Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Daily Monitor) – Climate change-induced livestock diseases are causing more illness and death of livestock in southern lowlands of the country, a study conducted to assess the local level of impacts of climate change said.
The study entitled: Climate Change-Induced Hazards, Impacts and Responses in Southern Ethiopia, carried out in the southern lowlands of Ethiopia’s three selected zones- Borena, Guji and Omo Zones- in the Oromia SNNP regions said climatic change impacts on livelihoods particularly increased vulnerability to poverty and food insecurity as livestock possession of households during the past 20 years shows an overall decline.
In Borena zone, for instance, the average number of livestock per household declined from 10 oxen, 35 cows and 33 goats to 3 oxen, 7 cows and 6 goats, the study said.
The study also showed similar outcome in South Omo pastoralists as “the number of livestock decreased from 30 cows, 38 goats and 36 sheep to 21 cows, 23 goats and 21 sheep at present.” “Tick and skin diseases on camels, cattle, goats and sheep as increasingly becoming common problems during severe droughts, the study found out, adding even camels and goats, considered more resistant to drought, are affected by the newly prevailing diseases,” the study pointed out.
The collaborative study undertaken by FSS (Forum for Social Studies) and Cordaid, indicated the declining in livestock productivity and reproduction is becoming the most serious risk households are facing today, exacerbated by shortage of health facilities and services and poor infrastructure.
The collaborative study undertaken by FSS (Forum for Social Studies) and Cordaid, indicated the declining in livestock productivity and reproduction is becoming the most serious risk households are facing today, exacerbated by shortage of health facilities and services and poor infrastructure.
The senior researcher Dr Aklilu Amsalu said over the past years, the incidence and distribution of diseases and pests has changed in the study area.
“Existing diseases known in the area are expanding and new types are emerging of which some types are not yet identified,” he said, adding unidentified new diseases were also causing sudden death of camels and goats.
Loss of livestock assets has led to increased poverty and dependency on external food aid and non-food assistance, the study found out, adding dry seasons triggered conflicts among the inhabitants, due to recurrent droughts and resource scarcity, in the area are not new phenomena.
Survey results indicate that more than 44% of the households in South Omo and about one-fourth in Borena and Guji have suffered from conflict related raiding in the last five years (2004-2008).
A year ago, Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round of presidential elections in Zimbabwe. He refused to participate in the run-off calling it a “violent sham” for which his supporters risked death by voting for him. Last week, Tsvangirai became prime minister in a power sharing agreement fabricated by southern African regional leaders. In his inauguration speech, Prime Minster Tsvangirai spoke of the fierce urgency of now for the people of Zimbabwe:
“For too long, Zimbabwe has endured violent political polarization. This must end today. For too long, our people’s hopes for a bright and prosperous future have been betrayed. Instead of hope, their days have been filled with starvation, disease and fear. A culture of entitlement and impunity has brought our nation to the brink of a dark abyss. This must end today. Economic collapse has forced millions of our most able to flee the country… This must end today.”
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s Tyrannosaurus Rex (tyrant king), had publicly ridiculed Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party as “shameless stooges of the West” and vowed never to talk to them. For over a decade, Mugabe’s thugs had routinely beaten, imprisoned and harassed Tsvangirai and his supporters. But last week Mugabe stood under the towering figure of Tsvangirai and administered the oath of office to him. The iron fist that had ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980 was finally unclenched to shake Tsvangirai’s hand in the spirit of reconciliation to help the suffering people of Zimbabwe. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold: Sworn adversaries making an uneasy peace to save their country from the “brink of a dark abyss.” Mugabe called on all parties to support the “unity” government “by turning our swords into ploughshares”. Tsvangirai offered a road map to get Zimbabwe out of its frightening mess.
Zimbabwe has been in deep trouble for several years. The world looked with horror as Mugabe plunged Zimbabwe into his Ninth Circle of Hell. Like Nero who played his violin when Rome burned, Mugabe kept on pounding his drumbeat of allegations of conspiracy between Western governments and their local “stooges” as Zimbabwe went into total economic meltdown. Today billions of Zimbabwean dollars are needed to buy a loaf of bread. Unemployment stands above 90 percent. One-half of the 12 million Zimbabweans are starving, and a cholera epidemic continues to kill tens of thousands.
Tsvangirai’s Road Map for Zimbabwe
Tsvangirai struck a clear note about Zimbabwe’s future in his inauguration speech. He said there are three things that need to be done immediately: “Firstly, we must implement our democratization agenda.” That includes enactment of laws to “restore the people’s freedoms, create the mechanism through which a people’s constitution can be created, reestablish the rule of law and promote the independent media.” He said the “second priority is tackling the humanitarian crisis with every means possible.” Zimbabwe must deal with the cholera epidemic by reducing outbreaks, community transmission and the high mortality rates. Third, the economy must be “stabilized” by creating an “educated and healthy workforce.” He said that requires building schools and hospitals and taking care of the “professionals in our civil service [who] are the backbone of our government.” He promised that “every health worker, teacher, soldier and policeman [payment] in foreign currency until we are able to stabilize the economy.” He promised to “ensure that every Zimbabwean has access to emergency food aid regardless of tribal or political affiliation.” Zimbabwe will no longer be an international basket case; rather it will once again be Africa’s breadbasket.
Tsvangirai as a New Breed of African Leader
Tsvangirai took on a distinctly Obamaesque-style to his leadership in rebuilding Zimbabwe. He promised accountability, transparency, openness, separation of party and state and clean government. “As your Prime Minister, I will ensure that there is a clear distinction between the party and the state. I will be open and honest with you.” He called for reconciliation of the opposing factions and urged them to “work together to restore our pride in our people and our country.” He was conciliatory towards the international community and humanitarian organizations. He asked them “to engage with us to rebuild our nation and to work towards reestablishing a relationship that is not based on humanitarian assistance alone.” He declared his ultimate trust in the people of Zimbabwe and called upon them to unite in facing the enormous challenges: “People of Zimbabwe, we face many challenges but we are brave and resourceful. By uniting as a nation and a people we can succeed.” He urged them to “match our dreams for Zimbabwe with your own”, and reminded them that “at each point in our proud history we have looked forward not backwards, we have stood for hope not fear, we have believed in love not hate, and we have never lost touch with our democratic values or sight of our democratic goals.”
Two Lessons From Zimbabwe
Two lessons could be drawn from Tsvangirai’s accession to power in Zimbabwe. The first is that all African dictators will spare nothing to cling to power. Neither soaring unemployment, stratospheric inflation, mass starvation, epidemics nor the tears of their citizens will cause these calculating and stone-cold butchers to show compassion for the suffering of their people. But they all fall in the end. As Gandhi taught: “There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.” Some may have wished Mugabe’s end to come with a bang and not a whimper. But his dictatorship has effectively come to an end. There is no going back. Soon the 84-year old Mugabe will join in the dustbin of history Africa’s bygone dictators — Idi Amin, Milton Obote, Joseph Mobutu, Charles Taylor, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Hissène Habré, Jean Bedel Bokassa, Sekou Toure, and Peter Botha, among others.
But the real lesson comes from Tsvangirai who is making history. Even as Zimbabwe teeters on the brink of economic and humanitarian disaster, Tsvangirai declared that the most important task for Zimbabwe is restoration of the people’s freedoms, establishment of the rule of law and the full functioning of the an independent media. This realization makes Tsvangirai truly a new breed of African leader. The future of Africa and the dream of an African Renaissance will depend on leaders like Tsvangirai who recognize the vital importance of democratic rights, the indispensability of the rule of law and the necessity of an independent media as quintessential prerequisites for the success of African societies. Tsvangirai’s message is very clear: Unless every Zimbabwean is guaranteed basic freedoms — freedom of expression, freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention and extrajudicial killings — the economic problems can not be solved. Unless there is the supremacy of the rule of law, the problems of injustice and lack of legal accountability of those who have abused their power and the public trust will continue unabated. Unless there is a fully functional independent media, corruption will reign supreme in the halls of power and democracy will be unable to flourish in Zimbabwe. He is absolutely right!
A Time for Justice
Few expect Mugabe to honor his word about a unity government and work in good faith to make it succeed. He agreed to a power sharing deal under pressure, not out of genuine interest in reconciliation. Mugabe is already plying his old tricks. Within days of the agreement, he jailed Roy Bennett, a major ally of Tsvangirai and charged him with terrorism and treason. He also tried to swear in more than 20 ministers from his own party at the last minute, instead of the 15 agreed upon by the two sides. No doubt, Mugabe will try every trick in the book; but nothing will save him and his henchmen from their rendezvous with the dustbin of history.
If Mugabe lives long enough, he will certainly be held to account for his many crimes against humanity. During his first term as president, his thugs massacred more than 20,000 Ndebele, the rivals to his Shona tribe. Zimbabwean human rights activists and lawyers have documented thousands of cases of torture, illegal arrests and detentions, excessive use of force and extrajudicial killings by the Mugabe regime. Be that as it may, it is exhilarating to imagine Mugabe and his brother Mengistu riding out into the sunset of oblivion.
Unity Freedom Train Crossing the African Continent
There is a Unity Freedom Train crossing the African continent with whistle stops at all places where Africans are united. Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s new railroad conductor, has made it plain to his passengers: “People of Zimbabwe, I call upon all of us to put aside our differences, to begin a process of national healing within every community, to work across party lines and look forward together with hope, while learning from a sad past that has so devastated our nation and our people.” Next stop for the Unity Freedom Train: Ethiopia. ALL ABOARD!
Member of European Parliament Ana Gomes asks Ethiopian Parliament Speaker to help release Birtukan Midekssa
MEP Ana Gomes asked the Speaker of the Ethiopian Parliament “not to leave a stone unturned until Birtukan Midekssa is released”. The request was put forward during a meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, on 12 February, in Brussels, Belgium.
In reaction to the request, Mr. Teshome Toga argued that Ms. Midekssa has questioned the Ethiopian authorities, by publicly stating that she did not voluntarily ask for the governmental pardon that lead to the release of several political prisoners, in 2007.
“In which civilised country is someone sentenced to life imprisonment only for speaking publicly about the negotiations preceding her release from prison?!”, added Ms. Gomes, during the discussion.
The European Parliament passed last January a Resolution on the Horn of Africa, which asks for the immediate and unconditional release of Birtukan Midekssa, leader of the opposition party Unity for Democracy Justice (UDJ).
Background:
In 2006 Birtukan Midekssa was charged with treason, alongside other CUD leaders, parliamentarians, journalists and human rights defenders, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment. The majority of those found guilty were released after governmental pardons issued in 2007.
In November 2008, Burtukan Midekssa spoke at a public meeting in Sweden about the process leading to her release. Ethiopian government officials responded by accusing her of denying that she had asked for a pardon. On 28 December she was rearrested. Shortly afterwards, the Ministry of Justice issued a statement revoking her pardon and re-imposing her original life sentence.
Amnesty International considers her a prisoner of conscience, at risk of torture, who was arrested solely for the peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of expression and association.
(Bloomberg) — A record 19 million U.S. homes stood empty at the end of 2008 and home ownership fell to an eight-year low as banks seized homes faster than they could sell them.
The number of vacant homes climbed 6.7 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The share of empty homes that are for sale rose to 2.9 percent, the most in data that goes back to 1956. The homeownership rate fell to 67.5 percent, matching the rate in the first quarter of 2001.
The worst U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression is deepening as foreclosures drain value from neighboring homes and make it more likely owners will walk away from properties worth less than their mortgages. About a third of owners whose home values drop 20 percent or more below their loan principal will “hand the keys back to the bank,” said Norm Miller, director of real estate programs for the School of Business Administration at the University of San Diego.
“When you’re underwater and prices continue to fall, you tend to walk,” Miller said in an interview. “It’s a downward spiral that’s tough to stop because it feeds on itself. Foreclosures encourage other foreclosures and falling prices discourage buying.”
Obama’s Plans
The figures demonstrate the intensity of the U.S. housing crisis as President Barack Obama considers ways to help homeowners.
The Obama administration is considering government guarantees for home loans modified by their servicers, seeking to stem the record surge of foreclosures that’s hammering U.S. property values.
The proposal, which may also have taxpayers share in the cost of reducing mortgage payments, is aimed at shielding lenders from default after they loosen loan terms for struggling borrowers. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, who regulates national banks, said yesterday that “working out the details of it is still something that’s ongoing.”
Congress and the new president are grappling with how to repair the housing market as the recession enters its second year and unemployment rises. The U.S. economy shrank the most in the fourth quarter since 1982, contracting at a 3.8 percent annual pace, the Commerce Department said on Jan. 30.
Legal Wrangling
The U.S. had 130.8 million housing units in the fourth quarter, including 2.23 million empty homes that were for sale, the Census report said. The vacancy rate was 3.5 percent in urban areas and 2.6 percent in suburbs, the report said.
In addition, the report counted 4.1 million vacant homes for rent and 4.8 million seasonal properties.
“Wealth loss and housing in combination with loss in the equity market will have ripple effects,” said George Mokrzan, senior economist at Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio. “The silver lining is that while home prices are coming down, incomes have stayed about the same, and in a lot of markets we’ll hit equilibrium this year. That’s a good sign for the long term.”
Most foreclosures are contained in the report’s “other” category, which includes homes tied up in legal proceedings as well as properties that are empty because the owner is renovating and living somewhere else, according to the Census Web site. There were 7.8 million homes in that category in the fourth quarter, up from 7.3 million a year earlier, the report said.
Bank Holdings
There were 2.22 million new foreclosures in 2008, an average of 6,090 a day, according to Washington-based Hope Now Alliance. Those resulted in 917,000 property sales, according to the group that represents 27 mortgage lenders and servicers.
U.S. banks owned $11.5 billion of homes they seized from delinquent borrowers at the end of the third quarter, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in Washington. That’s up from $5.4 billion a year ago.
The U.S. housing market lost $3.3 trillion in value last year and almost one in six owners with mortgages owed more than their homes were worth as the economy went into recession, Zillow.com said in a report today.
The median estimated home price declined 11.6 percent in 2008 to $192,119 and homeowners lost $1.4 trillion in value in the fourth quarter alone, the Seattle-based real estate data service said.
I do not believe that Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi is going to quit. He is simply posturing. Here are reasons why?
An official who is determined to quit will not qualify it by another possibility. An excellent example to announce quitting: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.” This, as you know, was President Lyndon B. Johnson’s announcement on March 31, 1968, after the setbacks of the Tet Offensive and the violent student demonstrations against the war in Vietnam made his life unbearable.
Mr. Meles is saying he has decided to quit but will respect his party’s decision regarding it. Anybody knows that neither the current TPLF leadership nor what remains of the EPRDF officialdom can survive for long without Mr. Meles’ political machinations. What he is saying is, I will say I will quit and my party caucus will put pressure on me through parliament. Then I will have little choice but to respect their wishes!
Second, he says he will quit as Prime Minister but will remain as the party leader. That is impossible in the present political framework in Ethiopia. If he has to resign as Prime Minister, he also has to resign from the Party leadership. Ethiopia has adapted a parliamentary democracy. In parliamentary democracy, the party leader is automatically the Prime Minister. Do not forget that the Front Benchers are selected and directed by the party leader. The Back Benchers also seek direct guidance from the party leader whose dictates they follow without fail.
Mr. Meles’ posturing is more in tune with that of Gamal Abdel Nasser. When the Egyptian President’s army was decimated in the Six Day War by June 9, 1967, Nasser tendered his resignation as President in a televised broadcast only to “change his mind” when his decision was “rejected” by Egypt’s National Assembly totally controlled by his National Democratic Party. So, come 2010 elections, rest assured that history will repeat itself.
(The writer, Dr Paulos Milkias, can be reached at [email protected])
I followed the interview Meles Zenawi gave to an Ethiopian audience this past week. For the question of making Ethiopia an exporter of power while there is domestic power shortage including in the capital Addis Ababa, the answer he gave and caught my ear was the completed Tekeze Dam a year ago which is still not operational.
The completed Tekeze Dam reservoir is too low to generate power accodring to Meles. If we build the dam based on hydrological study of the area dry seasons will force a lower capacity. The other reason might also be a grander structure for political reason and if that is the case we will never have enough discharge to fill the dam to its capacity. The truth will be known on the coming year or years.
Unaccountable regime like Meles Zenawi do not take responsibility for the cost of such huge projects. If this huge dam never to be operational because of lack of water the cost will be for poor Ethiopians since it was built with foreign loan. If the catchment area of the dam is deforested as many believe it is not only we will have shortage of water but we will have unavoidable silt problem.
We have silt problems affecting dams in Ethiopia and the Awash Dam which was built more than fifty years ago is at the end of its life mainly because of silt problem but Tekeze is the first dam in Ethiopia not to be operational for lower reservoir capacity on its first anniversary.
