By Yilma Bekele
We are all aware that the global economy is in not in good shape. Both rich industrialized countries and dirt-poor subsistence economies are in a free fall. No one knows where the bottom is. Governments that are democratic, autocratic, military dictatorship or royal kingdoms are all trying different medicine to heal the ailing economy. Let us look at two doctors that have written prescriptions to make the sick economy better.
The two doctors are President Barack Obama of the US on one side and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia on the other. Both their countries have been suffering from recession for quite a while now. The unemployment figure in the US is about 7% average, inflation is about 4%, and the budget deficit is in the trillions while in Ethiopia the unemployment is about 60%, inflation 65% and no budget so to speak of since the country relies on welfare.
President Obama who has been in office for less than three months started of by saying ‘To understand how we get there, we first need to understand how we got here.’ Thus he gathered elected official, experts in various fields and ordinary citizens trying to identify the root cause of the problem and recommend different options to fix it.
He had his treasury secretary work with the banks to ease the credit crunch, defense department devise a way to cut the bloated budget and recommend a safe and honorable exit from Iraq, congress pass a stimulus package to put people back to work on government projects, his secretary of state go to major capitals to hold hands and soothe nerves while he himself went to all parts of the country to get support for his plan of attack and rally the people so that they have confidence in his leadership.
It is a multifaceted approach to one of the biggest problems encountered by his nation. There was no silver bullet here. The main focus was to try different medicines but with the emphasis being the involvement of the people in the treatment. Without the cooperation and good will of the patient the medicine will not work. All his speeches and actions made it clear that the citizen was part of the solution. Even when most felt depressed and helpless the president was acting like a national cheerleader exalting the population to rise up and devise new ways and new methods to slay the double dragon of recession and unemployment.
He did not try to shift the blame on others. The previous administration was not made a scapegoat nor bankers and industry heads targeted to deflect the issue. The president said all are responsible and there was no need to point fingers. The banks were seen by many as the primary culprits in this fiasco and some shouted ‘off with their heads! Sacking a few and prosecuting some would have been a populist move. Mr. Obama did none and said ‘we believe that preemptive government takeovers are likely to end up costing taxpayers even more in the end, and because it is more likely to undermine than to create confidence. Governments should practice the same principle as doctors: first do no harm.’
The US economy is showing signs of life. It is not out of the woods yet, but many believe the patient is recovering. The people are impressed by the rational approach of the commander in chief. His ‘no hysteria’ calm disposition and cheery attitude is seen as the best medicine. His supporters are proud and the skeptics are slowly being drawn to believe that the doctor is knowledgeable and may be he deserves some respect.
How is our other doctor doing? The patient is in dire straits. Unlike the US Ethiopia’s economic situation is a little bit simpler. Due to the primitive state of industrialization the economy is not integrated to the wider world. Farming which accounts for all economic activity is subsistence level and export of raw unprocessed coffee is the mainstay. So the question is how did the doctor approach the problem?
First please note that ‘this’ doctor has been treating the patient for the last eighteen years. The patient has been denied the right to consult other experts and get a second opinion. The patient has been on life support with intensive care nurses (security forces) on stand by 24/7. The patient is dying.
The PM’s initial reaction was complete denial of the problem. He told his parliament “In general, we don’t expect drastic effects on our economy, our financial structure is not as liberalized as those of affected countries and the economy is not intertwined to Western economies to face a crisis” This was August of 2008.
When asked by Time magazine regarding the problem of famine Ato Meles said “ It’s a mixed bag. When you have an emergency, there is the urge to do whatever it takes to see people get assistance. [But that can mean] the name of the game is [to] include a bit of hyperbole, and that can convey the message that the situation is hopeless when in fact it is not, and that might do some lasting damage, given the fact that all investors take their information and make their assessments on the basis of the 24-hour news cycle. Famine has wreaked havoc in Ethiopia for so long; it would be stupid not to be sensitive to the risk of such things occurring. But there has not been a famine on our watch – emergencies, but no famines.
When it came to foreign currency shortage he decided to solve the problem by confiscating his citizens property. In March of 2008 by order of the Prime Minister Federal police confiscated over 2 million US dollars and thirteen million Ethiopian bir from traders. They were declared illegal and forfeited their right.
A year later he went after coffee exporters and traders. His government confiscated seventeen thousand tons of coffee and suspended the licenses of over eighty traders. He also said six will be prosecuted.
Do you see a pattern here? It is never about looking at the cause. It is all about finding someone to blame for a failed policy. Ato Meles still blames the Derge for current problems. You would think after seventeen years Mengistu is history. Actually his government goes as far back as Menelik to shift responsibility. Does it makes sense when today those fourteen years or under are 46% of the population?
Mr. Obama looked at the cause and he is in the process of writing a new playbook. He is not about looking back. He is focused on the future. He said ‘There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was destroyed as soon as the storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when “…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” How true.
Unfortunate for us our leaders are not interested in constructing on solid foundation. They get drunk with their own lies and propaganda. Because they thought it and said it they think it has happened. Thus there is no chance that the medicine they are prescribing to cure the illness will work. It is more likely to put the patient in a coma. One problem two solutions, which doctor would you trust with your life?
In this week of Easter we should remember our dear sister Judge Birtukan Mediksa. We should admire her courage. Deeply be impressed by her determination to sacrifice for our cause. She is a learned person with a law degree. She was a municipal judge. By any standard she is an achiever. But most important our sister is a person of principle. She is a rare individual at this juncture in our ancient history. We have encountered so many fake usurpers that we get disoriented when we meet people like judge Birtukan. She is in solitary confinement like a common criminal. She has been in confinement for 108 days. We hear that she is in good spirits and is very much inspired by the effort her country folks are putting to gain her release. We will not rest till she is free. We love you Birtukan. Happy Easter.
Further information:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1829842,00.html
http://www.galbeed.com/2009/03/26/ethiopia-revokes-coffee-licences/
http://www.demconwatchblog.com/diary/1334/full-text-of-president-obamas-economic-speech
http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?c=1&more=1&pb=1&tb=1&title=financial_crisis_to_have_little_effect_oand
BEIRUT, LEBANON (IRIN) – Eighty Ethiopian women have been in Tripoli Women’s Prison in north Lebanon for over a year, accused of not having a passport which was either taken from them when they started as domestic workers, or which they never had in the first place. Most were arrested on the street after running away from their employers – usually because of abuses ranging from forced confinement and starvation to physical harm and rape. Some had fled after being accused of stealing.
Having broken their work contracts, which guarantee them a flight home on completion of two years work, and with no passports, the girls are in limbo.
“The reason these women continue to sit in detention is because the employer doesn’t want to pay for the girl’s ticket home, General Security [Lebanese intelligence agency] doesn’t have the money, and often their embassies are unaware of their detention,” said Roula Masri, coordinator for the Collective for Research and Training on Development Action, an NGO campaigning for workers’ rights.
Kholoud, from Sudan, has been in Lebanon for 18 years. She came with her husband and two children to escape conflict and unemployment. But when her husband was deported, she said, he took all the family’s official papers with him. “Now I can’t prove that I am Sudanese to obtain a new passport … so I am stuck here.”
She struggles to pay $110 a month for a one-room apartment with no kitchen, refrigerator or running water, and relies on donations from friends to pay for her children’s education.
Rights groups say an estimated 200,000 domestic workers in Lebanon – most of them women from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia – are not protected by labor laws.
Last month, after a two-year effort by rights groups working with the ministries of labor and justice as well as General Security, the authorities promised
to enact a new unified contract for migrant domestic workers that would improve their working conditions.
For the first time, workers will be able to read the same contract as their employer in their own language. Work terms have been extended from two to three years and the contract states the women should only work 10 hours a day for six days a week and are entitled to eight hours of continuous rest. Salaries, which Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported can often be withheld as punishment, must now be paid and signed for each month.
The employer, however, will still have the right to break the contract for whatever reason, which means the worker is then responsible for paying for her ticket home or repaying any debts owed.
Workers will still not be guaranteed the right to retain their passports.
Despite this move, activists say a change in the law is needed to ensure the new contracts and the work of placement agencies are regulated.
“Experiences in other countries, such as Jordan, which already have a unified employment contract and a minimum salary for domestic workers, show that a contract is not sufficient in itself and that a law protecting these workers is needed,” said HRW senior researcher in Lebanon, Nadim Houry.
In February, eyewitnesses reported seeing a domestic worker fall from a sixth-floor balcony to her death in Beirut’s central Hamra district.
HRW says domestic workers are dying at the rate of more than one per week in Lebanon, most through suicide or in risky attempts to escape. – IRIN
By John Connolly | Boston Herald
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The men’s and women’s elite fields for Monday’s 113th edition of the Boston Marathon were bolstered yesterday with the addition of top respective contenders Tekeste Kebede and Elfenesh Alemu. Both hail from Ethiopia and both have a past association with the fabled Hopkinton-to-Boston trek.
Kebede, a 27-year-old native of Addis Ababa, ran Boston in 2007 and was in third place nearing the 25-mile mark in Brookline before succumbing to dehydration issues. Kebede has finished in the top three at six major marathons with a best time of 2:10:36 at January’s Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon in Tempe, Ariz.
Alemu, 33, of Arsi, has competed in three previous Boston races, finishing third in 2002, and second in both ’04 and ’05. Alemu has won two Japanese marathons, at Nagano (2:24:55 in 2000) and Tokyo (2:24:47 in ’03).
Championing 5K
While the marathon has attracted an official field of 26,400, the inaugural 5K partner race on Sunday will feature 4,000 runners.
Among the scheduled participants are three former Boston champions celebrating anniversaries of their victories: Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen (20th anniversary, 1989), New Zealand’s Lorraine Moller (25th, 1984) and Ireland’s Neil Cusack (35th, 1974). . . .
Immediately following the 5K event, there will be a new series of four one-mile races for men’s and women’s elite athletes and high schoolers. Ian Dobson, a nine-time All-America and former Stanford University teammate of U.S. marathon hopeful Ryan Hall, has been added to the men’s mile field. Challengers include Rob Myers, a three-time U.S. National 1,500-meter champion, and Ireland’s two-time Olympian Alistair Cragg, a European Indoor Champion at 3,000 meters. Marblehead native Shalane Flanagan, who won a bronze medal at 10,000 meters in the Beijing Games, heads the women’s field with former Villanova star Carrie Tollefson, a prime threat.
Rodgers’ cause
Four-time Boston champion Bill Rodgers, who will be running as a member of Athletes For A Cure to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer research, is a cancer survivor with a long family history of the disease. One family victim, great grandfather Daniel T. Molloy, was among the first Irishmen to graduate from Yale University in 1902. Molloy later became a Hartford policeman and worked as a gardener for literary great Mark Twain. . . .
Television and radio commentators should have oodles of fun if four-time champion and course record-holder Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (2:07:14) and Frankfurt course record-holder (2:07:21) Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot – no relation – come running side-by-side down Boylston Street to the finish on Monday.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The so-called “opposition” Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) held a demonstration in Addis Ababa today in which 250 carefully screened individuals participated. The UDJ leaders said that the protest was held to demand the release of their “leader” Birtukan Mideksa, but what they actually did was give legitimacy to the illegitimate regime of Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) ahead of next year’s general elections. How much political benefit the Woyanne regime has gained by this fake little rally is reflected on the headlines of major international news organizations. Here are some of them:
VOA: “Ethiopia’s Opposition Holds First Rally Since 2005”
AFP: “Ethiopian opposition stages rare protest”
Reuters: “Ethiopians stage first protest since ’05 violence”
BBC: “Ethiopians rally in rare protest”
APA: “Ethiopian opposition demonstrate to demand release of their jailed leader”
CNN and others will no doubt echo the same story. The following is full text of the reports by VOA, BBC and others:
By Peter Heinlein | VOA
Supporters of imprisoned Ethiopian political leader Birtukan Mideksa have marched in the streets of Addis Ababa to demand her release. The march was the first officially sanctioned political demonstration since the violent protests of 2005.
A carefully controlled group of 250 people marched to the offices of Ethiopia’s president and prime minister Thursday to present petitions demanding freedom for opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa.
The 35-year-old former judge was first jailed after the disputed 2005 elections, in which her party claimed victory. She was among dozens of opposition leaders sentenced to life, but later released after a pardon agreement with the government.
Birtukan was re-arrested in December and ordered to serve out her life sentence after rejecting a government demand that she make a public statement acknowledging that she asked for the pardon.
Among those participating in Thursday’s demonstration was former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada, who left office after a dispute with the ruling party in 2001. Negasso, who is a member of parliament says Birtukan should be freed because her re-arrest was illegal.
“If she was found guilty, she should have been brought in front of a court, they should have accused her and brought her to court and had her sentenced again, but they didn’t do that,” said Gidada. “They just picked her from the street and put her in prison. And that is not the way justice would do.”
Government officials have refused to budge in the face of strong pressure to release Birtukan, who is an unmarried mother of a four-year-old daughter. Communications Minister Bereket Simon told reporters last week the government has no intention of re-opening the case on humanitarian grounds.
“No. Not at all,” said Simon. “It’s a judicially resolved case and the government has no mandate to intervene in implementing the decision.”
A spokesman for the Unity for Democracy and Justice party, Hailu Araya, says opposition leaders plan to make Birtukan’s case a main issue in next year’s national elections. He calls her imprisonment an affront to the rule of law.
“There must be a way out. Just because government officials say there is no way out doesn’t mean there is no way out,” said Hailu. “We have to, through persistence, through pressure, we want the rule of law to be respected. If the rule of law is respected, there is a way of having her released.”
Unity for Democracy and Justice party officials say the permit allowing 250 people to march Thursday was the first of its kind granted by the government since the violent post-2005 election protests that led to Birtukan’s arrest. Those protests claimed the lives of nearly 200 opposition supporters killed in clashes with government forces.
Among those joining this latest demonstration was Birtukan’s 72-year-old mother, Almaz Gebregziabhere, who has been one of the few visitors allowed to see her daughter in prison.
Birtukan served seven years on the federal bench, one of Ethiopia’s youngest judges, before resigning in 2000 to run for parliament. She said at the time she was resigning her judgeship because of government interference in the judiciary.
Reuters: ADDIS ABABA, April 16 (Reuters) – Ethiopians marched on Thursday to demand the release of a jailed opposition leader in the first political protests since a disputed 2005 election ended in street violence that killed 199 people.
Birtukan Mideksa, the 34-year-old leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party (UDJ), was first jailed with other opposition leaders after the 2005 poll. She was pardoned in 2007 but then re-arrested last year.
The former judge has been in solitary confinement since December and went on hunger strike for 13 days in January.
“We are marching today to tell the government that the imprisonment of our leader is illegal,” said Debebe Eshetu, a senior UDJ official who was also jailed in 2005.
“She has been put in jail to weaken our party and to warn politicians who are outside the same thing may happen to us.”
Birtukan is seen by regional analysts as the country’s foremost opposition politician and critics of the government say she has been jailed because of the threat she could pose at next year’s parliamentary elections.
Experts expect Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government to win that poll since the opposition was weakened by the imprisonment of many its top figures in 2005.
Ethiopian opposition parties routinely accuse the government of harassment and say their candidates were intimidated when Ethiopians went to the polls last April for local elections.
The Meles government denies it.
Former Ethiopian President, Negaso Gidada, who is now an independent member of parliament, took part in Thursday’s march. He told Reuters there was no democracy in Ethiopia.
“I am convinced that our democratic rights and human rights are being abused,” he said as the demonstrators marched on the prime minister’s office and the palace of President Girma Woldegiorgis.
Guards barred them from entering the palace, but they were allowed to deliver a protest letter.
The demonstrators were given a letter in return that said Birtukan had broken the law and so could not be released.
The protest, which was approved by the authorities, was limited to 250 participants who all had to wear a government-issued identity badge. Security was low-key with only a small number of plainclothes police mingling with the crowd and almost no uniformed officers present.
Protesters waved placards, played music and shouted slogans but drew little visible support from passers-by.
“The government have killed people who protest so I would not shout like this,” one onlooker who declined to be named told Reuters. “These people are very brave.”
BBC: The main opposition parties in Ethiopia have held a march in Addis Ababa to call for the release of their imprisoned leader, Birtukan Medeksa.
The demonstrators handed in a petition to the authorities about Ms Birtukan.
She is serving a life sentence, after officials revoked a pardon which had previously seen her set free.
Ethiopia has very little tradition of public protest, the BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says, and passers-by stopped and stared in amazement.
Almaz GebreEgziabher, Ms Birtukan’s mother, hopes the demonstration may help her daughter be released in time for the Ethiopian Easter this weekend.
“I am happy. I saw her last Saturday, and she is quite well. But I am praying that, with the help of God, she might be released tomorrow or the day after so that she can spend Easter with me and her daughter,” she said.
Ms Birtukan’s five-year-old daughter and mother are the only people who are being allowed to visit her in jail.
She was among more than 100 people jailed for political offences after Ethiopia’s election in 2005, most of whom have since been pardoned.
At the time of her re-arrest her colleague Berhanu Nega, who was also pardoned and now lives in exile, told the BBC it showed the government “was hell-bent on staying in power”.
Ms Birtukan is a former judge and was one of the younger and more charismatic leaders of the coalition which did well against the ruling party in the 2005 elections.
Our correspondent says that while in jail facing charges of treason, she became even more of a heroine, attracting widespread sympathy as a single mother separated from her baby daughter.
After the opposition leaders were pardoned and released last year, she emerged as the leader of a new coalition, the Union for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), painstakingly stitched together from various opposition groupings to contest elections in 2010.
The government news agency, quoting the ministry of justice, said her pardon had been revoked because she had denied requesting her pardon.
Ms Birtukan’s problems started when she spoke to journalists abroad about the way the opposition leaders were released, our correspondent says.
She talked about negotiations which had taken place between the opposition and government, with the help of a panel of elders, before their pardon was granted.
The government prefers to lay emphasis on a document signed by the prisoners, regretting any mistakes they had committed and asking for pardon.
This implies that their release was part of a normal judicial process, rather than in any way part of a negotiated political deal.
AFP: — Opposition protesters staged a rare demonstration in the Ethiopian capital Thursday, demanding the release of an official jailed for life in January.
Some 300 people massed outside the presidential palace and then marched towards Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s office in Addis Ababa in the first such protests since 2005, when disputed poll results sparked violence.
The group called for the release of Birtukan Midekssa, an opposition leader sentenced to life in prison after she reportedly denied ever expressing remorse to obtain a pardon in 2007 for treason and outrage against the constitution among other offences.
Birtukan, the head of the Unity for Democracy Justice (UDJ) party, had been detained with dozens of opposition figures and supporters following the 2005 elections.
“Our aim is to publicise the illegality of her detention, and to demand her immediate release. We demand the restoration of her pardon,” Yacob Hailemariam, UDJ’s deputy chief, told AFP.
Birtukan was only granted visiting rights by an Ethiopian court on Wednesday, but her release now depends on a government pardon board, which in turn will submit its decision to President Girme Wolde Giorgis.
“It was one big step in the whole process to have her family and lawyer allowed to visit the prison. We will resume our struggle to reach the next stage, which is to have her released,” party spokesman Hailu Araya told AFP.
The UDJ made its most spectacular electoral gains ever in the 2005 polls but cried foul over reported fraud, claiming it was robbed of victory by Meles’ ruling party.
The United States, a staunch Ethiopian ally and the country’s top aid contributor, has expressed concern over the 36-year-old’s re-arrest and called for more political freedom in the Horn of Africa nation.
Ethiopia’s next general elections are to be held in June 2010.
Meles, whose security forces were blamed for using excessive force four years ago, has vowed to prepare law enforcement agencies to avoid bloodshed in time for next year.
By Thomas C. Mountain | Online Journal
One of the best kept secrets in the international media these days is the link between the USA, Ethiopia and the Somali pirates. First, a little reliable background from someone on the ground in the Horn of Africa.
The Somali pirates operate out of the Ethiopian and USA created enclaves in Somalia calling themselves Somaliland and Puntland. These Ethiopian and USA backed warlord controlled territories have for many years hosted Ethiopian military bases, which have been greatly expanded recently by the addition of thousands of Ethiopian troops who were driven out of southern and central Somali by the Somali resistance to the Ethiopian invasion.
After securing their ransom for the hijacked ships the Somali pirates head directly to their local safe havens, in this case, the Ethiopian military bases, where they make a sizeable contribution to the retirement accounts of the Ethiopian regime headed by Meles Zenawi.
Of course, the international naval forces who are patrolling the Horn of Africa know all too well what is going on for they have at their disposal all sorts of high tech observation platforms, ranging from satellites to unmanned drones with high resolution video cameras that report back in real time.
The French commandos started to pursue the Somali pirates into their lairs last year until the pirates got the word that for the right amount of cash they were more than welcome in the Ethiopian military bases in their local neighborhoods. Ethiopia being the western, mainly USA, Cop on the Beat in East Africa put these bases off limits to the frustrated navies of the world, who are no doubt growling in anger to their USA counterparts about why this is all going on.
Now that the pirates have started attacking USA flagged shipping, something that was until now off limits, it remains to be seen what the Obama administration will do. One thing we in the Horn of Africa have learned all too well, when it comes to Ethiopia, don’t expect anything resembling accurate coverage by the media, especially those who operate under the cloak of ‘freedom of the press.’
Stay tuned for more on this from the Onlinejournal.com, the only site willing to expose the truth on matters no one else will touch.
