The Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) leaders and members held a protest rally in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa demanding the release of their leader Wzr. Birtukan Mideksa.

The demonstration took place in the form of a candle light vigil and listening to music inside the party’s office. [This is not a joke. It is true.]

It has now been 1 month since UDJ chairperson was thrown in jail for refusing to retract a statement about pardon and apology.

Read more in Amharic about today’s candle light vigil as reported in Amharic by EthiopiaZare.com:

‘የሻማ መብራት ስነሥርዓቱ የተሳካ ነበር’ ዶ/ር ኃይሉ አርኣያ

Ethiopia Zare (ረቡዕ ጥር 20 ቀን 2001 ዓ.ም. January 28, 2009)፦ የአንድነት ፓርቲ ሥራ አስፈጻሚ አባላት፣ የብሔራዊ ምክር ቤት አባላትና የሀገር ውስጥና የውጭ ሀገር ጋዜጠኞች የተገኙበት ወ/ት ብርቱካን ሚደቅሳ ለእስር የተዳረገችበትን አንደኛ ወር በማሰብ በፓርቲው ጽ/ት ቤት የሻማና የጧፍ ማብራት ስነሥርዓት ተካሄደ።

በተያያዘ አንድነት ፓርቲ በአዲስ አበባ የብርቱካንን እስር በመቃወም የሚጠራውን ሰልፍ አስመልክቶ የተጠየቁት ዶ/ር ኃይሉ አርኣያ ሥራ አስፈጻሚው እየተወያየበት ያለ ጉዳይ መሆኑን ገልጸዋል።

By Peter Clothier | Huffington Post

It is not often, these days, that I walk into an exhibition space and feel those familiar symptoms–the heart beating harder, faster, the head spinning with awe, the blood running through the veins–by which I recognize that I’m in the presence of genius. And I don’t mean just that intellectual brilliance we too often associate with the word in its casual use, but something closer to its profounder meaning, a transcendent connection between humanity and what I can only describe with the word “spirit.” It’s an expression of greatness, of the awesome potential of the imagination, of the boundless, passionate creativity that can spring from a single, singular human mind.

It’s this complex of feelings that overwhelmed me as I stepped across the threshold and into that space of the Santa Monica Museum of Art that is now devoted to the work of the Ethiopian artist Elias Simé, in a show called “Eye of the Needle, Eye of the Heart,” co-curated by the multi-disciplinary arts impresario Peter Sellars and the noted Ethiopian curator and anthropologist Meskerem Assegued. If I can help you step into that space yourself, you’ll be able to understand what I mean by “boundless creativity…”

Come with me, then. Your eye will likely be attracted, first, by the hundreds of goatskins, stuffed with straw and decorated with bright, totemic markings, laid out on the floor and arranged in groups that suggest love in all of its myriad forms, whether intimate, sexual even, between two beings, or family love, parents with children, or community groupings whose bond is love of a different, more inclusive kind. It will move on, then, to an arrangement of regal thrones at the center of the gallery floor, each constructed of sensuously carved wood, animal horns, skins and shells, their presence evoking the ritual of kingship, the authority of the seated ruler.

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And thence to the walls, adorned with “paintings” created out of exquisitely crafted thread and buttons, quasi abstract, at once primitive in their magic and intensely contemporary in aesthetic sophistication; and to three-dimensional wall constructions, created from both the detritus of the Addis Ababa city streets and the common materials found in its market stalls.

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Elias Simé is something more than an artist, I’d say, from looking at his work. He’s a pack rat, a teacher, a guru, a magician, a medicine man, a community organizer, an orchestrator of the reality that surrounds him where he lives. You know how the most mundane of objects can be conjured by such a person into something so heavily invested with the combined power of labor and craft, vision and intention that it assumes the burning quality of a religious icon, a talisman? To get the full impact of Simé’s work, you need to multiply that effect by the thousands.

This is an artist who wastes nothing, works with anything and everything, recycles what others disregard or throw away and invests it with dignity and meaning. From what I read in the accompanying brochure, community is an essential part of his work: family and friends join with him in the creation of his art, and he spreads small wealth and creativity amongst the local children by rewarding them for bringing him the results of their scavenging. He is, in a real and pragmatic sense, a social activist.

Imagine this: the wall of a gallery piled high, at its foot, with bales of straw, on which lie, higgledy-piggledy, hundreds of small, roughly molded individual figures of monkeys and frogs, interspersed, improbably, with the square, stolid shapes of miniature television sets, each one hand-formed out of an earthy mix of mud and straw.

You tell me what this vision “means.” Something about the clash of cultures? The lost, mysterious connection between the “primitive” and the “sophisticated”? Earth and sky? Between the animate and the inanimate, nature and artifact? All this and more, wherever your mind can wander with it. For me, though, it’s enough to stand there in sheer wonder, with that beating heart, and marvel at the way in which the mind and body simply say, Yes! This is what it is, and could be nothing other. That, friends, quite simply, is the impact of art at its greatest: a recognition, undeniable and true.

Simé is also an architect and constructivist. The exhibition includes a video documentation about the house he is building in Addis Ababa–again, mostly out of mud and straw, but also stone, wood, plant material.

It is part Antonio Gaudi, the Barcelona eccentric, part Frank Gehry visionary in its sheer playful inventiveness of form and its startling diversity of materials. It is part Simon Rodia, of Watts Towers fame, part Grandma Prisbrey, who built a village out of discarded bottles; and it shares with all self-taught artists an audacious, sometimes bizarre originality untrammeled by conventional rules and expectations.

What we sense above all in Simé’s work is the skill and dexterity of the human hand, whose presence is evident everywhere, and its coordination with the human heart. We cannot doubt that all this is a “labor of love,” in the truest meaning of that trite expression, nor that it embodies a dedication to the finest qualities of the human spirit: love, labor, yes; and home and hearth, family, connection. It is “organic” in the same sense that the entire body of this artist’s work is organic–in its intimate, sensual connection with nature, its indivisibility, its living, breathing, constantly expanding growth, its continuity with everything that surrounds it. It is a beautiful expression of that “oneness” that most of us glimpse only in moments of rare privilege in our lives, but in which this artist seems to dwell.

I know, I know, I rave. I do not believe, however, that I am overstating the case for this truly remarkable, visionary, profoundly human work. Readers who live anywhere within visiting range should not pass up on the opportunity to see this exhibition. It’s an opportunity of a kind that will rarely come again.

(Peter Clothier is an internationally-known novelist, art critic, and blogger.)

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The fake patriarch of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Ato GebreMedhin (formerly Aba Paulos), for the first time since he was appointed by Meles Zenawi as the puppet head of the Church, spoke out against the Woyanne dictatorship through his synod.

The legitimate patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Abune Merkorios, is currently in exile.

Aba GebreMedhin’s synod on Saturday denounced Woyanne minister of Federal Affairs, Ato Abay Tsehay, who is also a member of the Woyanne politburo, for falsely accusing the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of promoting religious extremism.

More details by Awramba Times reporter (in Amharic):

‹የአገሪቱን ህልውና የሚፈታተን ስጋት ተደቅኗል› – ሲኖዶስ
መንግስትና የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ቤተክርስቲያን ተወዛገቡ

የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋህዶ ቤተክርስቲያን በምንም አይነት የጥፋት መንገድ ላይ ባልተገኘችበት ሁኔታ ቤተክርስትያኒቷንና ተከታዮቿን የሚጎዳ መግለጫ በመንግስት መሰጠቱ እንዳሳዘናት ገለጸች፡፡

በጉዳዩ ላይ ያነጋገርናቸው አስተያየት ሰጪዎች እንዳሉት የኢትዮጵያ ህዝብ በረጅም ጊዜ ታሪኩ ጎሳ ሀይማኖት ሳይል ተቻችሎ የኖረውን ዛሬ ዘመን አመጣሽ ከፋፋዮች ጥላቻና ልዩነትን እየሰበኩ ወደ እልቂት እንዲያመራ እያደረጉት ነው ብለዋል፡፡

Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to bring something resembling stability to Africa’s Horn.

By Scott Johnson | NEWSWEEK

As a state, Somalia has racked up more failures than any other on the planet. So said Susan Rice, soon to be Barack Obama’s United Nations ambassador, in a Brookings Institution report she coauthored last year. Since then, Somalia’s troubles have only worsened: 1.3 million internally displaced people roam the country scavenging for food; the president quit last month; and hard-line Islamist militias, having already taken control of Somalia’s south and central regions, now stand poised to tighten their grip on the capital, Mogadishu. Some 10,000 innocent civilians have been killed since January 2007, pirates are terrorizing the coasts, and last month Somalia entered its 19th year without a functioning government. In many ways, Somalia is hardly a state at all.

But as a foreign-policy initiative, Somalia’s problems offer Obama a unique chance to sketch a bold path forward in the region. After the Bush administration backed the Ethiopian invasion in 2006, helping to overthrow the moderate Islamic Courts Union, Somalia descended into war, and the Bush policy radicalized an ever-larger portion of the population. But Obama, whose world view embraces the idea of talking to one’s enemies, could shift course on this policy failure and increase stability by re-engaging with the Islamists, and in particular with the young fighters who make up the ranks of al-Shabab, the Islamists who have been gaining strength over the last two years and continue to drag Somalia further into chaos.

The window of opportunity for Obama is small and fragile. But two things have happened in Somalia that could make the task easier. First, the hated Ethiopian occupation of Somalia that fueled the growth of al-Shabab is over. Second, Abdullah Yusuf resigned in December as president, paving the way for more moderate and inclusive figures to have greater say. Still, Obama’s policy prescriptions would have to be specific, but not overstated. He could temporarily suspend U.S military C-130 flights over Somalia, now a near-constant presence, thereby sending a message that a future policy will not have as its central piece a military component that alienates the very people America needs to bring to the table. Obama could also consider suspending al-Shabab from the terror list temporarily to prove that, as he said in his inaugural speech, America will hold out its hand if its enemies “unclench their fists.” A third path would be to open back-channel negotiations with as many hard-line factions as necessary to bring them into talks. Key to any strategy would be a quiet outreach effort to Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, considered the father of Somalia’s Islamist movement and likely sufficiently powerful to bring enough radicals to heel to make any diplomacy worthwhile. Finally, as Rice hinted in her confirmation hearings, America needs to begin to fashion a regional approach that would address the longstanding border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea as part of any move to end Somalia’s isolation.
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It won’t be easy. Al-Shabab poses urgent security concerns to the United States and many of Somalia’s neighbors. Some of the group’s hard-line leaders have connections to Al Qaeda. More worryingly, Somalia has started to attract American jihadists, including several from Minnesota who traveled there recently to fight. An unknown number may still be training in Shabab training camps in the south, and it’s unclear whether their long-term goals lie in Somalia or back in Minnesota. Yet Obama, already beset by doubts about his Muslim heritage, isn’t likely to make conciliatory talks with Islamists in Africa his first move. “He would be walking into a trap if he did anything that could lead to charges of being soft on terror,” says Sally Healy, a Somalia expert at Chatham House.

But the potential rewards of such a strategy are tantalizing. The Bush administration made a policy out of talking to its enemies in Iraq, including many who had killed American soldiers, and as a result Iraq is calmer and more stable. With two wars already on his plate, Obama would do well to quell a rising storm in Africa’s Horn, and the sooner the radicals are tamed, the less likely it is that they’ll continue to splinter into the kinds of factions that could eventually return Somalia to the days when warlords ruled the streets. The alternative to engagement, says Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group’s Somalia team, is that “by the end of the year, we could be talking about over 100 armed groups in Somalia.” A further descent into warlordism is likely only to help the spread of radical Islam in the region. So while few doubt that a strategy of engaging with the Islamists could be risky, for Somalia and the rest of the Horn the riskiest option may also be the best.

(With Jason McLure in Addis Ababa)