Video – Kenenisa Bekele’s power kick in Osaka
Kenenisa Bekele winning the 10,000m at the World Track and Field Championship in Osaka, Japan, Aug 28, 2007
Month: August 2007
The DC Kidist Mariam Church's board started to stink like Woyanne
Ethiopian Review Editorial
The crisis that has engulfed the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam (DSKM) Ethiopian Orthdox Church in Washington DC continues to worsen. The latest development is that on Sunday, the Church’s board had called police on members and officials of the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam Idir who demanded the board to tell the truth. The DC police with five cruisers rushed to the Church when board member Abebe Aboye made an emergency call. The police left the church premesis grumbling after observing that there was no emergency. But the presence of the police inside the church served as a wake up call to many of the DSKM members who remained silent or indifferent ጆሮ ዳባ ልበስ up to now when their church is being taken over by a rogue group of opportunist individuals who wish to go back home and do business with Woyanne, à la Aba Melaku of another Ethiopian church in DC.
This Sunday’s confrontation started when board chairman Frew Bulbula told the congregation that a new executive committee has been elected to take over the Idir. This angered a lot of people who felt lied to. The fact is that there was a meeting on August 19 that was attended by over 150 members of the Idir. The meeting was held at the Cathedral Catholic Church in Washington DC after the DSKM board refused to allow it to take place inside the church’s meeting hall. At that meeting, the Idir members asked the current executives to remain in their position until the attempted ‘hostile takeover’ of the Idir by the DSKM board is repulsed. Funds were also collected to cover legal expenses. Unbeknown to the Idir members and officials, the DSKM board had also called a meeting on the same day where less than fifty of their collaborators showed up. Bililign Mandefro and cohorts told the participants that they are called to the meeting to elect new officials for the Idir.
Last week, when a relative of one of the Idir members died, Ato Seyoum Garedew, chairman of the Idir, gave $7,000 to the family of the deceased. However, on Sunday, Ato Frew Bulbula told the congregation that the Idir’s new board gave the money to the family. This outright lie inside a church angered several people who were aware of the fact. Some of them shouted: “stop lying!” It was this angry response from the congregation that caused Ato Abebe Aboye to panick and call the police. The church members were angry, and they were shouting at the board that is acting and smelling like Woyanne. But they would not resort to violence or engage in any harmful action inside their own church.
The DSKM board has the backing of some of the priests. After members of the church pointed out Frew Bulbula’s lies on Sunday, the head priest said, let them shout, they will get it in court! What arrogance (ዕብሪት) coming from a ‘spiritual’ leader!
Some who don’t know the story behind the story may wonder why the DSKM board is aggressively going after an independent idir (self-help organization) and its officials. After all, Idir by its definition is an ad hoc group of individuals who get together and contribute some money that is used to pay for funerals and weddings. In Kidist Mariam Idir’s case, they only pay for funeral expenses. The money that is in the bank — $300,000 — also is not that much. The DSKM board could spend close to that amount for legal fees alone by the time the whole thing is over.
The real issue behind the DSKM board’s attempt to take over the independent Idir is politics. As reported previously, the DSKM board that had been slouching toward the Woyanne camp for a long time is now out of the closet. They used to claim that DSKM is an independent church, i.e., they are under the authority of neither the Woyanne-installed patriarch in Addis Ababa, nor the legitimate patriarch who is currently in exile. Now, after … continued to next page >>
The DC Kidist Mariam Church’s board started to stink like Woyanne
Ethiopian Review Editorial
The crisis that has engulfed the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam (DSKM) Ethiopian Orthdox Church in Washington DC continues to worsen. The latest development is that on Sunday, the Church’s board had called police on members and officials of the Debre Selam Kidist Mariam Idir who demanded the board to tell the truth. The DC police with five cruisers rushed to the Church when board member Abebe Aboye made an emergency call. The police left the church premesis grumbling after observing that there was no emergency. But the presence of the police inside the church served as a wake up call to many of the DSKM members who remained silent or indifferent ጆሮ ዳባ ልበስ up to now when their church is being taken over by a rogue group of opportunist individuals who wish to go back home and do business with Woyanne, à la Aba Melaku of another Ethiopian church in DC.
This Sunday’s confrontation started when board chairman Frew Bulbula told the congregation that a new executive committee has been elected to take over the Idir. This angered a lot of people who felt lied to. The fact is that there was a meeting on August 19 that was attended by over 150 members of the Idir. The meeting was held at the Cathedral Catholic Church in Washington DC after the DSKM board refused to allow it to take place inside the church’s meeting hall. At that meeting, the Idir members asked the current executives to remain in their position until the attempted ‘hostile takeover’ of the Idir by the DSKM board is repulsed. Funds were also collected to cover legal expenses. Unbeknown to the Idir members and officials, the DSKM board had also called a meeting on the same day where less than fifty of their collaborators showed up. Bililign Mandefro and cohorts told the participants that they are called to the meeting to elect new officials for the Idir.
Last week, when a relative of one of the Idir members died, Ato Seyoum Garedew, chairman of the Idir, gave $7,000 to the family of the deceased. However, on Sunday, Ato Frew Bulbula told the congregation that the Idir’s new board gave the money to the family. This outright lie inside a church angered several people who were aware of the fact. Some of them shouted: “stop lying!” It was this angry response from the congregation that caused Ato Abebe Aboye to panick and call the police. The church members were angry, and they were shouting at the board that is acting and smelling like Woyanne. But they would not resort to violence or engage in any harmful action inside their own church.
The DSKM board has the backing of some of the priests. After members of the church pointed out Frew Bulbula’s lies on Sunday, the head priest said, let them shout, they will get it in court! What arrogance (ዕብሪት) coming from a ‘spiritual’ leader!
Some who don’t know the story behind the story may wonder why the DSKM board is aggressively going after an independent idir (self-help organization) and its officials. After all, Idir by its definition is an ad hoc group of individuals who get together and contribute some money that is used to pay for funerals and weddings. In Kidist Mariam Idir’s case, they only pay for funeral expenses. The money that is in the bank — $300,000 — also is not that much. The DSKM board could spend close to that amount for legal fees alone by the time the whole thing is over.
The real issue behind the DSKM board’s attempt to take over the independent Idir is politics. As reported previously, the DSKM board that had been slouching toward the Woyanne camp for a long time is now out of the closet. They used to claim that DSKM is an independent church, i.e., they are under the authority of neither the Woyanne-installed patriarch in Addis Ababa, nor the legitimate patriarch who is currently in exile. Now, after … continued to next page >>
Homeless Tigreans being moved out of Addis Ababa
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Thousands of homeless people will be moved from the capital to the countryside before next month’s millennium celebration and provided help with food, shelter and medicine, a development group said Tuesday.
Homelessness is a huge problem in Addis Ababa, a city of 5 million where an estimated 90,000 live on the streets. Beggars are a common sight, with everyone from young children to the elderly seeking money or scraps of food.
Ethiopia _ which is celebrating its third millennium in September in accordance with the Coptic calendar, which is about seven years behind the more common Gregorian _ is planning a 10-hour, US$1.6 million (¤1.2 million) party in Meskel Square to mark the milestone. The celebrations are expected to draw tourists from around the world.
Elshadai Relief & Development Association, a local group that receives government funding, said US$930,000 has been set aside to move some 5,700 people out of the capital in time for the celebrations.
The group said most are from the northern Tigray region and that Elshadai was simply sending them back home.
«It’s good for the whole world, not only for Ethiopia,» Elshadai spokesman Blen Yehdego said Tuesday. «Nobody wants to have this miserable life for their citizens.
Yehdego said only those who volunteer will be moved.
Government officials and did not immediately return calls for comment about the project, and calls to Hope Enterprises, a homeless advocacy group, were not returned Tuesday.
Elshadai bills itself as a development group that works for the «well-being of children and sustainable community development.» It also conducts research on street children and AIDS.
U.N. says floods affect 100,000 Ethiopians
ADDIS ABABA, Aug 28 (Reuters) – More than 100,000 people have been affected by floods in Ethiopia and 17 have died of waterborne disease, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
“Approximately 103,000 people in Amhara, Tigray, South Sudan Nations and Nationalities Peoples State and Gambella regions have been affected by floods,” the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report following days of heavy rains.
Seventeen people died of acute diarrhoea, it said.
Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, was continuing to rise, the report added, increasing the risk of more floods.
Ethiopian authorities have yet to comment on the impact of the latest floods, but OCHA said the government had sent 1,121 tonnes of food aid for 60,000 people in the worst-hit areas.
The United Nations estimates up to 900 Ethiopians died last year when several rivers burst their banks. Flash floods typically happen in lowland areas of the country after heavy rains drench the highlands during the June-Sept rainy season.
Woyanne expels Norwegian diplomats
The Woyanne regime in Ethiopia has told six Norwegian envoys to leave the country, citing “dissatisfaction” over Norway’s conduct in the Horn of Africa region, a Norwegian official says.
Norway was given a month’s notice to withdraw the diplomats by September 15.
Jonas Gahr Stoere, the Norwegian foreign affairs minister, said “we are surprised and regret the Ethiopian authorities’ unilateral decision”, but said the expulsion of the diplomats did not imply a break in diplomatic relations with Ethiopia.
Stoere on Monday said his ministry was unable to get any clarification from its Ethiopian Woyanne counterpart on the reasons for the order.
“We must now take the consequences of the fact that the Ethiopian authorities are upholding their decision and we are therefore making preparations to withdraw six diplomats from our embassy in [the Ethiopian capital] Addis Ababa,” he added.
Source: Aljazeera