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Ethiopian football is in tatters with the country banned by Fifa and having been thrown out of the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
And while there seems to be no way back as far as qualifying for 2010 is concerned, the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) is determined to have the Fifa ban lifted.
A faction of the EFF is considering taking its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the highest body for resolving sporting disputes.
World football’s governing body decided last Friday that Ethiopia’s results in Group 8 would be cancelled and that the team will play no further part in the qualifiers.
This followed a the EFF’s suspension by Fifa on 29 July for failing to follow a roadmap to solve a leadership crisis.
As far as Fifa is concerned, a faction led by Dr Ashebir Woldegeorgis is in charge of the EFF.
But Woldegeorgis is unable to carry out business as another leadership headed by Ahmed Yasin is running the affairs of the EFF.
A spokesman for Yasin’s faction, Yibaltal Getahun, told the BBC that they might take the case to CAS.
We’ve been working to develop our national football, so this is a setback
Yibaltal Getahun
“We’re hoping to reverse this suspension, we’ve already employed experienced international lawyers, and we have the chance to appeal to CAS,” said Getahun.
“We still have a chance to cancel our Fifa suspension through the courts.”
The long-running dispute has resulted in the game suffering.
Ethiopia were in with a chance of reaching the second group phase of the 2010 qualifiers, but will now play little international football over the next two years.
“We’ve been working to develop our national football, so this is a setback,” said Getahun.
“But Fifa has been sending us letters from 29 July so as a federation it’s difficult to say that this is not surprising news.”
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopian development researcher Dr. Nigussie Haregeweyn won an award of the Belgian Development Cooperation Prize 2007 (BDCP), Belgian Embassy in Addis Ababa announced.
A scientific research works award winner, Dr. Nigussie’s essay under the theme “Sediment-bound nutrient export from micro-dam catchments in northern Ethiopia” is deemed one of special contributions to sustainability and poverty reduction.
The embassy stated that Dr. Nigussie’s study is framed in “a wonderful example of co-operation between Ethiopian and Belgian research units which involves quantifying the mechanisms at play in soil erosion and sediment and nutrient retention (nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, potassium, calcium and magnesium) and consequently assessing their impact on the efficiency and cost of agricultural practices in Ethiopia.
The essay moreover engages the factors that cause increased erosion often linked to human activity (mainly climate change and poor use of soil: deforestation, agricultural practices, building, etc.). The numerous negative impacts include increased sedimentation in the catchments whose barrages were built in order to manage water resources better.
Comparing several small basins, the essay also recommends better management which makes it the first study of its kind to be carried out in Ethiopia especially in the region where the loss of nutrients can not be easily compensated by fertilizers given the severe financial constraints to which the population is subject. “This fact alone is enough to prove the significance of this work and its contribution to sustainable development as the quality of the approach is an exhaustive end-to-end and multidisciplinary study, remarked the embassy’s statement.
The researcher holds a Master of Soil Engineering and Water Conservation, Alemaya University, Ethiopia, and Doctor in Geography, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and presently following a specialized training at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium.
ADDIS ABABA — The International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons (ISOFS) held its first annual meeting in Addis Ababa from September 15-16, 2008.
The conference was organized in collaboration with the Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Johnson and Johnson, UNFPA and other partners.
The Secretariat of ISOFS, Dr. Biruk Tafesse said the participants, medical practitioners discussed on issues of training with a main theme of “Trained human power for quality Fistula care.” In addition to that scientific papers were also presented on fistula issues at the two day meet.
The conference also discussed and endorsed a final draft of the constitution, which was prepared by the ISOFS. According to the secretariat, the final draft includes national and international legal codes, professional ethics, standardization of practice, regarding memberships and other issues.
“Even if we don’t have the exact figure of the Fistula cases in Ethiopia and also in the world because it is hidden, its estimated that around 25,000 fistula cases are existing in Ethiopia. In addition to that eight to nine thousand delivery end up in fistula,” Dr. Biruk told The Daily Monitor.
ISOFS established before a year with the objectives of ensuring a high standard of obstetric fistula care services in the world, playing advisory role in treatment, prevention and research pertaining to obstetric fistula and its squeal.
Specialists in the field of fistula were gathered from different countries including USA, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Uganda and attended the first annual meeting in Addis Ababa.
The Export Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) will file a reply in the Bombay High Court Sep 18 after the court stayed it from releasing funds to the Ethiopian government through lines of credit.
In a ruling Sep 9, the Bombay High Court barred the Exim Bank from dispersing dollar640 million through credit lines in favour of the Ethiopian government for setting up sugar mills in the African nation.
The ruling came after Uttam Sucrotech International, which owns several sugar mills, filed a petition saying Exim Bank’s tendering process was non-transparent and that it had favoured Overseas Infrastructure Alliance, one of the bidders for the project.
The Indian government offers lines of credit to trading partners among developing countries to import Indian equipment, technology projects, and goods and services on deferred credit terms.
These credit lines enable the recipient countries to set up developmental projects in variety of sectors including sugar, Uttam Sucrotech’s area of interest.
An Ethiopian company, Tendaho Sugar Factory Projects (TSFP), floated a tender inviting bids to design, manufacture, supply and deliver a single turnkey project for five packages that was financed by an Exim Bank credit line.
Uttam Sucrotech and Overseas Infrastructure Alliance were among the 10 bidders for the tender for five packages for setting up juice extraction plant, steam generation plant, power generation plant, process house plant and electrical work.
“There has been material alteration in the terms of bidding after the bidding process was over in that there was no condition of appointment of single EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor in the notice inviting tender (NIT),” the petitioner has alleged.
The petition said Tendaho wrote to Uttam Sucrotech only after the bidding was over to say: “As per the requirement of Exim Bank, we will be required to appoint a lead EPC contractor and other awarded contractors would automatically become sub-contractors to the lead EPC contractor”.
Overseas Infrastructure, engaged in development of project infrastructure, attained the position of the lead contractor and Uttam Suctrotech was selected as the ‘sub-contractor’ for the juice extraction package and power generation package.
The petition said though the tender for these two packages was bagged by Uttam Sucrotech, the deal went to Overseas Infrastructure despite the fact that it did not even bid for either of the packages.
Moreover, the petition said, Overseas has asked Uttam Sugar to reduce the price of its contract by 15 percent, which would be required to be paid to Overseas to discharge its obligation of single EPC contractor, failing which Uttam Sucrotech would be replaced by a new sub-contractor.
In the first hearing Sep 9, Exim Bank in its reply to the court said “it is not concerned with what and how the borrowers conduct themselves”.
(CNN) — Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO turned top John McCain aide, said she doesn’t think Sarah Palin is qualified to run a major corporation. For that matter, Fiorina said, McCain, Obama and Biden aren’t capable of that kind of job either.
The Republican presidential candidate has been trying to portray himself as someone who can fix the country’s economic woes. But that is a far different task than running a Fortune 500 corporation, Fiorina told MSNBC Tuesday.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s camp immediately circulated copies of her words — which didn’t exactly paint their candidate in a soft light, either.
“Well, I don’t think John McCain could run a major corporation, I don’t think Barack Obama could run a major corporation, I don’t think Joe Biden could run a major corporation,” Fiorina said.
“It is a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company. So, of course, to run a business, you have to have a lifetime of experience in business, but that’s not what Sarah Palin, John McCain, Joe Biden or Barack Obama are doing.”
Fiorina was president of Hewlett-Packard until her high-profile ousting in 2006 after the company’s unfavorable performance.
“If John McCain’s top economic adviser doesn’t think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis?” said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. “Apparently, even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn’t understand as well as he should.” VideoWatch Fiorina says Palin isn’t ready for big business »
Fiorina made similar comments earlier Thursday to a St. Louis, Missouri, radio station. She was asked if she thinks Palin is qualified to run a company like Hewlett-Packard.
“No, I don’t,” Fiorina answered. “But that’s not what she’s running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things.”
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — The United Nations on Tuesday warned that a shortage of food and water was worsening the effects of a searing drought in Ethiopia’s restive Somali region.
“The overall humanitarian situation in the region has worsened due to progressive shortages of water and food,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.
“Food and water shortages have reached critical levels in many areas of the region leading to increased rural-urban migration.”
The agency, citing aid workers, said five administrative zones in the region, also called Ogaden, are affected because of ongoing military operations against the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front.
Authorities have denied as exaggerated charges by aid groups that the military operation has hampered delivery of aid to the region, neighbouring lawless Somalia.
In early September, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes called on Ethiopia Woyanne to grant aid agencies more access in the conflict zone.
Ethiopia’s Woyanne military launched the crackdown last year after the ONLF, a ethnic-based separatist group, attacked a Chinese-run oil venture, killing 77 people.
According to OCHA, some 4.6 million people in Ethiopia need emergency assistance while another eight million require immediate food relief due to the drought.
