ECADF Ethiopian News

By Seifu Tsegaye Demmissie

The dictators and despots of Africa have always been the sources of embarrassments and irritation which make Africans lose confidence and hope in the continent. The decision of the African Union to re-elect the sellout Meles Zenawi as its chief negotiator is outrageous and needs to be denounced. It is a misrepresentation of Africa pre-destining the continent to be the loser in the global climate deals. Moreover, it represents a significant blow to the aspirations of Africans for a fair deal which will facilitate the continent`s development efforts. It is harmful to the interests of Africa and shows the failure and inability of the African Union to promote and stand for the common interests of the continent. The leaders of the African Union should have drawn ample and useful lessons from the Copenhagen Climate Conference of 2009 where Meles Zenawi Zenawi betrayed Africa and joined ranks with the rich west. It is to be recalled that Zenawi`s mercenary role and betrayal of Africa in the December 2009 world climate conference outraged Africans and others who were working for a fair global climate deal. Zenawi has his own personal motives and abused the Climate Conference at Copenhagen to renew his patronage with the Obama administration.

In re-electing Meles Zenawi, the African dictators and despots are paving the way for a deal which will not take care of the longe term climatic concerns and interests of Africa. The decision also shows the absence any African or continental vision in the African Union. With the exception of a couple of countries (The Republic South Africa and Ghana), political power is in the hands of dictators and despots preoccupied with securing their power through foreign aid and support. Thus they do not mind about the consequences of their outrageous and reckless decision to entrust the sellout Meles Zenawi with such a vital task whose outcome will have a bearing on the future of the continent. However, unlike Meles Zenawi they accept and do not degrade their African heritage and identity. Independent and sovereign dictators could be the better choices since they have some commitments which can lead to securing favorable deals for the continent.

At the same time it is a tall order to expect rational decisions from the self serving African dictators and despots who have their eyes fixed on the so called climate money pot pledged by the west. It is expected that many Africans who closely follow developments and events in the continent have some knowledge on Meles Zenawi and his ethno-fascistic rule in Ethiopia. His obsessions with the colonial past of the continent, defunct colonial treaties and implementation of the administrative methods envisaged by the former colonial powers are among the most important features characterizing his discriminating and illegitimate rule in Ethiopia. His divide and rule policies are drowning the country in persistent inter-communal conflicts and violence. It is becoming pretty common among Ethiopians to describe his rule as that of an alien and occupying one due to the widespread aversion to it in the country.

There are many good reasons for opposing Meles Zenawi`s re-election and speaking loud against it. He is very dependent on the west and has thrown his lot with serving non-African foreign interests. He heads a tribal regime described as one of the world`s most backward, and modelled after the e apartheid rule which existed in South Africa. He does not accept the equality of humans and citizens. His economic policies are causing increasing environmental damages in Ethiopia. Most of all, his guiding political outlooks of ethnic anchored fascism and ethnic supremacy make him the most unsuitable candidate to play any role in any continental or global issue. On the other hand it is important to point out that the re-election of Meles Zenawi is a significant victory for the west since it increases the bargaining position of the west in the negotiations. As witnessed at the Copenhagen conference, the rich western countries do not appear to be willing to acccept their responsibility and commit themselves to equitable emission cuts and financing commensurate with their contribution to global warming. The rumoured western lobbyings and manipulations of African diplomats and leaders to get their man Meles Zenawi elected as the continent`s chief negotiator can not be dismissed. Africa will be handcuffed and can not be in a favorable position to negotiate a fair deal with the agent of neo-colonialism Meles Zenaw as its chief negotiator. In this regard it is important to take note of one scenario which also emerged at the Copenhagen climate Conference. The position of the emerging economies like China and India which firmly opposed the western proposed emission cuts and economic or financial burden shariing which were not found fair and just enough to address the critical issues involved in global warming. These countries wield influence and can play signifcant roles in directing the process and the outcome of the coming negotiations.

It is of vital importance for our African brothers and sisters to be informed of the fact that the marriage of convenience between the ethno-fascist Meles Zenawi and west is the main cause of the ever increasing misery and suffering in Ethiopia. Thus Africans and other forces seeking a fair and sustainable global climate deal should denounce and strongly oppose the betraying decision the African Union has taken. Africans should also increase their engagement in issues concerning climate and exert pressure on their respective leaders to reject any such deal ignoring the interests of Africa. The poor and underdeveloped Africa will be the one to be most affected by global warming and bearing the brunt of the burden if its concerns are not taken care of.

There is now sufficient evidence linking climatic changes to the erratic and more frequent shortages of rainfall in some parts of the world. The horn of Africa especially Ethiopia is very vulnerable andperiodically experiencing the negative impacts of failing rains and subsequent droughts. Ethiopia is the country facing acute shortage of food and where tens of millions of citizens are dependent on foreign food aid. Thus it is natural for Ethiopians to be very concerned about the unfavorable climatic changes and actively engage themselves in all the efforts aimed at finding ways of mitigating them. The available knowledge indicates that the rich industrialized countries are responsible for most of the pollutions contributing to the global climatic changes. Hence the rich industrialized countries are expected to make the necessary concessions in order to come up with a fair and acceptable global climate deal. Climatic changes pose long term global challenges andself serving dictators like Meles Zeawi can never be partners in addressing them.

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Ethiopia law forces journalists to reveal sources

Ethiopia’s new anti-terror law strips journalists of the right to protect the identity of their sources, a top official said in a statement carried Saturday by the national news agency ENA.

“The anti-terrorism law revoked the rights of journalists not to disclose their information sources when they report on terrorism,” the agency quoted State Minister for Communication Shimeles Kemal as saying.

“The new law revoked this right taking into consideration the magnitude of disasters caused by terrorism,” he added.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, only one other African country has jailed more journalists than Ethiopia and only last week it imprisoned a columnist for criticising the prime minister.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch voiced concern before the bill was passed last year that some of its provisions were targeted at the nation’s media.

“A journalist interviewing an opposition politician or a supporter of an armed opposition group could be deemed to be ‘encouraging’ terrorism merely by publicising the views of the interviewee,” it said.

The Ethiopian government describes as terrorism the rebellions it has been trying to stamp out for years in the Oromo and Ogaden regions.

Source: AFP

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By Peter Bosshard
International Rivers, Policy Director

On Jan. 13, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi inaugurated the Gilgel Gibe 2 scheme, the country’s biggest hydropower project. “It is possible to speed up development without polluting the environment,” Zenawi proudly declared as he cut the ceremonial ribbon. Yet this was wishful thinking.

Due to shoddy preparation, the project had already been delayed by more than two years. And less than two weeks after the inauguration, the project’s core component, a 26 kilometer-long tunnel, collapsed partly. Power generation had to be stopped for several months. Ethiopia’s hydro sector demonstrates that there are not shortcuts to sound infrastructure development. Cutting corners does not “speed up development,” but produces costly mistakes.

Gilgel Gibe 2 has a price tag of 374 million Euros and a capacity of 420 megawatts. The project works without a reservoir, but channels the water discharged from the Gilgel Gibe 1 Dam through a long tunnel and a steep drop directly to the valley of the Omo River. The undertaking was plagued by shoddy management from the beginning. In violation of Ethiopian law, the government negotiated the project contract with the Italian construction company Salini without competitive bidding. No-bid contracts for public works projects are a big red flag of corruption. The Gilgel Gibe deal was awarded without a feasibility study, and construction started without the legally required environmental permit.

In violation of Italian law and against the recommendation of its own evaluators, Italy’s Ministry of Development Cooperation awarded 220 million Euros of aid money for Salini’s no-bid contract. Gilgel Gibe 2 was “the biggest development fund released to a single project in the history of the Italian Cooperation,” the Ministry says proudly. The European Investment Bank, which is notoriously weak in appraising power projects, contributed another 50 million Euros, and the Ethiopian government funded the remaining 104 million Euros.

Gilgel Gibe 2 was supposed to be completed in Dec. 2007. Yet the poor preparation soon took its toll. Deficient geological studies had overlooked sandy soils and aquifers in the rock. The tunnel boring equipment got stuck in the mud, and the engineers had to redesign the tunnel’s path. As we heard, the aqueduct collapsed only 12 days after its inauguration, nine kilometers inside the mountain.

Who pays the price for such development failures? The dubiously negotiated contract for Gilgel Gibe 2 exempts Salini from geological risks, so the Ethiopian electricity consumers and tax payers ended up paying for the cost-overruns. Salini will certainly try to shift the blame for the tunnel collapse to Ethiopia once again. In the meantime, the country’s poor remain without electricity, and the environment gets spoilt for nothing.

Italy’s Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale has documented the numerous legal problems and shortcuts of the Gilgel Gibe 2 project in detail. The Campagna’s Caterina Amicucci comments that aid projects like Gilgel Gibe 2 “not so much address a country’s urgent development needs, but subsidizes a major Italian company.” The Campagna and International Rivers have asked that the bill for the latest disaster be paid by Salini and not Ethiopia’s taxpayers.

Gilgel Gibe 2’s dodgy deal is the rule, not the exception in Ethiopia’s hydropower sector. The contract for the slightly smaller Tekeze Dam was awarded in 2002, and power generation was supposed to start in 2007. Yet in this case, the ground on which the dam was being built was too weak — a fact which a proper feasibility study would have found in advance. Landslides caused further delays, and the project was commissioned two years late in 2009.

The story doesn’t end with Gilgel Gibe 2 and Tekeze. In July 2006, the government awarded a $2.1 billion contract for the Gibe 3 Dam — its biggest infrastructure project ever — to Salini through direct negotiations. Again there was no competitive bidding. Again project construction started without an Environmental Impact Assessment and an Economic, Financial and Technical Assessment. If built, the Gibe 3 Dam will devastate the fragile ecosystems of the Lower Omo Valley and Lake Turkana, on which 500,000 poor farmers, herders and fisherfolk rely for their livelihoods. Even though the project violates Ethiopian law and their own safeguard policies, the African Development Bank and the World Bank are currently considering support for the project.

Will the collapse of the Gilgel Gibe 2 be a wake-up call for the World Bank and the African Development Bank? Latest news indicates that the financiers, who refused to get involved in Gilgel Gibe 2, may yet shy away from the dodgy Gibe 3 deal. They know that their credibility is on the line.

Source: THE HUFFINGTON POST

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Why are we asking this now?

By Daniel Howden

Al-Bashir

The International Criminal Court has decided that Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir may be charged with genocide after all. Appeal judges in The Hague yesterday reversed an earlier ruling by the ICC’s own pre-trial chamber that there was not enough evidence to charge Mr al-Bashir with genocide. Under the convoluted procedures of the court this means a decision on whether the charge will be added to the counts against him could still be several months away. In effect the appeal judges have lowered the bar slightly on what constitutes evidence of genocide and will now ask the pre-trial chamber to take a second look and see whether the charge now fits.

Hasn’t he already been charged by the ICC?

Yes. The 74-year-old already has an active international arrest warrant against him on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture over events in the Western Sudanese region of Darfur. In March of last year the ICC made Mr al-Bashir the first sitting head of state to be indicted. The court has been investigating possible crimes in Darfur for three years and Sudan’s long-time leader is one of four men charged with crimes against humanity. Only one of those men, Darfuri rebel leader Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, has appeared before the court where he denied executing a dozen AU peacekeepers.

What happened in Darfur?

Six years of fighting widely believed to have been triggered by a scramble for diminishing resources like water and pasture became a byword for human rights abuses. As many as 300,000 people are thought to have died and more than 2.5 million are said to have fled their homes since ethnic African tribes took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003, claiming persecution and neglect. Mr Al-Bashir responded with a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in which the now notorious Janjaweed – a pro-government Arab militia – are alleged to have committed widespread atrocities.

With all the other charges, does one of genocide matter?

Potentially yes. The emotive power of the term genocide has played a large part in making the conflict in Sudan’s vast Western region such a vocal global campaigning issue. The ICC prosecutors argued last year that the Bashir regime had deliberately attempted to wipe out the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa peoples. While the pre-trial judges were convinced of the strength of evidence for massive crimes against humanity they weren’t convinced of the intent to commit genocide. They have now been told to take another look at the evidence with a view to including three counts of genocide, bringing a prospective charge a big step forward. In practical terms it will increase the pressure on the US, which has been proceeding cautiously on Sudan, to consider tougher actions such as imposing a no-fly zone.

Why hasn’t Bashir been arrested?

The ICC has a prosecutor, courts, its own prison and a large bureaucracy. But it doesn’t have a police force. It relies instead on the 108 countries that recognise the authority of the ICC to do the detaining. Interestingly those signatories do not include UN Security Council members China, Russia and the US as well as emerging economic superpower India. For its part Sudan has rejected indictment and attacked the court as a Western imperialist puppet.

And how has Bashir reacted to the ICC’s move against him?

He has thumbed his nose at it and continued to travel to friendly regimes such as Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia among others. He was in Qatar yesterday when news of the appeal judges’ decision was announced. The Sudanese ruler has been careful to avoid anywhere where he might be arrested, going as far as to duck an economic forum in Uganda, which might have been pressured into arresting him. A year on from the attention-grabbing indictment an actual trial and sentencing remains a dim and distant prospect.

What effect is the indictment having on the bigger picture in Sudan?

The attempt to put the man who has ruled Africa’s largest country for the last 20 years in the dock has divided opinion in Africa and launched a heated debate over peace versus justice. The indicted president responded furiously last March, ordering foreign aid agencies out of Darfur and railing against the court as a “neo- colonialist” ICC. There is little doubt, even within Sudan, of the president’s guilt and most analysts agree that he would lose a free and fair election. But outside pressure from the ICC may help to increase his popularity among his core support of Muslims.

Does the ICC have credible critics?

Many long-time Sudan observers fear that the grandstanding of the ICC, while popular in the West where the Darfur conflict resonates strongly if not precisely, could help to unravel the tortuous peace process in this most complex of countries. Sudan was wracked by a 20-year north-south civil war before Darfur hit the headlines. This year will be crucial to the survival of a five-year ceasefire between the mainly Christian and animist south and the Arab-led north. The first nationwide elections in decades are due in April and already many analysts are warning that the north-south fighting may resume. Respected Sudan expert Alex De Waal said the arrest warrant was “tantamount to demanding regime change” and the approach is a “gamble with unknowable consequences and very large risks.”

Would a genocide charge weaken the prospects for peace?

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the civil war is already fraying. A fragile peace holds in Darfur where the head of the 25,000-strong UN, African Union force has declared the war to be over. The future of Sudan depends on a bewildering number of variables as political parties, rebel armies, foreign corporations and religious groups compete for power and control over vast territory and oil wealth. The south is due to vote on secession from the north in less than a year’s time but an upsurge in violence during April’s election could be used as a pretext to prevent that from happening.

What about the rebel groups?

They have proven their capacity to strike at the capital Khartoum and may decide irrespective of the ICC to relaunch the war. Peace in Darfur and with the South has relied on their involvement. The current negotiations on Darfur led by South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki – tarnished by his failed “quiet diplomacy” with Zimbabwe – hinge on Mr al-Bashir remaining engaged. A genocide charge arguably weakens the already embattled former military man and could leave him with little option but to remain in power by any means necessary.

Is charging Bashir with genocide the right thing to do?

Yes…

* A genocide charge would send a message that heads of state have no immunity

* The man who came to power in a coup has led a brutal and destructive government

* The ICC needs to impose its moral authority on current crises not just past crimes

No…

* Peace in Sudan is more important than a marquee indictment to appease the Darfur lobby

* The crimes in Darfur are no worse than crimes in south Sudan or elsewhere in Africa

* The ICC has little evidence of intent to commit genocide on the part of the Bashir regime

Source: THE INDEPENDENT

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By Fekade Shewakena

The harrowing experience of Ethiopians on the doomed Ethiopian airliner in the Mediterranean Sea last week, and the racist ways in which grieving Ethiopians who were trying to know the fate of their fellow Ethiopians on the plane were treated in Lebanon, could have been used to raise important questions and start a more important discussion. Sadly, it is being deflected in a useless direction – complaint about racism, anger at the wrong parties and a cyber-war or words with the wrong culprit. Frankly, I find the self deceptiveness and empty bravado and hypocrisy of my fellow Ethiopians more maddening than the racism and degrading treatment of Ethiopians in Lebanon which we know exists in the region all along. It is good to be angry and not unreasonable at all. But it will be a foolish exercise if we don’t know where to direct our rage to. In my view, this anger has to be directed primarily at ourselves for letting this to happen to us. If we think that this experience is an isolated case then we have closed our eyes. What has gone so wrong with our generation, the sons and daughters of a proud people, who throughout the ages fought hard to keep their pride and dignity and never let anybody look down on them? What the damn went wrong with us!

As we often do in many cases, we are taking our eyes off the big picture, completely failing to raise and answer the most important questions that we need to ask ourselves about our country and ourselves as a people. How and why have we ended up being subjected to this kind of humiliation and racism and how are we going to end it? How is it that the beacon of hope and freedom of black people around the world ended up making an industry out of exporting their beautiful children to slave labor in the Middle East at the turn of a new century?

To those of you who seemed to be angry by the racist treatment of our fellow Ethiopians, I have some more questions for you. What were you expecting a bunch of maidservants who live and work much like medieval slaves were going to be treated like in a country where most people only know them as domestic slaves? Do we expect them to read our history before they buy their slaves and be forced to care that we Ethiopians are a proud and dignified people with a along and proud history of not allowing ourselves to be looked down upon by anybody? Was this the only incident and instance that Ethiopians have been treated in inhuman, degrading and racist ways around the Middle East? Have you asked why even our Airline, Ethiopian, the island of modernity in Ethiopia that we are all proud of for its world class service and record, and frankly, one that dwarfs most Middle East carriers in every respect, couldn’t dodge the racism. Have you seen how minutes after the accident and before any evidence was available, the transport minister of Lebanon and their journalists blamed the accident on the pilot. And mind you, this is a terrorist infested area and the first eye witnesses were saying the plane went down in flames. You see, after all, Ethiopian Airlines is owned and operated by a country and people that dump their beautiful children as slaves in their countries to work seven days a week in the most dehumanizing conditions. So, what in the world have we expected them to treat us like other than in indignity?

There are many more questions that any Ethiopian worthy of self respect should ask. How many times have you heard epidemic levels of Ethiopian suicides in the Middle East? How many of us have heard Ethiopian girls throwing themselves from the top floors of buildings to end their misery in these countries? Haven’t you heard that the Ethiopian embassies in these countries routinely tell our slave sisters to go to hell whenever they ask for help? How many times have we heard that boatloads of Ethiopians travelling from Bosaso in Somaliland sink in the Red Sea while attempting to reach the cost of the Arabian Peninsula where they were treated like animals? Have you wondered why hours after the first boat capsized with all Ethiopians on board others keep riding the next ramshackle boat taking a chance on their lives? Haven’t we seen pictures of Ethiopian women beaten, sometimes even burnt by their masters in this region? How often have we heard women thrown into jail, or their passports confiscated and thrown out on the streets for voulchers to play with them? Have we not heard that many are often denied their slave salaries by their masters and thrown out on streets? Have we not heard that many dead Ethiopians are simply buried in the sands and vanish like the wind? How many of us have heard Ethiopian maidservants calling the voice of America or Ethiopian community radio stations in the West to tell us harrowing stories of mistreatment and racism pleading with us for help? An Ethiopian airline crew member I met recently told me that it is not unusual to travel from the Middle East to Addis Ababa with many young Ethiopian girls who suffer from extreme forms of depression and trauma, some who lost their minds and behave strangely. Yes, there is some awful thing happening to us as a people and we seem to be lost. If there is anything strange in this particular case, it is our attempt to treat it as an isolated case, a self deception that borders on stupidity. Rather than blame ourselves for letting this happen to us we tend to project it elsewhere.

The first job of any government anywhere is to protect its citizens, so we hear in nearly all countries. In that case we have no government. We have allowed robber barons to rule over us. The anger should be directed at us for letting our country be run by a slave trading oligarchy – the government of Meles Zenawi that turned selling young Ethiopian girls in the Middle East into a huge industry. I hear that this slave trade is now becoming one of Meles Zenawi’s most important hard currency earning businesses in the country.

From time to time I meet some pigs who feed at Meles Zenawi’s trough. They tell me something I already know very well. They tell me the economy in Ethiopia is growing. Nobody is contesting that other than the inflated statistics cooked-up in Meles Zenawi’s office for propaganda purposes. This is not even a secret. I have heard it from people who work on analyzing and reporting the data. These pigs, like any pig, hardly understand the meaning of economic growth and development as it relates to social welfare and how to measure it and account for the source of the growth and who benefits out of it. If they see buildings and asphalted roads and bridges and a few people in Addis Ababa and elsewhere striking it rich overnight, that’s it- economy is growing. They seem to have very little clue that the TPLF is expected to do something for a living or that it is supposed to show us something in the form of growth for being one of the world’s most important destinations of billions of dollars of foreign aid in the world and the huge remittance from millions of Ethiopians abroad, including from the slave labor its sells to the Middle East and the massive number of children it sells for adoption? By the way, have you stood by at major terminals of Ethiopian Airlines? The most common scene is a parade of people carrying small Ethiopian children. I once saw an old Ethiopian woman crying profusely at the site of the little children at Dulles Airport in Virginia. These adopters say they pay a fortune to Mr. Zenawi’s government to get these children. Did you hear that the government of Australia saw the obscenity and was forced to stop it recently? Is this a proud thing to do for a people and a country which boasts “unheard of” economic growth?

The naming of the Abay Bridge by Meles Zenawi is an interesting illustration of how Meles himself and the pigs at his trough perceive economic growth and development. According to the local media reported at the time of the inauguration of the bridge, Meles Zenawi named the bridge “Hidasse dildiy” – meaning the “bridge of renaissance”. What makes this interesting is that the construction of the bridge was 100% funded by the Japanese government! Silu semta doro tanqa motech!

Whatever its source, what is economic growth or development anyway if it is not meant to improve the life of people? Why is it that our loss of pride and dignity and humiliation so positively correlated with this reported growth? I mean, how is it that the more the country grows economically, the more people live in humiliation and desperation, and the number of the poor increases exponentially? Who is getting rich any way? What the pigs and the TPLF officials don’t tell you is that the number of the absolute poor and the perennially aid dependent population more than tripled since TPLF arrived in Addis Ababa almost two decades ago? Beggary is no more a humiliating exercise in Ethiopia. It used to be. If you happen to meet any of these pigs, or any of the government officials who brag about economic growth in Ethiopia, ask them to show you what the country manufactures and sells to the world other than good old coffee and other agricultural products that we began exporting a century ago. Ask them how many extractive industries like mining are operating.

And lo and behold, a slavery of epic proportions is hovering at your door steps. If you are not redirecting the anger and rise up to make changes as any people worthy of dignity and respect must do now, wait until the Middle East tycoons begin operating the land Meles Zenawi is selling them at bargain prices now. If you think the current land grab in Ethiopia is traditional investment and not colonialism, just wait until your relatives begin working in the Egyptian, Arabian and Asian plantations. I am not sure if it will be too late by then. If you are angry that you are despised outside of your country, you will see what it looks like when they come home to take the land our fathers fought hard to leave for us. But when are we going to say enough is enough! Ehhhhhhhhhhh!

Fekadeshewakena@yahoo.com

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Because as the Senegalese conservational Baba Dioum once said : We conserve (preserve)only what we love. We love only what we understand. We understand only what we are taught”

• We love only what we understand.

Woyanne is something that we can never understand, it’s very devil on any measure and is very different in a negative way to any of the government Ethiopia has ever had in its very long history. Its phobia to the Word Ethiopia & Ethiopiawinet itself is unsurpassed (unparallel). Its Hate towards Ethiopia & Ethiopiawinet is deeper than the hate that even Ethiopians worst enemy has ever demonstrated toward Ethiopia.

• We love only what we understand.

Woyanne is not at all something that we love & can love, quite the opposite. Woyanne is what We the vast majority of ethiopians despise and want to get rid of for once and for all.

• We understand only what we are taught

We Ethiopians r not thought to destroy our own country, that is not the history and culture of Ethiopian people. Woyanne has been looting us for the last two decades, and now it is selling every piece of our country to the best bidder including to our historical enemies like Egypt, Sudan, etc.

Humiliating Ethiopians, Jailing Ethiopians, Harassing Ethiopians, Killing Ethiopians, Forcing Ethiopians to Exile, is the hallmark of Woyanne and its leader called MELES Zenawi

To expect something positive out of the fascist Woyanne regime is so unrealistic,

EMBIE Lewoyanne.
Down with Woyanne!!!

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Ethiopia’s distance runners are world renowned, but given the East African country’s climate and negligible snowfall, its winter sport athletes are scarce, to say the least.

One man is doing everything in his power to change that.

Cross-country skier Robel Teklemariam is Ethiopia’s only winter Olympian. He will be competing at the Vancouver Games in the men’s 15-kilometre race on Feb. 15, aiming to improve upon his 84th-place finish at the Torino Olympics four years ago.

Cross-country skier Robel Teklemariam will be Ethiopia's only competitor at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. (Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images)

The 35-year-old has a much bigger objective: to set the stage for other Ethiopians to follow in his tracks.

“After Turin, I met a lot of Ethiopian skiers, but so far, none of them are racers,” says Teklemariam. “They just go out and enjoy skiing or snowboarding.

“There are over one million Ethiopians living overseas, all over Scandinavia, all over Canada and the United States. I am pretty sure there will be some young kid who will want to race eventually, and that really is my goal at the end of the day.”

Teklemariam left Ethiopia with his parents and five siblings in 1983 when he was just nine years old. At the time, his mother worked for the United Nations and asked for a transfer to UN headquarters in New York in order to give her children the opportunity for a Western education.
Learning to ski

The young Teklemariam spoke no English, but when he enjoyed a summer camp experience in Lake Placid, N.Y., his mother enrolled him in boarding school there. It was there that he learned to ski.

“I went to a race, and one of the guys asked my coach where I was from,” Teklemariam recalled. “I had no idea who he was, but he said as a joke, ‘You should represent Ethiopia one day at the Olympics.’ I heard him, but I never took it seriously, but it was always there in my mind.”

While at school, he saw a television documentary on legendary Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila, who won the 26.2-mile event at the 1960 Olympics running in bare feet. Teklemariam, who has always spoken Amharic and retains an Ethiopian passport, said he felt an enormous attachment to his homeland. Inspired, he focused on his own Olympic dream.

Teklemariam progressed rapidly in his sport and was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of New Hampshire for cross-country skiing. He hoped to compete in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, but the opportunity for an education superseded his athletic aspirations, so he put his Olympic dream on hold temporarily. After graduation, he soon realized there were other forces at play.

In order to be able to compete in the Olympics, Ethiopia’s national Olympic committee had to endorse a ski federation, which at that time didn’t exist. When Teklemariam told the Olympic officials of his plan to set one up, they were “dumbfounded at first,” he said. Then they got behind his initiative.

With the support of his family, Teklemariam set about fulfilling all the criteria necessary to establish the federation — drawing up bylaws and budgets and seeking sponsorship. Today, the key positions in the organization are held by Teklemariam’s family members.

Much of Teklemariam’s training and travel expenses are underwritten by Club Med — the global vacation company, which also employs him as a ski instructor.
Doping scare

Preoccupied with his administrative chores for the federation, Teklemariam only qualified for the Torino Games at the 11th hour. But then he hit another obstacle as an anti-doping blood test revealed he had a higher than normal level of hemoglobin — the oxygen-carrying blood protein — and he was ordered to rest for seven days.

Though elevated hemoglobin is not proof of doping, there are always suspicions surrounding such cases. Teklemariam, who claimed the elevated hemoglobin levels were likely the result of living at a high altitude, was allowed to compete eventually.

“The capital of Ethiopia is at an altitude of 3,000 metres [above sea level],” Teklemariam explains. “All my ancestors come from there. Where I train in Aspen, Colo., I trained at an altitude of around 3,000 metres. All my training was done at altitude. The race in Turin was at 1,600 metres altitude. I had no clue about this hemoglobin. I didn’t care. I know I am not doing anything wrong.

“The World Anti Doping Agency [WADA] did tests, and it was all negative. I talked to the International Ski Federation [FIS]. I said, ‘Listen, I am Ethiopian. I come from high altitude.’ The problem is the standard is set on European levels not on Africans’ [levels].”

These days, Teklemariam splits his time between various European venues; Aspen, where he is a licensed alpine ski instructor; and his home in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Because of the lack of snow in his home country, he cycles and runs in the mountains outside the capital. Roller skiing is impossible because of the heavy traffic and hilly terrain. He also spends time in a local gymnasium, where he has run into some of the country’s best distance runners, including three-time Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele.
‘I don’t want it to end with me’

Preparations for the 2010 Olympics have not gone as smoothly as Teklemariam would have liked.

When a number of ski competitions this season were cancelled because of a lack of snow, he found himself traveling back and forth across Europe searching for official FIS races in order to qualify for Vancouver. That forced him to cancel a series of planned competitions in Japan.

From now until he leaves for Vancouver, he is based in Marbach, Switzerland.

Teklemariam travels, for the most part, on his own, dragging his equipment bag from train to car to train. On Jan. 8, for example, he took a 15-hour train ride to Oberwiesenthal, Germany, and raced the next day. Then it was on to Innsbruck, Austria, about 600 kilometres away.

“I am really exhausted, but my fitness is OK,” he said. “Really, my goal for Vancouver is to improve my time behind the winner and have a better race than in Turin. As far as results, I really want Ethiopia to be a mainstay in winter sports. I don’t want be the first and last Ethiopian at the Winter Olympics. I don’t want it to end with me.”

Though he retains a great deal of optimism, most of his countrymen — those who are aware of him, that is — remain bemused by his pursuit. Nonetheless, he hopes they will watch him on television later this month.

Teklemariam said he was encouraged by a recent encounter with one of Ethiopia’s greatest distance runners, Haile Gebrselassie, a two-time Olympic champion in the 10,000 metre and the current world marathon record holder.

“I was flying to Japan and met him on the airplane,” Teklemariam recalls. “I went up to him and said, ‘My God, you are a legend. I am pleased to meet you. I have also been to the Olympic Games.’ He said, ‘For what sport?’ I said, ‘Skiing,’ and he said, ‘I remember you going to Italy with the skiing. Some day, bring us back the gold’.”

Source: CBC

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British aviation lawyers have launched their own investigation into last week’s Ethiopian airliner crash and are examining similarities with another air disaster less than three years ago.

Ethiopian Airlines’ flight 409 caught fire five minutes after take-off from Beirut on Monday and plummeted into the Mediterranean two miles off the Lebanese coast, killing all 89 passengers and crew, including two Britons.

The plane crashed in similar circumstances to a Kenya Airways plane that came down in Cameroon in May 2007 killing all 114 people on board.

In both cases the planes were Boeing 737-800s that crashed in bad weather, at night and shortly after take-off.

Aviation experts said that each crash could have been caused by a technical fault which combined with other factors.

James Healy-Pratt, an aviation lawyer with London-based Stewarts Law, said: “Based upon our research and investigation into the Kenya Airways crash, the aircraft’s spoilers and/or altimeters may have been faulty.”

Attempts to find the cause of the Kenya Airways disaster were hampered because investigators failed to retrieve wreckage that could have provided vital clues. They have still not produced a final accident report.

Three British families who lost relatives in that crash launched a legal action against Boeing, the aircraft’s manufacturers, in Chicago last year, accusing it of supplying a “dangerous aircraft”, in an attempt to find out what caused the disaster.

Mr Healy-Pratt, who acts for the British families involved in that case and has been approached by relatives of the Ethiopian Airlines crash victims, said the delay was “extremely distressing” for the families.

He called on Ethiopian investigators to publish a preliminary report into last week’s crash within three or four months and a final one within 18 months to two years, “to avoid making the same mistakes.”

“It’s important that families know the cause of the crash as soon as possible,” he said. “We will be seeking assurances from the Ethiopians and Boeing that every effort will be made to recover all parts of the wreckage.”

Lebanese officials ruled out “foul play” as the cause of the crash and initially blamed the weather. But aviation experts said bad weather alone was unlikely to have been enough to cause the crash and said a technical fault might have caused the engine to catch fire.

The two Britons on board the aircraft, which was built in 2002, were Kevin Grainger and Afif Krisht, 57, a father of six who also held a Lebanese passport and owned a haulage company based in Angola.

The Britons who died in the Kenya Airways crash were Gordon Wright, an aid worker, Anthony Mitchell, a journalist, and Stuart Claisse, an auditor.

Mr Healy-Pratt, a partner with Stewarts Law, said: “With Kenya Airways, we have a situation where 114 people died in an air crash two and a half years ago and nobody knows why.

“It’s a serious air safety issue and not enough has been done to assist the families. That must not be allowed to happen this time.”

The Kenya Airways plane came down in a mangrove swamp and although the official investigation team arrived quickly at the scene they removed only the plane’s black box and left the rest of the wreckage behind.

“We thought there could have been some issues with the aircraft systems so we were shocked that all the wreckage was not taken away for forensic examination,” Mr Healy-Pratt said.

The British lawyers have video evidence of locals on scooters riding away from the crash scene with pieces of metal from the wreckage.

The Boeing 737 is the world’s most widely used aircraft. There are nearly 5,500 in service all over the world and it is estimated that one takes off every 24 seconds. The 737-800 is the newest and most advanced plane from the 737 production line.

A spokesman for Boeing said the company was assisting the investigation. He added: “It is too early to determine whether there are any similarities betwee the two crashes.”

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By Mitmita girls

Some images are etched in our minds—whether we experienced them first hand or because they are part of a collective memory—Abebe Bekila dashing barefoot to victory through old Rome. Richard Nixon, as he was boarding the plane, turning to face America and giving the country that infamous farewell…wave; Rosa Parks’ mug shot when she was arrested for refusing to bow to America’s Apartheid policy towards people of African descent.

Now to be added to these iconic images is the picture of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia that appeared in the January 21, 2010 issue of the Economist.

Dare we say, Dapper Don? Accoutered for taking on the world, he donned a classic European cap, a smart scarf, peeking underneath is an Armani suit perhaps, topped off with fashionable Palinesque glasses and without a doubt a mobile.

Who dresses, Monsieur is the question du jour. Ethiopians have always been enamored with all things French from Lycee to our French-speaking emperor. Naturally we assumed a French designer was to blame. But wait…we didn’t think that Prime Minister was well versed in the language of love. We then ventured the Italians might be the culprits—having spent a significant amount of time in the jungles of Eritrea, perhaps he had fallen in love with those troublesome invaders. We put the call out to our favorite couturiers to see if anyone will lay claim to this look.

Was it extraordinary confidence that we see bubbling over his scarf? Hermès, Monsieur? Is it a semblance of cowardice? What lay behind those—Prada?—glasses is more mayhem and murder. Try as he might, not even Chanel has invented a cologne strong enough to mask the repugnant nature of his government’s crimes.

We dissect the Prime Minister’s clothing because it is obviously his stunning fashion sense that has charmed the pants off the West. You know what they say: Good clothes open doors! And boy have they for our young boy from Adwa! Who would have imagined that a fine pair of trousers would mean entrée into an exclusive club where the United States and its allies shower you with billions that you in turn use to slaughter your people! Yay for fashion! Of course the Mitmita Girls would never dream of using our Givenchy mascara and stilettos in such a vile manner. And so we are forced to ask, has dictatorship ever looked this damn good? We scoured the historical annals in search of portraits of Pinochet and Stalin, from whom Meles proudly inherits the mantle of repression. No, we assure you, while his predecessors were fascinated with military getups, no one even comes close to achieving that cold calculating look that is Meles’ signature.

Yet we couldn’t help wondering why we are giving the Prime Minister enough credit to get designer duds? Since his governing style is purely counterfeit, it is befitting that his outfits should also be knockoffs! Enter China! In addition to importing Chinese prisoners to build roads and Chinese technology to censor the Internet, his apparatchiks must have also assigned the illustrious job of clothing the leader of our fabled land to those from the Far East. Our poor shmanayWouch! What a discount he must get from China!

As if the threads weren’t impressive enough, it’s the mobile telephone that had us teetering on our four-inch heels. Is that a Blackberry, a Treo, an Iphone, we see pressed against your ear, Prime Minister? We suppose where he lives, he gets better service. Whenever we try our luck with the phones, some Girl 6 sounding operator comes on and says in her most seductive voice: “YedeweLoot silk teyezwal. Ehbakoat Coyetoe YemoeKeroot.” Basically: better luck next time, suckers!

Can you hear us now, Prime Minister?

Curious isn’t it to see our Meles parading around town and abroad with a cell phone when his government has crippled Ethiopian telephonic communications. No adequate and reliable communication lines; yet we are asked to swallow a lie like the commodity exchange. Chinese technology is used to block any websites the government finds objectionable but we have no medical technology to control the outbreak of cholera. You “own” your land only until eminent domain intervenes. This of course means some government honcho just wanted to build a condo for his mistress on your inopportunely placed property. You better be glad that all they took from you is your land—fair market value is hardly a worry when along with your confiscated land, you could be mourning your confiscated freedom.

The machinations of Meles aside, we love our country. As the azmari would sing: Sedet godolonew; WholgeZem aymolah. But for the children of Ethiopia it is either prison a la Birtukan Mideska or exile.

And speaking of our comrades in exile, while the rest of us were taking apart Meles’ closet, the world was enraged over the United States Supreme Court’s most recent decision regarding corporations. What is this! Corporations can influence US elections! How insane! How perverse! Ah! If only Ethiopians had the luxury of such outrage. We are still trying to get the roadmap together to find our way out of electoral buffoonery and into some semblances of freedom.

The Mitmita Girls giggled at everyone’s reaction! Must we be everyone’s financiers, lawyers, freedom fighters AND educators? For the uninitiated, allow us to inform you that corporations have long had greater rights than human beings. (Never mind that lawyers and other scholars have maintained that neither the US Constitution nor any court decision has explicitly provided companies with “corporate personhood.” Even more amazing is that the amendment which corporations have relied on to amass greater rights than the rest of us is the Fourteenth Amendment—the law passed to provide full United States citizenship rights to former enslaved Africans! Oh the irony!)

Allow us to enumerate but a few examples of corporate expansion of power over the years: Governments have been toppled for corporate dominance (See Confessions of an Economic Hitman for an eye opening account of what corporations do in the “developing world”); Wars have been fought and continue to this day for the benefit of corporations (See Bechtel, Halliburton, Blackwater and their profit margins after the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan); The pursuit of the mighty dollar has also led corporation and their representatives—lawyers and bankers—to build countries (See How Wall Street Created A Nation recounting how Wall Street banks and law firms, working to finance the Panama Canal, fomented revolution in Columbia to cause the secession of a province which became the present day nation of Panama); and as ET Recycler reminded us last week, corporations conspire with governments to murder in the name of profit (See history of United Fruit Company).

And here you thought we only read Italian Vogue!

So this latest iteration of corporate domination—that companies now have unfettered ability to contribute to political campaigns—bored us to tears. What we do find worthy of discussion is that in the West and on our beloved African continent, corporate interests reign supreme. To be sure under Meles’ junta, corporate/governmental interests have always had greater rights than the denizens of Ethiopia. Granted the corporate structure in our country is under the larger umbrella of Meles & Co., thus whatever line that would be drawn, in a true democracy, between private companies and the government is nonexistent. Even in the West, despite the illusion of diversity, a minority of companies and individuals control the largest amount of wealth.

Perhaps American outrage has us flummoxed because Ethiopians are used to wealthier interests dominating our politics. Meles even attempted to import that thinking to the States. When he isn’t busy being a fashion plate, Meles has worked overtime to influence US policy towards Ethiopia. Hiring the firm DLA Piper and schmoozing that snake charmer Dick Armey to sink the Diaspora’s legislative efforts were the least of his efforts. We wouldn’t be surprised if Meles & Co. had filed amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs urging the US Supreme Court to allow them to control American elections!

Good clothes open doors, indeed!

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The Ethiopian Eritrean Friendship Committee is pleased to announce that the second Ethiopian-Eritrean Friendship Conference will be held on March 12-14, 2010 at Masonic Center in San Jose, California. The aim of the conference is to bring together Ethiopian and Eritrean scholars and academicians from around the world to discuss ways and means of healing past conflicts and building future relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

In our first conference (March 2009), Professors Tesfatsion Medhanie and Daniel Kendie were keynote speakers on this issue. While Professor Tesftsion Medhanie presented confederal relations, Professor Daniel Kendie proposed a federal system as possibilities for future relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The upcoming conference will explore wide range of topics related to Ethiopian and Eritrean relations through keynote speeches, panel discussions, and research papers. The conference is open to the public and all interested individuals or parties are encouraged to attend. It is our hope that this occasion will add a new chapter to the promising people to people initiative for healing, reconciliation, and harmonious relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

For more information, please contact:

የኢትዮጵያና ኤርትራ ወዳጅነት ኮሚቴ
Ethiopian-Eritrean Friendship Committee
P. O. Box 1482, San Jose, CA 95123
Ethio_eritrean_friendship@googlegroups.com
408-504-1674 408-874-5168 408-561-4836

• For Amharic version PDF click here

• For English version PDF click here

• For Tigrigna version PDF click here

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