📝🇷🇺✈️ On the topic of relocating Westerners to Russia | CIG #commentary
🔷️ We believe that most folks in the west have either decided upon achieving total victory or die at their post.
🔷️ Politics are temporary, it is readily becoming more likely to expect European-descended Peoples to solve their problems. Especially for those who left Europe centuries ago to become conquerors, pirates, pioneers, mercenaries, explorers, adventurers, and so forth. Settling in new lands that many call home now. With no intention of returning to European countries. Not when there are endless spoils and opportunities in the world across the seas.
🔷️ There is a great abundance of usable land in North America, Africa, South America and even terraforming Australia should be a goal. Each of these continents holds historic European-descended populations. To pack up, leave and contribute to the over-crowding of increasingly densely populated European countries would just kill birthrates and strain resources among an increasingly energy demanding world.
🔷️ To quote the literary figure Oswald Spengler, "We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way. Our duty is to hold on to the lost position, without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who, during the eruption of Vesuvius, died at his post because they forgot to relieve him. That is greatness. That is what it means to be a thoroughbred. The honorable end is the one thing that can not be taken from a man."
🇮🇱🇺🇸🇮🇷On the Iran-Israel War: /CIG/ #commentary
Main takeaway is that the Iranian response was timely, instead of the 24-48 hour wait last time. Pretty decent day one for Iran. Expected performance by the US et al.
Global shipping might be the main casualty here. Unknown what will happen to oil & gas. The main damage caused by Iran et al in recent years was by shutting down the Suez. The US also appears to be shifting towards lower-cost kamikaze drones, taking a page out of Iran's book.
Iran focused on radars and anything which aids interceptions. This is better than hitting symbolic buildings like last time. They're taking taking big hits and their leadership may or may not be dead, but they prepared for decentralized military coordination. So it's like a unit by unit basis of commanders making self authorized decisions.
Main US military impact is that this will functionally use up the remainder of munitions that would have been used on China. Also the US is not invading Iran shock & awe style. It took all the king's horses and airlift to move a couple AA batteries. US sealift is pretty much extinct these days as well.
This might be the final big war for all the fancy and expensive toys wielded by the US. Iran successfully implemented their eyes & fist strategy of blinding/evading missiles without spamming anything.
@CIG_telegram
#Commentary: Lights for Few, Darkness for Many: #Ethiopia’s mirage of ‘prosperity’
In this commentary, Sidoc Haytu criticizes the Ethiopian government’s “Prosperity” agenda, arguing that while billions are spent on palaces and prestige projects, millions still face hunger, displacement, and lack of basic services. He writes, “This is the systematic extraction of national wealth for the glorification of a comprador bourgeoisie…”
IMF-style reforms have separated GDP growth from real human development, while poverty has risen to 43%, validating “the development they promised has proven to be a brief interlude between crises.”
He emphasizes that “the empty lights of Ethiopia… illuminate nothing but the hollowness of the regime’s promises" and that development must be carried out “with the people, by the people, for the people.”
https://addisstandard.com/?p=56453
#Commentary: A Seat Without a Voice: #Ethiopia’s 2026 election and the illusion of choice
In this commentary, Wakjira Tesfaye argues that the 2021 election “was not an aberration… but a proof of concept for a mode of governance in which the formal machinery of electoral democracy is preserved while the substantive conditions that give elections their democratic content are removed,” adding that the upcoming 2026 vote represents “the maturation of this model.”
He contends that increasingly restrictive conditions have eliminated genuine political competition through legal, institutional, and security constraints. Wakjira emphasizes, “The problem is not procedural. It is constitutional and structural.”
Without the essential freedoms required for “genuine” elections, he concludes, the process will produce “an authoritarian consolidation that is procedurally impeccable but substantively empty of democratic content.”
https://addisstandard.com/?p=56292
#Commentary: The Seductions of Success: How a reform mandate curated an autocratic turn in #Ethiopia
The "Bathsheba Syndrome" explains how successful leaders often engineer their own undoing. Named after King David, it suggests that failure often stems not from external pressures but from the psychological consequences of early triumphs. In this commentary, Ezekiel Gebissa argues that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s trajectory “exemplifies this pattern with unusual clarity.”
Though initially met with global acclaim and a Nobel Peace Prize, the author contends that this success created a “moral halo that discouraged self-examination and accountability.”
He notes, "Early success, unchecked narrative power, and institutional erosion converge to produce moral collapse.”
https://addisstandard.com/?p=56064
#Commentary: National Security and National Interest in #Ethiopia: A performance-based assessment
This commentary examines a recent social media post by Getachew Reda, who contends that Jawar Mohammed conflates opposition to the Prime Minister with serious analysis of national interest. The author frames this exchange as symptomatic of a deeper structural crisis: in Ethiopia, "national security is treated as a political posture and strategic vocabulary," rather than "measurable protection of the state and the people."
The article emphasizes that "national security must be defined carefully and then tested through outcomes." When measured against these standards, the piece contends, Ethiopia faces significant gaps.
The author notes, "National security is not a slogan," underscoring that it must be judged by reduced conflict, the protection of civilians, and the preservation of strategic autonomy.
https://addisstandard.com/?p=55207
#Commentary: Revisiting #Ethiopia’s Nation-State-Building Processes: Challenges, lost opportunities
In this article, adapted from a 2019 National Consensus Dialogue concept note, Merera Gudina argues that Ethiopia’s current political crises are deeply rooted in unresolved tensions from the 19th-century state formation. While Ethiopia's ancient history is often invoked, he focuses on Emperor Menelik II’s “conquest-driven expansion,” which tripled the size of the empire but “entrenched a brutal political economy.”
According to the author, the persistence of historical wounds can be traced to three conflicting narratives: that Menelik reunified a fragmented nation, that he unified distinct peoples, or that his campaigns amounted to colonial conquest.
Merera states, “These perspectives, combined with unchecked clashes of dreams for power, are attitudes that complicate our national consensus efforts.”
https://addisstandard.com/?p=55169
The Prime Minister Who Taught How To Burn Human Alive (EF). Take a listen.
https://borkena.com/2026/04/02/ethiopia-the-prime-minister-who-taught-how-to-burn-human-alive-ef/#Ethiopia#AbiyAhmed#commentary
Abiy’s Ethiopia: An Intense Political Commentary. Read.
https://borkena.com/2026/04/02/abiys-ethiopia-an-intense-political-commentary/#Ethiopia#News#AbiyAhmed#Commentary
#Commentary: #Axum at a Crossroads: Religious coexistence, quest for equal rights in #Ethiopia’s ancient city
Axum holds a rare global status as a sanctuary for two great faiths. As Mohammedawel Hagos notes, the city “possesses the unique distinction of being at once the cradle of both Christianity and Islam in Ethiopia.” Yet, he contends that this legacy of hospitality has curdled into exclusion. Today, Axum’s Muslims are “denied a mosque, denied a cemetery, and denied the right for their daughters to wear the hijab to school.”
Mohammedawel argues that state policies and distorted historical narratives have superseded Ethiopia’s constitutional religious freedoms.
To restore justice, the author proposes a “Two-Zone Solution" to ensure constitutional rights for all while preserving the sanctity of religious sites.
https://addisstandard.com/?p=56637
#Commentary: Politics of Performance: #Ethiopia’s education crisis, PM Abiy’s ‘intellectual’ puzzle
In this commentary, Seife Tadelle analyzes Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s lecture delivered on 02 January 2026 to mark the 75th anniversary of Addis Ababa University (#AAU). While acknowledging its “ambitious scope and engaging tone,” he argues that “Who Is an Intellectual?” exposed “a notable methodological limitation.”
Seife notes, “Over the hour-long presentation, no sources, theoretical frameworks, or empirical references were cited,” a gap that weakens its academic credibility, “particularly within a university setting where scholarly rigor is foundational.”
More troubling, the author contends, was the marginalization of Ethiopia’s own intellectual heritage. “The omission of figures such as Zera Yacob, Gebrehiwot Baykedagn, Saint Yared, and Kebede Mikael risks erasing historical continuity,” thereby weakening the cumulative nature of scholarship.
https://addisstandard.com/?p=54522
#Commentary: Ballots and Battlefields: #Ethiopia's 2026 election under shadows of domestic turmoil, maritime ambitions
In this commentary, Tilahun Adamu Zewudie argues that Ethiopia’s upcoming election is unfolding amid severe instability and ongoing armed conflicts in #Amhara, #Oromia, and #Tigray, where humanitarian crises and mass displacement make voting nearly impossible.
While the government retains control over some urban centers—projecting “an image of legitimacy”—opposition participation remains limited. Although the incumbent is “widely expected” to win, Tilahun contends that “the mandate is likely to be contested.”
He adds that “the election carries strategic significance for Ethiopia’s geopolitical ambitions, including access to the sea,” but warns that these goals depend on restoring internal stability, strengthening national unity, and pursuing a coherent strategy.
https://addisstandard.com/?p=55830