TIGRAI Online

Western Double Standards: It is okay for Governments to say shoot and arrest in London but not in Africa

By Mulu
Tigrai Onlne - August 12 2011

It is not that I condone the shooting or arresting of people by any government but I was amused by the absence of the typical sound off from so called human rights groups and other western governmentsrecent following the British Government ‘shoot and arrest’ declaration of rioters. Why are we not hearing the same condemnations from Human Rights Watch or the US state Dep’t that other governments, especially African Governments, get when responding to similar situations? I wonder whether the assumption is that African governments and leaders are not ‘adult’ enough to restrain themselves but the British government is? This is what I call classic Western double standards.

This double standard is manifested in several other forms. For example, they can build the Hoover dam, Ethiopia cannot build Gibe 3 dam? They can hunt and mayhem what are classified by US congress as terrorists but Ethiopia cannot deal with what are classified terrorist by Ethiopian congress. These terrorists can even live in safe haven in their cities and boost about their mass killings, but they tell Ethiopia to refrain from dealing with these groups and at the same time ask her to help in hunting 'their terrorists'. They can sell large swathes of land for farming in their own terms, but Ethiopia’s effort to lease uncultivated land to investors rings a bell for land grab. I am sure many of you feel my frustration. My bottom line, we should not care to listen to these hypocrites

I am even puzzled by the recent declaration of the British Gov’t to ban twitter and other social media. Haven’t these people fancying about how revolutions are taking place in Egypt and the Middle East through social media? Haven’t these western governments telling Ethiopia not to block or jam what Ethiopia considers are sources of instability? What happened now? It is okay for riots to be instigated in other ‘second tier’ countries and people, but when it comes to own self the standard is different. What goes around comes around! Hope these people won’t have the audacity to open their mouth to give advice to other governments. At least till they are honest with themselves

Please chime in!

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