I am Human (Obang Metho)

Obang Metho

Let us be slow to criticize on the minor points, but strong in holding all accountable to those core values of “putting humanity before ethnicity” or any other differences and to work for the freedom of all our people for “no one will be free until all are free.”

Let these and other values create the foundation of the change we seek. Let us pitch in and help the transition to greater democratic reforms for all #Ethiopians to succeed.

May God strengthen and guide all of us #Ethiopians including our youth, and those in the Diaspora to do what is right, good, loving, moral, brave, wise, and honorable during this critical time in #Ethiopia.

May the Almighty Allah/Godhelp us value the lives and rights of every Ethiopian, putting humanity before ethnicity or any other differences and caring about the freedom of each other, for no one will be free until all are free.

GENOCIDE, it was! (Belete Molla Getahun)

Belete Molla Getahun

GENOCIDE, it was!

What else could an act be named when it was clearly genocidal? It is all about capacity....a moral capacity! If you have it, you do the right thing, if you don't have it, you don't know what is right or wrong, good or bad, you just be cold and senseless, and denial is your political norm.

It takes moral and courage to lead a people, and more so to lead a country. One may be leader of a people or an entire country, but standing before the face of history, one cann't be remembered as LEADER without exihibiting the minimum moral capacity and the courage required of the title and duty.

PM Abiy Ahmed's PP, its chapter of Oromia region and the regional government as one, have massively and perhaps deliberately failed to prevent the GENOCIDE that twice befell our people of Amhara in this Ethiopian calender year alone.

A government that has willfully failed to prevent sure-to-happen Genocide should be considered a part of it, an active part indeed. The very minimum expectation was for the government to be human enough and say "we are sorry". They have not said that yet, and this remains genocidal as unleaderly as barbaric.

It is only a matter of time before perpetrators (those with the psychology of cruelty including the rank and file within Oromia PP) as well as their deceiving pacifiers will one day face justice and be held accountable for the twin genocide of Amhara (October 2019--June 2020) as well as for all genocidal acts over the years.

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Again, we greatly thank those Oromo mothers and fathers of boundless good heart who rescued many their fellow Ethiopians, their Amhara neighbors, from barbaric Death.

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Case was GENOCIDE, it will never be forgotten as will be used as our currency until justice is fully served.

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Justice for genocide victims !

Belete Molla Getahun -

Chair person of National movement of Amhara people 

European exploration - Blue Nile River

European exploration - Blue Nile River 

The first European to have seen the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the river's source was Pedro Páez, a Spanish Jesuit who reached the river's source 21 April 1613. Nevertheless, the Portuguese João Bermudes, the self-described "Patriarch of Ethiopia," provided the first description of the Blue Nile Falls in his memoirs published in 1565, and a number of Europeans who lived in Ethiopia in the late 15th century such as Pêro da Covilhã could have seen the river long before Páez, but not reached its places of source.

The source of the Blue Nile was also reached in 1629 by the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Jerónimo Lobo and in 1770 by the Scottish explorer James Bruce.

Blue Nile Gorge in Ethiopia

Although a number of European explorers contemplated tracing the course of the Abay from its confluence with the White Nile to Lake Tana, its gorge, which begins a few kilometres inside the Ethiopian border, has discouraged all attempts since Frédéric Cailliaud's attempt in 1821. The first serious attempt by a non-local to explore this reach of the river was undertaken by the American W.W. Macmillan in 1902, assisted by the Norwegian explorer B.H. Jenssen; Jenssen would proceed upriver from Khartoum while Macmillan sailed downstream from Lake Tana. However, Jenssen's boats were blocked by the rapids at Famaka short of the Sudan-Ethiopian border, and Macmillan's boats were wrecked shortly after they had been launched. Macmillan encouraged Jenssen to try to sail upstream from Khartoum again in 1905, but he was forced to stop 500 kilometres (300 mi) short of Lake Tana. R.E. Cheesman, who records his surprise on arriving in Ethiopia at finding that the upper waters of "one of the most famous of the rivers of the world, and one whose name was well known to the ancients" was in his lifetime "marked on the map by dotted lines", managed to map the upper course of the Blue Nile between 1925 and 1933. He did this not by following the river along its banks and through its impassable canyon, but following it from the highlands above, travelling some 8,000 km (5,000 mi) by mule in the adjacent country.

In the 1950s-1960s several kayakers paddled parts of the Blue Nile's canyon. In 1968, at the request of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, a team of 60 British and Ethiopian servicemen and scientists made the first full descent of the Abay from Lake Tana to a point near the Sudan border led by the explorer John Blashford-Snell.The team used specially-built Avon Inflatables and modified Royal Engineers assault boats to navigate the formidable rapids. Subsequent rafting expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s generally only covered parts of the river canyon.

In 1999, writer Virginia Morell and photographer Nevada Wier made the journey by raft from Lake Tana to the Sudan, afterwards publishing a documentary about their journey. In 2000, American and National Geographic reader, Kenneth Frantz, saw a photo taken by Nevada Wier for National Geographic which would lead him to found the charity Bridges to Prosperity. This photo showed a bridge broken during World War II, with 10 men on either side of the broken span pulling each other across the dangerous gap by rope. This historic bridge was built by Emperor Fasilides in approximately 1660 with Roman bridge technology brought to Ethiopia by Portuguese soldiers during the battle with the Muslim invaders in 1507. In both 2001 and 2009, Bridges to Prosperity volunteers travelled from the United States to repair the broken bridge across the Blue Nile river and later build a new suspension bridge not susceptible to flood.

On 28 April 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown, became the first known people to navigate the Blue Nile. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film Mystery of the Nile and in a book of the same title.

On 29 January 2005, Canadian Les Jickling and his teammate New Zealander Mark Tanner completed the first fully human powered transit of the entire Blue Nile. Their journey of over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) took five months and travelled through the countries of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. They recount that they paddled through civil war conflict zones, regions known for bandits, and encountered multiple hazards and rapids.

Blue Nile Course

The Abay is so called because floods during the summer monsoon erode a vast amount of fertile soil from the Ethiopian Highlands and carry it downstream as silt, turning the water dark brown or almost black.

The distance of the river from its source to its confluence has been variously reported as being between 1,460 kilometres (910 mi) and 1,600 kilometres (990 mi). This uncertainty over the length might partially result from the fact that the river flows through a series of virtually impenetrable gorges cut in the Ethiopian Highlands to a depth of some 1,500 metres (4,900 ft)—a depth comparable to that of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in the United States.

Map of the Blue Nile

According to materials published by the Central Statistical Agency, the Abay has a total length of 1,450 kilometres (900 mi), of which 800 kilometres (500 mi) are inside Ethiopia.The Blue Nile flows generally south from Lake Tana and then west across Ethiopia and northwest into Sudan. Within 30 km (19 mi) of its source at Lake Tana, the river enters a canyon about 400 km (250 mi) long. This gorge is a tremendous obstacle for travel and communication from the north half of Ethiopia to the southern half. The canyon was first referred to as the "Grand Canyon" by the British team that accomplished the first descent of the river from Lake Tana to near the end of the canyon in 1968. Subsequent river rafting parties also called this the "Grand Canyon of the Nile". The power of the Blue Nile may best be appreciated at the Blue Nile Falls, which are 45 metres (148 ft) high, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) downstream of Lake Tana.

Satellite image of where White and Blue Niles merge

Although there are several feeder streams that flow into Lake Tana, the sacred source of the river is generally considered to be a small spring at Gish Abay, situated at an elevation of approximately 2,744 metres (9,003 ft). This stream, known as the Gilgel Abay (Lesser Abay River), flows north into Lake Tana. Other affluents of this lake include, in clockwise order from Gorgora, the Magech River, the Northern Gumara, the Reb River, the southern Gumara River, and the Kilte. Lake Tana's outflow then flows some 30 kilometres (19 mi) before plunging over the Blue Nile Falls. The river then loops across northwest Ethiopia through a series of deep valleys and canyons into Sudan, by which point it is only known as the Blue Nile.

There are numerous tributaries of the Abay between Lake Tana and the Sudanese border. Those on its left bank, in downstream order, include the Wanqa River, the Bashilo River, the Walaqa River, the Wanchet River, the Jamma River, the Muger River, the Guder River, the Agwel River, the Nedi River, the Didessa River and the Dabus River. Those on the right side, also in downstream order, include the Handassa, Tul, Abaya, Sade, Tammi, Cha, Shita, Suha, Muga, Gulla, Temcha, Bachat, Katlan, Jiba, Chamoga, Weter and the Beles.

After flowing past Er Roseires inside Sudan, and receiving the Dinder on its right bank at Dinder, the Blue Nile joins the White Nile at Khartoum and, as the Nile, flows through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria.

Ethiopian Celebrating the new year

Enkutatash is the first day of the New Year in Ethiopia and Eritrea . It occurs on Meskerem 1 on the Ethiopian calendar, which is 11 September (or, during a leap year , 12 September) according to the Gregorian calendar.

This holiday is based on the Ethiopian calendar, which was fixed to the Julian calendar in 25 BC by Emperor Augustus of Rome with a start date of 29 August J.C., thus establishing the New Year on this day. The date marks the approximate end of the "rainy season". It has also been associated traditionally with the return of the Queen of Sheba to Ethiopia following her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem in ca. 980 BC.

Large celebrations are held around the country, notably at the Ragual Church on Entoto mountain.

According to In Culture Parent, "after attending church in the morning, families gather to share a traditional meal of injera (flat bread) and wat (stew). Later in the day, young girls donning new clothes, gather daisies and present friends with a bouquet, singing New Year’s songs."

According to the Ethiopian Tourism Commission, "Enkutatash is not exclusively a religious holiday. Modern Enkutatash is also the season for exchanging formal new year greetings and cards among the urban sophisticated – in lieu of the traditional bouquet of flowers."

The Ethiopian counting of years begins in the year 8 of the common era . This is because the common era follows the calculations of Dionysius, a 6th-century monk, while the non-Chalcedonian countries continued to use the calculations of Annius, a 5th-century monk, which had placed the Annunciation of Christ exactly 8 years later. For this reason, on Enkutatash in the year 2016 of the Gregorian calendar, it became 2009 in the Ethiopian calendar.