Lakuka and her children, Afar, Ethiopia. (Photo: Jane Beesley)
By Jane Beesley | Oxfam
AFAR, ETHIOPIA – Worsening drought and high food prices are pushing many families in Ethiopia to the brink. Humanitarian Communications Officer Jane Beesley reports.
Afar, close to the Eritrea and Djibouti borders in Ethiopia, is dry and hot. It’s one of those places where extremes exist, bizarre juxtapositions. Cutting through the landscape is one of the best roads in Ethiopia, slick and black, linking Addis Ababa with Djibouti. Truck after truck hurtles through a landscape that resembles the surface of a far and distant planet – bare, dry, rocky. You think that nothing could possibly survive here, but there are scatterings of small dwellings – almost unnoticeable, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding large boulders and grey-brown landscape.
It’s early morning, already hot and the shade has virtually disappeared.
Lakuka (pictured) tells us that they have moved to be near the road. Things have got so bad they have left the areas they normally go to during a drought to be close to the road for two reasons: for transport (they have lost their burden animals), and in search of aid. She tells us she only has enough food for the family for today.
It’s a tight squeeze as we go through the entrance to Asha Yousef’s home (a quick reminder of how much bigger and fatter we are) but, for a brief moment, it gives Asha and her family some entertainment. The kettle is put on the fire and we are given a glass of piping hot, sweet tea: even in the harshest of times, hospitality to strangers is instantly offered.Â
Asha tells us about how they have lost most of their animals, and she’s been trying to feed her family with the few remaining ones. But, as she points out, while the price of goats hasn’t varied a great deal (100-150[1] Birr), the price of sorghum has doubled or tripled (from 100/200 to 400/600 Birr). People have had to trade more goats, from two to three, four, five, depending on their condition, for one 50 kg sack of sorghum.
Asha recently received some food aid, but tells us it will last six days. Asked what she will do when the food runs out, she says, “I’ll trade one of my three goats for some pasta. I don’t have enough goats to trade for a bag of grain.” And asked what she will do when the three goats have gone she says, “God knows.”
Asha’s elderly mother, Rockia, remembers a different time, when the rains came four times a year and there was pasture and plenty of milk. “When I was young there were problems, but not like this. The nature of the area means that water has always been a problem but, when I compare it to today, the environment then was very good.” In recent times the four rains have become two, and the failure of these rains is becoming more frequent, like those expected earlier this year.
Elsewhere, Amina is trying to breastfeed her two-year-old child Hassana, who looks severely malnourished. It’s a time when you face one of the dilemmas of the job. You come to see, to ask people questions, to report back on the situation – trying to raise awareness, trying to raise funds etc., but in so doing you can raise expectations and hope that something will happen.
The landscape reminds me of Mauritania, where once I asked some women what they were cooking. They told me “nothing”, then explained that when they had no food they put a pot of water on a fire so the children would think a meal was coming and eventually they would fall asleep. If the children knew there was no food, they would start crying and there was nothing the women could do.Â
I wonder if our visit today is like that pot of water.
JUBA, Sudan (AFP) — The European Union is ready to bankroll Sudan’s electoral commission, which is tasked with preparing landmark polls laid out in a scheduled democratic transformation, a diplomat said Tuesday.
“The EU is ready to give full support to the commission in terms of financing,” said Italian Ambassador Roberto Cantone.
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended 21 years of civil war between north and south Sudan, calls for elections no later than 2009 as part of a democratic transition, but there are widespread fears of delays.
“We are aware that there are differing opinions concerning possibility that elections would take place or not,” Cantone said.
“Nevertheless, as EU, we believe the elections are a monumental step, not only for implementation of the CPA, but also reconciliation among people of Sudan,” the diplomat added.
Cantone spoke with EU ambassadors in the southern capital Juba for talks with officials, including the head of the semi-autonomous region, Salva Kiir.
Southern Sudan officials warn that a clean election is nearly impossible in July, owing to the rainy season in the south, ongoing failures to demarcate the border between north and south and delayed census results.
On Monday, Sudan’s national parliament approved an independent electoral commission. That was three months behind schedule after the new electoral law was passed on July 7, two and a half years late.
The line-up of the nine-member commission, appointed by the presidency, is supported by north and south.
President Omar al-Beshir has vowed that elections will be held on time, but some analysts argue that an anticipated international arrest warrant against him for alleged crimes in Darfur could undermine the prospect of polls.
China on Tuesday defended its presence and investments in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a rebel leader there demanded commercial contracts between the two nations be reviewed.
“China’s business activities and investment programmes in DR Congo are based on mutual benefit and joint development,” foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang told reporters.
“Chinese companies, apart from cooperation in sectors like mining and natural resources, are also engaged in non-profit areas.”
“We hope that these mutually beneficial cooperation programmes will move forward.”
Qin’s comments came after Laurent Nkunda, a rebel leader who claims to be protecting the Tutsi population in the country’s war-torn east, asked the contracts be reviewed as part of a list of demands put to a special UN envoy.
The east of DR Congo has seen months of heavy fighting, with government forces and Nkunda’s troops clashing repeatedly since August in violation of a January ceasefire. An estimated 250 000 people have been displaced.
The country has increasingly been reliant on borrowing money from China – a situation that drew the concern of the International Monetary Fund in September.
Beijing has been investing heavily in the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent years.
It lent the central African country an estimated US$9-billion in May to restore its infrastructure and revive the mining industry.
It also made a $35-million investment into the Congolese postal service last January. – AFP
WASHINGTON — While the nation’s capital obsesses over who will be the next pick for Barack Obama’s Cabinet, the president-elect’s lieutenants are engaged with what may be a more important long-term issue: What will become of Obama’s vast grass-roots network?
Electoral campaigns, like circus tents, quickly disappear after the show is over. But Obama is our first community-organizer president, and he sees the way he got elected as being almost as crucial as the fact that he won. Because of the emphasis he put on organizing, barackobama.com might fairly be seen as the most successful high-tech startup of the last two years.
Over and over, Obama has spoken of change coming from “the bottom up,” and the organization he built down to the precinct and neighborhood level could be an agent of that change. But how?
The discussion among Obama’s lieutenants focuses on several alternatives. In one view, the Obama apparatus could be integrated into the Democratic Party and be run through the Democratic National Committee. Many of Obama’s top lieutenants, including his campaign manager, David Plouffe, are veterans of traditional Democratic politics.
Turning the Obama network into a vast national party organization could give Democrats durable advantages it has not enjoyed since the New Deal era, when Franklin Roosevelt built an alliance between local political machines and a growing labor movement.
But Plouffe himself has been much affected by the new way of campaigning he oversaw. His regular video reports to the troops turned him into something of a hero to the Obama faithful.
Moreover, Steve Hildebrand, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, has argued that members of the Obama network include many who are averse to traditional party politics: young people with weak party loyalties, independents and even some Republicans. He has been suggesting at Democratic gatherings that the Obama apparatus might instead constitute itself as an independent political organization — friendly and parallel to the Democratic Party, but a separate entity nonetheless. Obama supporters are also discussing how local Obama networks could integrate themselves into their communities through various forms of service work and activism. Obama’s Web site is currently raising money for the victims of recent Southern California fires.
The importance of cultivating the network and keeping it intact was underscored by an online survey that Plouffe sent out to supporters on Tuesday. The survey explicitly asked: “How would you like to see this organization move forward in the months and years ahead?”
Offering a clue as to what Obama insiders are thinking, the survey asked supporters to rank four objectives: helping the new administration “pass legislation through grass-roots efforts”; helping elect state and local candidates “who share the same vision for our country”; training others in the organizing techniques perfected by the campaign; and “working on local issues that impact our communities.”
Notably absent from that list was the word “Democrat.”
Yet there is only so much distance that Obama either can or wants to keep from his party. He is, in important ways, a loyal Chicago organization Democrat. Plouffe is currently using the Obama fundraising network to help the Democratic National Committee erase its deficit.
Obama supporters have been moving into Georgia to help Democrat Jim Martin in his Dec. 2 runoff campaign against incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Yet Obama himself has yet to make clear how forcefully he’ll intervene in a state that he lost. A Martin victory would signal the depth of the nation’s desire for change, but a new president with soaring popularity may not want to subject himself to such an early test on not-entirely-hospitable terrain.
One Democratic strategist said that parts of the Obama organization are still mistrustful of the national committee as a redoubt for Hillary and Bill Clinton loyalists. But this view is waning since Obama, as the party’s undisputed leader, will inevitably take over the party apparatus, and he is making peace with the Clintons, notably by suggesting he may want Sen. Clinton as his secretary of state.
The urgency of the organizational discussion signals that Obama’s lieutenants see the 2008 campaign as having fundamentally altered the contours of American politics.
Democrats believe (and many Republicans fear) that Obama allowed his party and its allies to take an enormous leap forward in both technological sophistication and grass-roots activism. Preserving those gains and building on them is a high priority for a man who sees organizing not only as instrumental, but also as a way of transforming democracy itself.
Ethiopia’s superstar musician Teddy Afro continues to languish in jail. His crime is caring for his country. The fascist dictatorship in Ethiopia was threatened by that, so they fabricated false charges and threw him in a dark prison cell.
The tyrannical regime has spared no effort to silence the voices of those who dared to challenge it, and by locking up Teddy Afro, while simultaneously disenfranchising Ethiopians once again, it has clearly demonstrated its contempt for Ethiopia and its people.
The Ethiopian dictator is doing what all dictators do — eliminate those who pose a threat to their grip on power.
EDITOR’S NOTE: ER begs to disagree with Joe’s view below about Aregawi Amare’s predicaments, but let’s see what readers think.
By Joe Michael
The authoritarian Ethiopian ruling party, Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) loyalists have turned their backs on The Reporter newspaper editor and their one time close partner Amare Aregawi. While the editor’s recent stories about the Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi monopoly and unproductive investment in Ethiopia was stated as a reason for the conflict, the editor’s unusual stories and their negative effects on EPRDF loyalists’ benefits is the main reason for the clash between the partners.
Mr. Amare Aregawi, who is the owner and chief editor of The Reporter Amharic and English newspaper, was a prominent member of EPRDF [a front organization for the Tigrean People Liberation Front] who earned respect by his comrades. He served EPRDF in different positions ever since they have taken over the country. He was very loyal and close friend with many high-ranking officials including EPRDF business partners. Mr. Amare knows about EPRDF and its partners more than any other journalists do because he was entitled to unlimited access to classified information.
Thus, what made EPRDF loyalists angry was not because they lost their loyal friend, but because their former loyal friend knows a lot of secrets.
The Reporter editor has begun unfolding attention-grabbing stories about EPRDF and its business partners, which apparently damage the interests of the EPRDF family. The loyalists know that if this bean is left alone for tomorrow, it will never be chewed. Thus, they are digging a deep hole to bury their one time friend. They are looking for tactics to make Mr. Amare the next Teddy Afro.
The Reporter editor, the one time beloved son of EPRDF [Woyanne] is indeed in a grave danger for telling the truth. In fact, he was incarcerated a couple of month ago for reporting about abuse of employees in one of the EPRDF affiliated companies. Recently, he was viciously beaten up by a group of people who had a hidden mission. EPRDF loyalists from all corners are furiously pointing their nasty fingers at him. Some called him crazy. Some even recorded a personal message on their websites and warned him to stop telling the truth.
The EPRDF’s ruthless dogma; “If you are not with me you are my enemy” is chasing its former comrade to possibly end his best days.
