Reader's Weekend music choice

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

7-8-2011

Thy weekend come. So to relax with with music ! I received no music choice from no one in my inbox. So I just simply chose this one for my esteemed readers.This man is little listened and told about. He is called Tsegachew Haileyesus, founder of La Fontaine Music Band. Tsegachew , Berhanu Tezera, Tadele Roba and Abebe Teka were the founders and earliest members of the group.Tsegachew the founder and senior of the four took the lions share in the Band's formation and success.And he was the vocal of all , at least by my standard. Unfortunately, he is not alive now.Since he died and Abebe Teka left for the U.S. for due, the rest of the duet remained representing the La Fontaine .

Listen to his music below , look at his memorable pictures and relax.

Yet another high profile Ethiopian adoption story : J.Lo. plays a scene on it

J.Lo.

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

06-08-2011

American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, fashion designer and television producer , Jennifer Lopez has been screening her new movie " What to expect when you are expecting" that features Ethiopia and Ethiopians last week in Atlanta, United States, sources reported.

Journalist Tewodros Haile,who took part on the screening of her new movie in Atlanta , told the Addis Abeba based entertainment radio program, Tadias Addis,Jennifer is featured on the movie playing a character of a lady who was infertile hence goes to Ethiopia to adopt a child. The source said that Jennifer Lopez had built a replica of an Ethiopian rural town in Atlanta and recruited Ethiopian actors and actresses to perform in it.

"Perhaps for reasons of saving ,she chose to screen the movie in Atlanta by recruiting Ethiopian residents living in Atlanta and building an Ethiopian town here " he added.

The film, which also stars Cameron Diaz, Chris Rock and Chace Crawford follows four couples as they begin the road of parenthood.

This Blogger is working on a 30 page independent research on adoption.The Paper investigates the extent of inter-country adoption from Ethiopia,its consequences, contrast to immigration and corruption in the industry. The Paper will be made public as soon as it is completed.

Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), also known by her nickname J.Lo, is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, fashion designer and television producer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller Money Train.Jennifer Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised on Blackrock Avenue in the New York City borough's Castle Hill neighborhood. She is the daughter of Puerto Ricanparents Guadalupe (née Rodríguez), a kindergarten teacher, and David Lopez, a computer specialist, both born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Lopez was raised Roman Catholic.

Pornography, African Politics and Peace Journalism

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

2011-08-04

It is almost half a decade since I left my beautiful but poor Africa/Ethiopia. When there, never been a day that I saw or was exposed to anything pornographic except short erotic sessions that we watch on most Western produced movies. Now that I am in the Western world, I would be compelled to see something that is pornographic while walking to work or surfing the net. The lovers kissing on the road, the billboards, the advertisements and the fetish, interracial, BBW, facials and other types of porn are made familiar to most of us these days by the increasingly virtualised nature of our life. I in fact did some research on it too. Last month I had come to learn through well informed friends that pornography isn’t anymore the exposure of the Diaspora but of the local African population. Like many other African countries, in Ethiopia, the use, rental and sale of pornographic movies, photographs and prints has reached an alarming rate. Movie rental shops and Mini Cinema Houses (video betoch) make their highest income from such movies. It is fair to say that the majority of Addis Abeba’s vis-à-vis Africa’s youth have become an addicted consumer of pornography. No African regime is hunting pornography channels as it is controlling dissident and critical websites and artistic copyright issues. In fact, the Artistic Copyright campaign, headed by the regimes right hand men, has its long-term agenda of controlling the spread of revolutionary,democracy and freedom oriented audiovisuals.

Naomi Wolf 's article

Naomi Wolf wrote a relevant article on Project Syndicate a month ago entitled “Is pornography driving men crazy?” The theme of her article is that the use of pornography by men is increasing and is having very debilitating effects including on decision making.

“What is driving this weirdly disinhibited decision-making? Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain, affecting men’s judgement about sex and causing them to have more difficulty controlling their impulses?”Naomi inquires.

She equates addiction to pornography to addiction of gambling or cocaine and says “As with any addiction, it is very difficult, for neurochemical reasons, for an addict to stop doing things – even very self-destructive things – that enable him to get that next hit of dopamine”.

Even if the article seemed to have been written solely from a feminist perspective, it well does nail the reality of porn addiction of today’s people, “Understanding how pornography affects the brain and wreaks havoc on male virility permits people to make better-informed choices – rather than engage in pointless self-loathing or reactive collective judgments – in a world that has become more and more addictively hardcore” she advises.

Pornography is a war against humanity. In fact it is less spoken or written about. It has waged war against human beings of all races and gender even though some research suggests that men are the highest users of pornography. The actors and actresses in porn movies are at war yes literally conflicting each other with one side winning the other. And us who watch these films are also the directs victims, losers of the cinematic media triggered war against human beings that reduces our virility/fertility, sociability, confidence, ambition and increasing our aggressiveness and abnormal sexuality. These all are big wars waged by pornography. They need an immediate solution. Naomi has, though late, recognized this negative effect and boldly wrote about the matter seeking a sustainable solution that saves humanity from apocalypse.

African Politics Vis-à-vis Porn

Some writers allegorically represent African politics as politics of pornography; don’t ask me who said that. I could be the one who said it. But anyway, the politics of Africa I see today ain’t any different from the belligerence of pornography I put above. Some of the side effects of pornography in similarity to Africa’s politics are :

· Pornography promotes destructive practices and can lead to progressive addiction. Most dictatorial leaders and regimes don’t do anything different from pornography they promote destructive practices, ethnicity, division, corruption, crime and repression that leads them to their own power addiction and elongates their lifetime.

· Pornography intensifies an individual's drive to serve oneself, rather than serve others. Giving the population/subjects love, democracy, prosperity and justice are nightmares of repressive repressive regimes; they live on personal satisfaction, selfishness and lust. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti, Zimbabwe, Libya, Malawi, Algeria, the then Egypt and Tunisia are prime examples.

· Pornography addiction can lead to debt. Many African countries led by money and corruption and power abusiveness addicted regimes are now in debt. Their inability to manage their treasures and policies that are easily manipulated by money lenders makes them highly indebted. Addiction to corruption is equal to addiction to pornography.

· By viewing and/or purchasing porn, viewers are supporting the porn industry and facilitating its growth. By simply being ruled by repressive/undemocratic rulers and also being co-opted by finance or blackmail, many people support and legitimise diactators. Members of the African Diaspora who return to their homeland for investment with the intention of garnering incentives such as free land and huge sum of loan are the prime examples.

· Looking at porn can damage the viewer's family relationships, not to mention increasing the chance of his or her spouse and children finding the material. Mal administration and bad governance damage society and future generations.

· Looking at porn at work could damage the viewer's reputation, decrease his or her productivity and lead to job loss. Same is the case in “pornogrphised’’ organisations and regimes.

· Looking at porn will increase the viewer's tendency to lie, because he or she will have a natural desire to keep it secret to avoid criticism, embarrassment, shame and/or having to surrender their habit. Abusive, corrupt, repressive and “pornogrphised’’ regimes are prone to lie, deception and confusion. They rule by deception and disdain; unwilling to receive criticisms.

These and many other consequences of pornography practically describe repressive regimes in Africa and other continents of the world. Over and above all these, pornography is resulting in 2 major side effects on African youth. One, it is promoting a culture of violence, conflict and war. Second, it is establishing a culture of hopelessness, passiveness and political impotence, I opine.

Peace Journalism

My good Facebook friend, Mandy Luke did a rigorously robust final paper on this issue entitled “Media, Peace and the Conflict of Sexual Abuse” in May 2011.It was kind of her to pass me the paper.

“In the world where media plays a defining role in our lives, it is inevitable that we will encounter conflict in the media. One particular conflict, sexual abuse, has been directly and indirectly been perpetuated by the media through propaganda, objectivity and corporate ownership. Nevertheless, these multiple media outlets have the potential to turn around negative behaviour through peace journalism to help eliminate the effects of sexual abuse Corporate ownership continues to promote sexual abuse through forms of pornography, songs, popular movies, etc, as acceptable. .”She begins her paper.

She then argues that even though this harm is being unleashed by the media (mainly the porn cinema) , a new trend of journalism that serves as a curative or preventive measure of the quandary is popping up: peace journalism. I have found the following definition of peace journalism to be the most agreed and used one “allowing or creating opportunities for society at large to consider and to value non-violent responses to conflict.” This form of journalism takes a completely opposite model of war journalism thus it attempts to report in an objectively balanced and solution finding manner.

Mandy (2011) cites organisations such as RAINN, Love146 and DNA as Projects and Organisations that are applying peace journalism. The organisations use various forms of advertising, reporting, campaigns and educational programs of peace journalism.

“Like all conflicts, sexual abuse may never be completely understood, but the pursuit of peace in journalism is a worthy cause because the media does have such an impact on the people of the world. The media has the potential to positively effect the world and draw attention to sexual abuse in the pursuit to promote peace.” she concludes.

I admiringly applaud and share Mandy’s view and analysis though I may also argue in few of the points. Let me leave the academic argument for another time.

Conclusion

• · Porn and Pornography has conquered African youth. The war it waged (both via the violent acts that take place in the movies and its aggressive psychological and cinematic penetration) is having wide ranging side effects.
• · The widespread of pornography is likely to cause a huge population reduction in the years to come.
• · It is having an aggressive and warring mentality on African youth. It promotes the youth to practically operate the scenes they watch on porn movies. This trickles down a nationwide frame of mind of war and violence.
• · Similarly, as scientifically proven, pornography is causing a societal isolation, selfishness and hopelessness within our youth. The spirit of fighting for truth, freedom, objectivity and fairness are relegated by the warring, hegemonic and dominating themes of porn movies. Many African countries especially the ones I have listed above look as if they were allowing the explicit trade and availability of pornography aware of its abilities to cause political impotence.

Recommendations

• · Pornography is war journalism and its major solution is peace and peace journalism. An organised, well studied global peace journalism needs to emerge that can robustly challenge this apocalyptic cinematic media.
• · African countries should strengthen their control of the illicit transmission of pornographic movies.
• · Peace journalism aimed at helping the already porn addicted African youth and preventing future generation from being sufferers should be started.
• And finally in essence, African politics ought to be free from its intrinsic “pornographised” nature

Crème de la crème of Ethiopia via donations ?

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

02 -08- 2011

During they heydays of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, when Ethiopian youth were of the Marxist Leninist mentality , lots of minds were lost. Due to the red terror actions taken by the then Marxist dictatorial junta thousands of Ethiopia's Crème de la crème were lost.Today's EPRP doesn't have any of those creams any more but on the Net.

I feel today our nation , poor Ethiopia has few Crème de la crèmes.Ethiopia can't go long with few illuminants.

I for one, am a poor young man myself with a positive vison to my country, continent and world.I also live on a meagre salary that hasn't even helped me satisfy my psychological needs.But I may differ from some of you.Why ? because I donate. I donate from my little saving to all those I think are doing good and are in need of help.

I wanna see many Crème de la crème of Ethiopia succeeding and doing well.I love their delight and happiness. I support all those that work for the safety, justice, equality and human rights of human beings and particularly my people.

Unlike some of you,I attempt to walk the talk by donating those who I think should be donated.Within the past 14 months alone I spent around 1000$ through donations.Balancing my account lol .

Some could perhaps say donations are like giving aid , and I say it is in some sense but it depends on who and for what purpose you do donate. So please donate those you think are doing well for the betterment of the world or your own country either individuals or organisations after all , you aren't giving blood.

Adopted girl's death prompts neglect investigation in Sedro Woolley

by ELISA HAHN / KING 5 News

Posted on August 1, 2011 at 7:06 AM

NWCN.com

Updated today at 7:17 AM

SEDRO WOOLLEY, Wash. – An investigation into possible neglect is under way after an adopted 13-year-old girl died at a home in Skagit County.Hana Grace Williams, who was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008, was found dead on May 12 in the yard of her home. The Skagit County Medical Examiner’s Office said she died of hypothermia.A source close to the investigation said Hana was 30 pounds lighter than when she arrived from Ethiopia.The Washington state Department of Social and Health Services says all eight of her siblings have been removed from the home. The prosecutor’s office said it is still waiting for more information before making a decision on charges.Hana’s parents could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Reader's Weekend music choice

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

31-7-2011

Over the week I got this e-mail from my old Ethiopian pal and arduous reader of my Blog . The gist of the e-mail was that she wants to dedicate this music(below) to one of her former friends on this Blog. Yap brilliant idea then came... I will use my Weekend Blogs to host your music dedication and choice to the ones you love or hate. Deal!

So here we go the first choice of De Birhan's Blogspot reader's music choice...Balawekuh Noro (Wish i didn't know you ) by Meskerem Alemayehu. Marta dedicates this song to her former friend Kumelachew....My English speaking readers...the song is about love..please cry Not!

Ethiopian billionaire wins libel action in UK : BBC reports

Ethiopian tycoon Mohammed Al-Amoudi

Ethiopian Review Publisher Elias Kifle

29 July 2011 Last updated at 15:13 GMT

An Ethiopian-born billionaire has won £175,000 in libel damages over allegations he had hunted his daughter down so she could be stoned to death.

Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi was born in Ethiopia, but now spends his time at homes in central London, Surrey and Saudi Arabia.

The article was published on the online news website Ethiopian Review.

Judge Richard Parkes QC said it was difficult to imagine more serious allegations.

The site's publisher and editor-in-chief, Elias Kifle, had denied liability.

The judge said that instead of apologising Mr Kifle had repeated the libel and abused Mr al-Amoudi and his lawyers.

The High Court in London heard Mr Kifle's response to the initial complaint was: "Here is my formal statement: Screw yourself".

The court heard Mr Kifle then went on to describe Mr al-Amoudi as a "scumbag bloodsucker" who was "funding al-Qaeda".

Mr al-Amoudi, 65, gave evidence during the libel trial that he was completely opposed to all forms of terrorism.

The judge said the site alleged that Mr al-Amoudi had "disgracefully and callously" married off his daughter Sarah, then 13, to an elderly member of the Saudi royal family as a gift.

'Wholly untrue'

The article went on to claim that Mr al-Amoudi was probably responsible for murdering his daughter's lover in Iraq and had hunted his daughter and granddaughter across London in an attempt to ensure they were stoned to death in Saudi Arabia.

Mr al-Amoudi told the court he was horrified by the "wholly untrue" article which could be seen by visitors to the website between January and August 2010, when it was finally taken down.

Mr al-Amoudi, who has a son and seven daughters, said he had a normal relationship with Sarah, who was not married.

He said she had completed a business administration degree in the UK.

Assessing damages, the judge said: "The claimant is not, I judge, a man who wears his heart on his sleeve.

"But his distress as he described the effect of the article on himself and on his family was evident to me, and the more so because, as it seemed to me, he was doing his best to preserve his composure."

Mr al-Amoudi, who was in the top 50 of Forbes magazine's 2009 rich list, is believed to have made his money in construction, oil refineries and mining.

Mr al-Amoudi, who is of mixed Ethiopian and Arab heritage, is sometimes described as the world's richest black man.

He was recently reported to be financing the building of Saudi Arabia's first car factory.

Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14345007

Daganchew's sex fiction : Profile of an Ethiopian writer

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

28-7-2011

I am going to a job interview this afternoon , a new one well paying- wish me well. Literature vis-a-vis writing is really a very very nice thing. Especially when you are well read, you have many fans and they send you message saying "You are so.....". That is cool for real... literary art has no boundary , an American, European or Oriental reader , scanning an African writer's writings would defiantly fall in love. Those who have gone through it know it.

One of Ethiopia's best writers and journalists was the late, Dagnachew Worku.Dagnachew Worku was born in 1944 near Debre Sina in North Shoa, Ethiopia.after acquiring his B.A. from University College of Addis Ababa, he received a three-year scholarship and studied creative writing at Iowa University in the U.S.Dagnachew picked up literary courage as early as when he was thirteen by staging his own play at Debre Sina. His early publication is a play entitled "Sew alle biyye" (1966). When he was a teacher in Harar, he staged another un-published play: "Seqeqenish isat". Later, when he was a lecturer at the Addis Ababa University, he came up with a play of better techniques entitled "Tibelch" staged at the Creative Arts Centre and Haile-Selassie I Theatre in 1964. The author got more sophisticated and technically elevated with his novels "Adefres" (Amharic) and The Thirteenth Sun (English) published in 1978 and 1981 respectively.

He is a peculiar modern Ethiopian writer because he wrote both in English and Amharic.

In this short profile wouldn't be going into details of who he is ; you can read about that from the Website that was launched in memory of him (http://adefris.info/index_dw.html).Surf the page , you will learn a lot about him and his writings.

I found something nice in his biography, i laughed. Daganachew started doing sex when he was 12, the biographer says " Although he was working, he did not want to marry and take the responsibility for a family yet; he wanted rather to continue his education. He could satisfy his sexual needs without marriage. Even in this area Dannyacchew started early. At the age of 12, he started playing at love-making with a 14 year-old servant girl hired to look after the children ("a kind of governess"), but as neither he nor she knew how to make love, it amounted only to caresses and he lying on top of her but without "penetration "- although she wanted both that and a child from the experience, murmuring lefré belew, "let it be for fruit," i.e. a child. Due to "ignorance" in the field, his sex life "proper" did not start until he was 14; even that was perhaps a bit early compared to most Ethiopian boys - but not much so. "

The following short fiction was written by him in English. I actually also have lots of unpublished short fictions and poems. They will come in book format soon, please God.

Read The Voice below that i cordially copied from adefris.info. It is a sex fiction written in a nostalgically witty way.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The Voice

By Daniachew Worku

Mana's life was tightly scheduled: during the day, he worked on the farm-cleaning ground, farming, cutting grass for the cattle, and sometimes even gathering fire-wood for the evening; and during the evening, he helped his mistress either with rubbing her body when she took her bath, or with massaging her with some kind of medicinal ointment to reduce, especially, the thickness of the neck, the hips and the legs or he simply listened to her various talks.

When Mana, about six years old, was first brought to the land-lady by one of her tenants, some thirteen years ago, he was entrusted, along with the lady's own daughter, to the care of the servants. All the servants loved him. The female servants especially seemed very much concerned about his upbringing. They fed him, played with him and told him that they loved him very much. Some of them kissed him to the point of swallowing him whole. Others touched him very delicately in various parts of his body and made him shudder, gasp and utter a cry of pain; and still some others had the temerity to rape him. On the top of it all, each of them, every time they did it made him promise to keep it secret - never to utter a work about it to anybody, including his mistress whom he rarely saw.

He kept his promise. But as times went on he found it hard to even talk at all. He developed a fear that he might say the wrong things and that in doing so he might antagonize them to the point of bringing accusation upon himself for something he hadn't done, ruining his favourable position with his mistress. But still he kept his promise and kept everything secret except, perhaps, one day when he dug the earth and shouted everything into it.

Those years, however, had been long past. Mana was now a grown up man who turned out to be, except for his black skin and upturned nose, strong and handsome. And the lady, though getting old, was, in the mean time, following the change closely, and in her attempts of keeping her subordinates tightly under her control, had already tangible plans for him.

In her time she had had her share of child reading. She had eleven children: two had died; one had run to some other province after having killed a servant in a quarrel…and nobody knew whether he was alive or dead; two had joined the army and never came to visit her except once or so every two or three years; one was studying in some government school; two of her daughters were safely married; and it was only the last one, mentioned earlier, who was living with her.

Her husband had died long ago, and it was in fact after his death that she started to gain weight at a terrific rate. She always liked to talk and her favorite subjects could be boiled down to four. They were: her project to open a drinking place, where she could dance as well, as it would improve the figure; her many children, and how good a mother she was; her husband, and how kindly and hardworking he was; and once in a while, her confessor, how understanding and encouraging he was and how he almost always took all the burden and prayer upon himself as long as she had a dollar or two for his service… And to hear her talk about these things every evening either directed to him or to others, had been fate of Mana.

He had patience and tolerance… He heard her with complete indifference showing no inclination to either agreement or disagreement.. But underneath such indifference he had slowly grown more and more bored and more and more withdrawn into himself.

The only place he had some peace was perhaps the farm where he proved himself hardworking and energetic. He brought in more crop of "tef", wheat, and maize after every season of harvest. Fathers from the neighboring villages openly proposed their daughters to him either when they came together for a group work, as during harvest time or when they met him in the road. The dropped hints that he was always welcome in their houses; they invited him for meals and even went out of their ways to do him some other good service.

At the same time, the girls also had their parts to play. They purposely drove a goat, a sheep, or a calf to where he might be farming, weeding or resting for midday meal and came as if they were looking for it. He, however, didn't seem to care for them or if he did, it was at least very hard to say since he very very rarely spoke. Even when the girls took up courage and asked him questions, he simply grunted, nodded or pointed at the thing if he happened to see it.

Though taciturn, however, the servants had occasions, to warm up from him certain things about his family. He had told them especially about his mother who never allowed him to talk, protesting that he had developed foul tongue and that he had learned only swear words and bad words, and telling him that he wasn't as yet ready to talk to descent people. She seemed also to have told him that he was handsome and that people would be satisfied by simply looking at him… always adding, of course, … "but your soul, your voice is like your father's .. it has a sour and biting edge to it." She had even called out one day while he was trying to sing with his playmates .. " No..no..no..no..no..n…my dear .. the beauty of the voice is not given to our house!" He was painfully cut short and never attempted to open his mouth again in songs either on that day or any other. He had told them that he still heard her voice " No..no..no..no..no..n…" with the exception of "my dear" which was somehow swept away by some kind of wind before he heard it; or when he heard it, it was no more than congested words! He had told them too that during those days he had been so vexed with his mother for the outrageous exposure she had put him in front of his playmates that he had to voice his grievance by soiling his clothes with mud during the day, breading his plate during the evening, and by even burning his "mamma'.

He was a man now, nevertheless. There was no reason for him to want to suppress his voice every time he wanted to talk… But then how could he go about it… How could he forget his past. How could he convince himself that the truth lay in that voice?…the voice he feared?!.. If only he wouldn't become entraped in his emotions; if only he wouldn't hear his father's hard voice shouting, complaining, and accusing people for the slightest wrongs done to him and to others--- be it against a small boy or a helpless old man, as ling as he thought himself to be right; if only he wouldn't hear the servants shaking their index finger and sharply reminding him.. " mind you..not to any one.. not to any soul..or, it's between you and me.. only..not to a soul ll never never to any one.. I repeat it again… never…" And the lady came to his rescue in time.

Mana was called to the lady's room and was told that she had decided to give him her own daughter in marriage… As usual, he listened to her for some time with his arms crossed and his hand tucked under his armpits and when she had finished, he left her without so much as uttering a word. A month later, the marriage was celebrated, and Mana was made to settle at not a long distance from her compound. A year later, he was blessed with a son.

The marriage, however, at least from what the wife made it look, didn't turn out to be a bed of roses. Certain things about him became to her more and more intolerable. She had been used to a lot of talking, discussing things out. But in her new home there was nothing like that; she found it to be exactly the reverse.. a place of silence. During a whole evening, even if she were talking on various topics that might interest him, he simply nodded and remained quiet and indifferent.
He would sit on the earthen floor at the fire place opposite her, from time to time blinking at the blaze and poking the fire with a piece of wood, and would go staring at her. Staring at her… once in a while, the silence was disturbed only by the cry of the baby, the scamper and squeak of rats or by some kind of clinking of earthen ware by the fire side. He would stare at her at the things. He would in fact go to the extent of placing her legs at the right places; and would allow him because it gave her the feeling that she was with somebody after all. At times, she would even purposely put her legs together for him and he would go on putting them apart… with a kind of a shrug and a kind of hard puffing sound from his nose. At other times, she would put out the flame carefully so that he wouldn't look into her; and thus transfixing herself in the gloom, she would enjoy his irritation and his hurry at breaking more sticks for the fire and the way he went down on his knees before her knees to blow on the sticks to start the fire.

But then such times were always difficult for her. He never raised his head immediately: every glint was a light for him; every coming up and dying of flame, every sputter, a kind of hope; every cracking of a stick and the flight of embers to her thighs, a strong suppressed gush of abrupt and half-indrawn kind of broad smile of- Ahha..ahha..ha..ha..- And then when the stick caught fire, he would make some sort of snorting noise and begin staring with bulged and shining eyes into her and would jump on her, his mouth puckering in a little unheard cry… a little struggle would ensue but she would give in, fall back on the ground before him, sometimes sobbing and clasping him round his hips.

That had become almost like a kind of food for him.. a kind of food without which perhaps he thought he wouldn't live. And for her it had become nothing more than an exhausting act. She knew she wouldn't go on like that since it became more and more apparent that his only interest was mainly that…

She thought it wise to tell her mother and she did so. She told her about it again and again and always telling her about the different things he did to her emphasizing his brutality. Her mother, therefore, first and foremost decided to make him talk; for she thought that would release his pent up energy. She devised various ways but she had almost failed when one day on New Year's eve.. when the family had some guests were gathered together for a feast, it dawned on her; perhaps encouraged and affected by the promising and joyful air in the room and the bright holiday atmosphere which permeated all around.. to beg her son-in-law in the name of all those present.. to start talking to people…. Before this of course the usual chatter was there.. she had talked about her husband.. about how good a mother she was… about her children.. and that she might even get a medal for having been God's instrument for bringing into the world so many…and so.. quite suddenly and unexpectedly she rose from her seat and opened her mouth:

" In the name of all of those present.. in the name of the Virgin Mary, our mediatress.. in the name of all the Saints, and especially, in the name of Kullube Gabriel, the healer.. Abuye Tsadiku who can shatter mountains.. and in the name of Saint George who appears in times of need and trouble, I beseech you… take us into your confidence.. or at least talk to us.. say something …something… anything…but say something.." she paused and continued "…by those heroic bones of your fathers and grand-fathers…your mothers and grand-mothers…" she paused longer, but there was no stir, movement or sound from around her, it seemed all eyes were reveted on the young man-and the lady started again, this time rather pitifully " at least give some consideration to .. a woman standing and begging you…"

Mana slowly cleared his throat and said almost inaudibly " My voice sounds like the sound made by a stone dropped in a deep well."

" Be as it may.. that wouldn't worry us …" cried the lady feeling encouraged.

" It's dry" he added.

" It wouldn't so us any harm; don't worry about that" she encouraged.

" It's sour and biting!" he continued.

"Anything!.. Anything! Anything is better than such as your silence!" uttered the lady with a sort of feeling and perturbed spirit. "Anything.. any…"she was saying again when Mana began, still with a low tone…

" How.. how…" and staring at her.. " How ..how big…I mean …" he continued looking at her hip.. " how wide would be… that.. that.. that gate that had opened… for eleven … heads!! …I mean… I.. mean… yours!" he added quickly.

The lady immediately hunched up her shoulders, withdrew her contorted face into it, began to shake and shiver, darted her eyes from her daughters to guests.. and gave a sharp sound as if something pierced her heart and seared her soul, wimpling into her seat as words dropped from her lips "…hitting.. s.. our.. sou.. r.. so..ur.." and tears clogging her throat.

" Eleven children.." Mana started again.

" No..no..no..no..no..n…" uttered the lady, the sounds wafting away to a great distance every time she uttered them.

" …and different sizes of heads at that…" he continued.

" Help me..ffffffriends… help me.. ssssssour…no.nno..no..no..nnnnnnnnnnnno.. not the word.

" …and like my boy's.. with such large shoulders…" he went on unmindful of what was going on..

" Sssut up! Sshut up.. shutupshutupshutupshutupshutup!!!" The lady shouted then, half rising from her seat, almost completely forgetting herself, and collapsing into her wicker chair again almost as immediately.

" He is talking, mother! Or isn't it what you wanted? Isn't it?" her daughter was saying bending over her mother.

" What I wanted ---? ---after all I have gone through?"

" After all you have gone through?!

Begging as a custom: Compilation of Ethiopia’s hunger appeals

25-07-2011

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

I just read Professor Al Mariam’s article, Dictator with a conscience? , just an hour ago. It was a hilarious one, please do read it. Below, I have complied some of the years, in which there is a record of, Ethiopia’s regime sought for food aid and or emergency appeal. Seemingly like a custom, there wasn’t a single year, in which the regime didn’t beseech for food. My question is “Is the government used to appealing for food?”

I won’t go into much analysis (just landed from trip), I leave you to do your own observation and analysis this time and you be the judge too.

I start with this year’s appeal made by the Minister for Agri. Few weeks ago.

2011

“As a result, it is estimated that a total of 4.5 million people will require humanitarian assistance during the remainder period of the current year, i.e. from July-December 2011. This suggests an increase of 40percent from the April’s HRD estimate, 3.2 million. Of the total revised 4.5 million beneficiaries, 41 and 32 percent are in Oromiya and Somali regional States respectively. In order to fill the food gap of this population there is a need to provide a total of around 380 MT of food valued at approximately USD 292,434,684 urgently given there is already critical shortage of food resources in the country.” Ato Mitiku Kassa- State Minster of Agriculture, On the occasion of the launch of Revised Humanitarian Requirements Document for July-December 2011.

2010

“Accordingly, the findings of the multi-agency assessment conducted in November/December 2009 and subsequent monitoring results indicate that approximately 5.2 million people require relief food assistance in 2010. The total net emergency food requirement from January to December 2010 and non-food needs for the first six months amounts to USD 286.4 million. The net food requirement, including TSF needs, stands at 290,271 MT, estimated to cost around USD 231.3 million. In addition a total of USD 55.1 million is required to respond to non-food needs of identified beneficiaries in the health and nutrition, water and sanitation and agriculture and education sectors. ” HUMANITARIAN REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT - 2010, JOINT GOVERNMENT AND PARTNERS’ DOCUMENT

HUMANITARIAN REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT - 2010, JOINT GOVERNMENT AND PARTNERS’ DOCUMENT

2009

“In January 2009, the Ethiopian Government with its humanitarian partners identified a total of 4.9 million beneficiaries that require emergency assistance in the year through the joint needs assessment conducted in November/December 2008. This joint approach shows the Government’s commitment to make the procedure transparent.” Ethiopian Emergency Relief Appeal 2009.

2008

“Approximately, 2, 181,467 people are estimated to require emergency food assistance in 2008. The total food aid requirement for these beneficiaries stands at about 171,646 MT (139,395 grain, 4,181 oil, 13,940 pulses, and 14,130 blended foods).” Humanitarian Requirements for 2008, Government-Partners Joint Document .

Humanitarian Requirements for 2008, Government-Partners Joint Document.

2007

B e l g P re- h a r v e s t and P a s t o r a l A r e a a s s e s s m e nt a n d U p d a t e o n E m e r g e n c y Food r e q u i r e m e n t F r o m A u g u s t t o D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 7.

2006

Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission ,Early Warning System , January 2006 Report.

2005

“In general, as per the multi-agency need assessment, followed by a review of the results by the federal disaster prevention and preparedness commission about 3.3 million people are likely to continue requiring emergency relief assistance from August to December 2005. The food situation of additional 2.5 million people still need close monitoring. The food assistance required for the remaining months of 2005 is estimated to be 235,400.60 MT, out of which 166,253.21 Mt is cereal, 47,535.44 is blended food, 4,986.56 is oil and 16,625.39 pulses.” Update on Emergency Food Requirement from August to December 2005.

As can be seen in most of the tables, the regions that are continually affected by the food crisis every year are Oromia and Somali regions of Ethiopia; which are the strongholds or main sources of rebels. Some even say that these regions are neglected by the Central government as a result experiencing man made hunger.

Update on Emergency Food Requirement from August to December 2005.

2004

“The multi-agency pre-harvest assessment teams determined that a total of 7,181,400 people (about 10% of the total population) will need humanitarian food assistance beginning in January 2004, while 2,187,600 will require close monitoring. Table 1 below summarizes the number of people expected to require food assistance and close monitoring in each region. Pastoral area assessment is soon to be undertaken in Somali, Borena and South Omo. Currently it is assumed that the 2003 beneficiary figure will remain the same at 1.1 million.” Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission, Early Warning System , January 2004 Report.

Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission ,Early Warning System , January 2004 Report.

2003

“The multi-agency pre harvest assessment teams concluded that a total of 11.3 million are estimated to need food aid beginning in January 2003, while just under 3.1 million people are expected to be able to cope but will remain under close monitoring. In total, 14.5 million people are at risk by the drought, about 21% of the total population (see Table 1 below). It may be the case, depending on upcoming cropping seasons that this group will need relief assistance towards the end of the year.” Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission ,Early Warning System , January 2003 Report.

Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission, Early Warning System, January 2003 Report.

1999

“The failure of this year’s Belg has now created additional need which has to be addressed through a much more effective relief intervention during the remaining months of the year and beyond. Including the recent Bleg victims, the total number of the people which will require relief assistance (those affected by Meher and Belg failure as well as the displaced) is now at a minimum of 4,603,478 which could reach upto 5 million. The food assistance require,nt during June-Decemeber period is estimated to be about 358,950 MT.The breakdown of this by region is as follows ” Revised Appeal for Assistance, Emergency Relief Needs in Ethiopia in 1999, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission .

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-taEcj-rQLpM/Ti29XQiIinI/AAAAAAAAAYM/FKWwwoJukZg/s320/1999.JPG

Revised Appeal for Assistance, Emergency Relief Needs in Ethiopia in 1999, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission.

1997

“Earlier expectations that food security situations would considerably improve in the belg crop growing areas with the coming in of the belg harvest this year have not been fulfilled. Instaed, the food situation in nearly all of these areas have deterortaited considerably because of the poor belg. Consequantely, a total of 1,211,800 people are now seeking relief food assistance purely due to the failure of belg crop this year. The total food aid required to meet their relief needs up to the end of the year is estimated at 98,349 MT. An additional 569,500 people affected by the current poor belg, will be under close monitoring” Early Warning Department, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission July, 1997.

Conclusion

The above compilations are few of the ones I found. Since the Meles Zenawi government came to power there was no year that a year passed without an appeal for food aid. In the previous regimes there were one or two major famines that were all. But in the current regime, Ethiopians continue to starve regularly every year. The tables above are evidences for it.

I am trying collect food appeals in the previous regimes, those of you have the records please do halla at me.

Then I say,

· Unless the government or the ones that will come root out the issue of hunger; find a once and for all solution for these people; there won’t be peace or development.

· Somalia our neighbour may be helped to skip the current famine with the international support but it won’t be hunger free unless the Nation finds stability. Their instability will trickle down to us meaning we will continue to starve as a Nation and as a region.

· NGOs started to bud over half a century ago. But their success in times of hunger and famine, which are predictable and early warned, has not been more than a job of a fire brigade. What do they do to prempt and prevent hunger and such famine. Why do they all of a sudden now alert the whole world and force citizens of the West to aid, fund and donate? The same with the regimes of East Africa. Very oxymoronic …