When Ethiopia’s rebel-turned-leader Meles Zenawi emerged from the bush to take power in 1991, he sat for a long-distance learning degree to feel more qualified to run Africa’s second most populous nation.
Despite studying while running a vast country of 80 ethnicities emerging from 17 years of communist rule, Meles came a remarkable third in his graduating class.
Some Ethiopians say he has gone on learning ever since and consider him the sharpest of Africa’s leaders. But for others, he is a prime minister who never learned to rule effectively, failed to deliver full democracy and trampled people’s rights.
Now, the 54-year-old leader regularly says he wants to quit, with the blessing of his ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party.
With the party due to discuss that at a meeting of its executive committee next month, and the next EPRDF congress scheduled for September, 18 years of often tough political learning for Meles may be nearing the final chapter.
A change could, however, be delayed until after 2010 elections, analysts say, and successors would come from senior government figures likely to continue Meles’ economic policies, rather than from a weakened opposition.
“I think he genuinely feels the time is right to step down and let someone else guide the country to full democracy,” an EPRDF insider said. “He is thinking about his legacy and I think he realises he personally has taken things as far as he can.”
Analysts, diplomats and Ethiopian politicians disagree about what that legacy will be, and how an Ethiopia without the internationally high-profile Meles at the helm might look.
WESTERN TIES
The Meles government has cultivated good relations with the West, introduced a safety-net system for millions of hungry people which should ensure the ruinous famine of 1984/85 is never repeated, and reduced infant mortality and poverty rates in one of the world’s poorest countries.
A new, albeit small, middle class has emerged.
But the 2005 elections, touted as Ethiopia’s first truly democratic poll, ended in brutality when the government declared victory and the opposition said the result was fixed.
Police and soldiers then killed about 200 opposition protesters who had taken to the streets after Meles said they were attempting to topple the government.
Ethiopians go to the polls again in June 2010, and analysts are divided on the question of whether the elections will pass off peacefully and without accusations of rigging.
Rights groups have accused Meles of cracking down on the opposition again. One opposition leader has been jailed and a group of former and serving military officers have been charged with plotting to overthrow the government.
The unrest has come as the Ethiopian economy is suffering the impact of the global recession and analysts question who can replace Meles at such a delicate time.
The country’s economy had been developing at a rate of more than 10 percent in recent years and Meles — who represented Africa at the G20 summit of rich nations — was widely credited with using his economic know-how to achieve that.
Investors interested in agriculture and gas and oil exploration were beginning to move in — many of them from China and India — and commodity exports were growing.
But the country has seen demand for its agricultural exports plummet, inflation soar, and power cuts ravage business and fuel a crippling foreign currency shortage.
Opposition leaders were jailed after Meles blamed them for orchestrating the 2005 violence and have made little impact since their release in a 2007 pardon deal. They say that is because of government harassment but Meles denies that.
WHO NEXT?
“It is unlikely that anyone from the opposition will come to power after Meles,” Kjetil Tronvoll, an Ethiopia expert from the International Law and Policy Group think-tank, told Reuters.
“We will see a transition period with another EPRDF leader, and then a possible withering of EPRDF before a new party constellation may take power down the road.”
Though there has been speculation Meles could leave at the next EPRDF congress in September, most diplomats say a more likely scenario is that he will guide the party to victory in 2010, then seek support for his resignation at its September 2010 national congress.
Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, Health Minister Tewodros Adhanom and Trade Minister Girma Birru are all possible successors, party members told Reuters.
Should Meles step down, analysts and potential investors will closely watch his successor to see whether opposition parties are given more freedom or whether the EPRDF holds on to power in authoritarian fashion.
“There was a bad bump in 2005,” an Addis Ababa-based diplomat, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.
“But if Meles can put Ethiopia back on the path towards democratisation in 2010 he’ll leave the country in a better position than he found it.”
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Canada.com) — Got 48 hours to spare in Addis Ababa — Africa’s diplomatic hub and one of the highest capital cities in the world? Reuters correspondents with local knowledge give tips on how to make the most of a short stay.
FRIDAY
5 p.m. Have a couple of cold beers by the pool during happy hour at the Hilton Hotel. You’ll rub shoulders with African Union diplomats, United Nation’s workers and government ministers so the conversation is always controversial and interesting.
8 p.m. Ethiopians serve their food on a spongy pancake called injera. Well-cooked pieces of lamb called tibs are particularly good as are the array of vegetables eaten during fasting times. Hop in a taxi (the blue ones are cheapest and perfectly safe) to Fasika. It’s one of the swankiest restaurants in town but a great place to try the local cuisine for the first time. A lively dance show takes you on a whistle-stop tour of Ethiopian culture.
10 p.m. With a belly full of Ethiopian food, now’s a good time to head to a traditional bar known as an Azmari bet. Try the Kazanchis area and ask your taxi driver for recommendations. Fendika is a good one. Azmaris are the performers who sing songs often made up on the spot. If you’re lucky they might even sing one about you.
SATURDAY
9 a.m. Many visitors to Addis are overwhelmed by the scale of visible poverty and the street children they see on almost every corner. Instead of doling out change randomly, pay a quick visit to Hope Enterprises on Churchill Road and buy some meal tickets. Every day almost 700 children redeem the tickets for a healthy dinner at the center.
9:15 a.m. Now you’re in the right spot to indulge in some souvenir shopping. Shops carrying everything from Ethiopian silver to memorabilia from Ethiopia’s brief Italian occupation line Churchill Road. Take your time to compare prices across a few stores.
11:00 a.m. If the shopping bug has bitten, why not hop in a taxi to the Mercato? Some say it’s Africa’s biggest open-air market but nobody really knows. Just watch your pockets. But don’t worry too much. Addis is one of Africa’s safest capitals and crime is rare.
1 p.m. After a trip to London at the turn of the 20th century, Princess Taitu asked her husband Emperor Menelik II to build a hotel like the ones she had seen there. The Itegue Taitu Hotel was the result and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Addis. Go for a bite and ask to be served outside the upstairs bedrooms in the main building.
3 p.m. Time for coffee. And you’re in the best place in the world for that. Legend has it the coffee bean was discovered centuries ago by a shepherd in northern Ethiopia and Ethiopians take their coffee very seriously indeed. Tamoca on Algeria Street is the oldest coffee shop in town and serves a great macchiato (espresso with milk). Coffee beans roast in front of your eyes in stylish Italian art-deco surroundings. They’re for sale too.
5 p.m. English Premier League football obsesses Africans. And Meskel Square — where all Addis roads meet — is a truly unique place to witness their passion. A giant screen illuminates the west end of the square and hundreds of Addis Ababans regularly congregate in the square to cheer on their teams. Arsenal is by far the most popular.
8 p.m. Said to be Bob Geldof’s favorite Italian restaurant, Castelli’s elegant wood-panelled dining room has played host to Swedish royalty, Bill Clinton, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Consistency is the seller – the restaurant has served up its tasty selection of pastas, seafood and steaks through all manner of strife. It famously stayed open the night Ethiopia’s communist regime was toppled in 1991. The antipasti buffet is a must.
11 p.m. If you fancy late drinks, you could start at the Sheraton Hotel’s Gaslight and watch the city’s rich at play. Then across town to Memo’s nightclub for a recharging snack in its courtyard restaurant (order the chirro), before a dance with the less spoiled locals and a smattering of expats. Or you could head to Le Bateau Ivre in Kazanchis — one of the most reliably raucous and fun late, late bars in town.
SUNDAY
9 a.m. – The best thing about the wonderful Ethnological Museum/Haile Selassie’s Palace on Algeria Street is that you get to see the real former bedrooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms of the famously regal and elegant Emperor Haile Selassie and his wife.
12 p.m. A leisurely lunch at Blue Tops across the road. You have to try the ice cream.
3 p.m. The Derg Monument on Churchill Avenue is a surprisingly haunting reminder of Ethiopia’s difficult years of communist rule. The site also houses a moving pictorial memorial to Cuban soldiers who died fighting alongside Ethiopian troops during the country’s war against Somalia in 1977/78.
6 p.m. Watch the sun set over your Addis weekend at the fine Top View restaurant.
A Baltimore County judge has dismissed a $4.3 million lawsuit filed by more than 100 former members of an Ethiopian church against its board of trustees after the plaintiffs failed to respond to discovery requests.
The trial involving Ethiopian Evangelical Church was scheduled for Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. But Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. dismissed the case Friday at the request of the defendants’ lawyer.
“There are 116 unidentified plaintiffs in this case,” Erika E. Cole wrote. “In order to be prepared for trial, the defendants must determine who is suing them and on what basis.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Matthew W. Hurd, of Hartel, Kane, DeSantis, MacDonald & Howie LLP in Beltsville, could not be reached for comment.
The suit, filed last year, alleged the Liberty Road church’s seven-member board of trustees changed the status of the church’s religious corporation from a nonprofit to a religious entity in January 2008, giving themselves more power, without consulting the congregation. The board fired Pastor Daniel Berhanu soon after that, the lawsuit said.
The board countered that the change was lawful and that the pastor’s firing was purely a religious matter, not subject to government intervention.
Berhanu and other ex-church members have moved to another congregation, according to court documents. Ethiopian Evangelical remains open and will celebrate the case’s conclusion during services Sunday, said Cole, an Owings Mills solo practitioner.
“The church continued to do the work of the ministry rather than suspend it during litigation,” she said.
optical amplifier(Examiner.com) — Washington-based Girls Gotta Run is already supporting Ethiopian girls training to be professional runners.
Now, the Chevy Chase volunteer-run nonprofit is supporting the work of an Occidental College student named Kayla Nolan who is spending the summer in Ethiopia researching the benefits Ethiopian girls and women can reap from running. Like those involved with Girls Gotta Run, Nolan believes involvement in the sport can empower Ethiopian girls and women, offering them paths out of poverty and teenage childbirth to education and independence. Girls Gotta Run helped Nolan write a proposal that netted her a research fellowship from Occidental College, which is fully funding the trip.
As part of her research, Nolan is visiting and getting to know members of the four teams Girls Gotta Run provides support for. Best of all, she’s blogging about her experience here.
Girls Gotta Run has raised more than $24,000 in the past two years to buy shoes, training clothes, food and other training essentials for Ethiopian girls training to become professional runners. Among its fund-raising events is an immensely popular art exhibit in the Washington area for which local artists design and sell artwork related to shoes, running and motion.
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Scores of Somali legislators have fled violence at home to the safety of other countries in Africa, Europe and the United States, leaving the nation’s parliament without a quorum to meet.
Violence from an Islamist-led insurgency has worsened this month, with a minister, the Mogadishu police chief, and a legislator all killed. The government, which controls little but a few parts of the capital, has declared a state of emergency.
With reports of foreign jihadists streaming into Somalia, Western security services are frightened Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network may get a grip on the failed Horn of Africa state that has been without central government for 18 years.
Needing two-thirds of legislators present to meet, Somalia’s 550-seat parliament has not convened since April 25.
Officials said on Wednesday that 288 members of parliament (MPs) were abroad, with only about 50 on official visits.
The rest were in neighbours Kenya and Djibouti, European nations such as Sweden, Britain, the Netherlands and Norway, and the United States, the officials said.
“I cannot be a member of a government that cannot protect me,” Abdalla Haji Ali, an MP who left for Kenya last week, told Reuters. “In Somalia, nobody is safe.”
Parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Madobe has urged the MPs to return, and Somalia’s Finance Ministry has blocked the salaries of 144 legislators abroad, officials said.
In Nairobi on Wednesday, plenty of Somali MPs could be seen sipping tea and talking politics in various hotels and cafes.
“As legislators, we have responsibility and every one of us should perform his duty in Mogadishu,” one legislator who has stayed in Mogadishu, Sheikh Ahmed Moalim, told Reuters.
“Before you decide to flee, you have to resign officially if you realise that you cannot work in this environment.”
“GOVERNMENT FIDDLES, SOMALIA BURNS”
Islamist rebel leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys held a news conference in Mogadishu to denounce the government’s call at the weekend for foreign forces to come to its aid.
The African Union has a 4,300-strong force guarding government and other installations in Mogadishu, but has been unable to stem violence and has been targeted by the rebels.
Kenya has said it supports international efforts to get more troops into Somalia, but Aweys thanked Nairobi for declining to send its soldiers across the border. “If they deal with us well, we will deal with them well as a good neighbour,” he said.
Nairobi expatriate circles have been awash with rumours of planned attacks by Somali militants.
“The fighting will stop when the foreign enemy forces leave the country and Somalis come together for talks,” Aweys added.
“Nothing remains of the puppet Somali government.”
The United Nations and Western powers back President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s government, but are increasingly frustrated over how to help him stabilise Somalia.
Ahmed, himself a moderate Islamists, was elected by parliament at a U.N.-sponsored process in Djibouti in January.
“The situation has gone from bad to worse to worst, presenting the entire Horn of Africa with a security crisis of the first order,” U.S. analyst Peter Pham said in a paper.
“If the TFG (government) is ‘fiddling’ while Somalia burns, it is doing so with a full orchestral accompaniment provided by an international community that apparently lacks either the will or the imagination (or both) to do anything else.”
Gus Selassie, an analyst for IHS Global Insight think-tank, was equally pessimistic.
“There appears to be an extreme reluctance on the part of the international community, including neighbouring countries and friendly governments such as Ethiopia, to heed the TFG’s desperate calls,” he wrote in another analysis.
“Both the security and humanitarian situation will have to worsen considerably before anyone will aid the TFG.”
Our new name is the Ethiopians in the Diaspora. ‘The term Diaspora (in Greek διασπορά – “a scattering [of seeds]”) refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnic identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their settled territory, and became residents in areas often far remote from the former.’ I really don’t like it. We used to be immigrants. I have no idea when we became the Diaspora.
I don’t like both terms. They have finality about them. It means that wherever we are, we intend to settle permanently. I would rather think of myself as a refugee. A refugee is some one in transit. I like that. Isn’t that what we are? We have scattered to all four corners of the world because we are seeking shelter from danger. We escape from our country because it is not safe. Some are political refuges. They left to avoid persecution. A lot are economic refuges. They are running away from slow death. Our country offers its population such choice as physical death due to starvation, mental and spiritual death due to forced ignorance.
Sometimes good can come out of a bad situation. This refuge business is one such instance. Our ancient country is always looking after us. It gave us a solid foundation to withstand the shock of settling in strange far away places. We were mentally fortified. Every nationality thinks they are unique. We don’t only think we are unique, we believe it. It is like Ethiopia said to each one of us ‘if you have to go, go but don’t forget who you are and please return.’
Where ever we have settled we have thrived. We seek each other. We congregate. All you got to do is find one of us. It is like opening a floodgate. You find one you find them all.
This has been a week of graduation in our area. A proud moment for a lot of families. A celebration of achievement. Sons and daughters of refugees feeling good about them selves and making their family proud. There is nothing like being free to excel.
So how did these offspring’s of destitute refugees get to attend some of the best institutions in this great land? It is simple. It is so because those refugee parents had to learn fast and adapt to the new situation. Most arrive with just their shirts on their back. They work hard. They work long. They study with passion. They aim high. They succeed like no other.
When one is far away from home and there is no one to lean on one learns fast. We learn to think beyond today. We plan and project far into the future. We become masters of our own success or failure. We stop being crybabies and assume responsibility for our actions.
We learn that there is no free lunch, no reward without effort, and no easy short cuts in life and if we are lucky we learn to be empathic to our fellow humans.
I, as a bona fide refugee and graduate of the ‘hard knock’ school of life I was highly disconcerted when I heard what the Ethiopian Prime Minster said to a Mr. Jason McClure of Bloomberg News. I don’t know how Mr. McClure took the news but I was forced to say ‘come again?’ Believe me I have made up a lot of excuses for my actions and I have heard some bizarre ones too but this one takes the gold. No question about it. Talk about chutzpah!
Ato Meles blames ‘the World Bank and international donors’ for the scarcity of Electricity in Ethiopia. Mr. Mc Lure wrote:
The World Bank underestimated electricity demand in previous years and failed to provide funding for new power-generation projects the government had wanted, leading to under-investment in the industry, he said.
“We could have avoided that mistake if we had the money or had we had the support of our donors,” Meles said.
I believe most of us were under the impression that Ato Meles and his TPLF politburo are in charge of Ethiopia. At what point did World Bank enter the picture? What else are they running besides Electric power? I want to know if the Somali invasion was their idea? Did they force Ato Meles to declare ‘state of emergency’ after the 2005 elections and gave the order to shoot to kill? Was that the World Bank that forced Ato Meles to arrest Judge Bertukan too? Frankly I never trusted the World Bank and Ato Meles is confirming my worst fears.
That ‘gotcha’ moment was short lived. It looks like the reporter talked to a Mr. Kenichi Ohashi, the World Bank’s director for Ethiopia. Well apparently Ato Meles did not clear his story with Mr. Ohashi, and Mr. Ohashi is not amused. This is what he has to say about it:
“The notion that because we didn’t finance power they have a problem, that’s bogus,” Kenichi Ohashi, the World Bank’s director for Ethiopia, said by phone today. “If we financed power that would come at the expense of something else”
Interesting. I don’t know what the choices were but it must have been difficult for outsiders to make decisions for a nation they have neither kinship nor strong bond. You can say the same about Ato Meles but today we are not going there. So where is the sovereignty Berket is always babbling about? Now since we all know who is running Electric power you know where to forward your complaints.
There is more. TPLF is the gift that keeps giving.
Power cuts might also have been alleviated if the Washington-based multilateral lender had provided funding for a 60-megawatt diesel generator the government requested this year, Meles said.
A lousy 60-megawatt diesel generator just to hold us over until the July rains and they said no! Those heartless bastards what do they care. Bankers are cold. They are willing to destroy the economic well being of a nation. Hold on that is not the story Mr. Ohashi is telling.
The World Bank didn’t finance the generator because the government’s contracting process didn’t meet World Bank standards and wasn’t “open and transparent and competitive,” Ohashi said.
Now I see it. The Bank wants ‘open and transparent’ process and EFFORT had already won the contract. Ato Meles was just asking for the cash and the Bank has the audacity to say no. May be the Bank thought diesel is not such a good idea considering the shortage of dollars to buy fuel. I get the feeling that Ato Meles leaves a lot out when telling a story. I have no idea if he forgets or it is pathological. What is certain is that he is not telling the truth. In other words he is lying. Simple.
So when Mr. Ohashi’s outfit said ‘No” to the loan what did Ato Meles’s government do to mitigate the effects of the certainty of power shortage? You just don’t fold your hands and sit. I guess you can. They did not even ask their Abuna to urge the people to pray for rain.
This is the difference between the Diaspora (refugees) and TPLF. We have learned to take responsibility for our actions. We don’t shift blame nor do we cry in public. We avoid welfare and work double shift to meet our obligations. Just try telling your mortgage holder that you can’t pay your note since the bank did not give you the loan subsidy. Your sad ass will be out on the street in a New York minute.
There seems to be a lot of speculation with what the Prime Minster might do or not do regarding his future plans. He speaks in hyperboles and wants to sound mysterious. Listen to this:
“My guess is this is going to boil-down to plus or minus a year or two,” he said. “I’m simply thinking aloud. Now if it were to boil-down to plus or minus a year or two, I would probably say this is not a matter on which I ought to leave the party.” It’s also possible, “some would say very likely” that he will be succeeded as prime minister by a person from outside the Tigrayan ethnic group, Meles said.
I dare you to make sense of that. What does plus or minus a year mean? Boil down? Why he speaks in clichés is foreign to me. Here in the US politicians start running the day they are elected. It is a 24/7 job. You don’t hide in gated community surrounded by armed solders. If they want to be elected they mingle with their constituents. Not the supreme leader. He still thinks in ethnic terms. The notion some one capable without the ethnic baggage is foreign to him. It is possible the TPLF folks can sign petitions to force him to be Prime Minister again. May be he is being coy with us so we can start a nation wide campaign to crown him as Yohanes V. Anything is possible in Ethiopia. As I said we are very resourceful people.
What he said regarding Judge Bertukan is very mean. A head of state does not make a statement like that regarding the leader of the biggest opposition Party in the country. This is what he said:
Meles said there is “zero” chance that opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa will be released from prison in time to compete in the elections scheduled for next May. He also said Birtukan’s jailing is not a pretext to eliminate political opposition.
Judge Bertukan has been in jail one hundred seventy six days. That is five months and twenty-six days. She has been in solitary confinement. She is not allowed visitors except her daughter Hale who is four years old and her mother Weizero Almaz who is seventy-two years old. She is not allowed to see her lawyer, listen to the radio or visit by the Red Cross. Complete isolation in a dark cold room is torture. Ato Meles said the chances are zero that she will be released. On the other hand the chances are 100% that Ato Meles will be tried for torture, genocide and crime against humanity both by the Ethiopian people and the International Criminal Court. We will be the first ones to defend Ato Meles’s and his fellow criminals right for a fair and speedy trial. We will not tolerate torture and the prisoners will be allowed to hire even foreign lawyers but not with our money. The sight of Ato Meles and friends in a pink prison garb will be priceless. Just picture it my friends.
It looks like the situation in Iran further complicates Ato Meles’s grip on power. It is obvious that there will be no repeat of 2005. The world is watching. Europeans will follow the US lead. President Obama’s administration is allergic to state sponsored killing. The Diaspora Ethiopians are loud and everywhere. The ‘Eight’ points by Kinijit are still the minimum demands. No party in Ethiopia will be accepted as legitimate contender with out the eight points being fulfilled. There is no such thing as a free election without a free press and the opposition’s right to free assembly and organization is respected.
Remittances from the Diaspora has dried up, commodity prices are plunging, inflation is spiraling, devaluation is over due, Ana Gomez, Donald Payne, Russ Feingold, Berhanu Nega are circling over head, what are you going to do? You definitely are not going to Disney land. I urge my hero Shambel to sing ‘Express train to Kaliti’
