J.Crew Catalog’s April 2009 issue features Ethiopian supermodel {www:Liya Kebede}. The catalog has arrived in many of its stores this week.
Liya earlier this month took Paris Fashion Week by storm — and landed opening Balenciaga spot — and now she’s owning in another area. She’s becoming the first model to be the exclusive face of a J.Crew catalog, and the retailer is picking up pieces from her handmade children’s clothing line, Lemlem, to sell in stores and online as part of their children’s Crewcuts line starting in April.
When J.Crew creative director Jenna Lyons and team met supermodel, mother of two, and International Goodwill Ambassador Liya Kebede, a relationship was born. Lyons approached Kebede to appear in the April catalog, but both quickly realized their relationship needn’t end there. The product of their partnership? Not only will Kebede be the first model to be the exclusive face of a J.Crew catalog, but J.Crew’s Crewcuts line will pick up pieces from the model’s handmade children’s clothing line, Lemlem. Lemlem (the name means “to bloom”) was launched by Kebede in 2007, with all of the pieces made by hand from natural cotton in her native Ethiopia. The line will be available at Crewcuts store locations and at jcrew.com beginning in April. – Fashion Week Daily
At the half-marathon in The Hague on Saturday morning, all eyes were on an Ethiopian businessman, a one-man model of African economic development. Our entrepreneur, whose flourishing enterprise includes banking, car dealerships and real estate, is not lost in the crowd of amateur runners. He is right up front with the stars. His name is Haile Gebreselassie, and he is the greatest long-distance runner of all time.
This is not hyperbole; it’s a mere statement of fact. Consider Haile’s awesome collection of 26 world records garnered in an exceptionally long career — 17 years and still running for the man who’s a month shy of his 36th birthday. He is the first man to run a marathon in less than two hours and four minutes (record 2:3’59”). He has won two Olympic gold medals, multiple indoor and outdoor victories (in the 1,500-, 3,000-, 5,000- and 10,000-meter races) and countless other titles and honors.
That would be enough fame and fortune to satisfy most men. But Haile, who earns more in appearance fees, prize bonuses and sponsorship than any other long distance runner, also has the golden touch in business.
So why did this athlete also become a businessman? “When I traveled here and there for races,” he told me, “I discovered the beauty and comfort of developed countries, and I asked myself, ‘Why can’t we do that in Ethiopia?'”
Born in a dirt-poor village near Asela, 110 miles south of Addis Abeba, Haile led a typical rural African life of drudgery and dim prospects. Like so many children then and even today, he ran back and forth to school — 10 kilometers each way. But Haile also ran for pleasure, and his feet carried him from the thankless condition of his birth to a charmed life in a palatial home on the hill. Once his sports career gave him financial independence, he looked beyond just running. Motivated by national pride and a strong desire to help others escape from the hardships he knew as a boy, Haile gradually shaped his vision of modernization. One of his business goals was to provide employment and career opportunities for his countrymen.
“I started out in real estate, after the [1996] Atlanta Olympics. Of course I made mistakes at first,” he laughs. “It took about three or four years before I got the hang of things. But I used the same approach as for running: You have to have a sense of timing, strategy, an overall vision and determination.” With “more than 50% of help” from his wife, Alem, and a conscientious hands-on approach, Haile learned fast. “I discovered I have a flair for this. I build in an area that looks ’empty’ and it turns into a dynamic neighborhood.”
Haile constructed three upscale, 10-story office buildings in Addis, the first modern cinema in Ethiopia, and hotels and supermarkets in his hometown of Asela. He is currently building a resort hotel on Lake Assawa in the coffee-growing region where, incidentally, Starbucks buys its coffee beans. Haile is a member of the board of the Lion Security Bank, and recently became the exclusive importer of Hyundai vehicles. This year, for the first time, Haile hired a manager to help him and his wife run their Haile-Alem International Trading Company, which now employs 500 people. “Of course it helps to be a star, I wouldn’t deny that,” he says. “But you know, especially in Africa, a lot of people try to get close to you, pushing crazy schemes, they can rip you off. I try to keep a level head. I make all the big decisions myself.”
Haile created the biggest road race in Africa, the Great Ethiopian Run, and his philanthropic activities would fill another whole chapter. He has built elementary schools and cooperates with Unicef and Unesco in campaigns against AIDS, domestic violence, illiteracy and whatever else ails his country.
“Foreign aid can be helpful, of course,” he says. “But it’s no good if we get used to looking for handouts. I could give some coins to every poor person who crosses my path, but that’s not the way to do it. I want to give people jobs, teach them how to work.”
Dire poverty still exists and political freedom remains fragile is non-existent in Ethiopia.
I checked in with Haile the other day, just before he left for The Hague. Financial news from Europe, the U.S. and Asia is glum. How’s business? “Great!” No problems? “No problems. The cars are selling. The hotel construction is on schedule. Things are bad over there? Why don’t you come to Ethiopia?”
That’s the enthusiasm of a man who, at an age when most runners retire from international competition, strives to break another world record in The Hague and go on to run the full marathon at the Berlin World Championship in August and — why not? — the London Olympics in 2012. He is not jealous of the impressive pack of young Ethiopian runners coming up behind and sometimes passing ahead of him. In fact he is instrumental in creating opportunities for them as they often turn to him for business advice.
Haile Gebreselassie knows that his four children, raised in a palatial home, will not be driven to the heights as he was, by hardship. But he also knows that most young people are crushed by the burdens that made him a world-class athlete and successful businessman. He keeps his eye on the goal. And when he makes his victory run, with the Ethiopian flag draped around his shoulders, he remembers that first contact with the glittering world of modernity.
Laguna Beach resident Marla Hodes, founder and co-executive director of the Ethiopian Family Fund, will be traveling to Ethiopia with her husband Dan and their three children – Dean, age 11, and Matt and Carly, age 10 – in April on a humanitarian and cultural mission that involves raising funds for a school and a theatre immersion program.
The Laguna Beach resident Marla Hodes sang the American alphabet song with orphans at the Alem School in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, during her most recent visit in October, 2008.
Inspired by her brother-in-law, Dr. Rick Hodes, who has spent over 20 years helping children in Ethiopia, Hodes and her friend Melanie Robbins established the Ethiopian Family Fund in 2006. Known for his work helping children with spinal irregularities caused by untreated scoliosis and spinal tuberculosis, the doctor is the star of a documentary, “Making the Crooked Straight.”
The goal of Hodes’ April trip is to raise $10,000 to help complete a high school for the children of the Ethiopian village of Wondo Genet, whose school goes through eighth grade.
The state has promised to provide teachers if the community improves and furnishes an existing building.
Support for EFF is also coming from the Mudd Butts theatre group in Telluride, Colo., where the Hodes have a second residence.
Mudd Butts is conducting a theatre immersion program in Wondo Genet, and Dean Hodes will participate in the program while the rest of his family helps with theater production.
Mudd Butts students will live, practice and perform alongside the Ethiopian students, culminating in a bilingual theatre performance
“When kids help others, wonderful things happen,” Hodes said.
To learn more about EFF and/or to make a taxdeductible donation, visit www. ethiopianfamilyfund.org.
The town of Wardheer was burned down by Meles Zenawi’s troops. In this satellite image of the town of Wardheer, Ethiopia, from Dec. 30, 2007, yellow dots indicate structures that were burned down or destroyed. Source: AAAS
OGADEN, ETHIOPIA – An Ogaden Online News reporter stationed in Doolo province has confirmed that the head of the {www:Woyanne} militia stationed in Wardheer was killed in the battle of Afyaraado. Afyaraado is about six kilometers from Wardheer. The dead Woyanne militia head was a man named Colonel Manos (Sp?). Also killed in the same battle was the head of the conscripted Somali militias nicknamed ‘Wadna Qabad.’
In related news, a local militia numbering 430 under the command of Woyanne officers left the town of Dhanaan and redeployed in Godey. Eyewitnesses indicated that the reason for the redeployment was due to fear by the Woyanne regime that this militia was either going to be overrun by the Ogaden National Liberation Army (ONLA), or that many were preparing to desert.
Reports reaching the Ogaden Online News indicate that ONLA commandos have successfully penetrated a major militia garrison that bordered the Jees Guuleed homes in the city of Dhagax Buur. A fierce firefight ensued and lasted a couple of hours. It was reported that the ONLA commandos confused the Woyane militias by attacking them from four different directions from within the garrison.
This has caused the Woyane militia members to fire indiscriminately in all directions. All ONLA commandos left the garrison unharmed. The fighting left about 25 Woyanne militia members dead.
Due to the increasing success of the ONLA, it is reported that both the so-called head of the local administration and that of the ‘security affairs’ were both summoned to go to Wardheer. Wardheer is the city that came under the most intense ONLA attacks. It is also the city that is most feared to fall for the ONLA at any moment.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (ST) — The regime of Tigrean People Liberation Front ({www:Woyanne}) in Ethiopia on Thursday said that its forces has destroyed OLF (Oromo liberation Front) and {www:ONLF} (Ogaden National Liberation Front) rebels who were regrouping in the southeastern part Ethiopia.
A statement released by the ministry of defense says that Woyanne forces in a military mission carried out during the past few days have killed and captured undisclosed number of top military leaders and fighters of the OLF and ONLF.
Among those killed includes Dr. Mohamed Serri, an ONLF leader who led the attack at a Chinese-run oil exploration site in the Ogaden region in 2007 that left 74 people dead, including 9 Chinese, according to the Woyanne statement.
Furgasa, OLF military chief in Ethiopia’s south east and central committee of OLF is also the key person among those captured, according to the Woyanne regime statement, which states that he admitted that he has been carrying out direct orders coming by phone from the OLF headquarters in Eritrea.
During the military mission a number of weapons, satellite phones, video cassettes and documents are seized, the statement added.
AMMAN, JORDAN (EuropeanAthletics.com) – Alemayehu Bezabeh, an immigrant from Ethiopia, will join hands with veterans Carles Castillejo and José Luis Blanco to spearhead Spanish charge at the 37th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Amman, Jordan on March 29.
The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation has named a 19-member team composed of 11 athletes in senior category- six men and 5 women-and eight athletes in the junior category -5 men and 3 women.
Up to six athletes per category are allowed to participate, while the first four qualify. The performance at the Spanish Championship, held in Albacete last Sunday, was instrumental in naming the team.
In Men’s category the top six finishers made the cut, while only the top five in juniors were shortlisted.
The women’s team includes the fourth to eighth place finishers after the first three (Rosa Morató, Iris Fuentes-Pila and Nuria Fernández) decided to opt out of the March 29th meet.
In the men’s field Castillejo, Lamdassem and Blanco have been part of the team for the World Championship before, while Javier López and Manolo Penas will rub shoulders with the best for the first time.
Spanish hopes in the women’s filed rest on national champion Cristina Jordan, while the chances of seasoned pros like Alessandra Aguilar and Jacqueline Martín can never be discounted.
Spain Team:
SENIOR – MEN
Alemayehu Bezabeh, Carles Castillejo, Ayad Lamdassem, Javier López, Manolo Penas and José Luis Blanco.
SENIOR – WOMEN
Alessandra Aguilar, Jacqueline Martín, Judit Plá, Diana Martín, and Cristina Jordán.
JUNIOR – MEN
Mario Mola, Antonio Abadía, Jaime Villa, Aitor Fernández and Martín Ortiz.
JUNIOR – WOMEN
Sandra Mosquera, Tania Carretero, Estefanía Tobal.
Officials:
Gerardo García (Team Manager), Alfonso Ortega, Jesús Alvarado, Oliva Román and Carlos Alonso (Coaches); Dr Carmen León, Ángel Basas and Isabel Arbonés (Physio) Jaime Samaniego (Judge)
J.Crew Catalog’s April 2009 issue features Ethiopian supermodel {www:Liya Kebede}. The catalog has arrived in many of its stores this week.
This is not hyperbole; it’s a mere statement of fact. Consider Haile’s awesome collection of 26 world records garnered in an exceptionally long career — 17 years and still running for the man who’s a month shy of his 36th birthday. He is the first man to run a marathon in less than two hours and four minutes (record 2:3’59”). He has won two Olympic gold medals, multiple indoor and outdoor victories (in the 1,500-, 3,000-, 5,000- and 10,000-meter races) and countless other titles and honors.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (ST) — The regime of Tigrean People Liberation Front ({www:Woyanne}) in Ethiopia on Thursday said that its forces has destroyed OLF (Oromo liberation Front) and {www:ONLF} (Ogaden National Liberation Front) rebels who were regrouping in the southeastern part Ethiopia.
The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation has named a 19-member team composed of 11 athletes in senior category- six men and 5 women-and eight athletes in the junior category -5 men and 3 women.