SEATTLE (Komo News) — Just one day before Dawit Alemu, an immigrant from Ethiopia, was set to graduate from Seattle Central Community College, he was beaten unconscious by a group of men outside his home.
Prosecutors say Alemu, 25, sustained brain damage and may never recover his sight.
One of the men accused of the assault, Justin L. Phillips, faced a judge on Friday. But before King County Judge Michael Fox handed down his sentence, he wanted to know why the men had attacked.
“What was the motivating fact? Was there anything?” he asked. “Is there something about Mr. Alemu? Is it the fact that he’s of African descent? Is it the fact that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time?”
Phillips, 20, had no excuses in court.
“This was a senseless act of violence,” he said. “I had no right to do the things I did. I was under the influence of alcohol, and that’s no excuse. I take full responsibility for my actions.”
Reiterating the lack of provocation on the victim’s part, the judge sentenced Phillips to 10 years and forbid him from having contact with Alemu and his family members.
According to the statement of probable cause, a group of men jumped Alemu outside his home near 13th Avenue South and South Holgate Street in broad daylight just one day before his college graduation. A witness managed to take photographs of the incident.
Witnesses told detectives Alemu was walking when the men began following him. Alemu tried to elude the men by running around a parked car, witnesses said, but one of the men tripped him, knocking him to the ground.
All four men then began punching and kicking the victim even after he lost consciousness, investigators said. Two of the men – Phillips and Fisher – were seen digging through the victim’s pockets and taking his belongings before the group fled.
Both Fisher and Phillips were found near the scene of the beating and arrested. Speed was identified in photographs and arrested at a later time.
Police said it appears the victim did not know his attackers. A witness reported having seen a group of men drinking at Beacon Hill Playfield prior to the incident — a claim corroborated by Phillips’ admission of being a “violent drunk.”
Alemu never regained consciousness after the attack. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. He has been in stable condition since early July, but nursing staff told detectives Alemu had a tear in the brain, an injury similar to shaken baby syndrome.
In court on Friday, Alemu’s mother, with the help of a translator, lamented over her son’s condition.
“He was a very good student he was a good worker. He was working and studying,” she said.
Two other men are accused of the June beating. Kenneth Fischer, 19, and Jaynus Speed, 22, have both been charged with first-degree assault and first-degree attempted robbery.
Fischer and Speed are due in court on Sept. 21 for a pretrial hearing. A fourth suspect has not been arrested.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia, Africa’s biggest coffee producer, expects a bumper harvest in 2009/10 thanks to good rains after export revenues fell 28 percent in June/July 2008/09 due to drought and the global economic slowdown.
“Preliminary assessment indicated the country would produce much more than the estimated annual production of 330,000 tonnes in 2009/10,” Tarekgne Tisgie, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Horn of Africa nation exported 133,992 tonnes of beans worth $376 million in 2008/09, down sharply from 170,888 tonnes that earned $525.2 million the previous season, officials say.
“The volume exported and income generated was markedly less than last year due to the global economic crisis and drought which affected some parts of the country,” Tarekgne said.
Ethiopia’s coffee sector got a major boost last week when Japan said it was willing to resume importing large quantities as long as the authorities in Addis Ababa guaranteed the quality and safety of the beans.
Tokyo stopped buying Ethiopian coffee in 2006/07 after beans were found to contain harmful chemicals. Japan had bought more than 29,000 tonnes worth $84 million during that 2006/07 season.
“The problems that we had with Japan are nearly over,” Tarekgne said, adding the Ethiopian government hoped to export as much as 30,000 tonnes to Japanese buyers in 2009/10.
Ethiopia prides itself as the birthplace of coffee. Some 15 million smallholder farmers grow the beans, mostly in the misty forested highlands of its western and southwestern regions.
According to Addis Fortune magazine, Ethiopia’s track star Kenenisa Bekele has specific plans on how he will spend his share of the jackpot earned in the IAAF Golden League events. Bekele won all six of his events in the Golden League series, which earned him a $333,333 check. The jackpot is $1 million, but the total was divided among three athletes who won their events — Bekele, sprinter Sanya Richards and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.
Elshadai Negash at Addis Fortune has a lengthy look at Kenenisa Bekele’s earnings over the year, and how one of the greatest distance runners of all time earns significantly less than other superstar athletes. According to Negash, Bekele will earn approximately $1.141 million dollars in 2009, including the IAAF jackpot and other appearance fees and prizes.
Bekele told Addis Fortune that he plans to invest the money in several projects he is working on, saying: “I am building a hotel and a modern athletics centre. These two projects need a total investment of about 15 million dollars. These prizes will go towards that.” Bekele also acknowledges that world-class runners still earn significantly less than athletes in other sports.
Kenenisa Bekele has certainly had an amazing season, and he tells the Team Ethiopia website that he has some special people to thank for his victories. Number one on his list? His wife, Danawit Gebregziabher. He tells the site, “She gives me psychological and morale support. Sometimes you need to be told that you are the best in the world and that no one will beat you.” He also credits his manager, brother, father-in-law and physio with helping him finish out an incredible season.
Addis Ababa (AllAfrica) — The last nine months of its existence has been challenging for Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). It saw decline in coffee production and felt impact of global financial depression, among others, ECX disclosed.
Transformation from traditional to modern transaction system, shortage of laboratories, low storage capacity of warehouses, the existence of 256 to 781 coffee variety grades were also among the challenges faced by the ECX, said Dr. Eleni Zawde, CEO, at the annual ECX members’ forum held at Addis Ababa Hilton on Monday.
Even then, ECX has been striving to overcome the challenges and achieve its targets since its establishments nine months back, it was indicated. Before ECX was established, the agricultural markets in Ethiopia had been characterized by high costs and high risks of transaction; only one third of the output reached the market; and commodity buyers and sellers tended to trade only with those they knew so as to avoid the risk of being cheated or default, she said.
In addition to that, trade was carried out on the basis of visual inspection because there was no assurance of product quality and quantity. This drove costs up, leading to high consumer prices.
Small-scale farmers on their part, who produce 95 percent of the country’s output, came to the market with little information and were consequently at the mercy of merchants nearby, the only market they knew. Hence, they were unable to negotiate better prices or reduce their market risk, Dr. Eleni underlined.
ECX is working for reconciliation between warehouses and the central depository, to install an automated system and for regular close monitoring of security issues and manipulation at warehouses.
In the just ending year, coffee worth 2.8 billion birr was made available for transaction in the domestic and export market by ECX.
The suitable altitude, ample rainfall, favorable temperatures and fertile soil makes Ethiopia a favourable region with a huge potential for coffee production. A genetic pool of the country’s coffee shows it contains more than 6000 varieties, giving the country a big specialty coffee capacity.
Coffee plants cover a total area of 700,000 hectares in Ethiopia, producing roughly 250,000 tons per annum. Around 20 million people make a living out of the commodity. Forest coffee accounts for about 10 percent of the total.
The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange is a recent initiative in Ethiopia. ECX has a vision to revolutionize Ethiopia’s tradition bound agriculture through creating a new market system that serves all market actors, ranging from farmers to traders, from processors to exporters and consumers.
ADDIS ABABA (Addis Journal) — A new prize named after the acclaimed Ethiopian playwright and poet Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin was launched in Addis at the National Theater on Monday, September 7.
Established by the playwright’s family members and friends, the Institute of the Language Studies of Addis Ababa University Poet Laureate Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin Memorial Prize is intended to encourage literature and theater arts students to study hard, pursue senior honors and contribute to the art world.
The prize intended to be an annual event would be given to the best contribution by a student member. Berhanu Asfaw from the Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature and Tegegnto Sinshaw from the Theaters Arts Department were winners of the first prize. Certificates were handed to the winners by Institute of Language Studies Dean, Dr. Gessese Tadesse and chair of the Theater Arts Department, Belayneh Abune, who both talked about the contribution and legacy of Tsegaye to each of their respective departments. Belayneh talked about Tsegaye’s contribution to the theater arts department
Dr. Gessese talked about the plan to broaden up the Memorial Prize through administrating trust funds that, among others, would provide scholarships to students.
As way of remembering one of the country’s greatest poets and playwrights, a group of volunteers led by Dr. Heran Serke-Berhan had begun a permanent annual Tsegaye Gebre-Medhin Theater Festival. Involving Abate Mekuria who previously produced and directed ten of Tsegaye’s productions in Ethiopia and abroad, excerpts of the playwright’s works, Ha Hu Besedest Wer (ABC in Six Months), Inat Alem Tenu, “Othello” and “Theodros” were presented on the occasion as part of the festival celebrations.
Abate who in his younger years studied at London’s Opera House has produced numerous stage plays, including “Kitet Wede Adwa Zemecha” which required the participation of 4,000 people.
Audiences were thrilled with his re-productions of Tsegaye’s plays for which he spent no less than three months. His studio, Mekuaria Studio designed the settings and provided the costumes. It was highly successful. Tadesse Mesfin’s illustration for one of the plays was found and used for the occasion.
On the occasion it was also announced that four of Tsegaye’s plays, Theodros, Petros Yachin Seat, Zeray Be Rome Adeababy and Minilik (a historical play about King Menelik that was never staged) would be published by the Addis Ababa University Press shortly. The announcement was greeted warmly.
Tsegaye was born in Boda, a village near Ambo, on 1934.He wrote his first play at Ambo Elementary School where one of his audiences were Emperor HaileSelassie. After doing high school at Wingate and college at the Addis Ababa Commercial College, he has studied theater at the Royal Court Theater in London and Comédie Française in Paris for two years. Exploring elements of power, justice, love, and death in his tragedies, Tsegaye achieved widespread and lasting recognition for his work.
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s superstar athlete Haile Gebrselassie has presented a check to the National Eye Bank of Ethiopia to cover the cost of 10 cornea transplant operations at the Menelik II Hospital here yesterday. Haile also announced that he will donate his own cornea to the national Ethiopian Eye Bank.
During the check handling ceremony at the Menelik II Hospital, Haile pointed out that the donation, which will help the ten Ethiopians, was merely a gesture on his part to fulfill his national duty as a citizen.
Haile also took the time to officially announce that he will donate his own cornea to the Ethiopian Eye Bank, and urged others to do likewise as they will be able to help fellow Ethiopians, who badly need them.
According to a report by the Eye Bank of Ethiopia, 6,000 Ethiopians, including the country’s current President Girma Wolde-Giorgis, have so far pledged to donate their corneas.
About the National Eye Bank of Ethiopia
The National Eye Bank of Ethiopia, the first eye bank in the country’s history, opened on June 28, 2003, in partnership with the International Federation of Eye and Tissue Banks (IFETB), the Federal Ministry of Health, the Addis Ababa City Administration Health Bureau, the Menelik II Hospital, and the Department of Ophthalmology of the Medical Faculty of Addis Ababa University.
The eye bank was developed by ORBIS, a non-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to saving sight and avoiding blindness worldwide. Menelik II Hospital is home to the National Eye Bank.
