Houston judge dismisses charge against singer Wayna
(Houston Chronicle) — A judge this morning dismissed the charge against rhythm-and-blues singer Wayna, who was arrested Wednesday at a Houston airport for carrying a collapsible police baton.
Prosecutors asked state District Judge Jeannine Barr to dismiss the third-degree felony during a brief hearing at the downtown Harris County Criminal Justice Center.
No details were available on why the dismissal was requested and at which airport the arrest took place.
The Grammy-nominated singer, whose legal name is Wayna Wondwossen, was charged with carrying a weapon in an airport after she tried to board a plane while carrying the baton, authorities said.
She uses the baton as a prop while singing Billie Club, a song about police brutality.
She did not attend this morning’s hearing.
Wayna Wondwossen arrested in Houston Airport
HOUSTON (AP) – Ethiopian-born Grammy-nominated singer {www:Wayna Wondwossen} has been arrested at a Houston airport after trying to get on a plane with a collapsible police baton that she uses while performing.
Wayna, whose full name is Woyneab Miraf Wondwossen, was charged with possession of a prohibited weapon Wednesday.
Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said Thursday that security guards at the checkpoint at Bush International Airport discovered the 24-inch baton in her carry-on bag.
Wondwossen, 35, was transported to the Houston jail and posted $5,000 bond.
Wayna released her second album, “Higher Ground,” in 2008. One of the songs on the album is “Billy Club,” a ballad about police abuse, and Wondwossen twirls and points the baton when she performs the song live.
[More from dcist.com]- According to a statement released by her management team, Wayna was attempting to go through security when she was questioned about a stage prop found in her carry-on bag. The item, which is being described as a 24-inch baton, is used during the performance of her song, “Billy Club,” off of her album, Higher Ground. The song, which also features Three Stars artist Muhsinah, is an eerie ballad that protests police brutality. She explained that she was a performer and had inadvertently packed the item in her carry-on as opposed to checked luggage. Even though she insisted that she had no intent to use the prop as a weapon, Wayna was arrested and charged. Early this morning, she was released from jail on $5,000 bail, according to the statement.
“She’s very shook up but she’s had encouragement and love from family and friends around the world,” said Fiona Bloom, Wayna’s publicist.
Just last month, Wayna was up for a Grammy award in the “Best Urban/Alternative Performance” category for her song, “Loving You (Music).”
An arraignment hearing is set for Friday in Houston.
The participation of Ethiopia’s dictator {www:Meles Zenawi} in the summit of the group of 20 or G-20 does not have any significance other than validating his status as an accredited International beggar. Zenawi is the name most familiar in the door steps and corridors of western donors and their financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. Hence, the designation International beggar is quite befitting to describe his role in his warm relationship with the west.
European leaders and their favorite beggar Meles Zenawi at the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon
Various sources indicate that the west have spent between 36 and 40 billion dollars on the regime of Meles Zenawi via budget and other support mechanisms. This is a big sum which could have had a significant positive impact on the country if a legal Ethiopian government had been in place to use it. In fact, he does not deserve any kind of western assistance given his dismal human rights records. Commandeering a bloated, expensive but an inefficient bureaucracy whose primary function is to serve as a pillar of his reign of repression and terror, Meles Zenawi is in constant need of foreign aid and financing. Besides, he owns and operates an extensive and permeating network of a repressive security apparatus which requires a substantial amount of resources. Thus, it is not difficult to see where the lion`s share of the budget support he receives from the west ends up. He has to constantly refine and sharpen his begging skills and tools.
The group of 20 or G-20 includes the so called industrial democracies and emerging new economies and was formed after the financial crises of the 90`s. The crisis had mainly hit the emerging Asian and Latin American economies which applied the economic prescriptions of the western financial institutions like the World Bank. However, the current crisis is global in nature and is not restricted to certain geographic areas of the world. Foreign aid dependent regimes can not be immune to the crisis.
The invitation of Meles Zenawi to the summit of the so called group of 20 or G-20 demonstrates his increasing reliance on foreign aid and vanguard role as an International beggar. Thus, the participation of Meles Zenawi in the preliminary and the annual summit of the group of 20 does not raise his status as a statesman as his cadres and beneficiaries would like us to believe. This is not something to brag about but Meles Zenawi and his zombies are devoid of any feeling of qualm and shame and count it as one of their greatest achievements. Rejected by the vast majority of Ethiopians but loved by the west, Meles Zenawi has no legal or moral ground to represent Ethiopia neither at national nor International level.
Considering the criteria for eligibility for western aid, development aid can best be described as a political partnership between western politicians and their client dictators or lackeys in the so called third world. It is well known that developing countries which would like to take their destinies into their own hands and exercise their universally accepted rights of independence and sovereignty, do not qualify for western aid and favours. In general, it is through this partnership (development aid) that the western powers get clout and trample upon the recipient countries. Thus one can not fail to grasp the big influence donors have on the decision making in the recipient countries. The other characteristic feature of this unholy partnership is that it is riddled with corruption and graft which account for the siphoning off and wastage of considerable resources. Though claiming to combat poverty, the partnership is perpetuating dictatorship and preventing the population from taking part in the vital decision making organs and processes. A conducive system built on a broad and free public participation ensuring accountability and transparency, is the prerequisite for combating poverty and attaining economic growth.
The enduring damage this partnership is inflicting on the causes and forces of democracy, freedom and social justice, is visible in Ethiopian at the moment. The regime is escalating its widespread human rights violations and economic deprivations. We have a living memory of the scandalous role of some western diplomats or envoys in bailing out the brutal regime of Meles Zenawi from the strong storm caused by his rigging and daylight robbery of public votes in the aftermath of the May 2005 elections. It is also regrettable to witness that the storm lost its sweeping force in part due to the indecisive and vacillating opposition who failed to seize the moment and go ahead. The cost of removing Meles Zenawi from power is much lower than letting him to stay in power even for few months. After having survived the potentially destructive storm, Meles Zenawi has simply accelerated his paces of killings, imprisonments and secret dealings to give away our legal land to neighbours. Despite the survival of the regime of Meles Zenawi, an increasing number of Ethiopians are convinced of the fact that the era of ballots is over. Emboldened by the unconditional support he gets from the west and lack of domestic resistance, he is determined more than ever before to consolidate and perpetuate his dictatorial rule in the country.
Despite the repeated denials and dismissals, the regime of Meles Zenawi is encountering a chronic shortage of hard currency which is forcing the few foreign material dependent domestic manufacturing factories to halt production. The reality on the ground in Ethiopia shows that the acclaimed economic boom of Zenawi is actually a simple flattery of his cadres and beneficiaries. It is a bust which is causing a drastic fall in the standard of living of the vast majority of the population of the country. As one author has rightly noted, development aid has become Africa`s debilitating drug trapping the continent in its vicious cycle of corruption and poverty. Thus, the aid addicted Economy of the regime of Meles Zenawi is very vulnerable to the current global financial crisis and can collapse in a short span of time in the absence of the badly needed financial injections by his donors.
You may have heard about the raging controversy regarding a massive dam that is under construction on the Omo River in Ethiopia. It is called the Gilgel Gibe III dam and it has a wall that will soar 240 metres high – this is the tallest of its type anywhere in the world. It will hold back a reservoir 150 kilometres long.
The Ethiopians say that they need this dam as it will provide 1800 megawatts of electricity. That will more than double the country’s current generating capacity in one hit, and according to their Prime Minister Ethiopia’s dictator, Meles Zenawi, it will solve a national energy crisis.He says they can’t afford not to have Gilgel Gibe III. He also claims that it will enable the country to store water and regulate the flooding downstream in the Omo River.
This new dam will produce far more electricity than the country is capable of consuming, most will be exported to neighbours like Sudan and Kenya.
I think that this project is fatally flawed in terms of its logic, in terms of its thoroughness, in terms of its conclusions.
It looks to me like the Environmental Impact Assessment was an inside job that has come up with the results that they were looking for to get the initial funding for this dam.
I and the Environmental Resources Group believe that rather than being beneficial to the river valley as the Ethiopian government say, the dam will produce a broad range of negative effects, some of which would be catastrophic to both the environment and the indigenous communities living downstream.
Even if the science is in dispute – this is reason enough to invoke the precautionary principle and stop the project before it is too late because if the Ethiopian government is wrong, those communities living along the lower Omo River Valley all the way down into neighboring Kenya will pay a heavy price. I believe that one immediate consequence will be the aggravation of armed conflict in a war over the shrinking natural resources.
What do you think, should Ethiopia be allowed to go ahead despite the concerns of down stream environmental and social impacts affecting over 500,000 people and Lake Turkana in Kenya?
(Richard Leakey established WildlifeDirect to create a direct relationship between those at the front line of conservation and those who care anywhere in the world. He is the chairman of WildlifeDirect. All donations made on this blog will contribute towards the training and technical support to blogging members on wildlifedirect.org)
SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND (Gazette.net) — Opening night of the New African Films Festival brought more than 400 people to the lobby of the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre and Cultural Center March 19, but it wasn’t a typical night at the movies.
While awaiting the first movie, “13 Months of Sunshine,” attendees of the opening night cocktail hour could bypass the usual movie popcorn and candy, and opt for a buffet featuring ye’abesha gomen (collard greens) and tikil gomen (cabbage) as well as beets and Ethiopian bread, compliments of nearby Abol Ethiopian Restaurant.
The film festival, which celebrates African culture and aims to give a better feel for life in African countries, had seven successful days at AFI, its third year at the theater on Colesville Road in downtown Silver Spring. Now in its fifth season, this year’s festival featured about 30 films.
Susan Bluttman, AFI’s media and public relations manager, was thrilled with the opening night turnout, noting that while only 195 tickets had been sold in advance, the first movie was sold out, and the standby line was still growing with only a few minutes to go before the 7:30 p.m. showing.
The festival tries to present a greater understanding of life in Africa “instead of just having your understanding from a single shot on CNN,” said Mwiza Munthali, director of public outreach for TransAfrica, a foreign policy advocacy organization and one of the event’s sponsors. AFI and afrikafe, a networking group for Africans and friends of Africa, also were sponsors.
“Our goal each time is to offer the Washington community African films and to give Africa a chance to show off its films,” said Kishere Mbuya, CEO and founder of afrikafe, and a Silver Spring resident, adding that many of the films are award winners.
Todd Hitchcock, film programmer at AFI, said while there is no theme, the goal was to offer newer films as well as a few classic ones.
“We strive for representation across the Diaspora,” said Lori Donnelly, an associate film programmer.
Alfia Johnson of Washington, D.C., attended because, “I’m a lover of films, a lover of culture. I support all African culture.”
Candace Mickens of Takoma Park also was excited to attend. “Africa is part of our life, being an African-American,” she said.
Another moviegoer, Rike Ojediran of Washington, D.C., echoed her sentiments. “I’m fascinated by this concept. It’s something I want to support. I’m going to try and come most of the weekend.”
Bluttman said attendance over the weekend was good. “We had more people in the African films than we did in any of the first-run movies,” she said, referring to the currently running “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Class.”
Silver Spring resident Yvonne Captain, a film professor and self-proclaimed film buff, praised the festival for not just showing good films but also for “giving people a chance to be proud.”
Amman, Jordan – World Indoor 3000m champion Tariku Bekele has pulled out of the Ethiopian squad for the 37th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan, Saturday 28 March, after sustaining a training ground injury.
The 22-year-old, who had finished fourth in the trials last month and was a junior bronze medallist in 2006 dropped out of training last week with an ankle injury. He had hoped to recover in time to compete for the championships in Amman. But after presenting medical evidence to selectors this week, he was relieved of his duties with the national team to focus on rehabilitation.
Dino Sefer, who won the European XC Permit meeting in Hannut, Belgium earlier in the year and finished seventh in the trials, replaces T. Bekele in the squad which flew to Amman in Tuesday evening.
Tariku’s absence is the latest blow for Ethiopia’s hopes of challenging Kenya for both individual and team honours in Amman. The green-vested East Africans are already without Tariku’s elder brother and eleven-time world cross country champion Kenenisa, 2006 silver medallist Sileshi Sihine, and three-time women’s champion Tirunesh Dibaba, who are all nursing long-term injuries.
Without their established stars competing, Ethiopia will be looking to a young squad in a bid to repeat their domination of last year’s edition where they won all four individual and two of the four team titles in Edinburgh, Scotland.
There are big hopes for names like Feyissa Lelisa, 14th in the junior race last year, to make the step up to senior ranks after his dominating performances in the domestic cross country circuit this season. All- African Games 10000m silver medallist Tadesse Tola and the experienced Gebregziabher Gebremariam should also provide experience to the young squad.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) — Ethiopians strolling on Jan Meda playing pitches have been shocked for the past few months by what many of them believe to be a group of foreign men locked in a violent brawl.
“‘What kind of people are doing this?’ I thought when I first saw it,” said Dawit Tekle Beyene, a 31-year-old who works at a donkey sanctuary. “They are fighting each other.”
Watchful Welshman David Thomas takes care to approach Ethiopians who stumble across the spectacle to tell them that it is not a fight. The men are playing rugby.
Still viewed with suspicion by many locals — and once moved on by the police for causing a disturbance — the Addis Nyalas Rugby Club have now attracted Beyene and other Ethiopians into their ranks.
The ultimate ambition for Ethiopians — famous for their athletics prowess — is international seven-a-side competition.
“Seven-a-side rugby is a form of rugby which is a lot more accessible to smaller nations and nations which lack the necessary mass of rugby players to play 15-a-side rugby,” said Thomas, a 25-year-old microfinance consultant and president of the club.
The team are using membership fees from foreigners and money raised from an exhibition tournament to water and seed the dilapidated Jan Meda — a public amenity — and pay for health insurance for their Ethiopian players in a country that is still desperately poor.
The Sevens World Cup is taking place in Dubai from tomorrow, but Thomas said international competition was years away for the Ethiopians.
However, he believes, with more young people joining the team’s ranks all the time, the Nyalas — the only rugby team in Ethiopia — are paving the way.
“Realistically for Ethiopian rugby, especially considering the speed and athleticism of some of our players, seven-a-side rugby is a much more feasible form of rugby for us to try and work towards and specialize in,” he said.
The club have now invited teams from Kenya and Ivory Coast to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
An Orthodox Christian church stands in the middle of the playing fields in the hills overlooking the city where, every Saturday, the small band of men scrummaging, rucking and mauling are surrounded by eight or nine soccer matches played by football-mad Ethiopians in fake Premier League jerseys. Street children spin rugby balls from their hands as Ethiopian teenagers learn how to tackle.
The team that started as a hobby for the expatriate community of aid staff and diplomats supplement their growing number of Ethiopian members with players from rugby-loving countries such as Britain, France, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
“Allez! Allez!” comes the cry from one side of the pitch as attacking techniques are taught. “C’mon! Tackle him!” is the shout from the other side of the field, where defensive plays are practised. More languages ring out as a game begins.
“There was a problem with language when we started,” said Daniel Tegene, an 18-year-old student. “But now we are learning the words involved with rugby and so we’ve learned how to communicate with the foreigners and can learn the game.”
The team played in the grounds of a private school for two years and the decision to move to a public playing pitch was made to recruit more Ethiopians. “We’re turning ourselves into an Ethiopian rugby club and not an expats’ rugby club,” said Thomas.
Demes Mamo, a taxi driver, parks his cab at the side of the pitch every week and pulls on one of the new jerseys the team imported from Britain. Each one has an Ethiopian flag on the arm and a crest featuring Ethiopia’s nyala antelope.
“Other taxi drivers think I’m crazy to play rugby,” said Demes, 31. “But I love this game.
“Maybe one day there will be an Ethiopian team. That is my dream,” he said.
HOUSTON (AP) – Ethiopian-born Grammy-nominated singer {www:Wayna Wondwossen} has been arrested at a Houston airport after trying to get on a plane with a collapsible police baton that she uses while performing.
The Ethiopians say that they need this dam as it will provide 1800 megawatts of electricity. That will more than double the country’s current generating capacity in one hit, and according to 
Amman, Jordan – World Indoor 3000m champion Tariku Bekele has pulled out of the Ethiopian squad for the 37th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan, Saturday 28 March, after sustaining a training ground injury.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) — Ethiopians strolling on Jan Meda playing pitches have been shocked for the past few months by what many of them believe to be a group of foreign men locked in a violent brawl.