Jonathan Dimbleby, in Feeding on Ethiopia's Famine in The Independent (8 December 1998)
“
The atrocities for which [members of the Derg regime] are now collectively indicted can tempt the unwary into nostalgia for Haile Selassie. It is easy to forget that the emperor used to authorise public hangings, that his opponents were routinely tortured, that courtiers who fell from grace were not only jailed but frequently held in chains as well, and that concepts of justice, liberty and democracy were effectively outlawed from public debate.
— Jonathan Dimbleby
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The atrocities for which [members of the Derg regime] are now collectively indicted can tempt the unwary into nostalgia for Haile Selassie. It is easy to forget that the emperor used to authorise public hangings, that his opponents were routinely tortured, that courtiers who fell from grace were not only jailed but frequently held in chains as well, and that concepts of justice, liberty and democracy were effectively outlawed from public debate." in the context of "Jonathan Dimbleby, in Feeding on Ethiopia's Famine in The Independent (8 December 1998)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Haile Selassie" (Quotes about Haile Selassie I: Alphabetized by author )
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie Ge'ez: ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ, romanized: qädamawi haylä səllasé (23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), born Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, was regent of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, including 5 years of exile from 1936 to 1941 in the period of Italian occupation. Though himself a life-long Christian, and a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, an Oriental Orthodox Church, he became revered as God incarnate by followers of the Rastafari movement founded in Jamaica in the early 1930s. He was overthrown by a Communist coup d'état in 1974.
About Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie Ge'ez: ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ, romanized: qädamawi haylä səllasé (23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), born Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, was regent of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, including 5 years of exile from 1936 to 1941 in the period of Italian occupation. Though himself a life-long Christian, and a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, an Oriental Orthodox Church, he became revered as God incarnate by followers of the Rastafari movement founded in Jamaica in the early 1930s. He was overthrown by a Communist coup d'état in 1974.
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