The run-of-the-mill police states used to be characterized by their overall undemocratic governance. Their violent heavy handedness and blatant cronyism can be singled out for emphasis. In the ‘good old days’, when states had to try hard to portray themselves as kosher organs of societal governance, politicos and their extreme corrupt practices were not visibly flaunted like today. Trying to uphold values that were in tune with the desires of the sheeple (human mass) featured prominently in political electioneering. In those days, states and politicos that were recklessly undermining basic decent behavior were given a pariah status with attendant adverse consequences!
With the advent of technology, pariah states or police states managed to hide their abusive activities from the prying eyes of the global sheeple. The technosphere gave the crooked, not only in politics, a very powerful weapon to undermine rather comprehensively, democratic governance and basic decency. Election rigging, thanks to all sorts of techno manipulation, is now a routine process or even a compulsory one in certain places, for securing power by the undeserving scums of the earth. Hi-tech, particularly information technology has been a Godsend to states & their politicos, as the clumsy incredulity of human interference was no more needed. In short, totalitarianism facilitated by the technosphere, has now taken over the whole imagination of humanity. Coordination amongst states, in the effort to control the global sheeple, is advancing in leaps and bounds. Frankly speaking, from police state to totalitarianism has been smooth sailing, at least so far. Various scenarios indicate the move might well accelerate, unless a worldwide rejection/resistance by the sheeple, takes root ASAP!
Currently, the smart phone is considered as the major weapon of citizen’s control. Digital money, via mobile banking, might come to dominate all financial transactions involving the sheeple, sooner than we think. Surveillance, using smart phones is already an old story, thanks to John Snowden. ‘Contact tracing’ on the account of the flu, (Covid-19) is gaining ground. Such schemas are now in full operation mode all over the world, rhetoric/propaganda aside. The more technology is introduced in a society, the more the control! But the question still remains; what is behind such evil? Why the obsession to control? We admit; humanity is not all good and rational. It is also composed of sociopaths/psychopaths, who number about 5% of the total population. These disturbed individuals crave for control and domination and they eagerly inhabit spaces that can give them their pathetic fixes, like political arenas, big crony and parasitic businesses, (banking, etc.) What is not clear to many is the fact that these individuals in turn are controlled or have become mere pawns in hands of the technosphere, driven by the logic of capital. The incessant desire to accumulate, non-stop, is the main feature of capital. By and large, these individuals don’t mind being subjugated as long as they can turn around and dominate others. Freedom, sovereignty, liberty, privacy are concepts that are hardly understood by the globally reigning psychopaths/sociopaths!
Capital is not human, hence is not capable of understanding human needs outside of inconsequential material hankerings. Yet, capital is made to give the impression that its final objective is to better human lives! Late modernity, under the straight jacket of the technosphere, has now obliterated this claimed objective of capital. For instance, Big Pharma is, primarily, in the business of making money. Its objective is to survive in the business world. Making life somewhat better for collective humanity is not its overriding ambition. If Big Pharma can get away with products that can make it tons of money, but are considered detrimental to the sheeple’s health, it will not have much qualm in undermining life. It is because of such blindness of capital the states were instituted in the first place!
When the corporations rule the world behind the zombified and corrupt politicos, that is when uprisings become not only inevitable, but also legitimate. GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) were given the go ahead in the last few decades. GMO is now a major input in the sphere of global agriculture. Results are very disturbing, but since the modern states are there to protect capital and not humans, the various dangerous findings are all intentionally hidden from the public. As we speak, there are several attempts by big capital ‘to do GMO’ on humans, under various guises, vaccines, etc. Almost all such experiments have failed when tried on animals, (dogs, etc.) No matter, big pharma and psychotic billionaires obsessed with population control (in more ways than one) are aggressively pushing vaccines based on gene manipulation (Gates foundation, et al.) many secret experiments are being tried out in many places, especially in Africa. The Hollywood movie ‘ The Constant Gardner’ comes to mind.
Capital is thriving because humanity has put it on a pedestal. Currently, capital under its techno-façade has become literally unstoppable. Unfortunately the formal protectors of life (state, civil/religious organizations, etc.) are clearly under its thumb, so to speak. To bring the needs of humanity above that of capital will take a vigorous revolution of the mind. A new narrative that is willing to deconstruct all the evils of our civilization must be allowed to flourish. Sadly, any and all institutions disposed to critical investigation and learning has succumbed to the confining and destructive logic of capital. Today, capital is revered more than “God’. For example, capital is currently working towards the patenting of humans. The idea is to inject genes into an individual’s natural genome and declare the result as a new human form, belonging to the company that did the gene manipulation. In other words, it is to create ‘innate slaves’!
If truth be told, almost all global institutions are working in one form or another, on the callously destructive model of capital. Humanity is now clearly on its own, facing the immense monstrous machinery bent on the extinction project! Accelerating widespread climate of fear, so that the sheeple will accept everything forwarded by the states and their master, transnational capital, is one of the objectives of late modernity. See Hopkins’ article next column. “If the world is upside down the way it is now, wouldn’t we have to turn it over to get it to stand up straight?” Eduardo Galeano, (Upside Down, 1998). Good Day!
TECHNO TOTALITARIANISM
Lawyers feeling bashed by new criminal law procedures
The Ethiopian Lawyers Association has made its complaints known over the pre-approved draft of the new criminal law procedure.
The new criminal law procedure is set to replace the 58 year old procedure. This milestone transition is set to pay heed to the division of roles and responsibilities in a federal system. However, the association of lawyers, explain that the new draft presents a huge point of concerns in some areas.
The association has gone on record to say that some of its articles does not respect judicial authority, objectivity and neutrality and lacks accountability. The association sited that even though they participated on an advisory role for the proposed draft, their concerns were not aired on the final draft.
The draft lays down the principle that ensures equality between the prosecution and the defense in all criminal trials. This is great at first glance but when it is subdivided, the naming of the judicial body on the draft is set as the police, prosecutors, courts, jail, and governmental lawyers. This does not incorporate private lawyers who account for 90 percent of lawyers, in the general legal scene.
The association has gone on to submit its concerns to parliament. The association has additionally suggested opening a panel discussion for judicial actors inclusive of the public before the draft goes on to be published. The Council of Ministers in its 90th regular session held Saturday, 26 September 2020 has referred the draft proclamations to the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) for approval.
Water, sanitation and hygiene for all schools in Addis
Rotary and Splash International partnered to reach 100% of government schools in Addis Ababa with a model water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) program, in order to improve children’s long-term health and development. The two organizations announced this during the Global Handwashing Day celebrated around the world on Thursday October 15.
From 2013-2016, Rotary Club Addis Ababa West worked with Splash in collaboration with Rotary Club Lake Union (United States) on two Global Grants to implement clean water and hygiene education programs at 26 schools. In 2017-2018, the two partnered to provide sanitation improvements at 11 of those schools. These improvements include toilet 
rehabilitation as well as new toilet and urinal construction to reach the student to toilet ratios of 1:70 for girls and 1:75 for boys.
These standards are based on international and Ethiopian standards for students to toilets, contextualized for the urban school environment. In total, together they have reached 42,582 students and staff with improved sanitation facilities, hygiene education and clean water.
With a new grant in 2019 – 2020, the two organizations provided WASH facilities including latrines, hand washing stations, and water storage tanks at 4 schools in Addis Ababa benefiting an additional 6,859 students.
Through this partnership, schools will benefit from Splash’s sustainability plan, which includes support, maintenance and monitoring. Rotarians and Rotaractors will play an active role in project planning, implementation and monitoring and worked closely with the Addis Ababa Education Bureau (AAEB) to ensure their commitment and support. 
Governments should mobilize at least one percent of their GDP to ‘social protection scheme’
Save the children is calling on governments to mobilize at least one percent of their GDP to the ‘social protection scheme’ to protect children and end child poverty.
Save the Children stresses that now more than ever, countries need to make progress towards Universal Child Benefits.
“Investing in child benefits not only helps children and their families but also local and national economies, as families spend their money on local goods and services,” Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children stated.
According to the recent report of the organization, families of over 594 million children in the globe have not received any financial support from their governments to pass the dare of the pandemic.
As save the children echoed, these 594 million families are found in 68 low and middle income countries. These families have drowned in poverty ever since the start of the pandemic as they have lost their source of income. This as a results affects the children since the families have not received any governmental support. Furthermore, an additional hundreds of millions of families are looking for aid to survive the surge of the pandemic which has widened the drift in income inequality with low income families being hit the hardest.
Even before the outbreak, according to save the children, over 1 billion children in low- and middle-income countries lived in multidimensional poverty deprived of access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation, and water. Since the Coronavirus outbreak, this number has increased by an additional 150 million children, bringing the total to 1.2 billion.
“The impacts of Covid-19 transgresses past health issues. We as a community need to play our part in protecting children from the impacts of this pandemic. Any support we provide to children goes a long way towards improving the economy of the country as a whole,” stated Azmeraw Belay from Save the Children: Ethiopia Country office and Head of CRG, Advocacy and Campaign.
Ekin Ogutogullari, Country Director; Save the Children for Ethiopia’s Country Office also remarked by saying, “Everyone around the globe has been affected by this pandemic; children suffered its consequences more than others. Children are at risk with each passing moment as their parents might lose their job, get sick or die due to Covid-19.”
Save the Children disclosed that before the COVID-19 outbreak only 35% of children globally received social protection benefits. This figure falls to 28% in Asia and as little as 16% in Africa.
Save the children has called on governments, donors and private creditors and the global community at large to create a financial means to improve child focused social protection schemes and universal children benefits.
