Ethiopia & Egypt: It's The Water, stupid! - Part II

The article posted below was written by G. E. Gorfu

It is not only the policy of Khediv Ismael from a hundred years ago, as sated in Part I, but also of Anwar Sadat who in 1978 warned: ‘Egypt would go to war if Ethiopia made a move to build a dam on Lake Tana or any irrigation projects that would affect Egypt’s agricultural and settlement programs.’ (1) He was stating that ancient, aggressive, and ever ongoing policy of belligerence towards any progress and development of Ethiopia.
Sadat was not making an empty threat. Soon after signing the Camp David Accord with Israel in 1977, his first order of duty was to purchase long range missiles from the US. Why did Egypt need long range missile if Israel, just across the Sinai, was his arch enemy? The enemy Sadat needed the long range missiles for however was not Israel, but Ethiopia. He must have acquired those weapons in his arsenal when he made the threat.
In 1987 Ethiopia applied for a loan from African development Bank to build a dam for water conservation and to increase its water storage facilities due to repeated drought and famine. But in 1990 Egypt blocked the loan (2) and killed the project. Ethiopia has never harmed Egypt, nor has the intention to do so, but Egypt’s policy always harms Ethiopia.
In September 2007, BBC reported Mubarak’s announcement of plans to build several nuclear plants: “…making it clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy an integral part of Egypt's national security system…”(3) Wow! Nuclear plants with reasons of ‘strategic national security’? What could that mean?
What is Mubarak talking about? We have no doubt the strategic national security means not secure electric power, but ‘secure source of water’. It is interesting to note that no one raised an eyebrow when Egypt announced its plan to build the nuclear power plants, but when a poor country like Ethiopia builds hydroelectric dams, they cry of ‘environmental concerns’ and start letter writing campaigns to block the loans! Is that a double standard?
For the first time in centuries Ethiopia is attempting to rise from the dust and take control of its waters and is building dams. For the first time we see some signs of progress and development however meager these may appear to be. And already our enemy seems scared to death that we will dry up the Nile and turn Egypt into a desert. That is baseless. But Egypt is not only relying on nuclear power, but has enlisted our educated elites to do its dirty work, and push HR bills through the US Congress. What a shame!
Mubarak, who took power after Sadat’s assassination in 1981, has ruled Egypt with an iron fist, arresting some, and banishing other political opponents into exile. He has won every election since then, by a landslide victory of 90% or more. There is no democracy, no transparency, and there are no opposition political parties in Egypt. In spite of that, it has remained the largest beneficiary of US Aid, receiving more aid than all other African countries put together. So, where is the HR bill on Accountability Act for Egypt, uh?
This enemy is proactive, always planning and staying several steps ahead, but all the Ethiopian elites can do, appears to be: fight among themselves, or push stupid HR bills through US Congress to aid the enemy, and entangle their country in an indirect control by foreign governments. Some are so obsessed in divisive ethnic politics and their own Chauvinistic stand that they fail to see the real enemy behind all these machinations.
Many Ethiopians are so foolish as to join these political schemers and operatives, and even give their monetary support, while some of the elites leading the legislation of HR Bills are outright traitors in the payroll of Egypt’s Mubarak and Eritrea’s Issayas. What a dastardly and heinous act! Is that what your motherland deserves? Is that how you repay the poor peasant who worked hard, tilled, and sweated to get you educated? How sad!