Thread by @Qnie_Addis

.@rosenthal_jon
Thread

#TheRosenthalMethod: how to tame an inconvenient truth through inaccuracies, errors and omissions

There are so many inaccuracies, errors and omissions in your oped that I have to go at it paragraph by paragraph.

1/ It all starts with the first sentence of the first paragraph! “Frequent, violent” regime changes in “recent decades” in Ethiopia?! The last regime change in Ethiopia was in 1991! 30 years ago! Setting the ground for the usual "African"narrative?!

2/ Here you are trying to create a parallel between Mengistu and Abiy. Mengistu was a military leader who came to power through a coup and his government was not loved by many Ethiopians. This was one of the reasons the TPLF managed to virtually walk into Addis.

Abiy came to power through an internal election within EPRDF and his newly formed party was elected by a landslide in June which u omitted! You also conveniently skipped the 27 years of looting and subjugation of millions of Ethiopians by #TPLF. Your comparison doesn't hold up!

The line about GOE blocking delivery of aid, has also been discredited by the Bekele-Bachelet report. You also neglected to talk about the 872 trucks that have been hijacked by the TPLF & used for the purpose of ferrying soldiers and armaments for its war in Amhara & Afar.

3/ The ceremony was a commemoration of the massacre of hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers by TPLF forces, not “the start of the war.” While you are at it why not talk about who started the war. You can find it at the very beginning of the @EHRC @UNHRC report!

"…all ethnic Tigrayans in the capital”….Mr. Rosenthal, there is a limit even to exaggeration and lies. There are several hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans in Addis. Are you really telling your readers that all of them are being rounded up?

4/ The subtle racism in these two paragraphs is also fascinating. Apparently, the Ethiopian security forces and 'pro-government' Ethiopians do not have enough intelligence to differentiate between TPLF and Tigrayans. I assure you, Mr. Rosenthal, they do! The question is: Do you?

For native speakers of Amharic, this claim is beyond laughable. The expression is about being careful not to destroy the 'wheat' was originally used by a certain Jesus of Nazareth in Matthew 13.

This for me sums up the problem! These 'journalists' and 'analysts' actually think they know more about Ethiopia than Ethiopians, even if they don’t speak a word of any of the 80+ languages spoken in Ethiopia or have a rudimentary understanding of Ethiopian cultures!

5/ A nation that has been around for millennia is fragile? By what standard? The comparison with Yugoslavia is also absurd. Yugoslavia was a country formed by the amalgamation of three preexisting nations in 1918. The ill-fated union did not even last eight decades.

6/ So vowing to bring the country from “darkness to light” is bad? I love how MSM journalists portray African leaders as egomaniac dictators, if unelected, and as ego-maniacal populist zealots when democratically elected. So smooth!

7/ This is beyond ridiculous. How is it possible for the @_AfricanUnion to suspend a democratically elected government of a sovereign African nation? Have you even read the charter of the AU?! Is your impression of @AU that of a tribal council that just makes its rules up?

Arms embargo? Given, TPLF is landlocked and bereft of a means of importing arms, the arms embargo will only weaken the federal government. How is that going to bring TPLF to the negotiation table?

8/ I agree that the fate of 115 million Ethiopia hangs in the balance! Unfortunately, your premises and your recommendations are ill informed and deeply flawed.
You formed your opinion based on newspaper articles and HR group reports that are heavily skewed in favor of TPLF.

While writing such an article, have you done your due diligence and talked with Ethiopian scholars and/or ordinary Ethiopians at home who hold the opposite view point? I guess not, Mr Rosenthal!

My worry and my sadness is that the next generation of Ethiopians will inherit a destabilized Ethiopia because of ill-informed, self-righteous 'analysts' and 'journalists' who do not have not even a little bit of “epistemic humility.”

That is why we say #NoMore
#DigitalAdwa