EDITOR’S NOTE: World Bank knows that most of the money will go into the pockets of Meles Zenawi and gang. The rest will be used to buy weapons for terrorizing the people of Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (APA) The World Bank (WB) announced on Wednesday that its Board of Directors has approved US$ 50 million credit to help finance a General Education Quality Improvement Program (GEQIP) in Ethiopia, APA learnt here.
The WB said the “credit is the first part of a two-phase Adaptable Program Loan, and will leverage an estimated collective investment of US$ 417million in additional resources from the Government and other development partners.”
Accordingly, around 15.9 million students in primary and secondary schools will benefit from the Program, together with about 225,000 teachers.
Ethiopia is expected to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the education sector by 2015, and it is undertaking a multi million investment on education since the past few years.
“Between 2000 and 2007 the gross enrolment rate in primary education increased from 62 percent to 91 percent and net enrolment increased from 52 percent to 78 percent,” said WB, which is one of Ethiopia’s partners in the education sector.
At higher education level, the average annual growth rate was 28.5 percent since 2002, increasing enrolment from about 58,000 in 2002 to 203,000 in 2007.
However, Ethiopia’s education sector faces a number of key challenges, including, inequitable access to education opportunities for females and other vulnerable groups, especially in remote areas, among others.
The GEQIP will support, among other things, improvements in teaching and learning conditions in primary and secondary institutions, and management planning and budget capacity of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education and Regional Education Bureaus.
The credit is provided with a commitment charge of 0.10 percent per annum and a service charge of 0.75 percent per annum (on the disbursed credit balance) over a 40 year period of maturity which includes a 10-year grace period.
By Jen Angel | Yes Magazine
In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism, and our day-to-day habits affect our well-being. The emerging field of positive psychology is bursting with new findings that suggest your actions can have a significant effect on your happiness and satisfaction with life. Here are 10 scientifically proven strategies for getting happy.
1. Savor Everyday Moments
Pause now and then to smell a rose or watch children at play. Study participants who took time to “savor” ordinary events that they normally hurried through, or to think back on pleasant moments from their day, “showed significant increases in happiness and reductions in depression,” says psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky.
2. Avoid Comparisons
While keeping up with the Joneses is part of American culture, comparing ourselves with others can be damaging to happiness and self-esteem. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, focusing on our own personal achievement leads to greater satisfaction, according to Lyubomirsky.
3. Put Money Low on the List
People who put money high on their priority list are more at risk for depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, according to researchers Tim Kasser and Richard Ryan. Their findings hold true across nations and cultures. “The more we seek satisfactions in material goods, the less we find them there,” Ryan says. “The satisfaction has a short half-life — it’s very fleeting.” Money-seekers also score lower on tests of vitality and self-actualization.
4. Have Meaningful Goals
“People who strive for something significant, whether it’s learning a new craft or raising moral children, are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams or aspirations,” say Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener. “As humans, we actually require a sense of meaning to thrive.” Harvard’s resident happiness professor, Tal Ben-Shahar, agrees, “Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable.”
5. Take Initiative at Work
How happy you are at work depends in part on how much initiative you take. Researcher Amy Wrzesniewski says that when we express creativity, help others, suggest improvements, or do additional tasks on the job, we make our work more rewarding and feel more in control.
6. Make Friends, Treasure Family
Happier people tend to have good families, friends, and supportive relationships, say Diener and Biswas-Diener. But it’s not enough to be the life of the party if you’re surrounded by shallow acquaintances. “We don’t just need relationships, we need close ones” that involve understanding and caring.
7. Smile Even When You Don’t Feel Like It
It sounds simple, but it works. “Happy people…see possibilities, opportunities, and success. When they think of the future, they are optimistic, and when they review the past, they tend to savor the high points,” say Diener and Biswas-Diener. Even if you weren’t born looking at the glass as half-full, with practice, a positive outlook can become a habit.
8. Say Thank You Like You Mean It
People who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis are healthier, more optimistic, and more likely to make progress toward achieving personal goals, according to author Robert Emmons. Research by Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, revealed that people who write “gratitude letters” to someone who made a difference in their lives score higher on happiness, and lower on depression — and the effect lasts for weeks.
9. Get Out and Exercise
A Duke University study shows that exercise may be just as effective as drugs in treating depression, without all the side effects and expense. Other research shows that in addition to health benefits, regular exercise offers a sense of accomplishment and opportunity for social interaction, releases feel-good endorphins, and boosts self-esteem.
10. Give It Away, Give It Away Now!
Make altruism and giving part of your life, and be purposeful about it. Researcher Stephen Post says helping a neighbor, volunteering, or donating goods and services results in a “helper’s high,” and you get more health benefits than you would from exercise or quitting smoking. Listening to a friend, passing on your skills, celebrating others’ successes, and forgiveness also contribute to happiness, he says. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn found that those who spend money on others reported much greater happiness than those who spend it on themselves.
11. Read Ethiopian Review every day.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney is calling President-elect Barack Obama’s national security lineup “a pretty good team.”
In a wide-ranging interview with ABC News with 35 days left in the Bush administration, Cheney also again vehemently defended going to war in Iraq, said waterboarding of suspects in the war on terror was justified in some instances and opposed closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“I must say, I think it’s a pretty good team,” Cheney said of Obama’s national security choices, in a segment of the interview broadcast Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”
“I’m not close to Barack Obama, obviously, nor do I identify with him politically. He’s a liberal. I’m a conservative,” he said.
But the vice president also said he thinks “the idea of keeping (Bob) Gates at defense is excellent. I think (retired Gen.) Jim Jones will be very, very effective as the national security adviser.”
And Cheney said that while “I would not have hired” Hillary Rodham Clinton to be secretary of state, “I think she’s tough. She’s smart, she works very hard and she may turn out to be just what President Obama needs.”
Cheney also urged the incoming administration to “carefully assess the tools put in place to fight terror” and to not cast aside strategies he said worked for the current administration.
Of waterboarding, Cheney said it was an appropriate means of getting information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.
He said he is against closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, saying it can only be shut down responsibly once the war on terrorism has ended.
Asked when that might be, he replied, “Well, nobody knows. Nobody can specify that.”
Legendary signer Mahmoud Ahmed and Ethiopian pop music sensation Jossy will perform in Seattle on Saturday, Dec 27, 2008 at the Lake Union Naval Reserve, 860 Terry Ave. N, Seattle. More info: 206 419 2765