A three-part feature about Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, the greatest distance runner of all time.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

(Colbinski Chronicles) — I am sitting on an outside patio of a small café enjoying my afternoon macchiato. I am gazing southward down the street for no real reason. As my eyes turn back in front of me I see a few oxen loping slowly down the middle of the street. A few feet behind these lead animals are a whole lot more oxen. They take up the entire street and in their measured ambling they separate themselves around the parked cars on either side, occupying the sidewalk. If I was inclined to do so, and with a bit of effort, I could almost reach out and touch one as it passed by. There must have been 30 – 40 in total. One lone man, brandishing a short, stout stick was running loudly behind them from one side to the other. I imagine him like a gymnastics coach of young girls. Cajoling them to do something they don’t really see the sense of doing and something they normally would never do. The oncoming traffic stops in the face of these beasts although they don’t seem the least bit perturbed by the honking and yelling they are causing. They walk slowly past these metal machines. Behind them traffic is snarled. I crane my neck and can’t see the end of the stopped cars and minibuses. I briefly wonder where these cattle came from and where they are going. But then they are gone from my sight. I return to my macchiato. A few minutes later a donkey comes careening down the sidewalk with a different man in pursuit. Just as they pass the café the man thrusts out an errant hand and grabs hold of the harness and slows the donkey down. With a smile on his face he leads the donkey back in the direction it had come. I figure the oxen scared the donkey into running, as that was the fastest donkey I have seen in Ethiopia. By now my macchiato is finished and so is any animal related excitement. I pay my couple Birr and return to the office.

Fast Food Metamorphosis

(Colbinski Chronicles) — Smaller than cafes and occupying their own niche throughout Addis are the Snack, Juice or Burger places. These places, of which there are a rash of in certain neighborhoods, claim to serve snacks or fast food: juices, burgers, French fries. But everything is made fresh in front of you and, in the laidback Ethiopian way, it takes some time before you receive your order. Not exactly fast.

I found one little place, Cocoon Juice and Burger, that is great. I went there after my first bout with traveler’s illness for a fresh fruit juice and have been a regular customer since. They make a mean fresh juice. Mainly I was I just ordering fruit juice there. This caused me to be exhorted by the manager (possibly owner) to actually eat food. They make a “humburger” which is a burger with a slice of ham added. Really. Not to be confused with their beefburger. So it’s a hamburger with bad English translation but still taken literally. They place a homemade mayonnaise on it, add a grilled bun, along with the typical toppings (no pickles thanks goodness) and you are in business. A friend, who lives on the other side of Addis, recently told me that he heard the best burgers in Addis were made at Cocoon. Making a good burger is rare in Addis and they do make a good one.

It is a small shop, painted with pink trim inside and outfitted with tall tables and uncomfortable blue swivel chairs. It seems to be doing good business. The girls who work there are great and friendly and one, who seems to always be there, has a wonderful smile that greets me every time I enter. (This smile also made me think she was making fun of me for my pronunciation of mango. During my last visit there the power went out just as I arrived. That meant no juice but they still made me a “humburger” as the stove is natural gas. So by candlelight I watched as she prepared my food, smiling wonderfully, the whole time.

Café City Blues

One thing that Ethiopia does not lack is restaurants. They are all over the place, around every bend, and run from small ramshackle to large ramshackle. Actually, there are a lot of good and nice eateries here. Many of differing cuisines and of varying quality. One thing they all share is a distinct lack of napkins. For a culture that eats with its hands, it is certainly chintzy with the napkins.

The traditional or national food places have a more homey and rustic feel and usually include a large outdoor patio area where hungry patrons spill out into the sunlight to enjoy their fare. More modern are the cafes. Addis is rotten with these European style establishments and the Ethiopians have readily adapted the European café culture in that they sit around for hours enjoying a small cup of macchiato or coffee. Oftentimes they just sit in their car in the small parking lot or by the street side curb and drink their coffees. These cafes all seem to be named after cities. Just off the top of my head I have been to or seen London Café, Café Paris, Beirut Snack, and Café Cincinnati. And I keep hearing talk of one named The Parisian Café as the café to visit while in Addis (supposedly this place has the largest parking lot and many days the café is empty inside while the parking lot is full of people drinking coffee in their vehicles.). I can understand London and Paris, possible even Beirut, as it is a capital city of a country, but naming a café after Cincinnati stymies me. The Paris café has pictures of the Eiffel Tower on display, the London Café has some English paraphernalia, (and an aeroplane, for some reason) and the Beirut café has bullet holes (not really). I haven’t seen anything in the Cincinnati Café that reminds me of Cincy. No Venus Flytrap, no Jerry Springer. (Actually, there is a nice framed picture of a steam ship navigating a river by an old stone bridge on a perfect sky blue day. The picture is captioned “Cincinnati” although, having never visited the place I have no idea if that is what Cincy looks like.)

These café’s do have a few national food items on their menu but mostly serve up western style dishes. By western I mean they all serve sandwiches, pasta, a variety of egg dishes, and depending on the size, maybe pizza. The sandwiches are all similar, hamburger, club, etc. but not the same. A huge fluffy roll or small white bread is what is found surrounding modest helpings of whatever has been ordered. Twice, in two different places, I ordered a club sandwich and twice I was given an egg sandwich. At a third place I ordered a club and was served something between three slices of bread but I’m not sure what it was. I am very interested in what constitutes a club sandwich in Ethiopia. (I think it is a mixture or combination of egg salad or chicken salad.) While sitting in a café you see some people just with a coffee or tea drink, others eating national food, others eating western, and others eating western food but like they are eating national food. This is to say that they were eating with their hands.

I observed an Ethiopian family dive into a platter full of spaghetti with nothing but their right hand, which occasionally held some bread. Either they brought the strands straight into their mouth or scooped it up with the bread. Watching this brought back fond memories of me as a youngster, taking the Italian bread from the table, loading hearty amounts of spaghetti on it, making a spaghetti sandwich, and stuffing it into my gaping yaw. I did this over the repeated protestations of my parents. To this day I still enjoy me some spaghetti sandwiches.

(Press TV) — At least 24 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers have been killed in heavy clashes with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) fighters in southern Somalia.

The remaining Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers started to flee the Jiro Kulow district, which lies between the Lower Shabelle and Bay Region in southern Somalia, Press TV correspondent in the country reported.

A military vehicle which belonged to Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers was further destroyed in a land mine explosion, our correspondent added.

The Somali transitional federal government has plunged into a new round of conflict over the dismissal of the mayor of Mogadishu.

Mohamed Omar Habeeb Dheere was sacked by Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein for ‘Dheere’s failing to bring peace and stability to the capital and lack of competence in administration’.

However, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has reportedly reinstated Dheere, who controls a large contingent of militia that has been fighting alongside the US-backed Ethiopian troops against the UIC fighters.

Dheere joined the government after US-backed Ethiopian Woyanne troops invaded Somalia in 2006 and overthrew the UIC.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and at least one million people have been displaced since the ouster of UIC out of Mogadishu.

Assefa Abraha, brother of former defense minister Siye Abraha, has been released from jail yesterday for good behavior after serving 7 of his 9-year prison sentence.

About a year ago, the Woyanne kangaroo court in Ethiopia, had sentenced Assefa to 9 years in prison after finding him guilty of corruption.

Assefa and another brother, Mehret-Ab Abrha, were arrested and charged withcorruption 7 years ago after their brother, a top official of the Tigray People Liberation Front (Woyanne) and minister of defense, had a fall out with Woyanne boss Meles Zenawi.

The brothers languished in jail for several years on charges of corruption.

Siye and Mehret-Ab were released last year. Siye is now under 24-hour surveillance by Meles Zenawi’s security agents.

By Groum Abate, Capital Ethiopia

Khadra Mohammed, First Lady of Djibouti, has received the 20 hectares of land in the Sebeta area for a flower farm, on Tuesday July 22, 2008, from Alemu Sime, Investment Bureau Head of the Oromia Regional State [another Woyanne donkey].

The First Lady received the plot on behalf of her son, Ayinashe Omar Guelleh, whom it was learnt, plans to engage in the booming flower sector.

Floriculture already earns Ethiopia over 150 million dollars annually. The Ethiopian government Meles regime is keen to encourage investors political allies, offering them a five-year tax holiday and duty-free import of machinery.

The area, 30 minutes south of Addis Ababa with green hills and lush valleys, is ideal for cultivating the country’s fastest growing export – flowers.

Ethiopia exports more than 80 million stems a month to 40 countries. 70% percent is to the Netherlands, from where they are sent around the world. It also exports to Germany, Britain, Russia and, in smaller amounts, to the United States and the Middle East.

Five years ago, Ethiopia made just $159,000 from exports of cut flowers, cuttings and summer flowers. Last year that had grown to $63.5 million and this year it is expected to hit $166 million.

Last week, President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti obtained 10,000 hectares of land around Bale, Oromia Regional State for investing in the agriculture sector. The multi-million dollar investment is expected to commence in the coming few weeks. The plot is mainly slated for growing wheat.

The president also visited the 10,000 meter square plot on Babogaya Lake in Bishoftu (Debre Zeit) town 45 kilometers south east of Addis Ababa and received a title deed for the plot to construct his vacation home.

Khadra, during the ceremony on Tuesday July 22, 2008 also visited the plot, which her son is going to invest. The title deed for a 20 hectare flower farm was also presented to the first lady last week on Friday July 18, 2008 during the ceremony that also presented President Guelleh with his title deed for both sites in Bishoftu and Bale.Warda A. Graham, owner of Wajag Gas and Alemayehu Ketema a businessman prominent in the construction sector facilitated the investment opportunity.

EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL (EI), world’s largest teachers union, has written to Ethiopian Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi to deplore that the Charities and Societies Proclamation, a draft law, is a covert means of placing civil society organisations under government control. EI joined Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in their criticism of the proposed legislation.

Ethiopia’s federal government dictatorial regime claims it is attempting to promote financial transparency among NGOs and enhance their accountability to stakeholders. In fact, the new law will provide mechanisms to control and monitor civil society groups while punishing those whose work displeases the government. It could also seriously restrict much of the development-related work currently being carried out with international organisations, such as EI.

The law would apply to every NGO operating in Ethiopia except religious organizations and those foreign NGOs that the government agrees to exempt. Many of the key provisions of the draft law would violate Ethiopia’s obligations under international human rights law and fundamental rights guaranteed in its own constitution, including the rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression.

The new draft bill may have consequences for EI’s member organisation, the Ethiopia Teachers’ Association registered in 1949. This ETA has almost de facto ceased to exist now that the Court of Cassation has upheld prior court decisions ordering EI’s ETA to hand over property, other assets and its name to the ETA established in 1993. In order to continue to exist, EI’s member organisation needs to register under a new name, likely ETNA, Ethiopian Teachers’ National Association.

Among the most damaging provisions of the proposed bill are articles that would:

Impose stiff criminal penalties for anyone participating in unlawful civil society activity. The draft law would accord government agencies nearly unfettered discretion in deciding whether to register individual NGOs, and then defines as unlawful any civil society group that is not registered. The draft law would impose fines and prison sentences of up to 15 years for a range of new offenses including participation in any meeting held by an unlawful organization. It would also make dissemination of any information in the interests of an unlawful charity punishable by imprisonment.

Subject all civil society groups to intrusive government control and surveillance. The draft law would set up a Charities and Societies Agency (CSA) with extensive discretionary powers to refuse to accord legal recognition to NGOs, to disband associations that have already been legally recognized, and to interfere in the management and staffing of associations up to the point of altering their organizational missions. The CSA would also have broad powers to monitor all activities of every organisation covered under the law. No association could hold any meeting without notifying the CSA in writing at least one week in advance, and the CSA and other government agencies would then be empowered to send police officers to attend and report on those meetings. (Actually, this would not be a big change for EI’s ETA, whose meetings have regularly been forbidden or disbanded over recent years.)

Prohibit all activities carried out by non-Ethiopian NGOs that relate to human rights, governance, protection of the rights of women, children and people with disabilities, conflict resolution and a range of other issues.

Strip Ethiopian NGOs that work on human rights issues of access to foreign funding. The draft law defines as foreign any Ethiopian NGO that receives more than 10% of its funding from foreign sources or has any members who are foreign nationals, and then bars foreign NGOs from working on human rights and governance issues.

Should this law be passed, Ethiopia’s already-limited civil society space would be further narrowed. Over the years, the government of Ethiopia has demonstrated a pattern of repression, harassment of human and trade union rights activists which creates an atmosphere of fear prejudicial to independent trade union activities in Ethiopia.