Ethiopian Reporter - Amharic Version
Ethiopian Reporter - Amharic Version
Ethiopian Reporter - Amharic Version
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The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
InsIde<br />
Photo By: <strong>Reporter</strong> /Mesfen Solomon<br />
The royal wedding caught<br />
the imagination of the<br />
world’s media with many<br />
wondering why there was<br />
such planetary excitement<br />
about the event...<br />
28<br />
The US Air Force Africa (AFAFRICA)<br />
commander told African military<br />
leaders Tuesday, that they have<br />
a plan to foster strategic relations<br />
with African partners that strengthen<br />
stability ...<br />
Vol. XV No. 764 | April 30, 2011 | ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA www.ethiopianreporter.com Price 5.00 Birr<br />
“About a year ago around 6p.m., I was having a<br />
“I will never let a man touch me again without my<br />
11 14 15<br />
burger with my boyfriend in a burger...<br />
consent,” Zemdina Abebe, 25, ...<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
3<br />
Canada’s Allana Potash Corp said<br />
it discovered potash in Kainitite and<br />
Sylvinite zones which are previously<br />
unexplored area sin Ethiopia, which<br />
the potash explorer expects to add to<br />
existing resources...<br />
United caUse<br />
for a<br />
Ever since the official announcement of the mega Renaissance Dam, <strong>Ethiopian</strong>s from all walks of life<br />
have shown keen support for the construction of the dam that is, as it stands, the 10th largest in the<br />
world. And on Thursday at the Ghion Hotel, government officials, academicians, members from civil<br />
society organizations and the private sector congregated to discuss on how to best utilize the Nile<br />
River. Issues concerning the Nile Basin Initiative’s (NBI) Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA)<br />
was also one major topic of deliberation. Pictured above from left, Andreas Esheté (Prof.), advisor<br />
to the Prime Minister, Imiru Tamrat from Multi-talent Consultancy Plc, Eyesuswork Zafu, President<br />
of <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ECCSA) and Yacob Arsano (PhD),<br />
AAU during a tea break. Pictured on the right, Sheik Ahmedin Sheik Abdulahi Chello, president of<br />
the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, Abune Pawlos, patriarch of the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Orthodox<br />
Tewahdo Church, Abune Berhaneyesus Surafel, Archbishop of the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Catholic Church and<br />
Rev. Alemu Sheta, Evangelical Church Fellowship of Ethiopia (ECFE). SEE THE FULL STORY ON<br />
PAGE 9.<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> seeks USD 1.45 bln for 15<br />
Boeing jetliners purchase<br />
By Kaleyesus BeKele<br />
The <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Airlines, the national flag carrier, is<br />
looking for 1.45 billion USD loan for the financing<br />
of the purchase of ten B787-8 and five B737-800<br />
airplanes and spare engines.<br />
Kassim Geresu, chief financial officer of <strong>Ethiopian</strong>,<br />
told The <strong>Reporter</strong> that different types of loans are<br />
required (Finance lease - Ex-Im guaranteed<br />
Loan, PDP loan and Junior loan). The total amount<br />
is estimated to be around 1.45 billion dollars.<br />
Kassim said <strong>Ethiopian</strong> has already floated a request<br />
for proposals on March 15, 2011 to potential<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong><br />
Airlines will<br />
also be the first<br />
airline in Africa<br />
to operate the<br />
much delayed<br />
Boeing 787<br />
Dreamliner<br />
financiers adding that it is waiting for their<br />
responses.<br />
The national flag carrier placed orders for 10<br />
Dreamliners in 2005. Originally, deliveries were<br />
scheduled for 2008-2010 which Boeing failed to<br />
meet. Now <strong>Ethiopian</strong> expects to receive the first<br />
two Dreamliners in January next year. <strong>Ethiopian</strong><br />
has also ordered 10 B737-800, 12 Airbus A350<br />
XWB, and 5 B777-200LRs. The airline has received<br />
three of the B777s and expects two more in April<br />
and July this year.<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> Airlines will also be the first airline<br />
in Africa to operate the much delayed Boeing<br />
4<br />
By Tamiru Tsige<br />
|1<br />
25 charged<br />
over loss of<br />
USD 6.5 mln<br />
Prosecutors of the Federal<br />
Ethics and Anti Corruption<br />
commission has charged 25<br />
suspects alleging that they<br />
have made and used a falsified<br />
Western Union’s payment<br />
receipt and two Commercial<br />
Nominee’s seals which prohibited the entrance<br />
of USD 6,546,699.57 to the country.<br />
The commission’s prosecutors filled the charge<br />
to the Federal High Court First Criminal Bench<br />
at Lideta on April 19, 2011. The charge alleges<br />
that the suspects committed fraud on the<br />
employees of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia<br />
(CBE) by presenting the forged documents and<br />
getting an export permit to export khat.<br />
The suspects prohibited the entrance of the USD<br />
6,546,699.57 to the country and used it to their<br />
own intent and this has damaged the county’s<br />
economy, the charge alleged. The charge also<br />
states that the suspects committed fraud and<br />
also made and used falsified documents.<br />
According to the Charge, Commercial<br />
Nominees plc PC operator/ verifier, Ali<br />
Mohammed, its general service and real estate<br />
head, Moges Getahun, its driver Mekonen<br />
Gebremedhin and CBE’s International Trade<br />
Services and Customer Relations officer, Yonas<br />
Wondwossen are some of the 25 defendants.<br />
ConT`d on page 5<br />
787 Dreamliner, which is more than three years<br />
behind schedule. <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Airlines currently<br />
operates an all Boeing aircraft for its middle and<br />
long range services. Currently, <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Airlines<br />
have 46 Aircrafts: 11 Boeing 767-300ER, 8 Boeing<br />
757-200ER, 5 Boeing 737-700, 4 Boeing 737-800,<br />
5 Fokker 50, 7 - Q400 DHC-8, 2 Boeing 757-260F<br />
(Cargo), 2 MD-11F (Cargo) and 2 Boeing 747-<br />
200F (Cargo) operating and another 36 in order<br />
which are 12 A350-900 from Airbus, 10 787-<br />
8 Dreamliner from Boeing, 5 777-200LR from<br />
Boeing 8 737-800 from Boeing, and 1 Q400 DHC-8<br />
from Bombardier.
2|<br />
Published weekly by Media &<br />
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Hayal Alemayehu<br />
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THE<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong>OP-ED<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
Heeding constructive criticism;<br />
Flattery kills quicker than poison<br />
It is generally agreed that criticism is more important than flattery for everyone, be it an individual, an<br />
organization or a government, to continually improve themselves by learning from their mistakes.<br />
For a government such as Ethiopia’s in particular, which finds itself in challenging times, it is unquestionably<br />
much better for it as well as for the nation to be concerned about criticisms against it than to bask in underserved<br />
and sycophantic praises.<br />
Of course, the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> government cannot be accused of having done or doing nothing laudable. The delivery<br />
of social services like health and education has expanded. The country’s infrastructure, especially roads, has<br />
vastly improved. Our towns are growing. And rural areas are changing. We are not saying that credit should not<br />
be given where it is due. However, if the government does not listen to criticisms, it will forego an opportunity<br />
that enables it to do a better job and even up losing the gains it had achieved.<br />
If the government is always ready to listen to criticism and take the necessary corrective measures, it can save<br />
the ever-waning good governance from disappearing altogether and put a stop to the pervasive miscarriage of<br />
justice blighting the public.<br />
These days the public has no expectation that it will get justice from government institutions. It just goes to them<br />
for the sake of expressing its grievances.<br />
Some institutions seem to be oblivious of the fact that it is the public which pays the salaries of their employees<br />
and they have an obligation to save it with the respect it deserves. It has become commonplace to see them<br />
mistreat and humiliate citizens who seek their services. Our age-old virtue of being courteous and respectful to<br />
other is slowly fading.<br />
The chief culprit which is responsible for this disgraceful and alarming state is the government bureaucracy. And<br />
it is not clear whether or not the bureaucracy is truly under the government’s control. Though it is established<br />
and staffed by the government/ the ruling party, it is not benefiting and in fact is harming both. It is busy setting<br />
the government on a collision course with the public and undermining the government’s avowed desire to make<br />
Ethiopia a model of good governance.<br />
The public is getting disaffected and feeling disenfranchised by the actions of the government bureaucracy.<br />
Ironically, the bureaucracy never misses a chance to claim unashamedly that the public is full of praises for it.<br />
The government needs to take stock of things and deal decisively with its bureaucracy. Listening to the public’s<br />
grievance against the bureaucracy is of critical importance for the government in this regard.<br />
A person who forwards criticisms should not be regarded as an enemy. But this is precisely what the government<br />
bureaucracy does. It labels any one who “dares” to expose its weakness as an enemy and treats it as such. It<br />
misleads the government into believing that the person is an enemy and taking uncalled for steps against him/<br />
her. This is the bare truth.<br />
If the government and the ruling EPRDF care to see, they would realize that their own bureaucracy is actually<br />
inflicting a far mortal damage to them than opposition parties or insurgent groups who are based overseas do.<br />
In other words, the government’s and the EPRDF’s worst enemy is their own bureaucracy, which is run by<br />
individuals they trust, chose and appointed. These individuals are the ones who are bringing down the bridge<br />
connecting the public with the government and the EPRDF.<br />
Neither the EPRDF nor the government can profess ignorance in defense of their failure to get a grip on the<br />
problem. The public has always its discontent, its grievance, its criticism against their bureaucracy. Sadly, noone<br />
has lent a sympathetic ear to its tearful plea.<br />
The people of <strong>Ethiopian</strong> are an understanding people. They stand by their government when they see and<br />
hear about something positive despite the myriad of problems they face. That is why they are fully behind the<br />
government’s plan to build the massive Grand <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile though no-one<br />
listens to their grievance.<br />
The government should express its appreciation for such show of public support. However, that is not the only<br />
thing it has to do. It must stand by the public, whom it wants to do the same thing for it, and do whatever is in<br />
its power to solve the latter’s problems. It can achieve this only when it is willing and committed to listen with<br />
an open mind to public criticisms directed against it.<br />
The government is at a crossroads: to stand by its “dirty bureaucracy” or the “honest public”. It’s no brainier<br />
which option it should go for. It had to forsake its dirty bureaucracy and side with the public whole heartedly.<br />
This means it must stop listening to the false praises of its bureaucracy and be ready to submit itself to the critical<br />
and honest criticisms of the public.<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
R mail Letters to the editor<br />
Blaming the victim?<br />
Dear Editor,<br />
I am writing this letter in response to Dr.<br />
Yohannes Gebresellasie’s opinion piece,<br />
“Revolutions are not fashions to be imitated or<br />
documents to be copied, pasted,” published in<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> on April 23, First, the opinion piece<br />
really made me feel uncomfortable, wondering<br />
why “scholars” or the “educated ones”, who<br />
are supposed to be neutral, critical and, most<br />
importantly, agents of change, become silent<br />
at best and remain to be without self-initiation<br />
being mouthpieces of governments which lack<br />
people’s legitimacy at worst. Scholars like Dr.<br />
Yohannes, when they fail to understand what the<br />
real situation looks like, especially with regard to<br />
the political atmosphere, resort to the surest, but<br />
not always the most reliable, means of support<br />
to their government, insulting <strong>Ethiopian</strong>s in the<br />
diaspora. Have a look for yourself (dear editor<br />
and readers) at the words Dr. Yohannes used in<br />
his piece to label the diaspora (some groups?)<br />
‘disillusioned,’ ‘disenchanted,’ ‘cynical,’ ‘biased,’<br />
‘hallucinating,’ ‘historical enemies of Ethiopia’<br />
etc. It is very clear that any person should be<br />
judged by his/her opinion. However, it is a<br />
mistake or fallacious to label a person this or<br />
that because this person had raised an idea or<br />
does something which is not comforting us.<br />
Focus has to be given not to the person but to<br />
the idea. Judged in this regard, Dr. Yohannes<br />
made a fallacious argument for he is more<br />
inclined to insult the diaspora than to focus on<br />
their ideas.<br />
Furthermore, he repeatedly mentioned that<br />
this group (the diaspora) has a hidden agenda<br />
but failed to tell us what their hidden agenda is<br />
in clear terms. I agree with him that the group<br />
have a lust for power and they do have a desire<br />
to grasp it any time if the circumstances allowed<br />
them to do so. But do you think this is bad? I do<br />
not think so. They may feel they are the ones who<br />
should govern this country. If so, the incumbent<br />
should do everything necessary, if it claims to be<br />
democratic, for them to have a chance to assume<br />
power. If the people of Ethiopia consider the<br />
diaspora as not fit enough to govern them, let<br />
the people say so. It is ridiculous to dare to<br />
speak on behalf of <strong>Ethiopian</strong>s without getting<br />
the green light from the people.<br />
Do you think there is “a complete and durable<br />
peace and stability” in the country? Are you<br />
serious about it or are you just dreaming? If<br />
we are to define peace based on the absence of<br />
war, you may have a point there. But peace is<br />
not simply the absence of war. There is more<br />
to it than that. We need peace, real peace. So<br />
please refrain from trying to deceive us; be more<br />
critical about it.<br />
Dr. Yohannes writes, “The <strong>Ethiopian</strong> people<br />
were once fooled by these (the diaspora groups)<br />
groups a few years back but they would never<br />
be fooled again.” What a conviction! Do you<br />
think the people were fooled? Who told you<br />
the people were fooled, or have you done an<br />
assessment to make you think the people were<br />
fooled? If “the people would never be fooled<br />
again” conception is to be upheld, I believe it is<br />
not because the people wanted or liked the idea<br />
but the incumbent will never let the general<br />
citizenly to be fooled, since it has become very<br />
harsh this time around. We will never be fooled<br />
because our government is more authoritarian<br />
than it was before.<br />
In any way, try to be critical and neutral. There<br />
is a saying that goes, “If you can smile when<br />
things go wrong, you have someone in mind to<br />
blame.” It is my belief that for the incumbent’s<br />
wrong-doings the diaspora should not always<br />
be blamed as this is tantamount to blaming the<br />
victim.<br />
Kalkidan Ambaye<br />
Addis Ababa University<br />
Rmail<br />
Please send your views on<br />
mcc@ethionet.et
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
Us air force to shore up<br />
africa on security, stability<br />
By merga yonas<br />
The US Air Force Africa (AFAFRICA) commander<br />
told African military leaders Tuesday, that they<br />
have a plan to foster strategic relations with<br />
African partners that strengthen stability and foster<br />
interoperability between their respective militaries.<br />
Maj. Gen. Margaret H. Woodward said, “Like every<br />
region of the world, Africa faces security challenges”<br />
that are both unique to the continent and shared<br />
globally.<br />
“We believe that our only chance at truly confronting<br />
these challenges successfully is in partnership with<br />
you [Africa’s military leaders],” the commander<br />
said during a conference held at Sheraton Addis,<br />
organized by the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> government and<br />
AFAFRICA, headquartered at Ramstein Air Base in<br />
Germany.<br />
AFAFRICA will strengthen the security forces and<br />
professionalism of military forces in the region, and<br />
will increase the ability of the region to support and<br />
lead international peace, the Commander added.<br />
Held with the theme “Building Air Partnership<br />
Across Africa,” the conference aims to provide a<br />
forum for strategic dialogue on improving air safety<br />
across the continent, according to the organizers.<br />
The gathering brought together about 150<br />
participants including around 30 African Chiefs<br />
and their deputies.<br />
AFAFRICA is supported by the African Center for<br />
Strategic Studies, which is located at the National<br />
Defense University at Fort Lesely J. McNair,<br />
Washington, D.C.<br />
Partial view of<br />
the participants<br />
HEADLINES<br />
By merga yonas<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
oromia to take further action<br />
against judges, legal officers<br />
The Oromia Supreme Court is to take further<br />
action against the judges and<br />
legal officers who were involved<br />
in misdemeanor concerning<br />
the regional justice system, the<br />
Supreme Court president said<br />
yesterday.<br />
During a consultation held among<br />
judges, presidents, legal officers<br />
and staff of Oromia Supreme Court<br />
in Adama, which also brought<br />
together over 600 participants<br />
for three days, the assembly is<br />
evaluating reports related to the<br />
Oromia justice system of the third<br />
quarter.<br />
“We are investigating and<br />
assessing the actions of those who<br />
are abusing their power,” Tadele<br />
Negisho of the Oromia Supreme Court President<br />
told The <strong>Reporter</strong>.<br />
By lemlem Tsegay<br />
The Ninth Civil Bench of the Federal High Court on<br />
April 18 ordered Sheba Still Mills PLC, a company<br />
owned by a Pakistani business group and currently<br />
going through a serious of legal battles, its General<br />
manager Gulham Abbas Hirani and its deputy<br />
General Manager Mohammed Razah Abbas Hirani,<br />
to pay 4,116,131.93 birr to Birzaf Gebremariam,<br />
supplier of used metals for the Plc.<br />
Birzaf Gebremariam, the plaintiff, presented the<br />
suit on March 11, 2011 claiming 4,116,131.93 birr<br />
from the defendants, who allegedly gave the plaintiff<br />
thirteen cheques for the payment of the used metals<br />
supplied for the Plc, that were signed by the second<br />
and third defendants.<br />
The plaintiff stated in her claim that she presented<br />
the cheques, signed between October 21, 2010 and<br />
December 02, 2010, with a value of 4,116,131.93 birr<br />
to Dashen Bank. However, the cheques were rejected<br />
by the Bank because the account was closed, the<br />
plaintiff claimed.<br />
The plaintiff also stated in her claim that even though<br />
she demanded payment in person, the defendants<br />
refused to pay.<br />
The case was tried in absentia because the defendants<br />
|3<br />
“We are no longer living in the times when kings can<br />
not be prosecuted and the sky cannot be tailored.<br />
Thus, we can take appropriate action against the<br />
judgers and legal officers who are<br />
accountable for their misdeeds,”<br />
the president said.<br />
Joint action will be taken by the<br />
Oromia Regional Council and the<br />
Judges’ Administration Council<br />
fulfilling the procedure needed<br />
before making them culpable for<br />
their offences, Tadele added.<br />
Early this month, the Oromia<br />
Supreme Court relieved eight<br />
judges and three legal officers of<br />
the duties as a result of alleged<br />
abuse of power as disciplinary<br />
measures. According to the<br />
president, they were alleged<br />
Tadele Negisho<br />
to have committed favoritism,<br />
misappropriation of official<br />
powers and citing inappropriate civil articles in<br />
their rulings.<br />
fourth lawsuit costs<br />
sheba 4.1 million birr<br />
failed to appear before the court and present their<br />
defense after they were served with summons by the<br />
plaintiff. The Ninth Civil Bench, which is presided<br />
over by Judge Bisrat Tehelku, has thus ordered the<br />
Plc, the General Manager and the deputy general<br />
manager to pay a total of 4,116,131.93 birr with<br />
nine percent legal interest. The legal interest is to be<br />
calculated starting from the day the cheques were<br />
presented for payment before the bank up to the day<br />
the amount is fully paid.<br />
The ninth civil bench of the Federal High Court<br />
had also passed an injunction against Sheba Plastics<br />
Factory, a sister company of Sheba Still Mills LLC, on<br />
March 24, 2011 after the plaintiff requested the court<br />
to do so claiming that the general manager and the<br />
deputy fled the country and the PLC is transferring<br />
the ownership of properties of the factory by sale in<br />
the name of paying debt, the plaintiff alleged.<br />
Prior to the lawsuit the PLC lost three civil suits<br />
within the last three months related to unpaid<br />
cheques amounting to a little over to 2.5 million birr<br />
to a man named Nura Mohammed, Yetenbi Trading<br />
and Nyala Insurance SC.<br />
Last week, the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Revenues and Customs<br />
Authority (ERCA) froze the assets of Sheba Steel<br />
Mills Plc after the authority learned the steel factory<br />
was halting production.<br />
era requests 20 bln birr for<br />
next budget year<br />
By Wudineh ZeneBe<br />
The <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Roads Authority (ERA), the biggest recipient of federal government budget, is requesting<br />
20 billion birr financing for the next fiscal year according to the figures it submitted to the Ministry of<br />
Finance and Economic Development (MoFED). The ministry is soliciting federal institutions to present<br />
their finance requirements for the 2011/12 budget year.<br />
Staying true to its previous trends, the ERA requested the leading amount followed by the Ministry of<br />
Education (MoE) and the Ministry of Defense.<br />
The budget requested by ERA has increased by five billion birr from the previously requested amount.<br />
Federal government had rejected the request and finally, the authority had to settle for 12 billion. However,<br />
six months into the fiscal year, MoFED had given out the requested amount in light of the need for road<br />
interconnection – there by the reduction in poverty levels, and fulfillment of the growth standards the<br />
country had set for itself for the year 2015 – according to reports. Accordingly, the ERA had requested<br />
an additional 2.5 billion birr which the ministry had granted, bringing last year’s total budget for the<br />
authority to close to 15 billion birr.
4|<br />
Government<br />
starts<br />
agricultural<br />
agency to double<br />
crop production<br />
Ethiopia started an agricultural agency that plans<br />
to help double production in the economy’s<br />
biggest industry over the next five years, Wonderad<br />
Mandefro, state minister of agriculture said.<br />
The <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Agricultural Transformation Agency,<br />
or EATA, is modeled on economic development<br />
organizations in South Korea and Taiwan and<br />
will be overseen by a council chaired by Prime<br />
Minister Meles Zenawi, Wonderad said in an<br />
interview on Thursday.<br />
“In the past five years, the country has made<br />
significant progress in sustaining agricultural<br />
production,” Wonderad said. “Compared to the<br />
potential, it’s still the tip of the iceberg.”<br />
Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, is<br />
the continent’s biggest coffee grower. A five-year<br />
government plan to wean the Horn of Africa country<br />
off foreign aid aims to boost agricultural production<br />
by 14.9 percent annually. The industry accounts<br />
for 45 percent of economic output and employs<br />
about 80 percent of the population, according to<br />
Wonderad.<br />
The agency was created after the Bill and Melinda<br />
Gates Foundation was asked by Meles in 2008<br />
to assess an <strong>Ethiopian</strong> program that provides<br />
support and equipment for farmers using so-called<br />
extension workers, Wonderad said.<br />
In partnership with international donors and<br />
agricultural-research organizations, the foundation<br />
was subsequently asked to assess other aspects of<br />
the industry, including irrigation, soil fertility and<br />
marketing. These will now be key areas of focus for<br />
EATA.<br />
The Seattle-based non-profit organization is<br />
providing technical expertise to EATA and may<br />
support the agency financially, Roy Steiner, deputy<br />
director of its agricultural development program<br />
said.<br />
Press freedom<br />
day to be<br />
commemorated<br />
By a sTaff reporTer<br />
ConT`d on page 25<br />
The Horn of Africa Press Institute (HAPI),<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> National Journalists Union (ENJU), the<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> Environmental Journalists Association<br />
(EEJA) in collaboration with UNESCO and the<br />
Office of Government’s Communication Affairs,<br />
has organized a full-day workshop to commemorate<br />
World Press Freedom Day, on Tuesday, May 3, at<br />
the Hilton Hotel.<br />
This year’s event which is organized under the<br />
theme: “21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New<br />
Barriers”, is expected to be attended by various<br />
local and international media organizations, invited<br />
guests and other stakeholders.<br />
Issues to be raised on this year’s World Press<br />
Freedom Day are expected to focus on the<br />
fundamental principles of press freedom which<br />
includes evaluating press freedom around the world,<br />
defending the media from attacks on independence<br />
and to pay tribute to journalists, who have lost their<br />
lives exercising their profession.<br />
Last year World Press Freedom Day was<br />
commemorated under the theme, Freedom of<br />
Information: The Right to Know.<br />
HEADLINES<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
allana Potash discovers new deposits<br />
By a sTaff reporTer<br />
Canada’s Allana Potash Corp said it discovered<br />
potash in Kainitite and Sylvinite zones which are<br />
previously unexplored area sin Ethiopia, which the<br />
potash explorer expects to add to existing resources<br />
at the property.<br />
The company said it intersected two strong zones<br />
of potash mineralization at relatively shallow depths<br />
at its drill hole DK-11-16, and it plans to evaluate<br />
the possibility of open pit mining in its upcoming<br />
feasibility study.<br />
Allana’s CEO Farhad Abasov issued a statement on<br />
the company’s website, claiming identification of<br />
new potash mineralization, which would be added<br />
to the existing potash resources at the property.<br />
The company says that the thick potash horizon<br />
discovered in the southwestern part of the property<br />
By hayal alemayehu<br />
Aviation Economics Professor Nawal Tanaja said that<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> Airlines could easily provide flights to three<br />
destinations in the United States [than a single destination it<br />
is currently serving] while advising the airline to secure more<br />
planes of different types to serve and take advantage of the<br />
growing aviation market in the Africa region.<br />
“The economic center of gravity is shifting from west to east<br />
and from north to south,” the professor said, indicating that<br />
the aviation market is increasing in Africa, Latin America<br />
and Asia. According him, the market in these regions is set<br />
to significantly increase in the coming 40 years where Africa’s<br />
share will significantly rise [bringing in opportunities to<br />
carries in the region].<br />
The professor described <strong>Ethiopian</strong>’s current state of<br />
development as “organic growth” and mentioned that<br />
the airline is [currently] on the right track. He, however,<br />
mentioned that the airline had its own challenges.<br />
“It is one thing to formulate the 2025 vision,” the professor<br />
said, speaking about the 15-year strategy <strong>Ethiopian</strong> formulated<br />
for the coming 15 years which the airline is seven to eight<br />
months into it. “It is [completely] another thing to execute it<br />
flawlessly.”<br />
“<strong>Ethiopian</strong> may place order for more planes,” said the expert<br />
who has been more than 40 years in the aviation industry.<br />
“But it should also have the crews and the human resource<br />
and all that the growth demands.” <strong>Ethiopian</strong> has persistently<br />
been challenged by brain-drain, with its skilled cockpit crews<br />
migrating to the Gulf carriers which are slowly but surely<br />
crowding the skies and now coming up in different form as<br />
low cost carries (LCCs). To mitigate this challenge <strong>Ethiopian</strong><br />
is set to launch a program whereby it will graduate much more<br />
pilots at a time than it currently does, with a plan to export<br />
some of graduates.<br />
Responding on the matter, public relations and publications<br />
manager at <strong>Ethiopian</strong>, Wogayehu Terefe, told The <strong>Reporter</strong><br />
that the airlines has plans to expand its routes in the US and is<br />
working on identifying the destination points.<br />
According to the professor who has published eight books<br />
on the aviation industry, human resource including cockpit<br />
crews and the IT system, infrastructure comprising airport<br />
and immigration facilities and services, inconsistent African<br />
countries regulatory policies and competition from low cost<br />
carriers are posing challenges to <strong>Ethiopian</strong>.<br />
While low cost carriers are becoming a major challenge to the<br />
major carriers across the globe offering cheaper prices, Gulfbased<br />
low cost carriers are now serving 14 destinations in<br />
Africa in a short period of time, according to the professor.<br />
Air Asia X, the cheapest airline in the world, is offering about<br />
one-third of the price the major carriers provide, including for<br />
non-stop long-haul services.<br />
Fly Dubai, subsidiary of Emirates, launched its maiden flight<br />
has the potential to become a significant deposit<br />
and the company will aggressively work to trace the<br />
extent of potash mineralization.<br />
The company has operations in Ethiopia as well<br />
as Argentina. The company says it is contemplates<br />
evaluating the possibility of open pit mining in the<br />
future feasibility study.<br />
The highlight of the results is drill hole DK-11-16,<br />
which intersected two strong zones of significant<br />
potash mineralization, 29.80 percent KCl over 4.00<br />
metres. Hole 16 was dug about 1,000 meters from<br />
Hole 8. Drilled vertically, the hole in the southwest<br />
of Hole 8 intersected the Kainitite and Sylvinite<br />
Zones of the Afar Regional State which is part of<br />
the basin that had remained unexplored so far. At<br />
a depth of 125.20 meters, the Sylvinite Zone graded<br />
24.79 percent KCI over 6.50 meters. Further down<br />
168.20 meters, the robust Kainitite Zone intersected<br />
20.29 percent KCI over 5.00 meters.<br />
Bambis News<br />
JUST ARRIVED<br />
MAXIMA: From Greece<br />
A big variety of Gift Chocolate Boxes: Big and Small<br />
Top quality and absolutely fresh!!<br />
ON SALE<br />
BAULI: From Italy<br />
COLOMBA: 500gr, 750gr and 1000gr<br />
COLOMBA: LIMONCE 750gr<br />
COLOMBA : PANNA E CHOCOLATO 750gr<br />
CROISSANT: Soffice Sfoglia, Sfizio al Chocolato, Cacao,<br />
Crema, Ciliegia, Albicocca<br />
MINI CROISANT: Cacao, Albicocca, Crema 750gr<br />
DORIA: Biscuits<br />
BUCANEVE 200gr ZOODORIA 350gr<br />
DORIFLOR 450gr AMARETTI 350gr<br />
MELODIE 200gr DORI CREM: Vanilla and Coca<br />
ATENE 500gr<br />
DORI CRACKERS<br />
DORIANO: Salted 150gr GUSTOSI: Olive 40gr<br />
DORIANO: No sugar 150gr GUSTOSI: Pomodoro 40gr<br />
DORIANO: 5 cereals 150gr JUMBONET: Prosicutto 40gr<br />
JUMBONETI: Salamino Piccante<br />
ION: From Greece<br />
NUCREMA: Hazelnut Spread 200gr & 400gr<br />
NASCO: Assorted filled Candies<br />
O’MAMY: Assorted Candies in bags<br />
ION: Cocoa Powder 125gr packets<br />
ION: Cooking Chocolate: Black and Milk<br />
The drill findings from Hole 16 are akin to the<br />
results of holes 6, 8, and 11, for which a 5-km-long<br />
and 5-km-wide area has been delineated for potash<br />
mineralization. Hole 16 intersected high-grade<br />
potash 125.20 meters deep, similar to Hole 8.<br />
Allana continues exploration drilling at Holes<br />
DK-11-20 and DK-11-21 in the eastern part of the<br />
property to discover potash mineralization in this<br />
unexplored region. Samples from Holes 11, 12, 14,<br />
15, 17, 18, and 19 are being tested in the company’s<br />
Saskatoon laboratory. Canada’s Allana Potash Corp<br />
said it discovered potash in a previously unexplored<br />
area in Ethiopia, which the potash explorer expects<br />
to add to existing resources at the property.<br />
The company said it intersected two strong zones<br />
of potash mineralization at relatively shallow depths<br />
at its drill hole DK-11-16, and it plans to evaluate<br />
the possibility of open pit mining in its upcoming<br />
feasibility study.<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> advisEd to fly to morE<br />
dEstinations in Us<br />
to Addis only last Saturday, thereby tightening<br />
the competition for one of Africa’s leading<br />
carrier <strong>Ethiopian</strong> and becoming the first LCC<br />
to operate to and from Ethiopia.<br />
The professor, who had been advising over<br />
half a dozen of airlines, made the remarks<br />
while addressing stakeholders here on the<br />
outlook of the global aviation industry and<br />
its implication to Africa and Ethiopia upon<br />
the invitation of <strong>Ethiopian</strong> CEO Tewolde<br />
Gebremariam.<br />
The expert noted that there are now two major<br />
trends in the global aviation industry: the<br />
NOTICE: Bambis will be closed on 5 th May 2011 for <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Patriots Day<br />
Information: 011 - 5521105 or 5505584<br />
change in customers’ behavior and the rise of<br />
powerful competitors.<br />
Yet in the center of the global aviation<br />
industry, a major shift of the market is in the<br />
making.<br />
The economic center of gravity is shifting from<br />
west to the east and from north to the east.<br />
With the African share of the global aviation<br />
industry projected to rise significantly,<br />
opportunities are presenting themselves for<br />
one of Africa’s leading carriers along with<br />
posing challenges, according to the professor.
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
25 charged...<br />
It was stated in the charge that Ali Mohammed, after having made the<br />
forged/falsified seal, accepted Western Union’s payment receipt from<br />
Mekonen Gebremedhin who was ordered to distribute those receipts<br />
to the different branch offices. Ali also gave the falsified documents<br />
to Nasir Mohammed, one of the defendants, by filling the names of<br />
his eight accomplices, which are also among the suspects, falsified<br />
HEADLINES<br />
money transferring numbers and some amount of money, prosecutors<br />
alleged. The charge also states that Moges Getahun gave two forged<br />
seals to these eight accomplices.<br />
The prosecutors charged the suspects alleging that they committed<br />
corruption by getting an export permit without concluding any<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
By Birhanu fiKade<br />
|5<br />
Cont`d from page 01<br />
contract to export khat with foreign buyers and without paying prepayment,<br />
committed fraud on the employees of CBE by producing a<br />
falsified document which shows that they fulfilled all the requirements<br />
to get export permit. The prosecution also presented, 57 witnesses,<br />
12 documents, among some as evidence the court. The case was<br />
adjourned for May 10.<br />
turkish embassy<br />
renews entry visa<br />
regulations<br />
The Embassy of the Republic of Turkey has renewed entry visa<br />
regulations for citizens of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia.<br />
According to an announcement made by the Embassy,<br />
nationalities of the three countries are required to fulfill some<br />
compulsory requirements to obtain entry visas for visiting and<br />
business reasons.<br />
The entry visa is to be issued to citizens at the border gate in<br />
Istanbal, Atatürk International Airport, if they bear a valid<br />
national passport with a validity of at least six months.<br />
They also are required to have a visa previously issued by the<br />
authorities of the US, UK or any of the schengen countries. In<br />
this regard, the passengers should have traveled at least once to<br />
these couturiers, according to the Embassy’s statement.<br />
Turkish Airlines’s roundtrip air ticket, hotel reservation<br />
and a 50 dollar a day to stay in Turkey are among the other<br />
requirements that the nationals of Djibouti, Ethiopia and<br />
Somalia must meet for the sake of getting an entry visa.<br />
ConT`d on page 25<br />
We are looking for experienced Early Childhood<br />
Teachers<br />
for our Learning Center who:<br />
• love and relate well to children<br />
• understand childhood development<br />
• have excellent written and spoken English skills<br />
• work well in a team<br />
• are motivated to learn new methods of<br />
instruction<br />
• possess strong organizational skills<br />
Previous experience with Montessori or other Active<br />
Learning programs is a plus, but not required. Salary is<br />
negotiable and will be determined by experience and a<br />
trial period.<br />
If this sounds like you, please email a personal cover<br />
letter and cv to: headtotoe.addis@gmail.com
6|<br />
Invitation for Bid<br />
Global Team for Local Initiatives (GTLI), an international<br />
NGO, would like to employ Drilling Companies for drilling<br />
of water wells/boreholes/ and construction of related facilities<br />
at three sites in Hamar Woreda of South Omo Zone in<br />
SNNPR State.<br />
Drilling Companies having a valid trade license (renewed for<br />
2010/2011 G.C. or 2003 E.C.) and relevant experiences are<br />
invited to bid.<br />
Bid documents shall be obtained on written request from<br />
GTLI Head Office in Addis Ababa or GTLI Field Office in<br />
Wongabayno Kebele of Hamar Woreda from 2 nd of May<br />
2011 to 10 th of May 2011.<br />
Our address is:<br />
GTLI Head Office<br />
Haile G/Selassie Road (behind Aksum Hotel)<br />
P.O. Box 1276, Addis Ababa<br />
Tel. 016 6629937, 0911012148<br />
OR<br />
Wongabayno Field Office<br />
Hamar Woreda, Tel. 046 8840781<br />
GTLI’s right is reserved to reject any or all bids.<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)<br />
REFERENCE: PUB 171/32 – EOI/01/2011<br />
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in<br />
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, plans to solicit suppliers with long term<br />
agreement (LTA) for car rental services of Buses and duty station<br />
wagons of latest version (2006 model and above).<br />
Qualified and interested companies working in Ethiopia in the<br />
field of Car Rental are sought to provide these services to the<br />
UNDP office Located in Addis Ababa, ECA compound.<br />
UNDP requests expressions of interest from potential company<br />
considered as having the legal status as an independent contractor.<br />
Deadline for response: 20 May 2011 before 4:00pm local time<br />
Description of Minimum Requirement:<br />
A potential supplier should fulfill the following minimum<br />
requirements and should be included on the EoI as supporting<br />
document:-<br />
The service provider shall avail the following evidences<br />
• a minimum two years of experience in the field<br />
• experience in providing service to International and UN<br />
agencies<br />
• renewed license and VAT registered<br />
• Company profile: indicating current corporate customers<br />
• List of own vehicles fleet: 2006 models and above<br />
It is anticipated that UNDP will shortly be issuing a comprehensive<br />
solicitation document to those firm that fulfill the minimum<br />
requirements.<br />
Please address the Expression of Interest for the attention of:<br />
UNDP Ethiopia<br />
EoI/01/2011<br />
Procurement Unit<br />
ECA Old Building, 6th Floor<br />
Africa Hall, Room Number 606<br />
P.O. Box 5580<br />
Fax: 251 11 5 514599<br />
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong> BUSINESS<br />
THE<br />
can nBe do it all?<br />
Regulatory Vs. policy priorities<br />
By asraT seyoum<br />
Though the earliest sign for the emergence of a financial market in Ethiopia was seen in 1906<br />
with the establishment of the first bank, bank of Abyssinia, it was not before 1964, well into the<br />
last decade of Emperor Hailessilase’s rule that the sector gained a formal regulatory organ-the<br />
National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). In between that time, the bank carried out the dual function<br />
of both commercial and central banking. However, the newly flourishing developments of the<br />
financial sector were short lived as the Socialist oriented military regime, restricted private<br />
investment in the sector thereby damping its growth for seventeen years, thereafter. History<br />
of the bank, nonetheless, shows that the military regime gave additional power to the NBE in<br />
economic planning together with the ministry responsible for macroeconomic planning.<br />
However, new down in the sector came in 1994 when private investment was allowed and<br />
the first private bank Awash International Bank SC was established in the same year. The<br />
proclamation that led to the establishment of the NBE in 1994 which was further amended in<br />
2008 bestowed the institution with the power to control monetary management in addition to<br />
its responsibility to insure bank-based financial sector’s prudence. The sector aside from few,<br />
yet relatively big, state-owned banks, now it oversees some 12 private commercial banks, not<br />
to mention other six in the pipe line. On one hand, it formulates monetary policies while on<br />
the other issuing directives to govern banks. However, the regulatory mandate of NBE, as laid<br />
out in its official website, also extends to insurances, microfinances and the newly evolving<br />
security markets. However, professionals in the area agree that the supervisory role that it plays<br />
on banks, thus far, is the most important one as the bank-driven financial sector in the country<br />
greatly affect the agriculture, industry and others eventually. These professional also point to<br />
banks leverage in affecting the amount of money in the system there by inflation as one of<br />
main premises behind the above assertion. However, there are criticisms from pundits when it<br />
comes to the dual duty—monetary management and financial sector prudence—of the NBE.<br />
These criticisms are mainly focus on the nature of conflicting goals of the two responsibilities.<br />
According to a macroeconomist, who do not want to be named, the monetary goals set by<br />
central banks might sometimes come in conflict with the solvency of banks operating in the<br />
sector. That is why; he went on explaining, experience of some of other economies show<br />
eventual separation of the two roles into individual institution. Some of the European countries<br />
indeed took steps in separating regulation of the financial sector from the central banking.<br />
The monetary policy framework of the NBE outlined in website clearly shows some overlapping<br />
with banking sector’s wellbeing. The framework document states that the countries’ monetary<br />
policy targets, as is the case in most of the monetary policies of other countries, inflation and<br />
exchange rate. The ultimate goal of the monetary policy is to stabilize prices (inflation) in the<br />
economy apart from maintaining the foreign exchange regime, it said. In fact, some of the<br />
policies that the central bank has taken in recent times showed bank’s sensitivity to the issue of<br />
inflation in the economy. The credit ceiling released few weeks ago is one case in point where<br />
NBE’s priority to stability in prices show, according to the some views reflected at the time.<br />
The monetary framework further explains that the ultimate targets are not easy to achieve; at<br />
“ However, there are criticisms<br />
from pundits when it comes<br />
to the dual duty—monetary<br />
management and financial<br />
sector prudence—of the NBE.<br />
least not directly by some of policy instruments available to the bank. However, the document<br />
shows that the bank goes around this difficulty by choosing an intermediate target—Money<br />
supply. It said that the bank aims to reach ultimate target, inflation and exchange rate stability,<br />
through money supply, which is directly influenced by other set of targets—operational target.<br />
The operational targets which can be easily affected by the bank’s policy instruments are the link<br />
the money supply and the instruments, thereby finishing the transition mechanism to ultimate<br />
targets. However, what to look for in here, according to above the above economist, are the<br />
policy instruments at the NBE’s disposal. He says the instrument is not something abstract, in<br />
fact these instruments are the rather apparent polices in the sector. Reserve requirement set on<br />
commercial banks, deposit interest rate floor, credit control (the ceiling on credit is one recent<br />
application) and open market sale of bond and bills, the like seen in the newly flourishing<br />
security market. “The recent experience in the application of the credit cap on commercial<br />
banks is adequate to understand conflict of monetary management with bank’s wellbeing,”<br />
he explains. According to the central bank’s justification for the cap, limiting credit helps to<br />
check the then galloping inflationary pressure in the economy, while on the other hand, the<br />
loan advancing ability of the banks was severely hampered in process. At the same time the<br />
ConT`d on page 8<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
CALL FOR PROPOSAL<br />
HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office provides support to HIV/<br />
AIDS related activities coordinating and implementing partners<br />
at federal levels and to regions, from the funds secured through<br />
Rolling Continuation Channel Phase One Accelerated plan of 2011<br />
(RCC Phase one)<br />
This is a Call to submit a proposal for those engaged on HIV/AIDS<br />
programs at the federal level. The fund is secured through the<br />
Global Fund RCC grant. The criteria for the proposal submissions<br />
are outlined below.<br />
1. Proposals and plans that can be submitted at federal level:<br />
• Federal government institutions who need funding for<br />
work place interventions to reach their staff and clients<br />
• Federal level coalitions for coordination, capacity<br />
building and supportive services.<br />
• Federal level Non Governmental Organizations for<br />
coordination, capacity building and monitoring and<br />
evaluation, support services at the federal levels.<br />
• National media agencies-for and overall advocacy,<br />
awareness creation and information dissemination.<br />
• Private sectors for coordination, capacity building<br />
activities, and monitoring and evaluation.<br />
1.1 Proposals and programs that are not acceptable at federal<br />
level<br />
• Organizations Functioning in regions will not apply at<br />
federal level to access RCC grant fund. Project holders<br />
working on program level other than coordination<br />
should submit their proposals at the respective regional<br />
HAPCOs where the implementation is taking place.<br />
• Federal level institutions should not request funding for<br />
programmatic interventions other than for coordination,<br />
capacity building, except for work place interventions of<br />
HIV/AIDS programs.<br />
2. Basic Contents of the projects that are expected to be<br />
fulfilled:<br />
• Institutions should be legally registered, should attach<br />
tax clearance, audited financial books, and should<br />
present other evidences for credibility<br />
• Project proposal shall encompass, background, rationale,<br />
Target Groups/Beneficiaries, objective, outcomes,<br />
Strategies, activities out puts, time frame, Management<br />
& Organization, Budget,, Opportunities and Risks,<br />
Monitoring & Evaluations and Sustainability should be<br />
articulated clearly.<br />
3. The maximum request for funding should be for one year.<br />
4. All eligible project holders are requested to submit their<br />
project proposals and plan of actions within 21 working<br />
days of this announcement and project proposals and plan<br />
of actions that are submitted after deadline will not be<br />
accepted.<br />
For Additional Information or Inquiry<br />
Telephone No. 0115 525095, 0115 503506<br />
P.O.Box 122323 Fax 0115 503358/95<br />
|7
8|<br />
Economic<br />
By marTin feldsTein<br />
can nBe... ConT`d<br />
banks, in spite of the overall economic interest (reducing inflation),<br />
had defended their position opposing the credit ceiling. Bankers who<br />
talked to The <strong>Reporter</strong> at the time, more or less, reflected that cap<br />
stifled their main line of business—deposit mobilization and lending.<br />
In fact some of the banks, especially as the end of credit cap drew close,<br />
were more reluctant even to accept deposit.<br />
Though, it is neither possible to assort that the lift of the credit cap<br />
is a signpost that the bank being caught up between the two worlds,<br />
nor it is know where the balance tilts between these objectives, the fact<br />
that there are tough choices facing the bank every now and then is<br />
apparent, he argues. “This is what necessitating separating two roles,<br />
among other range of reasons, in other economies.”<br />
That being the case, the recent move by the central bank towards a<br />
secondary market structure for the newly emerging security markets is<br />
also inducing the same kind of criticism. According to the plan, a study<br />
which will lay out the market structure for what could be the next capital<br />
market structure is underway. With the state-owned Development<br />
Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE)<br />
offering the first saving bonds in Ethiopia with interest rates slightly<br />
Eye<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
the G-20’s<br />
Cont`d from<br />
empty<br />
page 9<br />
gestures<br />
The world’s 20 most important finance ministers and 20 most important<br />
central bankers traveled to Washington this month from every part of<br />
the globe to accomplish, predictably, exactly nothing.<br />
The subject of the G-20’s recent meeting was “global imbalances.”<br />
According to the communiqué issued by the group, the meeting focused<br />
on developing a procedure for identifying which G-20 countries have<br />
“persistently large imbalances” and why they have them. This delicate<br />
analytical task was assigned to the International Monetary Fund, which<br />
is to complete its work before the ministers’ next meeting in October.<br />
It hardly takes a team of IMF economists to answer these questions.<br />
Anyone who has taken a first-year undergraduate course in economics<br />
would have no difficulty in identifying the countries with the largest<br />
trade surpluses and deficits. The United States wins first prize with a<br />
trade deficit of more than USD 650 billion in the most recent 12 months.<br />
No other country comes close enough to be awarded second prize.<br />
The broader current-account indicator (which includes trade in services<br />
and net investment income) confirms America’s leading role: its<br />
external deficit is nearly USD 500 billion. No other country has more<br />
than a USD 100 billion current-account deficit.<br />
Even if we look at current-account deficits relative to countries’ GDP,<br />
America’s 3.3 percent ratio exceeds that of almost every other economy.<br />
The three countries with larger deficit-to-GDP ratios have a combined<br />
deficit of less than USD 70 billion – not enough to warrant the G-20’s<br />
attention.<br />
The country with the largest current-account surplus is, no surprise,<br />
China, with a positive balance of more than USD 300 billion. Japan and<br />
Germany are the only other countries whose current-account surpluses<br />
exceed USD 100 billion.<br />
China’s current-account surplus is four percent of its GDP. Several oil<br />
producers have larger relative current-account surpluses that, combined,<br />
exceed China’s in absolute terms. And there are several other European<br />
and Asian countries with higher relative current-account surpluses that<br />
together exceed that of China.<br />
But the G-20’s decision to focus only on member countries that account<br />
for more than five percent of its combined GDP will exclude these<br />
smaller countries from the spotlight. Only China and the US, and<br />
perhaps Germany and Japan, will be at center stage.<br />
So much for the not-so-difficult task of identifying the countries with<br />
big imbalances. But what about the causes of those imbalances?<br />
Every student of economics knows that a country’s current-account<br />
deficit is the difference between its national investment (in business<br />
equipment, structures, and inventories) and its national saving (by<br />
households, businesses, and government). That is not a theory or<br />
an empirical regularity. It is an implication of the national incomeaccounting<br />
definitions.<br />
The US has an enormous current-account deficit because the federal<br />
government’s dissaving (i.e., the fiscal deficit) drags down America’s<br />
above the deposit interest rates and with maturity date of five years and<br />
above. On the other hand, the public enterprises, like <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Electric<br />
Power Corporation (EEPCo) also issued guaranteed corporate bonds<br />
to the public. Hence all these came to the forefront, secondary market<br />
structure is required is apparent according to the statement from<br />
the NBE. Alemayehu Kebede, corporate communication directorate<br />
director, at the NBE told The <strong>Reporter</strong> that the study would launch the<br />
secondary markets, where government bonds already issued are going<br />
to be traded. However, economists like Eyob Tesfaye, former director<br />
of government financial institution supervision agency, it is a study<br />
completed a long time ago. In fact, according to him the market should<br />
have went live then as the study was adequately done.<br />
Apart from the duplication of efforts in repeating the same study, what<br />
seems to be a bit worrying for Eyob is that of the question of regulatory<br />
body for the new security market structure. He told The <strong>Reporter</strong> that<br />
the central bank itself is an active participant of the bond market;<br />
hence, it is not appropriate for the bank to take up the supervisory role<br />
as well. Besides others also question that if it is even possible to do all<br />
these tasks at time.<br />
overall national saving. And the reverse is true for the Chinese, German,<br />
and Japanese current-account surpluses. In each of those countries, the<br />
level of national saving exceeds domestic investment, leaving output to<br />
be exported and funds to be loaned abroad.<br />
So the policy actions needed to reduce the trade and current-account<br />
imbalances are clear enough. The US must raise its national saving<br />
rate by shrinking its budget deficit, which currently stands at nearly 10<br />
percent of GDP. Fortunately, the desirability of doing so is now clear to<br />
every policymaker in Washington and to most of the American public.<br />
It will begin to happen as the massive “fiscal stimulus” enacted in 2009<br />
comes to an end, the political process begins to deliver spending cuts,<br />
and economic growth yields more tax revenue.<br />
When President Barack Obama attends the G-20’s summit of heads of<br />
state in Cannes in November, he will no doubt agree to further reductions<br />
in the US budget deficit. But that will be an empty promise: the US<br />
president has far less control over legislation than government heads in<br />
parliamentary democracies like Britain or in countries like China. And<br />
Obama’s power is even more limited now that his Democratic Party<br />
controls only one house of the US Congress. The history of previous<br />
summits suggests that the president will promise in Cannes only what<br />
he has already proposed at home.<br />
The G-20 ministers and central bankers are, of course, in no position<br />
to change the behavior of either the US or China, whose recently<br />
adopted five-year plan makes clear that it will reduce national saving<br />
by increasing consumer spending and raising government outlays for<br />
services like health care. In other words, China will, for its own domestic<br />
reasons, reduce its current-account surplus.<br />
The same kind of national self-interest that is driving the Chinese to<br />
stimulate domestic spending was at work when the G-20 leaders met<br />
in London in April 2009 and agreed to take steps to stimulate their<br />
economies. That agreement was easy to achieve, since it was in each<br />
country’s interest to expand demand. The G-20 only ratified what was<br />
going to happen anyway. But the G-20 leaders and finance ministers<br />
nonetheless now point with pride to what they “accomplished” in<br />
London.<br />
The same is likely to happen over the next few years as the US reduces its<br />
fiscal deficit and thereby shrinks its current-account deficit while China<br />
reduces its national saving and thereby shrinks its current-account<br />
surplus. The leaders of the G-20 will no doubt claim credit for this<br />
achievement. Perhaps that is why they like to meet.<br />
Ed’s Note: Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard, was<br />
Chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers<br />
and is former President of the National Bureau for Economic Research.<br />
The article was provided to The <strong>Reporter</strong> by Project Syndicate the world’s<br />
pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. With a unique<br />
collaboration of distinguished opinion makers from every corner of the<br />
globe Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives by those who are<br />
shaping politics, economics, science, and culture.<br />
from page 7<br />
With somewhat similar central bank dual natured responsibility with<br />
Ethiopia, the Chinese experience is drawn in bond market. People’s<br />
Bank of China (PBoC) is one playing the central bank role in economy.<br />
PBoC in fact like its counter-part in Ethiopia does hold both regulatory<br />
and monetary policy responsibilities together. The bank gets to decide<br />
both the policy aspect and supervise the financial sector players as a<br />
whole. Though, it also implies that the supervisory role of the bank<br />
entails control over the security market as well, the direct supervision<br />
of the bond and security markets falls under an independent<br />
commission; China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).<br />
Nevertheless, there are also other economists that champion the idea<br />
of tight regulatory system; at least at the early stages of developments.<br />
Michael Melaku is one such person. He told The <strong>Reporter</strong> that as<br />
bond and security markets is one of the monetary policy instruments<br />
it should not be left unregulated. He feels that until the security<br />
markets gets stronger, there should be a regulation and who is better<br />
positioned to do it but NBE, he argues. Nevertheless, NBE’s regulatory<br />
and monetary management duties seem to remains to be a center of<br />
contention for quite sometime.
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong> POLITICS<br />
THE<br />
United for a cause<br />
Power chief to push ahead albeit diplomacy on Nile<br />
By yemaneh nagish<br />
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the <strong>Ethiopian</strong><br />
Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), Miheret<br />
Debebe, is determined to push the hydropower<br />
projects on the water resources that the country<br />
has in spite of diplomatic bickering and bilateral<br />
negotiations on the issue of Nile River.<br />
On a National conference held at the Ghion Hotel<br />
on Thrusday, where experts, politicians, religious<br />
leaders and the prominent personalities attended<br />
and about eight research papers presented on the<br />
issue of the Nile and power potential of the country,<br />
CEO of the EEPCo asserted that Ethiopia should<br />
go ahead with its power projects no matter what<br />
happens at formal negotiation tables. According to<br />
Mihiret, a unilateral strategy is the way to go when it<br />
comes to power projects. “Our primary focus should<br />
be on completing our projects, while conducting the<br />
negotiation is secondary (luxury),” he said.<br />
In his view, the basic priority lies in catching up<br />
with the fast track energy demand growth of the<br />
economy. In striking contrast to the position of<br />
mutual cooperation and bilateral negotiations<br />
that the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> politicians and scholars have<br />
been pursuing, the power chief seemed to differ.<br />
aU must support ethiopia on<br />
eritrea to keep nato out of africa<br />
By sam aKaKi<br />
[Ethiopia’s<br />
support for<br />
freedom in<br />
Africa is not<br />
new. In 1962,<br />
Ethiopia gave<br />
Nelson Mandela<br />
the priceless<br />
passport and<br />
military training,<br />
which helped<br />
to slowly bleed<br />
the diabolical<br />
apartheid system<br />
to death in<br />
1994!]<br />
Miheret Debebe<br />
However, at the end of the conference, the attendees<br />
were drawn to this position and some views reflected<br />
in tea break group discussions participants seem to<br />
align with Mihiret’s view ‘diplomatic negotiations<br />
should be reduced to a secondary position’.<br />
The data shows that currently Ethiopia’s<br />
per capita energy consumption is only 100<br />
k/W/H as opposed to the minimum target<br />
set in the millennium development goal is<br />
five times larger; 500 K/W/H, he explained.<br />
In my opinion article, ‘AU must keep NATO out<br />
of Libya, Africa’, printed in The <strong>Reporter</strong> March<br />
19, last month, I deliberately failed to suggest any<br />
alternative to NATO intervention as a solution to<br />
some African rulers who have enslaved their people,<br />
and turned their countries into family estates. I<br />
wanted others to have their say.<br />
Thankfully, the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Foreign Minister<br />
Hailemariam Desalegn has stepped forward and<br />
made an important announcement regarding<br />
Eritrea, a move that could become a template to be<br />
used elsewhere to keep NATO out of Africa.<br />
Addressing the press in Addis Ababa on 21st April,<br />
he said “We have embarked ourselves on regime<br />
change in Eritrea. This regime change is not by<br />
invading Eritrea, but by supporting the Eritrean<br />
people and groups which want to dismantle the<br />
regime. We are fully engaged in doing so.” (Reuters).<br />
A template for keeping NATO out of Africa<br />
The African Union, which has been ignored and<br />
humiliated by NATO over Libya, must welcome<br />
and support Ethiopia’s move, not least because it is<br />
a pre-emptive action that will prevent NATO from<br />
intervening in Eritrea before moving to other sub-<br />
Sahara African countries.<br />
Eritrea’s strategic position in the Red Sea, which<br />
connects the Suez Canal to the Gulf of Eden and the<br />
Indian Ocean, makes it a high priority candidate for<br />
NATO intervention purely for geo-political reasons.<br />
But the humanitarian case for Ethiopia intervention<br />
in Eritrea cannot be over-emphasised.<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
“For one percent GDP growth some 2.5 percent<br />
energy growth is required, while we embarked on a<br />
Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) targeting<br />
a minimum of 11 to 15 percent annually,” he said.<br />
In the next five years in order to keep pass with the<br />
energy demand growth of the economy, a minimum<br />
of 25 percent and a maximum of 32 percent growth<br />
is expected, according to Mihiret.<br />
In past 50 years, he went on explaining, Ethiopia’s<br />
rate of developing its power potential, which<br />
according to some forecast at the moment is as high<br />
as 45,000 MW, was 10,000 MW a year. “If things<br />
kept on going at this rate then we need 50 to 100<br />
years to achieve our goals.” And he attributed this<br />
pass to the relentless campaigning of the Egyptians<br />
and lack of financial capacity to do it locally.<br />
On the other hand, the power chief also explained<br />
about other projects that are in the five year hydropower<br />
generation. He said that apart from the<br />
mammoth renaissance dam, other power plant<br />
projects like Genale III, Chemoga, plant which is<br />
expected to generate some 150 percent of the existing<br />
Tekeze dam generating capacity. The Chemoga<br />
power plant which will be built near Debremarkos,<br />
in the Amhara regional state is one of the hopeful<br />
projects to bridge the gap between the fast paced<br />
energy demand and the overall economy. However,<br />
On April 4, last month, the UN, no less, reported<br />
that over 400 African immigrants, mainly Eritreans,<br />
had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to go<br />
to Europe in search of a better life!<br />
Earlier, on July 8, last year, the BBC and other<br />
international media outlets had reported that more<br />
than 300 Eritrean young men and women had<br />
drowned in the Mediterranean Sea escape route to<br />
Europe!<br />
It is fair to say that many more Eritrean must have<br />
perished, and continue to perish in the Sahara desert.<br />
According ‘Desperate Dreams’, a BBC World Service<br />
documentary first aired in January 2008, “Every<br />
year, thousands of young people from sub-Saharan<br />
Africa set off across the desert dreaming of a better<br />
life in Europe. Sadly, dangers and exploitation greet<br />
and follow them to their unmarked graves. Many<br />
fall prey to ruthless smugglers or find themselves<br />
stranded in the Sahara desert or a foreign country<br />
without the means to continue or return home.”<br />
The AU’s moral and political responsibility<br />
How many more Eritreans and other African youths<br />
must be forced out by their oppressive leaders to<br />
go out in search of a better life in Europe only to<br />
end at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, leaving<br />
behind grieving families and friends before the AU<br />
says enough is enough? How many young African<br />
lives are worth one dictator? How many?<br />
History of African intervention in Africa<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> intervention in Eritrea will not be without<br />
precedent in Africa. In 1979, Tanzania trained,<br />
|9<br />
until these projects and the two giant projects of<br />
Renaissance and Gibe III Dams come in to being,<br />
Mihiret said, EEPCO is undertaking fast track wind<br />
energy projects in Adama and Ashegoda.<br />
“Our energy projects are also optimal mix of wind-<br />
Geothermal energy projects,” the power chief<br />
said. Furthermore, he also indicated that hydropower<br />
projects in the pipeline are low cost energy<br />
sources. He said that on average three to four US<br />
cents/K/W/H is the generating cost, while six US<br />
cent/K/W/H in Ethiopia as opposed to the price of<br />
providing the same amount in Europe which is as<br />
high as 50 US cent/K/W/H.<br />
Out of eight research papers presented at the<br />
conference, Ambassador Ibrahim Idris’s, former<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> ambassador to Egypt, is another<br />
participant who sparked a hot discussion. The<br />
ambassador among other things recommended<br />
the formation of two important national organs<br />
to reinforce negotiation power of Ethiopia and<br />
pursuing strong national policy on the river basin.<br />
National Water Council, headed by the Prime<br />
Minister himself and National Water Experts’<br />
Committee, chaired by the Ministry of Water and<br />
Energy, seemed to gained wider acceptance by the<br />
conference attendees. (Asrat Seyoum has contributed<br />
to this story)<br />
armed and “escorted” Ugandan refugee back home<br />
to remove Idi Amin who had turned their country<br />
into a massive graveyard for some 500,000 Ugandans<br />
and sent many more to exile.<br />
In 1962, Ethiopia gave Nelson Mandela the priceless<br />
passport and military training, which helped to<br />
slowly bleed the diabolical apartheid system to death<br />
in 1994!]<br />
In his book, the “Long Walk to Freedom’, Nelson<br />
Mandela has stated that Ethiopia did not only<br />
give him a passport bearing the name of David<br />
Motsamayi, but also military training!<br />
Mandela also disclosed that it was that <strong>Ethiopian</strong><br />
passport, which enabled him to travel to the then<br />
Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Egypt, Tunisia,<br />
Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, Russia, the USA and<br />
London, to mobilise diplomatic and material<br />
support for the newly founded ANC military wing,<br />
Umkhonto we Sizwe, which eventually bled the<br />
diabolical apartheid regime to death.<br />
Eritrea must not be the last port of call.<br />
Eritrea must not be the first and the last port of call<br />
for the AU. It must also take similar actions in other<br />
African countries where leaders are using violence<br />
as a state policy to brutalise their people in order<br />
clinging to power until death.<br />
Last week, in Uganda, the main opposition leader<br />
and three times presidential candidate Dr Kizza<br />
Besigye was shot and thrown into jail, along with<br />
the leader of the Democratic party, Mr Norbert Mao<br />
ConT`d on page 25
10|<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong> POLITICS<br />
THE<br />
the achilles’ heel of anti-terrorism<br />
laws and campaigns: a viewpoint<br />
By Tesfaye haBisso<br />
The terrorist attacks on the United States on September<br />
11, 2001 were an unprecedented and blood-curdling<br />
event that intensified global anti-terrorist initiatives<br />
and policies, mobilized word-wide coalition, and<br />
globalized the discourse on terrorism. The attacks<br />
were barbarous and the perpetrators are despicable<br />
human beings that do not deserve mercy. Whatever<br />
the case, the anti-terrorist initiatives hurriedly taken<br />
by many nations have had major consequences for<br />
the rights and freedoms of individuals, societies, and<br />
nations all over the world. It is ironic that the United<br />
Nations and the international community, which<br />
have made relentless efforts since the founding of<br />
the UN in 1945 to realize a progressive and universal<br />
development of human rights law, starting with the<br />
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and<br />
the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment<br />
of the Crime of Genocide (1948), and unfolding<br />
through the International Covenant on Civil and<br />
Political Rights (1966), the International Covenant<br />
on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966),<br />
and other multilateral conventions, have now made<br />
a U-turn decision to become active parties to the<br />
suppression of the same human rights and freedoms<br />
that they have been promoting for so long, in<br />
accordance with Article 1(3) of the UN Charter. This<br />
point must be emphatically asserted without fear<br />
or favour, and for setting the record straight, as the<br />
promised benefits of such anti-terrorism initiatives<br />
have been no more than an illusory sense of security<br />
under an atmosphere of sheer siege mentality. Surely,<br />
the collateral benefits are not worth the costs incurred<br />
in this regard. However, it is interesting to note at this<br />
juncture that, while political leaders and policymakers<br />
across the globe attempt to justify anti-terrorist laws<br />
and institutions in the name of internal and external<br />
security, critics argue that such measures may pose a<br />
considerable challenge to various domains of people’s<br />
rights, especially privacy, freedom of expression,<br />
political dissent, racial/[ethnic or religious] equality,<br />
and social entitlement [Dempsey 2001-02]. In<br />
addition, according to the views of the United<br />
Nations High Commission for Human Rights, new<br />
anti-terrorist provisions may undermine basic human<br />
rights [Robinson 2002]. In short, the growing debate<br />
questions the trade-offs between liberty and security<br />
in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 [Dempsey<br />
2001-02]. This article examines the critical impact of<br />
these worldwide initiatives on the fundamental rights,<br />
freedoms and responsibilities of individual citizens,<br />
groups and nations throughout the world, with<br />
special reference to human rights and basic freedoms,<br />
civil and political liberties. The core argument of<br />
this paper is that, while the fight against terrorism<br />
is legitimate and necessary, combating terrorism<br />
must not jeopardise the enjoyment of civil, cultural,<br />
economic, political and social rights. There is a great<br />
need for balancing civil liberties, national security and<br />
international responsibilities of promulgating and<br />
implementing anti-terrorism laws as well as other antiterror<br />
initiatives and cautionary measures. Otherwise,<br />
it would depressingly pronounce the beginning of the<br />
end of human rights and fundamental freedoms in a<br />
substantial and detrimental way for all nations, a global<br />
assault on human rights and liberty: Adieu, Liberty!<br />
Adieu, Dissent! Adieu, Human Rights Commissions<br />
and Ombudsman Bureaus! Before going any further<br />
in discussing the issue at length, we must be clear on<br />
what we mean by “human rights” and their utmost<br />
significance for peace, democracy, development,<br />
human dignity and individual/group worth in any<br />
country. In today’s world, it is strongly argued that no<br />
development, whether political, economic or social,<br />
can have any meaning and sustainability without<br />
the stringent application, observance and protection<br />
of human rights, as enshrined in the UDHR and<br />
the subsequent covenants, laws and treaties of the<br />
international community.<br />
The Significance of Human Rights and Human<br />
Rights Protection<br />
Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to<br />
which all humans are considered entitled: the right to<br />
life, liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and<br />
equal treatment before the law, among others. These<br />
rights, for long enunciated by the Enlightenment<br />
thinkers and philosophers of the 18th century and<br />
earlier period, represent entitlements of the individual<br />
or groups vis-a-vis the government, as well as<br />
responsibilities of the individual and the government<br />
authorities, and secured after several decades of<br />
bitter struggles by freedom movements across the<br />
world. These catalogue of rights and freedoms were<br />
eventually entrenched in the Universal Declaration<br />
of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, when the General<br />
Assembly of the United Nations adopted the UDHR<br />
on December 10, 1948<br />
Such rights are ascribed “naturally,” which means<br />
that they are not earned and cannot be denied on the<br />
basis of race, creed, ethnicity or gender [Little David,<br />
“University of Human Rights,” (available at: http://<br />
www. usip.org/research/rehr/university.html)]. These<br />
rights are often advanced as legal rights and protected<br />
by the rule of law. However, they are distinct from<br />
and prior to law, and can be used as standards for<br />
formulating or criticizing both local and international<br />
law. It is typically thought that the conduct of<br />
...between 1981<br />
and 2000, the total<br />
number of terrorist<br />
attacks globally was<br />
9,179 (an average of<br />
459 attacks a year),<br />
with the highest<br />
number (630 attacks<br />
a year) in the mid-<br />
1980s [Center for<br />
Data Analysis 2001].<br />
governments and military forces must comply with<br />
these standards.<br />
Various “basic” rights that cannot be violated under<br />
any circumstances are set forth in international human<br />
rights documents such as the Universal Declaration of<br />
Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant<br />
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),<br />
and the International Covenant on Civil and<br />
Political Rights (ICCPR). The rights established by<br />
these documents include economic, social, cultural,<br />
political and civil rights. The widespread ratification<br />
of international human rights agreements such as<br />
those listed above is taken as evidence that these are<br />
widely shared values. Having human rights norms in<br />
place imposes certain requirements on governments<br />
and legitimises the complaints of individuals in<br />
those cases where fundamental rights and freedoms<br />
are not respected [Antonio Cassesse, Human Rights<br />
in a Challenging World, 1990, p.2]. Such norms<br />
constitute a standard for the conduct of government<br />
and the administration of force. They can be used<br />
as “universal, non-discriminatory standards” for<br />
formulating or criticizing law and act as guidelines<br />
for the proper conduct [Little, “The Nature and<br />
Basis of Human Rights,” United States Institute of<br />
Peace (available at: http://www.usip.org/research/<br />
rehr/natbasis: html)]. Many conflicts are sparked by<br />
a failure to protect human rights, and the trauma<br />
that results from severe human rights violations<br />
often leads to new human rights violations. As<br />
conflict intensifies, hatred accumulates and makes<br />
restoration of peace more difficult. In order to stop<br />
this cycle of violence, states must institute policies<br />
aimed at human rights protection. Many believe that<br />
the protection of human rights is essential to the<br />
sustainable achievement of the three agreed global<br />
priorities of peace, development and democracy.”<br />
[“Human Rights Today: A United Nations Priority,”<br />
The United Nations, 2000 (available at: http: // www.<br />
un.org/rights/HR Today/]. Respect for human rights<br />
has therefore become an integral part of international<br />
law and foreign policy. The specific goal of expanding<br />
such rights is to “increase safeguards for the dignity of<br />
the person.” [Cassesse, ibid, p.3].<br />
Despite what resembles a widespread consensus on<br />
the importance of human rights and the expansion<br />
of international treaties on such matters, the<br />
protection of human rights still often leaves much to<br />
be desired. As the great Enlightenment th philosopher<br />
Jean Jacques Rousseau of the 18 century once wrote,<br />
“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”<br />
Although international organizations have been<br />
created or utilized to embody these values, there is<br />
little to enforce the commitments states have made<br />
to human rights, except for some weak instruments<br />
such as sanctions or “naming and shaming” measures;<br />
military intervention th is a rare occurrence. Thus, not<br />
only during the 18 century and the decades ever<br />
since, human beings are still in chains in many<br />
countries of the world even today. The current global<br />
war on terrorism and the attendant anti-terrorist laws,<br />
institutions and similar other initiatives established<br />
by states across the world have, in fact, detrimentally<br />
weakened the human rights protection and liberties of<br />
individuals, groups, societies, and nations, especially<br />
in the non-democratic countries of Africa, Asia, Latin<br />
America, and elsewhere. Human rights that were<br />
established by the United Nations and duly adopted<br />
in the UDHR in 1948 were drastically curtailed by<br />
the same body in 2001 when the UN hastily passed<br />
Security Council Resolution 1373 (September 28,<br />
2001) because of the terrorist attacks on the USA, and<br />
the latter’s stern ultimatum to the world, “Either You<br />
Are With Us, Or You Are Against Us”, as threateningly<br />
and publicly announced to all friends and foes alike<br />
by then-President George Bush, Jr. This is reminiscent<br />
of the metaphor remarked a very long time ago by<br />
Klemens von Metternich th glorifying the political and<br />
cultural role of the 18 century France in the then<br />
Europe: “When France Sneezes, All Europe Catches<br />
a Cold.” Thus, all countries of the world had to listen<br />
to the ultimatum of ‘the supreme commander’ of the<br />
world and line up behind him instead of challenging<br />
this unilateral and futile ‘crusade’ or war on the<br />
illusive terrorists and on rooting out global terrorism<br />
once and for all.<br />
The Current Global War on Terrorism: Initiatives,<br />
Measures and Significance<br />
Neither terrorism, nor the war on terrorism, is a new<br />
phenomenon. Terrorist incidents and anti-terrorist<br />
measures have occurred for the past several decades<br />
across the world. For instance, between 1981 and<br />
2000, the total number of terrorist attacks globally<br />
was 9,179 (an average of 459 attacks a year), with the<br />
highest number (630 attacks a year) in the mid-1980s<br />
[Center for Data Analysis 2001]. Regionally, during<br />
1995-2000, the average number of terrorist attacks per<br />
year was 122 in Latin America, 101 in Western Europe,<br />
about 45 in Asia and only 15 in North America [ibid].<br />
No data is made available on Africa yet.<br />
A series of international anti-terrorist conventions<br />
emerged prior to September 11, 2001, including<br />
the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful<br />
Acts against the Safety of Aircraft in 1971, the<br />
Convention Against the Taking of Hostages in 1979,<br />
the Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist<br />
Bombings in 1997, and the Convention for the<br />
Suppression of Financing Terrorism in 1999 [CEC<br />
2001]. In the USA, terrorism was a major concern<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
Viewpoint<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
ConneCting<br />
the d ts<br />
The Bystander has been feeling recently the<br />
relish he is getting from the tidbit is becoming<br />
highly pleasurable. According to him, some<br />
of the information he is getting from his<br />
informants is, to a large extent, bewildering.<br />
In particular, The Bystander believes that the<br />
scoop he received this week from his prime<br />
informant, the waitress, is quite the morsel.<br />
According to the girl, the palpable shopping<br />
spree in the Sheikh’s camp, specifically the<br />
acquisitions and buyouts of properties in<br />
the capital, is continuing this time as well.<br />
Last year Mesfin Regassa, a young man<br />
whose hilarity had won the grace of the<br />
Sheikh, bought Jumbo Complex located<br />
on Cameroon Street, right in front of St.<br />
Medhanialem Church, for more than 50<br />
million birr from owner Debebe Seifu, the<br />
waitress recalls. If there are such doubts in<br />
acquiring these properties, there is none<br />
when it comes to another property down at<br />
Old Airport.<br />
Another property acquired by the Sheikh<br />
last year is the Dagem Millennium Hotel<br />
for more than 30 million birr, after the<br />
Bank of Abyssinia foreclosed the property,<br />
the waitress claims. The hotel was built and<br />
operated by a well-known businessman,<br />
Temesgen Chaka, and at the moment, the<br />
property houses the many expat workers the<br />
Sheikh brought to country who are working<br />
on various projects, the waitress avers.<br />
According to her, the recent property that<br />
is set to join the collection is Concord<br />
Hotel, located on Beyene Abasebsib Street<br />
and owned by a prominent businessman<br />
in the metropolis, Solomon Ketema. He<br />
also owns a chain of hotels, restaurants and<br />
nightclubs, including King’s Hotel formerly<br />
known as Central Venue Hotel, which is<br />
located on Roosevelt Street and named after<br />
his son. Solomon runs these establishments<br />
through his flagship company, El-Salvatore<br />
Plc, the girl notes. According to the girl, the<br />
renowned diva Hamelmal Abate approached<br />
Solomon for the acquisition of Concord<br />
Hotel with 17 million put at his disposal.<br />
Solomon declined the offer, the girl reveals.<br />
However, a few weeks back, the Sheikh’s guys<br />
approached Solomon, who agreed to sell the<br />
hotel for an undisclosed amount. The hotel is<br />
now going to be owned by one Wossen, the<br />
girl disclosed.<br />
for over two decades prior to 9/11, leading to various<br />
government initiatives reflected in documents such as<br />
Managing Terrorist Incidents (1982), National Program<br />
for Combating Terrorism (1986), U.S. Policy on Counter-<br />
Terrorism (1995), and Terrorism, the Future, and U.S.<br />
Foreign Policy (2001) [Richelson and Evans 2001].<br />
Despite the existence of such a long list of anti-terrorist<br />
conventions and legal provisions, the massive terrorist<br />
attacks on 9/11 could not be predicted or prevented. Or,<br />
as some try to forcefully argue today, the attacks were<br />
predicted in time but no preventive measures were taken<br />
by the Pentagon officials. On September 11, 2001, through<br />
the global media, the whole world observed the horrifying<br />
actions that destroyed New York’s World Trade Centre,<br />
damaged the Pentagon building, and caused the deaths of<br />
thousands of people. Subsequently, the episode unfolded<br />
with its worldwide condemnation by political leaders and<br />
policy-makers, the announcement of a “war on terrorism”<br />
by President Bush, the formation of an anti-terrorist<br />
coalition among various nations, a global search for the<br />
ConT`d on page 27
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
“Will you marry me?”<br />
By meirafe Berhane<br />
Popping up the big question<br />
“About a year ago around 6p.m., I was having a<br />
burger with my boyfriend in a burger house. After I<br />
ate the half portion of my burger, I noticed that my<br />
boyfriend was trying to kneel down and I thought<br />
he was about to tie his shoes. It took him a little<br />
longer to get up and I asked him what happened,<br />
as he was pulling out a heart-shaped red case from<br />
his coat pocket. After he opened it he said, “This<br />
happened”, while showing me an engagement<br />
24 karat gold ring. I was really happy that he was<br />
proposing to me, but a part of me thought that he<br />
was just kidding,” says Hilina Taye, a 25 year-old<br />
accountant.<br />
Her boyfriend, who used to be an accounting<br />
lecturer, did propose to her, exactly the way she<br />
wanted him to. The Western way of proposing has<br />
a question “will you marry me?” but what Hilina’s<br />
boyfriend did was different. He did not ask her to<br />
marry him but said “Hilina we both love each other,<br />
so let’s get married”. Nevertheless, Hilina said yes.<br />
“Everyone in the burger house cheered for us and<br />
I was so excited. I never thought that I would be<br />
surprised and proposed to like that, in public. But<br />
honestly speaking, I love my boyfriend but I was a<br />
little bit abashed and I didn’t want to stay there for<br />
long”.<br />
She thinks that the way her boyfriend proposed to<br />
her was so much into Western’s culture but it was<br />
okay as she had seen plenty of movies that have a<br />
proposal scene and she somehow got used to it.<br />
The proposal of marriage is an event when one<br />
person in a relationship asks for the other’s hand in<br />
marriage. If accepted, it marks the commencement<br />
of engagement. It often has a formal procedure<br />
quality, sometimes involving the presentation of<br />
an engagement ring and a formalized asking of a<br />
question such as “Will you marry me?” In Western<br />
tradition, it is traditional for the man to propose to<br />
his girlfriend, as opposed to the other way around,<br />
while kneeling before her, and sometimes physically<br />
putting the ring on her finger, as opposed to merely<br />
giving it to her; often the proposal is a surprise.<br />
In many cultures, it is tradition for a groom to ask<br />
the bride’s father or family for permission before<br />
proposing. Exactly the way it used to be in Ethiopia<br />
for centuries.<br />
“It was my 28th birthday. And I was out clubbing<br />
with my boyfriend and my close friends. My<br />
boyfriend and I were in the middle of the dance<br />
floor dancing to my favorite slow jams and all of<br />
a sudden the music abruptly stopped and I saw a<br />
waiter coming towards us. I thought that he was<br />
going to ask us to take care of the bill and I was ready<br />
to tell him we were not done. But then he gave a<br />
microphone to my boyfriend and I was surprised.<br />
“My boyfriend is going to sing for me”, says Leilt<br />
Assefa, a lawyer. Her boyfriend started talking and<br />
then knelt down on his left knee and said, “Lielt I<br />
want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?”. “It<br />
was wonderful but it felt strange because it is not<br />
part of our cultural to propose in that manner. I<br />
have seen many Western proposals in movies but<br />
never imagined mine would be in that way, to be<br />
asked to be married in public,” says Leilt.<br />
She thinks that the way her boyfriend proposed was<br />
something borrowed, not real. She believes that it<br />
should be a private event. Her biggest argument was<br />
she knew nothing about the meaning of kneeling<br />
down and the question. “Why would someone ask<br />
me to marry him? If the marriage is meant to be<br />
for both of our sake, I think I prefer the ‘let us get<br />
married question’ instead.”<br />
Most of the people The <strong>Reporter</strong> interviewed share<br />
the same opinion about proposals. They believe<br />
that it is not natural for them to do it in<br />
a Western way. Most of them lived<br />
or spent many years with their<br />
love partners and it was obvious<br />
that marriage was going to<br />
happen sooner or later. Most of<br />
them have talked about getting<br />
married but never thought of<br />
proposing in a Western classic. “Will<br />
you marry me” way.<br />
There are several different<br />
traditional ways in which<br />
marriages are contracted<br />
in Ethiopia: in an arranged<br />
marriage, well-respected elders<br />
are sent to the girl’s family<br />
on behalf of the man’s family,<br />
without the would-be bride’s<br />
knowledge. The man’s messengers<br />
approach the house very early in<br />
the morning and wait until the<br />
main gate is opened. Once the<br />
gate is opened and their presence<br />
is known, they are invited into<br />
the house and questioned as to<br />
why they are there. Once they<br />
explain the purpose of their visit<br />
an appointment is made for them<br />
to return within 15 to 20 days. When<br />
the messengers return, they will be<br />
served with a yes, no or let’s think over<br />
it answer.<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
Another way that marriages are contracted is by<br />
a commitment between two families before the<br />
children are born. This is intended to maintain<br />
the families’ reputation and is motivated by a deep<br />
interest in joining the two bloodlines as well to<br />
satisfy the desire to be related to another family of<br />
the same class.<br />
In some parts<br />
of Ethiopia<br />
marriages<br />
are also<br />
formed when<br />
a widow is<br />
remarried by<br />
the deceased<br />
husband’s brother or<br />
closest relative in order<br />
to preserve the family’s<br />
wealth.<br />
|11<br />
“Everyone in the burger<br />
house cheered for us<br />
and I was so excited.<br />
I never thought that<br />
I would be surprised<br />
and proposed to<br />
like that, in public.<br />
But honestly<br />
speaking, I love<br />
my boyfriend<br />
but I was<br />
a little bit<br />
abashed and I<br />
didn’t want to stay<br />
there for long”.<br />
“
12|<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
|13
14|<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong>LIFESTYLE<br />
THE<br />
ethiopian women and<br />
night clubs in addis<br />
By TiBeBeselassie TigaBu<br />
“I will never let a man touch me again without my consent,” Zemdina<br />
Abebe, 25, a consultant in UNICEF, after a recent incident in one of<br />
the clubs in Addis Ababa, says. Still furious about the incident where<br />
one guy came and grabbed her bottom and<br />
shocked her. In addition to the harassment,<br />
she was gut-wrenched about his smug<br />
response and his inability to see that he had<br />
done something wrong.<br />
Zemdina’s story is one of the many tales<br />
of sexual harassments faced by her likes in<br />
Addis Ababa, despite her living the privileged<br />
woman’s dream and getting an opportunity<br />
to go to school, and work a dream job, might<br />
hide it. She still has to put up with different<br />
sexual harassments in different forms every<br />
day.<br />
She testifies that she started noticing the<br />
harassment early on in high school where her<br />
sport class teacher made her and her fellow<br />
girl students line up in the front row and bend<br />
in front of him as an exercise routine.<br />
The nasty ogle at the sport class was just the<br />
beginning of her agonizing high school life.<br />
She remembers that one of her other teachers<br />
who used to come and sit on the desk and hug<br />
her and touch her breasts. But she was too<br />
scared to say anything. Chatting up with her<br />
peers, she later found out that the teacher did<br />
the same thing to most of her classmates too.<br />
It took Zemdina and her friends a long time<br />
to open up and discuss what was happening to<br />
them. They found out the hard way how bad it<br />
is to be a woman in a society that did very little<br />
to respect woman rights.<br />
The late Addis Ababa Girls’ Forum which was established in 2004<br />
helped her to see other girls who are out there facing the same<br />
harassments, physical and emotional abuses. They used it as a<br />
ConT`d on page 23<br />
tough journey<br />
By arTem efimov<br />
Two young, upper-class, university-educated<br />
Addis Ababa residents, Robel and Lydia, leave<br />
the city to get the firsthand experience of a<br />
farmer’s lifestyle in a countryside somewhere<br />
around Debre Berhan, 130 kilometers north<br />
of Addis. Accommodated by two families of<br />
villagers, the two live their lives, work their<br />
routine, walk their long ways to a market, eat<br />
their food, etc. As the two city-sleekers found<br />
out how difficult life is in the countryside the<br />
hard way, audiences at the Alliance Ethio-<br />
Française were enjoying the screening of their<br />
journey this week.<br />
The film “Guzo” (“Journey”) by Aida<br />
Ashenafi, chronicling Robel and Lydia’s living<br />
in the countryside for 20 days, received the<br />
Best Documentary Award at the 3rd Addis<br />
International Film Festival. Exploring myths<br />
and stereotypes about the villagers, as well as<br />
the reality behind them, “Guzo” offered an<br />
“The cafés, the<br />
streets, the clubs,<br />
workplaces remind<br />
you every minute<br />
that you are a<br />
woman who is<br />
subordinate to a<br />
man and in a way<br />
they tells you there<br />
is a hierarchy that<br />
should be respected<br />
everywhere.”<br />
Lett to right: Robel , Shewangizaw, Belge and Lydia are the four character of the film<br />
insight both into their lives and the psyche<br />
of the nation remaining largely rural. But it<br />
also, through eyes of Shewangizaw and Belge,<br />
platform to share their pains which are caused by the society with and<br />
without the acknowledgment. That is also the president of the forum<br />
explains that its aim is to create awareness among the community.<br />
It may be hard to trace when the harsh comments on the way they<br />
dress started yet the members of the forum testify that it has become<br />
part of their daily routine to listen to them as<br />
they are walking by. “They insult you and give<br />
you a lecture on how to live your life because<br />
you are a woman and you should be told,” says<br />
Zemidina.<br />
For Kidist Kebede, 29, a writer, the first<br />
impulse that comes to her when she hears<br />
someone giving a harsh remark, is a punch in<br />
the nose.<br />
“I am sometimes amazed to see how most<br />
of the guys think that they have the right to<br />
control the air we breathe and we should do so<br />
only at their permission. We have the right to<br />
live in this world as they do, but it seems like<br />
they are under the impression that, that only<br />
happens when they allow us,” Kidist expresses<br />
her frustration.<br />
Kidist usually goes to the different bars to<br />
meet friends and if she gets there 10 or 20<br />
minutes earlier, she is often ogled by men<br />
and that makes her feel uneasy, and she finds<br />
herself reading the unwritten yet commonly<br />
perceived phrase that ‘it is no place for<br />
women’. She was asked many times what she<br />
is doing there by herself and many guys tried<br />
to hit on her and she questions, “can’t a girl go<br />
to a bar by herself and have a drink?”<br />
Facing verbal abuse on different occasions,<br />
and worrying about that seems to be a luxury<br />
as she hears violence, rape, sexual slavery<br />
mutilation and murder happening to other<br />
women and put her in a perspective to see the world.<br />
“Yes there were and still are incidents where women are raped on war<br />
hosts of Robel and Lydia respectively, shows<br />
what urban folks seem like to the villagers.<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
ConT`d on page 20<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
By leyou Tameru<br />
Bits & Pieces<br />
pUblic or<br />
privatE?<br />
It is early in the morning, and I was already running late for a<br />
meeting. I barely had any time to get breakfast, so I decided<br />
to simply run out of the house. Halfway into opening the<br />
front door I was suddenly stopped by my mother who, with<br />
an irritated tone, said, “Anchi lij, tene yitilishal” (Child, you’ll<br />
pass out from hunger) and gave me some toast bread with<br />
the strict instruction of eating it before I get to the meeting.<br />
So here I was with a few loafs of toasted bread, speed-walking<br />
down the street, frantically checking my watch and still<br />
managing to find time to take a bite off of my buttered toast.<br />
I was getting a few stares from people who were standing<br />
on the street, and I figured it was probably because I looked<br />
nervous. But I was wrong, that wasn’t the reason. I was kindly<br />
informed, by one very concerned gentleman on the street,<br />
that eating outdoors is “newer” (bad manners). I was in too<br />
much of a hurry to process what this man was saying, so I<br />
didn’t even bother to respond.<br />
A long meeting and a sturdy lunch later, my mind was finally<br />
prepared to analyze the lesson given to me this morning.<br />
I was hoping I could run into the man again and have an<br />
elaborate conversation with him, but instead I stumbled upon<br />
a very common sight in Addis. A man walked to the corner<br />
of a very busy street, unzipped his pants and proceeded to<br />
urinate as if he was in his own backyard. The most striking<br />
part was that no one seemed to notice this man’s act. No<br />
stares, no surprises, no attempts to make him stop and no<br />
concerned citizen eager to give him an unsolicited lesson on<br />
how urinating in public is “newer” (bad manners).<br />
And I thought to myself, I get a social etiquette class from<br />
a man I have never met before because I was eating on the<br />
street, but a man urinates in public and it doesn’t seem to<br />
bother anyone! I’m sure there is a logical explanation for this,<br />
at least I hope so, but so far I’m still searching for it.<br />
The underlying theme here is the fine line between what<br />
should be done in public and what should be taken care<br />
of privately. This is something that varies throughout the<br />
different cultures in the world. In some cultures it is normal<br />
for men and women to walk around topless, whereas talking<br />
about sex is a taboo. In other cultures, women can walk down<br />
the street wearing minimal clothing but will be sued in court<br />
if they were to breastfeed their child in a public place, because<br />
that is considered to be an indecent exposure. In certain parts<br />
of the world it is socially accepted for two male friends to hold<br />
hands, but the society frowns upon a couple who publicly<br />
displays affection.<br />
Perhaps there isn’t supposed to be a logical explanation for<br />
these interesting social values, but a cultural one. And who<br />
am I to question this cultural reasoning? I am by no means<br />
arguing that eating in public should be accepted by the<br />
society. I just find it interesting how culture and logic can<br />
refuse to see each other eye-to-eye on certain issues. And in<br />
such cases, culture trumps over logic each time.<br />
So I guess it may not be logical, but in Ethiopia we seem to<br />
have accepted that it is more shameful to eat in public than it<br />
is to urinate in public.<br />
Ed.’s Note: Leyou Tameru is a graduate of Georgetown and Addis<br />
Ababa University Law schools, specializing in International Legal<br />
Studies. Born and raised in Addis Ababa, she seeks to understand<br />
the impact of economic, political and social issues on everyday<br />
lives. She can be reached at bitsandpieces@ethiopianreporter.com
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
Nyala Motors Share Company has been one of the front runners in the development of the private sector<br />
in Ethiopia in the last 38 years. The continued expansion of the company has become a trendsetter to<br />
others in laying a firm foundation for the success and expansion of corporate development.<br />
Nyala Motors S.C has now become the sole importer and distributor of Japanese made Nissan<br />
Motor Automobiles, Station Wagons, Pick Ups, Nissan Diesel Dump Trucks, Cargo Trucks, Tanker<br />
Trucks, Buses, Mixers, Asphalt Distributing Trucks, Fork-Lifts, TADANO Cranes, Graders, Rollers,<br />
Agricultural Tractors and implements.<br />
Nyala Motors Share Co. is looking for qualified candidates for the following vacant position.<br />
1. Job Title: IT Head<br />
Duty Station: Addis Ababa<br />
Required Skills & Experience:<br />
- B.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, IT Technology or related field<br />
and Certification in CISCO, Window Server & MS Exchange.<br />
- At lease 8 years experience and knowledge in network development, application design<br />
and development, microcomputer hardware and LAN systems management & other related<br />
activities.<br />
- High command of English language skills.<br />
- Excellent business and interpersonal communication skills.<br />
- Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with subordinates<br />
associates, other department directors and managers and external bodies.<br />
- Ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.<br />
Overall objectives for the Job<br />
Manage the IT infrastructure and upgrade the new technological innovations to have a better<br />
capacity in maintaining up to date and efficient communication network as well as data based<br />
management.<br />
Major Duties and responsibilities:<br />
- Manage the installation, documentation and maintenance of operating systems,<br />
communications software, & database management software.<br />
- Perform network deployment and administration activities including active directory,<br />
domain controller, domain name server and dynamic host configuration protocol.<br />
- Manage broadband internet access and by implementing firewall and anti-virus systems.<br />
- Advise on current IT standards and technology.<br />
- Configure and manage file server, network resources (printer and scanner).<br />
- Provide IT support for the central and regional offices.<br />
- Provide basic computer application software training (like Windows & MS office), routine<br />
hardware troubleshooting and about on LAN usage for users.<br />
- Develop internal information sharing system.<br />
- Manage e-mail; file sharing, application, and/or other systems and services as necessary.<br />
- Ensure that the full disaster recovery standard backups in accordance with the established<br />
procedures.<br />
- Provide system analysis & study solutions.<br />
- Any other related duties.<br />
2. Job Title: Assistant Finance & Property Administration Manager<br />
Duty Station: Addis Ababa<br />
n! Ã § ä t R S x¼¥<br />
N Y A L A MOTORS SHARE COMPANY<br />
Qualification: Minimum, BA degree in Accounting from recognized University<br />
Immediate Vacancies<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
Required Skills & Experience:<br />
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in Accounting and public Audit, out of which 2 years in<br />
supervisory or managerial level.<br />
- Applicant should be willing to work in team and in tight time schedule.<br />
- Familiar with accounting principle & practices and financial policies of the same industry.<br />
- Knowledge of accounting software package and computer literacy.<br />
- Preferably part qualified in CPA, CA.<br />
- Ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.<br />
Main Task<br />
- Undertake or supervises all accounting activities including financial transaction coding<br />
& posting and preparation of monthly bank reconciliation in accordance with the financial<br />
policies and procedures of the company.<br />
- Ensure proper custody of all financial documents and records.<br />
- Handel and follow up all financial activities of head office and branches.<br />
- Preparation of annual, interim and monthly financial statement and reports. etc.<br />
- Preparation of business plan and budget of a company.<br />
- Reports to the Director of Finance & Property Administration.<br />
Required number: one<br />
3. Job Title: After Sales Director<br />
Duty Station: Addis Ababa<br />
Qualification: MSC or BSC Degree in Mechanical or Automotive<br />
Engineering<br />
From recognized university.<br />
Required Skill & Experience:<br />
- Experience in organizing, administering and staffing qualified technical personnel of various<br />
disciplines in Parts & Services division of reputable Organization preferably in organizations engaged<br />
in the import business of Heavy & light duty vehicles with proven track record in developing and<br />
administering After Sales Programs.<br />
- For MSC Degree a minimum of 8 years relevant experience related to after sales and a<br />
minimum of 4 years experiences in a managerial position.<br />
- For BSC Degree a minimum of 10 years relevant experience related to after sales and a<br />
minimum of 5 years experiences in a managerial position.<br />
Required No. One<br />
For All positions:<br />
Salary & Benefit: As per the salary scale of the company; also includes attractive provident fund,<br />
life & health insurance cover.<br />
Duration: Indefinite time/Permanent<br />
Interested candidate satisfying the required qualification and experience are invited to submit<br />
no returnable CV along with application letter to our Head Office located at Bole Kifle Ketema,<br />
Wereda 5 on the ring road between Megenagna and Bole or send the application to the following<br />
address on or before March 10, 2011.<br />
Nyala Motors Share Company<br />
Legal & Administrative S. Division<br />
P.O.Box 1194<br />
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia<br />
NB: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted<br />
|15
16|<br />
Roto PLC, one of the earliest investors in Ethiopia, in<br />
the business of manufacturing water storage sanitation<br />
solutions, with its factory in Kality, requires:<br />
1) Accountant; Girls fluent in English and who are accounting graduates having<br />
minimum of 2 years of experience in computerized accounting, knowledge of the rules<br />
of proclamation, Salary tax, VAT, Withholding tax, preparing Payroll, making entries<br />
to the computer, liasing with the tax authorities and knowledge of general accounting<br />
procedures can apply. The candidates Should have completed their studies. Candidates<br />
still studying evening or day programme need not apply.<br />
2) Store Keeper; Candidates should be males below 28 years of age having a degree<br />
or a diploma in accounting and with minimum 3 to 4 yrs of experience in managing<br />
a store independently and in-depth knowledge of stores accounting procedures The<br />
candidates Should have completed their studies Candidates still studying evening or<br />
day programme need not apply.<br />
Both the positions are in Kality, at the factory office.<br />
Good remuneration will be offered for the right candidate<br />
For an interview. Walk-in with your CV, Certificates and two<br />
Job Announcement<br />
Immediate call for Field Coordinator<br />
1. Job Title: Field Coordinator<br />
2. Duty Station: One of the following places: Adama, Waliso,<br />
Nakamute<br />
3. Work Condition: One (1) year contract (renewable based on the<br />
performance)<br />
4. Recruitment number: 2 persons<br />
5. Main duties and responsibilities: Under the regular communication<br />
and supervision of the project office, the field coordinator should take the<br />
following duties;<br />
Coordinating and arranging the project activities at school, woreda<br />
and zonal levels.<br />
Undertaking field visits to monitor the project activities and the<br />
outputs at school and woreda levels.<br />
Submitting field reports to the project office and providing the<br />
feedback<br />
Assisting the project team to manage the project activities and<br />
related tasks (ex. material development, facilitator training,<br />
workshops and other related activities).<br />
6. Qualification<br />
Diploma in education, educational management or related areas is the<br />
minimum requirement (Degree folder is preferable)<br />
7. Experiences, Knowledge and skills:<br />
A minimum of three (3) years’ work experiences in education<br />
field.<br />
Work experience with international development organizations is<br />
an asset.<br />
Good knowledge in community - based school management and<br />
teaching and learning process.<br />
Fluency in oral and written English and Afaan Oromo<br />
8. Submission of application:<br />
Interested applicant with the above qualification and experiences can<br />
collect more detailed information at the project office. The closing date of<br />
submission of application is may 9 th , 2011<br />
Address: Project on Improving Access to Quality Primary<br />
Education by Community Participation (Ho! ManaBU Project)<br />
Office, Ground floor, Oromia Education Bureau, Kera (near<br />
Adams Pavillion), Addis Ababa<br />
Enquiries:- 0911 10 80 92 (Meseret)<br />
(Mon-Sat 8:00 am-6:00 pm)<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
Vacancy Announcement<br />
Photos on within week<br />
To Roto PLC,<br />
Near MIDROC terminal,<br />
Kality.<br />
Or<br />
Email; cmrotoplc@gmail.com<br />
Roto PLC. P.O.Box 922, Area Code 1110 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia .<br />
Registered Office: off. Debrazeit Road, Near Midroc Terminal, Kaliti, Addis<br />
Ababa, Ethiopia. Tell: 011 4 39 11 24, 4 39 23 22, 4 39 10 42/44/45, Fax 011 4 39<br />
06 63.<br />
City Sales Office:# 567,Bole Road, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, (Behind Awash Bank)<br />
Tel: 011 6 18 61 30/31/32, Fax 0116-18-61-51<br />
Email: rotoeth@ethionet.et/rotoaddis@ethionet.et<br />
Sales Hotline: 0912 21 16 21, 0912 21 16 31, 0912 21 16 41<br />
Immediate Vacancy Announcement<br />
The Ethiopia Commodity exchange is a modern and dynamic<br />
new organization which introduced in Ethiopia state of the<br />
art ways of trading, linking directly buyers both national and<br />
international with <strong>Ethiopian</strong> producers. Similar to the prevailing<br />
commodity exchanges around the world, key actors /players of<br />
the new model are the ECX members Who play a pivotal role in<br />
the unfolding of market driven fixation of negotiated prices and<br />
quantities of the commodities, now wish to organize themselves<br />
as a service rendering and useful Association /National Exchange<br />
Actors Association/ The Association recruits:-<br />
Job Title: secretary general<br />
Reporting to: The Board of directors<br />
Job Summary<br />
The secretary general will be responsible for all routine and<br />
strategic activities of the association. Support the association<br />
towards the fulfillment of the purpose why it is established.<br />
Qualification and work experience: MA/BA degree in the field<br />
of economics/ agricultural economics, Business management<br />
and with solid and related experience 5/10 years. Preferably the<br />
specialist should have substantial experience on how agricultural<br />
marketing operates in Ethiopia, private sector development<br />
and private sector led association management, familiarity with<br />
private sector related policy and regulations.<br />
Expected competency areas: the specialist should be acquainted<br />
with the following competency areas: excellent and well developed<br />
interpersonal communication skill, partnership development,<br />
proposal development and fund raising, business opportunity<br />
and market development, action research, networking, strategic<br />
thinking, Business orientation and lobbying and advocacy.<br />
Salary: Negotiable<br />
Terms of Employment: Permanent<br />
Number required: One<br />
Duty station: Addis Ababa<br />
NB: Interested applicants can submit their CVs, testimonials,<br />
supporting documents and letter of intent indicating why you<br />
are interested in the position to the association located around<br />
Bisrate Gerbiel Church, Adot Multiplex Bldg, and six floor room<br />
numbers 604 before May 10, 2011.
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
The Ethiopia office of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication<br />
Programs (JHU.CCP) located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is recruiting the following two positions:<br />
I. Position: Director of Finance and Administration<br />
The Director of Finance and Administration (DFA) will provide financial and administrative oversight of<br />
CCP’s Ethiopia Project. The DFA will report to CCP’s Country Director and will be assisted by finance and<br />
administrative officers.<br />
Duties and Responsibilities:<br />
Finance<br />
Responsible for overseeing, implementing and enforcing CCP Ethiopia’s finance policies and procedures,<br />
including but not limited to:<br />
• Review and evaluate financial and accounting documents, reports and statements to ensure<br />
accuracy, completeness and compliance with generally accepted and accounting principles and<br />
with the policies and guidelines of JHU/CCP.<br />
• Write contact and bid specifications and monitor services to ensure compliance with<br />
contractual obligations.<br />
• Develop budget and track expenditures.<br />
• Ensure proper financial procedures and systems operate smoothly and are maintained.<br />
• Ensure compliance with local regulations in respect of financial and other matters (e.g.<br />
Taxation and labor laws).<br />
• Prepare process and keep records of VAT exemption documentation, and submit to<br />
appropriate parties, including CDC.<br />
• Co-ordinate and maintain a cash forecasting system to ensure adequate funds are available to<br />
meet program requirements.<br />
• Monitor ongoing levels of expenditure on individual programmes as against budget and<br />
provide timely advice of likely over and under spends.<br />
• Ensure proper tracking of two donor awards and charges to each are filed accordingly.<br />
• Ensure that contractual commitments are expressed in forms appropriate for the<br />
circumstances of the programme.<br />
• Establish and maintain a payroll system, including calculation and payment of staff.<br />
• Assist staff to prepare budgets for annual work plans and proposals.<br />
• Keep petty cash box, and ensure it is secure.<br />
• Maintain records of financial transactions and receipts on a daily basis.<br />
• Maintain files of consulting agreements and local purchase orders, and track payments to<br />
consultants and vendors.<br />
• Verify accuracy of invoices and supporting document requirements before processing<br />
payments.<br />
• Prepare journal entries and oversee the preparation of monthly financial reports using<br />
Quickbooks.<br />
• Prepare quarterly projections of expenditures on a monthly basis for submission to CCP/<br />
Baltimore with monthly financial reports.<br />
• Respond to queries on monthly financial reports from CCP/Baltimore.<br />
• Oversee procurement process ensuring compliance with procurement policies and procedures.<br />
• Verify an inventory of JHU CCP Ethiopia equipment per CDC requirements. A report will be<br />
submitted to the Country Director as necessary.<br />
• Oversee the preparation of local purchase orders and consulting agreements with appropriate<br />
documentation.<br />
• Liaise with CCP/Baltimore financial analyst to ensure proper field office compliance with<br />
financial management systems.<br />
• Ensure financial logistical support is provided to staff and partners during consultant visits and<br />
workshops.<br />
• Supervise preparation of travel advances for staff and staff travelling on Project business.<br />
• Review travel expense reports and approve reimbursements.<br />
• Supervise distribution and reconciliation of financial advances in support of program activities.<br />
• Maintain operational filing system of all financial related documents.<br />
• Oversee, advise, and assist program staff and partners in the preparation of project, annual and<br />
subcontract budgets.<br />
• Use critical thinking skills to review budgets, ensuring various line items have been included and<br />
expensed appropriately.<br />
• Obtain cost estimates, backup documentation, and cost verification where necessary, and<br />
maintain file of documentation and calculations.<br />
• Perform other related duties as requested by the Country Director.<br />
Human Resources<br />
Responsible for overseeing, implementing and enforcing general CCP Ethiopia administrative HR policies<br />
and procedures, including but not limited to:<br />
• Develop performance job tasks, evaluate job performance and recommend appropriate<br />
actions to correct performance deficiencies.<br />
• Coordinates all human resource activities for JHU CCP Ethiopia to include, employment,<br />
employee relations, and benefits.<br />
• Review all personnel actions, hiring, promotions, transfers, terminations and disciplinary<br />
actions.<br />
• Approves/disapproves leave, schedules work assignments and conducts performance<br />
evaluations.<br />
General Administration and Logistics<br />
Responsible for overseeing, implementing and enforcing general CCP Ethiopia administrative and logistics<br />
policies and procedures, including but not limited to:<br />
• Oversee due diligence of the registration and licenses required for CCP Ethiopia to legally<br />
function and operate in country<br />
• Oversee the maintenance of CCP Ethiopia materials and products inventory and distribution<br />
system<br />
• Oversee procurement and purchase mechanisms including management of grants and<br />
sub-contracts. Will verify that processes adhere and comply with CDC, JHU and <strong>Ethiopian</strong><br />
government regulations and policies.<br />
• Oversee installations, equipment and vehicles maintenance in CCP Ethiopia Addis Ababa Head<br />
Office.<br />
• Oversee administrative system development, including filing systems.<br />
• Oversee CCP Ethiopia vehicle and transportation policies and procedures.<br />
• Adapt existing CCP policies and procedures manuals for Ethiopia-specific needs, as needed.<br />
• Assist the staff in providing logistic support during field visits; workshops, and trainings.<br />
Supervisory Responsibilities<br />
Responsible for supervising Finance/ Administrative staff, in the CCP Ethiopia Addis Ababa Head Office<br />
and the Regional Offices. Supervision includes but is not limited to the following staff:<br />
• Finance Support Staff<br />
• Human Resource Staff<br />
• Administrative Support Staff<br />
Vacancy Announcement<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
Additional responsibilities of a similar nature may be assigned from time to time in consultation with the<br />
job holder.<br />
Qualifications:<br />
• Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and/or Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or<br />
equivalent or related degree.<br />
• A minimum of 10 years working experience as administrative and/or financial manager for<br />
donor-funded projects in Africa.<br />
• In-depth knowledge of US Government policies and procedures is preferred.<br />
• Familiarity with CDC programming a plus.<br />
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to multi-task.<br />
• Strong computer skills including Windows and Microsoft Office applications and Quick Books.<br />
• Ability to work in a team-oriented environment- working well with others and independently<br />
with minimal supervision.<br />
• Experience supervising a multi-cultural team.<br />
• Very detail oriented.<br />
• Fluent in English, both written and spoken.<br />
• Excellent communication skills including written and oral.<br />
• Familiarity with at least one additional (after <strong>Amharic</strong>) <strong>Ethiopian</strong> language a plus.<br />
II. Position: Content Developer:<br />
Duties and Responsibilities:<br />
• Responsible for determining and providing appropriate content for all ARC websites and<br />
hotline intranet.<br />
• Works closely with internal departments to gather and compile information to be published on<br />
ARC websites.<br />
• Write, organize, compile and produce content from various sources such as partners,<br />
newspapers, publications, journals, newsletters, books, websites, etc.<br />
• Manage all approvals for new or updated content postings.<br />
• Responsible for maintaining content and updating all information regularly.<br />
• Produce content for specific target audience such as youth, journalists, policy makers, PLWHA,<br />
etc.<br />
• Conduct usability studies and surveys to address content needs.<br />
• Ensure newly developed website functionalities and features are integrated and working<br />
properly.<br />
• Stay abreast of new technologies and trends critical to writing techniques.<br />
• Manage deadlines and ensuring that needed information is identified and posted on time.<br />
• Works closely with development team to produce web pages<br />
• Works with partner organization to gather and produce web content<br />
• Provide ongoing content production for hotline intranet by reviewing callers data and<br />
counselors request<br />
• Perform other related duties as requested<br />
• Write news articles by attending various events, conferences<br />
• Copyedit and proofread all ARC websites’ content<br />
• Post and interact with users on various ARC social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter,<br />
and YouTube.<br />
Required Skills<br />
• Exceptional written and oral communication skill.<br />
• Proven English article writing skill (preferably on English newspapers, websites, blogs, etc).<br />
• Work cooperatively with members, other departments and partners.<br />
• Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.<br />
• Good knowledge of social media such as (Face book, Twitter, and YouTube).<br />
• Good knowledge of using word processing, presentation, project management, and<br />
spreadsheet applications.<br />
• Basic knowledge of web page design and experience in using web content management<br />
systems is a plus.<br />
• Ability to concentrate and work under pressure is essential<br />
• Must be able to express ideas clearly and logically<br />
Qualification<br />
• Bachelor’s degree in Communication, English, Journalism, Social Science or related fields.<br />
• Minimum of two years of work experience in similar positions.<br />
Employment Terms<br />
Location of position: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia<br />
Salary: Negotiable<br />
Terms of Employment: Contract<br />
Duration of Employment: One year with possible extension<br />
Interested applicants should send a CV, contacts for 3 references, and detailed cover to E-mail: HR@etharc.<br />
org not later than 16 th May, 2011. Please indicate how your education and experience qualifies you for<br />
the positions. A competitive remuneration and benefits package will be offered according to qualifications<br />
and experience.<br />
Only those selected for interview will be contacted. CCP is an equal opportunity employer.<br />
JHU.CCP Ethiopia<br />
AIDS Resource Center (ARC)<br />
Dembel Building 10 th Floor Rm 1007B (Elevator 5/6)<br />
P.O.Box 26171 Code 1000<br />
Tel: 251 550 35 84; Fax: 251 550 37 49<br />
E-mail: HR@etharc.org; Website: www.etharc.org<br />
|17
18|<br />
MATADOR-ADDIS TYRE, Share Company<br />
Vacancy Announcement<br />
1. Job Title Chemical Analyst<br />
Education BSC Degree in Chemistry.<br />
Experience 2 years of relevant work experience<br />
No. of required 1 (One)<br />
2. Job Title Secretary<br />
Education College Diploma in Secretarial Science & Office<br />
Management from recognized University or College.<br />
Experience Minimum of 2 years of relevant experience<br />
No. of required<br />
For Both Positions<br />
1 (One)<br />
Salary Negotiable<br />
Benefits There are different benefits including Provident Fund.<br />
Terms of Employment Contract with the possibility of extension.<br />
Place of work Addis Ababa.<br />
Interested applicants who fulfill the above requirements can submit their<br />
applications, with CVs, original documents and non-returnable copies of relevant<br />
documents to Personnel Affairs Office within 10 (ten) consecutive days from the<br />
date of the first announcement.<br />
MATADOR-ADDIS TYRE, Share Company<br />
Telephone 251-011-442-15-55<br />
P.O.Box 2394<br />
Email: personnel@matador-atc.com<br />
Addis Ababa<br />
NIB INTERNATIONAL BANK S.C.<br />
EXTERNAL VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT<br />
Nib International Bank S.C. wishes to invite applicants with the following qualification<br />
and work experience.<br />
No Position Educational Qualification<br />
1 Personnel<br />
&HRIS<br />
Officer II<br />
2 Personnel<br />
&HRIS<br />
Officer III<br />
B.A/College Diploma (10+3<br />
or 10+2) in Management/<br />
Administration/related field<br />
of study<br />
B.A in Management/<br />
Administration/ related field<br />
of study<br />
Work<br />
Experience &<br />
Required Skills<br />
2/6 years<br />
of relevant<br />
experience<br />
3 years of<br />
relevant<br />
experience<br />
Place of<br />
Work<br />
Salary Per salary scale of the Bank and attractive fringe benefits<br />
Deadline for<br />
Submission of Application: Ten working days from the date of this<br />
vacancy announcement<br />
NB: Interested applicants should submit their CVs and non-returnable supporting documents in<br />
person to the HRD & Administration Department (Dembel City Center 5 th floor) or mail to:-<br />
HRD & Administration Department<br />
Nib International Bank S.C.<br />
Tel. 011-5503288<br />
P.O.Box 2439<br />
Addis Ababa<br />
A.A.<br />
“<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
TECHNOSTYLE PVT.LTD.CO.<br />
External Vacancy Announcement<br />
Technostyle Plc invites interested competent applicants to the vacant<br />
position stated below.<br />
Position ACCOUNTANT<br />
Qualification B.A Degree/ Diploma in accounting fields from<br />
recognized University or College.<br />
Experience Relevant work experience four years/Two years<br />
in Degree & Diploma respectively Good ability<br />
using computer, knowledge of Peachtree is<br />
mandatory<br />
No. required 1 (One)<br />
Salary Negotiable<br />
Duty station Addis Ababa, Head Office<br />
Applicants who are fulfilling the above requirements should submit their<br />
applications, CV and non-returnable copies of testimonials to Human Resources<br />
and property Administration Department or through P.O.Box 159 with in 10<br />
working days after the date of the announcement.<br />
Address:-<br />
Technostyle PLC TEL. +251-11-466-2299/29<br />
P.O.Box 159 FAX +251-11-466-7124<br />
Ethio-China Road Wollo Sefer, Dire Dawa Building<br />
(Around Wollo Sefer)<br />
Addis Ababa<br />
Immediate Vacancy<br />
Summit Partners (Ethiopia) Plc, would like to invite qualified applicants for<br />
the following vacant position.<br />
Position: Plumber<br />
Qualification: 10+3 or 10+2 in Plumbering with 1 or 3<br />
years(s) experience in the field, respectively.<br />
Required No.: One<br />
Sex: Male/Female<br />
Place of work: Summit Partners (Ethiopia) Plc, Addis Ababa<br />
Terms of employment: Permanent<br />
Salary: Negotiable<br />
Interested applicants can submit their non-returnable application, CV and<br />
copies of testimonials in person or through mail within 10 days from the<br />
announcement date to the following address.<br />
Summit Partners (Ethiopia) Plc<br />
Human Resource Department<br />
P.O.Box 17758<br />
Tel. 0116 60 48 65-74<br />
Addis Ababa
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
Immediate Vacancy Notice<br />
Yirgalem Addis Textile Factory Plc (Former Adei Abeba Yarn Factory No.1) invites<br />
qualified applicants for immediate placement for the following vacant posts.<br />
1. Vacant post: Senior Cost Accountant<br />
Qualification: B.A. Degree in Accounting<br />
Experience: 4 years<br />
No Requred: 01 (One)<br />
2. Vacant post: Cost Accountant<br />
Qualification: B.A degree in Accounting<br />
Experience: 2 years<br />
No Requred: 01 (One)<br />
3. Vacant post: Trainee Textile Engineers<br />
Qualification: BSC in Textile Engineering<br />
Experience: Not require<br />
No Requred: 06 (Six)<br />
4. Vacant post Accountant<br />
Qualification: B.A degree in Accounting<br />
Experience: 2 years related Experience<br />
in Manufacturing Industry<br />
No Requred: 01 (One)<br />
5. Vacant post Dyeing Shift Leader<br />
Qualification: BSC or Advance Diploma in Textile<br />
Engineering or Chemistry<br />
Experience: 2 & 4 years respectively<br />
No Requred: 02 (Two)<br />
6. Vacant post Blanket Quality checker<br />
Qualification: Diploma in Textile Engineering<br />
& Training in Quality management<br />
Experience: 2 years<br />
No Requred: 02 (Two)<br />
7. Vacant post Finished Fabric Inspector<br />
Qualification: Diploma in Textile Engineering &<br />
Training in Quality Management<br />
Experience: 2 Years<br />
No Requred: 03 (three)<br />
8. Vacant post Casher<br />
Qualification: Diploma in Accounting or TVTE/10+2/<br />
in Accounting<br />
Experience: 2 years<br />
No Requred: 01 (One)<br />
9. Vacant post Boiler operator & Water Attendant<br />
Qualification: 10 th Grade Completed and on the<br />
Job Training<br />
Experience: 1 year<br />
No Requred: 03 (three)<br />
10. Vacant post Programming, Planning & Evaluation<br />
Officer<br />
Qualification: BSC in Textile Technology or BA<br />
in Statistics, Economics<br />
Experience: 2 years<br />
No Requred: 01 (One)<br />
Note to the applicants:<br />
• Salary: Negotiable<br />
• For all Place of Work: Addis Ababa, Saris<br />
• Applicants are expected to bring their CV with original and nonreturnable<br />
supportive documents for registration.<br />
• Only short listed applicants will be contacted.<br />
• Place of registration: Former Adei Ababa Yarn Factory No.1<br />
Personnel Office.<br />
• Registration will be within 10 consecutive working days from the<br />
date of this announcement.<br />
Yirgalem Addis Textile Factory PLC<br />
(Former Adei Ababa Yarn S.C.No.1)<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
Cell. +251-91-/1247007/1183563; Tel. +251-11-6630564/6630602; Fax:- +251-<br />
11-6630602;<br />
Africa Avenue Road, Friendship Bld 5 th Floor<br />
email: info@symboltech.net, URL: www.symboltech.net<br />
Our Company Symbol Technologies, an IT firm have the following vacant positions:<br />
1. Position: IT Professional<br />
Qualification:<br />
• BSC in Computer Science/IT/Electrical Engineering/computer studies or related<br />
field with working experience of three years or above.<br />
• Cisco Certified Professional and Microsoft Certified professional is preferable<br />
Experience:<br />
Skills:<br />
• Proven ability and experience in the ICT environment<br />
• Able to prioritize work effectively for execution within limited resources<br />
• Problem solving and decision making<br />
• Training and communication skills<br />
• Proficiency in Microsoft business applications;<br />
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia<br />
Salary: Negotiable<br />
2. Position: Business Development and Marketing Manager / Officer<br />
Qualification:<br />
• BSc. in IT/ MIS/ Business Administration / Marketing /computer studies or related<br />
field with two years working experience.<br />
• Diploma in IT/ MIS/ Business Administration / Marketing /Computer studies with four<br />
years working experience in related field.<br />
Experience:<br />
• Proven ability and experience in marketing the ICT industry.<br />
• Individuals who are interested in applying for the above positions may submit their supporting<br />
documents to Symbol Technologies PLC through the following email address info@symboltech.<br />
net until May 15, 2011.<br />
Vacancy Announcement<br />
Our company, Kitchen World PLC, would like to recruit employee for the<br />
following position on permanent basis.<br />
• Position: Senior Accountant<br />
• Qualification: BA or Diploma in Accounting<br />
• Experience: Minimum of 3 years with BA Degree<br />
Minimum of 6 years with Diploma<br />
• Salary: Negotiable<br />
• Special Skill: Good command of MS-Office application<br />
and Peachtree Accounting<br />
• Duty Station: Addis Ababa<br />
Interested applicants who fulfill the above specified requirements can<br />
submit an application along with CV and supporting documents to Kitchen<br />
World PLC Administration Section in person with in 7 consecutive days<br />
starting from the first day of publication of this announcement during<br />
working hours including Saturday from 2:30 -6:30 A.M.<br />
Address<br />
Kitchen World PLC, Megenagna Legesse Feleke Building, besides Total<br />
Fuel Station or Opposite to Admas College, Tel. 011-618-85-95/011-618-<br />
82-15, Addis Ababa.<br />
|19
20|<br />
“How to Read the Air” explores the idea of<br />
universal truths in fiction. Do you think they exist?<br />
I think fiction has its own truth. There is a lot of<br />
mistrust in fiction, and the imagination in general,<br />
so with this novel I definitely wanted to make<br />
an argument that there is great beauty in lies,<br />
imagination and creating stories that might not<br />
actually be real, but are as emotionally powerful and<br />
compelling as any story is.<br />
Did you use stories that your own father told you<br />
as a child, about his path of immigration to the<br />
United States, as the basis for some of the stories<br />
in the novel?<br />
Part of the father’s journey in the book is based on<br />
the journey my parents took to America—my father<br />
left Ethiopia before the rest of the family did. He<br />
got asylum when he was in Italy, and I remember<br />
him telling me about living in a strange country—<br />
not being able to speak the language, and the<br />
loneliness and isolation of being in a refugee camp.<br />
Fortunately the story of my father is not as tragic<br />
as the story of Jonas’s father. But I guess it was at<br />
the back of my mind when writing this novel. There<br />
are tons of stories coming out now about migrants<br />
being trapped on small ships, coming out of places<br />
like Yemen or Northern Africa, who end up washed<br />
up in Europe—half dead and starved. These stories<br />
were in my head when I was writing the novel, I<br />
guess.<br />
In your novel you juxtapose the past and the present<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
dinaw Mengestu, novelist<br />
With “The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears” (or “Children of the Revolution”, depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on), Dinaw Mengestu earned his reputation as an impressive young<br />
novelist on the rise.<br />
His 2007 debut illustrated a facility with grand subjects, such as displacement and identity. It was a textured story about the immigrants’ struggle in America, rendered in beautiful prose and from<br />
the perspective of an African shop-owner in Washington, DC. His latest novel, “How to Read the Air”, not only confirms his nascent place in the world of letters, but delivers an even more profound<br />
story, this time about two generations of <strong>Ethiopian</strong> immigrants in America—the parents who fled their homeland in search of a life in Nashville, Tennessee, and their son who retraces their steps<br />
years later. The story is the son’s, Jonas, now an English teacher in a fraught marriage in New York, who eagerly mines these stories about the past for truths about himself.<br />
Mr Mengestu has earned quite a bit of attention for both books. In 2010 he was also named one of the New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” fiction writers to watch. Here he speaks to More Intelligent<br />
Life about trying to define the American novel, the loneliness of immigrants and the beauty of myth-making.<br />
...it unleashes how different preconceived<br />
perceptions by the characters were proven<br />
wrong as Lydia and Belge develop a strong<br />
friendship and Shewangizaw learns to overcome<br />
his prejudices of the urban people as lazy and<br />
crooked<br />
tough... ConT`d<br />
from page 14<br />
The film starts with a kind of an ethnological excursion into the heart of rustic life. Robel and Lydia are taken to a<br />
market; they learn to do some routine tasks like gathering firewood, baking injera, ploughing, etc. In the film they<br />
are seen regularly complaining that they are extremely tired and explaining that what looks easy to see, appears to<br />
be gravely hard when you do it yourself. Each of the tasks, which the two found daunting, are nothing but daily<br />
routines for the farmers. “Guzo” shows the contrasting life swap of a glamorous urban girl into a quite countryside<br />
housewife, and a privileged lad from the city into a hard-working farmer.<br />
But as the film progresses, it unleashes how different preconceived perceptions by the characters were proven<br />
wrong as Lydia and Belge develop a strong friendship and Shewangizaw learns to overcome his prejudices of<br />
the urban people as lazy and crooked. Meanwhile, Robel discovers in himself a strength and ability to overcome<br />
difficulties. What began as an infotainment film highlighting some aspects of rural life in Ethiopia ends like an<br />
emotional drama.<br />
One cannot do full justice to the film without mentioning the excellent job done by the cameramen. The countryside,<br />
its trees and hills, its houses and markets, its beautiful sky look so picturesque on screen that one can hardly believe<br />
they are not decoration sets. “Guzo” is indeed indulged in with an astonishing scenery and exceptional true story.<br />
The next morning was one of the most<br />
exciting mornings in my life. As soon as the<br />
boat departed, I’ve forgotten everything in<br />
the world. There were pelicans - dozens of<br />
pelicans lazily floating, and flying around,<br />
and having a good time. Then there were<br />
flamingos, and cranes, and lots of birds that<br />
I don’t even know by name.<br />
Then there were tankwas (papyrus boats<br />
looking exactly like the ones I saw on pictures<br />
of books about ancient Egypt when I was a<br />
little boy). Then there were coffee trees, and<br />
mango trees, and fig trees, and fields of chat.<br />
It may sound trivial to someone who lives in<br />
Africa. But not long ago I could only dream<br />
of seeing all this, just like someone in Africa<br />
might dream of seeing a snow.<br />
And, of course, there were the monasteries<br />
- Kebran Gabriel, and the Zege Peninsula,<br />
and Debre Maryam. Their porticos and<br />
paintings, as well as crowns, crosses and<br />
books kept there left me speechless.<br />
At some point, the boat driver showed<br />
me something across the water and said:<br />
‘The source of the Blue Nile.’ Again, I was<br />
astonished. Here was the source of one of<br />
as a tool for exploring the characters in this novel.<br />
Why did you choose this method of storytelling?<br />
Because history does influence our lives—every<br />
moment. We never sort of live our lives in a linear<br />
fashion. We always have these memories and these<br />
images from our past that sometimes we’re not<br />
even aware of, and they sort of shape who we are.<br />
I’m obviously not the first novelist that has hit<br />
upon the idea that family history, cultural history,<br />
is inevitable in shaping who we are. As much as<br />
possible I wanted the novel to reflect that feeling that<br />
the past and present are constantly in conversation<br />
with each other.<br />
Your debut novel had two different titles. What<br />
was the reason for this?<br />
The first title was “Children of the Revolution” [the<br />
name of the book in Britain], and the publishers<br />
decided to change the title to “The Beautiful Things<br />
that Heaven Bears”. I think in America they thought<br />
the first title would sound too political. Americans<br />
might not have caught the irony or the music<br />
reference. I think the publishers thought that people<br />
would come to the readings thinking this was a<br />
political novel about communism.<br />
Does it annoy you that your work gets tagged as the<br />
‘immigrant novel?’<br />
I understand that there are different ways about<br />
talking about literature. That the book is about<br />
immigration is not a bad thing to me. But to say<br />
On the...<br />
ConT`d from page 21<br />
ConT`d on page 23<br />
the greatest rivers, the one I’ve read about<br />
so much, the one that were looked for by so<br />
many ferenji travelers. I had to soak it up<br />
and think about it for a while.<br />
But suddenly I discovered that the boat was<br />
approaching Bahr Dar. I looked at my watch<br />
and realized that my trip on Lake Tana lasted<br />
for over four hours. And I was hungry.<br />
It wasn’t before I stepped on the shore<br />
and said goodbye to the boat driver that I<br />
stopped and cried out: ‘Hey, and what about<br />
the hippos?’<br />
‘Haven’t you seen them?’ a guy on the shore<br />
asked.<br />
‘No! I kinda came here to see a hippo!’ I<br />
replied desperately.<br />
‘But have you seen the monasteries?’<br />
‘Oh yes. And it was all so wonderful: the<br />
monasteries, and the birds, and the trees,<br />
and the tankwas… But the hippos!’<br />
‘You can’t always get what you want,’ the<br />
guy said. ‘Think of it as a reason to come<br />
back.’
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
|21<br />
On the<br />
trails of a<br />
phantom hippo<br />
By arTem efimov<br />
Above: Tankwas (papyrus boats<br />
looking exactly like the ones I saw on<br />
pictures of books about ancient Egypt<br />
when I was a little boy)<br />
Lake Tana shore line the source<br />
of the Blue Nile<br />
I have never seen a hippo. Well, I have seen them on TV, of<br />
course, but never in the flesh. Not even in a zoo.<br />
So I came to Africa. I did realize that it’s actually quite a<br />
big continent, but I thought there was no big difference on<br />
where exactly to go when it comes to seeing a hippo, with<br />
a possible exception of the Sahara.<br />
In Ethiopia, it turned out that you cannot just meet a<br />
hippo while jogging in the morning. OK, I did realize it<br />
beforehand, too. But I was kind of hoping that as soon as<br />
I’m in Africa the hippos would be within reach without<br />
many difficulties. ‘Go to Lake Tana,’ they told me. ‘If<br />
you’re lucky, you’ll see some there.’ So I went to Bahr Dar.<br />
Russia is the biggest country in the world, so if somebody<br />
calls any journey within any country ‘painfully long’, we,<br />
the Russians, usually just laugh. I booked a bus ticket<br />
to Bahir Dar, laughing. I appeared on a departure point<br />
early in the morning, grinning. I kept smiling for some<br />
half an hour. ‘Long journey, hah,’ I thought. ‘I’ve done<br />
the Transsiberian trip; it’s over 9000 km, a whole week in<br />
a train! No journey is long enough to me after that! And<br />
there’re hippos in the end!’<br />
But then the bus left Addis, and the honking began. I<br />
wonder why drivers in Ethiopia honk so much. They honk<br />
at each other. They honk at pedestrians. They honk at<br />
animals. They honk at towns, villages, forests, road curves.<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
They honk uphill and downhill. They honk with or without<br />
any worldly reason. Maybe they just like the sound? As for<br />
me, I’ve been driven mad with it after half an hour.<br />
Thankfully, the road wasn’t too bad, so we’ve honked all<br />
the way to Bahr Dar in just seven hours. I stepped out of<br />
the bus wondering which part of me was aching more -<br />
my head or my back. But there were hippos somewhere<br />
around!<br />
I rushed to Lake Tana. There was no shortage of people on<br />
the shore who were ready, for a decent payment, to take<br />
me to the source of the Blue Nile where I could hopefully<br />
see the beast I’ve been yearning to see for the past years.<br />
But they also spoke about the monasteries of Lake Tana<br />
with such an excitement that I couldn’t resist including<br />
some of them in a tour.<br />
I’ve managed to find a hotel that wasn’t too expensive and<br />
didn’t have too many mosquitoes. I spent rest of the day<br />
riding around on a rental bicycle. There were children who<br />
chased me screaming: ‘Ferenji! Ferenji!’ I stopped to have a<br />
break, and immediately they were right beside me. ‘Where<br />
are you from?’ they asked. ‘From Addis,’ I replied. They<br />
didn’t seem to believe me. ‘Really, I live there!’ I said. They<br />
smiled skeptically.<br />
ConT`d on page 20
22|<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
dinaw Mengestu...<br />
that it’s an immigrant novel is ridiculous;<br />
America has a history of immigration. I think<br />
it’s because the novel sort of happens from an<br />
African ethnic experience.<br />
Do you think this borders on racism?<br />
I wouldn’t call it racist, but perhaps<br />
unfamiliarity with these histories and these<br />
stories, because they are not really part of<br />
a national American conversation of what<br />
American identity is. The novel is an African<br />
experience inside of America. I couldn’t<br />
be more American if I tried. I was born in<br />
Ethiopia, but I was raised and educated as<br />
an American. I write out of the American<br />
literary tradition; the writers I have grown up<br />
with and the writers I’m aware of when I’m<br />
thinking about my own writing are European<br />
or American. The characters I’m writing<br />
about are Americans, even though they may<br />
be immigrants. So for critics to bring in part<br />
of my own identity, to say this is part of the<br />
novel as well, I find very problematic.<br />
The scenes of poverty in Africa are<br />
particularly striking in the novel; did you<br />
draw them from your own experiences of<br />
working as a journalist in Africa?<br />
Definitely, the scenes charting the father’s<br />
journey from Sudan in these burnt-out<br />
villages, that bit was taken from things I had<br />
seen out in Darfur, Sudan and Chad, working<br />
as a journalist for Rolling Stone. I never<br />
expected to find these extra images and these<br />
extra memories that wanted to find their way<br />
into the novel. The fact that they are so true<br />
ethiopian women... ConT`d<br />
frontiers as a revenge and still many children are<br />
raped every day. There are also household abuses<br />
which makes you feel sad. Problems are relative<br />
and we the city women have to face treats, live<br />
under men’s perception that we are all prostitutes<br />
for being independent and acting as we want. I can<br />
say there is no freedom at all,” explains Kidist.<br />
Born and raised in Addis Ababa she still feels like<br />
she is a stranger to the city and sometimes she feels<br />
insecure walking on the street and is scared to walk<br />
by herself especially since mentally challenged<br />
people also pick on women.<br />
“This is a feeling where you don’t want to feel,<br />
you know the saying when I grew up I can protect<br />
myself doesn’t work for women,” she says. She<br />
adds “The cafés, the streets, the clubs, workplaces<br />
remind you every minute that you are a woman<br />
who is subordinate to a man and in a way they tells<br />
you there is a hierarchy that should be respected<br />
everywhere.”<br />
The street incident, taxi comments have become<br />
usual ordeals for Helina Teshome 26, an NGO<br />
employee but she could not get used to the treatment<br />
at the clubs in Addis Ababa, which she describes is<br />
full of male ‘chauvinism’. Showing her bruises, she<br />
tells what happened to her a couple of days back<br />
when a guy who seems drunk asked her to dance<br />
with him and she refused. Despite her refusing to<br />
dance with him, the guy pushed himself over and<br />
kissed her anyway. To which her friend (the guy<br />
she came with) got offended and got into a fight<br />
which led to her wrist bruising. The young woman<br />
explains that what made her mad was his comment:<br />
“set ayidelesh” (Aren’t you a woman?) “Oh! Where<br />
should I start, you might just ignore the comments<br />
of strangers by the road side, but the unwelcome<br />
physical contacts and extreme sexual abuses of both<br />
people you know and don’t know. It’s so sad,” she<br />
was always kind of troubling, because I was<br />
taking images from 2006 and placing them<br />
in 1977. But whatever the year, it still sort of<br />
takes place in the same way.<br />
What is the obsession that American writers<br />
have about nationhood?<br />
America doesn’t have a fixed concept of itself.<br />
There is no collective meaning of what it is to<br />
be American. Anybody can sort of become<br />
American, and that’s the joy of the country.<br />
If you compare it with, say, the French or the<br />
British, there is an identity of history and<br />
culture that has been going on for centuries.<br />
America doesn’t have that; it’s much younger<br />
and it’s constantly shifting and will continue<br />
to shift. That’s part of its greatness, but it’s<br />
also part of its great frustration. I think there<br />
is an emptiness in that, which writers want<br />
to explore.<br />
Do you think that immigrants struggle with<br />
identity their whole lives, particularly in<br />
America?<br />
I find people to be terribly lonely all the time.<br />
I think we have great relationships—we<br />
have our loves—but we don’t have people<br />
that we are close to and we don’t have a<br />
sense of our history, of our culture, of the<br />
particular country we live in. The thing about<br />
immigrants is that they can be in a country 30<br />
years, they can have their family, and yet they<br />
still feel that there is a part missing from them<br />
because they’ve left their own country. (More<br />
Intelligent Life -The Economist)<br />
says in frustration.<br />
ConT`d from page 20<br />
America doesn’t have a fixed concept of itself. There is no<br />
collective meaning of what it is to be American. Anybody can sort<br />
of become American, and that’s the joy of the country. If you<br />
compare it with, say, the French or the British, there is an identity<br />
of history and culture that has been going on for centuries.<br />
With the coming of many tourists to Addis Ababa<br />
the different hotels also have incidents which seems<br />
unfavorable to <strong>Ethiopian</strong> women. The <strong>Reporter</strong><br />
also witnessed in one of the high-class hotels of<br />
Addis Ababa located around Meskel Flower, where<br />
the doorman asks for some identification cards<br />
when <strong>Ethiopian</strong> young girls come. The manager of<br />
the hotel explains that they ask for ID, to protect<br />
their guest from prostitutes. Tigist Kebede, 26, a<br />
social worker, also expressed her frustration from<br />
similar discrimination in another hotel around<br />
Kazanchis, which also asks ID for <strong>Ethiopian</strong> young<br />
girls when they go in. The managers of the hotels<br />
did not explain how showing the ID could prevent<br />
prostitutes from going in.<br />
Apart from the hotels, there are also other clubs<br />
which has a rule which are a bit discriminating<br />
for young women. Sara Alemayehu tells one of<br />
the incidents in another night clubs near Meskel<br />
Square. Contrary to the Hotel on Meskel Flower<br />
road and Kazanchis, the doormen here did not allow<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> girls because they were neither with guests<br />
and nor had the right attire that could disguise them<br />
as prostitutes. The girls wearing jeans trousers and<br />
T-Shirts were considered in appropriate as it would<br />
make them look different from the working girls.<br />
The club supervisor explains. They did that to make<br />
all girls look like a working girl. According to him,<br />
the club has previously been targeted for running<br />
prostitution and wants to hide that by making every<br />
girl look the same.<br />
culture and ict<br />
The emergence of e-culture in Ethiopia<br />
By BiruK geBremedhin<br />
The Cambridge dictionary’s meaning of culture might be<br />
that it depicts a certain community’s way of life. However,<br />
that meaning differs from people to people as few agree<br />
that it is static while others say its dynamism makes more<br />
sense.<br />
Digital technology has paved a new way to promote<br />
people’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development<br />
in the 21st century. The fast rise of the information<br />
technology age is demanding that the term culture needs<br />
to be redefined.<br />
In this age, Ethiopia, being composed of diverse nations<br />
and nationalities, is showing a high sign of a socio-cultural<br />
evolution. Yet, it seems that the culture of Information<br />
Technology (IT) is in its infancy. With blossoming number<br />
of mobile and computer users in the cities, however, it<br />
looks like the culture of using IT is emerging.<br />
“The development of culture from the simple to the<br />
complex had existed for years, branching new arms for<br />
various norms and values,” said Daniel Wondossen, a<br />
social anthropologist based in Germany.<br />
The Digital Media Alliance (1999) Recommendations<br />
for Growth: UK Digital Media states that E-Culture is all<br />
about a new digital dimension; an unthinkable medium<br />
which exists in all corners of the world. The true relevance<br />
of cultural digitalization lies in the way new media and<br />
information technology are practically incorporated and<br />
utilized in society and culture.<br />
“The digitalization of society and culture is an ongoing<br />
process with which all artists and cultural organizations<br />
will be confronted, whether they want to or not,” states the<br />
Digital Media Alliance.<br />
to open the door, an Asian person came by and<br />
asked, ‘How much?’ For this young girl the words<br />
were excruciating to a stage which made her decide<br />
not to go to clubs any more.<br />
She explains that these were her reasons to set<br />
up a platform, a dialogue and V-monologue (a<br />
monologue about women, their body and sexuality).<br />
To her dismay however, the program was also<br />
banned for the issue was too sensitive to talk about<br />
in public.<br />
A university graduate, who requested anonymity,<br />
also explains how it is commonly believed that<br />
sexual harassment is considered as an incident of<br />
the rural part of the country. As she explains, it is a<br />
common occurrence at the institutional level as well.<br />
“Where I work, there is an ombudsman who was<br />
supposed to ‘take care’ of this kind of cases and also<br />
there is a very high level of punishment for those<br />
accused of sexual harassment. But the reality is that<br />
most, not all, from the male management to drivers<br />
feel like it is their right to say inappropriate things<br />
and assume that every girl is a prostitute and should<br />
be sleeping or going out with any guy who talks to<br />
her and actually say all these in front of a female<br />
colleagues.” She also goes on explaining how the<br />
remaining male colleagues in the office are reluctant<br />
to do anything and most of the times females do<br />
not cooperate despite them agreeing conventionally<br />
how bad it is for a guy to say inappropriate words,<br />
insult or assault which is taken as flirting.<br />
“In addition to the sexual discrimination, that<br />
female educated and qualified employees face<br />
Another incident which seems common for the city everyday harassment, which makes a work day<br />
girls who like to go out and relax at night, is being much more stressful. All in all, a life of a working<br />
confused for a prostitute. As few take it as a joke woman in the city, might not, after all, be, better<br />
many find the confusion offending. Tigist shares than that of a village girl,” she concludes.<br />
her encounter walking out from one of the clubs<br />
and heading to the car. When her friend was trying<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
|23<br />
Being a PhD candidate on culture and development<br />
studies, Daniel explains that, “In the first decade of the 21st<br />
century, digital domains have given rise to new forms of<br />
expression and reflection of cultures.”<br />
Despite the Information and Communication Technology<br />
(ICT) improving vast areas in everyday life, like enabling<br />
institutions to simplify and improve their primary<br />
activities, some <strong>Ethiopian</strong>s have not welcomed it with<br />
open arms. Mekonnen Demmessa, a retired colonel and<br />
a father of two is one of them. “Cultural change is not my<br />
cup of tea.”<br />
Mr. Mekonnen asks how culture can be shared with people<br />
who are not a part of it. To which his daughter Faven, a<br />
student of Information Science answers, “Culture might<br />
not be practiced by all, but its disseminations onto others<br />
are possible,”<br />
“Information is knowledge, and knowledge is power,” says<br />
Faven. She adds, “The digitization of culture (museums,<br />
archives libraries, etc) and the presentation of it in a<br />
new format has enabled institutions of knowledge and<br />
technology to transform towards cultural development<br />
which is crucial for overall development of the country.”<br />
In the heritage sector, the digitization of collections<br />
of trance generational information can make it more<br />
accessible to the public at large. “Information and<br />
communication technology can also be used to link local<br />
library catalogues to a central web portal,” said Daniel.<br />
“The presentation of cultural music, poetry, and other<br />
forms of creative expression in cyber space has been<br />
instrumental in making cultural tourism and cultural<br />
education more appealing to the younger generation,”<br />
concluded Daniel.<br />
from page 14<br />
“I am sometimes<br />
amazed to see<br />
how most of the<br />
guys think that<br />
they have the right<br />
to control the air<br />
we breathe and we<br />
should do so only<br />
at their permission.<br />
We have the right<br />
to live in this<br />
world as they do,<br />
but it seems like<br />
they are under the<br />
impression that,<br />
that only happens<br />
when they allow<br />
us,”
24|<br />
INTERvIEw<br />
THE<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong><br />
“effective telecom liberalization<br />
As the role of CODIST is to review challenges and issues pertaining to<br />
the ICT, Science and Technology and Geo-information of the member<br />
states of ECA, what are the challenges you are facing and how far<br />
have you gone to bring a solution to these problems?<br />
The broader concept of utilizing an effective science and technology,<br />
including ICT, geo-information in the content is a challenge by itself.<br />
The challenge emanates from the very usefulness of science and<br />
technology, which is industrialization through effective governance<br />
systems ultimately creating a better opportunities in Africa. However,<br />
Africa being the poorest continent in the world is yet to harness its<br />
population in terms of skills required to make use of the science and<br />
technology.<br />
In some cases, African countries are in serious shortage of that. In<br />
my view, governments need to make considerable investments in<br />
their human capital, since effective implementation of science and<br />
technology starts in human brain and that brain is an asset that will<br />
stay with people. Hence, these trained human beings have to be in<br />
abundance in these countries so that there is a critical mass to utilize.<br />
As this stand is not an easy challenge, however, we do offer some<br />
solution.<br />
The solution that CODIST would like to propose is to simply observe<br />
other regions and their development saga. For instance, we can take<br />
a look at Asian countries. They have managed fast and sustainable<br />
economic build up as they have invested heavily in science and<br />
Technology. If science and technology are to bear fruit today, the<br />
investment should have been made may be 20 years ago. The benefit<br />
from technology is big, however, the investment is also quite sizable<br />
and the gestation is also quite long.<br />
In a nutshell, this is the issues that we want to address and discuss<br />
with policy-makers who are coming to CODIST. We want to get<br />
our message across to policy-makers, saying that we as a continent<br />
can no longer afford to say we don’t have the resources; we have to<br />
make strategic choices. This being said, we also understand that the<br />
policymakers do not have the desire to invest heavily on technology. It<br />
is just that there is a lot to do, given the content’s level of development.<br />
So we have been working and helping the member countries, and as I<br />
have told you earlier, it is not because Africa doesn’t want to do this,<br />
but there are other priorities and doing all at once is always a challenge.<br />
So we are saying to them ‘put policies in place that can be implemented<br />
and be strategic’ viewing the issues from national perspective.<br />
Asian countries have heavily invested in science and technology and<br />
improved their economy. However, many countries in Africa have<br />
not adjusted their policies towards a policy that invites investors in<br />
such sectors; telecom sector in Ethiopia being a case in point. What is<br />
your reaction to this?<br />
We have to evaluate countries from their own national context.<br />
There is no one size fits all in our work. Countries have different<br />
circumstances, different socio-economic context. But by and large<br />
what we say to countries is that when you liberalize effectively what<br />
happens is that you will be able to create another value adding service<br />
sector. Telecommunications is no exception to this. When opening<br />
up for investment, variety of services will be available to the market,<br />
hence creating new industries as spin-off. Because once you liberalize<br />
your telecommunication sector, among some of the advantages is that<br />
of gaining new networks hence adding value in the service provision.<br />
So you have new networks created as a result of that liberalization. We<br />
also would like to say that once you open up your telecom sector you<br />
are also able to introduce competition in the industry. When there is<br />
completion in the market, prices of services would eventually fall down<br />
there by services being affordable. Cheaper telecom services entail<br />
easier access for citizens as large scale service provision cuts costs as<br />
oppose to monopoly where prices are not determined by competition;<br />
hence higher.<br />
So we make sure that we share these views with our member countries.<br />
On the other hand, liberalization encourages investment (foreign<br />
direct investment) to come into the industry. This would create<br />
suitable condition for new services to evolve and innovative ideas to be<br />
implemented. Safari.Com in Kenya was the result of such competitive<br />
mobile market.<br />
Recently you have changed the name of your program from CODIST<br />
I to CODIST II. What is the reason to do that?<br />
Before CODIST we had CODI, which is the Committee on<br />
Development Information. CODI or CODIST I was when the UNECA<br />
division was only working on ICT, Geo-information and Library.<br />
Now CODIST or CODIST II is looking at Geo-information, ICT and<br />
Science and Technology. The change came about when the current<br />
Executive Secretary of UNECA, Abduolihe Janneh, joined ECA in a<br />
2005, he restructured ECA. Then he put Science and Technology with<br />
ICT, so this division was created as a result of that.<br />
The basic premise behind the restructure is the fact that every division<br />
has its own technical governing body, which is composed of people<br />
from the member states of ECA. We have seven divisions in ECA, so<br />
CODI or CODIST is one of the seven technical subsidiary bodies of<br />
ECA’s governing structure. ECA reports to the finance ministers of<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
adds value to the industry as a whole”<br />
Aida Opoku-Mensah is a director for Information and Communication<br />
Technology’s (ICTs) and Science and Technology Division at the United<br />
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Prior to her<br />
current position, she was program officer for media, arts and culture in<br />
the Ford’s Foundation West Africa office in Lagos, Nigeria, and before<br />
then regional director of Panos Southern Africa based in Lusaka, Zambia.<br />
Ms Opoku-Mensah, a Ghanaian national, produced an extensive body<br />
of research work on media/communication, information society and<br />
development issues in Africa. Her publications, to mention only a few<br />
include “Signpost on the Superhighway: African environment”, “Up<br />
in the Air: the state of broadcasting in Southern Africa”, as well as<br />
“Democratizing access to the Information Society” - theme paper for<br />
African Development Forum ‘99 on Globalization and the challenges to<br />
Africa of the Information Age. Merga Yonas of The <strong>Reporter</strong> talked to<br />
her regarding the current activities in the Committee on Development<br />
Information, Science and Technology (CODIST) that she is a member<br />
of focusing on challenges they are facing and solutions tabled for ECA<br />
member states.<br />
- Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, director of ICT and Science and Tehchnolog at UNECA<br />
Africa, but he divisions of ECA report to their sector.<br />
So, after the restructure, what have you achieved in your work in ICT,<br />
Science and Technology.<br />
Every two years we meet to review the work of ECA in ICT, Science<br />
and Technology. The member states evaluate our achievements. They<br />
say, well yes we think this is good. Sometimes you will get the member<br />
states say, what you are doing in Rwanda, Chad Togo, and other<br />
country in the area of Science and Technology is very good, we would<br />
like for ECA to come and do it in our country as well. So they review<br />
our work as to how it helped their countries individually.<br />
As you have stated there are some success stories in Rwanda, Togo and<br />
Chad, would you tell me what you are doing in Ethiopia currently?<br />
We have been working very closely with the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Ministry of<br />
Communication and Technology, under the leadership of the Minister<br />
Debretsion Gebremichael. We have been looking at how we can help<br />
to implement national ICT policy. We are also working very closely<br />
with them on how to put the policy in the right place for Ethiopia<br />
on e-Commerce. We are also looking into issues of e-Security and<br />
strengthening e-Government activities through stronger security<br />
process.<br />
We have been working also with Addis Ababa University, the<br />
department of Mathematics and Computers. We have a project,<br />
which is working on mobile health, where patients can access medical<br />
services, medical practitioners and health information through mobile<br />
communications. At the moment, what is happening is that the<br />
department is piloting a project at a clinic located in Butajira, which is<br />
108 kilometers to the South of Addis Ababa. So the outcome will also be<br />
presented at CODIST and be reviewed.<br />
We are also working very closely and supporting the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Leather<br />
industry Association, to build a website for them in which they develop<br />
an e-Commerce platform. So small-scale leather producers in Ethiopia<br />
don’t have to travel to sell their leather, they can make the deal of selling<br />
it through e-commerce.<br />
In the area of Geo-information, we are currently putting in place a data<br />
base of all medical facilities in health centers in the entire Ethiopia. How<br />
health centers does Ethiopia has, where are they situated and how many<br />
doctors to each, all this are the area we have been working on as we<br />
speak right now and it is a very effective tool to promote the health sector<br />
of Ethiopia.
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong> POLITICS<br />
THE<br />
Commentary<br />
africa’s winds of change return<br />
By sanou mBaye<br />
How did Ivory Coast come to this? After gaining<br />
independence from France in 1960 with Felix<br />
Houphouet-Boigny as President, the country<br />
became the world’s largest exporter of cocoa<br />
beans and a significant exporter of coffee and<br />
palm oil. Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s,<br />
sizeable export earnings, combined with easy<br />
access to credit, fueled an economic surge dubbed<br />
the “Ivorian miracle.” But then, escalating debts<br />
and plummeting commodity prices started taking<br />
their toll. Africa’s El Dorado was lost.<br />
In 1990, Houphouet-Boigny appointed Alassane<br />
Ouattara, the governor of the Central Bank of<br />
the West African States, as Prime Minister to<br />
fix Ivory Coast’s growing economic problems.<br />
After Houphouet-Boigny’s death in 1993, Henri<br />
Konan Bédié assumed the presidency and revised<br />
the electoral code to bar Ouattara from entering<br />
the 1995 presidential contest on the grounds<br />
that he was not an Ivorian national. Bédié, not<br />
surprisingly, was re-elected unopposed. And, not<br />
surprisingly, he was soon accused of widespread<br />
corruption and toppled in a military coup in 1999.<br />
It was in the midst of this militarization of Ivorian<br />
politics that Laurent Gbagbo emerged as the<br />
main opposition leader. When Robert Guéi, the<br />
military leader, organized a flawed presidential<br />
election in 2000, of which he declared himself to<br />
be the winner, a popular uprising ousted him and<br />
elevated Gbagbo to the post.<br />
In 2002, Ivory Coast was rocked by a rebel<br />
uprising that partitioned the country, with the<br />
government led by Gbagbo controlling the south,<br />
pro-Ouattara rebels controlling the north, and a<br />
French army camped between the two.<br />
After a peace conference in 2005, a government<br />
of national unity was established, followed by<br />
a presidential election in November 2010. The<br />
independent electoral commission endorsed by<br />
the international community declared Ouattara<br />
the winner. Gbagbo refused to acknowledge the<br />
result, claiming vote-rigging, and was declared reelected<br />
by the Constitutional Court, which nullified<br />
600,000 ballots in several northern constituencies.<br />
As a result, Ivory Coast was plunged in a deadly<br />
battle among four stakeholders.<br />
The first stakeholder is Gbagbo, who sought to<br />
break away from French neo-colonial dominance.<br />
He had the support of Ivorians who aspired to<br />
install genuine Ivorian patriots in place of the<br />
French-backed elite. Gbagbo was suspicious of<br />
Ouattara, whom he believed to be actively plotting<br />
with French support to topple his government.<br />
But Gbagbo refused to denounce the tribal/<br />
religious chauvinism that excluded Ouattara<br />
and millions of Ivoirian northerners from<br />
full citizenship rights. He also tried to avoid<br />
confrontation with France, awarding the<br />
management of the port of Abidjan, the capital, to<br />
a French company. But French President Nicolas<br />
Sarkozy maintained his visceral opposition to<br />
Gbagbo.<br />
The second stakeholder is Ouattara. In his quest<br />
for authority, he drew on the Western ties that he<br />
had forged as a deputy-managing director of the<br />
International Monetary Fund. His claim to fame<br />
was his professional reputation as an economic<br />
manager, which arose from his implementation<br />
of structural adjustment programs that always<br />
included the same set of measures: currency<br />
devaluation, decontrol of exchange rates, tighter<br />
monetary policy, financial deregulation, trade<br />
liberalization, wage cuts, fiscal consolidation, and<br />
labor-market deregulation.<br />
Ivory Coast’s third key stakeholder is France, which<br />
under President Charles de Gaulle had granted<br />
independence to its former African colonies on<br />
the condition that French troops remain stationed<br />
on their territories, and that their economies<br />
remain tightly linked to France. Indeed, after a<br />
half-century of independence, France maintains a<br />
stranglehold on Ivorian commerce and holds its<br />
foreign-currency reserves.<br />
French business, moreover, dominates most of the<br />
country’s infrastructure: Bolloré controls the port<br />
of Abidjan and the railway; Bouygues oversees<br />
Ivorian construction projects; Total holds onequarter<br />
of the shares of the country’s oil refinery;<br />
France Telecom is the main shareholder of the<br />
landline and mobile telephone network; Société<br />
Générale and BNP-Paribas control the banking<br />
industry; and Air France controls the sky.<br />
The convertibility of the country’s currency, the<br />
CFA franc, allows these companies to transfer<br />
freely all their earnings back to France. The<br />
CFA’s fixed exchange rate peg to the euro shields<br />
them from any risk of capital loss at a time<br />
when countries around the world are battling<br />
aU must support... ConT`d<br />
and several opposition leaders.<br />
In addition, several protesters, including a toddler in her mother’s<br />
arms, were shot and killed by security forces armed with automatic<br />
weapons. Their only crime was to lead a ‘Walk to Work’ demonstration<br />
against the escalating costs of food and transport, which has made life<br />
impossible for the vast majority of Ugandans.<br />
Uganda, which has never had a peaceful change from one government<br />
to another, is steadily moving towards yet another phase political<br />
violence.<br />
They went to the polls in 1996, 2001 and 2011 hoping to vote out<br />
general Museveni, or win enough seats in parliament in order to<br />
curb Museveni’s excesses. Sadly, each time the European Union and<br />
Commonwealth election as well as local election observers declared<br />
that the elections had been rigged because Museveni’s ruling party and<br />
state was one and the same thing.<br />
They also went to the Supreme Court but the judges, most of whom<br />
are card-carrying members of Museveni’s ruling party, made the<br />
to maintain competitive exchange rates in order<br />
to export their way out of economic trouble.<br />
With such a currency regime in place, there is no<br />
prospect for proper industrialization in western<br />
Africa’s francophone countries, whose economic<br />
woes stand in sharp contrast to other reviving<br />
African economies.<br />
The fourth stakeholder is the Ivorian population,<br />
which is under siege, divided along ethnic and<br />
religious lines, and incited by venomous politics.<br />
Ivorians massacred each other in the 2002 civil<br />
war. In 2011, the post-election deadlock led to<br />
thousands of civilian deaths. A stream of refugees<br />
fled to neighboring countries, especially Liberia.<br />
The mayhem began to abate only when Gbagbo<br />
was removed from power and taken prisoner after<br />
French and UN ground troops, armored vehicles,<br />
and helicopters bombarded the presidential palace<br />
where he was guarded by forces that remained<br />
loyal to him.<br />
Elite corruption and incompetence, a population<br />
vulnerable to demagogic manipulation, and the<br />
ruthlessness of French neo-colonialism have<br />
combined to plunge francophone Africa into<br />
a deadly cycle of violence, humiliation, and<br />
hopelessness. But the entry into Africa of fastgrowing<br />
economies such as China, India, South<br />
Korea, Turkey, Brazil, and Malaysia reflects a<br />
shifting balance of power and the inception of a<br />
model of cooperation based on trade, investment,<br />
and technology transfer – in sharp contrast to<br />
French neo-colonial politics.<br />
At the start of the era of decolonization, British<br />
Prime Minister Harold MacMillan famously said<br />
that “the winds of change” were blowing across<br />
Africa. Another such wind is blowing today.<br />
Will Francophone Africa at last escape its French<br />
enthrallment?<br />
Ed’s Note: Sanou Mbaye, a former senior official<br />
with the African Development Bank, is the author<br />
of L’Afrique au secours de l’Afrique (Africa to the<br />
rescue of Africa). The article was provided to The<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong> by Project Syndicate the world’s preeminent<br />
source of original op-ed commentaries.<br />
With a unique collaboration of distinguished<br />
opinion makers from every corner of the globe<br />
Project Syndicate provides incisive perspectives by<br />
those who are shaping politics, economics, science,<br />
and culture.<br />
extraordinary ruling that the elections had been rigged, but not rigged<br />
enough to alter the final outcome!<br />
The opposition petitioned the government to introduce specific<br />
constitutional, legal and administrative reforms necessary for free and<br />
fair elections; but these and their demands for the reconstitution of a<br />
non-partisan electoral commission were ignored.<br />
And they have taken to the streets to exercise their constitutional<br />
rights to peaceful demonstration, but Museveni has been responding<br />
by sending armed soldiers with orders to shoot and kill.<br />
Denied all avenues to peacefully exercise their basic human rights to<br />
free association and expression, Ugandans seem determined to die on<br />
their feet rather than on their knees. This is an invitation for NATO to<br />
intervene in Uganda, thanks to its discovery of the “oil curse” which<br />
will start flowing in two years’ time!<br />
As Foreign Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has rightly said, Ethiopia’s<br />
role in causing regime change in Eritrea will not be by invading the<br />
country, but by supporting the Eritrean people and groups which want<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
Government starts ...<br />
|25<br />
ConT`d from page 4<br />
“Ethiopia has tremendous agricultural potential and it’s<br />
doing a lot of the right things,” he said in an interview<br />
yesterday. “It’s investing in agriculture in a way that<br />
other African countries are not.”<br />
A “critical issue” that needs to be addressed in Ethiopia<br />
is better training and support for the 60,000 extension<br />
workers, according to Steiner. Yields may also be boosted<br />
by increasing the number and efficiency of small-scale<br />
irrigation works using groundwater or pumps, he said.<br />
“It’s a small thing, but boy it can make a difference if your<br />
pump lasts 10 years rather than one year,” Steiner said.<br />
Ethiopia has the potential to be self-sufficient in grain<br />
production and for export development in livestock,<br />
flowers, oilseeds, sugar, vegetables and fruit, according<br />
to the US State Department’s website.<br />
Crops being targeted by the EATA include the mostwidely<br />
grown teff, which is currently grown on about<br />
2.5 million hectares of land. The government wants to<br />
increase yields to as much as 60 quintals per hectare<br />
from 10 quintals currently, Wonderad said.<br />
A small improvement in the productivity of teff would<br />
“automatically transform” the agriculture industry, he<br />
said.<br />
About three million of Ethiopia’s 80 million people are<br />
in need of emergency food assistance, the government<br />
said on April 12. Another 7.8 million people receive food<br />
or cash under an aid program, World Food Program<br />
(WFP) spokesman Susannah Nicol said. (Bloomberg)<br />
A “critical issue” that needs<br />
to be addressed in Ethiopia<br />
is better training and support<br />
for the 60,000 extension<br />
workers, according to<br />
Steiner.<br />
turkish embassy...<br />
ConT`d from page 5<br />
According to information from the Turkish Airways,<br />
passengers need to fulfill all the requirements when they<br />
apply for visa.<br />
The Embassy also regulates that those applicants must not<br />
be deported or banned to enter Turkey, the US, UK or<br />
other Schengen countries.<br />
A failure to meet one of these requirements as the Embassy<br />
says is losing a legible vantage for visa application. But<br />
the formal visa application process is not affected on such<br />
requirements.<br />
from page 9<br />
to dismantle the regime.” Ugandans and other oppressed African<br />
people are asking for nothing less and nothing more.<br />
The African Union, which claims that its mission is “an integrated,<br />
prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens” is facing<br />
a simple choice. It must clean its own house by actively supporting<br />
Eritrean and other African people want to dismantle their oppressive<br />
regimes, or wait for NATO to come and clean it for them.<br />
They will not have to wait very long after Libya. Within ten years, all<br />
AU countries could be led by NATO-installed presidents and prime<br />
ministers. That is why they must support Ethiopia intervention in<br />
Eritrea and recognise a Transitional National Council for Eritrea,<br />
based in Addis Ababa.<br />
Ed.s Note: The writer is a former independent parliamentary candidate<br />
in the UK, May 2010, and is the director of Democratic Institutions for<br />
Poverty reduction in Africa (DIPRA) London. He can be reached at<br />
sam.akaki@hotmail.com.
26|<br />
My SAY<br />
In a study released in early April, the Organization<br />
for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s<br />
Representative on Freedom of the Media,<br />
Dunja Mijatović, reported that 57 journalists<br />
are currently in prison in Turkey, mostly on the<br />
basis of the country’s anti-terrorism laws. With<br />
11 more Turkish journalists also facing charges,<br />
the total number could soon double the records of<br />
Iran and China, each of which reportedly held 34<br />
journalists in prison in December 2010. Indeed,<br />
Mijatović estimated that another 700-1,000<br />
proceedings against journalists remain ongoing.<br />
Such a situation is intolerable anywhere, but<br />
particularly in a democracy that seeks European<br />
Union membership, and that recognizes freedom<br />
of expression as a fundamental right. Turkey’s<br />
behavior thus calls into question not only its<br />
desire but also its ability to commit to the values<br />
underlying the EU.<br />
Journalists linked to Kurdish or Marxist<br />
organizations have regularly been targeted under<br />
Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws, and the OSCE<br />
study found that they have faced some of the<br />
harshest punishments. One Kurdish journalist<br />
was sentenced to 166 years in prison. Others<br />
currently face – wait for it – 3,000-year sentences<br />
if convicted.<br />
The relative lack of scrutiny of Turkey’s treatment<br />
of journalists by many in the West has changed,<br />
however, owing to the recent waves of arrests<br />
in the so-called “Ergenekon” case. Numerous<br />
military officers and academics have been<br />
implicated in that case, which involves an alleged<br />
plot by secular ultra-nationalists to overthrow the<br />
Turkish government. The probe has now turned<br />
increasingly towards journalists.<br />
One of those accused of participating in the plot<br />
is the daily newspaper Milliyet’s investigative<br />
reporter Nedim Şener, whose work includes a<br />
book about links between security forces and the<br />
2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist<br />
Hrant Dink. The International Press Institute<br />
(IPI) named Şener a World Press Freedom Hero<br />
in 2010. Incarcerated following his arrest last<br />
month, he reportedly stands accused of belonging<br />
to an armed terrorist organization seeking to<br />
overthrow the government.<br />
Another journalist under fire is Ahmet Şık, who<br />
already faced prosecution for co-writing a book<br />
criticizing the government’s crackdown on the<br />
Ergenekon plot. Şık was said to be working on<br />
a book about the alleged influence of an Islamic<br />
group within Turkey’s police force, which<br />
authorities last month ordered confiscated before<br />
it could be printed.<br />
A common thread in all of the cases targeting<br />
journalists is that the alleged facts are shrouded<br />
in secrecy, and the authorities have declined<br />
to release any evidence of crimes or criminal<br />
organizations. Worse still, they have declined<br />
even to inform those brought before courts –<br />
sometimes in secret – or their attorneys of the<br />
charges they face.<br />
Indeed, journalists caught in this Kafkaesque<br />
affair can expect to spend years behind bars before<br />
Journalists linked to Kurdish or Marxist organizations<br />
have regularly been targeted under Turkey’s antiterrorism<br />
laws, and the OSCE study found that they<br />
have faced some of the harshest punishments. One<br />
Kurdish journalist was sentenced to 166 years in<br />
prison. Others currently face – wait for it – 3,000-year<br />
sentences if convicted.<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
being allowed to respond to the accusations<br />
against them. A climate of fear escalates with each<br />
raid and arrest.<br />
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities affirm the<br />
country’s commitment to press freedom, even as<br />
they impugn the motives of those who exercise it.<br />
Given that so many journalists have been jailed,<br />
and that all of them have been critical of the<br />
government, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion<br />
that journalists are being targeted because of their<br />
work.<br />
Such concern has been voiced not only by pressfreedom<br />
groups such as IPI, and journalists,<br />
like the Freedom for Journalists Platform (an<br />
umbrella group representing local and national<br />
media organizations in Turkey), but also by<br />
respected international institutions. The United<br />
States’ Mission to the OSCE and the European<br />
Commission have joined Mijatović in calling on<br />
Turkey’s authorities to stop their intimidation<br />
of the media immediately, and to uphold basic<br />
OSCE media freedom commitments. The United<br />
Nations Office of the High Commissioner for<br />
Human Rights has called on Turkey to guarantee<br />
freedom of opinion and expression.<br />
Even Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gül, recently<br />
called for “prosecutors and courts to be more<br />
diligent in pursuing their responsibilities, and to<br />
act in a way that does not harm the honor and<br />
rights of the people.”<br />
Turkey plays a pivotal, bridge-building role<br />
between East and West, and the country has been<br />
praised for demonstrating that democracy can<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
turkish journalism behind bars<br />
By alison BeThel mCKenZie<br />
and sTeven m. ellis<br />
coexist with Islam. But the arrests of so many<br />
journalists are eroding this image.<br />
The right of journalists to cover sensitive topics,<br />
including national security, is fundamental. Those<br />
who do not engage in criminal activity should not<br />
face arrest, imprisonment, or any other form of<br />
harassment or intimidation for doing their job.<br />
Those accused of criminal activity must be given<br />
due process and a fair trial. Evidence must be<br />
provided, and the accused must be presented<br />
with the charges they face and the opportunity to<br />
defend themselves.<br />
Far from being defamatory subversives, journalists<br />
who investigate and criticize their government’s<br />
actions demonstrate true patriotism, because no<br />
democracy can survive without the open and<br />
independent assessment of public policies that<br />
journalists provide. If Turkey, a major regional<br />
power with an ancient cultural heritage, truly<br />
wishes to be welcomed into Europe, to take its<br />
rightful place on the world stage, and, indeed, to<br />
remain a democracy, its leaders must not hold<br />
freedom of the press in contempt.<br />
Ed’s Note: Alison Bethel McKenzie is Director of<br />
the International Press Institute (IPI). Steven M.<br />
Ellis is IPI Press Freedom Adviser. The article was<br />
provided to The <strong>Reporter</strong> by Project Syndicate<br />
the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed<br />
commentaries. With a unique collaboration of<br />
distinguished opinion makers from every corner<br />
of the globe Project Syndicate provides incisive<br />
perspectives by those who are shaping politics,<br />
economics, science, and culture.<br />
Invitation to Bid<br />
Environmentalists Development Association - Ethiopia (EDAE)<br />
invites eligible and competent contractors for laying pipes that will<br />
be supplied by our association and for supplying the necessary<br />
material, equipment and labour the construction of manholes,<br />
collecting chamber, pressure reduction tanker, reservoir and<br />
river crossing points in East Wollega Zone, Gudeyya Bila District.<br />
Interested Bidders may obtain bid documents from the office of<br />
EDAE in Bole Sub City Kebele 12/13 House No. 316/3, Office No.<br />
402 during office hours upon presentation of contractor category BC/<br />
GC 7 or above certificate, valid licence and TIN and VAT registration<br />
certificates.<br />
Bidders should submit their financial and technical proposals<br />
separately in a sealed envelope on or before May 6, 2011 until 5 pm<br />
local time. Bids received after the closing date will not be considered.<br />
EDAE reserves the right to accept or reject in part or full any or all<br />
the offers without assigning any reason whatsoever.<br />
The bid will be opened on May 7, 2011 at 10 am local time in the<br />
presence of bidders or their legal representatives. .<br />
Further information can be obtained through the telephone numbers<br />
0911 615171, 0910 62829, 0911411255
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
the achilles’ heel...<br />
terrorists responsible for the attacks, massive military<br />
operations in Afghanistan to eliminate the al-Qaeda<br />
terrorist networks led by Osama bin Laden, and the<br />
adoption of multifaceted legal provisions against<br />
terrorists and their sympathizers worldwide [Gordon<br />
2002].<br />
In the history of terrorism, the September 11 attacks<br />
were the most significant event, because it altered<br />
the structures of inter-state relations, transformed<br />
perceptions of security, redefined the identities of<br />
friends and enemies in world politics, restructured<br />
the criteria of state-citizen-resident relations, and reprioritised<br />
the mission of public governance. At the<br />
international level, the United Nations immediately<br />
passed Security Council Resolution 1373, calling<br />
on all states to prevent and suppress the financing<br />
of all terrorist attacks, criminalize the provision or<br />
collection of funds for terrorists, freeze funds and<br />
assets of individuals involved in terrorism, and so<br />
on [UNSC 2001]. This resolution also requires all<br />
states to exchange information regarding terrorist<br />
networks, false travel documents, traffic in sensitive<br />
materials, and communications technologies used<br />
by terrorist groups. In the United States, the national<br />
government has adopted a series of anti-terrorism<br />
measures since September 11, including the Financial<br />
Anti-Terrorism Act, Airport Security Federalization<br />
Act, Bio-Terrorism Response Act, Preparedness<br />
Against Domestic Terrorism Act, Aviation Security<br />
Enhancement Act, Airline Security Act, Bio-Terrorism<br />
Preparedness Act, and United States Security Act. One<br />
of the most important legal provisions is the so-called<br />
USA PATRIOT ACT (Uniting and Strengthening<br />
America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to<br />
Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act, signed by the<br />
President on October 26, 2001. Another significant<br />
anti-terrorist measure adopted in the United States<br />
after September 11 was the creation of the Office of<br />
Homeland Security, which aimed to “develop and<br />
coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive<br />
national strategy to secure the United States from<br />
terrorist threats or attacks” [Wermuth 2002, 31].<br />
Other related organizations and initiatives have also<br />
emerged, including the Anti-Terrorism Task Forces,<br />
Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism,<br />
Citizen Corps, and so on [White House 2002 a]. In<br />
the case of developing countries, the United Nations’<br />
Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted after<br />
September 11, required these nations to comply with<br />
its provisions and strategies to eradicate terrorist<br />
groups and networks, refrain from any form of support<br />
to such groups and networks, and share and exchange<br />
information in this regard [UNSC 2001]. Some<br />
developing countries have also adopted their own<br />
anti-terrorist measures. In particular, following the<br />
September 11 event, India introduced the Prevention<br />
of Terrorism Ordinance (2001), which broadens the<br />
definition of terrorism and empowers law enforcement<br />
agencies to investigate and punish terrorist activities.<br />
Ethiopia, being a frequent victim of terrorist attacks<br />
beginning with the failed assassination attempt on<br />
Egyptian President Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995<br />
and the devastating ones in Jijiga, Dire Dawa, Addis<br />
Ababa (Ghion Hotel, Tigrai Hotel, Wabi Shebelle<br />
Hotel, etc.) in 2001/2002, introduced, an antiterrorism<br />
legislation in 2009. This belated bill has been criticized<br />
as draconian by many critics at home and abroad, on<br />
the one hand, and too little, too late, by the families<br />
and friends of the victims of those terrorist atrocities,<br />
on the other. The Indonesian government adopted a<br />
controversial anti-terrorism bill that would provide<br />
expansive power to its security forces to manage radical<br />
religious groups [Asmarani 2002]. The Malaysian<br />
government has promised to cooperate with the United<br />
States in information sharing, military operations,<br />
intelligence, and law enforcement. In terms of global<br />
support to the American anti-terrorist campaign, 23<br />
countries have agreed to host U.S. forces to conduct<br />
military operations, 89 countries have granted overflight<br />
authority, 76 countries have approved landing<br />
rights, and 142 have issued orders to freeze the assets<br />
of suspected terrorist organizations [White House<br />
2002b].<br />
Anti-Terrorism Laws and Other Similar Initiatives<br />
and Their Critical Impacts on People’s Rights and<br />
Responsibilities<br />
First, with regard to people’s civil rights--especially<br />
the right to privacy and other freedoms from state<br />
interference--it is observed that the anti-terrorism<br />
legislation adopted after September 11, especially<br />
the American PATRIOT Act, has significant<br />
consequences. That act grants unprecedented powers to<br />
the executive branch to conduct surveillance, including<br />
gathering sensitive personal records, tracking e-mail<br />
and internet usage, monitoring financial transactions,<br />
practicing sneak-and-peek searches, and using roving<br />
wiretaps [Chang 2001]. Under Section 213 of the act,<br />
the sneak-and-peek searches of physical property<br />
can be conducted as normal criminal investigations<br />
without prior knowledge of the property owner [Levy<br />
2001]. Similarly, under Section 215, sensitive personal<br />
records can be obtained by certifying their relevance<br />
to the investigation of international terrorism. The<br />
scope of such investigation may cover American<br />
citizens and permanent residents, and provisions can<br />
apply to non-terrorist activities such as drug cases,<br />
tax fraud, and other federal crimes [Dempsey 2001-<br />
2]. Similarly, in Europe, the European Union’s justice<br />
and home affairs ministers decided in a meeting on<br />
September 20, 2001, to combat terrorism by assigning<br />
new surveillance powers to law enforcement agencies,<br />
especially by retaining data from e-mails, phone calls,<br />
faxes, and Internet usage [State Watch 2001]. In<br />
particular, the British government now requires all<br />
telecommunications providers to retain such data for<br />
12 months. This is basically an initiative to put various<br />
modes of electronic communications under close<br />
surveillance or scrutiny by the government. The French<br />
National Assembly has also approved anti-terrorism<br />
provisions that allow more intensive investigation<br />
and monitoring of private communications. In<br />
the developing world, the Prevention of Terrorism<br />
Ordinance (2001) in India has expanded the power of<br />
the police to detain people without trial and to search<br />
premises and intercept vehicles without warrant.<br />
The adoption of a national ID card system has been<br />
discussed in the United States to enhance airport<br />
security, which could involve various biometric<br />
surveillance mechanisms such as digital fingerprinting,<br />
voice authentication techniques, handprint<br />
scans, computer registries, software data collection,<br />
and electronic retinal scans [Thierer 2001]. Although<br />
some experts consider such expanded surveillance<br />
power to be essential to counter-terrorism, others think<br />
that it violates people’s privacy and fails to provide for<br />
governmental accountability [Cave and Miezzkowski<br />
2001]. In Britain, the home secretary recently<br />
reinforced the possibility of introducing such ID cards,<br />
which is opposed by human rights advocates on the<br />
grounds that such a provision would compromise<br />
people’s civil liberties [Johnston and Jones 2002]. In<br />
response to measures of intercepting communications<br />
and gathering information adopted after September<br />
11, 2001, strong opposition has emerged from various<br />
privacy and civil liberties organizations, including<br />
those in Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, and the<br />
Netherlands, which have urged the European Council<br />
to maintain people’s freedoms, privacy and civil<br />
liberties [Evers 2001].<br />
Second, in terms of people’s political rights, critics<br />
argue that recent anti-terrorist provisions represent<br />
a threat to any form of political protest, movement,<br />
and activism. For example, according to Levy (2001),<br />
although the PATRIOT Act has not replaced the<br />
principle of separation of powers in America, it has<br />
The adoption of a<br />
national ID card system<br />
has been discussed<br />
in the United States<br />
to enhance airport<br />
security, which<br />
could involve various<br />
biometric surveillance<br />
mechanisms such as<br />
digital finger-printing,<br />
voice authentication<br />
techniques, handprint<br />
scans, computer<br />
registries, software data<br />
collection, and electronic<br />
retinal scans [Thierer<br />
2001].<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
adversely affected the protection of due process under<br />
the Fifth Amendment and the safeguards against<br />
“unreasonable searches and seizures” guaranteed by<br />
the Fourth Amendment. Similarly, Chang (2001) is<br />
concerned that Section 802 of the act compromises<br />
political freedoms (especially the freedom of speech and<br />
political association) because of its broad definition of<br />
domestic terrorism, which may cover political dissent,<br />
civil disobedience, and environmental activism and<br />
allow investigation and surveillance of such political<br />
activities and groups.<br />
In Australia, under the Security Legislation<br />
Amendment (Terrorism) Act, the government can<br />
detain and question people for two days without legal<br />
representation. In Britain, although the government<br />
takes pride in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security<br />
Act adopted after September 11, critics are concerned<br />
that under this law, people can be jailed if the home<br />
secretary suspects them of having terrorist connections<br />
and one may consider political protesters or<br />
demonstrators to be terrorists [Nag 2001]. Similarly, it<br />
is argued that under the new European Commission’s<br />
Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism (2001),<br />
the definition of terrorism- that is, any act of altering<br />
the political, economic or social structure and causing<br />
unlawful damages to state facilities--may cover various<br />
forms of political dissent and protests (such as antiwar<br />
or animal rights protests), thus undermining<br />
democratic freedoms [CEC 2001]. In the developing<br />
world, according to critics, some states have used<br />
the events of September 11 as a pretext to justify<br />
internal political repression in the name of controlling<br />
terrorism. For example, the proposed anti-terrorist bill<br />
in Indonesia has been criticized on the ground that it<br />
may undermine human rights and can be used by the<br />
elites to purge opposition voices [Asmarani 2002]. In<br />
India, there are serious reservations that its Prevention<br />
of Terrorism Ordinance may criminalize legitimate<br />
political protests of vulnerable social groups, serve the<br />
ruling party against the press and political opponents,<br />
and weaken the protection of civil liberties and human<br />
rights [POTO 2001]. In South Africa, Kenya, Uganda<br />
and Tanzania, the anti-terrorism laws established by<br />
these countries are said to be similar with other antiterrorism<br />
laws around the world such as the United<br />
States and United Kingdom on certain aspects like<br />
erosion of fundamental civil liberties. According to<br />
Klingner (2001), current anti-terrorism efforts in<br />
many developing countries are likely to adversely<br />
affect people’s participation in democratic governance<br />
and their peaceful resistance against varied forms of<br />
injustice.<br />
In addition, it is observed that, in the process of<br />
building an anti-terrorist coalition after September 11,<br />
the United States has extended military or financial<br />
assistance to some countries, including Pakistan,<br />
India, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan, which allegedly<br />
practice political repression, ethnic inequality, and/or<br />
caste discrimination [HRW 2002]. Specifically, there<br />
are restrictions on political parties under the military<br />
rule in Pakistan, continued caste discrimination in<br />
India, abuses of military and police powers in the<br />
Philippines, and a repressive political system in<br />
Uzbekistan [ibid].<br />
Third, in relation to political rights, minority rights are<br />
also affected in different countries in the context of the<br />
war on terrorism. In the United States, for instance,<br />
the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and the<br />
images and expressions that followed, influenced some<br />
Americans to become intolerant and aggressive toward<br />
Muslim Americans, Arab Americans, Sikh Americans,<br />
and South Asian Americans [U.S. Department of<br />
Justice 2002]. These minority groups experienced some<br />
violent assaults, physical attacks, death threats, and<br />
vandalism [HRW 2002].<br />
With regard to immigrants, according to Chang (2001),<br />
the PATRIOT Act tends to deprive some of due process<br />
and First Amendment Rights by expanding categories<br />
of immigrants that are subject to removal on terrorism<br />
grounds and by increasing the attorney general’s<br />
authority to detain immigrants suspected of terrorist<br />
activities. In Russia, although the government’s human<br />
rights abuses in Chechnya were condemned by most<br />
Western countries before September 11, after the event,<br />
these countries began to downplay them because of<br />
alleged Chechnyan links to terrorist networks [HRW<br />
2002]. Similarly, in China, the government now tries to<br />
defend crackdown on the ethnic separatist movement<br />
of the Muslim population in the Xinjiang Uighur<br />
Autonomous Region by portraying them as terrorists<br />
[Amnesty International 2002, 5]. Similar tendencies<br />
to deny minority rights in the name of anti terrorism<br />
may be found in India under the newly introduced<br />
Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance. These are only a<br />
few of many critical observations of how current antiterrorism<br />
campaigns may be affecting minority rights<br />
|27<br />
ConT`d from page 10<br />
in various countries and how some governments may<br />
use them to deny such rights. Finally, with regard to<br />
people’s social rights, the war on terrorism may have<br />
certain indirect impacts on people’s entitlement to<br />
basic services as a result of the restructuring of budgets<br />
in favor of defense and law enforcement at the expense<br />
of social programs.<br />
Global War on Terrorism: US Objectives vs.<br />
Achievements<br />
When the USA declared a global war on terrorism<br />
in 2001, it had five main objectives, among others, to<br />
(1) defeat terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Abu<br />
Musab al-Zarqawi and destroy their organizations;<br />
(2) identify, locate and destroy terrorists along with<br />
their organizations; (3) deny sponsorship, support and<br />
sanctuary to terrorists; (4) diminish the underlying<br />
conditions that terrorists seek to exploit; and,<br />
(5) defend U.S. citizens and interests at home and<br />
abroad [WIKIPEDIA, The Free Encyclopaedia]. In the<br />
wake of 9/11, the US Administration has pointed to the<br />
killing or capture of more than 2/3 of all al-Qaeda’s top<br />
leadership and seizure of over $200 million in terrorist<br />
financing as examples of progress against terrorism.<br />
More recently, progress milestones cited by President<br />
Bush Jr. in his September 28, 2005 statement included<br />
(1) removal of brutal regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq<br />
that harboured terrorists; (2) moving forward in the<br />
“march” of democracy worldwide, noting Lebanon; (3)<br />
shutting down a major weapons of mass destruction<br />
(WMD) black market network originating in Pakistan,<br />
and Libya’s rejoining a community of nations; and<br />
(4) capturing a number of key terrorists in Pakistan<br />
and Iraq, as well as capturing and killing hundreds of<br />
insurgents in Iraq [ibid].<br />
In view of the massive terrorist attacks in India,<br />
Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Uganda, Russia<br />
and the former USSR member republics and elsewhere<br />
that the world has witnessed since the declaration of<br />
global war on terrorism in 2001, it is easy to assert that<br />
the battle is yet to be won by world nations. Wiping out<br />
terrorists and terrorism in general from the face of the<br />
earth is easier said than done; it is absolutely impossible<br />
to destroy terrorism as such. As terrorism creates<br />
numerous victims, counter-terrorism is creating<br />
more and more new victims. Above all, the human<br />
and financial costs are staggering, to say the least. The<br />
opportunity costs of diverting away funds from social<br />
programs and projects to the war on terrorism are<br />
incalculable. The challenge for all humanity remains<br />
to critically examine and find out the root causes of<br />
terrorism and expend all resources possible to solve<br />
these man-made problems; war alone cannot resolve<br />
the global menace of terrorism.<br />
Concluding Remarks<br />
As reiterated earlier, the global war against terrorism<br />
is legitimate and necessary. However, combating terror<br />
must not be at the expense of the enjoyment of civil<br />
and political liberties of citizens, groups and nations.<br />
Anti-terrorism measures need to be implemented<br />
within a human rights framework in order for them<br />
to achieve their legitimate objective of preventing<br />
terrorism. It cannot be denied or doubted that, the<br />
anti-terrorism legislations are retrogressive as they take<br />
away even the minimum gains of democratisation that<br />
have been made by the newly emerging democratic<br />
countries. Therefore, all countries, while complying<br />
with their international duties and obligations of<br />
combating terrorism, should also listen to the concerns<br />
of those at home. Surely, the fundamental freedoms<br />
of citizens should remain intact as all nations seek<br />
to end the devastating and deadly consequences of<br />
terrorist violence. Due note should be taken of the<br />
need for balancing civil liberties, national security<br />
and international responsibilities. There should not<br />
also be preference of national security at the expense<br />
of the protection of human rights of those suspected<br />
of or accused of terrorist activities. Rule of law and<br />
due process should guide all our actions in combating<br />
terrorism. Therefore, there arises a need to re-examine<br />
the anti-terrorist laws and initiatives already in place<br />
or those being worked out and confirm whether or not<br />
these are reconcilable with the freedoms and liberties<br />
of all citizens and groups in their own countries. Above<br />
all however, all nations should exert their maximum<br />
efforts at attacking the root causes of terrorism, instead<br />
of being bogged down in the fight against the apparent<br />
symptoms. That is the only way forward toward rooting<br />
out terror.<br />
Ed’s Note: Tesfaye Habisso was former ambassador<br />
of Ethiopia to Uganda and South Africa. He was also<br />
member and secretary of the Council of Representatives<br />
in the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (1991-1994),<br />
and a veteran of the <strong>Ethiopian</strong> Student Movement. He<br />
can be reached at habisso@yahoo.co.uk.
28|<br />
wORLD<br />
THE<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong><br />
UK and Malawi in<br />
tit-for-tat diplomatic<br />
expulsions<br />
The UK has ordered Malawi’s high commissioner to leave the country<br />
over the “unacceptable” expulsion of Britain’s envoy to Lilongwe. Fergus<br />
Cochrane-Dyet was told to leave Malawi after he was quoted in a leaked<br />
cable as saying the president does not tolerate criticism.<br />
A British diplomat warned of “serious consequences”, according to an<br />
internal memo seen by the BBC. Some 40% of Malawi’s budget comes<br />
from abroad. The UK is the largest donor. An invitation to the Malawian<br />
government to a party at the high commission to celebrate the royal<br />
wedding on Friday has been withdrawn.<br />
According to the diplomatic cable published by the local Weekend Nation<br />
newspaper last week, Mr Cochrane-Dyet described Malawi’s President<br />
Bingu wa Mutharika as “becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of<br />
criticism”. He said local civil society activists were afraid after a campaign<br />
of threatening phone calls and said the government was restricting the<br />
freedom of the media and minorities. Under pressure from donors, Mr<br />
Mutharika last year pardoned two gay men who had been jailed because<br />
of their relationship, which is illegal in Malawi.<br />
Poor to suffer?<br />
Following Mr Cochrane-Dyet’s expulsion, British Foreign Secretary<br />
William Hague said: “It is a worrying sign that the Malawian government<br />
is expending its energies in this way, rather than focusing on the real<br />
and substantial challenges facing it, including the need for improved<br />
governance.”<br />
He said acting High Commissioner of Malawi Flossie Gomile-Chidyaonga<br />
and her dependants must leave the UK at “the earliest opportunity” and<br />
hinted that the UK’s aid to its former colony could be cut.<br />
“I have also asked my officials, working closely with their colleagues<br />
elsewhere in government, to review rapidly the full range of our wider<br />
relationship with Malawi.” The EU office in Malawi has also condemned<br />
the decision to expel Mr Cochrane-Dyet.<br />
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated<br />
75% of the population living on less than $1 (60p) a day. In the leaked<br />
cable, Mr Cochrane-Dyet was quoted as saying that these would be the<br />
people who would suffer most if aid was cut as relations with donors<br />
worsen. Mr Mutharika was elected to office in 2004 and widely praised<br />
for his campaign against corruption.<br />
But the BBC’s Raphael Tenthani in Malawi’s biggest city, Blantyre, says<br />
that since his landslide re-election in 2009, his government has been<br />
accused of intimidating critics.<br />
The UK recently expressed its disappointment with Malawi and reduced<br />
aid after the government purchased an extravagant presidential jet.<br />
It is also among the countries which condemned a new law which gives<br />
ministers power to ban publications deemed not to be in the public<br />
interest. (BBC)<br />
AfRICAn bRIefS<br />
Yemen’s Saleh should not<br />
get immunity: Amnesty<br />
Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh should<br />
not be granted immunity from prosecution under a Gulf<br />
plan that seeks to end months of bloodshed, Amnesty<br />
International said Thursday.<br />
The London-based human rights watchdog said the<br />
transition plan proposed by the Gulf Cooperation<br />
Council (GCC) appeared to provide a blanket immunity<br />
to Saleh as well as those who served under him.<br />
“President Ali Abdullah Saleh must not be allowed to<br />
evade accountability for the long catalogue of human<br />
rights crimes committed under his rule,” said Malcolm<br />
Smart, Amnesty’s director for the Middle East and<br />
North Africa.<br />
Smart said in a statement that Saleh and those around<br />
him should be held accountable for the arbitrary arrests,<br />
torture and unlawful killings that have been committed,<br />
in line with Yemen’s laws.<br />
Royal wedding international<br />
reaction: praise for the<br />
‘restyled Windsor brand’<br />
The royal wedding caught the imagination of the world’s media with many<br />
wondering why there was such planetary excitement about the event.<br />
In France, commentators tried to understand why a country that guillotined its<br />
king was so obsessed by its neighbor’s monarchy.<br />
The answer, claimed Hervé Gattegno, editor of Le Point was that the French<br />
envied “kings without power”.<br />
“We don’t like our common leaders back home taking themselves for monarchs<br />
but we give them infinitely more power,” he said. In France, the president<br />
played both a symbolic and executive role, often failing in both, he claimed.<br />
Italy’s Repubblica gave its readers an A to Z guide on royal wedding, from<br />
Amore (love) to Zara Phillips, noting that the daughter of Princess Anne has a<br />
pierced tongue.<br />
Commentators declared it a good thing the rival claimants to the defunct<br />
Italian throne have not received invites to the ceremony because the last time<br />
they attended a royal wedding, in Spain in 2004, they got into a punch up with<br />
each other. Kate Middleton’s non-aristocratic background was highlighted<br />
by Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper with the headline “A Royal<br />
Wedding for the Middle Classes”.<br />
The royal wedding was heartily celebrated in Australia, with blanket coverage<br />
from four television channels and thousands of royal wedding parties cropping<br />
up all over the country. The republican issue was well and truly retired for the<br />
day.<br />
The wedding brought with it a clear signal, according to the Sydney Morning<br />
Herald, which headlined: “United in hope for their kingdom.”<br />
“The marriage will not only open a new chapter in the history of the British<br />
monarchy but provide a vivid first glimpse of a restyled Windsor brand,” wrote<br />
the newspaper. Australians also were desperate to see what Julia Gillard, the<br />
prime minister, wore to the wedding, mainly because they were terrified she<br />
would make a fashion faux pas. (The telegraph)<br />
“He must not be awarded a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card to walk<br />
free from any question of investigation or justice for<br />
what has been done under his authority,” the statement<br />
said.<br />
It said Gulf efforts to break the impasse and end the<br />
current cycle of violence was welcome, but Saleh “should<br />
not be be allowed to set his own price for agreeing to<br />
stand down.”<br />
If he was granted legal immunity, it would be a “gross<br />
betrayal” of the many victims of rights, and send the<br />
wrong signal to others who violate the rights of their<br />
people.<br />
“Are the Western governments that have spoken up so<br />
strongly for accountability in Libya and elsewhere now<br />
willing to endorse this shabby attempt to evade justice<br />
by one of the Middle East?s longest-serving rulers,” the<br />
statement said. (AFP)<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
Military court<br />
sentences<br />
protesters to<br />
death<br />
In a sharp escalation of the repression of a smoldering<br />
opposition movement, a military court in Bahrain<br />
sentenced four Shiite Muslim activists to death for<br />
the alleged murder of two police officers during prodemocracy<br />
demonstrations in March, Bahrain’s official<br />
news agency reported.<br />
This is a kind of precedent-setting case in Bahrain. The<br />
suspects are the first civilians to ever be tried in a Bahraini<br />
military court, which is called the Lower Security Court.<br />
Three other men were sentenced to life in jail by a Sunnidominated<br />
monarchy that has received support from<br />
Saudi Arabia and other Arabian Peninsula states to quell<br />
a Shiite-led mass anti-government uprising.<br />
The trial itself bore the trademarks of the kind of<br />
shadowy security courts common in drab dictatorships<br />
such as Iran, Myanmar or Syria rather than a country<br />
that is chummy with Washington and hosts the U.S.<br />
Navy’s Fifth Fleet.<br />
During the court proceedings, the seven Shiite protestors<br />
were refused legal council and contact with relatives,<br />
activists and human rights advocates said.<br />
The chain of momentous popular uprisings that have<br />
ravaged Arab autocracies, combined with an already<br />
dissatisfied public, culminated in a bold act of defiance<br />
against the Bahraini king at Pearl Square on Feb. 14.<br />
The pro-democracy opposition movement, comprised<br />
of both secular activists as well as Shiites, demanding<br />
greater freedoms from the Sunni monarchy for decades,<br />
took the square over for days before Bahrain and Saudi<br />
troops crushed the uprising.<br />
At least 30 people have died, four of them members of<br />
the security forces. Hundreds of other Shiite and secular<br />
opposition figures and professionals have been detained<br />
since martial law was declared March 15.<br />
According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the<br />
monarchy has a history of unlawful practices against<br />
activists.<br />
“The government has taken it too far,” said Nabeel Rajab,<br />
the center’s president, on the issue of the trial of civilians<br />
in a military court.<br />
The crackdown prompted Amnesty International to issue<br />
a briefing paper April 21 describing the developments as<br />
a “worrying trend.”<br />
Voting Underway in Nigerian States<br />
Where Violence Delayed Poll<br />
Voting is underway in two states in northern Nigeria where polling was delayed by violence that<br />
followed last week’s presidential election. Nigeria’s ruling party retained the presidency, but<br />
appears to have lost control of several state governments.<br />
Security forces accompanied electoral workers to polling stations in Kaduna and Bauchi where<br />
state-wide elections were postponed after supporters of opposition presidential candidate<br />
Muhammadu Buhari last week battled riot police following the election of President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan. The human rights group the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria says at least 500 people<br />
were killed in violence across the north. Vice President Namadi Sambo’s home in Kaduna was set<br />
on fire.<br />
Observers say early voter turnout in Kaduna and Bauchi Thursday was smaller than during the<br />
presidential poll. Some Buhari supporters destroyed their voter cards after their candidate said<br />
the presidential ballot was rigged. But Buhari says that is a mistake and is calling on his supporters<br />
to come out for the poll, which he says is an opportunity to “disgrace your oppressors who have<br />
stolen your votes””. President Jonathan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party currently controls the<br />
governorships of Kaduna and Bauchi but is facing strong opposition candidates from Buhari’s<br />
Congress for Progressive Change party. Buhari’s party is challenging results from Tuesday’s<br />
gubernatorial elections in Niger and Katsina states. The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria<br />
party is contesting the outcome of the gubernatorial election in Akwa Ibom. That party held on to<br />
control of the commercial capital, Lagos, and appears to have defeated the ruling party in the states<br />
of Ogun and Oyo, putting opposition parties in control of all six states in the southwest region. The<br />
ruling party also lost control of Zamfara and Nasarawa states, but retained control in the oil-rich<br />
Niger Delta and picked-up the governorship of Kano, which is the north’s most populous state.<br />
(VOA)
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011 LEISURE<br />
crossword<br />
ACROSS<br />
1. Have already done<br />
4. Universal Standard Time<br />
7. Indics<br />
12. A city in the European part<br />
of Soviet Russia<br />
13. One and only<br />
14. About bee<br />
15. Denounces<br />
17. Many wombs<br />
18. Express pleasure<br />
19. The bill in a restaurant<br />
21. Disappear beyond the<br />
horizon<br />
22. Intercontinental ballistic<br />
missile<br />
24. Prefix denoting “in a”<br />
25. James __, American steam<br />
engineer<br />
26. Dekalitre<br />
27. A salt or ester of hydriodic<br />
acid<br />
29. Improves<br />
Kuncho Komments<br />
SPOT THe dIffeRenCeS<br />
You know this is the<br />
first time my dad did<br />
not buy a goat for<br />
Easter.<br />
ARIES<br />
(Mar. 21- April 20)<br />
Now it is the time when you should be careful not to<br />
get caught up in too much detail so that you neglect to<br />
be mindful of any general overall plans that you project<br />
towards the future. That detail may lead you down a path<br />
that you had not anticipated and that could end up taking<br />
you quite far from your original intentions. Listen to your<br />
instincts and act on them. This week lucky numbers are:<br />
11, 13, 19, 23,<br />
TAURUS<br />
(Apr. 21- may 21)<br />
Responsibilities will be pressing at this time and will likely<br />
not allow you as much freedom as you would like to have<br />
during this week. This may not be the best time for social<br />
engagements - it’s more likely that your investments of time<br />
would bear better fruit if they were put into physical and<br />
business work - and circumstances will likely support that.<br />
This week lucky numbers are: 6, 22, 28, 30, 52,<br />
GEMINI<br />
(May 22-June 21)<br />
At this time you may find yourself struggling in spirit and<br />
attitude to measure up to the challenges that lie before you.<br />
The virtues, especially fortitude, endurance and courage<br />
may be immediate allies in your present development. At<br />
this time, it may feel a little like climbing up a mountain<br />
but try to see the harvest gained later in respect to the<br />
constructive seeds that you sow now. This week lucky<br />
numbers are: 5, 17, 27, 29, 39,<br />
31. Secretion<br />
35. Vertexes<br />
37. Radioactivity unit<br />
38. Trailing grass native to<br />
Europe<br />
41. The longest division of<br />
geological time<br />
42. __ Carvey, “Church Lady”<br />
comedian<br />
43. S American wood sorrel<br />
44. Soviet Socialist Republic<br />
(abbrev.)<br />
45. All of the inhabitants of the<br />
earth<br />
46. National capital<br />
48. Endurance<br />
52. Glyceryl ester<br />
53. Auricle<br />
54. Assistance<br />
55. _____ Claus<br />
56. Extensively cultivated in e.g.<br />
China and Japan and India<br />
57. Peacock network<br />
Why not, he<br />
thinks you’re<br />
getting too fat?<br />
Your Zodiacs (astrology-online.com)<br />
DOWN<br />
1. Invest with knighthood<br />
2. Nigerian City<br />
3. OK to assign a date to<br />
4. American state<br />
5. Timid<br />
6. Screened for<br />
7. Coat with plaster<br />
8. Mentally quick and<br />
resourceful<br />
9. Eastern German city<br />
10. Defied<br />
11. Annoyances<br />
16. The most common<br />
computer memory 20. Rebelled<br />
22. Potato state, abbr.<br />
23. Shaped rotating disk to<br />
convert circular into linear<br />
motion<br />
24. Corsages<br />
25. Fatty-fleshed fish that<br />
migrates between salt and fresh<br />
No! No! He<br />
said it was too<br />
expensive.<br />
My dad was also<br />
complaining the<br />
whole week about<br />
the high price of<br />
goats.<br />
CANCER<br />
(June 22-July 22)<br />
In the romantic context of your life you may find<br />
yourself attracting rather forward or even aggressive<br />
individuals who’s agenda is more likely to be selfserving<br />
than not. It is not advisable to try to engage in<br />
“amorous” behavior with anyone new to your life now as<br />
you are likely to experience a lack of grace and harmony<br />
which would otherwise be necessary for things to go well<br />
in that area of your life. This week lucky numbers are:<br />
10, 34, 40, 46, 56,<br />
LEO<br />
(July 23-Aug 22)<br />
At this time you should be very careful about what<br />
you decide to spend your money on as the indications<br />
are that you could, if you are not careful about the<br />
value or worth of a significant purchase, experience<br />
real disappointment and loss - this does not have to be<br />
the case but in order to minimize the possibilities of<br />
financial loss or disappointment in respect to values, be<br />
careful. This week lucky numbers are: 3, 15, 19, 27, 33,<br />
VIRGO<br />
(Aug. 23 -Sept. 23)<br />
The planetary tendency shows that you will be feeling<br />
rather compulsive at this time and may tend to “jump<br />
the gun” regarding reactions and decisions. You are<br />
likely to really “feel” the courage of your convictions<br />
now and to be unusually straightforward or even blunt<br />
in respect to asserting those convictions and/or feelings.<br />
This week lucky numbers are: 8, 24, 32, 38, 72,<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
water<br />
27. Integrated data processing<br />
28. Hyrax<br />
30. Catch<br />
32. A citizen of Iran<br />
33. Passenger truck<br />
34. Government computer<br />
language 36. Undergarment<br />
38. Extinct birds<br />
39. Central Florida city<br />
40. Made of wood<br />
42. Obstruct<br />
44. Soluble ribonucleic acid<br />
45. Harelike rodent of the<br />
pampas of Argentina<br />
47. Small island (British)<br />
49. Arctic explorers, abbr.<br />
50. Horny projecting jaws of<br />
a bird<br />
51. Aide de Camp<br />
You know what?<br />
it is only a matter<br />
of time before<br />
they charge<br />
entrance fees to<br />
even see them at<br />
the market.<br />
LIBRA<br />
(Sept. 24 -Oct. 23)<br />
Your thoughts are likely to be more on home<br />
and family now. Keep in mind that changing<br />
circumstances and situations may call for personal<br />
adjustments. Communication may increase now<br />
with family members and there may be discussions<br />
concerning needed changes and the logistics<br />
associated with that as well as discussions around<br />
security needs. This week lucky numbers are: 23, 25,<br />
31, 53, 67,<br />
SCORPIO<br />
(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22)<br />
There is likely to be some degree of confusion in<br />
your life now and you may be strongly influenced<br />
by unconscious desires. You may even feel a bit<br />
drained due to being pulled down by unconscious<br />
drives or quests that are taxing your conscious mind<br />
against it’s own will Try to relax and accept a little<br />
necessary change. This week lucky numbers are: 12,<br />
40, 46, 60, 64,<br />
SAGITTARIUS<br />
(Nov. 23 -Dec. 21)<br />
It looks like you are about to experience some<br />
instability in your life at this time as your mind will<br />
be significantly more prone to changes of will and<br />
intention - you many find yourself intending one<br />
thing at one moment and another thing at the next<br />
moment. You may find yourself, at times, in a state<br />
of hyper-stimulation and it is possible that you may<br />
experience some insomnia now. This week lucky<br />
numbers are: 11, 23, 39, 41, 45,<br />
Can you spot the 12 differences between the two pictures?<br />
Ya right! They<br />
could earn a lot<br />
if they charge 10<br />
birr each time<br />
someone squeezes<br />
their back to check<br />
them out too.<br />
Solution<br />
Us<br />
box<br />
office<br />
1 Rio<br />
2 Madea's Big Happy Family<br />
3 Water for Elephants<br />
4 Hop<br />
5 Scream 4<br />
6 African Cats<br />
7 Soul Surfer<br />
8 Hanna<br />
9 Insidious<br />
10 Source Code<br />
|29<br />
CAPRICORN<br />
(Dec 22.- Jan. 20)<br />
Your inner life may now become more important to you<br />
than your outer life. You will likely become more introverted<br />
and less extroverted than usual and likely more inclined to<br />
experience your life now in a spiritual mode as opposed to<br />
a secular mode. At this time you may find your sensitivity<br />
towards the arts such as music and poetry and drama<br />
increasing. This week lucky numbers are: 2, 22, 32, 34, 38,<br />
AQUARIUS<br />
(Jan. 21 -Feb. 19)<br />
You are quite likely to experience interpersonal “politics”<br />
in the context of your home and family life at this time.<br />
What will likely be very important now is honesty but of<br />
equal importance will be the manner in which you convey<br />
concerns to family members. This week lucky numbers are:<br />
21, 33, 39, 49, 61,<br />
PISCES<br />
(Feb. 20-Mar. 20)<br />
The accent this week must be on your resources and your<br />
values. Whether your Sun is in Leo, or Leo is rising in your<br />
chart, circumstances will force you to take care of practical<br />
matters. Money matters simply have to be seen to, and they<br />
may at first cause concern. Some way you may find that you<br />
are better off than you thought. This week lucky numbers<br />
are: 26, 30, 48, 50, 56,
30|<br />
THE TIMES<br />
What: exhibition<br />
WHEN: APRIL 16 -MAy 1st<br />
WHERE: LELA GALLERy<br />
A painting exhibition by Tesfu Assefa<br />
Open: Till May 1st<br />
Tesfu’s exhibition of acrylic paintings on paper and canvas<br />
reflectively remind us of these unpredictable times we live<br />
in. Many major shifts are coinciding with an ecological crisis<br />
leaving us feeling in turmoil, exhausted and afraid. Most of<br />
these dysfunctional and fear driven dynamics have become<br />
the norm transmitted daily through the media…..due to<br />
this unknowingly and most probably unwillingly we are<br />
burdened with all this information, carrying it along with us<br />
making us feel anxious and powerless.<br />
“ the reality is that even with all the depressing news, we<br />
continue to live in interesting times…”<br />
Wednesday to Sunday - 11:00am- 6:00pm<br />
Otherwise by appointment<br />
Please feel free to pass on this invitation to friends<br />
that might be interested.<br />
BERHANU MEKONNEN’S EXHIBITION<br />
WHEN: OPEN FROM APRIL 15<br />
TIME: 6:00PM<br />
WHERE: ASNI GALLERy<br />
MUSIC WITHOUT BOUNDARIES<br />
WHAT: INTERNATIONAL MuSIC FESTIVAL<br />
When: May 4, 6, 10,12<br />
Music Without Boundaries, a music festival and celebration<br />
of <strong>Ethiopian</strong> tangible and intangible heritage, start on<br />
May 4th, 2011, at the Italian Cultural Institute. The festival<br />
lasts eight days and hosts several famous national and<br />
TV Guide<br />
MBC<br />
SATuRDAy 30 APR<br />
5:30 My FIRST WEDDING<br />
7:00 THE EVENING STAR<br />
9:00 EMMA<br />
11:00 ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL’S<br />
12:30 OVER THE HEDGE<br />
13:30 RuNAWAy VACATION<br />
15:00 CHASING DESTINy<br />
17:00 SCHOOL FOR SCOuNDRELS<br />
19:00 IN GOOD COMPANy<br />
21:00 LOST IN TRANSLATION<br />
23:00 WITHOuT A PADDLE<br />
0:30 THE OuT-OF-TOWNERS- 1999<br />
2:00 ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL’S<br />
SuNDAy 1 MAy<br />
3:30 RuNAWAy VACATION<br />
5:00 EMMA<br />
7:00 BOxBOARDERS<br />
9:00 CHASING DESTINy<br />
10:30 WITHOuT A PADDLE<br />
12:00 IN GOOD COMPANy<br />
13:30 LOST IN TRANSLATION<br />
15:00 MERLIN AND THE WAR OF<br />
THE DRAGONS<br />
17:00 FLASHDANCE<br />
19:00 THE WENDELL BAkER STORy<br />
21:00 RAISING HELEN<br />
23:00 INTOLERABLE CRuELTy<br />
0:30 IN GOOD COMPANy<br />
2:00 LOST IN TRANSLATION<br />
MONDAy 2 MAy<br />
4:00 WITHOuT A PADDLE<br />
5:30 SCHOOL FOR SCOuNDRELS<br />
7:30 BOGuS<br />
9:00 MERLIN AND THE WAR OF THE<br />
DRAGONS<br />
10:30 INTOLERABLE CRuELTy<br />
12:00 THE WENDELL BAkER STORy<br />
13:30 RAISING HELEN<br />
15:00 GREMLINS<br />
17:00 THE FIRST WIVES CLuB<br />
19:00 I COuLD NEVER BE yOuR<br />
WOMAN<br />
21:00 STRANGER THAN FICTION<br />
23:00 THE BROTHERS GRIMM<br />
0:30 THE WENDELL BAkER STORy<br />
2:00 FLASHDANCE<br />
TuESDAy 3 MAy<br />
4:00 INTOLERABLE CRuELTy<br />
5:30 RAISING HELEN<br />
7:30 BEETLE JuICE<br />
9:00 GREMLINS<br />
10:30 THE BROTHERS GRIMM<br />
12:00 I COuLD NEVER BE yOuR<br />
WOMAN<br />
13:30 STRANGER THAN FICTION<br />
15:00 FALLING IN LOVE<br />
17:00 uNDISCOVERED<br />
19:00 RELATIVE STRANGERS<br />
21:00 THE LAST kISS<br />
23:00 NEW IN TOWN<br />
0:30 I COuLD NEVER BE yOuR<br />
WOMAN<br />
2:00 THE FIRST WIVES CLuB<br />
WEDNESDAy 4 MAy<br />
4:00 THE BROTHERS GRIMM<br />
5:30 STRANGER THAN FICTION<br />
7:00 INTO THE WEST- MOVIE- 1992<br />
8:30 FALLING IN LOVE<br />
10:30 NEW IN TOWN<br />
12:00 RELATIVE STRANGERS<br />
13:30 THE LAST kISS<br />
15:00 PETE’S METEOR<br />
17:00 HAPPy GILMORE<br />
19:00 DEDICATION<br />
23:00 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN:<br />
THE CuRSE OF THE BLACk PEARL<br />
1:00 RELATIVE STRANGERS<br />
2:30 uNDISCOVERED<br />
international artists who will be touring the country and<br />
playing in three of the most beautiful <strong>Ethiopian</strong> cities,<br />
namely Addis Ababa, Harar and Gondar in May 2011.<br />
SATURDAY NITE LIVE!<br />
WHAT: REGGAE MuSIC!!!<br />
WHERE: HOLLAND HOuSE,LEGEHAR AREA, ADDIS<br />
ABABA<br />
TIME: 8:30PM - SuNDAy AT 2:00AM<br />
Enjoy a Live Reggae Muzik with Sydney Salmon & Imperial<br />
Majestic Band feat. Ebony Joseph, Black Haze & kilo’D’,<br />
Poet/Emcee I-Timothy, plus more special guests! Come &<br />
full-joy the vibes & atmosphere! Timothy Green<br />
MBC<br />
SATuRDAy 30 APR<br />
6:00 TOOLBOx MuRDERS<br />
7:30 THE RAGE WITHIN<br />
9:00 THE LAST SAMuRAI<br />
11:00 MERCENARy FOR JuSTICE<br />
13:00 MILLION DOLLAR BABy<br />
15:00 ANGEL EyES<br />
17:00 THE BOOk OF ELI<br />
19:00 THE CROW: SALVATION<br />
21:00 THE LOVE GuRu<br />
23:00 MATCHSTICk MEN<br />
1:00 THE CLIENT<br />
SuNDAy 1 MAy<br />
3:00 SECRET WINDOW<br />
4:30 DEATH RACE<br />
6:00 HAVANA<br />
9:00 MATCHSTICk MEN<br />
11:00 EMILy BRONET’S WuTHERING<br />
HEIGHTS<br />
13:00 THE CLIENT<br />
15:00 THE CROW: SALVATION<br />
17:00 MATCHSTICk MEN<br />
19:00 THE RIVER kING<br />
21:00 HOSTAGE<br />
1:00 AMERICAN CRuDE<br />
MONDAy 2 MAy<br />
3:00 FRIDAy THE 13TH PART III<br />
4:00 THE LOVE GuRu<br />
6:00 EMILy BRONET’S WuTHERING<br />
HEIGHTS<br />
7:30 THE AVENGING EAGLE<br />
11:00 THE CHASE<br />
13:00 HOSTAGE<br />
15:00 THE RIVER kING<br />
19:00 PISTOL WHIPPED<br />
21:00 THE DARJEELING LIMITED<br />
23:00 MR. BROOkS<br />
1:00 21 GRAMS<br />
TuESDAy 3 MAy<br />
3:00 DRACuLA II : ASCENSION<br />
THE<br />
ADDIS ABABA<br />
TOP<br />
ON AFRO 105.3 FM<br />
yOuR INFOTAINMENT STATION – FROM<br />
10 -11 AM SuNDAy MORNINGS WITH ELLA<br />
4:30 AMERICAN CRuDE<br />
6:00 THE CHASE<br />
7:30 THE DAy THE EARTH STOPPED<br />
9:00 MR. BROOkS<br />
11:00 THE EDuCATION OF CHARLIE<br />
BANkS<br />
13:00 THE DARJEELING LIMITED<br />
15:00 PISTOL WHIPPED<br />
17:00 MR. BROOkS<br />
19:00 HIGH CRIMES<br />
21:00 STEALTH<br />
23:00 THE BANk JOB<br />
1:00 HEAVEN<br />
WEDNESDAy 4 MAy<br />
3:00 BuBBLE<br />
4:30 21 GRAMS<br />
6:00 THE EDuCATION OF CHARLIE<br />
BANkS<br />
7:30 A LOuSy 10 GRANDS<br />
9:00 THE BANk JOB<br />
13:00 STEALTH<br />
15:00 HIGH CRIMES<br />
17:00 THE BANk JOB<br />
19:00 SILENT PARTNER<br />
23:00 LORD OF WAR<br />
FOX<br />
Movies<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
Act Em – Mortality<br />
Streets of Addis –<br />
Lucyboyz, Ebony and<br />
kapo Israel<br />
Stuntin On Em –<br />
Navstar and JaCob<br />
Spit Game– kapo Israel<br />
Ebony – Africa unite<br />
Eyoab Emanuel – I<br />
Need To know<br />
MC Siyamregn – Biggy<br />
Jiggy<br />
In the East – Natty Simz<br />
Catch the Tiger –<br />
Jukebox and Woah!<br />
king of Love – Ledj Leo<br />
ft. Luciano<br />
Vote your favourite artist during the week:<br />
on the Facebook page- Sunrise on 105.3<br />
or at – afrosunrise@gmail.com<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
CINEMA<br />
in<br />
Addis Ababa<br />
@ MATI CINEMA<br />
Cinema 1<br />
SATURdAy, APRIl 30, 2011<br />
Cinema 2 Cinema 3<br />
Time Show Title Time Show Title Time Show Title<br />
04:15 pm - Amalayu 04:30 pm - Red Riding Hood 04:15 pm - Thor (3d)<br />
06:30 pm (<strong>Amharic</strong>) 06:30 pm<br />
06:30 pm<br />
06:45 pm -<br />
08:45 pm<br />
09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
yalteneka<br />
(<strong>Amharic</strong>)<br />
06:45 pm -<br />
08:45 pm<br />
Arthur 09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
SATuRDAy, 23 APR<br />
SATuRDAy, 30 APR<br />
07:00 AM ALVIN & THE CHIPMuNkS<br />
09:00 AM ROGuE TRADER<br />
11:00 AM TOMBSTONE<br />
01:00 PM TRuE HOLLyWOOD<br />
STORIES: kOBE BRyANT<br />
02:00 PM ALVIN & THE CHIPMuNkS<br />
04:00 PM SEABISCuIT<br />
06:00 PM TRuE HOLLyWOOD<br />
STORIES: WILL SMITH<br />
07:00 PM THE TRANSPORTER<br />
09:00 PM TRANSPORTER 2<br />
11:00 PM HITMAN<br />
SuNDAy, 1 MAy<br />
01:00 AM COLLATERAL DAMAGE<br />
03:00 AM k-PAx<br />
07:00 AM THE TRANSPORTER<br />
09:00 AM HITMAN<br />
11:00 AM FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIx<br />
01:00 PM TRuE HOLLyWOOD<br />
STORIES: WILL SMITH<br />
02:00 PM THE TRANSPORTER<br />
04:00 PM TRANSPORTER 2<br />
06:00 PM 25 CELEBRITy NEAR<br />
DEATH ExPERIENCES<br />
07:00 PM HITMAN<br />
09:00 PM A MIGHTy HEART<br />
11:00 PM THERE WILL BE BLOOD<br />
MONDAy, 2 MAy<br />
01:00 AM FROM DuSk TILL DAWN<br />
03:00 AM FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIx<br />
05:00 AM TRuE LIES<br />
07:00 AM FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIx<br />
09:00 AM TRuE LIES<br />
11:00 AM TWO WEEkS NOTICE<br />
01:00 PM 25 CELEBRITy NEAR<br />
DEATH ExPERIENCES<br />
02:00 PM A MIGHTy HEART<br />
04:00 PM THERE WILL BE BLOOD<br />
06:00 PM 25 CELEBRITy NEAR<br />
DEATH ExPERIENCES<br />
07:00 PM FROM DuSk TILL DAWN<br />
09:00 PM RED EyE<br />
11:00 PM PIRATES OF THE<br />
CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST<br />
TuESDAy, 3 MAy<br />
01:00 AM 28 WEEkS LATER<br />
03:00 AM JOy RIDE 2: DEAD AHEAD<br />
05:00 AM 28 WEEkS LATER<br />
07:00 AM MELINDA AND MELINDA<br />
09:00 AM IRIS<br />
11:00 AM ALFIE<br />
01:00 PM 25 CELEBRITy NEAR<br />
DEATH ExPERIENCES<br />
02:00 PM COLLATERAL DAMAGE<br />
04:00 PM PIRATES OF THE<br />
CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST<br />
06:00 PM BEST OF THE WORST RED<br />
CARPET MOMENTS<br />
07:00 PM 28 WEEkS LATER<br />
09:00 PM A GOOD yEAR<br />
11:00 PM HARRy POTTER AND THE<br />
CHAMBER OF SECRET<br />
WEDNESDAy, 4 MAy<br />
01:00 AM REIGN OF FIRE<br />
03:00 AM GREAT ExPECTATIONS<br />
05:00 AM IRIS<br />
07:00 AM JuMPIN’ JACk FLASH<br />
09:00 AM GREAT ExPECTATIONS<br />
11:00 AM A GOOD yEAR<br />
Red Riding Hood 06:45 pm -<br />
08:45 pm<br />
Red Riding Hood 09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Thor (3d)<br />
Thor (3d)<br />
Cinema 1<br />
SUndAy, MAy 01, 2011<br />
Cinema 2 Cinema 3<br />
Time Show Title Time Show Title Time Show Title<br />
04:15 pm - Amalayu 04:30 pm - Red Riding Hood 04:15 pm - Thor (3d)<br />
06:30 pm (<strong>Amharic</strong>) 06:30 pm<br />
06:30 pm<br />
06:45 pm -<br />
08:45 pm<br />
09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Amalayu<br />
(<strong>Amharic</strong>)<br />
06:45 pm -<br />
08:45 pm<br />
Arthur 09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Red Riding Hood 06:45 pm -<br />
09:00 pm<br />
Red Riding Hood 09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Thor (3d)<br />
Thor (3d)<br />
Cinema 1<br />
MOndAy, MAy 02, 2011<br />
Cinema 2 Cinema 3<br />
Time Show Title Time Show Title Time Show Title<br />
06:45 pm - Amalayu 06:45 pm - Red Riding Hood 06:45 pm - Thor (3d)<br />
08:45 pm (<strong>Amharic</strong>) 08:45 pm<br />
08:45 pm<br />
09:00 pm - Arthur 09:00 pm - Red Riding Hood 09:00 pm - Thor (3d)<br />
11:00 pm<br />
11:00 pm<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Cinema 1<br />
TUeSdAy, MAy 03, 2011<br />
Cinema 2 Cinema 3<br />
Time Show Title Time Show Title Time Show Title<br />
06:45 pm - Amalayu 06:45 pm - Red Riding Hood 06:45 pm - Thor (3d)<br />
08:45 pm (<strong>Amharic</strong>) 08:45 pm<br />
09:00 pm<br />
09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Arthur 09:00 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Red Riding Hood 09:15 pm -<br />
11:00 pm<br />
Thor (3d)<br />
01:00 PM BEST OF THE WORST RED<br />
CARPET MOMENTS<br />
02:00 PM TWO WEEkS NOTICE<br />
04:00 PM A GOOD yEAR<br />
06:00 PM DOOMED TO DIE? 13<br />
MOST SHCkING HOLLyWOOD<br />
CuRSES<br />
07:00 PM REIGN OF FIRE<br />
11:00 PM THE HORSE WHISPERER<br />
THuRSDAy, 5 MAy<br />
01:00 AM THE CROW 2: CITy OF<br />
ANGELS<br />
03:00 AM SWIMFAN<br />
05:00 AM DANCES WITH WOLVES<br />
07:00 AM SWIMFAN<br />
09:00 AM SLEEPING WITH THE<br />
ENEMy<br />
11:00 AM COLLATERAL DAMAGE<br />
01:00 PM DOOMED TO DIE? 13<br />
MOST SHCkING HOLLyWOOD<br />
CuRSES<br />
02:00 PM SWIMFAN<br />
02:00 PM SWIMFAN<br />
04:00 PM THE HORSE WHISPERER<br />
06:00 PM FORBES 10 MOST<br />
ExPENSIVE CELEBRITy DIVORCES<br />
07:00 PM THE CROW 2: CITy OF<br />
ANGELS<br />
09:00 PM VANITy FAIR<br />
11:00 PM WILD WILD WEST<br />
FRIDAy, 6 MAy<br />
01:00 AM MARS ATTACkS!<br />
03:00 AM SLEEPING WITH THE<br />
ENEMy<br />
05:00 AM THE REF<br />
07:00 AM SLEEPING WITH THE<br />
ENEMy<br />
09:00 AM THE REF<br />
11:00 AM VANITy FAIR<br />
01:00 PM FORBES 10 MOST<br />
ExPENSIVE CELEBRITy DIVORCES<br />
02:00 PM IN GOOD COMPANy<br />
04:00 PM HARRy POTTER AND THE<br />
CHAMBER OF SECRET<br />
06:00 PM FORBES 20 MOST<br />
ExPENSIVE CELEBRITy WEDDINGS<br />
07:00 PM HOME ON THE RANGE<br />
09:00 PM DR. SEuSS’ HORTON<br />
HEARS A WHO<br />
11:00 PM STARDuST
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
<strong>Reporter</strong> SPORTS<br />
THE<br />
Past winners<br />
Keflezighi,<br />
Gebremariam,<br />
and Kiplagat to<br />
return to new york<br />
Marathon<br />
Past winners Meb Keflezighi, Gebre<br />
Gebremariam, and Edna Kiplagat<br />
will return to add to their laurels<br />
at the 2011 ING New York City<br />
Marathon on 6 November.<br />
In 2009, Keflezighi became the first American<br />
to win this IAAF Gold Label Road Race since<br />
Alberto Salazar in 1982. Gebremariam of<br />
Ethiopia and Kiplagat of Kenya will start as<br />
the reigning champions.<br />
Keflezighi, 35, of Mammoth Lakes, CA, is a<br />
New York favorite who will be running the<br />
race for the seventh time and has showed<br />
remarkable consistency, with five top-10<br />
finishes including his historic triumph in<br />
2009 and last year’s sixth-place finish as the<br />
top American. He’ll get extra attention this<br />
year, as he’s looking to run both New York<br />
and the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials race in<br />
Houston in January 2012.<br />
“Marathons are always challenging, but I’m<br />
challenging myself further with my goal to<br />
run both the ING New York City Marathon<br />
2011 and the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon<br />
Trials,” said Keflezighi. “This timing and<br />
challenge is very similar to 2004, when I won<br />
the silver medal at the Olympic Games and<br />
was the runner-up in the ING New York<br />
City Marathon 70 days later. This experience<br />
gives me, Coach Bob Larsen, and the rest of<br />
my team the confidence to pursue the goal of<br />
winning the ING New York City Marathon<br />
again, and making a third U.S. Olympic<br />
team.”<br />
Keflezighi will match up against the<br />
defending champion, Gebremariam, 26, of<br />
Ethiopia. Since winning the ING New York<br />
City Marathon in 2:08:14, Gebremariam has<br />
finished second at the NYC Half in March<br />
in a time of 1:00:25 and third at the Boston<br />
Marathon last week in a time of 2:04:53.<br />
Kiplagat, 31, of Kenya, continued her success<br />
after her victory, taking second place at the<br />
NYC Half in March in a time of 1:09:00. She<br />
finished third at the Virgin London Marathon<br />
last week, running 2:20:46.<br />
Also announced was American Jen Rhines,<br />
36, who is coming off a five-year Marathon<br />
hiatus after finishing fourth in the Rome<br />
Marathon in March 2006. She competed in<br />
the 2004 Olympic Marathon, but has recently<br />
focused on shorter distances, including<br />
the 5000 meters, which she ran in the 2008<br />
Olympic Games in Beijing. Rhines has<br />
already won two national championships this<br />
year, claiming the half-marathon crown in<br />
January and the 15K title last month. ( IAAF)<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
|31<br />
MOHAMMed<br />
TARGeTS COURSe<br />
ReCORd In<br />
dUSSeldORf<br />
<strong>Ethiopian</strong> teenager Merima Mohammed will<br />
be targeting a course record at the METRO<br />
Group Marathon Duesseldorf on 8 May.<br />
The 18 year-old <strong>Ethiopian</strong> boasts a personal<br />
best of 2:23:06 from her third place finish at<br />
the 2010 Toronto Marathon, which makes<br />
her the fastest woman ever entered into this<br />
IAAF Bronze Label Road Race. This year she<br />
has already shown fine Marathon form, when<br />
she took second place at January’s Mumbai<br />
Marathon clocking 2:26:57. It was only in the<br />
final strides of the race that she was beaten<br />
in Mumbai by her compatriot Koren Yal<br />
who snatched victory by just one second!<br />
With Mohammed in the race, who has a<br />
Half Marathon personal best of 1:08:36,<br />
a new course record is a real possibility.<br />
It is the first time in many years that the<br />
mark of 2:26:44 set by Germany’s Luminita<br />
Zaituc in 2005, could be under severe threat.<br />
The men’s race promises a competitive<br />
contest, with a sub-2:10 the target. Günther<br />
Weidlinger of Austria, Kenyan Stephen<br />
Merga defends title<br />
in dongio 10Km<br />
Reigning World Cross Country champion Imane Merga won the 27th<br />
edition of the Media Blenio Grand Prix 10Km road race in Dongio in<br />
the Italian-speaking region of Canton Ticino in Switzerland on Monday<br />
(25).<br />
Despite warm conditions Merga crossed the finish line in 28:17 missing<br />
the course record held by his illustrious compatriot Haile Gebrselassie<br />
(28:10) by seven seconds.<br />
The Swiss race was organised for the first time in 1985 to celebrate the<br />
Olympic silver medal won by Swiss runner Markus Ryffel at the 1984<br />
Olympic Games in Los Angeles and was won three times by Paul Tergat<br />
(1993, 1996, 1997), Gebrselassie (1995), Edwin Soi (2006, 2007 and 2008)<br />
and Moses Mosop (2009) to name just a few names who contributed to<br />
the history of the Media Blenio.<br />
Merga, who won the Diamond Race in the 5000m at last year’s inaugural<br />
Samsung Diamond League, repeated his win from last year thanks to<br />
his trademark devastating kick in the final metres to defeat 59:30 Half<br />
Marathon runner Philemon Limo from Kenya who finished four seconds<br />
behind. Hunegnaw Mesfin from Ethiopia finished third in 28:33.<br />
After a first lap run in 4:06 in which none of the leading pack seemed to<br />
take the initiative, five men - Limo, Merga, Mesfin, Alex Korio and Silas<br />
Kipruto - broke away from the rest of the field by increasing the pace in<br />
the second lap run in 7:29.<br />
Only Kipruto lost ground on the leading group which was whittled<br />
down to Limo, Merga, Korio and Mesfin during the third lap. During<br />
the fourth lap Korio was dropped, while Mesfin tried to keep the pace<br />
with Limo and Merga.<br />
Limo kept the lead for most of the race but Merga stayed closely behind<br />
in his wake at the ready to unleash his kick in the final lap. This was what<br />
exactly happened after they clocked 24:55 at the bell.<br />
The race was decided in the final sprint when Merga launched his kick<br />
which was reminiscent of the sprint produced at the World Cross<br />
Country Championships in Punta Umbria.<br />
Merga, who won the 5000m at Samsung Diamond League stops in Oslo<br />
and Rome last year, will focus on the longer distance heading into this<br />
summer’s World Championships in Daegu.<br />
“The 10,000 metres will be my goal for this season,” said Merga, who<br />
finished fourth in the 10,000m at the 2009 World Championships in<br />
Berlin. “I feel I have more chances over the longer distance in Daegu.”<br />
(IAAF)<br />
Kiogora, and Chala Lemi of Ethiopia<br />
are among the leading contenders.<br />
A year ago Moldavia’s Iaroslav Musinschi<br />
produced a huge surprise when he ran<br />
away right from the start. While his<br />
pacemaker dropped out at half way<br />
Musinschi kept going and clocked a course<br />
record of 2:08:32. This year European<br />
athletes could again play a strong role.<br />
“The course is fast and I am sure that I will<br />
be supported very well from the organisers<br />
regarding pacemakers,” said Weidlinger.<br />
The 33-year-old intends to qualify early<br />
for the 2012 Olympic Games Marathon. If<br />
conditions are agreeable Weidlinger will go<br />
for his personal best which stands at 2:10:47<br />
which he clocked in Frankfurt in 2009.<br />
“We are proud that an international athlete<br />
of the calibre of Günther Weidlinger<br />
has decided to run in Duesseldorf. This<br />
is proof of the great development of the<br />
METRO Group Duesseldorf Marathon in<br />
recent years. The race becomes more and<br />
more attractive for elite and fun runners,”<br />
said Race Director Jan Winschermann.<br />
One of the favourites in Duesseldorf will be<br />
Kiogora. The 36-year-old Kenyan is an athlete<br />
with plenty of experience over the distance,<br />
with several notable results over the past seven<br />
years. In 2004 Kiogora was fourth in Boston<br />
and seventh in Chicago, in 2006 he was second<br />
in New York and a year later he took third in<br />
Boston. Additionally he won the Las Vegas<br />
Marathon in 2005 and has a personal best of<br />
2:09:21. The fastest runner in the field thus far<br />
is Lemi who clocked 2:08:49 when he finished<br />
second in the Toronto Marathon in 2009.<br />
(IAAF)
32|<br />
The <strong>Reporter</strong> | Saturday |April 30, 2011<br />
www.ethiopianreporter.com<br />
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