By BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

It’s complicated: All eyes will be on the two men in their first official meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet US President Donald Trump for the first time this week on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The Kremlin says they will have “a fully-fledged, sit-down meeting” which will touch upon a number of pressing foreign policy issues, including Syria and Ukraine.

The meeting has been preceded by months of speculation about a “bromance” between Mr Putin and Mr Trump, fuelled by alleged Russian interference in last year’s US election and rumours that Russia strongly favoured Mr Trump over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

BBC Monitoring looks at what the two leaders have had to say about each other in recent years.

Putin on Trump

Vladimir Putin has been fairly guarded about his views on Donald Trump. His most recent comment on his US counterpart was June, where he described Trump as “direct and open” person, who has a “fresh view”.

17 December 2015: “He is a very colourful person, talented, without any doubt. It is not our business to determine his merits, that is up to US voters, but he is the absolute leader in the presidential race.”

27 October 2016: “He has chosen a method to get through to voters’ hearts… He behaves extravagantly of course, we see this, but I think there’s a reason for this. He represents the part of US society that’s tired of having the elite in power for decades.”

9 November 2016: “I’d like to congratulate the American people on the completion of the electoral cycle and Mr Donald Trump on his victory in this election… Russia is ready and wants to restore fully-fledged relations with the USA.”

4 December 2016: “He could achieve success in business, which suggests that he’s a smart man. And if he’s a smart man, that means that he’ll fully and quickly enough realise this different level of responsibility. We expect that he will act with this perspective in mind.”

1 June 2017: “He can’t be put in the same category as traditional politicians. I see great advantages because he’s a person with a fresh view… Some people like him, some don’t.”

Trump on Putin

During his presidential election campaign, Mr Trump spoke favourably of Mr Putin, saying that he “would possibly have a good relationship” with the Russian leader. However, in recent months his rhetoric towards Mr Putin has become noticeably more reserved.

28 April 2016: “I think he said some really nice things. He called me a genius. He said: ‘Trump’s a genius.’ Okay. So, you know, that’s nice… He has been very nice to me.”

28 July 2016: “I don’t think he has any respect for Clinton. I think he respects me. I think it would be great to get along with him.”

7 September 2016: “The man has very strong control over a country… It’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system but certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader far more than our president has been a leader.”

27 January 2017: “I don’t know the gentleman [Mr Putin]. I hope we have a fantastic relationship. That’s possible, and it’s also possible that we won’t… We’ll see what happens.”

19 March 2017: “Don’t know him but certainly he is a tough cookie. I don’t know how he is doing for Russia; we are going to find out one day.”

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media 

The post Putin and Trump in their own words appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Fekadu Bekele, (PhD)

July 6, 2017           

Over the last three months there have been seminars and meetings related to the G-20 conference which will be held on the 7^th and 8^th of this month in Hamburg.  The conference deals with the economic crises in many African countries, and how to ultimately overcome the economic and social crises that are endemic in the continent. The international community still believes that it is possible to tackle “the continent’s economic and social crises by applying the same policies as in the past, however by giving them different names.  The  “new” policies and programs will be put in place to keep the status quo in many African countries. African countries must be checked again and again so that they remain within the circuit of global capitalistic production and reproduction systems.  The main agenda of the G-7 and the G-20 is to ensure Africa’s weak position within the global market. In this regard the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank under the auspicious of the G-20 published a guideline on how foreign investments could be attracted to various African countries. The two sister organizations the IMF and the WB in cooperation with the African Development Bank have worked out a “reform program” with the name “Compact with Africa”.  The German Government itself under its Ministry for Development and Cooperation (BMZ) worked out the so-called “Marshall Plan for Africa”. It is widely believed that by combining these two programs African countries will be able to rise economically. The international community and its institutions believe that after 60 years of trial and error of diverse economic policies under the auspicious of the IMF and the World Bank, it is able to solve the challenges that many African countries are facing.

Related to these programs and to the G-20 conference there have been many seminars that try to analyze the merit and demerit of the G-20 conference. To my understanding, even within those critically minded organizations and persons that seem to be critical about the IMF and World Bank policies, Free Trade and globalization, there is an accepted belief that the economic and social crises in many African countries could only be alleviated if the West supports the continent within the framework of globalization and gives more assistance. There are only a few that reject the policies of the IMF and the World Bank. These individuals and groups however do not go far away and try to analyze the root causes of the crises in many African countries. They neither have a better alternative that can tackle the root causes of the social and economic crises that prevail in many African countries.  Without understanding and analyzing the root causes of the problem, one cannot work out an effective method that combats poverty and underdevelopment in many African countries.

Surprisingly some organizations that are internationally known, and that claim to be ecologically aware and are fighting for the implementation of democratic values in each country, have invited some economists from the African continent that do not have good records in dealing with the continent’s problems.  These experts believe that the economic crises in many African countries could be solved by applying only neo-liberal economic policies, among them economists like Dr. Carlos Lopes, who used to work for the Economic Commission for Africa as an Executive Secretary, and now, teaches development policy in the University of Cape Town. The expert from Guinea-Bissau tried to convince us that the situations in many African countries are not as negative as they are portrayed. Dr. Carlos Lopes told us that the continent has the highest returns on investment in the world, and has the best asset manager in the world. He even tried to tell us that some countries in Africa like Mauritius are the biggest investors in the world. He stressed again and again that he works with facts which he has in his pockets. His facts however are numbers that do not reflect the living conditions of the African people.  The existing social, economic, cultural, political and military situations in many African countries seem to paint a different picture. The foundation that has invited Dr. Carlos Lopes has also invited some economists from Nigeria and South Africa that echo the opinions of the speculators from the Wall Street.  Dr. Carlos and his followers who are  strict adherents of a free market economy, and that are advancing the interests of  multinational companies do not seem to be interested  in the real conditions that are existing in many African countries. The experts do not even try to come up with solutions to fulfill the basic needs of the African masses without which a healthy economy cannot function. They do not even show the slightest sign of feeling about the sufferings of the African masses, in big African cities, like Lagos, Johannes Berg, Nairobi and Addis Ababa. They do not believe in ordered and aesthetical lives for the masses. In their eyes, the masses are condemned to live like that. In these big cities the so-called investors that have intimate connections with the international capitalist order are throwing hundreds of thousands of people into new created slum areas. These and the existing cultural, psychological and political crises that are visible to any ordinary person are not a matter of concern. Experts like Dr. Carlos Lopes believe that there is no alternative than applying the same policy that threw the continent into abject poverty and resource plundering.  They do not believe in holistic models that could eradicate all the complex problems.  They are unfamiliar to manufacturing activities that expand market economic activities across a given country, division of labor that is essential for the development of a middle class and hence a capitalist economy, and science and technology that is vital for a genuine economic development within a given country. These experts are alien to social systems, to the building of nation-states and national wealth. What interests them are simple direct investments that bring the highest returns for the investors. On the other hand they have a misconception about economic growth which is detached from real economic development. In their beliefs economic growth must be understood as an end in itself, and not to alleviate the living standards of the African masses. Therefore, the African masses do not have aspirations and dreams to lead a better life. They do not even understand that the living conditions that are prevailing in many African countries are contradicting natural and cosmic order. To my understanding and observation those who attend such kinds of seminars could not exactly understand what these experts were trying to tell us.

Fortunately, there are also other seminars in which different views could be reflected.  In these seminars one could hear critical views.  The organization that has organized such kind of a seminar supports farmers in many Third World countries so that they can improve their farming activities to deal with drought situations. “Bread for the World”( Brot für die Welt) have invited well informed and concerned Africans from various countries of the continent.  Even those who wanted to defend the “Economic Partnership Agreement with African Countries” that was initiated almost 10 years ago, were not as aggressive as I have experienced in other discussions. Personalities from different parties and those who intimately accompanied the Partnership Agreement were open to hear the concerns and critical views from those who were invited from the African continent. Some parliamentarians who now work as advisors for non-governmental organizations told us openly that parliamentarians are divided on the issue, and some prominent members are in favor of abandoning the Free Trade Agreement for a while until African countries reach a certain level of economic development. I think this is a good sign. On the other side some critical Africans are not entirely in favor of a Free Trade deal, since Free Trade by definition implies that countries who accept the agreement will be compelled to import all kinds of products.  If this is the case, economically weak countries will be affected from two sides. Governments will lose income from export and import taxes, while their production potentials will be entirely affected or will be damaged.  That means the Free Trade deal, if it becomes operational, will destroy the continent’s production potential, and many African countries become markets for EU products. This means that African countries could not widen their manufacturing activities from within which would enable them to develop protracted market structures that are based on science and technology. The fact that African countries do not have diversified products that can be sold on the world market and are simply exporters of raw materials will be compelled to specialize on few products that are saleable in the EU market.  Economically seen, African countries could not develop broad markets structures that enable them to create job opportunities for those who are in search of employment opportunities.  Some participants have also questioned the merits of Free Trade deal, because the social and political impacts are incalculable. Free Trade deals do not democratize African societies, they rather strengthen dictatorship, and the development of a cultivated middle class is practically impossible. The new social class in different African countries will be attracted to consume luxury products that are imported from Europe and elsewhere. This will have negative impacts on the trade balance of each African country. That means the cultural implication of such a deal is very negative, and countries that have agreed to practice Free Trade deal could develop “a new culture” that makes the new generation socially, politically and ecologically unaware.  Those were the concerns that were more or less discussed in the meeting.

By in large those invited from Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal are more matured and have progressive attitudes. In their views societies must be regulated so that the people can understand their duties and rights. The fact that they have studied the consequences of globalization and the structural adjustment programs, they are very critical towards Free Trade and market radicalism. They see on the ground, that because of globalization, their capital cities become dumping grounds of all kinds of products that damage the health of their people and the environment.  Thanks to the organizers that gave ample opportunities for those participants who wanted to address their concerns and views. I think these kinds of open and democratic discussion is good for Europe and Africa.  Mutual understanding and open discussions, and to listen to the concerns of others is a sign of maturity. This also shows that the participants are not any more concerned about short-term gains but are interested in a long term perspective that can benefit both Europe and Africa. Unfortunately, the EU as the main actor did not send the person that is assigned for this purpose, though the organizers have also invited the EU to take part in the discussion.  There is a difference between the EU as a regional organization, and those European governments. It seems that the EU becomes more omnipotent and wants to determine the direction of these kinds of events in other countries. One German journalist who opposes the idea of Free Trade told us that the EU wants to impose its own will without consulting with its African counterparts. The journalist himself is a member of Attac, a civil society movement which opposes globalization. Attac, a member of an international organization network for global justice, is of the opinion that neo-liberalism and globalization produce poverty across many Third World countries. According to the journalist Free Trade and the ongoing globalization are responsible for mass exodus from many African countries. In his view to compel African governments to accept the Free Trade deal will jeopardize the situation.

In other meetings the direction of the discussions are a little bit different, and it seems that the organizers are not interested in deep discussions that are more critical to the prevailing capitalist order that perpetuates poverty and underdevelopment in many African countries.  For many it is still not clear that the driving force behind economic, social, cultural, political, psychological and military crises and the plight for the African masses is the existing global capitalist order. The fact that global capitalism controls the resources of many African countries, and the fact that many African countries are integrated within the circuit of this kind of production and reproduction system that benefits and strengthens few capitalist countries, while impoverishing the African masses is not a matter of debate. In all political spectrums, right or left, however varied in degrees, the status quo must remain. The world dominance order must not be put into question, since questioning the existing dominating international order contradicts the real politics that has existed hitherto. All countries, small or big must be abided by the existing international order, irrespective of the sufferings and exploitations that the masses are experiencing every day. In this way under the pretext of international order African governments should not be allowed to organize their own system in a way that enables them first of all to fulfill the basic needs of their people and introduce systematic industrialization. By formulating every ten years “new economic policies” that have different names but in actual fact that are not inherently different from the previous economic policies of the past six decades, whether intentionally or not, international organizations, like the IMF and the World Bank deepen the social and economic crises in many African countries.  African countries must not be seen as politically independent, and must accept what the so-called international community orders them to do so.

However such a short sighted view and strictly adhering to one ideology sooner or later will have negative impacts even on the Western capitalist countries. Since globalization and the Free Trade doctrine could inevitably worsen the situations in many African countries, masses of people will be compelled to come to Europe in order to find new opportunities. This will inevitably create social grievances and conflicts in many European countries. This will in turn pave the way for the rise of right wing parties and movements that will endanger the entire system in each European country.  Under this kind of circumstance it is still advantageous not to put much pressure on African governments. Since all economic policies of the past that were introduced in the name of the free market economy under the auspicious of the IMF and the World Bank have failed, African governments must be allowed to choose the best option that bring genuine economic development in each country.  From this perspective it must be clear for all groups that advance a strict market economic policy, and for those that are a little bit critical to such kind of a free market ideology, a systematic organization of the African economic and social order that can free individual creative activities will also benefit the capitalist countries in the long run. However, this is not possible with the strict ideological nature of the market economy and the fact that economic policies are being formulated and implemented from the perspective of short-term profit. At the same time the nature and inherent mechanism of global capitalism does not allow other countries to go their own ways. Irrespective of the pressures from the international community, however, African governments’ must become bold in dealing with their own societies, and they must not be dictated by the so-called international organizations. Every government is responsible for its own people, and as such it must advance the interests of its own people.  African governments must learn from the experiences of other countries, like Japan and South Korea.  Even one can learn from the social history of Europe.  As we are not at the end of history, and since historical and social processes are dynamic, and we should not lose hope as if everything has been decided, and as if some nations have the natural rights of dictating the lives of millions of people on the globe. The social history of Europe and other countries prove again and again that without holistic approaches that are independent of international order there is no genuine economic development. From this perspective the struggle for a just order and genuine development in each country must continue.

In this case all other seminars that are being organized to civilize multinational companies,  or introducing transaction taxes, or for that matter stopping or limiting capital flight, which is an impossible task under the prevailing international order and existing political power relations in many African countries,  bring more confusion than clarity. Such kinds of seminars with prominent political guests, economists of noble price winners and others could only perpetuate poverty and underdevelopment.  International prominent economist experts like professor Jeffrey Sacks who collect huge amounts of money from foundations “to help the African poor”, and who formulated the so-called Millennium Development Program that has totally failed, and other Keynesian economists who believe that they are on the side of the poor people of this world are not interested in real social and economic freedom that eradicate all the miseries that the people of Africa are facing. By wrongly advising African dictators and portraying some of them as progressive such as the Ethiopian government, which is one of the most primitive and fascistic governments of the world and receives all the necessary helps from the capitalist west for its underdevelopment policy and divide and rule system, they are prolonging the quagmire of the African people.  The West by siding along these governments which are known for their gross human right violations, contradicts and violates the humanistic values of its own philosophers from Plato to Hegel and Immanuel Kant, and those great poets and thinkers like Lessing, Friedrich Schiller and Goethe who teach that true freedom is undivided, and that all human beings have the same genuine aspirations, which is aesthetical development which is intimately related to spiritual development.  The capitalist west by rather expanding the ideology of free trade and globalization, consciously or unconsciously expands negative energy across the globe which is the root cause of war, ethnic violence, dictatorship and plight in many African countries.

Therefore the fate of Africa and its people could not be solved in such kinds of seminars that do not touch the root causes of the problem. In these seminars it is practically impossible to discuss the need of science and technology that are the basis of genuine economic development.  It is neither possible to discuss and debate on the basic need issues nor how each African country could mobilize its resources to meet the demand of its people. The need of developing well-organized cities and villages, and institution buildings that are necessary to mobilize human and natural resources are not the center of discussions in these kinds of seminars.  Intentionally or not these  seminars that focus on particular subjects will necessarily divert the attitudes of African intellectuals not to concentrate on matters that are necessary to build an integrated economic and social system on the basis of manufacturing activities and systematic industrialization that generate true national wealth.

From this vantage point such kinds of seminars bring more confusion than clarity. Those institutions and internationally known figures that are assigned to formulate economic policies for African countries are not able to present different programs and policies. Since the theoretical and philosophical foundation of the economic policies of the IMF and the World Bank and the African Development Bank is empiricism, the root cause of the African economic and social crises are not addressed.  What African countries need is a holistic policy that systematically eradicates all the crises, and creates a social condition for free individual creative activity that brings genuine civilization in each African county. The spiritual power and creative activity of the African masses could only be alleviated through a renaissance type of economic policy by changing the existing political power relationships and repressive state apparatus that are organized to undermine freedom and perpetuate underdevelopment.  Only in this way African countries gain true freedom and introduce humanistic values that are vital for the coexistence of different religious and ethnic groups.

Dr. Fekadu Bekele is specialized in development economics.   He has published numerous articles on various topics about development economics and international political systems. He advises various institutions and gives lectures on economic development.  He is the author of “African Predicaments and the methodology to solve them effectively“

He can be reached at  fekadubekele@gmx.de

The post “Africa’s Perspective”: Discussions around the G-20 Summit – Fekadu Bekele, appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Dr. Tadesse Biru released on bond after charged with terror offences

The post Dr. Tadesse Biru released on bond after charged with terror offences appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Addis Ababa aka Finfinne (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

Nine months into a state-of-emergency imposed to quell popular unrest, Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), has unveiled its first significant political concession. But the furor surrounding the draft bill presented to parliament last week reveals just how deep tensions in Africa’s second most populous country still run. At stake is the answer to a highly charged question: who owns Addis Ababa?

For Oromos, who make up at least a third of the population and formed the backbone of last year’s mobilization against the central government, the answer is simple: the federal capital, which they call Finfinne, belongs to Oromia. They recount a long history of grievance which casts Oromos as colonial subjects violently displaced from their land and alienated from their culture.

This anger became especially acute in the past decade as Addis Ababa expanded rapidly and when, in April 2014, the authorities published a new master plan which proposed further eviction of Oromo residents and farmers in the name of development. “The issue of Finfinne is the heart of our politics,” says Gemechis, an Oromo resident of the city. “It is where we lost everything.” The master plan was dropped in January 2016 but demonstrations continued unabated until October.

Addis Ababa, with a population approaching four million people, is also home to the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa and is widely regarded as Africa’s diplomatic capital—and indeed the world’s third largest diplomatic hub.

The new bill is a symbolically important effort to address some of the protesters’ demands, and to give concrete meaning to Oromia’s constitutionally-enshrined “special interest” in the capital. Proposed changes include making Afan Oromo an official language of the federal government alongside Amharic, as well as setting up Afan Oromo schools in the city; renaming the city “Finfinne/Addis Ababa”; restoring original Oromo names of public squares, roads and neighborhoods; and the establishment of a joint council with the federal government to administer the city.

It is a watered down version of an earlier draft that reportedly met with much objection inside the ruling party. This is not surprising since the meaning of “special interest” has never been fully spelt out and there is much debate as to how much privilege Oromos should have in a multiethnic city that, despite being located entirely within Oromia, has a population that is only around 20% Oromo.

For many activists the revised bill is wholly insufficient. There are no plans to “pay a penny” to Oromia for use of its natural resources, such as water, or for dumping the city’s waste on its farmlands, says Seyoum Teshome, an academic and blogger. “The bill is trash.” He and others argue that promises to pay farmers proper compensation for further evictions merely proves that the government still intends to expand the boundaries of the city.

Proposals to put the Afan Oromo language on par with Amharic are more welcomed since one of the key grievances of unemployed Oromo youth is that they struggle to get government jobs. But official quotas for Oromo representation in the city council is for many a non-negotiable. “The land must be administered by Oromos,” says Tolasa, a pharmacist who spent five years in prison for protesting the relocation of the regional state government away from Addis Ababa back in the early 2000s.

The controversy matters because it reflects stresses within Ethiopia’s model of ethnically-based federalism. The country is an example to many countries in Africa grappling with potentially explosive ethnic faultlines — from Somalia to South Sudan to Nigeria — and its constitution has long been admired for keeping such tensions in check.

The post Ethiopians are having a tense debate over who really owns Addis Ababa appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Interview with Dr Chane Kebede – SBS Amharic

The post Interview with Dr Chane Kebede – SBS Amharic appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

by Suzanne Phan / Friday, July 7th 2017

cultural festival
by Suzanne PhanFriday, July 7th 2017
Share Video

http://komonews.com/news/local/vancouver-family-searches-for-bone-marrow-match-at-renton-ethiopian-festival

Friday marked “Ethiopia Day” and tens of thousands of Ethiopians are in Seattle for a huge week-long soccer tournament and cultural festival. The community celebration could be a lifeline for a Vancouver mother who desperately needs to find a bone marrow donor match. (Photo: KOMO News)

RENTON, Wash. – Friday is “Ethiopia Day” and tens of thousands of Ethiopians are in Seattle for a huge week-long soccer tournament and cultural festival.
The community celebration could be a lifeline for a Vancouver mother who desperately needs to find a bone marrow donor match.

Soccer is a sport that means so much to the Ethiopian community.
“Most of the Ethiopians, they play soccer,” said Estfina Berhe, a teen visiting from Portland with his family.
A national tournament has brought 300 players, more than 60 teams, and more than 30,000 Ethiopians to Renton Memorial Stadium this week.
“It is absolutely the biggest gathering of Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia,” said Lu Selassie from Los Angeles.
Some say it’s an opportunity to help save a woman’s life- Elsa Nega, an Ethiopian-Canadian mother of two in Vancouver.

View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter
Follow
Suzanne Phan ✔ @SuzannePhan
The search for bone marrow donor to help Vancouver mother #ElsaNega. A special #Ethiopian community event in Seattle can help #komonews
1:08 PM – 7 Jul 2017
14 14 Retweets 8 8 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Elsa has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. She’s searching for a bone marrow transplant, but it has been tough.
“There are 29 million people on the registry and nobody matches Elsa,” said Tori Fairhurst, with “Be The Match” National Donor Registry.
The hope is that “Be The Match” and thise special gathering can help.
“Hopefully (it can.) find a match,” said Abaynesh Wakie, who is visiting from Orange County, Calif.
“People are most likely to match someone who shares their ancestry. And that’s why it’s so important to register Ethiopians. We’re not matching blood. We’re matching tissue type,” said Fairhurst.
Each person that stops to register could be a match.
“Most people never get the call. But if somebody does get a call, they could be the cure for somebody cancer,” said Fairhurst.
Meanwhile, little Lana and Lawrence Nega are asking for help to save their mother’s life. A video posted on YouTube shows them reading a letter.
“Our mom has leukemia. We are asking you to register on the website.”
Registry advocates say this weekend, the Ethiopian community gathering in Renton can become a lifeline.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity to reach a large community of Ethiopians in support of a woman who is Ethiopian,” said Fairhurst.
The bone marrow registry drive continues through 8 p.m. Saturday at Renton Memorial Stadium. Click here to register.

The post Vancouver family searches for bone marrow match at Ethiopian cultural festival appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Interview with Journalist Elias Amare – SBS Amharic

The post Interview with Journalist Elias Amare – SBS Amharic appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The UN likens Eritrea’s forced conscription – sometimes for decades at a time – to slavery. Hundreds of thousands have fled. Here’s why.

Eritrea has been consistently one of the top five biggest source of refugees in Europe for the last decade.

Since the Eritrean government began indefinite national service in 2002, hundreds of thousands of Eritrean youngsters have been conscripted into military and civil service for the state. Sometimes, that “service” can mean over a decade of hard labour at the behest of the state.

This system of organised forced labour has led to a massive emigration to the neighbouring African countries and Europe.

“The youth can’t establish family as no one knows what the future holds; they can’t do business as it has been outlawed for more than a decade; they can’t get proper education as there is systematic impediment against quality education; even if they study they can’t get decent jobs later as they are all required to work on national service,” Abraham Zere, Executive Director and Chief Editor of PEN Eritrea, told TRT World.

The government says its national service is vital for a cohesive national identity and safety in the impoverished north-east African country.

Here are nine things to know about Eritrea and the struggle of its people:

1. National service was introduced in 1994, three years after the nation gained its independence from Ethiopia.

It consists of military training and community service. On paper, both men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 must complete 18 months of service to the state.

2. The length of service can stretch to a decade or more, diplomats and those who have fled the country say.

This is because the government reserves the right to extend the length in periods of emergency.

3. All sectors of the Eritrean economy rely on conscripts, according to a UN commission charged with investigating human rights abuses in Eritrea.

Before being assigned to jobs, most citizens begin military training as part of the last year of high school.

However, sometimes children as young as 15 are conscripted.

Their assignments include forced labour for construction firms, farms or manufacturers.

4. Conscripts receive an inadequate salary to support themselves and their families.

“We were always tired and hungry, and fell ill very often,” said Mihretab Yemane Tekle, who worked at a mine operated by a Canadian company in north-west Eritrea.

5. They are often harshly treated.

Physical abuse amounts to torture sometimes and female conscripts are often sexually abused by commanders, according to a report released by the Human Rights Watch in 2016.

There is no mechanism for redressing abuses.

6. The UN has said the conscription program in Eritrea is “similar to slavery in its effects.”

Based on more than 500 interviews, the UN revealed in 2015, that the Eritrean government engages in “systemic, widespread and gross human rights violations” and said these violations occur “in the context of a total lack of rule of law.”

7. Asmara says the conscription is vital for Eritrea’s future.

The service is based on an ideology of the reconstruction of the country, strengthening of the economy and creation of a joint Eritrean identity across ethnic and religious dividing lines.

8. Eritrea feels unsafe with the government saying it fears any possible attack by its far bigger neighbour Ethiopia with whom it has fought long, intermittent wars.

The nation declared its independence after a referendum in 1993, but the two neighbours remain bitter enemies.

Their troops still eyeing each other along the fortified frontier. The two nations have long exchanged accusations of attacks and backed rebels to needle each other.

And HRW says President Isaias Afwerki, who was a Marxist guerrilla leader before independence, uses the pretext of “no-war, no-peace” to keep his people under “totalitarian control.”

8. The conscription program is not the only reason behind the Eritrean exodus.

“Nationals are denied of all forms of basic freedom such as freedom to worship, freedom to associate and organise, freedom to express themselves, etc. Such renunciation of all forms of freedom is coupled with total disregard for the rule of law and the smallest means of supporting oneself.” said Zere.

They either seek asylum in neighbouring countries or risk their lives by making dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.

According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 5,000 people flee Eritrea each month.

Zere said there were currently about 12,000 Eritreans in Uganda; 150,000 in Ethiopia, around 30,000 in Israel, and 125,350 in Sudan, as of 2015. In that year, more than 47,000 Eritreans applied for asylum in Europe.

“The neighbouring countries can barely sustain themselves and each one of the host countries in Africa are known for their notoriety of maltreatment of their own citizens,” Zere told TRT World.

“Europe too is currently plagued with economic hardship and a great surge of anti-refugee sentiment,” he added.

9. The Eritrean government has been accused of descending into a fiefdom.

“It is even hard to call it a government nowadays,” said Zere. “But rather, the country has turned into a personal fiefdom of the despotic leader, President Isaias Afwerki.” he continued.

Eritrean citizens were required to provide free labour to build dams for the last two or three years, Zere gave as an example.

“At the cost of everything the president and his clique have leased the port-city of Assab to UAE and the Arab coalition to wage war in Yemen. Now they are also openly taking sides in the current Gulf-crisis without assessing the implication to the substantial number of Eritreans currently working in Qatar.”

Author: Zeynep Sahin

The post Why is Eritrea the world’s fastest-emptying nation? appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Wolaitta Dicha beat favourites and record Ethiopian Cup winners, Defence Force, 4-2 on penalties on Thursday in Addis Ababa to lift their first ever Ethiopian Cup.

The Southern Ethiopian outfit, wrapped up the title on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time, to become the second club from the Sodo township to win the Ethiopian version of the FA Cup, after Wolaitta Tusa in 1997.

Wolaitta Dicha, who will represent Ethiopia in next year’s Total CAF Confederation Cup, started off on a bright note and dominated the early exchanges.

The soggy nature of the Addis Ababa Stadium pitch albeit made things harder for both sides with long passes being the only resort to possession. Dicha almost opened the scoring on nine minutes after striker Bezabeh Meleyo’s low drive sailed wide of the post.

Four minutes later, another opportunity fell to Dicha again, and Anagawe Badege couldn’t keep his header on target.

Defence went ahead against all odds and an own goal from hard pressed Mubarak Shekuri in the 21st minute was what they needed.

Upon resumption, Dicha continued to pile pressure and were awarded a penalty after Defence shot stopper, Yidnekachew Kidane, brought down Badege in the 53rd minute. Captain Alazar Fasika elected himself for the spot kick and made no mistake to pull his side level on 55 minutes.

After the equalizer, Dicha pushed to get the winner while Defence held on forcing the game into penalties.

During penalties, Defence defender Awol Abdela and goalie Kidane spurred their kicks whilst Kidane manage to save Badege’s penalty. Second half substitute, goalkeeper Wendsen Geremew brilliantly struck the decisive kick as Dicha cruised to the title for the first time.

History of Dicha

Dicha was established eight years ago, 2009. Under coach Mesay Teferi, a former footballer, they earned multiple promotions and gained premier league status in 2013.

The Sodo-based club narrowly avoided relegation from the Ethiopian Premier League during the just ended season (2016/17 season) that saw Jimma Aba Coffee, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Addis Ababa City demoted to the second tier.

Reactions

Minyamer Tsegaye (Assistant Coach, Defence Force)

The game was good. The playing pitch couldn’t allow us to play our usual style of play and we couldn’t make many passes. We didn’t think we would lose the cup given our performance throughout the competition. We even went ahead and squandered some good chances that could have sealed the win. It is football, so we accept the result.

Mesaye Teferi (Head Coach, Wolaitta Dicha)

Since it was a Cup final, we knew penalty shootouts could happen so we worked on that. Defense knocked out league champions Saint George and we also beat Ethio-Electric on penalties. Both sides had opportunities to score more goals but the efforts were futile. It is a tremendous achievement to replicate what Wolaitta Tusa achieved 20 years ago. We are happy that we won the competition.

Source: CAFonline.com

The post Wolaitta Dicha secure maiden Ethiopian Cup Title appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

ESFNA’s Most Beautiful Ethiopian Women of 2017

The post ESFNA’s Most Beautiful Ethiopian Women of 2017 appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Alemayehu G. Mariam

Author’s Note: The ruling Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) in Ethiopia is said to be on the verge of passing a “law” protecting “Oromia’s special interest in Addis Ababa” and “giving Oromia extensive rights in the capital city” (hereinafter the T-TPLF Masters’ Addis Ababa Plan B). It is a trial balloon “leaked out” by the T-TPLF to gauge public reaction (hoping the Ethiopian public will be blinded, hoodwinked  and bogged down in recrimination about what name to give the capital) while they implement their diabolical Addis Ababa Master Plan B in broad daylight.

It may be recalled that the T-TPLF Master’s Addis Ababa Plan A aimed at incorporating contiguous farmland in Oromiya was “shelved” in January 2016 after the people facing expropriation and eviction from their lands showed stiff resistance to the T-TPLF’s naked land grab.

The T-TPLF is now using a clever gimmick in a futile attempt to re-implement that Master Plan by cloaking it in some bogus law about “Oromia’s special interest in Addis Ababa giving Oromia extensive rights in the capital city.”

The stratagem, the trick to be used to hoodwink everybody, is the creation of an emotional distraction by proposing to rename the capital “Finfine” or “Addis Ababa Finfine”. The T-TPLF hopes that while the people argue and flail their hands at each other about what to call the capital, it will sneakily implement its new and improved Masters’ Plan B and gobble up the lands of struggling Oromo farmers on the periphery of the capital. The T-TPLF pretends that whole “special interest” idea is a response to some urgent Oromo demands.

The only urgent demand the Oromos have ever made is for justice, equality, democracy, rule of law, accountability, human rights and first class citizenship. Nothing else!

But the T-TPLF leaders believe that by giving lip service to alleged Oromo demands for “special interest” in the capital, they can woo and hoodwink them.

The T-TPLF has such deep contempt for Oromos that it believes it can deal with them with the three Ps: Pander, Pacify and Placate. The T-TPLF believes that by throwing crumbs at Oromos in  the form of empty and hollow promises about “special interest in the capital” and symbolic concessions about naming the capital as “Addis Ababa/Finfine”, they can buy them off just like someone would give cotton candy to a crying child.

The T-TPLF has such deep contempt for Oromos that it believes they cannot tell the difference between a real and a Trojan horse saddled up for a lightning-fast (6 months to set the boundary of the city after the farmlands have been gobbled up) expropriation of their land in the name of “Oromo special interest in Addis Ababa”.

To add insult to injury, there are reports that the T-TPLF is setting up a forced turnout and public demonstration by Oromos to show their support to the Addis Ababa Master Plan B.

I regret to say much of the debate and discussion in the blogosphere (and I am told in the local bar rooms and public places in the capital) is about the re-naming or double-naming of the capital as “Addis Ababa/Finfine”.  They are all barking up the wrong tree. What to name the capital is the T-TPLF magicians’ sleight of hand; it is misdirection and distraction from the real thing. Swift implementation of Addis Ababa Master Plan B.

The T-TPLF has always been clever in its use of disinformation and propaganda to distract and confuse its opposition. The double-naming of the capital is a diabolically calculated distraction by the T-TPLF. By playing up and pressing the emotional issue buttons, the T-TPLF hopes to pit Oromos against Amharas and others as it watches them tearing each other up over what word to use to call the capital. (I don’t think it will work but the T-TPLF will leave no stones unturned to use ethnic divide and conquer to remain in power perpetually.)

Needless to say, everyone who has read my weekly commentaries over the past eleven years knows that I do not believe in and totally condemn ethnic politics.

I declared long ago that for me there is not an Oromo, a Tigrean, an Amhara, a Gambellan, an Ogadeni, a Mursi, a Gurage… Ethiopian. There is only an Ethiopian.

To me, our humanity in our Ethiopianity is infinitely more important than our group identity and ethnicity, nation-ality or Africanity.

Ethiopianity is “EthiopiaWINet”. That is my simple creed. Win.et.

In the same vein, I have totally rejected the Art. 39 blather of the T-TPLF constitution about “self-determination’ and “secession”.

But I do uphold the self-determination provisions of Art. 55 of the U.N charter, and Art. 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Art. 39 was diabolically designed by the T-TPLF to dismember Ethiopia by using the saber of ethnic politics.

In 1995, the T-TPLF wrote its infamous Art. 39 about “self-determination”, “secession” and other such garbage. Those who have illusions about Art. 39 should study apartheid South Africa’s Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act No 46 (and other laws) which I discussed in my April 2016 commentary, “The Bantustanization (Kililistanization) of Ethiopia”.

Today, the T-TPLF preaches the false gospel of “Oromia’s Special Interest in Addis Ababa with extensive rights in the capital city” as part of its ongoing kililistanization program, the T-TPLF’s ultimate weapon of divide, conquer and rule forever. To sweeten the cotton candy more, the T-TPLF guarantees “Oromo residents of the city” a “right to self-determination” and representation of “25 percent of the city council membership” strictly based on ethnicity.

The only way the T-TPLF gangsters will allow “self-determination” is if they can no longer be the rulers of Ethiopia forever. Until then, they will use the Art. 39 as cotton candy to play games with some and as a boogeyman to scare the hell out of others.

Ethiopia under the T-TPLF is a new and improved collection of Bantustans, the ones they had in apartheid South Africa. Ethiopia has Kililistans, no different in form or function than Bantustans. Art. 39 basically promises the 9 Kililistans full-fledged statehood, just like the Bantu Authorities Act. Regardless, South Africa today is ONE. Ethiopia will forever remain ONE!

The T-TPLF’s justification for the Kililistans is that without T-TPLF guardianship and leadership, Ethiopia will go the way of the former Yugoslavia split into seven nations. The late thugmaster Meles Zenawi repeated the same message in a videotaped interview  in 2009. The only guarantor of Ethiopian unity and geographical integrity is the T-TPLF.  The only savior of Ethiopia is the T-TPLF.

The only savior of the hens in the henhouse is the wily fox.

On the topic of the T-TPLF’s vaunted “self-determination” article, it is worth noting that  Tigrean Peoples’ Liberation Front was organized for the single purpose of “liberating” Tigrai from “Ethiopia” and achieve “self-determination”.  That was clearly and unambiguously stated in their ‘Manifesto”. Indeed, the T-TPLF waged an armed “liberation” war to create the “Republic of Greater Tigrai” in a “two-step process:  1) redemarcating Tigray’s borders to expand the region’s borders within Ethiopia, and 2) acquiring coastal lands within Eritrea and seceding as an independent nation.”

When the TPLF became “victorious” in 1991, they did not run to Tigrai to establish their “Greater Republic”. They marched straight into the capital Addis Ababa to claim their prize.

For the past 26 years, Addis Ababa has been the T-TPLF’s cash cow, the goose that lays the golden eggs and platinum dollars and Euros, the gift that keeps on giving.

Addis Ababa is the nerve center of T-TPLF commerce, banking, construction, services and political power.

The T-TPLF has been bleeding the country dry from Addis Ababa since 1991. In the words of Global Financial Integrity, “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage”.

Willie Sutton, the infamous American bank robber, was once asked why he robbed banks. His answer, which came to be referred as “Sutton’s law”, was simple:  “Because that’s where the money is.”

The T-TPLF robbers will never allow “self-determination” in Addis Ababa because that’s where a whole lot of their money, cashola, moolah, bread, dough is at. Straight up!

Anyone who seriously believes the T-TPLF will allow Addis Ababa or Oromiya to exercise “self-determination” is plain stupid. Straight up!

The only self-determination the T-TPLF has supported is for Eritrea because they believed Eritrea was an Ethiopian “colony”.  They lobbied the U.N, the U.S. State Department and other Western capitals to ensure recognition of Eritrea as a new nation, leaving Ethiopia landlocked. In the T-TPLF’s two-year war with Eritrea beginning in 1998, 80 thousand people were made cannon fodder.

Beyond the “self-determination” issue, I have also  vigorously rejected the T-TPLF’s “national question” and “oppressed nationalities” hogwash and have convincingly demonstrated that these notions were clever and shrewd gimmicks used by the late Zenawi and the T-TPLF to divert public attention from their real agenda of permanent political domination. The whole demonization campaign against the so-called “Ethiopian Empire” is designed as a cover to sneak in, justify and entrench their own T-TPLF Empire.

The fact of the matter is that the central and core mission of the T-TPLF has always been the disintegration and dismemberment of the Ethiopian nation. Their Grand Master Plan has been and remains the complete destruction of the Ethiopian nation.

The Addis Ababa Master Plan is no different. It is a gradual and step-by-step plan for the dismemberment of Oromiya.

They will NEVER, NEVER succeed in their plans.

I wholeheartedly endorse Kwame Nkruma’s poetic prophesy, “Ethiopia Shall Rise.”

Ethiopia shall rise like the Phoenix from the ashes of the T-TPLF.  Nkrumah wrote:

Just like the moons and suns,
With the century of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still Ethiopia shall rise..

In an ever so slightly paraphrased  verse of Maya Angelou, Ethiopia shall rise like the sun rise, and that shall be no surprise, except for the T-TPLF.

But I do take deep personal offense that the T-TPLF should think that it could offer cotton candy and insult the collective Oromo intelligence by proposing “Oromiya Special Interest Area in Addis Ababa” to sneak in its “Addis Ababa Master Plan B”.  I know they believe that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the Oromo people.

That is a grave mistake!

I have laid out my views on the T-TPLF’s “Addis Ababa Master Plan A” (bulldoze struggling Oromo farmers and steal their land) aimed at ripping off land from struggling Oromo farmers on the outskirts of the capital in my January 2016 commentary, “Addis Ababa Master Plan? No, the T-TPLF Masters’ Plan!”

Well!!! The T-TPLF is back in July 2017 with its Addis Ababa Master Plan B (steal the land by whispering sweet nothings in the ears of Oromos and putting cotton candy in their mouths) with a vengeance.

In condemning the T-TPLF Addis Ababa Master Plan A, I issued a warning for eternal vigilance against the T-TPLF land snatchers.  I also “prophesied” that the  T-TPLF will be back to continue in its land grabbing in the foreseeable future with new tricks, gimmicks, bells and whistles:

Those who pushed back the T-TPLF and forced it to declare the Addis Ababa Master Plan null and void after incurring  great cost in human life may now feel jubilant and victorious. They may even feel they have “defeated” the T-TPLF.

Such feelings are not only foolish but could ultimately prove to be fatal miscalculations.

As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, the T-TPLF land-grabbers will be back to grab their land like scared off buzzards picking carrion. Sure, they will step away for a while to let the dust settle, but they will be back with a vengeance!

The T-TPLF land snatching buzzards have returned with a vengeance! Just like I said they would 18 months ago!

In his book “Facing Mount Kilimanjaro”, Jomo Kenyatta wrote, “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”

The T-TPLF today says, “Let’s talk about ‘Oromiya’s  special interest in Addis Ababa’ and ‘self-determination’. Here is some cotton candy to chew on while we talk. The Oromos closed their eyes. When they opened them, they had empty words and cotton candy in their mouths and the T-TPLF had their land”.

Fool me twice, shame on me!

That Which We Call Addis Ababa (New Flower) By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet, But…

In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Juliet asks, “What’s in a name?/ That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an arbitrary designation with no intrinsic meaning and the fact that Romeo carries the rival Montague name means nothing. The only thing that matters is that they should be and stay together as one in love.

What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O! be some other name:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name, which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

I ask my Ethiopian brothers and sisters: What’s “Addis Ababa”? “Finfine”?

It is neither heart, soul, mind, spirit or conscience belonging to any man or woman.

What’s in the name “Addis Ababa” (New Flower) or Finfine (“gushing spray” of water from hot springs)?

That which we call Addis Ababa or Finfine, by any other name would smell as sweet.

If all people in Addis Ababa could live in equality and justice with their human rights respected, does it matter what name we give the capital?

The great theoretical physicist Richard Feynman observed that knowing the name of a bird in all the languages of the world would add no knowledge about the bird. “You’ll only know about humans in different places, and what they call the bird. So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts.”

What counts is not whether the capital is called “Addis Ababa” or “Finfine” or Addis Ababa/Finfine”.  That tells nothing about the life of suffering and hardship of the vast majority of the people in the capital. We need to see what is happening in Addis Ababa and how the people are living there.

What counts is whether there is justice, equality, democracy, accountability and human rights in Addis Ababa or Finfine. What counts is whether all people in the capital enjoy first class citizenship. What counts is whether people in the capital feel secure in personal safety and have their human rights respected. These are the things that count.

What honor or profit is there in being a second class citizen in “Addis Ababa” or “Finfine”?

To live life in “Addis Ababa” or “Finfine” under a draconian state of emergency which inflicts untold suffering, hardship and misery on the people is not much of a life.

To live in the capital of a police state called “Addis Ababa” or “Finfine”, without dignity, without human rights, without due process and without the rule of law and in fear and trepidation is a life of bondage, captivity and slavery.

It is not the name of the city that counts, it is one’s dignity and freedom in that city that counts.

Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city and capital retains its apartheid Afrikaans name as do others cities and towns. I don’t see South Africans bent out of shape over what to call  Johannesburg.

It is not about the name; it is about the game. It’s about the T-TPLF zero-sum game.

It’s about the shame of playing the T-TPLF zero-sum name game.

I have warned time and again that playing a zero-sum game with the T-TPLF will always result in a total loss for those foolish enough to play it. Soren Kierkegaard observed, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Take your pick about how you want to be fooled about the T-TPLF!

I don’t want to be misunderstood.

I understand the name game for the capital is another one of the T-TPLF’s weapon of mass distraction, confusion, conjuration, polarization and  ethno-exploitation.

I do understand that the T-TPLF is using the “Addis Ababa/Finfine” name game is aimed at starting a war between the “House of Oromos” and the House of Amharas”, just like they started the war between the House of the Montagues and Capulets.

All I am saying is, “I don’t play the name game”. In street talk, “Homey don’t play that!”

The “House of Amharas” should know and fully understand that they are ONE with the House of Oromos. United we stand, divided we fall for T-TPLF tricks and gimmicks and zero-sum games!

Lesson learned: In the end, the Houses of Montague and Capulet proved to be gigantic losers.

Let others play the name game contrived by the T-TPLF.

I want to talk about the return of the T-TPLF land snatchers riding a Trojan horse called “Oromiya Special Interest in Addis Ababa”, or the T-TPLF Masters’ Addis Ababa Plan B.

Return of the Land Snatchers: “Leaked copy” of the T-TPLF Masters’ Plan B for Addis Ababa

In my January 2016 commentary, “Addis Ababa Master Plan? No, the T-TPLF Masters’ Plan!”, I declared my opposition to the so-called Addis Ababa Master Plan (purportedly designed to strategically incorporate municipalities and unincorporated areas surrounding the capital in to a rapidly developing metropolitan economy) and discussed its long-term implications.

That “Master Plan” was opposed by struggling farmers in Oromiya in the periphery of the capital as it meant confiscation of their land for handover to T-TPLF bosses and lackeys.

True to form, the T-TPLF responded by massacring and jailing those opposed to the “Master Plan”. Human Rights Watch reported that since mid-November 2015, T-TPLF “security forces [had] shot dozens of protesters in Shewa and Wollega zones, west of Addis Ababa”; and in the town of Walliso security forces fired “into crowds of protesters leaving bodies lying in the street.”

The popular uprising against the “Master Plan” sent shock waves through the T-TPLF leadership, rank and file and the parasitic elites who tail behind the T-TPLF bosses gobbling up land and property from increasing numbers of poor Oromo farmers who are fast becoming landless, hopeless, voiceless and powerless. The T-TPLF brazenly denied the existence of a real “master plan”; they said it was just ideas for “conceptual analysis”.

In my January 2016 commentary, I also “prophesied” that the T-TPLF will lie low for a while and return with a vengeance to continue with its land grab.

Today, the T-TPLF land snatchers have returned with a vengeance carrying Master Plan B or the “Oromia Special Interest in Addis Ababa Plan.”

According to an allegedly “leaked copy” of the T-TPLF’s “Oromiya Special Interest in Addis Ababa” (hereinafter the T-PLF Masters’ Addis Ababa Plan B) “law” obtained by Horn Affairs (the T-TPLF usually sends up a trial balloon to gauge public opinion when preparing to issue one of its diabolical proclamations) there are various elements to that law.

Empty and Hollow Promises about “self-determination”, etc.

The T-TPLF Master Plan B is essentially a desperate move to pacify and neutralize Oromos and pit them against Amharas and others.

Master Plan B promises, “Oromo residents of the city” a “right to self-determination” and guaranteed representation of “25 percent of the city council membership” strictly based on ethnicity.

This is the T-TPLF’s diabolical version of “power sharing” with Oromos in city government.

But the city government is a wholly owned, operated and managed subsidiary of the T-TPLF.

Back in 2005, Dr. Berhanu Nega was elected mayor of Addis Ababa by a landslide and the T-TPLF promptly declared him an enemy of the state and railroaded him to jail. The T-TPLF itself officially admitted, “In a clean sweep, the CUD [Coalition for Unity and Democracy (Kinijit)]  won all the seats in Addis Ababa, both for the Parliament as well and for the city council and expected to form its Government in the capital city.”

Instead of forming a government, Dr. Berhanu and the slew of newly elected parliamentary and council representatives were railroaded to T-TPLF prisons.

Who owns and runs Addis Ababa city government today?

The T-TPLF, of course!

T-TPLF power sharing promises in the past have proven to be empty and hollow and dangerous.

In 1991, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) which was committed to “self-determination” was made a junior partner of the T-TPLF’s front organization, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The OLF was “given” 4 nominal minister-level positions in the T-TPLF transitional government. The OLF got 12 seats in the constitutional drafting and transitional body. Soon enough, the OLF figured out that the T-TPLF was taking it for a ride and left the front organization.  The T-TPLF responded by swiftly outlawing the OLF and declaring it a “terrorist” organization.

The fact of the matter is that the T-TPLF has declared a “terrorist group” any movement that opposes it, and lacking no other viable alternative called for “self-determination”, including the “Ogaden National Liberation Front” and “Western Somali Liberation Front”, “Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front” and others.

The T-TPLF constitution under Art. 39 sets 4 conditions for the exercise of “self-determination” (secession) and “statehood” (Art. 47) . But all conditions for “self-determination” and “statehood” require prior approval of the T-TPLF.

Under Art. 39, one or more of the 4 conditions set forth therein must be met: 1) approval by “two-thirds majority of the members of the Legislative Council of the Nation, Nationality or People” (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the T-TPLF, 2) the “Federal Government [will] organize a referendum” (ha ha! The T-TPLF will organize the “referendum” just like it organized the 2015 elections in which it “won” by 100 percent), 3) “when secession is supported by a majority vote” (organized exclusively by the T-TPLF) and 4) when “Federal Government (T-TPLF) will have transferred its powers to the council of the Nation, Nationality or People who has voted to secede” (when the T-TPLF has transferred power to itself through a referendum”. This is the horse manure of Art. 39.

In other words, for any groups to exercise “self-determination”, they need the approval of the T-TPLF. That is how the T-TPLF allowed Eritrea’s “self-determination”.

Such is the T-TPLF’s zero-sum constitutional game. As ALWAYS, they win the self-determination game and those foolish enough to believe in an imaginary right of self-determination lose, as ALWAYS.

If Oromos should exercise “self-determination” (a factual and theoretical impossibility under Art. 39), so will the others.

That means the T-TPLF would have wiped itself out by allowing the “nations, nationalities and peoples” to exercise of “self-determination”. All of the tens of billions of dollars in looted wealth accumulated by the T-TPLF all over Ethiopia in the past 26 years will vanish into thin air by a simple act of “self-determination”.

Let’s deal with the simple truth: The T-TPLF bosses will NEVER, NEVER allow “self-determination” in Addis Ababa or anywhere else because that would mean their END.   Period!

The Big Scam- Cotton Candy for Oromos

In its “Oromiya Special Interest in Addis Ababa”, the T-TPLF is offering the Oromos cotton candy. (For my readers who may not be familiar with cotton candy, it is melted sugar spun at high speeds by centrifugal force to produce a fluffy wool-like texture. It looks big but once in the mouth, it is like eating “sugared air”.)

The T-TPLF is desperately trying to entice Oromos to support it by offering them cotton candy in the form of a special interest in Addis Ababa.

How ironic the T-TPLF is trying to pull the (cotton candy) wool over Oromos’ eyes!

The T-TPLF’s Addis Ababa Master Plan B promises the establishment of an “Oromo National Council by residents of the city”. The Council will allegedly have all sorts of powers and responsibilities. It can “enact laws policies and laws to preserve and promote Oromo language, culture and history”, “nominate the Mayor and the representatives of Oromos in the Cabinet” and “implement decisions” .  There will also be a “Joint Council consisting 22 representatives of Oromia government or the Oromo National Council and 22 representatives from the City  administration” to “supervise implementation of the laws enacted regarding Oromia’s special interest on Addis Ababa.”

The Council is said to have other “supervisory” functions over “education in Oromo language,  protection of the rights of Oromos evicted due to development works in the city and monitoring and assisting the proper implementation of this proclamation and subsidiary legislations.”

The T-TPLF “Addis Ababa Master Plan B” will allegedly guarantee Oromos 25 percent membership  on the “Addis Ababa City council”, a body that will be handpicked by the T-TPLF from among their Oromo lackeys. All cotton candy.

Anyone who wants to know how the T-TPLF treats Oromo officials, particularly military officers should read my translation of an interview with a former T-TPLF spy, “The T-TPLF Spook Who Sat by the Jailhouse Door in Ethiopia (Part I).” The spy reported that Oromo officers “become generals. There they are (invited to join the circle of corruption) and allowed to engage in corrupt practices. That’s how they (T-TPLF) corrupt Oromo generals and keep them from achieving top military levels. They don’t want them to get to the top levels.”

Making empty gestures and grandstanding has always been the case in T-TPLF government positions. There will be an Oromo front man in every T-TPLF ministry, but the guy exercising real power is a T-TPLF boss.

Am I lying!?

But that is nothing new. The T-TPLF is merely following an old tried and proven technique from the colonial days of Africa called “indirect rule”. English colonial boss Lord Fredrick Lugard perfected this trick in his book “Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. He promoted a policy of enforcing British laws through the traditional rulers who only served as intermediaries between the natives and the British government.

All of the Oromo “councils” and the rest of the make-believe organizations  are merely intermediaries  and convenient mechanisms for T-TPLF indirect rule.

There is even a provision in the Master Plan B which manifestly violates Art. 9 (supremacy of the “federal constitution”) of the T-TPLF constitution: “Any decision by any authority contradicting the decision of the Joint Council regarding Oromia’s special interests shall have no effect.”

Who will create, own, manage and operate the “Oromo National Council” and “Joint Council”?

The T-TPLF, of course!

The whole Council business is a stupid dog and pony show calculated to bamboozle, hoodwink, dupe and flim-flam Oromos and anyone else foolish enough to fall for it.

Here is the proof: The T-TPLF claimed to have “won” 100 percent of the seats in its kangaroo parliament in May 2015; and by 99.6 percent in 2010. In 2008, in “elections for regional parliaments, the T-TPLF won 1,903 of 1,904 seats.

Does it make any sense to believe the T-TPLF will allow anyone to exercise an independent role on the “Addis Ababa City Council”, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the T-TPLF?

If anyone believes that I have the Brooklyn Bridge to sell them at a fire sale price.

As I explained the negotiation strategy of the T-TPLF in my last commentary, “The Zero-Sum Negotiation Games of the T-TPLF in Ethiopia”, the T-TPLF will use ethnic politics, sectarianism, regionalism, etc. to divide and conquer the “opposition” in negotiations, elections or any other competition. They will throw crumbs to the various opposition groups and leaders just to watch them fight and tear each other up. It is like the master throwing a bone to a bunch of hungry dogs. The dogs will kill each other to get a piece of the bone. That is how the T-TPLF plays the opposition game and that is the aim of Master Plan B.

The T-TPLF also promises to restore “historic names of various parts of the city “,  commemorated Oromo heroes by naming buildings, roads and facilities”,  “allot television and radio airtime for Oromo language programs” and “educate the public to know and acknowledge Oromo’s historic ownership of and forced dispossession from Addis Ababa.” That means it will officially promote the politics of ethnic hate and antagonism.

The T-TPLF is throwing out red meat to Oromos and excite jealousy and unleash enmity against them by offering them “special” and preferred group status.

The T-TPLF promises Oromos “land, free of lease payment” in the capital for construction of public,  charitable and cultural buildings and “market places”. “Oromo residents of the capital are to be given “15% priority” to buy or rent condominium housing provided by the City Administration.”  Oromos will have “priority right to use public squares, centers, halls, stadiums, etc.” and “establish schools that provide education in Oromo language for Oromo residents of the city.” “implement affirmative actions to attain fair wealth distribution between the indigenous Oromo population and the majority population residing in the city.” prevent or minimize the dumping of waste to Oromia.

The nonsense about a “15% priority” in buying or renting condos is laughable. How would struggling Oromo farmers who have been evicted from their land be able to afford the expensive condos in the capital. Even the cheaper condos in the capital run over one-half million birr.

The truth of the matter is the T-TPLF is BIG BUSINESS for the T-TPLF. They are drowning in money by evicting Oromo farmers drowning in poverty.

According to one report,  “the Addis Ababa City administration, for example, expropriates land from farmers by paying displacement compensation calculated at 18 birr/m2 and subdivides and transfers it by leases to private residents for an average of 8,000 birr. Assuming farmers have an average land size of 1 ha (10,000 m2) one can imagine the size of profit that is collected by the government, while leaving the farmer with insignificant amount of compensation.”

Buy at 18 birr and sell at 8,000 birr. How obscene and sickening to make profits over the backs of poor families. (Excuse me, but I am trying not to vomit!)

Simply stated, 15% of nothing is nothing! That is exactly what the T-TPLF is offering the struggling Oromo farmers in the periphery of the capital.

Land expropriation is BIG business for the T-TPLF.

The T-TPLF believes all of the bogus preferential treatment crap will be the perfect wedge issues for ethnic division.

What will it take for the Amharas, the Gurages, Ogadenis, Afaris, Anuaks… to get special status, privileges, treatment and priority by the T-TPLF?

Who the hell made the T-TPLF the dispenser of special status, privileges, treatment and priority? An old Ethiopian proverb teaches, “A brazen thief will argue with the rightful owner.” The T-TPLF steals the land and now makes itself the landlord to distribute the land back to the rightful owners. What the hell?!

The whole message of the “Oromiya Special Interest” campaign is that Oromos are in training for first class citizenship like the T-TPLF members and supporters. T-TPLF members and supporters have a chokehold on the economy, civil service, military and political process. Addis Ababa will be a training ground for Oromos to get used to feeling first class citizenship and do, behave and act like T-TPLFers.

Of course, Oromos will never have real “priority” in anything. That is reserved permanently for the T-TPLF bosses and their supporters.

The Oromo “affirmative action” program promised in the T-TPLF Addis Ababa Master Plan B is the most insulting, degrading, disrespectful and dehumanizing provision. It is also manifestly contrary to Art. 25 of the T-TPLF constitution, “All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law… and are guaranteed equal and effective protection without discrimination on grounds of race, nation, nationality, or other social origin…” (See also Art. 42(4), 88(2).

The T-TPLF “proclamation” law reminds me of the proclamation of the pigs who control the government in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.

By the same token, all members of ethnic groups in Ethiopia are equal, but some ethnic group members are more equal than others.

How life imitates art in the T-TPLF pig sty!

The intended effect is obvious. Non-Oromos will resent Oromos for their “special privileges”. Non-Oromos will associate Oromos as T-TPLF lackeys and allies. Non-Oromos will discriminate against Oromos.  Oromos will get little, if anything, out of the “special privileges” and “deals”  offered by the T-TPLF. The only thing they will get is T-TPLFers in Oromo faces. It reminds me of Franz Fanon’s book “Black Skin, White Faces” on the psychological games played by the colonial conquerors on the natives. The colonial master believed that allowing the slave to eat at his table was a gift for which the slave should be grateful.

The role of “Oromia government” is limited to “proposing and being consulted on draft policies, plans and legislations pertinent to Oromo residents of the city and the relationship between the city and Oromia.” They have the right “to propose amendments to this proclamation.” The right to propose is for suckers (fools). Anybody can propose anything. End poverty in the world. Equality for all people. Human rights for all humans.

The issue is never who can propose, the issue is always who proposes.

Who has the right to dispose in the Addis Ababa Master Plan B?

The T-TPLF, of course!!!

The Real (Raw) Deal for the Oromos

Hidden deep in the rubbish and garbage of the “Oromiya’s special interest in Addis Ababa proclamation” is the T-TPLF’s crown jewel: The  ultimate plan to incorporate and gobble up land in the periphery of the capital so that T-TPLF bosses and businesses could expand their holdings and Oromo farmers become beggars in the street of the capital.

The T-TPLF Master’s Addis Ababa Plan B proclaims:

The [Addis Ababa] city shall provide various services for communities living in the surrounding Oromia districts.

The city shall pay compensation, at market price rate, when it evicts Oromos from lands within the city and resettle them within the same vicinity.

The city boundary shall be determined by a mutual agreement of the city administration and Oromia state government. The demarcation shall be completed within 6 months of the enactment of this proclamation.

What a clever con game to dispossess and expropriate land of struggling Oromo farmers!

Here is the T-TPLF trick.

First, the so-called “surrounding communities” adjacent to the capital will be integrated into the city in the name of providing “various services”.

The city cannot provide services to residents, let alone the “surrounding communities. There are over 100,000 children living in the streets in Addis Ababa. Water supply in the capital is so bad in 2017 that “going through an entire week or even a month without water has become common in many areas of the city.” The capital city (indeed the whole country) “does not have the facilities, equipment and human resource with the essential skills to support a coordinated emergency medical care system and as such lacks the basic infrastructure for delivering emergency care.”

What services could the city provide the “surrounding communities” except eviction and expropriation services?

Second, Oromos in the “surrounding communities” will, without any doubt, be “evicted” from their lands for “resettlement.” That is because the whole Master Plan B is to “integrate” the peripheral areas into the city so that there will be no periphery, just an ever expanding Addis Ababa without limits or boundaries.

How could evicted Oromo farmers be able to afford a condo and living expenses in Addis Ababa?

The cost of living in Addis Ababa is so high that only T-TPLF fat cats, members, supporters and lackeys can afford to live there. The figures are stunning. A four-person family needs nearly USD$2,000 a month (without rent) to live in Addis Ababa. Other reports make similar findings. Power outages and water supply cutoffs are the ugly realities of every day life in the capital. T-TPLF taxes are wiping out non-T-TPLF businesses.

Per capita income in Ethiopia, according to the World Bank is “$590 [which] is substantially lower than the regional average” and the “government aspires to reach lower-middle income status over the next decade.”

What a joke!!!

This business of taking away and giving back Oromo land makes no sense to me; but a lot of sense for the T-TPLF.

If the T-TPLF has so much free land to give away to Oromos in the city of Addis Ababa after evicting them out of the periphery of the capital, why take away their land in the first place? Leave them the hell alone!

Why does the T-TPLF need more land in Oromiya?

There was the scramble for Africa hatched at the Berlin Conference in 1884. Are we witnessing a T-TPLF scramble for Oromo land in 2017?

Third, the “city boundary” is said to be “determined”  by “Oromia state government” and the city of Addis Ababa, both T-TPLF lackeys.

This is simply a scam. The entire T-TPLF plan is to encroach on lands adjacent to the city so that T-TPLF can make Addis Ababa a full-fledged independent city-state of business, trade, commerce and politics under the total, complete and exclusive control of the T-TPLF.

That was precisely the aim of the Addis Ababa Master Plan A which sought to strategically incorporate municipalities and unincorporated areas surrounding the capital in to a “rapidly developing metropolitan economy”. But the people of Oromia fought back and temporarily defended their land. Now, they have to do it all over again!

The Addis Ababa Master Plan A was a World Bank/T-TPLF conspiracy calculated to displace struggling Oromo farmers and convert their land into private estates for use by the T-TPLF extended “royal families” and parasitical elites.

In July 2015, The World Bank issued a report entitled, “Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Enhancing Urban Resilience.”

That report argued Addis Ababa must be a resilient city, and “building a resilient city therefore requires a holistic, multi-sectoral, and flexible approach to urban development.”

How can Addis Ababa become more resilient?  The report says the city must take “priority actions” which include first and foremost, “effective implementation of the Integrated Development Plan and related regulations” and investments in infrastructure projects.

“Integrated development plan”, according to the World Bank means “connecting people with rapidly growing regions” and connecting “smaller cities” and regions “by transport and linked to the electricity grid, smaller cities can attract industries for which the more advanced cities have become too expensive.”

In ordinary language, “integrated development plan” for Addis Ababa means disintegrating poor Oromo farmers and their families and scattering them into the wind.

But there is another sinister strategy underlying the T-TPLF Addis Ababa Master Plan B and all of the cozying up to Oromos with empty and hollow promises.

It is indeed a brilliantly slick strategy worthy of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”: 1) Subdue the enemy without fighting. 2) Break the enemy’s resistance without fighting. 3) When two of your enemies are fighting, befriend one to use against the other. 4) When you move against the enemy be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness and soundlessness. In other words, be sneaky and cunning like a fox.

The whole effort to bribe the Oromos with free land, priority in housing, affirmative action, special status and privileges has one singular aim: Pacify, placate, neutralize and befriend them so that the T-TPLF can amass all of its forces against the Amahras.

The T-TPLF declared a state of emergency because both Oromos and Amharas together rose up against its rule. The T-TPLF was losing the war on the Amhara and Oromo front. That’s why it brought back its troops from Somalia in October 2016 to deal with the uprising in Oromiya and Amhara regions. If the state of emergency is lifted, they will all go right back to where they left off in October 2016.

The T-TPLF cannot handle two wars at the same time now.

I will say it again: The T-TPLF believes it can buy off and bribe Oromos with empty and hollow promises and cotton candy to bring them to their side which will give them free rein to lower the hammer (or artillery) on the Amharas with full force.

Once the T-TPLF takes care of the Amhara resistance, they will set in motion theit corollary strategy. Hammer the Oromos!

That’s how the T-TPLF almost got away with its scam moving formlessly and soundlessly in its Addis Ababa Master Plan B.

That’s how the T-TPLF land snatchers are riding their Trojan horse in Oromia today. Sun Tzu would have been so proud!

The fact of the matter is that whatever proclamations the T-TPLF Masters of the Zero-Sum game publish, it will not be worth the paper it is written on. It is all a desperate move by the T-TPLF to break out of the trap it set for itself in its state of emergency decree.

Those non-TPLFers who seriously talk about “Oromia Special Interest in Addis Ababa Plan” should ask themselves a simple question: Are the T-TPLF constitution and all of the T-TPLF proclamations over the past 26 years worth the papers they are written on?

Are they?

All Oromos want are the rights of first class citizenship enjoyed by all free peoples throughout the wrold—the right to equality, justice, dignity, human rights, vote in a free and fair elections and live peacefully under the rule of law. They don’t need no “priority”, “affirmative action”, special privileges or free land given to them after it is stolen from them.

Oromos are legendary for their equestrianship (horsemanship).

The Oromos, united, locked arm-in arm with all of their Ethiopian brothers and sisters from north to south, from west to east, without regard to ethnicity, religion, language or region, will never be defeated by the T-TPLF’s Trojan horse of the Apocalypse!

NEVER!

In the end, there is a lesson to be learned. The Houses of Montague and Capulet proved to be gigantic losers.

The “House of Oromos” and the “House of Oromos” should know and fully understand that they are ONE.

United we stand, divided we fall for T-TPLF tricks, gimmicks and zero-sum games!

Stop toying with, pandering to, patronizing and scamming Oromos!

STOP!

First class citizenship for Oromos, not cotton candy!

The post Ethiopia: The T-TPLF Trojan Horse of the Apocalypse Riding in Oromiya – Al Mariam appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Hiber Radio Weekly News – July 9th, 2017

The post Hiber Radio Weekly News – July 9th, 2017 appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Focus: Professor Mammo Muchie has just returned from West Africa where he gave a series of lectures on innovation from science, technology, engineering and mathematics for an Integrated African Sustainable Development. Being a champion of pan-Africanism, he believes that innovation can be used to promote African unity. But is the continent doing enough to encourage innovation among its people? Guest: Prof Mammo Muchie – Research Chair in Innovation Studies Faculty of Economics and Finance at Tshwane University of Technology

[jwplayer mediaid=”27330″]

The post Morning Talk, 7 Jul ‘Integrated African Sustainable Development’ appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

By Obo Arada Aba Shawl aka Wolde Tewolde

July 10, 2017

On July 4, 2017, a personal friend called me to say Happy Four. We were in the same Economics class and working in Economic Planning of Urban and Rural Ethiopia/Eritrea. From our study of history of Economic Thought, a flash came to me the year July 4, 1776. It was when Adam Smith wrote his thesis on “The Wealth of Nations.” The most telling credo of this thesis was that “there is a selfish man in every man.” The current situation in both Ethiopia and Eritrea is a testimony to this credo/value.

In the American economic history, it took 241 years since that time up to the present. And it is still seems to work as Capitalism. In Ethiopia including old Ethiopia currently Eritrea had survived without this credo of selfishness for over 5 millennia. How did they do it? By force of arms, No.  By threatening, maybe. By persuasion, definitely yes. By following the Orthodox way of life, which is balancing the past and the future.

Adam Smith, a Scottish man was an economist, a philosopher and an author. His ideas of classical economics, modern free market, division of labor and the invisible hand were spread among western nations. In Ethiopia, systems of primitive, slave, feudal were rampant. Instead of modern market or division of labor, Ethiopians were conducting Trade and Climate issues. Who is talking now about trade and climate? History repeats itself.

My friend invited me to thank and to celebrate the American July 4 of Independence. He told me that nobody gave us independence in neither his home country Ethiopia nor in my own home country Eritrea. I asked him whether his birth place starts with the letter B or M. He said with both Borona and Mekane. Now I caught him in ground zero for B=13. For the readers’ info, mine starts with the letter Z working backwards to the letter A. This methodology brings us to our long lasting relationship of urbanization and rural process. He came here to study urban affairs and I came here to study rural transportation. We both were in the right track for the purposes of Ethiopian citizenship and Eritrean leadership.

What went wrong then with this process of democratization and transformation in Ethiopia and Eritrea? There was nothing wrong with the process of democracy and democratization (DD). The problem was with the Central Planning (CC). Obviously, the letter C comes before D and it created havoc and destruction in Ethiopia as well as in Eritrea.

Planning by nature and design is iterative. There is a short term as well as a long term if not intermediary. Having worked for two years in this type of planning, a radical planning aka Central Planning imported from the then Soviet Union was imposed upon the people and country of Ethiopia despite the opposition by the true Ethiopian and Eritrean Revolutionaries.

I reminded my personal friend about Debre Sina, Debre Bizen, and Debre Damo in the north, about Dabat & Debark in the central region; Dembi Dollo in western region; and Dire Dawa in the Eastern region. All these DDs are located in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Can they tell about migration and urbanization? The current state of affairs, both in Ethiopia and Eritrea are the same.

My personal friend and I were radical for political ideas but we were not radical supporters of Economic Central Planning. We supported radical political revolution when we were at the commercial bank and at college. It was not difficult for both of us to support the political change in Ethiopia having known Walellign Makonnen (WM). For in M lies Wisdom and in M belies materialism. Both letters balance each other.

When it comes to the question of nationalities, Wallelign did not attempt to distinguish between Blood vs. Bones (BB). This is not for political scientist least for social scientist. He was simply trying to set fire for dialogue and debate among college students and elites of the country. And indeed he succeeded. But the national question as perceived by the nationalists of all types has been perverted up to the present day. Instead of his father Makonnen, Wallelign chose Martha Mebrahtu, a double MM to produce energy instead of fire. Wallelign and Martha’s Energized Ethiopian Movement is still alive.

What is to be done apart from this bickering of political history? My suggestion is simple and forward. Let us continue with the WM movement. And let us form a united front for leadership and citizenship for both Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The leadership concept should begin with the following historical facts and personalities:-

1. An individual leader from Eritrea’s EPLF (to be named)
2. An individual leader from ELF (to be named)
3. An individual leader from TPLF (educated)
4. An individual leader from EDHIN (moralist)
5. An individual leader from OLF (passionate)
6. An individual leader from Mieson (to be nominated)
7. An individual leader from the DERG (to be searched and nominated)
8. Other DD leaders from woreda, awraja, town and cities.(to be elected)

The above would be leaders would be willing to tell their true stories, personal as well as professional in the Ethiopian Revolutionary and Reactionary War.  It is time to reconcile the two approaches that led us to where we are. It will help us as a guide to where we are going in the future.

If need be, I can nominate or suggest the right people for the right cause. All we need is the right leadership based on the check and balance system of Dega-Weina-Kola climatic system in Enations of Eritrea and Ethiopia.

And the right type of citizenship for the masses. More on Citizenship next time.

For questions and inquiries

oboaradashawl@gmail.com alias woldetewolde87@outlook.com

The post Leadership vs Citizenship: The case of Eritrea and Ethiopia appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

BY Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban
Africa Times

The post Ethiopia must allow protest probe, end crackdown: 38 E.U. MPs pile fresh pressure appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Ellen Eldridge
 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Parents of a 6-year-old boy told Gwinnett County police that beating and leaving children indoors alone for hours is normal in Ethiopia.

The post Parents unfazed by abuse charge, say belt beating ‘common’ in Ethiopia appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Mesfin Tadesse. Ethiopia. Home of Arabica Coffee. Early Use, Folklore and Biology. North Charleston, South Carolina: CeateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. 15 x 33 cm, i-xvi, 95 pp (available at amazon.com).

This book by Dr. Mesfin Tadesse highlights the various aspects of coffee. There have been numerous articles written on coffee, but the book under review here attempts to distill relevant and available information in the literature in one volume. The author, himself a plant systematist, plant biologist, and as an academic who has done his own share of research on coffee, is well qualified to write this book.

The main part of the book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 traces back the earliest practice of coffee roasting and brewing to the eastern Ethiopian town of Harar. Early on, coffee was consumed in Keffa in liquid form after boiling the leaves of Arabica coffee (so-called Chemo). The leaves are also reported to have been used for medicinal purposes. The chapter also details how Buna Qella is prepared for consumption at wedding ceremonies and other festivities. To prepare it, roasted green coffee beans are dipped in spiced, salted and molten butter. The coffee balls prepared in this manner are also chewed or placed between the cheek and the jaws during long journeys. It is used as a ceremonial food in Wellega, Sidamo (Borena area) and Illubabur. The chapter also mentions a folklore associated with how coffee was discovered. Legend has it that a young goat herd in Keffa by the name Khalid noticed goats strutting around after feeding on the fruits on the coffee plant. The goat herd got curious and himself ate the fruit with a similar effect. A different version of the story was told by an author in 1671 that goats and camels were excited after eating coffee bean as noticed by a shepherd boy named Kaldi in Arabia. Today the latter name has been adopted by some coffee shops in Addis and the USA (Silver Spring, MD).

Chapter 2 provides details of preparing coffee drink and the elaborate coffee drinking ceremony in Ethiopia with the three stages of Abol (andegna), Tona (huletegna) and Bereka (sostegna or literally meaning blessing). These names are related to three Egyptian Muslims who first introduced “ceremonial” coffee drinking. The potency also decreases in that order.

Chapter 3 discusses the knowledge base of coffee farmers regarding coffee cultivation in different parts of Ethiopia, such as Hararghe, Illubabur, Keffa, Sidamo and Wellega. In addition to the original modes of coffee use (Chemo and Buna Qella) referred to in Chapter 1, this chapter also describes other ways of use. These are Qishir or Hoja and Qutti. The former is prepared by boiling the fruit husk in boiling water containing ginger and/or cinnamon. Qutti is prepared from the leaves by infusing them in boiling water. Both forms are popular in Hararghe. In Illubabur, the leaves are mixed with salt and given to cattle for treating cough.

Chapter 4 which is the longest in the book (pages 29-55) goes into great details discussing about the geographical origin Arabica coffee. It is interesting to note that there are about 124 species in the genus Coffea, but only three species Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora (Robusta coffee) and Coffea liberica (Liberian coffee) are cultivated, traded and used as coffee. Coffea arabica is now cultivated in about 80 countries and contributes to 80% of the world supply of coffee, and the other species to a lesser extent. The botanical name Coffea arabica L. assigned to the coffee plant by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus was based on a specimen collected in Arabia, which gave the impression that the plant originated in Arabia. However, the chapter provides strong argument that Coffea arabica was introduced to Yemen from Ethiopia. This is supported by accounts of several botanists, travelers and others. Trade routes that were prominent during the Axumite civilization, Zagwe dynasty and later periods may have been involved in spreading coffee from Ethiopia. For example, coffee may have been introduced to Yemen from Ethiopia in 525 AD during such trade journeys.

Chapter 5 discusses the origin of coffee cultivation. The exact time when coffee cultivation began in Ethiopia is not known, but the speculation is perhaps many centuries ago. Whether coffee cultivation started in Ethiopia or Yemen or about the same time in both areas is not clear. According to the author, it may have been first cultivated around the 15^th century in the Ethiopian highlands of Harar, from where the seeds were taken and planted in Yemen.

In Chapter 6, the author describes the taxonomic, chromosomal and DNA characteristics of Coffea arabica. These descriptions point to the hybrid nature of Coffea arabica from two related African species, C. eugenioides and C. canefora. Chapter 7 discusses how coffee drinking spread to all parts of the world. It perhaps began in Yemen or Ethiopia– coffee was consumed in some form in the southern parts of Ethiopia. The chapter then goes on to explain how it spread from Yemen to Egypt; from Egypt to Turkey; and from Turkey to Western Europe and Tropical Africa. Coffee drinking also found its way into Asia and the whole Western Hemisphere. The last and shortest section of the book, Chapter 8, alludes to the need why Ethiopian coffee farmers should be compensated in a fair trade environment. Although Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, its share of export in 2014 accounted for only 4.13% of the total market. Yet, Ethiopia gave Arabica coffee to the most trade-beneficiary countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, India and Indonesia.

One of the minor drawbacks of the book is the absence of an index to facilitate easy general or specific search. The botanical name of the specific coffee plant is Coffea arabica, while the common name is Arabica coffee. The latter name (upper/lower case beginnings) is not expressed consistently, for example as in arabica Coffee in the first two inside pages, Arabica Coffee on the cover page, preface and page 22, and Arabica coffee on other pages (pages 24 & 27). Despite these minor deficiencies, the book is free from typographical errors.

I highly recommend that all Ethiopians and non-Ethiopians alike read this very important book written on coffee by a professional expert who knows the subject very well.

The post Book Review on Coffee – by Fekadu Fullas, Ph.D. appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Assegid Habtewold

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Press Release

New book unveils 12 soft skills that make or break one’s success

Soft Skills That Make or Break Your Success: 12 soft skills to master self, get along with, and lead others successfully by Assegid Habtewold- a leadership expert and soft skills workshop facilitator, is now available. The book is based on a story and shares great insights, approaches, and tools essential to develop the 12 vital soft skills that make or break one’s success.

Silver Spring, MD, July 13 2017 (Success Pathways Press)– Research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation, and Stanford Research Center revealed, “85% of job success comes from having well‐developed soft and people skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).”  Unfortunately, many professionals over depend on their technical expertise. They neglect to develop their soft skills proactively and in turn pay dire prices individually and cause havoc in their organizations. Common workplace complaints such as high turnover, conflict, and low productivity many companies experience come down to lack of certain soft skills.

The book is based on the story of a successful professional (Dan) who was promoted to lead a multimillion-dollar project because of his excellent technical skills. Unfortunately, due to lack of some soft skills, problems started to pop up where he couldn’t get along with his peers, and lead his team members successfully. Dan almost got fired by his immediate boss (Susan) from leading the project until the CEO of the company (Paul) negotiated a deal that required him to attend a three-part Soft Skills Development program and to work with a mentor (Rafael) to continue leading the project. The book narrates how the problem began, the negotiations, and the main discussion points of the 12 mentoring sessions. Each chapter summarizes the three key talking points of Dan and Rafael: a) Four insights Dan gained from each workshop, b) The assessments, processes, models, and tools he found helpful, and c) Immediate actions he plans to take as a result of attending that particular workshop.

When asked why he wrote the book, Dr. Habtewold responded, “I worked as a researcher for an international research organization for more than five years up until I came to the US in 2005. Between 2005 and 2007, I was a production operator and then a software engineer working for a multinational corporation. These opportunities gave me chances to work with outstanding professionals. However, the majority of them, like Dan, they struggled to get along and continually advance in their career due to lack of certain soft skills. Since I became a trainer in 2007, I’ve continued to witness the dire prices of lack of soft skills at individual and organizational levels. That was why I decided to write this book to play my share in empowering individuals to develop those critical soft skills that determine their success….”

Soft Skills That Make or Break Your Success is unique from other similar books because it shares:

• Data that show how soft skills play the lion’s share for one’s success. Here are just two examples: “46% of new hires fail in the first 18 months, and 89 percent of them failed for attitudinal reasons [soft skills]. Only 11 percent failed due to a lack of hard skills.” “More than 1 million employed U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor.” Such bosses lack the vital soft skills necessary to get along and lead their team, and thus, they cause chaos, high turnover, and low employee morale.
• Stories like Nikola Tesla- the legendary inventor, who died poor and in isolation due to lack of soft skills.
• President Donald Trump’s Twitter war with President Enrique Pena Nieto over US-Mexico border to illustrate the vital role soft skills like negotiation play to get along and lead high stake negotiations between nations. The book offers some key lessons from this Twitter feud between two presidents that can be used in any negotiation.
• Some stories of the author including the culture shock he experienced during his early days in the US, and how he worked on his cultural intelligence to get along with diverse people in his new home. He also shared latest practical examples, case studies, and lessons he learned from his readings and experience as a former professional and now a facilitator of soft skills workshops.
• Many other valuable lessons.

The 12 soft skills that are covered in this book are industry and culture neutral. In whichever industry and country you may belong, they empower you to achieve extraordinary results in your personal life, career, and business. The book contains great insights, tools, and processes that enable you to develop the 12 soft skills that make or break your life, relationships, career, or business.

Book Information:

Title: Soft Skills That Make or Break Your Success

Subtitle: 12 soft skills to master self, get along with, and lead others successfully

Author: Assegid Habtewold

Publisher: Success Pathways Press

ISBN: 978-1-947524-01-9

Published: July 2017

Pages: 226

Genre: Personal Growth, Professional Development, and Leadership

Free download: To download the first few sections and conclusion of the book for free, check out this link: http://successpws.com/?page_id=2254

About The Author:

Assegid Habtewold is a coach, consultant, speaker, and trainer at Success Pathways, LLC. He has over two decades of leadership experience and has been empowering leaders from diverse industries on themes that are covered in this book. He has diverse professional background: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Master’s in Computer Science, and Doctor of Strategic Leadership. He has already written two books on leadership. He frequently blogs and facilitates workshops on the 12 soft skills discussed in this book.

You can order the book from Amazon

For more information, review copies, or interviews, please contact:

Assegid Habtewold

PO.O. Box 10136

Silver Spring, MD 20914

Email: Assegid@successpws.com or assegidh@gmail.com

Tel: 703-895-4551

Website: http://www.successpws.com

###

The post New book unveils 12 soft skills that make or break one’s success appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

A Panel discussion – Habtamu Assefa, Kinfu Assefa, Atikilt Assefa & Teklemichael Abebe

The post A Panel discussion – Habtamu Assefa, Kinfu Assefa, Atikilt Assefa & Teklemichael Abebe – ZeHabesha TV appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Tom Gardner / Guardian News

Thursday 13 July 2017 

The musician’s latest album, with songs hailing Ethiopia’s glorious past, is the fastest-selling record in the country’s history. But his political views have made him enemies at home

Teddy Afro … somewhat unintentionally, a flag-waver for the Ethiopian opposition. Photograph: Mulugeta Ayene/AP

Tewodros Kassahun’s manager meets me on a quiet suburban road inside a gated compound. With their neoclassical mansions, manicured lawns and white picket fences, compounds such as this are a rarity in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and this one is as grand as it gets. Still, I’m underwhelmed as we turn in to the driveway of the house, which, by contrast with its neighbours, is relatively modest. This is, after all, the home of the biggest star in Ethiopian musical history: Teddy Afro.

He greets me in the living room, padding around in a tracksuit and socks. The house is in a bit of a mess, and he apologises – they’re clearing up the remains of an album launch party over the weekend. He and his manager are in high spirits. Three days earlier, they released Ethiopia, his fifth studio album; it had a record $650,000 recording budget, was the fastest-selling record in the country’s history, and topped Billboard’s world albums chart. Teddy’s relief is palpable – the release was beset by delays – as he settles into a chair and begins outlining his philosophy. “Art is closer to magic than logic,” he says, beaming cheerfully.

It is difficult to overstate Teddy Afro’s popularity and importance in Ethiopia today. “His level of celebrity is simply unprecedented,” says Heruy Arefe-Aine, the organiser of the country’s Ethiopian Music festival.

FacebookTwitterPinterest

Ethiopia has long had a remarkably unified pop music culture – a national canon heard on buses and in bars across the country – but even in this context, Teddy stands out. He is the only artist of his generation to have risen to the level of Mahmoud Ahmed and Aster Aweke, the two greats of post-1960 Ethiopian pop, but at home at least he has comfortably outrun them both. Moreover, his significance reaches well beyond national borders: his popularity among the 2-million-strong Ethiopian diaspora, especially in the US, is unparalleled. The Ethio-Canadian R&B singer the Weeknd has cited him as a major influence.

But he is also a controversial figure. In 2008, he was imprisoned for a hit-and-run offence, which he has always denied he was responsible for. Many regard the jail sentence as a politically motivated move by Ethiopia’s authoritarian government, and a reaction to his 2005 album Yasteseryal, released in the year of a hotly disputed election. The lead single, whose video featured archive footage of the former emperor Haile Selassie and the bloody revolution that followed his reign, was interpreted by many as an indictment of everything that followed the emperor’s demise, including the current regime.

He became, perhaps somewhat unintentionally, a flag-waver for the Ethiopian opposition, a reputation he has maintained. The song is still, for all practical purposes, banned.

He makes for an unlikely political radical, and indeed his manager makes clear from the outset that politics is off the agenda. But he is nonetheless keen to explain the new album’s message. Lyrics are everything in Ethiopian music, and his – rich in idiom, allusion and wordplay – have excited his fans ever since he broke on to the scene in the early 00s. He argues that the country, under a state of emergency after violent anti-government protests last year, is slipping backwards. “We used to be a model for Africa,” he says, “but, because of our government, our country is divided.” The album is a call for unity and the rehabilitation of Ethiopia’s glorious past. “This younger generation is in a dilemma about their history,” he continues. “I feel a responsibility to teach them about the good things from their history. They should be proud of their achievements.”

FacebookTwitterPinterest

Glancing references to the government aside, this is fairly inoffensive stuff. But in fact the politics are tricky. At the centre of the album is the story of Emperor Tewodros II, a 19th-century warrior-king whose rule is often seen as marking the beginning of modern Ethiopian history. “He fought and died for this country,” says Teddy, gesturing at a painting of the monarch on the living room wall, and pointing out that they share the same name. But the problem for many of Teddy’s critics is that his is a fiercely disputed view of that history. To many modern Ethiopians, Tewodros represents feudalism and imperialism. To some, his rule was characterised by the conquest and subjugation of other ethnic groups. But to his supporters, he united the country and resisted European colonialism.

Teddy’s previous album, Tikur Sew, released in 2012, did something similar for an even more controversial figure, Emperor Menelik II, hero of the Battle of Adwa in 1896, which saw the defeat of the invading Italians, but also the man responsible for the conquest of much of modern-day Ethiopia. Teddy, like Tewodros, Menelik and Selassie, hails from the Amharic-speaking part of Ethiopia; his critics see him as peddling a sort of nostalgic Amhara nationalism. His living room also contains an original sword belonging to Menelik, the old imperial flag, and a photograph of Selassie. “The younger generation need to know what our fathers did for this country,” he says. “It is clear that Menelik fought for Ethiopia, for unity, and against colonialism.”

FacebookTwitterPinterest

Although the album Ethiopia contains an eclectic mix of influences (the second track, Semberé, could be by Manu Chao), and lyrics in several of Ethiopia’s 88 languages, Teddy remains in many ways an Amhara musician. He recalls sitting as a young child on the knee of Hirut Bekele, a popular Amhara vocalist from the 60s and 70s, as she performed in small clubs in Addis Ababa. “She was like a queen,” he remembers. His early work was reggae-infused but in his recent albums he has returned to a more recognisably Ethiopian sound, though funkier and insistently catchy. Traditional vibrato vocals, the itchy triplets of traditional Amharan rhythms, highly polished synth-heavy production: all this is the language of modern Ethiopian pop.

The latter has often been a source of frustration to Ethiopia’s musical old guard, who lament the lack of instrumentation among the younger generation, although Teddy points out that a live band plays on the album’s final track. He is a child of two musicians – his mother was a dancer who toured the world, his father a songwriter for a police orchestra in 50s Addis Ababa – but he came of age in the 80s under the military regime known as the Derg, when live music all but disappeared as a result of a strict overnight curfew that lasted for 16 years. Like most pop stars of his generation who began their career amid the heady post-Derg optimism of the late-90s club circuit, Teddy sings and plays keyboard.

It is perhaps for this reason that Teddy is almost unheard of beyond Ethiopia and its diaspora. Despite its distinctly Ethiopian vernacular, his music is still pop: cosmopolitan and perfect for dancing to. Musicians such as Mahmoud Ahmed or Mulatu Astatke (the father of Ethiopian jazz) appeal to western audiences drawn to a more exotic sound, complete with live bands. Teddy doesn’t offer that. But in any case, his focus is closer to home. “This is a dangerous time,” he says. “My priority now is Ethiopia.”

• This article was amended on 14 July, to reflect that Teddy Afro doesn’t hail from Amhara, but rather an Amharic-speaking region of Ethiopia.

The post Teddy Afro, Ethiopia’s biggest pop star: ‘Because of our government, our country is divided’ appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.