Research article: Teferi Abegaz, Yemane Berhane, Alemayehu Worku and Abebe Assrat
Abstract (provisional)
Background
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in implementing road safety policy by different low income countries. However; the evidence is scarce on its success in the reduction of crashes, injuries and deaths. This study was conducted to assess whether road crashes, injuries and fatalities was reduced following the road safety regulation introduced as of September 2007 by Oromia Regional State Transport Bureau.
Methods
Routine road traffic accident data for the year 2002-2011were collected from sixteen traffic police offices. Data on average daily vehicle flow was obtained from the Ethiopian Road Authority. Interrupted time series design using segmented linear regression model was applied to estimate the effect of an improved road safety policy.
Results
A total of 4,053 crashes occurred on Addis Ababa - Adama/ Hawassa main road. Of these crashes, almost half 46.4% (1,880) were property damage, 29.4% (1,193) were fatal and 24.2% (980) injury crashes, resulting 1,392 fatalities and 1,749 injuries. There were statistically significant reductions in non-injury crashes and deaths. Non-injury crash was reduced by 19% and fatality by 12.4% in the first year of implementing the revised transport safety regulation.
Conclusion
Although revised road safety policy helped in reducing motor vehicle crashes and associated fatalities, the overall incidence rate is still very high. Further action is required to avoid unnecessary loss of lives.
The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.
Stephen ScourfieldEthiopian tour guide Firew Ayele
When Ethiopian Firew Ayele was nine years old,
he was captured by soldiers from neighbouring Somalia, and spent more
than 10 years as a prisoner.
Today, he is 43 years old and one of the most respected tourist
guides in Ethiopia. The company he owns and runs with wife Senait
employs up to 50 people and he leads groups from all over the world,
explaining Ethiopia's extraordinary history and introducing them to its
vibrant culture.
He's a geographer, a historian, and a great and knowledgeable story teller.
A measure of his professionalism is that he looks after,
researches for and guides perhaps 90 per cent of the film crews which
visit Ethiopia, including the BBC, Al Jazeera and documentary makers.
And another is that he is here, today, with me alongside Tony
Evans, leading a Travel Directors group on their African Dawn tour,
which starts in Uganda and Rwanda but spends the majority of its time in
Ethiopia. Firew and Tony have known each other about 10 years.
But if it might look that tourism has been the making of him,
when he tells his story, his childhood as a prisoner of Somalis has
played no small part in it.
"It was July 1977 - school holidays." Firew begins his story, in
his own words. "I was only nine years old and living with my uncle. My
mother and father had divorced when I was five and he became responsible
for keeping me and to get me to school.
"There had been a rumour that the Somali Liberation Front was
planning to overtake the Ethiopian government - there was a lot of war
before in many times between these two countries and this was a good
time to invade as the government of Emperor Haile Selassie had gone and
they were trying to make the country socialist.
"It was transitional, there was a student movement and conflict
with Eritrea, which wanted independence. The Somali army rushed into
Ethiopia and captured about 600km.
"I was in Gode, near the Somali border."
His uncle was a high-ranking official and they were living in a small palace compound, with military guards.
At 4am, Firew heard gunfire. "We were hearing a lot of noise of
bullets. We were told to sleep in the ground house but there were a lot
of bullets and it was very frightening.
"Then some people came and told us to run out of the palace. When
we came out there were a lot of bullets making noise overhead. Wee-oo.
Weee-ooo. Kalishnikovs." AK-47 assault rifles from the Soviet Union. And
artillery dropping shells, too. "We started running - it was a few
kilometres towards the military campus.
"There is a big, flat land between the town and military camp.
Artillery was landing . . . whoosh . . . arms and legs were coming
down."
Everyone was running straight to the garrison but Firew,
persuading two other boys, cut out to the left, and eventually they hid
for six hours behind a termite mound. "This was good defence."
As they set off again, through a forest, there was suddenly
shooting over the three little boys. They lay down. "So many bullets the
leaves were falling on us."
Firew was hit by a bullet, and shows me the scar by his right eyebrow.
Then soldiers told them to stand up - what he describes as "filthy and hard-looking persons".
But it was the bravery of one of these soldiers that saved them.
He told his compatriots: "If you kill them I will kill you - they are
kids, not soldiers." He gave the boys water, dry biscuit and dates.They
were walked to a place where many prisoners were sitting. Firew says an
officer turned up in a four-wheel-drive and announced: "We are soldiers
from the Somali government. The plan of the Somali government is to take
out land from Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia. You are captured because we
have found you on our land."
Others might have seen it as terrorists taking prisoners and hostages.
And then these 150 people, including pregnant women, babies and
little children, started walking, with 20 soldiers behind, 20 in front,
passing their own broken homes, and across the bridge leading in to town
that was so covered in the bodies of the defending soldiers who had
died there that they had to walk over them - "taking care not to stand
on the stomach or intestines," Firew says.
In the afternoon, Ethiopian jets came over and fired on them,
killing both soldiers and Ethiopians, and the general in charge was hit
in the heart. As he was dying and asking for help, Firew says, his own
soldiers were checking his pockets for cigarettes. "This shocked us - if
they would treat their own general like this, how would they treat us?"
In the evening they were loaded into military trucks and taken to
a forest camp, where they were held for three days, the women victims
of and at risk of rape until a man defended his wife by hitting back,
taking a gun and killing seven soldiers. "They were then beating us all -
300 soldiers on what were now 60 of us."
But then another commander came and told the soldiers not to touch the women. A second act of humanity in the face of war.
Firew recalls they were forced to walk 60km across the desert to
Barad in Somalia until another senior soldier questioned what was going
on - "this is not what the Prophet Mohammed teaches". They were then
loaded onto trucks, on top of artillery.
But they were again attacked by Ethiopian planes, which bombed them, setting off ordnance which exploded and burnt for an hour.
One truck was left, and the 60 people were piled on top and taken
to Mogadishu, passing through towns where people threw stones at them.
Suddenly they were with more than 8000 other captured people. "We
spent three months in the central jail there. It was full of people.
Your space was the size of your shoulders. You couldn't walk more than
3m. There was limited toilet. It was very hot. Sometimes there was water
only once a day. There was sickness and people started dying. For three
months, I just sat all day."
During that time the Somalis had been sorting civilians from
military. The former were taken to a prison camp on the coast and set to
work cutting rock.
"The first six months were really a terrible time because I didn't understand what is going on and I didn't know anybody there.
"Many people lost their minds.
"It was very hot and sanitation was a big problem. When we
weren't working we were locked in 24 hours a day in one room. Once a
week we were taken to 'shower' in the ocean - but salt water. There was
malaria and lice. All the kids under five years old died in less than
one year - four or five a day."
And after that year, Firew was driven 14 hours in a truck in the
rain to labour on a prison farm. "At first we were kept in a big open
compound." It took six months to clear the forest enough to build their
own housing before continuing to clear for farmland.
"We worked very hard but now we were not locked in a house. There
were 10 soldiers to 100 prisoners as we planted orange, mango, corn and
rice. I stood in water up to my chest for 13 or 14 hours a day to keep
birds off the rice. There were a lot of mosquitoes."
But there was also a great mix of educated Ethiopians at the camp
- teachers who had been highly educated in the UK and US,
agriculturalists, doctors and nurses.
Dr Tibebu Haile Selassie was highly skilled, treated Somali
officers and their families, won their trust and won permission to start
teaching. The highly qualified prisoners developed a curriculum, and
opened a school, sometimes writing on cement bags cut to make sheets.
"But most of the teachers were high level," says Firew, who sees
now the great opportunity that had been presented to him - tutors the
like of this would not normally be teaching a 10-year-old boy. They
taught at universities; they had doctorates. "I finished
my high school there in prison,"
as people around him died of cholera, malaria, bilharzia and suicide.
"I learnt a lot in prison. I had a lot of time with extraordinary
people - teachers, agronomists. From this it is very easy to plan your
life. What is good for me is that I am not afraid of any problem. I
always say there's nothing worse comes than what happened in prison.
"I am not afraid of anything because I faced this in my childhood."
When, after more than 10 years of imprisonment, the Ethiopian and
Somali governments agreed to a prisoner-of-war exchange, he returned
home, 20 years old with a high level of education which was accepted by
the authorities in Ethiopia, and he was given a place at university in
Addis Abba, where he studied geography. He then worked for the Ministry
of Agriculture for eight years in the Ethiopian town of Bahir Dar.
"Travelling in the northern part of Ethiopia gave me a clue about tourism."
He was also asked to show some visitors around this part of
Ethiopia - north from the city of Addis Ababa, which is such a hub of
Africa, to Lalibela, with its 13th century churches hewn into rock, the
town of Bahir Dar and the valley of the Blue Nile, and the old city of
Axum.
He enjoyed it and earned good money. "So I resigned, studied
tourism, worked for three years as a guide for an Italian-owned tour
company, spent three years as a freelance guide and 10 years ago started
my own company."
With Senait on top of finances and the office ("she also knows
how to cool me," he says), Firew has time to do the fieldwork, and
personally guides most of his tours. Daughter Eva, who is nine, even
brings her skills to the business. Firew says that she will carefully
check gear and provisions lists for camping trips and make sure
everything is there.
In guiding this section of Travel Directors' Africa Dawn tour,
alongside tour leader Tony, he tells the stories of what might be called
the world's original country - from the remains of humans' oldest
primate relatives to its old Christian beliefs and still vibrant
celebrations, from its world heritage sites to its lively, dusty
markets, its remote villages and, in very clever, simple narratives,
through the stories of it all.
He's terrific, and now one of my handful of "best guides in the world".
And the fact that Tony trusts him carries a lot of weight, too.
Apart from his work for Travel Directors, Firew leads groups mostly from
the UK, US, Germany, Russia and Israel.
And, in fact, he has quite a reputation with the Israelis, from
the time he was leading a group of generals and pilots who had their own
ideas about where they should go and what they should do.
"I know this place best," he told them. "I am the only general
here. I am trying to be a good general - try to be good soldiers."
They dropped into line, let Firew lead, had a wonderful trip and
have not only returned since, but helped to spread Firew's fame.
He flicks down the emails in his iPad to show me one from the
leading Israeli general on that trek. It reads: "You are the emperor of
Ethiopia's tourism" and praises both the beauty of Ethiopia and Firew
for his "efficiency and beloved character".
Effort and honesty have made a successful business in Across Abyssinia.
Firew says: "After I started business, I am getting a lot of
money but money is more precious if you are using it for the right
purpose. I don't feel good if I am keeping a lot of money in my hand or
my account.
"Me and my wife started supporting poor people around us and this makes me very happy.
"I am supporting 35 kids to study in school. Every month I give them money for their food, their school and their clothing.
"One woman had a kidney problem and she doesn't have 10 per cent
of what she needs for medication and I have more than that in my hand - I
paid for her. She is well and I am happy.
"It's better to use money you have for possible good things. If you keep money, it rusts like metal.
"It's not money that makes you rich - it's how you think."
I have just spent more than two weeks with Firew and I have
admired his professionalism and kindness, his humour and his strength.
I'd be privileged to call him a friend. He is an inspiration, and he has
shared the intimate story of his life.
fact file *
·Firew Ayele's company,
Across Abyssinia, has packages and group tours but also caters for
individuals, couples and small groups. They can follow Across
Abyssinia's itineraries, or amend them. But in looking at the website,
consider the Northern Historic Route (14 days on road, or eight days
flying). Visit adventureabyssinia.com, email info@adventureabyssinia.com or phone
+251 911440145.
·Days in Ethiopia are part of Travel Directors' African Dawn tour
- a 28-day journey through Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia from January
4-31, 2015. It's a mix of diverse experiences and sights, from Lake
Victoria and the source of the Nile in Uganda, to the rare mountain
gorillas of Rwanda and on to Ethiopia - the cradle of civilisation. It
is $18,880 per person, twin share, and single supplement is $3250 per
person. The cost includes economy-class international airfares, all
internal flights in Africa, accommodation, meals, Travel Directors tour
leader and local guides, entrance fees, the US$750 permit to visit
mountain gorillas in Rwanda, visas. 9242 4200 and
traveldirectors.com.au.
·Qatar Airways flies daily direct between Perth and Doha and
connect to Africa, among its 130 global destinations.
qatarairways.com/au and 1300 340 600.
Network Disconnection is caused by power cuts: EthioTelecom Recently there has been a severe case of network disconnection throughout the country.
Responding as to the reason behind the network problem, EthioTelecom’s public relation office head Ato Abduraheim Ahmed said that the power cut is behind the recent incessant network disconnection.
He also said that EthioTelecom is discussing the matter with the Ethiopian Electric power corporation and efforts are underway to install a system that can give a sustain power supply to the network equipments in cases of a power cut.
Ato Abduraheim also said that the network expansion doesn’t cause the network disconnection. The network expansion which is being carried out in three phases has got the first two phases completed. When the network expansion is completed in the coming june, the 3G internet connection service will become operational.
Ethiopia to send Troops to South Sudan within weeks
Ethiopia,
Kenya and Rwanda will send 2,500 troops to South Sudan to prevent
renewed fighting between government and rebel forces, an Ethiopian
official said.
Soldiers from Ethiopia, which shares a border with
South Sudan, may arrive in the war-torn nation “within weeks” and be
the first to deploy as part of the United Nations-approved force,
Getachew Reda, an adviser to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, said
by phone today from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
“Deterrence
by its nature involves taking action when there are spoilers,” Getachew
said. “They will have to deal with anything and anyone that stands in
the way of the discharge of their responsibility.”
Conflict
erupted in the world’s newest nation on Dec. 15 with President Salva
Kiir accusing his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup, a charge
Machar denies. Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and
more than a million have been forced to flee their homes, according to
the UN. Both government and rebel forces have reported clashes even
after Kiir and Machar signed an accord on May 9 committing the two sides
to cease hostilities.
By William Davison More Here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-28/ethiopia-kenya-rwanda-sending-2-500-troops-to-south-sudan.html
50 years, Dr Hamlin is still fighting to end fistula in Ethiopia
On International End Fistula Day, an Australian gynaecolgist shares her experiences of a lifetime working to improve the lives of women with a degrading and preventable condition Obstetric fistula is a degrading condition in which women who suffer traumatising labours are left incontinent and often ostracised by their community.
Since 1959, Dr Catherine Hamlin has worked to restore the lives of women with fistula in Ethiopia by performing surgeries, training doctors and nurses and fundraising to build hospitals.
On International End Fistula Day, she shares her experiences below. We [Hamlin and her late husband Reginald] came to Ethiopia from Australia in response to an advertisement to work as obstetrician/ gynaecologists at a hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
We were touched and appalled by the sadness of our first fistula patient: a beautiful young woman in urine-soaked ragged clothes, sitting alone in our outpatients department away from the other waiting patients. We knew she was more in need than any of the others.
She had been through a long labour of five days with only the village women to help. And so we saw the first of many fistula sufferers. Five per cent of all women who give birth have an obstructed labour and cannot deliver their child without help, but a caesarean section or some other skilled delivery is not available for women in rural Ethiopia.
The fistula patients are the survivors of an obstructed labour, many don't survive. The maternal death rate in Ethiopia is one of the highest in Africa. Fistula patients are ashamed of their injuries and are often ostracised by their village communities, living alone and hiding from others, so the world is not aware of them.
When the word spread about our surgery, women started arriving at the hospital from all over the country hoping for the operation. To cater for the demand we began fundraising and opened the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in 1974.
Over the next thirty years we opened five regional hospitals across the country. Since then, we have treated about 40,000 women for this preventable injury. We now work in close collaboration with the Ethiopian ministry of health and have increasing support from them.
Much has improved since we started our work. The ministry of health has given health services to the rural population by building health centres throughout the countryside. The government also started a medical faculty at Addis university in 1966, which meant we could train our doctors there instead of sending them to train at a US-established medical training centre at Beirut University.
Now we have doctors from our own universities, but unfortunately few are willing to work in the rural areas – many have left Ethiopia hoping to live a better life abroad. This is a great tragedy and loss. Our country hospitals have almost no doctors in them.
Going forward our greatest need is to have a well-trained midwife in every village in Ethiopia. We set up a midwifery training college in 2007. We take 12th grade students from countryside schools to train on a four- year degree course. These girls go back to their homes to work in antenatal clinics attached to the many health centres.
We are hoping to spread our midwives throughout the country, but they need doctors in the referral hospitals to do the caesarean sections. We can't do it all alone. We need to continue to work in closer collaboration with the ministry of health and key partner organisations to eradicate obstetric fistula from Ethiopia. Then women won't have to suffer this devastating ordeal.
A new cookbook brings the healthy and spicy cuisine of the African continent home.
Sewesa Desta recalls being in Washington several years ago and going to Georgetown, the preening suburb of the capital across the Potomac in Virginia and a sort of foodie mecca. Nestled among the shops was an Ethiopian restaurant.
“That one is very nice, because it has a good reception. They make good food; they are not interested only in selling drinks. Here, most of the people who go to the [Ethiopian] restaurants go to drink.”
Over the past 15 years, Ethiopia has become home to one of the world's fastest-growing higher education systems.
Increasing the number of graduates in the country is a key component of the government's industrialisation strategy and part of its ambitious plan to become a middle-income country by 2025.
Since the 1990s, when there were just two public universities, almost 30 new institutions have sprung up.
On the face of it, this is good news for ordinary Ethiopians. But dig a little deeper and tales abound of students required to join one of the three government parties, with reports of restricted curricula, classroom spies and crackdowns on student protests commonplace at universities.
Nowhere has this been more evident than in Ambo in Oromia state. On 25 April, protests against government plans to bring parts the town under the administrative jurisdiction of the capital, Addis Ababa, began at Ambo University. By the following Tuesday, as protests spread to the town and other areas of Oromia, dozens of demonstrators had been killed in clashes with government forces, according to witnesses.
As Ethiopia experiences rapid economic expansion, its government plans to grow the capital out rather than up, and this involves annexing parts of the surrounding Oromia state.
An official communique from the government absolved it of all responsibility for the clashes, claiming that just eight people had been killed and alleging that the violence had been coordinated by a few rogue anti-peace forces.
The government maintains that it is attempting to extend Addis Ababa's services to Oromia through its expansion of the city limits. However, Oromia opposition figures tell a different story.
On 2 May, the nationalist organisation the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) issued a press release that condemned the "barbaric and egregious killing of innocent Oromo university students who have peacefully demanded the regime to halt the displacement of Oromo farmers from their ancestral land, and the inclusion of Oromo cities and surrounding localities under Finfinnee [Addis Ababa] administration under the pretext of development".
The Addis Ababa regime dismisses the OLA as a terrorist organisation. While news of the killing of unarmed protesters has caused great concern among many Ethiopians, there has been little coverage overseas. The government maintains strict control over the domestic media; indeed, it frequently ranks as one of the world's chief jailers of journalists, and it is not easy to come by independent reporting of events in the country.
Nevertheless, the government's communique does run contrary to reports by the few international media that did cover the attacks in Ambo, which placed the blame firmly on government forces.
The BBC reported that a witness in Ambo saw more than 20 bodies on the street, while Voice of America (VOA) reported that at least 17 protesters were killed by "elite security forces" on three campuses in Oromia. Local residents maintain that the figure [of those killed] was much higher.
These reports, while difficult to corroborate, have been backed up by Human Rights Watch, which issued a statement saying that "security forces have responded [to the protests] by shooting at and beating peaceful protesters in Ambo, Nekemte, Jimma, and other towns with unconfirmed reports from witnesses of dozens of casualties".
One university lecturer said he had been "rescued from the live ammunition", and that it was the "vampires – the so-called federal police" who fired on the crowds. The Ethiopian government likes to trumpet its higher education system to its western aid backers as a crowning success of its development policy.
As billions in foreign aid are spent annually on Ethiopia, the west must be more cognisant of the fact that this money helps reinforce a government which cuts down those who dare to speak out against it.
Inevitably, continued support for such an oppressive regime justifies its brutal silencing of dissent. Yes, the higher education system has grown exponentially over the past 15 years but the oppression and killing of innocent students cannot be considered an achievement.
Any system which crushes its brightest should not be considered a success. Paul O'Keeffe is a doctoral fellow at La Sapienza University of Rome, where he focuses on the higher education system in Ethiopia
DAILY MAIL: By MONICA KAYOMBO PREPARATIONS for my second visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after my first in 2010, started like any other, but little did I know what awaited me at my point of destination.
This is one trip where I was not privy to the programme until I reached Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia is a country with a population of over 90 million people, making it the second most populous nation in Africa after Nigeria.
Having defeated Italy in a war after five years of invasion, Ethiopian got independent on May 3, 1941.
About 85 percent of Ethiopians depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
Amheric is the national language. Addis Ababa, the city that I visited means “ new flower’’ and many tourists visit Addis as it is fondly called, for many reasons, ranging from leisure to business.
On May 6, which was my day of departure, I had to arrive early at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka to meet the trip co-ordinator Collette Stephenson for preliminaries.
It was an educational tour to Addis, courtesy of Ethiopian Airlines.
A workmate Chimwemwe Mwale dropped me off at the airport two hours before departure, and by 13:06 hours, we took off for Addis via Harare.
However, we spent more than an hour at Harare International Airport due to a technical fault.
Nevertheless, it was while on board the Ethiopian airliner that I started enjoying the famous Ethiopian tomoca coffee.
We touched down at Bole International Airport in Addis at 21:00 hours to a warm welcome from members of staff at the Zambian embassy in Ethiopian led by Dorcas Chileshe, the press attaché.
After almost one hour of waiting at the airport, my colleagues and I were issued with temporary visas after it emerged that there was something wrong with our initial visas.
I was in a 17-member delegation that included director for Civil Service Travel, Davies Muunga, Rita Mwanakombo from Premier Travel, Danford Walenga, a sales representative at Ethiopian Airlines in Lusaka, Memory Chipango from Voyers Travel and Tours, Davies Mainza, Ruth Kalobwe from Discovery Travel and consultants from travel agencies in the country.
Before dinner, we were introduced to our tour guide, Wondwosson Getaneh, a marketing officer at Ethiopian Airlines.
We spent the first night at the luxurious Friendship International hotel.
A professional tour guide, Samrawiti Fekade joined us as we toured the Trinity Orthodox Church that was constructed by the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.
We also visited the African Union building and the National Museum.
Our last day in Ethiopia was going to be Saturday, May 10.
Before that on Wednesday, May 7, we prepared ourselves for a trip to Liesak Exotic Resort which is about 45 Kilometres south of Addis Ababa.
Though the trip was exciting, I was in deep pain from a toothache that developed after I left Lusaka. With a swollen face, I visited some pharmacies in Addis Ababa, but could not get any medication due to a language barrier.
I only got some relief from pain-killers until Thursday when I was taken to Ethiopian Airlines staff clinic.
All colleagues in the entourage, especially Violet Tembo from Muvi Tv did what they could to make me feel better.
After having lunch, which of course included the traditional staple food ‘’injera’’ also known as tef at the Liesak Exotic Resort, we were massaged and allowed to remain in the sauna for as long as we wished.
Those who were brave enough went on boat cruise for as many times as they wished, while enjoying a cocktail of intoxicating drinks.
Liesak Resort hotel is in Boshoftu area, right on the banks of Lake Babogaya.
During our dinner at the resort, we were entertained by a traditional dance troupe comprising energetic boys and girls.
As though that was not enough, the dance troupe treated us to western music, and of course they did not disappoint us.
On top of that, the disc jockey played Zambian music including the famous kopala tunes like Kanselele and some of JK’s music.
The following day, we went back to Addis Ababa for a meeting with Ethiopian Airlines officials who wanted our views on how they could improve their services.
We later had an opportunity to visit the National Museum under the guidance of a Ms Fekade.
At the museum, we had an opportunity to see various fossils and paintings.
We were also told the story of King Solomon and Queen Sheba of the Bible and how the latter conceived Menelik, one of the forefathers of Emperor Haile Selassie.
We also visited the Trinity Orthodox Church which Haile Selassie started building in 1931 and was only completed in 1941, the year of Ethiopia’s independence.
Emperor Selassie, who ruled Ethiopia from November 2 1930 to September 12 1974, died on August 27, 1975, after an illness.
He is worshipped and perceived as a messianic figure by Rastafarians.
It is at the Trinity Orthodox Church where members of the Selassie family are buried, while outside the church are tombs of gallant fallen heroes.
Church services are usually conducted at the Trinity Orthodox Church and several Christians as well as non-Christians flock there to receive blessings from the priests who are there every 24 hours.
About 65 percent of Ethiopians are Christians of which the Orthodox Church claims the biggest share. On the political front, what surprised me is that there is almost no opposition to the ruling party in Ethiopia.
Out of 547 parliamentary seats, only one seat belongs to the opposition. The rest of the seats are held by the ruling People’s Revolution Democratic Party. Otherwise it was a fan-filled trip as we took time to take pictures at the famous scenic spot in Addis Ababa which is 3,200 metres above sea level.
This is a place where most Ethiopian athletes do their training. We also took time to visit the historic African Union (AU) building, though amid tight security as usual.
After our tour, we went back to Friendship International hotel where we spent a night in anticipation of Friday special! On Friday morning, we visited Ethiopian Airlines headquarters and mingled with senior management officials.
Later in the evening, we were taken for dinner at Yod Abbysinia Restaurant where we were given another treat by the cultural dance troupe to wrap up our tour of Ethiopia.
Despite the tooth-ache problem, I did not abandon my journalistic duties. Through it all, I decided to depend and trust in God. Despite the security checks at almost every point we stopped, I will always have that nostalgia for Ethiopia and its people.
Ethiopia’s ‘Super Grain’ Teff Finds Its Way To European Supermarkets
Ethiopia’s
‘Super Grain’ Teff Finds Its Way To European Supermarkets - See more
at:
http://afkinsider.com/56266/ethiopias-super-grain-teff-finds-way-european-markets/#sthash.R52kpMgp.dpuf
Ethiopia,
one of the world’s poorest countries, is also the native home of teff, a
highly nutritious ancient grain increasingly finding its way into
health-food shops and supermarkets in Europe, CCTV Africa reported.
Teff’s tiny seeds are high in calcium, iron and protein, and boast an
impressive set of amino acids.
Naturally gluten-free, the grain
can substitute for wheat flour in anything from bread and pasta to
waffles and pizza bases. Like quinoa, the Andean grain, teff’s superb
nutritional profile offers the promise of new and lucrative markets in
the west.
Tedd is grown by an estimated 6.3 million farmers in
Ethiopia, with fields of the crop covering more than 20 percent of all
land under cultivation. But growing appetite for traditional crops and
booming health-food and gluten-free markets are breathing new life into
the grain, increasingly touted as Ethiopia’s “second gift to the world”,
after coffee.
Ethiopia's rare mountain lions
A German conservation group is compensating local farmers in Ethiopia’s Kafa region,whose lifestock is often seized by rare mountain lions.
In return, the farmers are helping protect the big cats. Project goal: documenting and protecting the lions of Kafa (among the very few African lions not living in a savannah region), preserving the rich biodiversity of the Kafa Biosphere Reserve and ensuring balanced wildlife numbers Duration: 2009 to 2014 under the NABU Cloud Forest Protection project, since 2013 - Nabu lion protection program Implementation: in a pilot project, local farmers are compensated for their livestock seized by the lions. They inform NABU about lion sightings and their behaviour patterns Size: Kafa Biosphere Reserve (780 square kilometers) Funding: around 3.2 million Euros from the International Climate Initiative’s (IKI) forest protection program Key species: African lion (Panthera leo) The Kafa Biosphere Reserve in Ethiopia is known for its wild coffee, hippos and crowned eagle. But lions?
Scientists were taken by surprise when a rare female mountain lion was sighted there two years ago.
Now, a few of the beasts, including some from the former zoo and presidential palace in Addis Ababa, seem to be at home in Kafa’s mountain cloud forests.
But, local farmers aren’t so happy with the big cats increasingly attacking their livestock during the dry season.
German conservation group NABU is helping to compensate farmers and banking on their traditional reverence for lions to help protect the big beasts.
Source DW
The winner of the second Brunel University African Poetry Prize is Liyou Libsekal, an Ethiopian poet who lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The two runners-up are Amy Lukau (Angola) and Nick Makoha (Uganda) Judges 2014: Kwame Dawes, Kadija George, Mpalive Msiska, Daljit Nagra and Chair, Bernardine Evaristo The judges praised Liyou’s poetry for its accomplished modulation between the concrete and the abstract; her impressive use of the fully realised image; and the power and beauty of her language.
Liyou Mesfin Libsekal was born in 1990 in Ethiopia and grew up traveling with her family, spending the majority of her childhood in different parts of East Africa.
She earned a BA in Anthropology from George Washington University in 2012, with a minor in international affairs and a concentration in international development.
Liyou returned to Ethiopia after spending a short time in Vietnam. Since January 2013 she has written on culture and the changing environment of her rapidly developing country for the Ethiopian Business Review.
The Shortlisted Poets 2014 Viola Allo (Cameroon); Inua Ellams (Nigeria); Amy Lukau (Angola); Nick Makoha (Uganda); Vuyelwa Maluluke (South Africa) About the Prize The prize is for African poets who have not yet published a full-length poetry collection.
Entrants submit ten poems and we received 579 entries and drew up a shortlist of six poets. Bernardine Evaristo, founder and chair of the prize, says this about the prize: ‘I have judged several prizes in the past few years, including chairing the Caine Prize for African Fiction in 2012, an award that has revitalized the fortunes of fiction from Africa since its inception in 1999.
It became clear to me that poetry from the continent could also do with a prize to draw attention to it and to encourage a new generation of poets who might one day become an international presence.
African poets are rarely published in Britain. I hope this prize will introduce exciting new poets to Britain’s poetry editors.’ Last year the prize was won by Somali poet, Warsan Shire, who has since been translated into several languages, travelled to six countries as a writer, had a chapbook published in the US, and been appointed the first Young Poet Laureate for London.
Liyou Libsekal will be appearing at the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival on October 10th with Bernardine Evaristo. Visit: http:// www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/ for more details once the 2014 programme is online.
The Brunel Prize works closely with The African Poetry Book Fund’s New Generation African Poets’ Series – who will publish chapbooks by the following BUAPP poets in 2014 and 2015: Liyou Libsekal, Warsan Shire, Nick Makoha, Amy Lukau, Viola Allo, Inua Ellams and Vuyelwa Maluleke.
Olympic Official: Brazil’s Games ‘Really Are Not Ready in Many, Many Ways’ The vice president of the International Olympic Committee has called the delayed, disorganized and controversial preparations for the 2016 games in Brazil the .
he has ever experienced. And for the first time in the history of the modern Olympics, IOC’s experts will embed in the host city’s organizing committee to guarantee that the games proceed.
“We’ve become very concerned, to be quite frank,” said John Coates, vice president of the IOC, during an Olympic forum in Sydney. “They really are not ready in many, many ways,” he added, saying that Rio de Janeiro’s preparations are worse than the 2004 games in Athens, which were described by many as chaotic.
Coates, who spoke next to a large poster with the words “Rio: Best Planned, Prepared, Performed” on it, said work has not begun at Deodoro, a venue that will host eight Olympic events.
He also said that water pollution was a major concern, affecting sports like sailing and canoeing. “The city also has social issues that need to be addressed,” said Coates.
Brazil, which is also hosting the World Cup this summer, has evicted several thousand families in Rio to make way for new infrastructure projects related to these sporting events. The IOC did not provide details on which projects and venues are on schedule and which are delayed or nonexistent.
Instead, media relations manager Sandrine Tonge forwarded excerpts from a press release detailing the results of a recent executive board meeting during which the preparation delays in Brazil were discussed.
To support the Rio organizers, IOC advisers will increase the frequency of their visits and appoint a dedicated joint task force with Rio 2016. They will also create a high-level decision-making body bringing together the IOC and Brazilian government officials. Finally, they agreed to recruit a local construction project manager. Preparations for the Rio 2016 games have been plagued with problems.
In 2013, Rio’s chief operating officer, Leo Gryner, said that $700 million in public funds would be required to balance the budget, though it turned out that unexpected income from local sponsorships resolved that matter, at least temporarily.
Shortly after, Marcio Fortes, the head of Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic Public Authority, resigned after complaining about his office’s waning influence. Earlier this month, Maria Silvia Bastos Marques, the president of the Municipal Olympic Company, in charge of preparing Rio de Janeiro for the games, stepped down.
Also this month, approximately 2,000 workers assigned to the Olympic Park staged a two- week strike, seeking increased salaries and improved benefits.
Despite these setbacks, the games—the first in South America—must go on, says the IOC. “There can be no plan B,” said Coates. “We are going to Rio.
We’ve just got to make sure that we help the organizing committee deliver games that will enable our athletes, the athletes of the world, to perform to the best of their ability.”
Source: newsweek.com
The last thing a 3-year-old Syrian said before he died: “I’m gonna tell God everything”
And
that’s equally haunting. It’s impossible to verify but the picture
tells a story about the pain and suffering that exists in Syria right
now. There are many in the media who would like to say this is because
president Bashar al-Assad is a ruthless killer. And that’s half true.
Like other government leaders – he has engaged in war and with that war
has come the death of tens of thousands and the displacement of over 1
million Syrians now living in refugee camps.
But this hasn’t
always been the case. This is the inevitable result of a covert war
being waged by the U.S., Israel and other Sunni countries like Qatar and
Saudi Arabia. Our interests in taking down the Syrian dictator
al-Assad are all about geo-politics. If we take out Syria – we neuter
Iranian influence in the region. It has gotten so bad that al-Qaeda is
now fighting on the same side as the United States government and Bashar
al-Assad and his government are fighting al-Qaeda. And Syrians are all
the victim of this massive global covert proxy war.
It has
gotten to the point where we don’t even know if the chemical weapons
that were used in Syria were the result of al-Qaeda or the Syrian
government. When it comes to matters of intelligence and propaganda –
it’s very hard to discern truth from fiction. But no one can deny that
Syria was a very stable country until we decided to go in all guns
blazing. We’re not bringing democracy to the world – that’s the sound
of imperialism baby.The last thing a 3-year-old Syrian said before he
died: “I’m gonna tell God everything”
And that’s equally
haunting. It’s impossible to verify but the picture tells a story about
the pain and suffering that exists in Syria right now. There are many
in the media who would like to say this is because president Bashar
al-Assad is a ruthless killer. And that’s half true. Like other
government leaders – he has engaged in war and with that war has come
the death of tens of thousands and the displacement of over 1 million
Syrians now living in refugee camps.
But this hasn’t
always been the case. This is the inevitable result of a covert war
being waged by the U.S., Israel and other Sunni countries like Qatar and
Saudi Arabia. Our interests in taking down the Syrian dictator
al-Assad are all about geo-politics. If we take out Syria – we neuter
Iranian influence in the region. It has gotten so bad that al-Qaeda is
now fighting on the same side as the United States government and Bashar
al-Assad and his government are fighting al-Qaeda. And Syrians are all
the victim of this massive global covert proxy war.
It has
gotten to the point where we don’t even know if the chemical weapons
that were used in Syria were the result of al-Qaeda or the Syrian
government. When it comes to matters of intelligence and propaganda –
it’s very hard to discern truth from fiction. But no one can deny that
Syria was a very stable country until we decided to go in all guns
blazing. We’re not bringing democracy to the world – that’s the sound
of imperialism baby.
For many people religion provides a sense of belonging, a reason to dance and sing or even light a ship on fire. That’s where these eight festivals come in. Their traditional celebrations create a once-in-a-lifetime event that encourage tourists to join in on the action. Whether you’re captivated by the vibrancy that encompasses these eight festivals or the passion of the believers, you’ll have to admit that they make for one great show.
Ethiopia: Meskel Festival
The day is Sept. 26, which marks the first day of the Meskel Festival, with bonfires set throughout the villages of Ethiopia. However, many of the country’s inhabitants migrate to Meskel Square, where a huge fire just beneath a a cross glistens amid a crowd of dancers and singers who also seem hypnotized by the intensity of the flame. This two-day orthodox celebration takes place in honor of Queen Helena (mother of Constantine the Great) for finding the holy cross on which Christ was crucified. In the midst of celebrating the heroic queen, the participants anxiously hope that the rain will come and extinguish the bonfires, signifying a prosperous year ahead.
The following day, long after the fires have simmered into black ash, calls for spending time with family while eating and drinking, but abstaining from meat. Many worshippers are also seen sporting crosses on their foreheads made from the ashes of the blaze.
Taiwan: Ghost Festival
You don’t have to wait for Halloween to dress up in your scariest costume because in Taiwan the spirits of the dead are celebrated for an entire month. On the seventh month on the lunar calendar, formerly known by the Chinese as Ghost Month, ghosts leave hell to rejoin their families and run amok throughout the area.
In order to please them, the Ghost Festival provides the spiritual beings with a feast as well as a ceremonial welcoming with an elaborate street parade adorned with fireworks, floats and music to ease their pain and most importantly delight their dead souls. Occurring on the 15thday of the month, this gives believers more than enough time to appease the deceased before their ghostly bodies return to hell on the last day of Ghost Month.
Bolivia: Carnaval de Oruro
From the bright costumes and traditional dancers lining the streets, you may think this colorful celebration is one wild party. This is not far off, as evidenced by the dancing devils taking over Carnaval de Oruro. Eight days before Ash Wednesday, music sounds through the streets of Bolivia as the traditional diablada (devil’s dance) means the show has officially begun.
Soon after, dozens of devils frolicking in haunting masks decorated with eyes bulging out of their sockets, long hair and huge teeth — scary enough to give anyone nightmares — move rhythmically through the large crowd. This sight is typically met with the mesmerizing dance of the devil’s wife, China Supay, who unleashes her best moves in an attempt to seduce the Archangel Michael. Along with historical performances, plays are reenacted to depict the triumph of the Conquistadores as well as the Archangel Michael’s victory over the devils, which also convey the powerful message that good always trumps evil.
Morocco: Fes Festival of World Sacred Music
What’s celebrating religion without music?
At the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, these two go hand-in-hand as cultures collide to put on one enchanting, mystical experience. From June 13-21, Morocco’s landscape will be rocked by international artists like Nomadic Voices of the Steppes and the Mountains, El Gusto, Ladysmith Chicago Gospel Experience and Françoise Atlan and the Al Quds Ensemble.
As these many musicians join forces to create one universal language through the art of music, the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music becomes an amazing journey into a world powered by spirituality, artistry and above all unity.
India: Navaratri Festival
This nine-day celebration is devoted to Goddess Durga to honor the energy that flows throughout the earth. The Navaratri Festival combines food, folk dancing and local music to worship every characteristic of the Hindu deity equally. The first three days are devoted to Durga, which keeps her worshippers on a narrow path by cleansing them of their impurities and other sins. Lakshmi is adored on the next three days among those hoping to become prosperous, and the last days of the festival are celebrated in honor of Saraswati who bestows wisdom on her loyal subjects.
Acknowledging God as a woman who protects her believers the way a mother nurtures a child, the Navaratri Festival creates a one-of-kind spiritual event that is as colorful as it is captivating. So if you’re paying a visit to this festival, you’ll want to give her your utmost respect. After all, a woman scorned is nothing compared to the anger of a goddess that controls the flow of energy across the earth.
Philippines: Sinulog Festival
The Sinulog Festival embodies the power of dance to commemorate the deity Santo Nino. The magnetic dance of the Sinulog conventionally links the past to the present while drums reverberate as beautifully dressed revelers flood the streets to express their love for the beloved god.
Not only is music heard from miles away, but also the boisterous sounds of celebrators screaming “Pit Senor, Senor Santo Nino!” in order to be acknowledged by Santo Nino. If you too are hoping to grab the god’s attention, then its best you make your presence known by joining in with locals and shouting from the top of your lungs, as well as dancing vigorously to the hypnotic drumming.
Mexico: Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe
If you believe in miracles, you may want to be in Puerto Vallarta during Dec. 1-12 to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe who reemerged in the presence of one of Mexico’s residents. To remember this glorious occasion, the streets of the city become flooded with pilgrims making their way to the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe where a mass is performed.
From musicians offering their artistry to worshippers praying in the middle of street, the holiness that encompasses this annual festival will make you follow the large crowd out of curiosity alone. Not only is the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe one of Mexico’s most important celebrations, it is revered as one of the most sacred as well.
Scotland: Up Helly-Aa
Hell has officially landed on earth by the way these celebrants light up the night with their flamed torches. The Up Helly Aa is one event that will be worth the visit as Viking-styled Guziers proudly march through the villages of the Shetland Islands singing their hearts out with torches and medieval weapons in hand.
Beginning every year on the last Tuesday in January, a Guizer Jarl or a chief is appointed who then leads his troop to a ship which set on fire with the torches. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a Viking here is your chance to get carried away in this unique culture where you can dress up, drink, and march to the heritage that only a Viking can provide.
Ethiopia: The lifetime risk of a mother dying during pregnancy
Addis Ababa (HAN) May 11, 2014 - Global Motherhood Expert Analysis, Your Power & Regional Influence Magazine: Opinion Page By Liya Kebede. I never considered my mother a gambler, but looking back to my earliest days in Ethiopia, I realize that the likelihood of my mother and me both dying during childbirth was alarmingly high.
Geeska Afrika Online Research Study Group presented this note:A lack of awareness of the importance of skilled hospital deliveries in Ethiopia, cultural beliefs, and transport challenges in rural areas are causing a high number of deaths during childbirth, say officials. “Even though communities are aware of the dangers around childbirth, contingencies for potential complications are rarely discussed or made, such that most families hope or pray that things will turn out well. When things go wrong precious time is lost in finding resources and manpower to assist in the transfer to a health facility,” the study said. Maria Farah outside her ari in Somali national regional state of Ethiopia. photo by Jaspreet Kindra (IRIN).
Liya Kebede Presented her findings to this report: When I was born, the lifetime risk of a mother dying during pregnancy or childbirth in Ethiopia was about 1 in 14. Fortunately, the odds have improved a lot since then.
In fact, according to Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers report, Ethiopia has made enormous progress in helping mothers and young children survive. Since 2000, Ethiopia has reduced its lifetime risk of maternal death by nearly two-thirds (from 1 in 24 to 1 in 67) – more than any other country on the African continent.
Ethiopia also has reduced deaths of children under 5 by more than half since 2000. Relative to other countries, Ethiopia has leaped over more than a dozen countries in improving survival rates of mothers and young children.
However, with up to 90 percent of all Ethiopian mothers still giving birth at home, we continue to face major health challenges, especially in helping babies survive the first month of life. Nearly 88,000 newborns died in 2012 from largely preventable causes, and Ethiopia ranks among the top ten countries with the highest number of newborn deaths each year.
Importantly, there is some big news coming out of Ethiopia this spring that is cause for hope in reducing newborn deaths. For the first time on the African continent, there is strong evidence that simple, community-based interventions implemented by well-trained health workers can dramatically reduce deaths from infections in babies less than a month of age.
As many Ethiopians know, the federal government has long supported the development of a strong community-based platform for health services managed by more than 34,000 female Health Extension Workers (HEWs) and an army of community volunteers.
These HEWs provide primary health care services in their community, including hygiene and sanitation, infectious disease control, family health education, and family planning services. They also treat pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and severe acute malnutrition in small children. Until recently, however, they have not been handling newborn illnesses. That is now changing.
A new study, released in Addis last month and supported by Save the Children, came to two important conclusions:
Strengthening maternal and newborn services within the community-based program in Ethiopia could greatly improve health benefits for mothers and children;
Training HEWs properly on how to identify sick newborns and treat them with antibiotics when they cannot be referred to hospitals could reduce newborn deaths after the first day of life by as much as 30 percent.
The five year study also found that care-seeking and newborn care practices were significantly improved through health promotion, counseling and by involving community leaders.
Overall, these results show great promise for the continued expansion of community-based newborn care within the national health system.
Of course, mid-level and high-level health facilities remain the best alternative for health care for mothers and children within Ethiopia whenever possible. But the government deserves credit in bringing health care closer to households and recognizing that thousands of mothers and children do not have access to higher level care and are dependent on the community health system for the services they need.
By strengthening community health services – and training health extension workers to use basic interventions that can save lives – Ethiopia is becoming a global leader in reducing maternal and newborn deaths.
Later this month, in Geneva, health ministers from around the world will gather at the World Health Assembly to consider the Every Newborn Action Plan, an international roadmap to help countries sharpen their plans to address maternal and newborn health.
Our Ethiopian health officials attending the meeting can take pride in knowing they already have a country plan that is well underway. For that alone, my mother and I are both grateful. Sources: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia
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msnbc.com. By Mustafah Abdulaziz and Johnny Simon
In the Konso Region of southern Ethiopia, the struggle for clean, safe water is a daily reality for women and young girls.
“Bringing the water is not a simple task,” says Mariam Bakaule, a mother standing at the edge of the mountaintop village of Jarso. “This is the essence of women. Water and woman are synonymous here.”
The village of Jarso, like many of the others in the area, overlooks a vast valley stretching towards the Kenyan border. Yet the relative greenery of the region is deceptive. For the 13,000 people in Jarso, lack of rain in recent years has caused crops of maize, sorghum and haricot beans to fail.
At the center of this struggle to survive are the women and young girls whose responsibility it is to trek up to five hours a day to reach dry river beds, only to wait in long lines for scant resources.
Uchiya Nallo, an eight-months- pregnant 29-year-old mother, spends half her day climbing a mountainside carrying more than 5 gallons (about 40 pounds) of water.
“The road is very dangerous and I feel tired all the time,” she says. “I am worried because sometimes I fall down and hurt myself. I worry because I feel tired. Now I am almost ready to give birth and I am walking slowly but maybe I will have some problems, I’m not sure.”
The correlation between the risk of maternal mortality for women in the developing world and access to safe water and sanitation is little understood.
When water is gathered for drinking or washing, any contaminants or infectious agents can have a direct effect on maternal health.
Infections and repeated worm infections from unsafe sanitation lead to other risks such as malnutrition, stunted growth and fatal obstructed labor.
And the physical strain from carrying the water is itself dangerous, resulting in a higher risk of spinal injury, uterine prolapse, rheumatism hernia and spontaneous abortion.
In some respects, Ethiopia has made important strides toward the United Nations Millennium Goals of reducing maternal mortality.
Today, just over half the population has access to water, nearly four times the number in 1990.
Yet the country still has a long way to go: While a woman’s lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 3800 in the developed world, in Ethiopia it is 1 in 67.
WaterAid, an international non-governmental organization, is one of the groups improving access to clean water among the world’s poor, and has been working in Ethiopia since 1984.
In the late afternoon light of May, villagers in Teshmale gather around a new water point constructed by the NGO.
When the last of the technical difficulties has been solved, the tap is turned on and water gushes forth, first brown and then a pure, unclouded torrent.
It is the first time the children, long used to the dirty red water from the riverbeds, have seen clear water. Mustafah Abdulaziz is a documentary photographer based in Berlin, Germany.
His ongoing project, Water, exploring water issues around the world, has received grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, commissions from the United Nations and WaterAid.
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