JERUSALEM — Israel’s hottest musical export these days is a dreadlocked composer who pioneered a unique blend of Israeli, Ethiopian, Yemenite and Latin music from a makeshift recording studio in his parents’ basement.
Idan Raichel’s musical fusion — catchy melodies mixed with Hebrew and Amharic lyrics sung by artists from Israel’s community of Ethiopian Jewish immigrants — has conquered the charts in Israel and is now making waves abroad.
Raichel has already performed at the Sydney Opera House in Australia as well as in Hong Kong, Mexico City, Moscow and Singapore. He is currently wrapping up a six-city tour of the United States before heading to Europe.
The Idan Raichel Project usually performs with about a dozen people on stage at a time, but the band has some 90 revolving members from various backgrounds, singing primarily in Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic and Swahili and ranging in age from 16 to the 80s.
TRAIN STATION
Besides its singular sound and style, the band is also unique in having, despite its name, no frontman. Raichel calls the project a ”big umbrella,” or a ”train station” for various artists who pass through to collaborate with him. ”I would say it is more a compilation than a band,” he says.
Though Raichel sings some of the project’s biggest hits, on stage he often sits quietly behind his piano. He compares his role to that of a movie director.
”Compare it to Woody Allen,” Raichel says. “Who cares if he is in his own films? You still know if it a movie by Woody Allen. Sometimes he is in it, sometimes not. Every song is a different scene of a film, and you take the lead singer that is the best frontman and actor for every scene.”
Raichel, 31, grew up in the middle-class town of Kfar Saba listening to music and learning to play the accordion. He spent his compulsory military service playing the piano in an army band. Like other soldiers, he was forced to sport a short military haircut. He hasn’t cut his hair since his discharge.
After shedding his uniform, he worked as a counselor at a school for troubled youth where he encountered Ethiopian immigrants for the first time. He immediately connected to their community.
In 2002, the Idan Raichel Project burst onto the Israeli scene. Its self-titled debut album was voted album of the year, and Raichel was selected singer of the year.
One of his biggest hits, Mi’Maamakim (Hebrew for “Out of the Depths”), begins to the tune of Nanu Nanu Ney, a traditional Ethiopian folk song.
Israeli crowds seem to embrace Raichel’s multiethnic, multilingual mix. At a recent concert in Jerusalem, some 3,000 youths cheered wildly through a two-hour performance, jamming against the stage and singing along in various languages.
Raichel’s die-hard international fans include R&B artist India.Arie; Rob Cavallo, the producer of Green Day, and the actress Natalie Portman. He insists his music is distinctly Israeli and calls it the current “music of the streets of Tel Aviv.”
Hebrew music has evolved from earnest paeans to the beauty of the Land of Israel and odes to the military. Today, except for a Mediterranean influence, Israeli popular music is more in tune with contemporary music worldwide.
USES AMHARIC
Raichel has incorporated all of these streams. In many ways, he is a throwback to those early songs — which is why he is regarded by the music establishment as an authentic Israeli voice. He is further distinguished by his use of Amharic — a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia — and other multiethnic influences, an unusual mixture he pioneered.
Music critic Yossi Harsonsky calls Raichel’s work “Israeli music with a universal character.”
”He is one of the Israeli composers most in touch with the history of Israeli music, but it is also very pluralistic, very eclectic,” Harsonsky says. “It has something very poetic, original, unique and rich. There is something very exotic to his music.”
For many Israelis, the Amharic of Raichel’s music is the first they have heard, and his Ethiopian bandmates are the first Ethiopians they have encountered.
In Israel, Ethiopian immigrants have long been neglected, a downtrodden minority plagued by poverty, crime, violence and substance abuse. Raichel is proud that his band has made them cool.
”It is the first time you can listen in the mainstream radio to vocalists from Morocco singing in their own native tongue, to the great vocals of Ethiopia,” he says.
The project includes singers from Sudan, Uruguay, Columbia and Rwanda and also has featured Arab-Israeli singers. One of the songs on Raichel’s recently released third album Within My Walls is in Arabic. He says he hopes to one day perform in Damascus and include Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinians singers in his project.
”Artists in Israel are one of the most important ambassadors,” he says.
Iran has sent a parliamentary delegation to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to attend the 120th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
The current political, economic and social developments, the role of parliaments in restoring peace and security at times of crisis, climate change, human rights, freedom of speech, sustainable development and energy issues will be discussed at the summit.
At the event, the Iranian parliamentary delegation will also call for parliament action to ensure humanitarian aid for Gaza and bring to trial the war criminals of the latest Israeli offensive in the strip.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union serves as a platform for parliaments to share their experiences and contribute to global defense strategies and the promotion of human rights.
Established in Geneva in 1889, the IPU is comprised of parliaments of sovereign states. 143 national parliaments are IPU members, and seven regional parliamentary assemblies are associate members.
The 120th assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will host 3,000 delegates in Addis Ababa from April 5 to 10.
Some people in Ethiopia on the religious fringes are playing with fire. I have received emails of videos and audios circulating over the internet as evidences of Christians being attacked by Muslims and Christians attacking Muslims in Ethiopia. It appears these documents are being sent out by each group to garner sympathy for their cause. I cannot finger point to who started this stupidity as I have no detailed information. But I don’t think it is even important to know who started it. None of it comports with Ethiopia’s history of religious tolerance. I have also heard stories of sporadic attacks by these fringe fanatics in different parts of Ethiopia. The {www:Woyanne} regime of Ethiopia also has issued incoherent statements about it, in some cases blaming it on its political opponents as it often does. Whatever its magnitude, and whoever the culprit instigating it, these developments are downright scary and extremely disturbing and they should stop.
Trying to widen it, parading ugly statements coming out of the mouths of these fringe elements, playing tit for tat and taking it out on the innocent, is plain stupidity and no one is going to benefit from it both spiritually and materially. Forming interfaith groups and having honest and intelligent discussion can help not only stop these fringe elements, but also goes a long way to find the real culprit trying to saw the seeds of discord among the two religions who have uniquely cultivated a long tradition of tolerance and living in peace in Ethiopia. The elders in the leadership of both religions should be reminded that they have a huge responsibility to stop this madness.
Yes, religions have not been treated equally throughout our history in Ethiopia. Christianity has been dominant in Ethiopia for centuries. Yes, there are historical reasons for this inequality. But our Muslim brothers and sisters have every right to demand equality now. It is their country and they deserve no less. We still have to go some length to attain religious equality in Ethiopia but this can only be done by first establishing a system under the rule of law. It has to be clear to all of us that those responsible for the unequal treatment of and inequality between religions were never once the ordinary people of Ethiopia of any faith. It was the rulers who use religion for political ends. Any religious discord in Ethiopia can directly be traced to the manipulative works of the rulers and not to any group of ordinary people. It is undeniable that there is a lot of progress toward religious equality in Ethiopia since the seventies, particularly since the coming of the Derg in 1974. But unfortunately, both Christians and Muslims ended up getting the short end of what we sought.
The dawn of our genuine demand for equality was marked by the 1974 Muslim-Christian historic demonstration in Addis Ababa in support of the demand for the equal treatment of Muslims in Ethiopia. Mengistu and the {www:Derg} answered our question by turning out to be equal opportunity killers and oppressors across religions. The Ethiopian Orthodox church lost most of its land and property and turned destitute overnight. Even the pope and many clergy were guillotined. Muslims and Christians were killed by the Derg at the same rates with equal disregard for our lives. This, of course, was not the kind of equality we wanted. But we can say we suffered equally.
The TPLF/EPRDF made a smarter choice than the Derg when it decided to control the administration and management of religious institutions and use them craftily for its political ends. They even made direct and indirect interference in the appointments of the leadership to lead both the mosque and the church. In cases where both the Christians and Muslims attempted to rebel against this meddling demanding independence, the TPLF never hesitated to desecrate the places of worship of both Islam and Christianity and used military force inside both mosques and churches spilling the blood of innocent believers. Have we forgotten? This happened not a long time ago.
I argue that the most serious problem that stands in the way of religious equality in Ethiopia now is the absence of democracy and rule of law. Religious conflicts are minimal or none existent in democracies. This is the key to forming a lasting equality. I met a Muslim Ethiopian friend who participated in a recent demonstration at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington DC. Among other questions, I asked him what they were doing at the embassy and why they did not call Christians to join them in the demonstration. He said the objective of the demonstration was to demand that the Woyanne government implement the articles in the constitution as regards religious equality. I asked him the responses they got. He told me that the Ambassador and embassy staff sweet-talked them and thanked them for their peaceful demonstration and even told them that their demonstration was a model for other demonstrations. I only hope my Muslim brothers and sisters who sincerely look for the right answers to their questions have not fallen for this cheap patronization. In fact, Ethiopian Muslims have more serious issues to worry about. They may need to be a little more wary of the government’s unnecessary intervention in Muslim countries to fight so called jihadism and the rhetoric Meles and Bereket use borrowing from the West. They should be bothered by the official use of such terms as Islamists, Islamic terrorism, jihadists etc. If I were an Ethiopian Muslim I would worry more about this kind of incendiary, mercenary government literature than what a lunatic Christian monk out from a monastery speaks of Islam. Thanks to the election of President Obama, these languages are now being discarded even in US officialdom.
If our Moslem brothers and sisters think that the statements on religious equality stated in the constitution can be selectively implemented while other parts of the constitution keep being violated by the regime every day, I think they are wasting their time. It is like they are asking the lady to be half pregnant and give birth to a normal child. Either the constitution is respected as a whole or there will be no respect for any part of it. I think both Muslims and Christians should get this clearly. Only the prevalence of the rule of law can guarantee equal treatment.
Ethiopia has enough space to accommodate all religions equally if our rulers do not violate our values and the laws in the books. At different times the regime has used our differences, religious and ethnic, for political purposes. Differences are the nutrition over which the Woyanne thrive, can’t you see it? A Muslim who demands better for himself cannot get it if the Christian is not guaranteed of the same rights and vice versa. Our rulers, including the TPLF are not worried about giving religions equal playing field. Their preoccupation is over how to use them for their political ends.
The last time I checked the list of the 193 people murdered by Meles Zenawi after the ill fated May 2005 election, it contains an equal mix of Muslims and Christians at least as can be seen from their names.
Decrees and constitutional amendments or oral promises from powerful despots cannot guarantee equality and freedom, only a collective decision by people and an absolute guarantee of the rule of law do. Whether we like it or not we have to learn to share the space God gave us without encroaching on each other’s spaces. So the best place to spend our emotions and energy is on seeking and building democracy and the rule of law. That is the ultimate weapon that would make all of us equal. Despotic rulers have a vested interest in our division and inequality. Read history.
Or learn from me, a Christian and Tahir my Muslim childhood friend. We were about six or seven year olds then. Tahir and me, both of us were born in Debre Sina, that beautiful town at the foothills of Tarma Ber in northern Shewa. We were neighbors. Our mothers were friends. Tahir and me always play together and love soccer a lot. We eat in each other’s homes. Our mothers and everybody in our homes cares much not to mix our plates. Living in our neighborhood was also a bully named Negash. Negash is a little older and bigger than both me and Tahir. There was hardly any kid who hasn’t tested Negash’s boots on his butt (the calchio). He sometimes beats you for no reason and calls you any name he wants. Negash also loves to have us fight with one another. He often asks, “Which of you two is stronger?” (“mann yashenifal”), he would say, and goads us to wrestle and fight. Tahir and me have wrestled more than once to show him which one of us are stronger. Negash does this to many kids in the neighborhood. One day, while I and Tahir were playing “goalkeeping” with the rubber ball Tahir’s father gave us from his store that morning, Negash came. Negash grabbed our ball and kicked it hard that after making some bounces it ended up in the compound of people who had a dangerous dog. Both me and Tahir who have not even had fifteen minutes with our new precious ball were mad as hell and demanded that Negash gets our ball back for us. Tahir and I have grown in a community where boys were not allowed to cry and run home to seek help or hide. We had to stand on our feet and fight. Going home crying will result in you getting whipped more. I picked up a few stones and demanded that Negash gets our ball back. Tahir too filled his pockets with stones and held two big ones in both hands. While Negash was taking strides to catch and beat us, we rained our stones on him and knocked him down. We frisked his head and he was full of blood. We did not want to take a chance and wanted to make sure that he doesn’t get up and beat us. Negash was crying in his pool of blood when we were all over him giving him the {www:calcho} he loves to give to others. Some adult passerby stopped us and Tahir and me went home with our heads up but without our precious ball. Negash was taken to the clinic by his family. Our family and Negash’s heard the story of what happened. Tahir and me told our story to our families as is. Negash’s family pressed charges against our families. Finally, other people in the neighborhood intervened and made peace — I hardly remember how they did it. On the day of peace the three of us were made to kiss one another’s chicks and told to never quarrel again. From that day on, Negash became a different person for us. He started respecting not only Tahir and me but also his other victims in the neighborhood.
That, my friends, is how you sometimes get your freedoms back.
Mihret Debebe, general manager of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), told a press conference on Tuesday that after visiting the giant Gilgel Gibe III hydropower project, officials of the African Development Bank (ADB) expressed firm commitment to finance the project. The officials how visited the site of the project two weeks ago.
Gibe III, which will have an installed capacity of 1,870 MW, is the projected to be the second biggest hydro-electric project in Africa. It is one of the five massive hydro-power projects that EEPCo is undertaking. The total investment cost of Gibe III is estimated at 18 billion birr.
“Several international banks were interested to finance the project had it not been for the global credit crunch,” Mihret said. The government of Ethiopia launched the project with its own resource two years ago and 31 percent of the civil work has been accomplished.
From the beginning, the project had faced fierce criticism from environmentalists who have been crying foul. The environmentalists called on international financers not to finance the project. EEPCo has undertaken a comprehensive environmental impact assessment and posted it on its website for 120 days for the public to comment on.
“The first thing the ADB officials did was to assess our impact assessment report. And they found out that it was a sound report. Just two weeks ago they were here and they expressed their commitment to finance the project,” Mihret said.
Annoyed by the BBC documentary film titled “the Dam That Divides Ethiopians” and televised recently, Alemayehu Tegenu, the Minister of Mines and Energy, told reporters that the government of Ethiopia was comitted to eradicate poverty and part of this strategy was to empower Ethiopia.
“There is no development that harms the people. We have consulted the people who live in the Omo basin. There are people who have a hidden agenda. But whatever motive they have they will not distract us from expediting the speedy development program we have embarked on,” Alemayehu said.
In a related news, EEPCo announced that it had started a power shedding program all over the nation. Unable to meet the growing demand for electric power, EEPCo said there will be power outage six days a month for fourteen hours. The corporation said there will be periodic power interruption from 9:00 up to 10:00 six days a month. The corporation said the power deficit has reached 160 MW at peak hours. The country’s total generation capacity is 814 MW. The corporation attributed the power shortage to the fast growing investment projects in the nation and the delay encountered in two (Gibe II and Tekeze) of the five dams under construction.
The former Ethiopian Prime Minister, Tamrat Layne, denied involvement in mass killings more than 15 years ago in Dire Dawa, Bedenno, Arbagugu, Aris and other communities, during an exclusive interview with VOA Amharic’s Addisu Abebe. Major excerpts from the interview were aired on March 25 and 26, 2009.
Tamrat,served a 12-year sentence in Ethiopian prisons on charges of corruption. He has been in the United States for two months and attended a Pentecostal church in the Washington, D.C. area where he confessed his sins to God, he said. Tamrat joined the communist party at the age of 18, and is now a born-again Christian. He has also denies taking any money from the government.
Hear Addisu’s full interview with Tamrat below.[podcast]http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/horn/2009_03/audio/mp3/TAMRAT_LAYNE_04_March_2009_0.mp3[/podcast]
It’s after midnight in China, but I wanted to mention in real time an oratorical performance that deserves a second look. It’s from Barack Obama’s NATO press conference that just wrapped up, and the part worth studying is the two or three minutes that followed a question by Edward Luce of the Financial Times.
I have nothing against Luce, who wrote a very good recent book about India, but here he asked in what can only be called plummy tones whether Obama still clung to the idea of “American exceptionalism.” The general phrasing of the question held that idea out at arm’s length as a kind of yahoo colonial oddity.
“I believe in American exceptionalism,” Obama said after one beat for thought. “Just as the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism…” I don’t have a transcript here, but what was impressive was how rapidly he seemed to have figured out the full shape of his answer; how effortlessly the term “the Brits” (and the instant pairing with “the Greeks”) offset the seeming Oxbridge hauteur* of the question; and how he went on to give so balanced a response that no one, Yank or otherwise, could fail to be satisfied.
Of course he was proud of his country, Obama said. But it was also objectively exceptional in several ways: it still had the world’s largest economy; its military power was unmatched; and — with emphasis here — its Constitutional principles enshrined values and ideals that truly were exceptional. Therefore it should be proud of its role in the world, and embrace its responsibilities.
Then came the pivot, introduced as usual with the word “Now…” Of course America’s strength didn’t mean it could do things wholly on its own. And of course Obama’s pride in his country didn’t blind him to the fact that it sometimes could be wrong, nor to the idea that other people from other countries had good ideas that had to be heeded. Indeed, the very fact of American leadership made it all the more important to show respect and listen attentively. He wrapped it all up by saying he saw “no contradiction” between the idea that America was exceptionally strong and had an exceptional leadership role, and the reality that it needed to work with others as part of a team.
When a transcript or YouTube clip comes out, give it a look. The thoughts may seem banal, but I challenge anyone to come up with a clearer explanation of American exceptionalism to an international audience in the same number of words — not to mention doing so on live TV with maybe five seconds to figure out what your answer will be. In a world where evidence mattered, these few minutes would put an end to the “can’t talk without a teleprompter” madness. More important, they’re a way of explaining to Americans the potential and limits of our international role.
And, yes, Obama did end the press conference by ducking a question about Kosovo. But knowing what not to answer is a part of rhetorical effectiveness too. Update: He also appeared to refer to the language of Austria as “Austrian,” thus: “I don’t know how you say it in Austrian, but we call it wheeling-dealing.” If this had been GW Bush, it would have been taken as an obvious gaffe, as in his calling the residents of Greece “Grecians.” Here you can’t be sure whether it’s a plain error or a knowing casualism, as in saying that Australians speak “Australian” — eg, in the ad that says, “Foster’s: Australian for ‘beer.’ “
JERUSALEM — Israel’s hottest musical export these days is a dreadlocked composer who pioneered a unique blend of Israeli, Ethiopian, Yemenite and Latin music from a makeshift recording studio in his parents’ basement.
The former Ethiopian Prime Minister, Tamrat Layne, denied involvement in mass killings more than 15 years ago in Dire Dawa, Bedenno, Arbagugu, Aris and other communities, during an exclusive interview with VOA Amharic’s Addisu Abebe. Major excerpts from the interview were aired on March 25 and 26, 2009.