ethiobserver

Meles Zenawi, the prime minister who has led Ethiopia since the rebel movement he belonged to overthrew dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, spoke to Barney Jopson, FT East Africa Correspondent, at his office in Addis Ababa on August 21, 2008. The following is a transcript of the interview.
Financial Times: The president and the prime minister of Somalia are here in Addis Ababa and have been here for the last few days. There’s been a lot of talk about a rift between the two of them. I wonder if you could give me your perspective on that and what affect it is having on the situation in Somalia?

Ethiopian PM signals shift over Somalia
By Barney Jopson in Addis Ababa Wednesday Aug 27 2008 13:10
Mr Meles said Ethiopia would do everything it could to help the interim government, whose power is limited to a few parts of Mogadishu, to become stronger and more effective. But he added "that is not necessarily a precondition for our withdrawal" and stressed that Ethiopia's commitment was not open-ended.

Ethiopia 26.08.2008
Well-known newspaper editor arrested for article questioning big brewery’s labour practices
“The Ethiopian government reminds the press about the law so often that it is hard to understand how it allows prosecutors to violate it so openly,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Amare’s unjustified arrest exposes the unfairness of legislation that allows journalists to be imprisoned for defamation. His newspaper dared to question a big company’s practices. Now he, like the reporter who wrote the offending article before him, are paying the price for having the courage to do their job properly and serve the public interest. He should be released at once.”

“Lord Napier said these articles, whatever the claim of the Army, ought not to be placed among the national treasure, and said they ought to be held in deposit till they could be returned to Abyssinia. It was rather a painful confession, because, if they ought to be returned, it seemed to follow that they ought not to have been brought from Abyssinia; but he must say that he [Mr Gladstone] agreed with Lord Napier”.

Now, just a few months after Kosovo's independence, South Ossetia is looking for the same treatment from the international community. The Ossetian majority in South Ossetia wants to secede from Georgia to become independent, or to join North Ossetia, just as a majority in Kosovo wanted to break away from Serbia to become independent, or to join Albania. Countries that have recognized the independence of Kosovo are now looking for an argument that Kosovo is a "special case", and that Georgia territory has to be respected.

Washington, D.C., August 13, 2008: The Union of Tigreans in North America (UTNA), a U.S. based civic organization, emphatically condemns the recent insidious remarksmade by Mr. Elias Kifle regarding the proud and God-fearing Tigrean people. On August 11th, 2008, he posted an article entitled, “That Day! What will happen to Tigreans?” on
www.ethiopianreview.com. Such statements have no place in today’s Ethiopia where equality of nations and nationalities is unambiguously guaranteed by the constitution. Hence, Mr. Kifle’s reckless attempt to sow hatred among the Ethiopian people is just wishful thinking.

Why Socialism?
by Albert Einstein
Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism. A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual. The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?

Let us endeavor for a better future of our country and its peoples. Let us all struggle in unison to alleviate these perennial scourges of humanity in Ethiopia. And if we sincerely love our people and our country, can we prove our words with deeds by mobilizing funds and other humanitarian assistance for the hungry and famine-stricken citizens of our country? Can we prove our much-talked about Ethiopian patriotism in this time and hour of material need, irrespective of our political, ethnic, religious and other differences, and reach out to save our people? For God and Our Country!

According to Russian officials, their main aim was to defend Russian citizens in South Ossetia, and force the Georgian government to accept peace and restore the status quo. Russian officials also stated that its army was acting within its peacekeeping mission in South Ossetia, and in line with the mandate issued by the international community. Tbilisi also stated that it was now responding to Russia's aggression.

Ivan Simic-In 1995, Karadzic was indicted by the International Criminal Court along side with Colonel-General Ratko Mladic (currently at large). He is accused of personal and command responsibility for numerous war crimes committed against non-Serbs, in his roles as Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Serb Armed Forces and President of the National Security Council of the Republika Srpska. Among others, he is accused of ordering the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, Siege of Sarajevo, ordering that United Nations personnel be taken hostage in May-June 1995.

Re-erection of second piece of Axum Obelisk completed
Axum, July 24, 2008 (Axum) - National Committee for the Return of Axum Obelisk disclosed that the re-erection of the second piece of the ʽthree-piece obeliskʼ was completed on 24 July 2008. Technical engineer of the re-erection project, Eng. Tadesse Bitul said the 9.4 meter piece of the relic weighs 58 tons. The re-erection of the third piece will be carried out within five days. The 1,700-year-old obelisk, which has a length of 24 meters and a weight of 160 tons, is taken as an icon of the Ethiopian people. Italian invaders dismantled and looted the obelisk in 1937 as per the order of the then leader of Italy Benito Mussolini until it was returned in April 2005. An Italian construction company is re-erecting the obelisk in collaboration with UNESCO and the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH). The celebration of the re-erected obelisk will be held late Aug 2008. R-4:27-4:55 PM/E-5:20-5:34 pm
Source:-http://www.ena.gov.et/EnglishNews/2008/Jul/24Jul08/63649.htm

Ivan Simic-Candidates are the most interesting in the time of elections; they will tell us anything that will likely lead them to great victory. They will lie, deceive, and guarantee the impossible, sing and dance, cry and laugh, and all that in order to win. In that campaign, they will give us so many promises, that if we ask them just a few hours later about them, they will not remember them, and will give us new ones in order to deceive us further. Later, if they are elected for formal office, then they will start giving us excuses for the lost promises in order to maintain political power.

Restoring Ethiopia's great obelisk

By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Axum, Ethiopia
The slender stone columns which mark the tombs of ancient kings and nobles still stand in a green field at the edge of the modern town of Axum. But these days the site is dominated by a huge tower of scaffolding, topped by a yellow mobile crane, which dwarfs King Ezana's obelisk, the one royal monument still standing.

Federal Subsidies Large Chunk of Oromia, Amhara Budgets
Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa) By Wudineh Zenebe-The Federal Government has approved a record high 54.9 billion Br budget for the next budget year, of which 16.4 goes to regions in the form of subsidies. This is a 2.2 billion increase compared to the current fiscal year. The major beneficiaries of the budget are Oromia (33.5pc), Amhara (26.4pc), and the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (20.8pc). The Tigray Regional State follows the three with 6.41pc.

No Qualms toward the Draft Proclamation: Unadulterated Food Sharing Instinct is Apolitical
Adal Isaw- July 10, 2008 There is nothing political about the unadulterated natural food sharing instinct that we all humans are endowed with. What is political is the choice that we make to go about solving such a food shortage problem by putting our natural food sharing instinct at the back burner. We have a choice, and the choice that we have to make at this juncture is within the humblest nature of our humanity, to detest and throw away the politicking of food shortage problem in exchange for caring and loving hearts.

By Colum Lynch and Nora Boustany

updated 9:32 p.m. PT, Thurs., July. 10, 2008

UNITED NATIONS - The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation's Darfur region during the past five years, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.

African Immigrants Among Obama's
Enthusiastic Backers-African immigrants lack in numbers, they make up for somewhat in education and income. A 2003 report by the State University of New York at Albany found that African immigrants in the United States have a higher level of education than all other groups, including white and Asian Americans, staying in school an average of 14.5 years. They have a median household income that is higher than that of black Americans, West Indians and Hispanics.

Yohannes Kiros, PhD -Your research paper a research misfit formulated to fit the old “master people” of the Axis powers is relentlessly trying to equate disease with life expectancy. Have you ever heard of the tropical scourges, devouring many people in Africa and elsewhere in the tropics by the killers such as Mosquito, AIDS, Tsetse fly, etc., which have not yet found remedies? Have you ever imagined what would be the fate of Japan or other “enlightened” people as you, had there been such lethal diseases as the ones mentioned above? Or have you ever thought why there is no priority in medicinal research to get rid of these noxious parasites and viruses? Satoshi Kanazawa Paper Published in the British Journal of Health Psychology

The Ethiopian Millennium Arts & Crafts Exhibition was opened in Crenshaw Mall in Baldwin Hills. The Exhibition was sponsored by the Ethiopian Historic Conservation Council (EHCC) in cooperation with the Museum of African American Museum of Art, which is located at Macy’s in the top floor of Baldwin Hills Mall.

The Best and the Brightest June 30^th, 2008
(A personal observation of the Amhara Region delegation meeting in Los Angeles)
By Daniel Gizaw- The delegation also courageously spoke about the looming famine, and the effort by the government to tackle the problem. While the reasons for the advent of the famine are varied, including the global high demand for food and the tail-spinning cost of food that resulted from such a demand, the Ethiopian government, however, is arduously working to end this crisis immediately. By no means, at any time, did the delegation underscore the problem, or dodge the issue, or try to play a numbers game as was suggested by some media outlets.

Moving Away From Confrontational Politics to Respectful Dialogue and Constructive Engagement: A sine qua non for Sustainable Democratization and Development. July 1, 2008
Tesfaye Habisso-In Ethiopia today, owing to our recent and nasty brush with multi-party democracy, politics has gone awry: it has gone from dirty to "muddy" and from a sometimes criminal to an all times "suicidal", confined not only to the art and science of political competition for public office as normally expected but pervading all walks of life, including community associations, churches, professional groups, independent scholars, NGOs, etc. There is much evidence for the suicidal nature of Ethiopian politics if we begin to reflect on the past decade or so, and the present political climate in Ethiopia. But no matter how bad and suicidal Ethiopian politics has become over the past several years.

For most people of this and even the previous generation the name Bashai Awalom might not be one readily recognized, but the man was a key figure in Ethiopian history during the war against the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia of 1896. The role Bashai Awalom played at that time was so critical and decisive to the outcome that secured Ethiopia’s victory over the Italian invaders. So, who was Bashai Awalom? What role did he play? And what was his contribution? So ended the Battle of Adwa. Awalom was made Bashai, the highest title of honor passed to him from Ras Alula who had first been made Turk Pasha by Atse Yohannes. The contributions of Awalom’s were recognized by the late Emperor Haileselassie, who had erected a stone in his honor in Adwa over sixty years ago with the words: Bashai Awalom in Amharic

by Tesfaye Habisso June 25, 2008
To discuss democracy and democratic elections in Ethiopia today is to talk about the future, about hopes and fears. We are still at the stage of democratization, embarking upon a process which, over the past decade or so has been taking place in fits and starts, will lead us to a more open, participatory, less authoritarian society sooner rather than later. We have not yet reached a stage where we can claim to have realized any semblance of a stable and sustainable democratic system of government which embodies, in a variety of institutions and mechanisms, the ideal of political power based on the will of the people. Further, little in the present or the past in Ethiopia promises the success of any such thing, yet people today want democracy and many believe it is the only possible solution to the twin ills of poverty and misrule. Let us all struggle peacefully and persistently to achieve the two fundamental freedoms of democracy and economic development our peoples have yearned for a very, very long time. The road to those goals is bound to be rocky and tortuous but there is no other way. As Dennis Austin states, "No society becomes democratic without pain; no state achieves economic development without struggle." Dennis Austin:1995].

Failed leadership, not a failed state
By Raffique Shah June 01, 2008
For all these reasons I am not about to join the conga-line of critics who see us on the brink of disaster. We do not have a “failed state”. What we have are failed and failing leaders. We have citizens who have failed their children, who manufactured criminals in their homes. The nation is riddled with white collar criminals who feel they are several cuts above bandits and murderers. Look into your mirrors, I say. Government ministers and opposition politicians, businessmen and labourers, policemen and doctors are all part of a “failed society”.

Hunger, Population, and Development: Myths and Root Causes June 16, 2008
Compiled by Tesfaye Habisso-Because the basis of hunger is powerlessness, real change can only be achieved by supporting grassroots movements for self-determination, rather than continuing to prop up local elites and subsidize trans-national corporations. Thus our conclusion : it is not a scarcity of food, but rather a scarcity of real democracy, that keeps people hungry. The kind of changes we propose can only be implemented following a redistribution of decision-making power. The poor majority must have a say in determining how productive resources are used. There must be a redistribution of the economic, social, and political resources which make the exercise of such power possible. This is the essence of democracy--participation in the decisions which affect our lives. The corollary is that strong grassroots movements can make a difference, when they, instead of ruling elites, receive our support.

Let’s Shun Playing Politics for a Change and Rally for a Common Cause
(By Mulubrhan Tsehaye, June 17, 2008)-The good new is however these narcissists are the minority and their narcissist ideals do not reflect in any way the patriotic fortitude of the majority of Ethiopians in and outside the country who truly understand the situation on the ground and are genuinely determined to do whatever they can to help and at the same time pressure the government to rise up to the challenge and react swiftly and effectively to ward off the looming calamity before it goes out of hand.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, celebrates her new world record for the Women's 5000m event, at the Bislett Games, an IAAF Golden League meeting in Oslo, Friday, June 6, 2008. The new world record time is 14.11.15. AP

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia has broken the world record in the women's 5,000 meters at the Bislett Games.

Dibaba, an Olympic and world champion, had never broken an outdoor world mark. She was timed in 14 minutes, 11.15 seconds on Friday and improved the old record by more than five seconds. Another Ethiopian, Meseret Defar, set the old record of 14:16.63 last year at Bislett Stadium. Defar did not enter Friday's race. It is 54th world record set at Bislett Stadium since 1924 and the first since one of track's most famous venues was rebuilt four years ago.

It took 153 years to get from John Mercer Langston to Barack Hussein Obama, a journey that endured the dashed hopes of Reconstruction and the oppression of Jim Crow to arrive at a moment that has stunned even those optimistic about America's racial progress. An underdog black politician has secured a major party's presidential nomination in a country where less than 4 percent of its elected officials are African Americans?

Residents and community leaders in western Ethiopia say thousands of people in several border regions have been displaced by Sudanese troops in recent weeks, following what they describe as a secret, illegal deal between the governments in Addis Ababa and Khartoum. Critics say the secret deal to demarcate the border gives Sudan the right to occupy areas Ethiopians historically consider sacrosanct. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has details from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi. The news of a boundary settlement shocked many Ethiopians, who consider the ceded Ethiopian land to be historically and culturally theirs. The existing border between the two countries was drawn up more than a century ago when Sudan was under British colonial rule.

By Mathza-The purposely orchestrated exaggerated surreal claim of winning during the 2005 election lead the then CUD to its demise. For Engineer Hailu Shawul, wining and becoming the prime minister was ‘now or never’ objective because of his age and fragile health. As it became clear with defunct CUD officials’ confession of guilt followed by happenings in the last few months that frustrated its supporters, he manipulated the CUD to have his own way, not in the interest of the CUD. This was the root cause of all the unrest that eventually led to the disintegration of the CUD. Had he been realistic, less ambitious and avoided some of the gross and reckless follies he committed

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi won this year’s Africa Leadership Award. Africa Times, a US-based newspaper and the Africa Achievement Award Committee honored Meles in a colorful ceremony held at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, California. H.E. Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie, Consul General of Ethiopia in Los Angeles received the prize on behalf of the premier.

"Mengistu should be able to ... answer for his personal missions and commissions. We have international statutes, international obligations to the Chamisa stopped short of saying the MDC would extradite Mengistu, but added: "I've tried as much as possible to indicate the direction we're likely to take. "It is important that others lean in that direction, considering the fact that the people in Ethiopia, in order for them to have national healing ... they would want to execute.

Ivan Simic-The world faced rapid development of global economy from 19th century to today. It came to the point when being a millionaire is not prestige like it was before. Now, there are plenty of millionaires and billionaires around the globe, and because of that they needed a new expression for themselves in order to make a distinction between each others.

There is one thing that has been coming up as far as Ethiopian policy towards Eritrea is concerned.

Many Eritreans say that Ethiopia has a landlocked-country complex. Can we comfortably say that this complex is not there perhaps because Ethiopia now has several access to other ports?

I cannot tell you that every Ethiopian shares my view, but I can comfortably tell you that my position, my view, is a majority position. And that is the position of the government. My view is this: the Ethiopian imperial system has been dismantled and replaced by the federal system that we have in place. For Ethiopians, a constitutional country established on the the basis of the right to self-determination that really expressed desire of its people was the sine-qua-non for the maintenance of the country. All those Ethiopians who do not want to be Ethiopians simply have the right not to be Ethiopia or else we could die…

Response to Dr. Said Hassan: On the cause of the current Ethiopia soaring inflation rate May 17, 2008
By Teshome A-Based on the above observations I decided to look into detail to the four major reasons as identified by the writer “Increase in money supply, increase in money supply from abroad, shortages-both food and finished product, budget and current account deficit”. In addition of defining the concepts of each variable I will use the possible data to show the real picture in the country. Then accordingly I will leave the judgment to my readers about the writer’s
analysis. The other point the writer failed to mention was the poor functioning of local market and institutional barrier which happen to be the main contributors of inflation. Any way let me leave these for the writer to reflect on and proceed to my main point.

For the last few months I have been reading various commentaries written by different people regarding the cause of inflation in Ethiopia2. I appreciated the commitments and efforts of these writers who came out with different reasons based on the available information and knowledge they have on the topic. Such different argument is usually common in understanding the cause of inflation or any economic variable, because the change in the price of any particular good based on many factors opens the door for most people to express their expectation in a way they understand the economic developments in the country. It is obvious that there is no Economist who argues that his/her explanation is the only way to justify the source of inflation in Ethiopia unless he/she is a pseudo Economist. That is why I was glad to see many Ethiopians or non-Ethiopian professionals debate on the cause of inflation and its remedial measure in the country.

May 11 (Reuters) - Below are answers to some key questions about the Darfur rebel attack on Sudan’s capital.
WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE GROUND?

The sound of gunfire continues on the western edge of the suburb of Omdurman, across the River Nile from Khartoum. There have been reports that the Justice and Equality Movement rebels are sending reinforcements to back up a first assault that was repelled by government troops, but sustaining a fighting force over 600 km (400 miles) from rear bases is likely to prove difficult over time. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s government has extended a curfew indefinitely, saying it wants to track down pockets of rebels in the city.

(May 8 2008) Amnesty International seeks to attract attention by going as far as it can so that policies of those nations it is targeting are changed. In this case, Amnesty International is seeking to change the great helping hand that Ethiopia had lent Somalia at the behest of TGS. Amnesty International is also being lobbied by various groups including OLF and ONLF, so that, these terrorist groups get what they have failed to achieve through terrorism by the pressure that Amnesty International brings forth on Ethiopia. In other words, what these terrorist groups failed to achieve with the help of mad Congressmen from New Jersey is being tested by Amnesty International.

Hamburg, Earth Times (May 7 2008) - Archaeologists believe they have found the Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia and an altar which held the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, the Ark of the Covenant, the University of Hamburg said Wednesday. Scientists from the German city made the startling find during their spring excavation of the site over the past three months. Ethiopian tradition claims the Ark, which allegedly contained Moses' stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, was smuggled to Ethiopia by their son Menelek and is still in that country.

Finding Solace in a New Setting at EPRDF-SF May 6, 2008
Adal Isaw-Dancing on middle age, and going back as far as my memory lane can take me with tears in my eyes, I have made it a habit, a ritual if you will, to scan the part of my brain to remember my comrades in arms and wonder all the time if I am swimming in a post traumatic syndrome of some sort. But lately, I have found that, I have no trauma of any sort. My trauma-like syndrome was induced by my own failure to substitute the comrades that I have lost with another new comrades in a new setting.

By Mathza-The so-called highly educated, particularly those whose names are preceded by a ‘PhD’ find it difficult to measure up to him. Whatever irrational things they say and foolish steps they take are indications of inferiority complex and frustrations. In their relentless character assassinations, there are no stones they have not turned to blemish his name, condemn every thing he says and does, deny all the progress made under him, belittle his outstanding performance at the international level, and call him a stooge because of his outstanding ability to obtain international assistance based on convincing policies, plans, programs and strategies. And recently they boycotted the elections simply because they, as was evident, realized that the 2005 protest vote against EPRDF was not going to repeat.

By Dr. Yohannes Kiros March 15, 2000

“As they say better late than never for the Ethiopian government to show its dislike against countries by severing its diplomatic ties.

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay, scheduled to pass through 37 countries, arrived in Minnesota (MN) State on April 16 on its America leg of the ongoing relay. The torch arrived after passing through New York earlier on Sunday. The organizers of the torch relay hope to draw attention to human rights concerns in Tibet, as well as the Chinese government's persecution of the Falun Gong, Buddhists, rights advocates and others.

The Saga of African Underdevelopment examines in careful detail the economic conditions in Africa during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. The authors argue eloquently that most of the development paradigms that were used to transform African economies, under free trade imperialism or under colonial and postcolonial periods were incompatible with the African system of thought and traditional production systems or mode of production. Following this, they propose a bold development strategy to reverse the dismal economic performance of African countries in the post independence period.