The modern world system is exhibiting symptoms that are heralding its final demise or bifurcation. Like previous exploitative regimes, the current empire, (i.e., the reigning hegemon and its subsidiaries) is engaged in a battle it might not win this time around, unless its members are willing to change their ways, comprehensively! What we learn from history is that all empires ultimately collapse, without exception! Overstretched military, debt infested manipulative economy, which fosters grand political, cultural, etc., corruption; lack of capable leadership in all sphere of existence, bureaucratic failure to decipher the foundational from the ephemeral, etc., etc. are all the usual telltale signs of a collapsing empire. Our concern today is to single out an element that prominently and repeatedly features within empire’s generalized decay. It involves the untenable project of rewriting history, usually with vacuous gusto!
Whether one likes it or not, one has to accept the simple fact that one cannot redo history! What one might attempt is misrepresent the past so that the intended distortion will serve the objective of the day. The steering core of the current empire, consisting of the Anglo countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) or the ‘five eyes’ for short, are currently and vigorously attempting to misrepresent facts on so many different levels. To this end, they have set up a well coordinated cyber command manned by numerous human cretins as well as sophisticated algorithms. We will only cite one example. The open source web encyclopedia that goes by the name Wikipedia is now fully penetrated by these fact/truth manipulators or liars! At this point in time, not many entries on Wikipedia can be believed or taken for granted. Wikipedia might still be useful if one is looking for such innocuous things as the capital city of Germany; other than that, everything else must be taken with a grain of salt, to say the least. This once credible website, which was the result of many genuine individuals, is now taken over by the psychopathic deep state!
Another effort to rewrite history involves WWII. To be sure, this attempt at total misrepresentation goes back decades, to the last days of the war. The DS (deep state) has done a tremendous job in falsifying the history of WWII. Leveraging all its components, DS has managed to instill a distorted version of WWII amongst the global sheeple (human mass). In fact, our world has been victimized by the Hollywood-esque bamboozle that continuously tries to depict the Germans and the Russians as the ultimate evils, not only during the war days! Recall our heuristic definition of the deep state as the military-intelligence-industrial-banking-media-complex. In this definition, the media is intended to incorporate all the entertaining media; movies, spectator sports, etc., as they are part and parcel of the DS’s indoctrinating/brainwashing tools! One has to be quite clear about the ultimate objective of the DS. It is to control, with a view to dominate all global life. Such individuals are classified as psychopaths. Scientific data verifies that only about 5% of the world population is bona fide psychopaths. This gives some hope; on the other hand and unfortunately, these psychopaths tend to disproportionately dominate politics, banking/transnational corporations, the intelligence agencies, the military, etc. If global humanity wants a better world, these characters must be barred from all positions that entail collective societal responsibilities, directly/indirectly; otherwise civilized humanity might not survive their inborn wickedness!
Humanity must discard the multifaceted manipulation/distortion of global entrenched interests. In this regard, learning the true story of WWII or even WWI is of paramount importance. In WWII, amongst the Allies, it was the USSR that paid the most sacrifice, both in terms of lost lives as well as resources. The Chinese had also lost millions of people in the Asian war theatre. These are indisputable facts, however much the DS wants to distort history. The prevailing narrative of ‘evil Russia’ or ‘evil China’, as orchestrated by DS, must be tackled with facts and truths! On our part, we hail all those who made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat Nazism!
‘History knows no greater display of courage than that shown by the people of Soviet Russia.’ Henry L. Stimson, US Secretary of Defense.
‘We and our allies owe and acknowledge an everlasting debt of gratitude to the armies and people of the Soviet Union.’ Frank Knox, US Secretary of the Navy.
The gallantry and aggressive fighting spirit of the Russian soldiers command the American army’s admiration. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, US Army.
‘I join … in admiration for the Soviet Union’s heroic and historic defense.’ Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, US Fleet.
‘…the SCALE AND GRANDEUR of the (Russian) effort marks it as the GREATEST MILITARY ACHIEVEMENT IN ALL HISTORY.’ General Douglass MacArthur, US Commander in Chief, Southwest Pacific Area [emphases original].
“The world has never seen greater devotion, determination, and self-sacrifice than have been displayed by the Russian people and their armies…. With a nation which in saving itself is thereby helping to save all the world from the Nazi menace, this country of ours should always be glad to be a good neighbor and a sincere friend in the world of the future.” US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, July 1943.
Now contrast the above honest portrayal of history with the current simplistic jingoism, as twitted from the Whitehouse on the 75th anniversary of WWII. “On May 8, 1945, America and Great Britain had victory over the Nazis! America’s spirit will always win. In the end, that’s what happens.” President Trump. Good Day!
DISTORTING HISTORY
PPPDS changes bidding process for wheat purchase
Public Procurement and Property Disposal Service (PPPDS) introduced two envelops bidding process for the procurement of wheat that is highly appreciated by actors.
The Service that opened a financial bid document for 600,000 metric tons of wheat on Wednesday May 13, stated that based on the lessons learnt in previous bidding process it introduced new bidding process.
Tsewaye Muluneh, Director General of PPPDS said that the new scheme will accelerate the procurement process.
According to the new scheme PPPDS has opened the technical document few days before it opened the financial offer.
Based on the new scheme companies, who passed the technical evaluation, will participate in the financial process.
In the past both technical and financial documents will be opened at the same time, which was a challenge to conclude procurements on time.
A company representative that participated in several public procurements for several years highly appreciated the new approach introduced by PPPDS.
“This is very clean and transparent and the country is supposed to follow similar procurement process in the future,” he said.
He added that the scheme will clear corruption suspicions and is a perfect approach.
“Even the shipment approach is very clear that Ethiopian Shipping Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE) presented the port of loading price that will determine the winner of the bid,” he said.
The bid is undertaken under free on board (FOB) and the winner will be determined by the FOB price that ESLSE, the state owned shopping monopoly, offered.
The PPPDS bid document stated that the buyer (PPPDS) will ask the freight cost from each bidder’s loading port up to Djibouti from ESLSE and evaluate the price on C and F and award the least bid price. “However the contract shall be signed on FOB bases,” the document added.
The bid document for the procurement of 200,000 metric tons of milling wheat for instance indicated that bidders shall provide only one loading port for one lot and can provide only two different ports for the two lots on technical and financial documents.
Tsewaye said that this will make the state owned enterprise beneficiary.
Abeba Alemayehu, Procurement and Contract Administration Sector Deputy Director at PPPDS, told Capital that the previous one envelop system was not benefiting the government. For instance the price of wheat shall be low but the transport cost will be very high, which makes the total final price very escalated.
“The supplier offers FOB price and the government cover the transport cost but based on our study it costs the government; for instance the carriage cost for the wheat that comes from Black Sea and Argentina port does not have similar rates,” Abeba said.
She said that the new system will benefit the country.
On Wednesday the financial document was opened for two separate bids that resided for 200,000 metric tons and 400,000 metric tons of wheat.
On the first bidding process for the procurement of 200,000 metric tons on two lots seven companies; Ameropa AG, A Plus Importer, Besc Ltd, Okapi, Gemcorp Commodities Trading, Hakan Agro DMCC, and Hayton Inc have offered their financial proposal.
Gemcorp gives USD 204.97 per ton for the first lot that has 100,000 metric tons and USD 202.33 for second lot that has the balance the total 200,000 metric tons. Gemcorp’s offer for both lots is the least amount.
Other least prices for the first lot is USD 212.75 per ton Ameropa, USD 217 of Besc, USD 219 of A Plus, , and Okapi’s USD 219.97.
For the second lot Ameropa offered USD 209.75 a better price after Gemcorp.
For the bid to procure 400,000 metric tons of wheat five companies financial offer was opened at the hall of Ministry of Finance.
Hakan Agro DMCC, Agrocorp, A Plus Importer, Marthina Mertens Sampl and Olam International are the companies that participated in the financial offer.
Agrocorp, A Plus Importer and Marthina Mertens offered for all lots that have four with 100,000 metric tons each.
Marthina has offered USD 219.15, USD 219.35, USD 219.49 and USD 219.99 per ton from lot one to four respectively. From one to four lots Agrocorp offer has also offered USD 227.5, USD 229, USD 230.5, and USD 232, while A Plus offered USD 219, USD 221, USD 223, and USD 225 per ton respectively.
Olam International offered USD 212.7 for first lot and Hakan that participated on third lot has offered USD 229.17.
The Singapore based company Olam International’s offer is very low meanwhile it offered for a single lot (lot 1).
The German company, Marthina Mertens offer for all lots, has offered better price except first lot while the company is not known on such business not only for Ethiopia but in the world, according to experts.
The procurement for 400,000 metric tons of milling wheat has been undertaken in the past but due to claims from bidders it has been taken several periods to close the case. Following the board, who looks the claims, annulled the bid the Service has been refloated the bid late February.
Tsewaye said that the final result will be disclosed by next week.
The milling wheat is procured for Ethiopian Trading Businesses Corporation and Ethiopia National Disaster Risk Management Commission that will secure 200,000 and 400,000 metric tons respectively.
In the budget year PPPDS targeted to buy 800,000 metric tons of milling wheat and 200,000 MT has already been awarded to A Plus.
Private banks helping their customers to mitigate the effects of COVID 19
To mitigate the damages of the pandemic on industries that have fallen as far and as fast as tourism, hospitality and the horticulture sector banks are taking different measures. This week Enat Bank, Wegagen Bank, Abay Bank and Dashen Bank decided to reschedule annulling or reducing interest rate and reschedule loan for sectors like hospitality, tourism and horticulture for three months and above.
Enat Bank has announced to cut interest rate for these highly affected sectors. Enat also decided to remove penalty on those who do not pay their loan on time because of the pandemic. As stated by the president Wondwossen Teshome so far the bank gave around 100 million birr loan for these sectors. The bank has also made some adjustments for international banking by slashing Letter of Credit service charge. Importers that import goods related to COVID 19 will get a 50 percent discount in the service charge and commission payment.
Abay Bank has also announced to cut interest rate and principal payment for three months. The bank has lifted interest rates from 0.5 percent to 3 percent depending on the sector. “This will cost the bank to lose more than 55 million birr income however to remain in the business we need to support our customers,” said Belete Dagnachew, Vice President of the bank. Abay’s revised rate will remain active until the pandemic is under control.
Wegagen Bank also announced that a 53 percent interest rate cut to hotel, tourism and tour operators and 39 percent cut for the horticulture sectors for three month.
Dashen Bank in its part also cut different kind of service charges and interest rates to those that are affected by Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The sectors include transport, manufacturing, hotel, tourism, horticulture and education sectors. As stated by the bank Dashen has cut off up to seven percent interest rate.
Starting from March 13 when the first case was reported in Ethiopia the overall economic activities of the country has been affected. Through then the government has been taking different measures to mitigate the risks. As one of the measures taken by the government the National Bank of Ethiopia has been calling banks to come up with their own initiative to mitigate the effect on their clients mainly for those who are highly affected because of the outbreak of the corona virus.
Based on that, banks have submitted their proposal on how to contribute to the mitigation strategy for their clients.
Bottlers request suspension of excise tax, VAT
Ethiopian Bottled Water, Soft Drink, Fruit and Vegetable Manufacturing Industries Association (EBSFMIA) ask Ministry of Finance (MoF) to suspend excise tax and value added tax (vat) for the time being.
In a letter the association sent to MoF stated that its members are highly affected because of the outbreak of coronavirus.
“As per our evaluation the sector particularly the bottled water business is significantly affected by the outbreak,” the letter signed by Ashenafi Merid, General Manager of EBSFMIA, states.
It added that the pandemic that follows by ceasing businesses at Hotel and restaurants has significantly dropped the sales of water bottlers business.
“Cancelation of mass gathering like conference, concerts, exhibitions and other meetings and suspending day to day operations at Addis Ababa based international and continental organizations and diplomatic missions have also contributed for market slowdown,” the association explained.
According the EBSFMIA, these effects has dropped the bottled water business by up to 85 percent and that forced them made them unable to settle the dues that were supposed to be paid for the government.
In its letter copied to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Revenue the association asked the government to cease the excise tax payment. Besides that it demands the lifting of vat for some period, but it did not state a given period.
EBSFMIA has also claimed to benefit from the loan interest rate relief and rescheduling of loan settlement period at banks.
“If such decisions could not be applied the sector will be in trouble to pay wages and continue its operation,” the letter states.
Since COVID 19 imposes challenges on the economy the government has been taking several measures for vulnerable sectors. At the same time financial institutions have also applied loan settlement reschedule for almost all who demanded, while they have also cut interest rate fully or partly for some sectors like hospitality, horticulture and industry sector for a given period of time.
Meanwhile vat payment has been rescheduled by the government. In this regard EBSFMIA would be the first that demands the annulations of such kind of taxes including excise tax.
The water bottling sector is responsible to collect 10 percent excise tax from sales. According to information Capital obtained from the sector, some big bottlers may pay up to five million birr per month as excise tax.
Ashenafi expressed his hope that the government will come up with good response to save the sector.
He told Capital that the sector has created about 50,000 jobs and rapidly growing.
“At least we need some relief to alleviate this bad situation,” he added.
According to the General Manager, the partial lockdown that suspend most activities particularly mass gathering has seriously affected the sector.
“Different meetings and conferences have been the major source of business for the bottled water industry that is currently fully abandoned all over the country due to COVID 19,” he says, “besides that different offices and the hospitality business are major users of bottled water but currently offices like international organizations have almost closed their offices and the business activity at entertainment areas also dropped, which directly affects us.”
He recalled that at the initial stage when COVID 19 case was reported in Ethiopia the market showed a boost because of the households, who were buying bulk of bottled water but it is now almost nil. “Households are not potential customers in the past,” he added.
The association has over 80 members from over 90 water bottlers in the country.


