Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie doesn’t need to make a New Year’s resolution, in order to break another World record. For a start, the Ethiopian New Year begins on September 11, “so we don’t celebrate the European New Year,” said the man himself yesterday, by phone from his home in Addis Ababa.
And, although the World records have come with the same metronomic regularity that he applies to his marathon running, he won’t be drawn just yet on whether next week’s Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, on Friday, January 16, will be his 27 (world best or record).
But he says he is in better shape than when he won Dubai last year, in 2:04:53, then the second fastest on record. “Last year, I had a little injury two weeks before Dubai, but this year everything is OK, I feel fine. And I won’t make the mistake of going too fast, like last year.”
Aiming for a first half in 62 minutes in 2008, the pacemakers seared through the 21.1km in 61:27. It probably made the difference between breaking his then World record of 2:04:26, set in Berlin 2007, by half a minute instead of ending up a half a minute outside it, as was the case.
Geb proved that when he went back to Berlin last September, ran the first half in 62:04, and came back in 61:55, to become the first marathoner under 2:04.
If he breaks that record in Dubai, he will win a one million US dollars bonus, in addition to the first place prize of $250,000.
After Berlin, he said he thought he could do “2:03 something” in Dubai. But, “everything has to be perfect for another record, weather, pacemakers. If I don’t get injured, maybe 2:02:59, but considering my shape and my age, 2:03:30, or 2:03:20.”
It is a tribute to his consistency that even aged 35, with a workforce of hundreds in half a dozen businesses in Addis, Gebrselassie still concentrates on running. “It’s my top priority, because without running, I wouldn’t have everything else. I get up at 5.30 every morning, and go training. And it’s cold here in the morning now. At Entoto (hills outside Addis), it’s about plus one (degree centigrade). I go to the office at about 9.30 or ten o’clock, and work until four. Then I train again. I go to bed about 9.30, ten at the latest.”
So there you have it, the ultimate recipe for success. Not forgetting that you needed to have been born and nurtured at altitude, run thousands of kilometres a year for the last 20 years, have endless willpower and a great finishing sprint.
Find Out How Tory Johnson Started Her Own Business With Virtually No Money
By TORY JOHNSON
If you can’t find someone to hire you, consider hiring yourself. Not only can entrepreneurship bring great personal fulfillment, but launching a small business doesn’t have to break the bank.
Here’s my story and some of my favorite resources to help get you started.
My story. In 1999 I started Women for Hire to put on career fairs. I worked from home with no experience running a business, but I had a serious entrepreneurial itch — that burning desire to run my own shop, do my own thing, be my own boss and provide what I thought was a much-needed service to the workplace.
I didn’t have a lot of money and I didn’t have much time. Because my household very much relied on my income, I had three months to launch the company and generate a profit. If the venture failed, I’d have to quickly get a traditional job, which of course I didn’t want to do.
Instead of spending months and months writing a business plan, I put my thoughts on one sheet of paper and I dived in. That’s also the impatient side of me; I didn’t want to think or talk about starting a business, I just wanted to do it.
With a background in corporate communications, I knew the importance of establishing immediate credibility. I’d be targeting human resource professionals to use my services, yet nobody in human resources departments knew my name. My company was totally unknown.
I bought 100 copies of Star Jones’ new book at wholesale from the publisher and I arranged for Jones, who was debuting on “The View” at the time, to do a free book signing at my very first career fair. I also formed a marketing partnership with Mademoiselle magazine, allowing it to distribute copies to my career fair attendees.
Those two names — Star Jones and Mademoiselle — were very well known, even though I wasn’t, so I benefited instantly from that borrowed recognition.
Incidentally, Jones moved on from “The View” and Mademoiselle went bust, but Women for Hire is still going strong! Knock on wood.
My focus from Day 1 has remained the same: provide a top-notch service, get the word out to the target audience and sell it. If you’re thinking of starting a business, that’s what you should do too.
Get the Word Out
First step, put it in writing. Write a brief plan outlining your goals. You don’t need anything formal unless you’re going to seek substantial capital. In fact, researchers at Babson College found that in businesses started between 1985 and 2003, there was no difference in the performance of those that launched with or without a written business plan.
Go through a simple exercise of putting a few things on paper for your own good: describe your business in one sentence. Who will buy your products or service? How much money do you absolutely need to get started? How much can you realistically charge for your product or service? What will it cost you to deliver that product or service? In the worst-case scenario, how much can you make?
Don’t assume the best-case scenario because more often than not, you won’t meet those projections. A baker may dream of selling 100 cakes a week, but is five more realistic to start? A dog walker might assume he can handle 10 customers a week, but is two more realistic to start?
Know the competition. Don’t worry about reinventing the wheel. Chances are you’re going to provide a service or product that already exists. That’s OK. There are multiple banks, coffee shops, clothing stores and restaurants on every street. There are thousands of doctors and dentists in every major city. It’s wise to know your competition, but don’t be intimidated, especially if you offer a quality product or service.
Create marketing materials. You need a marketing plan to target the right people about your business. Because you aren’t going to run expensive newspaper ads or Super Bowl commercials, think free and inexpensive.
Web site. When you’re looking to buy something — from a haircut to a custom cake — you likely hit the Internet. So even if you’re not selling online, every business should have a Web site. Before you decide on a name for your business, check the availability of domain names, because it could affect the name you choose.
A Web site can cost as little as $10 a month and many hosting companies offer free site-builder templates to get you up and running in a few hours. Register.com and GoDaddy.com are two services I’ve used.
Google’s AdWords program is an affordable and measurable way to attract visitors to your Web site. Sign up for free and set a budget for how much you want to spend to appear in search results when Google users look for content related to yours.
Network
Print business cards and flyers. I use both VistaPrint.com and GotPrint.com for high-quality printing at affordable prices.
Phone system. If you worry about your kids answering your business calls but you don’t want to install a dedicated phone line, consider a service like RingCentral.com to have calls routed to an 800 number with voice mail exclusively for your business starting at $10 a month.
Use free social and business networks. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and others are valuable tools for spreading the word about your business.
Establish mutually beneficial partnerships. Recently a “Good Morning America” viewer asked me for ideas on how to spread the word quickly — without spending a dime — about her new pet massage business. I suggested partnering with the most popular pet store in her area to host in-store events every Saturday where owners could bring their animals for on-the-spot mini massages. It’s good for the store because it brings new and existing customers into the shop, and it’s good for attracting awareness — and customers — for this new pet massage business. A cake baker might offer to do fundraisers for her kids’ school. She could talk to wedding vendors about offering affordable alternatives to new brides. She can visit local coffee shops with samples of her baked goods to persuade them to carry her stuff.
Generate free media coverage. One of my favorite new resources is Help a Reporter Out, which enables anyone to sign up for a free e-mail alert, delivered three times daily, listing the immediate needs of writers and producers from major TV and print outlets to blogs and books. By registering for the daily e-mails, you can respond to queries from journalists that relate to your business and your expertise — without hiring a publicist to do the work for you.
Free Resources
Find free helping hands. When you have little to no money to start, you have to be resourceful to get as much as you can for free. In addition to begging family and friends, contact colleges in your area to post internship opportunities (or post them on Craigslist) for students who’d welcome a compelling role in assisting with your start-up.
Tap free expert resources. Contact the Chamber of Commerce in your area, Small Business Association or SCORE, which provides free and low-cost advice on every aspect of your business, including the licenses you may need to operate and the tax and insurance considerations.
Among my favorite resources for small-business owners: Make Mine a Million, StartupNation, Small Business Television, and Collective-E. Finally — just do it. If you can’t get out there and sell your product or service, you don’t have a business. It doesn’t matter how fabulous your offering, your expertise or your Web site, if nobody will pay you for it, there’s no business. Get your ducks in a row and then get in front of your target audience. Nobody will have the same passion and enthusiasm as you, and your passion is priceless.
Tory Johnson is the workplace contributor on “Good Morning America” and the CEO of Women for Hire. Visit her Web site at www.womenforhire.com.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) – A woman who lived to see five of her great-great grandchildren born and was believed to have been the world’s oldest person has died in Portugal at the age of 115, officials said.
Maria de Jesus died Friday morning in an ambulance near the central Portuguese town of Tomar.
She had been listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest person. That title now falls to an American, 114-year-old Gertrude Baines, who lives in a Los Angeles nursing home.
Born Sept. 10, 1893, de Jesus was widowed at 57, outlived three of her six children, had 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
On Friday, she ate breakfast normally, but then was taken to hospital because of a swelling, her daughter Maria Madalena told state news agency Lusa, without elaborating.
De Jesus was 115 years and 114 days old.
“I regret the death of this lady, she really was the sweetest person,” town councilor Ivo Santos said in Tomar, central Portugal, 84 miles north of Lisbon.
There are now only 82 women and nine men verified as being 110 or older, according to gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles.
But he said there could be hundreds more in places such as China, India or Africa where they would not have caught the attention of the Gerontology Research Group, a small volunteer organization that tracks supercentenarians and verifies their birth dates through birth certificates and other documents.
In the genes?
Coles said the supercentenarians appear to share one trait that might account for their longevity — they come from families whose members are long-lived.
“Whether they drink alcohol or not, it doesn’t matter. Whether they smoke cigarettes or not doesn’t seem to matter,” he said. “The thing that does seem to matter is that they chose their parents wisely.”
“It’s in the genes. It’s in the DNA,” he said.
Before de Jesus, Edna Parker of Indiana had been the world’s oldest living person until she died in late November. She was 115 years, 220 days old.
Baines — the new titleholder, born in Georgia on April 6, 1894 — spent most of her life in Ohio, where she worked as a dormitory housekeeper at Ohio State University in Columbus, Coles said. Her only daughter died at age 18.
Coles said he asked the staff at Western Convalescent Hospital to tell Baines she is now the oldest living documented person in the world.
“She’s very healthy. Her only complaint, as far as I can tell, is arthritis in her left knee,” he said. She uses a wheelchair.
He described her as mentally sharp, saying “she doesn’t forget anything.”
Baines voted in the November presidential election, the Los Angeles Times reported.
She voted for Barack Obama “’cause he’s for the colored people,” said Baines, who is black and the daughter of former slaves.
The Malaysian oil and gas company, Petronas, is to drill three oil exploration wells in the Ogaden basin this year.
Petronas has hired Weather Ford, a Dubai-based company, to carry out the drilling. Reliable sources told The Reporter that Weather Ford has agreed to drill exploration wells in the Genale block, block 11 and 15 of the basin. They disclosed that Weather Ford has mobilizing its crew and drilling rigs, adding that officials of the company will soon come from Dubai. Weather Ford is engaged in oil and gas exploration work in the Middle East.
In 2004, Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a Chinese company, was contracted by Petronas to conduct seismic survey and to drill exploration wells in the Gambella block owned by Petronas. Petronas acquired the Gambella block, which covers about 16,000 sq. km of land, in June 2003. ZPEB collected seismic data on 1500 km. Accordingly, in 2005 ZPEB drilled the first wild cat well in Jikaw locality, 175 km away from the Ethio-Sudan border. The company drilled the second well in Jakaranda locality in 2006. Both wells turned out dry. Petronas spent 32 million dollars for the drillings and testing. ZPEB withdrew from Gambella after it finalized it work in 2006.
However, in the same year, Petronas hired ZPEB to conduct seismic survey in the Ogaden basin. In July 2005, Petronas acquired three blocks in the Ogaden basin – Genale block (24,420 Sq km), Kallafo (30,612 sq.km) and Welwel-Warder (36,796 sq.km). In 2006 ZPEB started collecting seismic data in the three blocks.
In October 2006 South West Energy hired ZPEB to conduct a seismic survey in the Ogaden basin. In December 2005, South West Energy, a company owned by an Ethiopian businessman, acquired a Degehabur block covering 21,187 sq.km. of land. In January 2007, ZPEB commenced collecting seismic data in the Degehabur block.
On Apill 24, 2007 the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked the Abole exploration site in the Degehabur zone of the Somali Regional State. Seventy-four civilians, including nine Chinese workers, were killed in the attack. Seven Chinese workers were abducted by ONLF fighters in the same incident. However, they were released two weeks later. Following the attack in May 2007, ZPEB evacuated all its employees working in Ethiopia. Though the Ethiopian government has made attempts to convince officials of ZPEB and SINOPEC to resume operation, the companies have declined to send their professionals back to Ogaden.
ADDIS ABABA // As 10-year-old Biruk Nigusie nibbles at the corner of a small foil packet, his tall, graceful mother covers her face with her hands and sobs.
Athe Iatseda Herpha, 30, and her son Biruk, 10, are both HIV-positive and receiving antiretroviral therapy. [Photo: Jeff Topping]
Biruk and his sister Tigist, 14, watch silently as Athe Iatseda Herpha weeps for the fate of her children at the family’s tiny mud home on a school site in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. She, her husband, Sirag, and Biruk are HIV-positive.
Only Tigist has escaped the epidemic that is affecting people in towns and villages along the main motorway between Addis Ababa and Djibouti.
Like many families in the community, the Nigusies are destitute, soon to be made homeless and, for two weeks of every month as they struggle to survive on the US$30 (Dh110) Mr Nigusie makes as a security guard, extremely hungry.
The silver packet Biruk clutches contains a nutritional supplement called Plumpy’nut, a high-energy, nutrient-enriched peanut-based paste used in famine relief. It keeps him from starving to death.
More than 25 tonnes of the expensive paste recently arrived in Ethiopia, shipped from France to Djibouti and then transported by road to Save the Children warehouses in Addis Ababa, courtesy of Dubai Cares.
On Aug 26 last year Dubai Cares gave US$12,959 to ensure that the supplement reached Ethiopia’s hungry schoolchildren in the six regions most affected by recent droughts.
According to government figures, there are 6.5 million people in Ethiopia who need emergency nutritional assistance. Of those, 75,000 children like Biruk are severely malnourished.
Aid workers suggest the numbers are conservative and don’t count the four million people on emergency programmes run by the government, which for three years provide food or cash for work.
Having partnered with Save the Children on several projects last year, Dubai Cares decided to help. The charity was started by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the UAE, in September 2007 to provide primary education for at least one million children around the world.
Alemtsehai Greisling, Save the Children’s project manager for Ethiopia’s nutrition programme, says: “Schools have opened for the year but because of the food shortages and fuel costs, providing school materials to children has become unaffordable for poor families and school enrolment is down.
“Life-saving, high-energy foods are now being distributed through emergency food centres.”
Plumpy’nut does not require refrigeration or water and is extremely effective in treating malnourished children.
“It’s really a miracle. We see results within two weeks,” Ms Greisling says. But it’s a short-term answer.
This is the third time Biruk has been admitted to the nutritional programme. But with his HIV infection, he needs more than the average two-month supply of supplements.
“On average, one child takes three sachets per day for a minimum of two months. That’s 160 sachets. If they have HIV then the period could be far longer,” she says. “Their weight tends to go up and down according to the treatment they are receiving.”
Explaining how children are selected to the programme, Ms Greisling says: “The children will come to local health centres and their middle-upper-arm circumference, weight and height is measured by trained staff in order to check the status of the child and diagnose as to whether it is malnourished.”
The method used to take the arm measurement, she says, involved a simple tape divided into three sections – green, yellow and red. If a child’s arm circumference is in the green zone they are considered healthy. If it is in the yellow zone they are at risk and monitored, but do not receive the highly sought-after supplement.
It is only those in the severely malnourished zone, red, who are given the Plumpy’nut. “Those in the red zone usually only have two or three days to live unless they receive immediate nutritional support,” Ms Greisling says.
Biruk, who hopes to be a doctor one day, has been in the red zone twice in the past year. His mother said he is doing well, but with the family forced to vacate the one-room home of mud and sticks they stay in free of charge, on land owned by the school where Biruk is enrolled, his future is not assured.
“The Plumpy’nut has been very useful,” Mrs Nigusie says. “Biruk has gained weight and strength. He has been discharged from the programme before but he relapsed again because he became very thin. The first time he had to drop out of school. Now he is back in school again.
“We get some salary from my husband but it is a struggle with food prices at market rising. When we have food we eat three times a day. When there is none we don’t eat.
“We don’t have a home but the school has allowed us to live here for some time because they know our circumstances. We have to leave within three months because they need the space. We don’t know where to go. We can’t rent any house with this salary.”
A 10-minute drive from the Nigusies, in a small town called Dukem, also on the main motorway, a 30-year-old widowed mother tries to feed Plumpy’nut to her year-old son, Doctor.
Meseret Girma has known she is HIV-positive for six months. Her husband died just before Doctor was born, of tuberculosis. Local health workers suspect he had Aids.
Doctor has tested positive for HIV antibodies but it will be another year before his mother and doctors will know whether he is HIV-positive or if he just received his mother’s antibodies through her breast milk.
He weighed just 4kg when he arrived at the health clinic five months ago. He progressed to 7kg. Until his status is known, he will continue to receive Plumpy’nut to maintain his weight.
Ms Girma and her son have no family nearby and, as she is unable to work regularly because she suffers from anaemia, paralysis in her legs and headaches, she and her son now rely on the generosity of their neighbour, Yiftusirat Kaftiymer.
“I don’t have any family at all or a house or a job,” she says. “Sometimes I have labour work but when I get ill it’s difficult to work. I had some land which I have sold and so we rely on that money and are learning handicrafts to try and sell things at market.
“Today we had breakfast because we still have money from the land that I sold. We eat ingera [a traditional Ethiopian bread]. We eat as much as we have. If we have plenty then we eat plenty. If we don’t have, we share what we do.
“I am struggling to live for my child.”
Towns like Dukem and Bishoftu are known by aid workers as “high-risk corridors”, common across Africa, where desperately poor women prostitute themselves to lorry drivers on the main motorway, so HIV rates are high.
Ethiopia’s food crisis has led to an increase in the number of HIV-infected children and adults dropping out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes, because without food the medications are too strong for the patients’ bodies, says Wondu Magen, a nutritional worker for Save the Children.
Ms Greisling says: “On one recent field mission, people were telling us of a child who collapsed because he was taking ART without enough food. On an empty stomach, the medication is also not as effective.
“At the health centres we have adults telling us they will take the medication away with them, at the staff’s insistence, but they won’t be taking it because without food it’s just too strong.”
Asked how difficult it is to live with HIV, alongside the struggle for food, Mrs Nigusie breaks down in tears.
“I have already given everything up to God,” she says, covering her face with her hands. “I just hope my children will live a long life. I wish for Biruk to grow strong and healthy and that someone will look after him and support his education.”
Watching on with sad eyes, her daughter says she hopes to be a journalist one day.
“I want to write about my family and people like us,” she says. “Tell people what it’s really like here.”
Arba Minch, Ethiopia (Reuters) – The crocodile ranch lies almost hidden and largely forgotten behind the airport in Ethiopia’s southern town of Arba Minch.
The country’s first crocodile farm, it was built by an enterprising government official in the 1980s to generate foreign currency in one of Africa’s poorest countries, where people mainly live from subsistence farming.
But the ranch has since fallen into disrepair, its decline a symbol of the challenges facing Ethiopia as it seeks to lure more tourists to its mountainous ranges and seemingly endless plains.
At the end of a narrow path, the crocodiles laze in deep pools, their eyes glittering as they stare down nervous visitors. Separated according to age, the crocodiles feast on horse meat twice a week.
Thousands of the reptiles are reared in these cement-floored pools, but the paths leading to the ranch’s star attraction are covered with weeds and hidden in the dense overgrowth.
Metal fences meant to protect visitors from the crocodiles’ jaws are rusted and broken in places.
“The place would have been a gold mine, if it had been privatised to a commercial-minded investor,” one visitor said.
Ethiopia may struggle to reach its target of attracting one million tourists a year within the next decade.
It’s not that the country — labelled the cradle of mankind after the discovery of ancient human remains — lacks attractions but its infrastructure is creaking, with poor roads and a lack of hotels. A 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea also hit tourist earnings.
Nonetheless, the government aims to promote Ethiopia as one of the top 10 tourist destinations in Africa by 2016, hoping to reap $US650 million ($A873.50 million) a year in much-needed foreign receipts.
Last year, the Horn of Africa country hosted around 227,000 tourists, earning $US156 million ($A210 million) in foreign exchange, compared with the $US134.5 million ($A181 million) earned from 184,000 visitors the previous year, according to ministry of tourism figures.
Like many other potential money-spinners, the crocodile ranch is crying out for investment to improve facilities and boost earnings.
Ethiopia boasts medieval cities, rich in ruined castles, palaces and churches. One of its holiest cities, Axum, offers teetering stelae, underground tombs and ancient inscriptions, while the 13th century rock-hewn churches of Lalibela feature carvings of saints and mystical symbols.
The country has eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
But most visitors would never come across the Arba Minch crocodile farm, which generated a paltry $US48,000 ($A64,503) from visitors in 2000 — far below its overhead expenses.
Some 500km south of the capital Addis Ababa, Arba Minch is studded with glistening lakes formed from bubbling streams that flow through the tropical forests on nearby slopes.
The lakes give the town its Amharic name which means “40 springs” in Ethiopia’s official language.
Estifanos Endeshaw, one of the ranch’s guides, said some 5,000 crocodiles are fished out of Lakes Chamo and Abaya each year to be reared on the farm.
Scouts from the ranch scour the lakes’ sandy beaches in search of the hidden nooks where the crocodiles lay their eggs.
Three months after the eggs hatch, the baby crocs are transported back to the ranch where they spend the next year in a nursery pool. It takes up to 15 years for a crocodile to develop into a full-bodied reptile.
Twice a week huge chunks of horse meat are thrown to the crocodiles. The horses are bought at a nearby market and kept on the ranch before being slaughtered and fed to the crocodiles.
Some of the crocodiles are killed on the ranch, their skins destined to be used to make expensive shoes, handbags and belts, mainly for export.
“The crocodiles being reared in the ranch are mostly for tourist attraction, although those which are old enough are shot for their skins,” Estifanos said.
Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie doesn’t need to make a New Year’s resolution, in order to break another World record. For a start, the Ethiopian New Year begins on September 11, “so we don’t celebrate the European New Year,” said the man himself yesterday, by phone from his home in Addis Ababa.