is really going to count in determining who our Democratic nominee is going to be.” She also declared herself the “underdog candidate” in the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday, the same day Obama’s birthplace Hawaii holds its primary. But for Obama’s advantage, David Wilhelm, who was Bill Clinton’s campaign chairman in 1992, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president. Wilhelm lives and works in Ohio, which will be a major battleground for the Democratic candidates on March 4.
After Wilhelm helped him win the election the former President, Bill Clinton, made Wilhelm the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Now a venture capitalist that focuses on neglected regions of the country, Wilhelm is also a super delegate and said he expected the Obama campaign would want him to get on the phone to lobby other super delegates.
He said that Obama was more electable than Senator Hillary Clinton. Obama’s campaign is evidence of his leadership, he said, calling it “masterful. “He has out-worked her, out-organized her and out-raised her,” Wilhelm said.
“I know organizational excellence when I see it, and the Obama campaign, win or lose, will serve as a model” of execution of strategy, message discipline, application of new technology and small-donor fund raising,” Wilhelm added.
In was at the University of Wisconsin where Obama characterized his surging campaign to a crowd of 17,000. “This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up,” he said. “This is the new American majority.”
Looking ahead to November, he said that although he honors McCain’s experience as a war hero, he is linked to failed policies put in place by President Bush.” George Bush won’t be on the ballot this November, but the Bush-Cheney war and the Bush-Cheney tax cuts for the wealthy will be on the ballot,” he said.
Senator Obama has now won 23 of the 35 sanctioned Democratic primaries and caucuses so far. But he has not yet solved his problem with Mannie Rodriguez. Rodriguez supports Hillary Rodham Clinton — and his vote matters more than most. He is a “super delegate,” one of the 796 Democratic Party insiders who will break the tie if neither Obama nor Clinton emerges from the primary balloting with a clear victory, a strong possibility even after Obama’s wins Tuesday.
Rodriguez, a party official from Colorado, reserves the right to back Clinton, no matter that Colorado and a majority of other states have so far chosen Obama. “I do not go with the candidate who is always winning. I go with the candidate I believe in,” he wrote recently to a voter who asked how he could side against the Democratic voters in his own state.
Dan Parker, chairman of the state party in Indiana and a super delegate, feels just as strongly — even though his state will not vote until May. Clinton has won pledges from just more than 200 super delegates so far and Obama from about 150, according to unscientific media tallies. The super delegates can change their allegiance at any time.
Obama is certain to use his victories in Tuesday’s so-called Potomac primaries to try to change the minds of super delegates such as Parker and Rodriguez by building the case that the party’s elite insiders would set off angry protests if they overturned the will of the voters. The strength of Obama’s winning coalition Tuesday could help him in that effort.
In Virginia which many had considered Clinton’s best shot at an upset, Obama won close to 90% of the black vote and split white voters with Clinton, according to exit polls cited by the Associated Press. He also won in Virginia among women, Hispanics and lower-income voters - constituencies that have been key for Clinton.
The Associated Press count of delegates showed Obama with 1,210. Clinton with 1,188, falling behind for the first time since the campaign began.
Even as the primary schedule rolls on - Wisconsin and Hawaii vote next Tuesday - the campaigns are devoting a huge amount of energy to gaining the upper hand in the private conversation among the super delegates, most of whom are members of Congress or party officials.
More good news for Obama is that The New York Times, which endorses Clinton, praised Michelle, the first African American first lady if Obama becomes president. The New York states Michelle as an outspoken, strong-willed, funny, gutsy and sometimes sarcastic. “Michelle Obama is playing a pivotal role in her husband’s campaign as it builds on a series of successes, including a sweep on Tuesday of contests in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia,” states the news paper “her personal style - forthright, comfortable in the trenches, and often more blunt than Mr. Obama - plays well with a broad swath of the electorate and has given the campaign a steelier edge while allowing Mr. Obama to stay largely above it all.”
Various Media Reports suggest that Barrack Obama isn’t only exciting American voters but the world too which is closely following the U.S election. Coming from African father it is obvious many African hopes to see Obama, the first black, ruling The White House. If his momentum and a message of change can hold on few longer, it might come true and as Michelle Obama put it new dreams in all American can dream for better.

Compiled by Kirubel Tadesse

The death penalty: two wrongs don’t make a right

By Kirubel Tadesse

Earlier this month, a court sentenced a young Ethiopian to death. Even if the convict denied he hurt his ‘former girlfriend’, the court found him guilty of attempting to kill the victim with hydrochloric acid, an unheard of cruelty in the nation.
I share some of the comments which expressed reservations on how the case was handled, especially following negative statements from higher government officials including authority figures from the Ministry of Justice.
According to a public poll in the Amharic weekly Addis Admas, a significant number believe that the defendant should not die. I agree but only with the end point and not because the victim is alive or feeling sorry for his family, as most stated, but only because no human should die for any crime on the face of this earth.
Murder related crimes, which usually result in the death penalty for the convicts is a very cruel behavior of mankind toward a culprit who should agreeably be severely punished. Does killing the killers make that wrong, right? Not at all. There was a time when British law makers used to sentence kids or youths to death when they were convicted of stealing in the market. The crime was so arduous that it almost stopped the market activity so the lawmakers believed that the death penalty could eradicate it and result in smooth market interaction. But today, the country which used to sentence thieves to death got its sense back and is the leading member of the European Union to ban the death penalty. The UK denounced the killing of Saddam Hussein even after paying dearly to overthrow the dictator from power. Losing its soldiers in battles in Iraq didn’t change the principle.
What I couldn’t comprehend from the recent public poll about our local offender’s case was that how, not even a single Ethiopian, stood on the right to live but move to actually dismiss it and regard it as somehow besides the point. One of our basic rights as humans is the right to live. Human rights are to be enjoyed freely, they are not similar with other rights like political ones which the courts or the owners willingly give up as per various conditions. For example, any one serving time can’t vote or be elected but he or she can enjoy all his or her human rights without exception.
No one can give humans their rights, rather humans acquire these rights at birth, a gift of God. The question which comes here is that if it is neither the law nor any man-made institution which awards these rights, how can the same body deny it?! This is why many scholars and human rights activists say the death penalty is a violation of human rights.
We all recognize that crime is wrong and those who perpetrate such crimes should be punished. However, they should not be killed. Human rights activists argue that the nation that condemns murder shouldn’t use execution as a just punishment.
If that nation condemns murder, it should have the same stand on all murders by all individuals and entities. There can’t be a double standard. It shouldn’t be justifiable when a group of people believe it is needed.
According to the activists, the sentence of life imprisonment without parole would be a more appropriate punishment to murder or other harsh crimes. “Only in this way, would a person have years of prison life to reflect on the life that was taken from this world or the unbearable suffering he/she has induced on another human being. Death, frees them of this worldly punishment too quickly, say activists, it is sometimes argued that the fear of execution puts the fear of God in prisoners. But that is not enough. We should put the fear of their fellow man in them too. Let them know we will not stand for their actions and that they will lose their life freedoms in exchange for life in prison.
The judiciary system where we examine crimes is human created and controlled. As any human activity it is liable to errors. What if, for example, another person who is not responsible for the crime was executed? How can we ever make up for it? This scenario is hardly just a hypothetical case because it happens many times through the course of time. There are enough instances within the American judicial process for instance, where innocent men have been convicted and later freed after the introduction of a new technology, the DNA test. Imagine how many did die especially those who claimed innocence all along even in the last minute without even pleading guilty which could lower their sentence. Only with life in prison will innocent men have the chance to prove the evidence against them is flawed. If it counts, it isn’t wise to execute even for economic reasons. For instance, in the USA the cost of the appeal process is far greater than the cost of supporting people serving life sentences in prison. The cost of processing, and appealing a death penalty is far greater than execution, so much so, that it is economically wiser to revoke the death penalty.
From all the countries, ours which has lost so many scholars, so many elite in different eras to executions especially during the Derg regime, should be able to abolish death penalty the minute we start the democratization process. Our remarkable record of living in harmony with various religions and ethnicity for centuries should be accompanied with a choice of celebrating the right to life.
I remember an ETV advertisement where it was stated that the convicted shall be executed with all their human rights being protected when in fact, the basic right which gives one a chance to enjoy all others is the right to life.
The European Union has already banned the death penalty. On 29th June 1998, the fifteen Foreign Ministers of EU States were all for the universal abolition of the death penalty, a battle that is an important element of the EU policies about human rights. It is now stipulated that to be an EU member, a State can’t exercise the death penalty.
A survey undertaken in 1997 showed that 84% of world executions occur in only four states: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA. Currently surveys don’t tell that different a story. According to human rights activists, all of the executions were without defeating criminality, as claimed by death penalty supporters. The report suggested that in China the soldiers of the firing party take aim only at some part of the body, to preserve others which are destined to in the organs trade.
In Europe, Italy was the first, to present a motion against the death penalty to the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva.
It is expected of Ethiopia to lead for the abolishment of the death penalty among African Union member states. Of course, it will be a long and tiring process, but who else has the authority than our nation to lead the journey, as we did once for freedom.