The Death of Haile Selassie I

[Red, Green, and Gold]

On the death of H.I.M., Haile Selassie I, I have heard little to nothing. I know that he "mysteriously" died under house arrest after his overthrow in 1974. I've heard that his followers claim that he was smothered by a pillow in his sleep. I've also heard a few Rastas claim that his whole death was faked, which I'm pretty positive isn't true.

Do any of you know anything more than I do?

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

Circulatory failure was all that I could come up on. Even though he was a somewhat 'good' ruler for certain ppl, you have to remember this guy was not the greatest.

He was a power monger, he even turned his own army against each other so that they would not be a viable threat towards his power. I dunno if he's someone who should be looked up to. It's also said that the famine in Ethiopia was pre-meditated by him....

who knows, but i found this link that might be of interest to back up my stance :

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/text/selassie.html


happy reading!

[the SovieT]

i dunno....


i'v only read some of his works and i don't think it was anything special nor anything..



though I think some of his speechs were just fantastic (see for example my signature, it's a Bob Marley song but i think that who wrote that was Haile Selassie I himself...)

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

he was very articulate yes, and I'll be the first to agree that his address to the UN was nothing short of breath-taking...

But you must remember that its the motives that make a person. His motives were for himself, and for his own empowerment. He wanted ppl to bend over backwards for him, to give him all the wealth while his own ppl of Ethiopia were starving....

He wanted Africa to unite, but at the same time, wanted nothing short of having all of the attention focused on him.

If he really wanted unity and equality (as Bob promoted), he wouldn't sit on a high chair, or dress himself up as some sort of King. He'd toil with the labourers every day.

Even Jesus Christ never wanted all the riches. Pictures you see of Him with all these jewels and what-not are just someone's idea of how a 'King' should look. Jesus hung out with social outcasts and dressed like any normal labourer of his society at the time...

The same cannot be said for Selassie.

[Rastafari]

The Western world looks down on him mainly because he denied the US when we wanted to send "aid" to the country in the 60's.

[Ijon_Tichy]

Where did you hear that?

During the 1960s, the Haile Selassie regime was the biggest recipient of US military aid in Africa, which was used (among other things) to put down the tax revolt in the province of Gondar, and in an attempt to hold on to the country of Eritrea, federated with Ethiopia in 1952, and illegally annexed by the emperor in 1962.

[j.guevara]

Marcus Garvey, an icon to rastas, was very critical of Sellassie and was not a big fan of his, but it seems rastas dont acknowledge that at all.

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

Selassie was not a person to be looked up to. He's a shining example of power = corruption.

[j.guevara]

Its sad when you actually learn about most religions and see that their all garbage.

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

Well, i dunno if ALL religions are garbage, because there's thousands that none of us know about, because they're reserved to certain native groups worldwide.

Important thing to do when studying religions is to find truth in all of them. I think Christianity promotes some truth, but other religions also teach you important aspects; Canadian Native Spirtiuality teaches you to respect mother earth and not to use it at your disposal.

Its a matter of finding some solidity, while not sticking to just one religion.

[j.guevara]

I agree you can find good within most of them but it bothers me that they are all based on myth and folklore. I cant believe an obvious lie. But i think the tribal type religions with the mother earth type beliefs are myths closest to the truth.

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

yeah, plus you hafta analyze why they believe so. Sure, we can dismiss it and say 'oh that's a myth', and let that be the be-all and end-all...

But, all religions are based on some sort of myth as you said. However, when you think of humans in general, and the fact that there's literally thousands of different religions, it makes you think. I mean, it makes you think why billions of ppl believe in something. There's more to life than I think anyone on earth knows. That's where religion comes into play.