The GTH Bible Study Association Wegen Nefis Aden Committee invites you to sow the seed together to save the lives of hungry people in Ethiopia. As the Bible teaches us in times of difficulty, trust in the Lord and go out do something good. When we sow some seed, and then God will bless our life with more.
In this festive season of joy and happiness let us share our blessing with those less fortunate and give hope to those that thought hunger and poverty is a way of life!
Even if you can not be able to attend the December 20th 2008 event. You can organize the people in your church, community, your family and friends to share their Christmas Blessing with the poor people in Ethiopia.
Howard University Hospital
Tower Auditorium
2041 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington DC 20060
Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
May we as God’s children, always keep the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts; and may we share in the warmth and joy of this glorious season and the hopes of the coming year!
May God bless each and every one of us!
More info: 202 726 4417
The celebration of Teddy Afros noble ideals and vision will be held on December 21, 2008 at Washington Marriott from 4:00 pm to 10:00pm as scheduled regardless of the sham’s court decisions on Teddy’s appeal.
We look forward to seeing you to honor and celebrate Teddy Afro’s work and hope you will be able to attend this special event. Join us and renew your commitment on the struggle against dictatorship and Human Rights Violations in Ethiopia.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
As you are most likely aware, Teddy Afro (Tewdros Kasshahun) has been convicted of politically motivated charges because of his songs for freedom that accuse the current regime of failing to live up to its responsibilities, killing hundreds of citizens and promoting division among the various Ethiopian ethnic groups.
To celebrate his noble ideals and continue his dream, we would like to invite you to join us at a very special and heartwarming event when we will be honoring his works on December 21, 2008 at Washington Marriott from 4:00 pm to 10:00pm.
We hope Artist Teddy Afro event will be a new juncture where we all renew our commitment against dictatorship and Human Rights Violations in Ethiopia. We look forward to seeing you to honor and celebrate Teddy Afro’s work and hope you will be able to attend this special event.
By MARIA CHENG
LONDON (AP) — Dozens of developing countries exaggerated figures on how many children were vaccinated against deadly diseases, which allowed them to get more money from U.N.-sponsored programs, a new study said Friday.
Research in the medical journal, The Lancet, said only half as many children were vaccinated than was claimed by countries taking part in special programs meant to reach kids in poor nations. The findings raise serious issues about vaccination programs — and whether money earmarked for children is actually reaching their intended recipients.
“With the unprecedented billions given by the international community, there is no excuse for these poor coverage rates,” said Philip Stevens, of the International Policy Network, a London-based think-tank. “One has to wonder where the money has gone — hopefully not into Swiss bank accounts.”
American researchers analyzed records of children supposedly vaccinated by initiatives led by the United Nations and related groups like the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, or GAVI.
The scientists examined reports the countries gave to the United Nations on how many children were immunized. They then compared those figures to independent surveys on vaccination conducted by non-governmental groups and other outside researchers.
The report did not focus on the tens of millions of children immunized globally each year. Instead, the researchers studied programs meant to increase the availability of vaccinations in poorer countries — vaccinations designed to reach kids who would not be covered otherwise.
From 1986 to 2006, the United Nations reported that 14 million children received immunizations in the programs. But the reports from the independent surveys put that number at just over 7 million.
“The magnitude of the gap is surprising,” said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington and the study’s lead author.
Murray and colleagues found that at least 32 of the 51 countries taking part in the U.N.-backed programs over-reported by at least 50 percent how many children were protected against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
Experts suggest that inflating the numbers is part of a larger problem in attracting limited resources.
“That’s how you get money,” said Ken Hill, a public health professor at Harvard University who was not linked to the study. “You exaggerate the number of people who die or who you save to get visibility. Somehow, numbers always end up bigger than they would be otherwise.”
The global alliance pays developing countries $20 per extra vaccinated child — a payment that relies exclusively on reports from the countries.
Murray and colleagues estimated that the alliance should have paid countries $150 million. Instead, it paid them $290 million.
Nations that claimed at least 50 percent more vaccinations than were actually done included Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Azerbaijan, Cameroon and Nepal.
Experts said the study raised questions about the credibility of other health data from the United Nations and countries.
Julian Lob-Levyt, the chief executive officer of the global vaccines alliance, said it would hold off on all payments until affected countries can clarify what is happening in their programs.
He also stressed that there was no evidence of corruption in any of the countries that had received money from the alliance.
Some experts worry that the Lancet study, which was paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, overstated the problem and that immunization programs would be unfairly overhauled.
The United Nations has been criticized for its fluctuating figures in the past. In 2007, it dramatically slashed its HIV figures, citing new surveillance methods.
Ethiopian Review’s Intelligence Unit has learned that Teddy Afro could be released soon as Ethiopians around the world get organized to fight for his freedom. According to ER sources, the Woyanne regime has sensed a gathering storm and is deciding to preempt it by releasing the popular artists.
Meanwhile, a worldwide protest rally has been called after a conference by several Ethiopians around the world. Click here to read the statement. The worldwide rally will call for an immidiate release of Teddy.
በሰሜን አሜሪካና በአውሮፓ አገራት የሚኖሩት 25 ኢትዮጵያውያን ዲሴምበር 18 ቀን 2008 ዓ፣ም ባካሄዱት አስቸኳይ ስብሰባ፤ የፊታችን ጃንዋሪ 14 ቀን 2009 ዓ፣ም በመላው ዓለም ታላቅ የተቃውሞ ሰልፍ እንዲጠራ ውሳኔ ላይ ደርሰው ለተግባራዊነቱ የተለያዩ እንቅስቃሴዎችን በማድረግ ላይ ይገኛሉ። ዕውቅ የህግ ባለሙያዎች የተካተቱበት ይህ ስብስብ ከተቃውሞ ሰልፉ ጎን ለጎን፤ለሰብዓዊ መብት ተሟጋቾች፣ ለመንግስታትና ለተለያዩ አህጉራዊ ተቋማት ከሚያቀርባቸው ሰነዶችንም በማዘጋጀት ላይ ይገኛል። ከቴዲ አፍሮ ጉዳይ ጊዜያዊ ኮሚቴ የተሰጠውን ጋዜጣዊ መግለጫ ለማንበብ እዚህ ይጫኑ PDF.
This is PART I of a seven-part in-depth look behind the scenes of the campaign, consisting of exclusive behind-the-scenes reporting from the McCain and Obama camps assembled by a special team of NEWSWEEK reporters who were granted year-long access on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day.
Barack Obama had a gift, and he knew it. He had a way of making very smart, very accomplished people feel virtuous just by wanting to help Barack Obama. It had happened at Harvard Law School in the mid-1980s, at a time when the school was embroiled in fights over political correctness. He had won one of the truly plum prizes of overachievement at Harvard: he had been voted president of the law review, the first African-American ever so honored. Though his politics were conventionally (if not stridently) liberal, even the conservatives voted for him. Obama was a good listener, attentive and empathetic, and his powerful mind could turn disjointed screeds into reasoned consensus, but his appeal lay in something deeper. He was a black man who had moved beyond racial politics and narrowly defined interest groups. He seemed indifferent to, if not scornful of, the politics of identity and grievance. He showed no sense of entitlement or resentment. Obama had a way of transcending ambition, though he himself was ambitious as hell. In the grasping race for status and achievement—a competition that can seem like blood lust at a place like Harvard—Obama could make hypersuccessful meritocrats pause and remember a time (part mythical perhaps, but still beckoning) when service to others was more important than serving oneself.
Gregory Craig, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., was one of those Americans who wanted to believe again. Craig was not exactly an ordinary citizen—he had served and worked with the powerful all his life, as an aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy in the 1980s, as chief of policy planning at the State Department in the Clinton administration and as a lawyer hired to represent President Clinton at his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate in 1999. He had seen the imperfections of the mighty, up close and personal, and by and large accepted human frailty. But, like a lot of Americans, he was tired of partisan bickering and yearned for someone who could rise above politics as usual. A 63-year-old baby boomer, Craig wanted to recapture the youthful idealism that he had experienced as a student at Harvard in the 1960s and later at Yale Law School, where his friends included Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham. In the late fall of 2003, he was invited to hear a young state senator from Illinois who was running for the U.S. Senate. Craig was immediately taken with Barack Obama. “He spoke 20 to 30 minutes, and I found him to be funny, smart and very knowledgeable for a state senator,” Craig recalled. Craig was so visibly impressed that his host that evening, the longtime Washington mover and shaker Vernon Jordan, teased him, saying, “Greg has just fallen in love.”
It was true. Craig read Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope,” which, Craig said, “floored me,” and later chanced to ride with Obama on the Washington shuttle. He read Obama’s earlier autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” and was “blown away,” he recalled. “In my judgment, he showed more insight and maturity than Bill Clinton at the age of 60 in terms of understanding himself.” In November 2006, Craig sat next to George Stevens, an old friend of the Robert Kennedy clan, at another Obama speech. Stevens leaned over to Craig and said, “What do you think of this guy for president? I haven’t heard anybody like this since Bobby Kennedy.” Craig instantly replied, “Sign me up.” Stevens and Craig approached Obama coming out of the speech and asked, “What are you doing in 2008?” Obama gave them a big grin and said, “Oh, man, it wasn’t that good.” But before long Craig and Stevens were raising money for Obama’s political-action committee, the Hope Fund. Obama was amused by the devotion of the two old Kennedy hands. After a while, every time he saw the two men he would say, “Here come the Kool-Aid boys.”
That December of 2006, Obama told Craig and Stevens, “Lay off me for a while. I’ve got to talk to Michelle.” Obama went off to Hawaii with his wife and two girls for the holidays. “I thought, ‘We’re dead’,” recalled Craig. “He’s not going to be able to do it.”
Craig was not wrong to be pessimistic. Obama could marshal a lawyerly set of arguments about how he could win, that the country was at a “defining point” and that Obama was the best hope to bring change. “I, I, I actually believe my own rhetoric,” Obama stammered, uncharacteristically, in an interview with NEWSWEEK in the spring of 2008. But Michelle was not eager to subject her family to a process that was dangerous and ugly—uplifting and history-making, maybe, but also a potential family wrecker. Her kids would be given cute names by the Secret Service (“Radiance” and “Rosebud,” as it turned out), but their lives would never be the same.
Obama had been warned. That November of 2005, at dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant in Washington, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle had reminded Obama that he had never really been attacked before. “I told him he should think about how he might react if his wife was attacked—the emotional discipline it takes,” recalled Daschle. At about the same time, with his fellow Illinois senator, Richard Durbin, Obama had talked about the physical risks. At a political event at the Union League Club in Chicago before Thanksgiving, Obama told Durbin that many of his African-American friends were advising him not to run, some of them because they were afraid he would get killed. (Durbin shared their fears and began lobbying to get Obama put under Secret Service protection. In May, eight months before the first primary, the Secret Service would begin standing watch over Obama, the first time such protection had been extended to a candidate so early in the process.)
Michelle Obama was worried about her husband’s safety, but was also seized with a kind of free-floating anxiety, recalled Durbin. Even after she said yes, she asked Durbin, “They’re not setting him up, are they?” The “they” was all the people who were urging Obama to run. Michelle wondered at their motives.
Obama understood his wife’s fears and even, to some degree, shared them, but he had a way of turning empathy into persuasion. “Her initial instinct was to say no,” Obama recalled. “She knew how difficult it was for me to be away from the girls, she feels lonely when I’m not around, so her initial instinct was not to do it. And I think she also felt that, you know, the Clintons are tough, and that I would be subject to a lot of attacks.” So that […continued on page 2]
The regime in Ethiopia [with money borrowed from World Bank and others] is building highways everywhere, even in the south, to connect with Kenya. But while brand new roads are open, people still walk bare feet, or on horses, like in ancient times. –