This excerpt from @anneapplebaum's latest "Twilight of Democracy. The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism" will give you goosebumps!
***
"No contemporary authoritarian can succeed without the modern equivalent: the writers, intellectuals, pamphleteers, bloggers, spin doctors...
...producers of television programs and creators of memes who can sell his image to the public. Authoritarians need the people who will promote the riot or launch the coup. But they also need the people who can use sophisticated legal language, people who can argue that...
..breaking the constitution or twisting the law is the right thing to do. They need people who will give voice to grievances, manipulate discontent, channel anger and fear, and imagine a different future. They need members of the intellectual and educated elite, in other words,..
...who will help them launch a war on the rest of the intellectual and educated elite, even if that includes their university classmates, their colleagues, and their friends."
I can't wait to get my copy!
Excerpts screenshot credit: @Tingert! Many thanks! 🙏🏿
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Unable to "wipe out" Oromo Liberation Army fighters within 30,60,90 days (deadline regime politicians & army officers often declare since 2019), fed. army has stepped up airstrikes in Oromia - where a hidden war is taking place for last 3 yrs - slaughtering civilians left & right
One of the hardest part of this war, on top of the devastation it brought to civilians especially in west, south & central Oromia, is the fact that the IC didn't find reason to believe its existence, let alone its impact.For one it's a hidden war with commun'n blackout. Familiar?
For another, when breifed about it, many in the diplomatic circle muse at the absurdity of an "Oromo gov't" at war with its own people. I don't know who needs to hear it again, but civilians are being massacred in a hidden war that no body wants to talk about, let alone solve.
As the day draws to an end, it’s safe to say that the Ethiopian state under the admin of PM Abiy has quietly erased #Ginbot20 (May 28/1991), the date that ushered in the last political settlement, which, in 1995, reconstituted the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE).
Few things to say. This year’s May 28 comes in the backdrop of a brutal war against the major protagonist, TPLF, which coalesced a host of other rebel groups on a 4 yr political settlement between 1991-95 before the founding constitution of today’s 🇪🇹was adopted.
The process...
was imperfect & sidelined key players; & the Ethiopian state that was reconstituted thereof was haunted by the absence of these players.
But May 28 paved the way that led to the multiple nations & nationalities in Ethiopia to reimagine a new hope & a place they can call home.
Loose translation: “I won’t celebrate when my mother is shedding tears of blood; my brother brutally slaughtered & his body thrown off a cliff; & my genteel sister raped by hooligans. I shall celebrate when my mothers’ tears are wiped & the dignity of my homeland is restored.”
This is the acceptance speech by artist Isayas Tadesse, winner of the “Short Film” category at the annual Gumma Awards.
There is so much to unpack about his speech on a stage where many expect it the least; but I would only say a few things.
Re:NEBE’s latest decision on OLF’s breakaway faction: Regardless of his legitimate concern with NEBE, Jaal Dawud Ibssa should take today’s decision by the Board to delegitimise the so-called General Assembly led by Jaal Ararso Biqila as a window of opportunity to unite the party.
In return Jaal Ararso should take a lesson or two from post 2005 systematic & engineered fracturing & weakening of opposition parties (a tactic being played by PP), dismember whatever he put together & agree to convene OLF’s General Assembly under the leadership of Jaal Dawud.
The two men should realise that the upcoming election the NEBE is organising, if it happened, will be the beginning of a long & bitter struggle for the Oromo nation & their relationship with the state to be reconstituted thereafter.
One of the cascade of shocks the #Oromo nation continue to endure in the wake of the yet unsolved assassination of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa is the following crackdown on multiple individuals who represent a significant political agency of the Oromo in the 🇪🇹to come.
Among the consequential arrests is the likes of Bekele, Jawar & Hamza, seen here after 40 days of hunger strike for what they believed in. But it’s a mistake to think the crackdown was limited to them. Speak with any Oromo, you will learn that there is a pre & post Hacaaluu 🇪🇹.
That’s so not only b/s Hacee was assassinated, but also everything that the Oromo lost after that either to death, jail or disappearance (be it individuals of political parties), share one thing in common: they’re known among the Oromo as icons of a struggle for a pan Oromo cause
This week Be’aman Netsere, a seasoned Orthodox Church scholar, & Yared Shumete, a humanitarian, published their travel experiences about the war in #Tigray.
Both raised facts Ethiopia needs to reckon with.
Most important, Be’aman confirmed the #Axum & #Dengolat massacres.
He also captured pics of Eritrean forces freely roaming near the Axum obelisk.
But it’s what he said about the deafening silence of the EOTC both on the massacres & the wanton destruction of its own holy sites that needs to be paid the at most attention, imo!
Yared too raised important factors that need a collective reckoning: the psychological trauma the people of #Tigray are enduring as a result of this senseless war & his fear on whether they will make the annual walk to Adewa in connection with the March 02 Adwa Victory Day.