I have been following your postings in various topics. with out saying a lot i will just forward you to read what people are saying about u guys(western media).
http://www.ethioindex.com/medrek2/viewtopic.php?t=11104&sid=0019a37d22fd02fe518b28b389d0d19b

Thanks for that alula. But I am not too sure why you pointed me to that link to the discussion on "the conspiracy theories of the whites and their medias being against the interest of Ethiopia".

Are you suggesting that I should not be focusing on negative subjects like Ethiopia's malnourished children?

Or was it something about my entry on the opposition rally? As you can see from my entry below, I was there for Reuters. Other "western media" who also covered the rally were Associated Press, AFP and, indeed, the BBC. In other words, all the major agencies gave it full coverage.

I didn't say that you shouldn't report on those children after all you guys are the ones that we expect 'mercy' and 'miracle' from. what i am saying is people are seeing the quality n motives of the kinds of reporting made by the 'Developed' media. we demand a fair reporting standard with out humilating our people. after all what is the point of telling us that we are 'impoverished'...n so n so....a million times........perhaps to just push us to the point of don't careness......and that is trust me not a viable thing to do for every body......the rich n the poor.

I understand what you are saying alula, I agree. What is happening right now is that many of these foreigners are feeling emboldened by the elections.
They think they can say what they want and do what they want, because they think instability is on its way to Ethiopia. They are wrong. And after the election is over...we will be fine brother dont worry.
If foreigners could take down Ethiopia they would have done it in 1889 at Adwa. It didnt happen then, it wont happen now.

BTW.. the journalist who abuses Ethiopia most is Anthony Mitchell did you see what this Jerk wrote today? Here is the link...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=740907&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
The government should ask for a new AP stringer after the election because this man has truely lost his mind.

I completely agree with the observation made at ethioindex. The response by the author of this website is basically flawed.

That is all you guys (ferenji do gooders) do day and night. Portray Ethiopia as a beggar nation. You know that is far from the truth. In this momentous day you blog site headline is about malnourished kids. How odd that it would not be about the events that transpired the last few days. The Ethiopian people achieved a major milestone and all you can think of covering is the same old recycled stories designed to completely rape Ethiopia the one nation who humiliated the white colonials at the door step.

Truly your approach sir and your focus on the starvation the day after two very civilized political rallies is at best concerning at worst disgusting.

You can write to your hearts content about how messed up Ethiopia is any other day. However as someone else already observed had there been blood shed and civil strife, you would have covered it cove to cover and put off your story about the malnourishment for another day

So hagos and wunet - let me get this clear. You are saying that the next time I see a baby starving to death in Ethiopia, I should ignore it and focus on something more positive for the good of the country.

Sorry to be harsh - but it seems to me that you are more concerned about Ethiopia's image than Ethiopia's people. By the way, it isn't only "ferenji do-gooders" who are raising these issues. The emergency appeal over Ethiopia's severely malnourished children (170,000 of whom may die within the next 60 days) was a joint appeal by the UN and the Ethiopian government.

I was also puzzled by hagos' comment that:

"In this momentous day you blog site headline is about malnourished kids. How odd that it would not be about the events that transpired the last few days."

If you scroll down the page, you will see that I blogged on the opposition rally before I blogged on malnutrition.

Ironically, when we interviewed people at that rally, a lot of them said they were opposing the government because they were tired of watching their country's children starve.

Andrew,

Please stop trying to be so slick. We are not stupid. We know that presentation & timing plays a big role in how folks absorb print and electronic media. Having to scroll down means it is not in the fore front.

Secondly, we are not obsessed with the image of our country. We are obsessed with your likes who work so hard to ruin the image of our country. Please stop your paternalistic approach Take heed Andrew; we are not so un-savy to recognize your tactics. Maybe you are naive but I seriously doubt it very much.

You know damn well that in the USA the day after a huge political rally, you or any other newspaper would not feature the plight of poor black Mississippians who are living in abject poverty. You would not feature that they are more prone to disease or lacking basic health care. You would not write about the millions of Americans who may not die within 6o days but will die within the near future because of crime, disease, lack of medical care and other reasons. By the way your statement about 170,000 kids dying is another unlikely scenario you use to justify your sinister work.

Lastly, you last statement was short of cheap journalistic hooliganism. The comment about the interview which you quoted "they said they were opposing the government because they were tired of watching their country's children starve.” Are you naive Andrew or do you underestimate the Ethiopian people. Do you doubt for one minute that they are smart enough to say what you want to hear? The opposition is not made up of dummies. They know what gets them attention from the foreign press. They know you guys are having a great time living like kings and you will not conduct a major investigation. They tell you the reason they are voting against the government is because they are "tired of watching there people starve." A lazy journalist takes that statement and runs with it. A scholastic journalist with integrity and self respect will investigates this further to find out what motives are behind the statement.

Andrew, sorry if I am being hard on you but we need to hold accountable those who by design or accident go to our country with preconceived notions and cause our nation more damage.

I hope you will humble yourself and look with in yourself and think about what I said, rather than lash out at me because I am some habesha who needs the Ferenji to think for me.

So Hagos, if you were a journalist, what would you write if confronted with a room full of starving children?

Andrew

You simply do not get it do you Andrew. I never said ignore your story. It is not about shelving the story at all. It is about your inability to focus on a very important and momentous occasion. If you understood anything about Ethiopia, you would know that the hunger issues you would rather focus in on are symptoms of decades of non democracy which created civil wars and as a consequence hunger.

If I were a journalist, I would put on my thinking cap and recognize that in Ethiopia both the Opposition and ruling party have evolved away from the bullet to the ballot. Yes the contestants are intense and even hateful to one another. However, it appears that they are shying away from the old and tired method of raising the gun. As a result peace will no doubt be conducive in reducing hunger and malnourishment. It is this aspect you fail to grasp. Instead you simply want to report that Ethiopians are starving. You want to give the symptoms of civil war such as hunger and poverty undue attention. While it appears you do not want to examine the potential boon for the end of the suffering if democracy was to prevail.

As to your question, your sarcasm no doubt demonstrates your unwillingness to heed advice from those who know the nation and its problems. Of course I do not want you to ignore the hungry kids. I appreciate you bringing attention to there dire circumstance. I strongly urge you however not to try and make your living by tarnishing the nation from which you harvest your income. At the very least spend a little time trying to understand the dynamics of the nation you cover. Just maybe then you will get it.

Hagos

I'm really not being sarcastic. I am just confused.

If you "appreciate [me] bringing attention to their dire circumstance", what exactly are you unhappy about? Is it just that I wrote about the malnutrition story after the rally story? Or should I have combined the two stories?

Andrew

Are you reading what I am writing? If you were you would understand what i am talking about.

What you should do my friend is to give this momentous defining moment in Ethiopia more coverage. Give it an in depth analysis. Give credit to the Ethiopian people for what they have accomplished. Give credited to the opposition for being able to set up a coalition to counter the ruling party. Give the EPRDF credit for being open and giving democracy a chance. If on Sunday the rallies would have been blood, you would have been all over those stories.. However you do not want to cover VERY POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS in AFRICA. You just want to portray Africa in a very dark light. You want to focus on the bad things in Africa. Whenever a positive development happens you and your ilk make sure to cover it up.

Where is the coverage Andrew. Do some work. Produce some real work instead of recycling your western “Ethiopian are hungry mantra.” We know we are hungry and the world knows it as well. No need for you to harp on it to the point that you and your types make Ethiopia synonymous to starvation. A VERY BIG DEVELOPMENT JUST TRANSPIRED IN ETHIOPIA AND YOU WERE NOT EVEN AROUND TO COVER THE EPRDF RALLY. Why? WAS THER SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAT DAY.

Hagos

It seems that Andrew is not in any position to get our main point any time soon. we are not blaming you or your 'colleagues' for reporting our 'suffering' and all that...we are raising a much wider concern here. we are saying that we need a kind of reporting that in simple terms tell for a college kid in britain that there is much more goin on apart from front page 'malnourishment'. yes we got to save lives but as a journalist you should say a little more than just expressing your thought as "it is amazing such things are happening in 2005". we are urging the west(not just you) to see our progress and once in a while give it a column or two in your articles. it is a well known fact that the western media never failed to paint us with every 'evil' picture possible. we might bear it for a while but the end result might not be what the media 'powers' of the west intend to creat............just see our world......the more we marginalize society the more they become unmanageable.....that is costing our world a lot!

Alula, Wunet, and Hagos
I can't believe you guys!! I think you guys are some government agents trying to harras western journalist.
Maybe Any's visit to Gigiga coincided with that of the CUD demonstrations and other political actvities, which are in fact major milestones in Ethiopian history. But, writing about the results of thier recent visits to starving areas is not much less important than other event.
The fact that there are starving children now reinforces the need to work hard and seek changes, changes that are fruitful. As much as the reports of western media are painful, they are based on truth. We should be agnry because our sisters and brothers are dying of starvation rather than at the at ones who report.
And by the way, who do the Ethiopian government and all other media fail to inform us about these things.
So, for a change, let us criticize ourselfs for our problems rather than blaming the Erupopeans and others forever and ever. If we want to project a good image of ourselfs and our country, we will have to stop fighting, work hard and make it happen. Talking will take us nowhere, nor will blaming others. The truth, 95% of our problems are caused by ourselvs.

Henok,

I am not a government agent. Please refrain from attacking your own brother.

Secondly the government never hid the issue as you stated. Please do not make up issues to fit your agenda.

Lastly this is the last response I will make to you regardless of what you may say. If it is your wish to support those who have systematically used your nation to be synonymous with starvation it is your choice.

Are you guys for real? You say you read the posts on this blog, but I wonder. If you did, you would see that the number of positive posts about Ethiopia far, far outnumber the ones that you perceive to be negative and that he obviously lives in Ethiopia by choice - ie he likes it over there. I think it's odd that you are spending so much time and effort attacking someone who is essentially on your side.

So let's get this straight. Because the blogger is white and a foreigner he is automatically part of some grand conspiracy to paint Ethiopia in a bad light?

I agree with you that there is a problem with how African countries are perceived and reported in the West. We never hear about the many good things that go on in our native countries.

But the guy who posted the comment above has got it right.

The Meskel Square blogger is by and large part of the solution and not the problem. You are aiming at the wrong target here guys.

All those who have come to the defense of this journalist have no valid emails and therfore your identity and intentions are very suspect. Most likely Eritreans.

Thank you

I am sorry to disappoint you my friend, but I am indeed on email. You can email me - though I would really rather you didn't - on tobiastoyberg@mail.com

As for being Eritrean...with a name like mine that is highly unlikely

I think everyone here needs to calm down a little bit. All of you - Hagos, Henok, Tobias and Andrew are in many ways right. But you are also in many ways wrong.

Let's start with you Andrew: I am African in ethnicity and am studying egyptology here in the UK. I came to your site via your Axum reports, which are excellent by the way. Really brought it to life in a way that the mainstream media doesn't.

At the same time, don't you think your headline about the 300,000 babies is just a little bit sensationalist? For a casual observer to the site, that's what he would take away with him. I do wonder whether the report should have been put in context a little bit.

Hagos: I don't really understand why you are getting defensive about criticism of the Ethiopian Government.

Surely the fact that your Government operates a society as free to allow 250,000 opposition supporters to congregate is something to be celebrated? I really wish a lot of other Governments in the continent would follow your Government's example in this respect. Top marks to your Prime Minister for not following the example of what is happening in Eritrea north of the border.

Alula: I completely agree. The way Africa is reported leaves something to be desired. It's a bit extreme to link to posts about the 'whites and their media.' Unfortunately this sort of thing completely discredits the core argument you are trying to make.

Now. It's late and I am sure we all have better things to do than to talk about this any further. I know I do!

Hello there,
Now first, I'd like to say, that I really love this website. It portrays Ethiopia very differently than the main-stream media. That's very refreshing!

I can understand people like Hagos and Alula, but what you have to understand is, that Ethiopia HAS huge problems and there ARE thousands of starving people in that country. It's easy to say "focus on our 'milestones'" with a full belly, via internet and (especially) from afar!

If you want to attack someone then attack the main stream media. Andrew is really far better than them.

I am a proud Ethiopian and I love my country. I am proud of her history and her people. I also care about them and I believe that something must be done to help the poor and the starving. Of course, it is true that "Ethiopia" has become synonymous with "hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS, Cholera, Malaria, etc.", because of the western medias biased and one sided broadcasting. But that doesn't help any of the victims of starvation, AIDS, etc. This insight also doesn't make the poor richer. And the western media not writing about it will certainly not fill any hungry bellies. Let's not be like the three apes who don't see, hear or speak. Andrew is doing a good job, by showing different aspects of Ethiopia, NOT ONLY poverty, etc.

feel free to disagree...

What truly disturbs me is the labeling of those with opposing opinion as whoever appears to be the current foe, that currently being the Eritrean Tyrant. Ironically, the current Ethiopian government is the first birth child of the Eritrean tyrant. And the current Ethiopian government has done everything to fulfill the wishes of the Eritrean tyrant at the expense of Ethiopia. That being said, people who label others as an enemy for simply having a dissenting view are neither capable nor worthy of any form of discussion.

Andrew and others, being foreign citizens, have more leverage to report the truth as deemed fit to them. As opposed to an Ethiopian journalist who could simply be arrested or abused for reporting something the government doesn’t like. The accusation of journalists as being part of a western media conspiracy to harm Ethiopians images is simply baseless and unfounded. The western media has nothing to benefit by harming Ethiopia’s image. On the contrary, it was western journalists who exposed the previous mass starvation to the rest of the world. Thank God to those journalists, the lives of millions of our people were spared!
Thus, let us back off and let the journalists do their job!!

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