CALGARY, CANADA – City Police hope someone has information that could help them solve a murder. August 18th, several gunshots rang out near an alley between 12th and 13th Avenue and 11th Street Southwest. Police found 30 year old Efrem Mehari Kuflom dead at the scene.
Kuflom was known to the Organize Crime Unit and was a convicted drug dealer. He was gunned down while behind the wheel of his black Pontiac.
Officers are now releasing pictures of a late 1990’s Chevy truck believed to have been driven by a witness to the murder.
More than 150 participants from 18 African countries attended the five-day meeting of the 12th Africa Forum which ended in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 3 October 2008.
Bringing all stakeholders together and sharing experience was essential to achieve results in the agriculture sector, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD), Dr. Abera Deressa, said. Briefing journalists on the conclusion of the forum organised by MoARD and the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ), the State Minister said the forum served as an important medium for countries to share experiences and learn from each other.
Martin Bwalya of the NEPAD-Secretariat said that efforts to improve the agriculture sector in Africa needed to be integrated.
“It is vital to join the efforts of NEPAD and the Africa Forum together to buttress agricultural development in Africa,” Bwalya said.
“The Africa Forum plays an important role as a peer-learning platform to ensure rural development in the continent,” he said, adding that other forums should be organised to exchange views on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
Dr. Albert Engel of the GTZ said the forum was crucial in getting across the African perspective of the global food crisis. He also underscored the experience-sharing significance of the forum for African countries.
He confirmed Germany’s commitment to assisting Africa’s endeavours to boost development in the agriculture sector.
KALAMAZOO – A longtime faculty member and the advisor to one of Western Michigan University’s major outreach efforts have been named recipients of the University’s 2008-09 Distinguished Service Award.
The award will go to Dr. Sisay Asefa, professor of economics and director of the Center for African Development Policy in the Haenicke Institute for Global Education, and Abraham Poot, advisor to WMU’s Sunseeker solar racecar teams and engineering laboratory supervisor for the departments of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering.
The pair will be honored Thursday, Oct. 30, at the annual Academic Convocation in the Dalton Center Recital Hall. The event will feature WMU President John M. Dunn’s State of the University address as well as the presentation of a several other campuswide awards honoring this year’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Emerging Scholar and Distinguished Teaching award recipients.
As winners of the Distinguished Service Award, Asefa and Poot will join a list of 44 faculty and staff members who have received the accolade since it was established in 1980. Each of the recipients will receive a plaque and a $2,000 honorarium. The two were chosen from among award candidates from across the campus who were nominated for their service through innovative and effective programs or in areas that extend the impact and presence of the University into the larger community.
Asefa, a WMU faculty member for 28 years, was lauded by those nominating him for his teaching, research and service that has promoted globalization and economic development, particularly in African and other developing nations. He was praised for bringing together faculty and scholars from across the disciplines and around the world, and for building the same skills among a strong body of graduate students. His work in organizing international conferences both in the United States and Africa was noted by many of his supporters, as was his ability to attract international graduate students to WMU’s programs.
According to a colleague at another research university, “WMU is fortunate to have someone of Professor Asefa’s talent, hard work, commitment and dedication not only to his own field of expertise–economics–but also to the general debate on development and good governance in less developed countries…”
A campus colleague said “…his remarkable scholarly work…has contributed to the reputation of his intellectual home department (economics) as well as enhanced the reputation of Western at both the national and international level.”
“He is a humble, unselfish, hard working and dedicated person who encourages and supports the professional development and success of many students and colleagues,” noted another colleague. Yet another called him the MVP in the Department of Economics Ph.D. program.
A three-time recipient of the Fulbright Scholar Grant, Asefa also has served as a member of the national review board for the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program. His ability to network among the world’s scholars, his remarkable work ethic and his altruism were noted by several nominators.
Asefa attended Haile Selassie University in Ethiopia, then earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Central College in Pella, Iowa. He earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees from Iowa State University. He taught at ISU before joining the WMU faculty in 1980.
Poot was praised for having “a profound impact” on all of the varied people he comes into contact with, serving as a mentor to hundreds of students and for being the University’s public face and spokesperson on the topic of alternative energy for audiences across the nation. A 13-year WMU employee, he has served since 2001 as the advisor to the Sunseeker Solar Car project, an effort that puts a team of WMU engineering students in competition with college students across North America for a biennial cross-country race in cars powered solely by the sun.
Poot’s commitment to students was among the primary qualities those nominating him singled out. A retired senior administrator called Poot an example for faculty and staff campuswide.
“If we want to retain students; if we want to give our students a memorable experience as undergraduates; if we want to create solid bonds between our students and ourselves, we must look at people like Abe Poot, who fulfills all these tasks in an exemplary way,” he wrote in support of the nomination.
A student who worked with Poot this year agreed, saying “Abe is not just a leader, but a true team member. He doesn’t leave when the clock says his work day is over, he leaves when the work is done.”
A private-sector engineer working with the Sunseeker team added his assessment of Poot’s impact on the students who work with him and the value his influence ultimately has when his students move into their post-graduation roles.
“Abe’s unique gift for empowering students gives WMU students a distinct advantage over their counterparts, as they gain priceless hands-on and think-for-themselves experience that employers are looking for,” he wrote.
Poot attended Calvin College for 18 months before transferring to DeVry Institute of Technology to earn a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering technology. Prior to joining the WMU staff, he worked as a design engineer for Parker/Abex/NWL Aerospace in Kalamazoo and for Vickers Electromechanical Division in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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NEW YORK – Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro will visit Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, this weekend to attend a development meeting and to hold talks with the Horn of Africa nation’s top officials.
She will chair a meeting of UN agencies working to support the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
That gathering which will focus on the theme “Delivering as one in support of Africa’s development at the regional and subregional levels.”
While in the Ethiopian city, Ms Migiro is also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin.
Berlin, Germany – In a recent interview in the German press Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie, possibly the best long distance runner ever, reconfirmed his ambition to run in next summer’s World Championship Marathon in Berlin, and also described Usain Bolt as an athlete blessed with talent.
The Jamaica’s ‘Lightning Bolt’, the greatest sprinter ever seen, won three sprint gold medals at the Olympic Games with three World records (100m, 200m, 4x100m). In contrast the Ethiopian concentrated on improving his World record this season and opted to run the fast Berlin Marathon instead of the Olympic Marathon. In Beijing he was sixth in the 10,000m but then last month became the first runner to break 2:04 in the Marathon, by clocking 2:03:59 in Berlin.
Interviewed by German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin, Gebrselassie was asked if he had watched other events after his Olympic race in Beijing, especially Usain Bolt’s performances.
“No, I was there only for four days and then went back to Addis Ababa. But of course I did watch other events on television. People in Ethiopia are generally not interested in sprint events, but everyone including myself wanted to see Usain Bolt – especially after he had won the 100 metres. He was flying. Three gold medals and three world records, that is unbelievable,” said Gebrselassie.
Asked if he felt that Usain Bolt’s celebrations after his victories looked arrogant and what he says about doping suspicions Gebrselassie answered: “It is important that athletics is a clean sport. If someone is criticised just because he runs very fast then this is unfair. For me Usain Bolt is an athlete blessed with talent. Sprint mainly has to do with talent. Of course he did a show (after his victories), but I did not see anything bad. May be others don’t like it, but his joy came from his heart.”
Again and again Gebrselassie has stated that he did not regret his decision to miss the Olympic marathon, but he admitted that he made a tactical mistake in the 10,000m final in Beijing. “I should have attacked with two kilometres to go, it was a mistake not to have done that. Actually it was quite easy. I don’t know, why I did not try doing it.”
The three-time Berlin Marathon champion (the only one to have won this event three times in a row) Gebrselassie confirmed that he wants to run the World Championship marathon in Berlin next year.
“Berlin is my lucky city. Sometimes you have something like this in a career.” Gebrselassie had already run in Berlin in 1992 in an Ekiden, which Ethiopia won. In 1995 he established a 5000 m meeting record at the ISTAF meeting with 12:53.19. That record stood for 13 years.
Gebrselassie looks forward to comingback to Berlin in 2009. “Even if I would finish tenth next year people will still be shouting ‘Haile, Haile’,” said Gebrselassie, who confirmed that the Olympic marathon in London 2012 is his distant goal.
The case of a Canadian citizen who has been held in an Ethiopian jail for almost two years — without trial or access to a lawyer — while other foreign prisoners are released is “hauntingly reminiscent” of Omar Khadr, says Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.
Bashir Makhtal, a former Toronto resident in his 40s, was fleeing from fighting in Somalia when he and dozens of other foreign nationals were arrested crossing into Kenya in late 2006. Mr. Makhtal was deported to Ethiopia, where he was born, though he has been a citizen since 1994.
Human rights advocates say Kenyan authorities illegally rendered approximately 90 foreign nationals from 18 countries to Ethiopia during two months in early 2007. Twenty-two have since disappeared. Ethiopia eventually admitted that it has the others in prison.
Most other foreign governments have successfully lobbied for the release of their citizens. Earlier this month, eight more prisoners were released, leaving Mr. Makhtal and a Kenyan man as the last remaining detainees.
“Bashir Makhtal and Omar Khadr share a very distressing similarity when it comes to the lack of willingness of the Canadian government to defend their rights,” Mr. Neve said. “Canada now stands as the only western country with a national still held at Guantanamo. All other western governments, like the U.K., Australia and France, who had nationals held at Guantanamo years ago, did the right thing — they spoke out about the injustice. They insisted their nationals be brought back home.”
Mr. Neve said aspects of the Makhtal case will be “sadly familiar” to Canadians who followed the story of Maher Arar, the Canadian computer engineer who was tortured in Syria after being rendered from the United States.
Ethiopia has accused Mr. Makhtal of terrorist activities, but has yet to present any evidence or bring formal charges.
A recent Human Rights Watch report on the Horn of Africa renditions quotes a detainee who saw Mr. Makhtal briefly in an Ethiopian prison in July 2007. He said the Canadian was being held in solitary confinement, looked very weak and “famished,” and had a deep cut on his leg.
Mr. Makhtal’s family believes he is in jail because he is the grandson of a founder of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which Canada says is a legal organization, but Ethiopia accuses of terrorist activities.
Said Maktal, who is Bashir’s cousin (but spells his surname differently) says their grandfather was deeply involved with the ONLF, but his cousin was too busy trading used clothing throughout the region to have any time for extremism.
“He’s a very hard-working person and he was supporting so many relatives back in the Ogaden,” said Mr. Maktal, 35, who lives in Hamilton. “I don’t believe that he had any involvement” with the ONLF.
In April 2007, Ethiopian authorities admitted they were holding Mr. Makhtal, but refused to allow Canadian diplomats to visit him until July 2008, after Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai went to Ethiopia to lobby for access. All subsequent requests for consular visits or access to the Ethiopian lawyer hired by Mr. Makhtal’s family have been refused.
“Bashir Makhtal has essentially been held in incommunicado for almost two years now,” said Jennifer Daskal, senior counter-terrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch in New York. “It’s absolutely essential that the Canadian government start making some noise and demanding loud and clear that the Ethiopian government must either transfer his case to a fair trial system and let him be represented by a lawyer and have consular rights, or they should immediately release him and repatriate him to Canada.”
Said Maktal has met officials from Foreign Affairs and lobbied politicians, including Ottawa MP John Baird. So far, Mr. Maktal said, he has heard promises the case will become “high profile,” but hasn’t seen any evidence the government is taking it seriously.
“I want the prime minister of Canada to make a personal intervention before it’s too late,” said Mr. Maktal, who believes the Ethiopian government will not feel pressured to act unless it hears directly from the prime minister. “Bashir’s condition is going down. This is unacceptable. How can you not have authority to visit your own citizen?”
The Jamaica’s ‘Lightning Bolt’, the greatest sprinter ever seen, won three sprint gold medals at the Olympic Games with three World records (100m, 200m, 4x100m). In contrast the Ethiopian concentrated on improving his World record this season and opted to run the fast Berlin Marathon instead of the Olympic Marathon. In Beijing he was sixth in the 10,000m but then last month became the first runner to break 2:04 in the Marathon, by clocking 2:03:59 in Berlin.