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Amnesty International is calling for the 15 May 2005 elections to be a new start for respect and protection of human rights in Ethiopia
Excerepts
"The Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA)(21) claims that dozens of its members have been dismissed, involuntarily transferred, and many arbitrarily detained and ill-treated - particularly during the widespread school student demonstrations in Oromia Region in 2004 - on account of their suspected opposition to the government. On 16 February 2005, Abate Angore, a senior ETA official, was brought to court after being free on bail since his arrest in December 2002, when he had been charged with "spreading false rumours against the government and inflaming public opinion" by means of a press statement he made in 2001, criticising police violence against an Addis Ababa University student demonstration"
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopian authorities pleaded for help in dealing with devastating floods that have swept through the country's southeast as the death toll from water and crocodiles rose to at least 107.
አልአሙዲ ለኢህአዴግ ሲቀሰቅሱ ዋሉ
ሼህ ሙሀሙድ ሁሴን አልአሙዲ የኢህአዴግ አርማ የሆነውን የንብ ምልክት ያለበትን ቲሸርት ለብሰው ቁጥሩ ከ5 ሺህ ለማያንስ ህዝብ ቅስቀሳ ማካሄዳቸው ታወቀ። የቅዱስ ጊዮርጊስ አርማ የሆነውን የእንግሊዝኛ የV ምልክት ወይም ቅንጅት አሁን እየተጠቀመበት ያለውን ምልክት መውሰዱን እንደሚቃወሙም ገልፀዋል።
ሼህ አላሙዲ ባለፈው ቅዳሜ ሚያዚያ 15 ቀን 1997 ዓ.ም ለቅዱስ ጊዮርጊስ ስፖርት ማኅበር አዲስ ስታዲየም ለማስገንባት በሲ.ኤም.ሲ አካባቢ በተገኙበት ዕለት የኢህአዴግ አርማ የሆነውን የንብ ምልክት ያለበትን ቲሸርት ለብሰው በመምጣታቸው ብዙዎችን አስገርመዋል አስቆጥተዋልም። አንዳንድ ሰዎች እንደተናገሩት አጋጣሚውን ምክንያት በማድረግ ሺህ አላሙዲም ሆኑ አቶ አርከበ ህዝቡ ንብን እንዲመርጥ መቀስቀሳቸው ለቅዱስ ጊዮርጊስ ስፖርት ቡድንና ለስፖርት እድገት በአጠቃላይ አደገኛ ነው። በተለይ ሼህ አላሙዲን የቅንጅትን ስም ሳይጠቅሱ «አርማችንን ተቀምተናል ቢሆንም እናስመልሳለን» ማለታቸው በወቅቱ በሥፍራው የነበሩትን የቅንጅት ደጋፊዎች እጅግ አበሳጭቷል።
ስታዲየሙን ለማስገንባት ከሚፈጀው 50 ሚሊዮን ብር ውስጥ ሼህ አላሙዲ 40 ሚሊዮን የሚሸፍኑ ሲሆን ቀሪውን 10 ሚሊዮን ደግሞ ህብረተሰቡ እንደሚሸፍን ተገልጿል። በስነ ስርዓቱ ላይ ከፍተኛ የመንግስት ባለስልጣናት፣ ሀይሌ ገብረ ስላሴን ጨምሮ ታዋቂ ግለሰቦች ተገኝተዋል። ከአርቲስቶችም ጥላሁን ገሰሰ፣ ሙሀሙድ አህመድ፣ ሚኒሊክ ወስናቸውና ሌሎችም የተገኙ ሲሆን ጥላሁን ገሰሰም በስፍራው ለተገኘው ህዝብ ዜማውን አሰምቷል።
የቅዱስ ጊዮርጊስ ስፖርት ማኅበር ጥቅምት 19 ቀን 1990 ዓ.ም በቀራንዮ አካባቢ በተሰጠው መሬት ላይ ስታዲየም ለመገንባት የመሰረት ድንጋይ ማስቀመጡ የሚታወስ ሲሆን ስታዲየሙ ግን ሳይገነባ መቅረቱ ይታወቃል።
የስታዲየሙን የመሠረት ድንጋይ አቶ አርከበ እቁባይ የአዲስ አበባ መስተዳድር ከንቲባ ያኖሩ ሲሆን ግንባታውም በቅርቡ ይጠናቀቃል ተብሎ ይገመታል።
በሼህ ሙሀመድ አላሙዲ ድርጊት ላይ አስተያየት የሰጡን አንድ ግለሰብ «ምንም እንኳን ግለሰቡ ኢትዮጵያን የሚወዱና በብዙ ኢትዮጵያውያንም ዘንድ የሚወደዱ ቢሆንም ይህ አድራጎታቸው ከኢህአዴግ ጋር የተለየ ግንኙነት ይኖራቸው ይሆናል የሚል ጥርጣሬን እንደሚፈጥርና በህዝብ ያላቸውን ተወዳጅነትም እንዳይቀንስባቸው ያሰጋል» ብለዋል። በተለይ እሳቸው በህግ የኢትዮጵያ ዜጋ ባለመሆናቸው እና የውጭ ዜጋ በመሆናቸው እንዲህ አይነቱን ድርጊት መፈፀም አልነበረባቸውም ብለዋል።
ከአዲስ ዜና ሚያዝያ 18 ቀን 1997
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - At least 72 people have been killed, 100 reported missing and thousands made homeless by devastating floods that have swept southeastern Ethiopia, officials said.
People, housing and livestock have been washed away by raging waters from Wabe Shebell river which burst its banks at the weekend after days of heavy rains, submerging more than 30 villages in the remote region, they said.
"The death toll right now stands at 72," said Ahmed Abdi Mouhamoud, a World Food Programme (WFP) official in Godie 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia's Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, which is delivering humanitarian supplies to flood-hit areas, said 100 people had been reported missing but could not say if that number included the 72 confirmed deaths.
"Families are reporting about 100 people still unaccounted for," Hassan Mohammed, a Red Cross official, told AFP.
Mouhamoud said that some 31 villages in the areas around Godie and Mustahil, 120 kilometers (74 miles) away, were under water and that the death toll could be significantly higher than 72.
"People are facing very serious danger," he said. "We have reports of serious flooding in those areas."
He said that emergency shipments of blankets, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils, high-energy biscuits and medical supplies have arrived in Godie from Addis Ababa and would be distributed by two helicopters throughout the region.
Mouhamoud said the river was beginning to subside but stressed that the situation in Godie and Mustahil was far from safe as the rush of receding waters had the potential to cause further damage.
"Even though the water level is decreasing, the danger is still very serious," he said, noting that no proper disaster survey had yet been completed.
"We are unable to go downstream on the river to see any person or animals, anything that was washed away," Mouhamoud said.
The flooding, which began on Saturday, followed days of uninterrupted rain in the highlands to the north of the affected area in Ethiopia's Somali state and hit most villages at night, taking sleeping residents by surprise.
On Monday, an official in West Emi district in the state, said people were still clinging to trees in a desperate attempt to avoid being swept away by the flood waters.
Before the flooding the area had been repeatedly hit by drought
ጤፍና በርበሬ ወደ ሱዳንና ጅቡ+ እንዳይላክ የኢትዮጵያ መንግስት ከለከለ
የኢትዮጵያ መንግስት ወደ ሱዳንና ጅቡ+ በባንክ ኤልሲ ተከፍቶ ይላክ የነበረው ጤፍና በርበሬ እንዲቆም በቅርቡ መወሰኑ ታውቋል።
የኢትዮጵያ ባንክ ምንጮች እንደገለጹት በሱዳንና በጅቡ+ በኩል ጤፍና በርበሬ መላክ ከተጀመረ በኋላ በኤርትራ ጤፍ በኩንታል ከ6 ሺህ ናቀፋ ወደ 800 ናቅፋ ወርዶ የነበረው ወደነበረበት ቦታ ሊመቀስ ይችላል የሚል ስጋት ተፈጠሯል።
በተያያዘ የኤርትራ ተቃዋሚዎች ካለፈው ዓርብ ዕለት ጀምሮ ከኢትዮጵያ በመካከለኛ እና በአጭር ሞገድ የሬዲዮ ስርጭት ማስተላለፉ መጀመራቸውን ምንጮቻችን ገልፀዋል።
Source: Haaretz
The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University are closing their doors to Ethiopian students, especially those wishing to study in prestigious programs, Ethiopian activists and university graduates say.
These two universities consider the psychometric exam as the decisive factor in accepting students, thus significantly reducing the number of Ethiopian students compared to the other universities.
Immanuel Hadana, a prosecutor in the military advocate general's office, graduated in 2000 with a first degree in law from TAU. The law program initially refused to accept him because his psychometric grade was lower than required by the entrance threshold. Only after repeated appeals - appearing before a committee and approaching the top university officials - did the program agree to accept him.
"My attempts to enter the law study program in TAU took more time than the studies themselves," he says.
Hadana was recently invited to speak at the Knesset's Immigration and Absorption Committee about the success in the absorption of the Ethiopian immigrants.
He told the committee that the university management had asked him to praise its success in accepting immigrants from Ethiopia at a talk to university contributors and trustees.
"I was the second student (of Ethiopian origin) at the university. I remember a conference where they wanted me to say there was a 100 percent rise in the number of Ethiopian students at TAU. I objected," he says.
TAU, with its 28,000 students, is the largest university in Israel. In 2002-2003, only 32 Ethiopian students studied there. At Hebrew University, the second largest, there were 26 Ethiopian students at that time. The number of students at the Technion in Haifa, which is considered a relatively small, elitist institution, was 49. Altogether, 441 Ethiopian students studied at the six large universities in 2002-2003, 30 percent (128) at Bar Ilan and some 40 percent (174) in Haifa.
"I am not ashamed to say that Hebrew University and TAU are `snobbish' universities that refuse to accept the immigrants from Ethiopia," Israel Radio's Amharic program director Zaga Malko told the Knesset committee.
Attorney Yitzhak Dassa of Tabeka, an association providing legal aid to Ethiopian immigrants, says: "I'd give the worst grade to absorbing immigrants from Ethiopia to TAU and Hebrew University. Looking for an Ethiopian student in either of them is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Dassa says the problem is especially acute in the prestigious programs, such as law, economics, medicine, engineering and management. A survey conducted by Tabeka for Haaretz indicates that there are only 119 law students from Ethiopia nationwide, including the colleges. Tabeka is now checking whether it is possible to petition the High Court of Justice against the entrance policy in the two large universities.
Hebrew University says it operates an affirmative action policy and has lowered the entrance threshold to enable Ethiopian students to enter the school. The university also offers a preacademic course to prepare them for their studies.
TAU says: "Since 1992, the university has been operating an affirmative action project to encourage students from Ethiopia to acquire higher education. The students are accompanied by a social worker and receive scholarships, dorms and personal help with their studies."
Source: Al Jazeera
Ethiopia says Somali insurgents killed
Sunday 24 April 2005, 9:17 Makka Time, 6:17 GMT
The Ethiopian army has killed a large number of Somali insurgents, suspected of being trained by the Eritrean government, and captured dozens more, security officials said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5A0B66B7-3527-4D1B-9196-D66060F7C239.htm
ADDIS ABABA, April 22 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Friday its army killed 32 armed men sent by former foe Eritrea to raise havoc before Ethiopia's May elections, a charge Eritrea denied saying its policy was to stay out of other countries' affairs.
April 20, 2005 — NOAA satellites have detected areas of stifling drought conditions in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia for the sixth year in a row. These conditions leave the region with threats of starvation, water shortages, widespread crop losses and disease outbreaks, according to researchers at the NOAA Satellite and Information Service.
Read full report
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2420.htm
Source: Washington Post
WorldSpace Sets Stock Offering
By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 19, 2005; Page E01
Seeking to piggyback on the growth of satellite radio in the United States, WorldSpace Inc., a District-based satellite radio service provider with licenses to broadcast in Asia and Africa, last week registered an initial public offering of $100 million of stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Founded in 1990, WorldSpace sells subscriptions to its radio service and receivers and leases broadcast capacity on satellites it owns. It does not compete with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., based in the District, and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. of New York, which hold the only two U.S. satellite radio broadcast licenses.
WorldSpace aims to apply the business model pioneered by XM and Sirius in the United States to India and China, both markets with burgeoning middle classes.
The date and target price for the offering will depend on an SEC review and investor response to the company's presentation of its business plan, said Donald J. Frickel, WorldSpace's general counsel.
Last year, WorldSpace reported revenue of $8.5 million, down from $13 million for 2003, according to SEC filings. It posted net losses of $577 million in 2004 and $217 million in 2003.
WorldSpace was one of XM's original investors in the mid-1990s and licensed technology to XM. It sold its stake in XM in 1999 for $75 million. WorldSpace continues to program four channels for XM, Frickel said.
After an initial infusion of capital, WorldSpace ran out of money. A heavy debt burden and the post-Sept. 11, 2001, downturn further hampered WorldSpace's growth.
"The largest factor in our ability to raise money in the late '90s and in the early years of this decade was the size of our debt. We were carrying around $1.5 billion," Frickel said. WorldSpace also faced questions about three of its backers. Saudi investors Mohammed H. Al Amoudi, one of the world's richest men, and Khalid Bin Mahfouz, a former chief operating officer of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, had provided about $1 billion to WorldSpace. Both men have been named as defendants in lawsuits filed by relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. The suits accused them of financially supporting the al Qaeda terrorist network -- a charge both men have denied.
A third investor, Salah Idris, was the owner of a factory in Sudan that the United States bombed in 1998.
In December 2004, the company raised $155 million in private investment and restructured its debt. That allowed WorldSpace to begin a subscription radio service in India. It now has 53,000 subscribers, including 22,000 in India, who pay between $3 and $5 monthly to receive up to 80 channels of news, music and sports programs. (XM and Sirius, by contrast, combined, have about 5 million subscribers.)
As a result of the debt restructuring, Al Amoudi, the Bin Mahfouz family and Idris no longer hold any direct debt or equity interest in WorldSpace or have any voting control. However, in the event that WorldSpace makes a profit between now and 2015, the company has to pay a royalty to Stonehouse Capital Ltd., a company controlled by two sons of Bin Mahfouz, according to the company's SEC filing. Under a recent agreement, Idris holds only non-voting shares in Yenura, a company that owns shares in WorldSpace. Yenura is controlled by WorldSpace founder and chief executive Noah Samara, who is the company's major shareholder.
"We restructured the debt out of existence in return for this royalty arrangement," Frickel said.
Watch BBC video about the return of Axum
Source: BBC
Axum Obelisk heading back to Ethiopia
The Axum obelisk has been in Rome for 68 years
Final preparations are under way in Ethiopia to receive an ancient obelisk seized by Italy before World War II.
An Antonov cargo plane is due to fly one-third of the 3rd Century obelisk back from Rome.
The section of the 160-tonne obelisk is scheduled to arrive at Axum airport early on Tuesday.
Italian troops seized the obelisk in 1937 and took it to Rome, where it has remained ever since, despite a 1947 UN agreement to return it to Ethiopia.
The ornately decorated 24-metre (78ft) obelisk is regarded as an outstanding example of architecture from the ancient city of Axum, itself regarded as one of the four great kingdoms of the ancient world.
It stood for years outside the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, despite an Italian commitment to send it back to Ethiopia.
Celebrations planned
It was eventually dismantled by Italian experts in 2004 in readiness for its journey home.
Obelisk points to ancient glory
That journey has since been beset by "technical difficulties" and repeatedly postponed.
The most recent delay came just last week, when it was postponed "indefinitely" amid concerns that the airstrip at Axum could not handle the cargo plane.
That was a disappointment for Ethiopians and the country's government, which had planned a national celebration to mark the return of the obelisk.
Many Ethiopians see the obelisk as a vital national symbol, and the prospect of its return stirs strong emotions.
Abebe Alenayehu, 81, watched Italian troops seize the obelisk from Axum, but never expected to be alive to witness its return.
"The memory still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth," he told the Associated Press news agency.
"Every day for the last 67 years I have thought about the obelisk."
Lattanzi, the Italian company responsible for transporting the obelisk to Axum, has described the obelisk as the largest, heaviest object ever transported by air.
Abebe Alenayehu saw Italian soldiers take the obelisk in 1937
Heaters have been installed in the plane to protect the monument from freezing air temperatures.
The obelisk has also been wrapped in steel bars to stabilise it in case of turbulence during the six-hour flight, Lattanzi director Simone Pietero told AP.
In addition, the airstrip at Axum has had to be upgraded to handle the vast Antonov-124 aircraft, and radar has been installed.
"We are ready to receive our precious treasure that was stolen from us 70 years ago," said Tadele Bitul Kibret of Ethiopia's Ministry of Culture.
If the transportation is successful, the two remaining sections of the obelisk will be flown to Ethiopia over the following 10 days.
BBC Graphics
Anbesaw
Ethiopian Hailu Negussie won Boston Marathon, taking $100,000 home.
And Ethiopian Elfnesh Alemu came second in the Women's Marathon.
Kenyan Ndereba won the women's race for a record fourth time
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BOSTON (Reuters) - Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia ended Kenya's dominance of the Boston marathon on Monday by winning the 109th running of the world's oldest annually contested marathon.
Negussie finished in an unofficial time of two hours, 11 minutes and 44 seconds. The course record of 2:07:15 was set by Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya in 1994.
The Ethiopian, fifth in last year's race, put distance between him and a pack of Kenyan runners, including defending champion Timothy Cherigat, after the infamous Heartbreak Hill, the steepest climb of the course.
Kenyans had won 13 of the previous 14 men's Boston marathons.
The women's race was won by defending champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, who became the first four-time woman's winner. She had to come from behind to overtake Ethiopia's Elfenesh Alemu to win the race.
Ndereba won the 109th edition of the world's oldest annually contested marathon in an unofficial time of 2 hours 25 minutes 12 seconds. That fell short of the women's course record of 2:20:43 set by Margaret Okayo of Kenya in 2002.
Ndereba, who was the winner in 2000, 2001 and 2004, assumed control of the race in the 20th mile on Heartbreak Hill, the steepest climb of the course. The winner had trailed the lead by more than one minute at the race's halfway point.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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Elfnesh Alemu of Ethiopia finsihed second in Boston Marathon 2005.
Congratulations Elfnesh !!!
Boston Marathon 2005 Men's result
1. Hailu Negussie, Ethiopia, 2:11:45
2. Wilson Onsare, Kenya, 2:12:21
3. Benson Cherono, Kenya, 2:12:48
4. Alan Culpepper, U.S., 2:13:39
5. Robert Cheruiyot, Kenya, 2:14:30
6. Timothy Cherigat, Kenya, 2:15:19
7. Benjamin Kipchumba, Kenya, 2:15:26
8. Andrew Letherby, Australia, 2:16:38
9. Mohamed Ouaadi, France, 2:16:41
10. Peter Gilmore, U.S., 2:17:32
11. Ryan Shay, U.S., 2:18:17
12. Benjamin Kimutai, Kenya, 2:18:22
13. Thomas Omwenga, Kenya, 2:18:57
14. Pavel Loskutov, Estonia, 2:19:04
15. Joshua Kipkemboi, Kenya, 2:19:28
Women's Result
Women
1. Catherine Ndereba, Kenya, 2:25:13
2. Elfenesh Alemu, Ethiopia, 2:27:03
3. Bruna Genovese, Italy, 2:29:51
4. Svetlana Zakharova, Russia, 2:31.34
5. Madina Biktagirova, Russia, 2:32:41
6. Lyubov Morgunova, Russia, 2:33:24
7. Shitaye Gemechu, Ethiopia, 2:33:51
8. Zhor El Kamch, Morocco, 2:36:54
9. Mina Ogawa, Japan, 2:37:34
10. Nuta Olaru, Romania, 2:37:37
11. Firaya Sultanova-Zhdanova, Russia, 2:41:05
12. Emily Levan, U.S., 2:43:14
13. Caroline Annis, U.S., 2:43:46
14. Carly Graytock, U.S., 2:44:02
15. Yuko Sato, Japan, 2:47:00
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The following as reported on Bostonmarathon.org
"2:04pm - Hailu Negussie is 25 years of age. His PB of 2:08:16 came in 2002 at the Hofu Marathon. Of his six prior marathons, he has won three. He competed in the Olympic Marathon last summer, but was a DNF. He currently trains in Addis Ababa under coach Tolosa Kotu and is a member of the Mugar Cement Factory Club"
2:13pm - Negussie has crossed the finish line in an unofficial time of 2:11:24. For his victory he earns $100,000. Wilson Onsare is second, with Benson Cherono third.
The last time an Ethiopian man won the Boston Marathon was in 1989 when Abebe Mekonnen took the laurel wreath.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ETHIOPIANS
Some of the headlines from major papers accross the world about Hailu Negussie winning Boston Marathon 2005
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi discussed joint projects to allow their respective countries to benefit from the waters of the Nile River, Ethiopia's ambassador to Egypt said.
The two leaders agreed to "encourage the formulation of joint development projects to ensure the optimal exploitation of hydraulic resources within the framework of the Nile Basin Initiative, notably involving countries east of the river: Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan," Amare Girma said after the talks in in the Egyptian Red Sea resort.
Colonial-era agreements imposed by Britain prohibited Nile basin states other than Egypt from undertaking projects that would reduce the river's flow.
But in 1999 Egypt finally agreed with the other nine littoral states to thrash out a new framework for sharing the river's resources.
More than 95 percent of Egypt's water needs are covered by the Nile but according to official estimates the country, whose population has increased at least three-fold since 1959 bringing it up to 72 million, now registers a deficit and needs to develop new hydraulic resources.
Some 85 percent of the Nile's flow comes down the Blue Nile from Ethiopia.
Egypt's independent press regularly writes about dam construction projects underway in Ethiopia, allegedly in cooperation with Israel, which could slacken the flow of water and affect Cairo's Nile water supply.
A meeting gathering all 10 Nile basin states is scheduled for May in Uganda, Amare said.
Mubarak and Meles also examined the agenda of a New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) summit in Sharm el-Sheikh next Tuesday, the Egyptian president's office said.
NEPAD aims to bring Africa out of under-development by attracting private investment, in return for a commitment by the African states to good governance.
Some 30 heads of state and governments are expected to attend.
Meles arrived in Cairo on Saturday for a visit during which he will attend the NEPAD meeting.
--
Prior to arriving in Egypt, PM Zenawi was in France. Below is a picture with Chirac.
Photo Claude Stefan
Boston Marathon 2005 is scheduled for Today , April 18.
Nazret.com wishes the best of luck for Team Ethiopia.
Gete Wami is the favourite among Ethiopians.
And watch for Hailu Negussie.
Here is what Boston Herald wrote about Hailu
"Negussie is a rising star in a country full of talent. Only 25, he has already won three marathons and sports a 2:08.16 personal best. Stayed in the top ten at Boston for most of the race before fading to fifth. Look for him in the lead pack." Boston Herald
Download Ethiopic font if you cannot read
ኦፌዴን፣ በኦሮምኛ እንዳይከራከር ተከለከለ
ኢንተር አፍሪካ ግሩፕ ባዘጋጀው የክርክር መድረክ ላይ ዓላማዬን በኦሮሚኛ ቋንቋ እንዳላስተላልፍ ተከለከልኩ ሲሉ የኦሮሞ ፌደራሊስት ፓርቲ ፕሬዚዳንት አቶ ቡልቻ ደመቅሳ በተለይ ለአስኳል ጋዜጣ ገለፁ።
ኢንተር አፍሪካ ባዘጋጀው የፓርቲዎች የክርክር መድረክ ላይ ፓርቲያችን እንዲሳተፍ የተጠየቅን ቢሆንም፣ መከራከር ማድረግ የምትችሉት ግን በአማርኛ ነው ከዚህ ውጭ አናስተናግድም ተብለናል በማለት አቶ ቡልቻ ገልፀዋል። አቶ ቡልቻ ጉዳዩን አስመልክተው «በክርክሩ መድረክ እንድንሳተፍ ጠይቀውን ነበር። ነገር ግን፣ የምትከራከሩት በአማርኛ ነው አሉን። እኛም፣ እንደበፊቱ በኦሮሚኛ እየተናገርን በአማርኛ ይተርጐምልን ብንል፣ አቶ በረከት ከልክለዋል ተባልን። እኔ እራሴ/ አቶ ቡልቻ/ አቶ በረከት ጋር ደውዬ በክርክሩ መድረክ ላይ፣ በኦሮሚኛ የምንናገረው አማርኛ ባለማወቅ ሳይሆን፣ የገጠሩ ሕዝብ አማርኛ ስለማይሰማ፣ የሚመርጡን ሰዎችም ኦሮሚኛ ተናጋሪ በመሆናቸው በኦሮሚኛ ዓላማችንን ተረድቶ እንዲመርጠን ነው ብንላቸውም አናስተናግድም ብለውኛል። እኛ ደግሞ በኦሮሚኛ ካልተናገርን በዓየር ላይ መናገር ይሆናል። እኔ የተወለድኩበት አካባቢ ኦሮሚኛ እንጂ፣ አማርኛ አይችሉም። ይሄ ደግሞ በእኛ ላይ ከፍተኛ ተፅዕኖ ነው እያደረጉ እንደሆነ ያሳየናል» ብለዋል።
Currency jail threat in Eritrea
The Eritrean Government is threatening jail terms and large fines for anybody caught using foreign currency.
Eritrea has a serious shortage of foreign exchange - which is vital for imports such as oil and food.
The measure is aimed at curbing the black market where people get 33% more for their money than official rates.
From Friday those caught will face two years in prison and a fine of some $130,000 - a huge deterrent when an average income is only $130 per year.
War
Government officials say Eritrea's hard currency has gone on subsidising fuel prices, especially for the rural poor.
The International Monetary Fund says the problem is linked to loss of trade with neighbouring Sudan and Ethiopia.
It says the local currency, the Nakfa, is also fixed against foreign currencies at an unrealistic level.
The BBC's Ed Harris in the capital Asmara says that for those unable to pay, the prison sentence will be increased proportionately.
He says the new regulations could also affect remittances from Eritreans overseas which in 2003 were worth as much as 70% of Eritrea's GDP.
Senior UN and Eritrean government officials have warned in recent weeks that continuing tensions with Ethiopia following their 1998-2000 border war are squeezing Eritrea's economy and could even lead to war.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4445995.stm
Published: 2005/04/14 17:24:44 GMT
© BBC MMV
Letter from Senator McCain and Secretary Albright to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (Washington, DC)
DOCUMENT
April 14, 2005
Posted to the web April 14, 2005
Washington, DC
Prime Minister of Ethiopia
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Your Excellency:
We write to express our concern and dismay over the recent expulsion from Ethiopia of representatives of the International Republican Institute (IRI), IFES, and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) by your government. With support from USAID, the three organizations sought to assist the democratic process and preparations for your May 15 general elections. These organizations carry out nonpartisan programs and support a democratic environment in which the integrity of the election process can be ensured and all parties understand their rights and responsibilities.
IRI, IFES, and NDI were coordinating with the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia to support the work of the election commission, dialogue among political parties and election authorities as a means of enhancing confidence and participation in the electoral process, political party pollwatching, and the creation of a code of conduct for the elections. All three organizations have been making good faith efforts to gain registration in accordance with established laws and procedures and were assured by representatives of your government that their registration would be approved expeditiously.
In over 20 years of working around the world, until now no government has expelled NDI, IRI, and IFES. We are particularly perplexed by these expulsions at a time when your government has stated its intention to organize an open and democratic election process. This action will only raise questions about the credibility and transparency of these elections.
The United States and Ethiopia have a history of friendship and cooperation. We continue to support the democratic aspirations of the Ethiopian people, and look forward to returning to Ethiopia to assist with future elections. Until then, we urge the Government of Ethiopia to work towards creating an environment conducive to increasingly free and fair elections.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator John McCain
Chairman of Board of Directors
International Republican Institute
Hon. Madeleine K. Albright
Chairman of Board of Directors
National Democratic Institute
This letter was delivered to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C. April 13, 2005.
----------------------------------------
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200504140859.html
Links
http://www.iri.org/03-30-05-EthiopiaStatement.asp
http://www.ndi.org/
http://mccain.senate.gov/
NOTE
We could not find the original letter in Senator McCain's web site nor in NDI and IRI sites. We have included the websites for your info. This was first reproted by allafica.com
For more Election 2005 discussion check out our Forum section.
ETHIOPIAN PM MEETS BUSINESS LEADERS AT START OF TRIP TO FRANCE
Received Thursday, 14 April 2005 18:17:00 GMT
PARIS, April 14 (AFP) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Thursday kicked off his first-ever official visit to France, which is aimed at boosting languishing economic ties and trade, by meeting with French business leaders.
Meles met with some representatives of about 40 French companies, including aircraft maker Airbus, hotel and tourism group Accor, and telecommunications giants Bouygues and Alcatel.
Ethiopia and Italy have signed a US$277M soft loan agreement to finance works on the Gilgel Gibe II hydroelectric power project.
Ethiopian Minister of Finance Sufian Ahmed and Italian Ambassador to Ethiopia Guido La Tella signed the agreement as representatives of their respective governments.
The loan will finance a portion of the costs for civil works and part of the electro-mechanical and hydro-mechanical works of the Gilgel Gibe II, which is an extension of the Gilgel Gibe I hydro power station.
The agreement is part of the commitment the Italian government made when Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi visited the European country.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Some 1.8 million Ethiopians would die due to HIV/AIDS in 2008 if the current trend continues, an official report said Wednesday.
"Ethiopia has lost 900,000 of its population in 2003 due to HIV/ AIDS and this is projected to reach 1,800,000 in 2008 if the present trend continues," said the report, which is titled " Ethiopia HIV/AIDS Emergency Plan."
http://english.people.com.cn/200504/14/eng20050414_181005.html
Ethiopian police seize 500 kgs of illegal ivory, stuffed animals, ostrich eggs
By ANTHONY MITCHELL Associated Press Writer
(AP) - ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia-Ethiopian authorities have seized more than 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of illegal ivory, stuffed animals and ostrich eggs that were destined for collectors abroad, a police officer said Thursday.
Check out more Ethiopian News in our news section
http://www.nazret.com/news/view.php?what=all&when=today
And Amharic news below
http://www.nazret.com/news/view_amharic.php?feed=5&what=all&how=paged
Working hard to bring you news and information about The Motherland.
An article by freelance writer Sabrina Yohannes. She writes to NY Times, Washington Post and other major medias. Her name sounds, she is from Horn of Africa.
Enjoy
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For Bekele, Lion of Ethiopia, a Nation Shares Its Sorrow
After a Year of Running Triumphs, He Endures the Death of His Fiancee
By Sabrina Yohannes
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 12, 2005; Page D03
Last September, Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele was celebrating a spectacular year, in his running career and in his life. He had won two Olympic medals in Athens -- gold in the 10,000 meters and silver in the 5,000 -- and shattered three world records set by his legendary countryman Haile Gebrselassie. He had won both races at the world cross-country championships for an unprecedented third consecutive year. He was the subject of a hit song, "Anbessa" -- meaning "Lion" in the Amharic language. And he was engaged.
When world track's governing body crowned Bekele, 22, the male athlete of the year in a glittering ceremony and gala dinner in Monaco, he looked radiant in a traditional Ethiopian outfit. Nearby sat Bekele's proud fiancee and sometime training partner, Alem Techale, the world youth champion in the 1,500.
At the mention of the March 2005 world cross-country championships, his next major competition, a smile tugged at Bekele's lips. "I don't think I could resist going for a fourth double," he said. He had no way of knowing what he would go through first.
Bekele and Techale, who were from the eastern region of Arsi, had lived together for over a year and last summer in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, the couple decided to marry in 2005. "We will grow together," said Bekele in Athens.
On Jan. 4, about 10 minutes into one of the couple's training runs in the Ararat forest on the outskirts of the capital, Bekele, who had briefly run ahead at his faster pace, rejoined Techale. "I found her unable to run, and struggling to stand, holding onto a tree," he said in an interview in Boston later that month. "Alem, what's wrong?" he asked her. She said she was in pain and, perhaps sensing the situation was grave, asked him to pray for her. She struggled to breathe, and then stopped altogether.
He screamed and two nearby runners helped get her closer to Bekele's car. He then sprinted to get it and drove to the hospital, but she couldn't be revived.
Techale, 18, was buried in her home town of Asela the next day. The cause of death was thought to be heart failure.
Bekele was devastated.
"A wife, a partner is someone who is everything to you, someone with whom you become one person," he said. "She died so young, missing out on so much joy. Every day I feel it all over again."
Following Ethiopian mourning customs that are rarely adhered to by the young, he shaved his head, and also grew a beard. Turning to his Ethiopian Orthodox Christian faith, he prayed for Techale and for comfort and later observed the Lenten ritual of abstaining from meat and dairy products, something few athletes in heavy training do.
Bekele interrupted his training and cancelled a race. He wondered whether he could attempt his fourth straight sweep of the 4km and 12km titles at the world cross-country championships in March, the event that had first signaled his greatness in 2002 and had meant so much to him months earlier.
Resuming training proved difficult. "Wherever I go, the memories stay with me," he said.
He would soon discover how much his nation and the track world had taken him into their hearts as people flocked to his side at home, and condolences poured in from abroad. His Olympic 10,000 victory, during which he had slowed midrace to wait for the injured Gebrselassie, had especially endeared Bekele to Ethiopians everywhere.
Tamagne Beyene, an Ethiopian entertainer in Alexandria, promised Bekele that if he chose to compete in a 3,000-meter race in Boston on Jan. 29, Beyene and others would fly there for support.
Bekele decided to run in Boston, and when he took his place on the track, his hair still short, a moment of silence was observed for Techale. When Ireland's Alistair Cragg surged with two laps of the race left, Bekele followed and began what was intended to be a last lap kick, forgetting another lap remained. He lost to Cragg.
"What constantly occupies my thoughts and emotions is the tragedy," said Bekele. As he was rushed past spectators, Tsedaye Bekele, a fan who is not related, patted him comfortingly, calling out, "It's all right, you're still the anbessa" -- the lion.
That night, Beyene and others invited Bekele to an Ethiopian restaurant, where Beyene, addressing the gathered crowd, praised Bekele's competing despite the tragedy. "That itself is a victory," he said, "Your sorrow is our sorrow."
"I didn't come with joy in my heart," said Bekele after thanking his hosts. "I thought it might ease the burden of sorrow. I was in no rush to compete. But even if I wait a year, I cannot bring her back. People all over the world, not just in Ethiopia, suffered with me, and worried I wouldn't return to competition soon, and that motivated me to come out and reassure my fans."
Back in Ethiopia, Bekele arranged the traditional memorial ceremony held 40 days after a death. He competed in Birmingham, England, five days later, losing the two-mile race. "He's still suffering," his brother, Tariku Bekele, a world-class junior runner who interrupted his own training to pace his brother there, said at the time.
In a gesture of faith in a country flush with top distance runners, the Ethiopian athletic federation selected Kenenisa Bekele to race both world cross-country championship events without contesting the trials.
About two and a half weeks before the March 19-20 world championships, Bekele entered the demanding team training camp.
"The first few days, he showed signs of fatigue," team coach Hussein Shibo said. "He worked morning and afternoon to correct what was necessary. With about a week left, he began to show marked improvement."
The environment also helped Bekele emotionally. "As he mingled with us, eating, drinking together, traveling together by car, he slowly began to recover," said Shibo.
At the world championships in St. Galmier, France, Qatar's world steeplechase champion Saif Saaeed Shaheen pushed the pace in the 4k race, but Bekele, gritting his teeth, flew past to victory.
The next day, in the 12k, Bekele battled Kenya's world 5,000-meter champion, Eliud Kipchoge, before dropping him on the final lap, sealing Bekele's fourth world cross-country golden double and his legacy as arguably the best cross-country runner in history.
Bekele spent the final stretch of the race waving and blowing kisses to the crowd, and was later congratulated by Ethiopia's ambassador to France.
"In the past I faced competitions as two people, with my friend Alem by my side," said Bekele. "I did this alone, with grief and joy alternating in my heart . . . grief that the whole world shared with me. . . . I expect that this is joyful not just for me, but for everyone."
He likely will next race in the Netherlands in May, building up to the August world track championships. In 2003, he won gold in the 10,000 but placed third in the 5,000 and avenging that defeat had been high on his list of goals for 2005 before the tragedy.
He's still grieving but the cross-country championships marked a milestone in his healing.
"People had worried 'Kenenisa won't be the same,' " he said. "Praise God, I am holding up."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
Source: The New York Times
April 11, 2005
Bearing Haile Selassie's Face, Commoner Claims His Blood
By MARC LACEY
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Mekbeb Abebe Welde is the spitting image of Ethiopia's fallen emperor, Haile Selassie. Mr. Abebe has the same pointy chin, down-turned nose and slight build. When he picks up a cup of macchiato and puts it to his lips, as he did in a local cafe the other day, he does so ever so gracefully, more like a prince than a cabdriver.
But Mr. Abebe, 33, is a cabdriver. He lives a humble life in Ethiopia's crowded capital, scrounging to survive as so many others here do.
Still, Mr. Abebe's friends call him "Prince" and bow down when they see him, deference that stems from more than his resemblance to the emperor. Some here think Mr. Abebe really is a son born out of wedlock to the ruler, who claimed blood ties to the biblical King Solomon.
The monarchy was wiped out in this country in 1975, after the emperor died at age 83, but everyone knows the emperor's official kin. Mr. Abebe, on the other hand, exists in a netherworld, gossiped about, pointed at and subjected at times to angry diatribes about the emperor's misrule but not accepted by the emperor's acknowledged flesh and blood.
Mr. Abebe has petitioned the royal family to recognize him, to no avail. No one seems interested in his offer to undergo a DNA test.
Even if he were welcomed into the family, he would not necessarily win great treasure. The emperor's relatives live well, but most of their vast holdings were long ago seized by the state. He might enjoy prestige among devotees of the emperor, but he would have to suffer scorn from the emperor's many detractors. Mr. Abebe says it is acceptance by blood relations that motivates him, not treasure or acclaim.
Still, it would not be so bad to be able to travel the world, as the emperor's acknowledged relatives do. Mr. Abebe could perhaps go off to some "big name" university to get an education. He might get a big gated home to replace his modest dwelling. As the emperor's son, he could walk into the Sheraton Addis, where the cost of a glass of orange juice exceeds many Ethiopians' daily wage, and afford to quench his thirst.
It is family lore more than anything else that Mr. Abebe offers as evidence of his blood ties. His mother, Almaz Tadesse Goshu, was one of the emperor's many servants. They supposedly had a liaison late in the emperor's tenure, long after his wife had died.
Mr. Abebe says his mother's husband divorced her when he learned the child she was carrying was the emperor's. She died when Mekbeb was 7; he was taken in by a general who had been close to the emperor.
During his one face-to-face encounter with one of the emperor's granddaughters, Mr. Abebe said he disclosed his mother's affair with Selassie. "She said a lot of people show up and say they are sons," he recalled. "She said there was nothing she could do to help me."
One of the few aides to Selassie still around, an elderly butler who works in a palace-turned-museum at Addis Ababa University, seemed stunned when he met Mr. Abebe. With an emotional look, he bowed and shook Mr. Abebe's hand.
But he said only, "The past is the past." Mr. Abebe seemed to take the encounter as an encouraging sign.
The question of blood ties aside, Mr. Abebe has read a great deal about the emperor, who ruled from 1930 until the military ousted him in 1974, and was killed the following year in the basement of one of his palaces and buried like the commonest of men.
Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam took over as head of the new Communist government. He ordered the executions of dozens of members of the royal family and of ministers and generals who served the emperor.
Under Mr. Mengistu's rule, students were taught to despise Selassie. He was a feudal lord, a selfish fool, a tyrant responsible for Ethiopia's woes, they were told.
But Mr. Mengistu's government, too, eventually collapsed. Rebels chased him from the country in 1991 and set up the government that exists today, led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Mr. Zenawi's government is not fond of Selassie either, once labeling him "a tyrant and oppressor of the masses."
It is understandable that Ethiopians are somewhat divided on his legacy. Some dismiss him as a deluded leader who spent national wealth on shrines to himself. Others praise him for the hospitals he built, the palace that he turned into the country's main university and his work at bringing the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, to Addis Ababa.
"His image has slowly been recovering," said Elizabeth W. Giorgis, acting director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. "He's not known as just a tyrant anymore. Most of the criticism of him is true, but he had another side to him."
It took until 2000 for the emperor's remains to be transferred from a temporary crypt to Holy Trinity Cathedral, placed beside his wife's in a grand ceremony attended by thousands of wailing Ethiopians. Mr. Abebe was in the crowd that day.
Mr. Abebe said he was also on hand in 2003 when thousands gathered at the same church to lay to rest "Princess" Tenagne Worq, who was described as the last surviving child of the emperor. Mr. Abebe said he knew better.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/international/africa/11haile.html?oref=login
Source: Financial Times
UN warns of new war in Horn of Africa
By Andrew England in Nairobi
Published: April 8 2005 03:00 | Last updated: April 8 2005 03:00
International failure to break the border stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea could lead to a renewal of conflict, a senior UN official warned yesterday.
The brutal 2½-year war ended with a December 2000 peace agreement under which the parties agreed to abide by the ruling of an independent boundary commission.
After initially accepting the peace deal, Ethiopia rejected the commission's April 2002 findings and prevented the physical demarcation of the border.
Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, head of the UN mission, said: "I'm urging the international community to wake up to the reality that, if the stalemate continues, we are going to run into problems."
Since December, Ethiopia has deployed up to seven army divisions within 25km-45km of a UN-monitored buffer zone along the 1,000km border and ignored Security Council requests that they be withdrawn.
Eritrea retains a conscript army of about 350,000, or a 10th of its population. Both impoverished countries spent about $1m a day on the war, which cost tens of thousands of lives.
Observers agree that, while Eritrea holds the moral high ground, Ethiopia has far better relations with the west. It is strategically important and hosts the African Union. Meles Zenawi, prime minister, is courted by the international community and was appointed by Tony Blair, UK prime minister, to the Commission for Africa. Last year Britain tripled aid to Ethiopia.
Mr Legwaila said: "There are two risks that the international community runs. One is turn this into a Cyprus thing and the other is eventually to decide to leave the countries to their own devices."
Will the Ethiopian government allow the private sector to participate in the telecommunication sector? Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation is still the sole ISP in the country.
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Ethiopia To Spread Web Access Across Country In 3 Yrs
04-05-05 07:07 AM EST
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP)--Ethiopia, one of the poorest nations on earth, will expand Internet coverage from a handful of users to the entire country in three years, the prime minister said Tuesday.
Premier Meles Zenawi said information technology lay at the heart of transforming the impoverished country where millions are dependent on foreign aid.
The government is working with U.S. technology giant Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) to boost its coverage.
"We are fully committed to ensuring that as many of our poor as possible have this weapon that they need to fight poverty at the earliest possible time," Zenawi said. "We plan to ensure universal access and Internet connectivity to all the tens of thousands of rural kebeles (districts) of our country over the next two to three years."
There are just 30,000 Internet lines in a country of 71 million people making it one of the lowest users of information technology in the world, according to a study by the World Bank. But within six months that figure will be expanded to 500,000 lines.
The government has begun laying 10,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables and invested around $40 million in developing its Internet service.
Ethiopia has a massive rural population of 57 million, most of whom make a living as subsistence farmers. Around half the population can't read or write, few have access to newspapers or phones and most have never used a computer.
But the prime minister added that information technology could be used for "e- schools," improving governance and e-healthcare. The government is launching " schoolnet," which will provide 450 secondary schools around the country with Internet access and will link up all regional and district government offices.
"Healthnet" will connect all referral hospitals around the country as the basis for a nationwide tele-medicine infrastructure.
"Not long ago many of us felt that we were too poor to afford to seriously invest in information and communication technology," Meles told government ministers and experts.
"We were convinced that we should invest every penny we have on securing the next meal for our people. We did not believe serious investment in ICT had anything to do with facing the challenges of poverty that kills. Now I think we know better," he added.
Corrected April 5, 200508:01 ET (13:01 GMT)
There are just 30,000 Internet lines in a country of 71 million people making it one of the lowest users of information technology in the world, according to a study by the World Bank. But within six months that figure will be expanded to 500,000 lines.
(In "Ethiopia To Spread Web Access Across Country In 3 Yrs", published at 7:07 a.m. EDT, it was misstated that the government planned to increase the number of lines to 500 billion.)
Breaking News:
Blow for London Marathon as Gebrselassie pulls out
Duncan Mackay
Wednesday April 6, 2005
The Guardian
Haile Gebrselassie, the greatest distance runner in history, has withdrawn from the London Marathon on April 17 because of lack of training after an achilles tendon injury.
The Ethiopian double Olympic 10,000 metres champion announced his decision yesterday, a blow to the event which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Gebrselassie's training partner Gezahegne Abera, the 2000 Olympic gold medallist and the 2003 London champion, has also withdrawn. Khalid Khannouchi, an American born in Morocco who set a world record in London three years ago, is another casualty of injury and will not be running.
"I am really sorry to take this decision," said the Ethiopian, who finished third on his international marathon debut in London three years ago in a time of two hours six minutes and 45 seconds - the the fastest-ever performance by a marathon debutant.
Gebrselassie was expected to announce his decision whether to fulfil the first of a three-year contract on Friday, but with no hope of being fit confirmed his withdrawal earlier than expected.
"I was really keen on running a marathon again," said Gebrselassie. "As I have a three-year contract with London I hope to come in 2006 to achieve what I was planning for this year's edition."
Despite his absence and that of fellow Ethiopian, former Olympic champion Gezahegne Abera, the London field for its 25th anniversary race will still boast a top field.
World record-holder Paul Tergat heads the vast array of talent assembled for the 26miles 385yards race and there is expected to be a serious attempt at breaking the Kenyan's mark of 2hrs 04mins 55secs. Joining Tergat will be Olympic champion Stefano Baldini of Italy, South African Hendrik Ramaala, winner of last November's New York Marathon and two-times London winner Abdelkader el Mouaziz from Morocco.
Source:
Guardian
"I'm disappointed not to break the world record, but am happy to win the race." Tirunesh Dibaba
Tirunesh Dibaba is the latest sensation in Ethiopian athletics. She has been recently ranked The Number 1 Woman Athlete in the World.
Read about Ethiopian greatest athletes and the town of Bekoji in May 2005 edition of Running Times magazine. The article is not online, so you may need to stop by your local news stand. I read it and it was a great article.
20th Carlsbad 5000
Carlsbad, CA, Sunday, April 3, 2005
MEN
1) Dejene Berhanu, ETH, 13:10,
2) Craig Mottram, AUS, 13:20,
3) Shadrack Kosgei, KEN, 13:24,
4) Sammy Kipketer, KEN, 13:34,
5) Boaz Cheboiyo, KEN, 13:34,
6) Meshack Sang, KEN, 13:42,
7) Dathan Ritzenhein, USA/CO, 13:48,
8) Luke Kipkosgei, KEN, 13:54,
9) Mohamed Awol, ETH, 14:16,
10) Jason Hubbard, USA/CO, 14:27,
WOMEN
1) Tirunesh Dibaba, ETH, 14:51+,
2) Isabella Ochichi, KEN, 14:55,
3) Meselech Melkamu, ETH, 15:16,
4) Kim Smith, NZL, 15:30,
5) Madai Perez, MEX, 15:50,
6) Haley McGregor, AUS, 16:17,
7) Erika Aklufi, USA/CA, 16:26,
8) Carrie Messner, USA/CO, 16:36,
9) Eloise Wellings, NZL, 16:41,
10) Sarah Bouchard, GBR, 16:53,
For full results, go to: www.eliteracing.com
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Dibaba ties world road record at Carlsbad 5000
ASSOCIATED PRESS
4:54 p.m. April 3, 2005
CARLSBAD – Olympic bronze medalist Tirunesh Dibaba won the Carlsbad 5000 in 14 minutes, 51 seconds Sunday, tying Paula Radcliffe's world road record.
It was the 15th time a world record has been broken or tied at Carlsbad since its inception in 1986.
The 19-year-old Ethiopian, a double gold medalist at the recent world cross country championships, beat defending champion Isabella Ochichi of Kenya by four seconds. Ochichi set the course record last year in 14:53.
Radcliffe set the world record at the Flora Light Women's 5K in London on Sept. 14, 2003.
Countryman Dejene Berhanu won his third consecutive men's title in 13:10, the third-fastest performance on the seaside course. Australian Craig Mottram was second, 10 seconds behind.
Dear Ethiopians
If you would like to thank The Washington Post for writing an article about Ethiopia, please do so by sending email to Travel@washpost.com.
I hope this article by The Washington Post (John Auchard) will promote tourism to Ethiopia.
Please send this link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18935-2005Apr1.html to your friends, and co-workers. Promote Ethiopia.
Into Ethiopian Air
Even after a month among the country's people, he found surprises at every turn.
By John Auchard
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, April 3, 2005; Page P01
"I'm a good actor."
"How do you know?"
"Watch," he said.
He grabbed my cap, turned around and put the cap on backward. When he turned back, he began moving across the floor, back and forth, and slouched so that his trousers were now baggy, a tough kid from America settling into the moves of a hard-core East Coast rapper. His eyes were now cold as they slid over my face and startled me. His was a New York face that had seen New York things and thought New York thoughts. Back and forth again, forking his hands in the air as he moved, and then he turned away and removed the cap. When he turned back and handed it to me, he was once again a smiling, bright-eyed, slightly shy Ethiopian boy.
That boy, the son of a contact I had been given in Washington, surprised me less than many things that first day in Addis Ababa. Yes, there is great poverty, but you discover that many Ethiopians live good lives and know that theirs is a great country still -- in spite of everything. Although three decades have passed since the appalling famines of the 1970s, the day I left for my month-long visit a friend asked if I was worried about getting enough to eat.
Back home in Washington -- back in Little Addis, as D.C. is known in big Addis Ababa -- people in Ethiopian restaurants and lots of cabdrivers had assured me that if I gave their country a chance, I would find far more than I expected. On that first afternoon in Addis, after some Cokes and a pizza margherita, I passed beggars on Cunningham Street and watched people stream out of the Cinema Ethiopia. They had just seen a Bollywood musical version of "E.T.," and it was clear from their laughter and the movement of their hands in the air that they had liked it very much.
Lucy in the Sky
On the terrace of Addis's breezy Blue Tops restaurant, Stefano Bonizzato, an Italian who teaches in Addis, corrects his girlfriend on a minor point. When Tigist insists she is right, Stefano -- whom I had met at the National Library a few days before -- asserts his authority, going back to the Caesars. But Tigist Bekele, a famous Ethiopian singer, knows her own mind. She bristles and reminds Stefano that 4,000 years of Ethiopian heritage back up her assertion, and just this once it is good to see Italy's fat, unassailable past brushed aside as next to nothing. And at the National Museum across the street, "Lucy" makes the pedigree fantastic.
Her 3.2-million-year-old bones are laid out flat on a table, but in a nearby reconstruction they stand upright, and her eager, appealing skull looks you right in the eyes. When in 1974 Lucy was discovered near Hadar in the northeast of Ethiopia, she was by far the earliest known hominid -- remarkable because she showed that even before the development of big brains, Australopithecus afarensis had stood on two legs.
The Holy Grail of anthropology, Lucy centers Ethiopia's claim as the cradle of humanity, and her name in Amharic is suitably magnificent -- "Birkinesh," or "Thou Art Wonderful." But since "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" was playing in the background when the anthropologist brushed aside the first bit of dirt from her first bit of bone, that is how the outside world knows this ancient, eerie, queenly presence -- by a common name taken from an LSD-inspired Beatles song that asks you to follow her down to a bridge by a fountain where rocking-horse people eat marshmallow pies.
The Egyptians believed their gods came from the mountainous country to the south, and they called it Punt or the Land of the Gods. The Greeks named it Ethiopia, or the Land of Burnt Faces. From the time of Constantine, it was known as the only Christian country outside Europe, although in "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" Gibbon recognized that, "encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten." But even during that sleep, the 12th-century King Lalibela received architectural instruction in a dream, and set to work on a New Jerusalem.
Today, 400 miles north of Addis, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela are like nothing else on Earth. (Lalibela was one of the original 12 of the now 800 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.) Like figures that Michelangelo saw trapped in blocks of marble, Lalibela's free-standing churches were cut right out of rock -- as if, my guide whispered dramatically, they had been waiting there since the first moment of time.
Ethiopians know their country is poor, but their pride in a nearly infinite past remains intense, and in fact if Tigist Bekele had wished to, she could have wiped the floor with Stefano Bonizzato. She could have gone back before Lucy all the way to Genesis, Chapter 2:13, where six verses after God creates Adam out of dust, a river flows out of Eden and encompasses "the whole land of Ethiopia." Eve, one might note, is not created until nine verses later.
Molten Metal
On Jan. 6, the day before Ethiopian Christmas, some high school kids tried to help me get a ticket to Harer, but when they gave up, I managed on my own and was back in the bus yard at 4:30 a.m. for the 6 a.m. departure -- the only Westerner among several thousand Ethiopians searching for the right bus out of hundreds of unmarked buses. At 5:30 a.m. I was slumped in my seat when two of the boys from the day before climbed on board and handed me a Christmas present -- a battery-operated fan for the 12-hour trip toward the Somalian border. They said their names were Alexander Oliver and Mohammed, and they wished me a good trip. I thanked them, and suddenly they were off the bus.
I wish I had moved faster and had called them back, but by the time I was down the steps, they were gone. Two ragged Ethiopian boys had an idea that had taken their imaginations. They had pooled their small savings and had bought a gift for a nameless stranger, and then three hours before dawn on Christmas morning they had crawled out of bed -- it was bitingly cold at over 8,000 feet -- and had met up in a teeming bus yard to search for an American man they would never see again.
In its day, Harer was the greatest center of Muslim learning in black Africa, and today Islam's fourth-holiest city still holds 90 mosques. There is also the Arthur Rimbaud House. By the age of 22, the 19th-century poet was sick of Europe and of art itself ("One evening I sat Beauty on my knees; and I found her bitter, and I injured her"), and he went to Aden and then Abyssinia, where in Harer he abandoned poetry, contracted syphilis and became a gun runner. His high poetry and powerfully low life inspired Picasso and Bob Dylan, and some believe that because of him, Jim Morrison faked his own death and vanished into Ethiopian air.
At the Rimbaud House, you read of the poet's wish to "drink alcohol as strong as molten metal," but my 17-year-old guide, with lounge-lizard charm and good English (English study is required in the schools), said he preferred chewing khat. When he looked me over, he got me somewhat wrong, for although in my day job I teach Henry James novels, the first thing he asked was if I wanted to buy a gun.
He said his father was dead and he never saw his mother, and he didn't seem to mind. He said he lived alone and made enough money for khat and girlfriends, and when we passed an AIDS billboard, I asked if they used condoms. He replied that no one wants to eat candy with a wrapper on it.
We ran into Shibru, from the morning's bus, and when he asked my guide if he still went to school, the boy said he had to work "to eat." But when Shibru got him talking, he admitted plans for a cell phone by summer and then a video camera. When my guide glanced back at me, he said that the Dutch trust him but not the Americans. Yet he said he likes Americans and loves to speak English. Dutch, he said, is a throat disease.
When he asked me to give him financial support at school, I said I wouldn't. But I wanted to give him something useful, and so I thought about how he could make Americans trust him more. "Carry a book," I suggested.
"A book!" He took it in and liked it. "In Amharic or in English?" he asked. When I said it should be in English, he listed the titles he had back in his room. After we had settled on "Treasure Island," he began to look worried. "Do I have to read it?" he asked. I paid him for the tour, and when I gave him a good tip, he flashed a dazzling smile.
When he had gone off, I asked Shibru what would happen to him. He said that in three years he would be dead of AIDS.
Khat and Chat
Well-traveled white-haired tourists go to Ethiopia for its rich visible past, but backpackers like the cheap beer, great food, great weather and, especially in Harer, the chance to chew khat, a mild stimulant indigenous to the shores of the Red Sea that, they claim, brings on euphoria and brilliant talk.
Out on my hotel terrace, some English, German and Canadian kids and a good-looking Israeli guy were chewing khat leaves by the handful, and in fact they were talking like crazy. Their conversation, perhaps reminiscent of Noel Coward or Hannah Arendt just before I began listening, had settled onto the nuances of body hair. One by one they were pulling up their pants legs, to show. The young women bared their legs and howled, but the redheaded Canadian guy was grim as he uncovered a patch of eerily spectral skin. When the Israeli's turn came, he couldn't wait to jam his trousers up and reveal a lush forest. "Oooooooo," the girls cried as the boys stopped chewing. "Ooooooo! That's a lot of hair!" the girls squealed. "Yes," the Israeli nodded suavely, "I began shaving at thirteen."
But in Muslim Harer, I met no other Americans. Late one night on the outskirts of town, some guys asked if I was from the United States. I kept walking but told myself to go for it, and so I said I was from Washington, "the capital." They blocked my way.
The scrawny one was in my face. "Who," he began as I braced for whatever was to come, ". . . who is bigger? Eminem or 50 Cent?" Hmm, I thought, this isn't what I expected. I soon learned that 50 Cent is a world-famous New York hip-hop star, but I didn't know that then, and when I answered "Eminem," I met a roar of disgust -- except from the smug, scrawny one, who kept shaking my hand and saying that Americans were the best foreigners.
The next day I was worried about my endorsement of the self-proclaimed "white boy" Eminem instead of 50 Cent, with his signature bulletproof vest. So when some engineers invited me over to their table at a cafe, I asked for their judgment. They began consideration in English but slipped into Amharic for the real debate. Then it was clear that there was a problem. "In terms of music," one of them asked me, "or in terms of body size?"
Surcharge
Back in Addis, I waved off the guide, who camped outside my hotel. "Where are going this time, Mister John from the United States? To film 'RUSH HOUR 3' WITH JACKIE CHAN?!!!"
I was off to see the Addis Sheraton, which can sleep 30 heads of state at one time or, on New Year's Eve, welcome 3,000 well-dressed Ethiopians for Sean Paul's rap concert until dawn. With 11 restaurants, bars and cafes, 293 luxury rooms, gold plating on the plumbing and six villas that go for $4,000 a night, the hotel, which opened in 1998, already has begun to inspire legend, and the taxi driver who took me back to the Baro Hotel (where I kept a just-fine $6-a-night room for almost a month) seemed exceptionally proud that it consumed more than 25 percent of all the electricity produced for this city of more than 2 million.
As the headquarters of the African Union, Addis has unexpected pockets of sophistication, and more cafes than Rome (a sign inside the venerable Caffe Tomoca quotes Balzac: "When You Drink a Cup of Coffee, Ideas Come in Marching Like an Army"). On the other hand, Harer is definitely a sleepy Muslim town, and yet even there you feel the winds of change.
"Make of it what you like," Meg from England said as she cited the rules posted in her hotel room. There were the usual ones against washing clothes and cooking in the room, but a fresh one had caught her eye -- No. 5: Two people of the same sex occupying the same room will incur an additional surcharge.
Valor in the Mountains
The English called him "mad dog Theodore," but Ethiopians love Emperor Tewodros II. It all began when he sent Queen Victoria a highly wrought letter that she never answered. With his fierce pride wounded, Tewodros took the British consul hostage, and that act brought the full English fury to the Ethiopian plain. In 1868 at the Battle of Maqdala, when all was surely lost, Emperor Tewodros placed in his mouth the tip of a pistol Victoria had sent him years before, and before the onrushing enemy troops, he looked skyward and shot himself. Near the medieval castles of Gonder, smiling schoolchildren poke their fingers in their mouths and imitate the imperial panache, and then remind you that Ethiopia is the only African country that was never colonized.
Yes, the Duce's army occupied it between 1936 and 1941, but Ethiopians insist that unlike the rest of Africa, their country never became a European appendage. Yet despite memories of mustard gas, today few Ethiopians resent the Italians, and the best restaurant in the Horn of Africa, the Ristorante Castelli in Addis -- Brad Pitt ate there a few days before Carlo Castelli served me extraordinary raviolini ai funghi porcini e spinaci -- has kept its doors open for more than 50 years.
But perhaps the Ethiopians simply consider themselves victors still, for in 1896, as Europe parceled out the last bits of the continent, Ethiopia stood its ground and drove the white invaders out. Although Emperor Menelik's troops sustained losses at the Battle of Adwa, at the end of the day close to 10,000 well-equipped Italian soldiers were dead. Forty years later, that humiliation stuck in Mussolini's throat. It may lodge in some Italian throats even today.
Ancient Gods
During the 19th century, rabbinical authority judged the ancient Ethiopian falashas to be "true" Jews with an enviable claim to Hebraic antiquity. It was recognized that their split from Jerusalem must have come at some remote time, for the falashas retained animal sacrifice from the days of King David and laws that predated the Talmud.
On my last Friday in Addis, an expatriate Long Island doctor invited me to Shabbat dinner at his home, where his guests were from Italy, Spain, Cochin China, Washington, Alabama, Kashmir and Seattle. Although the only falasha present had never traveled far, when he told us his home, he named Israel. In 1991 he had stayed behind when, as rebel action in Addis suddenly threatened the very survival of the falashas, the Likud government of Yitzhak Shamir acted fast to start an airlift. Within hours, El Al had ripped the seats out of 35 jumbo jets, and within two days Operation Solomon had flown more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews back "home" to Israel, for the first time in two -- or perhaps three or more -- thousand years.
In the shadow of great pagan steles that outweigh the largest Egyptian obelisks by 20 tons, Ethiopia's Jewish and Christian pasts come together in Aksum. It was in Aksum, in the early 4th century, that King Ezna declared Christianity the official state religion, and it was to there that the 13th-century Kebra Negast traced the countries' unrivaled royal bloodline -- beginning with Menelik, the son of King Solomon and the Aksumite Queen of Sheba, and ending with the death of Haile Selassie in 1975.
The Kebra Negast also records how the grown Menelik journeyed to Jerusalem, stole the Ark of the Covenant from the temple and brought it home to his mother's land, where it is said to remain still, in Aksum's church of St. Mary of Zion. Guarded by one priest for his entire adult lifetime, it is hidden from all other eyes, for -- just as in the Harrison Ford movie -- a glimpse of it, you are told, would instantly consume the tourist, scholar, raider or journalist in flames.
The Mission
Near the entrance of Mother Teresa's Addis Home for the Destitute and Dying, a patient had just arrived wearing a suit. The suit was miserable, stained and ripped, with its lining falling out and its seams pulled apart, but the man knew he was about to meet the nuns who would care for him, and he wished to honor them, so he came in a suit.
An American doctor from the Baro Hotel had invited me to visit the mission. As I spoke with a man stretched out in a bed, I flinched when I saw a toe graze his ear. The doctor pulled back the blanket to uncover another man in the same narrow bed, the two of them positioned head to foot -- something common in Addis, where hospital beds are scarce. There was a rumble of noise in the big room and a steady flow of nurses, doctors and stray people, and as the doctor joked with a 16-year-old boy with leukemia, I watched as the grievously ill man in the next bed smiled.
Earlier this week at a Washington hospital, as I waited in a paper gown behind a curtain, I related to a nurse what I had seen in Addis. She shuddered, but I must have said it wrong. I am no fool and I know it would be far better if these people had all that medicine can offer, but that is impossible today in Ethiopia. Yet as these isolated people really start to fail, perhaps they understand that they are in it together, as in noisy rooms and with stray people constantly moving around them, they vaguely hold on to the stranger in their beds.
Rapture
Not far from the vaultlike modern church that now houses the ark in Aksum, a mural shows the Ethiopian patron saint of music as he invents the country's haunting sound. As Saint Yared plays the ancient percussive sistrum, his king is so lost in the music that he leans on his spear and unknowingly drives it deep into the saint's right foot. The saint himself is so lost in rapture that he doesn't notice as blood streams out onto the palace floor. There are winning religious images throughout Ethiopia (apparently Saint Tekla Haiminot prayed so long standing on one leg that the other one fell off, sprouted wings and flew to heaven on its own), and even in the taxi on the way to the Aksum airport, I saw pictures of the Virgin and Child glued to the dashboard.
Although both pictures showed the same icon, the picture on the left was bigger than the one on the right, and my guess was that one day the driver had come upon the second and had pasted it up next to the first, just because he could. "You're Ethiopian Orthodox?" I asked as I settled in beside him. The American rap music on the radio was loud, and the driver's English was minimal, so I had to ask him again. When he finally understood my question, he nodded and said yes.
I sat back in my seat and took in the beating, thudding rap song -- its lyrics informed with a sexual precision worthy of a third-year medical student. In sight of an ancient city and not so far from an infinite past, I liked the pounding music quite a lot and was taken with the Zenlike elusiveness of "Decapitate his ass, smack him, slap him in the back of the truck."
The peaceful driver, however, did not seem aware of any of it. I pointed to the images on the dashboard and said, "Christ and Mary." He shot me a lovely smile and reached out his hand to brush mother and child with the tips of his fingers. "My God," he said with much tenderness.
John Auchard last wrote for Travel about Calcutta.
Details: Ethiopia
GETTING THERE: At least six airlines, including KLM, Northwest and Ethiopian airlines, fly from Washington Dulles to Addis Ababa, mostly with two stops. Round-trip fares start at about $1,700.
GETTING AROUND: Many travelers book tours -- not a bad idea. Bus rides are often grueling (the trip over dirt roads to Lalibela from Addis can take two days), but the excellent Ethiopian Airlines (said to be one of the best airlines in Africa) has frequent flights throughout the entire historical circuit -- and in-country fares are very economical, especially if booked ahead in the United States. (I did not book ahead, but my circuit of flights from Addis to Lalibela to Aksum to Gonder to the lake resort of Bahar Dar and then back to Addis cost only $318.)
WHEN TO GO: There is a rainy season from mid-June to mid-September, but Ethiopian weather is otherwise stunning -- in the low 70s during the day with brilliant sun. The great religious holidays, Christmas and Epiphany or Timkat, come during the January high season.
WHERE TO STAY: The Sheraton Addis (Taitu Street, 011-251-1-171717, www.Sheraton.com) is reputed to be the best hotel in Africa, with rooms starting at $181 a night for a double. Economical alternatives are the centrally located Ghion Hotel (011-251-1-513222 or -510240, www.ghionhotel.com.et, $60), with a nice pool -- or, in the Piazza district, the Taitu (011-251-1-553244 or -560787, $10-$25), thick with atmosphere. I loved the Baro (001-251-1-559846), also in the Piazza, with a leafy courtyard; a basic room with bath cost me $6 a night. In Lalibela, Harer, Gonder and Aksum, the hotels are often humble but clean and friendly, averaging $10 a night.
WHERE TO EAT: In Addis, real splurges at $20 a person are Dashen (behind the main post office), a great Ethiopian restaurant with a nice garden, chic decor and fantastic food, and Castelli (in the Piazza area), an Italian place as good as almost any restaurant in Rome. Blue Tops (opposite the National Museum), where I had lunch with Tigist Bekele (who has sung at Dukem Restaurant on U Street NW in Washington), serves fine Ethiopian and Italian food in a relaxed atmosphere. Good Ethiopian food is plentiful in the cities and towns for $5 to $8; in Addis you also find Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern and the not-quite-recommended Burger Queen.
INFORMATION: The Web site of the Ethiopian Embassy is helpful: www.ethiopianembassy.org. The Ethiopian Tourism Commision offers good information on both historical and natural sights: www.tourismethiopia.org.
-- John Auchard
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
Back in the US, Brilmayer may be best known as the first holder of the Howard M. Holtzmann chair in international law at Yale, but she has another role in life. As the legal representative to the government of the Red Sea nation of Eritrea, she’s come to share every Eritrean citizen’s anxiety over another year of drought.
Source: Runnersweb.com
Kenenisa Bekele Takes Top Spot And Tirunesh Dibada Reigns Alone
Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibada's double wins in the World Cross Country put them in top place in the ARRS rankings.
World Men Number 1. Kenenisa Bekele
World Women Number 1. Tirunesh Dibaba
National Ranking
World Men 2. Team Ethiopia (Kenya is Number 1)
World Women 1. Team Ethiopia
For the complete ranking list
Check
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/rw_news_frameset.html?http://www.runnersweb.com/running/news/rw_news_20050401_ARRS.html
Source http://www.sportal.com.au/
Haile Gebrselassie's manager says the Ethiopian will decide on April 8 if he is fit enough to run in the London Marathon.
The former world and Olympic 10,000m champion is rumoured to have decided to withdraw from the race on April 17, but his manager says that is not true.
"That is not true and people have jumped the gun. He is still preparing for London," Jos Hermens told BBC Sport.
Gebrselassie, who had an operation on his heal last year, withdrew from a half-marathon in Lisbon 10 days ago, but Hermens says that decision was not significant.
"That was purely a precautionary measure as he wasn't ready for the race," he said.
"Because he hasn't been racing just lately and is suffering from a few knocks - which isn't surprising given the punishment his body has taken over the years," Hermens added.
Hermens has also spoken to London Marathon race director David Bedford to assure him that he will be told well in advance of the race if Gebrselassie decides not to run.
"He needs to be fully prepared, and on April 8 Haile will say 'yes' or 'no' about his participation and Dave will be the first to hear the decision," he said.
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