My Remarks to the Amhara Diaspora Global Conference 2024

“…As cynical and ruthless as it may sound, we live in an era where a besieged people has to compete for its turn of sympathy and tangible action on its behalf. What are you prepared to really do? Stop being polite and get mad. Get rude. Get creative and get in their faces.”

Here is the script for my remarks to the Amhara Diaspora Global Conference 2024:

Ethiopians routinely call me their brother, and they’re sincere when they use the word, and I always feel a nice lift over that because I realize that they’re granting me a unique courtesy, they’ve bestowed on me both a privilege and an obligation. The implied obligation is that I don’t act like the usual white ferenji asshole and I be honest with them. So, to that end:

Sorry, but we’re all failing. Let me make that crystal clear: We are all failing.

I’m not blaming individuals, I’m not picking on specific people, I’m including myself in this accusation. Sorry, but to use the kids’ parlance: we suck. We suck.

My karate sensei used to say, “Don’t punch your dentist. Your dentist tells you got bad teeth—he’s doing you a service.”

Do I have your attention now? I hope so. I hope somebody’s recording this, because I want to take the clip of what I’m saying and spread it far and wide.

People are getting murdered in drone attacks. People are losing their homes and businesses. Journalists are getting thrown into jail. Churches are getting targeted and vandalized. We know about it. You know who doesn’t know? Everybody else!

The world is watching what Israel is doing to Palestine, the genocide that’s taking place there, and what it’s doing now to Lebanon. And even though you’re getting outrageously biased coverage from the mainstream media, you do have antidotes for that with The Intercept, with Zeteo and Media Matters, and other sites. They’re talking about it!

You know who they’re not talking about? Amhara genocide. Reuters ran a long feature Friday recycling lies about Tigray famine and finding a way to resurrect this zombie corpse of complete bullshit, and they could do it because why not? There’s no pressure on them. There’s no pressure on other media! You have abdicated the field.

I have been jumping up and down and screaming my lungs out for what is now four years running, and no one learns anything. I told all of you: a protest march is not a story. A demonstration outside the White House is not a story. Tagging the UN or Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International is worse than useless. But you all keep doing it. Even though there’s a stack of examples anyone can dig up that all three of these corrupt organizations backed the TPLF narrative. You’re tagging Joseph Borrell? The guy who said Europe is a garden, and the rest of the world is a jungle? That’s who you think will change their mind with your tweet?

And yet you sit there and keep writing to them, thinking it’s a whole new day, the world started this morning, they’ll listen to you now. No, they won’t! I told you all this years ago. Even Martin Plaut told people how the media works, how to get reporters’ interest, and guess what, the TPLF listened, which is why they get coverage and you don’t.

I’m sorry, but as cynical and ruthless as it may sound, we live in an era where a besieged people has to compete for its turn of sympathy and tangible action on its behalf. What are you prepared to really do? Write a stern editorial? Write another manifesto that no one will read? Who cares?

You know what a major story was for The Guardian Friday? Five hundred Jews and others sympathetic to Palestine shut down the New York Stock Exchange. They shut down the New York Stock Exchange! Doesn’t matter whether you agree with their views, they got attention for it. They got coverage.

I happen to know that the main diaspora organizations are losing the faith of the under-forty and under-thirty crowd. I know this because younger Habesha tell me. They feel despair. Too much talking, not enough action. And action is not another damn letter or tweet or Sunday afternoon demo.

Listen, I recognize that nobody wants to chain themselves to a building or get arrested, certainly not get beaten up on a university campus by the police. But nobody is going to hand you freedom. You have to take it. So, what are you prepared to do? How many more of your brothers and sisters are you going to let die because you wanted to stay polite?

The battlefield isn’t just over there, it’s here. It’s in the States, it’s in the capitals of Europe. The Palestinians know that. Their allies know that. It’s why they’re vandalizing banks and hitting the New York Stock Exchange. This is what John Lewis called “good trouble.” Because sometimes it’s worth it to just piss people off and make yourself heard.

What’s been done in the past year? What tangibly has been accomplished? A lot of noise and hot air, criticizing our own ranks, which I’ve been guilty of as well, taking shots at different Fano leaders, trying to tell them each how to run a war when we’re nowhere near that danger. Stupid bickering among different organizations over agenda.

This is my copy of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. If you haven’t read it, go out and get yourself a copy. Because the author details how for years, the different Palestinian groups couldn’t get past their political nonsense and their rivalries and their complete incompetence at communications and media—they couldn’t get their shit together—to save their people. And yes, they still have plenty of issues, but Palestine is in the news every day now. Before, Israel would have just slaughtered people with no one paying attention.

I appreciate that the struggle has to be waged on multiple fronts. Fano is doing its job. There are some dedicated individuals trying to go through quiet diplomacy in Washington, and I respect that. But as long as they can keep you talking only behind closed doors, there is no pressure on these officials and diplomats in the West to change their tune.

You have two U.S. politicians taking part—sort of—in this event. What have they promised you? Are they going to stay in the fight even if they’re not elected? And I’ve been informed that Larry Hogan will be no-show today and instead has sent members of his team.

I’m sorry, this is my own personal opinion, but I think you just got a neon billboard over how much Mr. Hogan actually cares about you as a constituency. If he can’t even give you his time today, what does that say about how important he thinks you are?

I’m hearing chatter that many are still playing these stupid games, “Oh, it should only be us who represents Amhara and speaks to the media.” If that is true, I call bullshit. Not only will it not work because it’s logistically impractical, but because the media, when confronted with only one authority, quickly fills the vacuum when you’re not available and finds their own talking heads, which I have to tell you, will not necessarily convey your talking points. You need multiple spokespersons. You need to approach the media tactically and strategically instead of sending out an idiotic release and waiting by the phone like a 1950s white girl in high school waiting for a date to the prom.

Yes, I am your brother, not in blood but in spirit and resolve, in commitment, and I am begging you: Please wake up! Learn how to use media properly. I can help you with that, but it would be nice for a change if those listening actually followed my advice and tried what I’m recommending for once. And if you don’t like my wonderful mix of cheese grater tact and nasty insight, I can direct you to maybe one or two other folks, but right now, you are failing. We are failing.  

So, stop being polite and get mad. Get rude. Get creative and get in their faces. Because everyone knows what a Palestinian is. What is an Amhara to them?

What will you do differently? What are you prepared to do to make them pay attention?