Video – Kenenisa Bekele’s power kick in Osaka
Kenenisa Bekele winning the 10,000m at the World Track and Field Championship in Osaka, Japan, Aug 28, 2007
Author: EthiopianReview.com
The DC Kidist Mariam Church's board started to stink like Woyanne
Ethiopian Review Editorial
The crisis that has engulfed the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam (DSKM) Ethiopian Orthdox Church in Washington DC continues to worsen. The latest development is that on Sunday, the Church’s board had called police on members and officials of the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam Idir who demanded the board to tell the truth. The DC police with five cruisers rushed to the Church when board member Abebe Aboye made an emergency call. The police left the church premesis grumbling after observing that there was no emergency. But the presence of the police inside the church served as a wake up call to many of the DSKM members who remained silent or indifferent ጆሮ ዳባ ልበስ up to now when their church is being taken over by a rogue group of opportunist individuals who wish to go back home and do business with Woyanne, à la Aba Melaku of another Ethiopian church in DC.
This Sunday’s confrontation started when board chairman Frew Bulbula told the congregation that a new executive committee has been elected to take over the Idir. This angered a lot of people who felt lied to. The fact is that there was a meeting on August 19 that was attended by over 150 members of the Idir. The meeting was held at the Cathedral Catholic Church in Washington DC after the DSKM board refused to allow it to take place inside the church’s meeting hall. At that meeting, the Idir members asked the current executives to remain in their position until the attempted ‘hostile takeover’ of the Idir by the DSKM board is repulsed. Funds were also collected to cover legal expenses. Unbeknown to the Idir members and officials, the DSKM board had also called a meeting on the same day where less than fifty of their collaborators showed up. Bililign Mandefro and cohorts told the participants that they are called to the meeting to elect new officials for the Idir.
Last week, when a relative of one of the Idir members died, Ato Seyoum Garedew, chairman of the Idir, gave $7,000 to the family of the deceased. However, on Sunday, Ato Frew Bulbula told the congregation that the Idir’s new board gave the money to the family. This outright lie inside a church angered several people who were aware of the fact. Some of them shouted: “stop lying!” It was this angry response from the congregation that caused Ato Abebe Aboye to panick and call the police. The church members were angry, and they were shouting at the board that is acting and smelling like Woyanne. But they would not resort to violence or engage in any harmful action inside their own church.
The DSKM board has the backing of some of the priests. After members of the church pointed out Frew Bulbula’s lies on Sunday, the head priest said, let them shout, they will get it in court! What arrogance (ዕብሪት) coming from a ‘spiritual’ leader!
Some who don’t know the story behind the story may wonder why the DSKM board is aggressively going after an independent idir (self-help organization) and its officials. After all, Idir by its definition is an ad hoc group of individuals who get together and contribute some money that is used to pay for funerals and weddings. In Kidist Mariam Idir’s case, they only pay for funeral expenses. The money that is in the bank — $300,000 — also is not that much. The DSKM board could spend close to that amount for legal fees alone by the time the whole thing is over.
The real issue behind the DSKM board’s attempt to take over the independent Idir is politics. As reported previously, the DSKM board that had been slouching toward the Woyanne camp for a long time is now out of the closet. They used to claim that DSKM is an independent church, i.e., they are under the authority of neither the Woyanne-installed patriarch in Addis Ababa, nor the legitimate patriarch who is currently in exile. Now, after … continued to next page >>
Homeless Tigreans being moved out of Addis Ababa
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Thousands of homeless people will be moved from the capital to the countryside before next month’s millennium celebration and provided help with food, shelter and medicine, a development group said Tuesday.
Homelessness is a huge problem in Addis Ababa, a city of 5 million where an estimated 90,000 live on the streets. Beggars are a common sight, with everyone from young children to the elderly seeking money or scraps of food.
Ethiopia _ which is celebrating its third millennium in September in accordance with the Coptic calendar, which is about seven years behind the more common Gregorian _ is planning a 10-hour, US$1.6 million (¤1.2 million) party in Meskel Square to mark the milestone. The celebrations are expected to draw tourists from around the world.
Elshadai Relief & Development Association, a local group that receives government funding, said US$930,000 has been set aside to move some 5,700 people out of the capital in time for the celebrations.
The group said most are from the northern Tigray region and that Elshadai was simply sending them back home.
«It’s good for the whole world, not only for Ethiopia,» Elshadai spokesman Blen Yehdego said Tuesday. «Nobody wants to have this miserable life for their citizens.
Yehdego said only those who volunteer will be moved.
Government officials and did not immediately return calls for comment about the project, and calls to Hope Enterprises, a homeless advocacy group, were not returned Tuesday.
Elshadai bills itself as a development group that works for the «well-being of children and sustainable community development.» It also conducts research on street children and AIDS.
Kenenisa Bekele's Mombasa nightmare is dispelled
By Paul Gains for the IAAF
Osaka, Japan – With the awful memories of his Mombasa debacle no doubt lingering somewhere in the back of his mind Kenenisa Bekele withstood the repeated surges of the man who supplanted him as World Cross Country Champion five months ago to win his third consecutive World 10,000m title.
By no means was this an easy victory however. Many athletes wilted under the oppressive heat and humidity and Zerseney Tadesse of Eritrea, the 2007 World Cross Country and Road Running champion, himself was shut out of the medals after gamely piling on the pressure from the start. Bekele was both relieved and satisfied with his performance spending more time in the mixed zone talking to media in both English and Amharic, than the 27:05.90 it took him to cover the 25 laps of the Nagai stadium.
“It was very tough, very hard, especially with 3 laps left when I was very tired,” Bekele revealed, his shoulders wrapped in the Ethiopian flag someone had tossed onto the track at the finish. “I told Sileshi to follow the Kenyan athlete because I am very tired, I am tired to change the pace with this guy. After one lap left I picked it up again. It’s not easy to run in this weather, it’s very tough.”
“But, three times, absolutely, I am world champion I am very happy.”
Among the well wishers waiting to see him was his agent Jos Hermens of Global Sports Communications who heaped praise on the athlete.
“Today he was winning with his head, this is totally different from other wins,” Hermens said. “It shows also how strong mentally after Mombasa he is. The time of 27:05 is maybe World record pace in normal weather. It’s fantastic. Sileshi did everything right, Incredible.”
After crossing the finish line Bekele carried not only an Ethiopian flag around the track but also a sign announcing the approaching Ethiopian millennium. A celebration is planned Monday at the Ethiopian embassy in Osaka for both the millennium which begins on 12 September and for Bekele’s gold medal performance. In fact the Ethiopian ambassador to Japan squeezed into the mixed zone to congratulate Bekele on his victory.
World record attempt in Brussels
Hermens has confirmed that Bekele will race in the Brussels Golden League meeting on 14 September. Though he was reluctant to call it a World record attempt he did acknowledge that it was a ‘waste of time’ for Bekele to go to Brussels just to run 26:30. Later in the evening after finishing doping control the 25-year-old admitted he would attempt to beat his World 10,000m record of 26:17.53 on the same track he set it two years ago.
While most athletes arrived in Osaka with plenty of time to acclimatize to the weather conditions Bekele and Sihine flew in from Addis Ababa just two days before the 10,000m final.
“They come late because they think that if they are too long from altitude they lose too many (oxygen carrying) red blood cells,” Hermens explains. “It’s an important thing for them so there is no use to fight it.”
Hermens also revealed that Bekele has got over the grief he experienced at the loss of his fiance Alem Tachele two years ago. He has been socialising more. And he has big plans to build a sports centre just outside Addis.
Recently he acquired a piece of land on which he hopes to build a track and other facilities including a swimming pool. A meeting is scheduled in Brussels, the day after the Golden League meeting there, with construction experts to discuss the project.
Double in Beijing?
At the post event press conference Bekele was asked about a possible 5000m-10,000m double at the Beijing Olympics. He smiled a little.
“After Osaka my big goal is the Beijing Olympics,” Bekele reveals. “Now maybe I can try some World record. I wanted to win in Osaka, I am happy and I will celebrate. I am not sure about (the 5000m- 10,000m double in Beijing) I am not sure.”
“Three years ago I missed being double champion. If I can I would love to try to do that again at the next Olympics but I don’t think it’s necessary for me to decide at this point.”
After spending an hour in doping control Bekele left Nagai Stadium with an Ethiopian team official. Chatting with a reporter as he waited for a bus to take him to the team hotel he was clearly reveling in his success. And so he should. This was a hard fought victory which proved just how tough Kenenisa Bekele really is.
Human Rights Group Seeks Accounting of Ethiopian Food Aid
By Nick Wadhams, VOA
Wadhams report – (mp3) – Download 595k 
An Ethiopian human rights group is demanding that the United States and other international donors monitor the food and financial aid they give to Ethiopia for its impoverished Ogaden region. As Nick Wadhams reports from Nairobi, activists say the government has blocked food aid to the Ogaden as it tries to quash a local rebel group.
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee says Ethiopia’s government has sparked a humanitarian crisis in the Ogaden and is asking nations from around the world to contribute aid. But it says they must make sure the donations get to the people who need them most.
Last week, the United States announced it is providing nearly $19 million in food assistance for the Ogaden through the U.N. World Food Program. Some money also will help pay for health, nutrition, and livelihood programs.
Abdukadir Sulub Abdi is the international coordinator for the Ogaden Human Rights Committee. He says more than two million people are suffering from malnutrition because of the military clampdown.
“There is not independent agents or international NGOs who can be trusted for the distribution of the aid. So it is easy to divert and everyone knows that they divert aid,” said Abdi. “Many children have starved to death because of this military blockade and there is also a breakout of cholera and other diseases which are related to malnutrition.”
Ethiopian government officials deny they are blocking aid, but U.N. officials have privately complained in the past that the Ethiopian government was restricting their ability to deliver aid. Many aid groups working in the Ogaden have had to submit themselves to close monitoring by Ethiopian officials as well.
In July, Ethiopia expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross from the Ogaden region, and before that, the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government of widespread abuses as part of a crackdown on the Ogaden. It said Ethiopian troops had blocked food shipments, burned villages and killed innocent civilians as it pursues the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front.
The rebels advocate independence for southeastern Ethiopia. The desert region borders Somalia and is said to contain large petroleum reserves. The group accuses the government of discriminating against the region’s people, who are mostly Somali-speaking camel herders and nomads.
In April, the rebels attacked a Chinese oil facility in the Ogaden and reportedly killed 74 people. The rebels accused the Chinese of entering into an illegal contract with the Ethiopian government. In June, Prime Minister Meles announced he was launching a campaign to wipe out the rebels.
Last week, the rebel group said it welcomed U.N. plans to send a fact-finding mission to the Ogaden and asked that the team not limit itself to humanitarian issues. But U.N. officials said the mission that included staff from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the U.N. refugee agency, and others had already taken place.
Dance group brings Ethiopian culture to Utah
By Alicia Greenleigh
The Salt Lake Tribune
What do you know about Ethiopia? If you’re like most people, it’s probably not much. But the Mesgana Dance Group wants to change that. Mesgana, which means gratitude in Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, is made up of 11 girls, ages 7 to 13, who are educating people across America about their culture through song and dance. The group will give three performances in northern Utah this week.
“Most kids [in Ethiopia] know traditional songs and dances because their parents taught them. It’s something they do throughout generations,” said Murray resident Norm Perdue, founder of the Utah-based Children of Ethiopia Education Fund.
COEEF, a non-profit organization, was started in 2001 by Perdue and his wife Ruthann after they traveled to Addis Ababa, the country’s capital, with some family friends. It was then that the Perdues sponsored their first child, Kidist Bunde, when they heard her grandmother could no longer afford to send her to school. Since then, COEEF has paid tuition for more than 800 girls to attend private schools.
“We decided to only sponsor girls because they don’t have the same opportunities as boys to go to school,” Perdue said. “Most of the time, if a family has a boy, he becomes the priority because they think he’ll become the breadwinner. And so, girls usually have to drop out in elementary [school].”
Ruthann, a registered nurse, both recently retired to work full time for COEEF. The couple travel to Ethiopia every three or four months. And though the program has become successful in providing girls with a means to an education, the Perdues formed the Mesgana Dance Group two years ago in the hope that it would expand and grow their efforts.
“We held tryouts [for girls in the program], choose 11 and then they started to train for eight hours a week since December, learning dances from different regions of Ethiopia,” Norm Perdue said.
Last year, the Perdues took a small group of girls in the troupe on an American tour during their summer vacation. This summer, an expanded group will visit 17 cities. The troupe arrived in Utah on Tuesday and spent the next day sightseeing, swimming and enjoying a barbecue at a donor’s house in Riverton.
Meskerem Tadesse, 15, is one of the program’s success stories. She consistently places among the top three in her classes, speaks five languages fluently, and recently received a full scholarship to Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant.
“At first I couldn’t believe I could go to school and not have to work,” Meskerem said. “Back home I woke up at 4 a.m. to finish my homework, and then I cleaned the house, cooked breakfast, got my [younger] cousins ready and then went to school.” Meskerem’s favorite subject is biology and she hopes to become a doctor.
Another dancer, Bethlehem Efirem, 11, has been in the program for two years and wants to become a flight attendant.
“I like Keffa [a dance style] best,” said Bethelhem, who visited California during the troupe’s tour last year. “I love Disneyland. Mickey is my favorite and Splash Mountain.”
While the girls obviously love touring, the Perdues stress that the dancing and the tour is secondary to COEEF’s main goal of educating girls.
“Education is the outlet for a better life for these girls,” Norm Perdue said. “So our main focus is and always will be the girls’ education.”
The Mesgana Dance Group will perform Wednesday at 7 p.m. the Murray Park Amphitheater, 296 E. Murray Park Lane, Salt Lake City; Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Capitol Theater, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City; and Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre, 328 Main Street, Park City. Tickets range from $10 to $20. For details, visit www.mesgana.com. Sponsoring one year of schooling for one girl is $200; sponsorships that include medical care and personal assistance for the children’s families are also available. For more information, visit www.coeef.org.