Showing posts with label Women & Men. Show all posts

Monday, November 26, 2018

Who is Birtukan Mideksa?

Birtukan Mideksa

Birtukan Mideksa was born in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia and attended the Yekatit 12 secondary school (also known as Etege Menen). After graduating from high school, she attended Addis Ababa University where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Law. She practiced law in the third district of the federal judiciary. In 2014 Birtukan received Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University WEB Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

While she was working for the federal judiciary, Birtukan was appointed to be a judge at the 3rd district court of the federal first instant court. During that time, she presided over a high-profile case of the former defense minister and top ranking official of TPLF, Siye Abraha who was accused of corruption. She set the defendant free on bail, and was surprised minutes later when government authorities arrested Siye while he was walking out of the court accompanied by his family and friends.

Mideksa decided to join a political party to help bring about change, including recognition of the rule of law, and full respect for the implementation of the constitution. She joined the Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice Party, and later, Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). In the election of 2005, her party won over a third of the seats. Party members believed they would have won even more seats if not for voting and counting irregularities. After the election, the governing party started to round up opposition party leaders, Mideksa, who was convicted of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and was sentenced to life in prison. She was pardoned in 2007 after lengthy negotiations and after she, along with other leaders of the opposition, spent 18 months in prison.

Mideksa later founded UDJ (Unity for Democracy and Justice) with the same principles that guided CUD. The need for having the new party name came from the fact that the ruling party's election commission awarded to a splinter group from CUD (aka Kinijit). Birtukan was elected to be a chairperson of the UDJ, which has the goal of bringing about change in Ethiopia by peaceful means.

On December 28, 2008, Mideksa was re-arrested. Her 2007 pardon was revoked and she was sentenced to life in prison. Human Rights Watch called the arrest politically motivated.The Ethiopian government claimed that her pardon had been conditional on "an apology for her crimes," and that it had ordered her re-arrest after hearing reports that she had publicly denied having apologized for her actions or asking for a pardon. Elizabeth Blunt of the BBC said that since her arrest, Mideksa, whom she described as "one of the younger and more charismatic leaders of the coalition which did so astonishingly well against the ruling party in the 2005 elections," had become "even more of a heroine, attracting widespread sympathy as a single mother separated from her baby daughter."

In December 2009, Amnesty International categorized Birtukan's imprisonment as "unjust and politically motivated" The organization also launched an international campaign demanding her release, challenging the Ethiopian government's claim that her incarceration was a legal matter.

On October 6, 2010, Mideksa was released from prison. According to government spokesman Shimeles Kemal, Mideksa submitted a pardon plea in October 2010, while the justice ministry quoted a statement in which she expressed regret for denying her 2007 pardon. The United Kingdom's Minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham, welcomed her release, stating "This is an important step forward. We have always taken the view that her re-imprisonment was not in Ethiopia's interest and a solution should be found ... for her to be released."

In 2011, Mideksa was awarded the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship of the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, giving her five months in Washington, D.C. to "study the principles of democracy."

As of 30 March 2013, Mideksa was a fellow at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

Encouraged by the political reforms started by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in April 2018, Birtukan returned to Ethiopia in November 2018. On November 23rd of 2018 she was elected and sworn in as chairwoman of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE). Good Luck!

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

38 people killed in a bus accident

Ethiopia: Thirty eight people killed in a bus accident (state radio)

Thirty-eight people were killed in northern Ethiopia on Monday when the bus carrying them veered off the road, state radio Fana reported on Tuesday.

“A total of 38 people (28 men and 10 women) were killed in the accident,” Fana said on its website, citing the Legambo district authorities, where the accident took place, and stating that surviving passengers, 10 in number, suffer “serious and light” injuries.

Lagambo, which is part of the Amhara regional state, is located some 482 km north of Addis Ababa.

A total of 38 people (28 men and 10 women) were killed in the accident.

The bus, carrying a total of 48 passengers, reportedly tumbled off a five meter cliff in the specific area called Genete Selam Ber, Kebele 07, in Legambo.

Most of them were university students, according to Legambo wereda communication bureau. The 10 who were injured are receiving medical treatment at Hidar 11 hospital in the Akesta town.

It is not yet clear what caused the bus to derail off the cliff.

Photo Credit: Amhara mass media agency

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Ethiopia's Spice Girls admit they are coping just fine without UK aid money

Ethiopia's Spice Girls admit they are coping just fine without UK aid money a year after the British Government cut funding following a public outcry

The girl band Yegna received £4m of British taxpayers' money for aid projects
A year on they are playing to 10,000-strong crowds and looking at sponsorship
Department for International Development axed funding after a public outcry

The founders of Ethiopia's Spice Girls have admitted the band is getting on just fine without UK aid money.

The girl band Yegna received £4million of British taxpayers' money as part of a wider programme aimed at empowering women in Ethiopia.

But they had their funding stopped last year following a public outcry as ministers admitted the money could be better spent elsewhere.

And in an interview a year later the pop group's founders have admitted the band has carried on despite the funding cut.

The band has got funding from anonymous charitable givers and is exploring sponsorship deals according to reports..

The founders of Ethiopia's Spice Girls (pictured) have admitted the band is getting on just fine without UK aid money

While members of the pop group said they have played to 10,000-strong crowds of fans.

Zebiba Girma, one of the band members, told The Guardian: 'There were over 10,000 spectators, it was amazing.

'Some women, who looked like us, came to the back of the stage and told us their life stories.'

Gayathri Butler, country director for Girl Effect - the project which covers the band - attacked the backlash the funding encountered in the UK.

She said: 'And also a reduction of what we actually do. The representation of the Spice Girls, it was just taking what they had seen as a reduction of the brand, because that was what's facing the international audience.

Priti Patel (pictured outside No10 last year) announced she was axing the funding last year, saying British aid money could be spent in better ways

'We're a brand created by Ethiopians and for Ethiopians.'

Brand director Bemnet Yemesgen said: 'We have created music that people want to buy, so we're considering commercialising some of the products we own.'

Priti Patel announced she was axing the funding last year, saying: ‘We have taken the decision to end our partnership following a review of the programme.

‘Empowering women and girls around the world remains a priority, but we judge there are more effective ways to invest UK aid and to deliver even better results for the world’s poorest and value for taxpayers’ money.’ Read from here

'By Ethiopians, for Ethiopians': girl band Yegna shake off Spice Girls tag

In the grounds of a school in Bahir Dar, a city in north-west Ethiopia, thousands of young fans have gathered to catch a glimpse of the country’s hottest girl band.

Behind billowing white sheets in a makeshift green room, the four women collectively known as Yegna prepare to take the stage. As the harsh lunchtime sunshine beats down, curious schoolchildren press up against the material to get a glimpse of their idols, who have been dubbed Ethiopia’s Spice Girls by the British press.

More than just a band, Yegna, which means “ours” in Amharic, use music and drama to raise awareness of child marriage, sexual harassment, violence and the importance of education. And it’s making a difference. An estimated 8.5 million people have heard the band’s messages.

Bilen, 14, is at the concert with her sister. “Yegna taught us the motto ‘Yes we can,’” she says. “As we grow up, I think people think less of girls, and that’s what we used to think too. But our perspective has been changed by Yegna.”

Play Video

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'Never retreat': all-female band Yegna bring girl power to Ethiopia – video

But last year, Yegna’s work came under threat when the UK’s Department for International Development, which helped create the band in 2012, abruptly announced it was cutting funding following media criticism. DfID said it took the decision to end its partnership with Girl Effect, which oversees Yegna, after a review of the programme.

A spokesperson said: “There are more effective ways to invest UK aid and to deliver even better results for the world’s poorest and value for taxpayers’ money.”

Girl Effect had received an initial DfID grant of £4m for Yegna, covering the period from 2011 to 2015. They were later given a further £5.2m for 2015-18, although the premature conclusion to the partnership meant not all these funds were drawn down.

The Daily Mail hailed DfID’s decision, but the announcement drew criticism from women’s rights campaigners.

Ripples from the decision ran from Ethiopia to the UK. Yegna drew support from Lemn Sissay, the British poet and broadcaster of Ethiopian heritage, who has performed with the band and chose one of their tracks, Taitu, when he appeared on Desert Island Discs.

“It was a total misrepresentation of what was happening here,” says Gayathri Butler, Girl Effect Ethiopia’s country director. “And also a reduction of what we actually do. The representation of the Spice Girls, it was just taking what they had seen as a reduction of the brand, because that was what’s facing the international audience. We’re a brand created by Ethiopians and for Ethiopians.”

Butler also confirms that payments to the band reported in the Daily Mail were wildly inaccurate, and that Yegna band members are paid the market rate for performers in Ethiopia.

But Girl Effect were not to be beaten. They replaced the DfiD money with funding from several philanthropic foundations, who choose to remain anonymous. The change forced the organisation to accelerate plans to ensure its sustainability, and Girl Effect are now exploring brand sponsorships, advertising revenue during radio shows, and music sales.

“We’re a youth brand trying to break [down] barriers for girls in a very inclusive way. That includes boys, includes adults in the conversation. It’s obvious [girls] are being left behind and we should do something about it,” says brand director Bemnet Yemesgen.

Yegna consists of five “archetypal” young female characters (one is currently on maternity leave) who use storylines and song lyrics to explore social mores and controversial issues. The platforms come together to tackle one issue at a time, with the radio show theme reflected in the lyrics of the latest song.

“The music calls in the heritage of Ethiopia. The lyrics are well thought through but also we have gender teams who look at it to make sure they are meaningful without being preachy,” says Butler.

Boys also feature in the stories, to show the young fanbase that men and women can be friends as well as partners.

“We have created music that people want to buy, so we’re considering commercialising some of the products we own,” explains Yemesgen.

Butler says the audience remained blissfully unaware of the behind-the-scenes funding drama. But the decision to cease funding, she says, was short-sighted: “What we’re trying to do requires a sustained effort for change in the long term. We’re in it for the long term. We’re already seeing impact, we want to see it at scale over time and that requires commitment. It’s never been more important.”

Ethiopia is considered one of the fastest growing regions in eastern Africa. Over the past decade, Ethiopia’s economy has experienced strong growth. But with 70% of the population aged under 30, big challenges face girls growing up there.

Nearly one in five girls marries before the age of 15. The Amhara region, where the Yegna project operates, has the highest rate of child marriage, with nearly 45% of girls tying the knot before the age of 18. Social isolation, particularly in rural areas, is also a problem, with 20% of girls saying they have no friends.

Girl Effect says Yegna reach 8.5 million people, or 50% of the population in Addis Ababa and the Amhara region.

Despite the funding setback, Girl Effect are expanding the operation, which they hope to take nationwide.

Yegna members Lemlem Hailemichael, Teref Kassahun, Eyerusalem Kelemework, Zebiba Girma and Rahel Getusee see themselves as teachers – and the voice of the children of Ethiopia – rather than singers. Their enthusiasm is clear. Describing a tour of the Amhara region, Girma says: “There were over 10,000 spectators, it was amazing. Some women, who looked like us, came to the back of the stage and told us their life stories.”

When asked about the project in January 2018, Penny Mordant, who succeeded Priti Patel as development secretary, said the “Spice Girls” are still in Ethiopia doing great things without UK money.

Girl Effect are proud of the project’s resilience. Butler tells of how she was approached at a Yenga concert by a woman who married young: “She’d never really reflected on whether it had created complications in her life. It made her think about her situation and how difficult it had been. She had four daughters at home and this was the first time she realised she had to go home and have an open conversation with them.”

Back in Bahir Dar, the children, polite and restrained during the performance, cheer and clap wildly as the concert draws to a close. At the end of the gig, there’s a stage invasion. Unfazed, the band simply carry on singing with the children.

Habtamu, 19, is full of praise for the project. “It helps girls be confident,” he says. “Teaching a young girl is changing a whole community.”

A decade from now, Yemesgen’s ideal vision is a “euphoric state” where Girl Effect does not exist, because the project has succeeded and given all girls in Ethiopia a voice and agency. But he is realistic. “We know there is a lot of work to be done to get to that stage. In 10 years, I want to look back and see there has been a change. Read more here

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Ethiopian worker dies after 4th floor fall

The Daily Star

BEIRUT: An Ethiopian worker died Sunday after falling from the fourth floor of a building in Metn’s Fanar, a security source told The Daily Star.

Local news channel LBCI identified the woman as Tekle Gebreslasse, born in 1993.

Her body was found around 7:30 a.m., the source said, after the family of five she worked for woke up to find her missing, before finding her outside.

“The family has been interviewed and they said there were no problems ... with her,” the source said, adding that neighbors had given corroborating statements.

Gebreslasse’s body was transferred to Baabda Governmental Hospital by a Civil Defense ambulance team.

Security forces reportedly arrived at the scene early Sunday and began investigations after receiving a call from the her employers.

The source said investigations were centered on the deceased’s cell phone, after a forensic doctor found no signs of previous abuse on her body.

“The public prosecutor has kept the case open [pending] the results of the phone investigations to determine whether she received any bad news or any other information,” the source said.

He added that the case was being treated as a suicide.

There are an estimated 200,000 foreign domestic workers in Lebanon under the much-criticized Kafala sponsorship system, which binds the maid to the employer.

Human Rights Watch and other organizations have called on Lebanese authorities to address the "high levels of abuse and deaths" of maids in the country. Read more here

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Ayaléw Mèsfin, a lost voice from Ethiopia’s Golden Age

One of the most memorable concerts in Berkeley last year was the UC Theatre performance by vibraphonist/composer Mulatu Astatke, the patriarch of Ethiojazz. Vocalist and composer Ayaléw Mèsfin, another giant from Ethiopian music’s golden age of the 1970s, arrives in town with Boston’s Debo Band for a show at Cornerstone on Sunday, but unlike the celebrated Mulatu, who gained Western pop cultural currency after Jim Jarmusch laced his entire 2005 film Broken Flowers with his music, Ayaléw is more of an unseen legend than an active presence these days.

Sunday’s concert is one of only three performances including Ayaléw in a brief Debo Band tour that’s taking place in conjunction with the release of Hasabe (My Worries) on Now-Again Records, the first-ever LP compilation from the Ethio-groove pioneer. Fans of the infectious Ethiofunk sound might have encountered his music on the French label Buda Musique’s expansive Éthiopiques CD series, which features four classic tracks by Ayaléw Mèsfin & Black Lion Band.

Led by saxophonist Danny Mekonnen, who was born in Sudan to Ethiopian parents (and raised in the US), Debo Band has earned international attention with its repertoire of golden age Ethiofunk tunes and originals inspired by the melding of traditional Ethiopian rhythms and pentatonic scales with jazz and R&B. His best known piece, 1974’s fuzzy-funk anthem “Hasabe,” is clearly inspired by his love of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown.

“These performances are an opportunity to pay tribute to Ayaléw and celebrate his legacy,” says Mekonnen, who notes that the first name is the family name in most Ethiopian cultures. “We’re coming at this as a band that’s been playing his music and his contemporaries music from the beginning. Ayaléw is someone we return to over the years for inspiration, though a lot of what we do is interpretive work. Like in jazz, you play the standards and find a way to make it your own.”

oining Debo Band for a song or two at the beginning of each concert, Ayaléw is more of a special guest that a performer on the tour, and he was reluctant to take even that step because of the unrest in his home region. While he’s lived quietly in Denver in recent years, Ayaléw is deeply connected to his homeland, where he continued to make music underground during the long, brutal reign of the Derg, the Marxist junta that ruled country from 1974 to 1991. The present government overthrew the Derg, but Africa’s second most populace nation continues to be plagued by a central government that seems determined to quash protests by the country’s marginalized ethnicities.

“We’re in the middle of a humanitarian crisis, the ongoing political oppression of minority voices,” says Mekonnen, whose parents fled the Derg government in 1980. “It’s a big messy situation. Ethiopia is a very large and ethnically diverse country, and a several weeks ago there was an uprising in the city where Ayaléw was born. In Ethiopia, you do not perform joyous, secular funk music when people are in mourning. Even though he was deeply involved in this album—the tracks are all taken from his personal tapes, which he managed to hang on to—he didn’t feel okay about doing a whole concert.”

While Debo Band is making its Berkeley debut, the group’s connection to the Bay Area runs through Cal via Japanese-born accordionist Marié Abe. A decade ago she was a PhD student studying ethnomusicology and a regular presence in adventurous Bay Area ensembles like The Japonize Elephants, clarinetist Aaron Novik’s Exploding World, Tango No. 9, and as the third wheel in the duo Ramon and Jessica. She collaborated with Berkeley journalist Julie Caine on the award-winning radio documentary Squeezebox Stories about the accordion’s wily infiltration of musical traditions around the globe.

Now an assistant professor of music in Boston University’s Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Abe hadn’t been in Boston long when she heard that Debo Band needed an accordion player. Though she’d played many styles of music “in the beginning it was anything but intuitive,” she says.

“The accordion was an established part of the Ethiopian music in the 1970s, so there was a lot of listening to understand these quirky idiomatic things around Ethiopian aesthetics around scales. It’s considered untasteful to go outside a pentatonic scale, and the grooves have a very particular feel. And then there are all these different ethnic genres and regions, just a ton of information to digest. This music emerged around the same time as Afrobeat in Nigeria, but it’s not such a driven style. The phrasings are really quirky. The rhythm section but be in three, but melody is phrased in four. There are lots of extra bars, things that make it fun to play.”

Recommended gig: Lisa B at The Back Room

Oakland jazz singer Lisa B celebrates the release of her new album I Get a Kick Out of You: Cole Porter Reimagined (Jazzed Media) Saturday at The Back Room with a superb band featuring pianist Frank Martin, bassist Fred Randolph, and drummer Kelly Fasman. Her previous albums have mostly focused on her original songs, though in performance she’s always explored American Songbook standards. Long fascinated by Porter’s life and music, B brings her poet’s incisive ear to uncovering the roiling emotions beneath Porter’s glittering confections.

“Cole Porter was just very alluring,” says B, who performs with the same excellent band March 3 at Saratoga’s Café Pink House. “Part of it is that he’s very unusual as both a lyricist and composer. He was very wealthy, this high society guy who seemed to feel very alone in the crowd. And he was gay in this long-term platonic marriage, which is another layer of isolation. But mostly he was just an amazing creator of songs. The poet in me was drawn to him. There’s this Dorothy Parker/ Emily Dickenson effortless scanning of his lines, and often this sense of longing and heartbreak. I wanted to think through how could we express these tunes to open a new window into Porter.” Read more here

Ethiopia Today

Monday, November 26, 2018

Who is Birtukan Mideksa?

Birtukan Mideksa

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

38 people killed in a bus accident

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Ethiopia's Spice Girls admit they are coping just fine without UK aid money

Ethiopia's Spice Girls admit they are coping just fine without UK aid money a year after the British Government cut funding following a public outcry

'By Ethiopians, for Ethiopians': girl band Yegna shake off Spice Girls tag

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Ethiopian worker dies after 4th floor fall

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Ayaléw Mèsfin, a lost voice from Ethiopia’s Golden Age

Recommended gig: Lisa B at The Back Room

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Ethiopia Today

Monday, November 26, 2018

Birtukan Mideksa

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Ethiopia's Spice Girls admit they are coping just fine without UK aid money a year after the British Government cut funding following a public outcry

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Recommended gig: Lisa B at The Back Room

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