ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The Ethiopian Ministry of Health (EMOH) announced that there was a USD$ 2.6 billion financing gap to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the health sector of that country.
At the signing ceremony of a joint financing worth 100 million dollars with six development partners held at the Hilton Addis this week, Dr Nejmudin Kedir, policy planning and finance head with the Ministry, said there was a huge financial gap to address major health problems in Ethiopia.
The finance was required to deal with malaria, HIV AIDS, TB, maternal health, to build hospitals and health centers and for the expansion of universal primary health.
The MDGs target is to halve poverty and deaths with the above major diseases from the developing countries by 2015.
The joint statement issued by the Ethiopian government and the seven development partners stated that the signing of the joint financial agreement marked an important milestone in the purposeful journey jointly embarked on last August, when Ethiopia became the first to sign a country compact within the framework of the International Health Partnership (IHP).
“At the core of the Ethiopian IHP compact is a joint ambition to accelerate progress towards the health related MDGs and improve the health of all Ethiopians,” the statement said.
Dr. Nejmudin said there was only a small increase in funding commitments. He said that there was also a problem with the predictability of the fund coming from donors, adding that politics impacted the fund flow. “This has created a problem in planning different projects,” he said.
The joint financing was signed between the MoH and DFID, Irish Aid, Spanish Cooperation, World Bank, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO. On the occasion, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, The Minister of Health, said he was very delighted to sign the joint agreement. “It was just like seeing your child grow,” he said.
Dr Tedros urged the development partners to channel the fund and to keep their commitments.
The MDGs represent a global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s.
Responding to the world’s main development challenges and to the calls of civil society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases.
Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are an agreed set of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part. Poor countries have pledged to govern better, and invest in their people through health care and education. Rich countries have pledged to support them, through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (AFP) – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was set to visit Ethiopia on his latest foreign trip since an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes was issued against him, diplomats said on Monday.
“President Bashir will arrive here to hold talks on bilateral issues. He’ll arrive either tonight or tomorrow. The trip will last three days,” the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, Akuei Bona Malwal, said.
Another Sudanese diplomat specified that Bashir was expected to arrive in Addis Ababa on Monday while an Ethiopian diplomat also confirmed the date.
“President Bashir is arriving tonight in Addis Ababa for a meeting with Ethiopian authorities,” the Ethiopian official said on condition of anonymity.
Sun Run women’s race winner Abebu Gelan hits the finish line with a time of 34:05, followed by second-place finisher Chantell Widney of Edmonton (below left; 34:24) and third place New Zealander Fiona Docherty (34:26). [Photo: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun]
VANCOUVER, CANADA — Paced by an Ethiopian teenager, it was first-timers day for the top three in the women’s division of the annual Sun Run 10K race on Sunday.
Abebu Gelan, 19, who has raced out of West Chester, Pa., for the last month, crossed the finish line in 34 minutes, four seconds to become the third straight winner from the African nation. It was, however, the slowest time for a women’s winner in the race’s 25-year history.
Gelan, who politely waved off an interview request by saying she did not speak English, was followed across the line by Chantell Widney of Edmonton (34:23) and Fiona Docherty, a New Zealand native now living in Boulder, Colo., (34:25). Both were also making their first appearances at the Sun Run and raved about the course and the fact the 10K attracted more than 55,000 participants.
With Kenyan Yegon Kiprotich, who was third in the men’s race and who shares the same North American agent as Gelan trying to translate, the slim teenager said little more than she was happy with the race.
Gelan, who finished third and fourth in 10K races earlier this month in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., is the junior world record holder in the half marathon at 1:07.57. She collected $3,000 for Sunday’s win.
Widney, a 29-year-old mother of a 10-month old child, also earned $3,000 — $1,000 for the second-place finish in the women’s and $2,000 as top Canadian.
A member of Canada’s team at the world cross-country championships in Amman, Jordan, last month — she was 67th, but the second-best Canadian finisher. Widney said she was surprised to find out she had finished second on Sunday.
“I think I was fifth or sixth coming into the last 2K . . . and I came up on three girls and just went past them. It wasn’t until I got here [inside B.C. Place for the award ceremonies] that I found out I finished second. I thought I was third.”
That was Docherty, a 2003 world long-distance duathlon champion who has also competed in several Ironman triathlons.
The 33-year-old, whose brother Bevan won bronze in triathlon at Beijing last summer, is in the process of converting from triathlons to just running and is trying to qualify for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the marathon.
“The selectors have told me I need to go and get lots of experience and races, so that’s what I’m doing. I’m just going out and racing everything I can get my hands on. I’ve got my first marathon without a swim or a bike at the end of May in Ottawa.”
She said she will return to the triathlon at some point, “but I just needed a break from it. I wanted a life outside sport.” Docherty earned $500.
In 1965, in a commencement address at Oberlin College, Ohio, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke about the ultimate victory of good over evil, justice over injustice, right over might, truth over lies and human rights over government wrongs. “We shall overcome,” he said “because the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice… No lie can live forever…. Truth crushed to earth will rise again…. ‘Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the demon known, stands a God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.’”
No Lie Can Live Forever
These past few months have been unkind to global criminals who believed they can commit crimes against humanity with impunity. Recently, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was found guilty of mass murder and kidnapping by a Peruvian court. Judge Cesar San Martin declared that Fujimori was guilty “beyond all reasonable doubt” for authorizing a secret police death squad (“Colina Group”) he created commit massacres in the Barrios Altos area of Lima in 1991 and at La Cantuta University in 1992 that left 25 dead, and for the kidnap-murders of a journalist and a businessman in 1992. Fujimori’s defense: “I knew nothing about the killings!” He blamed his intelligence service chief for the crimes. After years of evading justice, the truth rose again from the slums of Barrios Altos and the campus of La Cantuta University and crushed Fujimori at age 70! He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He may yet face trial for corruption and misappropriation of public funds.
George W. Bush’s legal bushwhackers in the “war on terror” are under investigation for crimes against humanity. All indications are Spanish prosecutors will soon make a formal announcement to seek criminal charges against six top former officials — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Assistant Attorney General (and now federal appeals court judge) Jay Bybee, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, Defense Department general counsel William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington, and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith — in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo. With the stroke of the pen, President Obama illuminated Bush’s tapestry of lies and legal sophistry to conduct torture secretly and illegally spy on American citizens.
Sudanese president Omar al-Basir is a fugitive from justice. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for “masterminding with absolute control” a criminal plan “to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.” He is accused of causing the deaths of 35,000 people “outright” in the Darfur region since 2003. International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampos stands ready to bring al-Bashir to the bar of justice to face the truth.
Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao, top leaders in the Revolutionary United Front, were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s civil war. The monstrous brutality of this evil trio included forcibly recruiting child soldiers, amputating hands and arms and carving the initials “RUF” into the bodies of their victims. They will be serving long prison terms. Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, is in the second year of his trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity. Pol Pot’s chief torturer Kaing Guek Eav (Duch) is one of 5 suspects currently on trial in Cambodia for genocide and crimes against humanity. And the list goes on…
The widely-respected human rights organization Genocide Watch recently requested the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to “investigate the brutal massacre of 424 Anuak carried out in Gambella, Ethiopia in December of 2003” and the “extra-judicial killings, rape, disappearances, destruction of livelihood and the displacement of thousands of Anuak [which] continued into late 2005.” Genocide Watch accuses the dictatorial regime and its leader in Ethiopia of “perpetrating crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide” in the name of “counter-insurgency.” The request for investigation concluded: “Despite the violation of international law, not only has no one been held accountable for these crimes which occurred over five years ago, but worse than that, such crimes continue in other places in the country.”
Angels, the Demon Known and Lies
In June and November, 2005, 196 innocent people were massacred by the security forces of the ruling dictatorship in Ethiopia, and 763 wounded. The Angels gunned down in broad daylight include[1]: Tensae Zegeye, age 14. Debela Guta, age 15. Habtamu Tola, age 16. Binyam Degefa, age 18. Behailu Tesfaye, age 20. Kasim Ali Rashid, age 21. ShiBire Desalegn, age 21. Teodros Giday Hailu, age 23. Adissu Belachew, age 25; Milion Kebede Robi, age 32; Desta Umma Birru, age 37; Tiruwork G. Tsadik, age 41. Admasu Abebe, age 45. Elfnesh Tekle, age 45. Abebeth Huletu, age 50. Etenesh Yimam, age 50; Regassa Feyessa, age 55. Teshome Addis Kidane, age 65; Victim No. 21762, age 75, female. Victim No. 21760, male, age unknown, and so on. In December, 2003, 425 Anuaks were massacred in Gambella and thousands more displaced. Tens of thousands were massacred, raped and displaced in the Ogaden region and the rest of the country. Tens of thousands of innocent Ethiopians currently languish in the regime’s dungeons as political prisoners. And on and on…
A spokesman for the “Ethiopian Embassy” in Washington, Woindimu Asamnew, offered the usual dismissive blanket denials: “We don’t take seriously their allegations and fabrications. They are totally unfounded, fabricated lies… We don’t take this kind of idea [outside investigation of genocide] seriously. We have a parliament; they do take care of these kinds of issues. There is no any need of inviting international body for this purpose because of unfounded allegations. An outside investigation is unnecessary and unacceptable. We have investigated the matter and taken corrective measures, otherwise this kind of exaggerated and unfounded lies are not taken seriously by our government. What I’m saying is that any individual can say whatever he wants, but alleging something and the realities on the ground are totally different matter.”
Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again
Those familiar with the criminal law know that the first line of defense among the hardened criminal classes is: “Deny the truth. Deny it Again. Deny it a thousand times. When the evidence (the truth) is overwhelmingly against you, ridicule the charges, call them ‘totally unfounded, fabricated lies’ and blame someone else, or the trees, the moon, the sun and the stars.” But sophisticated criminals do not simply deny the truth, they make it an art form: They weave a dazzling tapestry of lies to evade responsibility for their actions. They dehumanize their victims and profess moral sanctification by condemning their critics. By claiming to “investigate the matter and having taken corrective measures,” they audaciously seek to exonerate themselves from the monstrous crimes they have committed. By trivializing the devastating consequences of their crimes, they continue to dehumanize and brutalize their victims virtually implying that the victims are responsible for causing the criminals to inflict suffering and sorrow upon them. By condemning their critics as falsifiers and spiteful, they hope to draw attention away from themselves and fixate it on the motives, intentions and purposes of their critics. But truth crushed to earth will rise again!
The truth will rise again thunderously from the silent graveyards of the thousands of massacre victims; it will be heard in the agonizing wails of the torture victims; the truth will be told in the plain words of political prisoners; it will be recounted in the graphic testimony of eyewitnesses; the truth will ooze out of the sewer mouths of the murderers and torturers who will tell their dirty secret tales to save their skins; the teardrops of women who were raped and violated will paint the truth on the canvas of justice; reporters and journalists who were muzzled and jailed will write the truth in endless volumes; the truth will come alive in high resolution satellite photographs and amateur videos; it will be depicted in the photographs of the mutilated bodies of victims and it will be scientifically reconstructed in the forensic laboratories. The criminals’ own signatures will rise up from the official documents and orders like the ghosts of Rwanda and scream: “J’accuse!”. It is very true that the “the realties on the ground” are very different for the criminals and their victims. The victims demand justice; the criminals seek to evade it.
Wrong NOT Forever on the Throne!
Human rights will be the crown jewels of human liberty. As Gandhi taught, “There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.” In other words, wrong will not remain on the throne forever. That is why we must learn the right lessons from those who have done humanity so much wrong. The rule of law is on the rise ever so slowly in the world, and dictatorship on a precipitous decline. Neither Fujimori, al-Bashir, Gonzalez or the other criminals ever thought that they would be held accountable for their crimes in a court of law, or even in the court of world opinion. All of them believed they were above the law, and sneered at the rule of law. They perverted justice and subverted the democratic process; they eliminated the normal checks of an independent judiciary and evaded the supervision of a legislature freely elected by the people. They stonewalled the independent media from investigating and reporting their crimes, corruption and abuses. The fact of the matter is that people, even the poorest ones, know their basic human rights. Oppressed people the world over are crying out for justice, and for wrongs committed against them to be righted. In sum, they want and demand the rule of law!
Keeping Watch
Ethiopians shall overcome because “truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again” in our beautiful homeland. With the faith in the truth, to paraphrase Dr. King, “we will be able to hew out of the craggy boulders of crimes against humanity, a shining marble temple of democracy, freedom and human rights. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood, sisterhood and human rights and speed up the day in Ethiopia when, in the words of the prophet Amos, ‘Justice will roll down like waters; and righteousness like a mighty stream.’” No truth, no justice; no democracy, no peace!
—
[1] http://www.ethiopiangasha.org/tmp/ALM_November172008.html
The writer, Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. For comments, he can be reached at [email protected]
Marathon world record holder Haile Gebreselassie has never competed in the Boston Marathon, the most revered of all 26.2 mile races. But he says he plans in the near future to run the worlds longest running consecutive marathon, which takes place for the 113th time on Monday. He also hopes to add the New York City and Chicago Marathons to his list of conquests, and dreams of someday winning a Marathon Majors title.
In the meantime, the 36-year old Ethiopian will concentrate on running marathons such as Berlin, London and Dubai because he feels his world-record setting days are not over.
“Yes, I would like to run Boston because it’s one of the biggest marathons in the world,” he said by phone from Addis Abba, his hometown in Ethiopia. “And New York is such a wonderful city, the atmosphere is just perfect. I will do them sooner or later. But first I’d like to set more records.”
That means running more marathons now that feature world record friendly courses and do not require travel to the United States.
“It is very difficult, because of the time zone changes and the jet lag,” he says.
Gebreselassie has run only three road races in the United States. He set a world record in the half marathon (58.55) in Phoenix, Az. in 2006. Samuel Wanjiru broke the record in 2007 (58:33).
Gebrselassie ran the first 10 miles of the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon in October 2007 in a promotional appearance that coincided with attending a fundraising dinner to support the Ethiopian North American Health Professionals Association. He also won the New York City Half Marathon in 2007.
For now, Gebrselassie prefers easier courses and more manageable travel conditions on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean, including in London, Berlin, Dubai and Amsterdam. He has set his world records at the last two Berlin Marathons, running 2:03:59 in September 2008 and calls Berlin’s course flat and good.
“When you talk about marathons, you need a special place, one you know very easily,” he says. “It is a place where you need to know the difficult parts and the easiest parts. I studied the course in Berlin.”
Gerbrselassie won Olympic gold medals in the 10,000m at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and won the event four times at the world championships. He did not start running marathons until 2002. In his first 26.2 race, he finished third in London.
Gebrselassie has won six of the nine marathons he has officially entered. He credits his success to smart training and a youthful spirit. He covers up to 150 miles per week but does no track speed work, choosing instead to work on speed on a stationary bicycle.
He also spends much time developing a life away from running. He has built two schools in Ethiopia of 2,000 students at each location from kindergarten to ninth grade.
“Two-thousand students at a school in American is big,” he says. “But not in Ethiopia. “The school is not a business for me. It is for satisfaction. One of my dreams is somebody from one of my schools some day becoming president of Ethiopia. You never know.”
He also is building a hotel in Addis Ababa that he hopes will earn a five star rating and will ideally be operated by the Hilton or Sheraton hotel companies.
“I still have time for my running,” says Gebrselassie, who has three daughters and a son with wife Alem. “What can I do? I cannot just stop some things what I am doing. I have to handle everything. I am happy.”
The major marathons in the United States—New York, Chicago and Boston–have all shown interest in Gebrselassie, with New York the most persistent, according to his agent, Jos Hermens.
They will all have to be patient for marathon’s king to make a much awaited, and seemingly inevitable, debut appearance in a full U.S. marathon, even if it’s in his 40s.
“I never think about when I stop running,” he says. “Let it come by itself. If you are old mentally you are old physically. I feel I’m still young. Age is just a number.”
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — News sources in Addis Ababa are reporting that legendary Ethiopian singer {www:Tilahun Gessesse} has passed away at midnight last night.
Tilahun, 69, had been receiving medical treatment in the U.S. for several months and returned to Ethiopia a few days ago to celebrate Easter (Fasika) with family and friends.
He was admitted to a hospital after complaining about heart problem.
Brief biography of Tilahun Gessesse
Tilahun Gessesse is a legendary Ethiopian singer whose singing career spans 5 dacades. He was born on September 29, 1940, in Addis Ababa and died on April 19, 2009.
Gessesse was born to Woizero Gete Gurmu, who was Oromo, and Ato Gessesse Negusse, who was Amhara. When he was fourteen years old, he was taken by his grandfather to Waliso where he began attending Ras Gobena Elementary School.
As time went by, his interest in music became increasingly clear, although his grandfather urged him to concentrate on his academic studies. The Ras Gobena School Principal Mr. Shedad (who was from Sudan), encouraged Gessesse’s interest in music and urged him to go to Sudan to pursue his music career. Although Gessesse did not go to Sudan, he took Mr. Shedad’s advice very seriously. When Woizro Negatwa Kelkai, Ato Eyoel Yohanes and others artists from the Hager Fikir Theatre came to his school to perform, Gessesse took the opportunity to discuss his interest in music with Ato Eyoel. He was told to go to Addis Ababa if he wanted to pursue a career in the field.
Gessesse left school to go to Addis Ababa, a journey he began on foot without his grandfather’s consent. When his grandfather realized that Tilahun was no longer in Woliso, he informed Gessesse’s great-aunt in Tulu Bolo. After Gessesse traveled fifteen kilometers on foot, he was caught in Tulu Bolo and stayed overnight with his great-aunt Woizero Temene Bantu. The next day, he was forced to return back to his grandfather in Woliso. Since his interest in music lay deep in his heart, Gessesse chose not to stay at his grandfather’s house in Woliso. After staying only one night at his grandfather’s house, he again began his journey to Addis Ababa, this time hiding himself in the back of a loaded truck.
In Addis Ababa, Gessesse was first hired by the Hager Fikir Association, which is now known as Hager Fikir Theater. After a few years at the Hager Fikir Theater, he joined the Imperial Bodyguard Band where he became a leading star singer. During his time with the band, Gessesse ran afoul of the government after the attempted coup d’état of December 1960 by the Imperial Bodyguard. He was arrested and put in prison for a time.
Gessesse moved to the National Theater where his success continued. He was so famous that he appeared three times in front of Emperor Haile Selassie I. During a visit, the Emperor advised him not to abuse his talent.
The majority of Gessesse’s recordings are in Amharic, though he has recorded a number of songs in Oromo.
He received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Addis Ababa University, in appreciation of his contribution to Ethiopian music. He has also received an award for his lifetime achievements from the Ethiopian Fine Art and Mass Media Prize Trust.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The Ethiopian Ministry of Health (EMOH) announced that there was a USD$ 2.6 billion financing gap to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the health sector of that country.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — News sources in Addis Ababa are reporting that legendary Ethiopian singer {www:Tilahun Gessesse} has passed away at midnight last night.