Workers of the famous St. George Brewery in Ethiopia complain about unfair treatment by the management and head of their own labor union. The following report is sent to ER by Getabicha Anteneh from Addis Ababa.
Heavy explosions have rattled the Somali capital, Mogadishu, leaving dozens of Ethiopian Woyanne troops dead and many others injured.
The blasts hit north Mogadishu’s Towfikh district, which drew heavy gunfire from Ethiopian Woyanne troops and anti-government fighters, killing dozens of Ethiopians Woyannes, and injuring many others, Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported on Monday.
Eye witnesses say some 13 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers are still lying dead on the streets, while 14 other soldiers have been reported as missing.
Meanwhile in Suuq Baced area in northern Mogadishu, three other Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers were killed by Bazooka rockets as the fighting continued.
Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdi Rahim Isse Addow told our correspondent that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) is responsible for the attacks.
The streets of Mogadishu are the scene of daily clashes between opposition forces and Somali government forces, backed by Ethiopian Woyanne troops.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Woyanne dictator Meles Zenawi said on Thursday that Ethiopian Woyanne troops were to leave Somalia and withdraw their support for the country’s interim government.
Many in Washington have described Russia’s attack on Georgia as a turning point in international affairs. Pundits thunder that we are returning to an age of great-power conflicts. Globalization and integration have been exposed as shams. Russia is playing this new Great Game with ruthless brilliance and we—the United States and Europe—are foundering. As events unfold, however, almost all of this instant analysis will prove sensationalist, misguided and incorrect. It’s certainly true that today’s world is characterized by the emergence of new powers like China, Russia and India (a phenomenon I have termed “the rise of the rest”). This is not a contradiction of globalization but a consequence of it. Economic growth is producing new centers of influence. And that’s leading to greater national pride, confidence and assertiveness. But there are also powerful new countervailing forces—yes, of globalization and integration—that are working to mitigate nationalism and unilateralism.
The attack on Georgia will go down not as the dawn of a new era of Russian power but as a major strategic blunder. Look at what has happened. Russia has scared its neighboring states witless, driving them firmly into the arms of the West. For almost two years, Poland had been dragging its feet on the American proposal to deploy missile interceptors in that country as part of a continent wide shield (a few months ago public support for the shield varied between 15 and 25 percent). Within days of the Russian attack, Warsaw agreed to the deployment. Ukraine had long been divided on whether to have closer ties to the West. A few years ago, 60 percent of the country wanted some kind of federation with Russia instead. Now the Kiev government has unhesitatingly asked for a path to NATO membership.
Vladimir Putin has done more for transatlantic unity than a President Barack Obama ever could. The United States and Europe are now in greater strategic agreement than at any point in the last two decades. Even the autocracies in the Caucasus have reacted negatively to the attack, refusing to endorse Russia’s actions and legitimize the new facts on the ground. China has refused its support. And what did Russia get for all this? Seventy thousand South Ossetians.
Several diplomats and commentators have compared the attack on Georgia to the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. I think a more telling historical parallel might prove to be the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Then, as now, a Kremlin elite drunk on high oil prices foolishly overreached and triggered a countervailing reaction in the region and across the world.
The truth is, we’re not in the 19th century, where the Russian intervention would have been standard operating procedure for a great power. In fact, only 50 years ago Britain and France clung to their colonies—in Algeria, Vietnam, Kenya, Cyprus—with much greater determination and violence than has Moscow. By contrast, this is the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union that Russia has sent troops into a neighboring country (a country that it had ruled since 1801). Its actions are deplorable but the reaction to them —worldwide—is a sign of how much the rules have changed. President George W. Bush seemed to understand this when he spoke of Russia’s behavior as being unacceptable “in the 21st century.”
Diplomats are now searching for ways to make Moscow pay some price for its actions, to weaken its standing in international bodies, suspend some agreements, break some joint enterprises. These are all worth looking into but it’s also worth noting that we only have this leverage with the Russians because we have spent the last two decades building up ties with them. In fact, the real challenge we face in dealing with Moscow is that we have too few such ties and, as a result, too little leverage.
The problem is not that Russia has been integrated into a world order that has failed to deter it, but rather that the country remains largely unintegrated—and thus feels it has little to lose by breaking the rules. Some of Moscow’s isolation may have been caused by Western foreign policy—certainly that is the Russian perception—but more has to do with oil. As the price of oil and other natural resources has risen over the past decade, Russia has become more dysfunctional, corrupt, dictatorial and assertive. And oil wealth everywhere—from Venezuela to Iran to Russia—breeds independence from and indifference to international norms, markets and rules.
The single best strategy for bringing Russia in line with the civilized world would be to dramatically lower oil prices, which would force the country to integrate or stagnate. Pending that, we should shore up Georgia and assist countries like Poland and Ukraine. At the same time we should stay engaged with the Russians so that we continue to work on issues of common concern—like nuclear proliferation—but also to develop leverage with them. A strategy that further isolates Moscow would only reduce the levers that we have to affect its behavior.
Imagine if we had kicked Russia out of the G8 and broken most ties with Moscow—as the Republican nominee, John McCain, and many neoconservatives have long wanted to do. Then, when the Russians attacked Georgia, we would have had only two options—appeasement or war.
Opposition fighters in Somalia appear to have made a major comeback after being ousted by Somali government troops backed up by Ethiopian Woyanne forces last year.
The fighters and remnants of the Islamic Courts Union first took the key port city of Kismayo and now they say they are making headway across southern Somalia, slowly wresting back from the government control of towns such as Dhoble, near the Kenyan border.
But a Somali government adviser says the opposition is exaggerating the extent of its alleged comeback.
“I think they are less powerful than they were before. But of course they always re-group in areas that are very simple for them to take over,” Yusuf Al Azhari told Al Jazeera.
Some Kismayo residents say they are optimistic the lawlessness there will end, just a week after opposition fighters seized the area from clan militias, but others are wary.
“The last time the Islamic fighters controlled the city, we saw some violations… We urge them not to repeat that again,” one elder in Kismayo told Al Jazeera.
Other residents have warned the fighters against imposing a strict Islamic code and to focus instead on achieving peace.
But many southern citizens appear to be expecting the opposition fighters to fulfil their promises of respecting tribal divisions in order to prevent pitfalls of the past.
Kenenisa Bekele, who completed a 5,000m and 10,000m double in Beijing, produced a storming final lap of his 3,000m race to win in a world-leading time and stadium record at the Aviva British Grand Prix in Gateshead on Sunday.
While almost everyone else in Gateshead suffered the inevitable post-Olympic hangover, Bekele set this year’s best time for the 3,000 metres – 7min 31.95sec. This came on the back of doing the same for the 5,000 metres in Zurich on Friday. He has spent the past week celebrating, sitting on planes for 18 hours and setting unfathomable times.
It could have been termed a tale of two champions as the smog of Beijing gave way to the rain of Gateshead. There was Christine Ohuruogu, a woman whose name will forever come with a comma, and Kenenisa Bekele, a foot smaller than Usain Bolt but still able to rub shoulders with him. Both may have felt that they had reasons to be aggrieved as they turned up for the Aviva British Grand Prix.
Ohuruogu has made tentative noises about being the poster girl for 2012, but others continue to manacle her to her past. Just as she knew it would, winning gold in Beijing exhumed all the old arguments and cynicism. The pros and cons have been well aired, but it is worth remembering that, as Dave Collins departs, the outgoing UK Athletics performance director said two years ago that 70 British athletes were on missed tests. In addition, Pierre Weiss, the IAAF general secretary, admitted last September that as many as 1,000 people had missed tests within the previous year. The statistics do not excuse Ohuruogu, but they do lend her some context.
The result, however, is that Ohuruogu has not received the ticker-tape parade or open-top bus trip that others have. She ran the fastest time in the world this year to win the Olympic 400 metres, but is still a partial heroine in some eyes. Yesterday, the fans stuck around in torrential rain to watch her homecoming. In typical Ohuruogu style, she won at a canter, the modest time of 51.27sec underlining her remarks that she trains for championships and not one-off meetings. Mary Wineberg, of the United States, was second, with Nicola Sanders third. Only Kelly Sotherton, the moonlighting heptathlete, had reason to be cheered by her time, 52.19sec representing a personal best.
“It’s not about silencing people, it’s about doing the best I could,” Ohuruogu said. “I’m so thankful to the British public for their support and I wanted to come out to say thank you.”
Related Links
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If all of Britain steadfastly refuses to acknowledge Ohuruogu’s feats, Ethiopia takes the opposite view on Bekele. They call him “the Lion” at home, but he does not dance, wear golden boots or have chicken nuggets for his pre-race meal. So the Olympics belonged to Usain Bolt, even though Bekele had every right to put in a counterclaim after winning the 5,000 and 10,000 metres double.
It was a feat that put him in an elite band, including Miruts Yifter, his compatriot, but Bekele, albeit a legend in the making in athletics, is far from the household name that Bolt has become in the space of a fortnight. He says that being overshadowed by the Jamaican sprinter does not bother him, but that is a lingering injustice because his story is every bit as colourful.
While Jamaica awaits Bolt’s return and a never-ending knees-up, Bekele has already been back to Addis Ababa, where a million people turned out to welcome him, including the prime minister and president. That was a far cry from the time Yifter went home after missing the 5,000 metres final at the 1972 Olympics because he was late coming out of the toilet; “The Shifter” was thrown in jail.
Elsewhere yesterday, Lisa Dobriskey won the 1,500 metres and admitted that finishing fourth in Beijing provided motivation. “I visualised that lap of honour at the Olympics so many times, it’s really hard to deal with it,” she said. “I was emotionally, physically drained, but my dad said, ‘Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.’ I can use it to fuel my future performances.”
Those Britons who did leave China with medals had mixed days. Tasha Danvers ran almost two seconds slower than in taking bronze in the 400metres hurdles, leaving Melanie Walker, Jamaica’s Olympic champion, to add another notch to her belt, while an out-of-sorts Phillips Idowu managed only fourth and 16.42 metres in the triple jump. “I’ve been ill all week with a cold and sore throat,” he said.
Germaine Mason did manage a win, however, his leap of 2.27 metres enough to beat allcomers in the high jump, then he credited Stephen Francis’s strict coaching regime in Jamaica for his success. Another Francis charge, Asafa Powell, also found some late-season form. After Tyson Gay romped through the 200 metres to provide himself with some post-Bolt therapy, Powell won the 100metres in 9.87sec, a time that lent credence to the view that he is brilliant when not at a leading championship. The Jamaican was only fifth in the final in Beijing, but is running well enough to dip below 9.8 before the season is out.
Goldie Sayers, Marilyn Okoro and Martyn Rooney were other home winners, while Vivian Cheruiyot, of Kenya, set the year’s best time in the 3,000 metres. As for Ohuruogu, it may have rained on her parade, but at least she had one.
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate
Sarah Palin poses for fashion magazine VOGUE
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Some of these past photos of Sarah Palin are attracting the blogsphere’s attention. But Obama Campaign is advised not to focus on her, and instead point out McCain’s judgment and “flawed” decision making. Here is how one blogger put it:
“John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate can only be successful if the Democrats mistakenly focus on her, rather than using her selection to highlight what it says about John McCain. We need to look carefully at her, of course–something McCain apparently didn’t do–but we need to do so as a reflecting mirror in which to study McCain.
McCain’s selection of Palin is widely seen as a gamble that just might pay off. Not if the Obama campaign handles it properly, though. If they do, it has zero chance of success.” – Paul Rosenberg
A ER reader commented: “The Obama campaign will have to handle this very delicately, not to say anything that would sound demeaning to Palin, and yet try to send the message that it’s an insult to the intelligence of women for McCain to think they can just throw any woman at them, no matter how unqualified, and that they’ll run to him.” – TM
