Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Ethiopian blogs

By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media
03 April 2012

Blog?

In 2008 there were 184 million blogs (Universal McCann http://technorati.com/blogging/a...). This number might have doubled by now. Blogosphere is embracing the virtual world. Personal blogs, diary, journals, speciality and the like are some types of blog. Blogs secured their stable foundation in the cyber world in late 1990s. Matt Drudge’s 1998 coverage of the President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal spearheaded the blogging world’s immensity. The spontaneity of blogs is their competitive edge against mainstream/conventional media. Meg Hourihan (2002), early adopter blogger and subsequently owner of blogging business, defines blogs as: Blog posts are short, informal, sometimes controversial, and sometimes deeply personal, no matter what topic they approach. They can be characterized by their conversational tone and unlike a more formal essay or speech, a blog post is often an opening to a discussion, rather than a full-fledged argument already arrived at. Efimova (2009), in her PhD research, considers bloggers as public intellectuals; she points out the fundamental difference between the knowledge or professional blogger and the academic, in which the blogger cites other blogs and links back to them, thus creating a web of knowledge, whereas the academic anonymises sources. Efimova treats the bloggers from her study as public intellectuals, and thus asks no permission, but disseminates the results of her research through her blog, while linking to the bloggers cited, this was noted by Catherine Fowleyin her 2011 Ph.D. study. Walker (2005c) echoes this definition as “a frequently updated website consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first”.


Catherine also states that the perceived broadening of the weblog genre to include personal blogs is ascribed to the development of blogging software, suggesting that “the technical affordances of the weblog format make it readily adaptable to multiple purposes of use”. Most researchers and analysts point to the presence of an audience as an integral and essential part of a blog, a reminder in a way of Lejeune’s (1975) concept of the “contrat” or “pact” between the author of autobiographical text and the reader. The easy and user-friendly addition of icons, pictures, sounds and videos and other newer features ascribe mass media features to them.

Blogs de Ethiopie

Web based forum, blogging started around 1997 by Ethiopians based in the Diaspora such as cyberethiopia.com , ethioline.com and the anonymously written dagmawi.com.  By the end of 2005, the number of political or quasipolitical websites with multidirectional participatory platforms was at least 57 (Megenta and Mekonen, 2005) cited in Abiye (2011). Following the 2005 election home based Ethiopian bloggers begun to pop out writing mainly in various fields of specialisation and news.  Abiye (2011) assesses that the number of bloggers decreased following the split of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party. However, the number of Ethiopian bloggers showed a dramatic increase in late 2011 and early spring of 2012 possibly due to the Facebook and Twitter revolutions in the Arab world and increase of Ethiopian Facebook users that has reached now 509, 740 according to Social Bakers in March 2012.  Currently, there are over one hundred blogs written by Ethiopians and foreigners living in and outside the country. Around 20 bloggers found in Ethiopia are aggreegated under one banner name Ethiopian Blog. Most popularly Westerners who travel to Ethiopia for a mission or visit have made it customary to blog about their activities in Ethiopia; one of the famous types of blogging by foreigners on Ethiopia (http://embracing-ethiopia.blogspot.com/, http://billyandtarainafrica.wordpress.com/). Writing on Facebook Notes is also one of the growingly all the rage means of blogging for Ethiopian citizen writers too.

There is a trend of downplaying blogs as sites/forum that can easily be created by any ordinary person with no journalistic training and are less authenticated with no authoritative reporting imputus. However, most blogs including those owned by Ethiopians are highly critical, highly competent and authoritative than mainstream and well established websites and forum. Most blogs are established by specialists, journalists and citizens who detest the institutional control and censorship of institutional media. They serve as gateways for voices that have been unheard of due to governmental control or lack of space. Incredibly, some of the most popular bloggers in the Ethiopian blogosphere are those with little or no literature or journalism background. Anonymity is also one of the common characteristics of Ethiopian bloggers. This has to do with different reasons: safety, privacy and other factors. Nippert-Eng’s (2007) empirical study showed that most people conceptualise privacy online as control of access to information and to self. Privacy in diaries is often linked to the concept of secrecy, harking back to the idea of the adolescent paper diary physically locked with a small golden key, and containing the most intimate secrets.

Most Ethiopian bloggers are young males. Their ages are within the ranges of 23 to 35. There are very few female bloggers as well who fall under this same age category.  Most are located in the Diaspora though home based bloggers is surpassing it. Largest number of audience is from U.S.A. followed by Ethiopian readers. Some of the blogs are pro government/ruling party, most are anti- government blogs and while the remaining are blogs that attempt to be critical of all sides perusing independent thinking. Another feature which could be a short coming of most of these blogs is that they produce very few original materials. Either they serve as aggregators of items on Ethiopia from other sites or are engaged in sloppy journalism. 


There have been recorded cases of legal consequences when Ethiopian bloggers were accused for defamation, unaccountability and other concocted media ethics and law infringements. Pseudo name or anonymous blogging spared some bloggers. Similarly, as a genre of citizen media, blogs are difficult for regulation meaning stories can be filed from Ethiopia, written in Australia and posted in Netherland. Therefore, it becomes difficult to trace the real story teller and producer and sue him/her. There are countless Ethiopian bloggers who state that they receive intimidating, abusive, threatening and warning messages.

Endalk on his recent article entitled an incomplete guide to Ethiopian Blogs said “The control of government grip on traditional media in the country is far above the ground, but it is being challenged, and sporadically supplanted, by an embryonic Ethiopian blogs and social media enthusiasts reversing time-honoured notions of the contours of informational flows between Diaspora and homelands.” The "unprofessional'' and "unfinelined" nature of most Ethiopian blogs  makes putting a clear-cut category of each blog difficult. Adopting Endalk’s model of listings of Ethiopian blogs, I assembled the following  blogs list: 
Some Ethiopia focused blogs



Problems of Ethiopian blogs

Lack of Consistency: The most rampant problem that this writer observed on most Ethiopian blogs is lack of consistency. This can mean gaps in posting new entries (updating blogs) or ceasing publication all of a sudden. The later is common. Most blogs are personal and with no mandate for regularity, therefore bloggers update their blogs in a sporadic manner. In short, they have a dormant presence. Few take blogging as a full time and regular duty. Secondly, most blogs cease publication after a year or two of blogging. This could be due to lack of participatory response/comments from readers, lack of time and engagement with all other sorts of activities. Some take blogging as a hobby hence stop blogging as soon as they find a “better” hobby.  Similarly, most blogs are engaged in copying and pasting of stories from other linked sites instead of producing their own original pieces.

Mechanical: The technical (internal) problem that most “IT poor’’ bloggers find  themselves in is what I call internal mechanical problems. Most blogs are not any different from other mainstream websites in their application and use; therefore it requires at least a basic knowledge of web design and online writing to be a technically savy blogger. Bloggers need continuous training and have to update themselves with new features that are introduced by companies and mainly share experiential learning with fellow citizens.

Promotion: One of the other daunting factors for budding bloggers to leave blogging is lack of comments, readership and income from blogs. Although, most blogs offer options of money making from  through advertisements, the meagre income and lack of promotion makes the effort a hard nut to crack. Established websites and blogs are less disposed to put budding bloggers link addresses in their links list making the novice bloggers’ pages “unclickable statues”. Seasoned blogs and websites fear the anonymity of most bloggers even if their contents are plausibly written and icebreaking. Therefore, lack of promotion of blogs is one of the main reasons that continue to derive most bloggers from the blogosphere.

Environmental: such problems take two forms. They are mainly externally emanating. These are faced by most bloggers blogging from Ethiopia. Internet connection problem is pervasive environmental problem that deters most bloggers from timely blogging and drives them into other types of traditional media. Secondly, intimidation, blocking of blog urls/addresses, and viruses that disrupt the blogging activity (both by government and agencies) continue to be the problems most faced by those who blog on/from Ethiopia. The recent jamming/blocking of two popular Ethiopian blogs (https://abetokichaw.blogspot.com/ and https://tgindex.blogspot.com ) from being viewed in Ethiopia is a good case in point here. Blogging publically, can sometimes make bloggers prone to prosecution in authoritarian states. Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was charged with insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and an Islamic institution through his blog. Following him many bloggers were arrested in Ethiopia and worldwide. There are in fact countless cases of arrest and prosecution where bloggers have been prosecuted for their blogging activities. Ethiopia’s  Eskinder Nega  is one famous case.

Conclusion

Blogging in Ethiopia is becoming a popular culture. Although the most used domain names blogspot.com and wordpress.com are being blocked by the Ethiopian regime often, Ethiopian bloggers should be introduced to new blogging domains (such as www.tumblr.com, www.weebly.com/, http://www.quackit.com, www.squarespace.com/, www.joomla.org, http://my.opera.com and many others hosts ) by their fellow citizens living in the Diaspora. Egypt before the revolution had over 160,000 bloggers (July 2008). Ethiopia is following the same trend. Blogs are used by citizens (journalists) to vent out their untold stories freely to the whole wide world. Blogs enlighten. Blogs entertain. Blogs inform and give us breaking news items available in no other mainstream media. Blogs teach us about speciality subjects. Blogs organise; people can create a group blog, discuss, debate and mobilise forces for change (popular revolutions). There is a promising growth within the Ethiopian blogosphere.  Discussions on social media mainly Facebook that follow blog links are creating a good political public sphere of “Blogo-facebook” synergy for the Ethiopian online population. Blogs have numerous advantages for Ethiopians who can bypass some of the stated problems. Unlike traditional media, blogs as types of citizen media help zealous writers and opinion leaders to interact easily. Still with the least level of internet penetration and connectivity, Ethiopians benefit from the ''blogosphere convergence''. 

Policy makers, especially Western refer to blogs when delving on issues that concern them because most blogs are written by ordinary citizens who tell their experiences free from corporate or institutional agendas. Cognizant of this Ethiopian bloggers should strive to produce critical, objective and unbiased materials. Ethiopian blogs and bloggers have a big role to play in Ethiopia’s social, political and consciousness revolution; let’s have thousands of Ethiopian bloggers!!!!

References

Abiye T. Megenta, ['2011']. Can it tweet its way to democracy?. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:22fe4758-5ec7-44b9-be8f-2293d828415d <<< accessed December 2011

Efimova, L. & de Moor, A., (2005). Beyond Personal Webpublishing: An Exploratory Study of Conversational Blogging Practices. IN. HICSS '05. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2005. 107a.

Hourihan, M. (2002). What we’re doing when we blog. O’Reilly. [Online] 13 June.
Available from http://oreilly.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/06/13/megnut.html


Krishnamurthy, S. (2002). The multidimensionality of blog conversations: The virtual enactment of September 11. Paper presented at Internet Research 3.0, Maastricht, and The Netherlands.

Nippert-Eng, C. (2007). Privacy in the United States: Some implications for design. International Journal of Design, 1(2),1-10.

Ratliff, C. (2003). Whose voices get heard? Gender politics in the blogosphere. Paper presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Antonio, TX, March 2004. http://culturecat.net/node/view/303

Walker, J. (2005c) Blog (weblog) In Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory. Herman, D, Jahn, M. & Ryan, M. (eds), 45. London, New York: Routledge.

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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Tigrianisation?

By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media
31-3-2012

The past few weeks, hundreds and thousands of Ethiopians have been forcefully evicted/deported from their own country. Over 90% of the evictees belong to the Amhara ethnic group. According to news reports so far, over 78,000 people, including children, women, and the elderly have been evicted after everything they owned has been confiscated. The displaced sought refuge in churches in Addis but were forced out. Finally, according to Engineer Hailu Shawel, Chairman of All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP), the party “reached them and rescued them”. Currently, of the thousands, mainly from the Amhara ethnic group, evicted from Bench Maji Zone of Gura Farda Wereda, Southern part of Ethiopia, have been sleeping in the premises of the AEUP Addis Abeba office. This has angered most Ethiopians the world over and particularly, prompted those from the Amhara ethnic group to establish an ethnic party that "saves the Amahra". The Ethiopian Review website called it “ethnic cleansing campaign against the Amhara ethnic group”. Few are arguning that Amharas are being victims of “Bantustanization and Sowetoisation”. The regional president of Southern Ethiopia, Shiferaw Shigute in an interview with a pro- government Forum said today that there have been no forced evictions and those who are living in AEUP’s premises are the AEUP’s members. He also said those who moved out of the area were “illegal residents who were not legalised farmers but involved in resell of land”. However, Engineer Hailu of AEUP said last night “there is no single person from the displaced who is a member of our Party as we have no branch office in the Region.”  History and literature have it that the founders of the current ruling party TPLF/EPRDF saw the Amahra ethnic group as a threat and enemy of their ethnic group (Tigre) - ethnic nepotism.  The atrocities perpetrated against the members of the Amahra ethnic group in the past 20 years have been  beyond and above other one can bear. One simple case, which continues to cause uproar amongst Amahras  is the last national population census of 2007 that saw a decrease of Amhara people by around two million from the previous count. Where did the two million Amharas disappear in a couple of years?
The current Ethiopian regime applies ethnic politics: ethnic federalism. Ethnic federalism had created various levels of tension in the past 20 years. Ethnic groups were promoted to identify themselves with their ethnic group than their national. One of the major designers and promoters of these ethnic identifications has been the ruling party, Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). TPLF has been promoting Tigreanisation both inside and outside of the country. Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions (kililoch) of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people of an estimated total population of 4,314,456 people (2007). This is the home region of the ruling party and founders of Ethiopian ethnicisation. Coupled with the repressive and unruly behaviour of the members and kins of the TPLF and promotion of ethnic identification created a narrow ‘ethnicism’ that I would call Tigreanisation. Tigreanisation can be exhibited in various forms. It can be the dominance of the elite members of the ethnic group in the social, economic, political and cultural life of the population. It can also be the discrimination of other ethnic groups by those who affiliate themselves with this ethnic group and party. It is also the promotion of ethnic identity  separate from the national. Ethiopians have had a history of mutual and tolerant coexistence appreciating their difference and promoting their unity. Tigreans/members and supporters of TPLF have been the trailblazers to go against the existing unitary and non-ethnic based nationhood. Since holding power in 1991, TPLFite Tigreans all over Ethiopia began celebrating their own parties, holidays, programs, cultural events, political meetings and days in general, for and by Tigreans only. In their celebrations and community events they invited, wined and dined with people of their own community. Tigray State flags were held always and above the Ethiopian flag.   In a similar manner, this trend has been copycatted by Tigreans/members and supporters of TPLF in the Diaspora. They have been organising similar ethnic events exclusively for Tigreans. The aim being promotion of Tigrean cohesion, nationalism and development of the Tigray regional state.  According to the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC) report “...When introduced and mobilised, religion, ethnicity and culture provide a system of beliefs and practices that can unite adherents in a community, alter their perception of others and encourage them to take collective action in the name of their group”. This is Tigreanisation.While members of the other ethnic groups of Ethiopia continue to peruse their celebrations, programs and events under the cause and banner of Ethiopia and Ethiopianisation, members and supporters of TPLF/Tigreans do it under Tigray and Tigreanisation. Some of the following graphic evidences that I collected through time corroborate my premises. Looking at them one may wonder if Tigray has become an independent nation that it reached such a level awkaward self-seculsion and ethnic nationalism.

x-mas party in DC
on New Year's Eve
 Boston, Tigrai Community Fundraising Event
TMAA DALLAS X-Mass Party
Fund Raising Night in Swiss Neuchâtel
New Year party in Denver with Aden Gegresilasse and Birhane Kidane
 New Year's Eve party in Seatle with Wedi Kokeb
TDA-NA DC Chapter is Hosting a Fund Raising Event in Washington DC
TDA Fundraising, Help a child to drink clean water
New Year party in Las Vegas with Birhane Haile and Birhane Kidane
The pictures and captions under them tell for themselves. The posters have been posted on various pro TPLF websites in the Diaspora. All  events had taken place throughout the years 2010/11. No need for explanation. Had I taken the time to explain each and one of the graphics, it would have cost me pages, hence you read them yourselves. However, all of them are extreme showcase of ethnic nationalism/ politics and radicalism. No other Ethiopian ethnic community in the Diaspora organises similar programs, events, and celebrations as the Tigrean community. Tigreans also have their own discussion forum named Tigray/Geza Tegaru and the like. The medium of discussion in these forum is also Tigrean only. On the other hand, majority of Ethiopian chat rooms and discussion forum bear the name Ethiopia/Ethiopian and their medium of discussion is Amharic, the national language. Tigreanisation is not growing but ripe and bearing its ''toxic fruits''. These are tips of the iceberg, had I gone into the political, economic, diplomatic, military and other sectors, the radicalism would have been worse.  Attendance of the events had always mainly been by Tigreans and few Eritreans. Such forms of exclusionism and marginalisation have been practiced/exhibited against Ethiopians at home and abroad in the political and economic arena as well. The promotion and hype of ethnic identification had reached its “golden days” and grdadually began to recess during the 2005 election. The ruling party was threatened by opposition parties that played the opposite card: a non-ethnic based federalism that appreciated togetherness and downplayed ethnic identification. The young political analyst Jawar Mohammed in his recent article beautifully analysed this shift of the ruling party’s divide and rule and ethnonationalistic  politics.   
Following the resurrection of the Ethiopian right during the 2005 election, the regime has been shifting further in an attempt to be the loudest to proclaim the mantra of Ethiopian nationalism. The propaganda of ‘renaissance’ that was launched during the ‘millennium’ extravaganza has been stepped up with recent hysteria over Abbay Dam. Therefore, the old slogan of transforming and building a new Ethiopia is replaced with reviving and reclaiming the glorious past.
The ruling party has been forced to wean off its ethnic based political nationalism and addiction gradually and façade it with “Ethiopianism”.  Though, in actuality the persecution of some ethnic groups and the ethnic pride of the elites of the ruling party continued.  The extrajudicial and arbitrary behaviours of the majority of the members of the TPLF/Tigrean ethnic group in Ethiopia frustrate the mass and are nauseating. Finding a political and economic institution that is not run and infested by members of this one ethnic group becomes easier said than done. Is not this worrying trend that was constructed from the narrow ethnic politics of TPLF worth being called Tigreanisation? Ethiopians in 2005 have publically portrayed it that they abhor ethnic nationalism/identity politics. Ethnicity and propagation of ethnonationalist politics in Ethiopia and abroad is straining othe ther politically, economically and culturally marginalised ethnic groups. Loosening it is crucial; GSDRC recommends programme types that could be used to discourage identity-based violence:
  • Improved law and order, police and justice systems and better access to them by excluded groups;
  • Working with media and advocacy organisations to overcome prejudice and build public support for non-violent conflict resolution;
  • Anti-corruption measures and policies to prevent the spread of organised crime;
  • Support for human rights programmes targeting all social groups;
  • Additional research addressing the issue of how conceptualisations of gender identities (both masculinities and femininities) contribute to violence and how domestic and community level violence are linked to armed conflict is needed. These issues are crucial to the ability of leaders to attract sufficient fighting forces to enable them to carry out armed conflicts.
  • Inclusive recruitment of military, police, security and judicial institutions to ensure they are more representative of excluded groups; and
  • Active discouraging of the tendency to manipulate identities to establish political control or demonise “disloyal” and marginalised groups.
Some of the above recommendations might work in the context of Ethiopia while the rest don’t. A political u-turn might be the sole way. In any case, it necessitates research, gut from Ethiopian scholars to write about the issue with valiantly. Sensitivity is when one attempts to prevent a chaos than pass it over saying it is a “thin-skinned” issue and bewail subsequently.  

Let's say once again "Humanity before Ethnicity"@@@
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Friday, March 30, 2012

Eng. Hailu interviewed

By T, De Birhan Staffer 
30 March 2012

Chairman of All Ethiopian Unity Party, Engineer Hailu Shawel has been interviewed in one of the Party's support Forum in the Diaspora today (30 March 2012). He spoke of various issues on the current political situation in Ethiopia. Some of the points were :

  • Speaking of ethinicism/race within Ethiopian schools he said "Even colleges give grades/marks based on ethnicities".
  • On the persecution and forceful eviction  of the Amara ethnic members from southern Ethiopia, he said his party did its humanistic part/role of saving the souls of the displaced and their ethnicity was not taken into account and his party has members from all ethnic groups.(Of the thousands, mainly from the Amhara ethnic group, evicted from Southern part of Ethiopia  have been sleeping in the premises of the All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP) Addis Abeba office).
  • The Engineer also said that the displaced didnot come right to AEUP's office but were rescued  from streets by his Party.
  • He said that there is no single person from the displaced who is a member of his Party as it has no branch office in the Region.
  • Regarding newspapers in Addis Abeba, he said there are around 20 papers but wonders who they are funded by and what they are actually doing.
  • The political struggle in Ethiopia has not began yet, he added.
  • He sought two things from the Diaspoa: The Diaspora to be coordinated and focus on the diplomatic aspect and also assist finanicaly.
  • Before he finished, Engineer Hailu made an important note : He said " the time has come, people have began speaking out so assist us now." (ጊዜው ደርሷል: ህዝቡ መናገር ጀምሯል ስለዚህ አናንተም ተባበሩን።)
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Poems

28/3/2012

These poems were written by T, Staffer of De Birhan Media in the years 2004/5 and were published on a local newspaper in Addis Abeba. Republished here with nostaligia --------------------------------


But we all die

Yes we all die
Although created to live by
Enjoy the sweet and
Sours of life
Reaching the big
And sometimes think
All our life
But we all die
Living in wills
See what it feels
Buy a car, a house
Wear a suit
Walking with grace
Rule others
Under control , act undefeated
All our life.
But we all die
The one, the poor
Dreams, hopes and aspires
Always under, repressed,
Poverty, loath and anger
He will too…die
With the
Other


Satisfy you: desideratum

Quench you like water
Satisfy thou  from under
Just like giving you, your lust
Lust for anything
Let you acquire every bit
That you really really want
Tell me baby what is it?
It is making you cheered
All day long?
Oh please cast away my wonder
So I won’t always be
In the grove of anger
Just be ready berry
From the bottom of my heart
To let you know of desideratum
Yeah , yeah…is it not wonderful?
to watch one exalted
Unlike the gloomy days
Oh yeah!!
Oh Yeah!!

---//---


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Monday, March 26, 2012

Are Universities and colleges becoming too commercial?


By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media  
26-3-2012

Some time ago last year I read on BBC News “A private college in England aiming to rival Oxford and Cambridge is being launched by leading academics. The New College of the Humanities says it will teach "gifted" undergraduates and prepare them for degrees from the University of London. The privately-owned London-based College will charge fees of £18,000. The 14 professors involved include biologist Richard Dawkins and historian Sir David Cannadine, and Professor AC Grayling”.  This private college with the highest  fees  promisingly lands the graduate on a top job. Are really higher study institutions becoming commercialised? I mean are they running for the sake of business than the humanistic and social sake of creating a humanity that is equally served and educated for righteous causes? It is looking like so, ain’t it?

Upon the emergence and intensification of capitalism, it has also become fundamentally crucial that one must go through the formal/modern education system, I asses. PLC and S.C. owned colleges on one stream and public funded/owned on the other. My concern and deliberation here is about the latter that I am being so worried that they are becoming so business minded. This development also caused another prerequisite that for one to exist or live as a human being in this “modern” world, has to hold certificates (diplomas, masters and PhDs) . Even if you argue “I was born intelligent but education ruined me ” after some experience and want to divert into another scope, you may be sadly informed by the new world order that you must have a certificate from a college or university to live. Yes to live as a human being you need a “humanity cert”.

Let me make my natter short. Two prompting factors persuaded me to write this sketch. One, I just finished a higher study course up here where I am and was about to peruse further studies but was cut short due to one thing: money. Yes before I peruse the next stage of my study I was told “you must pay the remaining arrears.” I used every means of consonance, instalment payment and the like to spare me some time. But there was no way, you have to pay the outstanding fee fully (over 4000$) once or risk your further study and pervious cert, they were unequivocal.  I had no choice but to pay my only saving from my coffers and be conferred. I did that. At what cost? At a cost of risking my tomorrow.  Was it not good if they had let me pay later and do what I have asked as an educational institution? Is it not becoming too commercialised?

Secondly, the value of degrees especially that of social studies is worrying. I want an international experience therefore applied for all forms of jobs internationally . Amazingly, I can say almost all employers want two types of professionals: engineers and medical doctors. That is it. And am none of them. What is the fate of those of us who have gone through the social sciences steam? Who will employ us? Is not higher study becoming too money orientated?  Universities are becoming too much like businesses due to global competition for students, increased reporting requirements from governments and the ascendancy of managers more interested in the bottom line than in academic freedom, some professors say. Not only academic freedom but more on the money than the student, who for many reasons is not able to pay tuition or other fees and finish while he/she is cool academically. Universities should focus on their goodwill ingredient than monies.
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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Evictees from Southern region sleeping in AEUP's Addis Premises


25 March 2012
Ethiopians, who have been resettled to Bench Maji Zone of Gura Farda Wereda, Southern Ethiopia 12 years ago through the government’s resettlement program from various regions of Amhara Region are now being evicted by force from their decade old settlement by the Regional Ammonisation of Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR). 

Over 70 evictees, mainly from the Amhara ethnic group, are now sleeping in the premises of the All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP) Addis Abeba office, according to Ethiopatriots.com. The evictees stated that they have been forcefully thrown out from the land and property they legally owned for over a decade without any form of compensation or makeshift by the Southern regional Administration. The 70 evictee who now are living in the premises (with more to follow them), need an immediate assistance from all concerned bodies.  

Read the full Amharic version of the report here.
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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Breaking News : Teachers in Addis kick off strike

22 March 2012

Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT)  has reported that teachers in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia have started a two day strike. The strike began today all across the city. Education has been stalled in many elementary and high schools in Addis Abeba. Witnesses describe the situation in Addis Abeba as tense. Fuelled by the current protest of the Muslim community against "illegal Mejlis" and rights issues, the teacher's protest is feared to escalate into a national protest.  Teachers who are members of the ruling Party(EPRDF) have also reportedly joined the protest. The protest is in relation to salary increment and rights issues. De Birhan had reported few weeks ago that teachers in Gonder, Northern Ethiopia had held a job strike for one week.  Some self initiated Diaspora members are organising themselves to financially assist the striking teachers who may find themselves and their families in dire situations. 
 

የኢሳት አማርኛ ዜና » በአዲስ አበባ የሚገኙ መምህራን የስራ ማቆም አድማ አደረጉ አድማው ለሁለት ቀናት ይቆያል

መጋቢት ፲፫ (አስራ ሦስት) ቀን ፳፻፬ ዓ/ም
ኢሳት ዜና:-ሃሙስ መጋቢት 13 ቀን 2004 ዓ.ም  ለዓመታት ስንታገልለት በነበረው የደመወዝ ጭማሪ ጥያቄ ላይ ሰሞኑን የኢህአዴግ መንግሥት አሳፋሪ ዝቅተኛ ጭማሪ በማድረግ አሹፎብናል ያሉ መምህራን የሁለት ቀን አስቸኳይ የሥራ ማቆም አድማ መቱ፡፡
በአዲስ አበባ ዳርቻዎች የሚገኙ በርካታ ትምህርት ቤቶች እና በመሐል ከተማ የሚገኙ አንዳንድ ትምህርት ቤቶች ከዛሬ ጠዋት ጀምሮ የሁለት ቀን የሥራ ማቆም አድማ ማድረጋቸውን ለዘጋቢያችን የገለጹ ሲሆን የኢህአዴግ መንግሥት በበኩሉ መምህራን በግዳጅ ገብተው እንዲያስተምሩ በማስፈራራትና በመከፋፈል ላይ ሴራ ላይ እንደሚገኝ ዘጋቢያችን ባደረገው የዳሰሳ ቅኝት አረጋግጧል፡
ዛሬ በአዲስ አበባ የመምህራን የሥራ ማቆም አድማ የተካሄደባቸው አካባቢዎች አቃቂ ቃሊቲ፣ ኮተቤ፣ አስኮ እና አየርጤና ሲሆኑ በመሐል ከተማ ደግሞ ኮልፌ የሚገኘው ሚሊኒየም ሁለተኛ  ደረጃ ትምህርት ቤት፣ ኮልፌ ኮምፕሬሲፍ ሁለተኛና የመሰናዶ ትምህርት ቤት፣ መርካቶ ጎጃም በረንዳ አካባቢ የሚገኘው አጋዚያን ሁለተኛ ደረጃ ትምህርት ቤት ይገኙበታል፡፡
በሁለት ቀን የሥራ ማቆም አድማው ላይ በአቃቂ የሚገኙት በርካታ የመንግሥት ትምህርት ቤቶች ዛሬ የመማር ማስተማር ሂደት ያልቀጠለ ሲሆን በደራርቱ የሁለተኛ ደረጃና የመሰናዶ ትምህርት ቤት፣ በገላን አንደኛ ደረጃ ትምህርት ቤት ውስጥ የሥራ ማቆም አድማው ተሳታፊ የሆኑ ሥማቸውን እንዲጠቀስ ያልፈቀዱ አንድ መምህርና አንዲት መምህርት የሥራ ማቆም እድማ እርምጃው በግብታዊነት የተወሰደ ሳይሆን መብትን ለማስከበርና በየጊዜው የሚንረው የኑሮ ጫና ከቁጥጥራችን ውጪ ወጣ፤ መንግሥት በሚከፍለን ደመወዝ አይደለም አንድ ወር አሥር ቀን መቆየት አልቻልንም፣ የቤት ኪራይ መጨመር፣ የምግብ እህል እጅግ መናር፣ የትራንስፖርትና የሸቀጣ ሸቀጦች ዋጋ መናር ከአቅማችን በላይ ሆኖ በችጋር ከማለቃችን በፊት ዛሬ አድማ አድርገናል፣ መንግሥት በአስቸኳይ ጭማሪውን የማያሻሽል ከሆነ አድማው በመላው ከተማ ሁሉ ይቀጥላል ብለዋል፡፡
የኢህአዴግ መንግሥት በበኩሉ ርህሰ መምህራንን፣ የአስተዳደር ሠራተኞችን፣ እና የኢህአዴግ አባልና ደጋፊ መምህራንን ለአስቸኳይ ስብሰባ እንደጠራ የነገሩን አንድ የፓርቲው አባል መምህር ነገር ግን ይህ የህልውና እና የሰብዓዊ መብት ጥያቄ በመሆኑ ለመገኘት አለመፍቀዱንና በአድማው መቀጠሉን ለዘጋቢያችን አስታውቋል፡፡
ከአምስት ቀን በፊት የአዲስ አበባ መስተዳደር የትምህርት ቤቶች ርዕሰ መምህራንና የአስተዳደር ሠራተኞችን በማዛጋጃ ቤት ሰብስቦ መምህራን ምንም ዓይነት የሥራ ማቆም አድማና ተቃውሞ እንዳያደርጉ የአስጠነቀቀ ሲሆን ሁኔታው ወደ ፖለቲካዊ ተቃውሞ ተለውጦ አገሪቱ ቀውስ ውስጥ ትወድቃለች ብሏል፡፡
ከማዘጋጃ ቤቱ የአዲስ አበባ መስተዳደር የማስፈራራት ስብሰባ በኋላ ውስጥ ውስጡን ለሥራ ማቆም አድማ መምህራን ሲነጋገሩ እንደነበረ መረጃ ደርሶናል ያለ አንድ የፌዴራል ፖሊስ አባል መንግሥት የነገው የሥ ማቆም አድማና የአወሊያ መስኪድ የመጅሊስ ይውረድ ጥያቄ ህዝባዊ ስብሰባ አፈትልኮ ወደ ውጭ እንዳይወጣ ሰግቷል ሲል ለዘጋቢያችን ገልፆል፡፡ 
ኢሳት በቅርቡ የተደረገውን የደሞዝ ጭማሪ የተቃወሙ መምህራን የስራ ማቆም አድማ ለማድረግ ውይይት መጀመራቸው መዘገቡ ይታወሳል::

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Monday, March 19, 2012

Prof. Andreas Eshete organises High Level Forum on security


By T, De Birhan Staffer
19 March 2012
Professor Andreas Eshete

Professor Andreas Eshete, CEO and “initiator” of Tana High Level Forum and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Meles with the Rank of a Minister, is organising a high level security forum in Africa called Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa 14-15 April, 2012 in Bahir Dar, Kuriftu Resort , Tana, Ethiopia. As part of the preparations for the Tana High-Level Forum, an experts' pre-Forum workshop was held on 29 and 30 September, 2011 in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria serves as the first Chairperson of the Forum.

The 2012 Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa is set to dwell on two themes: State fragility and the prospects of peace in Africa, with a focus on clusters of protracted conflict and regional response; and Managing diversity to promote peace and stability, focussing on the African Peer Review Mechanism and diversity governance as structural prevention, according to sources. The overarching theme is the question of the “African voice in the global security agenda”.  Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University has been commissioned to act as the Forum's secretariat.

“A fast-growing economy, grand hydropower schemes and one of Africa’s biggest armies all reinforce Ethiopia’s regional dominance. Leaders from China, India, Europe, Japan, Turkey, the United States and across Africa are expected at what the government plans as a show of Ethiopia’s regional leadership.” Africa Confidential reported in its recent issue assesing the upcoming Forum. IPSS receives medium-term institutional core funding from Germany. The organisation of the Forum is sponsored by the governments of Ethiopia and Germany. 

Andreas had served as the President of Addis Abeba University from 2003 to 2011.

Analysts accuse the Ethiopian government of exploiting the “Security Agenda” to prolong its reign by winning the Achilles heel of Western powers and intensify tyranny inside Ethiopia.
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