“HORN OF AFRICA AT A CRITICAL STAGE,” proclaims the very prominent headline on the homepage of United Nations World Food Program. The urgency is not without reason, as a statement released by Oxfam today underscores.
Facing a “perfect storm” of drought and rising food prices, the number of people in Ethiopia in need of emergency assistance has jumped from 4.6 million to 6.4 million in less than four months. This would be bad enough, but there are 7.2 million additional Ethiopians who receive only some small support from their government Woyanne.
From Oxfam’s statement: “Today’s figures, terrible as they are, show only half the picture. Over 13.5 million Ethiopians are in need of aid in order to survive. The number of those suffering severe hunger and destitution has spiraled. More can and must be done now to save lives and avert disaster,” said Oxfam’s country director, Waleed Rauf.
Namely, donor countries can step in and provide the $260 million needed for aid efforts in the country. WFP has only received a third of the funds it needs to deliver food, and, without further support, it will likely have to scale back operations to even more dangerous levels.
SASKATOON, CANADA – Ethiopian children who are H-I-V positive are getting some help from a group of Saskatoon women.
Faya Orphanage is now up and running in a small African town, and houses 11 kids, under the age of 8. It was started in August by Saskatoon’s Megan Emann and Nathalie Lusignan.
They’ve already recieved roughly 25 thousand dollars in donations. If you’d like to be a part, you are encouraged to check out www.fayaorphanage.com.
(Starting to slip into a U.S. drawl) “Howya doing? Hope Street please.” (this was in Washington DC).
Silence
“Do you know where that is?”
Nods.
“Are you able to take me there?” (it is considered a tough part of town)
“Mmmmmm.”
Silence
“Is it OK to take me there?”
“Yes”
Long pause in a wallowing 1970s vintage Cadillac with deep red vinyl and the smell of 48,000 packets of cigarettes.
“Perhaps we could get going. I need to be there in ten minutes or so.”
“Mmmmmmmmmmmm.”
Cadillac drags its saggy butt into the traffic and we slop along down the road towards the freeway.
“Where are you from?”
Long pause and three indeterminate lane changes before he says “DC”. Not what I was hoping to hear. But I decide I need to place a priority on extracting the seat belt from under the seat where it was last jammed in October 1984. Mission failed. Take attention off the driving and direct it back to the driver. I used the term loosely.
Dropping any attempt at conversational subtlety I resort to something more akin interrogation.
“Were you born here?”
“No.”
(Fool, ask open questions.)
“Interesting, where were you born then and how did you end up in DC?”
“I was born in Ethiopia and came to DC twenty years ago. I am an American citizen. Now, I don’t want to talk.”
(That is OK, you have done stuff all talking so far. Probably best you concentrate on keeping this wallowing beast in a lane and get me safely to Hope Street).
We arrive in Hope Street. It is a tough part of DC, on the “wrong side of the tracks”. He pulls up out side a community clinic where about twenty African Americans are involved in some sort of noisy (screaming) brawl. My Ethiopian friend was suddenly very animated.
“Come on, out you get. You need a receipt? Surely not. OK, OK. Quick quick, this is dangerous, I need to get out of here.” Frantic scribble, receipt handed over. I alight from the mother ship and hear him put the pedal to the metal. It wheezes its way like the fat man it is, barely gets any speed up, sloshes around a corner in a vaguely tight right hand turn and vanishes. I turn to the boiling crowd in front of me thinking this, white boy, will be interesting. Shake of the hand and a big grin – “Welcome”. It is my destination, after all.
My toughest taxi conversation yet. In the global fraternity of cab drivers he so far has been the exception and about as far from the singing madman of Jordan as you can get.
CHICAGO – Two-time champion Berhane Adere will try to become the first woman to win three straight Chicago Marathon titles Sunday, with Olympic champion Constantina Tomescu-Dita among those out to prevent the three-peat.
Ethiopia’s Adere and Kenyan Daniel Njenga in the men’s race rounded out the elite field announced for Sunday’s race. Njenga has finished in the top three six times in Chicago, but will be seeking his first victory in the Windy City.
Njenga will have his work cut out if he is to end his run as Chicago’s nearly-man. Kenyan William Kipsang heads the field, having posted a course record of 2hr 05.49 in winning the Rotterdam Marathon in April.
Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai seemps poised to put some pressure on Kipsang, having finished fourth in the London Marathon in April with a personal best of 2:06.15. Adere will try to follow up on two dramatic Chicago victories. Last year she took Adriana Pirtea unawares, sprinting past the Romanian in the final meters.
In 2006, Adere and Russian Galina Bogomolova trailed Romania’s Tomescu-Dita, who had set a record pace through the first 16 miles. She was reeled in the 22nd mile of the 26.2 mile course, and Adere and Bogomolova battled shoulder to shoulder until the Ethiopian edged into the lead and won by five seconds.
This year, the 38-year-old Tomescu-Dita – who won on the fast, flat Chicago course in 2004 – arrives hot off an Olympic gold medal win in the women’s marathon in Beijing while her fellow Romanian Pirtea shaved five minutes off her marathon best with a 2:28:52 in London in April.
Tomescu-Dita’s feat in Beijing, where she became the oldest Olympic marathon gold medallist, has already inspired other athletes. Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong cited her in his decision to return to road racing in 2009. Britain’s marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe, disappointed in the Games, has said she will try again in 2012, when she will be 38.
Njenga will be trying to break a Chicago jinx. He has finished second or third in each of his last six appearances, including a third-place showing last year behind the photo finish of Kenyan Patrick Ivuti and Morocco’s Jaouad Gharib.
Njenga has never lost to the same competitor twice – finishing behind a stellar roster of marathoners in Ivuti, Robert K. Cheruyiot, Felix Limo, Evans Rutto and Khalid Khannouchi. Njenga is one of six men in the field who have posted personal bests below 2:07:00.
THE arrival of three Ethiopian athletes yesterday in Australia boosted hopes of a race record in tomorrow’s Melbourne marathon.
Asnake Fekadu, Terefe Yae and Yared Mekonnen landed in Melbourne early yesterday morning after organisers had been left in the dark as to whether they had collected the necessary visas and connected with their booked flights.
Fekadu, the fastest of the three, has a personal best of two hours, 10 minutes and 26 seconds and ran 2:11.04 behind world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie in Dubai in January.
He has a credible chance of breaking the Melbourne race record of 2:11.08, set by American marathoner Bill Rodgers in 1982.
Yae and Mekonnen have best times of 2:11.43 and 2:14.16 respectively.
(Starting to slip into a U.S. drawl) “Howya doing? Hope Street please.” (this was in Washington DC).
CHICAGO – Two-time champion Berhane Adere will try to become the first woman to win three straight Chicago Marathon titles Sunday, with Olympic champion Constantina Tomescu-Dita among those out to prevent the three-peat.