FUKUOKA, Japan (AFP) — Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia has won the Fukuoka international men’s marathon, setting a personal best time as well as a new record.
The 21-year-old Ethiopian picked up the pace and never looked back after Kenya’s John Wales abandoned at the 30-kilometre mark, crossing the finishing line in two hours, six minutes and 10 seconds.
That improved upon his previous personal best of 2:06:40 set in winning the Paris marathon this season, and was faster than the previous meet record of 2:06:39 set by Beijing Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya last year.
“I’m really happy. I did much better than I had expected to do,” said Kebede. “I’m also happy that I set my personal best by 30 seconds.”
The group of eight front-runners was reduced to five before the 30km point — Kebede, Kales, and Japanese rivals Satoshi Irifune, Tomoyuki Sato and Yuko Matsumiya.
The real competition started soon after Kales abandoned the race and eventually Irifune survived the Japanese battle to finish second in 2:09:23.
Irifune earned a place in the world championships in Berlin next year as the top Japanese finisher.
Arata Fujiwara of Japan was third in 2:09:47, followed by Sato in 2:09:59 and Felix Limo of Kenya in 2:10:59.
Where justice has lost its meaning, where prosecutors are blunt instruments of a tyrant, where courts are abattoirs of vendetta, where the rule of law means nothing but the rule of a tyrant, trials are too farcical and the judges are too comical to be taken seriously. The star comedians leading the farce, are so-called judges Leul Gebremariam, “Judge” Mohamed Amin, “Judge” Mohammed Umer, “Judge” Adil Ahmed, just to mention a few among many Kangaroo court comedians, who are too busy judging others, clumsily attired in black robes and holding sledgehammers to silence outrage against them and their demigod tyrant.
Unfortunately, their clumsy performance is just a badly scripted melodrama. But they have lost the plot as the public has been tired of their unfunny courtroom comedy. The case of Teddy Afro is not any different from a long litany of unjust courtroom comedies which wrapped up in the usual fashion, sending the victims of injustice to harsh, dirty and crammed jails intently infested with lice, fleas and bedbugs. Falsely accused of incitement against tyranny, I had seen it and tested its harshness. I was just a student protesting against injustice at the Addis Ababa University when Zenawi and Genet Zewdie suddenly decided to illegally fire 42 renowned professors for criticizing the tyrant’s inhuman segregationist and secessionist ethnic policies.
Vengeance for losing elections
The list of the courtroom farce is too long. In the aftermath of his humiliating defeat in the May 2005 elections, the tyrant sent out his ruthless troops, infamously known as Agazi brigade, to shoot, maim and crush kids, the elderly, woman and young men. Their blood still cries out from the grave, but none of the brutal killers and those who detained and tortured over fifty thousand innocent citizens in harsh concentration camps faced justice. On the contrary, the victims and leaders of the ill-fated Kinijit, journalists, VOA broadcasters, civic leaders, ordinary citizens, dissidents in exile were charged with genocide, high treason and outrage against the constitution, which never exists in reality.
There were simple questions that the clown judges failed to raise before the start of the road show. The charges were outrageously laughable. There was no shred evidence of high treason and genocide against Tigrians. It was rather concocted to cause further division and animosity among the suffering children of a poor nation who have zillions of reasons to unite than to divide. But in fact there was an old Tigrian man who was dragged to court by prosecutors to substantiate allegations of the genocide. He was too confused and lost in the dazzling Kangaroo court. He said he was sure genocide was committed as some kids threw rocks on the roof of his house just because he was Tigrian. He was asked to show the perpetrators of this outrageous genocide. He was able to identify none…but finally he found it too much and admitted that the prosecutors had trained him to lie and give such a ludicrous testimony. Suddenly the chief prosecutor, Shimelis Kemal, sprung up from his sit and declared that his key witness was mentally unfit to give testimonies and recite his eye-witness account. Isn’t that outrageously funny?
Judge Adil Ahmed had to give the whole courtroom comedy, which was by then entertaining the whole world, a semblance of justice. After making a long mockery of justice, Adil “dropped” the charges of genocide against 111 people, including some exiled dissidents who could not have exterminated ethnic Tigrians, some of whom were Tigrians themselves, from Europe and America without any long range missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Under mounting pressure from the US government, the charges of genocide and high treason against the five VOA journalists and some exiled dissidents had also been dropped by stand-up comedian judge Adil Ahmed without any convincing explanations.
The high court drama went on and on for nearly two years and at the climax it was time for conviction and sentencing. All of the leaders of Kinijit were found guilty of the concocted crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment and 30 of them were stripped off their right to vote and run for public offices. While Adil’s drama was in full swing, the street smart tyrant was circumventing the courtroom drama by hand wriggling the victims under the guise of “Shimagles”, elderly ‘peacemakers’ led by Prof. Ephrem Yishak, to sign a document that was actually set to release them from jails under a pardon deal. Even that high drama was so unfunny that the move was contradictory to the letters of the “law” and did not even follow the “legal procedures” to be called a pardon or an amnesty
The expensive courtroom drama lost its meaning when Zenawi announced that he found a stroke of humanity in his evil heart and decided to extend mercy to his victims. Despite all the travesties and dramas, even Zenawi knew full well that he and his cohorts were actually the ones who should have faced justice for all the outrageous crimes they have been committing with arrogance and impunity for so long.
Trials and tribulations of a dissident singer
The next high profile courtroom drama in line was the trial and tribulation of Tewodros Kassahun, aka Teddy Afro, who had offended the ruling ethnic junta by calling for change and unity that can ruin Zenawi’s divide and rule agenda. He was too bold to question our trigger happy ruler, whom he referred to in Yasteseryal as a new king but no change. That was actually enough to charge the singer with genocide, high treason and outrage against the non-existent constitution.
The allegation made against Teddy was killing a homeless man in a car accident in November 2006. Again the trial lost credence too soon and was reduced to a mediocre road show with too many memorable dramas, pathetic and unfunny stand-up comedies that have cast doubt on the whole judicial system and fairness of the trial. Like any citizens, Teddy Afro should account to his actions regardless of his superstar status. Nonetheless, immunity from prosecution has never been an issue as the ruling elites and their blind supporters try to assert every now and then.
There are uncomplicated questions that should have been addressed properly to give the whole farce a semblance of legal proceeding. Teddy was arrested in early November 2006 in connection with the alleged crime, but was released on bail after a few days in jail. Nothing happened between his initial arrest and his indictment on April 16, 2008. Between the huge time gap, Teddy was allowed in and out of the country carrying a legal passport and even performed in European and American cities. It seems they wanted him to go in exile. He even rejected offers to entertain the ruling elite during the extravagant millennium party.
Despite the fact that he had enough opportunities to remain abroad, he maintained his faith that the truth would set him free. To his dismay, that never rarely happens in Ethiopia and the trial has been tainted with irregularities and abuse of power from the very start to the very end. Supporters of Teddy who congregated at the court to show their solidarity with the singer were detained and beaten, his lawyer was arrested and subsequently convicted of contempt of court, as if there is one; journalists who published stories related to the drama as well as those who misspelt a judge’s name were thrown in jails.
The presumption of guilt
All the farcical dramas happened during the course of the trial and tribulations of Teddy Afro. On April 21, 2008, Teddy’s supporters came out in full force around the court and demanded a fair trial. The Federal Police surrounded the peaceful protesters and arrested a number of people including two journalists. Negadras, a weekly newspaper, reported that twenty fans of Teddy Afro appeared before the Addis Ababa City First Instance Court on April 30, 2008 and were charged with distributing leaflets, chanting slogans and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the singer’s image, among other trivia. Within a few weeks, Teddy Afro was guilty before he was even convicted. He was denied bail rights and was sent to the notorious Kaliti prison. He was also put in solitary confinement. Many of his popular songs were banned on radios and TVs. Magazines and newspapers were censored and impounded making the case more of a political drama than a judicial matter. In early May 2008, 10000 copies of Enku, a monthly entertainment magazine was impounded and its publisher and deputy editor, Alemayehu Mahtemework, and three support staff who had no connection with the content of the magazine were detained.
Another interesting twist in the high profile drama emerged amidst all the dramas. Teddy’s defence attorney, Million Assefa, and Mesfin Negash, editor-in-chief of Addis Neger were sensationally arrested in early August over an interview the attorney gave to the newspaper. Even if it was just a case of a boomerang coming back to knock the attorney, as he has been helping to draft bad laws and the genocide charges against leaders of Kinijit, it was still comically outrageous. “Judge” Leol Gebremariam accused Million of contempt of “court” for stating in the newspaper that he was intending to lodge a complaint against the comedian judge with the so-called Judicial Administration Council, quite a misnomer where there is no justice to administer!
“The arrest of our colleague Mesfin Negash is an example of how authorities will find justification to detain journalists who cover sensitive issues, and criminalize independent reporting,” Tom Rhodes, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator protested. Even if Million was released, along with the journalist, after serving a few days in jail with a conviction record in their pockets, the attorney had every right, if at all there is any semblance of a judicial system, to make a complaint as well as publicizing his misgivings. Even more, the journalist had no case to answer as he did his job properly. It was clearly a case of a comical judge behaving badly.
That was not all. Another comical miscarriage of justice occurred. Tsion Girma, editor-in-chief of the private weekly Embilta, was arrested and subsequently “convicted” on a criminal charge for mistakenly identifying one of the comical judges involved in Teddy’s case. Her paper misidentified Muhamed Umer as Muhamed Amin. She has now been locked up in Kaliti jail for making a mistake in writing. This may be the first of its kind in the history of injustice and media repressions. It made the mistrial of Teddy not only a political issue that nobody would be allowed to talk about in any shape or form, but also as one of the most absurd and ludicrous stand up comedies ever performed in a court. That is justice; TPLF style!
Mistrials and pardons
After a series of miserably failed stand-up comedies at Zenawi’s Kangaroo high court, Teddy was declared guilty. The trial was tainted and the judges were too tyrannical and too comical to be taken seriously. Teddy Afro stood up and boldly declared that he had been denied justice and had lost faith in the court infuriating and aggrieving the comical judges. His defiance reduced the Kangaroo judges, who are too proud to sit on the high chairs of injustice, to ashes.
On the 5th December, 2008, comical Leul came back through the backdoor with his unfunny jokes holding his sledgehammer of injustice. “Six years in jail!” he declared. But that hasn’t impressed anyone at a miserably failed court of injustice where stand-up comedians are making a mockery of justice. During the sentencing, Leul gave a lecture looking down at Teddy with red eyes that the courts are not there to please him but to deliver justice. “This is a place for justice,” he said and admonished the singer for expressing his lose of faith in the court. “Can I speak?” asked Teddy politely. “No!” shouted back Leul and threatened that anyone who might dare to raise a voice would be charged with contempt of court. Teddy was then dragged back to jail condemned to spend six years of his life in jail.
According to reports, Zenawi “Shimagles” have been busy pressing Teddy to admit guilt and receive the charitable mercy of his the tyrant. That would make the tyrant the fountain of mercy who can release any “convicted criminals” at his whim. But the fact of the matter is that Teddy Afro, like the so many victims before him, has been denied a fair trial in a highly politically charged circus where clowns masquerading as judges have been committing gross injustice against him and all those who have been jailed and abused as a result of is his trials and tribulations. After all these trials and tribulations, Teddy Afro must be freed unconditionally as he has been punished more than enough. How come a criminal tyrant whose misdeeds have been written all over his forehead grants pardon to those facing mistrials and miscarriages of justice?
All the travesties of justice are clear testimonies to the fact that it is high time for change; a radical and drastic change is overdue that should dismantle and replace the rotten system which Zenawi and his cohorts have been sustaining with their corruption, guns and crimes against humanity.
Let the curtains close and the clumsy stand-up comedians and clowns in Zenawi’s Kangaroo courts of injustice, who collect their salary from the blood tears of people they traumatize, be sent to where they belong, convicted for committing crimes against justice. The road show isn’t funny but boring to death in a country where our celebrity’s popular songs are banned from the airwaves! For six years a great popular voice is to be silenced locked up in Kality to be a toy for rats and lunch for fleas, lice and bedbugs. That must be a bad practical joke gone awry.
It is time to banish stand-up comedians and clowns from courts and reclaim justice as the outrageous comics are gambling on the lives of poor, defenceless and voiceless citizens. The owner of the Kangaroo court clowns and comedians should at least make an effort to improve the poor quality of the outrageous dramas and road shows.
Teddy Afro’s message still echoes from jail. It is simply a call for unity and love. That must put to shame those who have been unable to unite for the holy cause of liberating the suffering people of Ethiopia from a tyrannical regime that has made life unbearable day by day.
(Former editor of Addisvoice.com Abebe Gelaw, is a Knight Fellow and Yahoo International Fellow at Stanford University, California. He can be reached at [email protected].)
The level of economy in countries around the globe is not even. It is somewhere very high and somewhere very low. GDP, literacy rate and employment rate are several parameters of a country to determine the level of its economy. According to a report of the United Nations, hunger causes the death of about 25,000 people everyday. Unfortunately, the number of children is greater than that of adults. Consider several facts of income disparity between rich and poor nations to measure the cleavage between the haves and the haves not. The combined income of the world’s richest individuals leaves far behind that of the poorest 416 million. 982 million out of 4.8 billion people in the developing world live on $1 a day. Another 2.5 billion live on below $2 a day.40% of the poorest population made up 5% of world income while 20% of the richest population made up 75% of global income in 2005.
A country with a GDP per capita of $765 dollars or less is defined as a low-income or poor country. You may wonder why poor countries remain poor. Some interrelated factors like geography, industrialization, colonialism, education, resources, infrastructure, overpopulation, investment, government and debt make poor countries remain the heavy foot of poverty.
Look into the fragile features of the ten poorest countries of the world.
10. Ethiopia (GDP – per capita: $700)
Ethiopia ranks 170 out of 177 the poorest countries on the Human Development Index (UNDP HDI 2006). Half of its GDP depends on agricultural activity. The agricultural sector suffers lowdown because of poor cultivation techniques and frequent drought. 50% of its population 74.7 million bears the burden of poverty and 80% lives on bread line. 47% of males and 31% of females are literate. Some parts of Ethiopia run a high risk of hepatitis A, hepatitis E, typhoid fever, malaria, rabies, meningococcal meningitis and schistosomiasis.
09. Niger (GDP – per capita: $700)
Niger with a population of 12.5 million is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. Drought is a common natural calamity in Niger. It often undergoes a phase of severe food crisis. 63% of its total population lives on below $1 a day. Adult literacy rate is as low as 15%. Life expectancy spans up to 46 years. A number of people die of hepatitis A, diarrhea, malaria, meningococcal meningitis and typhoid fever.
08. Central African Republic (GDP – per capita: $700)
The Central African Republic ranks 171 as a poor country. Agriculture is the backbone of its unstable economy. Life expectancy of its meager population 4.3 ranges from 43.46 to 43.62 years. 13.5% of its population is at risk of AIDS.
07. Guinea-Bissau (GDP – per capita: $600)
The rank of Guinea Bissau as a poor country is 172. Farming and fishing are the only pillars of its economy. The level of income is not even in all parts of the country. About 10% of its adult population is at risk of HIV.
06. Union of the Comoros (GDP – per capita: $600)
Population growth and unemployment at a high rate are responsible for the poor economy of Union of the Comoros. Population density at a rate of 1000 per square km in agriculture zones may result in an environmental crisis. Agricultural contribution to its GDP is 40%. The low level of education has raised the level of labor force. Economy mainly depends on foreign grants.
05. Republic of Somalia (GDP – per capita: $600)
Agriculture is the base of the economy of Republic of Somalia in the Horn of Africa. Nomads and semi-nomads comprise a major part of the population. Rearing livestock is the primary source of livelihood for them. The small agricultural industry contributes 10% to its GDP.
04. The Solomon Islands (GDP – per capita: $600)
The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia. Fishing holds its domestic economy. Above 75% of the labor class, is involved in fishing. Timber was the main product for export until 1998. Palm oil and copra are important cash crops for export. The Solomon Islands are rich in mineral resources like zinc, lead, gold and nickel.
03. Republic of Zimbabwe (GDP – per capita: $500)
Republic of Zimbabwe is located between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers in the south of Africa. Its economy suffers a slowdown due to supply shortage, soaring inflation and foreign exchange shortage. Zimbabwe’s involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo left its economy fragile. The worst consequence of the knelt-down economy is unemployment that is as high as 80%.
02. Republic of Liberia (GDP – per capita: $500)
Republic of Liberia on the west coast of Africa is one of the ten poorest economies across the globe. A decline in the export of commodities, the flight of many investors from the country, the unjust exploitation of the country’s diamond resource, looting and war profiteering during the civil war in 1990 brought the economy of the country to its knees. External debt of the country is more than its GDP.
01. Republic of the Congo (GDP – per capita: $300)
Republic of the Congo in Central Africa is the last at the bottom of the economic heaps. Depreciation of Franc Zone currencies, incredibly high levels of inflation in 1994, eruption of the civil war, and continuation of armed conflict and slumping oil price in 1998 broke down the economy of the country.
Frustrated over the continued injustice of the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) against the people of Ethiopia, several Ethiopian groups in the Washington DC area are coming together to take strong actions. The decision to take action, which will involve blocking the Ethiopian embassy in Washington DC, came about after the Woyanne regime’s kangaroo court on Friday sentenced popular Ethiopian artist Tewodros Kassahun (Teddy Afro) to 6 years in jail after conducting a sham trial.
Organizers of the Woyanne embassy blockade and protest include Ethiopian artists, Addis Dimts Radio, EthioLion.com, Ethiopian Review, Ethiopiawinet Radio, Int’l Ethiopian Women Association, Netsanet Le Ethiopia Radio, Moa Anbessa, and Tegbar.
The blockade action will be taken against the Woyanne representatives at the Ethiopian embassy in Washington DC any time between now and Dec 15, 2008. Additionally, there will be a protest rally on Monday, Dec. 15 starting at 11 AM in front of the embassy.
The organizers call on Ethiopians around the world to mobilize and help free Teddy Afro and all the political prisoners in Ethiopia, including Bekele Jirata, the recently jailed secretary general of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement, from the Woyanne fascist regime’s disease-infested jails. No more injustice.
I recently had a humbling experience on a trip to Ethiopia with Catholic Relief Services. It was a trip that helped me realize that the words of the Our Father can bring us together and help us see that we really do need each other and God to be nourished.
As the director of the Office for Black Catholics for the Diocese of Austin, I was privileged to be part of a 14-person delegation invited to visit development programs in Ethiopia. The aim was to raise our awareness and foster advocacy upon our return home about issues affecting Africa’s poor people.
Awareness raising started right away. On our drive from the Addis Ababa airport to our hotel, I could see homeless people in one darkened, impoverished neighborhood after another. Relatives huddled together, wrapping themselves in paper and plastic for their night’s sleep. It was a prelude of what we would see in days to come.
Ethiopia, with a population of 82 million, is the oldest independent country in Africa — and at 2,000 years, one of the oldest countries in the world. The population in the capital has doubled in the past 20 years and is expected to double again in the next 20. Housing is obviously a major problem; city streets are lined with homes with corrugated metal for makeshift roofs and walls.
Shortly after our arrival, we flew 300 miles east to Dire Dawa, a city of 400,000. From there, we bounced in a caravan of Land Cruisers over rocky roads to visit several rural villages.
When we arrived at the remote mountain village of Kufansik, a village elder greeted us waving two water bottles. The liquid in one was brown, a sample from the scum-covered pond they previously used. The other bottle was filled with sparkling, clear water drawn from a new distribution system developed by Catholic Relief Services and local Catholic partners.
As the elder raised the bottles to the heavens, the other villagers broke out into joyous singing and dancing, sharing their appreciation for their new water source. Mothers who previously walked miles a day to collect drinkable water now have time to tend their fields, and village children are now free to attend school. Families have also learned how to improve their health through sanitation training. In these rural areas, Catholic Relief Services has also taught local residents to protect their watershed by controlling grazing and building terraces for flood control and soil and water conservation. This clean water in Ethiopia, so often taken for granted in the United States, is radically changing people’s lives.
As our visit came to an end, the villagers brought traditional injera bread, small marula fruits and boiled milk for us to share with them. Though some of the delegation worried we might become sick, particularly from the milk, we understood it was a risk worth taking. A colleague noted later that in this act we shared the body of Christ with poor people, and that when we ask God to give us our daily bread, we are all poor.
Later in the day, the rains came — a blessing during this time of drought. Our vehicles got stuck in the mud, but we were determined to visit another site, so we jumped out to walk the rest of the way.
Now we passed face to face the Ethiopians we’d been waving at for hours from our car windows. We slipped and slid across muddy ruts, and they laughed and greeted us. In minutes, though, the growing sheets of rains sent us running back to the vehicles.
For a brief moment, however, we experienced what the Ethiopians experience. By the time I climbed back into our car, I was caked with mud. I realized again how blessed I am and what a humbling experience this was for me.
In that Ethiopian community high in the mountains and on a muddy rural road, I learned that the entire world needs to be a village in which we all help one another.
(Johnnie Dorsey is director of the Office for Black Catholics for the Diocese of Austin and can be reached at [email protected].)
WASHINGTON (News 8) – While economic woes are hurting many businesses, one group of restaurateurs are suffering particularly badly.
Owners of restaurants in the D.C. neighborhood known as Little Ethiopia, centered around 9th and U streets, say they are suffering a 20- or 30-percent drop in sales. A large percentage of their customers — as much as 75 percent — are cab drivers from Ethiopia or Eritrea. The drivers are hurting economically and it’s hurting the businesses that serve them.
“We lose at lot of customers,” said Derege Zewdie, owner of Habesha Market. “Plus the customer they used to order one for each. Now they are sharing one plate for two people.”
Drivers blame two things: the economy and Mayor Fenty’s fare structure for taxicabs under the new time-and-distance meters.
“We are working more hours, we are making less money,” said Gewedensh Asfaha, who says he no longer has money to spent in restaurants. Instead, he goes home, he said.
One example drivers cite is runs to Dulles International Airport (web|news) . The new fare structure pays $14 dollars less than the old system, drivers complain.
“I don’t go out like I used to because I cannot afford it,” said Domenico Emmanuel, a cab driver. “If I don’t make it, how am I going to entertain?”
That leaves business owners in a bind.
“It’s very hard to pay all of my bills because of, uh, most of my customers are taxi drivers,” said Haile Daniel, a restaurant owner.
