#dirtyhistory

[effertzlooklikesongs]

Dodgy business, corruption, slavery: what’s behind the martyr of the Oromo People

Four months (June 29, 2020) have passed since the murder of the most famous Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa[1]. He was only 34 years old, he was the “voice of the Oromo people“[2], the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, but subjugated by the Abyssinians and therefore exploited and marginalized[3]. Hundessa sang of the uprising, “Don’t wait for outside help, a dream that won’t come true. Get up, prepare your horse and fight, you are the one close to the palace”[4]. He was arrested in 2003 when he was only 17 and served four years in prison[5]. “Malaan Jira”[6] (“What kind of life do I have”) is his hymn to the secession from Ethiopia[7], which Hundessa wrote during those years in prison and which made him famous throughout Africa after it has been released[8].

On the day of the funeral, the protest of the population exploded: the government expected nothing else – the special forces intervened, shot, beat and arrested dozens of people[9]. The reaction of the common people and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has been desperate and brutal – because it was only two years ago that the OLF signed a peace treaty with the government of Addis Ababa and that the Abyssinians had promised peace and prosperity[10]. Cars were set on fire, government offices destroyed and police stoned[11]. The government’s reaction was atrocious[12]: dozens of people have died every day for the past four months and the violence has not subsided[13] – also because OLF supporters have been targeted for a year and murdered, while their perpetrators have never been identified[14]. The only consequence: Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed postponed the elections, which should have taken place in August 2020, indefinitely[15].

Oromo’s treasure

Paradoxically, Abiy Ahmed is the first Oromo to achieve the highest position of leadership in the State[16]. In the early years of his tenure he earned a reputation as a man of integrity, an opponent of corruption and a proponent of integration, so that in 2019 he received the Nobel Peace Prize[17]. But soon after, his true tyrant face became visible[18]. Although the Derg dictatorship was defeated over 30 years ago (1987), due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which supported it economically and militarily[19], along with the parties that later came to power (EPRDF , EPLF, PFSJ[20]), the massacre and torture continue, whatever the religious, ethnic or political reasons could be – as emerged from an in-depth study carried out by an American NGO in 2009[21] – with the sole goal to control any possible resistance, to build an irreplaceable and inviolable economic oligarchy and to bring out the local populations of their country (who are the most fertile, the most mineral-rich and the most developed in Ethiopia). They expel more than 1.4 million Oromos and illegally confiscate their wealth[22].

These are invaluable treasures: in a drought-ravaged country, there are the mineral water springs (Oromic: Hora) of Sanqallee, Amboo, Weessoo, Gur’uu Fadii, Bilandoo and Baaduu[23]. These are generous and of a unique quality by African standards, so that they play a role of religious holiness in the tradition of the local population, which for thousands of years has given relief to millions of inhabitants, whole herds of animals, thirst through these springs. It feeds coffee, grain and tobacco plantations and warms up in winter because they have a high thermal value[24].

In the years of the Derg dictatorship, these sources were merged into a single State-owned company, which was privatized at the end of the regime to Ambo Mineral SC, which at the continental level became the source of water for the production of beer and Coca-Cola[25] – and was for the eternity stolen from the Oromo people, who have since suffered from a terrible drought[26].

With the disappearance of drinking water, another thousand-year-old tradition of the Oromo people was interrupted: that of coffee, the world consumption of which originated here, and not in Brazil or Arabia[27], as is often assumed[28] – and that since for at least 500 years it has not only played a fundamental role for nutrition and the economic balance of the region, but also played a religious[29] and cultural role[30]. A role that was taken away by the forced nationalization of the marketing of the products of individual farmers in the years of the Derg regime[31], and which, subsequently, due to the fact that coffee has being seen as an openly anti-government tradition[32], this led to massive expropriations and deportations – and put the whole product in the hands of multinational coffee companies whose monopoly position has only been countered in recent years by the activities of humanitarian and sustainable trade organizations[33].

By the way, the international trading of Ethiopian coffee is in the hands of multinational companies such as Starbuck, Cooper, Forest or Square One[34], and only since 2013, on the initiative of a young entrepreneur, Israel Degfa, son of a farmer from the Guji region[35], founder of Kerchanshe Trading PLC, that in just seven years he became the largest coffee exporter in Ethiopia, there’s a chance for recreating the conditions for a re-appropriation of coffee’s production and sales by the Oromo People[36]. Moreover, in addition to gaining control of coffee production, the Ethiopian State nationalized another gift of nature in the Oromo region – and focused it on a single business (eliminating farmers who previously made a living from its cultivation): the tobacco[37].

The last great treasure is oil, discovered by the Soviet Union in the 1980s[38] and then under the control of the Malaysian multinational Petronas[39] and several Chinese companies like Poly-GCL during the years of the Derg regime. In recent months, Poly-GCL has signed new contracts with the government for the use of oil fields and shipping concessions, covering thousands of square kilometers[40]. Petronas’ exploitation of the oil fields has been for decades the excuse for further harassment, torture, massacres and deportations of the Oromo people[41].

These crimes were covered up by the fact that Petronas avoided repeating the mistakes made in Sudan during this century. A mistake that showed the world the cruelty of this multinational[42]: Petronas hid its activity behind the facade of an apparently Ethiopian company, SouthWest Holding[43].

The omnipresence of Tewodros Ashenafi

Tewodros Ashenafi

In order to demonstrate their diversity with the Derg regime, Ethiopian government leaders have gone to great lengths over the past 25 years to show the world that they have solved the problem of forced nationalization with liberal privatizations, but at the same time (mostly by the use of force) to keep control of the land wealth of the Oromo region[44]. As we have seen in the case of the rose market[45], Ethiopian leaders use people they trust to manage strategic sectors of the country’s productive economy[46]. And their favorite steward is undoubtedly Tewodros Ashenafi, who received and administered all the treasures of the Oromo people.

Tewodros Ashenafi was born in Addis Ababa on August 26, 1969 and rose to fame when the government asked him to privatize the country’s largest State-owned company, NTS (National Tobacco Enterprise), for which Ashenafi paid $ 1.4 billion dollars – a bunch of money of unknown origin[47]. Known as a model student, he grew up in England and immigrated to the United States on a scholarship at the age of 12[48]. In America, he attended the best schools[49] and graduated from Columbia University in New York with his high school diploma in economics under the guidance of Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps, who is widely regarded as the father of the Euro[50]. Upon completion of this course, he enrolled in Harvard Kennedy School’s exclusive Owner-President-Management (OPM) program, graduating in 2010 at the age of 41[51].

During those long academic years, Ashenafi was the first African elected to lead one of the chapters of the most exclusive Fraternity of American Students[52] (Beta Theta Pi), known as a breeding ground for politicians and powerful figures, and has strict secrecy laws and “mutual support among Confreres”. It is also known for dozens of cases of rape and alcohol and drug abuse linked to brutality[53]. Thanks to these connections, Ashenafi quickly became one of the guest speakers at the Davos International Forum[54], was able to accredit his company (SouthWest Energy Ltd. Hong Kong) as full members of the forum[55], and became the main lobbyist for the current Ethiopian government[56].

He was not chosen by chance: during his studies, Ashenafi made a career in the international relations division of Merrill Lynch & Co., for whose clients he invested in emerging markets[57]. Since 2011, he has served on the board of trustees of billionaire and conservative politician Ross Perot Jr.’s[58] EastWest Institute (EWI) – an institute that deals with strategic issues in politics, economics and the military[59]. For this reason, he met politicians, businessmen, generals and lobbyists from the United States, the European Union and the Russian Federation work at EWI[60]. Over the years, his presence in international organizations has grown[61]: in 2013, Ashenafi was elected the first African[62] to the International Advisory Council (ICC) of the Atlantic Council – one of the most powerful organizations in the world, which exerts a strong pressure on the military balance and the commercial cooperation in the planet[63], and is indeed the long hand of the American political and industrial power[64].

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

Operation Babylift. Over the month of April, 1975 some 3,300 infants and children were evacuated from South Vietnam leading up to the Fall of Saigon (which spawned another iconic image). The children were ostensibly orphaned and we're travelling to the US for adoption. More than the human concern, the operation presented a real logistical challenge. As one Pan Am flight attendant recalled, "We constantly peeked into bassinets to make sure each baby was still breathing. I froze as I flashed my light on each little back, waiting for what seemed like hours to see a ribcage move with the breath of life." #historyphotography #historyfacts #historicalphotos #historic #history #historia #photojournalism #photography #blackandwhitephotography #vietnam #military #militaryhistory #war #planes #travel #travelphotography #adoption #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/B4yAxrAJG7W/?igshid=1kxwmwrs72j7y

[trans-bassist]

The dirty history of the thousand islands - prohibition. #thousandislands #dirtyhistory

[blazeclown]

#np #anybodykilla #dirtyhistory (at Lunenburg, Massachusetts)

[brooklynbarbernyc]

#Juggalo #AnyBodyKillah #2WhomItMayConcern #DirtyHistory #ABK #Psychopathic #HatchetLove #DownWithTheClown @juggalettelizz @_hatchetbarbie_ @psychopatchix

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

Wall Street, 1918. The day Germany surrendered--effectively ending The Great War. The moment of jubilation was captured by photographer W.L Drummond. Photo courtesy of @librarycongress #photography #sepia #NYC #newyork #urban #city #cityscape #urbanphotography #urbanhistory #1910s #wwi #war #history #historia #photograph #podcast #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/BwFSqiXJEA2/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=vjq4uisp90e0

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

"[T]ime is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies, are finite. They may indeed disperse into the smallest particles; but these particles, the atoms, have their determinate numbers, and the numbers of the configurations which, all of themselves, are formed out of them is also determinate. Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations which have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again..." Episode 39 is out now! #eternal #history #philosophy #nietzsche #discussion #josephcampbell #art #foucault #surreal #interesting #philosophydiscussion #podcast #episode #newepisode #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/B5GvMtdpUtx/?igshid=1i2q1tb5i6udg

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

5th Avenue in the aftermath of a heavy snowfall, 1905. Moving in the snow presented a real challenge for early urban Americans, with the first snow plow not being deployed until 1862 in Milwaukee. Even then the system was rudimentary consisting of, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a plow attached to "a cart pulled by a team of horses through the snow-clogged streets." This breakthrough in snow removal allowed municipal authorities to clear main roads, but at the cost of blocking side streets and alleys with large mounds of snow. These advances however, were no match for brutal blizzards which would paralyze cities regardless of their horse drawn plow capabilities. #history #urbanhistory #urban #city #cityscape #1900s #photography #photographer #snow #winter #urbanplanning #cityhistory #historia #historicalphotos #cold #newyork #nyc #podcast #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/B06VRs2pmhi/?igshid=19g7wyq2cm3mp

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

Mountaineers trek across Pizzo Campo Tencia in the Swiss Alps around 1920. PHOTOGRAPH BY JEAN GABERELL, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION Photo and description courtesy of @natgeo The summit of the Pizzo Campo Tencia is jist around 10,079 feet. Imagine trekking that with 1920's camera gear on top of the gear you all ready have to bring. And hiking the mountain is no easy task, with death in the Swiss Alps still common today, reports indicate that in 2015, the mountaineering club recorded 144 fatal accidents, while 138 people died in 2011. "Between January and June 2018, 80 people died climbing or skiing in the Swiss Alps - the highest level since the turn of the century."* #history #historia #exploration #european #photographer #photography #geography #mountains #landscapephotography #beautiful #surreal #hiking #historicalphotos #historyfacts #alps #1920s #dirtyhistory *NZZ am Sonntag/sb https://www.instagram.com/p/BzN-x5apHxm/?igshid=s4bp7jhs1rrp

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

Food and Drug Administration Headquarters, Rockville, Maryland, October, 1988. AIDS activists come together and seize control of the FDA with a carefully constructed mission. Photographed is an officer walking amongst the activists. He's wearing rubber gloves in fear of catching AIDS. #protest #activism #socialactivism #fda #aids #aidsawareness #photography #photooftheday #history #historia #historical #1980s #medical #medicine #medicalhistory #disease #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx7zjcOJQys/?igshid=c3sbk56kvhpc

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

A famous, and albeit likely staged shot from the Disneyland employee cafeteria in 1961. I say staged because it is unlikely the goofy actor eats in full regalia, but I could wrong here. One thing that may not be staged on the Disneyland employees is the smile, as it was a requirement for employment. Taken from a 1962, employee handbook, "A smile cannot be painted on, like lipstick. You can't turn it on and off like a water faucet. And, in fact, a "forced smile"...the "grin and bear it" type may be worse than none at all. You've got to have an honest smile. It's got to come from within. And...to accomplish this...you've got to develop a sense of humor and a genuine interest in people." #history #historia #photography #blackandwhite #disney #cult #smile #bizarre #strange #weird #interesting #1960s #amusementpark #disneyland #waltdisney #characters #historyfacts #podcast #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/BwkYeLGJv3y/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1l1jsyys05r4k

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

May 1956, chiropractors from around the country converged on Chicago for a weeklong "Miss Perfect Posture Pageant" (Yeah this really happened). The pageant involved measurements, x-rays, and observations of standing posture. What was the point of this bizarre competition? As the past president of Association for the History of Chiropractic, Dr. P. Reginald Hug stated, "Basically, chiropractic had a PR problem. We were unlicensed in those days, we were the new kids on the block and medicine didn't like us." So there way of triumphing over medical controversy was to throw a pageant which reduced and judged women on a skeletal level, because nothing screams professional medicine like a beauty pageant. #bizarre #strange #interesting #weird #medicine #pageant #beauty #posture #skeletal #xray #medicalhistory #history #historia #historic #photography #blackandwhitephotography #history2 #podcast #dirtyhistory Photos courtesy of @npr https://www.instagram.com/p/BwcuJxJB-hn/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1h0t66j3g9f21

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

Meet Robert Earl Hughes who at one time was the World's Largest Man weighing in at 1,069 lbs (485 kilograms) at his heaviest. He died 10 July 1958 at the age of 32. At the age of 6 he weighed 203 lbs (92 kilograms) and at the age of 12 he weighed 326 lbs (148 kilograms). His weight is often attributed to a highly overactive pituitary gland. He lived life as a carnival and sideshow attraction, and even appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. His chest measured 10 feet. He contracted a case of measles which lead to his death. His headstone reads, "world's heaviest man weight 1,041 pounds" #history #historia #historyfacts #sideshow #medical #medicine #abnormal #oddity #interesting #interestingfacts #strange #bizzarre #photography #blackandwhite #podcast #til #histmed #historical #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv9QUblhxRL/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=iw3v5gnjcc5p

[dirtyhistorypodcast-blog]

Episode 27 on the mutilation of William Lanne is out now. It's an interesting, bizzare and totally horrifying story that speaks volumes on the medical culture of 19th century colonial powers. #medical #horror #bizzarre #strange #weird #surreal #mutilation #crime #medicine #surgery #evolution #flawed #history #historia #historyfacts #podcast #episode #listen #dirtyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/BvxTRkIpVef/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=p7khuiqe2by8