The crass ignorant racist comments that you're seeing posted on Ethiopia-related Internet sites are not an exclusively internet or diaspora affair.

The ethnic insults and the racist views behind them are sadly shared and often driven by Ethiopians in Ethiopia. Of course they are not openly stated and discussed in Ethiopia or anywhere else, especially not with foreigners. Just like racist views in most of the world, such views are kept hush hush and only shared with like-minded folks down the local bars. The anonymity of the Internet allows the views to also be broadcast over the Internet.

The reason you're not seeing racist comments being posted online from Ethiopians in Ethiopia is simply because the people who do resort to ethnic insults often do not have the resources (education or money) to access the Internet. Most of the Ethiopians from Ethiopia who have extensive Internet access tend to be smart, successful and progressive. In the US/Europe, anyone and everyone has Internet access ...

All In My Humble Opinon, of course ;-)

By the way, please remember the racist views are only held by a small MINORITY, and their views are not seriously considered by most so they don't deserve the attention they're getting.

Yonas is right. What point are we making by singling out the diaspora? Are we saying that the diaspora been infected by some intolerance parasite upon arrival in the West?! Obviously not. What we are seeing in the diaspora is a reflection of Ethiopian culture but without some of the constraints that harness it in Ethiopia.

Political and social discourse in Ethiopia have, for centuries, been lacking in certain basic values. Empathy and giving others the benefit of the doubt are rare. Parochialism, survival of the fittest, back-biting, suspicion, envy are the norm. This is the root cause of problems in Ethiopia, and it is these behaviours that now we see among the diaspora.

So scapegoating the diaspora and considering it as significantly different and special will not help us address these fundamental problems of social development in Ethiopia.

Again to support Yonas, ethnic hatred is not the the main problem - it is but a manifestation of what I explained above. Social interaction within the same ethnic group have is nearly as bad as that between different ethnic groups.

Andrew, why are you rehashing that garbage you posted on the '13 months of sunshine' slogan? let it go man, or go to sunny Nazret if you don't like the rain in Addis. this is really pathetic!

Well, aren’t you a pleasant one, Mr. 'not again'! Does the man have a right to talk about the rain in Addis? Ahha, I think so. Why get so worked up about such benign subjects?! Ever heard of "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!"…I’m sure there’s an Ethiopian version of that somewhere.

From your college (school) years, you probably still rembember those "Restroom(Toilet) graffiti", written in the most lurid
lavatory language of the time.

Surely, the human anatomists were not the only visitors of those toilet cubicles. The Xenophobe, the homophobe and the authors of "pretty vitriolic and divisive stuff" and et al also visited.

Did you think those people would treat your blog site with reverence than say, a toilet door? Just the thrill of anonymity make people indulge in an abandoned splurge of the written type(you don't even have to date the school janitor to figure this one out on your own)

Of course, you didn't think those toilet laureates made millions selling their ideas.

Please correct me if I am wrong but there seems not only you but others that the assumption that internet users and all the stuff put on the net are from the diaspora. though most could be assumed from the diasppra, lets not forget there are quite few from home as well,

The other point that irritates the heck out of me is the fact that the diaspora is labled as "humerguer this" "humberger that". and the diaspora has no real assesment of the reality in ethiopia. I beg to differ on that, the diaspora didnt choose to flee ethiopia by choise, well those at least are interested in politics. Its either via political presecution, or just because they are educated and would challenge the uneducated camp of the government. And the diapora has a well and better understanding of the real situation in ethiopia,

Mrs, Brasiel, is an old women who we shouldnt give too much attention too. If she still has a comprehending mind and not un functioning one, and just a sympolic person inside addis US embasy, she would recall the greatest civil right advocate, MLK, who happned to be born from the same city she is from. After killing 40 plus innocent victims, she would come out of he senses and denounce the evil action of the government but again that is if she had a functioning human brain.

She talks about the uncompromising nature of EThiopians.....huh....who is she saying that. Does she have any idea that her country has so much shitt going on while there are two different group of people (white and black) while ethiopia is a country where more than 50 entirly different ethenic groups living in harmony for the time she and her coutry doesnt even rememeber.
you know what....she aint worth talking about,

But remember wheather anyone likes it or not, the DIASPORA will be the driving force in ethiopian poliics or any thing to do with ethiopia, and believe it its going to be for good. Dictators cant cheat the naieve farmers any more, they have tinsae radio, the city folks cant be fooled by fourth grade idiot in the governemnt in this time of interent tech.....

Mr havens,
You are skating on thin ice. The pseudo intellectuals are saying that the diaspora exported with them the diseases that are characteristics of Ethiopia.They are characterizing Ethiopia as a land of misleading slogans, Parochialism, survival of the fittest, back-biting, suspicion, envy.
Your self righteous indignation is allowing marginally educated TPLF cadres to post the most vile of things about the most sacred of countries. You are helping them justify the brutal killings torture kidnapping of which you captured with own camera. While their leader blames the EU, they blame the diaspora and you my friend are playing host to this shinanigan.
Remember Regimes fall , thin ice breaks.

"marginally educated" why, because they are from the north? That's exactly the point that people like Stanley (Ethiopian?) tend to be every tribal and racist. I happen to know very well educated people within or sympathetic to TPLF. If you’re going to have an enemy, at least know him well. Yeah, regimes may fall but you’re not going to take them down from Los Angeles/DC or from the Addis Sheraton.

Why do people always revert the subject to the same thing? Don’t you get bored

Andrew:

I just wanted to respond to your statements

"The most vitriolic and divisive stuff comes from people, I am guessing expat Ethiopians, based in the United States of America.

The people who like to throw ethnic insults around, calling someone else an Amhara 'this' or a Tigrayan 'that', are more often than not typing their abuse into a PC in Washington DC. It is a pattern that you see amplified on other more newsy Ethiopian websites hosted in the US".

When you get a chance, I suggest that you ask some of your Ethiopian friends to kindly show you their identity cards required by-yes-the TIGRAY Peoples Liberation Front dominated government.
Specifically, ask them to show you the section that asks every Ethiopian to identify his or her ethnicity. There have been very few societies in the world that are required by their governments to put their ethnicity or religion or race on their ID cards. To name some-Rwanda, Israel, South African, the former soviet union, nazi Germany....

My point is that it is the present Ethiopian government that has implemented some of the "most vitriolic and divisive stuff" that has exacerbated the ethnic divide among Ethiopians.

I do not defend some of the extreme hateful anti-Tigray, opinions that are expressed on the intranet and by members of the diaspora. However, what you might not realize is that there are extremists in the Ethiopian government that use ethnic hatemongering and scare mongering in order to stay in power.

As a non-habesha, I am sure it is difficult for to you to understand some of subtleties of the ethnic dynamics among Ethiopians. Hence, you think that it is the Ethiopians in the diaspora that are "vitriolic and divisive" You might not believe this but most Ethiopians in the Diaspora are actually very multiethnic. Most of us are from Addis-that real melting pot of Ethiopia various tribes-and truly see ourselves first as Ethiopians, and only second by our ethnicity. We virulently oppose the Marxist ethnocratic cadres of the TPLF because, well, their politics is vitriolic and divisive.

On a more positive note, believe it or not, a vast majority of us do not hate Tigreans, or Amharas or Oromos. Ethiopians have intermarried, have had each others children,live in multiethnic neighborhoods, go to multiethnic schools, churches, mosques.... sing each other's songs. You know that-you live in AA.

The problem the Diaspora has is with the cadres of the TPLF, OLF, OPDO, and every silly ethnic based organization out there.

As for the US ambassadar and her and her speech...oy!.

I read the speech of the departing US Ambassador to Ethiopia, Ms. Brasiel. I fully agree with the idea that ethnic hatred should be avoided. But blaming propagating ethnic hatred on the diaspora or opposition politicians as Ms. Brasiel implicitly attempted to do is completely wrong and farce. After all Ms. Brazil while in her tenure in Ethiopia did not say any thing about human right abuses by the regime in power. I did not expect Ms. Brazil to make a farewell speech, which was in support of the incumbent regime and accusing the opposition for the wrongs, which they did not commit. Coming back to ethnic hatred, you (Mr Havens) also seem to agree with the idea of blaming the diaspora for politics of hate. The overall ideology of the regime is based on ethnic hatred and division. Please visit the opinion and analysis section of the EPRDF's WALTAINFO.COM and you can find it for your self. Sadly in Ethiopia demonising certain ethnic groups such as the Amhara is taken as a scientific discourse but when similar types of ethnic admonitions are meted on other ethnic groups, particularly the Tigreans it is racism, interhamwe and others. Do you know that the regime in a document it published for its members in the wake of the election in June 2005 calls the Amhara as chauvinists, the Oromo as narrow nationalists and the Gurage who have benefited from bogus "air to air" business joining the Amhara as chauvinists. This is a scientific ethnic bigotry officially sanctioned by people whom Ms. Brasiel sparred no words to credit them as democratic reformers.

To tackle this problem one needs to go deeper and consider the role of various actors. Blaming this problem on people who reside abroad and use Internet is pointless. How many Ethiopians do you think have access to the Internet. That is miniscule. Both the ruling party and the opposition and civil societies should speak out against the politics of hate.

Mr. Heavens,
I do not wish to believe that you mean harm to Ethiopia or Ethiopians. But I think your naivte' and the extent of your knowledge about the history and dynamics of Ethiopia/ Ethiopians or the lack there-of was clearly shown in your comments. Ms Brazil is a politician. Even though I was in disagreement with her sentiment, I didnt expect less from her. But I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt because you really want to be objective about the situation.
Mr heavens I think you need to thoroughly study Ethiopian history to really understand the dynamics among the different people. Ethnic differences were adapted by government for the first time fourteen years ago. Therefore the history of Ethiopian Ethnic politics as opposed to the history of Ethiopias peoples is not old or dogmatic. It is easy for the researcher to clearly and objectively scrutinize and understand it. I am confident that with a better understanding you will take a better observation and judgement than lumping the diaspora together as one hate machine entity.

I totally agree with afar. But in order to understand us(Ethiopians), studying our history may not be sufficient. One has to be us in order to feel what we feel.

The ambassdor's statement assumes Ethiopian people are like sheep and would be influenced by some "loud minority". Is she mad? Try to pull a stint like that and the Ethiopian people will see through you. Do not underestimate the people. As a diplomat and politician she might view the people as influencable by rehtoric and easy logic. That has not been my experience. People will smile at you and shake their heads while inside they are saying this mad American... just go home. No thanks I will form my own bias, hatred, love,...

People have been forging their relationship for centuries and generations. You just don't come along change everything just because you are "loud" (on top of this loud on the internet...ha!). Don't be big headed, expats and foreigners... we ain't worth a dime unless ofcourse we bring a dime with us.

please give me crrent information abou my country

Why are we so interested to talk about the internet politics while there is almost no internet connection in Ethiopia?...Let's talk about the amount of money telecom is sucking from each and every internet user, for the inefficient internet service ..we are living in a country where internet service is almost luxury while it's basic in most of the countries even Somalia (a country with no government)...we are livening in a country (75 million)that has only one government owned and inefficient internet service provider Telecom...forget about the so called broadband leased line internet connection, but we are paying double costs for the dialup connection (Internet bill, telephone bill + VAT) for a single service multi costs.
While this service can be provided by small private companies at a chip price....

So let's not debate for the sack of Brasiel’s comment...let's talk about our problems... and possible solutions...
Kibrom