LILONGWE, MALAWI – Malawi police in the central Dedza district bordering Mozambique on Thursday intercepted 148 Ethiopian refugees who were on their way to South Africa, using Mozambique and eventually Zimbabwe as transit points, APA has learnt here.
Police spokesperson Franklin Gausi said the refugees fled from Dzaleka Refugee Camp, 150 km north of the district, during the weekend and were hiding in Linthipe Hills waiting to cross the borders using uncharted routes.
“We intercepted them after villagers tipped the police that strange people are hiding in the hills,” he said.
Gausi said the refugees were complaining that they fled the camp due to lack of proper shelter and inadequate food.
The refugees have since been sent back to Dzaleka camp to wait for proper repatriation.
Source: APA
‘Roots Theater’ gives voice to the women of the epic flight.
By Danna Harman, The Christian Science Monitor
Beit Shean, Israel – She spent the first few days weaving in and out of the crowd, ducking here, hiding there. By the time her parents, back home in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, realized their 12-year-old-daughter had joined the caravan of Jews leaving for Israel, she was far away in the Sudanese desert.
Hava Almu spent 12 days and nights crossing Sudan on foot, in extreme conditions, and a year in a squalid refugee camp outside Khartoum, before she was airlifted to a new life in Israel.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s close to 100,000 Ethiopian Jews were brought here as part of major operations – code-named “Moses” and “Solomon” – in line with Israel’s law of return which guarantees citizenship for all Jews. Their immigration is often depicted as a fulfillment of the biblical prophecy of gathering all Jews to Zion, and their arrival was accompanied by excitement and celebration. But their journey has not been simple.
Over 4,000 of them died en route. And many of these immigrants, who came from remote, poor villages, have since struggled to adapt to the industrialized, multiethnic society that adopted them.
Even today, 23 years later, in her Beit Shean home, where she and her policeman husband are raising a brood of Hebrew-blabbering children, the anxieties of that journey out of Africa, the years of longing for her family, and the difficulties of taking first steps in Israel haunt Ms. Almu.
They haunt her, but she’d never spoken of them – until the day six years ago that Talia Argaman came along and opened a free women’s drama class at the local community center. “In our community you keep things in the belly,” Almu had explained patiently to Ms. Argaman, a newly minted community social worker from a nearby kibbutz in the Jordan Valley.
But that was then.
Now, the little drama club has turned into a unique amateur Ethiopian women’s theater troupe – the “Roots Theater” — that performs a play about that journey to Israel and the absorption process at small venues around the country. It gives audiences a rare peek into the often closed world of the Ethiopian community here and has also given the women of the troupe an improved sense of self.
“I want people to come out of the play knowing that we made real efforts to come here,” says Almu today, fixing her rhinestone-decorated baseball cap and kicking off her strappy gold sandals. “Most Israelis don’t understand this. It’s not like we came here because we had nothing in Ethiopia and it’s not like we were just airlifted out and that’s that.”
“We are often portrayed as people who were so poor and gentle that we would have gone anywhere. But it’s not true. We did this because we yearned for this country our whole lives and because we belong here in the land of our forefathers.”
• • •
This summer, the Israeli government announced it was ending large-scale immigration from Ethiopia and that all further requests would be considered case by case. This policy leaves an estimated 8,500 so-called Falash Mura – Ethiopians who claim Jewish roots, the majority of whom have family in Israel – still clamoring for their collective right to immigrate.
The decision and the subsequent media coverage of the Falash Mura’s demands to be brought to Israel have reignited a sober public discussion here of this immigrant group and their complex integration.
Almost 65 percent of the community are on some kind of welfare assistance, according to a June report of the State Comptroller’s Office, And, while Ethiopians make up only 1.5 percent of the population, 11 percent of those in battered women’s shelters are Ethiopian. Last year, five of the 16 women murdered in domestic disputes were Ethiopian immigrants. Drug and alcohol problems among these immigrants are growing, too.
“Israeli society hears these stories but still doesn’t fully understand what is behind it,” says Lea Kacen, a professor of social work at Ben Gurion University in the Negev who has done extensive work on the Ethiopian community. “These immigrants went through a real trauma on their way here. They were robbed and raped and killed in the Sudan – and this trauma has affected not only the first generation but the children too.”
And moreover, she continues, few immigrant groups to Israel have had to make such a wrenching adjustment or had to deal with the collapse of so many of their traditional family and community structures. “They went from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. This is a story we know, but don’t give enough weight to.”
• • •
Argaman, who grew up going to the theater and did some acting herself, always believed in the power of performance to convey a story. So, it was only natural that, when it was suggested she run a class for new Ethiopian immigrants in a development town near her kibbutz, she immediately put up a sign-up sheet for a drama club.
It was not all smooth sailing. Twenty women signed up – but then none, actually, showed up. “No matter what time I called class for, no one would arrive until an hour or two later,” recalls Argaman. “I realized that I could not come in and impose my way of doing things. I had to let things flow according to their pace.”
Doing things their way included accepting that time – and, significantly, being on time – had a different urgency than it does in Israeli society. Meanwhile ,over half the group soon dropped out after their husbands protested. Argaman’s friends all wondered why she kept at it.
But, while most other initiatives started by veteran Israelis at the community center did fold after a month or two, Argaman, a tough-talking, red-haired, divorced mother of two, is not the giving-up sort.
“We come in with good energy but then it gets sapped. The cultural codes are so different and things fall apart,” she admits. “But I believed something special would come out of it if I kept going. And I was right.”
Argaman sat with each of the women, heard her story, took notes and, sitting home at night in her house at the kibbutz, wove their personal stories into one longer ensemble piece about that historic journey to Israel.
In the piece, one woman tells of her baby brother dying in her arms in the desert. An aunt stuffed a blanket in her mouth, she recalls, so she would not cry out and risk being found by Sudanese soldiers. Another woman relays how the community would all cook on the sabbath, despite the Jewish law prohibiting it, just so the other refugees in the camps would not suspect they were different.
There are tales of bandits and rapists and elderly left behind. But here are also stories of success and accomplishments, big and small. A young girl, toward the end of the play, stands up an speaks about making her first Israeli friend in school.
The women all learned their lines slowly – through repetition, as most of the performers are illiterate – and the play evolved. The result, Argaman judged, was worthy of an audience.
“I told them we would put on a real show, with lighting and sound system and everything – but they did not believe me. They just thought, ‘Here is another white person with promises.’ They were not very trusting, and it was hard.”
Almu, who has taken on a lead role in the production, and today dreams of also having her own TV talk show someday, blushes. “True,” she admits. “But then things changed. We began to feel like we were capable of doing something – of standing and talking in front of a crowd. Talia recognized we had strengths we did not know of.”
“These are not actresses; they all came out of the kitchen and none have any formal education,” says Argaman. “But we convey an important message with the play, which is, ‘Look, we have something to say, too. We have voices and stories too … and we are part of this country too.’ ”
Gelila Bekele is a model, humanitarian, and social activist. Most people recognize this Ethiopian beauty from seeing her in popular advertisements for Pantene and Colgate, but many people have no idea that there is much more behind this stunning woman that makes her even more intriguing. Gelila was born in an impoverished country that is ruled by a brutal dictatorship where millions of people don’t have access to the most basic human needs like food and water.
With the success and celebrity afforded to her through her work as a recognizable model, Gelila devotes much of her time to aiding people around the world through her charity involvement with groups that help those living in third world nations attain fundamental natural resources like water. One organization that she is passionate about is simply called: Charity: Water.
Charity: Water is a non-profit organization founded by Scott Harris in New York City in 2006 that brings clean and safe drinking water to impoverished communities in Africa, India, and South America. When asked what inspired her to get involved with the organization she declared, “I have encountered many things and through time I have learned human beings are not programmed to endure a predestined life.”
Through benefits, fund-raisers and events, Charity: Water has attracted the attention of countless people, and celebrities and has raised over $3 million dollars in 18 months and has funded over 600 water projects.
Some of the other charities Gelila is involved with include Kageno, Keep a Child Alive and Darfur Action Network.
Source: FashionQandA.com
Lancaster Guardian
His job has taken him all over the world. And Captain Paul Norley’s next destination is to Africa to share his love of music.
The director of music at the Band of the King’s Division has been chosen to lead a team of British Army musicians to help Ethiopia’s Woyanne military band prepare for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a military drum performance. [There is no Ethiopian army in Ethiopia currently. It is a gang of murderers protecting the private interests of the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne)].
Capt Norley, 42, who lives in Freckleton, near Preston, has 26 years experience as an Army musician, serving, playing and conducting at venues across the world.
He has been director of music of the Band of the King’s Division, the Army’s only full-time band in the North West, based in Weeton, near Preston, since April.
He said: “We do not really know what we are going to find out there.
“We will be taking over 50 pieces of music with us which we will be able to adapt for them.”
By Peter MacLean
Allana Resources Inc. of Toronto, Canada, has acquired three mineral concessions in Ethiopia’s northeastern Danakil depression totalling approximately 150 square kilometres. The project area is approximately 100 kilometres from the Red Sea coast and 600 km via good roads from the deepwater port of Djibouti. The potash mineralization in the Danakil depression is well known with mining having been carried out intermittently from the early 1900s. Mining companies currently working in the basin include BHP Billiton and Sainik Coal Mining, a leading Indian-based coal mining company, the latter of which is planning to initiate mining at the Musley deposit.
Allana and the property vendors have completed National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical reports for the three concessions. These studies were carried out by Ercosplan Ingenieurgesellschaft and North Rim Exploration Ltd., internationally recognized experts in potash exploration. The qualified persons for the reports are Dr. Henry Rauche and Dr. Sebastiaan van der Klauw of Ercosplan, and Stephen P. Halabura, PGeo, of North Rim Exploration. Modern exploration on the property has been limited; however extensive historical exploration by the Ralph M. Parsons Company provides a valuable database to target further drilling and exploration studies. Parsons has completed over 300 exploration drill holes on the project. Drill log data, with analyses, were acquired from the Geological Survey of Ethiopia and have been compiled into a project database. Excellent support and advice were provided by staff from the Geological Survey of Ethiopia through the entire compilation and review process.
Highlights from the technical report outline several significant features of these properties, the following:
* An inferred mineral resource of 105.2 million tons of potash mineralization (sylvite and kainite) with a composite grade of 20.8 per cent KCl;
* Near-surface potash mineralization (within 50 metres of surface for the Musley deposit);
* Potential for solution or open-pit mining;
* Unique environment provides potential to use low-cost geothermal and solar power. Saline brines in a nearby thermal spring returned a superheated temperature of 125 C. Days are often hot and clear to aid use of solar evaporation of brines or to use solar power;
* Downhole radiometric logs from two holes, the closest of which is located approximately five kilometres west of the nearest hole on the Musley deposit, reportedly indicate 45 metres of K mineralization in holes 5 and 7 at a depth 680 metres and another potential zone at 930 metres. These two holes demonstrate significant potential to expand the inferred potash resource on Allana concessions;
* Previous work indicates potential for a deeper horizon of potash mineralization which has only been intersected by the occasional hole;
* MOP (muriate of potash) and SOP production is feasible.
Allana’s concessions cover part of the previously defined Musley potash deposit located on the edge of a 1,000-square-kilometre, salt-filled topographic low that lies along northern Ethiopia’s portion of the East African rift. Previous drilling by Parsons from 1958 to 1967 resulted in the discovery and partial delineation of the Musley deposit which was reported to contain a resource of 171.27 million tons grading 32.48 per cent KCl (Ercosplan). This resource estimate is historical in nature and does not comply with National Instrument 43-101. This estimate should not be relied upon. The smaller Crescent deposit was the initial site of exploration activity by Parsons in the 1950s; however its small size, approximately 10 million tons of secondary carnallite, prompted Parsons to focus on the Musley deposit. The majority of the historical resource at the Musley deposit is located on ground held by Sainik with portions of the resource extending onto the Allana concessions.
Previous work has identified one potash-bearing horizon, designated the Houston formation, which is characterized by three members (sylvinite, intermediate and kainitite members), that extends onto the Allana concessions. The intermediate member lies between the sylvinite and kainitite members, is commonly thick, and contains carnallite mineralization. In the Houston formation, potash mineralization varies from seven to 48 metres in width and has been traced for approximately 10 km along strike and Allana expects that it extends to the southern part of the property. The evaporate basin extends onto the Allana concessions and comprises an area of approximately 150 square kilometres. This portion of the basin has the potential to host all three potash-bearing horizons. This potential is supported by the indicated K mineralization in the two deep holes located approximately five kilometres from the Musley deposit.
Preliminary modelling of 16 historical drill holes on the Allana concessions and 22 nearby drill holes (Ercosplan technical report, July 13, 2008) indicates an inferred mineral resource of 31.3 million tons grading 25.4 per cent KCl from the sylvinite member and 73.9 million tons grading 61.7 per cent kainite from the kainitite member (18.8-per-cent KCl equivalent). In the resource area, the average width of the sylvinite member is 2.78 metres and the kainitite member is typically thicker averaging 5.79 metres. The resource is open in several directions and down dip with much of the Allana ground having seen little to no exploration.
The pertinent parametres used by Ercosplan in its resource calculation are as follows:
* Cut-off grade of 15 per cent KCl and a minimum width of two metres in the sylvinite member;
* Cut-off grade of 30 per cent kainite and a minimum width of three metres in the kainitite member;
* An area of influence surrounding each drill hole of a maximum of 750 metres;
* A specific gravity of 2.2 grams per cubic centimetre;
* Dr. Rauche and Dr. van der Klauw of Ercosplan, and Mr. Halabura, PGeo, of North Rim Exploration, all of whom are independent of Allana, prepared the resource estimate;
* The resource estimate was prepared in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining definition standards on mineral resources and mineral reserves adopted by the CIM council.
Allana intends to immediately commence further exploration work on the property. Allana’s evaluation of the property will comprise mapping, initial drill holes to verify the grade of the members of the potash-bearing horizon, downhole seismic to document the geophysical characteristics of the potash-bearing mineralization, and 2-D seismic lines to trace the target horizon, if present, to the south and eastern portions of the concessions. Should this first phase program demonstrate success then additional wide-spaced drilling will be carried out to document the grades and widths of the prospective potash-bearing horizon(s).
Allana has agreed to acquire the properties from three private companies in consideration for a total of $2.5-million in cash payments over three years and the issuance of four million shares. The property will also be subject to a 3-per-cent net smelter return, of which 50 per cent can be purchased for $5-million. The completion of the acquisition is subject to the receipt of all required regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Potash prices have been very strong in the last few years rising from approximately $100 to over $1,000 per ton of KCl this year. There has been strong and steady KCl production growth since the end of World War II. Two economic crises, 1973 and 1981, followed by 1980s recession have restrained production. The global economic growth of the 1990s, a rapidly growing population and significant increases in agricultural requirements, particularly in emerging developing nations, are forcing industrial production to meet the rising potash demand. As a result, prices are forecast to remain very strong.
________________
Peter J. MacLean, PhD, PGeo, Allana’s vice-president of exploration
