(WSBTV) Investigators spent the night searching for clues after a paralyzed man was found murdered in his home. Police found 51-year-old Tedla Lemma dead inside his home on Kenion Forest Drive in Lilburn, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta (Gwinnett County).
Officials said the preliminary investigation indicated that Lemma died from unnatural causes and have ruled the death a homicide.
Neighbors told Channel 2 Lemma lived in the home in the quiet neighborhood with his brother.
“Two very, very nice brothers owned a convenience store. One had been shot when the convenience store was robbed and he was partially paralyzed,” neighbor Suzanne Zarozsky told Channel 2’s John Cater.
Tuesday afternoon, loved ones of Lemma received news from Gwinnett County police that he had been killed following a family member’s request that they check up on him.
Once authorities received permission to go inside the home, officials found the 51-year-old unresponsive on the floor.
“It’s common for them to everyday make a check on this person and when they could not get this person to the door today, that’s when they contacted Gwinnett County police,” said David Schiralli with Gwinnett County police.
Crime scene investigators worked into the early morning hours of Wednesday searching for clues.
The cause of death and its circumstances are still under investigation and are not known at this time, according to Gwinnett County police.
Family members told Channel 2 the victim moved here from Ethiopia in the 1990s to “live the American dream.” They said first there was the convenience store robbery that left Lemma partially paralyzed and then his murder.
Starting from 30 March, daily flights will connect the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and Frankfurt in German as a result of codeshare flights between Lufthansa German Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines. The news was announced by the latter air company’s website.
“The new code share agreement marks a significant landmark as we are now in the position to offer our customers daily connections from Addis Ababa to Lufthansa’s hub in Frankfurt with convenient onward flights,” noted Mr. Tewolde G.Mariam, Chief Operating Officer of Ethiopian.
With this agreement, the two carriers jointly provide daily frequency on the Addis Ababa-Frankfurt route. Ethiopian presently provides three weekly services from its home base Addis Ababa to Frankfurt on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, while the in-bound services to Addis Ababa are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Lufthansa currently flies to Frankfurt four times weekly (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays). The cooperation will provide to customers in terms of more choices of services.
Mr. Girma Wake, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, and Mr. Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman and CEO, Lufthansa German Airlines signed the main agreement on June 2nd, 2007 in Vancouver, Canada and various operational agreements have been signed subsequently to facilitate the implementation of the codshare agreement.
“The new code share agreement will further strengthen Ethiopian’s position in Germany and other European markets by creating additional possibilities to access traffic through the extensive network of Lufthansa”, said Mr. Wake, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines. He added that the agreement will pave the way for Ethiopian to further strengthen its co-operation with Lufthansa and other Star Alliance member airlines.
Since last October 28th, Ethiopian’s ShebaMiles members have been able to earn and/or use their award miles on the international route network of Lufthansa. Likewise Lufthansa’s ‘Miles & More Members have started utilizing Ethiopian’s services to accrue and redeem award miles on all its international and domestic scheduled flights.
Ethiopian has been partnering with LSG Lufthansa Service, world’s biggest airline caterer and provider of integrated in-flight solutions which assist Ethiopian in managing and upgrading its catering division.
Nairobi – The United Nations Children’s Fund is seeking $650m for sanitation in Ethiopia, where 35 million people are deprived of adequate hygiene, a Unicef statement says.
The African Development Bank, the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) had pledged more than $50m for the project, but Unicef added that it was “still a far cry, however, from the estimated $650m required for universal coverage in Ethiopia”.
“Unicef calls on all donors to invest in achieving sustainable access to improved sanitation, which is essential for the realisation of human rights, health and dignity,” said Bjorn Ljungqvist, Unicef representative to Ethiopia.
Though more than 1.2 billion people worldwide had gained access to improved sanitation between 1990 and 2004, an estimated 2.6 billion people – including 980 million children – had yet to be reached.
——————— Woyanne will steal most of this money and use it to build concentration camps.
World’s Most Famous Fossil ”Lucy” Comes to Seattle
West Coast Premiere Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia Opens Oct. 4
Discover Five-Million-Year History of the Cradle of Mankind
SEATTLE — Ethiopia is the cradle of mankind, the birthplace of coffee, the purported resting place of the Ark of the Covenant — and home to legions of Bob Marley fans. Discover five million years of this country’s diverse history and culture in the West Coast premiere exhibition Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia, on display at Pacific Science Center from Oct. 4, 2008 – March 8, 2009.
The exhibition will include the original fossilized remains of the 3.2 million-year-old hominid known as Lucy. With 40 percent of her skeleton intact, Lucy remains the oldest and most complete adult human ancestor fully retrieved from African soil. Other important paleoanthropological discoveries will also be represented to complete the current account of human evolution as known to scientists today.
“Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia provides visitors with an extraordinary opportunity to come face to face with Lucy, the oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil of any erect-walking human ancestor,” said Bryce Seidl, president and CEO of Pacific Science Center. “The discovery of Lucy continues to profoundly influence our understanding of human origins. “Lucy’s Legacy” provides people the opportunity to better understand current scientific theory of human evolution and to see for themselves how, more than 30 years after her discovery, she continues to create debate.”
Pacific Science Center has been working with the local Ethiopian community and others to ensure the experience of this exhibit extends to all corners of the Pacific Northwest, added Seidl.
According to Amina Negash, a young Ethiopian woman living in Seattle, this exhibition will mean a great deal to the young Ethiopian people in this community and region.
“We not only want the young people in our community to learn about our rich history and culture, but this exhibit is a chance to share that with other young people who may come here on school field trips or with their families,” Negash said. “And maybe by learning about the people of Ethiopia we bring the world closer together. We appreciate each other more.”
The 1974 discovery of this famous hominid contributed to the definition of a new species, Australopithecus afarensis, and continues to have a major impact on the scientific understanding of our human origins. Through additional artifacts spanning over 1.6 million years, visitors will also experience Ethiopia, Lucy’s homeland. With eight locales on the World Heritage List, Ethiopia is rich in history and culture, and it holds a unique position in the study of paleoanthropology.
“Ethiopia’s natural diversity also extends to the plurality of its peoples,” said His Excellency Ambassador Mohamoud Dirir, Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. “Her people speak more than 80 languages. Ethiopia is home to different faiths and religions. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and a number of traditional indigenous beliefs have peacefully coexisted for millennia. These long-stretched and deep-rooted values have made Ethiopia a country known for its proverbial hospitality.”
Explore over 2,000 years of history of the ancient civilization of Axum, which became the first Christian African nation in the 4th century A.D.; the people who created the spectacular rock-hewn, underground churches of Lalibela (named after the last king of the Zagwe dynasty) in the 13th century A.D.; and the stunning architecture of the Royal Enclosure at Gondar, built in the 17th century A.D. Discover a dynasty of emperors that ruled Ethiopia through 1974, believed by Ethiopians to represent a direct, unbroken line of descendants of the Queen of Sheba and the biblical King Solomon.
More than 100 artifacts illuminate Ethiopia’s rich heritage. See early stone tools found in Ethiopia; a wide selection of objects from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church such as illuminated manuscripts and processional crosses; a selection of Korans from the holy city of Harar, the fourth most important site in Islam; and the first coins minted by an indigenous African civilization. Paintings, musical instruments, implements of daily use, a scale model of the famous Church of St. George in Lalibela and more will also be on display.
“The history of Ethiopia, known to many as Abyssinia, is rich, ancient and, in many ways, still unknown,” said Seidl. “This exhibit introduces viewers to the rich cultural heritage that has flourished in Ethiopia over the course of the last 3 millennia and to the vibrant country that Ethiopia is today.”
After its West Coast premiere in Seattle, Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia will tour museums throughout the United States.
“What we know about human evolution comes to us from the African continent and, in large part, from Ethiopia,” said Dirk Van Tuerenhout, Ph.D., curator of anthropology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. “In addition to its importance to human prehistory, the recorded history of Ethiopia has many surprising and fascinating aspects, from its tradition of beautiful art to its diverse religious community. Visitors to Lucy’s Legacy will have the opportunity to explore all of the intriguing characteristics that make this country unique.”
As part of the total experience, Pacific Science Center will feature the IMAX® film Mystery of the Nile, hands-on interactive exhibits, cultural and scientific demonstrations and, in alliance with the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, a distinguished lecture series.
Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia is an international exhibition organized by The Houston Museum of Natural Science in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Exhibition Coordinating Committee. The exhibition’s presentation in Seattle has been made possible in part by the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, City of Seattle and King County. The Seattle Times and Seattle Post Intelligencer are the official print sponsors of the Seattle exhibit.
National funding for Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia is provided by Ethiopian Airlines and The Smith Foundation.
For general information please call 1-877-SEE-LUCY(733-5829) or go to www.pacificsciencecenter.org/lucy. Group bookings available now: 206-443-3611. School Field Trip bookings available now: 206-443-2925. Individual public tickets go on sale July 1, 2008.
For more information about Lucy and this exhibit, check www.LucyExhibition.com and www.BecomingHuman.org.
IMAX® is a registered trademark of the IMAX Corporation
Pacific Science Center (pacificsciencecenter.org) is an independent, not-for-profit educational institution that inspires lifelong interest in science, math and technology by engaging diverse communities through interactive and innovative exhibits and programs in every county of Washington state and beyond.
Ethiopians who fled war and famine can now lend a hand to new immigrants in Chicago 30 years after upheaval, they are building a $3 million community center to help Africans and others from war-torn nations
Nearly 30 years after one of the worst famines in history drove thousands of Ethiopians from their homeland, the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago is still helping refugees survive in their strange new city.
Only now, most of those newcomers hail from Burundi, Sudan or even Myanmar—evidence of the emerging role of leadership being played by one of the Midwest’s oldest African refugee communities.
Ethiopians—once the rail-thin embodiment of the violence and hunger raging through Africa—have for decades been quietly building their lives in Chicago, with many in the community of some 10,000 now working professionals and suburban homeowners.
With that comfort has come what some describe as a moral responsibility to reach out to other struggling immigrants.
“A lot of us, when we got here, received help from a lot of good people,” said Mawi Asgedom, a Chicago-based Ethiopian motivational speaker whose 2000 memoir “Of Beetles and Angels” tells of his rise from being a child refugee in suburban Wheaton to graduating from Harvard University in 1999.
“Now, we’re at the point where we’re saying: ‘We can help other people,’ ” Asgedom said. “That’s a tremendous testament.”
A campaign to build a new $3 million Ethiopian community center, what would be the first such African institution of its size in Chicago, shows how far Ethiopians have come since they arrived, leaders say.
As the community has grown, so has its yearning to make a deeper imprint on the city, said Erku Yimer, director of the Ethiopian Community Association, which would occupy the new center. The 14-year-old organization rents offices at the Institute of Cultural Affairs, an incubator in Uptown for community groups.
“It’s time we owned something,” Yimer said at a recent $100-per-plate fundraiser for the center, drawing loud applause from the 250 Ethiopians there.
Besides aiding new refugees, the center would house an Ethiopian museum, senior services, a child-care facility, an after-school program and other services, Yimer said. The center would be located in the Rogers Park area, where many refugees first landed in the wake of civil war in their homeland and, during the mid-1980s, the famine that seared into America’s conscience the image of starving Ethiopian children with bloated bellies. War with Eritrea during the late 1990s sparked another exodus from both countries.
Many recall how bewildering it felt to arrive in the Midwest, where barely any other Africans lived.
“There was almost no one else to relate to,” Asgedom recalled of his childhood. “Now, there is a great support network in place.”
Today, Africans are among the fastest growing immigrant groups in the Chicago area, more than doubling in size to 23,000 during the 1990s, according to figures from the Metro Chicago Immigration Fact Book.
In the late 1970s, just 37 Ethiopians lived in the Midwest, said Aberra Sewdie, who was among that original group of mostly university students.
Finding homes and services for the thousands who would later arrive was daunting, he said, recalling intense grief in the community when one refugee died in a car accident and nobody knew how to plan for a funeral.
“We felt overwhelmed,” he said.
That sense of helplessness triggered the birth in 1984 of the Ethiopian Community Association, the first African nonprofit in the Midwest.
The group’s efforts have resonated through the city’s increasingly diverse African diaspora, which includes Nigerians, Ghanians, Liberians and, most recently, refugees from war-torn Burundi.
Though just about $120,000 has so far been raised for the community center, the effort has generated excitement among other African immigrants, who see it as a first step toward deeper acceptance, said Alie Kabba, director of the United African Organization, one of two Pan-African groups in the city.
“If they can build themselves up like that from nothing, the rest of us have something to strive for,” said Kabba, of Sierra Leone.
Kabba said African immigrants are eager to assert their ethnic identity in Chicago, partly due to their increasing numbers but also out of frustration about volatile conditions in their homelands that make returning too dangerous. Recent arrests by Immigration authorities of non-refugee Africans who overstayed visas have fanned that desire, Kabba said.
“Many of us came with the idea that we would get an education here and go back to help improve our countries,” said Kabba, whose organization recently began publishing a monthly newspaper, the African Advocate, that’s meant as a forum for such frustrations. “For some of us, there’s nothing to go back to.”
Yusuf Adem’s experiences illustrate the path others are walking.
In 1978, he escaped a bloody “Red Terror” campaign waged by the Ethiopian government against suspected rebels.
Today, he and his family live in a comfortable home in Skokie. Adem, 52, commutes to a job in Chicago processing claims for the federal Social Security Administration, a position he took in 2000 after abandoning a master’s degree in economics he had intended to use in Ethiopia.
Adem, who walked the Ethiopian desert to escape, said his greatest worries now include the cultural gap widening between him and his youngest daughter, Lia, 11—a tobogganing enthusiast who was born in the U.S.
“Once you have a family, you have a house and you have a job, you are anchored,” Adem said, smiling. “There’s no going back. Only forward.”
—————
The writer can be reached at [email protected]
Woyanne cadres have started again to incite ethnic animosity in Arsi and other southern Ethiopian towns this week in preparation for the next month fake elections. The inciting messages that are being distributed by the Woyanne cadres include posters that show Atse Menilik’s soldiers cutting Arsi women’s breasts… Read more by zikkir News Service >>
