New York (TADIAS) – Ethiopian Airlines has temporarily grounded its 787 Dreamliners for inspection following a safety warning issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA said on Wednesday that the 787 should not operate until the risk of battery fires is addressed.
The crisis began when one of the planes owned by the Japanese airline, All Nippon Airways, was forced to make an emergency landing in Japan when a cockpit warning indicated a battery problem and a burning smell. Ethiopian follows Chile’s LAN, Air India and the European Aviation Safety Agency who have all sent out grounding orders.
“Ethiopian Dreamliners have not encountered the type of problems such as those experienced by the other operators,” the airlines said in a press release. “However, as an extra precautionary safety measure and in line with its commitment of putting safety above all else, Ethiopian has decided to pull out its four Dreamliners from operation and perform the special inspection requirements mandated by the US FAA.”
Ethiopian airlines, which has been operating the Dreamliner since mid-August last year, said it is working closely with Boeing to comply with the US FAA approved special inspection. “The airline aims to return the Dreamliners to service as soon as possible, after full compliance with the new procedure,” the press release said.
Until smoldering batteries forced safety regulators to ground Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner jets last week, the aircraft manufacturer was flying high, with soaring profits and a recently regained No. 1 ranking in jet deliveries over Airbus.
But the grounding, prompted by a battery fire on one jet and the emergency landing of another, has knocked Boeing off stride. Now, investors as well as government officials are paying close attention to see how big the issue becomes for the company, which is one of the nation’s biggest exporters.
ANA’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane after it made an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport, western Japan, Jan. 16, 2013. (AP)
January 17th, 2013
Aviation authorities around the world are grounding the Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jet following a safety warning issued by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Airlines in Chile, India and Europe are the latest to stop flying the jet, which already has been grounded in the U.S. and Japan. As of early Thursday, 39 of the 50 Dreamliners in operation around the world had been suspended.
The FAA, which sets the standard for global aviation regulators, on Wednesday warned that the next generation plane should not fly until the risk of battery fires is addressed.
The move came one day after one of the twin-engine, wide-bodied planes was forced to make an emergency landing in Japan when a cockpit warning indicated a battery malfunction and passengers smelled something burning.
Japan’s two biggest airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, grounded all their Dreamliners – 24 aircraft – after the incident. The crisis over the trouble-plagued plane widened following the FAA warning.
Late Wednesday, Chile’s LAN announced it would ground its three 787s, while India’s aviation agency ordered Air India to do the same with its fleet of six Dreamliners. The European Aviation Safety Agency also said it would follow the U.S. grounding order.
Even before Wednesday’s developments, recent problems with the 787 had prompted U.S. regulators to launch a safety review of the aircraft. A battery problem was believed to be the cause of a small fire that broke out aboard an empty 787 as it was being serviced on the ground in Boston. Other incidents have involved leaking fuel, a cracked windshield and brake problems.
Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney said in a statement late Wednesday that the U.S.-based company stands behind the plane’s “overall integrity,” and “deeply regrets” the impact the situation is having on passengers.
The company’s stock price fell 2 percent in trading after U.S. markets formally closed Wednesday.
New York (TADIAS) – An upcoming movie called Migrations by author and filmmaker Nelson George is one of ten films nominated by Tribeca Film Institute’s Heineken Affinity Award, a new platform for celebrating and creating awareness and dialogue around the work of emerging and established African American filmmakers.
Migrations is an adventure thriller featuring an international ring of art thieves led by an Ethiopian-German woman named Helen (played by Tigist Selam), whose objective is to recover ancient African artifacts from European galleries and collectors.
Tigist Selam heads a varied cast of actors that includes Saul Williams, Chyna Layne, Chris Rock, Osas Ighodaro, Roger Guenvuer Smith, Samson Styles, Rachel Nicks, Carl Hancock Rux, Tilly Scott Pederson and Melvin Van Peebles.
According to the the film’s synopsis, “Helen is in Berlin, raising cash for a new deal and picking up a valuable stolen Ethiopian medallion, when a co-worker is arrested in Belgium and she is told to shut down operations. This incites a mad dash that takes us to Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles and, finally, to Ethiopia as Helen is chased by Interpol. Helen knows where the last two medallions are located and that info puts her life in danger.”
The independent film was shot by Nelson George in several locations in the U.S., Europe and Africa using a Canon 60D camera in a documentary style and was self-financed.
All of the Affinity winners will receive an initial grant, but according to the Tribeca Film Institute, public vote will determine the selection of one of the filmmakers for an additional $20,000 cash award, as well as year-round project support and professional development from the institute.
The award will be announced during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.
ADDIS ABABA — An Ethiopian court has convicted ten people of having links to al-Qaida, but did not issue life sentences as the prosecution requested. The accused say they will appeal.
Prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years were handed to nine Ethiopians and one Kenyan on Tuesday after they were found guilty of having links with the terrorist organization al-Qaida. One Ethiopian was set free.
Lawyer Temam Ababulga defended one of the Ethiopians who was convicted on charges of terrorism recruiting. He says his client, like all the others convicted, will appeal the sentence.
“As to my client, because the sentence that is given to my client is not legal and based on the evidence,” said the lawyer. “Why the person that my client is said to be recruiting is set free, there is no evidence and legality under which the court can make my client guilty.”
Along with the al-Qaida charges, the ten were convicted for other charges such as recruitment, laundering money and leading terrorism cells. The death penalty can be given in Ethiopia for terrorism crimes but prosecutors requested life sentences.
The judge said the court did not hand out life sentences because of mitigating circumstances, such as the fact that none of the convicted had previous crime records.
Lawyer Temam believes the convicted were arrested for other reasons.
“I think in this particular case, somebody is trying to persuade somebody that there is a danger of terrorism in this country which I don’t think so. There is no proper evidence to persuade me to think in such a way in this particular case,” he said.
The Ethiopians and the Kenyan were arrested in April 2012 and charged under Ethiopia’s strong anti-terrorism law. International human rights organizations frequently criticize the law, saying the Ethiopian government is using it to silence dissident voices.
All the convicted will appeal their sentences in two weeks at the Federal Supreme Court.
Johannesburg – The 29th Africa Cup of Nations soccer games will commence on Saturday, January 19th at the National Stadium in Johannesburg with South Africa’s team, Bafana Bafana, playing against Cape Verde.
The host team received a visit from President Jacob Zuma today. “Zuma took time off his busy schedule to give a word of encouragement to the national team as they go into battle with some of the best on the continent,” the South African Football Association (SAFA) said in a statement.
The South African President dribbled a ball and held a private meeting with the players while also facing the media to address critics who say his country is not well-prepared for the continental gathering.
“Critics will always be there, some of them are paid to be critics and they are doing their job,” Zuma said. “I think we have done our best. Bear in mind that this tournament was supposed to be in Libya, so this tournament was not given the normal time for preparations and people who are making criticism forget that.”
Zuma added: “We had to start very late as a result of that. I am happy and I think we are ready and I think the country is ready. Fortunately, we have the facilities. We might not have done everything precisely because of how we got to host this edition but we are more than ready.”
Bafana coach Gordon Igesund said his team is grateful for the visit. “It is a privilege when the number one citizen of the country comes to meet the players and give support,” the coach said. “It is always important for the players and the whole team that he made time in his busy schedule to be with us today. We really feel honored.”
Zuma displayed his soccer skills before he was given two Bafana Bafana jerseys by team captain Bongani Khumalo.
In Pictures: President Jacob Zuma Visits Bafana Bafana (Photos from the team’s Facebook)
Foreign visitors to Lalibela were in for a nasty surprise on January 8, 2013, when they arrived at the holy churches and were told entrance fees had gone up by 160 percent overnight.
The fee went up from 350 Br to 910 Br to visit the Lalibela churches in the Amhara Regional State, an hour’s flight from Addis Abeba.
The town of Lalibela was buzzing, with numerous people making a living from the tourism industry bracing themselves for the impact of the price increase, amidst concerns over how foreign visitors would react. Over 56,000 foreign visitors were reported to have arrived in the town, 636Km north of the capital, in 2011/12.
Lieuwe Bos, 24, a medical student who has just finished his studies and was travelling across Ethiopia with his girlfriend, was unable to pay the fees last week and did not go in.
“This is a rip-off,” said Bos, a visitor from the Netherlands. “How can they increase it just like this? This is more than three times what you pay at the Louvre in Paris, and that is the best museum in the world.”
Hard-driving African music held court Saturday night at World Cafe Live. And though rhythms of Africa and its diaspora dominated the proceedings, drums had very little to do with this domination.
Debo Band, from Boston, has gone all in on the Ethiopian pop music of the 1970s, a veritable golden age of creativity in that venerable land. Though other groups, including Either/Orchestra, Debo’s Hub homeboys, have done homage to this music, none is as adventurous or unabashedly traditional as Debo.
Bazu Worku sported a slight smile as he crossed the finish line in the 41st Chevron Houston Marathon on Sunday.
But that smile broadened considerably as he made his rain-soaked victory lap with the Ethiopian flag draped over his shoulder — the reality of his first marathon win beginning to seep through.
Merima Mohammed perseveres through injury to win women’s Houston Marathon
By Corey Roepken
Merima Mohammed has been leaving her mark all over the world for the last four years. On Sunday, she left a running imprint on Houston that will not soon be forgotten.
Despite suffering from a lingering left leg injury, Mohammed ran away from the lead pack with five miles left and coasted to victory in the 41st Chevron Houston Marathon.
New York (TADIAS) – As South Africa prepares to host the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations later this week the prospects of the Ethiopian national team, which is participating in the tournament for the first time in 31 years, is also receiving attention in mainstream media, albeit a bit dismissive and putting the Ethiopian coach on the defensive.
Regardless of the outcome at the upcoming competition, Ethiopian fans around the world (some already on their way to South Africa) are excited to see their country return to the Africa Cup after more than three decades of absence.
And, despite the noise, coach Sewnet Bishaw recently told Reuters his team is prepared to give it its best shot. “Our confidence is sky high,” he said. “We are looking at going as far as we can with the first aim being the quarter-finals.”
Coach Sewnet’s remarks came in response to Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger’s statements that made headlines recently when he suggested that none of Walya’s players are part of the international big league. “It is maybe the only international competition today where you do not know all the players,” Wenger said at a press conference last week. “This time in South Africa you will have Ethiopia; if I ask you to name five Ethiopian players, I am sure you will have a problem,” Wenger added.
“He (Wenger) is absolutely right,” Coach Sewnet’s said in his reply. “But that will help our team, that we are unknown in this tournament.” Coach Sewnet’s answer was reflective of his disciplined team. “I am sure that will not be the case at the end of the tournament for everyone, including Arsene,” he added.
The team faces the defending champions Zambia on January 21st for its opening match. We wish coach Sewnet Bishaw and the Walya Antelopes all the best and are proud of their accomplishments!
— Video: Ethiopia Returns to Africa Cup 31 Years Later – The Guardian
New York (TADIAS) – Global efforts to eliminate the most common infectious cause of blindness, trachoma, has taken an ambitious step forward as mapping of the disease began in Ethiopia last week. The global survey, funded by the UK government, aims to see a sample of four million people across more than 30 countries examined by March 2015 to identify where people are living at risk and where treatment programs are needed.
According to a press release by Sightsavers, a British non-profit organization that heads the project, the blinding disease is already known to affect more than 21 million people but it is estimated that an additional 180 million people worldwide live in areas where trachoma is highly prevalent.
The first survey started this week in Oromia, in central Ethiopia where 22 million people live in suspected endemic areas. Five-year-old Bigiltuu Kefeni, and her family from Keta Town in the region were among the first of four million people to be examined by a specially trained ophthalmic nurse. The availability of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in their village was also recorded, with all data captured on a smart phone.
It is the first time that mobile data has been used to survey a global health issue on such a wide scale. The final data will be mapped and made available online at www.trachomaatlas.org.
ADDIS ABABA — A new study says the fastest-growing sectors of Ethiopia’s economy, such as telecommunications, land management and construction, are prone to corruption. A study conducted by the World Bank and the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was made public on Friday.
At the same time, the study praises Ethiopia for its generally low levels of corruption compared to other low-income countries.
Rupert Bladon of the World Bank says fast growing sectors are more vulnerable to corruption but that steps can be taken to reduce the practice.
“I think it needs a combination of efforts. I think you need strong regulatory frameworks, and also strong institutions and people working in those institutions helping to oversee the regulation of those,” he said. “In terms of areas where you have large procurement, it’s very important that there are transparent regulations that are being followed across the public sector.”
Fast growing sectors in developing countries such as Ethiopia are instrumental to economic growth. The study focused on eight different sectors.
The telecommunications sector is at high risk, according to the study, because of weak accountability and the monopoly position of the telecom service provider.
Abdurahim Ahmed of Ethiotelecom is not impressed with the findings of the research:
“The research states that this country has a strong policy framework. This means the policy of this company emanates from the government’s policy, which the research puts as a strong policy framework. So the monopolistic framework emanates from the country’s policy,” he said. “There is nothing that had been presented that correlates these two, the monopolistic nature and the reason that it will become prone to corruption.”
Ethiotelecom does not see corruption as a top priority at the moment, but they did say they would look into the report’s recommendation to improve accountability within the company.
The Ethiopian government has already started to change its land policy to reduce corruption. The chairman of the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Ali Suleiman says much more is administrated and registered than before:
“The government had no data which part of the land was occupied or owned by somebody. Because of this lack of registration it was easy for people, for engineers, for land managers, to corrupt with this plot of land,” he said. “But now a database has been started to be implemented and the procedures, how to get title deeds, how to prove ownership – all this starting from policy registrations and directives started to be implemented.”
Examples of other efforts to reduce corruption can be found in the construction sector. Any transaction over $162,000 (3 million Ethiopian birr) has to be published on a website. This is also an effort to change public perception. The study reports that the public perception does not correspond with the actual level of corruption.
Chairman Ali says the level of corruption is much lower than other low-income and developing countries, but that there is a perception that corruption is rampant in the East African country:
“In all sectors it proves there is a disparity between perception and reality. Our assignment is to see the reason why people perceive in such a way,” Ali added. “I think one reason because we lack transparence in our public services and maybe people they don’t differentiate between inefficiency and corruption – maybe any delay, any inefficiency, maybe translated to corruption.”
Ethiopia scored 113 out of 176 countries in the 2012 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog.
— Read more news at VOA.
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
San Francisco (TADIAS) – An art exhibition featuring works by Ethiopian artists residing in the United States is scheduled to open in the Bay Area this weekend. The event organized by the Ethiopian Arts Forum and the San Francisco Jazz Heritage Center takes place at center’s Lush Life Gallery from Saturday, January 12th to February 17th, 2013.
Among the artists highlighted include Yisehak Fikre-Sellassie, Ezra Wube, Solomon Asfaw, Tadesse Alemayehu, Tesfa Besu Amlak and Yohannes Tesfaye.
The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday, January 12th) from 6PM to 9PM and includes live jazz and discussion about Ethiopian art and music.
— If You Go:
SELEDA: Fine Art Exhibition
Opening: Saturday, January 12, 2013 (6PM – 9PM)
Jazz Heritage Center’s Lush Life Gallery
1320 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA
For more information call: 415-255-7745
Email: info@jazzheritagecenter.org Click here to learn more at the Jazz Heritage Center
— Related: New Exhibition Highlights the History of Africans in India
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – On the eve of an unimaginably long walk — one that starts in Africa, winds through the Middle East, across Asia, hops over to Alaska, goes down the western United States, then Central and South America and ends in Chile — one question nagged journalist Paul Salopek: Should he take his house keys?
Salopek on Thursday departed a small Ethiopian village and took the first steps of a planned 21,000-mile (34,000-kilometer) walk that will cross some 30 borders, where he will encounter dozens of languages and scores of ethnic groups. The 50-year-old’s quest is to retrace man’s first migration from Africa across the world in a go-slow journey that will force him to immerse himself in a variety of cultures so he can tell a global mosaic of people stories.
The Ethiopia-to-Chile walk — which took human ancestors some 50,000 years to make — is called Out of Eden and is sponsored by National Geographic, the Knight Foundation and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, the American plans to write one major article a year with periodic updates every 100 miles or so.
Addis Ababa – Ethiopian police have arrested two men suspected of involvement in the murder of an Austrian rafter shot dead during an apparent robbery of his travel group, an official from the force said on Thursday.
The 27-year-old man was killed as he camped on the banks of the Blue Nile river on Sunday in a remote area near Bahir Dar, about 570 km (350 miles) north of the capital Addis Ababa.
Three other Austrians on the scene were not injured.
“We have caught two suspects who were found in possession of clothing, money and other items that belonged to the victims,” said Solomon Mohammed, spokesperson of the regional police commission in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region.
Solomon said police were also looking into whether there was a political motive to the killing, but declined to go into details. Rebel groups are active in some of Ethiopia’s remote regions, but there has been no reports of such activity recently in Amhara.
The incident occurred almost exactly a year after five Europeans, including an Austrian, were killed when their travel group was attacked in the northeastern Afar region bordering Eritrea. – Reuters
— Austrian Tourist Killed in Ethiopia Attack (Reuters)
VIENNA | Mon Jan 7, 2013
An Austrian man was shot dead during an apparent robbery of his travel group that was rafting down the Blue Nile river in Ethiopia, the foreign ministry said on Monday.
Three other Austrians accompanying him were unharmed in the incident that occurred on Sunday in remote country near Bahir Dar, about 570 km (350 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa. The gunmen attacked the men as they camped on the shore, a spokesman said.
Ten Austrians in all were taking part in the tour.
The survivors alerted the Austrian embassy by satellite phone about the fatal shooting of the 27-year-old victim. The gunmen eluded a search party.
New York (TADIAS) – There is plenty of historical evidence that Ethiopian traders traveled to India as early as 2,000 years ago. The kingdom of Axum had established a very active commerce with India and Axumite gold coins minted between 320 and 333 AD had found their way to Mangalore in South India where they were discovered in the 20th century. Ivory, silver, gold, wine, olive oil, incense, wheat, rice, cotton cloth, silk, iron, copper, skins, salt, and sesame oil were some of the main items traded on both sides of the Indian Ocean and as far as China. Axum was also involved in the slave trade.
According to Dr. Sylviane Anna Diouf, an award-winning historian who studies the African Diaspora and the co-curator of an upcoming exhibition at New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture entitled Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers, there was another wave of Africans who arrived in India beginning in the 1100s both as free and enslaved people, among them Ethiopians.
“The most celebrated of the Ethiopian leaders was Malik Ambar (1548-1626). Born in Kambata, southwestern Ethiopia, he was enslaved as a young man and taken to Mocha in Yemen,” Dr. Sylviane said. “He was later sent to Arabia where he was educated in finance before being brought to Baghdad, Iraq. [Malik’s birth name was Chapu] Converted to Islam, Chapu was renamed Ambar (ambergris in Arabic). He was sold and sent to India where he arrived in the early 1570s. He became a slave of Chengiz Khan (believed to have been an Ethiopian), the prime minister of the sultanate of Ahmadnagar.” She added: “Freed upon Chengiz Khan’s death in 1575, Ambar left Ahmadnagar to become a commander in Bijapur where he was granted the title Malik (the Great). In 1595, he went back to Ahmadnagar, putting himself and his army in the service of another Ethiopian, Abhang Khan. By the turn of the 17th century, Malik Ambar had an army of 10,000 African cavalry and infantrymen. In 1600, he gave his daughter in marriage to a 20-year old prince, installed him as sultan, and ruled in his place as regent and prime minister. Fateh Khan, Malik Ambar’s son, inherited his father’s position as prime minister. Fateh Khan married the daughter of another Ethiopian, Yaqut Khan, one of the most powerful nobles of Bijapur. In 1636, Fateh Khan poisoned Sultan Murtaza Nizam Shah III and installed the sultan’s son in his place. Fateh Khan held the real power until the Mughals conquered the sultanate.”
Dr. Sylviane, who is also the Curator of Digital Collections at The Schomburg Center and Director of The Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Institute, said trade between East Africa and India was boosted with the spread of Islam. Indian Muslims from Gujarat migrated to African trading towns in Kenya, Zanzibar and the Comoros Islands where they worked with African and Arab merchants. While African traders traveled to and from India, some settled.
One of the images included in the show depicts a painting of Bilal, known to be of Ethiopian origin, was among Prophet Muhammad’s earliest converts. “He became the first muezzin of Islam, the man who calls to prayer from the mosque minaret.”
The African men and women who were taken to India through the early slave trade were known there as Habshi and Sidi (Siddi, derived either from sayyidi, my lord in Arabic; or from saydi, meaning captive or prisoner of war). They came mostly from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and adjoining areas. Muslim, Ethiopian Christian, and Indian traders preyed on people they all considered “pagans.” Those bought for the Muslim world were converted to Sunni Islam. Trained as soldiers they were highly prized for their military skills. It is among these men that the generals, commanders, and rulers emerged.
During his travels in India, from the 1330s to 1340s, Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta had remarked that the Habshis of Gujarat “are the guarantors of safety on the Indian Ocean; let there be but one of them on a ship and it will be avoided by the Indian pirates and idolaters.”
Besides appearing in written documents, Africans in India have been immortalized in the rich paintings of different eras, states, and styles that form an important component of Indian culture, also leaving an impressive architectural legacy.
“The imposing forts, mosques, mausoleums, and other edifices they built — some more than 500 years ago — still grace the Indian landscape,” Dr. Sylviane said. “They left their mark in the religious realm too. The 14th century African Muslim Sufi saint Bava Gor and his sister, Mai Misra, have devotees of all origins. Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Zoroastrians frequent their shrines.”
Politically speaking the “Abyssinian Party” as it was called dominated the Bijapur Sultanate starting in 1580 and conquered new territories until the Mughal invasion in 1686. The Africans were de facto rulers because sultans were frequently involved in mysticism and the arts, and often left the governing responsibilities to their vizier or chief ministers. Bijapur was thus governed, if not ruled, by nine successive African viziers.
In regards to commerce, in the 1300s Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta met Ethiopian merchants in what are now India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. The most famous African trader was Bava Gor (Sidi Mubarak Nob). He came from East Africa during the 14th century and made Ratanpur in Gujarat his home. He became the patron saint of the agate bead industry and is credited with increasing the trade of quartz stone between East Africa, the Persian Gulf, and India.
The exhibition at the Schomburg Center that is also curated by Dr. Kenneth X. Robbins is scheduled to open early next month. It features 109 images displayed in 33 panels, including photographic reproductions of paintings which are held in different collections in Europe, India and the United States. They come from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, the British Library in London, the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland, the Francesca Galloway in London, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Musée des Arts Asiatiques Guimet in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the San Diego Museum of Art, as well as the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, The Kenneth and Joyce Robbins Collection, The Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace in London, and the Freer Gallery of Art.
Below are images from the show courtesy of the Schomburg Center.
New York (TADIAS) – Last week we highlighted an upcoming documentary entitled Girl Rising, which is scheduled for release in Spring 2013. The feature-length film displays the power of access to education in the life of a girl residing in a developing nation. Each girl’s story is told by a talented writer from her native country. The script writer for the segment on Ethiopia is Maaza Mengiste, author of the critically acclaimed novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. In preparation for the documentary, Maaza spent time with a young girl from a village outside of Bahir Dar.
Below is our interview with Maaza Mengiste.
TADIAS: Please tell us about how you got involved with the film?
Maaza Mengiste: I was living in Rome when Richard Robbins, the director of the film, contacted me about the project. I learned more about it then spoke further with two of the producers, Martha Adams and Alex Dionne. I was skeptical at first about whether this could really happen, but soon, I was on a plane to Addis, then a smaller plane to Bahir Dar, then on a very shaky Land Rover through mountain roads to Yilmana Densa to visit Azmera and her family.
The main focus of the 10×10 campaign is to show audiences how educating one girl can impact her entire family and her community and make positive changes. Each of the 10 segments in the 10×10 film highlights a country and the biggest obstacles preventing girls from getting their education. It’s different in each country and in Ethiopia, the biggest issue is forced early marriage. This film is different from so many of those charity programs or other documentaries we see. It’s not about the tragic lives of people in poor countries. This film is about how these young girls took their own first steps in making their lives better. They aren’t asking for charity. They only want the right to fulfill their potential and go to school. The idea of working on a project that told stories of how young girls were changing their own lives, rather than waiting for adults, fascinated me.
TADIAS: Can you also tell us a bit about your script and character?
Maaza: This is a documentary film, but Richard gave me full freedom to create what I wanted based on the time I spent with Azmera and her family. I talked to her and found her to be painfully shy, like a typical abesha girl. But something else was there also, a quiet strength and a stubbornness I saw when she played with her cousins. I also witnessed the intense love her family has for her. She is adored. I was interested to put this picture next to the image of a young girl forced to marry a stranger when she wasn’t even a teenager. But I had a chance to talk to her mother and other family members and the story that emerged helped me to write my script and find a focus of how to write about their lives.
TADIAS: The 10×10 site also features a book club focused on your novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze as well as articles and policy briefs on Ethiopia. Can you tell us more?
Maaza: Each of the writers on the project (there are 10) has a specially designed book club tool kit available on the 10×10 website. That tool kit gives you step-by-step instructions on how to host your own book club, how to invite people, how to facilitate discussions, what questions you can ask, and even has an in-depth interview with the writer. It’s a wonderful way to get involved with the 10×10 project beyond the film.
TADIAS: What do you see as the primary challenge for girls seeking access to education in rural Ethiopia?
Maaza: It was heartbreaking to see how hard young girls were trying to go to school and get their education. They are intelligent, they are eager, they are determined, but they don’t have the simple resources to attend school. They are needed to work at home and take care of family or bring in extra income. I think the primary challenge involves finding ways for families to be able to send their daughters to school and still survive financially. It wouldn’t take much, and there are good organizations helping, but more needs to be done and I hope this film raises that awareness. I hope the film shows the world that these young Ethiopian girls have had the courage to fight for their future, and now they want the ability to continue living their dream of going to school. I am so very proud of each of them, and of Azmera and her family.
Washington, D.C. – ESAT is reporting that FBI is currently investigating an alleged assassination plot against U.S.-based Ethiopian journalist and opposition activist Abebe Gellaw. The FBI has not confirmed the report.
According to Ethiomedia, Boston FBI spokesman Greg Comcowich said he wouldn’t go into details but noted that the FBI takes such type of crimes seriously.
ADDIS ABABA — An Ethiopian journalist lost an appeal on Tuesday against a five-year prison sentence for her role in promoting subversive plots by a rebel group.
Reyot Alemu, a columnist at the now-defunct Feteh newspaper, and fellow journalist Woubishet Taye were found guilty a year ago of conspiring to participate in attacks under the orders of rebel groups and sentenced to 14 years behind bars. The pair were arrested in July 2011.
An appeals court reduced Reyot’s sentence to five years in August and dropped two of the three charges to leave just the promotion of “terrorist activity.”
A subsequent appeal to dismiss the case altogether, however, was rejected on Tuesday and she faces another three years and three months in prison, having already served more than 19 months.
On 21 September 2012 Hailemariam Desalegn was sworn in as Ethiopia’s prime minister. He was regarded as a compromise candidate and many Ethiopians expected more political freedom. 100 days on, hope is fading.
A few days before Ethiopia’s new prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, was sworn in, the Ethiopian government pardoned 2,000 political prisoners.
Desalegn’s inauguration coincided with the Orthodox New Year which falls in September. At the same time the Ethiopian government started negotiations in Kenya with the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a separatist group based in the eastern part of the country.
The Ethiopian government classifies the armed wing of ONLF as “terrorists”. When the new prime minister hinted at the prospect of peace talks with arch rival Eritrea, many Ethiopians believed they were finally entering a new era of political sunshine.
The 47-year-old engineer and father of three daughters, is considered moderate and affable, compared to Meles Zenawi, Desalegn’s charismatic predecessor. Zenawi ruled the country with an increasingly iron fist following the bloody 2005 elections.
A technocrat, Hailemariam Desalegn was a former provincial governor, foreign minister and deputy prime minister. He was also one of the closest confidants of Zenawi. Since he comes from one of Ethiopia’s smallest ethnic groups, the Wolayta, many saw Desalagn as the best compromise candidate in the midst of political and economic infighting between the dominant Amhara, Oromos and Tigreer ethnic groups.
Patricia Schultz redefined the concept of bucket lists when her book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die hit stores in 2003 and was updated in 2011. It was and continues to be a hit, with a dizzying checklist of the popular and the exotic travel spots.
Now Schultz, who produced a Travel Channel show based on the book, leads a trip to Ethiopia in the spring that visits many UNESCO World Heritage Sites as well as the capital, Addis Ababa.
New York (TADIAS) – At the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting in New York City two years ago, New York Times columnist and author Nicholas Kristof moderated a panel discussion focused on better preparing girls for the world, launching the 10×10 project – a film and social action campaign that highlights the significance of investing in girls and compels people to action. Ethiopia is among the countries featured in the upcoming documentary entitled Girl Rising, which is scheduled for release in Spring 2013.
The feature-length film displays the power of access to education in the life of a girl residing in a developing nation; each girl’s story is told by a talented writer from her native country. The script writer for the segment on Ethiopia is Maaza Mengiste, author of the critically acclaimed novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. In preparation for the documentary, Maaza spent time with a young girl from a village outside of Bahir Dar.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose globe-trotting tour as secretary of state was abruptly halted last month by a series of health problems, was discharged from a New York hospital on Wednesday evening after several days of treatment for a blood clot in a vein in her head.
The news of her release was the first welcome sign in a troubling month that grounded Mrs. Clinton — preventing her from answering questions in Congress about the State Department’s handling of the lethal attack on an American mission in Libya or being present when President Obama announced Senator John Kerry as his choice for her successor when she steps down as secretary of state.
“Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery,” Philippe Reines, a senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton, said in a statement.
Watch: Hillary Clinton Hospitalized With Blood Clot (Associated Press Video)
By Matthew Lee
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital Sunday after the discovery of a blood clot stemming from the concussion she sustained earlier this month.
Clinton’s doctors discovered the clot Sunday while performing a follow-up exam, her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said. He would not elaborate on the location of the clot but said Clinton is being treated with anti-coagulants and would remain at New York-Presbyterian Hospital for at least the next 48 hours so doctors can monitor the medication.
“Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion,” Reines said in a statement. “They will determine if any further action is required.” Clinton, 65, fell and suffered a concussion while at home alone in mid-December as she recovered from a stomach virus that left her severely dehydrated. The concussion was diagnosed Dec. 13 and Clinton was forced to cancel a trip to North Africa and the Middle East that had been planned for the next week.
New York (TADIAS) – The Walya Antelopes, Ethiopia’s national soccer team, have enlisted a trio of foreign-based Ethiopian players as part of the line-up for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations 2013, which is set to commence on January 19th in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Coach Sewnet Bishaw has chosen 28-year-old Swedish-born midfielder Yussuf Saleh and 21-year-old Ethiopian-American footballer Fuad Ibrahim, in addition to the team’s star striker Saladin Said who plays abroad for Wadi Degla in Egypt. Yussuf comes from the Swedish football club Syrianska, while Fuad is currently playing for the Minnesota Stars in the North American Soccer League.
The head coach Seyoum Kebede toldStar Africa that he “has high hopes his youthful team have a bright future.”
Ethiopia is scheduled in group “C” and faces Zambia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. The Walya’s opening match is against the defending champions Zambia on January 21st.
(CNN) — It could be the spartan living environment, or perhaps growing up in the thin air nearly 3,000 meters above sea level — or maybe it’s the influence of a legendary local coach.
Whatever its secret, a remote mountain town in Ethiopia has produced a string of world-beating distance runners.
Three-time Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba is the current cream of a crop that has helped put Bekoji on the map. Like many from her area, she was clearly born to run.
“Running is for me my job, but also my source of entertainment,” the 27-year-old told CNN’s Human to Hero series.
Congress approved a plan to end Washington’s long drama over the “fiscal cliff” late Tuesday after House Republicans surrendered to President Obama’s demand to let taxes rise on the nation’s richest households.
The House voted 257 to 167 to send the measure to Obama for his signature; the vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from California and the minority leader, arrived on Capitol Hill to meet with House Democrats and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday. (Reuters)
CAPITOL HILL — The U.S. Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan agreement to spare most Americans from steep tax hikes and delay across-the-board federal spending cuts imposed by the so-called “fiscal cliff”.
The vote of 89-8 early Tuesday came hours after the United States had technically stepped off the fiscal cliff.
President Barack Obama praised the Senate action and urged the House of Representatives to pass the bill “without delay.” The bill needs approval by the House of Representatives before it can be signed into law.
The House plans to convene at noon Tuesday.
Senators spent New Year’s Eve preparing to vote on a bill that was the product of months of intensive and often bitter negotiations between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and the White House.
VP urged compromise
Before the vote, Vice President Joe Biden came to the Capitol to rally Senate Democrats behind closed doors. He emerged with a broad grin, saying, “Happy New Year. I feel very good about how this vote is going to go.”
The agreement preserves current federal tax rates on income up to $450,000 a year. President Barack Obama initially sought a lower income threshold for a tax hike, while many Republicans had argued against raising taxes at all.
The agreement also spares estates valued at less than $5 million from inheritance taxes, and extends unemployment benefits for a year. Deep automatic cuts to federal spending that would have squeezed domestic programs as well as national defense would be delayed for two months, allowing time for further negotiations.
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California expressed optimism, saying, “I feel it is very good for my state, and I think it is good for the country.”
Boxer says, without the agreement, the United States would suffer a devastating economic jolt.
“My main concern here is keeping this economic recovery going, and I think this package does that,” she said.
No one completely happy
The Senate’s top Republican, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said members of his caucus voted for the common good.
“We [Republicans] do not think taxes should be going up on anyone. But we all knew that if we did nothing, they would be going up on everyone today,” said McConnell. “We were not going to let that happen.”
To be sure, many Democrats believe the deal does not go far enough to boost government revenue, and many Republicans still want deeper spending cuts to reduce America’s trillion-dollar federal deficit.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein says the agreement is far from ideal, but preferable to the fiscal cliff.
“There is always going to be some carping [partisan complaints]. But look, we are where we are,” said Feinstein. “The one thing we have now is a bipartisan majority [backing the deal], and that is not to be easily dismissed.”
Whether a bipartisan majority backs the deal in the House of Representatives remains to be seen. Until and unless the measure is passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law, the austerity regime known as the fiscal cliff – which went into effect at midnight Monday – will remain U.S. law.
Watch: Senate Votes on Compromise Fiscal Cliff Deal
—- Related: The Fiscal Deadline in Washington: The New York Times is following the talks between President Obama and Congressional leaders on the so-called fiscal cliff.
ADDIS ABABA – Innovative Ethiopian footwear manufacturer Sole Rebels will open its second retail outlet in Taiwan this year. With ambitions to open 30 more franchise stores across the world in countries like the United States, Australia, Italy and Japan, Sole Rebels, the largest African footwear brand, is now fast becoming a global competitive brand.
The company currently sells its innovative range of artisan shoes made from recycled materials in 55 countries and is now one of Ethiopia’s thriving businesses with a major presence on e-commerce sites such as Amazon. Its success reflects this Horn of Africa nation’s growing footwear-manufacturing industry as Chinese businesses are increasingly investing in the sector here.
Founded in 2005 by Ethiopian entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun, who wanted to create jobs and sustainable prosperity in her country, Sole Rebels made two million dollars in sales in 2011 and is expecting to generate over 15 to 20 million dollars in revenue by 2015.
“We are extremely excited to open a Sole Rebels store in the heart of Taichung. Taichung is a footwear epicentre, home to the Asian design centre for the planet’s largest footwear brands,” Bethlehem told IPS.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s spy agency says that security forces have arrested 15 people alleged to be members of a terror cell linked with al-Qaida.
The spy agency says military training manuals, videos and weapons were seized from the suspects. The agency announced the arrests late Wednesday.
Authorities said the suspects were trained by al-Shabab militants in neighboring Somalia and Kenya. They alleged the group was planning to launch attacks based in Ethiopia’s Somali and Harara regions.
On Tuesday the country’s federal high court convicted 10 people on similar terror charges.
Nations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia have welcomed in the new year as celebrations unfold around the globe.
Fireworks lit up the sky over dozens of cities to celebrate the arrival of 2013, including festivities in Athens, Moscow and London. Dubai marked the new year with a light show at the world’s tallest building, while in Italy, Pope Benedict visited the nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square. Asian countries were the first to ring in the new year with big fireworks displays in Sydney and Hong Kong.
Johannesburg (TADIAS) – Preparations are underway for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa, and Ethiopia’s national team (The Walya Antelopes), that qualified for the tournament for the first time since 1982, is also gearing up for the continent’s most prestigious soccer competition, which kicks off on January 19th in Johannesburg.
By all accounts the past year has been very productive for Ethiopia. The website SouthAfrica.info noted, their games included a tie against the host country, which led to the firing of South Africa’s coach Pitso Mosimane “after a string of unconvincing results.”
The Walya Antelopes, popularly nicknamed “The Black Lions,” also advanced past Benin and Sudan on “the away goals rule” after a draw with Benin followed by victory over Sudan, against whom they lost 5-3 in Khartoum and then beat 2-0 in Addis.
The team’s star players are striker Saladin Said, who plays abroad for Wadi Degla in Egypt, and Adane Girma of Ethiopia’s Saint George Club, who was voted the best player in the Ethiopian Premier League in 2011.
Speaking about Saladin his former coach Belgian Walter Meeuws is quoted as saying: “Said is a very skilful player, technically strong, good speed and a good positioning as striker. He reads very well the game and the last year he became stronger in both power and physical strength.”
2012 was a year when political leaders and top health officials freely spoke of attaining an AIDS-free generation. In November, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unveiled a blueprint for achieving that goal.
Secretary Clinton said not long ago it would have been impossible to speak of an AIDS-free generation.
“Now by an AIDS-free generation, I mean one where, first, virtually no children are born with the virus. Second, as these children become teenagers and adults they are at far lower risk of becoming infected than they would be today, thanks to a wide range of prevention tools. And third, if they do acquire HIV, they have access to treatment that helps prevent them from developing AIDS and passing the virus on to others,” she said.
Mrs. Clinton made the comment in a speech at the National Institutes of Health. She said that HIV may be with us well into the future, but the disease that it causes need not be.”
“Now, while the finish line is not yet in sight we know we can get there because now we know the route we need to take. It requires all of us to put a variety of scientifically proven prevention tools to work in concert with each other,” she said.
Those tools include effective treatment, male circumcision, eliminating stigma and discrimination and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. It’s a combination approach to stopping the spread of HIV.
Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS advocacy group AVAC, applauds the U.S. blueprint for an AIDS-free generation.
“That was by far the culmination of a great year. That blueprint, which she put out, really recommits the U.S. government to a bold agenda to both provide both direct support for treatment and for prevention around the world. It also throws down the challenge to countries all over the world to really step it up and join the U.S. government in this commitment,” he said.
But Warren said bold speeches must be followed by bold actions.
“2012 will certainly be remembered as the year when the conversation changed. The big question is will we see movement beyond just the conversation,” he said.
Warren said besides outlining the immediate needs in fighting the epidemic, Mrs. Clinton’s address also highlighted the importance of scientific research.
“The same research that got us to this point is just as important going forward, particularly around the search for a microbicide and the search for a vaccine and eventually a cure,” he said.
In the last few years there’s been promising research in both vaccines and microbicides. However, follow-up studies are not expected to provide any findings until 2014 or later.
“So it’s a longer term trajectory, a longer horizon, but the science is as exciting as it’s ever been in AIDS vaccines. And certainly we need to keep pushing for that longer term solution even as we deliver on the tools that we have today,” said warren.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the top U.S. scientists working on HIV/AIDS. He’s head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At July’s International AIDS Conference in Washington, he said learning how HIV replicates revealed some of its weaknesses.
“It’s that kind of basic science which brings us to the next step. And that is the step of interventions, predominantly in the arena of treatment and prevention,” he said.
Dr. Fauci called for a “care continuum…That is seeking out, testing, linking to care, treating when eligible and making sure they adhere.”
AVAC’s Mitchell Warren said the international AIDS conference held much promise. But 2013 will determine whether it’s a promise fulfilled.
“If in mid-2013 or World AIDS Day 2013, we look back and say, wow, that conference told us it was possible and we blew it — we blew the opportunity of changing the way we did our work — then it will have been an enormous failure. 2013 needs to be the year that we really transition from rhetoric to reality. . 2013 needs to be the year that we really transition from rhetoric to reality,” he said.
As the New Year begins, an unwelcome realty will be continued tight international spending, as many advocates hope to gear up research, treatment and prevention.
—- Related: Audio: Listen to De Capua report on HIV in 2012
New York (TADIAS) – From the death of former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to the apparent suicide of Alem Dechasa, and from the surprise results at the London Olympic games to the decisive re-election of President Barack Obama, 2012 has been a year of many lessons and historic transformations.
The televised abuse of Alem Dechasa, the Ethiopian woman that was violently mistreated outside the Ethiopian embassy in Lebanon last March, and her suspicious suicide a few days later, was one of the most watched and heartbreaking stories we covered this year: (In Memory of Alem Dechassa: Reporting & Mapping Domestic Migrant Worker Abuse)
The mysterious absence, illness and death of PM Meles Zenawi was by far the biggest political news of the year in our community. On July 15th the 57-year-old prime minister failed to show up for an African Union meeting that he had religiously attended without absence since the early 90’s. What followed next was several weeks of bizarre secrecy by the Ethiopian government and repeated pronouncements of vague assurances by officials about the status of the PM’s health. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was eventually declared dead on August 20th and was given a state funeral on September 2nd, 2012 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa. The confusing summer frenzy also exposed the weakness of the flummoxed political opposition in the Diaspora as disorganized and fractured, neither inspiring confidence nor prepared for public leadership and responsibility.
What was inspiring in 2012, however, was the spectacular performance of our women athletes at the London Olympics. Ethiopia earned seven medals this year, three of them gold, courtesy of Tirunesh Dibaba, Meseret Defar and Tiki Gelana — making the country the leader in Africa on the athletics medal count and globally trailing only the United States, Russia, Jamaica and England.
Here are images from some of the biggest stories of 2012.
“This concert has encouraged the students to continue studying and working a lot,” says Yared School director Tadele Tilahun. “In Ethiopia, there has not been an orchestra concert in the last 30 to 40 years purely formed by students or teachers of Ethiopia.”
Around for over four decades, Yared, which is part of Addis Ababa University, has become a special spot for budding musicians, often fresh out of secondary school. To enrol, candidates must all demonstrate musical talent. But aside from that, each student’s story is unique.
New York (TADIAS) – In 2012 we lost Ethiopia’s most famous painter, Maitre Artiste Afewerk Tekle, who died last Spring at the age of 80 and was laid to rest at the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa on April 14th. Speaking about his life-long dedication to the fine arts, Afewerk Tekle once said: “At the end of the day, my message is quite simple. I am not a pessimist, I want people to look at my art and find hope. I want people to feel good about Ethiopia, about Africa, to feel the delicate rays of the sun. And most of all, I want them to think: Yitchalal! [It’s possible!]” Our coverage of Afewerk’s passing was one of the most shared articles from Tadias magazine this year: (In Memory of Maitre Artiste Afewerk Tekle: His Life Odyssey).
Below are other arts and culture stories that captured our attention in 2012.
Marcus Samuelsson’s Memoir ‘Yes, Chef’
Marcus Samuelsson released his best-selling memoir Yes, Chef back in June. From contracting tuberculosis at age 2, losing his birth mother to the same disease, and being adopted by a middle-class family in Sweden, Marcus would eventually break into one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, rising to become a top chef with a resume including cooking at the White House as a guest chef for President Obama’s first State Dinner three years ago. Since then, Marcus has morphed into a brand of his own, both as an author and as owner of Red Rooster in Harlem. Earlier this year, Tseday Alehegn interviewed Marcus about his book.
Watch: Tadias interview with Marcus Samuelsson
Dinaw Mengestu Named MacArthur ‘genius’ Fellow
Ethiopian American novelist and writer Dinaw Mengestu was named a MacArthur genius Fellow in September. The Associated Press reported Dinaw’s selection along with the full list of 22 other winners. Dinaw is the author of The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air. In addition to the two novels, he has written for several publications, including Rolling Stone, Jane Magazine, Harper’s, and The Wall Street Journal. According to MacArthur Foundation, the “genius grant” is a recognition of the winners “originality, insight, and potential” and each person will receive $500,000 over the next five years. Below is a video of Dinaw discussing the award.
Ethiopia at Miss Universe 2012
Helen Getachew (Photo credit: Miss Universe)
After years of absence from the Miss Universe pageant, Ethiopia graced the global stage this year represented by 22-year-old Helen Getachew. The competition was held in Las Vegas on December 19, 2012. Women from over 80 countries participated in the 61st annual contest. The new Miss Universe is Miss USA Olivia Culpo, a 20-year-old beauty queen from Rhode Island and the first American to claim the coveted title since 1997. Olivia was crowned Miss Universe 2012 by Miss Universe 2011 Leila Lopes of Angola. Over the next year Olivia will hit the road on behalf of her cause: HIV/AIDS prevention as mentioned on her official pageant profile.
A Prodigy Reviving Ethiopian Jazz & A Rock Band from Ethiopia Called Jano
Samuel Yirga (Photo courtesy of Worldisc)
Two distinctly different Ethiopian musical acts emerged in 2012 that are sure to dominate the entertainment scene in the coming year. Samuel Yirga (pictured above) is a U.S.-based pianist from Ethiopia whose debut album Guzo has won critical acclaim. Here is how NPR described the artist and his work in its recent review of his new CD: “A 20-something prodigy, Yirga is too young to have experienced the Ethio-jazz movement of the early 1970s, but he has absorbed its music deeply — and plenty more as well. With his debut release, Guzo (Journey) Yirga both revives and updates Ethiopian jazz.” Likewise, the new Ethiopian rock band Jano is also influenced by legendary musicians of the same era, but as their producer Bill Laswell put it: They don’t join the ranks of Ethiopian music, they break the rules.” Below is the latest music video teaser by Jano.
Teddy Afro Abroad
Teddy Afro pictured during a surprise party thrown for him at Meaza Restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia following his performance at Echostage in Washington D.C on Friday, November 23rd, 2012. (Photo: By Matt Andrea for Tadias Magazine)
Two Ethiopian American Bands Make a Splash: Debo & CopperWire
Debo Band is an 11-member Boston-based group led by Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and fronted by vocalist Bruck Tesfaye. (Courtesy Photo)
In its thumbs-up review of Debo band’s self-titled first album released this year, NPR noted: “The particular beauty of Debo Band is that you don’t have to be an ethnomusicologist to love it: It’s all about the groove. Debo Band transforms the Ethiopian sound through the filter of its members’ collective subconscious as imaginative and plugged-in 21st-century musicians…The swooning, hot romance of Yefikir Wegene bursts up from the same ground as the funky horns of Ney Ney Weleba. From that hazy shimmer of musical heat from faraway Addis, a thoroughly American sound emerges.” Similarly, another Ethiopian American musical ensemble that made a splash this year is the sci-fi trio ‘CopperWire’ that produced the futuristic album Earthbound. The hip-hop space opera takes place in the year 2089 featuring three renegades from another world who hijack a spacecraft and ride it to Earth, and eventually land in Ethiopia. Watch below CopperWire’s music video ET Phone Home.
Fendika Dancers’s First Solo American Tour
Melaku Belay and Zenash Tsegaye of Fendika Dancers (Courtesy photo )
After thrilling New York audiences at Lincoln Center in summer 2011, members of the Addis Ababa-based musical troupe, Fendika, returned to the East Coast for their first solo tour in 2012 with stops that included New York, Washington, D.C, Boston, Hartford, Connecticut and Smithfield, Rhode Island.
Mahmoud Ahmed, Gosaye Tesfaye and Selam Woldemariam at the Historic Howard Theatre
Mahmoud Ahmed performs at Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 26th, 2012. (Photo by Matt Andrea)
Mahmoud Ahmed and Gosaye Tesfaye performed at the historic Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. during a Memorial Day weekend concert on Saturday, May 26th, 2012. It was the first time that Ethiopian music was featured at the iconic venue, which re-opened in April following a $29 million renovation. The event was organized by Massinko Entertainment, and also included an appearance by guitarist Selam Woldemariam whose collaborative concerts with Brooklyn-based musician Tomas Donker at Summer Stage in New York was part of the biggest entertainment stories that we covered this year.
Journalist Bofta Yimam Nominated for Regional Emmy Awards
Bofta Yimam is an Ethiopian American reporter currently working for Fox 13 News in Memphis, Tennessee. (Courtesy photo)
Last but not least, Ethiopian American Journalist Bofta Yimam who is a reporter for Fox 13 News in Memphis, Tennessee, was nominated this year for Regional Emmy Awards by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Nashville/Mid-South Chapter) for her journalism work. The winners will be announced on Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville where the ceremony will be telecast live beginning at 8:00 PM. Below is a video of Tsedey Aragie’s interview with Bofta Yimam.
The internship provides college students from the United States an opportunity to work with organizations that are headquartered in Ethiopia.
“USCSE also engages U.S. college students in a service project designed to involve local high school and college students in civic engagement and empowering themselves,” the organization said in a press release. “USCSE’s ability to provide unmatched internships in Ethiopia for college students from the United States has made it an exciting opportunity that has garnered a lot of interest in Ethiopia and the United States.”
“We are very excited to operate USCSE for the third consecutive year,” Samuel Gebru, the program’s founder said in a statement. “EGI functions based on the generosity of donors. These crucial contributions provide a minimal budget that we must maximize. We have increased the value of USCSE and look forward securing the necessary support to expand and develop.”
— To learn more and apply, please visit www.ethgi.org/uscse. Applications are open to full-time students at four-year colleges or universities in the United States and are due on January 31.
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
Ethiopia has struggled with a shortage of qualified doctors for years. In an effort to resolve that, it’s vastly increased the sizes of existing classes and opened 13 new schools. But critics say Ethiopia is training a generation of woefully unqualified doctors.
The pediatrics wing of St. Paul’s Hospital in Addis Ababa is a busy place. Nervous parents move in and out, waiting for their kids to be seen.
There aren’t a lot of doctors here, but there is one group of people that seems to be everywhere: young, white-coated medical students.
Until recently, Ethiopia had just one physician for every 100,000 people, but now the country is dramatically increasing the number of doctors it produces.
This year, the government opened 13 new medical schools, which more than doubled the number in the country. Ethiopia has also been increasing enrollment at existing schools.
“This year, for the first time, we enrolled 3,100 medical students, which is almost tenfold compared to what we used to enroll five, six years ago,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Ethiopia’s foreign minister, who until recently served as minister of health.
Tedros says Ethiopia’s severe physician shortage is one of the country’s most pressing concerns.
Watch: A Glimpse Inside an Ethiopian Medical School
Washington, DC (TADIAS) – Last week I hosted the second public forum on mental health here in Washington, D.C. The interactive get-together attracted over 100 participants from across the country who joined the conversation via conference call as well as an online live stream channel in addition to those who attended in person at the Shaw Neighborhood Library.
I am happy to report that it was another fruitful and educational event. My only regret is that we ran out of time before we could cover all the speakers because we did not assign and monitor time segments properly, which we will fix next time.
One of the key point that was repeatedly emphasized at the meeting was the need to incorporate religious leaders in this dialogue as well as in the treatment and healing process for individuals. There are studies that show that the close knit and communal nature of our culture does play a protective role in preventing mental illness.
As tax payers we do have the right to vocalize the importance of including natural remedies to be recognized as part of the treatment plan by lobbying the appropriate government agencies that write the policies governing health service providers.
It was also noted that there is an abundance of health professionals among the Ethiopian & Eritrean populations in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, but that talent pool is under-utilized. Often medical professionals are at the forefront of this fight and if given the proper training could recognize any ongoing mental health issues as they are developing, most importantly as it relates to substance abuse and addiction.
We also learned that the World Health Organization has partnered with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to implement a Mental Health program in Ethiopia that could also be used as a resource.
The impact of Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD), which is commonly found among war veterans in this country, is another mental health problem that affects immigrants who have witnessed violence in close proximity, and how detrimental these effects are on a person’s psychological well-being, especially for those who have experienced violence in the Horn of Africa. Another issue raised was the impact of political oppression and how it affects an individual’s psychological makeup.
We also received an update from the working-team that was tasked to conduct research. The advocacy-group is led by the organization “My Love in Action” and they are to come up with a needs assessment survey, and create outreach programs geared towards collaborating with organizations that work with professionals in the behavioral science fields, including educational institutions, as well as student associations. They are making progress but they need your help so please get involved.
Sadly, our event took place the day following the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut where a 20-year-old gunman shot and killed 26 people – mostly children – at Sandy Hook Elementary School before committing suicide himself. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the victims’ families.
Below is a short video featuring clips from the “Second Community Forum on Mental Health” held on Saturday December 15th. I will keep you posted on future gatherings. In the meantime, you can follow updates on twitter @MyLoveInAction.
Watch: Clips from the “Second Community Forum on Mental Health” held on December 15th
New York – Four Ethiopian journalists have received the prestigious Hellman/Hammett award for 2012 in recognition of their efforts to promote free expression in Ethiopia, one of the world’s most restricted media environments.
Eskinder Nega Fenta, an independent journalist and blogger; Reeyot Alemu Gobebo of the disbanded weekly newspaper Feteh; Woubshet Taye Abebe of the now-closed weekly newspaper Awramba Times; and Mesfin Negash of Addis Neger Online were among a diverse group of 41 writers and journalists from 19 countries to receive the award in 2012. Eskinder, Reeyot, and Woubshet are imprisoned in Ethiopia; Mesfin fled in 2009.
New York (TADIAS) – The new Miss Universe is Miss USA Olivia Culpo, a 20-year-old beauty queen from Rhode Island and the first American to claim the coveted title since 1997. Olivia was crowned Miss Universe 2012 by Miss Universe 2011 Leila Lopes of Angola at the annual international event held on Wednesday night in Las Vegas and televised around the world. Over the next year Olivia will hit the road on behalf of her cause alliances, namely HIV/AIDS prevention as mentioned on her official pageant profile.
Women from over 80 countries participated in the 61st Miss Universe contest. After years of absence from the global competition, Ethiopia was also back on the stage this year represented by 22-year-old Helen Getachew.
New York (TADIAS) – Ethiopian American Journalist Bofta Yimam, who is a reporter for Fox 13 News (WHBQ) in Memphis, Tennessee, is nominated for three Regional Emmy Awards by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Nashville/Mid-South Chapter). The winners will be announced on Saturday, January 26, 2013 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville were the the ceremony will be telecast live beginning at 8:00 PM.
Bofta has been nominated in three categories, including for excellence in “Continuing Coverage” for her reporting highlighting Kimberlee Morton (as in Kimberlee’s Law) for Fox 13 News in Memphis. Kimberlee’s Law was signed by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam earlier this year to keep convicted rapists in prison for their full sentence, no exceptions. Kimberlee was brutally attacked in 1998 by a person whom she knew who raped, stabbed, and burned her with bleach. Bofta interviewed Kimberlee for the segment.
The young journalist, who is a native of Washington, D.C. and graduate of University of Maryland, College Park, is also nominated for two works in excellence for “Light Feature” reporting category. Her work spans topics mostly related to crime and politics. She covered the 2010 gubernatorial race in Atlanta and once exposed a police chief who bought off voters to win his election.
Bofta is a recipient of several media professional awards including the 2011 Regional Edward R. Murrow Best Breaking News Story Award, the 2009 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award as part of “Crime and the City” coverage, and the 2008 Community Broadcasters Association Best Breaking News Story Award.
— Related: Interview With Bofta Yimam of Fox 13 News (TADIAS) Fox13 News reporter Bofta Yimam (WHBQ)
Video: Bofta reports on how Kimberlee Morton’s tragedy led to a new state law (Fox13 News)
New York (TADIAS) – Earlier this month I attended one of the screenings of the documentary film Sister as part of the recently concluded African Diaspora International Film Festival here in New York.
An intimate portrait of a universal topic, the documentary frames maternal and newborn death as a human rights issue while shedding light on the faces behind the statistics. The film takes place in Ethiopia, Cambodia and Haiti as it explores innovative ways to deliver healthcare to childbearing women in remote parts of the world. The main characters are a Haitian traditional birth attendant, an Ethiopian male health officer, and a rural midwife in Cambodia.
The filmmaker, who is a Canadian citizen and a resident of New York City for the past 20 years, said she chose to highlight Ethiopia because the country is trying “new strategies and local solutions” to tackle the issue. “I am especially fascinated by Ethiopian healthcare professionals who used to be field medics during the civil war in the North who have now been retrained with further skills for civilian work.”
“In 2008, I was documenting a heath record training for health workers from Africa and Asia,” Brenda said. “I spent 3 weeks with them and involved in several activities including filming lectures in the city. One of the attendees was a health-care officer from Ethiopia named Goitom Berhane. When I got home and started transcribing their stories I found myself just weeping. And I told myself I have to make a movie about this.” Berhane eventually ends up being prominently featured in the film.
“The subject has been floating around me my whole life,” she continued. “As a child, my grandmother Martha had 16 children and only 11 lived and one of them was my mom.” She added: “And I was born by an emergency cesarian. I was the last of eight children.”
Brenda said that she finds parallels to her own family story and what most young women face in developing countries today. “There is a great research paper called ‘Under the Shadow of Maternity’ about childbirth and women’s lives in North America at the turn of the last century and the issues were the same. My grandmother was giving birth to stillborn babies between 1919 and 1939. People did not have all the resources, all the information; they did not know, they did not ask the right questions. It was a mystery to them. They were poor, they did not have access to family planning.”
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Ethiopia is launching medical services over the phone. A young Ethiopian doctor is starting the service in an attempt to improve access to health care across the country.
“HelloDoctor” is Ethiopia’s first general medical hotline, in which a small fee is taken from a person’s mobile phone credit to receive medical advice or request home-care service.
Dr. Yohans Wodaje is the young Ethiopian doctor who founded HelloDoctor. He said that healthcare services for the average Ethiopian will improve through the new service, as there are not enough doctors and clinics for the whole population.
“Despite the huge improvement that Ethiopia made in the past 10 years regarding health coverage in its attempt to make universal basic health coverage a reality of the Ethiopian people, there are still many big challenges,” he said. “And you have a very few number of highly skilled, highly specialized professionals, then you definitely need to link technology with those professionals to multiply the effect that they would have.”
Phone consultations
Getting medical advice by phone has happened in the United States, Canada, Australia and more recently also in parts of Latin America and Asia. A common question about the practice is whether doctors can give adequate advice without seeing the patient.
Wodaje agreed that face-to-face consultations are preferable. He said, though, that it is not always realistic in Ethiopia.
“We opt for phone-based consultations in situations, especially if you have to travel long distances to get to a health facility, if you have to wait in long lines to get to a health professional,” he said. “And also, the professionals you need may not always be of the level that is required to help you.”
An average conversation lasts four minutes and costs about $2, which is still a lot of money for most Ethiopians. But a visit to a clinic, including transportation costs when living outside the city, usually adds up to $15.
Physicians prepared
The doctors working for the service are mostly in their late 20s. It provides them with extra employment, something the government might welcome because many doctors today pursue careers abroad.
Anteneh Kassahun plans to become one of the doctors for the service. He feels it gives him more opportunities.
“The first thing is, we will help our country, especially those who live in rural areas, they don’t get doctors. So when they need the health information they can call us and right away we will support them,” said Kassahun. “The second thing is we have jobs in different hospitals and clinics, so we do it in our free time. The third thing is we get other training, especially how to talk to people, how to communicate with people and other things. And the fourth thing is we get extra money.”
Vast medical need
The Ethiopian government has employed 10 times as many health extension workers in recent years, but there is still a long way to go before everybody in the country can easily access health care.
Ahmed Emano of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said that Ethiopia needs the involvement of private initiatives to improve health-care services in the country.
“If you take the private clinics in Addis Ababa, there are 2,015 health services in Addis Ababa only. From this, about 60 percent – more than 60 percent – are private services,” said Emano. “So the government is already supporting all private partners and we establish public-private partnership with private service givers, so especially when we say the high level and some specialized services, we give support to private people who can afford to establish this type of services in the country.”
The World Health Organization recommends that in any country there should be no less than one doctor for every 10,000 citizens. Ethiopia currently has one doctor employed for every 33,500 people.
New York (TADIAS) – As Teddy Afro continues his current world tour, the Ethiopian pop star is also attracting international media attention. Teddy performed for a sold-out crowd at Echostage in Washington D.C last month, accompanied by Abogida Band, and as part of his ongoing concert series.
In the following video, the English program of China Central Television (CCTV), highlights Teddy’s growing popularity on the global stage.
New York (TADIAS) – The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists released its 2012 census of imprisoned journalists yesterday identifying 27 offending countries with 232 writers, editors, and photojournalists behind bars this year, an increase of 53 from 2011 and the highest since the organization began the survey in 1990. According to CPJ, the 2012 figure surpasses the previous record of 185 journalists imprisoned in 1996.
The report said the trend was driven primarily by terrorism and other anti-state charges levied against critical reporters and editors.
CPJ highlighted Turkey, Iran, and China as the three leading jailers of journalists, while Eritrea and Ethiopia are the only African countries that are listed among the top ten press offenders.
“Rounding out the top five jailers were Eritrea, with 28 journalists in prison, and Syria with 15; the worst abusers of the rule of law,” the organization said. “None of the journalists in jail in either country have been publicly charged with a crime or brought before a court or trial.”
More than half (118) of those held globally were online journalists and more than a third were freelancers.
CPJ singled out Burma for “some improvement” this year: “For the first time since 1996, Burma did not rank among the nations jailing journalists. As part of the country’s historic transition to civilian rule, authorities released at least 12 imprisoned journalists in a series of pardons in 2012.”
Of the 27 countries imprisoning journalists, the top 10 jailers were:
By Knowledge Wharton Network – University of Pennsylvania
Making recycled tires from Africa into fashionable footwear that sells around the world? That’s the amazing success story of soleRebels, which just opened a second store in Taiwan. The Ethiopian shoe brand sells in over 50 countries and counts Urban Outfitters, Whole Foods and Amazon.com among its retailers. Offering generous benefits to its employees and using only environmentally friendly materials, it is the first company certified by the World Fair Trade Organization for its practices. Stating its ambition, soleRebels hails itself as “Africa’s Nike.”
Just eight years ago, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu started soleRebels with her first five employees on her grandmother’s plot of land in Ethiopia. She has since seen her business grow, and has received a number of accolades. Forbes recently listed her as one of the most powerful women to watch, along with Kate Middleton and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. She was recently featured on a BBC series with business leaders around the world.
Alemu aims to pay “proud” wages, offers her employees on-site medical checkups and free transportation for her disabled employees. She explains that having grown up in Ethiopia, the real solution to poverty is to give people jobs that they are proud and happy to do. “The best way to create prosperity is the tried and true method,” she tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton. “Create amazing products with service to match, pay your workers very well, and operate in a highly ethical and transparent manner.”
On his return voyage from the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the then United States president, Franklin Roosevelt, held a successive one hour port-side chat with three kings. Aboard the heavy cruiser, USS Quincy, docked off the Great Bitter Lake of the Egyptian coast, the President discussed with King Farouk of Egypt, King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, and the king of kings, Emperor Haileselassie of Ethiopia. This was the first face to face encounter between the leaders of Ethiopia and the United States.
Subsequently, the Emperor was able to meet with four US presidents in his six official visits to the United States, making him the leader with the highest number of official visits to Washington in the 20th century.
Of course, the Ethio-American relation goes way back to the time of Emperor Menelik and President Theodore Roosevelt. The United States was one of the pioneer countries to send a mission to Addis Abeba, after the victory of Adwa. Since then, the relationship between the two countries has seen highs and lows.
Washington, D.C. (TADIAS)- The early days of 1937 were one of the most horrifying in Addis Ababa’s history. Fascist Italy’s top general, Rodolfo Graziani, had given orders to his troops to unleash terror and mass murder against the country’s civilian population; this was revenge for the Ethiopian resistance’s attempt to assassinate him.
Ambassador Imiru Zeleke was one of the people swept up in the wanton violence and taken as Prisoner of War. Ambassador Imiru will be speaking about his experience at an event in Silver Spring, Maryland on Thursday that is designed to highlight Graziani’s record as a war criminal in Ethiopia.
According to organizers, other panelists at the event include survivors of families of those who perished under Graziani’s command. Mr. Fesseha Dawit, member of the Ethiopian Genocide Committee (EGC), whose three uncles were executed at the time is also listed as a speaker. He is the grandson of Kentiba Gebru Desta, Mayor of Gonder, who was a member of the first official Ethiopian diplomatic delegation to the United States in 1919. Mr. Tamrat Medhin, also a member of EGC and President of Little Ethiopia Organization, whose mother and grandmother were POWs after his great uncle Dejatch Fikre Mariam Abatechan was killed fighting fascist forces in the vicinity of Addis Ababa, as well as Mr. Nicola A. DeMarco, who served in the Axum Obelisk Return Committee, and Dr. Akilelu Habte will take part in the event.
This program is being organized by Ethio-Mixer, a weekly events series, and in light of recent developments in Affile, Italy, where Benito Mussolini’s top enforcer in Africa is being celebrated as a hero with the newly constructed memorial that is partly paid for by public funds.
—- If You Go:
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Abyssinian Ethiopian Restaurant
Time: 6:30 – 8:30
8221 Georgia Ave,
Silver Spring, MD
Ethio-Mixer / Little Ethiopia DC
— Related: Village’s Tribute Reignites a Debate About Italy’s Fascist Past (NYT) Italy memorial to Fascist hero Graziani sparks row (BBC)
—-
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
New York (TADIAS) – Last month musician Gabriel Teodros was highlighted at ‘TEDx Talks’ in Seattle. The artist was part of the Ethiopian American sci-fi trio CopperWire that earlier this year produced the futuristic album Earthbound. The hip-hop space opera takes place in the year 2089 featuring three renegades from another world who hijack a spacecraft and ride it to Earth, and eventually land in Ethiopia.
In the spirit of creative “ideas worth spreading,” TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share their experiences. “To know that another world is possible, and to bring it to life through music; this has always been the mission of Gabriel Teodros,” the program announcement stated. “He made a mark with groups CopperWire, Abyssinian Creole and Air 2 A Bird, and reached an international audience with his critically-acclaimed solo debut Lovework.”
The following is a video from the event that took place at TEDxRainier in Seattle on November 10, 2012. Gabriel performed and told his personal story as an artist, culturally mixed heritage and his relationship with his parents — a mother who is an immigrant from Ethiopia and a father who is a Vietnam veteran from Duvall, Washington.
Watch: Hip Hop & Science Fiction — Gabriel Teodros at TEDxRainier
For the millions of Americans who drink coffee every day, grabbing a cup is usually a simple affair. But for the 200,000 Ethiopians who make the Washington area home, coffee is more than just a morning or afternoon pick-me-up: In their homeland, drinking coffee is close to a sacred ritual.
Hoping to explain to Americans how important the coffee-drinking experience is for Ethiopians, local writer Metasebia Yoseph is working on a book titled “From Ethiopia with Love,” which will introduce the warm, family-oriented ceremony that traditionally goes into making, serving and enjoying of coffee in that country.
Yoseph, who is a director for the Ethiopian Cultural Development Corp., a nonprofit organization, is embarking on a three-month journey through Ethiopia to research its coffee-producing regions. She is the creator of cultureofcoffee.com, part blog, part funding engine for her research. In her eyes, coffee is a cultural good, and as Ethiopia becomes more westernized, and the habit of rushing to get and drink coffee becomes more prevalent, the ceremony becomes more special, more sacred. In her words, here’s why:
New York (TADIAS) – 22-year-old Helen Getachew will represent Ethiopia at the 2012 Miss Universe competition, which is scheduled to take place on December 19th at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, where the welcome party for the candidates is already underway.
Helen arrived in the United States a week ago. And according to organizers she attended a reception thrown on her behalf in D.C. last weekend (her first overseas public event) and she is already off to Nevada where she is prepping for the big show.
Organizers said Helen was selected to participate in the international contest on October 12th following a runway exhibition held at Radisson Blu Hotel in Addis Ababa in front of a group of judges, representing both the local fashion industry and global modeling agencies. “The event was infused with a fashion show and live entertainment, with guests in attendance from the [diplomatic corps], media, and fashion industries,” the press release said, highlighting that Ethiopian Airlines is Helen’s official transport sponsor.
The statement added: “It’s very exciting to have Ethiopia back competing at this event since the country has not been represented for the past few years.”
Last year, more than one billion TV viewers from across 190 countries witnessed the crowning of Leila Lopes from Angola as Miss Universe 2011.
Photos: Helen Getachew Represents Ethiopia at 2012 Miss Universe Contest in Las Vegas, NV Helen Getachew in her own words: “I would enjoy working for a nonprofit organization, but my dream in life is to create one myself.” (Missuniverse.com)
One more thread to unravel the mystery of the “Brown Condor” is now on national bookshelves.
This forgotten Mississippi Coast hero, a daring aviator who survived a dog fight with the son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, encouraged other blacks to fly when it was taboo in Jim Crow America.
He helped change a ragtag Ethiopian military into a force against fascism, itself a form of the racism the Brown Condor faced in his own country.
Before the latest biography, enough was known of Col. John C. Robinson, born in Gulfport’s Big Quarter in 1905, to pique the interest of Mississippi writers and researchers who produced a book and newspaper articles and conducted an academic symposium.
Yet, to most Americans, even those enthralled by military and black history, the Mississippian who was once the best known black pilot in the world is an unknown.
Phillip Thomas Tucker hopes his “Father of the Tuskegee Airmen: John C. Robinson” will bring more awareness. The 329-page biography was published earlier this year by Potomac Books.
“The catch-22 with the Robinson story is that nobody knows about it,” Tucker said in a recent phone interview. “You mention the name and it doesn’t ring any bells. This book was written to shed light on what really happened. The Brown Condor was an early aviation pioneer and a war hero.”
Washington, DC (TADIAS) – The issue of mental health and how we deal with it in our community has once again come to the forefront following a string of tragic incidents over the past year, including suicides and murders, that have saddened and shocked many families.
This past August I hosted a community forum in Washington, DC to learn from these tragedies and explore solutions. The gathering resulted in establishing an advocacy-group that was tasked to conduct research, come-up with needs assessment survey, and create outreach programs geared towards collaborating with organizations that work with professionals in the behavioral science fields, including educational institutions, as well as student associations.
I will be moderating a follow-up conversation on the topic next weekend as we continue the discussion surrounding the hidden mental illness crisis affecting members of the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities here in the U.S. The meeting is scheduled for Saturday December 15th at Watha T. Daniel-Shaw Neighborhood Library in D.C. We have some great speakers, but your feedback is going to be very valuable.
For those of you who live outside Washington, you can still partake via a conference call (see info below) or follow the discussion live online.
Scientists say they have pinpointed genetic changes that allow some Ethiopians to live and work more than a mile and a half above sea level without getting altitude sickness.
The specific genes differ from those reported previously for high-altitude Tibetans, even though both groups cope with low-oxygen in similar physiological ways, the researchers report. If confirmed, the results may help scientists understand why some people are more vulnerable to low blood oxygen levels caused by factors other than altitude — such as asthma, sleep apnea, heart problems or anemia — and point to new ways to treat them, the researchers say.
Living with less
Lower air pressure at high altitude means fewer oxygen molecules for every breath. “At 4000 meters, every lungful of air only has 60% of the oxygen molecules that people at sea level have,” said co-author Cynthia Beall of Case Western Reserve University.
To mop up scarce oxygen from thin air, travelers to high altitude compensate by making more hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of human blood. But high hemoglobin comes with a cost. Over the long term, excessive hemoglobin can increase the risk of blood clots, stroke, and chronic mountain sickness, a disease characterized by thick and viscous blood.
“Altitude affects your thinking, your breathing, and your ability to sleep. But high-altitude natives don’t have these problems,” said Beall, who has studied high altitude adaptation in different populations in Ethiopia, Peru and Tibet for more than 20 years. “They don’t wheeze like we do. Their thinking is fine. They sleep fine. They don’t complain of headaches. They’re able to live a healthy life, and they do it completely comfortably,” she added.
It was not immediately clear if Ethiopia’s request for the match to be played on neutral ground after ruling out travelling to Asmara was behind Eritrea’s move.
Over the weekend, 18 members of the Red Sea state’s national team, including Eritrea’s team doctor, disappeared in Uganda while playing in a regional tournament.
The two east African rivals were set to clash in the Eritrean capital around January 14-16 with the return fixture booked for a fortnight later in Addis Ababa.
“We have just been informed by the Eritrean Football Federation that its national team is withdrawing from the … matches,” said a letter from CAF’s Competitions Deputy Director Shereen Arafa seen by Reuters.
The letter did not mention Eritrea’s reasons for its withdrawal. An Ethiopian FA official confirmed the letter and added that his country was now set to face Rwanda in Addis Ababa on June 21-23 in the next qualification round.
The Ethiopia Football Association has asked the Confederation of African Football to move its African Nations Championship qualifiers with Eritrea to a neutral venue. (BBC)
3 December 2012
The request comes as the neighbouring countries continue to dispute borders.
The teams are set to play in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, between 14-16 January, with the return tie in Addis Ababa set for two weeks later.
But Ethiopia said they would not travel to the Red Sea state.
“We want the matches to take place, but we’re not willing to travel there and it is obvious their government won’t allow their team to visit Addis Ababa,” said Ethiopian Football Federation spokesman Melaku Ayele.
“So we’ve proposed an alternative venue, neighbouring Sudan, for both matches to be held in.”
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war between 1998-2000 that killed tens of thousands of troops. A Hague-based independent border commission ruled that the flashpoint town of Badme belonged to Eritrea but the village remains in the hands of Ethiopia and the spat remains unresolved.
Asmara is yet to respond to Ethiopia’s request, Melaku said.
New York (TADIAS) – Hundreds of amnesty seekers in the United Arab Emirates are rushing into the Philippine consulate and the Consulate-General of Ethiopia on the first day of a two-month amnesty program for illegal residents.
According to Khaleej Times, one of UAE’s English daily newspapers, more than 200 amnesty seekers have reached the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO), located at the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai.
No official figures have been released regarding the number of Ethiopians that have come forward.
A Filipino woman named Cherry R. told the publication that she resigned from her job upon the demands of her company when she ran into trouble with several banks for delinquent accounts. “I wanted to leave the UAE but I was informed by a friend, who went to check with the police and the immigration on my behalf, that two banks had imposed a travel ban. Even at the time my father died, I could not go home. This amnesty is a great opportunity for me to go home or to legitimize my status,” she said.
“At the Ethiopian Consulate-General, Fananesh A. said she has been illegally staying in the UAE for five years, and though she wanted to go home, she could not go back due to travel ban from banks. “With this amnesty, I am looking forward to seeing my family again.”
The report added that her friend Abenet S. was absconding from her employer, which stopped her from leaving the country. “My father died and that day I cried for days because I could not go home. I felt I was put in a cage. Now is my time to go.”
New York (TADIAS) – We recently highlighted the newly launched, Africans in the Diaspora (AiD), co-founded by Ethiopian-born Solome Lemma and Zimbabwen Zanele Sibanda, with the goal to “re-imagine foreign aid” by harnessing the financial and intellectual capital of Diaspora Africans to advance social and economic change in Africa.
Today in a press release AiD announced that it has selected three social change organizations as recipients of its 2012 holiday fundraising drive: Physicians for Social Justice in Nigeria, WEM Integrated Health Services in Kenya, and Synapse Center in Senegal.
“The essence of AiD is reinventing and re-imagining development, so that Africans are no longer objects of development but rather the drivers of social change,” Solome Lemma said in a statement. “By harnessing the collective power of Diaspora Africans, we aim to increase the flow of resources from the Diaspora to African organizations that struggle to get funding from international funders.”
The press release said AiD’s goal is to raise $30,000 for the three organizations.
Physicians for Social Justice was started by a group of young doctors to service the remote, rural regions in Niger State, Nigeria. “The funds raised will enable them to extend their services to 5,000 people and increase children’s health outcomes by 50 percent,” the organization said.
“WEM Integrated Health Services is focused on transforming the lives of women and children in semi-arid regions of Kenya. Rather than link women to micro-finance institutions that ultimately draw capital out of the community, WEMIHS helps groups of women to start their own saving and lending facilities. Supporting them will help to establish 5 village development funds that will serve more than 2,000 households increase their income and assets to improve the lives of more than 15,000 individuals.”
As for the third organization, Synapse Center in Senegal, AiD said “the program creates jobs for unemployed youth by equipping them with skills in social entrepreneurship. Youth receive practical training, coaching and mentoring, and opportunities to develop and manage social ventures.”
AiD states that the fundraising campaign will run for 40 days, and “regular updates on fundraising success as well as on the progress that each organization is making on the ground,” will be shared with donors and supporters.
New York (TADIAS) – December is here and that means the Holiday season is upon us! Last year, I hosted a fundraiser here in New York for the Colorado-based non-profit organization, Ethiopia Reads, which focuses on projects to build libraries and encourage the culture of reading among children in Ethiopia.
The 2012 event will take place on Saturday, December 8th in Seattle, Washington. The evening’s program at Kings Hall, located in the Mount Baker neighborhood of southeast Seattle, will include entertainment, food (Ethiopian buffet dinner), cash-bar, raffles and much more.
—- If You Go
December 8, 2012
6 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Kings Hall, 2929 – 27th Ave S.
Mount Baker, Washington 98144 Click here to order tickets and tables.
—- Related:
Below are photos from 2011 NYC fundraiser for Ethiopia Reads
Ethiopia Reads fundraiser, New York, Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Hannah Newbery)
Tigist Selam (right) hosted the NYC gathering on Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Hannah Newbery)
Ethiopia Reads fundraiser, New York, Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)
Abate Sebsibe and Model Gelila Bekele at the Ethiopia Reads fundraiser, New York, Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)
Singer/Songwriter Rachel Brown performing at the NYC Fundraiser for Ethiopia Reads held at the Dwyer Cultural Center on Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo: By Hannah Newbery)
Singer Rachel Brown (center) with her parents, Amsale Aberra and Neil Brown, at the NYC Fundraiser for Ethiopia Reads held at the Dwyer Cultural Center on Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)
Ethiopia Reads fundraiser, New York, Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)
Ethiopia Reads fundraiser, New York, Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Matt Andrea)
A children’s book on sale at the Ethiopia Reads fundraiser in New York, Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Hannah Newbery)
Thank you cards at Ethiopia Reads fundraiser in New York, Thursday, December 15th, 2011. (Photo by Hannah Newbery)
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
New York (TADIAS) – Earlier this year, as part of Black History Month — and in conjunction with displays of his paintings at Macy’s stores nationwide, including works owned by Alitash Kebede Gallery — we had highlighted the distinguished African American artist and writer Romare Bearden.
The Poetry Center in New York now invites creative writers to speak about what Bearden’s life and art has meant to them. An announcement of the event highlights Playwright August Wilson’s praise of Romare Bearden for his celebration of “black life presented on its own terms, on a grand and epic scale, with all its richness and fullness, in a language that was vibrant.”
According to organizers, the tribute this evening at 92nd Street Y also features a special showing of Bearden’s artwork.
New York (TADIAS) – The 2012 African Diaspora International Film Festival is currently underway at various venues in New York City. The festival presents an eclectic mix of urban, classic, independent and foreign films that depict the diversity of the African diaspora.
“By placing the spotlight on innovative films that would otherwise be ignored by traditional venues, the [ADFF] offers a unique platform for conveying African Diaspora artistic styles and craft in film,” organizers said in a press release. “The African Diaspora Film Festival is a bridge between diverse communities looking for works that cannot be found in other festivals and talented and visionary filmmakers that are part of Africa and the African Diaspora.”
Moreover, organizers said post-screenings conversations with directors, writers, actors and producers provides valuable insight into their filmmaking approach. “By marking the methods that underscore the art of cinema, the Festival demystifies the traditionally “elite and exclusive” aura of the filming process,” the press release said. “These forums give rise to spontaneous and meaningful interaction between the featured artists and the audience.”
The festival was founded in 1993 by the husband and wife team of Reinaldo Barroso-Spech & Diarah N’Daw-Spech. He is an educator in foreign languages and Black Literature and she a financial consultant and university budget manager. “Our vision is to see an informed and talented community coming together to exchange ideas and strategies for improving our respective worlds,” the couple said in the statement. “Welcome to our future.”
—- If You Go: The 2012 African Diaspora International Film Festival is taking place at various locations in Manhattan, NYC, including The Thalia Cinema at Symphony Space, The NYIT Auditorium on Broadway, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Cowin Center and Chapel at Teachers College, Columbia University and the Black Spectrum Theatre in Queens. Click here for schedule and tickets.
— Related: Untold Stories from African and the Diaspora Fall Film
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
His passport says Ethiopian legend is 39, but there’s reason to believe otherwise.
Every morning, Haile Gebrselassie trains with a select group of runners in the Entoto Hills east of the Ethiopian capitol of Addis Ababa. It’s been his routine for many years. One morning in February 2008, Haile’s group, whose composition changes a bit from day to day, included Hirpasa Lemi, husband of Berhane Adere, a multiple world champion on the track and on the roads. Also present — as an observer — was Matt Turnbull, an Englishman who now works as the elite athlete coordinator for the Competitor Group’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series.
After meeting up, the 10 or 12 runners comprising that day’s group separated into smaller packs, each of which went off to do its own workout. Ninety minutes later, everyone reconvened back where they had started. The only non-professional runner in the group, Lemi was proud to have held his own.
“Not bad for an old man,” he said, beaming. Then, turning to Turnbull, Lemi asked, “How old do you think I am?”
“I don’t know — 50,” Turnbull joked.
“Forty-one,” Lemi said. “Same age as Haile!”
Everyone laughed. Everyone except Gebrselassie, whose passport states his date of birth as April 18, 1973, making him officially 34 years old, almost 35, at the time. Lemi knew otherwise. He had grown up with Gebrselassie in the Arsi Province. Like most rural Ethiopians, Lemi could not prove his own exact date of birth, but he knew it was approximately 1967, and he remembered that Gebrselassie had been small when he was small, that Haile had hit puberty when he hit puberty, and so forth.
Lemi was not alone in this knowledge. The extreme “rounding down” of Gebrselassie’s age was the worst-kept secret in the Ethiopian running community. That’s why everyone laughed when Lemi made reference to it. Everyone except Haile.
The discrepancy between Gebrselassie’s stated age and his true age had no real significance before this incident. He was inarguably the greatest runner in history, and the murkiness of his age did not color his achievements one way or the other. But seven months after this episode, Gebrselassie broke his own marathon world record in Berlin, running 2:03:59. If Gebrselassie is even 4½ years older than his official age, instead of the six-plus years that Lemi insinuated, then the fastest marathon at the time was run by a 40-year-old man.
History’s first sub-2:04 marathon is a great accomplishment in itself. But if it was truly run by a Masters athlete, when the recognized Masters world record is 2:08:46, then Gebrselassie’s performance undoubtedly stands as the single greatest running feat of all time — a performance that destroys our existing beliefs about the effects of age on running capacity. And Gebrselassie deserves credit for that. Ironically, however, he doesn’t want it.
It was in 1896 that Ethiopian forces led by Emperor Menelik II had defeated an Italian army with better contemporary military technology at the Battle of Adwa. Subsequently, the victorious Emperor had brought in a range of technologies including railway to transform his country. For his triumph at Adwa and for his endeavor to change Ethiopia in his own ways, a statue in his honor was erected at the center of Addis Ababa called Arada.
Almost forty years later, in 1935, the Italians launched a new but a prearranged military campaign endorsed by their then belligerent leaders. The Italians managed to have a brief military occupation of Ethiopia but faced a staunch resistance from Ethiopians.
Pope Abune Petros, who was among the first Popes of Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was the leading figure of the resistance in Ethiopia. The Italians never liked what he was doing as a patriot and tried to stop him. He was forced to appear before General Rodolfo Graziani to submit and declare the Ethiopian patriots as bandits. He refused to comply with their demand and condemned the aggressors instead. He asked Ethiopians to struggle for their freedom. Finally, the Italians executed him in public. As it was done with Emperor Menelik II, a statue of Abune Petros was built at the center of Addis Ababa as reminiscent of his unwavering stand for his country.
However, unconfirmed reports are circulating online that the two iconic statues found on an historical thoroughfare might get wrecked due to an Addid Ababa rail tunnel construction project. The reports have not been received well by some netizens.
When Abezash Tamerat, 31, an Ethiopian American artist, established her nonprofit group, Artists for Charity, in 2002, it was to help save a rape crisis center on the verge of losing funding.
But a year later, the focus of her group changed.
While visiting Ethiopia to learn more about where she came from, Tamerat met her young cousin, who was homeless and HIV positive. She tried placing him in various facilities, but they all had either reached capacity or turned him away because of his condition. When she eventually found a home for him, she noticed a bigger problem: Numerous children were battling similar struggles, once taken in by relatives only to be abused or abandoned because of their disease.
Tamerat returned to the United States with a greater sense of awareness and commitment to help Ethiopia. She continued having art events and, in 2005, Artists for Charity opened the Children’s Home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Washington, DC (TADIAS) – Teddy Afro performed for a sold-out crowd at Echostage in Washington D.C last Friday, accompanied by Abogida Band, and as part of his current world tour.
“There were thousands of people there,” says photographer Matt Andrea, who covered the event for TADIAS. “The place was packed.”
Below are photos from the event.
Teddy Afro’s concert at Echostage in Washington D.C on Friday, November 23rd, 2012. (Photo by Matt Andrea for Tadias Magazine)
Teddy Afro performing at Echostage in Washington D.C on Friday, November 23rd, 2012. (Photo by Matt Andrea for Tadias Magazine)
Teddy Afro at Echostage in Washington D.C on Friday, November 23rd, 2012. (Photo by Matt Andrea for Tadias Magazine)
Fans at Teddy Afro’s concert in D.C on Friday, November 23rd, 2012. (Photo by Matt Andrea for Tadias Magazine)
(Photo by Matt Andrea for Tadias Magazine)
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
TMZ has learned, she was arrested at Dallas airport for public intoxication last weekend … after allegedly raising a drunken ruckus on board an airplane.
According to the police report, obtained by TMZ, 46-year-old Ashenafi was arrested at DFW airport when police determined she was so drunk … she was a danger to herself and others.
Sources on board the airplane tell us, Ashenafi threw a fit while everyone was boarding because she was stuck in coach … instead of first class….Several calls to Ashenafi were not returned.
Houston, Texas – An Ethiopian-American man in Houston claims he was assaulted outside an Ethiopian Orthodox Church by another Ethiopian while he handed out flyers for a memorial service in honor of the late prime minister Meles Zenawi, according to criminal and civil court documents, the Houston Press reports.
According to the suit, the man was allegedly “head-butted so hard that he was knocked out cold.” The person also claims that other church members assisted in kicking him when he was down.
“The victim and plaintiff, Tesfai Tsadik, is suing both Wossenu Gizaw, the alleged assailant, and Debre Selam Medahnealem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Fondren Southwest house of worship near which the alleged assault took place,” the report said. “According to the pleadings in the civil suit, on August 26, Tsadik attended services at the church. After church let out, Tsadik went across the street and started handing out flyers for Zenawi’s memorial service.”
Per the Houston Press: “That might not have been the wisest move. The church founders and many of its members are opponents of Meles Zenawi. The members of the church, including members in leadership positions, have openly shared their views and hatred of Meles Zenawi and his government. In fact, church members and leaders protested outside during the funeral of Mr. Zenawi.”
“So apparently Tsadik was decidedly not preaching to the choir. Even so, this is a free country, and what allegedly happened next is reprehensible.”
Watch: Mitt Romney and President Obama’s Private Lunch at the White House (ABC News)
— Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2012
New York (TADIAS) – President Obama and his one-time Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, will have lunch at the White House on Thursday, the President’s press secretary announced in a statement released on Wednesday.
“Governor Romney will have a private lunch at the White House with President Obama in the Private Dining Room,” the statement said. “It will be the first opportunity they have had to visit since the election. There will be no press coverage of the meeting.”
“In fact, the meeting will be closely watched,” The New York Times noted. “The two men competed intensely for the better part of a year. Mr. Romney, in private conversations with donors shortly after the election, blamed his loss in part on the president promising “gifts” to Democratic constituencies like minorities and students.”
In their election night speeches, both men were complimentary of each other. “I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters,” Mr. Romney said in his remarks. For his part Mr. Obama extended an olive branch to his former rival saying he looked “forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together.”
— Related: What Does the Re-Election of Obama Mean for U.S.-Ethiopia Relations? (TADIAS)
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
In 2005, Ethiopia concluded an agreement with the Dutch company HPFI, sharing its teff genetic resources in return for a part of the benefits that would be achieved from developing teff products for the European market.
In the end, Ethiopia received practically no benefits. Instead, due to a broad patent and a questionable bankruptcy, it lost its right to utilize and reap benefits from its own teff genetic resources in the countries where the patent is valid.
The amazing story of the Teff Agreement has been uncovered and meticulously documented in a recent FNI report by FNI researchers Regine Andersen and Tone Winge.
Skilled and respected workers have revolutionised neighbourhood healthcare in Ethiopia – using a model other countries could follow. Evelyn Owen discovers how the programme works and the problems it has confronted
In the hubbub of the vaccination clinic, young mother Damanech Alemu waits patiently with a tiny blue bundle nestled in her arms. Six-week-old Ermias is about to receive the injections that will safeguard him against an array of common diseases, including diphtheria, whooping cough and polio.
“I’m glad to be here, because it means healthy development and a safe life for my son,” Alemu says afterwards, comforting her baby. “I made an appointment, I came here, and I received the service, so I’m happy about that.”
Alemu’s trip to Sululta health centre might sound perfectly ordinary, but less than a quarter of Ethiopian children under the age of two are fully vaccinated. The service offered here, 20 miles north of Addis Ababa, is only possible thanks to the expertise and enthusiasm of the women in white coats bustling about the clinic, preparing needles, checking charts and filling in forms. They are health extension workers (HEWs) – the backbone of Ethiopia’s health system.
The defending champions and hosts of the tournament scored early through Brian Umony in the ninth minute.
A heavy afternoon downpour made for a wet surface and difficult conditions but Uganda played with a lot of purpose to pin the Ethiopians back for long spells of the match.
Fikru Teferra Lemessa, the only player who featured prominently for the senior team that qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, gave a captain’s performance for Ethiopia but was kept in check well by the Cranes.
Ethiopia won its opening game at the East and Central African championship, the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in Kampala on Saturday. (BBC)
By Andrew Jackson Oryada
Saturday, November 24th, 2012
In the first Group A game of the day Ethiopia, who are heading to the Africa Cup of Nations finals in South Africa in January, edged out newcomers South Sudan 1-0.
Striker Yonathan Kebede scored in the 60th minute with a clever tap-in after the South Sudan defence was caught off guard.
Captain Leon Khamis had the two best chances for South Sudan, who were playing just their second ever international match after their 1-1 draw in a friendly against Uganda in July.
Assistant coach Seyoum Kebede, who is in charge of Ethiopia at the tournament rather than Sewnet Bishaw, admitted his side would have to improve.
“It is good to win the opening match in such a tournament, but we need to improve,” he said.
As the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ Brazil draws closer, memories are not the only thing that remain of the first-ever World Cup on African soil two years ago in South Africa. For thousands of children in different African countries, the 2010 World Cup has had a real and positive impact on their lives through the Football for Hope Centres. (FIFA)
FIFA.com
Friday 23 November 2012
As the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ Brazil draws closer, memories are not the only thing that remain of the first-ever World Cup on African soil two years ago in South Africa. For thousands of children in different African countries, the 2010 World Cup has had a real and positive impact on their lives through the Football for Hope Centres.
In November, delegates from all 20 Football for Hope Centres met in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Abeba for the fifth Football for Hope Centre Host Workshop. “This is the first time that all the 20 Host Centre representatives have met for a roundtable workshop to share their experiences in establishing the centres,” said Cornelia Genoni, FIFA’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programme Manager.
Ian Mills, who is the Programme Manager of the Football for Hope Centres team, explained the project’s place as the official campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. “FIFA wanted to leave a lasting legacy, not only in South Africa, but throughout the continent and 20 Centres for 2010 does just that.”
New York (TADIAS) – We have previously featured Tomás Doncker highlighting his traveling musical production that pays tribute to Ethiopia’s role during World War II and featuring collaborative work with guitar legend Selam Woldemariam and singer Mahmoud Ahmed.
In the following interview with CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, Tomás discusses his project and the people that influenced his music from Brooklyn to Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa – Call it a small step for a brand, but a giant leap for Ethiopian business. Shoemaker soleRebels, whose funky footwear is entirely designed and made in Ethiopia, set up its second overseas outlet in the Taiwanese city of Kaoshiung last month. The brand already operates a store in Vienna.
Boosting its international profile is a distinct possibility for soleRebels, which sells the world’s only Fair Trade-certified footwear. The fashionably designed sandals, slip-ons, lace-ups and boots are handmade and feature organic cotton linings. They’re environmentally friendly too: many of the products have soles made from recycled car tires, as does a lot of the everyday footwear found in Ethiopia. “We are working for change,” says CEO Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu. She started soleRebels in her mid-20s with five staff and a small workshop in her grandmother’s village of Zenabwork, outside Addis Ababa. Inspiration came from her homeland: poverty and unemployment indicated the need for new enterprises, and plentiful Ethiopian artisanal skills were indicative of unused talent. What won Alemu professional recognition and a string of awards, however, was her determination that soleRebels would subvert the image of Ethiopia so firmly established by the famines of 1984-5, and the international response of Band Aid and Live Aid. The brand’s foundation, says Alemu, is “trade not aid.” She adds: “We can produce and sell, and do it all by ourselves. We are not begging all the time.”
I was in Ethiopia last November for a monthlong assignment for The Times on art in Africa. The final leg of our trip sent us to Ethiopia, where we took a quick detour to the Simien Mountains, full of deep gorges and intricate mazes of canyons. The mountains are home to the gelada, sometimes called bleeding heart baboons because of a red patch on the chest of the males. (They are actually not baboons, though they are closely related.) They live exclusively on the short, tough grasses that grow on the Simiens’ slopes.
I guess the gelada are so used to visitors that they hardly notice people anymore. They move in large bands from one patch of grass to another, and you can walk alongside the group and watch a complete range of social behavior unfold right in front of you. You can see the delicate dance between male and female that defines their social structure, and watch the alpha males defend their territory and their harem from aggressors.
On my last morning there, I found one band grazing in a small field of grass near a cliff edge. After watching for about an hour in the field, I wandered over to the edge of the cliff and sat down to take in the view. Within about 20 minutes, the entire band of geladas had shifted positions and encircled me. It was as if I was just a part of the landscape.
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s Federal Supreme Court has postponed hearing an appeal of the conviction of prominent Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega and opposition leader Andualem Arage. But the court gave its first indication Thursday that charges brought by prosecutors under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation may not be that strong by demanding that prosecutors justify the June convictions.
Journalist Eskinder Nega received an 18-year sentence, while opposition politician Andualem Arage is serving life in prison on terrorism-related charges.
Andualem’s lawyer, Abebe Guta, said the court has found many irregularities in the prosecution’s charges.
“As they scrutinized our ground of appeal they found so many legal and factual irregularities,” said Abebe. “Therefore, before the ruling passes, that means before our appeal is accepted or approved, they wanted to summon the prosecution officers to come and justify.”
Maran Turner, the executive director of Freedom Now, a Washington D.C.- based organization that works on individual prisoners of conscience cases, said the latest developments are positive. Freedom Now has been supporting Eskinder and brought his case before the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
“It seems to me that the court also is confounded by the charges against Eskinder and the other defendants,” Turner said. “So the fact that the court has postponed the case, it obviously acknowledges the flaws that we see, which is that the charges themselves are flawed. In fact, the case is flawed from the very beginning of arrest.”
Eskinder, Anualem and more than 20 others were found guilty of ties to a U.S.-based opposition group, Ginbot 7, classified as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government.
Amnesty International and other rights advocacy groups have said the trial was a sham used to silence dissent.
Ethiopian Airline’s chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam proves a state-owned carrier can turn profits in difficult times.
Gebremariam has warned that coming competition from Chinese airlines will force the need for consolidation among African carriers.
Speaking in the CEO Dialogue on the second day of the Africa CEO Forum in Geneva, Gebremariam, who was awarded African CEO of the Year at the inaugural Africa CEO Awards last night, said Chinese carriers have been busy serving their domestic market, but have their sights set on Africa.
“Consolidation will come, because small African carriers will find it very difficult to survive the competition,” he said.
Gebremariam said that African governments and the African Union needed to do more to support African carriers, who make up only 20% of airline traffic on the continent. “At least it has to be fair share, 50%,” he said.
He said good cost management, efficient aircraft utilisation and a good route network, helped Ethiopian Airlines to stay in profit, while its competitors South African Airways and Kenya Airways are struggling.
In the 2011-12 fiscal year Ethiopian made an operating profit of 1bn birr ($55m) and a net profit of 732m birr ($40m).
Samuel Yirga is a pianist from Ethiopia. A 20-something prodigy, Yirga is too young to have experienced the Ethio-jazz movement of the early 1970s, but he has absorbed its music deeply — and plenty more as well. With his debut release, Guzo, or “Journey,” Yirga both revives and updates Ethiopian jazz.
His talent was recognized early, but music educators in Ethiopia placed roadblocks in Yirga’s path. First, they told him his hands were too small to play piano. Later, he was thrown out of a prominent music school for experimenting too much. Yirga fit in better in the anything-goes world music scene in England. At last a place where his penchant to fuse jazz, Latin music, classical, pop and Ethiopian sounds made perfect sense.
On “Abet Abet,” a Fender Rhodes piano vamps while a traditional violin plays dark harmonies to conjure a delicious mood of foreboding. The sound instantly allies Yirga with Ethiopia’s fabled musical past, a time when indigenous folk musicians, brass bands and local funksters found common ground in the capital Addis Ababa.
On “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun,” Yirga enters into a kind of retro soul-jazz collaboration with the Creole Choir of Cuba. Quirky, yes, but decidedly original. Among the intriguing ensemble pieces on this album are three solo piano compositions, and this is where we can really take the measure of a maverick young player.
Yirga throws a lot into the mix with this release. He actually risks being overwhelmed by his influences, whether they be the unmistakable rhythms and modes of Ethiopia, or any of his other wide-ranging borrowings. Yirga has had to fight for his right to be himself, and in the end, the voice and vision of a distinctive composer shines through in this impressive debut.
New York (TADIAS) – While we wrap up the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States, 21-year-old Menna Mulugeta is rehearsing for a musical talent competition in Berlin, Germany as part of The Voice of Germany reality singing contest, which is part of an international series created by Dutch television producer John de Mol.
In a statement emailed to Tadias Magazine, Menna said she is one of 32 singers remaining in the widely publicized TV show with millions of viewers.
Menna, who was born and raised in Germany, said she spent time in Ethiopia rediscovering her roots and honing her musical skills following her graduation from high school in 2011. She recently recorded her first album of original songs.
Regarding The Voice of Germany contest, she pointed out that she is now at the stage where “the television audience influences the results of the competition by voting for their favorites.”
It’s been three months since 40-year-old Yayehyirad “Yared” Lemma and 31-year-old Yenenesh “Yenni” Desta were shot to death in front of their Lower Greenville home. The couple was returning home from Desta, the Ethiopian restaurant they ran on Greenville Avenue near Forest Lane, when a man accosted them on their front porch. Police would later say Abey Belette Girma was the shooter, and that he’d followed the couple home from the restaurant because they’d “disrespected him.”
Dallas police issued a capital murder arrest warrant for Girma, who’d left the state: A witness told police the 37-year-old Girma showed him the pistol he used to shoot the couple, then forced him to drive to Goodland, Kansas. Eventually, Girma showed up in Aurora, Colorado, where he was taken into custody and booked into the Arapahoe County jail.
And that’s where he sat till last week. But Dallas County records show that Girma is now being held in the Dallas County jail. He’s being held on a $1 million bond, charged with capital murder.
Sources familiar with the case say it took so long to get Girma back to Dallas because he fought extradition.
Girma is due in court Monday to approve Juan Sanchez as his court-appointed attorney. Sanchez says a pre-trial hearing will follow soon after.
Washington,D.C. (TADIAS) – For the past six years Artists for Charity (AFC), a D.C.-based non profit organization founded by Ethiopian American artists, has been gathering a network of volunteers and supporters for an evening of fun at their annual art auction to benefit a home for HIV positive orphans in Addis Ababa.
In a press release AFC said it will host this year’s event on Saturday, December 1st. “The benefit will be held on World AIDS Day and will feature artwork from local and international artists,” the organization said. “Artwork made by children from the AFC Children’s Home in Ethiopia will also be featured in the benefit.”
The AFC Children’s Home houses young people infected with HIV, who have lost both their parents. The home provides food, shelter, medical care, school fees and supplies for the children. AFC also has additional projects including an Artist-in-Residency program, which allows qualified volunteers to spend up to a year in Ethiopia while sharing their creative talents with AFC children.
“AFC was one of the first few places to accept children living with HIV in Ethiopia, with the strong belief that through love, support and access to good healthcare and treatment, these children would not only survive, but they would thrive,” the organization said in the press release. AFC noted that one of its first students is now in college.
— IF You Go:
AFC’s 6th Annual Holiday Benefit & Art Auction
Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 7:00 PM DC Architecture Center
421 7th St. NW Washington, DC 20004
To learn more about AFC visit www.artistsforcharity.org.
— Watch: Artists for Charity (AFC) Children’s Home – Their Story
BUT, how attractive is this country to young professionals from other African countries? I’m excited to chat with [Gamu Tagwireyi, Zimbabwean and Chernor Bah, Sierra Leonean] who relocated from two distinct countries to work in Addis Ababa.
Washington, DC (TADIAS) – The day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States is the busiest shopping day of the year, but if you live near D.C. you are also lucky enough to enjoy a Teddy Afro concert today. Teddy is scheduled to perform live at Echostage tonight, as part of his current world tour entitled Wede Fiker with Abogida Band and in celebration of his famous song Tikur Sew.
Organizers say you can pick up advance tickets in Washington D.C. at Habesha Market and Carry-out as well as at Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant. For Virginia residents tickets are available at Skyline — Tenadam, Bati, Kera and Awash markets. And in Maryland, visit Arat Kilo Market.
— If You Go
Teddy Afro LIVE
November 23rd, 2012 At Echo Stage
Doors Open at 9:00
2135 Queens Chapel Road NE
Washington, DC 20018
For groups and VIP reservations: call 201.220.3442
Organised by: KMF, Massinko, and Addis VIBE
— Related: The Person Behind Teddy Afro’s Music Video ‘Tikur Sew’
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
New York (TADIAS) – Two days after President Obama was re-elected for a second-term, owing in large part to the support of young voters, minorities and immigrant communities, a rally and a press conference was held in Los Angeles, urging the President and the new Congress to pass immigration reform in 2013. Among the speakers who were invited by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) to address the gathering held on Thursday, November 8th was a political refugee from Ethiopia named Zena Tafesse Asfaw.
Zena knows a thing or two about forced migration. Zena’s own personal story is part of an upcoming book called Asylum, which details her painful and at times shockingly daring journey as a fugitive from her country, illegally criss-crossing three continents and several countries with forged documents — including Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico — before arriving to her final destination in the United States, where she sought and received asylum.
Parts of her tragic odyssey became public four years ago when she testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration while looking into problems associated with medical care at various immigration-detention facilities in the United States. At the hearing that took place on June 4th, 2008, Zena recounted a near death experience during a five-month imprisonment in San Pedro, California while awaiting a decision on her petition for political asylum. She told Congress that she was forced by a nurse and guard to take the wrong medication that almost cost her life.
In a recent interview with Tadias Magazine, Zena said her stay in San Pedro was the most difficult aspect of her situation. “Prior to that I was on the road for more than a year, with very little money, without a home and in strange lands where I did not speak the language,” she said. “By the time I got to America, I was exhausted, too stressed, unable to sleep and was experiencing female health problems.” Zena added: “So I approached the medical unit for help. I was prescribed medication that was supposed to help me relax, two pills each night administered by the attending nurse. The medication was working fine for weeks until one day there was a different nurse on duty. This nurse gave me seven pills to take at the same time. The pills were different in color and bigger than my regular pills. I asked her if she was sure that those were my pills because I was supposed to take only two at night. She became angry and shouted loudly to swallow them. Then she instructed the security guard to check my mouth to make sure I did not hide the pills in my mouth. The guard used a flashlight to examine my mouth. That night I became very sick, I was shaking, sweating, and vomiting blood. I could not keep anything in my stomach. It would take me more than a month to recover. To make a long story short, I am certain that I was forced to take medications that was not mine.”
But Zena’s ordeal under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States, is only the end-tail of a long and sad journey that began in Ethiopia in 2005. She was then a young woman in her 20’s training to become an airline ticketing and reservation agent, while working at USAID and living in the home of the country’s USAID director at the time.
When violence broke out in Addis Ababa following a controversial national elections, Zena says “I happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Zena added “I was doing errands along with the family driver. There was a lot of girgir (Chaos) in the city and many students were being arrested. I was crossing the streets towards the car, when a policeman shouted at me to get on my knees.” Zena continued: “After checking my mobile and finding a text message from a relative that he thought was a supporter of the opposition, I was arrested and taken to jail where I spent 12 days. Until then, I thought of myself as a very strong person. That day, however, I felt the world came crashing down on me.”
She said she was eventually released on a $10,000 bail signed by her uncle. “I was upset, I wanted to sue, I wanted justice, I wanted to do something,” she said. “My life in my own birth country could never be the same again.” She added: “In the end, I was advised by those who loved me that the best thing for me was to leave Ethiopia.”
And so begins her epic sojourn into exile with a car trip to the Kenyan border and then through a smuggler to South Africa where she obtains a fake passport for her travel across the ocean to São Paulo, Brazil, where she ends up in a hostel mostly crowded with African immigrants from Eritrea, Somalia and West African countries. Zena said she befriended two Eritreans there who had the same mission as she did: to get to the United States.
In an excerpt from her upcoming book, shared with Tadias Magazine, Zena notes that along the way she received financial and other assistance from her former employers in Ethiopia whom she kept in touch via occasional phone calls from the road.
In a chapter entitled On the road to Bolivia from Sao Paulo, while traveling with her new friends from Eritrea, Zena describes a dramatic scene in the mountains of Bolivia where their bus came under fire by rebels. “On the second day of our bus journey, all hell broke loose — the Bolivian guerrillas against the government forces emerged…men came out of the forest, from behind rocks, from nowhere with rifles and machine guns blazing,” She wrote. “We all ducked down in our seats and I crumpled up as tight and as close to the floor as possible. Bullets were whizzing overhead and men were shouting something in Spanish. I didn’t speak the language so I didn’t know what they were saying but it was angry and intense. In that blur of violence, I glanced to my left to see how the boys were. My one friend was flopping around in the aisle like a large fish out of water. At first, I thought he’d been hit by a bullet, but there was no blood. Then his friend said he was having a seizure.”
Zena said her Eritrean friends survived the incident as well, but she said they separated in Ecuador after the bus trip. “Both of them have finally made it to America.”
Zena, who currently works and lives in Los Angeles, gives a lot of credit to her attorney David Paz Soldan, with whom she connected by memorizing his number, which she discovered posted on a board inside a room where she was being questioned by immigration officers in L.A. after she turned herself in to airport security upon her arrival in the United States on November 15, 2006. “He manged to get asylum approved, he got me my work permit and my green card,” she said. “He is an incredible human being who never failed to give hope and always delivered on his promise.”
In his endorsement of Zena’s book, Mr. Soldan wrote: “Zena’s tale is the most tragic yet inspirational story that I have encountered in all my years as an immigration attorney. Her strength and perseverance in overcoming the insurmountable obstacles placed before her are an affirmation to the human spirit and her will to survive. I consider myself fortunate to have met Zena, and it is a pleasure to see her continue to grow and achieve her goals.”
— This article has been abridged from the original version.
Zena Asfaw can be reached at zenaasylum@yahoo.com.
—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
New York (TADIAS) – Judging by her Amharic you wouldn’t guess that Metasebia Yoseph was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She is currently a graduate student at Georgetown University studying Communication, Culture and Technology and also the writer and creative director of a transmedia project called A Culture Of Coffee, which focuses on the development of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony and its significance within the culture.
“I try,” Metasebia said, humbly referring to her language skills and pointing out that she spent a year in Ethiopia working at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies’ Ethnographic Museum in Addis Ababa after graduating with a B.A. degree in Art History from the University of Maryland in 2008.
Metasebia said her stay in Ethiopia was what gave inspiration for the project. “I met people who produce artifacts, the Amharic Bible, and so many other things,” she said in a phone interview. “That experience very much impacted me in ways that encouraged me to build a bridge between my upbringing here and my Ethiopian heritage.” Metasebia added: “My parents are part of the first wave of Ethiopian immigrants to the United States. I am a first generation Ethiopian American. What better way to highlight that link than our rich and famous coffee culture?”
Metasebia is not waiting until graduation to get the ball rolling. “My partner and I have already registered an organization focusing on cultural development,” she said. “The corporation has been formed and we are in the process of getting our 501(c)3 status.”
According to Metasebia, the multimedia efforts will culminate in the production of an artful coffee table book in the near future, for which “I will be traveling to Ethiopia in December and finalizing research,” she said.
Metasebia recently launched a fundraising page for the coffee-table book project. She noted: “We are offering donors who give us $100 or more the opportunity to be mentioned in the upcoming Book: From Ethiopia With Love as a co-collaborator.”
— Click here to learn more and support the project.
Watch: A Culture of Coffee Launch Event at Kaffa Club
Los Angeles (TADIAS) – It is no secret that Ethiopia has produced some of the world’s greatest long distance runners. Rasselas Lakew’s independent film Atletu (The Athlete), pays tribute to the first runner that paved the way for generations of African athletes in the Olympic Games — the marathon hero Abebe Bikila.
Directed by Davey Frankel and Ethiopian-born Rasselas Lakew, Atletu, which was released in 2009, is currently featured as part of Film Festival Flix’s monthly theatrical series and an online platform that brings lesser-known movies to audiences around the country. Lakew, who co-wrote the script and also stars as the legendary runner, will attend the screenings along with the co-director.
In the film, Abebe Bikila is introduced to the audience well after his physical prime, while visiting family in Jato, Ethiopia in 1969. Driving a creaky Volkswagen on a dirt road, Bikila takes a literal and figurative drive down memory lane, passing through the breathtaking countryside of his childhood as actual footage of Bikila’s past races are juxtaposed together.
Bikila, who served as a member of the Imperial Bodyguard of Emperor Haile Selassie, became the first African to win a gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics, which he run barefoot, and setting into motion the legacy of long-distance running in Ethiopia. He won his second consecutive gold four years later in Tokyo in a new world record time, becoming the first athlete to win the Olympic marathon twice. The film’s archival footage highlights Bikila’s historic finish in Italy as he ran through the streets of Rome – passing by the stolen Ethiopian Obelisk monument while cruising to victory.
A symbolic slap in the face to Ethiopia’s former occupier, Italy, Bikila catapulted into international stardom. Several years after the Rome Olympics, however, Bikila realizes that other young stars from his country are conquering the sport. Atletu touches upon Bikila’s reckoning with being an aging legend in his country, as he focuses his attention on the upcoming 1972 Munich Games.
Unfortunately Bikila’s qualification for Munich is further deterred by a car accident that he suffers on his trip back to Addis Ababa from the countryside. Declared a quadriplegic, Bikila has to endure months of rehabilitation in the U.K., and his final race is never fulfilled.
Rasselas Lakew’s portrait of Bikila is stoic and understated, garnering him the “Best Actor” award from the 2011 Brooklyn Film Festival. Although Lakew studied Geology in college, he was drawn to filmmaking in the hopes of creating African narratives created by Africans. Lakew, who now lives and works in New York, took film-studies courses at Montana State University film school in the early 90’s. Lakew says Bikila’s remarkable story is a neglected one, a “man of the mountains” who “conquered Rome” with his bare feet.
With stunning cinematography, a memorable soundtrack, and archival footage that is sure to stir pride and please any heart, Atletu (The Athlete) is a modern ode to one of Ethiopia’s legendary heroes.
— Watch: Atletu (The Athlete) Movie Trailer
New York (TADIAS) – When the Ethiopian footwear company SoleRebels opened its first stand-alone retail store in Asia earlier month, becoming the first African brand of its kind to do so, the mayor of Kaoshiung, Taiwan’s second largest city, sent a bouquet of flowers welcoming the business to his town.
And according to SoleRebels’ CEO Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, customer reaction thus far has been just as enthusiastic.
“It’s been amazing,” she said. “People in Taiwan love the brand; they love the products, the look, the feel, and how we are presenting it to them. It’s fresh, exciting and very vital that they responded in kind.”
Bethlehem said the store opening anchors the company’s Asia retail rollout with a total of three Taiwan locations slated to open by end of 2012. “Our next Taiwan location will open in three weeks in Taichung,” she said. “This store will be about four times the size of the Kaoshiung store and will have some amazing surprises visually and from a merchandising perspective.”
Bethlehem added: “In about a month and a half we will open our first of two Singapore locations. And early next year, we will enter the booming Indonesian market. We also plan to open multiple U.S. locations in 2013 as well.”
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, Founder & CEO of SoleRebels. (Courtesy photo)
The store features a variety of styles, including sandal, slip-ons and lace-ups with price points ranging from $50 USD to $95. The company’s eco-fashion shoes are produced using indigenous practices such as hand-spun organic cotton and artisan hand-loomed fabric. Recycled tires are also incorporated for soles. The end result is environmental-friendly and top quality, vegan footwear.
“Our business model centers on eco-sensibility and community empowerment,” Bethlehem said. “We are pleased to have such great customers around the world who love our brand and our products.”
Below is a slideshow of photos courtesy of SoleRebels from its store opening in Taiwan.
Although he’s only been playing for 10 years, Yirga is quite the sponge. His mix of folk vernacular and jazz improvisations in vintage Ethiopian tunes most recalls a similar folky fluency in South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who likewise has no use for categories of high and popular art. Yirga ranges around even further on Guzo [his debut album] with his reworking of “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun,” originally recorded in 1971 by the group Rotary Connection. Yirga revitalizes the graceful beauty of the tune without going lush or sentimental. All that dates the track is the corny words, and those are handled with understatement by singers Nicolette and Mel Gara.
I didn’t expect Guzo to be one of the stronger arguments for the album format I’ve heard in quite a while, but it is. Yirga finds his way into Ethiopian standards, displays his flair for jazz over solo and ensemble pieces, and performs effortless homages to vintage soul, holding everything together with voracious talent that helps him savor each musical flavor. This is much more impressive when Yirga develops momentum and unity over the course of 11 tracks that show how much more he is than his parts.
Be sure to check out Yirga’s website for extra music and videos, particularly a vibrant live recording in London. Those who want to hear him as part of a band should explore his work with the group Dub Colossus. And anyone who wants to know more about Ethiopian music in general should grab the recent anthology The Rough Guide to the Music of Ethiopia, which includes classics from the Golden Age as well as Samuel Yirga and other adventurous moderns. While the Golden Age of Ethiopian music is in the past, a new one may be beginning.
New York (TADIAS) – If you followed our election coverage this week, you may have noticed the name Gediyon Kifle under the photo credit section of some of the photographs. The photojournalist will appear as a guest speaker this weekend at a lecture series sponsored by Leica Camera in Washington, D.C.
Gediyon will present how he incorporates his inert decisiveness to capture compelling images in a talk entitled Making a Moment Decisive.
According to the event’s announcement: “Gediyon will be discussing both the images captured as well as the moments that got away, which continue to fuel his creative energy.”
— If You Go:
Gediyon Kifle: Making a Moment Decisive
Sunday November 11, 2012
First Lecture: 12pm – 2pm
Second Lecture: 3pm – 5pm
Limited to 40 participants for each time slot.
Please e-mail RSVP@leica-store-dc.com preferred time. Leica Store Washington DC
977 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004 ,
Northwest
202-787-5900
The last wolves in Africa face a difficult road if they are going to survive. Just 500 Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) remain in the mountains of the country for which they are named. The animals now live in six fragmented populations located hundreds of kilometers apart from one another; three of these populations have fewer than 25 wolves each. According to a study published last month in Animal Conservation, the Ethiopian wolf now suffers from low genetic diversity and a weak flow of genes between packs. As we have seen with other rare species such as Florida panthers, Tasmanian devils and great Indian bustards, low genetic diversity can result in inbreeding, impaired birth rates and the inability to adapt to diseases or other ecological threats. The danger for Ethiopian wolves is not theoretical—rabies outbreaks in 1991–92 and 2003 each killed several hundred wolves.
New York (TADIAS) – The day after his historic re-election for a second term, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to his Chicago campaign headquarters in the morning. In the following video released by campaign officials, Mr. Obama delivered an emotional speech in which he thanked his staff and volunteers.
President Obama won a decisive victory for a second term on Tuesday, defeating his Republican challenger Governor Mitt Romney and sweeping all the battleground states, including, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida.
The campaign said it released the video “because it’s a message every single person who helped build this campaign deserves to see. He wasn’t just talking to those of us in the office — he was talking to all of you.”
The video has already received nearly 1.5 million hits on YouTube.
WATCH: President Obama’s Emotional Talk With Campaign Staff
New York (TADIAS) – U.S.-Africa relations was not part of the conversation in the 2012 U.S. Presidential elections, but what does the re-election of President Barack Obama mean for American diplomacy with Ethiopia?
“The election campaign had almost nothing to do with African issues,” said David H. Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia. “As a result, I don’t see the re-election of President Obama and the new Congress, which is little changed, having much impact on US-Africa or US-Ethiopia relations.”
According to Shinn once the United States deals with the looming fiscal crisis, we will see more attention focused on Africa by the Obama Administration, including “a major visit” to the continent. “Kenya will certainly be on the list,” Ambassador Shinn said. “The other countries will be selected based on their progress with democratization and economic development in that order.”
Ambassador Shinn, who is currently an Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, DC and a frequent commentator on East African Affairs, added: “Assignments in the Senate and House on committees related to Africa will be important, but I don’t see much change there either.”
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam, who teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and a contributor to various Ethiopian websites, said although he is one of many Ethiopians who have been disappointed by the Obama administration’s ‘see-no-evil’ approach to Ethiopia, he nevertheless was pleased by the Ethiopian American voter participation in the 2012 elections as well as by the re-election of President Obama.
“I fully supported President Obama’s re-election despite lingering disappointments over his administration’s policy of willful blindness to flagrant human rights violations in Ethiopia,” Professor Alemayehu said. “But I believe in a second term he will vigorously pursue a foreign policy agenda that balances America’s global strategic interests with its commitment to promote the values of freedom, democracy and human rights in Africa and elsewhere.”
He added: “I was glad to see a healthy and civil debate among Ethiopian Americans on whether to support President Obama or Gov. Romney. In America, we have the constitutional right to vote, organize and express ourselves without fear or penalties. I agree wholeheartedly with the president’s election night speech regarding the value of a vigorous and civil debate in a democracy: “These arguments [over the direction of the country] we have are a mark of our liberty. We can never forget that as we speak people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter, the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.” I remember with great sadness that in November 2005, hundreds of Ethiopians lost their lives and thousands were imprisoned for peacefully challenging what they believed to be theft of an election and the silencing of the voices of dissent and democratic opposition in Ethiopia since that time. I am very pleased to see the high level of excitement, enthusiasm and participation of young Ethiopian Americans in this election. Nearly one-fifth of President Obama’s support came from young people. It is heartening to see that young Ethiopians are an important part of the youth vote.”
Ambassador Shinn said he is optimistic that a more robust form of democracy will eventually take root in Ethiopia as well, but that initiative must come from the Ethiopian side. “With a new government in Ethiopia and a government in Washington with a new lease on life that is committed to encouraging democratic principles, I am hopeful there will be progress in Ethiopia,” he said. “But this depends more on Ethiopia than it does the United States.”
Former Ethiopian opposition leader Judge Birtukan Midekssa, who is currently a visiting fellow at Harvard University Law School (President Obama’s alma mater), noted she’s appreciative of “the dynamic” nature of the democratic culture in the United States. “What is impressive is that the deep commitment of the American people to various institutions of their country, their willingness to play by the same rules when it comes to conducting elections, and the enormous value they give to the whole process. In my opinion, these are all part and parcel of what is at the epicenter of this remarkable achievement,” she said. “I think all the candidates, campaign volunteers of both sides and everyone involved deserve to be congratulated for making the election a success.”
Birtukan highlighted: “As it was the case in most of the previous elections, the US presidential race of this year also encourages and inspires multitudes around the world, including Ethiopia that is laboring to give birth to democracy in its own unique national color. It is my strong expectation that President Obama and his administration would renew their commitment to show more solidarity with the people in the African continent as outlined in his Accra speech at the beginning of his first-term.”
For Ayele Bekerie, an Associate Professor of History and Cultural Studies at Mekelle University in Ethiopia and a scholar of African and African American studies, the re-election of Obama is a vindication for Obama’s historic presidency. “Obama wins and that means Americans have accepted his leadership,” he said. “The voters have given Obama a second chance and he has to perform now. I believe his election is good news for U.S.-Ethiopia relations.”
We called the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C seeking input from Ambassador Girma Birru for this article. The Ambassador was unavailable to comment. We will update the story when we receive a response.
— Related: President Obama Wins Second Term
Video: Watch the world reacts to Obama’s victory (NBC News)
New York (TADIAS) – Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold the office, has been re-elected for a second term.
Mr. Obama defeated his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, after a long, hard-fought and one of the most expensive presidential campaigns in American history.
President Obama secured victory in the swing states of Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire that put him over the top in the final electoral vote count.
Television networks declared the election in the president’s favor shortly after polls closed in all 50 states late Tuesday night on November 6th.
Governor Mitt Romney called to congratulate Mr. Obama on his re-election before addressing supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters in Boston. “I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters,” Governor Romney said in brief remarks. “This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”
President Obama delivered his acceptance speech in his hometown of Chicago. “Tonight in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back,” the president told a waiting country in the wee hours of early Wednesday morning. “We know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.”
— Related: What Does the Re-Election of Obama Mean for U.S.-Ethiopia Relations?
Watch: Obama’s Triumphant Return to Washington (NBC News)
New York (TADIAS) – As Ethiopian Americans prepare to cast their ballots in the 2012 presidential election on Tuesday, regardless of the choice of candidate, we urge our readers who have not voted early to vote on November 6th and to exercise their citizenship right to participate in the democratic process.
Four years ago when we backed Barack Obama for President, we were motivated not only by the historic nature of the 2008 election, but also by the enthusiastic, grassroots activism that his candidacy had generated in our community. Although we cannot agree with every decision that the Obama administration has made in the last four years, both domestic and foreign, there can be no doubt that the Ethiopian Diaspora’s contribution to the American tapestry has received more national attention in the same period than at any previous time in history, both through appointments to key administration positions as well as honoring innovators and high achieving professionals.
President Obama could do better to articulate and encourage the culture of free press, government transparency and accountability in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa. However, it is ultimately our responsibility as citizens to make our voices heard. Regardless of who wins this election, we hope that political activists in our community tone down the non-constructive criticism that prevents all of us from responsibly engaging in the democratic system.
Broadly speaking President Obama’s accomplishments have been impressive, including the passage of the most sweeping health care reforms since 1965, preventing another “Great Depression” and saving the American automobile industry from demise. The economy that was on a doomsday downward spiral when he took office in 2009 has rebounded to a positive territory with the latest jobs report showing “persistent economic growth.”
Most importantly we believe President Obama has remained true to the spirit of his historic 2008 campaign to be a leader of the people, by the people for the people. It goes without saying that President Obama has earned our vote. We urge Ethiopian Americans to support his re-election!
—- Video: Watch President Obama makes his Case in Ohio
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is one of Africa’s most celebrated businesswomen. The international media seemingly can’t get enough of this founder of soleRebels, an Ethiopian-based footwear company. She has won numerous entrepreneurship awards, posing in pictures with the likes of Richard Branson, and regularly speaks at conferences across the world. For many people, Alemu has become a poster child of Africa’s changing economic fortunes and women entrepreneurship on the continent.
SoleRebels shoes are made by Ethiopian artisans at a factory in the capital Addis Ababa. The company is the world’s first fair trade certified footwear brand. “At our core we at soleRebels are creative artisans who aim to craft the coolest and most comfortable footwear,” says Alemu. “In a world of faceless production-line assembled … shoes, soleRebels proudly stands apart and offers a much desired alternative. Our business model centres on eco-sensibility and community empowerment; product design and development involve a great deal of effort to achieve fashionable and appealing quality products that use local materials.”
The company was founded in 2005. It has a flagship retail store in Addis Ababa, although the majority of sales are generated online.
During an interview with How we made it in Africa in May this year, Alemu described her strategy to open soleRebels outlets throughout the world. Over the weekend, the company achieved an important milestone with the launch of its first stand alone branded retail store in Taiwan.
My new companion on the mountain ledge emitted a croak and hopped a little closer. A momentary standoff followed as I contemplated a beak like bolt-cutters and talons the size of butcher’s hooks. The ground dropped away for a vertical mile on either side of this slender promontory. This was no place for wrangling with a feathered brute. I shuffled back to let the enormous raven—twice as big as any I’d ever seen—scavenge from my picnic leftovers.
If you’ve ever wondered how Jack felt on that first foray up the beanstalk, you could do worse than to visit Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains. Looming high above the volcanic outriders of the Great Rift Valley, 670 miles north of Addis Ababa, the range is nature junked-up on growth hormones: a 37-mile-long basalt escarpment staggered between altitudes of 10,000 and 15,000 feet. The area is populated by supersize plants, boisterous monkey armies 500-strong and supersize ravens with a penchant for cookie crumbs.
It’s not a place that has always welcomed outsiders. From 1983 to ’99, famine and regional warfare snuffed out its tourism potential. Today, however, with Ethiopia’s economy expanding amid a semblance of political stability, the country is becoming a relatively safe and accessible destination. It’s often the tawny grandeur of the Ethiopian highlands, cradling Lalibela’s rock-hewn churches and towering above the fabled tombs of Aksum, that most impresses visitors. And it’s here in the Simiens that this region can be seen at its biggest and most sensational. Inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1978, it is a place that has been extolled by Unesco as “one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world.” When I’d prepared to leave the scruffy, one-road town of Debark to begin a six-day trek of its high plateaus, I found myself wondering whether the hyperbole had left me expecting too much.
On Friday evening, with slightly more than 36 hours to go before the 2012 ING New York City Marathon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg canceled the annual event, amid criticisms the runners would be siphoning off valuable resources needed in the city’s recovery from Superstorm Sandy. But the decision hardly discouraged a group of nearly 1,300 runners from boarding the Staten Island Ferry toward the starting line. Far from anticipating a grueling 26.2-mile run, however, these would-be racers ran their own marathon, carrying garbage bags and backpacks full of donated supplies ranging from blankets to Home Depot gift cards that they delivered to the destroyed homes of Staten Island residents.
“I’ve run the marathon three times, and there was an odd familiarity getting on the Staten Island Ferry this morning with a group of runners for a completely different reason,” says runner and New Yorker Jon Bennion. “It was fascinating, the anxiety and jitters were replaced by an overwhelming sense of community.”
— After Days of Pressure, Marathon Is Off
By KEN BELSON (NYT)
Published: November 2, 2012
New York – After days of intensifying pressure from runners, politicians and the general public to cancel the New York City Marathon in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, city officials and the event’s organizers decided Friday afternoon to cancel the race.
The move is historic — the marathon has been held every year since 1970, including the race in 2001 held two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks — but seemed inevitable as opposition to the marathon swelled. Critics said that it was in poor taste to hold a foot race through the five boroughs while so many people in the area are still suffering from the storm’s damages, and that city services should focus on storm relief, not the marathon. Proponents of the marathon — notably Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mary Wittenberg, director of the marathon — said the race would provide a needed morale boost, as well as an economic one.
A parking attendant who was part of a scheme that stole at least $400,000 in lot fees from the Smithsonian Institution’s aircraft museum in Chantilly pleaded guilty Thursday to theft of public money.
Freweyni Mebrahtu, 45, of Sterling is the second person to admit pocketing the $15 parking fee paid by thousands of visitors to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center from October 2009 to July 2012, according to the plea she entered in federal court in Alexandria.
Returns of thirty per cent a year sound too good to be true, but that’s what it is claimed you can earn by investing in this rising nation. Local businesses say they are booming, meanwhile foreign investors are jostling for opportunities.
So where can these incredible profits be made? The answer is Ethiopia.
In a Business Daily Special, Justin Rowlatt reports from the country that was once a byword for poverty and famine but which has been tranforming itself, not into a tiger, but into an African “lion” economy.
Together with three other former U.S. ambassadors to Ethiopia, I attended the memorial service for Meles Zenawi on 27 October 2012 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem section of New York. Among the persons who made remarks were Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
I was saddened by some of the vituperative and just plain disrespectful remarks (usually by anonymous individuals) that subsequently appeared on Ethiopian websites in response to the remarks of Ambassador Rice. While I was not invited to make remarks, I have no doubt that whatever I might have said would also have been harshly criticized by these same individuals. Like Ambassador Rice, I have disagreed both as a representative of the U.S. government and as a private individual with some of the policies of Prime Minister Meles. But in spite of these disagreements, I always respected Meles as a person and the office that he held.
The event at the Abyssinian Baptist Church was a memorial to a deceased person; it was not a political rally. It was the wrong time and place to express such hostility. But lest the readers of the hostile blog postings think this was a major protest rally, let me make one point crystal clear. I walked from my hotel in Harlem to the Church on Saturday morning and passed across the street from all SIX protesters at fifteen minutes before nine, when the service began. At the conclusion of the service I returned to my hotel at about noon. The number of protestors had grown to between ten and twelve. Perhaps there were several more present when the service was underway and they decided to leave before noon. But this was a very small group of protestors.
As for the remarks made by Ambassador Rice, I urge that you read them yourself and make up your own mind. Click here to access them.
In the 12 hours after this posting as Hurricane Sandy hits the Mid-Atlantic and New England region, some 1,700 persons have read this item and 12 of you responded. Some of the replies agreed with me; others did not. Since none of the responses contained truly offensive language, I posted all 12 without editorial change. (I will not post responses that contain offensive language. I also congratulate those of you who have the courage to include your name.)
The memorials to Meles are over. New Ethiopian leaders are in place. I deeply hope the new team will open the political process in Ethiopia. At a minimum, it deserves in my humble opinion as an outside observer a chance to demonstrate how it can serve the people of Ethiopia.
New York (TADIAS) – Several years ago in Addis Ababa, when a young, idealistic woman named Reeyot Alemu, who was working as a high school English teacher, began contributing part-time to local independent newspapers and writing mostly opinion articles that were critical of various government policies, she knew that she could potentially upset those in power. Reeyot, however, had no idea that her courage would one day earn her prestigious international recognition, albeit while in Kality prison.
Reeyot, now 31, is currently serving a five-year term on terror charges, and was among four women who where honored last week by the International Women’s Media Foundation for their courageous work in journalism. Reeyot, a former columnist for the the publications Awramba Times (now in exile and online) and the Amharic weekly Feteh (now blocked), was given the 2012 “Courage in Journalism” award at a ceremony held in Manhattan on Wednesday, October 24th.
“When I nominated Reeyot for the Award, I wanted to show the face of courage in her, so that girls in our country will not be discouraged from becoming a voice to the voiceless,” said Elias Wondimu, who accepted the award on her behalf and read a letter penned by her for the occasion.
“When I became politically aware, I understood that being a supporter or member of the ruling party is a prerequisite to living safely and to get a job,” Reeyot wrote in a letter sent from prison. “I knew I would pay the price for my courage and was willing to pay the price.”
Mohammed Ademo, a New York-based freelance journalist, who is the Co-founder and Editor-In-Chief of OPride.com, as well as a graduate student at Columbia University, attended the luncheon and covered the ceremony for the Columbia Journalism Review.
“I thought the event was great. The courageous journalists honored here today inspire all of us who are in the business of storytelling,” Ademo told Tadias Magazine. “These are but few of those brave souls who are committed to exposing corruption, informing the public, and holding autocratic regimes accountable, often at a great personal peril.” Ademo continued: “This award means so much to journalists like Reeyot Alemu, who are silenced for simply speaking truth to power.”
In his widely publicized interview with Voice of America last month, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn took a hardline stance on the subject, strongly defending the continued imprisonment of a number of journalists. “Our national security interest cannot be compromised by somebody having two hats,” PM Hailemariam said, echoing the official claims, which accuses the prisoners of being “double-agents” for terrorist organizations. “We have to tell them they can have only one hat which is legal and the legal way of doing things, be it in journalism or opposition discourse, but if they opt to have two mixed functions, we are clear to differentiate the two,” the PM told VOA’s Peter Heinlein.
“How on earth can we compare a person who criticizes a government’s policy through writing and accuse them of being terrorists?” Elias asked.
Ademo said: “Reeyot’s only crime is carrying out her journalistic responsibility, being a voice for the voiceless. I wish her good health, perseverance, and peace of mind.”
Elias added: “Due to lack of proper training, our journalists are not and can not be perfect, but the way to remedy this should not be criminalizing their perceived mistakes, but to correct and educate them.”
Reeyot’s former colleague, the award-winning exiled journalist Dawit B. Kebede – Managing Editor of Awramba Times, said, for him, the award is personal. “I am very happy for Reeyot and for many reasons,” Dawit said in a phone interview. “But the number one reason is because Reeyot deserves it. This award is an important recognition not only of Reeyot’s personal struggles, but it is also a way to inspire young people to understand the unfairness of silencing those with critical voices.” Dawit added: “It also encourages those that are incarcerated along with her, including my friend Wubishet Taye, Deputy Editor of Awramba Times, and Eskinder Nega.”
Dawit pointed out that Wubishet had applied for pardon at the same time as the recently released two Swedish journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, but was not granted similar clemency. “In my opinion, it was the most discriminatory and shameful pardon process,” Dawit said. “As an Ethiopian it is embarrassing to bypass your own people because they happen not to be backed by powerful Western influence. So the foreigners receive forgiveness, but not the Ethiopians.”
Reeyot Alemu, recipient of the 2012 Courage in Journalism Award. (Photo: International Women’s Media Foundation)
Regarding Reeyot, Mohamed Keita, Africa Advocacy Coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said this Ethiopian is now part of an exclusive club of extraordinary women whose life stories are seen as role models for young people around the world. “With the IWMF award, the world’s leading women journalists are embracing Reeyot Alemu as one of their own,” Keita said. “The Courage in Journalism award validates Reeyot’s legitimate right to write critically about her government and its policies, as she did, and recognizes not only the injustice of her imprisonment but her improbability as a terrorist suspect.”
For former judge Birtukan Midekssa, who is currently the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow at Harvard University Law School with a joint appointment at W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Reeyot is both a friend and an inspiration.
“It took me only a short while to get fascinated by her defiant spirit and her determination to be true to herself — both as journalist and as a responsible citizen — after I came to know my good friend Reeyot,” Birtukan said. “It is obvious that she did not commit any offence that could lead to lock her up except saying no to the menace of EPRDF government to silence her journalistic voice while it intensifies its forceful coercion against Ethiopian citizens.” She added: “She fiercely opposed the unacceptable authoritarianism which pervades the political sphere; she criticized the officials for incarcerating political prisoners including myself; she shed light on unaccountable and irresponsible transactions of the government.”
Birtukan said it is particularly striking to her that Reeyot knew in advance what she was getting into. “But she chose to bear the consequence instead of refraining from freely expressing herself,” she said. “Though it is enormously painful for me to see her young life confined by illegitimate use of government power.”
Birtukan added: “Her persistence, strength, courage and the international recognition she earned as a result, lead me to have more faith in Ethiopian youth that they will take charge of the destiny of our nation to eventually lead it to free and prosperous life.”
Government officials maintain all the jailed journalists have broken the law and are guilty of the crimes under which they were convicted.
An award-winning playwright and popular broadcaster in the UK, as well as the author of five poetry books, Lemn Sissay has a way with words. “You can define how strong a democracy is by how its government treats the child of the state,” Lemn says, referring to his life story as an adopted child growing up in England. He recently spoke at TED Talks and his presentation was entitled A child of the State.
You can watch the video below filmed at TEDx Houses of Parliament.
