A must read piece about the cycle of failure in Ethiopian politics, particularly in regards to the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Party (EPRP), which one Ethiopian scholar referred to as an “organizer of failure.”
In all ages they rise up against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands. (The Holly Bible)
After long silence, denial and deliberate misinformation, finally in a speech to the so-called parliament, Ato Meles has affirmed unequivocally the transfer of vast Ethiopian farmland to the Sudan. The decision made by Ato Meles to cede land without the participation and full consent of the Ethiopian people amply proved that foreign entities has more leverage on his decision making process over the very Ethiopian citizen he claims to represent. Furthermore, the revelation of the give-away of land to the Sudan reinforced and proved our long held view that Ato Meles is soft when it comes to the vital interest of Ethiopia.
Meles appears never thought twice when he decided to cede the Ethiopian land nor he understood clearly the profound impact of his unpatriotic decision over the very livelihood of the Ethiopian people, and its negative consequence on the relation between Sudan and Ethiopia. Currently, as facts in the ground stands, Meles and Sudan has concluded the border re-demarcation in a way that satisfy and favor the Sudanese government and people, as a result, the Sudanese forces free handedly has crossed into our territory and occupied our land, displaced and abdicated our citizens, our natural forest destroyed, our diverse wild animals chased and migrated into the Sudanese Dinder animal park.
Overview: The Sudanese side of land bordering Ethiopia, in most part – (85%), has been cleared for cultivation and after many years of intensive farming by farmers, the soil has lost its productivity and deforested, on the contrary, the Ethiopian side of borderland, settlements is sparse and 90% of the land remained intact without much human interference, natural vegetation, water and wild animals, at least until recently. Sudan is one of the world sorghum and Sesame cash crop exporter and the bulk of the produce comes from the land harvested near the Ethiopian border. Sudan gained its independence from Great Britain, in 1956, and the only incident between Ethiopia and Sudan regarding the border issue was during his Imperial Majesty Hileselasie administration, in which the Sudanese armed forces violated the Ethiopian border in the Humera side at Lugidi. In that particular incident, before things went out of control, Sudanese army retreated to its territories and potential conflict was averted. At that time it must be noted, however, the Sudanese claim of land was strictly on the Lugidi side of the border in Humera/Setit Woreda, Wogera Awurja, and was very limited in scope. Now, the secret deal covers the re-demarcation of the entire land bordering Ethiopia and the Sudan. The area ceded in Tach-Armachiho, Metema, Quara in Gondar region, in Gojjam and Illubabur covers vast untapped virgin farmland and minerals. According to well informed sources at the time of 1971 incident alleged that Sudanese claim of land on the Liguid border area was merely intended to pressure Ethiopia to stop supporting the first southern Sudan revolt for self-determination from the north rather than genuine claim of land. The end of the southern Sudan rebellion, which Ethiopia played a vital role bringing together the south and the north in1972, which brings an end to the bloody conflict was welcomed by the Sudanese government, hence after the 1971, incident in no times Sudan raised the issue of land with Ethiopia, until friendly TPLF/EPRDF leaders ascend to power.
The Dergue Era: Throughout the Dergue administration, Ethiopia and Sudan never has good relation, nor had a border conflict and in most part both governments were busy supporting opponents: Sudan supported Eritrean and the TPLF, and Dergue supported the south Sudan movement. The only notable attempt to improve relation between Mengistue and Numeri regimes was in 1980. After the vice president of Sudan visited Addis Abeba, in return Mengistu visited Sudan. During Mengistue’s speech to the Sudanese parliament, he repeatedly mentioned “there is no border issue between the two sisterly countries’ therefore, he said, “the problem of the two countries is solely created by imperialist forces that aspire to sabotage his revolution’. The normalization process did not last for long, however, and mistrust continued and both regimes turned enemy again and began supporting opponents respectively with intense and larger scope. In short, (I stand to be corrected) during the Dergue administration, Sudan never presented official or unofficial claim of land. Instead, Sudan throughout the Dergue regime was living under constant fear of invasion. It must be noted, however, Mengistue visited Metema and Humera in 1973 EC, and he made it clear to the public that the border area will be studied thoroughly and he said “our land is still remained under Sudanese administration, yet they chose to destabilize us ” he concluded. It is said to be the study of the Addis Abeba University on the border issue steamed from his directives in order to determine/recover the Ethiopian land (a perception widely held by Ethiopian), but not as a result of Sudanese government request for border demarcation.
TPLF and Sudan: Formal relationship between Sudanese government and the TPLF, started in 1977, and since then it grow steadily. As a result of work closely with government officials for long time, many of the tplf leadership has close special relationship with some influential Sudanese officials. For example, Ato Meles has very close relationship with the then chief of Sudanese foreign intelligence, Major General Osman El Sayed and Colonel El Fathi Erawa, who monitors the tplf and EPLF movement in the department of Sudanese foreign intelligence. In defiance of diplomatic norms, General Osman El Sayed after the takeover of Addis Abeba by the TPLF/EPRDF forces becomes a Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia (1991-2004). According to Sudan Tribune, General Osman was quoted as saying “If we did not recovered our land from the current Ethiopian government we ever get it back”. The special relationship between tplf and Sudan can also be traced by the Sudanese President Basher’s over eight times visit to the region of Tigray. Also the current Sudanese ambassador’s wife is the main financial and material contributor to the Tigray women’s association.
The Gwen Line: The British major who was zealous expanding the British Empire has made his own sketch – a line that crosses the Guang River/Atbara, however, there is no legal base to deal with it, because it is not endorsed by treaty. Furthermore, Minilk and the British had agreed to demarcate the border in principle, however, in no times the border was demarcated physically under Minilik, as the tplf would us to believe. Major Gwen unilaterally has made a borderline on paper at will, without consultation and presence of an Ethiopian representative at the site of the border, therefore, the Gwen line has no legal binding what so ever over Ethiopia. In short, the line drawn by Major Gwen has no legal authority over Ethiopia. If such self made line is to be considered as authentic, then, Ethiopia has its own claim of line: A document under the custody of “Mahabere Selasie Monastery” in Quara Woreda, shows Ethiopia’s border line farther deep into the Swakin and Medane about 250 km inside the Sudan.
Back Door Deal: Five meetings were held between TPLF/EPRDF and Sudan. Two times in Demazin and three times in Gedaref. In both meetings, Ato Tesgaye Berhe the Tigray chief administrator (brother in law of Sebhat Nega) led the tplf/eprdf side and the main purpose and item of agenda by the tplf side was border security, however, the Sudanese side main priority and agenda was border re-demarcation and declined to discuss other issues before the re-demarcation item is resolved. The Tplf, side agreed to hand over the land claimed by Sudan, without much emphasis, provided Sudan 100% cooperated on border security. Sudan agreed. Then after the agreement, Ato Addisue legesse, deputy to Meles, and from the so-called Amara region, Ayalew Gobeze, Misrak Mekonnen, Bereket Simon and other tplf officials were assigned to sell the agreement to the public under the pretext of Sudanese investment on the farm sector in Ethiopia and visited Gondar region, including Shehidi, Metema and Delego. They screened a film documentary in Shehidi town to the public that highlights Sudanese achievements in large scale farming of Cotton and Sorghum. Ato Addisue argued that Sudanese are welcomed to invest in the Ethiopian territory to help our economy in the farming sector (euphemism for ceding land). After concluding the visit, Ato Addisue and others headed to Khartoum by land and stayed for three weeks consulting with Sudanese officials, and in their way back to Ethiopia, also by land, picked-up many suspected Ethiopian, political refugees believed to be opposed to the rule of the Woyane, including Ato Atanaw wasie a well known veteran fighter against the Dergue and the developer of the Ethiopian border area from Metema to Delelo and Quara during the imperial government He is languishing with other fourteen associates in Addis Abeba, notorious 07 secret prison.
Why Giving Land to Sudan: A couple of things motivated EPRDF/tplf to enter a secret deal with Sudan: (1) For fear of Ethiopian political org having access in Sudan, (2) Fear of Sudan to align with Eritrea (3) the American desire to send 5,000 Woyane troops as peace keeping force along with Egypt in the Darfour conflict (4) Who cares for the loss of Ethiopian land (5) By nature Ato Meles is timid.
Natural Resources: The entire area is vast virgin untapped farmland covered with natural forest and if managed properly, it can feed the entire Ethiopian population. The soil is suitable for Cotton, Arabic Gum, sorghum and sesame. Furthermore, according to the study made by the American Geological Survey 1968/1969, from Quara to Delelo, trace of huge oil reserve was reported.
Environmental Degradation: Although previous governments in Ethiopia did not develop the area to its potential, however, they kept intact its natural beauty and never neglected to environmental degradation. Under the tplf administration, however, the area never got any attention it deserves and been left at the mercy of the tplf local cadres to manage on the fate of these vast national precious resource: With the Woyane officials approval, Sudanese intruders are permitted logging for firewood; large number of cattle and camels allowed to graze inside the Ethiopian territory, and the “WanZa” a tree known for its quality for office and home decoration were uprooted from the area due to Sudanese military officers unfettered access with special logging permit from the tplf local administrators. For the last four years, tplf has begun resettlement in Delego (Quara), Tach-Armachiho and Tegede, without proper study and preparation. Those settlers are self subsistence farmers who are not trained about the environmental effect of clearing the forest, above all, the area is not suitable for self subsistence farming, instead needs a large scale modern mechanized farming that produce surplus crops for the benefit of the entire country. If resettlement continues at the current level and the land divided to self-subsistence farmers piece by piece, then, within few years the land will turn into unproductive arid land. The very sad story regarding the effect of environmental degradation by the tplf cadres has already affected the area: the tree that produce incense (Me’ker) has been depleted after mismanaged to extract incense by tplf traders and almost 85% has been destroyed. Another sad story also is the tplf/eprdf policy on the use of fertilizer on the area: the border area land is untapped endowed with rich soil that does not need the use of fertilizer at least many years to come, however, tplf traders are forcing the settlers to use fertilizer, which is unnecessary and polluting the ecosystem.
Border Protection: While Sudan has 21 army posts bordering Gondar region alone, on the contrary, the tplf has only 3 posts away from the actual borderline at Humera, Abderafi and Metema. Instead, EPRDF has a huge military base in the town of Gondar, including the 5th Mechanized division. In previous Ethiopian regimes, local armed people who knew every piece of land in the border area were responsible to protect the border; however, tplf has disarmed the locals and prohibited possession of guns.
Sudan Prevent Border Development: Sudan has successfully impede through the tplf connection the development of Ethiopian border farm land and rivers: The River Guang which spring from the highland and crossed through the plain land of Metema to the Sudan can develop thousands of irrigated acre of land and hundreds of Mega Watts hydro power, likewise, the BahreSelam river which springs from the highland and flow through the plain land of Abderafi, also can develop thousands of irrigated acre land and hundreds of Mega Watts of Hydro power. Both rivers are left undeveloped purposely to feed big farm projects of the Sudan and are the source of drinking water for major town in eastern Sudan. The two major rivers can be tapped with little effort and resource since both flow through thousands of acre plain land suitable for mechanized farming. The two Ethiopian rivers after merged at Sefi-Wuha (the Ethio-Sudan border now under Sudanese control), flow into the Sudan and known as Atbara.
Rough Description of Ceded Land from Gondar Region: West of Abderafi vacated by TPLF forces over 50 km of land already occupied -What Sudan calls as “Fasheka”. Shimele-Gara: (North of Metema) about 30km inside Ethiopia – Sudan crossed the Guang River from Sendus army post into Ethiopia. Delelo: north of Shimelegara on the same line 35 km inside Ethiopia–also Sudan crossed from Sendus army post. Sehmelegara and Delelo both areas have no settlement, but Ethiopian farm exist prior to Dergue regime. Shekuria (south of Metema) about 35 km inside Ethiopia – Sudan crossed from Taya army post; Fazira and surroundings about 50 km inside Ethiopia (south of Shekuria)– Sudanese crossed from Bassonada army post and then all the way to Nebs Gebeya around 55-60 km inside Ethiopia (no settlement) –Sudan also crossed from Dinder and Semsem. Taya was Edu’s base in 1977, and later EPRP has controlled the area, from Shekuria, fazra all the way to Gojam region. Those mentioned places are already under Sudanese hand under the deal.
Conclusion: Ethiopia is known as drought prone country in recent years, however, as the former president Carter once describe ‘ A green Drought” – the country is endowed with enough natural resources to feed her own people. However, we cannot feed our people while ceding our fertile land to others. The Tplf leadership has a fundamental untreatable chronic disease that grow with the leadership since its incentive attributed to what social psychologist identified as “Group Thinking”- members in highly cohesive group lose their critical evaluation capabilities in organization. Hence, instead of addressing the demand and the outcry of the Ethiopian public regarding the secret land deal, however, eprdf/tplf, officials opted to ignore the Ethiopian people, the sovereign owner of the land. It is every Ethiopian hope and prayer that Ato Meles and co to correct the mistakes they made and abandon the agreement entered to cede our western frontier to Field Marshall Al Bashir of Sudan.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]
ADDIS ABABA (IPS) – When it was announced last month that the ruling party of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had swept local polls in this vast Horn of Africa nation, few expressed surprise.
Zenawi’s Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition was declared by the country’s national electoral board to have won 559 districts in the kebele and woreda divisions of local government and all but one of 39 parliament seats contested in the by-election. Out of a total of 26 million registered voters, the electoral board claimed that 24.5 million, or 93 percent, voted.
April’s ballot was the first chance for the EPRDF to flex the muscles of its electoral machinery since general elections in May 2005. Though early returns that year suggested an electoral triumph for the country’s two main opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF). Prime Minister Zenawi declared a state of emergency before final results were announced. In the unrest that followed, hundreds of people were arrested and at least 200 killed by Ethiopian security forces. Official results — not released until September — gave 59 percent of the total vote to the EPRDF.
Cries of fraud stained the reputation of one of Washington’s closest African allies. to whom, according to U.S. defense department figures, the Bush administration sold $6 million worth of weapons to in 2006, more armaments than went to any other African country. The weapons are used in part to aid Ethiopia in its war against Islamic militants based in neighboring Somalia, which Ethiopia invaded in late 2006 and where it remains involved in active combat to this day.
Some observers contend that this year’s ballot was even more compromised than the 2005 vote. With an estimated 3.6 million posts up for election, Ethiopia’s opposition parties were only able to register some 16,000 candidates due to obstacles placed in their path by the country’s electoral council. In response, the UEDF, now the largest opposition party in Ethiopia’s parliament, and the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) — a political party claiming to represent the interests of the Oromo ethnic group (Ethiopia’s largest) — both boycotted the final round of voting.
Though international observers were not permitted, an electoral law passed in June allowed domestic organizations to formally monitor the ballot. However, local observers such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Council never received responses from the electoral board to their requests to monitor the elections.
One official at a foreign diplomatic mission in the capital, who surveyed polling places on the days of the vote, told IPS that “what we saw in Addis Ababa did not correspond” to 93 percent participation total announced by the electoral council.
“These elections weren’t even good enough to be rigged,” asserts Bulcha Demeksa, a former United Nations and World Bank official who currently leads the OFDM and serves in Ethiopia’s parliament. “A genuine dictatorship has been evolving.”
The situation of the Oromo people — who form the majority in Ethiopia’s largest and most populous state, Oromia — is but one of the thorny poltico-ethnic quandaries confronting Ethiopia’s ruling party today.
Running the gamut from the democratic advocacy of the OFDM to the violent militarism of the Oromo Liberation Front guerilla group, the struggle of the Oromo — the Oromo were conquered and consumed into the Amhara-Ethiopian empire emanating from the nation’s north near the end of the nineteenth century — has found echoes in other regional struggles in the country.
In the southeastern Ogaden region, which abuts volatile Somalia, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) has been fighting to make the region an independent state since 1984. In a report earlier this month, New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused the Ethiopian government of having “deliberately and repeatedly attacked civilian populations in an effort to root out the insurgency.” The attacks were by way of reprisal following an ONLF attack on a Chinese-run oil installation in April 2007 that killed at least 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians.
Amidst such internal dissent, several areas of the country currently are on the brink of famine, with the Word Food Program currently estimating that, of Ethiopia’s 80 million citizens, 3.4 million will need emergency food relief from July to September, a number that comes in addition to the 8 million currently receiving assistance. (see Q&A: Ethiopia’s Urban Poor Cannot Afford To Eat)
Given such a volatile political landscape, some observers have looked upon the EPRDF’s crushing victory in the polls in an extremely circumspect manner.
“The complete lack of any semblance of organized opposition in most of the country reflects how difficult it is in Ethiopia for dissenting voices to emerge with out facing a huge level of harassment,” says Chris Albin-Lackey, senior researcher with the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.
Albin-Lackey says that he regards the April ballot as “a stark illustration of just how far Ethiopia’s political space has been closed off since the limited opening that preceded that 2005 polls.”
The EPRDF has governed Ethiopia since 1991, when in its initial incarnation as a rebel army, it succeeded in ousting the violent Marxist military junta known as the Derg that had ruled the country since 1974.
In a statement put out before the April ballot, the EPRDF wrote that the vote “underscores the fact that the people and government of Ethiopia are making relentless effort toward the development and democratization of the nation.”
Another source of concern to observers is the Ethiopian government’s “Charities and Societies Proclamation,” a copy of which has been obtained by IPS.
The proposed law seeks to strip domestic civil society organization of access to foreign funding by defining a “foreign” organization operating in the country as any body that receive more than 10 percent of its funding from abroad or has any members who are foreign nationals.
Such “foreign” bodies are also thus barred from addressing such issues as human rights and governance in their work. Any foreign human rights organization seeking to conduct research in Ethiopia would have to obtain the written permission of the Ethiopian government. A Charities and Societies Agency composed entirely of government officials and appointees would be charged with overseeing domestic organizations, maintaining the power to curtail the activities of or disband such organizations at will should they be deemed to be “contrary to the public or national interest.”
Heavy fines and prison terms are mandated for those who contravene the new law, which bears more than a passing similarity to a draconian law overseeing civil society organizations passed by the government of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in 2004.
Ejegayehu Dibaba leads her sister Tirunesh (the eventual winner) and another Ethiopian runner, Ayalew Wude, in a 10,000-meter race in Addis Ababa during May’s African Athletics Championships
[Photo: Anita Powell / AP]
It is half an hour before dawn in the Ethiopian highlands, and most of the town of Bekoji still slumbers in the shadows of a 14,000-ft.-high (4,300 m high) volcano. On the streets, though, a silent army is on the move. More than a hundred boys and girls — many in bare feet, some no taller than the goats feeding by the roadside — gravitate toward a vast, grassy plateau on Bekoji’s outskirts. There, a man with a stopwatch, local running coach Santayehu Eshetu, is waiting. So intense is the hunger here for running — and its rewards — that Eshetu’s workouts, initially meant for 25 athletes, now draw 150 or more. Focused and serious, the runners listen to his words of guidance before taking off across the plateau, their feet slapping the earth in thunderous unison. “I have no doubt,” says Eshetu, “that one of these kids will be world champion.”
Anywhere else, that comment might be an idle boast. In Bekoji, it is a virtual guarantee. By an improbable quirk of history, this small community of farmers and herders along the Great Rift Valley (pop. 33,000) has become the world’s leading producer of distance runners. Many of the fastest male and female middle-distance runners on the planet hail from this patch of red earth 170 miles (280 km) south of the capital, Addis Ababa; the athletes attended the same primary school, trained with the same childhood coach and in two cases grew up in the same thatched-roof hut. Led by two sets of siblings — the Bekele brothers and the Dibaba sisters — Bekoji’s runners are poised to rack up medals at this summer’s Beijing Olympics. So many, in fact, that their medal count alone may well surpass that of many industrialized nations. It’s enough to make the hand-painted sign that greets visitors on the dirt road into Bekoji seem endearingly modest: WELCOME TO THE VILLAGE OF ATHLETES.
Born to Race
Bekoji ranks as one of sport’s great anomalies. Here, after all, is a rural African town where time almost stands still, where horse-drawn carts outnumber motor vehicles and neighbors greet each other by asking after their herds or crops. And yet its most famous products are Tirunesh Dibaba, a 23-year-old blur who smashed the women’s 5,000-meter world record in June by five seconds, and Kenenisa Bekele, 26, who has run the fastest times in human history at 5,000 and 10,000 meters. And they are just the beginning. Kenenisa’s 21-year-old brother, Tariku, is the current 3,000-meter world indoor champion, while Dibaba’s sisters, Ejegayehu and Ginzebe, are also world-class runners. Several other Bekoji natives are close on their heels, while hundreds of others — that silent army on the plateau — are striving to join them. “The tidal wave of runners from Bekoji is unstoppable,” says Karl Keirstead, a Canadian investment banker whose foundation, A Running Start, has helped build classrooms in Bekoji. “The physical conditions are just perfect for producing runners.”
It’s tempting, when breathing the thin air of Bekoji, to focus only on the confluence of geography and genetics. The town sits on the flank of a volcano nearly 10,000 ft. (3,000 m) above sea level, making daily life itself a kind of high-altitude training. Children in this region often start running at an early age, covering great distances to fetch water and firewood or to reach the nearest school. “Our natural talent begins at the age of 2,” says two-time Olympic gold medalist Haile Gebrselassie, 35, who grew up in a village about 30 miles (50 km) north of Bekoji. Gebrselassie, who set a new marathon world record last year, remembers running over six miles (10 km) to and from school every day carrying his books, leaving him with extraordinary stamina — and a distinctive crook in his left arm. Add to this early training the physique shared by many members of the Oromo ethnic group that predominates in the region — a short torso on disproportionately long legs — and you have the perfectly engineered distance runner.
No formula, however, can conjure up the desire that burns inside Bekoji’s young runners. Take the case of Million Abate, an 18-year-old who caught Eshetu’s attention last year when he sprinted to the finish of a 12-mile (19 km) training run with his bare feet bleeding profusely. The coach took off his own Nikes and handed them to the young runner. Today, as he serves customers injera, the spongy Ethiopian flat bread, at a local truckers’ motel, Abate is still wearing the coach’s shoes. They are his only pair, though he confesses a preference for running in bare feet. “Shoes affect my speed,” he says. And speed may be his only salvation. Forced to quit school in fifth grade after his father died, Abate worked as a shoe-shine boy before getting the motel job, which pays $9 a month. All along, he has never stopped running, chasing the dream of prosperity his mother imprinted on him shortly after his father’s death, when she changed his name from Damelach to Million.
A Place Called Hope
By Ethiopian standards, Bekoji is not a desperately poor town. The famine and malnutrition that stalk other parts of the country have bypassed this region of potato and barley farms. Still, families in Bekoji’s outlying villages often live hand to mouth, and distance running — like football elsewhere in Africa or baseball in the Dominican Republic — offers the younger generation one of the few ways out. Bekoji’s trailblazer was Tirunesh Dibaba’s aunt, Derartu Tulu, who left home to avoid an early arranged marriage and ended up a national hero, winning the 10,000-meter Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 2000. As a reward, the government gave her a lovely house behind a stand of eucalyptus trees on the runners’ plateau. Dibaba herself has used some of her millions of dollars in winnings to build her widowed father one of the only two-story houses in Bekoji (the only other is the Bekeles’). Though locals gawk admiringly, the mansion is often empty. Dibaba’s father prefers to stay in his old village tukul, or conical hut, where he can cook over an open fire and keep an eye on his herd of goats.
Motivated by such signs of success, thousands of kids from the villages surrounding Bekoji have moved into town in the past several years. Many of them rent dingy rooms for a few dollars a month and fill their bellies with what they call “counterfeit pasta” — rolled-up wheat paste eaten with a pinch of salt. Some, like Million Abate, work long hours at regular jobs. Others crowd the classrooms at Bekoji Elementary School, where both Dibaba and Bekele attended and where Eshetu worked until recently as a physical-education instructor. Enrollment at the school has tripled over the past 15 years, and many of the runners are too exhausted to concentrate. “It’s difficult to teach kids under these conditions,” says principal Toshaoma Ida’oo Gaaguroo. “But in terms of running,” he adds, with a rueful smile, “we could beat any school in the world.”
Nearly every aspiring runner in Bekoji hopes to train with Eshetu, a former footballer who, despite his affable demeanor, has earned a reputation for punishing workouts: endless double-hill climbs, zigzag sprints through dense forest, even trudges through mountain streams. “These kids are willing to do anything to succeed,” says Eshetu, who toned down his training regimens after one of his runners began urinating blood. Two years ago, the local government tapped Eshetu to lead a new initiative called the Bekoji Project. His job is to identify and train the town’s top 25 teenage prospects, though he still mentors a group of 30 younger runners and informally coaches 100 others, including Million Abate. During a workout one afternoon at Bekoji’s “stadium,” a modest oval track whose grass-covered bleachers are manicured by a few stray goats, Eshetu looks out over the crush of athletes. “Even like this,” he says, “I still have to turn away more than a hundred runners every year.”
Run for Your Life
It is make-or-break time for million Abate. Though he is now the third-fastest 1,500-meter runner in town, Abate knows, at age 18, that he needs to win a big race soon to get noticed by the powers that be in Addis Ababa. The brutal calculation of success and failure in Bekoji leaves very little room for error: he either makes it into Ethiopia’s élite, where he can finally live up to the promise of his name, or he returns to a life of subsistence farming. To free up more time to train, Abate has started working for no salary at all, just food and shelter. “I have so much stress,” Abate says, his eyes tearing up. “Coach tells me not to beat myself up so much. But I want to lift myself up in life, and I get very angry when I’m overtaken by a single step.” Pushed by anxiety and desire, Abate gets up extra early these days so that he can be the first to arrive on the plateau, before any hint of light has touched the morning sky.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a news from the Ministry of Information. It is a joke by Bereket Simon on the people of Ethiopia. Sialagitibin naw (ሲያላግጥብን ነው).
Torn up Ethiopian flag at Bole International Airport, June 2008
(ENA) — Preparation has been finalized to celebrate the first ever ‘Ethiopian Flag Day’ at national level on July 5, 2008.
At a relevant meeting held here on Wednesday it was disclosed that some 600,000 flags would be dispatched as of 19 June 2008. Additional some 400,000 flags would also be distributed in the metropolis and in the surrounding area of the city.
Compact Discs (CDs) that contain the national anthem of Ethiopia is under distribution among regional states as of June 18, 2008.
Information Minister, Berhan Hailu on the occasion said the message to be delivered on the day aims at reinvigorating the feeling of nationalism.
The National Millennium Celebration Secretariat, Deputy Director Gifti Abassiya on her part said the national flag, which is a symbol of the nations, nationalities, and peoples of Ethiopia, shall be promoted in a coordinated manner.
Director of the Addis Ababa City Millennium Secretariat, Kiros Hailesilssie said the secretariat is closely working with stakeholders to celebrate the day colorfully.
A representative from Hayat S. C, a real estate business company, said the company is also carrying out the distribution of the national flags and CDs.
The company has already allocated 5 million Birr for the same cause.
LONDON (Reuters) – Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise (EPE) has bought by tender 1.87 million tonnes of gas oil and jet fuel for July 2008 to June 2009, up 13 percent from a previous purchase, industry sources said on Wednesday.
EPE bought 1.32 million tonnes of 0.5 percent gas oil and 550,000 tonnes of jet fuel from ExxonMobil, they said.
The premiums were $38.03 a tonne for gas oil and $54.50 a tonne for jet fuel on a cost-and-freight basis, they said.
“Demand is increasing. There is more construction going on,” said one.
EPE previously bought 1.2 million tonnes of gas oil and 450,000 tonnes of jet fuel for July 2007 to June 2008 supply, the sources said.
The premiums for gas oil were $27.41 a tonne and $33.82 a tonne for jet fuel in the past tender.
Ethiopia does not own any refineries and relies on fuel imports to meet its domestic consumption.
(Reporting by Felicia Loo; editing by James Jukwey)
