Tag Archives: Seattle

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Seattle Community Center Tries to Bring Together Ethiopians Split by Politics

Voice of America
Ethnic Politics Split US Ethiopians
Community Center tries to bring them together

By Anna Boiko-Weyrauch | Seattle, Washington

August 09, 2011

America’s Ethiopian community has grown quickly since the 1980s and one of its hubs is the northwestern state of Washington. Yet, even though they live a half world away from Ethiopia, these immigrants are still influenced by politics back home.

Differences

In the middle of Seattle, a group of Ethiopian immigrants plays dominos at a community center for the city’s Tigray immigrants – one of the many ethnic groups from Ethiopia.
Many people come to hang out at the lively place which has a bar inside. Similar community centers for other East African ethnic groups are practically within walking distance of each other.

Washington State’s Ethiopian community is vibrant and growing, with anywhere from 10,000-40,000 people. No one knows exactly how many, since many don’t participate in census counts or don’t report their ancestry.

But the population is diverse, mirroring the variety of ethnicities, languages, religions and divisions in their homeland.

“Those social divisions sometimes also translate to political divisions because if you belong to a certain ethnic group you are automatically perceived or in reality you support a certain political ideology or grouping,” says Shakespear Feyissa, who came to America as teenager and is now a lawyer in Seattle.

According to Feyissa, at its worst, ethnic and political differences turn into economic discrimination against fellow Ethiopians.

“You could see people lobbying each other, saying, ‘Don’t go to this certain business because he belongs to certain political group or political party,’ or they say, ‘Don’t go to this business because he either opposes or supports the government.’”

Feyissa opposes the government of Meles Zenawi, who led a rebel takeover of the country 20 years ago, and says he’s lost Ethiopian clients because of it.

“It is difficult for me personally, sometimes. Because I would hear certain ethnicity or certain groups saying, ‘Oh don’t go to him, he doesn’t like certain groups’, just because of my strong political conviction, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

The divisions are hard for people who support the Ethiopian government, too. Mekonnen Kassa works for Microsoft in a Seattle suburb while also heading a pro-government group in his spare time.

“I travel to Ethiopia and meet with the political party leaders,” says Kassa. “And my group also invites government officials to come to the U.S. and meet with Ethiopians here.”

His political involvement has had personal consequences. One time, a stranger who saw him in a restaurant called him selfish – accusing Kassa of supporting the Ethiopian government for personal gain – and told him to leave.

“And at that point I got upset, and we got into a very heated argument, almost very close to a fist fight,” says Kassa. “And those couple of guys who knew me that were at the restaurant had to drag me out of the restaurant.”

Since then, Kassa keeps to himself.

Coming together

Many people recognize that division is a problem within Washington state’s Ethiopian community, and at least one group is trying to move beyond it.

At a summer camp, young Ethiopian-Americans learn Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. The program is run by the Ethiopian Community Center in Seattle. Even though there are community centers for different ethnic groups, the leaders here want to put ethnicity aside, and bring all Ethiopians together as Ethiopians.

“That is the first thing, and when people come here, we want them to feel that this is their home. This is their place equally,” says Mulumebet Retta, who heads the center. “What we are trying to do here is whether you are an Amhara, an Oromo, Tigrey, Guragi, Gambella, whatever ethnic group you are, you are an Ethiopian.”

Retta’s group supports Ethiopian immigrants by connecting them with social services. The center staff works to solve problems which affect everyone in the community, whether it’s taking care of their elders or educating their children.

Seattle lawyer Feyissa believes it’s up to the next generation of Ethiopian-Americans to look beyond ethnic politics.

“The most important things for them, is not belonging to a certain ethnicity, but being Ethiopian, being immigrant,” he says. “So I see hope in that regard.”
—
Click here to listen to Boiko-Weyrauch’s Audio Report

News

Seattle: Ethiopians seek help to open a community center

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Above: Mulu Retta, boardmember of the Ethiopian Community
Mutual Association. The organization is raising funds to build a
community center in South Seattle. (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

Seattle Post Intelligencer
By Scott Gutierrez

Despite its wet and mild climate, the greater Seattle area is home to many East African immigrants, with estimates ranging from 25,000 to 40,000.

“It’s probably more than that,” said Mulu Retta, a member of the Ethiopian Community Mutual Association.

That’s one reason why Retta and her association are trying to start a new Ethiopian community center in South Seattle. They envision a central gathering place that provides youth activities and cultural events, services for seniors and a spot for celebrating holidays, weddings and graduations.

They’ve offered to buy the Faith Temple Community Church building at 8323 Rainier Ave. S. in Rainier Beach for $1.6 million. The church’s congregation moved to a new location and put the building up for sale.

But they’re only halfway to raising $200,000 they need for a down payment. Despite the slow economy, they raised $100,000 in a few months. They’re hoping others in their community will rise to help before an Aug. 31 deadline, said Retta, chairwoman of the association’s building fund committee. Read more.

News, Podcast

Thousands Pay Respect to Victims of Fatal Fire in Seattle

Above: Mourners at Friday’s public memorial service react at
an emotional visual tribute to the Seattle fire victims Friday.
(PHOTO CREDIT: STEVE RINGMAN / SEATTLE TIMES)

Updated: Saturday, June 19, 2010
By Marc Ramirez
Seattle Times staff reporter

One by one, the lives lost to last weekend’s fire in Fremont were celebrated on screen, a series of snapshots taken in happier times. The boy who dreamed of playing point guard for the Boston Celtics. The siblings who adored their older brother. The girl who liked to jump rope. And the young woman who could win any argument she set her mind to.

The emotional slide show capped Friday’s public memorial to those five family members at Seattle Center’s KeyArena. The multicultural crowd, estimated at 3,500, largely reflected an East African population united in grief over the loss of so many young lives. “Your sorrow is our sorrow,” said Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. “Your grief is Seattle’s grief. We walk with you in your grief because we are — and will be — one community.” Killed last Saturday morning in the swift-moving fire at Helen Gebregiorgis’ Fremont apartment were three of her children — Joseph Gebregiorgis, 13, Nisreen Shamam, 6, and Yaseen Shamam, 5; her sister, Eyerusalem Gebregiorgis, 22; and a niece, 7-year-old Nyella Smith, daughter of a third sister, Yordanos Gebregiorgis.

Watch Video: Memorial service for Seattle fire victims


Nisreen Shamam (left), Yaseen Shamam (C) and Joseph Gebregiorgis.


PHOTO BY JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

How You Can Help?
Donations to help family members affected by last Saturday’s blaze can be sent to the Seattle Children’s Fire Fund at any Bank of America branch. Donations also are being accepted at the Red Door tavern in Fremont. There will be a booth at this weekend’s Fremont Fair at North 35th Street and Evanston Avenue North to accept cash donations or gift cards from grocery or department stores. There also will be paper and envelopes available to write condolence notes to the family.

Watch Video: Ethiopian community mourns 5 dead in Seattle fire

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Seattle (Tadias) – As investigators continue to look into the cause of this pasts weekend’s apartment fire in Seattle that killed an Ethiopian family, including four children, the city’s fire chief described the frantic seconds after the blaze erupted Saturday morning in Helen Gebregiorgis’ two-story home in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.

Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean told the media Sunday that the city’s deadliest fire in decades started in the living quarters of Helen Gebregiorgis’ three-bedroom, two-story apartment and spread to the second floor. He said the mother had gone upstairs to tell the others about the fire, grabbed her 5-year-old niece, Samarah Smith, and left the building, thinking the others were behind her. “She believed that the rest were following her and when she got outside they were not,” Dean said during a news conference at Fire Department headquarters in Pioneer Square. “We did find the four children and the aunt in the second floor bathroom, huddled together.”

Gebregiorgis, 31, lost her sons, 13-year-old Joseph Gebregiorgis and 5-year-old Yaseen Shamam, and her 6-year-old daughter, Nisreen Shamam, in the fire in the city’s Fremont neighborhood, the children’s grieving uncle, Daniel Gebregiorgis, told The Seattle Times. Also killed were Helen’s 22-year-old sister, Eyerusalem Gebregiorgis, and 7-year-old niece, Nyella Smith.

Video: Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean reacts to an apartment fire that killed an Ethiopian family

The fire was reported just after 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

According to Seattle’s King5 News, the first emergency vehicle to arrive at the burning apartment building had a problem with a pump that prevented it from spraying water on the fire, but a second unit arrived two minutes later and was able to fight the fire.

“They needed to be able to control what was in front of them before they could go up the stairs,” the Chief said. “There was definitely a delay in firefighters being able to get there. I think in looking at the pictures and what we saw and listening to comments, there was a tremendous amount of fire and smoke prior to the fire department’s arrival, which, again, makes it pretty hard to sustain life in that type of heated environment,” he said.

Dean said the truck with the mechanical problem arrived at 10:09 a.m., and a second truck about two minutes later, and a third at 10:12 a.m.

According to the fire chief, the department prepares for problems because they happen on a regular basis and this weekend’s particular problem would be investigated.

“We do what we call redundancy back-up to make sure that if something happens, we’re prepared for that type of thing,” he said. “In this case something did happen. The second unit came in, they did what they were supposed to do and we continued to fight the fire.”

“Our firefighters are beating themselves up, you know ‘could I have done more,'” the chief said. “Our hearts go out to the ones that lost their loved ones and we recognize there’s an impact on the community, recognize there’s an impact on our firefighters. We will be doing a follow-up with the community.”
—

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New:
Fatal fire may have started in mattress (Seattle Times)

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Video: Thousands pay respects to victims of last Saturday’s fatal fire in Seattle

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Above: Mourners at Friday’s public memorial service react
during an emotional visual tribute to the Seattle fire victims.
(STEVE RINGMAN / SEATTLE TIMES)

Updated: Saturday, June 19, 2010
By Marc Ramirez
Seattle Times staff reporter

One by one, the lives lost to last weekend’s fire in Fremont were celebrated on screen, a series of snapshots taken in happier times.

The boy who dreamed of playing point guard for the Boston Celtics. The siblings who adored their older brother. The girl who liked to jump rope. And the young woman who could win any argument she set her mind to.

The emotional slide show capped Friday’s public memorial to those five family members at Seattle Center’s KeyArena. The multicultural crowd, estimated at 3,500, largely reflected an East African population united in grief over the loss of so many young lives.

“Your sorrow is our sorrow,” said Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. “Your grief is Seattle’s grief. We walk with you in your grief because we are — and will be — one community.”

Killed last Saturday morning in the swift-moving fire at Helen Gebregiorgis’ Fremont apartment were three of her children — Joseph Gebregiorgis, 13, Nisreen Shamam, 6, and Yaseen Shamam, 5; her sister, Eyerusalem Gebregiorgis, 22; and a niece, 7-year-old Nyella Smith, daughter of a third sister, Yordanos Gebregiorgis.

Watch Video: Memorial service for Fremont fire victims


Nisreen Shamam (left), Yaseen Shamam (C) and Joseph Gebregiorgis.
They were killed in last weekend’s apartment fire in Seattle.


PHOTO BY JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Click Here to Donate to Seattle’s Fremont Apartment Fire Victims Fund – Donate Online Now
Donations to help family members affected by last Saturday’s blaze can be sent to the Seattle Children’s Fire Fund at any Bank of America branch. Donations also are being accepted at the Red Door tavern in Fremont. There will be a booth at this weekend’s Fremont Fair at North 35th Street and Evanston Avenue North to accept cash donations or gift cards from grocery or department stores. There also will be paper and envelopes available to write condolence notes to the family. Neighbor Allecia Clemons, a Fremont folk singer, is trying to organize a benefit concert for later in the summer. She can be reached at allecialightlove@hotmail.com.

Watch Video: Ethiopian community mourns 5 dead in Seattle fire

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Seattle (Tadias) – As investigators continue to look into the cause of this pasts weekend’s apartment fire in Seattle that killed an Ethiopian family, including four children, the city’s fire chief described the frantic seconds after the blaze erupted Saturday morning in Helen Gebregiorgis’ two-story home in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.

Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean told the media Sunday that the city’s deadliest fire in decades started in the living quarters of Helen Gebregiorgis’ three-bedroom, two-story apartment and spread to the second floor. He said the mother had gone upstairs to tell the others about the fire, grabbed her 5-year-old niece, Samarah Smith, and left the building, thinking the others were behind her. “She believed that the rest were following her and when she got outside they were not,” Dean said during a news conference at Fire Department headquarters in Pioneer Square. “We did find the four children and the aunt in the second floor bathroom, huddled together.”

Gebregiorgis, 31, lost her sons, 13-year-old Joseph Gebregiorgis and 5-year-old Yaseen Shamam, and her 6-year-old daughter, Nisreen Shamam, in the fire in the city’s Fremont neighborhood, the children’s grieving uncle, Daniel Gebregiorgis, told The Seattle Times. Also killed were Helen’s 22-year-old sister, Eyerusalem Gebregiorgis, and 7-year-old niece, Nyella Smith.

Video: Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean reacts to an apartment fire that killed an Ethiopian family

The fire was reported just after 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

According to Seattle’s King5 News, the first emergency vehicle to arrive at the burning apartment building had a problem with a pump that prevented it from spraying water on the fire, but a second unit arrived two minutes later and was able to fight the fire.

“They needed to be able to control what was in front of them before they could go up the stairs,” the Chief said. “There was definitely a delay in firefighters being able to get there. I think in looking at the pictures and what we saw and listening to comments, there was a tremendous amount of fire and smoke prior to the fire department’s arrival, which, again, makes it pretty hard to sustain life in that type of heated environment,” he said.

Dean said the truck with the mechanical problem arrived at 10:09 a.m., and a second truck about two minutes later, and a third at 10:12 a.m.

According to the fire chief, the department prepares for problems because they happen on a regular basis and this weekend’s particular problem would be investigated.

“We do what we call redundancy back-up to make sure that if something happens, we’re prepared for that type of thing,” he said. “In this case something did happen. The second unit came in, they did what they were supposed to do and we continued to fight the fire.”

“Our firefighters are beating themselves up, you know ‘could I have done more,'” the chief said. “Our hearts go out to the ones that lost their loved ones and we recognize there’s an impact on the community, recognize there’s an impact on our firefighters. We will be doing a follow-up with the community.”
—

New:
Fatal fire may have started in mattress (Seattle Times)

Podcast

$12 Cup Joe in New York? Same Coffee Goes for $2.69 in Seattle

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Above: Fonte Coffee Roaster in Seattle sells the drink made
from Ethiopian Nekisse beans for $2.69 a cup. The same cup
drink goes for $12 a cup at the Chelsea spot of Cafe Grumpy.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Sunday, June 6, 2010

New York (Tadias) – You may remember the recent amusing news story about $12 cup of Ethiopian coffee at Café Grumpy, a local coffee shop chain here in New York.

In her recent article, Melissa Allison, who “tracks Seattle’s — and the world’s — caffeine addiction” for The Seattle Times, writes the same cup of joe costs much less in America’s coffee capital.

“Trabant Coffee & Chai will soon carry one of the hottest tickets in coffee, a Nekisse micro-lot selection from Ethiopia, which recently sold for $12 a cup in New York and has appeared for considerably less — $2.69 a cup — at Seattle’s Fonte Coffee Roaster,” Allison points out. “Trabant’s roaster, 49th Parallel Coffee in Vancouver, is giving all the proceeds from its Nekisse sales to a non-profit called imagine1day to build classrooms in Ethiopia, said 49th Parallel owner Vince Piccolo.”

But New Yorkers have mixed opinions about Café Grumpy’s price. “There are flavors you would expect in a really nice glass of wine — it’s a cacophony of nuances,” Steve Holt, vice president of Ninety Plus Coffee, the company distributing the beans, told The NY Post. “You detect flavors of apricot, pineapple, bergamot, kiwi and lime. The deeper tones are levels of chocolate, and the finish is super clean.”

And why is it so pricey?

“It is a higher-end coffee, and you have to take a lot of time developing and processing it,” said Holt. “Once the coffee is harvested, it is dried on a raised African drying bed — the actual coffee cherries never sit on the ground.”

“People have had bad reactions to the prices,” Colleen Duhamel, a coffee buyer and barista at the cafe, told The New York Post. “They will think, ‘This place isn’t for me,’ and storm out.” “I’ve spent $12 on a cocktail, but I’d be reticent to pay that much for a cup of coffee,” said Whitney Reuling, 25, after tasting samples provided by the newspaper. “It’s good — but I can’t taste the difference. My palate is not at an advanced level for coffee — a $2.50 cup is fine.”

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News

Seattle: Man on Trial in Killing of Ethiopian Immigrant

3 Comments

Above: Rey Davis-Bell is charged with the murder of Degene
Barecha, an immigrant from Ethiopia, at Philadelphia Cheese
Steak. Davis-Bell’s trial started on Tuesday. (Seattle Times)

The Seattle Times
By Jennifer Sullivan
Neither prosecutors nor witnesses could say why Rey Davis-Bell’s alleged violent tirade two years ago wound up inside Degene “Safie” Dashasa’s cheese-steak restaurant, resulting in Dashasa’s death by gunshot at point-blank range.

Dashasa emigrated from Ethiopia about a decade ago, enrolled in online business courses and spent hours perfecting his cheese steak, his family told The Seattle Times after his slaying. Dashasa took over the restaurant after his best friend and business partner was fatally shot in his car in 2003. After Troy Hackett’s death, Dashasa changed the name of Philly’s Best Steaks and Hoagies. Hackett’s slaying has not been solved. Several months before his death, Dashasa traveled to Ethiopia and married a woman he had met through relatives. He recently had bought a house and was preparing it for his new bride, his family said.

News

Lucy’s fossil secretly scanned in Texas

4 Comments

Cover Image: Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor,
is depicted in the Seattle exhibit featuring her fossilized
partial skeleton.

UPI, Science News

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 6 (UPI) — Archaeologists at the University of Texas at Austin were given a top secret look at Lucy, one of the world’s most famous fossils.

The 3.2 million-year-old hominid skeleton, found in Ethiopia in 1974, made a 10-day stop at UTA’s High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility in September after an eight-month exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences.

With guards standing close watch, UT scientists were allowed to make 35,000 computed tomography images of the ancient fossil. While U.S. researchers conducted a scan on the fossil in the 1970s, the new scans provide the first high-resolution data on the early human ancestor, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman newspaper said Friday. Read more.

When It Comes To Fossils, Only Houston Says “I Love Lucy”
Village Voice Media
By John Nova Lomax
Tuesday, Jan. 27 2009

When Lucy came to Houston’s Museum of Natural Science, she was a smash hit. Over 200,000 people came to see the 3.2 million year-old bones of the humanoid ape that (or is it who?) might have been an ancestor to each and every one of us.

The 2007 exhibit was such a triumph that it was held over for five months and even spawned something of a love-fest between government officials here and in Ethiopia.

So it was not without justification that officials at Lucy’s next stop, the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, were wildly optimistic . The museum lavished money on Lucy, hiring a 24-hour security guard and forking over $500,000 to the Ethiopian government and a $200,000 fee to HMNS. All told, including costs for mounting an accompanying exhibit of Ethiopian history and anthropology, the Seattle museum spent $2.25 million.

And, according to the Seattle Times, it has been a disaster. In the annals of disastrous Seattle engagements, only Spinal Tap’s gig at Lindberg Air Force Base approaches Lucy’s stay.

Citing a Lucy-related shortfall of up to $500,000, the museum laid off eight percent of its workforce and froze the wages of those who remained on the payroll. Matching 401-K contributions have been suspended and unpaid days off have also been instituted. Spending her grandkids’ inheritance indeed…

The Seattle museum projected 250,000 visitors; only 60,000 have clicked through the turnstiles so far, and Lucy is contracted to hit the road in five weeks.

Pacific Museum president and CEO Bryce Seidl blamed the economy ($20.75 adult tickets are no easy sell in this market) and a stretch of miserable December weather for the fiasco. Valid excuses or not, other museums have taken note: museums in Chicago and Denver have backed away from dates with this antediluvian gold-digger. While Lucy was supposed to have traveled to ten cities over six years, Seidl now thinks she is headed home to Ethiopia some four years ahead of schedule.
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