NEW YORK — A columnist imprisoned under Ethiopia’s controversial anti-terrorism laws, an Azerbaijani investigative radio reporter who had surveillance cameras planted in her apartment and a Palestinian blogger who has been beaten and tortured for reporting on abuses and protests in Gaza each received Courage in Journalism awards Wednesday from a women’s media group.
Alemu, 31, is serving a five-year-prison sentence in Ethiopia for the communication of a terrorist act. The IWMF said the only evidence presented against her at trial were articles she wrote criticizing the government and telephone conversations she had regarding peaceful protests. She was initially sentenced in January to 14 years in prison but the sentence was reduced later this year when most of the terrorism charges against her were dropped.
Elias Wondimu, an exiled Ethiopian journalist, accepted the award on Alemu’s behalf and read a handwritten letter she penned from prison.
“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,” Alemu wrote in the letter. “I knew I would pay the price for my courage and was willing to pay the price.”
The two men were close friends, dancing at nightclubs, listening to reggae music, talking about their aspirations and, sometimes, their worst fears. If one suffered a life-threatening injury, they promised each other, the other would make sure to disconnect him from any machine keeping him alive.
Neither man would allow the other to suffer.
In 2006, the year after Mesfin Nega and Shimelis Yegazu made their pact, a group of men attacked Nega outside an Adams Morgan nightclub, breaking his neck and damaging his spinal cord. When he awoke from an induced coma, his breathing made possible by a ventilator, Nega learned that he was a quadriplegic.
For six years, Nega and Yegazu did nothing. Then, three months ago, on Aug. 14, Yegazu fulfilled his promise, D.C. police announced Wednesday. He administered a lethal dose of phenobarbital to his friend in the Columbia Heights rowhouse that Nega, 38, shared with his sister, police said.
New York (TADIAS) – Having come so close to winning last year’s New York City Marathon, finishing second by a mere four seconds, Buzunesh Deba will be chasing victory again in one of the world’s greatest marathons which eluded her and instead was grasped by Ethiopian compatriot Firehiwot Dado a year ago.
Firehiwot, who pulled away from Buzunesh over the last 200 yards of the 26.2 miles event, will not defend her crown this year after withdrawing from the race last week with what her manager said was a foot injury.
This time around Buzunesh faces 2012 London Olympics marathon winner Tiki Galena and 2011 World Marathon Champion Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, among a deep elite international field.
This will be Buzunesh’s fourth New York City Marathon; she finished seventh in 2009 and 10th in 2010. A resident of the Bronx, she will be a hometown favorite and she knows the course well.
She also knows most of her competition — both their faces and their paces. There is no awe or intimidation when she speaks of the other elite runners, only self-confidence and the conviction that if she runs as well as she is capable she will win.
“I believe I will win, it is my dream,” said Buzunesh. “God will decide.”
She trains diligently, some say maniacally, six days a week, but she says the seventh day she devotes to attending St. Mary of Zion Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church in Yonkers, New York. An Orthodox Christian, her bedroom is decked with illustrations of the Virgin Mary. And, born in the Asela region of Ethiopia, Buzunesh said: “When I am running, and I get tired, I call on God,” she said. “That is my power.”
Buzunesh has trod through some valleys since her podium finish a year ago in Central Park. She spent the winter training at altitude in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was accompanied by her husband Worku Beyi, who is also her coach and manager. Their relocation was made easier by sharing living quarters and training schedules with friends Genna Tufa, Serkalem Abrha and Atalelech Asfaw — all among a group of Ethiopian runners who left New York for the benefits of living and training at high altitude.
Returning to New York in April, Buzunesh was poised to stake her claim at a World Marathon Majors championship by following her second-place finish in New York with a win at the Boston Marathon. (Top-finishers in the New York City, Boston, Chicago, London and Berlin marathons compete for the $500,000 prize awarded every two years.)
Training had gone well winter into spring leading up to Boston. However, after completing her final pre-marathon track workout just days before the race Buzunesh miss-stepped, turning an ankle, as she walked off the synthetic surface and onto the stadium infield.
Neither prayer nor treatment could chase away the pain in time for Buzunesh to compete in the Boston Marathon. Ultimately, she was not able to return to running until mid-summer. Unable to train, Buzunesh became a spectator of the sport as she followed the race results of her friends and rivals during sleepless nights.
“When I am training, I go to bed early,” she said. “But when I could not run I would be up two and three o’clock in the morning on my computer.”
Buzunesh finally resumed training in August, and competed for the first time this year at the Rock n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon on Sept. 16. She finished eighth, in a time of 1:14:54.
The result was mind-boggling to running experts, fellow competitors and even enthusiasts: Buzunesh had run 1:09:18 over the half-marathon distance in winning the 2011 Rock n’ Roll San Diego Marathon in 2:23:31. Yet she ran five minutes slower over an equally fast Philadelphia course (Sharon Cherop of Kenya won the race in 1:07:19, followed by Mare Dibaba of Ethiopia in 1:07:44.).
Buzunesh was disappointed, of course. And Worku did a bit of head-scratching before reasoning it was simply a bad day.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I saw her that day and she looked heavy.”
“She was not able to run fast that day, but she had had only six weeks of training at the time,” he added. “She will have had six more weeks before New York.”
There are critics that doubt Buzunesh will be competitive this year, let alone win. They point to Philadelphia, and note that she has barely raced this year.
“Look at her Philadelphia Rock n’ Roll results,” said Hicham EL Mohtadi, an agent-manager of runners based in New York City including Ethiopian Mekides Bekele. “She had lots of time off from competing on a high level due to injury. She still is not at full-force. I don’t see her being a factor in this year’s marathon.”
Mohtadi noted that despite these issues he is still rooting for Buzunesh. He added: “Though I’d love to see her win it because she’s a dear friend and a lovely young lady.”
Bill Staab, president of West Side Runners New York, which supports a large number of Ethiopian runners in the city, said Worku is the best barometer of Buzunesh’s chances.
“Due to her foot injury last April and the fact that her time at the Rock n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon was not up to her PR (personal record), it is hard to judge her chances.” he said. “But we all know Buzunesh trains with fervor.”
Buzunesh’s resilience has been further tested in recent weeks. Worku’s father died in early October, and there were several days of mourning. The funeral in Ethiopia took her husband and coach away from their marathon training for several more days.
And then there are the stomach cramps that Buzunesh said contributed to her being unable to hold the lead after pulling Firehiwot Dado along in overtaking Mary Keitany of Kenya at the 25-mile mark last year in New York. Firehiwot would pass Buzunesh in the final mile, and Keitany finished third. (Keitany, who won the 2012 London Marathon and was fourth in the London Olympics marathon, is not competing this year in New York.).
“She gets cramps after some workouts,” a concerned Worku said of his wife. “There is pain, and sometimes she throws up.”
Buzunesh hopes the problem does not recur during the marathon. She knows from training runs of 24 miles in Central Park and 26 miles on the New York Greenway along the Hudson River that she can cover the marathon distance without such pain.
And, she has her own belief-system for support. Buzunesh radiates a confidence steeped in humility. She does not boast, or deride other runners; she simply believes in herself. It is a belief rooted in her faith, which she takes as much care recharging every Sunday as she does her body following training sessions other days of the week.
Having a husband who is a good cook helps when it comes to revitalizing the body. A training-table dinner last week in the Buzunesh and Worku’s home, an apartment in Kingsbridge, consisted of a salad of green leaf, tomatoes, avocados, green peppers and oil-vinegar dressing, a vegetable medley of carrots, potatoes and broccoli, halved hard-boiled eggs and chunks of white-meat chicken.
While Buzunesh and Worku prefer traditional Ethiopian cuisine, or injera, they eschew it during training season in favor of lighter fare. Vitamin bottles and other supplements cover a tabletop in their home. Buzunesh noted she takes supplements when she remembers — indicating with her face and hands that often she does not. However, she is more reliant on the energy-electrolyte drinks that Worku prepares before and after workouts.
Buzunesh and Worku occasionally can be spotted running in Central Park or Riverside Park, but the bulk of work occurs at their favorite training site — Rockefeller State Park in Tarrytown, NY. Van Cortlandt Park, near their home, is their most-frequented site given its proximity.
They elected not to train at altitude for this marathon, having decided sufficient benefits can be gained simply through hard and smart training in New York. That belief has Buzunesh undaunted by Galena, Misikir Mekonnen and Kenyan runners coming directly from high altitude to compete in New York.
Hours after Buzunesh finished the 2011 New York City Marathon, reporters and photographers gathered around her and Worku following a news conference in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Columbus Circle. Hugging his wife, a beaming Worku held up his other hand leaving scant daylight between the thumb and index finger.
“She came this close,” he said. “She made a little mistake. We will correct it for next year.”
On Nov. 4, 2012 the couple will learn whether or not they were successful in making the necessary correction.
—- Below are slideshow of photos taken during Buzunesh’s morning training session on Saturday, October 20th, 2012.
Like the Ethiopian marathon runners, Addis Ababa (often shortened to plain ‘Addis’) is evolving at a fast pace. The fact that the country’s economic growth should reach almost 5% in 2013 helps create a feeling of confidence and stamina. Founded little more than a century ago, Addis Ababa, which in Amharic means ‘New Flower’, is not only the diplomatic capital of Africa and a thriving metropolis, but also a groovy city that takes pride in its multifaceted assets.
New York (TADIAS) – While October is designated as international Breast Cancer Awareness Month, cancer screening in Ethiopia is almost nonexistent, says cancer survivor Mrs. Tsige Birru-Benti, who is one of the founders of BCE (Battling Cancer in Ethiopia), a U.K. based charity organization that promotes early cancer screening in Ethiopia as well as raises funds for the Black Lion Hospital Cancer Center in Addis Ababa.
“The short term objective is to equip the Oncology Unit of the Black Lion Hospital (BLH) by raising fund to buy CT Simulators that benefit cancer treatment planning,” Tsige said. “The long term objective is to work with other institutions in Ethiopia to create awareness among the urban and rural population regarding the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.”
According to Tsige the Oncology Unit at BLH currently has approximately 6,000 cancer patients, with only 3 specialist doctors. “Every year the unit takes at least 2,000 newly diagnosed patients but the waiting time to start treatment is usually more than 6 months,” she said. “In the meantime a large number of patients die without any help or any source of pain relief.”
As to her own battle with the disease, Tsige shared: “Being a cancer survivor, I can testify to the suffering that I went through and what it means to be relieved from pain and the importance of proper medical care. In January 2010, I was diagnosed with Lymphoma B-Cell grade 2 cancer. Being in London, where facilities are in place my treatment was on the fast track and commenced within a month. I went through 6 cycles of chemotherapy and 2 cycles of Rituximab. At the end of July 2010 I had finished all my medical treatment and thank God now I am enjoying good health once again.”
Tsige said her wish is for all cancer patients in Ethiopia to have the same access to professional medical care as she did during her illness in England. “There is a lack of awareness about cancer in Ethiopia compared to other chronic diseases that are widely publicized. Therefore, when people begin to develop symptoms, more often than not, they tend to resort to traditional medicine.”
Regarding BCE, she added: “We plan to knock on every door to spread cancer awareness in Ethiopia and raise funds to reach our goal. As the Amharic saying goes ‘hamsa lomi leand sew shekmu new lehamsa sew gen getu new‘ (50 lemons are a load for one individual but for 50 individuals each lemon is like an accessory). This is what is required of Ethiopians worldwide, to be united as hand-to-a-glove for this project.”
— We commend Tsige on her initiative for better cancer screening and services and encourage you to visit the BCE website to learn more.
ATLANTIC CITY – Four years ago, Berhanu Mekonen might not have chosen the Atlantic City Marathon for his first marathon since moving to the United States from Ethiopia.
But the once-struggling event is again among the nation’s premier races.
Mekonen won the 54th Atlantic City Marathon and fellow Ethiopian Gedese Edeto was the women’s champion Sunday. The event, which also included a half-marathon Sunday and a 10K (6.2 miles), 5K and kids 1-mile run Saturday, drew about 4,000 entrants.
The Ethiopian contingent, which included several runners besides Mekonen and Edeto, was evidence of the resurgence of the nation’s third-longest-running marathon, which was taken over in 2009 by the Milton and Betty Katz Jewish Community Center in Margate.
The World of Montgomery Festival celebrates, explores and shares the diverse cultural heritages which play an active role in the lives of Montgomery County residents and communities. The festival will showcase this rich diversity through food, music, dance, visual art, and story-telling.
This year’s International Village exhibition, organized by the KID Museum (Kids International Discovery Museum) will focus on the four countries with the largest immigrant populations in Montgomery County: China, El Salvador, Ethiopia, and India with each country tent featuring hands-on activities, demonstrations and presentations to promote international and multi-cultural awareness.
Other festival highlights include international crafts vendors presented by Fenton Street Market, a pupusa cook-off presented by LEDC, two stages of live entertainment, cooking demonstrations from local international chefs, crafts and community service projects for kids, and youth-made film festival.
— If you go:
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Noon – 5:00PM
Parking lot in front of the Mid-County Regional Center
Grandview Avenue & Reedie Drive
2424 Reedie Drive
Wheaton, Maryland 20902
More info at: WorldofMontgomery.com.
To aim high sometimes pays dividends. Ethiopia were busy planning how to qualify for their first ever World Cup in 2014. Now they are celebrating a return to the Africa Cup of Nations after a wait of three decades.
The Waliya Antelopes are top of Group A in the African zone of World Cup qualifiers, but reaching the 2013 Nations Cup in South Africa marks a new dawn for the country.
The Ethiopians beat Sudan 2-0 in Addis Ababa last Sunday to qualify for their first continental finals since 1982 on the away goals rule, after the tie had ended 5-5 on aggregate.
If the celebrations in Meskel Square in the heart of Addis Ababa were anything to go by, then it is clear that 85 million Ethiopians are ready to reclaim their lost heritage as one of the pioneers of the African game when they play in their 10th finals since 1957.
The Ethiopian Black Lions booked their place at the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 30 years as they earned reward for a patient approach in Addis Ababa.
Sudan won a goal-flush first encounter 5-3 thanks to a late Mohamed Al Tahir brace and were barely troubled during the opening half at the national stadium in the heart of the Ethiopian capital.
But as the hour mark passed without a goal and it was looking good for the visitors, Adane Girma and Saladin Seid scored a goal apiece to turn the match on its head to the delight of a capacity 30,000 crowd.
Fifty years ago Ethiopia won the Nations Cup and now they have won the right to try to do so again.
Washington, D.C. (TADIAS) – The Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW), an advocacy organization based in Silver Spring, Maryland, has announced a “walk” to be held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, October 20, 2012. “The purpose of the walk is to create awareness about the plight of Ethiopian women domestic workers in Middle Eastern countries who are living under deplorable and slave-like conditions,” the group said in a press release.
The organization said the event is part of the continuing effort following the tragic death of 33-year old Alem Dechasa in Lebanon earlier this year that has unleashed innovative solutions by Ethiopian professionals in the Diaspora to bring much needed attention to the plight of domestic migrant workers around the world.
Alem Dechasa died in early March a few days after her videotaped beating was posted on YouTube that showed her being dragged and pushed into a car outside the Ethiopian consulate in Beirut.
“Over the past decade the number of Ethiopian women domestic workers in the Middle East has increased dramatically and is unlikely to stop any time soon,” the press release said, citing a 2012 trafficking in Persons Report published in June by the US Department of State, which noted: “Many Ethiopian women working in domestic service in the Middle East face severe abuses, including physical and sexual assault, denial of salary, sleep deprivation, withholding of passports, confinement, and murder.”
CREW said: “It calls upon human rights and women’s organizations in the Middle East to work with us to avert further tragedy.”
—- If you go:
October 20th, 2012
9:30AM-12:30PM
From 14TH & PENNSYLVANIA AV, NW (Freedom Plaza)
To US Capitol back to Freedom Plaza
For more info call: 202.466.1644
–
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The inaugural Colors of the Nile International Film Festival (CNIFF) will run in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 7-11 November 2012, introducing the best of African cinema to African audiences. The festival will screen 58 titles, all of which will be African, East African or Ethiopian premieres. Films in competition were submitted from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.
“We’re very proud of our lineup,” says CNIFF president Abraham Haile Biru, a two-time Best Cinematographer winner at FESPACO for Darrat (Dry Season) and Abouna (Our Father). “The titles show that a new wave of modern African cinema is coming of age; they present a new vision of the continent and its creativity.”
New York (TADIAS) – You may remember the new Ethiopian rock band Jano from our interview over the summer with their producer Bill Laswell who told us that he is convinced that the ten-member ensemble that fuses distinctly Ethiopian sounds with heavy guitar, will be the next big musical act on the world stage to come out of the country. Laswell had promised an unconventional marketing strategy to introduce the group to outside audiences.
“It will come as a word-of-mouth and not so much as a marketing distribution build up how America does things, but more to do with getting that interest to communities,” Laswell had said. “I think it will start in the Ethiopian community and hopefully it will build into what the world calls the ‘World Music’ genre, which is pretty big internationally.”
Jano recently released a teaser video that is already creating a buzz within the Ethiopian community online and elsewhere.
You can watch the video below and join the conversation on Facebook.
— Watch: The Ethiopian Rock Band Jano – Interview with Producer Bill Laswell (TADIAS)
ADDIS ABABA – When Ethiopia’s leader of 21 years Meles Zenawi died in August, citizens were on edge with memories of violent transfers of power.
“A lot of people expected conflict after his death was announced,” says a top young civil servant about Prime Minister Meles’s secrecy-shrouded death. His mother asked him to remain at home to stay safe as “the head of government had died, and this was Africa – and particularly Ethiopia, which has no history of peaceful transitions.”
Yet the appointment of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn by parliament last month was conducted without arms, marking a democratic milestone and relative stability for a key partner of the West in the volatile Horn of Africa.
New York (TADIAS) – If you live in the East Coast, you may have noticed a new book for sale at various Ethiopian stores and restaurants called Ethiopia: Inspiring Journey by Esubalew Meaza – a 180-page collection of photographs and descriptions of historical places, people, rare animals, cultural and religious ceremonies from different parts of the country.
Esubalew, the book’s author and photographer, is based in Alexandria, Virginia, and says he was motivated because of the shortage of similar books written from an Ethiopian perspective.
“I did the book because of my desire to promote Ethiopia’s tourist attractions, but during my research I found that most such books are produced by outsiders who lack the subtle understanding of Ethiopian culture and language,” Esubalew (also known as Esu) said in an interview. “I will give you an example, I was once reading a post by a blogger who had visited Ethiopia, specifically Nech Sar National Park near Arba Minch. I was amused by his description of a “Crocodile Market.” He was correct in a sense that he was literally translating Azo gebeya, which for Ethiopians means where the crocodiles gather. But for the readers of the blog-post, however, it sounded like a place where people buy crocodile meat, which was completely wrong.” He added, laughing, “I have never seen an Ethiopian eat Azo. So I thought it was my duty to correct this kind of misunderstanding.”
Esu, who is currently an IT project manager for the U.S. Department of Defense and a father of two, said he took the photos between 2005 and 2011. “I traveled back to Ethiopia in 2002 for the first time in 17 years but did not start the project until 2005,” Esu said. “I was a high school student when I moved to the United States so it was an incredible feeling for me to reconnect with the country, and I still keep going back.”
The publication is endorsed, among others, by Mr. Habte Selassie Tafesse, one of the pioneers of the Ethiopian tourism industry, who wrote: “the book is a perceptive, lively and a faithful photographic rendering of Ethiopia’s cultural, historical and physical features.”
Esu noted that some of his favorite sections of the book highlight Ethiopia’s hidden wildlife treasures including red jackal or Simien fox and the mountain nyala, as well as the Addis Ababa lions, which DNA tests recently confirmed to be genetically unique.
Esubalew Meaza at Sof Omar Cave in Bale. (Courtesy photo)
—- You can learn more and back order the book on Amazon. You may reach the author at Ethiopia@infoaddis.com.
BALTIMORE — An inch separated the top two women’s finishers in the 12th Baltimore Marathon, and a Kenyan won back-to-back first-place finishes in the men’s race Saturday.
Perhaps WBAL-TV 11 News Sports Director Gerry Sandusky put it best: “In sports you make a name for yourself by winning. And, sometimes, when you win, everyone learns the correct pronunciation of your name…Elfneshe Yado won the women’s race literally one inch ahead of Malika Mejdoub. Timing chips showed identical finishing times, and officials declared a winner via visual sight line, making for the closest finish ever in the Baltimore Marathon.
Through a translator and friend, Yado said, “The race was amazing. (I’m) happy that (I) won, and (I) loves Baltimore.”
Yado enjoyed her first trip to America with a virtual photo finish with Malika Mejdoub, of Morocco. Both were given the same time — 2:38:46 — the 10th fastest time in race history. Yado will return home to Ethiopia in a week before running next month in a 10K in India.
“She was certain she was going to win. All she saw was the finish line,” Yado’s translator said. Yado said she will use her $25,000 prize to buy gear, and “a lot of stuff to enhance (my) training and to support (my) family. Yado has three siblings.
This story was produced as part of Latitudes, an occasional hour-long radio program from WAMU 88.5 that takes listeners into the everyday lives of people around the world.
The ranks of D.C.’s taxi drivers are filled with Ethiopian immigrants. Many of them were professionals in their former lives, and when it comes to learning the rules of the game in the U.S., it can be a challenge.
Negede Abebe and Mechal Chame sit in Abebe’s cab in Georgetown, talking about how they came to the U.S., what they did before and how they became cabbies. Abebe received asylum, and Chame won a Visa lottery to get to America.
Abebe was an economist in Ethiopia, working on trade and business issues for the government and for an international organization. So when he got to the U.S., the first thing he did was look for jobs in his field.
“I tried a lot and couldn’t find any,” he says, adding that it was incredibly frustrating. Because he couldn’t get hired, he decided to go back to school. In 2008, he graduated with his MBA from Trinity University in Northeast D.C.
“I started driving a cab because … after I graduated in 2008 with an MBA I couldn’t find a job,” he says. “I’m still paying my student loan driving a cab.”
Chame can relate. He was a civil engineer in Ethiopia, and he couldn’t even get an in person interview in the U.S., in spite of his qualifications. He remembers once he tried to get a job as a real estate appraiser.
“It was a telephone interview, so I was talking to a lady on the other end. She told me I have a heavy accent,” Chame says. “I said, ‘What? What does my accent have to do with anything? I’m not going to be your customer service representative or your marketer. The only thing you need from me is just go out, take a physical observation of property and give you a report.’ She said, ‘I’m sorry I can’t do that.'”
In the end, he worked as a store clerk and a security guard before Becoming a cab driver.
Mohamed Ly came to the U.S. from Mauritania and started out doing odd jobs. Now, he connects immigrants with companies looking for bilingual staff. But these companies sometimes balk at hiring someone with an accent, he says. Abebe’s and Chame’s stories sound familiar, he adds
The uptown event is part of the band’s three day concert scheduled in various locations in the city, including a performance at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn and The Greene Space in Manhattan.
In Harlem, Chef Marcus Samuelsson will be presenting an Ethiopian-inspired special for the night.
Debo Band is a Boston-based group led by Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and fronted by vocalist Bruck Tesfaye. (Courtesy Photo)
— If you go:
Debo Band at Ginny’s
18 Oct 2012 – 10:30 PM
310 Lenox Avenue, New York, NY 10027
212.421.3821 – info@ginnyssupperclub.com Click here to purchase ticket online.
A team of international researchers has provided the first comprehensive DNA evidence that the Addis Ababa lion in Ethiopia is genetically unique and is urging immediate conservation action to preserve this vulnerable lion population.
While it has long been noted that some lions in Ethiopia have a large, dark mane, extending from the head, neck and chest to the belly, as well as being smaller and more compact than other lions, it was not known until now if these lions represent a genetically distinct population.
The team of researchers, led by the University of York, UK, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, has shown that captive lions at the Addis Ababa Zoo in Ethiopia are, in fact, genetically distinct from all lion populations for which comparative data exists, both in Africa and Asia.
The researchers compared DNA samples from 15 Addis Ababa Zoo lions (eight males and seven females) to lion breeds in the wild. The results of the study, which also involved researchers from Leipzig Zoo and the Universities of Durham and Oxford, UK, are published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research.
Principal Investigator Professor Michi Hofreiter, of the Department of Biology at the University of York, said: “To our knowledge, the males at Addis Ababa Zoo are the last existing lions to possess this distinctive mane. Both microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA data suggest the zoo lions are genetically distinct from all existing lion populations for which comparative data exist.
“We therefore believe the Addis Ababa lions should be treated as a distinct conservation management unit and are urging immediate conservation actions, including a captive breeding programme, to preserve this unique lion population.”
KAMPALA, UGANDA — Far too often, in the view of Africa’s budding female entrepreneurs, their continent is characterized as the recipient of aid that enables residents just to struggle by, and as a place that mistreats and marginalizes its women…
“I kept hearing over and over the phrase ‘poverty alleviation,”’ said Ms. Tilahun, now a footwear mogul whose company grossed $2 million in sales this past year. “The media, preoccupied with a singular narrative about ‘Africa’ that missed the story of Africa — part of a larger spectrum of endless entities that have monopolized Africa’s image, our brand.”
With SoleRebels, she said proudly, “We’ve inverted the whole paradigm.”
DENVER – There is a $10,000 reward and new attention in an unsolved murder case in Denver dating back three years.
Ethiopian immigrant Keyru Lolo was gunned down in the court yard of an apartment complex in East Denver.
“We just want to know who killed him and why,” said Keyru’s sister-in-law Nanise Wako. “Please help us, if anyone knows anything about this.”
Lolo’s family is working with police in a new effort to catch his killer. There is a billboard just a few blocks from the murder scene advertising the reward and asking, “Who Killed Keyru Lolo?”
Friends and family hope the billboard will inspire new tips even if the tipsters want to remain anonymous.
Lolo was gunned down at the Garden Court Apartments in October 2009. He received a phone call, left his cousin’s apartment and was shot multiple times crossing the courtyard.
An honest cab driver in Las Vegas has returned $221,510 that he found in his taxi to its grateful owner.
The cabbie, Adam Woldemariam, 42, was described as a “very nice guy” who is “very humble and religious” by one friend.
“He’s a down to earth guy,” said Alex “Baharu” Alebachew, a limo driver.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal described Woldemariam as a “big and honest teddy bear of an Ethiopian cabdriver,” was cleaning out the back seat of his van on Sept. 2 and found a black laptop case stuffed with $221,510 in cash. Read more.
Watch: Las Vegas Cab Driver Returns $222K to Owner (ABC News)
A Las Vegas cabbie is being heralded as a hero after he valiantly returned a quarter-million dollars to a gambler who absentmindedly left behind his winnings on the way to the airport.
Ethiopian immigrant Adam Woldemarim found the cash stuffed in a black laptop case and quickly returned it to his supervisor, not even once thinking of pocketing the winnings as his own.
The winner was so thrilled to be reunited with his bills he gave Mr Woldemarim a $2,000 tip, no small sum to the struggling driver, and was on his merry way.
New York (TADIAS) – While working in the non-profit world with multilateral organizations such as The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Human Rights Watch, and managing the Africa portfolio in more than 20 countries on the continent through the Global Fund for Children, Solome Lemma says she “saw first hand the ways Africans were moving, shaking, and transforming their communities — from Egypt to Zambia, Senegal to Ethiopia.” She adds: “So here and there we have Africans with ideas, innovations, skills, and resources, yet we continue to be painted as a continent of need and dependency. This needed to change.”
After meeting like-minded colleague, Zanele Sibanda from Zimbabwe, Solome co-founded and launched Africans in the Diaspora (AiD) an organization focused on consolidating the financial, intellectual, and social capital of Diaspora Africans to advance social and economic change in Africa.
Solome explained the organization’s acronym stands not only for ‘Africans in the Diaspora’ but is likewise an effort to re-imagine the meaning of foreign aid. “We want to disrupt and re-shape the meaning of aid,” she said in a recent interview. “For too long, “aid” has been exported to Africa. Africans are really the continent’s most important resource, whether we are back in our home countries or in the Diaspora, and we have all the skills, resources, and ideas necessary to transform our communities. We need to claim our rightful place in the ecosystem of change and transformation in Africa, as leaders, drivers, and designers of development. AiD unleashes that.”
AiD has developed a three-pronged approach to development, which includes Funds, a platform that enables Diaspora Africans and allies to invest directly in innovative African social change organizations; Connections, where exchange of expertise is facilitated between Diaspora and Continental Africans; and Voices, which amplifies the voices of people in and out of Africa who are committed and contributing to the continent’s progress.
Solome said individuals interested in joining this collaborative community effort can engage by sharing tools, resources, information, as well as facilitating dialogue through various social media venues, including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Solome, who was previously featured as a White House Champion of Change in January 2012, reflects on the concept behind AiD: “The idea of giving back, is something I have carried for a while. As someone who has dedicated all of my studies and work to Africa, I often asked myself, what’s the best role for me as an African? How do I give back responsibly? How do I use the access and privilege that I have had and transfer it back home?”
AiD focuses on Africans as resource agents to encourage more investment in philanthropic and social causes built by African-led organizations.
— To get involved or learn more about this initiative please visit http://www.africansinthediaspora.org
WASHINGTON D.C. – Solomon Ayele Dersso Phd, is a senior researcher with Peace and Security Council Report Program at the Addis Ababa Office of the Institute for Security Studies. He has published articles on the ongoing political situation in Ethiopia.
Regarding the newly appointed Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn, Solomon says, it did not come as a surprise. However, to concerns raised by observers that the new Prime Minister might not hold real authority, Solomon asserts that the Prime Minister ship is the highest executive authority in the country, and the person holding the position cannot be said not to have authority, because he/she has the power inherent in the job.
Solomon draws a parallel between former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi and Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn. “Daniel Arap Moi like Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister came from a small ethnic community. When Jommo Kenyatta passed away and Mr.Moi assumed the presidency, he was met with resistance from the group that at that time was dominating the power base in Kenya.”
Despite the initial resistance from ‘real power holders’, Mr Moi managed to very successfully make himself an influential president and ruler of Kenya,” states Solomon.
When critics point to the fact that the Prime Minister is a political novice and might be overshadowed by his subordinates with longer experience in politics Solomon says, “he is not new to politics.”
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has been around, particularly in the seat of power in Addis Ababa following the 2005 elections as well as serving as an advisor to the late Prime Minister. After the 2010 election he was appointed deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.”
Dr.Solomon Deresso Ayele. (VOA photo)
However Solomon admits that the new Prime Minister might have limited experience when compared to those who have been in power for the past two decades in the ruling party. Although that could be construed as a disadvantage, the Prime Minister, according to Solomon, has to reconcile with the situation. Ultimately, Solomon says, “what matters is the team of people the prime minister is going to surround himself with. If he has a very good team of people to provide him with the necessary historical memory and insights on various aspects of leading the country, then surely he can compensate for the shorter period of political experience and be able to exert and assert his full authority.”
Drawing a parallel with Meles Zenawi, Solomon states, “we need to understand how long it took for the late Prime Minister to become as influential as he was at the time of his death. It took quite a lot of time in terms of asserting his full authority within the government as well as in the country as a whole”.
According to Solomon the rise to power of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is a continuation rather than a start of the succession plan by the EPRDF. It is a process of replacing the old guard with, ‘the new generation leadership’. According to Solomon the fact that Hailemariam is now appointed as Prime Minister after Meles Zenawi, is surely an indication of the commitment by the EPRDF to continue the succession plan that began earlier. On the issue of whether or not we will see a complete withdrawal of the old guards by 2015, Solomon says it could be a phased process.”
In his acceptance speech the newly appointed Prime Minister expressed his willingness to work with various sectors of society including the opposition. According to Solomon the Prime Minister’s speech emphasized more continuity rather than change. He seems reluctant to reverse the direction set by the late Prime Minster. However, Solomon points out that the Prime Minister needs to be flexible and needs to adjust to emerging circumstances as events warrant.
Solomon also highlighted a number of areas that require a very serious consideration. “The new leadership should show a high level of willingness to listen to the concerns of all sectors of society,” Solomon asserts. He further noted the need to abrogate laws that proved to be inimical to individual freedoms and liberties adopted since 2005 , as well as tackle inflation to address the economic challenges that some sectors of the Ethiopian society is facing .
Solomon also talked about the needed interventions in the area of major development projects. For a successful implementation of this development projects he says it is important to engage sections of the society that are directly affected by the projects. In this effort he points out mobilizing the support of sectors outside the power base is paramount.
On the challenges of building a multi- party democracy with some opposition parties not committed to working together, Solomon said, “strengthening the legal, political and social environment of the country will allow different political ideologies and political movements to triumph in the society. Working together is always good for the society and the country but is not necessarily a sign that multi-party democracy does not work.” He further states that freedom of association and expression are strongly entrenched in the constitution but they are not fullfilled in practice.
To the concerns raised by some that due to his rather strict religious orientation that the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn might be too soft to resolve pending issues such as the Ethio-Eritrean question and EPRDF’s relation with opposition parties Solomon said,“the Prime Minister’s religious conviction will not have so much influence on his exercise of power rather the central background for his action seems to be the conviction surrounding the ideological orientation of his political party.”
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Two weekly newspapers that have been critical of Ethiopia’s ruling party have stopped publication because of government obstruction, the papers’ publishers said Monday.
The publishers are appealing to the country’s newly appointed Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to intervene. A government spokesman said the Ethiopian government is not telling printers not to print the papers.
New York (TADIAS) – Novelist and writer Dinaw Mengestu, winner of the 2012 MacArthur Foundation’s “genius grant,” is one of several Ethiopian-Americans highlighted in an upcoming coffee table book by California-based Tsehai Publishers. The publication documents the professional success of first and second generation Ethiopians in the United States and the Diaspora.
Additional features include entrepreneurs, artists, authors, musicians, and scientists such as Dr. Sossina M. Haile, Professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering at California Institute of Technology and an expert in materials science and fuel cells; Dr. Zeresenay Alemseged, Director and Curator of the Department of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences and the paleoanthropologist who discovered the 3-year-old Selam (nicknamed Lucy’s baby), which lived 3.3 million years ago in Ethiopia and is considered the earliest known such fossil excavated in the history of Paleontology; Dr. Dagmawi Woubshet, Assistant Professor of English Literature at Cornell University; as well as chef Marcus Samuelsson, artist Julie Mehretu, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter Wayna (Woyneab Miraf Wondwossen), and Grammy-nominated musician and philanthropist Kenna (né Kenna Zemedkun), who in 2010 led a group of celebrity friends to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in order to raise awareness about the international clean water crisis.
“The book is an attempt to change global perception of Ethiopia by focusing on the many accomplishments of successful younger Ethiopians living throughout North America and Ethiopia today,” said Elias Wondimu, the book’s Publisher and Editorial Director. “These individuals are the sons and daughters, and younger siblings of those who lived through the 1970s Ethiopian political turmoil. By focusing on these individuals, we want to tell their parents’ story of resilience and share with the world the proud heritage that they commonly inherit as Ethiopians.”
Elias said the book’s working title, Yezare Abebawoch: Yenege Frewoch, is borrowed from the famous line by the former Ethiopian television children show host Tesfaye Sahlu. “In his infinite wisdom each time before telling a story, Ababa Tesfaye used to address his captive television audience — the children of yesteryear’s — as ‘flowers of today, seeds of tomorrow,’” he said. “The book focuses on these individuals who are doing beautiful work today, creating seeds for an even more wonderful future. It is the flowers of today that create the seeds of tomorrow. We are also trying to inspire Ethiopian children with these stories.”
— Tsehai Publishers is seeking public funding for the book via Kickstarter, an online funding platform. Click here to learn more and support the project.
CHICAGO — Tsegaye Kebede crossed the finish line at Grant Park on Sunday with his country on his mind. He raised his arms, gave thumbs-up to the crowd and took in the applause as he became the first Ethiopian man to win the Chicago Marathon, setting a course record in the process.
“It was a great day for us, for Ethiopia especially,” Kebede said. “It’s very important for us.”
Tsegaye Kebede, runner-up in epic battle with Wanjiru of Kenya in 2010, could become first Ethiopian man to win Sunday’s Chicago Marathon. (Photo: Nancy Stone/Tribune )
By Philip Hersh, Chicago Tribune reporter
Tsegaye Kebede has some big marathon wins: London, Paris, two in Fukuoka, Japan. The 25-year-old Ethiopian also has won bronze medals at the Olympics and world championships. But the races Kebede considers the best of his career were two he lost in foot-to-foot, heart-to-heart combat over the last six miles against the late Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya. The first was in London in 2009, when Wanjiru won by 10 seconds. The second was in Chicago in 2010, when the margin was 19 seconds but the competition even fiercer.
Kebede, among the favorites in Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon, enjoyed the thrill of battle more than the joy of winning in a rout, as he had three times.
New York (TADIAS) – Regardless of who wins in November, and despite President Obama’s restrained and lackluster performance at the presidential debate last week, there is still a voter in Virginia who says the incumbent doesn’t have to worry about losing his support.
“My personal admiration and respect for Obama goes far beyond politics,” says Alexandria-based artist Alemayhou Gebremedhin, whose portrait of the President was recently presented to Yohannes Abraham, Deputy National Political Director of Obama for America 2012, at the Ethiopian New Year celebration event held last month beneath the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital. According to All Eyes on Africa, Mr. Abraham, the Ethiopian-American campaign official who accepted the gift, also delivered a message of “Happy New Year” from President Obama to the Ethiopian community in the United States.
Alemayhou told TADIAS he started the painting four years ago after he watched Obama’s acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. “That was the day I said, wow, this guy is someone special, very brave. And if you remember the crowd was something else,” Alemayhou said in a phone interview. “I have been in America for 40 years, I came here in 1972. I attended Howard University in D.C. I have seen all the major changes that took place in this country in the last four decades.”
“When I was watching Obama that day on TV four years ago speaking to 80,000 people gathered outdoors in Denver, Colorado I knew that he was a very serious person and that he was destined for history. His confidence was my inspiration for the painting. I wanted to do something as an artist to capture the imagination that he fired inside me.” He added: “That’s when I started thinking about him in a way that I still do. Almost immediately I began putting my thoughts on canvas. From my personal perspective the fact that Obama became President represents social and cultural progress in the United States in a scale that I never thought was possible in my lifetime. That’s the lens in which I look at him. When he was elected it was an incredibly beautiful feeling for many, many people. I jumped up and said ‘only in America’ like Don King would say. I was so proud of Americans. If you understand the racial history of the United States and how far the country has come even since I got here, for example, in the arts, movies, music, literature, and politics, then you know that symbolically there could be no doubt that Obama is a very important figure in American history. This is what my painting expresses. His name that is written in Amharic on his tie is to show my Ethiopian background.”
Alemayhou, whose colorful paintings are part of the decor in a number of Ethiopian restaurant across the country, said he also exhibits his works at different galleries in the D.C. area, including at Parish Gallery, Anacostia Gallery, and DC Loft Gallery.
“Art is my passion,” he emphasized. “It’s a direct response to my interaction with my environment and a creative expression of my life as well as a personal interpretation of the lives of those around me, their love, pain, dreams and aspirations.”
“Painting is my way of surviving and coping. There is no other way to describe it,” he said.
Below is a slideshow of samples courtesy of the artist, including the Obama painting.
ADDIS ABABA — Young members of the Ethiopian diaspora are returning in large numbers to their country of birth. The Ethiopian government welcomes the impact these returnees could have on the economy.
There are about 3 million Ethiopians living abroad – mostly in North America and Europe. But in recent years, thousands of young professionals have come back to Ethiopia to look for business opportunities.
The government is well aware of the trend. The director of the Diaspora Office in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Feisel Aliyi Abrahim, says that investment by the returnees is very important.
“They are our development partners, we need them and also they need us because of they do business here they also benefit, the return is very high. And we need them because they bring us knowledge, they bring us technology, they bring us foreign direct investment, they create jobs, so this overall has very significant role in reducing poverty,” he said.
Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Most cafes in the capital of Addis Ababa that offer free Internet connections are filled with young returnees working on their laptops. Samuel is one of them. He is a 32-year-old graphic designer who spent most of his life abroad before coming back to Ethiopia seven months ago to see if he could start a career.
“It was a struggle at first, but now its been picking up a few plans here and there. And it’s ok, its ok, it’s getting better, there’s enough opportunity. I haven’t decided if I’m planning to stay yet, but I’m optimistic so far,” he said.
Nardi is another Ethiopian who just moved back from the U.S. state of Texas. The 27-year-old pharmacist hopes that her skills will benefit her country.
“I’m not sure exactly how I can apply my professional experience in the country because its very different from what I’m used to. The field is different here, the setup is different, even the degree is different. I would like to start a business where I can help my country as well as myself grow. But I want to do something in pharmacy,” she said.
Many returnees have already started new businesses. Lily Kassahun, who lived in Canada for the last 20 years, is opening a restaurant with Canadian dishes this month in Addis Ababa. She says her decision to return was not just about economic opportunities.
“I always wanted to come back to Ethiopia to learn more about my culture since I left when I was younger. Also to be with my family, it was the biggest goal for me. More so than the money I think it’s more about feeling good and giving back to the community, and bring what I learned in Canada here,” she said.
The total investment capital of the returnees is an estimated $1.1 billion. That’s almost as much as the $1.4 billion Ethiopia received last year in remittances. But investment is more important in the long run says Feisel.
“Both is important but we need investment, that is more important because its increases the development,” said Feisel.
The most popular industries among the returnees are real estate development, manufacturing, construction, and the tourism and hotel industry. About 3,000 members of Ethiopia’s diaspora have returned for investment purposes. Feisel says that nowadays they are involved in every sector.
“There is not any field that they haven’t been involved in so far. And from the Ethiopian government side, because they are originally Ethiopians, we make legal arrangements that enables them to invest to do business in every sector they are interested in,” he said.
Mikhayel Tesfaye is a 36-year-old designer and CEO of a California-based company called Passport ADV. He started manufacturing his shoes in Ethiopia last year.
“My business was doing quite well, and I was at point where I just said that this was my one opportunity to stop what I was doing outside, for one year I will take the risk for just trying, with no expectations, no demands,” he said.
Mikhayel will export 900 shoes in the coming months, mainly to North America, Europe and Japan. His shoes are produced in a factory in Addis Ababa with new and modern machinery, mainly from Italy.
Exchanging knowledge, ideas and skills is important for Mikhayel as he feels it could have a long lasting impact.
“I didn’t come here to create a charity project for one. Two, not only do I want to design a good product, but I want to raise the bar. Not only for what is capable here but for the outside world, what they believe is capable. I’ll be producing $1,000 pairs of crocodile sneakers here. I think because of the level of distribution that I already have, that I’ll really be able to put made in Ethiopia products on the map,” he said.
Feisel says that the government is actively working on making life easier for returning diaspora.
“What we are doing now is we are drafting Ethiopian diaspora policy. We try to create awareness to all government structures who has direct relation with the diaspora engagement,” he said.
The first draft of Ethiopian diaspora policy will be sent to the federal government in the coming weeks for approval.
— Read more news at VOA.
New York (TADIAS) – The Australia-based designers of the Ethiopian wall calendar, Jember, have announced that their latest version comes with a mobile app for Android smartphones. The app can be downloaded from their website.
“The Jember app hosts a complete Ethiopic calendar with a full list of major and minor Ethiopian holidays and other personal event reminder functionality,” says Yohannes Tafesse, one of the developers of the application. “In addition, it allows users to easily keep track of the Ethiopic date system.”
“The application is also designed around various elements of the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony,” he said.
Yohannes pointed out that the iPhone version is not yet available. “We wanted to first see how it’s received on Android platforms,” he said. “The plethora of devices running the Android operating system, ranging from tablets to smartphones, is our best chance for getting Jember in the hands of more people.” He added: “Having said that, however, an iPhone version for Jember is inevitable.”
Yohannes and his business partner, Ermyas Teshome, both of whom are residents of Melbourne, Australia, say they came up with the idea out of personal necessity.
“Living in the West means working under the Gregorian calendar system, which can leave one rather disconnected from the Ethiopian date system,” Ermyas said. “This is a problem because most of the holidays, birthdays and other events of our friends and families back home are in the Ethiopian date system. For me, this has meant either forgetting the special days of loved ones or calling a few days late and in some cases a few days early, which can be just as embarrassing. So Jember really emerged as a means of solving our own problems with the date system.”
“The reviews of the app are quite good so far,” noted Yohannes. “We will be releasing an update to the calendar app [Version 2] by the end of this week. The update includes some of the usability enhancements requested by our existing users. We hope everyone will like it and let us know what they enjoy about using Jember and what they would like to see improved.”
—– Click here to learn more about the Jember calendar app. Join the conversation on Facebook.
New York (TADIAS) – The recent hardline stand by Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn regarding the fate of several jailed journalists in Ethiopia, including the award-winning blogger Eskinder Nega, has generated a timely discussion on various Ethiopian Diaspora websites on how to best promote civil political discourse.
Meanwhile press advocates say the PM’s early words do not inspire confidence for progressive change. “We are disappointed by the contemptuous statements that Prime Minister Hailemariam directed at the journalists languishing in prison in Ethiopia on vague and trumped-up terrorism charges, particularly Eskinder Nega,” said Mohamed Keita, Africa Advocacy Coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “The government of Ethiopia, like all governments, wants the press to limit itself to cover what it’s doing. Well, for the last 21 years, Eskinder Nega has used his pen, not a gun, to cover the promises that the government has failed to deliver while articulating a hopeful vision of what Ethiopia should be.”
In his interview with VOA’s Peter Heinlein last week, Hailemariam defended the continued imprisonment of Eskinder Nega on the basis of national security, repeating the state’s claims that the writer had been living a “double life,” or as he called it, “wearing two hats.”
Mr. Keita said “calling him a terrorist is absurd,” pointing out that Eskinder “has paid a very high price” for his profession, including having a son born in prison and refusing exile while under intense police pressure. “Terrorism is a very serious crime but the Ethiopian government has turned trivial acts like writing about opposition groups or calling for political reform acts of terrorism,” Mr. Keita said.
Regarding the case of Eskinder Nega, Mr. Keita pointed out that “the assault on Eskinder’s right to freedom of expression is an assault on the Ethiopian constitution, the fundamental freedoms guaranteed to all Ethiopians and the dreams that all Ethiopians have for a better country.” He noted that “it is not too late for PM Hailemariam to restore the public’s confidence in Ethiopia’s judiciary system by ordering the unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, including Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemu, and Woubshet Taye.”
“The value of a press free of state control is that it serves as an open marketplace of ideas, reflecting the natural diversity of opinions,” Keita added. “It is not to echo what the government wants to hear, but to echo what it should hear so that it can adjust its policies and attain the development goals.”
— Related: Ethiopia’s New PM Says Policies Will Remain Constant (VOA News)
— Join the conversation on Facebook.
New York (TADIAS) – Ethiopian American novelist and writer Dinaw Mengestu has been named a 2012 MacArthur Fellow. The Associated Press reported Dinaw’s selection along with the full list of the other 22 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.
We congratulate Dinaw on a well-deserved win!
Watch: Writer Dinaw Mengestu: 2012 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation
Ethiopians from around the Bay Area came to Medhane Alem church in Oakland on Sunday to celebrate Meskel… During the late afternoon celebration, crowds gathered in the soft glow of the afternoon sun to eat injera, recite prayers, and dance around a replica of the True Cross, which was lit on fire soon after sunset….Today, the holiday is as much an occasion for the Ethiopian diaspora to celebrate their roots as it is a community event to raise funds for traditional religious institutions like the Medhane Alem church, and an occasion to spend time with friends and family.
This month, Molla toured New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago under the sponsorship of the America Israel Friendship League (AIFL), in a trip aimed at strengthening U.S.-Israel ties. The deputy speaker delivered the message of his transformative Israeli experience at meetings with African-American leaders, Christian and Jewish clergy, jurists, students, and a wide spectrum of Americans.
Molla’s Kadima party currently classifies itself as “the opposition.” Although it recently joined the Likud government, it almost as quickly withdrew from the coalition.
Ethiopian music continues to be a source of fascination and listening pleasure. Buda Musique’s Ethiopiques series, 27 volumes strong and full of vintage rediscoveries and new revelations, has certainly had a lot to do with leading the charge. It’s safe to say, though, that the Ethiopian fascination has taken on a life of its own. And it just so happens there’s an ever-increasing supply of releases to satisfy the also rising number of devotees.
It makes perfect sense that World Music Network would put out a second edition of The Rough Guide to the Music of Ethiopia.
New York (TADIAS) – In his first interview with Voice of America since he was sworn into office, Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn suggested that he will be doubling down on the government’s controversial policy of jailing journalists and opposition leaders.
In a wide-ranging 30-minute discussion with Peter Heinlein conducted in New York, where the PM was attending the U.N.’s General Assembly meeting last week, Hailemariam defended the continued imprisonment of several journalists, including Eskinder Nega, on the basis of national security, repeating the state’s claims that the journalist had been living a “double life,” or as he called it, “wearing two hats.”
“Our national security interest cannot be compromised by somebody having two hats. 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,” he said.
It is disingenuous to silence critique by journalists and opposition members while maintaining that the nation exercises a “multi-party system.” The PM’s comments remind us of a poster by the provocative Chinese artist Ai Weiwei responding to a similar accusation by the Chinese Communist Party authorities who called him a dissident artist. Weiwei retorted back: “I call them a dissident government.”
In the D.C. area, many restaurants offer immigrants a taste of home, but as communities adapt to new countries, so do their palates. At one Ethiopian cafe in Northern Virginia, that dynamic is playing out every day.
You can almost see the Pentagon from Dama Café in Arlington, Va., but when you walk inside around lunchtime, you could be in a café in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It’s crowded, and Ethiopians sit around small tables talking and enjoying a taste of home.
New York (TADIAS) – Addis Ababa-based musical troupe, Fendika, will return to New York City to launch their first solo U.S. tour at Joe’s Pub on Tuesday, October 2nd. The six-member group consists of two traditional dancers, Melaku Belay and Zenash Tsegaye, krar player Seleshe Damassae, drummer Misale Legesse, masinko player Endris Hassen, and singer Nardos Tesfaw.
While their music relies heavily on the azmari tradition Fendika also gives us a wonderful taste of the diversity of the nation through dance renditions from various cultural groups across Ethiopia.
Last August, Melaku, the group leader and owner of club Fendika in Addis Ababa, was hailed by Alistair Macaulay of The New York Times as “a happily superlative artist” after Fendika’s exhilarating performance at the annual Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival.
Founded by Melaku in 2009 Fendika has since collaboratively worked with both Ethiopian-based groups such as Addis Acoustic Project as well as internationally with Ethio-inspired groups including Debo Band, Akalé Wubé, Ukandanz, and The Ex. Fendika performed at the 35th International Sacred Music Festival as well as the Lowell Folk Festival.
Following their recent tour in Spain, Fendika will be performing in several U.S. cities including Hartford, CT, Boston, MA, Washington D.C., and Smithfield, RI following their opening tour in NYC next week.
—- If You Go:
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette Street, NY, NY 10003
Fendika
7:30pm
Entrance: $18 Click here to purchase advanced tickets.
New York (TADIAS) – Up-and-coming singer and songwriter Rachel Brown has released an EP called Building Castles, which is currently available on iTunes. Rachel tells TADIAS that she had “an incredible time” working on the record and is enjoying her fans’ reaction on social media. “It’s been very cool,” she said. “I received a lot of instant responses on twitter, including from Wyclef who said amazing things. It is so great to have the support of musicians like him.”
The multicultural artist and Harvard graduate, who is the daughter of Ethiopian-born wedding-fashion designer Amsale Aberra, said her most recent concert was in Bermuda. “My dad is Bermudian so that was really special,” she said.
Rachel was invited to be part of a tribute to the life and music of John Lennon and the legend’s connection to Bermuda. “John Lennon had spent time on the island and wrote some of his last songs there in 1980,” she said. “Did I mention I was on the front page of the newspaper when I landed there? My dad emailed me from New York to tell me that someone told him that I was featured in The Royal Gazatte, which was really cool.”
Though she loves to travel Rachel said her “comfort zone” is in New York. “I love performing in New York because its my hometown and I have a lot of support and I feel comfortable here,” she said.
As to her own connection to Ethiopia, Rachel said she has not been there in 3 years but she had been going back almost every year since she was eighteen. “I absolutely love Ethiopia and I always have a hard time coming back.” She said: “The last time I was there I ended up playing some impromptu shows. This was before I had a band of my own and that was one of the first times that I had played with other musicians. They were really incredible. We actually ended up recording a song called Bahir Dar, which I wrote during a prior trip. One day I would love to collaborate again and do a recording in Ethiopia.”
Rachel said, “Being Ethiopian, Bermudian, Southern and growing up in New York has definitely influenced my music and even the eclectic nature of my band, which includes people from Mali, Madagascar, Haiti — most of whom I met on a Saturday night playing at St. Nick’s Pub in Harlem.” She added, “They all understand what I am trying to do but they also bring their own perspectives.”
— Click here to learn more about Rachel Brown. Click here to download the new EP on iTunes.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Almost 300 stranded Ethiopian migrants returned on Tuesday from Yemen. Thousands more remain stuck in nearby countries, though, after they went abroad illegally for economic reasons.
A charter flight by IOM, the International Organization for Migration, carried 275 Ethiopian migrants back to Addis Ababa on Tuesday morning. These migrants had crossed the borders illegally and were stranded in Yemen.
IOM assists with the return and reintegration of migrants worldwide, and has helped more than 2,000 Ethiopians to return voluntarily from Yemen since March.
Yemen itself was not the destination for most. Demissew Bizuwork of the IOM said most were trying to reach Saudi Arabia.
“Many would like to travel to the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, and other Middle East countries. Most people, when we interview them, they would like to cross, because Yemen is very close to the Horn of Africa, so they would like to cross through Yemen to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries,” said Bizuwork.
Addis Ababa shelter
The returnees on the charter flight on Tuesday were brought to a shelter close to the airport in Addis Ababa upon arrival. Women, children, elderly and vulnerable migrants are accommodated in the shelter for a day or two. Demissew said it’s better for the returnees to rest in the shelter for a couple of days, before going back home.
“When we bring people directly from the airport, we bring them here so that they can settle here. These people lost everything. We provide them with accommodation, food, medical assistance as well,” said Demissew. “We provide them some reintegration assistance, some money so that they at least when they come to their families they can do something. And we also provide them with transportation up to their destination.”
Hopes for a better economic future lead many Ethiopians to leave their country. But for most migrants, the reality in Yemen is opposite from what they were told before departure. Smugglers and human traffickers convince Ethiopians that life in the Middle East is much better, said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Dina Mufti.
“There are some push factors and one of the major push factors is actually the people who are involved in the illegal human trafficking,” said Mufti. “They deceive the minors. They have targeted the rural areas, where people are not familiar with what is happening in the rest of the world. The deal with the minors and the youngsters, they target them, they promise them something that is not there.”
Returness discuss experiences
Yohannes is one of the returnees at the shelter. He is in his twenties and comes from the Tigray region in the north of Ethiopia. He left his job as a merchant six months ago in hopes of making more money. But the trip ended badly, as he was detained in Yemen.
“Its a very difficult journey. They beat you and they don’t take care of you,” he said.
Gobeze is another of the migrants at the shelter. He is in his twenties, has a wife and three kids in the Wollo province, but decided to leave Ethiopia in December. Although he already had a job as a weaver, he hoped to make more money in the Middle East. But the journey only cost him money, said Gobeze.
“Initially I paid 4,000 birr. But they were hanging me by my arms and I was suffering so I had to ask my family for another 15,000 to save my life,” he said.
Rising tide of migrant Ethiopians
Yohannes and Gobeze are just two of the thousands of Ethiopians experiencing the hardship of illegal migration. But the number of Ethiopians crossing over to Yemen has been rising in recent years. Statistics of the United Nations refugee agency show that more than 103,000 Ethiopian and Somali migrants arrived in Yemen in 2011, up from 53,000 in 2010.
The Ethiopian government has formed task forces and is working with various organizations to inform people about the dangers of illegal migration, said Mufti.
“The government has recently been aware of the fact that the gravity of the illegal immigration, the human trafficking is felt. Because it has a social consequence, and economic consequence, and psychological consequence as well. Now what is happening is to try things from the grass root, to go to the grass root level and create an awareness on the part of the citizen that these human traffickers are doing damage to the country.”
The IOM charter flight on Tuesday was the third and last flight in September. Many more Ethiopians in Yemen are waiting to go home, said Demissew.
“There are thousands of people stranded, there are about 4,000 people in the border town. Our center accommodates about 350 people. It was initially built to accommodate maybe 150, 200 people. But there are many more people,” said Demissew.
The next flight returning illegal migrants to Ethiopia is expected in October.
— Read more news at VOA.
— Text of full remarks by President Obama to the Clinton Global Initiative
Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers
New York, New York
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. Appreciate it. Please, please, everybody have a seat.
Well, good afternoon, everybody. And, President Clinton, thank you for your very kind introduction. Although I have to admit, I really did like the speech a few weeks ago a little bit better. (Laughter.) Afterwards, somebody tweeted that somebody needs to make him “Secretary of Explaining Things.” (Laughter.) Although they didn’t use the word, “things.” (Laughter.)
President Clinton, you are a tireless, passionate advocate on behalf of what’s best in our country. You have helped to improve and save the lives of millions of people around the world. I am grateful for your friendship and your extraordinary leadership. And I think I speak for the entire country when we say that you continue to be a great treasure for all of us. (Applause.)
As always, I also have to thank President Clinton for being so understanding with the record-breaking number of countries visited by our Secretary of State. (Laughter and applause.) As we’ve seen again in recent days, Hillary Clinton is a leader of grace and grit — and I believe she will go down as one of the finest Secretaries of State in American history. So we are grateful to her. (Applause.)
To the dedicated CGI staff and every organization that’s made commitments and touched the lives of hundreds of millions of people, thank you for being an example of what we need more of in the world, especially in Washington — working together to actually solve problems.
And that’s why I’m here. As Bill mentioned, I’ve come to CGI every year that I’ve been President, and I’ve talked with you about how we need to sustain the economic recovery, how we need to create more jobs. I’ve talked about the importance of development — from global health to our fight against HIV/AIDS to the growth that lifts nations to prosperity. We’ve talked about development and how it has to include women and girls — because by every benchmark, nations that educate their women and girls end up being more successful. (Applause.)
And today, I want to discuss an issue that relates to each of these challenges. It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name — modern slavery. (Applause.)
Now, I do not use that word, “slavery” lightly. It evokes obviously one of the most painful chapters in our nation’s history. But around the world, there’s no denying the awful reality. When a man, desperate for work, finds himself in a factory or on a fishing boat or in a field, working, toiling, for little or no pay, and beaten if he tries to escape — that is slavery. When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving — that’s slavery.
When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed — that’s slavery. When a little girl is sold by her impoverished family — girls my daughters’ age — runs away from home, or is lured by the false promises of a better life, and then imprisoned in a brothel and tortured if she resists — that’s slavery. It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world. (Applause.)
Now, as a nation, we’ve long rejected such cruelty. Just a few days ago, we marked the 150th anniversary of a document that I have hanging in the Oval Office — the Emancipation Proclamation. With the advance of Union forces, it brought a new day — that “all persons held as slaves” would thenceforth be forever free. We wrote that promise into our Constitution. We spent decades struggling to make it real. We joined with other nations, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so that “slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
A global movement was sparked, with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act — signed by President Clinton and carried on by President Bush.
And here at CGI, you’ve made impressive commitments in this fight. We are especially honored to be joined today by advocates who dedicate their lives — and, at times, risk their lives — to liberate victims and help them recover. This includes men and women of faith, who, like the great abolitionists before them, are truly doing the Lord’s work — evangelicals, the Catholic Church, International Justice Mission and World Relief, even individual congregations, like Passion City Church in Atlanta, and so many young people of faith who’ve decided that their conscience compels them to act in the face of injustice. Groups like these are answering the Bible’s call — to “seek justice” and “rescue the oppressed.” Some of them join us today, and we are grateful for your leadership.
Now, as President, I’ve made it clear that the United States will continue to be a leader in this global movement. We’ve got a comprehensive strategy. We’re shining a spotlight on the dark corners where it persists. Under Hillary’s leadership, we’re doing more than ever — with our annual trafficking report, with new outreach and partnerships — to give countries incentives to meet their responsibilities and calling them out when they don’t.
I recently renewed sanctions on some of the worst abusers, including North Korea and Eritrea. We’re partnering with groups that help women and children escape from the grip of their abusers. We’re helping other countries step up their own efforts. And we’re seeing results. More nations have passed and more are enforcing modern anti-trafficking laws.
Last week I was proud to welcome to the Oval Office not only a great champion of democracy but a fierce advocate against the use of forced labor and child soldiers — Aung San Suu Kyi. (Applause.) And as part of our engagement, we’ll encourage Burma to keep taking steps to reform — because nations must speak with one voice: Our people and our children are not for sale.
But for all the progress that we’ve made, the bitter truth is that trafficking also goes on right here, in the United States. It’s the migrant worker unable to pay off the debt to his trafficker. The man, lured here with the promise of a job, his documents then taken, and forced to work endless hours in a kitchen. The teenage girl, beaten, forced to walk the streets. This should not be happening in the United States of America.
As President, I directed my administration to step up our efforts — and we have. For the first time, at Hillary’s direction, our annual trafficking report now includes the United States, because we can’t ask other nations to do what we are not doing ourselves. (Applause.) We’ve expanded our interagency task force to include more federal partners, including the FBI. The intelligence community is devoting more resources to identifying trafficking networks. We’ve strengthened protections so that foreign-born workers know their rights.
And most of all, we’re going after the traffickers. New anti-trafficking teams are dismantling their networks. Last year, we charged a record number of these predators with human trafficking. We’re putting them where they belong — behind bars. (Applause.)
But with more than 20 million victims of human trafficking around the world — think about that, more than 20 million — they’ve got a lot more to do. And that’s why, earlier this year, I directed my administration to increase our efforts. And today, I can announce a series of additional steps that we’re going to take.
First, we’re going to do more to spot it and stop it. We’ll prepare a new assessment of human trafficking in the United States so we better understand the scope and scale of the problem. We’ll strengthen training, so investigators and law enforcement are even better equipped to take action — and treat victims as victims, not as criminals. (Applause.) We’re going to work with Amtrak, and bus and truck inspectors, so that they’re on the lookout. We’ll help teachers and educators spot the signs as well, and better serve those who are vulnerable, especially our young people.
Second, we’re turning the tables on the traffickers. Just as they are now using technology and the Internet to exploit their victims, we’re going to harness technology to stop them. We’re encouraging tech companies and advocates and law enforcement — and we’re also challenging college students — to develop tools that our young people can use to stay safe online and on their smart phones.
Third, we’ll do even more to help victims recover and rebuild their lives. We’ll develop a new action plan to improve coordination across the federal government. We’re increasing access to services to help survivors become self-sufficient. We’re working to simplify visa procedures for “T” visas so that innocent victims from other countries can stay here as they help us prosecute their traffickers.
This coming year, my Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships will make the fight against human trafficking a focus of its work. (Applause.) They’re doing great work. And I’m also proud to announce a new partnership with Humanity United, which is a leader in anti-trafficking — a multi-million dollar challenge to local communities to find new ways to care for trafficking victims. And I want to thank Johns Hopkins University, which will be focusing on how to best care for child victims. (Applause.)
Now, finally, as one of the largest purchasers of goods and services in the world, the United States government will lead by example. We’ve already taken steps to make sure our contractors do not engage in forced labor. And today we’re going to go further. I’ve signed a new executive order that raises the bar. It’s specific about the prohibitions. It does more to protect workers. It ensures stronger compliance. In short, we’re making clear that American tax dollars must never, ever be used to support the trafficking of human beings. We will have zero tolerance. We mean what we say. We will enforce it. (Applause.)
Of course, no government, no nation, can meet this challenge alone. Everybody has a responsibility. Every nation can take action. Modern anti-trafficking laws must be passed and enforced and justice systems must be strengthened. Victims must be cared for. So here in the United States, Congress should renew the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Whether you are a conservative or a liberal, Democrat or Republican, this is a no-brainer. This is something we should all agree on. We need to get that done.
And more broadly, as nations, let’s recommit to addressing the underlying forces that push so many into bondage in the first place. With development and economic growth that creates legitimate jobs, there’s less likelihood of indentured servitude around the globe. A sense of justice that says no child should ever be exploited, that has to be burned into the cultures of every country. A commitment to equality — as in the Equal Futures Partnership that we launched with other nations yesterday so societies empower our sisters and our daughters just as much as our brothers and sons. (Applause.)
And every business can take action. All the business leaders who are here and our global economy companies have a responsibility to make sure that their supply chains, stretching into the far corners of the globe, are free of forced labor. (Applause.) The good news is more and more responsible companies are holding themselves to higher standards. And today, I want to salute the new commitments that are being made. That includes the new Global Business Coalition Against Trafficking — companies that are sending a message: Human trafficking is not a business model, it is a crime, and we are going to stop it. We’re proud of them. (Applause.)
Every faith community can take action as well, by educating their congregations, by joining in coalitions that are bound by a love of God and a concern for the oppressed. And like that Good Samaritan on the road to Jericho, we can’t just pass by, indifferent. We’ve got to be moved by compassion. We’ve got to bind up the wounds. Let’s come together around a simple truth — that we are our brother’s keepers and we are our sister’s keepers.
And finally, every citizen can take action: by learning more; by going to the website that we helped create — SlaveryFootprint.org; by speaking up and insisting that the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the products we buy are made free of forced labor; by standing up against the degradation and abuse of women.
That’s how real change happens — from the bottom up. And if you doubt that, ask Marie Godet Niyonyota, from the Congo. Think about Marie’s story. She was kidnapped by rebels, turned into a slave. She was abused — physically and sexually. They got her pregnant five times. In one awful battle, her children were killed — all five of them. Miraculously, she survived and escaped. And with care and support, she began to heal. And she learned to read and write and sew, and today Marie is back home, working toward a new future.
Or ask Ima Matul. She grew up in Indonesia, and at 17 was given the opportunity to work as a nanny here in the United States. But when she arrived, it turned out to be a nightmare. Cooking, cleaning — 18-hour days, seven days a week. One beating was so bad it sent her to the emergency room. And finally, she escaped. And with the help from a group that cared, today Ima has a stable job. She’s an advocate — she’s even testified before Congress.
Or ask Sheila White, who grew up in the Bronx. Fleeing an abusive home, she fell in with a guy who said he’d protect her. Instead, he sold her — just 15 years old — 15 — to men who raped her and beat her, and burned her with irons. And finally, after years — with the help of a non-profit led by other survivors — she found the courage to break free and get the services she needed. Sheila earned her GED. Today she is a powerful, fierce advocate who helped to pass a new anti-trafficking law right here in New York. (Applause.)
These women endured unspeakable horror. But in their unbreakable will, in their courage, in their resilience, they remind us that this cycle can be broken; victims can become not only survivors, they can become leaders and advocates, and bring about change.
And I just met Ima and Sheila and several of their fellow advocates, and I have to tell you they are an incredible inspiration. They are here — they’ve chosen to tell their stories. I want them to stand and be recognized because they are inspiring all of us. Please — Sheila, Ima. (Applause.)
To Ima and Sheila, and each of you — in the darkest hours of your lives, you may have felt utterly alone, and it seemed like nobody cared. And the important thing for us to understand is there are millions around the world who are feeling that same way at this very moment.
Right now, there is a man on a boat, casting the net with his bleeding hands, knowing he deserves a better life, a life of dignity, but doesn’t know if anybody is paying attention. Right now, there’s a woman, hunched over a sewing machine, glancing beyond the bars on the window, knowing if just given the chance, she might some day sell her own wares, but she doesn’t think anybody is paying attention. Right now, there’s a young boy, in a brick factory, covered in dust, hauling his heavy load under a blazing sun, thinking if he could just go to school, he might know a different future, but he doesn’t think anybody is paying attention. Right now, there is a girl, somewhere trapped in a brothel, crying herself to sleep again, and maybe daring to imagine that some day, just maybe, she might be treated not like a piece of property, but as a human being.
And so our message today, to them, is — to the millions around the world — we see you. We hear you. We insist on your dignity. And we share your belief that if just given the chance, you will forge a life equal to your talents and worthy of your dreams. (Applause.)
Our fight against human trafficking is one of the great human rights causes of our time, and the United States will continue to lead it — in partnership with you. The change we seek will not come easy, but we can draw strength from the movements of the past. For we know that every life saved — in the words of that great Proclamation — is “an act of justice,” worthy of “the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”
That’s what we believe. That’s what we’re fighting for. And I’m so proud to be in partnership with CGI to make this happen.
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless America. (Applause.)
“Building on the success of the past two years of this festival, we are pleased to continue this burgeoning tradition of celebrating African culture while emphasizing the contributions and presence of the African community in the District of Columbia,” the D.C. Mayor’s Office on African Affairs (OAA), said in a statement.
“The 3rd Annual DC Africa Festival will feature a variety of exciting and enriching activities for all ages: an eclectic lineup of modern and folkloric musical performances influenced by African musical traditions; an Africa-inspired Wellness Pavilion promoting healthy living and fitness, educational and fun activities in the Children’s Village and the African Culture Hut, a Fashion Presentation featuring creativity and designs from across the Africa. There will also be arts & crafts vendors, as well as food vendors bringing the best African cuisine DC has to offer.”
— If You Go:
Saturday, September 29, 2012
12 pm – 7pm
Banneker Recreation Center (Upper Softball Field)
2500 Georgia Avenue NW, upper softball field
Washington, DC 20001
The event is free and open to the public
RSVP Required: http://africafestival.eventbrite.com/ Click here for more details.
New York (TADIAS) – A group of filmmakers in Germany are preparing to document the legendary musician Teshome Mitiku’s return to Ethiopia. Teshome, who now lives in the United States, has not been to his home country since his forced departure more than four decades ago. The film entitled Swinging Addis, is a narrative of the artist’s role in the storied music scene of his generation and his remarkable personal story, which spans three continents and several countries, where in between he managed to earn a graduate degree in Sociology and witness his daughter become an international music star hailing from Sweden.
“I am very excited about returning to my country,” Teshome said in a recent interview with TADIAS. He is currently composing new songs for the occasion and he plans to give a homecoming concert in Addis Ababa and other parts of the country.
Teshome will be accompanied by several musicians from the Diaspora, including his daughter Emilia Mitiku and his brother, saxophonist Tewodros Mitiku. “I am also looking forward to jamming with the new generation of musicians in Ethiopia,” he said. “I love their energy.”
Regarding the film Teshome said: “It’s a multi-million-dollar project, we will be traveling to many places including Gondar, Gojam and to all the historical locations.”
— Click here to watch the trailer.
In 1951, the Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie, decided to send thousands of troops to fight as part of the American-led UN force supporting South Korea against the communist North and its ally, China.
They were called the Kagnew battalions and were drawn from Haile Selassie’s Imperial Bodyguard – Ethiopia’s elite troops.
Capt Mamo Habtewold, now 81 years old, was then a young lieutenant in the 3rd Kagnew Battalion. He clearly remembers a send-off from the Emperor himself, as he was about to leave for the other side of the world.
New York (TADIAS) – Organizers of Miss Universe Ethiopia held an intimate fundraiser last week at Bati Restaurant in Brooklyn attended by a diverse group of people who paid about $45 each for a fun afternoon that included yummy Ethiopian food, drink, and music accompanied by traditional dancing.
The event was hosted by Spark Communications Worldwide, a New York City based marketing and branding company that recently acquired the exclusive license for Miss Universe Ethiopia.
Miss Universe is an annual international contest which is run by the Miss Universe Organization – a joint venture between NBC Universal and Trump. Last year, more than one billion TV viewers from across 190 countries witnessed the crowning of Miss Angola, Leila Lopes, as Miss Universe 2011.
Organizers say the Ethiopia event will take place on October 12th, 2012 at Radisson Blu Hotel in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia’s parliament has sworn in Hailemariam Desalegn as the country’s new leader.
Mr. Hailemariam replaces longtime Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who died of an undisclosed illness last month at the age of 57.
The French News Agency quotes Mr. Hailemariam as pledging to continue Mr. Meles’ legacy without any changes.
Mr. Hailemariam was a close ally of the former leader and has previously served as minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister. Many say the 47-year-old prime minister was handpicked for the position by Mr. Meles who was planning to step down after the 2015 election.
Mr. Hailemariam will be Ethiopia’s first new leader since 1991, when the guerilla movement TPLF overthrew the military junta of Mengistu Hailemariam.
Ethiopia’s ruling party confirmed acting Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn as the successor to the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. (Photo: World Economic Forum on Africa / WEF)
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s ruling party on Saturday named as its leader acting Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who took over after the death last month of longtime leader Meles Zenawi, an official said at the end of a congress of party bosses.
As chairman of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, Hailemariam, 47, will almost certainly be confirmed as the country’s prime minister in an upcoming official ceremony. Bereket Simon, Ethiopia’s communications minister, said Hailemariam would be sworn in soon. It remains unclear exactly when, but Bereket said this might happen early next month. “Since the party holds an overwhelming majority the party’s chair is automatically the country’s prime minister,” Bereket said. “So Hailemariam will be the country’s new prime minister.”
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopians will soon learn the identity of their new prime minister. The ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), is having a council meeting on Friday and Saturday in Addis Ababa.
The council, the highest organ of the EPRDF after the general assembly, will decide who the new chairperson of the party will be. The chairperson will most likely become the new leader of the East African country.
Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn was supposed to be sworn in right after the death of former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi last month. It is still believed that the council will choose Hailemariam as the chairperson, but local newspapers report that that the EPRDF will appoint three deputy prime ministers.
Dr. Negaso Gidada, the former Ethiopian president who was part of drafting the Ethiopian constitution, is currently an opposition leader and says that having three deputies would be unconstitutional.
“You can refer to article 75 of the constitution which speaks about DPM. Whatever the case, the constitution speaks of only one DPM, not two or three more. If it is true, it means the EPRDF is continuing its violation of the constitution and that it’s not leading the country according to the constitution,” he said.
Negaso feels the EPRDF was already in violation of the constitution by delaying the appointment of the deputy prime minister.
But the delay might also explain Ethiopia’s changing power politics says veteran political scientist Medhane Tadesse.
“There will be a return to a collective kind of leadership. Which means that decision making in Ethiopia is probably now back to the collective mode,” said Medhane. “Another major change in Ethiopia after Meles will be the distribution of power so probably also to compensate for the lost of Meles. I think its imperative that they distribute power and delegate it to as many people as possible. In a way this is more useful and visible in the Ethiopian context and probably also the right thing to do.”
New York (TADIAS) – As Ethiopians welcome a new era of political leadership with the swearing in of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, 47, who took office on Friday, we urge opposition members, for the sake of the country, to show goodwill towards the new leader.
We also remind the new Prime Minister that the respect and trust of the public is for him to earn. Hailemariam comes into office at a precarious period for the country where the time requires for wise leadership and collective responsibility. The new PM may be the chair of the majority party, but as prime minister he is ultimately the leader of all Ethiopians. And, as such, should be open, from day one, to entertain not only the concerns of his supporters but also those of his critics.
Although Hailemariam must eventfully rise to the occasion, we are mindful that he is embarking on a job that was suddenly entrusted to him and he deserves time and benefit of the doubt to prove himself.
If the new Prime Minister is bold enough, he could possibly carve a legacy of his own worth remembering by future generations. There is a very short window of opportunity for him not only to continue and promote the historic economic achievements of his predecessor, but also to seize upon the missed opportunities of the past twenty years in advancing human rights, government transparency, free press, and other democratic principles that are the building blocks of a fair and open society.
Even though we are encouraged, for example, by the recent release of the two Swedish journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, we remain disappointed that several of our Ethiopian journalist colleagues, including Eskinder Nega, remain in prison awaiting justice. And we hope it bothers the conscience of the new Prime Minister that Ethiopia is considered one of the biggest jailers of journalists in Africa.
Moving forward, positive measures of genuine national reconciliation could inspire confidence, both at home and abroad, in helping to build a nation that is governed communally with the consent of all Ethiopian citizens. The tasks are challenging and we encourage PM Hailemariam to lead Ethiopia into a new era of respect for human rights as we continue the country’s strong economic progress.
— Related: Hailemariam Desalegn Sworn in as PM (AP)
— Click here to join the conversation on Facebook.
New York (TADIAS) – Hundreds of Ethiopian medical professionals from the Diaspora are expected to gather in Washington, D.C. this weekend for the 4th Global Ethiopian Diaspora Conference on Health Care & Medical Education. The meeting is being hosted by the U.S.-based NGO, People to People (P2P), a non-profit established in 1999 to serve as a networking platform for medical doctors interested in Ethiopia.
According to organizers, this year’s event will take place at the Marriott Residence Inn Washington, D.C. on Saturday, September 22nd from 8:00-5:30 PM.
The conference agenda includes a discussion centered around the issue of “brain gain” and the need for an up-to-date “tertiary hospital” in Ethiopia. “It is believed that establishing such infrastructure will reduce the number of people traveling abroad to seek high level medical care,” Dr. Elias S. Siraj, P2P’s Vice President for Medical Education and Chair of the organizing committee for the conference, said in an interview with TADIAS. “Other topics that will be covered include traditional medicine, medical education, as well as how international institutions can support collaborations between Diaspora and Ethiopia-based institutions.”
Dr. Elias, who is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, Director of the Diabetes Program, and head of the Endocrinology Fellowship Training program, stressed that “P2P has no political, ethnic, or religious affiliations.”
“The main missions is to mobilize the global Ethiopian Diaspora to play an active role in mitigating the impact of brain drain, mainly in the area of health care, and to ignite a passion to give back to their country of origin,” he said. “In fulfilling its mission, P2P has been able to bring together a large number of Ethiopian Diaspora healthcare professionals, and participate in supporting various sectors of the health care system as well as medical schools in Ethiopia.”
The event’s featured speakers include representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO), American International Health Alliance (AIHA), World Bank, USAID, as well as guests from Ethiopia representing five medical schools and the Ministry of Health.
Regarding the issue of “brain drain” Dr. Elias agreed with the widely held assumption that there are more Ethiopian medical doctors in the Diaspora than in Ethiopia. “As of now, I think that’s a reasonably good estimate even though no one really knows the exact number of Ethiopian medical professionals living in North America,” he said. “Irrespective of the exact number, it is clear there are a lot of us here in North America and that obviously is a loss to Ethiopia. That is why we are working hard to facilitate Diaspora involvement in Ethiopia to minimize and mitigate the impact of this loss.”
“You see, even though most of us in the Diaspora are established in the West for good, many still remain emotionally attached to their country of origin and are willing to contribute if effective mechanisms can be created,” Dr. Elias added. “Organizations such as P2P are serving as a bridge and launching pad of such “brain gain” initiatives by bringing the Diaspora together to discuss, debate and find solutions. In this regard P2P has been working with various organizations including the World Bank to facilitate ‘brain gain’ and Diaspora involvement in Ethiopian healthcare and medical education.”
— If you go:
4th Global Ethiopian Diaspora Conference on Health Care
Saturday September 22nd, 2012
8:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Residence Inn Washington, DC /Capitol
333 E St. SW
Washington, DC 20024
On Site Registration Fee: $30.00
Fee covers cost of food and refreshments.
Fee is waived for students and those in residency training.
For more information, contact: info@peoplepeople.org
Learn more about P2P at www.peoplepeople.org.
—
Photo from last year’s conference:
Writer, journalist, blogger, and free speech activist Eskinder Nega, the 2012 recipient of PEN American Center’s Freedom to Write Award, lived in Washington, D.C., before returning to his native Ethiopia to start one of the country’s first-ever independent newspapers. On Friday, Eskinder was back in D.C.–not physically, but as the subject of a candlelight vigil at the African American Civil War Memorial that commemorated the first anniversary of the blogger’s arrest and sent the message that those jailed for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of speech are never forgotten.
This is Eskinder’s ninth imprisonment in 21 years while reporting the news in Ethiopia, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The most recent charges against him include involvement in “terrorism”–a grave charge that prosecutors backed with a YouTube video of a public meeting where he had discussed the implications of the Arab Spring in Ethiopia. The government charged him under the country’s anti-terrorism law–the same legislation he had criticized in a column five days before his arrest. In the column, Eskinder had expressed his indignation at the imprisonment of 73-year-old actor Debebe Eshetu on terrorism charges and noted that dozens of political dissidents and a handful of independent journalists jailed with him did not fit the profile of terrorists.
Blogger and journalist Eskinder Nega, who was given Pen America’s prestigious “Freedom to Write”
award this year, is among several journalists still serving lengthy sentences on terrorism charges.
On 13 July, 2012, Ethiopia’s federal court sentenced a prominent Ethiopian blogger Eskinder Nega and 23 other opposition activists to 18 years in jail for allegedly participating in terrorist activities.
Eskinder Nega is a journalist, who turned to blogging to find a breathing space online for his dissenting views, has been in a prison for a year now. 14 September, 2012 [marked] the first anniversary of his arrest. The Ethiopian online community remembers him on Facebook:
Washington, D.C. (TADIAS) – Today with large sums of assistance flowing from the United States into Ethiopia, worth $6.226 billion in the last decade alone including $847 million in fiscal year 2011, the country is considered one of America’s closest strategic allies in Africa and one of the biggest recipients of U.S. aid on the continent.
According to Denver-based businessman and filmmaker Mel Tewahade, producer of the documentary Point Four (scheduled to be screened in Washington, D.C. this week to employees of USAID), the formal relationship between the United States and Ethiopia dates back more than a century, but did not start in earnest until President Truman’s “Point Four Program” in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
In a recent interview with TADIAS Mel said Point Four was eventually replaced by the current United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which now funds and oversees several civilian projects in Ethiopia covering economic development and humanitarian initiatives.
“It is very important for the current generation of USAID public servants to understand the genesis of the U.S. effort in developing world,” Mel said. “Point Four, a technical assistance program for developing countries that was announced by President Harry Truman during his inaugural speech on January 20th, 1949, was the predecessor to USAID.”
Mel’s movie highlights the role of Truman’s policy in establishing agricultural and educational institutions in Ethiopia, while exploring the contribution of American teachers, particularly the staff from Oklahoma State University (OSU).
“Larger-scale US-Ethiopian collaborations started with the Point Four Program in 1952, when Americans helped establish the first agricultural high school in Jimma, known as the Jimma Agricultural and Technical School (JATS), where all faculty were recruited from Oklahoma State University,” Mel said. “Shortly afterwards, it was followed by the establishment of the Harar and Debre Brehan Teacher Training Institutes. Alemaya Agricultural College opened its doors in 1954.”
Mel said the U.S. program also assisted in setting up the Ethiopian Highway Authority and Malaria Control Agency.
USAID still funds many programs there, including projects related to population control, tuberculosis prevention, family planning, reproductive health, newborn care, water sanitation, primary education, teacher training, scholarship for young girls, and strengthening good governance.
“My feelings for Ethiopian and American collaboration and the respect that I have for pioneering Americans and countless Ethiopian public servants along with diligent Ethiopian students who benefited from these efforts are worth preserving,” Mel said. “The contrast between my expectations and the reality I encountered through my research for this film was profound. The Oklahoma educators, the cultured and optimist Ethiopians and their work ethic and love of country is remarkable, as is respect for American teachers and Ethiopian students, pursuing a formal education against incredible odds. I hope my documentary shares this, and I hope it will spark positive cross-cultural dialogue and help us embrace our shared humanity.”
Mel said his other new film Peace Corps in Ethiopia will also be released in Addis Ababa next week (September 25). “My talented film crew will travel with me to make a documentary film of the event itself,” he said, pointing out that on September 24, over 100 Americans who served as Peace Corps Volunteers will arrive in Addis Ababa for a two week visit to commemorate the arrival of the first Peace Corps group 50 years ago.
As to Point Four, Mel said the audience’s reaction so far has been mostly supportive. “I have traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma (OSU), Tulsa, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle” he said. “The response from the public has been positive. People in Oklahoma were in tears as they already had a connection to the story.”
“On the negative side, in Denver, an American commented that he could not believe that U.S. helped anyone, and in particular Ethiopia, that did not have a drop of oil,” Mel said. “Another Ethiopian in Toronto accused me of exaggerating the achievement of white people in Ethiopia.” Overall Mel has mostly received a warm reception as he travels with his film.
Regarding the screening on Wednesday he noted that there is limited seating for only 60 people. “It will be shown mainly to USAID employees,” he said. “But I welcome members of our community to join me. We will accommodate people on a first come, first serve basis.”
Mel Tewahade (center) working on his documentary “Point Four.” (Courtesy photo)
— If you go:
D.C. Screening of Point Four
September 19,2012 at 6.30 PM
1250 Eye Street, NW Suite 1100,
Washington, DC 20005 Click here to learn more about the film.
New York (TADIAS) – The Sub Pop group Debo Band, led by Ethiopian-American musician Danny Mekonnen, will be back in New York today (Sunday, September 16th) to perform with the legendary Joshua Light Show at NYU Skirball Center, while the Ethiopian dance troupe Fendika will perform at Joe’s Pub on October 2nd.
The electric combination of Debo Band’s Ethiopian-tinged beats along with the multimedia sensation of The Joshua Light Show promises to make this a one-of-a-kind experience. Debo Band released their self-titled debut album earlier this year.
Debo Band album cover.
Following the very successful collaborative performance of Fendika and Debo Band at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival last year, we are also excited to have Fendika return to give a solo show at Joe’s Pub. The New York Times has dubbed Fendika’s frontman Melaku as “a happily superlative artist.”
We look forward to these two upcoming shows.
—- If you go:
Sunday, September 16, 2012
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
566 LaGuardia Place, NY, NY 10012
The Joshua Light Show: Globalfest – Debo Band + Forro in the Dark
7:30pm
Tickets: $20-$32 Click here to purchase online.
Marcus Samuelsson (Photo: Alison Brod Public Relations)
It’s hard to imagine a chef who’s got more on his plate – literally and figuratively – than Marcus Samuelsson. The award-winning restaurateur and gastronome is behind two eateries in New York’s famed Harlem neighborhood – Red Rooster and the more recently opened Ginny’s Supper Club – plus others in Sweden, Chicago and Costa Mesa, Calif. This past summer, his memoir “Yes, Chef,” which details both his unique upbringing as an Ethiopian adopted by a Swedish family and his fast-track culinary career in the United States, was released to glowing reviews. (His previous books, including “New American Table” and “The Soul of a New Cuisine,” have all been cookbooks.) He also has developed the guy-centric Food Republic site, unveiled his Ambessa line of specialty teas and cooked the occasional state dinner for President Obama. Oh, and he just signed on as the first culinary ambassador for SKYY Vodka.
The Wall Street Journal caught up with Samuelsson at a SKYY event this week at Ginny’s Supper Club.
Washington, D.C. (TADIAS) – The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities is hosting a screening today of a short film by the district’s Artist Fellowship Grant recipient Asmara Beraki entitled Anywhere Else. The 45 minute movie, scheduled to premier from 6 to 8 pm at Goethe Institute in Washington D.C., follows a divorced taxi-driver and his relationship with his teenage daughters who are growing up in a culture vastly different than his.
“The short film was inspired by my father because he worked as a taxi driver in Washington, D.C. and it’s kind of based on his life experience,” the filmmaker said in an interview. “Because when I was young he used to be a teacher and at some point he stopped teaching. And at the time, when I was growing up, I always used to say to him “Why don’t you go back to teaching?” or do this and that, or do something else besides driving a taxi. So I guess it’s a portrait of what I imagine my father might have felt, like being an immigrant here, doing that job, being divorced, and trying to relate to his kids.”
Beraki, who grew up in D.C. but currently lives in Prague, Czech Republic with her husband and 6-year-old, acknowledged, however, that her mother, on the other hand, is noticeably absent from the movie. “There is a reason for that,” she said. “My mother’s story is more complicated in a way that I am not ready to tell it.”
As for her father, Beraki said he “loves” the film. “He was really pleased,” she said. “I am sympathetic to him now because I have grown. Had I written this ten years ago, I would have had a different perspective.”
The film’s poster for the D.C. screening.
— If You Go:
The screening of Anywhere Else
Followed by Q & A with the filmmaker
Saturday, September 15, 2012
6:00 to 8:00 PM Goethe Institute Cinema
812 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001-3718
Tel: (202) 289-1200
info@washington.goethe.org
New York (TADIAS) – President Barack Obama’s reelection efforts are getting help from some of America’s most renowned artists, including Ethiopian American painter Julie Mehretu. Mehretu is one of nineteen artists whose work is featured in a portfolio of a limited edition print-set called “Artists for Obama,” which was created in collaboration with Gemini G.E.L., a Los Angeles based art workshop and publishing house.
Organizers have announced that September 24th is the initial New York presentation of a nationwide offering of the special collection. “The evening will be an intimate reception for a maximum of 150 guests, including a number of the artists whose work appears in the portfolio,” the announcement said.
Artists participating in the fundraiser include John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, Claes Odenburg, Chris Burden and Frank Gehry.
Per The Los Angeles Times, “Organizers said the portfolio is being offered in exchange for a $28,000 donation to the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee. They said 150 portfolios will be up for sale, for a potential fundraising total of $4.2 million. All proceeds will go toward the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to organizers.”
— If You Go:
Monday, September 24
7:00–9:00 PM
535 West 24th Street – 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10011
Portfolio on exhibit through Election Day. Click here to view the Artists for Obama portfolio. Minimum donation for reception: $300 per ticket, $500 per couple, payable to the Obama Victory Fund. Attendance is limited and RSVP is required. RSVP at artforobama@joniweyl.com 212-249-3324.
They arrived by foot and taxi, Metro and minivan, tens of thousands of Ethiopian Americans gathering beneath the Washington Monument, some waving their country’s flag, others dressed in the traditional gauzy-white clothing of their homeland. Tourists wandered by and wondered what was happening. World Cup? Political demonstration?
Not this time.
In what organizers called one of the region’s largest gatherings of Ethiopians, thousands of people came from Virginia, Maryland, the District and several other East Coast areas Sunday evening to celebrate a holiday that falls on Sept. 11: the Ethiopian New Year.
New York (TADIAS) – Since the beginning of the international beauty pageant Miss Universe in 1952, only four African countries have won the title: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Angola.
Henok Yifru – one of the founders of Spark Communications Worldwide, a New York City based marketing and branding company that recently acquired the exclusive license for Miss Universe Ethiopia, is hopeful that Ethiopia may be added to the roster of African winners in the next few years.
“We are looking for serious and career-driven applicants only,” Henok said in a recent interview with TADIAS, pointing out that with over 1 billion television viewers, the competition is one of the most watched annual media events worldwide.
The Miss Universe Organization is currently owned by Donald Trump in partnership with NBC Universal.
“Miss Universe Ethiopia will have the opportunity to represent the nation and act as an ambassador in this context,” Henok said. “The judges are capable of providing opportunities beyond Miss Universe itself. He added: “It’s a special position that has its responsibilities. It provides an opportunity to meet people from all walks of life, the ability to take on cause-based projects, and the chance to promote Ethiopia globally.”
And what are the qualifications to participate?
“Contestants must be female, citizens of Ethiopia, and must have resided in Ethiopia as their permanent and primary residence for a period of at least six months immediately prior to Friday, October 12, 2012,” Henok answered, referring to the scheduled date for Miss Universe Ethiopia final at Radisson Blu Hotel in Addis Ababa. “They must be at least 18 years of age and under 27 as of February 01, 2012,” he said.
Spark Communications Worldwide, the official licensee, will manage the production and preliminary qualification process for the contest in Ethiopia.
“What makes this Miss Universe Ethiopia special is that there will be agents as judges from esteemed New York City modeling agencies and beauty relevant companies who will be traveling to Addis Ababa with our team to conduct the casting and selection of the talent,” Henok said.
Henok said in addition to these modeling agencies, L’Oreal, Revlon and MAC cosmetics casting agents have been approached to sit on the judging board. “This gives the contestants a double opportunity to succeed not just in Miss Universe but in the modeling world as well,” he argued. “Basically, we will do everything in our power to give the winner as much exposure and opportunity.”
Regarding Spark Communications Henok said, the company works on several projects in various industries, including media, entertainment, hospitality, and travel. “One initiative is the ‘Gateway Africa’ Project which is set up to promote destinations in Africa and build a more positive image for the continent,” he said. “We’re also close partners with Miss Universe Botswana.”
Henok added: “Our long term goal is to make the Miss Universe Ethiopia initiative a gateway to global opportunities for Ethiopia’s artistic and business talent, while simultaneously promoting Ethiopia as a tourist destination.”
According to organizers, the international final event for this year’s Miss Universe will be held either in the United States or the Dominican Republic on December 11, 2012. “Either way, it’s going to be exciting,” Henok said.
— Click here to learn more about the pageant at Miss Universe Ethiopia.
Related Photos:
Alef Tadesse (left) and Henok Yifru represented Spark Communications Worldwide at the NBC Universal Miss Universe office in NYC, July 2012. (Courtesy photo)
Henok Yifru poses with Miss Universe 2011 Leila Lopes of Angola at the NBC Universal Miss Universe office in NYC, July 2012. (Courtesy photo)
The reigning Miss Universe Leila Lopes of Angola. (Courtesy photo)
Leila Lopes at the Rio Conventions of the UNCCD – United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. (Courtesy photo)
— Join the conversation on Facebook.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Back home after being imprisoned in Ethiopia for more than a year, two Swedish journalists on Friday dismissed their trial on terror charges as a “sham,” saying they accepted 11-year prison terms to improve their chances of being released.
Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson also said in a news conference that their apology on Ethiopian TV in connection with their release last week was not sincere. Continue reading at AP.
Nairobi — The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Ethiopian government to set free six journalists in prison for their work, a day after Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye were pardoned and released from Kality Prison in the capital Addis Ababa. Continue reading at CPJ.
Ethiopia Pardons 1900 Prisoners Including Swedish Journalists
The two Swedish journalists, photographer Johan Persson and reporter Martin Schibbye, were serving 11-year sentences in Ethiopia. (Photo: AFP)
The Ethiopian government will release two imprisoned Swedish journalists, as part of an annual mass amnesty to mark Ethiopia’s New Year. Some 1900 prisoners are part of an official pardon granted by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, were convicted of supporting an illegal terrorist group and crossing the border without proper documentation. They were sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed the decision.
“We still believe that they should never have been jailed, because they were carrying out legitimate news-gathering activities,” Mohamed Keita, the group’s Africa Advocacy Coordinator said on Monday.
He added that the journalists were forced to admit to guilt in order to receive the pardon, though the terrorism charges were “a crime they did not commit.”
“They [the journalists] took the risk of entering the country illegally only because of the Ethiopian government’s restrictions and censorship banning independent media access to the Ogaden, and these are practices that reporters and news organizations the world over engage in to cover both sides of the story.
There are serious allegations of abuses in the Ogaden that the Ethiopian government denies, but it is not providing an opportunity for international or local media to independently report or investigate,” he said.
Keita said CPJ hopes the country will use the opportunity of Mr. Meles’ death to loosen what he says are restrictions on journalists operating in Ethiopia.
“We believe they have an opportunity to usher in national reconciliation,” he said, “and to turn the page. And they have an opportunity to do so by releasing the six other journalists behind bars.”
In July, prominent journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega was jailed for 18 years for what the government said was breaching anti-terror laws, while Andualem Arage, a member of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, was given a life term in prison.
— Related News from VOA: Swedish FM: Ethiopia Promised Journalists’ Pardon in May (Voice of America)
— Tadias Magazine
News Update
Published: Monday, September 10, 2012
Ethiopia has granted clemency to two Swedish journalists convicted last year under the country’s anti-terrorism law.
“Some 1,900 prisoners have been pardoned and are scheduled to be released in the coming days. The Swedish journalists are part of the group,” a source told Reuters.
Reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were accused of supporting a terrorist group and also charged with immigration violations. They were arrested in July 2011 after being caught with fighters from an Ogaden National Liberation Front. They had pleaded not guilty to the terror charges, but admitted entering the country illegally from Somalia.
The reporters maintain their investigation was focused on Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum and an oil company in Ethiopia that bought licences from Lundin in 2009 to operate in Ethiopia’s rebellious Ogaden region.
VENTURES AFRICA – Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin, an Ethiopian economist and founder and outgoing CEO of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), is an African woman who saw in need, a powerful opportunity. Using her training as an economist and researcher, she has facilitated Ethiopia’s Green Revolution, putting the country on the map as a food producer.
“In 1984–85, the year of the famine that killed nearly a million Ethiopians, I was an undergraduate at Cornell. At dinner one night, other students started throwing food. And suddenly—shocking myself—I got up on a chair and I screamed, “Stop doing this! In my country people are starving!” In that moment, I knew that I owed my country something.”
Yet Eleni did not return to her home country for the next 20 years. Instead she pursued her education, graduating with Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Economics from Cornell University and Michigan State University, USA, respectively. She received a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Stanford University (also in the US) and went on to hold a variety of senior positions in leading economic organisations.
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia is starting to look to the future, following the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who was buried after a state funeral on Sunday.
Life is returning to normal in Ethiopia’s capital after more than two weeks of mourning for longtime ruler, Meles Zenawi.
Abi Hailemichael works in a barbershop in the Bole neighborhood of Addis Ababa. Like many Ethiopians, he says Meles’ work for the country must not be forgotten. “While we reflect on the diligent and tireless work he did for the nation, we have a responsibility to carry out his good plans,” he said.
Meles sparked rapid economic development during more than 20 years in power.
Many wonder what will become of the country now that he’s gone.
Meles’ deputy Hailemariam Desalegn is due to replace the prime minister, but has yet to take the oath of office.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dina Mufti says Hailemariam is officially in control. “The council has already decided that the deputy prime minister will take charge immediately because this is provided in the constitution. In the absence of the prime minister, he is the acting prime minister. He is now in charge of all national affairs,” he said.
The question is whether Hailemariam can garner the kind of broad support that made Mr. Meles an icon.
Hailemariam is not Tigray, another challenge he faces. That ethnic group controls most of the country’s institutions, including the military.
Rumors in the capital say the ruling party is considering sidelining him. Dina Mufti says this is not true. “So-called internal squabbles or rivalries within the party, no. This is a non-starter, there is not. This is a very solid party,” he said.
Meles’ had little tolerance for the opposition. His government frequently jailed journalists and activists who voiced dissent.
Medhane Tadesse, an independent anayst, said Ethiopia’s leaders are unlikely to change that anytime soon. “In the long-term, gradually, yes. In the short-term, no, because the government might behave more like the same, if not very repressive, because of the lack of confidence. They do not know the waters they are entering now,” he said.
New York (TADIAS) – In the end, Emperor Haile Selassie died in prison, officially of natural causes but widely rumored to have been killed without trial by a military junta, apparently suffocated to death and buried under a toilet for more than seventeen years. Prior to that, however, the late emperor whose remains has since been moved to its current resting place at Kidist Selassie (Holy Trinity) Cathedral in Addis Ababa, was a long-reigning ruler of Ethiopia for more than four decades. He had been fiercely criticized for his reluctance to share power, and praised as visionary for his single-minded policy of modernization. According to a new book by Theodore M. Vestal, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Oklahoma State University — who has done an extensive research about the emperor’s foreign visits, particularly to the United states — Haile Selassie was a world-class globe trotter as well, traveling the world on behalf of Ethiopia, forging diplomatic, military and commercial relationships from Africa to North America, and along the way subtly promoting the country’s brand as a mysterious and mystical land, as well as an attractive tourism and investment destination.
Haile Selassie was indeed the first Ethiopian leader that ventured out for extended travels throughout Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and to North and South America. In a recent interview with Tadias Magazine, Professor Vestal said, the emperor’s relentless pursuit of international diplomacy had big impact on how the rest of the world viewed Ethiopians.
“The Emperor was a fast learner, and I think his travels abroad in 1922 and 1924 were important milestones in his education,” Professor Vestal said, referring to his trip abroad as a young man before his coronation. “He took in all the tourist sites, met royal and not-so royal leaders, and assuaged his passion to know more about the latest mechanical wonders of Europe.” He added: “Haile Selassie also discerned how Ethiopia and Africa were viewed by foreigners.”
“His trip was a public relations triumph of the first magnitude, and he made a positive impression on many who had little if any contact with Africans, much less a ruler with an extraordinary entourage,” Professor Vestal continued. “His warm reception and demonstrative press coverage provided an appropriate gloss on the image of Ethiopia as a nation of note that had been earned on the field of battle at Adwa.”
Vestal noted that the Emperor’s travels inspired some of his domestic “agenda of modernization” that he pursued “as best he could” in the face of “conservative” critics at home.
“He beheld how other monarchs ruled and tried to follow their best practices in his own reign and for his own purposes,” Vestal noted.
Below is the rest of our interview with Professor Ted Vestal about his most recent book: The Lion of Judah in the New World, which explores Emperor Haile Selassie’s travels to the United States and shaping of Americans’ attitude towards Africa.
Dr. Ted Vestal (Courtesy photo)
TADIAS: In the chapter entitled A Lion in the Streets you noted that Emperor Haile Selassie’s first visit to America coincided with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Brown v. Board of Education. Given the Emperor’s travels to racially segregated states at the time please tell us a bit more about this unique moment in history.
Ted Vestal: At the time of the Emperor’s first state visit to the United States in 1954, racial discrimination was still practiced and enforced by law in the southern states of the old Confederacy and in some of the border states. In 1896 (the same year as the Battle of Adwa), a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court had given approval to the “separate but equal” doctrine that became the legal basis of segregation practices and Jim Crow laws under which African-Americans were “second-class citizens” lacking equal opportunities in education and employment. During the post-World War II era, however, the ideas of “humane democracy” of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal were having an important effect in bettering the position of the African-American in American life. Growing numbers of African-Americans began to improve their economic status by entering professions, businesses, and higher paying occupations. During the war, the color line was abolished by many employers and labor unions, while the man-power shortage, the government’s hiring of African-Americans for federal positions and requiring “no discrimination” clauses in federal contracts all contributed to this development.
Except for certain areas in the “deep” South, segregation was being brought to an end in public places such as hotels, theaters, restaurants, and recreational facilities. African-Americans all over the country were voting in larger numbers–sometimes requiring the aid of the Supreme Court to accomplish this. The lot of the African-American in transportation, education, and housing was likewise improved by the Court’s decisions. The ideas of the New Deal became a force creating a deep-seated change in American mores, with many people convinced that the maintenance of a caste system was inconsistent with the twentieth century idea of America as a constitutional democracy. Despite these changes, Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal wrote in 1944 that “the status accorded the Negro in America represents nothing more and nothing less than a century-long lag of public morals.”
This changed on 17 May 1954, when the Supreme Court rendered perhaps the most fateful judicial decision of the twentieth century—Brown v. Board of Education. For the first time, the Court met head-on the moral challenge of the separate but equal doctrine in public schools and in a unanimous decision declared that doctrine unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion of the Court declaring that separate facilities were inherently unequal and violated the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution. In the years that followed, segregation on the basis of race slowly came to an end, and African-Americans were more fully integrated into American life. At the time of Haile Selassie’s 1954 visits to Oklahoma and Louisiana, however, segregation was still in full sway in those states, and the Emperor’s acclaim broke down the color bar and tossed the moral question of racial biases squarely into the forum of American public opinion. Hence, the Emperor’s state visit played a role in hastening integration in the United States.
TADIAS: You cited Henry Morton Stanley as “probably one of the first Americans to visit Ethiopia” in the 1800s. Please tell us a bit more about him and his work as a correspondent for the New York Herald.
Ted Vestal: Stanley was an intriguing character who was an adventurer and explorer and who might have been responsible for the spread of sleeping sickness in Central Africa. A Welsh immigrant, he came to the United States at the age of eighteen in 1859. He had the distinction of serving in both the Confederate and Union armies and the Union navy during the Civil War. Stanley subsequently became a journalist and covered international events for U.S. newspapers, going to, among others, such “exotic” locales as the Ottoman Empire in 1860, the American frontier West in 1867 (where he reported on the work of the Indian Peace Commission), Abyssinia and the Napier expedition of 1868, present day Tanzania where in 1871 he searched for and “found” the “lost” Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, the Congo River whose source he found in 1874, and Equatoria in the southern Sudan where he led the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition in 1886. The New York Herald and Britain’s Daily Telegraph were Stanley’s most important newspaper employers, and Belgium’s King Leopold II was his patron in some of his expeditions of discovery in Africa. Stanley wrote about his adventures and explorations in a series of books, the most popular of which were Through the Dark Continent (1878) and In Darkest Africa (1890). In the 1890s he returned to Britain where he was knighted and served in Parliament from 1895-1900. He died in London in 1904.
TADIAS: Your book states that it was during the era of Emperor Menelik that formal diplomatic ties were forged between Ethiopia and the United States. Robert Skinner was the American diplomat sent to Ethiopia with the task of negotiating the first commercial treaty between the two nations. What were some of the main negotiation points of this first treaty?
Ted Vestal: In 1903, Skinner made it clear that commercial interests were the sole basis for contact between the two nations. Emperor Menelik appreciated the fact that the United States had no colonial or political ambitions in Africa and might serve as buffer against imperialist European powers in the region. The United States sought to expand trade with Ethiopia, the only non-colonized country in the region, in ways that were not available in the colonized nations of Africa. Skinner hoped to promote U.S. exports, which he thought would have “the power to transform Ethiopia.” His attitude has been called “free-trade imperialism” or “informal empire” by historians. Ethiopia, having successfully defended its independence at the Battle of Adwa, was a prime target for the American mission. The country did not need the blessings of European colonialism for it to move into a new stage of social and economic development. The Americans wanted Ethiopians to develop their acquisitive faculties to give them a taste for more wants and hence more consumerism. Peasants would have to be the driving force in such a change because the manufacturing sector was in its infancy. The purchasing power of the Ethiopians was small, but if their desire for foreign manufactured goods could be increased, they might respond by harvesting larger crops and raising more livestock to increase their dollar holdings. The increased trade that Skinner dreamed of would require a social and economic revolution in which largely self-sufficient farmers would be more driven by the profit motive. Although the Skinner treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1910 and was valid for ten years, trade between the two countries was limited until after World War II. Emperor Menelik was still more interested in the purchase of arms during the remaining years of his reign.
For the most recent writing on the subject, see Amanda Kay McVety, “Enlightened Aid: U.S. Development as Foreign Policy in Ethiopia,” Foreign Affairs, Sept/Oct 2012.
TADIAS: Haile Selassie’s visit to America also jump-started President Truman’s famous “Point Four Program,” which you point out “emphasized the distribution of knowledge rather than money.” Can you elaborate on some of the developments that arose from this program?
Ted Vestal: The purpose of the Point Four Program was to share American “know-how” with developing nations. In Ethiopia, the greatest legacy of Point Four was the establishment of modern agricultural instruction, research, and extension in the country. The Imperial College of Agriculture at Alemaya and the Jimma Agricultural High School were major U.S.-inspired initiatives in Ethiopian education that have endured and grown into significant centers of learning today. The multi-million dollar Point Four Program went through a series of name changes and morphed into the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that, under whatever moniker, was responsible for many programs that benefited Ethiopia, including crop and livestock protection, teacher training, vocational trade schools, health programs, nurse education, malaria eradication, the creation of mapping and national archives, a Blue Nile basin survey, regional development, national airlines training, public administration, and the provision of university faculty and administration. The ties established between Ethiopia and Oklahoma State University under the country’s very first Point Four contract have been maintained to the present day as the longest continual relationship between an American university and a Sub-Saharan African nation. The good will initiated by the Point Four Program doubtlessly influenced the choices of many Ethiopians to pursue further education in the United States and even to immigrate to the New World when government oppressions at home forced them to leave.
TADIAS: Haile Selassie’s tour of America also included going to visit the Boeing Aircraft Plant. Ethiopian Airlines remains one of Boeing’s loyal customers to date and recently became the only African airline to acquire the Dreamliner. What can you tell us about the development of this historic relationship?
Ted Vestal: Although Ethiopian Airlines had been established in 1946 as a joint venture with the U.S. airline TWA (Trans World Airlines) with the acquisition of five U.S. Government surplus C-47 aircraft and had developed into the backbone of Ethiopia’s infrastructure, it was not until 1960 that Ethiopian was to purchase Boeing planes (720-Bs) to usher in the jet age. I do not know the story behind the Emperor’s tour of the Boeing factory in Seattle during his 1954 state visit. His advisor, John Spencer, who accompanied Haile Selassie on the trip, had been instrumental in setting up the agreement with TWA and served on the corporation’s board. Perhaps Spencer as well as the Ethiopian/TWA executives in Ethiopia had foreseen Boeing’s becoming a leader in commercial jet air craft and had arranged for the factory visit. It was a prophetic event, for Boeing was to enjoy great success in designing and building both military and commercial jet aircraft in the years following. Indeed, Boeing planes have been in service at Ethiopian Airlines continuously since 1962 when the first two Boeing 720-B aircraft landed at the newly constructed Bole Airport. As U.S. Ambassador Ed Korry explained to me, the Emperor was wily in requesting American aid to purchase state of the art jets for Ethiopian so that the airline could maintain its status as Africa’s finest airline. Having purchased the aircraft, Haile Selassie then had to have funds to build airports large enough for them to land and take off—funds that the United States was willing to provide. That was how Ethiopia’s first four modern airports were constructed. In September, the Ethiopian Airlines-Boeing tie will be part of a poignant reunion when one hundred Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who began teaching in Ethiopia fifty years ago will journey back to the land of their service on a new, top-of-the-line Ethiopian Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
TADIAS: Can you summarize how the historical diplomatic ties between America and Ethiopia has shaped each country?
Ted Vestal: The diplomatic ties between the two nations were not very dynamic until the mid-1930s and the Italo-Ethiopian war. Although Ethiopians had encouraged American businesses to consider trade and investment in Ethiopia ever since the Skinner mission in 1903, other than occasional official visitors, Ethiopia did not develop a diplomatic presence in the United States until 1935, and even then there was no embassy in Washington.
During the Italian-Ethiopian crisis of 1934-1935, the United States took a neutral stance on the grounds of “non-interference in European conflicts” and because the matter had been given to the League of Nations. Shortly after Italian forces occupied Addis Ababa in 1936, the United States, which did not recognize Rome’s annexation of Ethiopia, shut down its legation. U.S. diplomacy during the Italian crisis reflected the American policy goal of staying out of international entanglements and avoiding war.
Following the liberation of Ethiopia and America’s declaration of war on the Axis powers in 1941, the two nations became allies. The United States sent military assistance under a Lend Lease agreement, and Emperor Haile Selassie sought additional American aid to replace British influence in his country. Ethiopia and the United States reestablished diplomatic relations in 1943 with the United States opening a new legation along Entoto Road and Ethiopia sending its first resident minister to Washington. The Emperor sought American support for Ethiopian access to the Red Sea and the return of Eritrea—aspirations which eventually were realized with help from the United States. The U.S. Air Force subsequently flew an Ethiopian delegation to San Francisco to attend the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945. Thus U.S. diplomatic ties paid a role in assisting Ethiopia’s becoming a leading advocate of collective security in the fledgling UN. During the Korean conflict in 1950-1953, Ethiopia sent an armed battalion that fought alongside other United Nations forces. Ethiopia’s Kagnew battalion was transported to Korea on American ships and worked closely with U.S. forces in combat. Ethiopian forces later served with UN troops in the Congo in the 1960s. These contributions were greatly admired in the United States.
In the immediate post-World War II era, Ethiopian-American diplomatic relationships were shaped by the developing Cold War. Containment of the Soviet Union and its allies became America’s primary foreign policy after 1947. The United States and Ethiopia signed a treaty of amity and economic relations in 1951 and a Point Four technical assistance agreement the following year. This was the beginning of a U.S. foreign aid program that was to become the largest in Africa. The United States continues to be a strong financial supporter of Ethiopia today.
In the 1950s U.S. diplomacy focused on acquiring military access and communications facilities in Ethiopia, keeping communist influence out of the country, and maintaining a government that reflected pro-Western positions in international and regional arenas. Ethiopia wanted American assistance in expanding and modernizing its military, help with modernization of the economy, and political support for the incorporation of Eritrea, control over the Ogaden, and U.S. aid should there be any threats to its sovereignty. To the present time, Ethiopia and the U.S. military continue to have close connections.
In 1962, the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), a majority of whom served as secondary school teachers, came to Ethiopia. In the mid-1960s, about half of the secondary school teachers in the country were PCVs. During the next eleven years, more than 2,500 PCVs were to serve in Ethiopia in diverse capacities with various ministries and agencies (in the 1990s, PCVs again were assigned to Ethiopia and operate there today). With the large increase in military assistance, Point Four aid, and the Peace Corps, many Americans worked in Ethiopia in the 1960s and early 1970s. At the same time, more Ethiopians were sent to the U.S. for higher education or military training.
In 1963 following the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia became even more important to U.S. diplomacy. The U.S. hoped Haile Selassie would serve as a moderating influence within the OAU and in contacts with African leaders.
Ethiopian-U.S. diplomatic ties enabled Haile Selassie to modernize and increase the size of his military forces to be one of the largest and best equipped in Africa. From the 1950s until the end of Haile Selassie’s reign, Ethiopia received about 80 percent of all U.S. military aid for Africa and one-fifth of American economic assistance. This financial support probably had extended the longevity of the Emperor’s rule. The Ethiopian-U.S. military agreements, however, resulted in Arab hostility and, as the Cold War escalated, gave the Soviets a base for intervention in Somalia. This eventually led to the Soviets becoming dominant in Ethiopia during the Derg era and to the U.S. switching its support to Somalia in the 1970s and 1980s.
Through diplomacy, the United States maintained a military listening post in an area strategic to protecting shipping lanes from Arab oil-exporting countries. In a way, diplomatic ties with Ethiopia were a learning experience for the United States during the years that led to the end of colonialism throughout the continent and the 1960s, “the decade of Africa.” Over a long period, Ethiopia was a stable, moderate friend of America that by trial and error supported its best ally in Africa. Ethiopia benefitted in many ways from the military and economic development funds that were the equivalent of rent for Kagnew Station. The greatest legacy of the diplomatic ties of the two countries, however, has been the friendship between the people of Ethiopia and the United States which has persisted regardless of what paths were taken by the governments of the two nations.
TADIAS: And last but not least, please tell us about your personal and academic interest in Ethiopia and how it began?
Professor Ted Vestal
Ted Vestal: Like many Americans who were in colleges and universities during the 1950s, I knew little about Africa, much less about Ethiopia during my student days. There were few opportunities, even in major graduate programs such as Stanford’s, to study “the developing world.” African nations were a part of political science courses on colonial systems or “British Empire studies.” Emperor Haile Selassie was well known to my generation because of his memorable speech before the League of Nations in 1936 that was included in Allied propaganda films and shorts during World War II. His speech, in its entirety, also was published in many international relations or international organization texts. Other than newsreels of the Italo-Ethiopian War and liberation, there was sparse information about Ethiopia. By the time I was in college, I had heard of Oklahoma State University’s work in agriculture in Ethiopia, work that enjoyed an excellent reputation. I also knew of the Emperor’s visit to Oklahoma in 1954. A few years later, in 1960, I had become intrigued with President Kennedy’s idea of a Peace Corps. By that time, I had a wife and two children and didn’t think there was any way I could be a part of the new organization that JFK started shortly after his inauguration. Then I heard of something called the Peace Corps staff that worked with PCVs overseas, and I applied immediately. Through the good offices of my friend and college classmate, Bill Moyers, I was invited to go to Washington and eventually was interviewed by Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver. He offered me a staff position in Ethiopia, and I began to seriously study that nation while working in Peace Corps/Washington. In DC, My wife and I were most fortunate to study Amharic with one of Ethiopia’s greatest linguists, Tadesse Beyene, who was a graduate student at Georgetown University at the time. He taught us much in a short time—and much more about Ethiopia than just the spoken language. When the Emperor came on his second state visit to the U.S. in 1963, I was on Pennsylvania Avenue cheering as he and Kennedy drove by in an open convertible. A short time later, I observed Haile Selassie marching in the procession of world leaders at Kennedy’s funeral.
When we arrived in Addis Ababa in 1964, my education went into high gear. Living and working in Ethiopia for over two years was the best learning experience one could have about the country and its people. I was privileged to visit all the nation’s provinces and to meet Ethiopians from all walks of life. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know—a situation that has continued throughout my life.
After my Peace Corps service, I maintained an interest in Ethiopia but did not want to return there during the time of the repressive dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam and the Derg. During the horrendous famine in Ethiopia in 1984, I suffered from what Conner Cruise O’Brien called “the shock of non-recognition” when reading about conditions there, and I decided to write my version of what was happening. I wrote an article, “Ethiopia’s Famine: A Crises of Many Dimensions,” that was immediately published by the Royal Institute for International Relations in London in its journal The World Today. Thereafter, I was in demand to write and speak about Ethiopia and its problems. After the Derg fell in 1991, I was a consultant to the Transitional Government of Ethiopia and served as an international election observer in the 1992 national elections. I became involved in the process of writing a new constitution for the country and was asked to testify before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, on “Ethiopia: The Challenges Ahead.” I was active in International Conferences of Ethiopian Studies, and I was able to get back to Ethiopia every few years to interview a host of Ethiopians. Starting in 1995, I wrote expert witness affidavits or testified in some 120 political asylum cases of Ethiopians and Eritreans seeking to escape tyranny and human rights abuses. This experience was a significant part of my education and informed my writing on Ethiopia: A Post-Cold War African State published by Praeger in 1999 and other works. Now as an emeritus professor, I continue to think about and to write about Ethiopia and its fascinating people and to enjoy the friendship of some of their best and brightest folk.
—- Click here to learn more and get a copy of Professor Ted Vestal’s book.
Cover photo: At President Kennedy’s burial service at Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963. Among the world leaders pictured with Haile Selassie include General Charles de Gaulle of France; Ludwig Erhard of Germany; Queen Frederica of Greece; King Baudoin of Belgium; and other mourners. (Photo credit: Cecil Stoughton, White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston).
Related: Rarely Seen White House Photos Featuring Emperor Haile Selassie
Emperor Haile Selassie is greeted by President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy upon his arrival at Union Station in Washington, D.C on October 1st, 1963. (Kennedy Library and Museum)
President John F. Kennedy and Emperor Haile Selassie meeting at the White House, October 1963.
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia has laid to rest Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who led the country for more than 20 years before his death, announced last month. Heads of state from around the continent praised Meles’ intellect and his vision for his country and Africa.
Ethiopian soldiers stood in formation as the flag-draped casket carrying the body of Meles was carried into Meskel Square in downtown Addis Ababa.
Thousands of Ethiopians gathered to pay their respects to the late prime minister, who was credited with bringing economic development to the country during his many years in power. Foreign dignitaries, including heads of state from across Africa also attended the ceremony.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki praised Meles for his commitment to his country and the continent.
“We too, your fellow Africans, are here to join you to pay tribute to Meles Zenawi and to convey to you our sincere condolences of the loss to you of a great architect of a new Ethiopia, and to us who come from outside the borders of this country, the loss of a great architect of a new Africa of which a billion Africans dream,” said Mbeki.
While many African leaders credited Meles for his single-minded dedication to development, he was often criticized in the West for stifling the opposition and putting economic success ahead of human rights.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said the prime minister was misunderstood by critics because he was ahead of his time.
“Where some would have been compromised for short-term profit or gains, or easily succumbed to pressures, he was steadfast and always took a definite stand on issues of right and wrong and more often than not, he was on the side of right,” he said.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said she enjoyed a close relationship with Meles. Rice praised him for what she called his “world-class mind,” but said they sometimes “profoundly disagreed” on issues including human rights and foreign policy.
She said as the United States will continue to work with Ethiopia to help develop the country’s institutions.
“As always, we will encourage peaceful political dialogue, civil society development and protection of human rights, including freedom of the press,” said Rice.
Meles’ deputy, Hailemariam Desalegn has taken over the powers of the prime minister’s office and is due to be sworn in after the funeral. He says he plans to continue on the path of development started by his predecessor.
“Today we are prospering because of the vision and guidance of Meles Zenawi,” he said. “He paved the road for prosperity and peace that we are committed to follow.”
After the ceremony, Meles’ casket was carried to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, where he was buried next to other prominent leaders of Ethiopia, including former Emperor Haile Selassie.
The state funeral on Sunday in Addis Ababa for the late PM Meles Zenawi was attended by hundreds of dignitaries from around the world, including several African leaders. (Photo by Marie Claire Andrea for TADIAS)
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Thousands of mourners gathered near a public square in Ethiopia’s capital on Sunday to pay their final respects to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who was praised for lifting many out of poverty but vilified by some for restricting freedoms.
Meles, who ruled for 21 years, died Aug. 20 of an undisclosed illness in a Belgian hospital. He was 57. During his rule Ethiopia was a strong U.S. ally on counter-terrorism issues, particularly in Somalia, and some saw him as Africa’s intellectual leader in efforts to fight poverty.
Ethiopian officials said the state funeral in Addis Ababa was attended by hundreds of dignitaries from around the world, including several African leaders.
ADDIS ABABA — ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia’s longtime leader Meles Zenawi will be buried Sunday in a state funeral in Addis Ababa, nearly two weeks after the government announced he had died from an undisclosed illness. Gabe Joselow reports from the capital, Ethiopians have traveled from across the country in a show of national mourning for the influential and divisive prime minister.
The men and women standing in line take turns have been expressing their grief at the passing of Meles who led the country for the past two decades.
Addis Ababa is decorated with posters, banners and t-shirts bearing the late prime minister’s image. State television stations have been running programs honoring Meles non-stop since his death was announced, while bars and restaurants have been asked not to play any music during this period of mourning.
Ethiopian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dina Mufti says the outpouring of grief shows how deeply the nation has been affected.
“Everybody in the nation, every national, every Ethiopian, rich, poor, women, men, young, old – everybody’s grieving, everybody’s mourning,” said Mufti.
Dina says in addition to the official ceremony, which begins Sunday at downtown Meskel Square, there will be eight other events around the capital, and at least as many in other parts of the country.
Dignitaries including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and former South African President Thabo Mbeki are expected to speak at the funeral.
Meles’s casket will be taken to the Trinity Orthodox Church, where it will be buried alongside other prominent Ethiopian leaders, including former emperor Haile Selassie.
Independent analyst Medhane Tadesse told said many people did not expect such a large ceremony, but says it fits his political stature.
“I think they want to give him the necessary tribute that really is at par with his role internationally and on the African stage,” said Tadesse. “Probably this is the grandest funeral politically in Africa so I think they want to make that point.”
Tadesse says the country’s leaders may also have a political incentive.
“Beyond that there could be issues of legitimacy of continuity and cementing his legacy and his name would also help the ruling party and Ethiopia’s newly emerging leaders to use it as a launching pad for whatever political projects,” Tadesse added.
Meles is to be succeeded by Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who has yet to be sworn in.
Rights groups have urged the country’s next leader to do more to improve the country’s human rights record, such as lifting harsh restrictions on freedom of expression put in place during the former prime minister’s time in office.
——— In Ethiopia, a nation comes to bury Meles – and to praise him (CSM)
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, in doorway, walks past a portrait of late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a gift from another delegation, as he arrives to pay his respects to Meles’ body lying in state at the national palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (AP)
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
Over the past week, in near silence, two endless columns of Ethiopians draped in black have shuffled through the grounds of the national palace before pausing beneath a coffin covered by the flag and breaking into wails and sobs.
The masses in Africa’s second-most populous nation are coming to mourn and pay respect to former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the nation’s formidable leader of 21 years who died of illness on Aug. 20.
President Barack Obama today announced the designation of a Presidential Delegation to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to attend the State Funeral of His Excellency Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
The Honorable Susan E. Rice, United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, will lead the delegation on September 2, 2012.
Members of the Presidential Delegation:
The Honorable Donald Booth, United States Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
The Honorable Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
PM Meles died last month of an unknown illness after a mysterious, two month
disappearance from public view (AFP)
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia has had a long line of leaders dying in secret, hidden behind closed doors, but not a long history of funerals.
In 1913, one of Ethiopia’s most renowned emperors, Menelik II, died. His death remained a secret until 1916 when officials finally announced that he had succumbed to a stroke years earlier.
Haile Selassie, Ethiopia’s last emperor, officially died of natural causes in 1975, but is widely believed to have been murdered by the brutal regime of Mengistu Hailemariam, suffocated and buried under a toilet.
Last month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi died of an unknown illness after a mysterious, two month-long disappearance from public view, and will be buried on Sunday in the first state funeral for a leader in over 80 years.
Meles Zenawi always said he didn’t intend to die in office. Speaking to TIME as long ago as 2007, the Ethiopian Prime Minister was talking about moving on: “I have been around for quite a long time,” he said. “Time to start thinking about doing new things.” In the event, Meles did not do anything else but stayed through another election in 2010 – rigged, said the U.S., E.U and human rights groups – in which his Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its allies won 545 of the 547 seats in parliament and 1,903 of the 1,904 on nine regional councils. The result was not surprising but was at least less bloody than the previous poll in 2005 when Ethiopian security services shot dead 200 protesters – more like 1,000, said the opposition – who were demonstrating against the ERPDF’s victory in the streets of the capital Addis Ababa. Meles’s version of events was that the opposition, having lost a free and fair vote, were trying to win power by other means. “We felt we had to clamp down,” he said. “In the process, many people died. Many of our friends feel we overreacted. We feel we did not.” Still, though rights groups, opposition politicos and journalists he persecuted are understandably loathe to admit it, there was more to Meles Zenawi than a stereotypical African strongman.
Thousands of people have been to view Meles’s casket, draped in the Ethiopian flag
(Getty Images)
By Associated Press
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who died of an unknown illness earlier this week, will be buried on Sept. 2, the government spokesman said Thursday.
The government had postponed an emergency session of parliament to swear in a new prime minister as many leaders attended the funeral of a church leader.
Acting Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn was to be sworn in Thursday following Zenawi’s death on Monday.
Bereket Simon, Ethiopia’s communications minister said the country had “ample time” to swear in the new prime minister. He said Meles will be buried in the capital Addis Ababa
“There is no need to rush into it when the nation is grieving,” Bereket said. “What all the lawmakers and their constituencies and the nation at large want to do at this time is mourn the great loss and honor the late prime minister. We want to first honor this and handle the prime minister’s funeral with due diligence.”
“The succession is already completed, and Hailemariam will take over as a prime minister,” Bereket said.
Bereket also said the death of Abune Paulos, the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was another reason for the delay. Hailemariam attended and spoke at the Thursday funeral.
Leaders from around the world are expected to attend Meles’s funeral. Meles who ruled Ethiopia for 21 year, died in a Belgium hospital late Monday from an illness that Ethiopian officials have not revealed.
Hailemariam is a relatively young figure on Ethiopia’s political scene and it’s not clear if old guard leaders will allow him to hold onto the prime minister’s seat until 2015 elections.
Ethiopia is a strong U.S. ally on counter-terrorism issues, particularly in Somalia. Meles was hailed for advancing Ethiopia’s economic progress but was denounced by human rights groups for a heavy handed approach to political dissent.
— Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
— Related: Life in pictures: Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi (BBC)
—-
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died at the age of 57, after months of speculation about his health.
State television announced his death Tuesday, saying he died from a sudden infection late Monday at a hospital abroad.
Speaking with VOA Somali Service, government spokesman Bereket Simon would not say where Meles died, or disclose the illness that led to his hospitalization.
“The prime minister had been sick for quite a while,” he said. “And he was attending medical support in, somewhere in, ah, abroad. And he had some chance in recuperating. But ultimately some infection happened to him and doctors couldn’t control that infection.”
Meles had not been seen in public for nearly two months before his death.
Spokesman Bereket said Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn will serve as acting prime minister.
He said Meles’ body will arrive Tuesday in Ethiopia, and officials are making plans for the funeral.
Meles earned praise abroad for improvements in the economy, education and health care. But human rights groups sharply criticized him for various abuses, including restrictions on independent media.
Under Meles, Ethiopia fought a border war with Eritrea and sent troops to Somalia to fight Islamist militants.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought from 1998 to 2000 in a conflict that killed more than 70,000 people. Tension between the two countries remained high.
Meles was also known as an ally to the United States against terrorism.
In 2006, Ethiopian troops entered Somalia to fight Islamist militants allegedly armed and trained by the Eritrean government. Ethiopian forces returned to Somalia last year in a multi-nation offensive against militant group al-Shabab.
Meles’ most serious political challenge came in the 2005 elections, when opposition parties said the government rigged to results to cheat them of victory. Nearly 200 people died in post-election violence and protests.
In the most recent elections in 2010, the EPRDF and its allies took all but one seat in parliament, sparking new accusations of fraud.
The criticism increased in recent years as Ethiopian courts jailed journalists and political activists under an anti-terrorism law that rights groups said was overly vague and broad.
Meles was born in the northern Ethiopian town of Adwa in 1955. He attended Addis Ababa University for two years before joining the Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front, or TPLF, one of several groups that was fighting the government of Mengistu Hailemariam. The TPLF later became the core group within the EPRDF.
Addis Ababa (TADIAS) – Thousands of mourners made their way to Meskel Square in Addis Ababa on Sunday to pay their final respects to late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The state funeral was attended by several African heads of state and hundreds of diplomats from around the world. The U.S. delegation was led by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
The official ceremony mourning the death of a sitting head of government was the first for the country in more than 80 years.
The PM’s body was laid to rest at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, where other prominent Ethiopian political and cultural figures are buried, including former Emperor Haile Selassie. A 21-gun salute marked the end of the official ceremony for Meles’ funeral.
Below are photos by Marie Claire Andrea for Tadias Magazine.
In Pictures: Nation pays final respect to late PM Meles Zenawi (TADIAS)
Tadias Magazine
By Sabrina Yohannes | Running News
Published: Sunday, September 2, 2012
New York (TADIAS) World indoor champion Mohammed Aman ended an impressive 2012 season by winning the Berlin 800 meters on Sunday, three days after beating Olympic champion David Rudisha and setting an Ethiopian national record that ties the mark of the tenth-fastest 800m runner in history.
On Sunday, Aman ran one minute, 43.62 seconds to take the ISTAF Berlin 800 ahead of Kenya’s world junior silver medalist Edwin Kiplagat Melly, who finished in 1:44.36, and European championships silver medalist Andreas Bube of Denmark, who ran 1:45.12. Kenyan 2011 world youth champion Leonard Kosencha was fourth.
“This was a good race but I am not satisfied with the time,” said Aman, “I wanted to run a 1:42 time but the pacemaker was too slow. With this 400m time, I could not achieve a 1:42 time.”
On Thursday, Aman ran a personal best 1:42.53 in Zurich to defeat the world champion Rudisha of Kenya and improve the 1:43.20 Ethiopian record he had clocked at the London Olympics in sixth place. Aman also gathered the most points in the season-long IAAF Diamond League to lift the series title in the 800m in the Swiss city.
“It was the final Diamond League race and it featured the world record holder Rudisha, so it was a tough race,” Aman, who was well behind the tall Kenyan at the bell in Zurich but overtook him on the final straight, said in a telephone interview. “The pace was high so I was hanging back. My plan was to try to pull level with him with 100m remaining. I was feeling very good at that point, and the weather felt comfortable, even though it was raining.”
It was in similar rainy conditions in Milan that Aman became the only man to defeat Rudisha in the two-lap race last year, after becoming Ethiopia’s first ever 800m finalist at the world championships in Daegu. Aman also chased Rudisha hard in the last lap of the London Olympic final, running out of steam as the Kenyan went on to break his own world record and clock 1:40.91, with almost the entire field running personal bests in his wake.
Aman first broke the Ethiopian national record (Berhanu Alemu’s 2004 1:45.28) when he clocked 1:44.68 to take silver at the July 2011 world youth championships. He gradually lowered the mark to 1:43.37 by year’s end before improving it in 2012 in London and Zurich.
“This year, I was hoping to maybe break into the 1:41 range,” said Aman after the Swiss race. “My coach told me he thinks I can run a 1:41 or 1:42 time. I’m very happy I ran a fast time.” Aman is currently coached by Ethiopian national team trainer Negussie Gechamo.
In Zurich, where Ethiopian athletes ran with black armbands marking the passing of the nation’s prime minister Meles Zenawi the previous week, Aman’s finish equalled the time clocked in London by the bronze medalist Timothy Kitum of Kenya. The two athletes are now tied in third place on the 2012 world list and in tenth place on the list of history’s fastest 800m runners. The all-time list boasts luminaries past and present like Denmark’s Kenyan-born Wilson Kipketer, London 2012 Games chief Seb Coe of Great Britain, Abubaker Kaki of Sudan, Wilfred Bungei of Kenya and Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia.
“I was thinking that I had to win the race because it was the final Diamond League race and whoever wins it gets the trophy,” said Aman, who triumphantly punched the air with his right fist repeatedly on his approach to the finish line at the Weltklasse Zurich meet. “My victory delighted me. I knew I had beaten Rudisha twice, and I had taken first place in the Diamond League.”
The Diamond Trophy comes with a $40,000 prize, and as of 2012, the title also guarantees the winner entry into the subsequent world championships as a “wild card” entrant, in the same way that being a defending world champion does. A country can only enter one wild card entrant — either the defending champion or the Diamond race winner — in addition to three selected athletes, for a maximum of four in one event.
As Aman pointed out, that particular perk of the Diamond Trophy is potentially wasted on him.
“It’s great for events with three athletes, to allow a fourth,” he said. “Since I know I have the qualifying times, I am already confident of entry.”
In both Daegu and London, Aman was the solitary Ethiopian entrant in the men’s 800m, where there is a shortage of Ethiopian athletes at world class level, rather than a shortage of available slots on the championships team.
Ethiopia’s Abeba Aregawi also became a 2012 Diamond Trophy winner in Zurich in the women’s 1500, while in the inaugural 2010 and 2011 Diamond Leagues, Imane Merga won the 5000m title.
“It’s the first time the trophy has gone to Ethiopia in the 800, so I’m happy for my country and it’s a big deal for me too,” said Aman, who earned two 2012 Diamond League race wins, in Stockholm and Zurich, and one runner-up finish in Eugene — the same number of podium finishes in the league as Rudisha.
Along with Ethiopia’s Daegu women’s semi-finalist Fantu Magiso, who was a London contender before pulling out with injury, Aman has been an 800m trail-blazer in a land of long distance runners with lesser regard for the shorter distances.
“When you talk to people, they expect you to tell them you’re running 10,000m,” said Aman. “But I’ve accomplished good things, and as better results are achieved, people’s mindsets are also changing.”
Aman ends on a high note the year that began with victory at the indoor world championships in Istanbul in March. “My season is finished and I will fly home tomorrow,” he said in Berlin on Sunday. “I will celebrate our [Ethiopian] New Year in about 15 days.”
ARAPAHOE COUNTY – The 9Wants to Know investigators have learned U.S. Federal agents arrested a man who they believe is a war criminal from Ethiopia convicted of killing 101 people and torturing many others.
Kefelegn Alemu Worku went by the name Tufa or Habteab Berhe Temanu, according to federal agents and federal court documents reviewed by 9Wants to Know. Immigration Customs Enforcement arrested Worku was arrested Aug. 24, but news of his arrest wasn’t immediately made public.
ICE agents allege Worku stole an identity and forged his citizenship application to be able to get into the United States. Federal prosecutors charged him with unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization and aggravated identity theft. If convicted he could be sentenced to 10 years in prison. It’s not clear whether he could be deported back to Ethiopia.
Worku lived in a second-floor apartment at 8861 East Florida Avenue in Arapahoe County, near Florida Avenue and Parker Road.
Girma Baye manages Kozy Café near Havana Street and 1st Avenue, where Worku was a near-daily customer.
“He’s about 60-65 years old,” Baye said. “He’s a very nice guy. He’s always fun.”
Baye said he was shocked to learn what prosecutors claim is in Worku’s past.
ICE agents were tipped off about Worku in May of 2011 after an Ethiopian native who lived in Denver, recognized Worku as a guard in the prison where he was an inmate. The man also told federal agents that he personally watched Worku torture fellow prisoners.
Prosecutors conducted an investigation and now believe Worku worked as a high ranking prison official in the “Higher 15” prison which house about 1,500 political prisoners during the reign of President Mengistu, often referred to the “Red Terror.”
“It was a period of systematized, institutionalized terror. It was not random, accidental or a little here or there, it was systematized institutionalized, government sponsored reign of terror,” University of Denver Professor Peter Van Arsdale said.
Van Arsdale, who wrote “Forced to Flee: Human Rights and Humans Wrongs in Refugee Homelands,” has traveled multiple times to Ethiopia.
As federal investigators looked into Worku’s past, they reached other people who also said they recognized Worku from prisons.
“These aren’t huge prisons like Supermax or others here in Colorado. These are small buildings out in the courtryside with barbed wire,” Van Arsdale told 9Wants to Know investigative reporter Jace Larson.
Investigators say they discovered a news article which indicates a prison guard from Higher 15 named Kefelegn Alemu was sentenced to the death penalty in absentia for executing 101 people.
9Wants to Know discovered a 2001 British Broadcast Corporation article which says the sentence was handed down by the Sixth Criminal Bench of the Federal High Court. It says Kefelegn Alemu was found guilty of ordering, coordinating and participating in the execution of 101 people.
The article does not mention Worku’s last name. Van Arsdale, the professor from University of Denver, says it is Ethiopian custom to refer to someone – even the president – by only the first name and not use the last name.
Customs agents discovered Worku used a fraudulent name to immigrate to the United States on July 12, 2004 as a refugee along with four children to live with a fifth child already in the United States.
When agents interviewed the unnamed, fifth child they say he admitted his real father wasn’t mentally or physically able to immigrate to the United States. The children were worried their father’s health would jeopardize their changes of immigrating to the United States so they recruited Worku to assume the identity of their father in the refugee process.
Worku’s public defender told 9Wants to Know Thursday that he is not in a position to comment on the case.
Worku is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing in federal court in Denver Tuesday.
— Have a comment or tip for investigative reporter Jace Larson? Call him at 303-871-1432 or e-mail him
jace.larson@9news.com
Oakland, California – On a table by the door in Addis Restaurant on Oakland’s Telegraph Avenue, a tall stack of solemn invitations sits amid piles of business cards advertising nearby Ethiopian-owned beauty salons, photography studios and computer repair services.
“All Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopians who live in the Bay Area are invited to join us for the memorial service in Honor of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi,” the invitations read.
Meles (Ethiopians are formally referred to by their first names) died August 20, at the age of 57, of an undisclosed illness. The Bay Area will host two memorial services on Sunday – in Oakland at the Jack London Aquatic Center, and in San Jose at the Masonic Temple.
Nunu Kidane, Director of Priority Africa Network, a Bay Area-focused organization that serves those of African decent, estimates that between 20-25,000 Ethiopians live in the Bay Area.
“Most Ethiopians in the Bay Area would have heard about Meles’ death by text message,” she says. “I received seven texts about it myself.”
Biniam Girma, a volunteer at the Ethiopian Community and Cultural Center, said he first heard of Meles’ death online.
“I was following the announcements on the Voice of America Amharic website and also on ETV,’’ he said, referring to Ethiopian Television, Ethiopia’s state broadcaster.
Many in the Ethiopian diaspora are likely to watch ETV’s live coverage of Meles’ funeral online and via satellite, broadcast from Addis Ababa on Sunday.
New York (TADIAS) – A group of African-born filmmakers in the United States, including Ethiopian-American writer and director Wondwossen Dikran, are collaborating in upcoming movie project exploring one of Africa’s busiest cities.
According to the film’s writer and producer, Benard Neto, a Kenyan native, he drew inspiration for the script from actual stories. “Nairobi is a unique city with a diverse range of characters struggling for survival,” Neto said in a statement. “Growing up I saw the inner workings of the real street hustlers and their constantly evolving relations with the police — this became the basis for Mzungu,” which chronicles the vacation of a lifetime for a character named Jesse Bloom, a charming young traveler who wakes up one morning after a night of hard partying and is arrested for a grizzly murder.
“When the writers and the director pitched me this project, I was instantly drawn to the material for its originality, blistering energy, and the way it deals with certain themes that are very timely right now,” Wondwossen told TADIAS.
Nairobi itself is a home of many worlds. Alternatively known as the “Green City in the Sun” and sporting sprawling villa suburbs, it is also host to some of the biggest urban slums on the continent.
The film’s synopsis notes: “Mzungu” – pronounced [muh-zun-gooo]) – is the southern, central, and eastern African term for foreigner, usually referring to people of European descent. (Image credit: Kickstarter Poster)
“It’s a story that must be told,” Wondwossen said. “I knew after reading the script that I had to get involved because I had never seen or heard anything like it, and here came opportunity to be able to tell this unique story in an unfiltered and unmasked manner.” He added: “On top of this, to be able to film this in Africa gave me extra motivation. There was no way I was going to be able to turn down what could be an opportunity of a lifetime.”
Has Wondwossen been to the Green City in the Sun? “I have never had the pleasure of visiting Nairobi,” he said. “I am looking forward to it.”
—- You can learn more about the project at www.kickstarter.com, where the filmmakers have launched campaign to raise $40,000 towards the production of the film.
New York (TADIAS) – The trailblazing Ethiopian entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, founder of the green footwear label SoleRebels, will be featured in episode 1 of an 8-part BBC series called The Ideas Exchange — a new TV show that teams up with executives from various industries around the world to discuss their experiences by interviewing each other.
In the first segment that is scheduled to air on BBC World News this weekend, Bethlehem is paired with the CEO of Lego Group, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, who is credited for transforming the privately held Danish company into a once again profitable global brand.
“It’s a 30 minute program that showcases Jorgen and myself, our backgrounds, how we got to where we are and why,” Bethlehem said an interview with TADIAS. “In the second half, it transitions into a face-to-face meeting between the two of us at LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denamrk where we engage in an intensive and wide ranging interview of each other.” She added: “It’s a very interesting discussion.”
Bethlehem who also made Forbes magazine’s recent list of “The World’s Most Powerful Women: Women to Watch” said she is confident about the future expansion of her company. “I would say that the SoleRebels journey is only getting started and its about to get a whole lot more exciting,” she said. “We are opening soleRebels branded retail stores around the planet starting in Taiwan’s second largest city, Taichung, on October 1st.”
Bethlehem said more retail loactions will follow in Zurich, New York City, Seoul, Chicago, and London. “This is an exciting opportunity for us to put SoleRebels in closer proximity to our growing fan base.”
— Click here to watch the preview. Watch BBC World News for all episodes of The Ideas Exchange.
— Related: Ideas Exchange opens for talks (BBC)
Kubee Kassaye loves to experiment in the kitchen. On any given day, the young chef will whip up American, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and her native Ethiopian cuisine in her Parkchester kitchen.
“I just love the different techniques and style of food. It’s like an artwork,” said Kassaye, 28.
Her dream is to one day open an Ethiopian/Italian restaurant. And now she’s one step closer.
New York (TADIAS) – The Ethiopian Ministry of Justice said it will not file criminal charges against Temesghen Desalegn, the editor of the Amharic weekly newspaper Feteh.
“After further investigation the prosecutors have decided to drop the charges,” Desalegn Teressa, a ministry spokesman, told Bloomberg News.
The authorities stopped the paper’s distribution in July after it reported on the illness of the late PM Meles Zenawi. The editor was arrested last week for his writings that are critical of government policies.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it welcomes the news, adding: “CPJ also calls for the release of eight other journalists now imprisoned in Ethiopia for their work.”
Henok Tesfaye, an Ethiopian immigrant to the US, started in the parking business with just himself and a few family members as employees.
Now he manages some of the largest car parks in the Washington DC area, including the city’s convention centre, baseball stadium and Reagan National Airport, with a staff of over 600.
Now an American citizen, he hopes to leave his car park empire to his children.
Ethiopia has just taken delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, said to be the world’s most advanced passenger plane. Another nine aircraft are on order.
It is perhaps a symbol that Ethiopia is on the up, shedding its old image as a land of poverty, famine and suffering.
Yet step outside Addis Ababa’s Bole Airport onto the streets of the Ethiopian capital, and you can see immediate signs that the country still has a long way to go.
Beggars crowd around the cars stopped at city intersections. Goats are herded down the main thoroughfares, jostling for space with the traffic.
In the smaller backstreets of Addis Ababa, vehicles weave erratically to avoid the huge potholes made worse by the winter rains.
Now that Meles is gone, the weaknesses of the regime that he built are more likely to be exposed and the repercussions could be felt across the region”
Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister who died earlier this week, had made economic growth and development his number one priority.
During the last eight years of his premiership, there was record growth, as high as 11%. It has been driven primarily by agriculture, including the development of the flower export market.
Building on this economic success will be the challenge for Mr Meles’s successor, Hailemariam Desalegn.
However, Ethiopia’s acting prime minister will also have to manage a tricky political transition.
Looking Ahead in Ethiopia: Spotlight on Acting PM Hailemariam Desalegn
Hailemariam Desalegn, left, pictured in this photo last Friday, Aug.17, 2012, was first appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2010, became acting Prime Minister and will be sworn in as prime minister after an emergency meeting of parliament, said Bereket Simon, the communications minister. (AP)
By KIRUBEL TADESSE, Associated Press –
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The death of Ethiopia’s prime minister pushed his relatively unknown successor, Hailemariam Desalegn, into the spotlight on Tuesday, and he may be merely a placeholder or might hang on to become Ethiopia’s next long-time leader.
New York (TADIAS) – The latest news of suicides and murders in the Ethiopian community, including the tragic killings of a Dallas couple who were gunned down outside their house as they returned home from working at their popular Ethiopian restaurant, is raising the question: Is this the consequence of our taboos about mental illness?
“Although the negative stigma associated with mental illness is prevalent throughout the world, it remains particularly relevant in Ethiopian culture where it is believed to be a sign of weakness,” says Dr. Welansa Asrat, a Psychiatrist practicing in New York City. “Due to the unacceptability of such a stigma, many Ethiopians deny their mental suffering and never get the necessary treatment, which can then result in disastrous outcomes such as suicides or homicides.”
In the Texas case, police documents show that the suspect, also an Ethiopian immigrant, was allegedly motivated to assassinate the parents of an 18-month-old baby because he “felt disrespected.”
What are the social pressures that drive people to this type of irrationality?
According to Dr. Welansa concerns associated with culture-shock or adjustment issues increase the likelihood of developing psychological problems.
“The loss of one’s culture, lack of social support, isolation and loss of self-identity experienced by immigrants are known risk factors of mental illness,” Dr. Welansa said. “When the immigration is involuntary in nature and occurs after traumas such as war, torture and other forms of human rights violations, the individual is that much more vulnerable to mental illness.” She added: “Additional risk factors such as new minority status, language barriers, financial hardship, unemployment, difficulty negotiating educational and occupational systems, discrimination and changing gender roles can overwhelm an individual’s capacity to cope with his or her circumstances and result in a full-blown episode of depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders or psychosis, with or without suicidal or homicidal behaviors.”
Dr. Welansa notes that there are protective factors such as minority integration, social participation, social support, adaptability, and positive relationships, which can minimize the likelihood of a full-blown mental disorder. “It is the cumulative effect of multiple risk factors combined with an absence of protective factors that increases an immigrant’s risk of mental illness,” Welansa says. Additional factors affecting mental health include one’s biological and psychological makeup.
When it comes to violent crimes within the Ethiopian community, Dr. Welansa points out, however, that it is not as widespread as it seems and could be put under control.
“Despite the historical misconception that immigrant communities have higher crime rates, studies now show that immigrants are, in fact, less prone to violent crimes than native-born Americans,” she said. “In his study on this issue, Harvard sociologist, Robert Sampson showed that first-generation immigrants were 45% less likely to commit violent crimes, and second-generation immigrants were 22% less likely to commit violent crimes.” She added: “This pattern held true for non-Hispanic, black and white immigrants.”
Regarding the Ethiopian community, Dr. Welansa said there are studies that show that the close knit and communal nature of our culture may play a protective role in preventing mental illness.
“The first study that looked at mental health in the Ethiopian community in North America was conducted in Toronto in 2004,” Dr Welansa said. “The study looked at the frequency of depression and the risk factors involved in the occurrence of depression in the Ethiopian immigrant community.” She added: “The study found that the rate of depression in the Ethiopian community in the Toronto area was only slightly higher (9.8%) than the rate within the general Canadian population (7.3%). However, the rate (9.8%) was 3 times higher than the estimated rate in Southeastern Ethiopia, which highlights the extent to which immigration increases one’s risk of depression.” The study corroborated the psychological stages of immigration that have been previously documented, starting with an initial period of elation, moving to a state of depression and ultimately to a recovery period.
“The researchers believe that the initial elation is due to the strong social support that is initially available from their ethnic group and that depression sets in as this support wanes over time,” Dr Welansa said. “Most eventually make it to a recovery period, which occurs when they have become fully acculturated, but some spiral downward into a state of despair.”
The patterns noted in this study suggest that social connections and programs that promote ethnic identity likely protect an immigrant from depression. However, further research is required to substantiate the protective role that ethnic identity plays in preventing depression.
“The one form of violence that is higher in immigrant communities is domestic violence against women,” Dr. Welansa said, citing NYC Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, which found that young, foreign-born women have the highest risk of being killed by their partner of any group of women in NYC. “One study found that foreign-born women accounted for 51% of intimate partner homicides in New York City,” she said. “The study also showed that married immigrant women experienced higher levels of physical and sexual abuse than unmarried women.”
She added: “Domestic violence advocates cite three barriers that prevent immigrant women from seeking help: lack of information regarding the law and available services; culturally ingrained tendency towards preserving their family or community reputation combined with a sense of shame in divulging their family issues; and fear of the authorities.”
What is Dr. Welansa’s advice to our community leaders, as well as cultural and religious organizations on how to contribute to help alleviate the various traumas associated with migration?
Dr. Welansa suggests developing educational programs that promote mental wellness and strengthen protective factors such as good parenting, literacy, problem-solving skills, social management skills and stress management, which can be taught and reinforced in community programs.
Implementing measures that address risk factors such work-related stress, discrimination, academic failure, chronic pain, substance abuse & poor work skills, are also important focus points prior to the onset of mental illness.
Additionally, individuals and families can be encouraged to use suicide hotline services that can provide emotional support for those experiencing emotional distress and provide referrals to mental health care workers in their area.
Dr Welansa said: “For those requiring psychotropic medications (antidepressants or antipsychotics), it is worth knowing that the liver enzyme that metabolize most psychotropics do so at an ultra-rapid rate for 20-30% of individuals with Ethiopian or Arabian genetics. For those who are ultra-rapid metabolizers, a higher dose of an anti-depressant or anti-psychotic would be required for the medication to achieve therapeutic efficacy and alleviate the targeted symptoms.”
— Dr. Welansa Asrat is Board Certified Psychiatrist, Cross-Cultural Psychiatry, working in New York City. She is on Twitter.
— Related: Click here for the latest in the Dallas case.
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By Sabrina Yohannes, Published: September 2012 issue
Beijing double Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia has found a few things to surprise her recently. Walking through New York City’s Times Square in June, she came across a sight that forced her to do a double take. A man — known locally as the Naked Cowboy — was strumming a guitar and posing for photographs clothed in nothing but his underwear, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. “I was shocked,” said Dibaba afterwards with a laugh. “In the city squares, there are many surprising things.”
While preparing to defend her 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic titles in London, Dibaba also found herself gaining a new perspective on her own achievements, especially after injury caused her to miss most of 2011 and a good chunk of 2010.
The leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Paulos, has died at the age of 76. No details of his death were made available. He had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.
Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal said a new leader will come into office based on what he called “the bylaws and canons of the Coptic Church.”
Abune Paulos studied at Princeton’s Theological Seminary in the US after receiving a degree in theology from Addis Ababa University. He was arrested in 1974 by Ethiopia’s military dictatorship. Upon his release, Abune Paulos fled to the US, where he spent several years in exile.
He returned to Ethiopia in 1991 when Mengisu Hailemariam’s government collapsed and Meles Zenawi assumed power. Shortly after, the Patriarch, Abuna Merkorios, was dethroned under disputed circumstances. The controversial process led to the election of Abune Paulos as head of the Coptic Church in 1992. Abune Merkorios and his supporters went into exile, establishing a rival synod in the United States.
Many credit the Patriarch for championing the cause of the victims of the military regime. He presided over the funerals of Emperor Haile Selsassie in 2000, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen in 1997 and Princess Tenagnework in 2004. He also officiated at the funerals of the 60 former civilian and military leaders of the Imperial government in 1993, and the burial of Professor Asrat Woldeyes, the leading opposition leader, in 1998.
Detractors accuse Abune Paulos of being too close to the Meles government, and for failing to speak out when security forces storm churches and brutalize peaceful demonstrators. He has also been accused of vanity in overseeing the construction of his own statue in Addis Ababa in 2010.
The office of the patriarch is expected to hold an emergency meeting Friday to finalize funeral arrangements. It is not clear whether Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi — who has not been seen in public since June — will attend the funeral.
— Related: Ethiopian Church Patriarch Abune Paulos Dies (BBC)
New York (TADIAS) – Ethiopian athletes at the 2012 Olympics received a hero’s welcome even before they left London when the Ethiopian embassy there hosted a gala dinner in their honor Monday night.
Ethiopia earned seven medals, three of them gold, in athletics in London. The nation’s largest haul ever was in Sydney in 2000, where four out of a total of eight medals were gold; while in Beijing, four out of seven medals were gold.
Ethiopia’s ambassor to the UK, Berhanu Kebede, praised the London team.
“They are first in Africa in athletics and 24th overall and achieved excellent results, and are capable of doing even better,” he said. “They have tremendous potential. … We feel great pride. They have changed the image of Ethiopia and many people have come to know about Ethiopia.”
The nation leads the continent and trails just the United States, Russia, Jamaica and the United Kingdom on the athletics medal table, in which the order of countries is based on number of golds followed by number of silvers and then bronzes.
Kenya follows Ethiopia with two golds, though the country’s overall medal count in athletics, 11, is greater than its East African neighbor’s.
Out of 33 countries that medaled in athletics, only those six took more than one gold, with the rest of the table consisting of those with just one title or only lesser medals.
After a poet referred to the athletes as jewels and another speaker told them they had left Ethiopians abroad “awash in feelings of joy,” gold medalists Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba and silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel briefly took to the stage and addressed the gathering at London’s Porchester Hall on Monday night. Wood paneling and red velvet drapes covered the walls and chandeliers hung from the ceiling in the room, which was filled to capacity by a 450-strong crowd decked out in traditional Ethiopian and formal wear.
“You have contributed to our success,” the 5000m Olympic champion Defar told the gathering, citing the reception given to members of the Olympic delegation upon their arrival at Heathrow Airport among other displays of support London-based Ethiopians had provided.
Defar went on to point out the greater success at the London Olympiad of Ethiopia’s female athletes. Five of the seven medals and all three golds were earned by women.
Her comments received general cheers and applause and ululations from some women in the audience, and prompted London 5000m silver medalist Gebremeskel to draw laughter when he felt the need to begin his remarks by stating that he was not necessarily speaking on behalf of the male athletes, but rather the whole team. The London women’s 10,000m champion and 5000m bronze medalist Dibaba echoed Defar’s comments.
The two women and former world cross country champion Werknesh Kidane were resplendent in traditional white Ethiopian dresses, while a wider array of national costumes was on display on members of the audience, a troupe that performed traditional dances, and models taking part in a fashion show of clothes inspired by traditional designs.
“We wished to express the respect we have for [the athletes],” said the ambassador, explaining the goal of the event. “And secondly, to celebrate Ethiopia as a nation of great athletes, past and present. Furthermore, we feel this allows those who don’t know Ethiopia to experience our culture, our dress, our way of life.”
The evening included many non-Ethiopian guests, some having some connection to Ethiopia, and a buffet dinner of Ethiopian and Western fare. The highlight for most in the room, however, was clearly the proximity to the star athletes, who untiringly obliged their requests for photographs and occasional autographs.
Seated from left to right: Werknesh Kidane and Meseret Defar. (Photo courtesy of Sabrina Yohannes)
Steeplechaser Nahom Mesfin (at right) and 1500m runner Dawit Wolde (not pictured) spontaneously escort London double medalist Tirunesh Dibaba, holding a banner Ethiopian flag behind her. (Photo by Sabrina Yohannes)
“I’ve run in London many times,” said Dibaba. “Many Ethiopians live here and they are always by our side, encouraging us. They left their work behind and came to the stadium to support us and their support means a lot to us. It gives me a morale boost and motivates me to run harder to please them.”
She also expressed pride in the female athletes’ performance in London, where Tiki Gelana won the women’s marathon and Sofia Assefa took bronze in the women’s steeplechase.
“It happens that way sometimes,” said national track coach Hussein Shibo on Tuesday. “The women’s performance has risen over the years.” He went on to enumerate the nine gold medals won by Ethiopian women at recent Olympiads since Barcelona in 1992 when Derartu Tulu became the first black African woman to win gold, and he compared that to the seven Ethiopian men’s golds in that time frame. (Ethiopia boycotted the 1984 and 1988 Games.)
“The numbers are close,” he said. “However, the women have shown growth and we are happy that they have come from behind and reached this level. In the 1500, if Abeba’s race hadn’t gone wrong and if Genzebe hadn’t been injured; and if [800m runner] Fantu hadn’t been injured, the women might have totally dominated the results. So perhaps we can say this time belongs to the women.”
Abeba Aregawi and Dibaba’s sister Genzebe were top contenders in the women’s 1500, but while Aregawi finished outside the medals, Dibaba was injured during the qualifying rounds. Injury also kept Fantu Magiso out of the women’s 800.
In many events, the competition is more fierce on the men’s side, while some countries’ cultures keep women out of sports. Ethiopian women have had the example of Tulu and 1996 Atlanta marathon champion Fatuma Roba to follow, augmented by the successes of Tirunesh Dibaba and Defar.
Injuries affected the men’s results in London too, with Beijing double champion Kenenisa Bekele making his way back from injury-filled years and the year’s second-fastest 5000m runner in the world, Hagos Gebrhiwet, having been injured in the lead-up to London, while Athens Olympics fourth-placer Gebregziabher Gebremariam suffered an injury while in London before the 10,000m race.
Bekele, who was fourth in that race, left London and headed back to Ethiopia a couple of days after it. His brother Tariku took bronze.
“The overall results are very good,” said London Olympic team leader Nega Gebregziabher on Monday, adding however, “We had expected a lot, and of those, we have achieved a few.”
“With some of the younger athletes, for example, in the 1500, the 800 and also the men’s 5000, in which we could have won, due to their youth and inexperience, we suffered losses,” he said. “We will assess our performance and guage what we must do going forward.”
Mohammed Aman was also widely expected to medal in the men’s 800.
“We have the world championships coming up [next year] and these youth are fully capable of being successful,” added Gebregziabher. “Ethiopians everywhere greatly encourage our athletes, and admire our athletes, and it’s important that they boost their morale and provide encouragement, and we are confident that they will.”
Meanwhile, an even younger athlete was taking in the proceedings at Porchester Hall with special appreciation. Ethiopia’s first ever female Olympic swimmer Yanet Seyoum Gebremedhin, 18, was seated next to Dibaba at the dinner.
“She’s a very strong athlete and a role model for us,” said Gebremedhin. “I’m so happy to be representing my country alongside her. I’ve always wanted to meet her.”
Her wish was granted when the athletics team arrived in London and Gebremedhin found herself staying on the same floor in the Olympic Village, and receiving words of encouragement from her and Defar and other team members.
“They all advised me to work hard and not give up hope,” said Gebremedhin, who watched their races with interest. “Swimming and running are very different, but I’ve learned many lessons,” she said. “They fight til the very end.”
Though not expected to medal, Gebremedhin had encouraging results of her own and hopes to inspire those who are younger still. “I improved my personal record, which is Ethiopia’s record,” she said. “I hope others will learn from my experience. I’ve competed for six years and to reach the Olympics in six years is very good, but I don’t have a coach and I work on my own. If we had coaches, we could do better and not just improve our own personal bests, but, I believe, make history.”
At the 2012 Olympics, Dibaba and Defar did make history. Tulu lost and then regained the 10,000 crown in 2000, but in London, the Beijing 2008 champion Dibaba became the first to successfully defend the title, while Defar became the only woman to win the 5000m twice, after she first won in Athens in 2004.
New York (TADIAS) – Ethiopian Airlines’ first Dreamliner touched down at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. today where it was greeted with a welcoming ceremony and a diplomatic reception.
Ethiopian became the only airlines outside of Asia to own and operate Boeing’s most advanced plane.
The new plane landed in D.C. in route to Ethiopia where it is expected to be met by a much bigger celebration at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa on Aug. 17th.
Debo Band’s debut album both honors and updates the sound of “swinging Addis.”
On “Asha Gedawo,” the sunny swing of a brass section playing in march time echoes the military bands of Ethiopia’s regal past. Bruck Tesfaye’s lead vocal brings in an element of Ethiopian folklore and a shot of American soul. This is the sound that made Addis swing, until a military coup in 1974 put an end to an extraordinary music scene.
Debo Band’s founder, Danny Mekonnen, was born in Sudan and grew up in Texas, learning about the golden age of Ethiopian pop through recordings. He says Debo Band aims to reinvent old sounds, not just reproduce them. The band adds sousaphone, accordion, electric guitar and violins to the lineup. And the players are strong, capable of improvising their way to the edges of free jazz.
Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich won a surprise gold medal in the men’s marathon Sunday, as the London 2012 Olympics neared its end.
The race through the streets of London was expected to be a showdown between runners from Kenya and Ethiopia. But Kiprotich surged ahead at mile 23 to take a lead he never relinquished.
His winning time of two hours, eight minutes, and one second was 26 seconds ahead of silver medalist Abel Kirui of Kenya. Another Kenyan, Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, won the bronze .
In men’s basketball, the United States’ so-called Dream Team clinched a gold medal by defeating Spain. Spain kept it close to the end but the U.S. prevailed, 107-100.
Russia beat Argentina to win the bronze.
Women’s modern pentathlon will be the last event to round off the 17-day extravaganza of sport.
With most events completed Sunday, the Americans led the gold medal count with 46 and the overall medal count with 104. China’s gold count was 38 with 87 medals overall. Russia was in third place in overall medals, while Britain was in fourth. However, Britain has more gold medals than Russia.
The closing ceremony is being billed as “A Symphony of British Music,” highlighting one of the country’s strongest cultural exports. Artists scheduled to appear during the three-hour celebration include Adele, Elton John, George Michael, Annie Lennox, and the Pet Shop Boys.
Brazil, the host of the 2016 Games, will create a Rio-style carnival, featuring drummers, dancers and women in elaborate carnival costumes.
— Read more news at VOA.
Meseret Defar crossed the finish line of the London Olympic 5000m with disbelief, relief and pain etched on her face, and she fell to her knees on the ground. Clutching, kissing and holding aloft an image of the Madonna and Child that she had hidden in her tank top, the Ethiopian Defar wept, repeating the Amharic words, “Amlake hoy! Amlake hoy!” (“My God! My God!”).
Defar had won the 5000 at the 2004 Athens Olympics and failed to defend it in Beijing four years later, when she took bronze behind her teammate and rival Tirunesh Dibaba and Turk Elvan Abeylegesse. In London, Defar prevailed in a last-lap sprint over her highly more favored competitors, the 2011 double world champion Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya and the Beijing and London 10,000 champion Dibaba, who took silver and bronze, respectively, in the English capital.
“After eight years, for me to win gold here is a great achievement, and I feel as if I’ve been born again,” said Defar. “To win gold in your third Olympics is very difficult. I have passed through some difficult times. I have lost out at championships due to illness. This was a very critical Olympics for me because I might not contest another Olympics, so I thank God.”
New York (TADIAS) – Professor Lemma W. Senbet, an internationally recognized leader in finance studies, has been appointed as the new head of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) – a Kenya-based non-profit organization that conducts independent research concerning the management of economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Lemma currently teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park where he also chaired the Finance Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Dr. Lemma was selected for the AERC position after a worldwide search. Speaking to Tadias about the agency Dr. Lemma stated, “This is an organization which has already achieved immense success in building capacity for research and training to inform economic policies in Africa,” noting that his appointment as the Executive Director of AERC comes at a time when a number of countries in the region are enjoying strong economic growth.
“My goal is to lead it to move to the next level of excellence, and I will be embarking on strategies for full global integration of the AERC and its visibility beyond Africa as an organization that is at the cutting edge of best policy research practices,” Professor Lemma said. “It is also my purpose to aggressively work on enhancing diversity of global partnership beyond the current generous partners, including the UK development agency, World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation, Nordic countries, etc.” He added: “It is important that we scale up the partnership of African institutions as well as the private sector engaged at the interface of private and public policy issues, such as governance, risk management, and financial regulation.”
Professor Lemma noted that he hopes to emphasize research and finding ways of delivering measurable and credible results for those managing the content’s financial system. “In the ultimate, the purpose is to build capacity to do rigorous research and provide training to impact economic policies which help sustain, and even accelerate, the current economic growth momentum in Africa,” he said.
On a personal level Dr. Lemma said he feels honored that after an extensive international search, the AERC board has chosen him to serve as Executive Director. “I feel privileged that I am invited to head this premier policy research organization with global reach at this important juncture in the continent,” he said. “I cannot ask for better timing.”
Professor Lemma will take a leave from his academic position and relocate to Nairobi in Summer 2013.
In a profile highlight that appeared in this magazine in 2004, the Ethiopian native had shared with us then that as a young man he gave up his aspirations of becoming an engineer after hearing news of the opening of a new business school at Addis Ababa University. He enrolled at the business school and graduated with top honors. He went on to acquire a Masters in Business Administration from University of California, Los Angeles, and a PhD in International Finance from State University of New York in Buffalo.
Prior to joining the University of Maryland, he taught at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and was a visiting professor at Northwestern University, University of California, Berkeley, and New York University.
Since then, Professor Lemma has advised the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and several other agencies in areas relating to corporate finance, capital market development, financial sector reforms and banking regulation. He has also served as Director of the American Finance Association as well as President of the Western Finance Association. Over the years, Dr. Lemma has sat on the editorial boards of prestigious peer-reviewed publications, including the Journal of Finance, Financial Management, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.
More recently, he was recognized by the Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora (SEED) as a distinguished scholar, teacher and role-model. And he is also a recipient of an honorary doctor of letters from Addis Ababa University, his alma mater.
Regarding his new job, Professor Lemma said he feels positive returning to Africa at this time in history. “Yes, Sub-Saharan African countries have been in what amounts to growth renaissance over the last five to six years,” he said. “The growth momentum has been in the same proportion of the Asian Tigers in the 1990s. Just today (August 9), The New York Times reported that seven of the world’s ten fastest growing economies are now domiciled in Africa.” He continued: “This just reinforces other recent stories, including the highly acclaimed cover story “The Hopeful Continent: Africa Rising” in the Economist (December 2011).”
“Is it sustainable?” we asked.
“That is the big question, “Professor Lemma answered. “On the optimistic side, it should be recognized that the recent dramatic gains are not accidental. They are payoffs to two decades of genuine economic and financial sector reforms, including large scale privatization programs and empowerment of private initiative, as well as improved economic governance.” He added: “Moreover, advances in technology and Africa’s increased integration into the global economy have fueled the development. Of course, at the center of that is human capital development which is an outcome of capacity building. Thus, on the positive, there are powerful forces that help sustain, and even accelerate the recent gains, and I am pleased that AERC will play a central role in the capacity building front. However, there are threats, particularly the ongoing Euro crisis, given that Europe remains a major trading partner to Africa. The Euro crisis could also affect Africa indirectly through the adverse impact on other trading partners, particularly China which is now the key player in Africa.”
Speaking of the “the Euro crisis”, what are Professor Lemma’s thoughts on the overall global financial crisis and how it may continue to affect African countries?
“Africa surprisingly weathered global crisis better than most regions of the globe in part because most countries have not been fully integrated into the global financial economy,” he said. “Those which were experienced immediate declines in stock market performance as well as trade flows, South Africa being among them.”
Professor Lemma, however, cautioned that things have stabilized and African economies are back in a growth trajectory. “It should be recognized that Africa is not monolithic but a continent of 55 countries with substantial variation in policies, governance, and reform pace, etc., and the global effects are not uniform,” he said. “The resilience to the global crisis is now overshadowed by the current crisis in Europe, and it is in the best interest of Africa (also the world at large) that the crisis be resolved soon.”
—- Related: Senbet to Head Top African Economic Development Research Organization
Nairobi, August 9, 2012- Ethiopian authorities must release a journalist who has been detained for almost three weeks, and allow three Muslim news outlets to resume publishing immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Local journalists believe the Muslim press in Ethiopia is being targeted for its coverage of protests by the Muslim community.
Read more.
—– Related: Video: Friday,July 27,2012 Grand Anwar Mosque Symbolic Silent Protest
Tiki Gelana remembers watching the Olympics on television and being inspired by her Ethiopian countrywomen, years before she set an Olympic marathon record of 2:23:07 in London.
“I was really moved by the 10,000-meter race in Sydney where Derartu Tulu and Gete Wami ran,” she says. Like the two-time Olympic champion Tulu, Gelana hails from the vicinity of Bekoji in the Arsi area south of Addis Ababa, and it was in a hotel in the town that she joined others watching the 2000 Olympics. “I couldn’t even tell Derartu and Gete apart, and when they showed one of them on the screen, I kept asking, ‘OK, which one is she?'” adds Gelana. But before Tulu and Wami were done, with gold and silver medals in hand, Gelana knew running was what she wanted to do.
New York (TADIAS) – Ethiopian airlines is poised to make history this month as the first airline in Africa to offer service on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner when it takes its first passenger flight from Washington, D.C. to Addis Ababa on Thursday, August 16, 2012.
“On August 14th Ethiopian airlines will take possession of the plane,” said Bill Maloney of Partner Concepts LLC, a Marryland based public relations and marketing firm that represents Ethiopian Airlines. “The next day the Ethiopian crew that has been training for 6-months will fly the plane to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. where they will be greeted with a welcoming ceremony and diplomatic reception.”
Mr. Maloney told TADIAS magazine that the following day (August 16th) the new jet will depart for Ethiopia on its first “revenue flight.” Maloney said for travelers unable to make the inaugural flight, regularly scheduled, nonstop flights from DC to Addis will commence in the Fall.
“We are beyond delighted to introduce the new 787 Dreamliner for travel from the U.S. to Africa,” Kagnew Asfaw, Ethiopian Airlines’ Director of Sales & Services for the Americas, said in a statement. “Ethiopian Airlines was the first African carrier to order the 787 in early 2005 and we are excited to see our planning to fruition with the official launch this month.”
The company began operation in 1946, only few years after the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian military occupation, scoring a milestone for a country then eager to project an independent and a more positive global image. Today, more than 65 years after its founding, Ethiopian Airlines is one of the largest, fastest growing and profitable airlines in Africa. According to the state owned company, the airline provides services to 67 international destinations spanning four continents. And recently, it was recognized as a Star Alliance Member – a leading global airline network offering customers more than 20,000 daily flights to 1,293 airports in 190 countries.
— Learn more at www.ethiopianairlines.com
It is a Monday evening, just around 7, and Mr. Samuelsson — hotshot chef, food impresario and kinetic force behind Red Rooster Harlem, one of Manhattan’s restaurants of the moment — is displaying his usual verve.
On the red carpet, he snaps a picture of his glamorous wife, the model and philanthropist Maya Haile, with Beyoncé. In the European sculpture gallery, he is chatting with Kanye West and several of the New York Knicks. At the Temple of Dendur, he is dining with André Balazs, the hotel owner, and Chelsea Handler.
London (TADIAS) – Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia will run the first round of the 5000 meters at the 2012 Olympics on Tuesday just four days after defending her Beijing Olympic 10,000m crown in spectacular fashion in London.
“I’m very happy, this is my third gold,” said Dibaba Friday night after winning the 10,000 in 30 minutes 20.75 seconds ahead of Kenyans Sally Kipyego and Vivian Cheruiyot. “I’m ready to run the 5000, the decision is the federation’s.”
The Ethiopian athletic federation needed little persuasion. “She will run, 100%,” said the organization’s technical director, Dube Jilo.
The first woman to win the two events at one Olympiad when she accomplished the feat in 2008, Dibaba had been entered in the shorter event in London as a reserve, due to her having the fourth-fastest time for the distance this year among her compatriots. But with the federation also observing the fitness of the selected athletes during training, her potential double attempt had been anticipated.
Jilo praised the dominant fashion of her 10,000 victory. “To come from having being out with injury for two whole years and achieve this is a great accomplishment for her, and for us and for our country,” he said.
Dibaba returned to competition on New Year’s Eve after having suffered from injuries that kept her out of both the 2009 and 2011 world championships.
In the interim, she successfully defended her 2008 African 10,000m title in July 2010 in Nairobi defeating, among others, the hometown favorite Linet Masai, who had won the 2009 world championships race in the absence of Dibaba, then the defending world champion. The Ethiopian had also won both distance races at the 2005 world championships.
The 2009 world 5000 title went to Cheruiyot, who completed the double in Daegu in 2011, and coming into the London 10,000, the Kenyan was a favorite along with Dibaba.
“I wasn’t thinking about any individual athlete, I was thinking only about winning,” said Dibaba after her second straight Olympic 10,000m victory.
Prior to London, the Athens 5000m bronze medalist Dibaba had elaborated on her thoughts about Cheruiyot in an interview.
“Vivian has become much stronger than in the past,” she said. The two women did not race during the Kenyan’s red-hot 2011 season due to Dibaba’s injury layoff, but the Ethiopian pointed out that she had previously run against a rising Vivian Cheruiyot — and won.
“We raced in London,” said Dibaba, who won the 5000m in 14 minutes, 36.41 seconds to Cheruiyot’s 14:38.17 at the Crystal Palace on August 13, 2010, in addition to finishing ahead of the Kenyan at the world athletic final in Thessaloniki, Greece in September 2009. “She had just won the world championships 5000 when we raced. She was strong then too and she’s strong now.”
“We’ve run indoors as well as outdoors,” added Dibaba, who won the Edinburgh cross country and Birmingham indoor two-mile races in early 2010, over eight seconds ahead of Cheruiyot both times.
“I know Dibaba is a tough lady,” said Cheruiyot Friday night. “We are coming here to try our best because there is a time for everybody.”
“I’ve watched her race so many times and she can run really well, and she can close really well, and I respected that,” Kipyego, who took the lead at times in the race, said of Dibaba. “I tried to push the pace to try to make it painful for everybody. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on her.”
The three women will meet again in the 5000m in London, as both Cheruiyot and Kipyego are also doubling. That race will also include Dibaba’s teammate and rival Meseret Defar, the 2004 Olympic champion, whom Dibaba defeated over the distance in New York in June.
The Ethiopian women’s team entered in London comprised the nation’s three fastest 5000 runners of the year: Defar, former world indoor 1500 champion Gelete Burka and Genet Yalew. The event’s world record-holder Dibaba will replace the less experienced Yalew in the team.
“I will take a bit of a rest tomorrow and then I will prepare for the 5000 heats,” said Dibaba Friday. “I know I’ve trained well.”
The elimination round of the women’s 5000 takes place 10:55am on Tuesday morning, with the final set for 8:05pm Friday, August 10.
— Sabrina Yohannes is reporting from London.
Washington DC – A gala fundraiser entitled “Mary Joy 2012: Bringing Ethiopia & the USA Together for a Better Future” is being held on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 from 6:30 – 9:15pm at Long View Gallery in Washington DC.
In a press release organizers of the gala said that since 1994, Mary Joy Aid Through Development (MJ-ATD), a non-profit organization empowering women, children and families to combat HIV/AIDS through education, has made great strides throughout Ethiopia. In the last 6 years alone, MJ-ATD has helped over 800,000 individuals to receive job training. Approximately 600,000 children and families have also received HIV/AIDS assistance and education and nearly 500,000 individuals have received community-based-organization capacity-building assistance.
The MJ-ATD USA branch is currently developing programs to support the Ethiopian immigrant community in the U.S. and is working with a range of other partner organizations to provide expanded services and resources.
— If You Go:
A gala fundraiser – Mary Joy 2012
Friday, August 3rd
from 6:30 – 9:15 pm
Long View Gallery,
1234 9th Street NW in Washington DC.
Email: Info@maryjoy.org.
Learn more at maryjoy.org.
New York (TADIAS) – In the early 1900s, when Armenians were faced with genocide orchestrated by the Ottoman empire, scores of families escaped and some arrived and settled in Ethiopia. Armenians make up one of the oldest immigrant communities in Ethiopia. Vahe Tilbian, a 4th generation Ethiopian-Armenian, told TADIAS magazine that “historically Armenians worked as goldsmiths, carpenters, builders, teachers, embroiders, silk makers, and carpet makers.” His great grandfather Tavit Aslanian was a carpet maker in Empress Zewditu’s palace, his paternal grandfather was a tailor in Addis and his maternal family members were cobblers.
Armenians have likewise contributed heavily to Ethiopian modern music. Kevork Nalbandian was an Armenian who composed the first national anthem for Ethiopia as well as served as the musical director of Arba Lijoch. His nephew Nerses Nalbandian was involved in the founding of the famed Yared Music School as well as led the Municipality Orchestra.
A kickstarter campaign has now been launched to produce a documentary of the unique history and contributions of Armenian-Ethiopians. The Tezeta campaign is directed by Aramazt Kalayjian.
New York (TADIAS) – Since the Ethiopian Ministry of Information had announced weeks ago that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been prescribed “sick leave” the public has not been informed of much else. Today BBC Focus on Africa Program reported that it had been told by government spokesman, Bereket Simon, that the PM was “in a good condition and recuperating,” but that “it was ‘not useful’ to provide more details.”
As the news embargo continues, so does the speculation of whether the PM is alive or not. Without access to free media and government transparency in the country, the public is enduring endless rumors and counter rumors emanating from competing political interest groups.
What is known for certain is that Meles Zenawi has been incapacitated from carrying out his official duties for more than a month, and he may or he may not return to office. But at this point the issue is neither about a single individual or a single party, nor even about political differences. It is disconcerting that 40 days after the head of the nation’s government vanished from public view, Ethiopians still have no answers as to how long he will remain absent. Why do officials find it acceptable to continue to keep the public in perpetual darkness?
If the country is governed by its constitution, the current secrecy makes no sense. Most importantly, if it is not known when the Prime Minister will be able to resume his duties, an official announcement must be made as to who will replace the disabled PM and under what legal authority? What comes next should not be handled behind closed doors. The government is obligated to answer these questions: Where is PM Meles Zenawi? What is the nature of his illness? When should the public expect him back at work? And who will assume responsibility for leading the nation in the event that he is incapacitated? The public deserves to know.
— Related: Listen: VOA Amharic – Legal Scholar on the PM’s Absence & Succession Plan (Audio)
ETHIOPIAN long-distance running legend and businessman Haile Gebrselassie wants to live forever: his head is buzzing with ideas, none of them modest.
Gebrselassie wants to run the Olympic marathon in Rio de Janeiro 2016, at the age of 43, to take the Games to Africa and to be his country’s president.
His permanent smile briefly made the listener think he may be joking, but “Gebre” insisted he was serious. “For me is not enough. I am still doing not only athletics: I am in other sports as well,” he told reporters on the fringe of London 2012.
The man regarded as one of the best long-distance runners in history, an Olympic champion in the 10.000m in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 and a four-time world champion, is as shy of words as he is of the way ahead.
“(I am involved in) other activities, business. In future I want to be involved in politics.”
Washington, DC (TADIAS) – As Ethiopia’s elite long-distance runners prepare for their leg of the competition at the 2012 London Olympics starting later this week, a new film entitled Town of Runners is also introducing a small Ethiopian town called “Bekoji” to the world, where Ethiopia’s greatest Olympians hail from. Four years ago, runners from Bekoji won all four gold medals in the long-distance track events.
The 86 minute documentary, co-produced by Dan Demissie and directed by noted filmmaker Jerry Rothwell, was screened at the World Bank Africa Film Series in Washington, D.C. last week to a sold-out audience of more than 300 people. The movie follows two girls over the course of three years as they try to become professional runners. It also spotlights their coach Mr. Sentayehu Eshetu, a former elementary school Physical Education teacher who discovered and trained several of the country’s top runners, most significantly Derartu Tulu, the first African woman to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games.
Following the screening, a panel discussion with the filmmakers was held, which also featured other guests, including Donald Bundy of the Human Development Network at the World Bank, Greg Toulmin who is the World Bank Country Program Coordinator for Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan, and Patricia Ortman, Founder and Executive Director of Girls Gotta Run Foundation (GGRF).
It’s almost midnight, but Zelalem Injera, an Ethiopian bread factory housed in a cavelike Northeast Washington warehouse, is wide awake. As its 30-foot-long injera machine hums, Ethiopian American businessman Kassahun Maru, 61, proudly explains that it cranks out 1,000 of the fermented Frisbee-shaped discs every hour for the region’s growing number of ethnic grocery stores, health food boutiques and Ethiopian restaurants.
Shashemene, Ethiopia (TADIAS) – Last week, I travelled to Shashemene to witness the 120th birthday celebration of Emperor Haile Selassie. I attended the event primarily in the beautiful compound of the 12 Tribes of Israel and took pictures of the Niyabingis carnival-style celebration that took place on Hamle 16, 2004 Ethiopian Calendar (July 23, 2012).
Apart from the Shashe Band of the City that performed musical and dance selections, popular and cultural, both in Amharic and Afan Oromo, the Rastafari community demonstrated how to play the steel band, a Trinidadian musical instrument and the DJs, males and females, played great Reggae musical selections that let a large crowd rock all night long. There were also poetry readings.
The Twelve Tribes began the birthday celebration by reading chapter selections from the Bible in what they call a devotional ceremony. The theme of ‘mystical incorporation’ or ‘being born again’ manifested in their readings. According to the Twelve Tribes the scattered tribes gathered in Jamaica under the leadership of Dr. Carrington and the movement is now global. Ethiopia is one of the sites where the group resides, a site of what they call ‘maximum blessing.’
They invoked the names of Emperor Haile Selassie I, Crown prince Zerayaqob Asfawossen and Dr. Carrington in their devotional messages at the ceremony. One of the representatives of the Twelve Tribes narrated the biography of HIM. To me, it is the Rasta Community that now owns the monarchial history. It is also the community that maintains a deep-rooted faith in the monarchy and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church by performing rituals at least twice a year in conjunction with the Birthday and Coronation of HIM.
Shashemene is a fast growing city and I am impressed by the cooperation I witnessed between the Rastafari and the local Oromo communities to jointly celebrate HIM’s 120th Birthday. The Rastafari own some of the major hotels and restaurants in town and there are several multi-storied buildings in various stages of completion in Melka Oda, a part of Shashemene where there is a large concentration of the Rastafari.
London (TADIAS) – The 2012 London Olympic Games are officially open as of the declaration during the July 28 opening ceremony, but the bulk of Ethiopia’s star athletics team will arrive in the English capital during the subsequent week, ahead of the athletics program that starts Friday, August 3rd.
Ethiopia’s opening ceremony flag bearer is swimmer Yanet Seyoum Gebremedhin, one of two swimmers making history as the nation’s first at the Olympics.
Of the athletics team led by 2008 double Olympic champions Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, the first wave will leave Addis Ababa on Monday July 30; while the final batch, the men’s marathon runners, will depart a few days prior to that race, which is being held on the last day of the Olympics, August 12.
DISTANCE DOUBLE POSSIBLE
Dibaba’s 10,000-meter race is the first track final of the Games and takes place on the evening of Friday, August 3, when she will be joined by Belaynesh Oljira and former world cross country champion Werknesh Kidane.
Unlike at the athletics world championships, Olympic team reserve members will, for the most part, not travel to London, unless replacing an already-injured athlete, and only three athletes per race can be accredited to stay in the Olympic Village at any time. In the 5000m, though, the announced reserves are themselves members of the 10,000m team — and they are in fact the Beijing Olympic champions in both events.
In addition to leading the men’s and women’s 10,000 teams, Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba were named as reserves in the shorter event, so the possibility of both of them, Dibaba in particular, defending both titles remains.
Of the women on the 5000m team, the young Genet Yalew is significantly less accomplished than the runners she joined there, 2004 Olympic champion Meseret Defar and former world indoor 1500 champion Gelete Burka; and indeed, some athletes have referred to Yalew as the 5000m reserve.
If she contests the 5000, the former double world champion Dibaba will be tackling the first round heat in that event four days after her 10,000 final.
SELECTION BASED ON FAST TIMES
Contrary to media reports that referred to races in various European cities this summer as Ethiopian Olympic trials, selection to the nation’s Olympic team is based primarily on the fastest times run by athletes in their event this season, with their ongoing fitness also being taken into consideration. Typically, the year’s four fastest athletes in a given Olympic track event make up its roster of three runners and a reserve.
Dibaba contested just one 5000m track race this season, winning at the New York Diamond League in 14 minutes, 50.80 seconds, which is the fourth fastest among Ethiopian women this season, after the clockings of Defar, Burka and Yalew in Rome.
Similarly, Bekele ran the fifth-fastest Ethiopian men’s 5000m time of the year, 12:55.79, in Paris (while the fourth-fastest athlete, his brother Tariku, is contesting just the 10,000m). The fastest times in the entire world this year were those of Ethiopia’s 2011 world bronze medalist Dejen Gebremeskel and his compatriots Hagos Gebrhiwet and Yenew Alamirew, who all ran under 12:50 in the same Paris race.
OTHER FINALS ON THE FIRST WEEKEND OF ATHLETICS
The first round of the men’s 1500m, with Mekonnen Gebremedhin tackling the favorites, also takes place on the first day of athletics in London, followed the next morning by the 3000m steeplechase heats with Sofia Assefa and Hiwot Ayalew.
The night of Saturday August 4 features the men’s 10,000m final, an event in which Ethiopia has taken gold at every Olympics since 1996, courtesy of Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele. Former New York marathon champion Gebregziabher (Gebre) Gebremariam joins the Bekele brothers in London.
The women’s marathon final with 2009 world bronze medalist Aselefech Mergia and the women’s 1500m heats, featuring Dibaba’s world indoor champion sister Genzebe and newcomer Abeba Aregawi as contenders, round out the Ethiopian action in the first weekend of athletics.
While Ethiopia, historically a nation of long distance runners, has genuine 800m medal hopes this year in Fantu Magiso and especially Mohammed Aman, Bereket Desta is entered in the 400m having met the lower “B” standard of entry for the sprint event.
—–
Dates of London 2012 athletics finals with Ethiopian finalists anticipated:
Friday August 3rd: 9:25pm – Women’s 10,000m.
Saturday August 4th: 9:15pm – Men’s 10,000m.
Sunday August 5th: 11am – Women’s marathon; 9:25pm – Men’s 3000m steeplechase.
Monday August 6th: 9:05pm – Women’s 3000m steeplechase.
Tuesday August 7th: 9:15pm – Men’s 1500m.
Thursday August 9th: 8pm – Men’s 800m.
Friday August 10th: 8:05pm – Women’s 5,000m; 8:55pm – Women’s 1500m.
Saturday August 11th: 7:30pm – Men’s 5000m; 8pm – Women’s 800m.
Sunday August 12th: 11am – Men’s marathon.
Ethiopian athletes entered in London 2012 athletics events
(as previously announced, including, in italics, those reserves who will likely not travel to London):
400m
Men: Bereket Desta
800m
Men: Mohammed Aman
Women: Fantu Magiso
1500m
Men: Mekonnen Gebremedhin, Dawit Wolde, Teshome Dirirsa; Aman Wote (reserve)
Women: Abeba Aregawi, Genzebe Dibaba, Meskerem Assefa
Ethiopia does not have a firm leadership succession plan if Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is no longer able to head the government, according to a former defense minister.
Seeye Abraha, who worked with Meles on the ruling party’s executive committee but who is now a member of the political opposition, said Tuesday that uncertainty and anxiety is growing over the nation’s leadership during the prime minister’s so-far unexplained absence. He blamed it on the country’s one-party electoral system and Meles’ one-man-rule style of governing over the past 12 years.
“They don’t have a system” [of leadership succession], Seeye said. “This is a crisis situation and the dust has not settled.”
He said leaders of the ruling Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and larger Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) parties had discussed a succession plan, but postponed any decisions until prior to a scheduled 2015 national election.
Meles has not been seen in public for about three weeks, even missing the African Union conference in Addis Ababa that was attended by 29 other heads of state or government. Some reports in the international press have speculated he is suffering from a serious illness and has been receiving treatment since June 26 in a Brussels hospital.
Information Minister Bereket Simon told reporters in Addis Ababa last week that a doctor has prescribed sick leave for the prime minister. Bereket assured the public that Meles is in “good and stable condition” and will return to work when he has recuperated.
“I have serious political differences with the prime minister and his party,”
Bereket, however, would not identify the illness or say where the prime minister was receiving treatment.
Reliable news about the prime minister’s health has been hard to come by in Ethiopia. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the most recent edition of the independent weekly newspaper, Feteh, contained a report on the prime minister’s health, but that issue of the publication was confiscated by the government printing house.
Ethiopia ‘Approaching The End Of The One-Party System’
Seeye Abraha said he does not know where the prime minister is or the nature of his illness.
“I have serious political differences with the prime minister and his party,” Seeye said of Meles and the TPLF. But he said that now is the time for Ethiopia’s political and military leaders to work with the nation to plot a peaceful way forward.
“We are approaching the end of the one-party system,” Seeye said.
Seeye was commander of the TPLF’s rebel forces and a member of the small leadership team of TPLF fighters who ousted Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Derg leadership in 1991. They then created the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Seeye was defense minister for five years and later led planning strategy for Ethiopia’s border war with neighboring Eritrea.
The former defense minister said he and Meles finally parted ways over continuation of the costly two-year war with Eritrea. Meles expelled Seeye and three others from the TPLF executive committee.
Then, Seeye was thrown in jail for six years on corruption charges he says were bogus. When he got out of prison, Seeye joined the opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice Party along with a former president, Negaso Gidada.
He left Ethiopia for the United States in 2011. Seeye, 59, now lives in Boston where he recently completed graduate studies in public administration at Harvard University.
If Meles Cannot Lead, Who Will?
A member of the TPLF’s old guard, Sebhat Nega, told a VOA correspondent last week in Ethiopia that the government is functioning normally despite Meles’ absence.
“The system does not depend on one person,” Sebhat said, adding that whatever Meles’ medical issues are, the government is secure.
David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador the Ethiopia in the 1980s, speculated last week that if Meles was aware of the need to plan for a successor, he would have had such a plan in place. He added, however, that if Meles’ health problem came on suddenly, the political fallout could be more serious.
“If this is a more abrupt situation, then it could be far more difficult,” Shinn said.
Opposition leader Seeye also warned of possible trouble, saying, any leadership transition would be difficult without Meles taking part. For the time being, Seeye said he believed a form of collective leadership was acting during Meles’ absence.
Sebhat of the TPLF said such opposition speculation was the product of “wishful thinkers” hoping to take advantage of the current situation. He also denied that Meles ruled with an iron fist, noting the prime minister’s efforts to de-centralize government rule in ethnically diverse Ethiopia over the past two decades.
“He doesn’t have any hand in the affairs of the Oromo, of the Amhara, of the Tigre, or of the Afar, et cetera,” said Sebhat. “He cannot have an iron hand. He can never be a despot.”
Does Meles Rule By Consensus Or By Fiat?
Seeye disagreed, saying that Meles has been consolidating power for years.
“Meles is not just the chief executive officer of the administration, he is the law of the courts,” said Seeye. “He could make his wishes the law of the land in a matter of hours. That’s how he has been working.”
Despite his political differences with Meles, Seeye said he hopes the prime minister will recover soon.
The Ethiopian government said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is receiving medical attention at an undisclosed hospital outside of Ethiopia. There are reports that Mr Meles was in hospital in Belgium, suffering from a stomach complaint, according to BBC. (Photo: EPA)
Updated July 20, 2012
Ethiopia says Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is taking “sick leave” but will remain in power while he deals with an unspecified illness.
Government spokesman Bereket Simon briefed reporters Thursday in Addis Ababa, following media reports that the Ethiopian leader was critically ill at Saint Luc Hospital in Brussels, Belgium.
Bereket specifically denied reports on Ethiopian dissident websites that Meles has brain cancer. The spokesman did not identify the prime minister’s illness or say where he is being treated, but said he is in “good and stable condition” and remains in charge of the government.
A government statement said Mr. Meles’ sick leave was prescribed by his doctor, and noted he will resume work when he recuperates.
“You wouldn’t make a statement like that – that is so open-ended – unless the problem is significant” Shinn said. He noted he has no information about the prime minister’s health.
He added that Meles is the kind of leader who plans ahead. And if he is ill, he says the 57-year-old prime minister likely has a plan in place.
“I’d be willing to bet very good money that he has been planning some way to deal with this issue in order to ensure some kind of reasonable succession of government in Ethiopia,” said Shinn.
Meles has led Ethiopia for more than 20 years, since taking power in a 1991 coup. He has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, and did not attend an African Union summit last Saturday and Sunday in the Ethiopian capital.
In an interview with VOA, Sibhat Nega of Ethiopia’s ruling party said Meles is in better shape than reported.
“I can tell you for sure that there is no undesirable eventuality regarding his health,” he said. “I am 100 percent sure that he’s recovering health-wise, and he will be back to his official duty in a number of days.”
Nega’s statements are consistent with those of government officials, who said Wednesday the prime minister is sick, but not gravely ill.
Nega, who is a friend of the prime minister’s, said the government has been functioning normally during Meles’ absence, insisting that the “system does not depend on one person.”
Speculation about the health of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi may be coming to an end soon. After days of rumors and unconfirmed reports that Meles was gravely ill, or even deceased, the Ethiopian government says it will clarify the situation at a news conference on July 18 [postponed until later this week].
The rumors and unconfirmed reports began last week and gained momentum when Meles did not attend a meeting of the African Union in Addis Ababa as expected. There was even speculation about who might succeed Meles if he could not finish his term in office in 2015.
Then on Monday, Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Hailemariam Desalegne, confirmed that Meles was indeed ill, but refused to elaborate or say what the illness might be. The speculation increased again.
Meles has been the dominant political figure in this nation of approximately 93 million people since the rebel forces of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front entered the capital, Addis Ababa, in 1991 and ended the 14-year dictatorship of Mengistu Hailemarian. Meles has for more than 20 years served as chairman of the TPLF and the larger Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front that now holds all but one seat in the national parliament.
Until Monday, the government declined comment on Meles’ health. His hand-picked deputy, Desalagne, yesterday told a Bloomberg News correspondent in Addis, “There is no serious illness at all.” He said Meles would “return soon,” but did not talk about the nature of the illness or where the nation’s leader was receiving treatment.
The ambassador for public diplomacy, Getachew Reda, also gave a VOA reporter in the Amharic language service the same account, and refused to identify the illness and where the prime minister is being treated.
Rumors about Meles’ health abound
In a nation where the government maintains strict control over the local media, unconfirmed reports have surfaced in recent days on Ethiopian dissident web sites around the world that the prime minister suffers from cancer, a brain tumor and even that he might be dead.
One unverified report is that Meles has recently received treatment at Saint-Luc University Hospital in Brussels. The hospital did not reply to a VOA request for information about whether Meles was or had recently been a patient there.
The Government Communications Affairs Office said July 17 it will hold a press conference Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Addis to disclose Meles’ health condition.
First speculation about Meles’ health began in local and opposition media around the world in 2009, when he was reported receiving treatment for an unnamed illness in Dubai. Rumors about the severity of his health re-appeared in opposition media when Meles failed to attend several major public events in recent weeks.
Out of public eye for two weeks
Although he was scheduled to open a New Partnership for Africa’s Development in Addis on Saturday, Senegal, Macky Sall, took his place and announced that Meles could not attend due “to health conditions.” Meles also failed to appear on Sunday at the opening of an African Union summit of more than three dozen African leaders at the Addis Ababa headquarters, where the prime minister usually plays host.
Earlier, Meles did not attend the July 9 celebration of neighboring South Sudan’s independence day, and failed to appear to address parliament on July 8 to approve Ethiopia’s current fiscal budget. State television did not include footage from a crucial July 16 parliamentary debate on the next budget, leading to speculation that he did not attend that state function either.
The Meles legacy and possible successors
Prior to his 2010 election, Meles publicly considered retirement but later said that the party pushed him to run for another five-year term.
During his current term Meles has risen in stature as an African leader in United Nations agencies and in the international community on issues such as climate change and economic development. He has launched major development programs in Ethiopia such as foreign investment in large commercial farmlands and the construction near the Sudanese border of the massive Grand Millennium Dam on the Abay River, which is a major source of Nile waters.
Many of these projects have stirred controversy within Ethiopia and among many in the Ethiopian diaspora. Although Ethiopia has been seen as a close U.S. ally for its support of anti-terrorism efforts in Somalia and the region, the State Department has been critical of his government’s human rights record, the manner in which the government ran recent national elections, and of stifling free speech through swift use of new anti-terrorism laws. Those laws recently resulted in lengthy jail sentences for many Ethiopian journalists.
Meles first served as president of Ethiopia for four years, then chose to become prime minister. The role of president, now held by Girma Woldegiorgis, is considered largely ceremonial.
Possible successors as prime minister include:
The Minister of Health, Dr. Tewodros Adhanom Gebreyesus, whose leadership on health issues has garnered global attention. He is a close friend of Meles.
Meles’ wife, Azeb Mesfin, who is a member of parliament and the party’s powerful nine-member executive committee.
Hailemariam Desalegne, who is a former president of a southern region of Ethiopia who Meles elevated to national office in 2010.
Eight years ago Ethiopia’s Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu decided to sell cool colourful shoes made of recycled materials, including car tyres.
The company which she started, SoleRebels, would soon become the planet’s first fair trade green footwear firm – certified by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) – and is now one of Ethiopia’s most thriving businesses.
At the moment it sells its products in 55 countries, mostly through individual retailers, and its biggest markets are in Austria, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the United States. The shoes are also sold online.
It all started in Zenabwork, the poor community in the outskirts of Addis Ababa where she was born.
“My mum and my father have been working hard. I grew up watching them,” she told the BBC series African Dream.
“My father is an electrician and my mother works in a hospital. They have really been building us to work with whatever we have. So I watched my parents; they’re a model for me to follow in their steps.”
Washington, D.C. (TADIAS) – Last weekend’s 2012 Ethiopian Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland featured traditional dance, music, food, vendors, award ceremony and a live concert by Mahmoud Ahmed, transforming the downtown Veterans Plaza into Little Ethiopia for the day.
According to organizers, the annual event is also designed to link Ethiopian-American businesses, artists, community leaders, and residents with policy makers, news media, and other private-sector organizations in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area.
For Tebabu Assefa, Founder of Blessed Coffee, and also one of the festival’s chief organizers, the celebration was more personal.
“The whole thing was inspired by the achievement gap. I got two kids, they’re going to school, and it all comes down to teaching our kids about their culture and identity,” Tebabu said. “It’s our obligation to make them aware and inspire confidence in them about who they are.” He added: “America is a great place, don’t get me wrong, but there are a lot of stereotypical issues underneath. In order for me to combat that I need to tell my children where they come from, a place called Ethiopia, a land of many faces, many cultures and many people. It is my obligation to give my kids a foundation in which they can embrace their American identity. Otherwise we are deforming them, we are displacing them, we are misinforming them.”
Tebabu said his efforts are also his way of responding to the wide-spread “victim narrative” when it comes to media coverage of Ethiopia and Ethiopians.
“I am going to be very open, bold and straight,” he said. “On the flip side, for far too long I was offended by one-sided, sensationalized negative image of Ethiopia defined by Western media because we have not done our job.” Tebabu continued: “Of course, some of those stories are based on reality, but we are much more than that. It is our responsibility to fill that gap.”
Below is a slideshow from Maryland’s 2nd Annual Ethiopian Festival.
