Below: A letter/email I sent to a group that I have met with over several years.
Dear Friends.
First, A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Second, as a long-time participant in these forums and meetings, I have an obligation to relay to you any information that I feel pertains to the discussions, and the principles, of this group.
One of these principles is the conservation of Western society, civilization, and culture, to which I have contributed in my small capacity.
I contribute to these principles with my own particular background, where I communicate important events and developments in Ethiopia that I feel affect these principles. I call Ethiopia the Jerusalem on the Horn of Africa, a unique and separate country, whose history was written once the third century emperors decided to follow God. There are major, global, events that Ethiopia has become involved in, which test the world. One such, recent one, is the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, which I believe precipitated the Second World War.
This most recent involves an Ethiopia that has come out of decades of Communist and Socialist rule and is opening up. I believe this is another such, significant, moment in Ethiopian history.
Here is an article I wrote about Jessica Beshir's film Faya Dayi, that has appeared in theaters globally, funded by European, Canadian, American, and Middle Eastern agencies and institutions, and which is winning prizes across the world, notably in the US and Europe.
The significance of this film, I believe, is that it comes at a moment when Ethiopia is beginning to look outwards, after decades of Communist and post-Communist/Socialist rule, in order to rebuild and restructure the country.
PM Abiy Ahmed Ali, with his Muslim Oromo (from southern Ethiopia) father, and Amhara Orthodox Christian mother, and who married an Orthodox Christian woman, is at the helm. He, I believe, understands acutely the Orthodox Christian, Amhara, civilization, and is fashioning his government based on these principles and this heritage. His election, and re-election, received no mention in Liberal American and Western media. Other more conservative outlets I believe were unable to receive factual information to make their "news," and also they are not interested in this far-away land.
Later, it became clear to me that generally, none want a strong Horn of Africa, which Abiy's Ethiopia would lead. I believe [edited: a certain American influence is] behind this. Let this region remain embroiled in conflict, the better to control it.
Beshir's film, as the devil always funnels his way into cracks and crevasses, came just at this time. And, I believe as God gave me the tools to understand it!
It took me almost a year to write this article. I did not like it. I did not like its "spell binding" filmic strategy. I do not like Beshier. As a background, I knew Beshir's family when I was doing my doctoral research in Mexico. I never met her, and at a chance to meet, she deliberately avoided me. Was it my Amhara/Christian name? Beshir's father is Oromo, and her mother, Mexican.
A number of Ethiopian media outlets have published my article. The Council of European Canadians will present my ideas once they have fine-tuned their new website. And the article has reached places and people I didn't expect it to reach. I has become "viral," albeit in a small capacity.
The importance of this film, and Beshir, is that Beshir cleverly maneuvers Western funding agencies and film institutions to deliver her message, which is not about khat, but about secession of this Oromo region from Ethiopia. She is indirectly supporting regional unrest in the Oromo areas (although she is cleverly direct in some cases), in order to dismantle PM Abiy's government, and to dismantle Ethiopian unity. She is participating in conflict in the region.
The good news is, the astute and former military man PM Abiy understood the causes of this unrest much earlier on as secession ambitions, removed these nefarious forces through a few brief weeks of battle these past few months, and is back on track at the helm continuing with his original mission.
After all is said and done, I believe this is a significant moment in Ethiopia's history, another one of those moments. Ethiopia needs all the friends she can get. A strong Ethiopia does mean a strong world! I hope I have contributed to this in the article that I have written, putting the light on disruptive, and evil, forces. And it has been an honor!
Here is the article, which I have posted on my website:
All the best,
Kidist Paulos Asrat