Dr berhanu nega biography books

For example the Turkish in Germany vote in Germany, Israelis and other countries have laws that allow dual citizenship. Berhanu: A meaningful decentralization of power is important for the country. I think this is a big country. It is hard to run things from a central body. So, people should lead and choose their representatives. Federalism is a system that gives more freedom to the local administration.

The big question is what should constitute this federalism- ethnicity, language, religion or other criteria. For example in Ethiopia we have more than eighty languages. So, in that case we are going to have more than eighty states. Here, the point is we cannot build an enhanced democracy in the country if states are designated in such a fashion.

This also limits the rights of the citizens to live anywhere they want. Federalism should be exercised in such a way that strengthens bonds among ethnic groups in the country. Now, we are seeing conflict here and there. This is one attendant ill of the type of federalism we pursued. On the other hand, many are requesting to be states, while others Woredas.

The trend opened ways for separation and hate. Here, the issue of debate is not embracing federalism. The question rather should be what kind of federalism we must adopt and the criteria it should include. We have to discuss on the way it should be implemented. The choice must be left for every Ethiopian. Berhanu: Addis Ababa is a city that has six million inhabitants.

Addis Ababa is their city. Anybody who lives in Addis could claim this is my city. In the same fashion, it could belong to both the Federal and Oromia State. There were Shoa and Addis Ababa administrations that used to run their respective tasks. Addis Ababa should be managed in such a way that provides benefits to the people who live in it and who also pay tax.

Things should be run in such a way that serves all Ethiopians who live in the city as well as foreigners that resides in it. For me this is meaningless. It is not very far from saying as Lucy was found in afar every Ethiopian is afari. I am perfectly aware of why the Oromo youths are raising this question. We made a mistake when we allowed the government to be the owner of the land in the country.

The natural expansion of the city should benefit people in the peripheries too. If the land ownership belongs to the people, they are going to be rich more than anyone in the country. Regarding the benefits of people in the outskirts of Addis, the question should be the question of all Ethiopians, not only Oromos. This is not the issue of ethnicity rather the issue of securing property.

This happens everywhere, when cities expand. We should work on how people displaced in this natural process get compensated. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Breaking news. Editor review. Previous post Poetry. Next post Pakistan: Press Freedom at Stake. Biyansa Desisa January 04, at Yacob Haile-Mariam and other leaders of the CUD, as well as a number of civil rights activists and independent journalists.

They were charged with genocide and treason. Amnesty International and the European Union recognized the prisoners as political prisoners and requested immediate and unconditional release. However the real publishers were a group of young intellectuals in cooperation with Alafa printers that is located in Addis Ababa. More copies were brought in from outside as local publishers were afraid of publishing the book.

The elected council members of the party held an election for mayor and elected Berhanu to be the mayor. Then, the ruling party refused to hand in the city and eventually imprisoned all the leaders of the party including Berhanu. After 21 months in prison along with all opposition leader, Berhanu left the country in and returned to teach at the economics department of Bucknell at Bucknell University.

While in the U. S, Berhanu announced the founding of a new political group, Ginbot 7, as the old one was dismantled by the government. As a member of the upper class, one can characterize his early life as comfortable and devoid of serious worries. Growing up Berhanu would have been aware and interested in the Ethiopian Student Movement which began in The movement posed a challenge to the imperialism and monarchy at the time.

The students, along with some teachers, played a vital role for paving the way for the revolution. In December , students of the university college of Addis Ababa were the only organized group that gave public support to the abortive coup against Emperor Haile Selassie. The demonstration they staged was the first public defiance of the Imperial regime by students.

The coup marked the birth of the movement and helped speed its development. This new phenomenon of students questioning the status quo of the feudal system must have interested young Berhanu. By , the Imperial government of Ethiopia was overthrown by the Derg or Committee which were at first lauded by the members of the student movement.

Finishing high school, Berhanu left his home in Bishoftu and began his studies at the same university housing the daring student movement. Berhanu began his lifelong political activism by being a part of these protests against the Derg government, during his freshman year as a student. Things soon turned ugly, and by , the Derg government had had enough with political dissidents and began to stamp out all opposition.

Unfortunately, his eldest sister, only 19 years old, was found, captured and made to disappear within the many prisons of the Derg. Her whereabouts continued to elude the family, causing untold grief, until later, when some of her cellmates spoke of her death. Suicide by cyanide is believed to have been the cause; most dissidents carried cyanide pills around their neck and used them to avoid the horrific methods of torture common at the time burning hot oil poured in ears, scorching metal rods inserted into female parts, etc.

Dr berhanu nega biography books

They called for the fall of the monarchy, the removal of the feudal system and the creation of a democratic republic. By , the EPRP declared all out terrorist warfare against the revolutionary government, this conflict eventually led to the Red Terror, in which an estimated , people lost their lives. This group was at the time active in the Tigray and Gondar regions and they used guerilla warfare as a tool to combat the Derg government.

More importantly, he detested the many killings committed by the group and openly criticized them. This led to his first but not last experience with political imprisonment. Unafraid to fight for his beliefs, the young activist was fortunate enough to be released after being detained for only a couple of months. Shortly after his release, the guards shot and killed 15 of his cellmates, having seen enough, Berhanu planned his escape.

Consequently, he would undergo the perilous journey to the Sudan, where he would spend the next two years reading books on philosophy in Khartoum's public library, while awaiting his travel documents to the United States. He rather wisely chose to move to the east coast of America in New York, which is considered the Rome of today's world.

Here he enrolled at the State University of New York at New Paltz and successfully completed their undergraduate program for economics, while also playing on the soccer team. While studying to obtain his PhD in economics, he continued to give special attention to his homeland by helping organize the Horn of Africa annual conference. For a period spanning five years, the group conducted high-level meetings that examined the current cross-cutting economic, political and social trends happening in the east coast of Africa.

The many political leaders, analysts, researchers and various other stakeholders would have provided Berhanu the perfect opportunity to create and enhance his political ideology for Ethiopia. Back at school, the dissertation paper for his PhD program was on the failures of Ethiopian agriculture under the Communist Derg. Here he would be hired in as an Associate Professor in the economics department.

His area of specialty was the popular elective of African Economic Development, in which he outlines development policies in sub-Saharan Africa. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Ethiopian politician born This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by their given name, Berhanu, and not as Nega.

Economics professor politician. Early life [ edit ]. Return to Ethiopia [ edit ]. The general election [ edit ]. After imprisonment [ edit ]. Ministry of Education [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The New York Times. Retrieved 31 August Freedom in the World ISBN Retrieved 1 January ISSN Retrieved American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The Washington Post.