NAIROBI, KENYA – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s 86-year-old grandmother, Sarah Obama, said she will attend her grandson’s presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington early next year.
Speaking to journalists after the Democratic presidential candidate won the historic elections, Sarah said she will take Obama’s favorite food, chapatti, a traditional Kenyan pastry, with her when she goes to the ceremony.
She is also already planning what to serve the Illinois Senator when he makes his first visit to the village as the leader of the United States.
“We are so happy and Kenya is also celebrating, we are going to feat. This is absolute joy,” Sarah said, according to the Daily Nation newspaper on Thursday.
“I am so happy that I don’t know if I will die of happiness at the airport,” when Obama arrives, Sarah Obama told reporters at her homestead. “It will not only change our lives but the whole of Kenya.”
Africa has been rooting for Obama from the very moment he announced he was running for presidency. The election victory of the son of a Kenyan father was being celebrated and savored all over the continent.
The villagers of Kogelo, who are neighbors of the Obama family, had offered 10 bulls for a feast on Wednesday, and more offers were coming.
Food is the greatest gift in what is some of the most fertile farmland in all of Kenya, where mangos, bananas, corn and tomatoes grow among red-budded flame trees.
Sarah is one of the wives of Obama’s grandfather, instead of the natural mother of Obama’s father. But Obama treats her just like his natural grandmother.
Sarah is “very happy about what has happened, and she’s happy not just for herself but for the whole world,” said Obama’s Kenyan half-sister, Auma, who served as interpreter and the family’s spokesperson.
The people of Kogelo, and the Obama family in particular, have been at the center of a two-year media blitz. Sarah took a nap before facing reporters outside her tidy little blue-roofed house.
The rest of the extended family celebrated by dancing and chanting in the local Luo language, “Obama Biro, Yaw Ne Yo,” or “Obama is coming, clear his path.”
Most of Kenya and the rest of Africa took the news of Obama’s election as a symbolic victory for the continent.
“I have not been talking to him of late because he was busy on the campaign trial,” Sarah said and attributed her grandson’s success to hard work, love for people and his oratory skills.
Auma said they don’t expect life to change much with an Obama in the White House.
“As a family, we support Barack but we have no expectations. Because we are very, very clear that this is something he is doing in America and that he is an American president,” said Auma.
She said that although Kenyans are excited, she realizes that he won’t provide any quick fixes for their country.
“He makes it very clear that he is an American and his first priority is to Americans,” she said. “We have not lacked anythingso we don’t expect that to change.”
Obama’s connection to the western Kenyan village of Nyang’oma-Kogelo near Lake Victoria comes through his father, also named Barack Obama.
After winning a scholarship to study in the U.S., the elder Obama enrolled in the University of Hawaii, where he met and married Obama’s mother, fellow student Ann Dunham.
After returning to the village when Barack was young, the father died in a car crash in 1982.
After the village held prayers for Obama, who is known as “WuodAlego,” (the son of the Alego), the region where the village is located, Sarah said when she does meet Obama, she plans to tell him to initiate development projects in Kenya and the United States, especially those that foster global peace.
Sarah has been the Kenyan face of the Obama family since he became Illinois Senator. She has dined with the high and mighty but maintained her humility and hospitality that has made her the darling of the locals, tourists and journalists.
The president-elect, 47, has visited Kenya three times, most recently in 2006 when he saw an AIDS clinic in Kibera, a slum of 700,000 people in Nairobi, the capital.
With his wife, Michelle, he visited AIDS patients at a hospital in Kisumu, about 70 km southeast of his family’s village. He also visited Sarah and a primary school that the village named after him.
Asked whether she is worried about Obama’s security following recent threats against his life, Sarah said she has never given it much thought. And although they become part of the United States’ first family, Sarah said that they would not like to be treated differently from the rest of the villagers.
“We ought not to be treated differently. We are a normal family and we do not expect anything special,” she said.
Ethiopian world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie has confirmed his readiness to participate at the 2nd Glo Lagos International Half Marathon scheduled for February 21, 2009.
Speaking in Lagos at a media briefing to herald the highest prize money road race in the African continent yesterday, Violet Odogwu-Nwajei, president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) hinted that the Ethiopian, who only last September at the Berlin Marathon, smashed his previous best of 2hr 4min 26sec with a new world record of 2hr 3mins 59secs is really excited coming to Nigeria.
“We were together in Monaco recently and he confirmed to me that he is interested in coming to run the Glo Lagos International Half Marathon. Unlike the last time when he couldn’t make it, Gebrselassie will be in town for this second edition,” stressed the AFN president.
Gebrselassie, with two Olympic gold medals and countless other triumphs in road races, last August opted not to compete at the Beijing Olympics because of concerns over pollution.
However, the Ethiopian will not have the $50,000 first prize money at stake an easy pick. Sponsors of the half marathon, Globacom has line up 99 other top elite marathoners for this edition.
Globacom’s Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr. Adewale Sangowawa, while announcing the theme of the marathon as “Run for The Heart,” said that the theme enjoins every participant to run not only for the health of his or her own heart, but also for the health of other Nigerians.
He disclosed that the marathon would be used to raise money for the Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF). “I am pleased to announce that Globacom has entered into a strategic partnership with the Nigerian Heart Foundation (NHF), to raise money for research into, as well as the prevention and cure of cardiovascular diseases.”
While giving a breakdown of the $210,000 prize money at stake, Mrs Modele Sarafa-Yusuf, the Project Manager of the marathon, said the overall winners in the male and female categories, will receive $50,000 each, the first runner up in the male and female categories will get $25,000 each while the second runner up in the male and female categories will cart home $15,000 each.
Unlike the first edition when there was nothing for the local runners, the first Nigerian male and female winners will go home with brand new Kia Picanto cars while the second set of Nigerians to breast the tape in the male and female categories will get N1 million each.
Globacom will also cap the special provision for the Nigerian runners with N750, 000 each for the third Nigerians in the male and female categories to finish the race.
Ethiopian Airlines has embarked on a strong expansion programme that includes pressing of an order for 10 Boeing 787-800 dream-liners.
The airline’s world sales manager Amare Tsadik briefed Malawian travel operators during their weekend visit at Ethiopian Airlines head office in Addis Ababa to orient them on what the airline offers.
“The aviation market in Africa and globally is strong. The 9/11 had bare or minimal effect on our company and we have continued to grow, posting close to US$800 million in profits in 2007 and we expect over US$1.2 billion this year,” said Tsadik.
Ethiopian Airlines—which operated its first flight to Cairo, Egypt in 1946—has grown in terms of passenger numbers to 2.5 million in the last financial year flying into 50 destinations
“Africa has a great market we look at the market and we want to ensure that our customers have the best facilities. That is why we built an all-purpose cargo terminal which holds any cargo including wet cargo,” said Tsadik.
On his part, the airline’s senior marketing officer Fasika Beharnu took Malawi tour operators to the airline’s head office, aviation school, maintenance and cargo places explaining that the company employs close to 5,000 people and provides its own services.
“When you are selling tickets in Malawi we want you to understand the product your are selling is a complete product. We provide most of our service from cleaning to catering, training and maintenance to ensure that we provide quality standards,’ said Beharnu.
The aviation school also trains international pilots, cabin crews and maintenance staff and the company does offer many of its services across the continent.
Kenneth Kamole of Lloyds Travel said the tour was beneficial to the travel agents as they could now explain properly what Ethiopian Airlines offers to its customers.
Through Ethiopian Airlines, air cargo can be directly sent to Lilongwe from over 50 destinations which include business hubs of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Bangkok in Thailand, Beijing in Mainland China, Hong Kong, London in the United Kingdom and Washington DC.
Jemal Ambo from Ethiopia, centre, with his wife Rumana (left) and his children (from left) Lomi, Yasriba, Adel Malik and Awel. Photo: Rebecca Hallas
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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: THE last time Ethiopian refugee Jemal Ambo saw four of his children was a decade ago, when he fled his homeland on foot in the dead of night, terrified for his life.
Yesterday the abattoir worker from Collingwood said all he could do was “hug and kiss and hug and kiss and cry”, when he was finally reunited at Melbourne Airport with his children, now aged between 11 and 17.
“Today I see them, I’m very happy, they are very different,” Mr Ambo said of the reunion, in which his five other children met their siblings for the first time.
Mr Ambo, who is from the Oromo people, a large ethnic group in Ethiopia, walked more than 400 kilometres from his home in Agarfa to Kenya in 1998, after learning he was suspected of being a member of the anti-government Oromo Liberation Front.
“If you’re suspected of being a member of the OLF, God knows what could happen to you. A lot of people would have lost their lives,” said Lyda Dankha from the Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre, which helped the family bring the children to Australia.
Two years after he left Ethiopia, Mr Ambo’s wife Rumana Kedir Osmar managed to join him in a refugee camp in Kenya. But Rumana could only bring one of her sons, who was then aged two. She was forced to make the heartbreaking decision to leave behind two of her children and two of Mr Ambo’s children with his previous wife, who died in custody.
“There are no words to describe the desperation we felt at leaving our children to be cared for by relatives and there will be no words to describe the joy of having them finally with us,” Mr Ambo, who speaks little English, said through Ms Danka.
“We didn’t know whether our children were still alive.” In 2003, Mr Ambo, Rumana and their son were granted a refugee visa to Australia. The couple subsequently had three more children and were also successful in bringing Rumana’s 19-year-old daughter from another marriage to live with them. But Ms Dankha said the application to get Mr Ambo’s other four children to Australia had taken almost two years.
“Even on Friday we still did not know whether they would be boarding the plane because they had to do a final medical.”
Ms Dankha said the last time Mr Ambo had seen his daughter Yasriba she was not even one, and now she was almost 11. “They will have a lot of catching up to do,” she said.
Yesterday’s joy was only marred by the fact Mr Ambo’s 19-year-old son remains missing.
The Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre’s Sonia Vignjevic said the Ambo reunion was a great story of family reunion against all odds.
But on a more prosaic level, the next challenge would be finding “suitable and affordable housing” for nine children and two adults.
Dashen Bank’s profit reached a record 239.1 million birr both for the bank itself and for the over-a decade-old private banking industry as a whole, according to the bank’s board of directors report released on Thursday at the Sheraton Addis. The profit the bank secured is 28.3 percent higher than what the bank made during the previous year, according to the report.
The record profit has literally astounded the bank’s president who, upon reporting the bank’s last fiscal year performance ended last June 30 said he asked himself if that trend would continue.
“When the bank made a net and record profits of about 133 million birr and 188 million birr in 2005/2006 and 2006/2007, respectively, the shareholders were asking: Will that trend keep up?” Lulseged Teferi said. “Now I am asking myself that question.”
The bank made a gross profit of 332.5 million birr and paid over 93 million birr for government in taxes, the report indicated. During its 14 years of operation, the bank paid a total of 326 million birr in taxes, according to the report.
The bank’s overall assets reached 7.8 billion birr during the reported period, registering a 1.8 billion birr increase from that of the previous year, the report indicated. The number of deposit account holders at the bank has reached 487,410, according to the report.
During the reported fiscal year, the bank mobilized a net 413.7 million birr and 1.3 billion birr in loans and deposits, respectively.
The president assured shareholders that the loan portfolio of the bank, which indicates whether a given bank’s operation is healthy or not, is sound enough with the level of the non-performing loans (NPLs) against the total loan the bank mobilized standing at 5.9 percent.
Dashen Bank’s 5.9 percent NPLs is way below the ten percent mark for banks to be considered health by international standards.
The bank currently shares 27.7 percent of the total deposit mobilized amongst the private banks while the total loans issued by the bank accounts for 26.1 percent the amount mobilized by the eight private banks, according to figures obtained from the National Bank of Ethiopia.
The number of Visa-branded cards issued by the bank has exceeded 34,000, while the bank was able to collect over USD 31 million from the service.
The bank disclosed launching International Money Transfer Service as an agent of MoneyGram in Ethiopia, as of Wednesday. It is also preparing to acquire and issue MasterCard, according to the president.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The 2008 Toyota Great Ethiopian Run registration closed at the end of last week with all 32,000 places sold out for the race which this year takes place on Sunday 23 November.
Ethiopia’s annual international 10km remains Africa’s biggest by participant numbers with just short of 29,000 finishing the race last year which was won by 20-year-old Tsegaye Kebede who three months ago was the surprise bronze medallist in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Marathon.
Among the guests attending this year’s race is Sweden’s 2004 Olympic Heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, while Britain’s Mo Farah, European 5000m silver medallist, is currently training in Addis Ababa and is likely to participate in the race.
In addition to the 32,000 participating, around 3,000 youngsters aged 11 and under will take part in the 2008 AIMS Children Series, the third leg of a series of races promoting running for children in the developing world. These races have a special resonance with the event’s fundraising campaign for orphans and vulnerable children which is being jointly promoted by Great Ethiopian Run and UNICEF Ethiopia.
Jemal Ambo from Ethiopia, centre, with his wife Rumana (left) and his children (from left) Lomi, Yasriba, Adel Malik and Awel. Photo: Rebecca Hallas