EDITOR’S NOTE: What does this {www:ችጋራም} Woyanne knows about farming? Over 6 million people are starving because of his regime’s mismanagement of Ethiopia’s resources.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – In the past four years the rain fell in torrents, Demeke Hafiso’s crops sprouted like clockwork, his three-acre plot filled the stomachs of his nine children – and millions of farmers like him powered the Ethiopian economy to double-digit growth.
This year the rain came too late, he has abandoned his field of dead maize, and is sitting by the bedside of his motionless son in a medical centre run by Médecins Sans Frontières. The 16-year-old’s hollowed-out cheeks betray the starvation that has brought him here.
A drought in Ethiopia’s southern highlands between January and May led to the failure of a harvest that has left 4.6m people needing emergency food aid and 5.7m in drought-affected areas requiring other handouts, according to the United Nations.
It is another of the hunger crises that have periodically hit Ethiopia since the famine of 1984-85 and before, but the rural country of 80m is not facing starvation on the same apocalyptic scale.
The drought, however, has serious implications for politics and policy. It has punctured the hubris around the government’s agriculture-led development strategy and made it defensive over its commitment to small-scale farming on state-held land.
Steady rain and bumper harvests helped the Ethiopian economy expand by an annual average of nearly 12 per cent over the past four years, a trend that the ruling regime presented as evidence of the agricultural sector getting stronger.
But the withering effect of this year’s drought suggests it may have simply been getting lucky. “We were doing very well and all of a sudden we collapsed,” says Tewodros Gebremichael, country health director of Merlin, a UK-based aid group. One official at the Economic Commission for Africa, a UN body in Addis Ababa, describes the past four years of plenty as a “missed opportunity”.
Assefa Admassie, director of the Ethiopian Economic Association, says: “Ethiopian agriculture needs a structural transformation. If we depend on small farmers and a fragmented, rain-fed system, we’ll always face this problem.”
Dispute over problems
The government bristles at such criticism. Meles Zenawi, the prime minister, says the problems in the south are the result of a “freak event” and he rejects the assertion that the arable farming system has any flaws. The subject is sensitive for his government – which seized power as a group of bush fighters in 1991 and won a disputed election in 2005 – because it has pinned its legitimacy on agricultural development.
The government introduced improved seed varieties, set up a donor-funded welfare programme to help farmers accumulate assets, and built roads so food could be moved from regions with a surplus to those with a shortage. Productivity rose and so did rural incomes as farmers were encouraged to grow cash crops such as coffee alongside their food.
But observers say the official story of an agricultural transformation does not tally with what they see on the ground, where micro-irrigation systems are sparse and the distribution of drought-resistant crops poor.
Population growth as contributing factor
One reason for the intractability of Ethiopia’s hunger problem is the pace of population growth – estimated to be 2 to 3 per cent a year – as well as the custom of subdividing land between children. Over-cultivation in some areas has already damaged the soil irreversibly.
The government is criticised by liberal commentators for not allowing land to be privately owned, leaving farmers with little incentive to invest in improving their plots. It is a policy that can be traced back to the Meles regime’s command-and-control instincts and its suspicion of market forces.
Eyessus Zafu, president of the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce, is one of several businessmen urging the government to go corporate. “Capital-intensive commercial agriculture would have given you the surplus you need,” he says. Bigger farms would create opportunities for land consolidation and mechanisation.
But Mr Meles says it is “patently stupid” to advocate a wholesale switch to big farms.
For Mr Demeke, the immediate priority is to avoid having to bring another child to the centre: “The government could give us cows and oxen and we hope God will give us enough rain so we can plant our own food again.”
Obama tells supporters to expect more attacks to come.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama held onto his solid lead in the polls and appeared confident of capturing the US presidency in the historic race, but steeled his supporters for a crescendo of vicious attacks in the final hours of the campaign.
With just four days to go after a marathon contest, the Obama campaign went on the offensive in several solidly Republican states Friday. Democrats announced they would air television ads in Georgia, North Dakota and even Arizona, which Republican John McCain has represented in the US Senate for 22 years.
“We are four days away from changing the United States of America,” Obama told voters Friday night in Indiana, one of about a half-dozen Republican states remain up for grabs late this election season.
The underdog McCain, meanwhile, spent a second day touring Ohio in his “Straight Talk Express” bus, and appeared with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican, in a last-ditch effort to win a state critical to his hopes for victory.
No Republican has ever been elected president without winning Ohio, but McCain trails in the polls there by a wide margin.
“We’re closing, my friends, and we’re going to win in Ohio,” McCain said during a stop in the state Friday. “We’re a few points down but we’re coming back and we’re coming back strong.”
McCain’s campaign argued that he was closing the gap in the final days and that he was closer than reflected in public polling. Privately, McCain’s aides said he trailed Obama by 4 points nationwide in internal polling.
An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters put the Democrat well ahead nationwide, 51 to 43, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The same survey gave McCain reason to hope — one in seven voters, 14 percent of the total — said they were undecided or might yet change their minds.
But McCain may be running out of time to turn the tide.
Obama, who is seeking to become the first black US president, has tapped public concern about two long-running US wars abroad and a faltering economy at home.
He has also raised hundreds of millions of dollars more than McCain for his campaign.
McCain and his supporters have fought back by accusing Obama of associating with radicals, advocating surrender in Iraq and supporting socialist economic policies.
“Sen. Obama’s economic policy is from the far left of American politics and ours is in the center,” McCain said Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” television program.
In Iowa, Obama accused the Republicans of practicing “slash and burn, say-anything, do-anything politics that’s calculated to divide and distract; to tear us apart instead of bringing us together.”
He said he admired a presidential candidate who said in 2000: “I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.”
“Those words were spoken eight years ago by my opponent, John McCain,” Obama said. “But the high road didn’t lead him to the White House then, so this time, he decided to take a different route.”
Despite this, Obama later told CNN that, if he is elected, he would consider appointing McCain to “any position … where I thought he was going to be the best person for our country.”
As part of McCain’s effort to capture Ohio, McCain hosted Schwarzenegger — the former bodybuilder and actor who played the lead in the “Terminator” series of Hollywood blockbusters — at a rally in the city of Columbus Friday afternoon, where he offered to help the lanky Obama beef up his “skinny legs” and “scrawny little arms.”
“John McCain has served his country longer in a POW camp than his opponent has in the United States Senate,” the Austrian-born politician said. “I only play an action hero in the movies. John McCain is a real action hero.”
McCain’s campaign said the candidate would appear Saturday on the late-night comedy show, “Saturday Night Live.”
The satirical program has bolstered its ratings in recent months by lampooning McCain’s choice for the Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is bidding to become America’s first woman vice president.
Both McCain and Obama are expected to appear at half time on a nationally televised American football game Monday night.
But nationwide appeals may matter less, in the end, than the grueling chess game of state-by-state campaigning that marks US presidential contests.
Under the US system, the president is not elected by direct popular vote nationwide. Instead, the successful candidate must win 270 out of 538 electoral votes in what amounts to a state-by-state contest. Electoral votes are allocated to each state roughly according to population.
McCain has won come-from-behind political contests before. But his campaign has struggled throughout the fall, plagued by internal bickering and divisions in the party ranks.
In an interview Thursday with National Public Radio, Lawrence Eagleburger, a former secretary of state and prominent McCain supporter, who said Palin isn’t prepared to take over as president in a crisis.
He added that she could eventually become “adequate.” He later apologized for the comments.
Palin campaigned Friday in Pennsylvania, where she charged that Obama represented the “far left wing” of the Democratic party and had an ideological commitment to raising taxes.
Obama is proposing tax increases on families making over $250,000 and individuals making over $200,000 and tax cuts for the 95 percent of workers making less than $200,000.
The Democrats’ vice presidential candidate, US Sen. Joe Biden, told a crowd in Delaware that history will judge the Bush administration harshly for failing to build a strong economy and to unite the world against global terrorism.
“The Bush legacy, the one that John McCain wants to continue, is an America where we are divided from each other, a nation divided from the world,” Biden said.
Obama planned final get-out-the-vote rallies in Nevada, Colorado and Missouri Saturday. He was scheduled to campaign in Ohio all day Sunday, including a Cleveland rally with singer Bruce Springsteen, then hit Virginia and Florida on Election Eve.
McCain had eight states on his final three-day itinerary besides the detour to New York City for “Saturday Night Live,” hosted by Obama supporter Ben Affleck. Monday’s schedule called for him to visit several states, ending with a midnight rally in his home state of Arizona where Obama was running television ads.
“We want to win everywhere,” Obama said of his decision to air the commercials in his opponent’s state.
Guilt by association is risky strategy. Republicans decry Obama’s connection to Ayers and Wright. Republicans also say they want to look forward but they continually look back. Go figure.
Using Republicans standards, how about McCain’s board position on the Council for World Freedom, a racist, anti-Semitic group with ties to former Nazi collaborators and with direct Iran/Contra ties.
How about his meddling in the investigation of the Keating Five and his extremely close relationship with the Keatings. A judge even reprimanded McCain on his poor judgment over the Keating matter.
Cindy McCain made $15 million off a questionable investment headed by Keating. McCain himself also admitted to tax fraud with the IRS over the Keating issue. Strong character there.
As for Palin, how about the direct connection between Sarah and Todd and the Alaskan Independence Party? You remember them, founded by Joe Vogler who said “I am an Alaskan, not an American,”
Governor Palin just spoke to this group last March. If I am not wrong, calling for the secession is treason and the Palin’s are closely associated with that group.
Finally, how about Rev. Muthee and his witch hunts. His terrorizing a Kenyan village in 1989 when he declared a woman a witch and then had her driven out of town as reported by the Christian Science Monitor. It is well known that witch hunts in Africa often result in rape and death. Also, Palin’s presence at a church service where the Israel/Palestinian conflict was blamed on the Jews for not believing in Jesus.
Enough with the self-righteous indignation and hypocrisy already.
Ethiopian Wolves, one of Ethiopia’s most endemic mammals, are currently dying because of a rabies outburst in the Bale Mountains National Park.
The main habitat for the {www:Ethiopian Wolf} are areas 3200 ms above sea level, namely Abune Josseph Mountain, Semine Mountains National Park, Guasa Menze Gera heather moorlands, Arsi and Bale Mountains. The planet’s around 300 individuals are expected to be found in the Bale Mountains, where the disease is currently raging.
After the deaths of the Ethiopian Wolves at the end of September, blood and tissue samples were sent to Addis Ababa Pastor Center for laboratory investigation and it was found that the cause for the deaths is rabies.
In order to control the outburst, a team of 10 people from Oromiya Agriculture Office, Ethiopian Wildlife conservation Authority and Ethiopian wolf Conservation Project went to the area to start a vaccination campaign. While the group was lead by Dr. Fikadu Sheferaw, Dr. Claudio Silerio, the Oxford University canine specialist, is among the members.
Even though an estimated hundred Ethiopian wolves are thought to be infected, the group managed to capture and vaccinate only 5 wolves up to yesterday.
Ethiopian wolves have a behavior of living in a family constituting up to 13 individuals; they are territorial.
The objective of the vaccination campaign is to separate and vaccinate uninfected animals in order to prevent further damage.
Ato Addisu Asefa, Biologist Bale Mountains National Park and a member of the team said that the spread of the disease is very worrying. He further explained that a similar outbreak in the year 2003 has killed almost 90 Ethiopian wolves while around 40 wolves died of distemper two years before
—
Hana Kifle, Director
P.O. Box 2495
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Telephone: 251-011-654 47 56 / 011- 645 54 32
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web: www.an-group.org/x_haps.htm
HOMELESS ANIMALS PROTECTION SOCIETY is founded in October 29, 2001 to work throughout the country to help the animals and solve the problem with the help of ANIMAL PEOPLE, USA and it is the first of its kind in Ethiopia.
1) One poll has undecided voters at 14 percent on the last weekend, which means most of them probably really aren’t undecided, that they are either going to stay home or vote preponderantly for McCain and pull McCain across the finish line.
2) Most pollsters are claiming the electorate this year is six to nine points more Democratic than it is Republican. That would be an unprecedented shift from four years ago, when the electorate was evenly divided, 37-37, Republican and Democratic, and a huge shift from two years ago, when it was 37-33 Democratic. A shift of this size didn’t even happen after Watergate.
3) Obama frequently outpolled his final result in primaries, which might have many causes but might also indicate that he has difficulty closing the sale.
4) The argument in the past two weeks has shifted, such that many undecided voters who are now paying attention are hearing about Obama’s redistributionist tendencies at exactly the right moment for McCain.
5) The tightening in several daily tracking polls indicates a modest surge on McCain’s part that could continue through the weekend until election day. If he is behind by three or four points right now, a slow and steady move upward could push him past the finish line in first place.
6) In terms of the electoral map, the energy and focus McCain is directing at Pennsylvania could pay huge dividends if he pulls it off. If he prevails there, it might follow that the message will work in Ohio too. And if he wins Pennsylvania and Ohio, he will probably win even if he loses Virginia and Colorado.
7) Early voting numbers are not oceanic by any means, which may indicate the degree of enthusiasm for Obama among new voters is not something new but something entirely of a par with past candidates, like John Kerry. And they show more strength on the Republican side than most people expected.
8 ) What happened with the Joe the Plumber story is that Obama has now been effectively outed as a liberal, not a moderate; and because liberalism is still less popular than conservatism, that’s not the best place for Obama to be.
9) The fire lit under Obama’s young supporters in the winter was largely due to Iraq and his opposition to the war. The stunning decline in violence and the departure of Iraq from the front page has put out the fire, to the extent that, like the young woman who made a sexy video calling herself Obama Girl and then didn’t vote in the New York primary because she went to get a manicure, they might not want to stand on line on Tuesday.
10) Hispanic voters, who are always underpolled, know and appreciate McCain from his stance on immigration and will vote for him in larger numbers than anyone anticipates.
There you have it. It’s admittedly not the strongest case, and the idea that McCain will win on Tuesday is hard to square with the fact there isn’t a single poll that has him in the lead five days out. But unexpected things do happen in politics every election.
PRINCETON, NJ — The political landscape could be improving for Barack Obama in the waning days of the campaign. Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 28-30 shows him with an eight percentage point lead over John McCain among traditional likely voters — 51% to 43% — his largest margin to date using this historical Gallup Poll voter model.
Since Tuesday, McCain’s support among traditional likely voters has dropped by four points (from 47% to 43%), Obama’s has risen by two points (from 49% to 51%), and the percentage of undecided voters has increased from 4% to 6%.
Thursday night’s interviews are the first conducted entirely after Obama’s widely viewed 30-minute prime-time campaign ad, which ran on several television networks Wednesday evening. Obama held a substantial lead over McCain in last night’s polling, however no greater than what Gallup found on Wednesday.
Obama’s lead among expanded likely voters is only slightly greater than that seen among traditional likely voters. He now leads McCain by nine-points, 52% to 43%, using this looser definition that does not factor in whether respondents have voted in past elections, but strictly relies on their reported level of interest and intention to vote in the 2008 election.
Obama’s current 11-point lead over McCain among all registered voters — 52% to 41% — is up from an eight-point lead in yesterday’s report, and ties his highest advantage on this basis, last recorded 10 days ago. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)
Obama’s favorable position among traditional likely voters in the latest polling is partially reflective of his strong position among all registered voters. However, at other times when Obama has led McCain by 11-points among registered voters, his likely voter advantage has been lower than it is now, in the five- to seven-point range. Thus, Obama’s improved likely voter standing also reflects a higher turnout propensity for his supporters than what Gallup has seen at earlier times this month. This could stem from the superiority his well-funded campaign appears to have over the McCain campaign in contacting his supporters to get out and vote. — Lydia Saad
(Click here to see how the race currently breaks down by demographic subgroup.)
The main habitat for the {www:Ethiopian Wolf} are areas 3200 ms above sea level, namely Abune Josseph Mountain, Semine Mountains National Park, Guasa Menze Gera heather moorlands, Arsi and Bale Mountains. The planet’s around 300 individuals are expected to be found in the Bale Mountains, where the disease is currently raging.
