I am most astounded and most fascinated by the way young and intelligent Oromo intellectuals have recently refuted the shameful, mendacious, colonial reports of BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7428936.stm), which breaks all records of misinformation and disinformation when it comes to Africa, and more particularly East Africa.

Of course, no one would believe a total lie; the BBC experts on savage half truths know this point very well. That´s why they serve the information depleted from its real, historical and political background understanding. It does not take much more than common sense to denounce BBC´s disreputable colonial forgery.

In fact, the BBC would be constrained to tell the complete truth, if such efforts of misinformation and disinformation were constantly and systematically denounced, and BBC´s criminal colonial attitude exposed to the indignation of the world´s nations.

BBC´s Systematization of Lie

In fact, BBC´s way is childish; it consists in a sort of reductionism, like the following brief story: "A man was tied up in a tree. As no one passed by, the man – having not drunk or eaten anything for an entire week or so – died". Of course, he died, but don´t tell me that there is no responsible; accountable for the crime is the person(s) who tied up the man. But BBC´s systematization of lie does not include anything about the criminal.

Yet, the criminal is real and existent. The reporter´s failure to mention the criminal in the above mentioned story makes of the reporter a shameful accomplice of the criminal. Someone (the killer) ties a person to a tree and abandons the person to thirst, starvation, and death, and another (the reporter) does not speak about the crime perpetrator but about the corpse, the dead body.

This is BBC mendacity, duplicity, and complicity; unrepentant, pernicious, inhuman England in its most inhumanly ugly face. The English mass media do not differ from the criminal colonials of the Scramble for Africa; they continue the colonials´ deeds through their false news and erratic reports.

BBC: silent on Genocides perpetrated in Fake ´Ethiopia´ by Racist Amharas and Tigrays

In the aforementioned brief story, the tied person represents the subjugated, tyrannized and dehumanized nations of Abyssinia – fallaciously and criminally re-baptized as ´Ethiopia´. Tied up in a tree, and chained in handcuffs are the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Kaffas, the Shekachos, the Agaws, the Shinashas, the Anuak, the Berta, the Gumuz, the Kambatas, the Wolayitas, and the Abyssinian (Amhara and Tigray) Muslims, who are amount to ca. 82% of the ominous country. All these different nations that have nothing to do with the Semitic Amhara and Tigray Monophysites have been gradually invaded by or conceded (by whom else? – the British) to the latter; and ever since, they have been exposed to national and spiritual genocide – without the disreputable BBC publishing anything that would mobilize masses allover the world against Africa´s most appalling tyranny.

In the aforementioned brief story, the killer (the guy who tied the person to a tree and abandoned the person to death) is the world´s most appalling tyranny, the most totalitarian and most obsolete state of the world, Abyssinia.

Abyssinia (Fake ´Ethiopia´): the World´s Most Obsolete State

A state whereby inhuman, heinous and racist pseudo-Christian monks give the order to mass extermination and spiritual genocide of numerous nations to the hereditary or non hereditary tyrannical rulers; for them a fake, baseless and fictive entity, named ´Ethiopia´ (through the usurpation of the historical name of Ancient Sudan where thrived the Kushitic kingdoms that were named ´Ethiopia´ by the Ancient Greeks and Romans) would serve to impose their Satanic, pseudo-Christian and anti-Christian beliefs on numerous neighboring nations.

Abyssinian Tyranny, Waiting the False Christ of the Amhara Monks

Working under English colonial approval, the monarchical, pro-Communist and pseudo-republican Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic rulers want to perpetuate their tyranny, and complete their genocide of all the aforementioned subjugated nations, because their monks promised them that their false Christ is about to come, and "he" will reveal to the rest of the world the false Ark of the Covenant that they keep closed in their shameful buildings, imagining that it is the real, historical Ark of Covenant which is known through Biblical excerpts.

To mount up their Satanic conspiracy and to diffuse (in its support) an incredibly falsified and racist version of History, the Monophysitic (Tewahedo) Neo-Nazi Amhara and Tigray Abyssinian rulers, prohibit every development in the vast prison that is their country, if the project was not launched, managed and profited by them.

Promoting Traitors to Later Butcher Them: Typically ´Ethiopian´ Method

The few exceptions made were cases of numerically very few renegades of the subjugated nations, who betrayed their nations´ struggle for liberation, freedom, independence from the Amhara and Tigray Neo Nazi pestilence, and national survival.

As usually happens in cases of traitors, many of them were finally massacred indiscriminately.

Economy does not Function at the Time of Rain already!

In a pseudo-country where criminal Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic gangsters become settlers in occupied territories (of all the aforementioned subjugated nations), and with the help of military extract all the profit from agricultural activities, it is comical to consider the drought as reason for the famine.

In a pseudo-country where criminal Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic gangsters control the totality of the internal trade (let alone the external trade), it is criminal to say that crops "did not grow" because "it did not rain".

Crops did not grow, because it is prohibited to Sidama, Oromo, Anuak and other agricultural workers to purchase crops and cultivate lands - already.

In a pseudo-country where criminal Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic gangsters control the state run economy, the administration, the education, the army and the pseudo-justice, it is comical to speak about "rain".

In the execrable and inhuman tyranny of fake Ethiopia, the only rain that falls regularly is the Rain of the Cut Heads.

I urge you to read the following criticism written by an Oromo intellectual in exile; the text selected because of its authenticity and clarity was published first in the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front) website.

It can serve as good seminar for the disreputable pseudo-journalists of the BBC and the other mass media accomplices of the Neo-Nazi Abyssinian tyrant Meles Zenawi.

Reason of Famine: the Existence of ´Ethiopia´

React by all means against the BBC; flood them with letters and emails of protestation. Their next report should state that the famine in fake ´Ethiopia´ is due simply to the existence of the dysmorphic, dysfunctional and abnormal state of fake ´Ethiopia´ itself.

When it will be broken down to 10 or 12 pieces like Yugoslavia, every independent nation will exploit its own natural resources, and through a consistent and comprehensive nation building, they will achieve water sufficiency, agricultural development, and socio-economic progress, devoid of the Amhara – Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) pestilence.

Unexplored angles to Ethiopia's famine news stories for the international media

(http://www.oromoliberationfront.org/News/2008/Unexplored%20angles.html)

"The rains did not come. So the crops did not grow and people are desperate…" Wendy Urquhart, BBC News May 30, 2008.

I was provoked to write this article after I read and watched a few of the storylines the international media and news agencies are pursuing in terms of covering the current famine and drought in Ethiopia.

Before I go into my topic for today, I would like to first start off by commending the efforts that the international media and news agencies are making to cover the current humanitarian crises in Ethiopia.

In the firs paragraph, I quoted the way the BBC News reporter excellently opens here description of the drought and starvation in Oromia region, East Shewa Zone. If I were to report on the situation there, I would not have started with a better phrase than the BBC reporter did. The reason I isolated this excellent quote is to suggest a more profound angle towards researching and covering stories of famine and drought in Ethiopia. It is primarily to inform than to critique. The quote makes a causal link between the absence of rain and failure of crops to grow and result starvation. Yes, I agree with the reporter that the immediate cause of drought and starvation is the absence of rain. However, the fundamental angle the story leaves unexplored is the fact that these droughts like its predecessor from year s 1984-85, and 2000 are man made and the direct consequences of government caused conflicts and the lack of commitment to sustainable development. Another opening by Reuters reads, "Famine Returns to Ethiopia". Similarly, it makes connection between absence of rain and crop failure.

Ethiopia as country and Oromia as state are the sources of many gigantic rivers that the agricultures of our neighboring courtiers such as Sudan, Egypt, Somalia, thrive on. An elementary school geography student will be able to give us a list of these rivers amongst which are the Nile, Wabe Sheble, Awash, Tekezie, Ghibe to name just a few. Wabe Sheble flows southwards for thousands of kilometers into Somalia and of course the Blue Nile flows into Egypt transporting our fertile soil. So, why are we starving and why are we always on the news for it? The answer is simple: the central governments have done nothing in terms of using the donors' money to expand irrigations into areas that are arid and semi-arid. In fact, most of the rivers I mentioned pass right through the residential areas of the drought struck and the starved people. Perhaps, publicizing these is a major angle that the world media outlets can take in terms of story angle so that the real problem is addressed, not the symptoms.

Prior to the drought of 1984-85, the Derg military junta in power was wasting public money on extravagant parties and banquets. EPRDF/TPLF regime in Addis Ababa/ Finfinnee has also engaged in extravagant and lavish millennium parties from September 2007 up until now. These parties are restricted within the party circles while emaciated children and mothers are falling like flies in the villages of Eastern Oromia State, Ogaden, and Borana. In fact, these are the areas where millions are reported to be needing immediate food aid, but I suspect the whole country is starving including employed people in the cities although the degree is different. These are also the very areas widely known for their dissent against the oppressive and racist ethnic government. Where there is no drought, a strategy of direct ethnic-cleansing is carried out. An example of an ethnic-cleansing is the ongoing armed attack the Oromo by the Gumuz militias, which killed over 400 unarmed civilians, according to reports. Substantially, Ethiopia's chronic famine problem is political problem that arises from lack of a concerned leadership. The country's leadership, more often than not, uses famine to rend political opposition from pro-democracy and development groups. This is part of larger strategy to make the masses 'starve or surrender', to use a famous book title.

It can become very easy and addictive to reduce the cause of famine and drought in Ethiopia to a natural cause because it is easy to blame nature. The worthy approach is to investigate the patterns of government military spending, to analyze whether donors' money /food aid is channeled to the right recipient, and whether funds are used for development. Are there irrigation schemes on, at least, tributaries of the major rivers as development effort? Not one I know of. A genuine and enduring effort to help Ethiopia must be to pressurize the government to stop wars inside and outside of its territories and to urge it to negotiate with opposition groups in order to come to consensus to form a new and inclusive transitional government that can facilitate democratic elections.

The permanent solution of ending the image of Ethiopia as a country notorious for its drought, famine and conflict lies in the hands of all stakeholders nationally and internationally. Every Ethiopian news website or radio-broadcast from the Diaspora have an editorial and humanitarian responsibility of shaping its coverage of current famine by linking it to not only natural climate changes but also to the EPRDF/TPLF's misguided agricultural policy and its insensitivity towards sustainable development and other local and global agenda, including climate change. Otherwise, it is easy, to whine on our own separate platforms without bringing a speedy resolution to the desperate Ethiopians under the military junta.

In summary, I suggest exploring the following editorial angles to covering famine, drought and development stories in the Horn of Africa. The international media and Ethiopian Diaspora media should be able to:

1. Explore how our major rivers are not being utilized to curb food shortage;

2. Establish a link between conflict, war, and the eco-system and climate change;

3. Expose corruptions related to food aid/ and the mismanagement and mis-spending of donors ' money;

4. Investigate exclusions and repressions inflicted by the government on famine- hit civilians;

5. As the local media is controlled, is a moral responsibility for the international media to step up reporting on famine, human rights abuses and systematic ethnic-cleansing in Ethiopia;

6. See how people in Oromia have been denied opportunities shut out from urbanization by successive Ethiopian regimes.

These six suggestions are the ones that I have distilled from my experience and long time acquaintance with Ethiopian problems as an independent reporter and human rights activist.

Qeerransoo Biyyaa

(Now in Exile)