Business of Fashion

Can You Build a Fashion Business With a Manufacturing Base in Africa?

NEW YORK, United States — Liya Kebede made her first Lemlem garment in 2007 as a way to give back to Ethiopia, where the successful model was born and raised; a crucial stop before starring in Tom Ford campaigns and walking Miuccia Prada’s runway. She found a group in Addis Ababa, her hometown and the sub-Saharan African country’s largest city, to produce garments handwoven in the traditional technique, with the gauzy white cotton she wore growing up but had since been replaced by more Western-style (and often second-hand Western) garments.

“When I created Lemlem it was about trying to create a solution to a problem,” Kebede says, smiling from behind her desk in a sunny office located in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighbourhood. “The market of the weaving had gone down a lot and there were all these artisans that were looking for jobs and not finding any. What can I do to help move the needle a little bit along?”

Kebede modernised the silhouettes and instructed the artisans to weave in stripes of fluo-coloured yarn, which soon became Lemlem’s signature. In that first year, she manufactured 200 units and secured three points of sale. Collaborations with the likes of J.Crew — including a successful kid’s line — followed.

In 2017, production will exceed 25,000 units, with 300 points of distribution across six continents. She now employs 250 weavers and craftspeople in Ethiopia, with salaries increasing five-fold in the past decade. In recent years, Kebede has expanded parts of her production to Kenya — where she produces trend-driven fashion items — and sources materials in Rwanda, Madagascar and Mali.

The success of the line has compelled Kebede to change her namesake non-profit to Lemlem Foundation, which has expanded its mission of promoting maternal health in Africa to supporting the economic empowerment of African women. (The for-profit business donates 5 percent of all of its direct sales and proceeds from one-off collaborations to the foundation.)

While Kebede declined to disclose annual revenue figures, her 2017 goal for Lemlem — other than to expand the label’s fashion offerings, with plans to host its first-ever live presentation during the Resort 2018 season this spring — is to raise capital in order to scale further. And she plans to do so in Africa, where she has managed to achieve success.

And yet — expansive production, especially at the higher end of the market — still seems extraordinarily difficult to accomplish on the continent — if not impossible — with commonly known challenges such as unstable infrastructure, the bog of bureaucracy and a lack of information on how exactly to do it.

Read more »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Thursday, February 23rd, 2017

New York (TADIAS) — Long before the invention of photography and other media tools international visitors to Ethiopia had difficulty describing to the outside world the spectacular beauty of the ancient Lalibela church architectures in the event that their words might be interpreted as an exaggeration. “I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more,” declared a member of the Portuguese Ambassador’s delegation to Ethiopia, Francisco Álvares, in the 1520s.

Nearly 500 hundred years later African-American scholar and Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr traveled to Lalibela with a documentary film crew at hand for a close look at the amazing 12 churches carved into and out of the historic town’s rocky highlands. The program will air on February 27th at 9/8c on PBS as Professor Gates takes “a voyage through 200,000 years of human civilization.”

Watch: Lalibela | Africa’s Great Civilizations (PBS Trailer)

Lalibela was built almost 1000 years ago and is said to symbolize a new Jerusalem. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared Lalibela a World Heritage Site in 1978 stating “Lalibela is a high place of Ethiopian Christianity, still today a place of devotion.”

UNESCO adds: King Lalibela “set out to build a symbol of the holy land, when pilgrimages to it were rendered impossible by the historical situation. In the Church of Bete Golgotha, are replicas of the tomb of Christ, and of Adam, and the crib of the Nativity. The holy city of Lalibela became a substitute for the holy places of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and as such has had considerable influence on Ethiopian Christianity. The Jerusalem theme is important. The rock churches, although connected to one another by maze-like tunnels, are physically separated by a small river which the Ethiopians named the Jordan. Churches on one side of the Jordan represent the earthly Jerusalem; whereas those on the other side represent the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of jewels and golden sidewalks alluded to in the Bible.”

Watch: Africa’s Great Civilizations | Official Trailer

According to PBS: “In his six-hour series, Africa’s Great Civilizations, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes a look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. This is a breathtaking and personal journey through two hundred thousand years of history, from the origins, on the African continent, of art, writing and civilization itself, through the millennia in which Africa and Africans shaped not only their own rich civilizations, but also the wider world.”

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Daily Coffee News

Garden of Coffee Cultivating Ethiopian Coffee Experience for Global Growth

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu — the pioneering and enterprising creator of the SoleRebels footwear brand — believes the future of a truly sustainable specialty coffee market can be found in coffee’s birthplace, her native Ethiopia.

After more than a decade of building SoleRebels into a global footwear and leather goods brand that combines traditional Ethiopian craftsmanship and materials with fresh new designs while also paying top dollar throughout the supply chain, Alemu late last year launched an equally ambitious coffee venture called Garden of Coffee.

The company has just opened its first branded roastery café in the Bole area of Addis Ababa, occupying approximately 10,000 square feet that serve as something of an immersive shrine to Ethiopian coffee culture and craft. Alemu described the facility as far more than merely a new retail storefront; her company’s goal is to completely redefine the seed-to-cup coffee journey by promoting what she calls “Origin Trade.”

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu. (Courtesy photo)

“It goes way beyond commodity pricing , Fair Trade or direct trade. It’s a total realignment of the value chain,” Alemu told Daily Coffee News. “If ever there was a category ripe for a radical realignment and, yes, disruption, the coffee market is it. Does it make sense for Ethiopia, the producer and in fact the originator of the finest, most legendary Arabicas on the planet, to ship our magical raw green beans thousands of miles for roasting when we can produce the absolute finest roasts right here using our own talented roasting artisans? We think everyone would agree it does not.”

Read more »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine

By Tadias Staff

Published: Wednesday, February 8th, 2017

New York (TADIAS) — As part of the month-long nationwide celebration of Black History Month, Ethiopian American Alitash Kebede, owner of Alitash Kebede Arts, is the exhibition consultant for a show entitled “Enduring in Vision and Linked in Tradition: Selected Works by Four Generations of African American Women Artists,” which is being displayed at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA) at California State University, San Bernardino. The exhibition will run from Feb. 11th – April 8th, 2017 with an opening reception on Thursday, Feb. 9th, 7-9 p.m.

The show is “an intimate yet captivating exhibition featuring works by thirteen highly accomplished artists representing four generations of African-American women in the art world from the first half of the twentieth century to the present,” the museum said in a press release. “The exhibition features two renowned Los Angeles artists, the city’s native Betye Saar and New Orleans-born, Samella Lewis. Highly regarded, celebrated and influential, both artists still live and work in Los Angeles today; during the second half of the previous century both were major force in the city’s vibrant art scene.”

—

If You Go:
CSUSB Art Museum
5500 University Parkway
San Bernardino, CA 92407-2397
Phone: (909) 537-7373
E-mail: raffma@csusb.edu
http://raffma.csusb.edu.
The museum is open Monday – Wednesday and Saturday, 10am-5pm, Thursday 11am-7pm and is closed
Friday and Sunday.

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Guardian

From chefs to musicians, talented ‘re-pats’ come back to build a modern Ethiopia

His dream is to show the world the glories of Ethiopian cuisine, to preserve its rich traditions and to make even his poorest fellow citizens eat better. That Yohanis Gebreyesus Hailemariam’s ambition recalls the aims of a slightly better known chef is no coincidence.

“I’m a big fan of Jamie Oliver. Many years back, my mum and I used to watch his shows,” he says. The 30-year-old is one of thousands of talented young Ethiopians who have chosen to return to their homeland after being educated or growing up overseas…Hailemariam grew up in Addis Ababa but spent years training with Paul Bocuse, an internationally renowned French chef, in Lyon before working at top restaurants in California. One of the highest profile Ethiopian re-pats, he has successfully tapped into a growing interest in cooking and gastronomy among an emerging urban middle class. His primetime TV show has an audience of millions, producers say. A key feature of every episode is a recipe specific to each region of the nation of 94 million.

One motive, he says, was to preserve traditions that are being lost as Ethiopia, the second most populous nation in Africa, develops. “I was working in California when I saw my chef using an Ethiopian spice. It struck me that as an Ethiopian I should know and use this product. I should know this … kind of craft, this art, that is being lost in an increasingly rapid and industrialised world,” he says.

“I wanted to come back to Ethiopia. I knew it would be a challenge to come from the diaspora and be seen as an Ethiopian chef. So I travelled all over the country looking to use knowledge that has a global appeal. And I noticed that Ethiopia has so much to offer. Because of globalisation, we are forgetting to look inside our own country.”

Yohanis Gebreyesus Hailemariam.

Read more at The Guardian »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Financial Times

The Ethiopian woman helping to bring Chinese to her homeland

Beijing’s skyline wowed Lina Getachew Ayenew when she arrived in the Chinese capital five years ago, but she was surprised to find the pedestrian bridges looked just like those in her native Addis Ababa.

It turns out the building materials used in Ethiopia’s capital were imported from China — one of many signs of the country’s impact on Africa’s developing economies. Ayenew has been building bridges herself, by creating the first Amharic-Mandarin language guide.

“I had this stereotype [of China] growing up, so this level of development is a part of China I discovered after I came here,” says 29-year old Ayenew, who was raised in Ethiopia, gained undergraduate and masters degrees at Yale University in the US, and moved to China in 2011 to teach medical English. “I don’t know how many Americans know the scale at which China has developed.”

Her fellow Ethiopians do, though. Hundreds of them now live in China, either on government scholarships or because their families pay for Chinese studies. A Chinese education is more attainable than going to the US and, for many, more useful.

Chinese investment in Africa has soared, reaching $26bn as of 2013, with another $60bn pledged in late 2015. Ethiopia’s educated workforce and leather industry have attracted Chinese manufacturing and textile investment.

At a welcoming party for 70 Ethiopian students in Beijing last year, Ayenew “noticed this collective thinking we need to bring knowledge back to our country. China has so much to teach us. There was a collective admiration of China that bounced from speaker to speaker.”

Read more »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Irish Mirror

Ruth Negga has been nominated in the Best Actress category at the 2017 Academy Awards.

The Irish-Ethiopian actress was short-listed for her role in Loving as the Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday afternoon.

Read more »

—
Related:
Oscars 2017: Ruth Negga nominated for best actress award (Irish Times)
Ruth Negga: One of Best Film Stars of 2016
Ethiopian-born Actress Ruth Negga Gets Thumbs-up for Lead Role in ‘Loving’

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Saturday, January 21st, 2017

New York (TADIAS) — On Saturday, January 21st, in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, millions of people in major cities around the world from New York to Nairobi staged a protest in support of American women.

Below are some photos and links:

Women’s Marches: Millions of protesters around the country vow to resist Donald Trump

Washington Post highlights that “millions of women gathered in Washington and cities around the country Saturday to mount a roaring rejoinder to the inauguration of Donald Trump one day earlier. The historic protests of a new president packed cities large and small — from Los Angeles to Boston to Park City, Utah, where celebrities from the Sundance Film Festival joined a march on the snowy streets. In Chicago, the demonstration was overwhelmed by its own size, forcing officials to curtail its planned march when the crowd threatened to swamp the planned route.”

Read more »

Pictures From Women’s Marches Around the World (The New York Times)

Protestors walk down 42nd Street near Grand Central Terminal during the Women’s March in New York City. (Photo: The New York Times)

Read more »

Lawmakers Show Solidarity With Women’s March On Washington (The Huffington Post)

Huffington Post notes: “Several lawmakers turned out for the Women’s March on Washington Saturday. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) showed up to support the estimated half a million women in the nation’s capital.”

Huffington Post adds: “Some members of Congress shared the personal reasons why they marched, including Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Co.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who marched with women from their districts. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) marched with his sister, and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, the first Mexican-American congresswoman, said she marched for “all women..Others sent messages of solidarity to the marchers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).”

Read more »

Donald Trump protests attract millions across US and world (BBC News)

BBC writes: “Millions of protesters have taken to the streets of cities in the US and around the globe to rally against the new US President Donald Trump..Larger numbers of demonstrators than expected turned out for more than 600 rallies worldwide.The aim was principally to highlight women’s rights, which activists believe to be under threat from the new administration.”

Read more »

—
Related:
Trump Sworn in as US President
Ethiopia: Looking Beyond Obama, Here is What Trump’s Team is Asking
U.S.-Africa Policy in 2017: What Trump Should Do
Ethiopia: US-Africa Relations in Trump Era

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Monday, January 16th, 2017

New York (TADIAS) — Members of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team are reportedly asking Obama administration officials questions regarding Africa policy with emphasis on business and the booming Chinese commerce on the continent.

“How does U.S. business compete with other nations in Africa? Are we losing out to the Chinese? asks one of the first questions in the unclassified document,” according to The New York Times.

The Times states: “A four-page list of Africa-related questions from the transition staff has been making the rounds at the State Department and Pentagon, alarming longtime Africa specialists who say the framing and the tone of the questions suggest an American retreat from development and humanitarian goals, while at the same time trying to push forward business opportunities across the continent.”

In a related article published today The Washington Post indicates that “Peter Navarro, who will lead Trump’s National Trade Council, provided his own answers in his book Death by China.” Navarro points out that it’s “part of China’s strategy to boost its factories back home and undermine the U.S. manufacturing base.”

The Washington Post adds “Jobs that once migrated from the United States to China are now offshoring to Africa. With low-end manufacturing on the way out, what was ‘Made in China’ is now ‘Made in Africa.’ The Huajian Group, one of the largest shoe manufacturers in China, employing 25,000 workers, opened a factory in Ethiopia in 2012; the company will invest $2 billion over five years to build a “shoe city” in Addis Ababa. Supply chains now span the United States, China and Africa: Huajian produces for U.S. brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Guess and, ironically, Ivanka Trump’s eponymous shoe line.”

Below are links to both articles to read more:

Donald Trump’s team has questions about China in Africa. Here are answers. (The Washington Post)
Trump Team’s Queries About Africa Point to Skepticism About Aid (The New York Times)

—
Related:
U.S.-Africa Policy in 2017: What Trump Should Do
Ethiopia: US-Africa Relations in Trump Era

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Toronto Star

A language that hasn’t been spoken for more than 1,000 years is being taught this semester at the University of Toronto, a step perhaps towards decoding rarely understood excerpts of history.

The ancient Ethiopian language of Ge’ez is written in a script that’s read left to right and has 26 letters. Letters have variations for the vowels that go with them, meaning students have to learn 26 characters in seven different ways.

The goal of the class, which meets twice a week, is to get students on their way to reading.

Milen Melles, a history major, said her parents immigrated to Canada from Eritrea in the 1990s and is taking the class as an opportunity to connect with her roots. She one day hopes to study texts from the region at a graduate level.

“This is a huge step for western academia to be exploring African languages, ancient languages, because they usually only study Swahili,” Melles said, noting that African studies often get lumped together at universities, differently than other regions where specific areas or countries are studied independently of one another.

Read more »

—
Related:
Ethiopic Studies Program at University of Toronto Gets $50,000 From The Weeknd

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

UPDATED: JAN. 10, 2017

CHICAGO — President Obama delivered a nostalgic and hopeful farewell address to the nation on Tuesday evening, but warned both the divided country he led for eight years and his successor not to shrink from the challenges of economic inequality, racial strife, political isolation and voter apathy that still threaten its ideal of democracy.

Mr. Obama returned to the city that nurtured his political career and his improbable journey from Hyde Park to Pennsylvania Avenue, just 10 days before he will leave the White House to Donald J. Trump. In his final speech to the nation, the president expressed his belief that even the deepest ideological divides can be bridged by an active, engaged populace.

“After eight years as your president, I still believe that,” Mr. Obama told a large crowd at McCormick Place, the cavernous lakeside convention center where he thanked supporters after his re-election in 2012. “And it’s not just my belief. It’s the beating heart of our American idea — our bold experiment in self-government.”

Tearing up as he concluded the final speech of a remarkable political career, Mr. Obama thanked his wife, his daughters, his vice president (“the scrappy kid from Scranton”) and the army of supporters who helped sweep the first African-American into the White House.

Read more »

Watch: President Barack Obama’s farewell address (full speech)

—
President Obama to Give His Farewell Address to Americans From Hometown Chicago

President Obama will deliver a farewell address to the American people on the evening of January 10, 2017 in his hometown of Chicago, the president announced in an email to supporters on Monday. (Photo: WH)

The White House

Comments by President Obama

Washington — In 1796, as George Washington set the precedent for a peaceful, democratic transfer of power, he also set a precedent by penning a farewell address to the American people. And over the 220 years since, many American presidents have followed his lead.

On Tuesday, January 10, I’ll go home to Chicago to say my grateful farewell to you, even if you can’t be there in person.

I’m just beginning to write my remarks. But I’m thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here.

Since 2009, we’ve faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger. That’s because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding — our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better.

So I hope you’ll join me one last time.

Because, for me, it’s always been about you.

President Barack Obama

—-
Related
Tadias Interview with Yohannes Abraham: Reflections on Civic Engagement and the White House

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Monday, January 2nd, 2017

New York (TADIAS) — The newly established Dr. Maigenet Shifferraw Fellowship has announced calls for academic proposals on topics affecting Ethiopian girls or women worldwide. The U.S-based fellowship was set-up recently by Dr. Maigenet’s family in memory of the former president and one of the founders of CREW (Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women) who passed away in 2016.

As administrator of the fellowship CREW states that its upcoming scholarship will “provide a one-time financial assistance, up to US $2,000.00, to an organization in Ethiopia that promotes the well-being and empowerment of women and girls in Ethiopia.” The press release adds: “research proposals can be submitted from all over the world but the research must focus on Ethiopian girls and women. Organizations who work on empowering or improving the situation of girls or women in Ethiopia must operate in Ethiopia.”

(Courtesy Photo: Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women — CREW)

In addition, the guiding principles of the fellowship include documenting and researching the experiences of Ethiopian women and girls “so that we all can gain some knowledge and serve humanity better” as well as encouraging those individuals who “strive to protect women and girls’ rights and improve their situation.”

Selection results will be announced on March 11, 2017.

—
Learn more at http://centerforethiopianwomen.org.

Related:
The Maigenet Shifferraw Women’s Education Fellowship Launched
Tribute to Women’s Rights Advocate Dr. Maigenet Shifferraw

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Monday, December 19th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian American artist Abel Tilahun teaches Digital Imaging at American University in Washington D.C., and for the past few years his thought-provoking multidisciplinary work including video art and sculptural installations has captured the attention of acclaimed Ethiopian curator Meskerem Assegued, founder of Zoma Contemporary Art Center in Addis Ababa, who is helping to stage his upcoming show, Odyssey, in Ethiopia’s capital next month at Alliance Ethio-Française from January 3rd to 24th, 2017.

“ODYSSEY? captures the excitement and paradoxes of innovation, with a birds-eye view on the gravity of the contemporary moment as well as the continuity and patterns within human history,” the media release states. “At the heart of his work remains the intrinsic value of the human experience across time and space.”

Art work by Abel Tilahun Gebretsadik. (Courtesy photo)

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa will also host Abel Tilahun’s Artist Talk at the Alliance Ethio-Française Theatre January 5, 2017. “The event will showcase a retrospective of Abel Tilahun’s work in the video art medium over the past decade,” the announcement said. “The U.S. Embassy will host a follow-up with an Artist’s Roundtable inside the Alliance Alliance Ethio-Française Gallery on January 21, 2017.”

Abel Tilahun’s past shows in Ethiopia include Curvature of Events, which was featured in 2015 at the Ethiopian National Museum following its presentation a year earlier in Germany at the Dresden New Master’s Gallery. In 2013 Abel submitted a commercial for Dorritos ‘Crash the Superbowl’ contest and his exhibition entitled Interface Effect (2014) was highlighted at AEF.

Abel is a graduate of the School of Fine Art & Design at Addis Ababa University and obtained a Masters in Fine Arts from Adams State College in Colorado in 2010.

—
If You Go:
Exhibition by Abel Tilahun
Curator: Meskerem Assegued
Alliance Ethio-Française
Addis Ababa
January 3 – 24, 2017
Opening: January 3, 6 PM
Artist Talk (Retrospective): January 5, 6 PM
Roundtable (ODYSSEY?): January 21, 6 PM

Related:
Ethiopian Artist Abel Tilahun Speaks to Independent Curators Hub in NYC
Ethiopia Exhibition Featuring Multimedia Artist and Animator Abel Tilahun
Three Ethiopian Animators Vie For Doritos Superbowl AD Grand Prize

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Washington Post

December 19, 2016

With electoral college vote, Trump’s win is official

In Florida, a crucial swing state where Trump defeated Clinton by about a percentage point, Trump won all 29 electoral votes. He also earned all 16 votes in Michigan, another state that flipped to Republicans for the first time since 1988.

On the streets of Washington, D.C., two dozen protesters assembled outside Trump’s hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, singing songs such as “We Shall Overcome.” Some held signs, including one that read, “Resist Putin’s Puppet.” The District’s three electors later gathered at city hall, just a block from Trump’s hotel.

In Albany, N.Y., former president Bill Clinton sat in the state Senate chamber as an elector and cast one of the Empire State’s 29 electoral votes for his wife.

“I’ve never cast a vote I was prouder of,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Despite the pleas of Trump opponents, most electors had said for weeks that they planned to cast votes reflecting the will of their home states.

Read more at The Washington Post »

—
Related:

In Theory US Electoral College is Not Rubber Stamp for Election Results

Washington state Presidential Electors Levi Guerra and Bret Chiafalo (right) speaking in front of the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington. (AP photo)

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Sunday, December 18th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — On Monday, December 19th, the U.S. Electoral College will meet in various states to approve the results of the 2016 presidential election. In the past few weeks the electoral college system has gained international attention as people around the world curiously observe that only in America can a presidential candidate lose the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots and still win the general election. In addition, there is also the brewing high-tech spy scandal in which a foreign power, no less than America’s long adversary, Moscow, clearly messed with this year’s election in favor of the President-Elect, generating an intense public discussion in the United States as to the exact role of the Electoral College, which today is seen as a highly partisan process.

Although it’s unlikely to succeed “pressure on members of the electoral college to select someone other than Donald Trump has grown dramatically — and noisily — in recent weeks, causing some to waver but yielding little evidence that Trump will fall short when electors convene in most state capitals Monday to cast their votes,” the Washington Post reports.

The newspaper features a group known as the Hamilton Electors — whose members include Mark Hersch, a 60-year-old Chicago-based marketing strategist — “who have been organizing efforts to contact electors and change their minds. Rather than persuade an entire country, he and his allies must find 37 Republicans willing to vote for someone else, a tipping point at which the responsibility of picking the president would shift to the U.S. House of Representatives. No one knows for sure how many are considering alternate votes; estimates vary from one to 25.”

One of America’s renowned statesman and founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, once famously explained “The Mode of Electing the President” in the historic Federalist Papers published in 1788, stating that the purpose of the Electoral College is to make sure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”

Hamilton also argued that another important purpose of the Electoral College was to safeguard against foreign interference in the United States election system and “chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.”

The Washington Post article also quotes a Republican operative and attorney from Massachusetts, R.J. Lyman, as emphasizing that the electoral college was “not intended to be a rubber stamp” and that otherwise “the Founding Fathers would have tasked the responsibility to a clerk or simply used the popular vote as a way of choosing a president.'”

“I’m reminding them of their duty to think about their choice in a way that’s consistent with their conscience and the Constitution,” Lyman told the Washington Post. “So far, Lyman said, he has identified 20 electors who might be willing to vote “other than their party pledge.” He couldn’t name more than one publicly but insisted that more were out there.”

Watch: How the US Electoral College works

According to Hamilton the electoral college was designed so that “we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.”

—
Related:
In last-shot bid, thousands urge electoral college to block Trump at Monday vote
The Federalist Papers : No. 68: The Mode of Electing the President

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Washington Post

December 16th, 2016

Obama says ‘we will’ retaliate against Russia for election hacking

President Obama said the United States will retaliate against Russia over its malicious cyber-activity during this year’s election, in an interview that aired Friday on NPR.

“I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections . . . we need to take action,” the president said. “And we will — at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman responded by suggesting that the president and his aides were casting aspersions on Russia without offering any proof.

In a statement carried by Russian news agencies, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the U.S. government should “either stop talking about it or finally produce some evidence, otherwise it all begins to look unseemly.”

In the interview with “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep the president did not comment on last week’s Washington Post report, later confirmed by other outlets, that the CIA has concluded with high confidence that Russia intervened in the election specifically to help Donald Trump win the White House. Seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies publicly announced in October that they had concluded the theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta was undertaken by hackers working for Russia.

Read more at The Washington Post »

—
Related:

A Times Investigation: How Moscow Aimed a Perfect Weapon at 2016 U.S. Election

A filing cabinet broken into in 1972 as part of the Watergate burglary sits beside a computer server that Russian hackers breached during the 2016 presidential campaign at DNC headquarters in Washington. (NYT)

The New York Times

The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.

WASHINGTON — When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk.

His message was brief, if alarming. At least one computer system belonging to the D.N.C. had been compromised by hackers federal investigators had named “the Dukes,” a cyberespionage team linked to the Russian government.

The F.B.I. knew it well: The bureau had spent the last few years trying to kick the Dukes out of the unclassified email systems of the White House, the State Department and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the government’s best-protected networks.

Yared Tamene, the tech-support contractor at the D.N.C. who fielded the call, was no expert in cyberattacks. His first moves were to check Google for “the Dukes” and conduct a cursory search of the D.N.C. computer system logs to look for hints of such a cyberintrusion. By his own account, he did not look too hard even after Special Agent Hawkins called back repeatedly over the next several weeks — in part because he wasn’t certain the caller was a real F.B.I. agent and not an impostor.

“I had no way of differentiating the call I just received from a prank call,” Mr. Tamene wrote in an internal memo, obtained by The New York Times, that detailed his contact with the F.B.I.

It was the cryptic first sign of a cyberespionage and information-warfare campaign devised to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, the first such attempt by a foreign power in American history. What started as an information-gathering operation, intelligence officials believe, ultimately morphed into an effort to harm one candidate, Hillary Clinton, and tip the election to her opponent, Donald J. Trump.

Like another famous American election scandal, it started with a break-in at the D.N.C. The first time, 44 years ago at the committee’s old offices in the Watergate complex, the burglars planted listening devices and jimmied a filing cabinet. This time, the burglary was conducted from afar, directed by the Kremlin, with spear-phishing emails and zeros and ones.

Read more at NYTimes.com »

—
Related:

Did Moscow Install America’s Next President? US Launches Investigations

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded with “high confidence” that Russia hacked the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump win. President Obama has ordered full review. (AP photo)

VOA News

Updated: December 13, 2016

US Launches Investigations into Russian Election Tampering

Intelligence committees in both houses of Congress launched investigations Monday into accusations that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election to boost the chances that President-elect Donald Trump would win.

President Barack Obama also ordered a full review by the intelligence community into the allegations.

“The reason that I’ve called for a review is to really just gather all of the threads of the investigations, the intelligence work that has been done over many months, so that the public and our elected representatives going forward can find ways to prevent this kind of interference from having an impact on the elections in the future.”

The probes amounted to an early rebuke of Trump, who over the weekend said the Central Intelligence Agency conclusion was “ridiculous” that Russia engaged in cyberattacks to help him win. He continued to assail the finding Monday.

Even before he assumes power next month, the Republican Trump’s mocking of the CIA conclusion about Russian interference on his behalf put him at odds with both of the top Republican lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. They endorsed bipartisan probes conducted by the intelligence committees in each chamber of Congress.

WATCH: McConnell on Russia hacking

“The Russians are not our friends,” McConnell said. He added that the investigation should be undertaken with the idea that “the Russians do not wish us well.” Ryan said the House probe “should not cast doubt” on Trump’s victory, but that foreign interference in a U.S. election was “entirely unacceptable” and Russian involvement “especially problematic.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the congressional review “is certainly warranted when you consider the stakes and the consequences.”

But Trump spokesman Jason Miller called the CIA conclusion about Russian interference “an attempt to delegitimize President-elect Trump’s win.”

Clinton camp responds

Trump’s election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, has been silent about the Russian hacking allegations. But her campaign manager, John Podesta, on Monday demanded that the administration of President Barack Obama declassify and release all the information it has about Russia meddling in the election.

Clinton won the national popular vote against Trump but lost where it mattered, in the state-by-state contests that decide U.S. presidential elections. Podesta called for release of the intelligence data before electors in the Electoral College vote to formally ratify Trump’s victory on December 19.

In a pair of comments on Twitter, Trump questioned why information about the computer hacking was not widely known before the election.

He contended that if Clinton had won the election and Republicans “tried to play the Russia/CIA card, it would be called conspiracy theory.”

He added, “Unless you catch ‘hackers’ in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn’t this brought up before election?”

But U.S. officials did in fact publicly accuse Russia of trying to undermine the presidential election in early October, saying intelligence agencies were “confident” Russia directed hacks of the Democratic National Committee that resulted in controversial emails being leaked before the Democratic nominating convention.

Obama spokesman Earnest said, “This was all material that was known by Republican politicians in the Congress that endorsed the president-elect. And how they reconcile their political strategy and their patriotism is something they’ll have to explain.”

Trump: I don’t believe it

Trump’s latest remarks came after he told Fox News in an interview aired Sunday that the CIA conclusion about Russian cyberattacks to boost his chances of winning was “just another excuse” by Democrats to explain his stunning upset of Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state.

“I don’t believe it. If you take a look at what [the CIA] said, there’s great confusion,” Trump said Sunday. “Nobody really knows. They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed someplace.”

President-elect Donald Trump is interviewed by Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 10, 2016. (AP photo)

Trump told Fox News that he does not oppose Obama’s order to review cyberattacks the CIA concluded came from Russia during the lengthy presidential campaign, but said, “You should not just say ‘Russia.’ You should say other countries also, and maybe other individuals.” The CIA said it had “high confidence” that Russia sought to help Trump win.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia interfered in the final stretch of the presidential campaign to help Trump win the presidency, and not simply meddle in the U.S. electoral process as previously believed, according to senior Obama administration officials. The conclusion is based to some extent on a finding that Russians hacked the Republican National Committee’s computer systems, in addition to those of Democratic organizations, but disclosed only embarrassing emails from the Democrats, via WikiLeaks.

Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee and Trump’s pick for White House chief of staff, told ABC News the party was not hacked.

“The entire report is based on unnamed sources who are perhaps doing something they shouldn’t be doing by speaking to reporters or someone talking out of line about something that is absolutely not true,” Priebus said Sunday.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP photo)

Trump’s rejection of the CIA conclusion came as Arizona Senator John McCain, the losing 2008 Republican presidential candidate, and three other senators called for the investigation into Moscow’s interference in the election, saying that it “should alarm every American.” McCain, along with Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrats Jack Reed and Chuck Schumer, said the United States needs to stop “the grave threats that cyberattacks conducted by foreign governments pose to our national security.”

—
Related:
Russian Hackers Acted to Aid Trump in Election, U.S. Says (The New York Times)
Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House (The Washington Post)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Sunday, December 11th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian American scientist Sossina M. Haile who is Professor of Materials Science & Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University was born in Addis Ababa and moved permanently to the US when she was ten years old. Today, Sossina is one the leading researchers in the United States whose work to find alternative sources of fuel has helped push the worldwide green energy revolution.

“If we are to use the sun as our primary energy source, then we definitely need to develop ways to store its energy for use on demand,” she told Tadias in a profile interview a few years ago when she was teaching at California Institute of Technology. “In my lab we have started to do this by converting the sunlight to heat, and then using the heat to drive reactions that create fuels like hydrogen and methane from water and carbon dioxide.”

In a recent highlight entitled Bottling the Sun: Sossina Haile’s Research Brings the World Closer to Liquid Energy Fueled by the Sun Northwestern University Mccormick School of Engineering’s magazine gives an update on her research explaining that “The solar reactor in Sossina Haile’s laboratory is respiring oxygen. And with its every breath, the world comes another step closer to bringing the vision of liquid solar fuels to life.”

“My lab does not have the total energy solution, but we do have a couple pieces of it,” Sossina told the publication. “I can give you two components that will help you get to the end.”

Click here to read the full article »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Vogue

Loving Star Ruth Negga on Biracial Politics: “I Get Very Territorial About My Identity”

With her mesmerizing performance in Jeff Nichols’s subtly groundbreaking film Loving, the Irish-Ethiopian actress Ruth Negga has become a star for our time.

“I’m a rag of a woman today,” Ruth Negga says in her faint Irish accent. She is pointing to her chipped green nail polish and apologizing for her eyebrows. She cut her hair herself, she says, before asking a professional to tidy it up. Earlier today she went to get her passport renewed. “Maybe . . . you could—blend?” the photographer said, gesturing around his face. She took a look and realized she had been quite slapdash with her bronzer and powder.

By lunchtime, there’s no trace of this—with her huge, doll-like eyes and closely cropped hair, she is as glamorous as a thirties aviator in Paige jeans and an olive bomber jacket—but it’s easy enough to imagine Negga dismissing vanity as a fool’s game. Her gift for self-mockery and her appetite for the craic—an Irish expression for fun or gossip or high jinks—are matched only by her levels of propulsion: Her neat, tiny frame always seems to move forward at great speed.

Read more at Vogue.com »

Watch: Great Performers | Ruth Negga NYT

—
Related:
The 10 Best Movies of 2016 — and 6 More
Oscar-Talk: Ethiopia-born Ruth Negga Hollywood’s Next Big Thing

Ruth Negga attends the premiere of Universal Pictures’ ‘Warcraft’ in Hollywood, California on June 6, 2016. (Getty Images)

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Monday, August 29th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian-born actress Ruth Negga has become the talk of Hollywood and Oscar mentions following her highly acclaimed performance in the new civil rights movie Loving, which depicts the 1967 historic U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in a case called “Loving v. Virginia.” The film Loving is scheduled to be featured on opening night at the Austin Film Festival on October 13, 2016.

New York magazine’s Vulture.com gives an Oscar shoutout to the Ethiopian-born star for Best Actress noting “first-timers with the likeliest shot at a nomination are Ruth Negga, the Ethiopian-Irish actress who slays a practically nonverbal role in Loving using her big, empathetic eyes.”

Ruth, who is 34-years-old, was born in Addis Ababa in 1982, to an Ethiopian father (a medical doctor) and an Irish mother (a nurse) and lived in Ethiopia until the age of four when she moved to Ireland with her parents. Ruth’s father died three years later in a car accident when she was only seven-years old. Ruth grew-up in Limerick, Ireland and has resided in London for the past ten years.

“Ruth Negga’s recent rise is one of those 10-year overnight success stories,” The Hollywood Reporter declared this past Spring featuring an interview with Negga. They asked: “Why has it taken Hollywood so long to really discover you?”

“I have not been aggressive in my pursuit of being a star,” Ruth responded. “I’ve never had a plan. Maybe I need to be more aggressive, because it’s quite tough!”

Ruth’s new film is set to be featured on opening night at the Austim Film Festival on October 13, 2016. (photo credit: Goss.ie)

Ruth-Negga. (The Hollywood Reporter)

And “Your parents are in medicine. How did you become an actress?, The Hollywood Reporter followed up. “You know when you’re a kid and you get to pick a movie every Friday? I watched everything. There’s no particular genre that was appealing. I just loved the idea that you could dress up and play,” Ruth answered.

And this month The Wrap highlights Ruth Negga among 15 Fall Movie Stars Poised to Break Out, From Ruth Negga to Riz Ahmed (Photos).

—
Related:
Ethiopian-born Actress Ruth Negga Gets Thumbs-up for Lead Role in ‘Loving’

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine

Tadias Staff

Published: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — The documentary short film Hairat from Ethiopia by Director Jessica Beshir has been selected to be featured at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

“This is a visual and lyrical exploration of the nightly ritual between a man in Eastern Ethiopia and his feral companions,” the Sundance Institute wrote describing Hairat in a press release.

In Hairat Director Jessica Beshir, who was born in Mexico City and raised in Ethiopia, “returns to the city of her childhood to tell the story of one man’s extraordinary ritual that unfolds nightly in the outskirts of the walled city of Harar.” Jessica’s short film is one of 68 works from around the world that will be screened at Sundance from January 19th through 29th, 2017.

“Each year we see more short films from around the country and from more regions around the world, which is exciting as we want to discover new voices to support,” Mike Plante, Sundance’s Senior Programmer, shares. “This year’s crop captures the full spectrum of what short films can be: emotional, hilarious, horrifying and touching — sometimes all at once.”

Jessica Beshir has a Bachelor’s degree in film studies and literature from UCLA, and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She recently also released the short film entitled He Who Dances on Wood.

“An Imam in Harar spoke to me about the meaning of Hairat at length, but in short it means, ‘You are where you need to be,'” Jessica says.

—

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Sunday, December 4th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Here comes another historic addition to the Ethiopiques CD series with the upcoming release of its 30th volume next month featuring legendary Ethiopian singer and songwriter Girma Bèyènè.

“After 25 years of silence, the legend Girma Bèyènè is back alongside one of the greatest ethio groups, Akalé Wubé,” the announcement said. “Under the direction of Francis Falceto (director of the famous Ethiopiques series Buda Musique) Girma and Akalé Wubé came together and recorded this album in order to immortalize this renaissance.”

A digital release of Girma’s new album, which is entitled Mistakes on Purpose, is scheduled for January 13th, 2017 by the French world music record label, Buda Musique, while a vinyl release is set for February 3rd, 2017.

Since it was first published 19 years ago the Éthiopiques collection has preserved the works of several prominent singers and musicians including Alemayehu Eshete, Asnaketch Worku, Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu Astatke, Tilahun Gessesse, Ali Birra, Getatchew Mekurya, Emahoy Tsegue-Mariam Gebrou and Kassa Tessema. In addition, songs from Éthiopiques Volume 4 were featured in the 2005 Hollywood movie Broken Flowers written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.

“We are very proud and humbled to be featured side by side such great inspirations like Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu, Girma, Alemayehu and so many others,” the Paris-based band Akalé Wubé said on their website.

Watch: Girma Beyene live in Paris with French band Akale Wube — 2015

Girma used to live in Washington, D.C. for several years beginning in the early 1980’s long before the metro area around the U.S. capital became home to the largest Ethiopian population in America. As The Washington Post pointed out “The great Ethiopian singer, lyricist and arranger first found himself in the District way back in 1981 during a tour in the Walias Band, one of Ethiopia’s most revered jazz troupes. Beyene liked the District enough to stay — but not for good. After many years in the area, he eventually returned to Addis Ababa. It was there, during the 1960s and ’70s, where Beyene had been a major player in one of the planet’s most electrifying music scenes.”

(Ethiopiques Volume 30)

—
Related:
Ethiopia: Composer & Pianist Girma Yifrashewa’s Phenomenal Show in Harlem
Mahmoud Ahmed Brings Down the House at Carnegie Hall Debut Concert – Photos
How Ethiopian Music Went Global: Tadias Interview with Francis Falceto
Amha Eshete & Contribution of Amha Records to Modern Ethiopian Music

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

VOA News

Updated: Sunday, November 27th, 2016

One place besides Miami where few tears will be shed over the death of Fidel Castro is Somalia, where his military involvement left a mark.

In the mid-1970s, Castro and former Soviet leaders were celebrating what looked like the emergence of another socialist leadership following the rise of the Derg regime in Ethiopia. Somalia had already been declared a socialist state and had hosted a large presence of Soviet and Cuban military advisers and trainers.

In early 1977, Castro brought together the leaders of Somalia, Ethiopia and southern Yemen to create greater socialist federal states in the region. General Mohamed Nur Galal was the former deputy defense minister of Somalia and the focal point of Somalia’s military contacts with Cuba at that time. He was present at the meeting in Aden in March 1977.

Castro’s vision

“He [Castro] was representing the Soviet Union, although he did not say that at the meeting. He said Somalia and Ethiopia should join up, and said that Yemen will join up, too,” Galal said.

Former Ethiopian Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and Fidel Castro celebrating the 4th anniversary of the fall of the Ethiopian monarchy (Revolution Day) in Addis Ababa. Photo: (Flickr/Solomon Kibriye)

Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam (right): Thousands were killed under the dictator’s “Red Terror” in Ethiopia where he was the chairman of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia, from 1977 to 1991. (Getty Images)

According to Galal, Castro told them that the merger would create a strategic alliance that would control the Red Sea, Suez Canal, the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

Castro also explained to the leaders that setting up the new alliance would bring another benefit to the region: solving the conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia over the ethnic Somali Ogaden region.

“We told him that this is about the self-determination of people, and if this federation is going to unite ethnic Somalis, we are up for it,” Galal said.

The meeting ended without progress. At the time, Somalia was already in an advanced stage of a military buildup to take the Ogaden region, regarded by the Somali government as a territory “occupied” by Ethiopia.

Meeting with Barre

When Castro learned of Somalia’s plans, he flew to Mogadishu and met his counterpart, dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

After the meeting, Castro reportedly said that Barre showed him the territories that he considered part of “Greater Somalia,” including northeastern Kenya, Ogaden and Djibouti, which was still under French control.

Somalia’s Mohamed Said Barre speaks to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Oct. 9, 1974. (AP photo)

Castro reportedly described Barre as a “chauvinist … and someone who thinks he is at the summit of wisdom.”

Two months after Castro’s visit to Mogadishu, Somali tanks were pounding Ethiopian military defense positions.

Somali troops took over Ogaden and moved deep into Ethiopia. The Soviet Union sent military advisers and provided technical assistance to Ethiopia.

Galal said Cuba had members of its Civil Defense System in Somalia and ordered them to go to Ethiopia. Castro also sent thousands of troops to Ethiopia.

Somalis beaten back

By March 1978, Somali troops had suffered heavy defeats and were driven back to where they started the offensive.

The following month, members of the demoralized Somali military officers made a coup attempt in Mogadishu. Barre held on, but the officers who survived the purge escaped to Ethiopia to set up the armed rebels who would overthrow him 13 years later, in January 1991. Somalia has never recovered from the following state collapse.

“I read a book Castro wrote, saying he brought Somalia to its knees. … He was a bad man who hated Somalis,” Galal said.

—
Related:
Fidel Castro, Who Defied US for 50 Years, Dies at 90 in Cuba

Fidel Castro, Cuba’s revolutionary leader and dictator who defied U.S. efforts to topple him for five decades, has died. He was 90. (Photo: MSNBC)

The Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — Fidel Castro, who led his bearded rebels to victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half-century of rule in Cuba, has died at age 90.

With a shaking voice, President Raul Castro said on state television that his older brother died at 10:29 p.m. Friday. He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: “Toward victory, always!”

Castro’s reign over the island nation 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Castro, who outlasted a crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died 10 years after a life-threatening illness led him to turn over power to his brother.

Castro overcame imprisonment at the hands of dictator Fulgencio Batista, exile in Mexico and a disastrous start to his rebellion before triumphantly riding into Havana in January 1959 to become, at age 32, the youngest leader in Latin America. For decades he was a source of inspiration and support to revolutionaries from Latin America to Africa, even as Cubans who fled to exile loathed him with equal measure.

Read more »

Watch: Former Cuban Leader Fidel Castro Dead at 90

Watch: World Reacts to Castro’s Death (VOA News)

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Lonely Planet

By BARACK OBAMA
President of the United States

US President Barack Obama reflects on why a million miles of travel gives him hope for the future

Editor’s Note: Lonely Planet believes responsible travel can be a force for good. It’s a belief shared by President Barack Obama, the first sitting US president to visit Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Myanmar and Laos. On his final foreign trip, he spoke to us about how the optimistic, tolerant and engaged young people he has met around the world give him hope for the future.

During my time as president, I have traveled well over a million miles to every corner of the world. These foreign trips have included international summits and bilateral visits that have been fundamental to the progress that we’ve made – strengthening alliances, engaging former adversaries, renewing the global economy, and forging agreements to fight climate change, stop the spread of nuclear weapons, expand commerce, and roll back poverty and disease.

I leave office more convinced than ever before that international cooperation is indispensable. Without regular consultations with foreign leaders, and institutional coordination between the US and our allies and partners, we cannot overcome challenges that recognize no borders. It took dozens of countries working together to stamp out Ebola. It took coordinated pressure and careful diplomacy to reach a peaceful agreement to roll back Iran’s nuclear program. Nearly 200 countries spent years in painstaking negotiations to achieve the Paris Agreement to protect our planet. Every single day, the US works seamlessly with other countries to share information to prevent terrorist attacks, stop human trafficking, break up drug cartels, or combat corruption.

The president takes a group photo with U.S. students at Dillingham Middle School in Alaska. (© Pete Souza / Official White House Photo)

But while this cooperation is essential, I have always believed that our engagements with other countries must not be limited to governments – we also have to engage people around the world. In particular, we must sustain our engagement with young people, who will determine the future long after those of us in positions of power leave the world stage.

Consider the demographics of our world. More than half of human beings are 30 years old or younger. This is even more pronounced in the developing world – that’s where 90 percent of the global population under 30 lives. These young people are living through revolutions in technology that are remaking life on our planet, allowing for unprecedented access to information and connectivity, while also causing enormous disruptions in the global economy. And while the world’s leaders discuss the pressing issues of the day, it is the world’s young people who will determine whether their voices direct the change that is sweeping our world towards greater justice, opportunity, tolerance, and mutual respect.

President Obama watching performers on the tarmac at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 2, 2013. (© Pete Souza / Official White House Photo)

Read the full article at lonelyplanet.com »

—
Related:
Ethiopia: US-Africa Relations in Trump Era
Watch: Obama Bids Farewell to World, Hails US Democracy in Landmark Speech

President Barack Obama talked about the United States election results and the
importance of democracy during his last international tour as president. (Reuters)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Washington Post

Clinton takes part in Wisconsin recount, with an eye on ‘outside interference,’ lawyer says

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has been quietly exploring whether there was any “outside interference” in the election results and will participate in the election recount in Wisconsin initiated by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, a Clinton campaign lawyer revealed Saturday.

In a Medium post, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias said that the campaign had received “hundreds of messages, emails, and calls urging us to do something, anything, to investigate claims that the election results were hacked and altered in a way to disadvantage Secretary Clinton,” especially in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the “combined margin of victory for Donald Trump was merely 107,000 votes.”

Elias said the campaign had “not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology.” But because of the margin of victory — and because of the degree of apparent foreign interference during the campaign — Elias said that Clinton officials had “quietly taken a number of steps in the last two weeks to rule in or out any possibility of outside interference in the vote tally in these critical battleground states.”

[Trump calls recount efforts ‘sad,’ declares: ‘Nothing will change’]

He said that the Clinton campaign would participate in the Stein-initiated recount in Wisconsin by having representatives on the ground monitoring the count and having lawyers represent them in court if needed. And if Stein made good on efforts to prompt similar processes in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Elias said, the Clinton campaign would do so there, as well.

“The campaign is grateful to all those who have expended time and effort to investigate various claims of abnormalities and irregularities,” Elias said. “While that effort has not, in our view, resulted in evidence of manipulation of results, now that a recount is underway, we believe we have an obligation to the more than 64 million Americans who cast ballots for Hillary Clinton to participate in ongoing proceedings to ensure that an accurate vote count will be reported.”

Read more at The Washington Post »

Related:
Hillary Clinton’s Team to Join Wisconsin Recount (NYT)

Voters waited to cast their ballots in Milwaukee earlier this month. (Getty Images)

The New York Times

NOV. 26, 2016

WASHINGTON — Nearly three weeks after Election Day, Hillary Clinton’s campaign said on Saturday that it would participate in a recount process in Wisconsin incited by a third-party candidate and would join any potential recounts in two other closely contested states, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The Clinton campaign held out little hope of success in any of the three states, and said it had seen no “actionable evidence” of vote hacking that might taint the results or otherwise provide new grounds for challenging Donald J. Trump’s victory. But it suggested it was going along with the recount effort to assure supporters that it was doing everything possible to verify that hacking by Russia or other irregularities had not affected the results.

In a post on Medium, Marc Elias, the Clinton team’s general counsel, said the campaign would take part in the Wisconsin recount being set off by Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, and would also participate if Ms. Stein made good on her plans to seek recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Mrs. Clinton lost those three states by a total of little more than 100,000 votes, sealing her Electoral College defeat by Mr. Trump.

The Clinton campaign had assailed Mr. Trump during the election for refusing to say he would abide by the results if he lost. On Saturday, Mr. Trump responded to the campaign’s decision to join the recount with a statement calling the effort “ridiculous” and “a scam by the Green Party.”

He suggested that most of the money raised would not be spent on the recount. “The results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing,” Mr. Trump said.

In Wisconsin, Mr. Trump leads by 22,177 votes. In Michigan, he has a lead of 10,704 votes, and in Pennsylvania, his advantage is 70,638 votes.

Mr. Elias suggested in his essay that the Clinton campaign was joining the recount effort with little expectation that it would change the result. But many of the campaign’s supporters, picking up on its frequent complaints of Russian interference in the election, have enthusiastically backed Ms. Stein’s efforts, putting pressure on the Clinton team to show that it is exploring all options.

Read more at NYTimes.com »

—
Related:

Hillary Clinton Supporters Call for Vote Recount in Battleground States (NYT)

Was this year’s U.S. presidential election “rigged” as Donald Trump claimed during the campaign? Well, now, Hillary Clinton’s supporters want to find out and are calling for vote recount in battleground states. (AP)

The New York Times

Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote is growing. She is roughly 30,000 votes behind Donald J. Trump in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin — a combined gap that is narrowing. Her impassioned supporters are now urging her to challenge the results in those two states and Pennsylvania, grasping at the last straws to reverse Mr. Trump’s decisive majority in the Electoral College.

In recent days, they have seized on a report by a respected computer scientist and other experts suggesting that Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the keys to Mr. Trump’s Electoral College victory, need to manually review paper ballots to assure the election was not hacked.

“Were this year’s deviations from pre-election polls the results of a cyberattack?” J. Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan who has studied the vulnerabilities of election systems at length, wrote on Medium on Wednesday as the calls based on his conclusions mounted. “Probably not.”

More likely, he wrote, pre-election polls were “systematically wrong.” But the only way to resolve the lingering questions would be to examine “paper ballots and voting equipment in critical states,” he wrote.

Tellingly, the pleas for recounts have gained no support from the Clinton campaign, which has concluded, along with outside experts, that it is highly unlikely the outcome would change even after an expensive and time-consuming review of ballots. But that has not quieted Mrs. Clinton’s supporters, who see the inequity of her growing lead in the national popular vote, which is now more than two million votes, or 1.5 percent of all ballots cast, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which regularly updates its count as states continue to tally and to certify votes.

Read more at NYTimes.com »

—
Related:
Want to Know if the Election was Hacked? Look at the Ballots say computer scientists (Medium)
Trump Won With Lowest Minority Vote in Decades, Fueling Divisions (Reuters)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — The last time we featured Yityish (Titi) Aynaw, the first Ethiopian Miss Israel, was three years ago when she visited New York City a few months after she was crowned the first black Miss Israel in 2013. The beauty queen who served as a lieutenant in the Israel Defense Force had arrived to fundraise for a project located in her hometown of Netanya where she said she was working to build an after school arts-based community center for children from low-income communities.

“I’ve taken the initiative to bring together these children in a community room and help them to learn what they show interest in, whether it’s dance or music. I am fundraising to create these opportunities for them” Titi explained.

This week the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School highlights Titi’s recent visit there to promote “her latest social enterprise, the Titi Project,” noting that the 25-year-old former Miss Israeli is also “a television personality and community activist with 52,000 Instagram followers. And those are only a few of her accomplishments.”

Crowned Titi Aynaw crowned as Miss Israel 2013 was born in the Gondar, Ethiopia. (KWHS)

Read more: 5 Leadership Lessons from Israeli Model Titi Aynaw

In related news also this week, the Times of Israel reported that Lt. Col. Dr. Avraham Yitzhak made history as the first Ethiopian-born Israeli who was named chief medical officer of the army’s Southern Command on November 21st, 2016 “putting him on the path to becoming the first Israeli of Ethiopian heritage to hold the rank of colonel in the Israel Defense Forces.”

Read more: Ethiopian Lt. Colonel makes IDF history

—-
Related
Tadias Interview with Miss Israel Titi Aynaw

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook

Rolling Stone

Why You Should Pay Attention: Adam Aminé Daniel has scored an unlikely hit with the wavy love rap “Caroline” – currently at 34 million YouTube views and counting. The Portland rapper is inspired by Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak and Outkast’s The Love Below, and taught himself to make beats with YouTube tutorials. He also studied business, advertising and marketing at Portland State University (he recently dropped out with 15 credits left towards his degree), and creates his own cover artwork.

Last year, he piqued interest among some influential blogs and websites with his 2015 mixtape Calling Brio, a diverse blend of house, bass drops, African pop and smooth-but-steady flows. When he posted “Caroline” to SoundCloud in June, he generated a fierce bidding war that resulted a deal with Republic Records. By September, Republic pushed the track onto streaming services, and it has soared into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. He’s recorded over 60 songs for his next project, but he’s unsure if that will be an album or a mixtape. However, he knows that he wants to continue to make feel-good music that’s colorful and bright.

He Says: Aminé has no shortage of opinions on the anti-immigration policy that president-elect Donald Trump used in his recent campaign. “My parents are immigrants to this country,” says the Ethiopian-American artist. “They came to this country for a better opportunity just like everyone else. So if anyone else, whether they’re running for president or whatever they’re trying to do, if they’re bashing the people who are just working hard and just trying to make a better life for themselves by coming to America, I believe that’s completely wrong. To see someone like that do something like that and become president is just a testimony to where we are at culturally in America right now.”

Amine – “Caroline”

Read more at Rollingstone.com »

—
Related:
A YOUNG RAPPER’S BOLD ANTI-TRUMP MESSAGE ON “THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON

Ethiopian American Hip Hop Artist Aminé Slams Trump on Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon

The New Yorker

Aminé: ‘You can never make America great again, all you ever did was make this country hate again’

Among this year’s uncommonly vibrant cohort of breakout rappers, Aminé, a wild-haired twenty-two-year-old from Portland, Oregon, stands out for his warm, restless energy. His single “Caroline”—which has been slowly gaining momentum since its release, in March—finds a sweet spot between theatre-geek sincerity and cool-kid braggadocio, between neo-soul and ringtone rap, between romance and vulgarity. Melodically simple and texturally adventurous, it’s a near-perfect dollop of populist rap joy—the kind of song that cuts across listening audiences, for better or worse. The song has racked up some hundred and fifty million streams in recent months and reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week.

So Aminé’s television début, on Tuesday night, on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” seemed like a straightforward proposition: a promising young artist performs his best single, and, if all goes according to plan, endears himself to a mainstream late-night viewing audience. What actually happened was slightly different. When Aminé took the stage, he initially played the part of the whimsical Portland rapper, tinkering on a piano adorned with bananas, one of his signature motifs. He then offered a stripped-down rendition of “Caroline,” accompanied by an orchestra and a row of backup singers. But when he arrived at the song’s final chorus the room shifted. The camera focussed on Aminé’s face, and he stood still in front of the microphone. The wands of light behind him turned from a dusty yellow to red, white, and blue, as over the beat of “Caroline” he delivered a piercing new verse:

9/11, a day that we never forgettin’
11/9, a day that we always regrettin’
If my President is Trump then it’s relevant enough
To talk ’bout it on TV and not give a fuck
I’m black and I’m proud
My skin is brown and I’m loud
Everybody love it when a rapper tells some lies
But that ain’t me, homie, I guess that’s a surprise
America want to act all happy and holy
But deep down inside they like Brad and Jolie
Caroline divine, and I won’t get specific
Club Banana, the illest and it’s too terrific
You can never make America great again
All you ever did was make this country hate again

Read more at Newyorker.com »

—
Related:
Rapper Aminé slams Donald Trump in moving Tonight Show debut

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The New York Times

A Newly Vibrant Washington Fears That Trump Will Drain Its Culture

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama has burned off her date-night meals at Washington’s new generation of acclaimed restaurants by pedaling at SoulCycle. President Obama has shopped for Jonathan Franzen novels with his daughters at local independent bookstores. Obama administration staff members, their barhopping chronicled in the gossip pages, have hit the 14th Street hot spots hard.

Decades ago, Washington was broke and run by a mayor best known for smoking crack with a prostitute on a surveillance tape. Neighborhoods had not fully recovered from the 1968 riots, and an aging Georgetown elite still set the tone. The administrations of two Bushes and a Clinton in between hardly had an effect on the city.

But Mr. Obama’s arrival in 2009 coincided with an urban renaissance…And the Obama family — African-American, youthful, attractive and urbane — were archetypes of a modern city on the upswing. What the effect on Washington will be when Donald J. Trump moves into the White House is hard to predict. But many Washingtonians fear the worst. Among them is Vincent Gray, the city’s mayor during much of the Obama administration.

Read the full article at NYTimes.com »

—
Related:
Trump in for a wake-up call when he takes office, Obama says
Watch: SNL Comedians Pull Off the Realest 2016 US Election Night Sketch

Looking Beyond Trump Era: This Woman Could Become 1st Female U.S. President
UPDATE: Obama Meets Trump at the White House, Trump Freezes Out Press
Video: Hillary Wins Popular Vote but Loses Election, for Second Time.
Watch: Hillary Clinton’s Concession Speech

U.S. Election 2016: Trump Triumphs
Ethiopian-American Caucus Founder Rep. Mike Honda Loses Re-election
Update: Ethio-American Friend Colorado’s Mike Coffman Keeps His House Seat

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
Tadias Staff

Published: Monday, November 14th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — “In 1935, Benito Mussolini wanted to make Italy great again, so he invaded Ethiopia,” The Daily Beast publication noted this summer. The new documentary film “If Only I Were That Warrior” — which chronicles the reactions of the international Ethiopian and Italian community regarding the recent building of a memorial for the Fascist General, Rodolfo Graziani (“The Butcher of Ethiopia”) in his hometown of Affile, Italy — has finally been released on DVD and is also now available for streaming online.

Per the film’s synopsis: “If Only I Were That Warrior is a feature documentary film focusing on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. Following the recent construction of a monument dedicated to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani, the film addresses the unpunished war crimes he and others committed in the name of Mussolini’s imperial ambitions. The stories of three characters, filmed in present day Ethiopia, Italy and the United States, take the audience on a journey through the living memories and the tangible remains of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia — a journey that crosses generations and continents to today, where this often overlooked legacy still ties the fates of two nations and their people.”

While public funding for Graziani’s memorial was suspended by a new administration in Affile in 2013 the monument still remains standing.

Among the Ethiopian activists featured in the film include Dallas resident Kidane Alemayehu who was leading the anti-monument protest through his organization, the Global Alliance for Justice: The Ethiopian Cause. Kidane had also written a letter to Italy’s Foreign Minister regarding the objection against the building of the Graziani memorial.

Kidane Alemayehu, above right, and Mulu, bottom, are some of the Ethiopian activists featured in the documentary.(Images: Awen Films)

Anti-fascist Italian-American activist Nicola DeMarco (Images: Awen Films)

Screenshot from the documentary film ‘If Only I Were That Warrior.’ (Courtesy of Awen Films)

Still image from the documentary “If Only I Were That Warrior.” (Awen Films)

Photo courtesy of Awen Films

Filmed in Amharic, English and Italian and shot on three continents the documentary also captures conversations with citizens and leaders of Affile, as well as Italian Americans and testimonies from Ethiopian elders who witnessed Graziani’s horrific war crimes in addition to the Ethiopian Diaspora’s mobilization against the memorial.

The goal of the documentary includes addressing “examples of revisionism like the monument itself” says Producer Isaak Liptzin, “which is only possible because there is such great ignorance on the topic in Italy, abroad and to a certain extent even in Ethiopia.” In an interview with Tadias this past May Liptzin added: “So the goal is really to bring this back into everybody’s mind and into the public discourse, not in a militant way but in a way that explains how this amnesia came to be.”

—
Related:
Tadias Interview with the Director & Producer of “If Only I Were That Warrior”

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine

By Tadias Staff

Published: Friday, November 11th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — This week, here in America, we may have stunned the world and embarrassed ourselves by electing Donald Trump as our next President over Hillary Clinton, who was arguably the most qualified presidential candidate in the history of the United States. But there were other more hopeful election night victories on Tuesday, November 8th including that of Senator-elect Kamala Harris of California who is already being touted by the media as “the next best hope for shattering that glass ceiling.”

“She’s drawn many comparisons to President Barack Obama, who famously ran for president during his first term in the Senate,” The Huffington Post points out in an article published today entitled Meet Kamala Harris, Who Could Become The First Woman President. “Her background and her polished yet personable approach to politics embody what many think the Democratic Party should aim to look like going forward. And even before her Senate win, her name was floated for roles including California Governor, Supreme Court Justice and Vice President.”

Tadias first met Kamala Harris in 2003 at an event in San Francisco organized by the New America Media (NAM), then called the New California Media (NCM), where Harris had just stopped by to personally pass out fliers and introduce herself as a candidate for District Attorney of San Francisco. We were excited to see her win that election. After serving as DA of San Francisco for two terms she became California’s Attorney General in 2010.

With her recent win we can’t be happier that Harris will be heading to Washington DC as one of two Senators representing the country’s most populous state during the looming Trump era beginning in January 2017.

Here are some things you should know about the woman who could very well challenge Trump in 2020.

Read more »

—
Related:
Trump’s USA: President Obama Warns Against Rise of Nationalistic Tribalism

DC Fears Setback to Cultural Renaissance as Obama Era Comes to an End

Watch: SNL Comedians Pull Off the Realest 2016 US Election Night Sketch

UPDATE: Obama Meets Trump at the White House

Video: Hillary Wins Popular Vote but Loses Election, for Second Time.

U.S. Election 2016: Trump Triumphs

Ethiopian-American Caucus Founder Rep. Mike Honda Loses Re-election

Update: Ethio-American Friend Colorado’s Mike Coffman Keeps His House Seat

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Washington Post

Updated: Thursday, November 10, 2016

Donald Trump entered the White House through the South Lawn entrance, avoiding news cameras and the eyes of the president’s staff.

About 45 minutes after Trump’s arrival, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough was seen taking Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and other Trump aides, including Dan Scavino, across the edge of the Rose Garden.

Donald Trump Limits Traditional Press Access On First White House Visit (Huffington Post)

President-elect Donald Trump broke with tradition on Thursday by heading to Washington, D.C., without a “protective pool” of journalists to cover his movements for the larger press corps.

The White House Correspondents Association oversees a rotating pool system so that the president is always covered while traveling, especially in the event of historically significant or life-threatening moment.

Neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton’s campaign had a fully protective pool, as opposed to recent major-party nominees. However, the Democrat’s system was close to the standard used in the White House. Trump didn’t fly with reporters, and sometimes didn’t notify them when he was leaving for events and even mocked them for being late.

Last month, WHCA President Jeff Mason urged both presidential campaigns to agree to have a “protective pool” during the transitional period between the election and inauguration. Not doing so, he wrote, would be a “serious breach of historical precedent.”

Trump’s team hasn’t responded to the letter, Mason told The Huffington Post.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond for comment.

Read more »

—
Related:
Video: Hillary Wins Popular Vote but Loses Election, for Second Time.
Watch: Hillary Clinton’s Concession Speech

U.S. Election 2016: Trump Triumphs
Ethiopian-American Caucus Founder Rep. Mike Honda Loses Re-election
Update: Ethio-American Friend Colorado’s Mike Coffman Keeps His House Seat

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The New York Times

Highlights of Hillary Clinton’s Concession Speech and President Obama’s Remarks

Hillary Clinton publicly conceded the election to Donald J. Trump on Wednesday, acknowledging the pain of the defeat in remarks in New York while calling on her supporters to accept that he would be president and give him a chance to lead with an open mind.

President Obama, speaking in Washington, also said that he would work to ensure a smooth transition to a Trump administration and that, despite their differences, we are “all rooting for his success.”

Speaker Paul D. Ryan proclaimed that Mr. Trump had achieved a political feat and earned a mandate by reaching new voters. Mr. Ryan said that he was certain that they would work well together on a conservative policy agenda.

Global markets swooned overnight but stabilized by midday on the East Coast. News of Mr. Trump’s election was met with a mix of shock, uncertainty and some congratulations around the world.

Clinton calls her loss ‘painful,’ but urges unity.

Read more »

___
Related:
U.S. Election 2016: Trump Triumphs
Ethiopian-American Caucus Founder Rep. Mike Honda Loses Re-election
Update: Ethio-American Friend Colorado’s Mike Coffman Keeps His House Seat

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Associated Press

Trump claims astounding victory as America’s 45th president

Updated: November 9th, 2016

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump claimed his place Wednesday as America’s 45th president, an astonishing victory for the celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters’ economic anxieties, took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White House.

His triumph over Hillary Clinton, not declared until well after midnight, will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and threatens to undo major achievements of President Barack Obama. Trump has pledged to act quickly to repeal Obama’s landmark health care law, revoke America’s nuclear agreement with Iran and rewrite important trade deals with other countries, particularly Mexico and Canada.

As he claimed victory, Trump urged Americans to “come together as one united people” after a deeply divisive campaign.

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump react as they watch the election results during Trump’s election night rally, in New York, Nov. 8, 2016. (AP photo)

He said he had spoken by phone with Clinton and they had exchanged congratulations on a hard-fought race. Trump, who spent much of the campaign urging his supporters on as they chanted “lock her up,” said the nation owed her “a major debt of gratitude” for her years of public service.

The Republican blasted through Democrats’ longstanding firewall, carrying Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that hadn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s. He needed to win nearly all of the competitive battleground states, and he did just that, claiming Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and others.

Global stock markets and U.S. stock futures plunged, reflecting investor concern over what a Trump presidency might mean for the economy and trade.

A New York real estate developer who lives in a sparking Manhattan high-rise, Trump forged a striking connection with white, working class Americans who feel left behind in a changing economy and diversifying country. He cast immigration, both from Latin America and the Middle East, as the root of the problems plaguing many Americans and taped into fears of terrorism emanating at home and abroad.

Trump will take office with Congress expected to be fully under Republican control. GOP Senate candidates fended off Democratic challengers in key states and appeared poised to keep the majority. Republicans also maintained their grip on the House.

Senate control means Trump will have great leeway in appointing Supreme Court justices, which could mean a shift to the right that would last for decades.

Trump upended years of political convention on his way to the White House, leveling harshly personal insults on his rivals, deeming Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, and vowing to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration to the U.S. He never released his tax returns, breaking with decades of campaign tradition, and eschewed the kind of robust data and field efforts that helped Obama win two terms in the White House, relying instead on his large, free-wheeling rallies to energize supporters. His campaign was frequently in chaos, and he cycled through three campaign managers this year.

His final campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, touted the team’s accomplishments as the final results rolled in, writing on Twitter that “rally crowds matter” and “we expanded the map.”

Clinton spent months warning voters that Trump was unfit and unqualified to be president. But the former senator and secretary of state struggled to articulate a clear rationale for her own candidacy.

The mood at Clinton’s party grew bleak as the night wore out, with some supporters leaving, others crying and hugging each other. Top campaign aides stopped returning calls and texts, as Clinton and her family hunkered down in a luxury hotel watching the returns.

At 2 a.m., Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told the crowd to head home for the night. “We’re still counting votes and every vote should count,” he said. But she later conceded.

Trump will inherit an anxious nation, deeply divided by economic and educational opportunities, race and culture.

Exit polls underscored the fractures: Women nationwide supported Clinton by a double-digit margin, while men were significantly more likely to back Trump. More than half of white voters backed the Republican, while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and two-thirds of Hispanics voted for the Democrat.

Doug Ratliff, a 67-year-old businessman from Richlands, Virginia, said Trump’s election was one of the happiest days of his life.

“This county has had no hope,” said Ratliff, who owns strip malls in an area badly beaten by the collapse of the coal industry. “Things will change. I know he’s not going to be perfect. But he’s got a heart. And he gives people hope.”

Trump has pledged to usher in a series of sweeping changes to U.S. domestic and foreign policy: repealing Obama’s signature health care law, though he has been vague on what he could replace it with; building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and suspending immigration from countries with terrorism ties. He’s also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoken of building a better relationship with Moscow, worrying some in his own party who fear he’ll go easy on Putin’s provocations.

The Republican Party’s tortured relationship with its nominee was evident right up to the end. Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush declined to back Trump, instead selecting “none of the above” when they voted for president, according to spokesman Freddy Ford.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a reluctant Trump supporter, called the businessman earlier in the evening to congratulate him, according to a Ryan spokeswoman.

Democrats, as well as some Republicans, expected Trump’s unconventional candidacy would damage down-ballot races and even flip some reliably red states in the presidential race. But Trump held on to Republican territory, including in Georgia and Utah, where Clinton’s campaign confidently invested resources.

Clinton asked voters to keep the White House in her party’s hands for a third straight term. She cast herself as heir to President Obama’s legacy and pledged to make good on his unfinished agenda, including passing immigration legislation, tightening restrictions on guns and tweaking his health care law.

But she struggled throughout the race with persistent questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. Those troubles flared anew late in the race, when FBI Director James Comey announced a review of new emails from her tenure at the State Department. On Sunday, just two days before Election Day, Comey said there was nothing in the material to warrant criminal charges against Clinton.

___
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

VOA News

November 06, 2016

Hillary Clinton Hoping to Crack the Ultimate ‘Glass Ceiling’ of Female President

Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton came agonizingly close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination, garnering 18 million votes before losing to freshman Senator Barack Obama.

At her concession speech, Clinton cited her lifelong struggle to overcome barriers to women: “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it … and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.”

This time, Clinton has secured the nomination and is hoping to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling and become president of the United States. But just days before the election, Clinton had failed to hold on to the respectable lead she once had in the polls.

National numbers released by ABC/Washington Post a week before the election put Clinton’s lead nationally at just 1 point — down from a 12-point lead the previous week. Other polls also showed a similar loss of advantage, bringing into question whether she will be able to shatter the glass ceiling she has aimed at for so long.

If she wins [on Tuesday], she will go from first lady to U.S. senator from New York, to U.S. secretary of state, to “Madam President.”

Watch Clinton leads nationally by four points: poll (MSNBC)

Opinion polls show Clinton is both beloved and despised. She is one of the most famous people in the world. Those who know her personally say she is warm and has a great sense of humor in private. Yet, she is guarded about revealing too much of her personality in public.

Some perceive Clinton as untrustworthy; she has been investigated numerous times, most recently for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state in the Obama administration’s first term.

Cracks in the glass ceiling

Born in a middle-class Chicago suburb in 1947, Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote of a happy childhood in her 2003 autobiography. The daughter of a staunch Republican father, she says she got into politics because of her Democratic mother.

Her own mother, Dorothy Rodham, however, had a very different childhood.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton takes the stage at a campaign rally at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, Nov. 2, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

As Clinton has recounted in campaign ads, “She was abandoned by her parents at the age of 8, sent from Chicago to [Los Angeles] to live with grandparents who did not want her. But people showed her kindness, gave her a chance. Like the teacher who saw my mother had no money for food and started bringing her extra from home, whispering, ‘You know, Dorothy, I just brought too much food today.’ ”

As a teenager, Clinton became a young Republican. She attended Wellesley College and grew more active in politics, delivering the women’s school’s commencement speech in 1969.

She went on to Yale Law School, where she completed her transformation from Republican to a progressive Democrat, and met her future husband, Bill Clinton, in the library. She and Bill Clinton married in 1975, and she followed him back to his home state of Arkansas, where he was elected governor in 1978.

‘Smarter’ than Bill

The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, was born in Arkansas. And it was there that political journalist Ron Fournier first covered the Clintons. He had plenty of access to both of them in Little Rock and, later, at the White House.

Fournier said he thinks Hillary Clinton is even smarter and funnier than former President Bill Clinton. If he could pick one to have a drink with, it would be Hillary Clinton.

“Bill Clinton’s very good about relating a joke, telling a joke, but she’s really good about being funny in the moment. Self-deprecating humor, that laugh that drives a lot of people crazy, I actually find personally very engaging because it is very authentic, earthy. It’s very contagious in person,” Fournier said.

Vice President Joe Biden, right, swears in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a ceremonial swearing-in at the State Department in Washington, accompanied by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea. (AP Photo)

Bob Weiner, former White House spokesman in the Clinton administration, told VOA that Hillary Clinton is smarter at understanding a problem and coming up with a solution than either her husband or President Barack Obama.

Weiner also said Clinton is aware she lacks something they both have: “She knows that she doesn’t have the charisma, and she does not have the charisma, but she’s got the smarts and the governing power, which is enormous.”

Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, joking that he offered “two presidents for the price of one.” Bucking traditional expectations, Hillary Clinton remained active politically as first lady, fighting hard but failing to push through universal health care coverage.

Sex scandals

In the White House, persistent stories of Bill Clinton’s infidelities caught up with him, and lying about the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal got him impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. He was acquitted by the Senate.

The months after the scandal were a painful time, close Clinton associate Weiner told VOA, but the marriage survived. The couple “try to deal with their marital failures privately, but they’ve gotten through them,” Weiner said. “That’s – I’ve been there, and I’ve seen them, and they love each other.”

In this July 14, 2016 photo Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks at a rally at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va. Clinton chose Kaine to be her running mate. (AP Photo)

But the public humiliation took a toll on Hillary Clinton, according to Fournier: “She’s changed because a lot of the stuff that’s come her way. She built up a lot of scar tissue because of the attacks that have come her way. Some of them are totally unfair.”

Watch: Hillary Clinton Hopes to Make More History as Female President

Fighting back

Hillary Clinton fought her way back, forging her own separate political career. New Yorkers elected her to the U.S. Senate in 2000, and she was re-elected in 2006. In 2008, Obama chose her as secretary of state.

She subsequently visited 112 countries, highlighting women’s rights and the power of diplomacy, dubbed “soft power.”

Both of the president and Michelle Obama are strong supporters of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention this past summer, first lady Michelle Obama praised Hillary Clinton’s record and character.

“And look, there were plenty of moments when Hillary could have decided that this work was too hard, that the price of public service was too high, that she was tired of being picked apart for how she looks or how she talks or even how she laughs,” Michelle Obama said. “But here’s the thing. What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.”

Hillary Clinton may need that toughness, as she finds herself, along with her running mate Senator Tim Kaine, in the political fight of her life, running against celebrity businessman Donald Trump. Like Clinton, he is a world famous, but polarizing figure.

Polls show the two are locked in a tight race. Hillary Clinton’s life story suggests she will fight as hard as she can all the way to Election Day on November 8.

—
Related:
In Photos: Hillary Clinton through the years

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Tuesday, November 1st, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Twitter is reacting skeptically to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s announcement of a reshuffled cabinet in Ethiopia today, which apparently is designed to appease a growing and popular uprising calling for land and political reforms as well as an end to corruption at the highest levels of government. According to media reports “among top party officials leaving the government are Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Redman Hussein, Minister of Youth and Sports, and Getachew Reda, Minister of Government Communications.”

On social media people are already expressing their views:

“The question would remain to be can the new cabinet make a new #Ethiopia we want without having a parliament to represent us?,” Zone9 blogger BefeQadu Z. Hailu asked via Twitter.

Zone9 Blogger NYU Research Scholar Zelalem Kibret added: :Ethiopia’s ruling party will make its 4th major Cabinet reshuffle in six years time. That means one new cabinet for every one and half year.”

While BBC News Field Producer Hewete Haileselassie noted: “#Ethiopia cabinet – departure of @DrTedros was expected, as he is a candidate to head @WHO.’

“And #Ethiopia government needs to stop issuing regressive decrees and start negotiations with opposition if they want to avoid tragedies,” tweeted Herman J. Cohen, Former Ambassador, U.S. Asst. Secretary of State for African Affairs. Author, The Mind of the African Strongman.

Per VOA News “the appointees include a new minister of foreign affairs, Workneh Gebeyehu, who replaces Tedros Adhanom, a former health minister who has been one of Ethiopia’s most recognizable public figures in recent years. Adhanom is currently a candidate vying to be the next World Health Organization’s chief. Communications Minister and government spokesman Getachew Reda was ousted and replaced by Negeri Lencho, the head of the journalism and communications college at Addis Ababa University.”

—
Related:
Ethiopia: 21 New Ministers Appointed Amid State of Emergency (VOA)
In Ethiopia, Cabinet Reshuffle Amid Tensions (All Africa)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Human Rights Watch

OCTOBER 31, 2016

Ethiopia: State of Emergency Directive Codifies Vague, Overbroad Restrictions

An Ethiopian government directive under a state of emergency contains overly broad and vague provisions that risk triggering a human rights crisis, Human Rights Watch said today in a legal analysis. The government should promptly repeal or revise all elements of the directive that are contrary to international law.

On October 9, 2016, the government announced a six-month state of emergency following the destruction of some government buildings and private property by demonstrators. Over the past year, security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and detained tens of thousands in two regions where there have been numerous protests over government policies.

“Ethiopia’s state of emergency bans nearly all speech that the government disagrees with anywhere in the country for at least six months,” said Felix Horne, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The state of emergency hands the army new sweeping powers to crack down on demonstrators, further limiting the space for peaceful dissent.”

Under the new state of emergency, the army can be deployed country-wide for at least six months. The implementing directive prescribes draconian restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly that go far beyond what is permissible under international law and signal an increased militarized response to the situation. The directive effectively codifies many of the security forces’ abusive tactics that Human Rights Watch has documented since the protests began.

The directive includes far-reaching restrictions on sharing information on social media, watching diaspora television stations, and closing businesses as a gesture of protest, as well as curtailing opposition parties’ ability to communicate with the media. It specifically bans writing or sharing material via any platform that “could create misunderstanding between people or unrest.”

It bans all protests without government permission and permits arrest without court order in “a place assigned by the command post until the end of the state of emergency.” It also permits “rehabilitation” – a euphemism for short-term detention often involving physical punishment. Many of these restrictions are country-wide and not limited to the two of Ethiopia’s nine regions where most of the unrest took place.

Under international law, during a state of emergency a government may only suspend certain rights to the extent permitted by the “exigencies of the situation.” Many of the measures, including the restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, and association go far beyond what is permitted under international law.

The government reports that since the state of emergency began, 1,600 people have been arrested, including about 50 for closing their businesses. Human Rights Watch also has received unconfirmed reports of unlawful killings, mass arrests, and looting of houses and businesses by the security forces. There have been some armed clashes between security forces and unidentified groups. Mobile phone access to the internet has been blocked since October 5. Addis Standard, a monthly English language magazine and one of the few independent publications left in Ethiopia, announced on October 25 that it was halting publication of its print edition due to state-of-emergency restrictions.

Large-scale, and mainly peaceful anti-government protests have been sweeping through Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region, since November 2015, and the Amhara region since July 2016. Ethiopian security forces have killed more than 500 people during protests over the last year. These protests occurred in a context of the near-total closure of political space.

Protesters have voiced a variety of concerns, including issues related to development, the lack of political space, the brutality of the security forces, and domination of economic and political affairs by people affiliated with the ruling party. The emergency measures send a strong and chilling message that rather than dealing with expressed grievances and ensuring accountability for violence by both government forces and protesters, the government will continue and probably escalate the militarized response.

On October 2, in Bishoftu, a town 40 kilometers southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, tensions ignited at the annual Irreecha festival – an important Oromo cultural event that draws millions of people each year. Security forces confronted huge crowds with tear gas and fired shots and scores of people then died during a stampede. Since then, alleged demonstrators have damaged a number of government buildings and private businesses perceived to be close to the ruling party, setting some on fire.

The government has in part blamed human rights groups seeking to document violations of international law for the recent unrest. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for an independent and credible investigation into the security force response to the protests and to the deaths in Bishoftu.

“Many of the abuses committed by security forces since November 2015 have now been codified under the state of emergency,” Horne said. “Trying to use the legal cover of a state of emergency as a pretext for the widespread suspension of rights not only violates the government’s international legal obligations, but will exacerbate tensions and long-term grievances, and risks plunging Ethiopia into a greater crisis.”

—-
Related:
Legal Analysis of Ethiopia’s State of Emergency (HRW)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Saturday, October 22nd, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Tonight Ethiopian music legend Mahmoud Ahmed takes center stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City in his first solo performance at the world-famous venue.

Carnegie Hall notes that the Ethiopian cultural icon, who turned 75-years-old this year, “was at the forefront of Ethiopian music’s golden era in the 1960s and 1970s and is still one of the country’s most eminent musicians. His body of work—including landmark recordings like Almaz, Alemye, Ere Mela Mela, and Tezeta re-released on éthiopiques series—have become an essential benchmark of Ethiopia’s musical history and cultural heritage, earning him the prestigious BBC World Music Award in 2007.”

Mahmoud Ahmed. (Photo: by Damian Rafferty)

Carnegie also described Mahmoud Ahmed’s sound as a “yielding some of the most adventurous, passionate, and often surreal sounds heard in free jazz today.” Mahmoud’s historic performance in October is presented as part of Carnegie Hall’s “Around the Globe” program.

Mahmoud Ahmed on the cover of the award-winning Ethiopiques series album. (Allmusic.com)

—
If You Go:
Carnegie Hall Presents Mahmoud Ahmed
Saturday, October 22, 2016 | 8 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
Tickets from $12 to $70
Seating Chart (PDF)
BUY TICKETS

Related:
Girma Beyene: Titan of Ethiojazz & Ethiopiques in a Rare NYC Concert

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Associated Press

Trump won’t say he’ll accept election result

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Threatening a fundamental pillar of American democracy, Donald Trump refused to say Wednesday night that he will accept the results of next month’s election if he loses to Hillary Clinton. The Democratic nominee declared Trump’s resistance “horrifying.”

Trump has spent the days leading up to third and final presidential debate warning voters that the election will be “rigged.” Asked whether he would accept the outcome if Clinton emerges victorious, he said, “I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense.”

That contradicted pledges by his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, as well as his daughter, Ivanka.

Wednesday’s contest quickly shifted from a calm, policy-focused faceoff into a bitter and deeply personal confrontation. Trump repeatedly called Clinton a “nasty woman,” while the Democrat panned him as “unfit” to be commander in chief.

Clinton, who began the debate with a lead in nearly all battleground states, forcefully accused Trump of favoring Russia’s leader over American military and intelligence experts after the Republican nominee pointedly refused to accept the U.S. government’s assertion that Moscow has sought to meddle in the U.S. election.

She charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin was backing Trump because “he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”

Trump denied any relationship with Putin and said he would condemn any foreign interference in the election. But he notably declined to back the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia was involved in the hacking of Democratic organizations. The Clinton campaign has said the FBI also is investigating Russia’s involvement in the hacking of a top adviser’s emails.

Watch: Trump on Accepting Election Results: ‘I’ll Look at it at the Time’

Watch Clinton: Putin Would ‘Rather Have a Puppet as President’

The 90-minute contest in Las Vegas came just under three weeks before Election Day and with early voting underway in more than 30 states. Trump has struggled to expand his support beyond his most loyal backers and must reshape the race in its closing days if he hopes to defeat Clinton.

The candidates clashed repeatedly over their drastically different visions for the nation’s future. Trump backed Supreme Court justices who would overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling, while Clinton vowed to appoint justices that would uphold the decision legalizing abortion, saying, “We have come too far to have that turned back now.”

The businessman entered the final debate facing a string of sexual assault accusations from women who came forward after he denied in the previous contest that he had kissed or groped women without their consent. That Trump denial followed the release of a video of in which he’s heard bragging about exactly that.

Trump denied the accusations anew Wednesday night, saying the women coming forward “either want fame or her campaign did it.”

Clinton said Trump “thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self-worth.” She avoided answering a question about her husband’s infidelities.

Trump pressed Clinton on immigration, accusing her of wanting an “open borders” policy, a characterization she vigorously disputes. The Republican, who has called for building a wall the length of the U.S.-Mexico border, said that under a Clinton presidency, “People are going to pour into our country.”

Clashing on trade, Trump said Clinton had misrepresented her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, noting that she had originally called it the “gold standard” of trade agreements. Clinton shot back that once the deal was finished, it didn’t meet her standards. “I’ll be against it when I’m president,” she said.

On foreign policy, Clinton reasserted her opposition to sending a large-scale U.S. troop presence to the Middle East to defeat the Islamic State. She’s backed a no-fly zone in Syria, which would mark an expansion of the current U.S. strategy.

For Trump, the debate marked one of his final chances to reshape a race that appears to be slipping away from him. Clinton’s campaign is confidently expanding into traditionally Republican states, while Trump’s narrow electoral path is shrinking.

Clinton has struggled throughout the campaign to overcome persistent questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. In the campaign’s closing weeks, she’s begun appealing to Americans to overcome the deep divisions that have been exacerbated by the heated campaign, saying on stage Wednesday that she intended to be a president for those who vote for her and those who do not.

Clinton faced debate questions for the first time about revelations in her top adviser’s hacked emails that show her striking a different tone in private than in public regarding Wall Street banks and trade. She quickly turned the discussion to Russia’s potential role in stealing the emails.

Underscoring the deep discord between Trump and Clinton, the candidates did not shake hands at the beginning or end of the debate.

—
Related:

Obama Tells Trump: Stop ‘Whining’ and Trying to Discredit the Election

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The New York Times Magazine

By Gloria Steinem:

Michelle Obama came into my life in stages. I knew that, like her husband, she was a Harvard-educated lawyer, but that unlike him, she had grown up on the South Side of Chicago, with parents who had not gone to college. When Barack Obama was a summer associate at her Chicago law firm, they met because she was his mentor. After his successful campaign for the U.S. Senate, I noticed that she chose not to go to Washington. Instead, he commuted to their home and two daughters in Chicago where Michelle had a big job as head of community affairs for a hospital.

But she really entered my imagination once she became first lady, a tall, strong, elegant and seriously smart woman who happened to live in the White House. She managed to convey dignity and humor at the same time, to be a mother of two daughters and insist on regular family dinners, and to take on health issues and a national food industry addicted to unhealthy profits. She did this despite an undertow of bias in this country that subtly questioned everything she did. Was she too strong, physically and intellectually, to be a proper first lady?

After a decade under a public microscope, she has managed what no other first lady — and few people in any public position — have succeeded in doing: She has lived a public life without sacrificing her privacy and authenticity. She made her husband both more human and effective as a president by being his interpreter and defender, but also someone we knew was capable of being his critic. Eventually, she spoke up about the pain of the racist assumptions directed at her, but she waited until her husband could no longer be politically punished for her honesty. And she has always been the best kind of mother, which means insisting that fathers be equal parents. All of this she has done with honesty, humor and, most important, kindness.

Read more at NYTimes.com »

Watch: Michelle Obama Redefines First Lady Surrogate Role

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Reuters

NEW YORK — After a brutal week for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Democrat Hillary Clinton maintained a substantial projected advantage in the race to win the Electoral College and claim the U.S. presidency, according to the latest results from the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project released on Saturday.

If the election were held this week, the project estimates that Clinton’s odds of securing the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency at more than 95 percent, and by a margin of 118 Electoral College votes. It is the second week in a row that the project has estimated her odds so high.

The results mirror other Electoral College projections, some of which estimate Clinton’s chance of winning at around 90 percent.

For the Trump campaign there are a handful of states the Republican candidate must win if he is to cobble together enough states to win the White House.

Among them is Florida, but numerous recent visits to the Sunshine State by Trump and his vice-presidential running mate Mike Pence did little to dent Clinton’s advantage in the contest for the state’s 29 Electoral College votes. She leads by 6 percentage points, about the same lead she enjoyed last week.

Still, the race tightened in Ohio, another important state for Trump. Both Ohio and Nevada were leaning toward Clinton last week but are now toss-ups.

However, Clinton’s support grew in North Carolina and Colorado, both of which moved from toss-ups to leaning Clinton.

In the last week, the Trump campaign struggled to respond to allegations from several women that Trump had groped them or made unwanted sexual advances over several decades. Trump said the reports were lies and part of a media conspiracy to defeat him.

All of the allegations came after The Washington Post disclosed a video from 2005 of Trump describing how he tried to seduce a married woman and bragged in vulgar terms how his celebrity allowed him to kiss and grope women without permission.

The accusations overshadowed what might otherwise have been a difficult week for Clinton. Her campaign manager’s email account was apparently hacked and thousands of his emails were released by Wikileaks. U.S. officials say the Russian government sanctioned the electronic break-in.

The emails have been trickling out for two weeks. Included in the hacked emails were undisputed comments that Clinton made to banks and big business in a 2014 speech. In those comments, Clinton said she supports open trade and open borders, and takes a conciliatory approach to Wall Street, both positions she later backed away from.

Since that release, waves of other emails have been released, among which were some that suggested Clinton had inappropriately received questions in advance of a debate with Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries.

Without Trump’s own woes, the Clinton emails may well have become the central issue in the campaign. Yet with just over three weeks to go until the Nov. 8 election, Trump does not have much time to turn the race around.

According to the project, Trump trails by double-digits among women and all minority groups. Among black voters he trails by nearly 70 points. To a large extent his support is almost entirely dependent on white voters. And while Trump’s support among white men is strong, among white women his lead is negligible.

—
Related:
Donald Trump vs. a Free Press

Watch: Pres. Obama ties Donald Trump to Republicans (MSNBC)

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Wednesday, October 12th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Next week on Saturday, October 22nd Ethiopian music legend Mahmoud Ahmed takes center stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City in his first solo performance at the world-famous venue.

Carnegie Hall notes that the Ethiopian cultural icon, who turned 75-years-old this year, “was at the forefront of Ethiopian music’s golden era in the 1960s and 1970s and is still one of the country’s most eminent musicians. His body of work—including landmark recordings like Almaz, Alemye, Ere Mela Mela, and Tezeta re-released on éthiopiques series—have become an essential benchmark of Ethiopia’s musical history and cultural heritage, earning him the prestigious BBC World Music Award in 2007.”

Mahmoud Ahmed. (Photo: by Damian Rafferty)

Carnegie also described Mahmoud Ahmed’s sound as a “yielding some of the most adventurous, passionate, and often surreal sounds heard in free jazz today.” Mahmoud’s historic performance in October is presented as part of Carnegie Hall’s “Around the Globe” program.

Mahmoud Ahmed on the cover of the award-winning Ethiopiques series album. (Allmusic.com)

—
If You Go:
Carnegie Hall Presents Mahmoud Ahmed
Saturday, October 22, 2016 | 8 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
Tickets from $12 to $70
Seating Chart (PDF)
BUY TICKETS

Related:
Mahmoud Ahmed First Artist from Ethiopia to Perform at Carnegie Hall
Girma Beyene Brings Golden Age of Ethiopian Music to City University of NY

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

NPR

October 9, 2016

Govt Declares 6-month State of Emergency, Shuts Down Internet

A week after a deadly stampede brought anti-government protests and violence to a fever pitch, Ethiopia declared a six-month state of emergency Sunday. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn says the declaration is necessary for the government to protect both property and citizens’ lives.

The stampede struck at a religious festival that also had qualities of a demonstration that was held last Sunday, Oct. 2, in the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa. That’s where many in a massive crowd that had gathered to celebrate the annual Irreecha thanksgiving festival chanted slogans and crossed their fists over their heads, an increasingly familiar gesture that protests oppression and calls for more rights for the people of Oromia.

Video recordings from that day show that the crowd had been pressing toward an open-air stage when security forces opened fire and deployed tear gas, triggering a panic. Many people initially ran to a nearby treeline for cover, only to become trapped in a deep and steep-sided trench. Others were hemmed in by a nearby lake.

“The government says 55 people were killed — some fell into nearby gullies and drowned,” NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports. “The opposition says many, many more people lost their lives.”

In months of protests in the region, human rights groups say, hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands arrested.

Read more »

—
Related:
Ethiopia imposes state of emergency as unrest intensifies (Washington Post)

Ethiopia on Edge: Govt Declares State of Emergency (AP)
In Ethiopia Protesters Attack Factories, Eco Lodge and Flower Farms
American Killed in Ethiopia Identified as UC Davis Researcher Sharon Gray
U.S. citizen killed, foreign factories attacked in Ethiopia
US Says Female American Citizen Killed in Ethiopia Amid Protest
After Ethiopia Irrecha Tragedy, Renewed Calls on U.S to Take Stronger Measure

Ethiopia Protests Continue Over Fatal Bishoftu Stampede at Irrecha Festival

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

VOA News

ADDIS ABABA — Protesters in Ethiopia damaged almost a dozen mostly foreign-owned factories and flower farms and destroyed scores of vehicles this week, adding economic casualties to a rising death toll in a wave of unrest over land grabs and rights.

The violence has cast a shadow over a nation where a state-led industrial drive has created one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, but where the government has also faced rising international criticism and popular opposition to its authoritarian approach to development.

The flare-up followed the death of at least 55 people in a stampede Sunday when police fired tear gas and shot into the air to disperse demonstrators in the Oromiya region near the capital.

Protesters run from tear gas being fired by police during Irreecha festival in Bishoftu Oct. 2, 2016. (Photo Reuters)

Between 55 and several hundred people were killed when security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition on crowds, triggering a stampede during the annual Irreechaa festival in Bishoftu, Ethiopia on Sunday, October 2nd, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Protesters in Bishoftu, October 2, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

It raises to more than 450 the number of people rights groups and opponents say have been killed in unrest since 2015.

A U.S. researcher was killed Tuesday when her car was attacked by stone-throwers near Addis Ababa.

The government says the toll cited by critics is inflated.

Fana Broadcasting, which is seen as close to the state, reported on its website that 11 companies ranging from textile firms to a plastics maker to flower farms had been damaged or destroyed, while more than 60 vehicles had been torched.

Dutch firm FV SeleQt said its 300-hectare vegetable farm and warehouse had been plundered. Another Dutch firm, Africa Juice, said its factory had been badly damaged.

The manager of one of the Turkish companies, textile firm Saygin Dima, told Reuters this week at least a third of his factory was burned down.

Fana’s website showed images of burned-out trucks on the roadside, blaming the damage on “perpetrators of violence,” echoing the line taken by the government, which accuses local rebel groups and dissidents based abroad for stoking the unrest.

Protest at Irreechaa holiday festival in Bishoftu on October 2nd, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Irreechaa holiday festival in Bishoftu on October 2nd, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)

Struggling for work

People from Oromiya, a region at the heart of the state’s industrialization efforts, accuse the state of seizing their land and offering tiny compensation, before selling it on to companies, often foreign investors, at inflated prices.

They also say they struggle to find work, even when a new factory is sited on property they or their families once owned.

“I went to apply for a job at a steel factory that was built on my family’s land but I was turned away when they discovered I was the son of the previous land owner,” said Mulugeta, who asked for only his first name to be used to avoid any state reprisals.

“Most factories give priority to employees from other regions for fear local people would one day stage strikes,” he said, speaking by telephone from Oromiya, where he now drives a truck for another company.

In Ethiopia, once ruled by Marxists whose draconian policies drove the nation into a devastating 1984 famine, all land still belongs to the state and owners are only deemed leaseholders, even if they have been living or farming there for generations.

For the opposition and those turfed out of farm plots where they grow food for their families, it shows how the government that has ruled for a quarter of a century tramples on their rights.

“It is time for the government to change tack,” said Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress. “People are demanding change, but the problem is the only language the government knows is the use of excessive force.”

The government says police have clashed with what it calls “armed gangs” intent on destabilizing the nation. A regional Oromo official accused protesters of hindering efforts to reverse generations of poverty in Oromiya.

Pressure has been mounting from abroad, too. U.S. President Barack Obama told his Ethiopian hosts in Addis Ababa last year that greater political openness would “strengthen rather than inhibit” the development agenda. The government said it differed over the pace of any reforms demanded by Washington.

“Economic development has outpaced political change,” said former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and academic David Shinn.

Noting “phenomenal” economic gains, he said: “It is less clear, however, whether the Ethiopian peasant farmer, who still constitutes about 80 percent of the population, has benefited significantly.”

Feeling the heat

Foreign investors are feeling the heat from protesters, not because they are foreigners but because they are among the biggest purchasers of the new land leases from the state.

Ethiopia’s budding tourist industry is also taking a hit.

Photo: The Bishangari Lodge

The Bishangari Lodge, on Lake Langano about 200 km south of Addis Ababa, was looted and torched this week.

Resort owner Omar Bagersh said, even before the attack, he had had 90 percent cancellations in the past two or three months. “It is very difficult to convince a tourist to travel to a country that has this kind of situation,” he said.

Investors have been attracted by cheap electricity from Ethiopia’s huge new hydroelectric dams being built, cheap labor, improving transport and tax incentives offered by a financially stretched government hungry for foreign exchange.

New industries have been focused in Oromiya and the nearby Amhara regions, which surround Addis Ababa, a city that now boasts Sub-Saharan Africa’s only light rail metro system and a rapidly rising skyline.

Protests in Oromiya province initially erupted in 2014 over a development plan for the capital that would have expanded its boundaries, a move seen as threatening farmland.

Clashes with police flared in 2015 and this year, although the government has shelved the boundary plan.

Protesters have increasingly focused on broader political issues, accusing the government of stifling opposition. The government, which won a parliamentary election in 2015 in which the opposition failed to secure a single seat, denies this.

—
Related:
American Killed in Ethiopia Identified as UC Davis Researcher Sharon Gray
U.S. citizen killed, foreign factories attacked in Ethiopia
US Says Female American Citizen Killed in Ethiopia Amid Protest
After Ethiopia Irrecha Tragedy, Renewed Calls on U.S to Take Stronger Measure
Ethiopia Protests Continue Over Fatal Bishoftu Stampede at Irrecha Festival

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Sacramento Bee

The UC Davis postdoctoral researcher who was killed in Ethiopia on Tuesday was described by as a “bright light” who was a hard worker with an appetite for travel, according to a woman identifying herself on Facebook as the victim’s sister.

UC Davis officials said Wednesday that Sharon Gray, 30, died while riding in a vehicle that was stoned by protesters in the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Gray, who worked in the university’s plant biology department, was in the East African nation to attend a meeting related to her research, according to the university.

“My sister was the most exceptional human being anyone of us has ever known. She touched every life she encountered in a positive and beautiful way,” wrote Ruth Gray Wilke in a Facebook post. She added that Gray enjoyed camping and traveling. “My sister took in as much of this world as she could,” she wrote in the Facebook post.

Watch: UC Davis researcher killed in Ethiopia remembered fondly

—
American Killed in Ethiopia Identified as UC Davis Researcher Sharon Gray

The Sacramento Bee

UC Davis officials said Wednesday that a postdoctoral researcher in the university’s plant biology department was killed Tuesday in Ethiopia when the vehicle she was riding in was stoned by protesters.

Sharon Gray was in the East African nation to attend a meeting related to her research, according to the university.

A UC Davis news release said the circumstances of Gray’s death were unclear. But Andy Fell, a university spokesman, confirmed that Gray was the American woman who was reported killed when stones were hurled at her vehicle on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Tuesday.

According to news reports, crowds have attacked other vehicles since a stampede at a weekend protest killed at least 55 people. The protests have centered on land and political rights in Ethiopia.

Another member of the plant biology department who was traveling with Gray was not injured and is headed home, officials said.

University officials said Gray, 31, was attending a meeting to discuss the next steps in a project she was involved in with the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and other charitable organizations.

She had been at UC Davis since 2013, Fell said. He said Gray’s husband is also a university employee.

The U.S. State Department is assisting in returning Gray’s body to her family.

Read more »

—
Related:
Amid Civil Unrest, Ethiopian Immigration to Israel Resume After 3-year Freeze
U.S. citizen killed, foreign factories attacked in Ethiopia
US Says Female American Citizen Killed in Ethiopia Amid Protest
After Ethiopia Irrecha Tragedy, Renewed Calls on U.S to Take Stronger Measure
Ethiopia Protests Continue Over Fatal Bishoftu Stampede at Irrecha Festival

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Tuesday, October 4th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Marcus Samuelsson is bringing The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem to a city near you in October and November including San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Austin.

“When the Obamas visited Red Rooster Harlem in 2011 for a fund-raising dinner, the chef Marcus Samuelsson served them braised short ribs, lobster salad and his cornbread with honey butter,” The New York Times points out in its review of Marcus’ latest book. “And to the crowds who gathered outside to see the nation’s first African-American president, he passed out coffee and doughnuts. He fed the president, and he fed the neighborhood.”

The Times adds: “Mr. Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, but he has made Harlem his home, and it’s clear in The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem that he has found magic there. The restaurant, which opened in 2010, was a meditation on modern Harlem, an embrace of its past and a vision for its future — vibrantly diverse, effortlessly cool. The book follows suit, absorbing the neighborhood’s multiple influences.”

The dish that Chef Marcus Samuelsson made for President Obama when he visited the restaurant Red Rooster Harlem. (Photo: The New York Times)

—
Save the date on October 26th for a Tadias book signing event and party with Marcus Samuelsson in Washington, D.C. (Details to be announced shortly).

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Washington Post

It’s Saturday evening and the wait for a table at Zenebech Restaurant is 45 minutes. A crowd forms outside on one of the restaurant’s last weekends in business here as a waiter jots down the names of hungry patrons on a pad of paper.

Every seat is filled, crammed with middle-aged Ethiopian men speaking Amharic and 20-somethings dressed to hit the Shaw neighborhood’s trendy bars after dinner.

The authentically folksy family-owned restaurant navigated the tide of rapidly gentrifying Shaw, keeping its longtime Ethio­pian customers while introducing the neighborhood’s new, deep-pocketed residents to Ethiopian cuisine. Zenebech Dessu and her husband purchased the building and opened the restaurant in 1998, back when storefronts stood vacant and the city hadn’t yet invested in reopening the crumbling Howard Theatre nearby.

“When the area changed, it’s been good for us,” said Zenebech Dessu, 64, the restaurant’s owner and namesake. “Most of my customers are American now.”

In a neighborhood filled with residents who can pay more than $2,000 a month in rent, Dessu’s family turned down offer after offer from interested developers over the years. But this year they decided to sell, and the restaurant, which is scouting out new locations, plans to close this month. It’s a loss for the tight-knit Ethio­pian community and the restaurant’s newer patrons who flock there for a $3.50 beer and a cheap sit-down meal.

Zenebech Restaurant, left, is a popular Ethiopian eatery in the District’s Shaw neighborhood. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Read more at The Washington Post »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Reuters

UPDATED: OCTOBER 4, 2016

Protests broke out in some areas of Ethiopia’s Oromiya region, a day after dozens of people were killed in a stampede at a religious festival sparked by a bid by police to quell demonstrations, witnesses said.

Opposition politicians and government officials gave contrasting tolls of casualties that took place during the annual Irreecha festival in the town of Bishoftu, some 40km south of the capital Addis Ababa, where police fired teargas and shots in the air to disperse protesters.

The manager of the town’s government-operated referral hospital said the death toll had risen to 55, with 100 injured, from 52 dead on Sunday.

An opposition leader told Reuters the number of dead stood at around 150.

Photo: Reuters

(Photo: Reuters)

On Monday, witnesses said crowds took to the streets in Oromiya’s Ambo, Guder, Bule Hora and other towns in response to the deaths.

“Shots are still being fired. Everything remains shut – Ambo has been brought to a standstill,” said Mesfin, a university student who did not want to give his full name out of fear of reprisal.

Two other residents of the other towns said scuffles took place between demonstrators and police.
The region’s assistant police chief told journalists that “widespread disturbances” had taken place in several parts of the region.

Experts say that after 25 years of control over the country’s public life, the ruling party is facing its biggest political challenge yet. (Reuters)

“Roads have been blocked, while government offices and vehicles have been burnt down. Police are trying to put an end to all this,” said Sorri Dinka, deputy commissioner of the Oromiya Police Commission.

The Horn of Africa country has declared three days of national mourning, with flags flying at half mast throughout the country to pay tribute to the victims.

Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromiya over the last two years, initially triggered by a land row but increasingly turning more broadly against the government.

Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, said Sunday’s death toll had climbed to 150 people and that some of the victims were shot dead by police, contrary to official claims.

—
Ethiopia: Deadly Stampede at Protest During Irrecha Festival in Bishoftu (AP)

Raw Video — Dozens Dead During Stampede in Ethiopia (AP)

The Associated Press

By Elias Meseret 

BISHOFTU, Ethiopia — Dozens of people were crushed to death Sunday in a stampede after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an anti-government protest that grew out of a massive religious festival, witnesses said. The Oromia regional government confirmed the death toll at 52.

“I almost died in that place today,” said one shaken protester who gave his name only as Elias. Mud-covered and shoeless, he said he had been dragged out of a deep ditch that many people fell into as they tried to flee.

The first to fall in had suffocated, he said.

“Many people have managed to get out alive, but I’m sure many more others were down there,” he said. “It is really shocking.”

The stampede occurred in one of the East African country’s most politically sensitive regions, Oromia, which has seen months of sometimes deadly demonstrations demanding wider freedoms.

An estimated 2 million people were attending the annual Irrecha thanksgiving festival in the town of Bishoftu, southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, when people began chanting slogans against the government, according to witnesses.

The chanting crowds pressed toward a stage where religious leaders were speaking, the witnesses said, and some threw rocks and plastic bottles.

Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, and people tried to flee. Some were crushed in nearby ditches, witnesses said.

In its statement, the Oromia regional government blamed “evil acts masterminded by forces who are irresponsible,” and it denied that the deaths were caused by any actions by security forces.

Mulatu Gemechu of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress told The Associated Press that his sources at hospitals said at least 52 people were dead as of Sunday evening, but he thought the figure would rise.

The protesters were peaceful and did not carry anything to harm police, he said.

Before the stampede, an AP reporter saw small groups of people walking in the crowd and holding up their crossed wrists in a popular gesture of protest.

The reporter also saw police firing tear gas and, later, several injured people.

Read more »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Sunday, October 2nd, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — “I wanted to capture a day in the life of a young person thriving in Addis — where they might live or go to unwind, or how they might fall in love,” says Wayna regarding her latest music video entitled Amazing, which was filmed in Ethiopia’s capital earlier this year and released online last week.

The Ethiopian-born Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter who is based in Washington DC says: “We often see love stories told in the context of cities like New York or Paris; this is a testament to the beauty of Addis Ababa, which has its own unique personality.”

Wayna in Addis Ababa. (Courtesy photo)

Wayna shot the video while residing for three months and performing in Ethiopia this past year, with the song Amazing featuring the theme of new love in the streets of Addis Ababa. According to announcement “the reggae and hip hop-infused song is produced by DC-based beatmaker SlimKat78 and mixed by multi-Grammy award winning engineer Russell Elevado (D’Angelo, Angelique Kidjo).”

Wayna first worked as a writer in the Clinton White House before leaving to pursue music, and has since released three albums including Higher Ground that was nominated for the 2009 Grammy Awards in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance Category. In addition, the Ethiopian American R&B singer has performed at various prestigious venues “across the US and abroad including shows at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Essence Fest, the White House, the Blue Note and Blues Alley,” states the artist’s website. “In 2015, she joined the iconic Stevie Wonder as a supporting vocalist and soloist in his live band, touring extensively with the Songs In the Key of Life Tour and in various performances throughout the US and Canada.”

Wayna’s music video Amazing was shot in Ethiopia by director Elias Wondemu (Mehari Brothers, Fikreaddis Nekatibeb).

Watch: “Amazing” by Wayna — Music Video ‘Amazing’ Filmed in Ethiopia

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Forbes

How This Ethiopian Fashion Designer Is Using Local Resources And Creating Jobs

There’s an odd sense of vertigo when you see a face you recognize in a glossy magazine. Still, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Abai Schulze confidently gazing at me from the magazine rack. In an economics class full of the standard George Washington University overachievers, she stood out. Even then she spoke about her twin passions of fashion and improving life in Ethiopia, the country of her birth.

That struck me as an odd pairing at the time. But not long after graduation, Schulze founded ZAAF, a premium leather goods and accessories collection handcrafted by artisans in Ethiopia. She’s one of a rising tide of African designers, such as Maki Oh from Nigeria, aAks from Ghana, among others.

Schultze recently turned 28 but started the business when she was 25. ZAAF brought in revenue of $160k last year and has 15 full-time employees and an additional 5-7 part-time employees depending on the season. They are based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. However, I wanted to know more about Schulze’s company. How did the company work? What was it like for a young woman born in Ethiopia but raised in the U.S. to start a company that would help people in her home country as well as make a profit? And, was it all too good to be true? Here’s what she had to say:

What have you learned from building a company at the young age of 25?

Abai Schulze [Founder and Creative Director at ZAAF]: It’s been an amazing rough and tumble adventure full of challenges. I’m lucky enough to have made mistakes that will serve me well for the future (where the stake will be greater) but in a context where missteps are not fatal for the endeavor. It’s also made it very clear that each and every entrepreneurial project I take on is very binary – I either go 120% or not at all. You shouldn’t be half-hearted about blazing a personal trail or endeavor.

Read more at Forbes.com »

—
Related:
Tadias interview with Abai Schulze: Owner of Zaaf Collection, a Luxury Handbag Brand

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Reuters

ADDIS ABABA — Orthodox priests lit a bonfire in the heart of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday evening to mark the eve of Meskel, a festival to mark the finding of the cross of Jesus.

Tens of thousands of people, many holding up candles in the failing light as the sun set, crowded on terraces around the square where the ceremony was led by the head of Ethiopia’s Christian Orthodox church, Patriarch Abune Mathias.

Dressed in his golden ceremonial robes, the patriarch delivered blessings to mark what the church believes was the discovery in the fourth century of the cross of Jesus by Queen Helena, the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.

According to tradition, in 326 AD, Helena had prayed for guidance to find the cross on which Jesus was crucified and was directed by smoke from a burning fire to the location. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians believe she lit torches to celebrate.

The celebration, in which hundreds or orthodox priests and deacons take part dressed in white robes, starts in the afternoon and ends after sunset, bringing the capital to a halt around its biggest square, which is called Meskel, the word for cross in the liturgical Ge’ez language.

Meskel festival at Meskel Square in Addis Ababa, September 26, 2016. (Photo REUTERS

Ethiopian Orthodox Priest holds a cross during the Meskel Festival at the Meskel Square in Addis Ababa, September 26, 2016. (Photo REUTERS)

The celebration has taken place in Addis Ababa since the city was founded more than 100 years ago.

Read more and see photos at Reuters.com »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

The Associated Press

Updated: Sep. 27, 2016

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A defensive Donald Trump gave Hillary Clinton plenty of fresh material for the next phase of her presidential campaign on Tuesday, choosing to publicly reopen and relitigate some her most damaging attacks.

The day after his first general election debate, Trump blamed the moderator, a bad microphone and anyone but himself for his performance. Next time, he threatened, he might get more personal and make a bigger political issue of former President Bill Clinton’s marital infidelities.

Things are already getting plenty personal. On Monday night, Trump brushed off Clinton’s debate claim that he’d once shamed a former Miss Universe winner for her weight. But then he dug deeper the next day — extending the controversy over what was one of his most negative debate night moments.

“She gained a massive amount of weight. It was a real problem. We had a real problem,” Trump told “Fox and Friends” about Alicia Machado, the 1996 winner of the pageant he once owned.

The comments were reminiscent of previous times when Trump has attacked private citizens in deeply personal terms. Earlier this month, he was interrupted by the pastor of a traditionally African-American church in Flint, Michigan, after breaking his agreement not to be political in his remarks. Though Trump abided by her wishes, he went after her the next morning on TV saying she was “a nervous mess” and that he thought “something was up.”

In July, Trump assailed the parents of Humayun Khan, a Muslim U.S. solider who was killed in Iraq in 2004, after the young man’s father spoke out against the Republican at the Democratic National Convention.

Trump’s latest comments about Machado were striking in that they came just as he was working to broaden his appeal among minority voters and women — key demographic groups he’s struggling to win.

Clinton aides on Tuesday that they’d laid a trap for Trump.

“He seemed unable to handle that big stage,” said Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. “By the end, with kind of snorting and the water gulping and leaning on the lectern that he just seemed really out of gas.”

Clinton interrupted a discussion of foreign policy in the final moments of the debate to remind viewers that Trump had called Machado “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.” A video featuring Machado, a Clinton supporter, was released less than two hours after the debate finished.

Read more »

—-
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Monday, September 26th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — The first presidential debate of this election season between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is scheduled to take place at Hofstra University in New York on Monday night, with approximately 100 million viewers expected to be watching.

“For Clinton, a veteran debater, one of her biggest challenges will be both to provoke Trump and avoid being provoked by him, while delivering an earnest and candid performance. And for Trump, who had uneven and at times explosive debate performances during the Republican primary, his first one-on-one debate presents a serious test of his ability to stay on script and keep his cool” CNN notes.

The high-stakes face-off between the two candidates could set the tone for the rest of the election season, according to Matthew Dallek of George Washington University who points out that “the first of the three debates, traditionally the most watched, comes at a potentially game-changing moment.” Dallek told VOA news that “right now the election is closer than a lot of people anticipated, and so it matters a great deal for both of them.”

George Mason University Associate Professor of Government Jeremy Mayer notes: “In a normal year, the debates are one of the only ways to move the needles after the conventions. They are the moment where more people tune in and watch. What a debate can do is give a candidate a second chance to make a different impression or cement a negative impression.”

Per NBC: The Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debate on Monday night won’t just be an argument over different policy visions. It will also be a contest about whether policy details are important at all. It will feature one super-wonky candidate who sounds like she could run the Federal Reserve and her opponent, who often speaks like a pundit analyzing the campaign instead of a man who could soon lead the world’s most influential nation.”

Watch: Clinton and Trump: Countdown to First One-On-One Showdown

—
Related:
5 things to watch at Monday night’s Clinton-Trump debate

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Michigan Radio WUOM FM

As part of our Songs from Studio East series we’re exploring music that combines both contemporary and traditional music from around the globe.

Today we meet Temesgen Hussein of East Lansing. He was born and raised in Ethiopia. And he’s one of just a few outside that country who plays the begena.

It’s used mainly in religious festivities almost exclusively, but Temesgen is breaking with tradition and introducing the begena to contemporary music.

The buzzing sound is what makes this harp unique. Not only does the begena sound different, it looks really different.

Read more at Michiganradio.org »

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Wednesday, September 21st, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — There is much to reflect on Ethiopia at the moment, and a collection of thought-provoking images from Addis Ababa to Gambella, Lalibela and Harar captured by a new generation of Ethiopian photographers will be on display at the 2016 Photoville exhibition in Brooklyn this week (from September 21st to 25th).

Photoville and United Photo Industries have announced that the participating artists from Ethiopia include Eyerusalem Adugna, whose collection of portraits taken in Lalibela entitled Faithfully celebrates Ethiopia’s ancient city, as well as Addis Ababa-based self-taught photographer Hilina Abebe’s Humans-in-exile exhibit features camps in Gambella, Western Ethiopia populated by South Sudanese refugees. In addition, photos from Addis by Instagrammer and Getty Images grant winner Girma Berta are featured under the Getty Images Instagram Grant section.

‘Faithfully’ taken in Lalibela by Eyerusalem Adugna

“I took these pictures in one of the biggest markets in the city of Lalibela,” says Eyerusalem Adugna. “As a fashion designer and photographer, I found people that visually caught my attention.” She adds: “I wanted to show colorful and stylish people in different ages. Basically, I was looking for fashion inspiration in the area, because people wear their best clothes when they go to the market.”

Photoville notes that “Eyerusalem Adugna was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She pursued her high school education in Ethio-Parents’ School and continued studying C.A.D.D in the States. Eyerusalem is currently a fashion designer. She realized her interest in photography during the past three years and has been working on building her knowledge since then. Eyerusalem enjoys photography because she wants to document history and use it as a form of artistic communication and expression. She has participated in photo exhibitions and competitions and also works as a freelance photographer.”

‘Humans-in-exile’ taken at a refugee camp in Gambella by Hilina Abebe

With “a background in journalism and communications, and a keen interest in society,” photographer Hilina Abebe “hopes to combine the two with photography to spark people’s interests. Hilina is inspired by the infinite potential of visual art and creativity. She strives to use the camera to tell stories that have social significance.”

“When war broke out in South Sudan in December 2013, hundreds of thousands of people fled to the unknown in neighboring countries,” Hilina Abebe says. “By April 2016, more than 280,000 people had taken shelter in refugee camps in Western Ethiopia. The majority are women and children.” Hilina recalls: “As I walked through one of the refugee camps in Gambella, the thing that struck me the most was how normal life seemed for everyone, how they carried themselves despite their status as “refugees” and their uncertain future. This work seeks to show the everyday life of those in exile — not as boxed-in refugees in a camp, but as human beings who thrive to live.”

Below are more photos by Hilina Abebe & Eyerusalem Adugna:

(Photos: Harrar by Eyerusalem Adugna)

Ankober town by Hilina Abebe

—
You can learn more about the exhibition at www.photoville.com

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

QUARTZ Africa

A life of discrimination and fear led an Ethiopian marathoner to protest on the world stage

At night, Feyisa Lilesa and his friends hid in the farms to evade the security forces who were arresting people across the country. As a 15-year-old growing up in Oromia region, Lilesa says he was always aware that many of his fellow citizens didn’t approve of the government’s treatment.

But the moment of awakening for him came in the days and weeks following the landmark May 2005 elections. Championed by the government as a genuine exercise in competitive elections, the vote involved multiple parties, not to mention the significantly enlarged space for political campaigning.

However, when the early outcome of the vote showed a huge lead from opposition groups, the government delayed finalizing the count and responded to protests with a heavy-handed approach. An independent study of the post-election violence by an Ethiopian judge showed the shooting, beating and strangling of almost 200 people, including 40 teenagers. The government also arbitrarily arrested protesters, with police records showing the detention of 20,000 people during the anti-government protests.

When Oromo citizens started demanding justice and demonstrating in Lilesa’s hometown in Jeldu district, the police came to arrest them en masse. Lilesa said that during the day they could be careful about their movements, but at night, under the cloak of the dark, they would go hiding among the unharvested crops.
“This all made an impression on me,” Lilesa told Quartz. “I realized no one was safe.”

On Aug. 21, on the last day of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Lilesa took the memory of those frightful teenage days on to the world stage. Inching closer towards the finish line, with his silver-medal win guaranteed and millions of people watching the televised 26.2 mile-race, Lilesa raised his arms and crossed them in an X, a gesture of solidarity with his people’s protest against Ethiopia’s government.

Feyisa Lilesa makes the crossed fists sign as he finishes in second place at the 2016 Rio Olympics on Aug. 21, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Read more »

—
Related:
U.S. Congressman Chris Smith Calls Out Ethiopia Rights Abuses
Olympic Hero Feyisa Lilesa Calls on US to Push for Human Rights in Ethiopia
Joint letter to UN Human Rights Council on Ethiopia
US Ambassador to UN on ‘Excessive Use of Force’ Against Ethiopia Protesters

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

New America Media

The U.S. Constitution: it’s a legalistic document that takes about a half-hour to read. Yet it changed the course of history, by encoding the basic principles and values that have managed to sustain our nation as a beacon burning bright for the world for more than two centuries.

Which is why U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) takes special pride in naturalizing new citizens – good people drawn by that beacon — during Constitution Week. These ceremonies are an appreciation of the historic connection to the roughly 4,500 words that these brand-new Americans just swore an oath to support and defend.

That includes the 14th Amendment which made it possible for them to even become Americans. The same sentence that granted citizenship to former slaves also answered a larger question of who is a citizen: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. … ”

During Constitution Week, USCIS honors two events: the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, and an observance that began in 1940 as “I Am an American Day” that we now call “Citizenship Day.”

At naturalization ceremonies across the country, new Americans will be reminded about the significance of our nation’s Constitution as they celebrate achieving their dreams of becoming United States citizens. Once they recite the Oath of Allegiance, they, too, will enjoy the rights and freedoms we share because of the strides our founders took to secure the “Blessings of Liberty” for all Americans. Our new fellow citizens will now become part of the journey as we continue to create a more perfect Union.

As we honor the importance of citizenship, we also celebrate the ideals enshrined in the Constitution. Those fundamental and enduring principles are as relevant today as they were more than 200 years ago, and have served to guide our nation as it has grown, prospered, and become a beacon of hope and opportunity for millions of people around the world.

Immigrants in the United States have always had a profound impact on our country and the world. They strengthen the fabric of our nation with their contributions to American society and prosperity.

Generations of immigrants have come to this country seeking a place where democracy is not just an ideal, but a reality; where opportunities are available for everyone, regardless of race, gender, religion or country of origin.

Deciding to become a U.S. citizen is a very important and deeply personal milestone in an immigrant’s life. Individuals must demonstrate a commitment to the unifying principles that bind us as Americans and, in return, will enjoy many of the rights and privileges that are fundamental to U.S. citizenship.

To help in that journey, we have launched new tools on our website, uscis.gov, to help our customers. Emma, our interactive virtual assistant, is ready to answer questions in English and Spanish. She will help customers navigate our website to ensure they find the information they need.

Our Citizenship Resource Center is a free, easy-to-use portal that helps users understand the naturalization process and gain the necessary skills to be successful during the naturalization interview and test. Learners, teachers and organizations can find information geared specifically to them, and the portal also provides information in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

I’m also excited to share the civics practice test videos we have put on our YouTube channel to help customers better prepare for their naturalization test.

Each year we naturalize noncitizens who chose to defend their adopted country by joining the U.S. military. Noncitizen members of the U.S. armed forces and their families can find resources at www.uscis.gov/military.

We are a country built on immigration and by immigrants, as famously noted in Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus” at the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free… I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” As the director of USCIS, there is no greater honor than administering the Oath of Allegiance to new U.S. citizens. This week, let us remember and celebrate the importance of citizenship and the Constitution, which promotes “the general Welfare” and “Blessings of Liberty” to America and all of her people.

—
For free educational tools and information about citizenship preparation, please visit uscis.gov/citizenship.

Related:
Watch: This is What America Looks Like: Tefere Gebre Helps Immigrants to Vote

Tefere Gebre: Don’t tell me I’m not American – The True story of my journey from Ethiopia to the U.S.
What Will the Next US President Mean for Africa?

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Thursday, September 15th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Here comes a captivating publication shining a spotlight on the previously unexplored period of the public life of Ethiopia’s former Emperor Haile Selassie during his years as a refugee in Bath, England from 1936 to 1940. The book entitled Imperial Exile by Keith Bowers, a former executive producer for the BBC, will be released in the U.S. this month by Tsehai Publishers. “With the plight of refugees constantly in the news” this profile “is as timely as it is intriguing,” states the press release.

“Emperor Haile Selassie was forced to flee Ethiopia to escape the invading armies of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini,” Tsehai Publishers notes. “Imperial Exile reveals the full depth of the debilitating struggles that all exiles face. It tells the story of how the emperor is nearly crushed by a myriad of financial, political and personal pressures before a sudden twist of good fortune intervenes. The book is packed with beguiling eyewitness anecdotes, supported by a range of rare and fascinating photographs of both Britain and Ethiopia.”

In his endorsement of the book historian Richard Pankhurst states: “The important period of the Emperor’s exile in Bath has not received much attention. This thoroughly researched book fills the gap.” Scholar Ian Campbell, author of The Plot to Kill Graziani, adds: “it is a must-read for anyone interested in the modern history of Ethiopia.” And British political commentator and writer Jonathan Dimbleby argues that the book “adds substantially to the story of this important and fascinating world figure.”

A book release is scheduled in Washington D.C. on September 22nd at the Library of Congress hosted by Tsehai Publishers with author Keith Bowers in attendance.

On his website Bowers shares: “I love both Bath and Ethiopia, places which are at the heart of Imperial Exile. I have lived in Bath since 2013 and enjoy exploring the nooks and crannies of the city on my bike as well as the exquisite surrounding countryside. My first trip to Ethiopia was in 2001 and I was instantly entranced by the country’s history, culture, music and cuisine. Before that I worked for the BBC for 20 years and started the Correspondent international TV programme.”

—-
If You Go:
Book release events for Imperial Exile

Date: Thursday, September 22nd, 2016 (12 noon-1pm)
Venue: The African & Middle Eastern Reading Room at the Library of Congress
Address: 101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540

Date: Saturday, September 24th (3:00pm)
Venue: The Arta Ale restaurant
Address: 2310 Price Avenue
Silver Spring, MD
240-221-3349
info@ertaaleethiopianrestaurant.com

You can learn more and purchase the book at tsehaipublishers.com.

Related:
New Book on Triumph & Tragedy of Ethiopia’s Last Emperor Haile Selassie (TADIAS)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Tuesday, September 13th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Los Angeles, California, which is home to the only official Little-Ethiopia neighborhood in America, is also headquarters for Azla Vegan, a family-owned Ethiopian restaurant — located near the University of Southern California (USC) — that we first featured in 2013 in an interview with owner Nesanet Teshager Abegaze as it first opened. This week, Azla Vegan will be featured on the Food Network‘s television episode of “Cosmopolitan Comfort: Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.”

Azla Mekonen and her daughter Nesanet Teshager Abegaze with Guy Fieri of Food Network at their family owned business Azla Vegan in Los Angeles. (Courtesy photo)

According to the Food Network the segment on Azla Vegan will air on Friday, September 16th and Saturday September 17th hosted by the show’s star Guy Fieri.

Food by Azla Vegan. (Photo by Kayla Reefer)

“This trip, Guy Fieri’s grabbing all kinds of cosmopolitan comfort food,” the Food Network announced. “In Los Angeles, a mother-daughter team dishing out authentic Ethiopian specialties.”

“In the summer of 2013, head chef Azla joined forces with her youngest daughter, Nesanet to open the first Ethiopian restaurant in South Los Angeles,” shares the restaurant’s website. “Azla’s culinary expertise and commitment to traditional wisdom is complemented by Nesanet’s extensive studies and work in the education, wellness, and marketing industries. Nesanet’s training in Biological Sciences at Stanford University and UCLA, her studies at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and yoga instructor certification greatly inform ingredient choices and food preparation techniques at Azla. In addition to serving delicious, nutrient dense food, the Azla team is committed to building community through arts and cultural programming, all while providing space for a return to the ceremonious nature of breaking bread with friends and family.”

—
You can learn more about the show at www.foodnetwork.com and Azla Vegan at www.azlavegan.com. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Soundcloud handles are @azlavegan.

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

VOA News

Feyisa Lilesa, the Ethiopian silver medalist in the marathon at last month’s Rio Olympics, was in Washington this week, calling on the U.S. Congress to take action in solidarity with Ethiopians protesting their government.

“I know that Americans are peace-loving people. My people are also peace-loving people, but they have been denied peace for a very long time,” he said in his native Afaan Oromoo at a news conference Tuesday on Capitol Hill. “People are calling for the freedom, democracy that you have here. We want the same things, and I call on the U.S. government to urge the Ethiopian government to make sure that democracy prevails in Ethiopia.”

Lilesa gained worldwide attention when he crossed his wrists as a sign of protest as he approached the finish line during the Rio men’s marathon. He is Oromo and made the gesture in solidarity with Oromo protests that have occurred in Ethiopia since last November over issues including land rights and fair representation in the government.

U.S. Representatives Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican; Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat; and Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican, presented House Resolution 861, “Supporting Human Rights and Encouraging Inclusive Governance in Ethiopia,” during the news conference. The resolution calls on the government of Ethiopia to end the use of excessive force by security forces and investigate the killings and disturbances during protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions. It also urges the government to hold security forces accountable for wrongdoing through public proceedings.

Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia arrives at a news conference in Washington, DC, September 13, 2016. (Reuters)

Smith said he met with Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, in New York to discuss human rights issues in Ethiopia.

“He’s called for a major fact-finding effort where we could get to the bottom of people who are being killed, tortured, slaughtered in the streets, and then to hold the perpetrators of these crimes to account,” the lawmaker said.

Eleven civil society organizations have signed the resolution.

“It’s an effort to say to Ethiopia, ‘Yes, you’ve been friends and allies in the war on terror. You’ve got some very good things with regards to Somalia, but you are mistreating your own people and it’s time we spoke out,’ ” Smith said.

Since Lilesa made his gesture, other athletes have followed suit. Ebisa Ejigu crossed his arms in the Quebec City Marathon in Canada, and Tamiru Demisse, an Ethiopian paralympic runner, did the same as he won his silver medal in the men’s 1,500 meters for the visually impaired at the Paralympics in Rio.

Lilesa, in the U.S. on a temporary visa, said he was figuring out his future but was not seeking asylum in the U.S.

—-
Washington Post Interview With Feyisa Lilesa

Feyisa Lilesa said of his Olympic gesture: ‘It’s almost as if I opened the shutters and now people can know, people can hear.’ (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

The Washington Post

September 13th, 2016

Marathoner Feyisa Lilesa packed his bags and left his wife and two children last month, with plans to post a blazing fast time at the Summer Olympics, earn a spot on the medal podium, bring attention to the plight of his people — and most likely never be able to return home.

“It was very hard to say good-bye,” said the Ethiopian long-distance runner, “but I also knew that it’s not harder than what people are going through in my country.”

Lilesa indeed won silver at the Rio de Janeiro Games and made international headlines when he approached the finish line with his wrists crossed, flashing an “X” symbol that the world soon learned was a bold protest against the treatment of his people by Ethiopian government. He has lived in limbo since, convinced that if he returned to Ethiopia he would be imprisoned or possibly killed.

After nearly three weeks of uncertainty, living covertly in a Rio hotel room, the 26-year-old finally left Brazil and arrived in Washington last week, a temporary stop en route to a new life, one in which he’s indefinitely separated from his family, constantly worried for their safety and thrust onto a global stage as a visible lightning rod for political dissent back in his native country.

“I think what I did is good so far because the government has shut off the people’s voices and no one knows about the fight,” Lilesa said Monday in an interview with The Washington Post through an interpreter. “It’s almost as if I opened the shutters and now people can know, people can hear.”

Read more at The Washington Post »

—
Related:
VOA Interview: Feyisa Lilesa Says Olympic Protest Was Planned
From Rio to America: Olympian Feyisa Lilesa’s Washington Post Op-Ed
Olympian Feyisa Lilesa Arrives in the U.S.
In Seattle, African Athletics Org Renames 5k Race ‘Feyisa Lilesa Heroic Run’
In Pictures: Feyisa Lilesa’s Daring Protest Reminiscent of 1968 Olympics
Over $100000 Raised For Ethiopian Olympian Runner
Medallist Feyisa Lilesa fails to return to Ethiopia after Olympics protest
Olympian Feyisa Lilesa Shows Solidarity With Protesters in Ethiopia at Rio Games
Ethiopia Says Protesting Marathoner to Be Welcomed as Hero, But Does He Want to Go?
Ethiopia ‘hero’ runner gets asylum donations after Oromo protest sign
Olympian Feyisa Lilesa Shows Solidarity With Protesters in Ethiopia at Rio Games »
Ethiopia Olympian Feyisa Lilesa Protests Government With Marathon Medal
Ethiopian Marathoner’s Protest Puts Him at Odds With His Government
Ethiopian runner makes protest sign as he crosses line in Rio
Rio 2016 Olympics: Genzebe Dibaba Takes Silver Medal in the Women’s 1,500 Meters
Rio 2016 Olympics: Etenesh Diro Advances to 3,000-Meter Steeplechase With 1 Shoe
Ethiopia’s First Gold at Rio Olympics: Almaz Ayana Smashes 10,000m Record
Ethiopia’s Olympic Swimmer Robel Kiros: Body Shaming & Questions of Nepotism
All Eyes on Brazil as 2016 Olympics Starts

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Saturday, September 10th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — In the new Ethiopian year we share our wish for peace, stability, freedom, progress and love for all our brothers and sisters. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, and hope the brightness of Ethiopia’s stunning landscape covered in Meskel flowers in this season uplifts spirits and reunites hearts and minds!

—
Related:
17 Artists Cancel New Year Concerts Due to Protests
Unrest mars Ethiopia’s New Year, Eid parties

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Friday, September 9th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopia-inspired furniture by U.S.-based Jomo Tariku, Founder of Jomo Design Furniture and Hamere Demissie of Actuel Urban Living will be featured at this year’s international Dubai Design Week festival in October.

According to the festival press release Jomo and Hamere’s works were selected as part of “design concepts from five international design weeks from across the globe, including Design Week Addis,” which brings to the event “the modern-inspired minimalist spirit of traditional Ethiopian design made locally by skilled artisans.”

Hamere Demissie’s Actuel Urban Living “will be previewing a collection of furniture, rugs and textiles with a refined organic feel, while Jomo Design Furniture will display a contemporary take on traditional African chairs crafted in hardwoods, inspired by African hand carvings, baskets and traditional woven textiles,” states the press release from Dubai Design Week.

Makeda armchair. Made of solid wood frame upholstered with the greatest care. (Photo: Actuel Urban Living)

The Founder of Design Week Addis Ababa, Metasebia Yoseph, adds: “As a newly created design week, we are looking forward to the exposure of being a part of Destination and joining the global conversation on design. The emerging design scene in Ethiopia is groundbreaking, and Dubai Design Week is the perfect platform to showcase the unique work coming out of the region to a design savvy global audience.”

Jomo’s products — which were highlighted in the Thames & Hudson publication entitled Contemporary Design Africa that was released in June 2015 — celebrate the traditional aesthetic of Ethiopian household items with modern design and artistic sensibilities. Jomo, who lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area, says his designs are available for licensing and could be manufactured for any potential large orders, adding that “the furniture pieces will look great inside one of the many lodges and hotels found all over Africa as well as any residences that want to have unique spaces.”

Ethiopian furniture by Jomo Design featured in the book “Contemporary Design Africa.” (Courtesy photo)

—
Dubai Design Week is scheduled to take place October 24th-29th, 2016. You can learn more about the festival at www.dubaidesignweek.ae.

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

VOA News

Cartoonists are having a ball with this election.

Trump’s bombast and Clinton’s caution put both candidates at the center of nearly every satirist’s jokes.

Both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton are well-known to the public. Their campaigns are also fraught with scandal, secrets and vastly different ideas.

(Drawing by Politico Magazine Cartoonist Matt Wuerker)

“It’s easy to depict [Trump] as a 70-year-old balloon of bombast, topped by artificial-looking hair— colors that don’t exist in nature.” – Michael Cavna | Washington Post. (Drawing by Politico Magazine Cartoonist Matt Wuerker)

(Drawings by Ramses Morales Izquierdo | Cuba and Oleh Smal | Ukraine)

VOA spoke to Pulitzer Prize-winning POLITICO cartoonist Matt Wuerker and Washington Post’s “Comic Riffs” cartoonist Michael Cavna on how this cycle’s cartoons differ from previous elections.

Trump is no stranger to the limelight

His years in the real-estate business and reality TV made him a household name and the butt of many jokes.

Donald Trump’s signature phrases have evolved from his days on “The Apprentice” (“You’re fired!”) to the campaign trail (“It’s going to be huge!”). He is extremely recognizable with his orange-tinted skin and wispy blond hair.

VIDEO: Cavna on Trump’s unique hair and the art of the the comb-over

“It’s hard to satirize somebody who is already way out there. So Trump tests you that way.” – Matt Wuerker | POLITICO Cartoonist

Donald Trump presents a unique challenge for cartoonists. Since Trump already exaggerates the way he speaks and presents himself, cartoonists have to find original ways to portray him.

Cartoonists emphasize Trump’s physical appearance and portray him as attention-seeking, loud-mouthed bully.

Some international cartoonists have depicted Trump as Godzilla, a Ku Klux Klan member and even Adolf Hitler.

VIDEO: How cartoonists around the world see Trump

The Clinton Legacy

Hillary Clinton has been on cartoonists’ drawing boards for decades.

Before the campaign, she served as secretary of state, first lady and U.S. senator from New York.

Drawing ‘Two-Faced’ Hillary

Hillary Clinton’s years in the spotlight have helped damage her public image: her husband, former President Bill Clinton’s affair while in office; her failed presidential bid in 2008; a deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, during her time as secretary of state; and, most recently, a scandal over her use of a private email server while at State.

For some, Clinton has a reputation of being dishonest, inauthentic and willing to do anything to become president.

Cartoonists emphasize Clinton’s political correctness and portray her as robotic, dishonest and pandering to the electorate to win the presidency.

VIDEO: Cavna on capturing Clinton’s exaggerated ambition

“A lot of people don’t realize that political cartoonists… fancy ourselves just as serious as a political columnist.” -Matt Wuerker | POLITICO

Cartoonists have targeted both candidates’ high poll ratings for “unlikeability.” They share a belief that the presidential election will come down to which of the two is disliked, or even hated, less.

—
Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Recent works by Ethiopian designer Fikirte Addis, Founder & Creative Director of the Addis Ababa-based clothing line Yefikr Design, will be featured on September 10th during the New York Fashion Week Africa at Adiree Concept Store in downtown Manhattan.

Fikirte Addis, who is also a psychologist, “perfectly blends her love and passion for children and culture with creativity in her work,” Africa Fashion Week (AFW) notes. “Her label, Yefikir Design, celebrates urban Africa, featuring everyday wear in Ethiopia. Fikirte gets her inspiration from Ethiopian culture and the vibrant environment to reflect the everyday life of the people. She designs clothing from casual to wedding dresses mainly for women.”

Fikirte says she started designing in high school and launched her own company, Yefikir Design, in 2009. She states, “It is important for me not to lose the connection I have with my culture, just giving it a modern twist and bringing it to the international fashion arena.” Most of Fikirte’s fabrics are made from handspun cotton with design intended to provide comfort while maintaining top-tier style.

Photos: Fikirte Addis designs at Caribbean Fashion Week 2013. (Facebook)

Ethiopian Designer Fikirte Addis. (Courtesy photo/Facebook)

Africa Fashion Week adds: “Fikirte’s design aesthetic gently weaves between modern and traditional styles; using fabrics made by hand, assisted by a weaving machine, albeit producing clothing through century old techniques. Yefikr Design is mainly known for turning this fabric into tailor-made and fashionable designs without losing its cultural touch for the modern day woman..the Ethiopian designer is known for giving everyday cultural wear a modern twist.”

—
If You Go:
NYFWAfrica featuring Designer Fikirte Addis
Saturday, September 10, 2016 from 3:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
Adiree Concept Store (SOHO)
104 Charlton St
between Hudson St and Greenwich St.
New York, NY 10014
Click here for Tickets
www.africafashionweekny.com

Related:
Video: Director of Africa Fashion Week in New York speaks to CNN:

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

ThisWeek Community News

The welcome mat is out.

When the New Americans Festival takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at the North YMCA, 1640 Sandalwood Place, it will be as much a chance for “old Americans” to meet and greet their new neighbors as it will be for members of the many refugee and immigrant populations in central Ohio to showcase their cultures and backgrounds.

“This is our focus this year, to really get the American-born population out and dispel some myths about immigrants and refugees,” said Laura Berger, director for development for Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services, the host organization for the event.

“It’s through learning about your neighbor that we can come together and appreciate one another,” said Nadia Kasvin of US Together, a mutual-assistance agency she co-founded in 2003 that works to resettle immigrants.

“In our mission statement, the last two words are ‘for all,’ ” said Malik Wayne More, director of social responsibility for the YMCA of Central Ohio. “We know that if we’re not taking intentional efforts to welcome our newest Americans, then we’re probably not being ‘for all.’ ”

The New American Festival fills a cultural need for refugee and immigrant communities, according to the website of Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services, a nonprofit that assists this population.

According to the organization, learning a new language and culture and establishing a new life in the United States puts pressure on immigrants to assimilate, which puts them at risk of losing the traditions and cultures of their homelands. The New Americans Festival offers an opportunity to share these cultures with others.

Video: Members rehearse dance Aug. 31 in Columbus, preparing to perform at this year’s New Americans International Festival

Read more at Thisweeknews.com »

—
Related:
This is What America Looks Like: Tefere Gebre, VP of AFL-CIO, Helps Immigrants to Vote

Tefere Gebre: Don’t tell me I’m not American – The True story of my journey from Ethiopia to the U.S.

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.