ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Woyanne regime security agents have arrested a staff member of ETV’s Afan Oromo TV program, Wzr. Lelise Wodajo.
The Woyanne security agents picked up Wzr. Lalise from her place of work, Ethiopian Television (ETV), and took her to Central (Maikelawi) Investigation on October 30, 2008, at noon.
The security agents also confiscated Wzr. Lalsie’s house, leaving her four children, Jitu, Bonsen, and Bethlehem, homeless.
By Guershon Nduwa
The press of current events caused me to postpone recounting a rare happening that I watched on Guysen cable TV, the Israeli French-language channel broadcasting from Jerusalem. Hundreds of Israelis of Ethiopian origin were demonstrating in front of the apartment of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. They were calling for the admission into Israel of those of their families still in Ethiopia.
Indeed, various Israeli governments had long ago begun to organize the famous Operation Moses, that helped Ethiopian Jews to return to the land of Israel. At great cost, and with the help of the United States, Israel had obtained permission from Colonel Mengistu, the Red Negus, to repatriate these Ethiopian Jews to Israel. But a serous question was raised. Were they Jews? If so, they must be circumcised, eat kosher, respect the repose and the solemnity of the Sabbath, etc…
Some of you may have seen that very beautiful film: “Go, Live and Become”. If this demonstration was taking place, it was because the government had decreed the end of this immigration, considering that there were no more Jews in Ethiopia, whereas these people claimed that members of their families had remained behind… A painful dilemma! If the Israeli government decided to stop this immigration, it is because numerous refugees, fleeing the massacres in the Sudan and, particularly in the Darfur region, decided to seek refuge in Israel, sometimes passing through Egypt where they braved the dangers of the Sinai crossing to reach Israel. I myself saw some, in the luxury hotels of Eilat on the Gulf of Eilat, working as waiters in these hotels and telling clients, in a rusty Hebrew that they were not Jews but wanted to become Jews, because the Zionist state would bring them peace and security. In the evening, strolling in the souk that remains open until the early hours of the morning, one can see their children walking by the shops or working in some of them…
All these details of daily life show that the Zionist ideology is not what some decry with poorly concealed hatred… That Africans, persecuted in their own countries, cross a broad desert at the risk of their lives and threatened by Egyptian border guards who mistreat them, in order to seek refuge in Israel and remain there, is a notable fact that should lead many to rethink their prejudices.
If I am allowed a philosophical-religious parallel, this is the Messianic vision of the Prophet Isaiah (VIIIth century B.C.E.) that links up with the wish expressed by the German philosopher Kant (1804). He spoke of a peace pact uniting all humanity from one end of the world to the other. Knowing how quickly some can shoot arrows sharpened by their ignorance and their prejudices, I ask to be read attentively and even twice. As Michel Jobert once said, “Read me attentively; you will understand me better”.
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])
By William Hershey
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Joe’s familiar to most Americans by now. He’s Republican John McCain’s best friend and campaign sidekick.
Joe — actually Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — met up with Democrat Barack Obama in suburban Toledo last month and bashed Obama’s tax plan. Wurzelbacher believes it would hurt his chances to buy the plumbing business he works for.
Joe’s aspirations to become a small business owner represent an important part of America’s story.
Business people who started out with less than Joe have created millions of jobs, made themselves rich and helped make the United States the economic envy of the world, even in these down times.
Democrats don’t agree with Joe’s analysis of Obama’s and McCain’s tax plans but if they’re smart they won’t beat up on his dream.
Abraham also represents a part of the American story, a part that probably doesn’t get talked about enough in the onslaught of attack ads and celebrity get-out-the-vote rockfests that dominate the campaign for president.
It’s a part that immigrants like Abraham, who came here from Ethiopia in January 1982, with literally nothing but the clothes on his back, can see clearer than the rest of us — the power to change things by voting.
I know Abraham — Abraham Beyene — better than Joe. He was my student 40 years ago in an Ethiopia high school when I was a Peace Corps teacher.
My wife and I along with two churches helped bring him to Ohio from Sudan. He had fled there on foot after fighting in Ethiopia’s bloody civil struggles that erupted after Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed in 1974.
After graduating from Ohio State in 1987, Abraham moved to the Atlanta area. Like Joe, he looked for better economic opportunities. He landed a job with a land development company but when hard times hit and he was laid off, he started driving a taxi.
These days, he’s still driving and also helping his wife Tirue raise their son, Bruck, 15, and daughter Seday, 12. The family’s day starts at 3:30 a.m. when Tirue gets up for her job at a grocery store bakery. Abraham drives the kids to school and then heads to the airport to pick up some fares.
He’s taken a separate job this year — registering voters. He registered some at an Ethiopian festival and then took more forms to the airport where he signed up about 29 taxi drivers. Like him, most were immigrants — Ethiopians, Somalis, Pakistanis, Indians and Iranians.
“If any American doesn’t see any country outside of his own nation, then he wouldn’t take the voting rights seriously,” Abraham said. “To people like me who have been deprived of those rights or people like South Africans who sacrificed their lives to get voting power, it means a lot.”
He tells his son Bruck that voting matters.
“All your life is affected by elected officials, your gas bill, your mortgage, your water bill, your electric bill, the schools, the day care centers, the health system,” Abraham said.
He supports Obama for president but backed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, partly because of her husband Bill.
“I bought my house during this period of his presidency. I had good money. The economy was good. The country was at peace. The guy was for the middle class and the lower class,” he said.
Also, he didn’t think American voters were ready to pick a black man like Obama to run for president.
“The outcome changed my mind,” he said. “He (Obama) defeated all the odds.”
Obama’s a long shot in Georgia, but Abraham is not deterred.
“There’s no perfection in the world,” he said. “Things are relative.”
This lengthy article (Amharic, pdf) discusses possible motives behind the attempt on Amare Aregawi’s life last Friday.
Ato Amare, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Reporter, was brutally attacked by three unidentified individuals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday, Oct. 31. He is currently recovering in Hayat Hospital from a non-life-threatening head injury.
The articles gives a good insight into what may have transpired that led to the assassination attempt. Those who may have motives to send a serious warning or eliminate Amare range from Bereket Simon to Al Amoudi. Click here to read.
All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP), a former member organization of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (Kinijit), is reporting that police in the town of Sodo entered it’s vice-chairman Dr Tadiwos Tantu’s hotel room and confiscated his documents on Oct. 28. According to AEUP’s press release, Dr Tadiwos Tantu was on a working visit in Sodo at the time.
Another official of AEUP, Ato Ali Mirah Yayu, was arrested in Assayita Zone by the local police on Oct. 27, 2008, and released the following day. Ato Ali was arrested on the order of the Assayita police commander Shambel Mohammed Abdela, according to AEUP. Ato Ali Hareb, the property owner who rented his building to the AEUP for office, was beaten up and tortured by the Assayita police.
Ato Getye Desta in Northern Shoa and Ato Bekele Girma in Gedio Zone — both AEUP officials — are currently languishing in jail.
Two days ago, UDJ vice-chairman Ato Gizachew Shiferraw and two other party officials were arrested in Gojjam, northern Ethiopia.
On the same day, secretary general of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement (OFDM), Ato Beqele Jirata, was arrested by the Federal Police while on his way to his office. His home was searched and documents were confiscated.
On Friday, Ato Shiferraw Jarso, a Woyanne regime official, was on Voice of America claiming that opposition parties are free to operate in the country. Click below to listen:
[podcast]http://www.ethiopianreview.info/audio/voa_crossfire_temesgen_vs_teshome.mp3[/podcast]
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By JTV, Lamp Post Reports
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Getting around Addis can be quite a hassle. Public transportation is provided by hundreds of ‘mini-buses’ that are actually secondhand Toyota vans from Europe. While it’s cheap, it’s certainly not the most efficient method. All summer I’ve been scheming and brainstorming different methods of transportation. Unfortunately, the tax on cars is something like 240%, meaning a twenty year old Land Cruiser runs you about $20,000 USD. Not exactly within my budget. Donkeys are readily available and cheap, about $60-80 USD, but they are a little undersized. Bicycles are expensive, approximately $120 USD, and you are limited to the city, unless you are Lance Armstrong. Bajas, three wheeled golf-cart like taxis, are one of my favorite means of transport, but they are too expensive unless you plan to use it as a taxi, roughly $4,000-5,000 USD.
That left one option: a motorcycle. My top two choices, Yamaha or Suzuki (also the most popular models in Addis) where both too expensive. You can always count on the Chinese for a cheap imitation though, and that’s exactly what I went with: a Loncin 125. I know, it’s a small engine; give me a break, it’s all I can afford.
The other day I was humming along, on my way to the gym when the bike started sputtering and then ran out of gas. Luckily, I was going downhill, so I coasted to the bottom where I knew a gas station to be. I pushed the bike into the station only to find it was a diesel station.
Time to push it back up the hill, to a Shell station about a half-mile away. Ethiopians are some of the most willing people when it comes to helping a commuter in distress; two guys immediately helped me push it up the hill. This was not because I was a ‘ferenge’ (foreigner). I have, on numerous occasions, witnessed people help push broken down cars and buses.
After reaching the Shell station I gave the guys a few birr for their help and then asked for a fill-up. ‘Sorry, petrol yellem (out of gas).’ A gas station out of gas, fantastic I thought; time to walk home and leave the bike. I parked my bike in the corner of the lot and started walking but was immediately called to the gas station café by an Ethiopian who was having a beer with his buddies. His English was near perfect and, to my surprise he asked me if I would like to borrow his car and jerry-can to fetch some gas. I was about to accept, and then decided I did not want to take the risk of a fender bender in someone else’s care.
Tsefay, my new friend’s name, was as polite as he could be. Rather than simply wishing me well when I declined, he asked the gas attendant to suck a liter out of his car and put it in my bike. Wow, what I guy I’m thinking. He then asks, ‘What’ll you take?’
“Giorgis, of course,” I said as I ordered the local beer. While we enjoyed our beer, along with a host of his friends, he told me he learned a lot from US soldiers stationed in Ethiopia when he was kid. The two main takeaways being spoken English and beer drinking. At least you are still doing both well, I thought to myself. I also learned that he had had a bike for over twenty years, and knew what it was like to be stranded. As we talked, one of his friends slipped out and told the attendant to transfer 3 liters of gas, rather than the initially ordered one liter.
When I saw what was going on, I was worried Tsefay would get mad and take it out on me. I immediately said I’d pay the difference, but he laughed it off and said he’d get his friends back. I finished my beer and told them I had to be on my way. Before leaving I bought them all a round and thanked them for their generosity. As I jumped on my bike however, I had a hard time getting it started. Tsefay came out, visibly concerned that the beer had affected my judgment.
“Are you OK with the beer?”
“Yes, I’m fine with the beer, I have experience.”
“Doesn’t look like it, are you sure the beer is OK with you?”
“Yes! I just need to get this bike started. The bike’s not OK with me.”
Eventually, we got it started, but Tsefay would not let me leave without promising to call him when I arrived at my destination. I was afraid he may not even let me go, he was so worried. I called him upon reaching the gym. He was thrilled and relieved that I had reached my destination safely.
I’m from the South, as the southeastern part of the US is referred to, and we like to pride ourselves on hospitality. I am not sure, however, that even in the South a perfect stranger would receive the type of generosity and hospitality that Tsefay showed me. The Ethiopian people are truly some of the most generous, hospitable people I have met.