By Julian Pecquet • DEMOCRAT
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Nina Ashenafi, a daughter of the late distinguished Ethiopian musicologist Dr Ashenafi Kebede, appeared to edge out an experienced public defender in the race for Leon County Judge Seat 5 Tuesday.
With 87.2 percent of precincts reporting, Nina Ashenafi Richardson and Sean Desmond were defeating Leonard Holton and were set to face each other in the November general election.
Ashenafi Richardson, a well-connected young lawyer who is married to State Representative Curtis Richardson, almost won out of hand, with 48.46 percent of the vote. Desmond had 29.35 percent, Holton 22.19 percent.
Stephanie Cimmino, a political science student at Tallahassee Community College, said she’d heard Richardson promoting Ashenafi Richardson’s candidacy and liked what she heard about her community service.
“She sounds like the best candidate,” Cimmino said. “And she has done a lot for our community.”
Early Tuesday night, Ashenafi-Richardson said she was hoping to do well in south side precincts that hadn’t reported.
“I feel really honored, surrounded by my friends and supporters,” she said. “I was honored to be in the this race with two attorneys who are worthy adversaries.”
Sean Desmond, a former assistant state attorney and founding partner of a private firm, could not be reached immediately Tuesday night.
Holton, 59, a full-time trial attorney for 24 years, ran as the voice of experience. Big Bend attorneys who responded to a recent Tallahassee Bar Association poll judged him to be the most qualified of the three candidates in terms of judicial ability and judicial temperament, but he couldn’t turn those positive assessments into enough votes to make it to the run-off.
Source: Tallahassee.com
MANILA — The Dominican Province of the Philippines is set to open the first Catholic university in Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, eastern African country.
The Order of Preachers Master General Fr. Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP has appointed a Filipino Dominican, Fr. Virgilio Aderiano Ojoy, OP, to head the Ethiopia Catholic University of St. Thomas Aquinas (ECUSTA) in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
The initiative of establishing an educational institution in Africa came from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia (CBCE), which sought help from the Order of Preachers, one of the leading religious orders of the Church also known for its missionary and educational work. The Dominican Master agreed to send friars to put up the university, according to the Varsitarian, the student paper of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), Manila.
Under the memorandum of agreement between the Dominicans and CBCE, the Catholic university in Ethiopia will be owned by the Catholic Bishops of Ethiopia, but administered by the Dominicans.
“There was this world-wide search among Dominicans but the qualifications were quite stringent,” said Ojoy, who will be the founding rector of ECUSTA.
Among the key requirements to qualify for the position were the attainment of a doctorate degree in any field and an administrative experience of at least 15 years, which became Ojoy’s edge over other candidates.
“There are quite a number of Dominican priests with doctorate degrees in the Order,” Ojoy said. “But only few have 15 years experience in administration. For those who were qualified, their provinces were not willing to give them up.”
Azpiroz then asked the Philippine Dominican Province to provide personnel for the school, which will open this year in Addis Ababa.
The foundation of ECUSTA was highlighted in the Acts of the General Chapter of the Order in Bogota, Colombia last year, which noted that Filipino Dominicans have put up a community in Addis Ababa, the House of St. Augustine of Hippo, and that the opening of the new university, with five faculties temporarily at Nazareth High School, was “imminent.”
The chapter also cited the fact that the university would be an undertaking of the entire Dominican family, noting that the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, which runs Siena College in Manila, has been invited to join.
Meanwhile, the CBCE appointed last December priests Abba Tsegaye Keneni as project director and Abba Ketema Asfaw Weldeyes as vice-president of ECUSTA.
The university is expected to open this September.
“ECUSTA could operate starting September if the government would grant the permit to begin the school operations,” said Ojoy, formerly the vice-rector of UST.
Ojoy, who will formally assume the new post in January 2009, plans to focus on three areas—a strong skeletal force, a fundraising office, and adequate facilities.
“I will have a careful recruitment of qualified, competent and committed skeletal force, both from the Philippines and in Ethiopia,” Ojoy said, referring to professors, administrators, and a support staff.
Even though the university has been assured of a one-million euro subsidy from Italy, Ethiopia’s former colonizer for the first five years of operation, Ojoy still wants to have an office for fundraising.
Some of the proceeds from fundraising will be used to provide equipment needed inside classrooms.
The university will initially operate with five courses—Education Management, Literature, Philosophy, Arts, and Sciences.
According to Ojoy, the new staff and faculty of ECUSTA would be trained in UST and seek experts from UST to help in Ethiopia in the operations of the university.
Ethiopia is a progressive African country with a population of 83.1 million, 61 percent of whom are Christians.
The Orthodox Church has dominated education in Ethiopia for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s. The elites, mostly Christians and central ethnic Amhara population, had the most privilege until 1974, when the government tried to reach the rural areas. In fact, until right now, it is only the elite Christians who have better chance to higher education. Languages other than Amharic are suppressed.
The current system follows very similar school expansion schemes to the rural areas as the previous 1980s system with an addition of deeper regionalization giving rural education in their own languages starting at the elementary level and with more budget allocated to the Education Sector. The sequence of general education in Ethiopia is six years of primary school, four years of lower secondary school and two years of higher secondary school.
Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, it has never been colonized.
But the nation is better known for its periodic droughts and famines, its long civil conflict and a border war with Eritrea.
Ethiopia has an economic growth rate of seven percent. It has seven universities, the largest of which is the state-run Addis Ababa University.
Ethiopia is also one of Africa’s poorest states. Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate. The economy revolves around agriculture, which in turn relies on rainfall. The country is one of Africa’s leading coffee producers.
Ojoy graduated cum laude in 1978 from the Dominican House of Studies. He then received a meritissimus in UST after finishing his Masters in Higher Religious Theology.
Ojoy finished his licentiate in Higher Religious Studies in UST and later earned his doctorate in Higher Religious Studies and another doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
Among the academic positions which he had held in UST were acting dean and regent of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (1990-1991), secretary general (1991-1992), and vice rector (1992-1995).
At the Angelicum School of Iloilo, he was high school moderator (1983-1984). Ojoy also became a rector and president of Aquinas University in Legazpi City, Albay (1995 -1999).
Source: Santosh Digal, CBCP News
By Barry Bateman
Africa’s global knowledge production is a dismal three percent and there is limited academic literature available for Africans living abroad.
Tackling that problem is African Diaspora Foundation board member Elias Wondimu, who is a publisher with Tsehai Publishers.
The Ethiopian has spent the last few weeks in Botswana, Zambia and South Africa establishing ties with publishing houses and academic institutions to distribute African books in the US. “Africa’s knowledge contribution to the world is 3 percent, which is unacceptable.
“As Africans, we need to produce and fill the shelves of international libraries. We can’t sit down and wait for a miracle to happen; it our responsibility,” he said.
Wondimu said his publishing house was finalising a deal with the Africa Institute of South Africa to market their publication in the US. “We have also partnered with Unisa and have already published six books.
“Our flagship book is the Road to Democracy which chronicles the history of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa and the solidarity movement in the world,” he said.
He said his trip to the three countries was productive. “I met several publishers and had discussions to increase knowledge production to be consumed by internationals.”
He said they were in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the University of Botswana and they expect the first book to come from that agreement by the end of the year.
Wondimu said their biggest market in the United States were the libraries and academic institutions’ African studies departments. “There is a considerably large African immigrant population in the US.
“Unfortunately access to books about their own countries and nations is hard to get and we are trying to bridge that gap.
“Without knowledge production we will struggle to get to a situation where we (nations) understand each other – the playing field is not equal,” he said.
Wondimu said that in addition to these southern African countries, he has been asked by the University of Sierra Leone to assist with their press.
He said the university’s press had not printed anything in the last 30 years. “I was invited to help revamp that press.
“We are trying to foster relationships with different university presses to maintain the high rigour of academic standards.
“Future generations of this world have to better understand Africa. What the media portrays is not the true face of Africa.
“The stereotypical picture is what is being sold and we have to change that,” he said.
Source: IOL
Dagmawit Geshen Mariam church of Denver has been chosen to host this year’s North America Meskel Demera celebration. Tens of thousands of Christians throughout the U.S. and Canada are expected to attend the 3-day celebration that will start October 3.
The Meskel Demera celebration will be led by his Holiness Abuna Merkorios, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as many Archbishops and priests.
Dagmawit Geshen Mariam St Mary Church will host this annual event at its the newly completed building, which is the largest Ethiopian Orthodox Church outside of Ethiopia.
The three day celebration starts on Friday October 3 and concludes on Sunday October 5, 2008.
Program includes Gospel teaching, Meskel Demera and the Coronation of the Ark of the covenant of Geshen Mariam.
For Further information contact:
Deacon Yoseph Tafari
720-329-6764
www.gishenmariam.org
EDITOR’S NOTE: Woyannes are now into the pimping business.
JEDDAH – Housemaids from Ethiopia will start arriving in the Kingdom soon. This follows the go-ahead given by the government in Addis Ababa for the recruitment of housemaids to work in the Kingdom.
Recruitment offices across the Kingdom have already begun to make contacts with manpower agencies in the Horn of African country.
The arrival of the first batch of housemaids within a fortnight will ameliorate the shortage in house help especially after the recruitment of Indonesian housemaids has become problematic, Al-Madina Arabic daily said.
Owners of local recruitment agencies said the memorandum of understanding signed by the National Recruitment Committee in the Kingdom and the Ethiopian authorities had defined the procedures that should be followed in case a housemaid abandons her employer or differs with him.
They said the Saudi embassy in Ethiopia will be responsible for authenticating medical tests ensuring that the recruits are AIDS-free before stamping the visas. The shortage of housemaids has caused an astronomical increase in the salaries of these workers especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
A member of the National Recruitment Committee, who declined to give his name, said the Ethiopians will be good substitutes to the Indonesian maids in case the local recruitment agencies succeed in selecting efficient manpower exporting agencies in Ethiopia.
Source: Saudi Gazette
PRESS RELEASE
The Coalition for HR 2003 has learned that Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs, introduced a bill entitled “Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Ethiopia Act of 2008”. We are grateful to Senator Feingold and his staff for introducing this legislation in the Senate.
On October 2, 2007, H.R. 2003, “Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007” passed the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously. On October 3, 2007, the Senate received the bill and referred it to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
The Feingold bill is substantially similar in legislative intent and appraisal of the poor human rights conditions in Ethiopia. The “findings” in the bill document a slew of human rights violations committed by the “Government of Ethiopia” in the aftermath of the 2005 elections, including the injury of “763 civilians,” the murder of 193 persons and detention of “thousands more opposition party leaders and their followers, “widespread violations of human rights and international law by the Ethiopian military in Mogadishu and other areas of Somalia, as well as in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.” The bill describes the use of “unjustifiably brutal tactics [by the government of Ethiopia] against its own citizens in Oromiya, Amhara and Gambella regions.” The bill finds the recent civil society law has the effect of “creat[ing] a complex web of onerous bureaucratic hurdles, draconian criminal penalties and intrusive powers of surveillance that would further decrease the political space available for civil society institutions.”
Section 5 of the bill requires the President to take “additional steps to support the implementation of democracy and governance institutions and organizations in Ethiopia,” including support for civil society organizations, fundamental freedoms, bolstering the independence of the judiciary and full international access to the Ogaden, among other things. The bill provides $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 to carry out its purposes.
In contrast to the Feingold bill, H.R. 2003 imposes stricter limitations on security assistance and travel restrictions on any official of the Government of Ethiopia involved in human rights violations. It also requires certification by the president that “quantifiable” efforts are being made in the human rights area, including release of political prisoners, independent operation of the judiciary, free operation of the print and broadcast media and restructuring of the national elections board to reflect the political diversity ion the country. H.R. 2003 also provides support for economic development.
The Coalition for H.R. 20003 will provide further analysis of the Feingold bill and possibilities for reconciling the House and Senate version in the coming day. For now, we ask all supporters of human rights in Ethiopia to express their gratitude and appreciation to Senator Feingold.
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 323-988-5688 Fax: 323-924-5563
http://www.hr2003.org
