The legitimate synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has issued a resolution regarding Woyanne’s secret border agreement with Sudan. Click here to read [pdf, Amharic]

Oregon State University freshman Teddy Badege wanted to combine two of his passions and create something for people like him, who support both the OSU Beavers and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

So the 19-year-old printed up 300 T-shirts, which look nearly identical to official OSU merchandise. Only instead of O-State in orange lettering, the name O-bama stands out against the black background.

Badege starting selling shirts for $15 each about two weeks ago. He’s nearly out of them. He sold nearly 40 on election day Tuesday. But he’s more thrilled with Obama’s win in the Oregon primary election.

“I think he’s the right candidate (who) will lead this nation in a new path. And I really think the nation needs his guidance to come out of a lot of the recessions, for lack of a better term,” said the Corvallis High School graduate.

“He definitely does represent the young generation, specifically college students and all walks of life.”

The Illinois senator also is a great inspiration, who exemplifies what a black man can accomplish, said Badege. He was born in Ethiopia, but has lived in Corvallis for 16 years. He attended Obama campaign events in Albany and in Portland on May 18, when an estimated 75,000 people showed up at Waterfront Park.

Badege, who interns for the Obama campaign, also is the equipment manager for the OSU football team.

The latter job helped him get in touch with the company that does OSU’s official gear.

He’ll have to do a new printing of 100 black shirts, and is considering adding white and orange T-shirts.

Badege figures that sales will step up as fall approaches, since he’s confident that Obama will be the Democratic nominee by then. And then, there’s the OSU football season as well.

Although he is making some money from the shirts, Badege is donating some of that money to Obama’s campaign. He also gave a few shirts to Obama’s brother-in-law, new OSU basketball coach Craig Robinson, in the hope those might be passed on — and maybe a certain Democratic candidate might end up wearing one.

Badege also hopes to head to the Democratic National Convention in August as an Oregon delegate.

By KYLE ODEGARD, Gazette-Times reporter
Kyle Odegard covers Oregon State University. He can be contacted at [email protected] or 758-9523.

To order T-shirts, contact Badege at 760-3790 or [email protected].

By Coleen Martin Williams, RRSTAR.COM

Coming to America for twins Ananya and Azaria Habtemariam and their younger brother, Kaleab, meant crossing the Atlantic Ocean from their African homeland of Ethiopia.

Kaleab Habtemariam, 13, (from left), Merawit Tefera, Azaria
Habtemariam, 17, and his twin brother Ananya, sit May 2 in
the backyard of their Rockford home.
[Photo: SUSAN MORAN | RRSTAR.COM]

Merawit, their mother, was granted political asylum by the U.S. in 2000 because she married an Eritrean. Ethiopia and Eritrea have battled over their border. After reaching America, Merawit traveled to Illinois to live with a cousin who had settled in Rockford.

She made the trip having to leave her husband, daughter and three boys behind. In 2005, her three sons were able to join her in Illinois. Merawit’s husband still is seeking political asylum. Her only daughter, a nurse who is unable to find work in Ethiopia, is pursuing a visa that would allow her to enter the U.S.

Ananya and Azaria, now 17, will graduate with the Guilford Class of 2008. Kaleab, 13, attends Kennedy Middle School.

“I am thankful to God,” Ananya says. “Thankful for God’s grace to be in America. I am happy that I left Ethiopia. America has more opportunities. Unlike America, Ethiopian education is not available to all. And, unlike Ethiopia, American education teaches how to relate your education to real life.”

Ananya also appreciates the American culture that allows for different opinions and ideas.

“Ethiopia has one political party,” he said. “America allows more than one.”

Social life in Ethiopia
Not everything about Ethiopia is negative in Ananya’s view. One of the pluses he points out is the social life nurtured by Ethiopian culture.

“The people in Ethiopian communities are close,” he says. “For instance, one does not drink coffee alone — if alone, you would call someone to join you before you would drink your coffee.”

When he first entered school in the area, Ananya remembers the hard time he had making friends.

“Even though I knew how to speak English, I did not know the social customs of what to talk about.”

Pharmacy study plans
This fall Ananya will enter Northern Illinois University to study to become a pharmacist, although he says that choice might change. Whatever major he chooses, he said, his fondness for math will definitely be an asset.

Azaria said he also is glad to be in America. Like his brother, he points out the educational opportunities in America that he would not have in his homeland.

“There is no guarantee to Ethiopian students with high grades that they will be admitted to a college,” he said. “There are not enough educational facilities for all students who have the grades for admission. Even after college graduation, there are not enough jobs for every graduate. My sister, Tezeta, who is 22, is a nurse and does not have a job.”

One of the major differences Azaria sees between American and Ethiopian cultures has to do with religious holidays.

“The biggest (religious) holiday in Ethiopia is Easter, whereas in the United States it is Christmas. Before Easter day, Ethiopians fast for 55 days from morning to 3 p.m.,” he said. “During the fast the evening meal does not include meat. Ethiopians also pray each night and in church during the fast. I think Ethiopians are more religious and take religion more seriously than Americans.”

Engineering a future
Azaria has also applied to NIU, where he plans to major in electrical engineering.

After he receives his master’s degree, Azaria plans to devote some of his time to help other immigrants adjust to America. He and his brother already have experience in this area: they have both been math tutors for Guilford foreign high school students through a special Rock Valley College tutoring program.

Kaleab, like his brothers, said he is grateful to have had the chance to come to America. He too mentions how difficult it was in the beginning to make friends to replace ones left in Ethiopia.

“One reason it was hard for me to make friends,” says Kaleab, “was because of the language barrier.”

Although Kaleab knows how to speak English, his accent and the American accent presented challenges in understanding.

Kaleab is taking advantage of the educational opportunities available to him by studying hard and staying focused. His career goal is to become a surgeon. As for Rockford’s cold weather, he definitely favors the milder temperatures of Ethiopia.

It is not easy for Merawit and her sons to be away from their other family members.

They continue to pray and hope for a future reunion. In the meantime, they said, they will keep building their future here in Rockford.

(Los Angeles Times) MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — Along the ghostly streets of Mogadishu, just about the only traffic nowadays consists of starving cats and goats searching for food. They race toward the occasional pedestrian, crying for scraps.

Their owners fled the city’s violence long ago, leaving more than half of Somalia’s capital deserted. Shops are closed. Burned-out cars sit abandoned by the side of the road. Other than soldiers and militiamen, only the most desperate of people frequent the streets, including orphans and old women who sometimes are forced to compete with the strays for food.

Most others leave their homes only when necessary. In venturing outside, they hurry to their destinations in silence, heads down, avoiding eye contact with strangers. Few dare use cellphones lest they fall victim to thieves or be accused of spying. There’s no socializing because it’s too risky to stop for chitchat and no one knows whom to trust.

After 17 years of civil war, it’s hard to imagine Somalia could get any worse. It has.

These days, this Horn of Africa nation appears on the verge of a total breakdown, aid officials and residents said.

In addition to a growing insurgency, clan warfare and the lack of a functioning government since 1991, Somalia’s fragile economy is now disintegrating amid hyperinflation and the local effects of a global food crisis that sparked riots this month.

“We are very close to collapse,” said Hassan Rage, a sugar vendor in Mogadishu who earns about $2 a day. Until recently that was enough for his family to survive. But with Somalia’s shilling losing half its value in the last year, he can no longer afford water, lamp oil or charcoal for cooking.

“Sometimes I don’t go home after work and sleep in the mosque,” Rage said. “I can’t face the children empty-handed.”

A United Nations-recognized transitional government, once seen as Somalia’s best hope, is crippled by infighting and largely controlled by former warlords. Ailing President Abdullahi Yusuf, 73, has been in and out of hospitals for the last year. His Cabinet, hunkered down in a heavily guarded district of Mogadishu, retains a tenuous grip on power thanks only to the thousands of Ethiopian Woyanne troops supporting it.

Attacks by insurgents worsen by the day. After a short-lived Islamist government was defeated in 2006, its armed forces shifted to guerrilla tactics, striking government and Ethiopian Woyanne forces and launching hit-and-run attacks in various southern cities.

A U.S. airstrike May 1 killed a top insurgent commander whom American officials accused of having links to Al Qaeda. His followers are vowing to step up their assaults, targeting any Westerners in the region.

This month, the latest in a long string of peace conferences was held in the tiny neighboring nation of Djibouti, but little progress was made.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis is verging on catastrophe, aid groups warn. About one-third of Somalia’s population needs emergency food assistance. One million people have been displaced over the last 18 months, including 40,000 in April. Thousands have been killed in the fighting.

“We are innocent,” pleaded Murayo Siad Roble, a mother of nine. Her husband was killed in November while attempting to find food for the family. “I don’t understand what crime we’ve committed to be punished like this. I’m worried my children will all die.”

U.N. and aid groups, which already had a skeletal presence, are pulling back further because of growing violence. Two World Food Program drivers and three Doctors Without Borders staffers have been killed this year.

Somalia’s social breakdown has hit the young the hardest. They have rarely known peace, stability or even a semblance of order. In one desolate neighborhood, shabbily dressed children played away a recent afternoon. As usual, it was a war game. They carried guns carved from wood and tossed plastic bags filled with ash to mimic the smoke of exploding grenades.

There are three sides in their game: transitional government soldiers, Ethiopian Woyanne troops and insurgents. Insurgents usually trounce the soldiers, who then run to Ethiopians for help. Ethiopians Woyannes chase away the insurgents as they sweep through neighborhoods, terrorizing civilians.

None of the boys seek the role of government soldier. “No one wants to play the ones who are defeated,” said Ahmed Ali, 13, who played the role of insurgent leader.

The real-life drama is not far from this make-believe version. According to an Amnesty International report issued this month, Somalia’s civilians are enduring widespread abuse from all sides. “The people of Somalia are being killed, raped, tortured,” said Michelle Kagari, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Africa program. “Looting is widespread, and entire neighborhoods are being destroyed . . . and no one is being held accountable.”

International human rights groups singled out Ethiopian Woyanne troops for alleged abuses while carrying out anti-insurgency sweeps since November, including an April attack on a Mogadishu mosque in which 21 people were killed, among them seven whose throats were slit.

The insurgents, who have split into at least three rival factions, haven’t spared civilians either. They reportedly killed four foreign teachers in April during an attack on a school. In seaside Merka, Islamic radicals killed four moviegoers by tossing a grenade into a cinema showing a Bollywood film.

The insurgents are recruiting teenagers not much older than those engaged recently in the make-believe game. With offers of $70 cash payments or even just a daily meal, young fighters are being lured into carrying out assassinations, kidnappings and bombings.

Hassan Yare, 17, said he joined Shabab, one of Somalia’s largest militant groups, at age 11. His father, a founding member, brought him to a training camp before he died in battle.

“I promised him that I will continue the holy war after he died,” the teenager said. “And when I have children, I will train them to continue the fight after I am gone.”

By Abukar Albadri and Edmund Sanders, The Los Angeles Times
Special correspondent Albadri reported from Mogadishu and Times staff writer Sanders from Nairobi, Kenya.