Horn of Africa, led by Qananisa to Glory

18 08 2008

 

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele has won his second successive Olympic 10,000 metres gold medal, in a new Olympic record time of 27 minutes 01.17 seconds.Compatriot Sileshi Sihine claimed silver, as he did in Athens, but Kenyan Micah Kogo ensured there was no Ethiopian clean-sweep.

Bekele’s 35-year-old team-mate Haile Gebrselassie, the Olympic 10,000m champion in 1996 and 2000, came in sixth.

Together, the two runners have ensured Ethiopian dominance in the event for four consecutive Olympic Games.

Bekele confirmed after the race he would attempt the long-distance track ‘double’, aiming to take out the gold in the 5,000m - something he has failed to do in previous attempts in 2004 and 2003.
 

 

 

source





An angel and a daredevil competing

15 08 2008

These two Oromo power girls won Olympic gold and silver respectively. Dibaba, like her cousin Derartu Tullu who became the first African woman to win Olympic gold in 1992 at Barcelona Olympics, won Olympics gold and broke the Olympics record by running the second best time in the history of the women 10K run. On the other hand, Elvan AKA Hewan who has been leading for most of the race came second. Read her profile on wiki. to find out why she is a daredevil.





An angel who runs like a demon

14 08 2008

 

“Woman of the world” calls her Marc Chalufour.

 





To: My Ethiopian Friends

11 08 2008

Sent From: an OLF member

Re: Clarifying Misconception about OLF

I am a member of the OLF. But I don’t speak for the organization here. However, the following is some of the common knowledges of the membership.

1. We Oromos wish to live in peace with all our neighbors.  We cannot afford to antagonize our neighbors or others living in Oromia.

2. Many groups and individuals live in Oromia. These are Oromians just like Oromos. They have equal rights with Oromos in every aspect. One of the OLF cardinal principle is - OLF recognizes and respects the right of national minorities in Oromia to develop their own cultures, administer their own affairs and enjoy equal rights in all aspects like any Oromo.

3. With respect to the so called Ethiopian history - OLF doesn’t believe in mythical history. It is a fact of history that the present Ethiopia came into being only around the beginning of 1900. Before that we all had our own history. Do you know that the name Ethiopia was legalized by putting it in the Ethiopian Constitution in 1931? The present Ethiopia is only known to the rest of the world after the 2nd World War. This is a fact not a tale.  We shouldn’t waste time fighting over this fact.  Time itself will soon solve it.  Because, this aspect of the history of our peoples is intentionally hidden from us by the ruling class.

Yes, there was an area known as Ethiopia in north east Africa. This was the Ethiopia the holy books and other ancient books referred to. This Ethiopia and Abyssinia were never one and the same. That was the Kush land. But after the Arabs conquered and occupied the Kushland and renamed it Sudan at which time the name Ethiopia was dropped out and forgotten until the Abyssinian clergy and rulers want to use it. This was as late as 1800s!

4.Our goal is not to rule Ethiopia. Our goal is to enable the Oromo people and others to be masters of their own affairs. We are working to enable the Oromo people and others to live in peace in this beautiful God given land. I and my fellow Oromo members and sympathizers of the OLF wish to work for peace and harmony for our peoples. I assure you that my colleagues and I will fight any dictator being it an Oromo or otherwise.





1 World-1 Dream, Run 4 Oromia!

10 08 2008

 

It looked like the stars were lined up for the opening of the much anticipated Beijing Olympics. A beautiful day. 08/08/08. The opening ceremony at the “Bird’s Nest” was, by far, one of the best opening ceremonies of any event I have seen in my life time. One would think it can’t get any better than that. For many, of course, it might not get any better than this - at least for few more years but for Oromos, I think we’ve seen better days.

Almost all athletes who have been and still are representing “Ethiopia” on the Olympics are Oromos unless the ethnocentric Tigrayans who are currently misleading “Ethiopia” included some of their less qualified athletes in place of deserving Oromos this time around. Wait… it gets worse. I was waiting to see our heroes and heroines to come out during the parade of nations wearing traditional Oromo clothing for the first time on the Olympics for a change from the same old typical Abyssinian garments they have worn every four years in the past.

My high hope to see authentic Oromo culture being represented on the world stage soon got deflated when I saw a bunch of Tigrayans came out with their own everything. There was no trace of any one of our beloved athletes on the scene. It makes you wonder. These low self-esteem minority dictators are at it again trying to cover their inferiority complex by excluding TEAM OROMIA from the parade like they are the ones running to win GOLD for the nation. They are still not satisfied after 18 years of killing, imprisoning, starving, harassing, and looting our people. They want to outshine us on the Olympics too. How pathetic! They don’t even have anything to show except that one guy who won Olympics in the past – even him, I highly suspect to have an Oromo blood if he is from Southern Tigray, Raya & Azebo area where the majority of them are Oromos by blood.

In any case, my beef is not with Miruts Yifter or any of the other Tigrayans who were rallying behind him per se but rather with the Tigrayans hijacking an Olympics event to further their marginalization of Oromos. Oromos have always been marginalized in “Ethiopian” society both by Amharas and Tigrayans but what we saw yesterday took that to a whole another level. Even this year’s Olympics’ theme is “One World One Dream” and everyone in the world would think it is time for unity and harmony but the ethnocentrist Tigrayans had their only dream of being the one at any cost. What a disgrace for human race!

This should be a wake-up call for every Oromo athlete if they are not awake by now. They should all ask themselves why they run and who they run for. It is high time for every Oromo athlete to take heed and RUN FOR OROMIA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is this year’s Run for Oromia event with some pictures.





MTA President also is stumping in MN

8 08 2008

By Qeerransoo Biyyaa, Oromo Press 

 

“I want my people to thrive in freedom, “Dirribi Bokku told me.

The president of Macha and Tulama Association (MTA), Mr. Dirribi Bokku, who came to the United States, Minnesota, to make a keynote address at the 22nd Oromo Studies Association annual conference, exposed assaults against himself and the Civil Society Organization (CSO) he is leading. Bokku is also the author of a new Oromo book “Ilaalcha Oromo” (Oromo View), which is a guide to the traditional African Oromo religion “Waaqeffannaa”.

MTA
“MTA is the oldest Oromo civil society organization, established in early 1960s to advance the socio-economic development of the marginalized and repressed Oromo people under Emperor Haile Sillassie,” says Bokku. He explained that the objectives of the MTA have been to expand literacy, health care, Oromo culture, history and political consciousness. The impetus for doing these stemmed from the policy of segregation the central government followed against the Oromo people in all walks of life.

For more on this story, click here.





Movements: Flemish vis-à-vis Oromo

6 08 2008

Here is the concluding remark of a story published on International Herald Tribune’s culture section that is titled With Flemish nationalism on the rise, Belgium teeters on the edge.

“In a global society, nations are less important,” she answered. “It’s a moral question. Does a culture have a right to stand up for itself? More than that: Do unity and nationhood take priority over one’s culture? That’s not just an issue for Belgians but everyone.”

Indeed, that is not an issue just for Belgians. We Oromos relate to the Flemish people in more ways than one. Just like the Flemish in Belgium, Oromos are the majority in Ethiopia. Our culture and language has been suppressed by Amharas. Our movement is a cultural movement just like the Flemish and we also like to get a greater autonomy just like the Flemish. 

Here is some history of the Flemish Movement to help you draw some parallels with the Oromo Liberation Movement.





Bulcha on the stump in Minnesota

6 08 2008

August 05, 2008

When Bulcha Demeksa, an opposition member of the Ethiopian Parliament, feels compelled to denounce the Ethiopian Prime Minister, he doesn’t bother to organize a political rally in Ethiopia or search for journalists eager to write up his rhetorical thunderbolts.

That’s because opposition rallies are banned in Ethiopia, and the press is government-controlled down to the last pixel and drop of printer’s ink.

Plus, Ethiopia’s jails are filled these days with people brave or foolhardy enough to speak out publicly against the regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

By some estimates, as many as 30,000 political prisoners are presently being held in Ethiopian jails. Human Rights Watch and other watchdog groups over the past decade have documented thousands of cases of arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and torture of political dissidents.

For more on this story, click here.





We make it *HOT*

5 08 2008





Dedicated for the Brave General Kamaal Galchu

4 08 2008

A song by Kamal Ibrahim - ILLiLLi