Millionaires were born out of famine aid

Courtesy of Ethiomedia

Gebre Medin Araya's, Ye Tigrai Be Telat EMewdeq..(The fall of Tigrai into the hand of the enemy, and the repercussions in the rest of Ethiopia) part one and two, fourteen pages in Amharic, is a timely piece on this 25th anniversary of the famine in our country. Sadly, another famine is unfolding at this very moment and those who want to make money out of it are well organized as usual. The author of two books in recent times, Asgede G. Selassie's "Saw Berasu Samba... (People are muzzled) also exposes what he knows about the current situation in Tigrai, famine and politics.

Asgede on his recent interview with Reporter identified many places in Tigrai that are drought-stricken. However, the regions suffering from drought in Ethiopia currently, BBC and other foreign medias showed Tigrai as non-drought area. This is not a surprise and deliberately a misinformation campaign by TPLF. The foreign media got their information from the regime in power and took its word without checking other resources.

This false information is purposely designed to misinform the Ethiopian people that Tigrai region is a beneficiary of the government. The propaganda of other regions in Ethiopia to learn from Tigrai was deliberately orchestrated to isolate the people of Tigrai from other Ethiopians.

In his educational piece, which I recommend everyone to read, Gebremedhin exposes how TPLF made a fortune of the 1984 famine which resulted in launching the huge business conglomerate EFFORT. The $100 million dollars Live Aid's Bob Geldof handed over to Meles Zenawi and Sebhat Nega when he invited them to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, needs further investigation. It is a big robbery unknown for many of us, especially for those who donated their money after they saw the heartbreaking images of hungry Ethiopian children.

The $100 million was kept between Meles Zenawi and Sebhat Nega, who deposited in their foreign accounts. We have the right to ask Bob Geldof to tell us what he knows. We know this money had not reached the dying and starving people in whose name the money was collected.

The tons of food shipped via Port Sudan and reached TPLF also to Arab businesses, which will be very hard to track what happened . However, by exposing such criminal activities of TPLF, we can alert foreign donors not to hand over their aid to be controlled by TPLF and its Sudan collaborators. We know that the Sudanese Port is the port chosen by TPLF to unload foods and other donated materials for the starving people this time.

Famine has been a gold mine for TPLF bosses. Their wealth back home and in foreign countries is at the expense of dead children, women and the elderly. It is time to bring these criminals to justice. There is no statue of limitations on such crime

Eskinder Vs Enginer Gizachew

A dispute between board members of a new cement factory is ongoing after one of the members allegedly used the firm's name to promote a separate business interest.
The argument between the promoter of Habesha Beer SC and the management of Habesha Cement SC occurred following a newspaper advertisement by the beer promoter and cement firm board member, Eskinder Desta.
In a promotion for the new beer, the promoters described themselves as the people behind the idea of the under-formation cement factory.
However, in the middle of last week, a letter sent to local media signed by Gizachew Shiferaw (Eng), chairman of the cement firm, objected to the reference to the cement firm in the beer advert.
The letter sent to local media said in part: "The advertisement confuses the public, especially Habesha Cement shareholders, for which they will be legally accountable."
The main founder and promoter of Habesha Beer, Eskinder, told Capital that both of the enterprises were his ideas: "I can use my past success and promote the new company legally."
But Gizachew told Capital that his objection is not about whose idea the cement factory project is, but that it is illegal to use the company's name in an advertisement for a separate firm.
The letter continued: "Therefore as it is illegal to use the name of our share company to advertise a firm with which we have no relation at all, we demand that you make the necessary corrections on your paper."
According to the chairman, the adverts have continued to be published, despite an initial warning.
He added: "We did not have a problem with the name of the new beer factory, but they should stop stating our company name."
"If the papers print the same advertisement again, we will sue them," Gizachew, the former manager of Mugher Cement, added.
According to him, the new share offer by the beer company is affecting the sale of shares for the cement enterprise. He suggested it is also having a negative influence on subscribers that have not completed their full payment.
Sources suggested that this was because of concerns from investors that the management of the cement firm had turned their attention to a new enterprise before fully establishing the initial one.
According to the letter received earlier this week, a total of 280 million birr in shares have been sold by the cement firm.
Both Eskinder and Gizachew were the main promoters of the cement factory and recently were elected to be board members by a general assembly of the shareholders.
As of tomorrow, the beer factory's shares will go on sale with a minimum share of 4,000 birr and a maximum allocation of 49 per cent of the total amount being allowed per investor. In total, 250,000 shares in the company are available. The sale of shares in the 600 million birr project ends in March next year.
Eskinder said that as per their business plan, from the end of the past week the advertisement will change due to the launch of the share sales. There are six main promoters of Habesha Beer; and the share sales are controlled by Habesha Capital Service, which is managed by Eskinder.
Preparations are underway for the construction of the Cement plant at Holeta, which is 35 kilometres west of Addis Ababa.

Alamudi starts food farm for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc, Sheik Mohamed Al Amoudi’s newest company formed to grow food in Ethiopia for Saudi Arabia, paid 80 million dollars for the delivery of Caterpillar agricultural machinery and equipment.

The receipt of the money was confirmed by a letter sent to Haile Assegdie, director general of Saudi Star, and Alemayehu Mengesha, managing director of Ries Engineering SC, by Philippe Bory, finance manager of Near East Financial Corporation.

Saudi Star and Ries signed the agreement on August 13, 2009. Paul Ries is the sole agent of Near East Financial Corporation, which is the dealer for Caterpillar products. These products are manufactured in the United States, Europe and Japan, from where they are expected to be delivered to Saudi Star.

Saudi Star’s was the largest order ever for Ries, which was established in 1974 Alemayehu said.

“We supply products to the Ministry of Defence and Salini; but this is the first time we are getting an 80 million dollar order at once,” he said.

Saudi Star was registered at the Ethiopian Investment Agency on August 20, 2009, with a capital of 500 million Br.

The company plans to increase its land holdings to 500,000hct over the next 10 to 15 years, which could cost the company three to five billion dollars, according to Haile. Its short term plan is to acquire 200,000hct from various regional states in the country.

So far it has only received 10,000hct in Alwero, in the Gambella Regional State, where it plans to grow rice. This farm will use the Alwero dam, which was constructed by the military regime to grow cotton in the area.

Saudi Star is the first company that is benefiting from a decision of the Council of Ministers allowing private investors to utilize irrigation dams and canals made by the government. The Alwero dam had been idle for 18 years.

While Saudi Star is waiting for the delivery of the machinery, it has commissioned the Agricultural Equipment & Technical Services SC (AETS), a state enterprise, to clear 1,000hct of land from the Alwero site for a payment of 9,000 Br per hectare.

“We are trying to get a contract to uproot the tree stumps in the area,” said Teferi Belay (PhD), acting general manager of AETS.

The land given to Saudi Star Plc is covered by a medium-dense forest of juniper and other indigenous trees and is land that will be used to grow rice.

The company will add more crops as it increases its territory including maize, teff, sugarcane and oil seeds.

Saudi Star presented a sample of rice to King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, who liked it enough to give him the order.

Saudi Star will also supply the local market as the company looks forward to harvesting one billion tonnes of various crops, Haile says.

Woyanee using copyright/Intellectual Property to restrain freedom of expression and opposition groups

The regime in Ethiopia has used all avenues and doors to suppress democracy and calm oppositions.Measures that started with civil societies have now shifted to audiovisuals.

In the name of Intellectual Property/Copyright , woyanee has now intensified its scope and started hunting publishers and record companies that are belived to be distributing Audiovisual materials that are being distributed by the oppositions.

To have a clear knowhow of the issue watch this clip and critcally ask yourself what is behind the curtain:
http://www.ethiotube.net/video/6069/ETV-News--Ethiopian-National-Flag-Day-celebrated-across-Ethiopia

BPR goes to ethnics re-enginering

Since the introduction of the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) by the very same people advocating the quota system, merit has become a crucial element in appointments.
nstructed to empower individuals from rather historically disgruntled groups, managers of state enterprises

And now BPR requires every assignment to have a 'process owner' who is accountable for actions and inactions.

This had been the issue and subject of intense debate two weeks ago when the authority called a meeting, held at a hall, in the Ethiopian Transport Authority, near the Addis Abeba Stadium. The Authority, which has unveiled its strategic plan, is now requesting many of the enterprises under its supervision to send the list of top management members and their ethnic background.

This has invoked fear among managers of state enterprises that there is the possibility for the authority to get tempted to intervene in the appointments of position as high up as department heads and it is also feared that this might create a huge havoc that can spill an ethnic war within the civil service.

Teddy Stadium concert profit goes to Woyanee's pocket

Ethiopian Singing sensation, Tewodros Kassahun, popularly known as Teddy Afro, is to perform his first public concert since his release from Kality Prison at Addis Ababa Stadium on October 11. At his first press conference since his release three weeks ago, Teddy said that the profit from the concert will contribute to a project to eliminate begging and street living from the country being undertaken by Elshaday Relief and Development Association, a local NGO.

However, DebreBirhan has found out that Elshaday is fully owned by Tigrean born woyanees and is jointly run the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
Eventhough, the NGO has goodwill and commendable achievements in short period of time, the fact that its is owned and run by Tigrean born Woyanees paints it bad color.

In addition, to its mission of resettling street residents , Elshaday excutes elimination task of possible forces from the streets hand in hand with the Mele's regime.

Teddy has never commented on this issue so far.

Elshaday works on the resettlement of street residents to suitable areas or their hometowns.
So far, the NGO has resettled around 28,000 people to their former hometowns over the last year. Half of the 200, 000 beggars in the country are located in Addis Ababa, and on average they collect 100 birr per day, according to an Elshaday and Ethiopian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs study.

coming stories from DebreBirhan

* Teddy Afro's planned stadium concert is fully in conjuction with Tigrean woyanes

*Woyanee using copyright/Intellectual Property to restrain freedom of expression and opposition groups

*Ethiopian Civil Servants asked to report their ethnic backgrounds through the new BPR system

Stay tuned to our blog

Ethiopian Journalist fleds to Kenya

The correspondent for Washington Post and Time Magazine in Ethiopia, Kassahun Addis, has fled to Kenya last week.

Kassahun had to fled to kenya to save his life from the imminent danger that he was grappled with.As a reporter and correspondent to these foreign media, he was seen by the regime of Meles Zenawi as a spy of the West.

Kassahun before starting with these two big media, had been a reporter and editor in various English language newspapers in Ethiopia such as The Reporter and SubSaharan Informer.

He holds Bachlors Degree from Addis Abeba University in Poltical Sceience and International Realtions and he also did further studies.

Ethiopia is the second African Nation after Zimbabwe having the highest number of journalists in exile.

An Ethiopian farmer in Malawi

Demeke Zualede, 28, fled drought, conflict and hunger in his homeland, Ethiopia, in 2008. He reached Mozambique but was deported and now lives in Dzaleka Refugee Camp in central Malawi. This is his story.

"There are so many problems in Ethiopia and I had to leave. I was a farmer and when drought hit my area for two years there was no food for everyone. The war in Somalia has affected us too - young men have to join the army to defend our country.

"I left Ethiopia with many other friends, seeking a better livelihood in other countries. We arrived in Kenya some days later, but even there life was not as good as we expected. We kept moving and arrived in Tanzania. There, too, things did not work out for us. The journey from Ethiopia to Malawi took us four months. Most of the trip was covered on foot, hence the long time to arrive in Malawi.

"When we arrived in Malawi we were put in a refugee camp. Most people think we are soldiers, and a danger to society, but some of us are just farmers. The authorities won't let us live in townships. They say we have to be in the camp, but life in the camp is not easy. The food is not enough. We receive a food ration of six kilograms every fortnight.

"In the refugee camp we face a number of problems. We need money, enough food, and all the essentials that one needs to lead a good life. We can't be offered any employment because our status is that of a refugee. We have to live in a camp until the time for repatriation comes.

"The other day we escaped and thought of going to Zimbabwe, where some of our colleagues are working. We heard that our colleagues there are doing fine. With no money, we have to walk long distances. When we crossed over to Mozambique we were arrested and brought back to Malawi.

"My dream to work in South Africa or Zimbabwe has been shattered, but I am not going to give up easily. If an opportunity avails itself I will jump on it and travel to South Africa. I cannot live in camp forever.

Ethiopia : is where the white ,black,brown people and you have come from

A treasure trove of 4.4-million-year-old fossils from the Ethiopian desert is dramatically overturning widely held ideas about the early evolution of humans and how they came to walk upright, even as it paints a remarkably detailed picture of early life in Africa, researchers reported today.

The centerpiece of the diverse collection of primate, animal and plant fossils is the near-complete skeleton of a human ancestor that demonstrates our earliest forebears looked nothing like a chimpanzee or other large primate, as is now commonly believed. Instead, the findings suggest that the last common ancestor of humans and primates, which existed nearly 2 million years earlier, was a primitive creature that shared few traits with modern-day members of either group.

The findings, analyzed in a large group of studies published today in the journal Science, also indicate that our ancestors began walking upright in woodlands, not on grassy savannas as prior generations of researchers had speculated.

The discovery of the specimen called Ardipithecus ramidus "is one of the most important discoveries for the study of human evolution," said paleoanthropologist David Pilbeam of Harvard University, who was not involved in the research. "The find itself is extraordinary, as were the enormous labors that went into the reconstruction of a skeleton shattered almost beyond repair," he said in an e-mailed statement.

"It is so rare to get a more or less complete skeleton," said paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill of Yale University. "In the entire course of human evolution, at least until you get to Neanderthals, there are only three to four available. We can always tell so much more from a skeleton" than from the jawbones and skulls that are more commonly found.

The fossils described in the new studies were found 15 years ago in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia by a team led by paleoanthropologist Tim White of UC Berkeley. But White and his team have been relatively closemouthed about the fossils, and other researchers -- some of whom have accused him of hoarding the fossils for his own use -- have been eagerly awaiting more information.

Today, they are getting a surfeit: Eleven papers by 47 authors, and a similar number of short summaries prepared by each paper's authors.

The fossils were found in a layer of sediment sandwiched between two layers of volcanic ash, each dating from 4.4 million years ago -- indicating that the fossils are also of that age.

In addition to the nearly complete fossil specimen of the female primate, which investigators have dubbed Ardi, the team found more than 100 fossils from 36 other members of the same species.

"These fossils are much more important than Lucy," the 3.2-million-year-old specimen of Australopithecus afarensis that was found in the Afar desert in the 1970s, said paleoanthropologist Alan Walker of Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the research. "The reason is that when Lucy was found, we already knew the major features of Australopithecus from fossils found in the 1940s. . . . These fossils are of a completely unknown creature, and are much stranger and more primitive than Australopithecus."

The White team also found fossils of 29 species of birds, primarily small ones like doves, lovebirds, mousebirds, passerines and swifts, as well as several that were previously unknown. Animal fossils included 20 new species of small mammals, including shrews, bats, rodents, hares and small carnivores, as well as larger animals, including baboons, colobus monkeys and spiral-horned antelopes.

Fossilized wood, seed and other plant remains indicate the presence of hackberry, fig and palm trees. Collectively, these finds indicate that the environment was more humid and cooler than it is today, and contained grassy woodland with forest patches.

Today, the Afar is a desert. But go back in a time machine and "4.4 million years ago, this was really a different world," White said. "We look up in the trees and we see that they are full of monkeys. We look around on the ground and we see that there are a lot of kudus. And we see an occasional hyena. And we see elephants and we see lots of small mammals. And we know what all of these . . . are because we have found evidence of them."

This whole collection of data "gives us information we have never had before about human evolution," said paleoanthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University, one of the primary authors of the papers. "The whole savanna theory goes out the window in terms of it being the explanation for upright walking. . . . And the idea that we evolved from something like a chimpanzee also goes out the window."

Ardi stood about 47 inches tall and probably weighed 110 pounds. Many researchers had previously believed that such an early ancestor would, like modern chimps, be a knuckle-walker, using the knuckles for support while moving on all fours. Instead, Ardi appears to have climbed on all fours on branches, but walked upright on the ground. Her feet, like those of monkeys but not chimps, were designed more for propulsion than for grasping.

Her face had a projecting muzzle, giving her an ape-like appearance, but many features of her skull, such as the ridge above the eye socket, are quite different than those of chimpanzees. Her brain is about the same size as Lucy's.

Her hands lacked many of the specializations that allow modern-day African apes to swing, hang and easily move through trees. Those specializations apparently evolved in large primates after they separated from the last common ancestor with humans more than 6 million years ago. (Few fossils of such primates are available because they lived primarily in forests, which are not conducive to preservation of bone.)

The finds "are turning evolution on its head," Lovejoy said.

The most controversial aspects of the papers involve the authors' -- particularly Lovejoy's -- interpretations of what the fossils say about behavior. Of particular importance, he said, is that the sizes of males and females were about the same, and that the specimens do not have large, sharp canine teeth. Both findings suggest that the fierce, often violent competition among males for females in heat that characterizes gorillas and chimpanzees was absent in Ardipithecus.

That implies, Lovejoy concluded, that the males were beginning to enter into monogamous relationships with females and devoted a greater proportion of their time to caring for their young than did earlier ancestors.

"This is a restatement of Owen Lovejoy's ideas going back almost three decades, which I found unpersuasive then and still do," Pilbeam said. Hill was more blunt, calling Lovejoy's speculation "patent nonsense."

Farmers and scientists from Ethiopia and Peru demand indigenous approach to conservation

A declaration issued this week by farmers and scientists from Ethiopia and Peru urges policymakers to establish indigenous bio-cultural territories as areas for conserving agricultural biodiversity.

The call, made at a workshop in Peru that ended on 29 September, urges recognition of indigenous peoples' and their rights to land and biological, genetic and cultural resources, and their rights to define their own food production and consumption systems.

Delegates highlighted the contribution of indigenous peoples to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity that is important for food and agriculture. They pointed to the importance of resilient, biodiverse food systems to sustain livelihoods, reduce poverty and help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change.

"The declaration encourages action research and South-South learning," says Dr Michel Pimbert, who heads IIED's sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and livelihoods programme. "It calls for the creation of democratic spaces for intercultural dialogue and the strengthening of interdependent networks of food producers and other citizens."

IIED's Peruvian partner Asociación Andes organised the workshop with the Association of the Communities of the Potato Park , a pioneering example of community based conservation of agricultural biodiversity.

WHAT WOULD AN ETHIOPIAN SAY on this?

Comment below: