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We’ve been reporting on Chicagoans who are deeply invested in the presidential race between Illinois Senator Barack Obama and Arizona Senator John McCain. Today, we meet an Ethiopian-born Chicago resident who’s been volunteering for the Obama campaign.
Ethiopian Diamond restaurant boasts the best coffee and food of its kind in Chicago.
It’s also been the site of gatherings for the city’s African and Caribbean population who are supporting Barack Obama.
RETTA: Obama, his case is very unique. But Obama is for the people. Obama, his agenda, his change and his hope that resonates to everybody.
Befekadu Retta has been organizing on behalf of the campaign. He lives in Edgewater and says his young children forget about their cartoons when Obama appears on the television screen.
The Ethiopian native says there may be a feeling a kinship because Obama’s father was Kenyan.
RETTA: Yes, African. First-generation African. But again that doesn’t persuade me as what he’s standing for.
Retta says he evaluates the candidate on the economy, education and support of the African Diaspora.
Retta came to the United States more than 20 years ago as a refugee. He went to Roosevelt University, became a citizen and works for Cook County.
The pull of politics is apparent for him in this historic presidential race. Retta was in Iowa when Obama won the primary and he’s taken his children to Ohio to canvass. When he returned to Iowa a few weeks ago, about a hundred Africans and West Indians went too.
Retta says Obama is an easy pick for those in the African Diaspora. Obama’s plan includes debt relief to poor countries and investing in fighting AIDS.
RETTA: African and Caribbeans have been a victim of poverty, starvation, lack of democracy. Obama, according to his platform that we have seen so far, hopefully he will continue on that and he will give for the other part of the world how people can live together. How they can tackle the poverty, especially HIV that which affects all over the world and especially the Third World. We’re hoping he’ll be able to help and to make sure that the other part of the world are with us to tackle and solve those problems.
Retta says there’s been energy in his community about Obama. But that’s not always the case in American elections. Traditionally, the focus is on political activism in the Old Country.
RETTA: We have our own back home attachments with politics and economy because home is home.
One expert says he’s never seen this level of presidential election interest among the West Indian and African populations in the U.S. They’re contributing and registering voters. Jean-Germain Gros is a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
GROS: We have to be honest about it, it’s race. A lot of people of African descent would very much support Obama because he’s of African descent. But I would think that equally important is this fact: if Obama should become elected, for a lot of people this would provide a kind of inspiration if not to them but to their children.
Gros says there’s an African and Caribbean tradition that at election time artists put out tunes for a particular candidate. This is the first time in his memory he’s seen someone do that for a U.S. presidential candidate.
song
Mighty Sparrow is the calypso crooner. The title of the tune is “Barack the Magnificent.”
Ethiopian refuge-seekers rest on a roadside near the southern Yemeni village of al-Khabar after they arrived on a smugglers’ boat from Somalia in September, 2008.
Ethiopian women refuge-seekers sleep on a roadside near the southern Yemeni village of al-Khabar after they arrived on a smuggling boat from Somalia.
(Reuters) – So far this year, at least 31,192 people have arrived in Yemen after making the perilous voyage aboard smugglers’ boats. They include 21,201 Somalis and 9,854 Ethiopians. More than 228 people have died and at least 262 remain missing.
The backlash over Sarah Palin has already reached infamous and high levels in many circles. Mockery and scorn follow Palin on late night shows and among some pundits, and her campaign for Vice President has seemed like one big routine meant for Tina Fey to recreate. Worse yet, the recent “Troopergate” probe in her own home state of Alaska has put Palin’s judgment as a governor in jeopardy, with accusations of abuse of power.
So with that in mind, it probably wasn’t the best call for Palin to make a public appearance among Philadelphia sports fans, who boo people for little to no reason as it is.
Palin was planning to reinforce her self-proclaimed “hockey mom” image by dropping the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers opening game against the New York Rangers on Saturday night. There, Palin would be joined by a Flyers fans who won a “hockey mom” contest to drop the puck with her, as they were also joined by Willow and Bristol Palin. It was an act of publicity in a swing state that Palin and John McCain need to make headway in.
But the Philadelphia fans were in no mood for Palin, as they greeted her with a loud string of boos once she came out onto the rink. In fact, once the boos started, the music over the PA system had to be turned up extremely loud to drown out the boos. When watching the game on television, the music could clearly be heard drowning out any sounds that the crowd was making, until Palin left the rink.
Though there was some applause for Palin, the Philadelphia fans did what they often do best and overshadowed it with the booing. Even the Wachovia Center scoreboard had to put up a message beforehand, saying “Flyers fans, show Philadelphia’s class and welcome America’s No. 1 hockey mom, Sarah Palin.”
Even though Palin wasn’t booed as much as actual sports figures are in Philadelphia, her less than enthusiastic reception reinforced two stereotypes. One is Palin’s growing unpopularity, as she now faces legal trouble for the “Troopergate” issue and the McCain/Palin ticket declines as well.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (APA) – Ethiopia has launched the sale of ethanol-blended petroleum by making a little price deduction on benzene, APA learnt here.
Accordingly, the mixture of ethanol and petroleum would be distributed to filling station in the capital, Addis, and its environs and would latter be extended to other parts of the country.
The ethanol-blended petroleum was officially launched at the Petroleum Blending Depot in Sululta, outskirts of Addis Ababa on Saturday.
During the occasion, the Ethiopian Minister of Mines and Energy, Alemayehu Tegenu said the use of ethanol-blended petroleum will significantly contribute to the country’s economic development.
Ethiopia imports close to one billion dollar-worth of petroleum from the world market.
Last week, the country made a five per cent increase on petroleum import.
At the moment, a litre of benzene sold at over one dollar, while the ethanol-blended petroleum goes for less than a dollar per liter, with a 37 Ethiopian cents difference.
According to government officials, the launching of the ethanol-blended petroleum, besides saving foreign currency, would help meet the energy demand of the country.
The ethanol-blended petroleum constitutes 5 per cent of ethanol.
It is alleged that the government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars in as subsidies to three sugar producing factories for the supply of ethanol to continue delivering ethanol-blended petroleum in the future.
One of the aims of bio-fuel development is utilizing ethanol by mixing with petroleum, according to Tegenu.
A Sudanese oil company-Nile Petroleum-is undertaking the ethanol-blended petroleum works.
KAMPALA, UGANDA – Uganda is immune from the ongoing world financial crisis, President Yoweri Museveni has assured the nation. He assured investors that the financial systems of the country are strong and sound. The president emphasized that there is no need to panic following the current global financial plunge.
Speaking at the just ended 46th Independence anniversary celebrations at Kololo ceremonial grounds in Kampala, he stressed that the country’s financial sector had been regulated and banks have been following prudent lending procedures.
The colorful function that was attended by delegations from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Somalia, also witnessed the inauguration of the new colors of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) flag by the President.
The president said the immediate spill over effects would however be minimal in the short run. Museveni pointed out that although Uganda’s exports, particularly to European and American markets, may be reduced if the world economy goes into recession, they will, however, end up in regional markets following the diversification of the exports.
On poverty eradication, the President directed NAADS and Uganda Investment Authority as well as the ministry responsible for industry and that of finance to ensure that all agricultural products in Uganda are processed.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – As of last month, it takes Haile Gebrselassie two hours three minutes 59 seconds to run a marathon. “Kenny” Bekele whips through a 10-kilometre in a little over 26 minutes. On the women’s side, Tirunesh Dibaba punches out a five-kilometre in around 14 minutes.
It’s nice to report that some things take a little longer, even for the all-conquering Ethiopian distance runners. For example, it has taken them 52 years to win a marathon on the MCG, a feat accomplished yesterday by Asnake Fikadu when he won the Melbourne marathon.
Fikadu is one of an Ethiopian national squad of no fewer than 40 marathoners. They train at Etoto, just outside Addis Ababa, at 2800 metres above sea level.
Fikadu dominated yesterday’s race virtually from the start, breaking away after 10 kilometres and steadily increasing his lead. Only the northerly wind, which blew stronger as the morning progressed, caused him any problems, slowing the winning time to two hours 17 minutes 46 seconds. In better conditions, Fikadu may well have threatened Bill Rodgers’ race record 2:11:08 set in 1982.
Such did not appear to worry Fikadu, who has a best time of 2:10:26. He had history on his mind, not records. In halting English he explained he was pleased to come to Melbourne because it was here, in 1956, that Ethiopia first competed in an Olympic Games.
Not with the distinction we have come to expect now as routine, but Ethiopian Olympic history began in Melbourne. Mamo Wolde, a future Olympic marathon champion, competed in the 4 x 400 metres relay and the heats of the 800 and 1500 metres. In the marathon, Gebre Birkay finished 32nd of 33 finishers. Like the others, though, he was there.
“Melbourne is special for me,” said the winner. “I came here because of Ethiopia’s history with the MCG. It was our first time for the Olympic Games. The race is good, the people are good, but it is very windy.”
The wind aside, about his only other problem was that he had to finish twice. Not everyone caught his first run through the finish tape, so he obligingly re-staged it for those who had not been paying attention. He looked as if he could have done the 42.195 kilometres again had anyone asked.
Joshphat Mwangi of Kenya was second in 2:21:20. Like Collingwood, he is compiling an unenviable record of runner-up places on the MCG. He was second last year as well, when the race first finished on Melbourne’s most famous sporting venue. Yared Mekonnen of Ethiopia was third in 2:25:12.
The first Australian finisher was David Criniti of NSW in fifth place in 2:29:08. Magnus Michelsson, a former winner, was first Victorian in sixth place and Dean Cavuoto of the ACT, a former Australian world cross-country representative who has overcome a cancerous tumour in his right shoulder, was 12th in 2:38:14.
Just two seconds behind came Mai Tagami of Japan who, like Fikadu, had a runaway win in the women’s race. A 2:29:43 runner, she was a red-hot favourite and won in a manner justifying the tag. Like Fikadu, Tagami faces an uphill battle to win national representation. Japanese women’s marathoning is probably the country’s strongest event and Japan has provided two of the past three Olympic marathon gold medallists.
Michelle Bleakley finished second, and first Victorian, in 2:49:02, with Jenny Wikham of NSW next in 2:50:17.
Bleakley led last year’s women’s race for a long way before failing to finish with gastric problems. Soon after that, a mammogram revealed areas of “bad tissue” and, given a close family history of breast cancer, she decided to have a double mastectomy.
Shane Nankervis and Cassie Fien won the men’s and women’s half-marathons, in 65:58 and 75:14, respectively. Ballarat’s Nankervis won from Scott McTaggart and Rowan Walker, both representing the ACT. Fien beat Victoria’s Nikki Chapple and Bilinda Schipp of NSW.
The races were national championships with the ACT winning the men’s teams title and Victoria the women’s.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/10/12/1223749846892.html
Speaking at the just ended 46th Independence anniversary celebrations at Kololo ceremonial grounds in Kampala, he stressed that the country’s financial sector had been regulated and banks have been following prudent lending procedures.