News
Your Money, Their Profit
Here's a number to sit with before you read another word: 98 billion birr. That's what a federal audit found had disappeared from public funds in a single nine-month stretch this year — close to 5 percent of the entire national budget, gone — through a corruption network the federal police themselves admitted is too "sophisticated" to fully untangle. That's not a rounding error. That's your money. And I'm about to show you exactly how they took it.
Sira Staff · Sep 6 · 77 readers
The IMF Puppets: How Ruto and Abiy Use the Same Playbook to Starve the Youth
Two presidents, two currencies, one memo. In April 2024, William Ruto sat down with the IMF and agreed to raise $2.7 billion by taxing bread, sanitary pads, and mobile money transfers. Months earlier, Abiy Ahmed had floated the birr and watched it lose more than three-quarters of its value overnight, on the same institution's insistence. Different capitals, different currencies, the same signature at the bottom of the page. This is not a coincidence of bad governance. It is a franchise.
Sira Staff · Aug 23 · 4 readers
Generation Exit: Why the Mediterranean Is the Only "Prosperity Party" We Know
Every young Ethiopian I know is studying for the GRE, prepping for the IELTS, refreshing the visa lottery page, or quietly saving birr for a smuggler in Metema. We don't want to leave our soil. But the system has made survival inside Ethiopia a punishment for staying. We are a generation in exile before we even pack a bag.
Sira Staff · Aug 20 · 8 readers
We Give Back to All That Help. So Let's Help Cuba.
From Florida, it takes a strong swimmer just to reach Cuba — that is how close the island sits to the most powerful military empire in human history. For over sixty years, Cuba has stood inside that shadow, under the weight of the longest-running economic embargo in modern history, and it is still standing. Before we ask what we owe Cuba, it's worth remembering: we've been here before. Cuba didn't wait for us to ask.
Sira Staff · Aug 19 · 3 readers
Ethiopian Jews in Israel Are NOT Victims
You have heard the story. It circulates in every anti-Zionist space, on every protest sign, in every TikTok explainer. Ethiopian Jewish Israelis are the victims of a mass sterilization program — the Israeli state, terrified of Black babies, has been secretly sterilizing Ethiopian Jewish women for decades. The claim is repeated with such confidence that questioning it feels like a betrayal. It is a lie. And it is a lie that serves the enemy.
Sira Staff · Jun 22 · 1 reader