Famed singer calls for Ethiopian SpringFamed singer calls for Ethiopian SpringEthiomedia | September 21, 2011WASHINGTON, DC (Ethiomedia) - Ejigayehu Shibabaw, a famed Ethiopian singer popularly known as Gigi, has released a poem that has gone viral among Ethiopians around the globe.Perhaps the first young female singer to openly condemn the Meles Zenawi regime for turning Ethiopia into a failed state of misery and squalor, the charismatic Gigi, whose stylish songs have been a blend of traditional Ethiopian and Western, this time goes patriotic and calls on fellow Ethiopians to rise up for a dignified life.Meles has been in power since 1991, and has punished Ethiopians like no other enemy.He came to power galloping his horse, Weyane, which he killed in 2001 when the horse -- also known as the 'Eritrean Trojan horse' -- wanted to wake up and go Ethiopian over a war Meles aborted hours before an Ethiopian military victory. He has consolidated his mercenary rule eversince.Earlier in 1993, Meles ferociously campaigned for UN recognition of Ethiopia as a landlocked country, for which then UN chief, Egyptian Boutros-Boutros Ghali, whose country had at least gone to war two times with Ethiopia over the control of the Nile River, embraced the idea gleefully and stripped Ethiopia of her Red Sea coast.Unrest has had plagued Meles' rule from the beginning. But he used live ammunition to cut down even the lives of university students, who were protesting every other year against worsening political, economic, and human rights conditions. In 2005, Meles lost elections but clang to power after he ordered his forces go on a killing spree. At least 193 civilians were mowed down in a space of two weeks in Addis Ababa alone.Eversince, a reign of terror has engulfed Ethiopians, whose power has been deliberately weakened and fragmented due to Meles' effective weapon of 'ethnic federalism.' Meles is also accused of recycling hunger and famine in the country as his party extracts hundreds of millions of dollars from donor communities that have remained insensitive to the crimes being committed by their puppet in the Horn.Lately, Meles launched a wave of arrests of prominent journalists such as Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye, as well as opposition leaders Andualem Aragie and Debebe Eshetu. The measures have put the country on edge.Gigi's poetic power is expected to at least rekindle the spirit of freedom among other singers, who, except the patriot singer Shambel Belayneh, have been relatively passive onlookers to their country's downward spiral under a ruthless, mercenary rule. source: ethiomedia.com