(The Daily Galaxy) — Immortality_3 Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey has famously stated, “The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today …whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries.”

Perhaps de Gray is way too optimistic, but plenty of others have joined the search for a virtual fountain of youth. In fact, a growing number of scientists, doctors, geneticists and nanotech experts—many with impeccable academic credentials—are insisting that there is no hard reason why ageing can’t be dramatically slowed or prevented altogether. Not only is it theoretically possible, they argue, but a scientifically achievable goal that can and should be reached in time to benefit those alive today.

“I am working on immortality,” says Michael Rose, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, who has achieved breakthrough results extending the lives of fruit flies. “Twenty years ago the idea of postponing aging, let alone reversing it, was weird and off-the-wall. Today there are good reasons for thinking it is fundamentally possible.”

Even the US government finds the field sufficiently promising to fund some of the research. Federal funding for “the biology of ageing”, excluding work on ageing-specific diseases like heart failure and cancer – has been running at about $2.4 billion a year, according to the National Institute of Ageing, part of the National Institutes of Health.

So far, the most intriguing results have been spawned by the genetics labs of bigger universities, where anti-ageing scientists have found ways to extend live spans of a range of organisms—including mammals. But genetic research is not the only field that may hold the key to eternity.

“There are many, many different components of ageing and we are chipping away at all of them,” said Robert Freitas at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, a non-profit, nanotech group in Palo Alto, California. “It will take time and, if you put it in terms of the big developments of modern technology, say the telephone, we are still about 10 years off from Alexander Graham Bell shouting to his assistant through that first device. Still, in the near future, say the next two to four decades, the disease of ageing will be cured.”

But not everyone thinks ageing can or should be cured. Some say that humans weren’t meant to live forever, regardless of whether or not we actually can.

“I just don’t think [immortality] is possible,” says Sherwin Nuland, a professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. “Aubrey and the others who talk of greatly extending lifespan are oversimplifying the science and just don’t understand the magnitude of the task. His plan will not succeed. Were it to do so, it would undermine what it means to be human.”

It’s interesting that Nuland first says he doesn’t think it will work but then adds that if it does, it will undermine humanity. So, which is it? Is it impossible, or are the skeptics just hoping it is?

After all, we already have overpopulation, global warming, limited resources and other issues to deal with, so why compound the problem by adding immortality into the mix.

But anti-ageing enthusiasts argue that as our perspectives change and science and technology advance exponentially, new solutions will emerge. Space colonization, for example, along with dramatically improved resource management, could resolve the concerns associated with long life. They reason that if the Universe goes on seemingly forever—much of it presumably unused—why not populate it?

However, anti-ageing crusaders are coming up against an increasingly influential alliance of bioconservatives who want to restrict research seeking to “unnaturally” prolong life. Some of these individuals were influential in persuading President Bush in 2001 to restrict federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. They oppose the idea of life extension and anti-ageing research on ethical, moral and ecological grounds.

Leon Kass, the former head of Bush’s Council on Bioethics, insists that “the finitude of human life is a blessing for every human individual”. Bioethicist Daniel Callahan of the Garrison, New York-based Hastings Centre, agrees: “There is no known social good coming from the conquest of death.”

Maybe they’re right, but then why do we as humans strive so hard to prolong our lives in the first place? Maybe growing old, getting sick and dying is just a natural, inevitable part of the circle of life, and we may as well accept it.

“But it’s not inevitable, that’s the point,” de Grey says. “At the moment, we’re stuck with this awful fatalism that we’re all going to get old and sick and die painful deaths. There are a 100,000 people dying each day from age-related diseases. We can stop this carnage. It’s simply a matter of deciding that’s what we should be doing.”

One wonders what Methuselah would say about all this.

By David Carroll | WRCB

TENNESSEE – Desta Bume’s 11th grade classmates at Signal Mountain High School listen when he speaks. Occasionally he helps teach them Pre Calculus. The 17-year-old Ethiopian exchange student is attending the school thanks to host parents Jock and Megan Dunbar, who found Desta through the Cherokee Gives Back student exchange program.

Desta says, “Day to day, I help students in class, if there’s something they don’t understand, I try to help them.”

Desta’s help is much appreciated by junior classmates. He has earned their respect with his knowledge, his kindess and his work ethic. In addition to excelling in the classroom, he has emerged as the star of the school’s cross-country team. He says the classroom facilities are similar in Ethiopia, but while his largest class at Signal Mountain is 28 students, his smallest in his home country is about 150…in the same size classroom. His high school in Ethiopia has about seven thousand students.

Wouter Dewet, a fellow junior says, “You can’t help but be inspired, because he has so little, and has managed to do so much.”

What Desta has done is rise to the top of his class in Ethiopia, at a school with 7,000 students, far removed from the luxurious surroundings of Signal Mountain. He had to work hard to support his family, walking several miles each day with no shoes until he was 14.

Classmate Tim Hatch said, When i heard his story, I felt like a complete jerk. I take everything for granted, and the things he went through, i can’t even imagine.”

His host family says Desta is enjoying the U.S. but it’s their lives that are enriched. They smile when remembering his first visit to a pizza restaurant (his favorite food), a drive-through car wash, the beach, Atlanta, Nashville and the top of the Empire State Building in New York. Megan Dunbar says the family didn’t expect to learn so much from an Ethiopian exchange student.

She says, “When you get into the program, you think about how much we can give this Third World student. But it’s the exact opposite. It’s how much we have learned from him.

Desta is completing his junior year at Signal Mountain, and must return to Ethiopia for his senior year. What happens after that?

Classmate Aaron Pierce says, “Well actually, I’d like to see him to go a really good college and become a surgeon.”

Desta may do just that, hoping to earn a scholarship in the US, and then returning to Ethiopia, where medical care is almost non-existent. But during his remaining days in the US, there’s still some work to do.

Desta says, “I want them to learn something from me here. I made something from nothing, and here you have everything.”

For more information on the student exchange program, go to www.cherokeegivesback.org

Here is Desta’s life story in his own words. To hear him tell it in person, go to Signal Mountain Middle High School Theater on Monday April 6 at 7:00 pm. Donations will be accepted for the Water for Wotera project, to dig a well in Desta’s home village.

My name is Desta Bume. I am 17 years old. I was born in 1991 in a small village called Wotera that is located in southern Ethiopia. I have 2 sisters and one brother. I am the oldest. I came to the United States as an exchange student and I am attending classes at Signal Mountain High School. I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to tell my story.

First, I would like to tell you a little bit about my country, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries with 2,100 years of history. It has 77 different ethnic groups, each having their own language, culture and way of life. Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia that connects us all. The Amharic language has its own alphabet and number system. Amharic letters and numbers are not the same as the letters and numbers you use here.

Most Ethiopians live in rural areas and are totally dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, but the farming there is not advanced. There are no man-made irrigation systems; farmers depend totally on rainwater for their crops. Many farmers farm just to save their family from starvation. Families have 5-8 children on average to support the work required by their farms. Many do not have enough food to eat, clean water to drink, or clean water for hygiene, access to education, health care or adequate clothes to wear. In Ethiopia, nearly 80% of the total population lives below the poverty line. This is equivalent to $2 dollars per a day or $730 a year. Included in this 80% are the 3-4 million people who have nothing to eat at all. There are many people who live on the street begging for food. Correspondingly, the death rate is very high. Each year, thousands of children die due to poor sanitation, lack of a balanced diet, exposure to polluted food and lack of clean drinking water. Additionally, HIV/AIDS is killing tens of thousands of people each year and leaving many orphans.

Now let me put a face on the place I have just described to you. I was born on a farm and lived there until I was 14. My dad is a subsistence farmer and my mom helps my dad with the farm and takes care of my siblings. We have three small areas that we farm in order to support the family. To have enough grass for our cattle, we move from one farm to another four to five times a year. The distance between the farms is between 2 – 6 miles. The Town of Wotera is nearby. I grew up in round shaped house which made of rattan and juniper plant. It is nearly 32ft in diameter and has about 803 square feet. My family with 5 cows and 4 sheep live in this house. It is divided in half, 1/2 for the animals and the other 112 for ourselves. We bring our cows and sheep into the house at night because we fear the hyenas who roam in packs will eat them if we leave them outside. My village does not have electricity or running water. To get water, we use buckets and go down to a valley which is 0.6 miles away. Because there is no running water to bathe ourselves, we also use this same creek. Most people in the rural areas take a bath once every two weeks. But still there are some people who may take a bath once or twice a year. To brush our teeth, we use small sticks made which we get from tree branches. In rural area, many Ethiopians do not have restrooms. They go outside on the farm to use the restroom. The result of this practice is that when it rains, the rain water takes the waste directly into the streams we depend on for water and for bathing.

I started my education in 1997 in first grade with 130 kids in the one class room. When I started school, my dad didn’t want me to go school because of the work that needed to be done on the farm. This caused tension between my father and me as I continued to go to school. Once, when I was in 3rd grade, my father was so upset with me because I was still going to school, he took an axe and cut my books into pieces. I never stopped going to school because my mom always encouraged me to complete my education. Along with my mom, I was also getting advice from my teachers, which helped me to stay motivated and not drop out the school.

When I was 12, my father’s health started to fail due to an eye disease. At this point, while I was in 6th grade, I started helping out with the family farm and going to school at the same time. The burden of my family situation began to put its weight on me. Also at this time, I began to sell sugarcane in the local market to earn money to buy clothes and school supplies. The way I started to sell sugarcane is pretty amazing. Would any of you consider doing this? As a young entrepreneur, I gathered up some wood around my farm and sold it to a neighbor for 2 1/2 cents. Along with my first sale and another 2 1/2 cents from my mom, I bought one piece of sugar cane for 5 cents that I sold to a neighbor. From that sale, my profit was 2 cents. My goal was to buy one bundle of sugarcane which included 11-12 sticks. This amount I could sell for 50 cents. Slowly over time, I earned my first 50 cents and I started to buy the full bundles of sugarcane which I used to buy school books, clothes, pens, kerosene, and soap for myself all during my 6th and 7th grade years. Oh, by the way, to get the sugar cane, I had to walk 3 and a half miles twice a week. I was also walking to school 5-6 miles each way depending upon which of our three farms I was staying in at the time. At the time, I had only one pair of pants, one sweater and NO shoes. I was walking to do all of these things on my bare feet. I didn’t end up getting my first pair of my shoes until 7th grade.

Let’s talk about when it rains. I didn’t have an umbrella. Like other rural Ethiopian students, I had to use the leaf of the Inset plant to cover myself on my way to and from school. The Inset plant looks like a banana plant and it is a major crop that southern Ethiopians use to feed their families. Even though times were tough, I never gave up because my teachers always supported me.

In my home village of Wotera, the school only goes up to the 8th grade. This presented a problem because to continue my education, I had to go to the nearest high school. This High school is in the town Hawassa. Even though the high school is just 26 miles away from Wotera, it takes 2 hours to get there by car because the road is gravel and washed out. Knowing I was going to this high school in one year, I had to start preparing for my future. Because my parents didn’t have money to send me there, I needed to start earning money in order to rent an apartment, to buy school books and supplies and food. However, my family needed me in Wotera to help work on the farm. They could not help me with my school expenses. I then was moved up from selling sugarcane to selling kerosene in local market while also working on the farm and attending school. To get the kerosene, I needed to go a town called Guguma, 7 miles away from Wotera. The only time in my schedule that allowed me to do this was a 2 hour window during lunch. I had to go 7 miles to Guguma, purchase a 12 liter container of kerosene that weighed 25 pounds, and return the 7 miles while carrying the kerosene on my shoulder, all of this before classes resumed. I did this twice a week. While juggling school, the family farm and selling kerosene in the market, I still managed to pass the 8th grade National exam with a 99.6%.

Even with making it all the way through the eighth grade and doing very well on the national exam my father still did not want me to further my education. He needed me to stay home and help my family on the farm. Remember, this is what is expected of most Ethiopians. For example, when I started school my first grade year there were 130 children in my class. By the time I took the national exam after 8th grade there were only 4 kids from my village who took it with me. I had a tough decision to make. Being only 14 years old I truly wanted to go on to high school but I also wanted the blessings of my father to do this. So I went to some older people in my village to tell them my wishes. It was these people that spoke with him to convince him that he should let me leave Wotera for Hawassa for my high school education.

The high school that I attend is dominated by the students who come from the rural areas. 7000 students attend my school. When I went to Hawassa, there was no student housing so I had to rent an apartment with three other students. The four of us shared one small room which was 12ft by 14ft with one mattress that was had on the floor. The mattress was 7 feet long by 6 feet wide, we all shared this mattress every night. The apartment had one 40 watt light in the ceiling. The four of us lived in this apartment and took care of ourselves without the help of adults. We cooked our own food and had our own rules. In order to pass we had to work hard and there was little time to sleep. We imposed rules on ourselves so that we would do well in school. For example, if anyone slept more than __ hours, we would make that person pay the equivalent of $1 ( a lot of money).

I used the money that I had earned from selling kerosene to pay the rent as well as to buy my food. Soon I didn’t have enough money to buy all my basic needs such as clothes, school materials, and other personal items. During this time I also had to learn to speak the Ethiopian national language known as Amharic because my first language is Sidamgma. During my 9th grade year I had to share text books from the school with about 7 students. We would pass the book from person to person. I would have the book one night, and then pass it on to the next person. With all of these distractions and hardships I worked very hard my first year and got first place out of 2000 students in the 9th grade. All of this without any snow days do get some extra work done! After passing on my grades to my parents they were finally excited for me and encouraged me to focus on my education, but still they didn’t have enough money to help me. After passing 10th grade I started earning money by tutoring some kids in my apartment. I used the money from tutoring to support me with some of my basic needs.

After my 10th grade year it was time for the second of three national exams. Me and one other student from Wotera out of the original 130 that started first grade with me took the national exam. In Ethiopia, we take three national exams one after our 8th grade year, one after 10th, and finally one after our 12th grade year. The eighth grade exam is not that difficult and many students pass that exam. It is the exam after our l0th Grade year that is a big obstacle for many of the Ethiopian students. Most of the time, only 50% percent of the students pass the l0th grade national exam to move on to 11th and 12th grade. Most of them are just not smart enough to pass this exam. It is at this point many of them loose their hope and return back to their families just to become another burden for them. These high percentages of drop outs really concerned me and some friends of mine and we started talking about what we could do to help. We decided to help these kids who are in trouble by tutoring them. We asked the director of the school if we could use the classrooms, chalk, and duster after hours to tutor some kids that needed” help. Eventually, the school director said yes and me and my friend began to teach 420 students in two classrooms at night. Besides teaching them we wanted to fire them up to study harder and focus more on their education. There were almost 210 in each classroom. Many students had to stand up or sit on the floor. The hard work paid off because nearly 400 of the 420 we had been tutoring passed the national exam. That was a great satisfaction for me and my friend.

Last year, before I came to the United States, we asked another eight of the smartest students at the high school and two from a local college in Hawassa to come together to form a nonprofit organization. ‘Affini Development Initiative Forum’ or (ADIF) to help students who are in need by offering tutorial classes to further them in their education; to initiate and encourage people to overcome poverty and to make people more aware of HIV/AIDS. We received a license from the state government to become a legal entity. We now started tutoring over 1000 high school students in the city Monday through Friday 6:00PM-8:00 PM and another 1000 students on Saturday and Sunday. Last summer, we encouraged many university students to help other students from 7th through 10th grade at different locations both in the towns and the rural community.

Last year people from a program called Cherokee Gives Back Education came to our school to bring some Ethiopian students to the United States for a cultural and an educational exchange. After a long process of testing and interviewing, me and one other student from Hawassa were selected to make the trip abroad. It was a fascinating and unexpected chance to come to the USA.

Your country is a miracle, a country of freedom and opportunity, a country full of hope, a place where happiness and success surrounds people; it is the most unique country in the world. After arriving here in September, my eyes have been opened to see all of your countries gorgeous things. My way of thinking is changing each and every second that I am here. I am familiarizing my self with technology. I am learning how to use a computer. Now I know the meaning of “GOOGLE”! I have become quite handy with the dish-washer, I need one of these things back in Hawassa. And there is nothing like Game Day on a 46″ plasma! All of these things you are around every day were foreign to me. Before I came here, technology was just something I had read about, now I am living it. Since September I have had a chance to see a few places in the US: Disney World, Washington D.C, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta and of course my favorite. New York. There was nothing like standing on top of the Empire State building, especially when the tallest building in Hawassa is 10 stories. These places totally have changed my way of thinking. Day to day I am learning countless new things as my mind is ready to accept and interpret them for tomorrow’s change in Ethiopia. I am sharing my culture, thought, and way of life with blessed and open minded people of the United States. I am so overjoyed to be with you because my blind eye is opening to see these incredible things here in the US. Because of this experience, Cherokee wants to bring more students to the US to live and learn your culture, and then to return to Ethiopia and start the implementation of change.

AMMAN, Jordan — With defending champions Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba out with injuries, the field is wide open for Saturday’s World Cross Country Championships.

The Ethiopian pair have dominated the event, with Bekele winning six of the last seven men’s championships and Dibaba taking three women’s titles in 2005, 2006 and 2008.

The two also completed 5,000-10,000 sweeps at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

But Bekele is recovering from an ankle stress fracture, while Dibaba is sidelined with a leg injury.

Despite their absence, Ethiopians and Kenyans are still expected to battle for the medals as the championships take place in the Middle East for the first time.

More than 500 athletes from 63 countries are competing in the $300,000 championships, which feature senior men’s and women’s races and junior men’s and women’s events.

The Ethiopian senior team is led by Gebregziabher Gebremariam, who won the junior title in 2002, finished third in the long race in 2003 and took two silvers behind Bekele in 2004.

“We have a very strong and determined team and although Bekele will not be around, we are ready to keep the title another year,” Gebremariam said.

Bekele posted a record six victories over the classic 12-kilometer distance since 2001, with his streak interrupted only by Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese in 2007.

Although Kenya has continued to dominate the team event, it has not had a long-course champion since Paul Tergat won the last of his five successive titles in 1999.

Ethiopia swept the individual titles and both women’s team titles last year in Scotland, leaving Kenya only the senior and junior men’s team gold.

Kenya’s Mark Kiptoo, who finished second in 2007, said his country is poised for victory this year.

“We’re extremely confident and well prepared for the event and we want to regain what we lost 10 years ago,” Kiptoo said. “We have the will to win.”

Among the women, Ethiopia is led by world indoor 1,500-meter champion Gelete Burka, a former world junior and world short course champion, and two-time bronze medalist Meselech Melkamu.

Kenya has 19-year-old Linet Masai, who won the junior race in 2007, took bronze in the senior event last year and was fourth in the Olympic 10,000-meter final in Beijing.

Kenyan-born Hilda Kebet, who was fifth last year, is now competing for the Netherlands.

“Last year, I was surprised to be in fifth place, so tomorrow I am very happy to be part of the event and I believe that all the hard work will eventually be rewarded,” she said.

The U.S. team includes 18-year-old German Fernandez, who last month set a junior world indoor record for the mile of 3:55.02. Fernandez hopes to help the U.S. improve on its sixth-place team finish from last year. ___

(By Jamal Halaby, Associated Press. Rofan Nahhas contributed to this report.)

VALLETTA, MALTA (Times of Malta) – An Ethiopian migrant who was granted refugee status and the possibility of starting a new life in the United States has been remanded in custody after he allegedly tried to leave Malta in violation of bail conditions.

A court was told today that Daniel Haile TesfaMihret, who is facing charges of causing grievous bodily harm, had tried to leave Malta for the United States last Tuesday but was stopped by the police at the airport when his luggage had already been loaded on the plane. His wife and children continued on their way.

Police Inspector Martin Sammut said he had previously warned the refuge, who is from Sudan, that he could not leave Malta until his court case was heard. He had suggested the filing of an application to the magistrate for the case to be brought forward. However, when Mr TesfaMihret was arrested, it resulted that no such application had been made. The migrant pleaded not guilty to breaching bail conditions.

By Luke Phillips | Middle East Online

AMMAN, Jordan — Gulf states Bahrain and Qatar, each boasting a raft of African-born runners, will attempt to break the stranglehold Ethiopia and Kenya enjoy in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships here on Saturday.

The absence of reigning champions and multiple title-winning Ethiopian duo, Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, means that a host of other runners will have a chance to snatch victory in the two senior races.

More than 500 athletes from 70 countries will compete in the championships which comprise a men’s and female’s long course race over 12km and 8km respectively, for a total purse of 280,000 dollars, with 30,000 dollars going to the winner. There are also junior events for both sexes.

The only previous individual senior champions who will be racing for further honours in the Jordanian capital, hosting a major international athletics event for the first time, are Eritrean Zersenay Tadese and Ethiopian Gelete Burka.

Tadese, the bronze medallist at the worlds in Edinburgh last year, famously beat a heat-stroked Bekele in Mombasa in 2007, while Burka was the last champion of the now discontinued senior women’s short course race in 2006.

The Eritrean will face stiff competition from a raft of able rivals, not least Qatar’s world 3000m steeplechase champion in 2003 and 2005, Saif Saaeed Shaheen, and compatriot Ahmed Hassan Abdullah, Asian 10,000m record holder and cross-country champion.

Shaheen, who has spent most of the last two seasons out of competitive action due to injury, has finished in the top 10 at the World Cross Country Championships on four occasions, including a fourth place finish in 2005.

Aside from Abdullah, Qatar have also entered the reigning world marathon silver medallist Mubarak Hassan Shami for what has been described as a testing course over Amman’s hilly nine-hole Bisharat Golf Course.

Shami, who like Shaheen and Abdullah was once a Kenyan, has competed in each of the last three editions of the World Cross Country Championships and will be part of a Qatari effort to break African dominance over the event.

The Kenyan bid to nail a first individual long-course title since Paul Tergat in 1999 will be launched by 2009 Kenyan champion Moses Mosop, who won silver in Mombasa behind Tadese, and Leonard Komon, the runner-up in Edinburgh 12 months ago.

“I feel in top form,” said Mosop, nicknamed the ‘big engine’ for his heavy breathing while running.

“I’m relishing the challenge in Jordan. The weather and humidity in Amman is just like it was in Mombasa. I missed the gold medal two years ago and this is my time.”

There is a similar story in the women’s race, with Bahrain naming Asian cross-country champion and world 1500m title holder Maryam Yusuf Jamal for the first time since 2006.

The Ethiopian-born runner, who finished fifth in the Beijing Olympic 1500m final, comes to Amman on the back of a five-race winning streak that includes her fourth World Athletics Final 1500m victory in Stuttgart last September and a solo victory in her only indoor appearance in 2009 in Birmingham over the 1500m.

She will be joined in Amman by former Ethiopian Mimi Belete, who finished second behind Jamal in the senior Asian women’s 8km race.

Competition will come from Burka, the Netherlands’ Kenyan-born European champion Hilda Kibet and former world junior cross-country champions Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia (2004) and Kenya’s Linet Masai (2007), who was the senior bronze medallist last year.

Schedule (all times GMT)

1130 – Women’s Junior Race, 6km; 1200 – Men’s Junior Race, 8km; 1240 – Women’s Senior Race, 8km; 1330 – Men’s Senior Race, 12km.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The flower farms in Ethiopia are destroying the land by using chemical fertilizers that are destroying the land.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Afrik.com) — Ethiopian flower producers and exporters have used their exhibition, which opened Wednesday, to call on Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi to urge state owned development bank to reschedule installments of their due balance as well as a cutback on freight tariffs.

This is the very first time exhibitors have met with the Prime Minister, who opened the second international exhibition organized by the growers and exporters association of Ethiopia. The massive involvement of some 130 exhibitors, including foreign buyers, companies involved in flower seed and chemical supplies have contributed to the opening success of the exhibition.

Tsegaye Abebe, Chairman of the Ethiopian Horticulture Producers Exporters Association (EHPEA), lauds the proposal for rescheduling of debts. “It is unfeasible to service our debts with the current economic downturn unless banks become willing to reschedule our obligation and freighters cutback their tariff” Tsegaye addressed attendants.

Though he did not categorically specify banks and freighters in his speech, he was seen busy deliberating with the Prime Minister who finally commended stockholders operating in the sub-sector to synchronize efforts toward ensuring the sustainable development of the flower sector since it is an important foreign currency earner for the country.

The state owned Development Bank of Ethiopia which has lent over 800 million birr since the flower sector boom have been met with heavy setbacks in a backdrop of growing economic strains on the flower industry that has hampered the honouring of debts from the borrowers. This situation led the bank to issue public foreclosures a few months ago, but again they are faced with another hurdle: finding buyers.

The global economic downturn coupled with a severe winter season in Europe, which has affected the transportation and preservation of exported flowers, has greatly affected the flower producing eastern African region, known to be among the oldest flower producing regions in the world.

Ethiopia announced last February that it had registered a 40 per cent slump in its set target from the last 18 months.

The slump is, however, largely blamed on the weakened currencies of export destinations, which have impacted prices. The United Kingdom Pound Sterling has weakened by nearly 30 per cent in the last year alone, while the Russian currency, the Rubble, has also, reportedly, lost about 35 per cent of its value. The Euro Zone, which is yet to experience a currency pitfall, is said to have resorted to auctions, an action that is open to unexpected results, due to oversupply.

Meanwhile, dismayed Ethiopian exporters and growers who addressed their complaints to top government officials have still not received any positive feedback to date. This, according to the association, is what pushed them to use the exhibition as a platform to address this growing concern. According to them, the Prime Minister’s intervention has sparked renewed optimism among some exporters.