July 31, 2013
The Horn Times opinion July 31 2013 by Getahune Bekele, South Africa
“Doesn’t the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self-defense anything goes.” Former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos.
“The
amount I earn is well known. My riches, my most prized possessions are
my books.” The late Ethiopian ruler Meles Zenawi Asres.
Semhal
Meles Zenawi is known in Ethiopia for her lavish and jet-setting
lifestyle. She starts her morning off with delicious breakfast different
to her late father’s steak and scrambled eggs accompanied by heavily
spiced red tea, strong enough to remove paint.
The lady always looks for best nourishment. Her Holland trained eunuch private chef from Adigrat knows how to make
challah French toast and cast iron waffles but the billionaire princess
prefers a bowl of vegetal touch traditional soup, with four boiled eggs
and roasted red pepper swimming in it.
Then Queen Marie Antoinette’s breakfast would be washed down with her favorite single
malt whiskey known as the 10 year old Ardbeg, which delivers flavors of
cooked apples, orange marmalade, clove and cinnamon, set against smoke
and vanilla.
Semhal, who often boasts about nosing and tasting all
finest malt money can buy including the limited edition of lemon and
honey flavored Lagavalin; is famous for empting a couple of Ardbeg or
Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban bottles in just one sitting.
In the beginning, we all (journalists) thought that, at the rate she churns out her ill-gotten wealth, the young lady will soon
squander all her inheritance and join the miserable world of infamy
where stars turned slaves and kings turned paupers beg death to take
them away.
However, thanks to a whistleblower in the form of Dr.
Wondimu Mekonnen, an exiled Ethiopian academic, today we know that
Semhal Meles Zenawi’s net worth is 5-billion USD; all by virtue of being
born to family of a thieving tyrant and a cunning knave. No matter
how she spends, lady Semhal will never run out of cash.
The
extremely wealthy TPLF warlords were quick to condemn the patriotic
academic Wondimu Mekonnen, calling him ‘terrorist’ and ‘a nasty piece of
work.’ But they didn’t utter a word when celebrity Net worth site,
respected for its accuracy earlier made a startling revelation that the
dead tyrant Meles Zenawi Asres got a net worth of 3-billion USD.
This
means Without speculating how much his corrupt widow Azeb Mesfin is
worth or without including the enormous wealth of Bereket Kinfe- their
real-estate mogul step son, or without guessing how much money is
stashed away in offshore accounts for Zenawi’s two other children Senay
and Marda, the tyrant who once told Ethiopians that his only priced
possessions are his books; had stolen more than 8-billion USD from the
indigent people of Ethiopia.
But how did he manage to carry off such a staggering amount of money unnoticed and undetected?
Just
few months ago his widow Azeb Mesfin, in her attempt to bury the Zenawi
myth once and for all and move on with her life, told the world that
her late husband had no identity document, driver
license or fixed salary; not knowing that other notorious backward
despots such as the late Mobutu Sese Seko of former Zaire and the late
Idi Amin Dada of Uganda had no fixed salaries as well, because they
didn’t differentiate their own money from the budgets of their
respective nations. They used state coffers like their private bank
accounts.
Hence, in the absence of any form of accountability, for
African despots past and present, stealing such huge sums has been as
easy as stealing candy from a baby.
This massive heist by the
Zenawi family, one of the biggest in recent memory, is the carbon copy
of what the legendary Filipino thieves Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos did
to the Asian nation’s downtrodden between 1965 and 1986.
After
imposing Martial law similar to Zenawi’s draconian anti-terrorism law,
Imelda and her let husband Ferdinand, who ruled the impoverished
Philippines for 21 traumatic years, stole more than 10- billion USD from
state coffers.
The money sponsored the ostentatious style of
Imelda Marcos who owned more than 3000 pairs of designer shoes and
funded the controversial stem cell research project in her burning
desire to beat ageing and preserve her timeless beauty which once
mesmerized Chairman Mao, Fidel Castro and the eccentric Gaddafi.
Today
at an advanced age of 83, she is the second wealthiest Filipino
politician after boxing hero and congressman Manny Pacquiao with net
worth of just under 22-million USD.
Where is the other money? Would Imelda ever tell?
The
Filipinos are still struggling to obtain the 600-million USD traced to a
Swiss bank account and corruption remains endemic in their country as
it is in Ethiopia. Although hunger for justice has not ebbed, in
Ethiopia’s case, the judiciary itself is weak and extremely biased to
crack the whip on the spectacular corruption which inhibits development
in the world’s poorest nations.
The government of puppet premier
Hailemariam Desalegn will never have the courage to go after the
well-connected Semhal Meles Zenawi to recover the stolen billions.
For
now, she will remain richer than US talk show Queen Oprah Winfrey and
the most powerful man in Hollywood, movie mogul Steven Spielberg.
Facebook founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin need to work more
if they are to catch up with Semhal.
The question is would stolen wealth last like the hard-earned one?
@infohorntimes
No comments:
Post a Comment