CIVICUS – A Voice for the Voiceless and Tyrannized Oromos, Afars, Ogadenis and Sidamas

As in two previous articles (Worldwide Indignation Against the Inhuman Abyssinian Tyranny (Fake ‘Ethiopia’) – Devastating Critique of the Disgraceful Law on Charities, Passed in Fake ‘Ethiopia’) I republished reports, letters and press releases issued by the pioneering NGO CIVICUS, in this article I republish an address issued a few days ago by Ingrid Srinath, CIVICUS Secretary General, with focus on CIVICUS plans and projects, reflections and actions for the new year 2009.

On this occasion, I urge every Oromo, Afar, Sidama, Ogadeni, Kambaata, Kaffa, Shekacho, Hadiya, Gedeo, Anuak, Nuer, Shinasha, Gumuz, Berta, and Wolayita individual and/or organization to get in contact with CIVICUS and describe as analytically as possible the extremely inhuman practices of the criminal Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinians that have been perpetrated against them as persons and as nations. CIVICUS can help greatly in making known to the entire world the unmatched plight they have lived in during all their lives, due to the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian state terrorism. This propagation of hidden realities will greatly contribute to the struggle of demolishing the evil, colonial dictatorship of the ‘Ethiopianist’ elites which is the worst serial multi-Genocide in the History of the Mankind.

A New Year: Time for Reflection and Action
By Ingrid Srinath, CIVICUS Secretary General

http://www.civicus.org/component/content/872?task=view
Release Date: 19 December 2008 = e-CIVICUS 420

Dear friends and colleagues,

The line between blind optimism and idealism is quite often a thin one. Susan Neiman says that "Optimists refuse to acknowledge reality. Idealists remind us that it isn't fixed". In that distinction one may, perhaps, discern some glimpse of a silver lining to 2008.

When the CIVICUS community met at the World Assembly in June this year, the confluence of crises confronting humanity- food, energy, climate - on top of the ones we're all too familiar with - extreme poverty, chronic hunger, gender disparities, the systemic abuse of human rights, threats to civil society itself and the exclusion of the voices of the marginalised in governance at every level - seemed to already be reaching a global tipping point.

Events since then have dwarfed even these gargantuan challenges, and, from Manhattan to Mumbai, conclusively demonstrated that when those affected are well-heeled enough, resources can be mobilized, immediate action can be catalyzed and political consensus can be manufactured on an unprecedented scale.

Across civil society we have gasped in shock and awe at the trillions demanded, and instantly delivered, to bail out the financial sector when minuscule fractions of those trillions have been impossible to find for debt relief, aid commitments, poverty alleviation, AIDS programs or climate justice. Politicians and bureaucrats of every hue have jostled to be seen to respond decisively and concertedly when the prescriptions touted have no guarantees of achieving the desired results. Media bandwidth has been utterly consumed with reportage and analysis of the issue. All of which have been conspicuously absent in 2008 when the Millennium Development Goals, the Paris Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus, the UN Declaration on Human Rights and climate agreements have been reviewed. In each of those cases we have had to find cold comfort in the fact that, while progress has been negligible, things could be a lot worse.

We are told that the difference is 'systemic impact'. The ability to visit upon large numbers of those who matter, the consequences of ones actions. In that phrase lie both, the severest critique of civil society, and the insight that could yet lead to our redemption.

As we begin the last year of this decade, one a friend aptly named the 'oh-ohs' the challenge for global civil society and CIVICUS in particular, is to reconfigure our strategies to achieve systemic impact. To ensure that the voices we seek to amplify resound in a manner that makes them impossible to shut out. To combine forces across countries, issues and sectors in ways that are impossible to ignore. To focus our energies and resources on key messages that cut across barriers of nationality, class, caste, gender, race and ideology so that we achieve critical mass where it counts most.

We will have manifold opportunities to coalesce and converge. In Belem, at the World Social Forum, in Copenhagen on climate and at many other venues throughout the year- including the CIVICUS World Assembly in Montreal currently planned for 28-31 August 2009. The challenge we now face is to our very relevance. Can we find in ourselves the humility, patience and mutual respect to collaborate on the scale necessary to respond as one? To build solidarity in seeking structural solutions to the root causes of the many crises - respect for human rights, genuine democratic governance and the rights of citizens everywhere to exist, express and engage?

I cannot let the year end without expressing my thanks for all the support you have extended to CIVICUS and to me personally. As a relatively small team, working with very limited resources, across a wide range of demands, CIVICUS cannot survive or function without the goodwill and support of our members and partners. To each of you, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude. In 2009, as CIVICUS operationalises its new strategic directions, we hope we can count on your continued and growing support. We will strive to find new and better ways to reach out to you, to amplify your voices, to protect the rights of civil society actors, to strengthen our collective capacity to influence the policies and practices of governments, international institutions and the private sector, to build a global community of empowered citizens and to more effectively build bridges across the divides that pose the greatest obstacles to achieving a just world.

With solidarity and best wishes for 2009,

Ingrid Srinath

For comments and suggestions, please e-mail at editor@civicus.org .

For previous articles from the Secretary General, see details below:

- Human rights: an immature child who is 60 years old!
- CIVICUS at the Civil Society Forum in Doha
- Creating the Future or Defending the Past?
- Mind the Gap: Matching rhetoric with reality
- Can the change we need become change we can believe in?
- Breaking records and barriers: Stand Up
- Civil Society Must Stand Up. Together and Now!
- Civil society at the heart of global democracy hypocrisy
- Financial meltdown or tipping point?
- A study in contrast: Reporting from the UN High Level Event on the MDGs
- Civil Society Challenges: 60 years on
- Human rights education at the UN DPI NGO conference in paris
- Citizens must be at the centre of effective aid
- Disabling by Design? - The Ethiopian Charities and Societies Proclamation
- China: Double double talk
- View from civil society: Key political challenges for social justice in Africa
- What now, Mr. Lamy?
- "If CIVICUS didn't exist, we'd have to invent it"
- Beyond G-8: At the table? On the table? Whose table?
- Beyond G-8: Civil society challenges
- Recalling the Day of the African child
- CIVICUS 2008 World Assembly, a unique opportunity to effect real change
- CIVICUS new Secretary General appointed