lionroars

THE LION OF JUDAH ROARS

His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I speaks
Speeches to the International Community

"Our Armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free continent and Africans have been reborn as free men......
...... What we may utter today can add little to the heroic struggle of those who, by their example, have shown us how
precious are freedom and human dignity and of how little value is life without them. Their deeds are written in history."

Fundamental Assumptions
Final Judgeman
Iniversal Brotherhood

Freedom from Hunger Campaign
On a visit to China, Iran and Somalia

Fundamental Assumptions
an excerpt from Speech to the United Nations.

Like the Covenant of the League of Nations which preceded it, the Charter of the United Nations was based on certain fundamental assumptions, the first of which was that the signatory States would discharge their obligations under the Charter in all good faith. Unfortunately, the stumbling block in both documents, was precisely this assumption. while the motives of the Covenant and Charter are not in doubt, it is clear that the conduct of the members of the respective organizations is directly responsible for the premature liquidation of the League, and the continuing predicaments of the United Nations.

Nor should this sound curious or incomprehensible, for it is a fact that people often prove to be the undoing of their own constructive actions. Abundant proof is furnished by the ambivalent traits in human nature and the lack of consistency of the conduct of international relations.

I consider my presence here today as a link between the past and the present. When in 1936, my ancient country, after a gallant resistance against the unprovoked aggressor, fell prey to its remorseless enemy, it became my painful duty, as Emperor of Ethiopia, to appear before the League of Nations to appeal for help for my suffering people. Over and above the fate of a nation brutally invaded, I also pleaded at that time the cause of the more fundamental issues of international morality and collective security. Though the ideas enunciated then were by no means novel, it happened that both my appearance before the League, as leader of a nation, and my pronouncement were without precedent.

October 24th 1970, the UNs 25th Anniversary

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Freedom from Hunger Campaign

From time immemorial hunger, disease and illiteracy have been man's persistent enemies which have plagued his effort to lead a fuller and healthier life.

Being aware of the urgent necessity to eradicate these causes of human miseries, and having realised that this could only be done through their concerted actions in the various agencies of the United Nations, the nations of the world have joined hands and pooled together their resources and energies to fight back these scourges.

When, in 1960, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, determined to free mankind from the scourge of hunger, which is one of the three enemies of man, presented the program of "Freedom From Hunger Campaign" to the tenth session of the FAO and the General Assembly of the United Nations, Ethiopia was one of the foremost countries to support and endorse the proposal.

Apart from the various actions and programmes, which We endeavor to initiate, to enhance and promote the welfare of Our beloved people, Our efforts to propose and support various programmes at the various forums of the United Nations and its specialized agencies have given encouraging results. At all times, Ethiopia will continue to be the first to take action on such programmes that are designed to fight and eradicate such enemies which threaten human life and prosperity. All nations have readily and fully endorsed the proposal that the "Freedom From Hunger Campaign" should be established within the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The purpose of these programmes is to study, assist and advise how effectively the developing countries can best utilize their natural resources to raise the standard of living of their peoples.

The most effective way of utilizing any outside assistance is to create and develop an atmosphere of self-help, where the available human and natural resources could be tapped in the best interest of the people. Everyone, in all walks of life, regardless of his professional occupation should feel concerned and play an active role to solve such problems which affect mankind, Now, We call upon the generosity of Our people to help develop agriculture and improve its productivity................

February 22nd 1963

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All glory & honour & power be unto HIM who sitteth upon the throne

HAILE SELASSIE I

KING OF KINGS OF ITHIOPIA FOR IVER

Relevance and Similarities:
On a visit to China, Iran and Somalia

The 2,500th anniversary celebrations of the Persian Empire showed relevance and similarities with the Ethiopian recorded history which dates back 3,000 years. The Iranians are well aware of Our history. As is well known in Ethiopia and corroborated by world history, there were times when Ethiopian monarchs had sent emissaries to Persia not only to see the then flourishing Persian civilization, but also to assist in certain undertakings and help in the defense of that country. It is for these historical ties that We feel Our presence in the anniversary celebrations of the Persian Empire was important. The visit also provided Us with an opportunity to renew the centuries-old relations between the two countries and to exchange views with the Shah of Iran on bilateral relations.

On concluding Our visits to china and Iran, We proceeded to Somalia where We took part in the summit meeting of East and Central African States.

The countries that attended the meeting are not only immediate neighbors, but also share common geographic features and it is for these reasons that We feel the discussions between the Heads of State and Government representatives in Mogadishu were important and valuable. In the case of Somalia and the Sudan, who have much in common culturally with Ethiopia and share boundaries, We believe that the meeting at the Heads of State level will further contribute to better understanding and good neighborliness.

Ethiopia is desirous of maintaining friendly relations with all and wishes to live in peace. This is her known policy which she wishes to abide by.

We have done all We can to help promote world peace. We will not spare any effort to this end in the future and, God willing, will work for the cause of African Unity and for the liberation of Our brethren still under colonial rule.

October 23rd 1971

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Final Judgeman : manners of nations
(addressing the UN)

If we are to survive, this Organization must survive. to survive, it must be strengthened. Its executive must be vested with greater authority. The means for the enforcement of its decisions must be fortified; and , if they do not exist, they must be devised. Procedures must be established to protect the small and the weak when threatened by the strong and the mighty. All nations which fulfill the conditions of membership must be admitted and allowed to sit in this assemblage. Equality of representation must be assured in each of its organs. The possibilities which exist in the United Nations to provide the means whereby the hungry may be fed, the naked clothed, the ignorant instructed, must be seized on and exploited, for the flower of peace is not sustained by poverty and want. To achieve that requires courage and confidence. The courage, I believe, we possess. The confidence must be created, and to create confidence we must act courageously.

The great nations of the world would do well to remember that in the modern age even their own fates are not wholly in their hands. Peace demands the united efforts of us all. Who can foresee what spark might ignite the fuse? It is not only the small and the weak who must scrupulously observe their obligations to the United Nations and to one another. Unless the smaller nations are accorded their proper voice in the settlement of the world's problems, unless the equality which Africa and Asia have struggled to attain is reflected in expanded membership in the institutions which make up the United Nations, confidence will come just that much harder. Unless the rights of the least of men are assiduously protected as those of the greatest, the seeds of confidence will fall on barren soil.

The stakes are identical for every one of us: life or death. We all wish to live. We all seek a world in which men are freed of the burdens of ignorance, poverty, hunger and disease. We shall all be hard-pressed to escape the deadly rain of nuclear fall-out, should catastrophe overtake us.

When I spoke at Geneva in 1936 there was no precedent for a Head of State addressing the League of Nations. I am neither the first nor shall I be the last Head of State to address the United Nations, but only I have addressed both the League and this Organization in this capacity. The problems which confront us today are, equally, unprecedented. They have no counterparts on human experience. Men search the pages of history for solutions, for precedents, but there are none.

This then is the ultimate challenge. Where are we to look for our survival, or the answers to questions which have never before been posed? We must look first to Almighty God, who has raised man above the animals and endowed him with intelligence and reason. We must put our faith in Him, that He will not desert us or permit us to destroy humanity which He created in His image. And we must look into ourselves, into the depths of our souls. We must become something we have never been and for which our education and experience and environment have ill prepared us. We must become bigger than we have ever been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.

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Iniversal Brotherhood

Ethiopia is by her own choice a nonaligned state. Our policies on the vexatious international issues of the day have been declared to all, and our adherence to them is steadfast: the urgent imperative of universal disarmament; the settlement of disputes by peaceful negotiation; the supremacy of reason and logic over force and irrationality.

Dedicated to the cause of Africa, Ethiopia remains prepared to implement agreed measures calculated to advance the objectives embodied in the Charter of the Organization of African Unity. Ethiopia's actions in her international dealings have been wholly consistent with her declared policies. We insist today that the way to peace among men and nations rests in the even-handed application and enforcement of the principles of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity: non-interference in the internal affairs of others; self-determination for the remaining dependent peoples of the world; respect for the territorial integrity of independent states.

Above all, Ethiopia is dedicated to the principle of the equality of all men, irrespective of differences of race, color or creed.

As we do not practice of permit discrimination within our nation, so we oppose it wherever it is found. As we guarantee to each the right to worship as he chooses so we denounce the policy which sets man against man on issues of religion. As we extend the hand of universal brotherhood to all, without regard to race or color, so we condemn any social or political order which distinguishes among God's children on this most specious of grounds.

Thus, we oppose the secessionist regime in Rhodesia because it refuses to the African majority the right fully to participate in the life of that territory. We denounce the Government of South Africa because the evil doctrine of apartheid espoused there denies the basic equality of men and raises to the status of sacred dogma an odious and false racism. We condemn the policies followed in Angola and Mozambique because those territories withhold from Africans the full exercise of their rights as free men.

We shall not rest until these regimes have been swept from the African continent. We shall not falter in the struggle until freedom has been won by our African brothers.

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