Commodity is one of those terms open to many interpretations. The Marxist have their own definition of what a commodity is. To the Marxist using the labor theory of value ‘a commodity is any good or service produced by human labor and offered as a product for general sale on the market.’ In today’ economy a ‘commodity exchange is where farm products (coffee, wheat, cocoa) or raw materials (oil, metals) are traded.
Commodities exchange trading is where they trade on future products on commodities. A Sidamo coffee farmer can sell a future contract on his coffee beans that will not be ripe for a few months more or an Ada teff farmer can sell a future on his harvest next season. This sort of contract protects the farmer from price drops and the merchant from price rise.
A few of the World famous exchanges are Chicago Mercantile Exchange (agriculture, metals, energy) Kansas City Board of Trade (agriculture) Dalian (China) Commodity Exchange (agriculture) and Brazilian Mercantile and futures Exchange (agriculture, biofuels)
A stock exchange is where a ‘corporation or mutual organization provides a trading facility for stockbrokers and traders to trade stocks and securities. A stock exchange is used by corporations and companies to raise capital by selling shares, grow by acquiring other companies and generally make money circulate instead of sitting in a saving account or under a mattress.
The Chicago Board of Trade was established in 1848. Up until then most future contracts were not always honored both by the buyer or seller. The new Board was designed to minimize credit risk. The members of the Board set up the rules and run their organization independent of the long arm of the State.
Please not that the common theme in the above story is the founding of the exchange was purely a voluntary act by the traders. It was created to facilitate trade and protect both the farmer and the merchant from unscrupulous individuals.
Now we come to our infamous ‘commodity exchange’ that appeared out of the blue with much fanfare in 2008. Major wire services wrote gushing reports about it, Bloomberg quoted the new director, Reuters sent out alerts and even VOA commented about it. They all agreed it was a giant step for Ethiopian farmers. They dutifully reported what was handed to them.
As usual ‘Donor’ countries poured in money (ten million in two weeks were pledged) to help set it up. Building was erected to mimic the Chicago exchange. Electronic system was put in place and warehouses were built. Thus for all practical purpose the physical structure was in place.
I am glad you can see what I am leading to. We Ethiopians are most familiar with this scenario unfolding in front of our eyes. We know it is not going to work. We have seen this ‘theatre’ before.
The question is did those that set up the system really thought that it would work? When you consider that there are no free farmers in the country, that there is absolutely no trust in the government or its institutions, that there is no law other than the word of the Prime Minister and no free media to exchange information how in the world could you have such a purely capitalist enterprise function in a closed society.
If it does not work why set it up? Simply put the intention was never to help farmers or merchants. It was just another TPLF mechanism for more control of what is left of the independent business. They said it themselves. The Newsweek reporter Jason McClure quotes the director ‘Traders other than large growers and co-operatives that sell directly to international buyers will be forced to use the bourse, exchange director Eleni Gabre-Madhin said today.
So the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was inaugurated with lots of fanfare. Peter Heinlein of VOA wrote again quoting the director “The opening of the new exchange has unleashed a torrent of entrepreneurial spirit. Gabre-Madhin says”. So what happened? Let us just say they gave a party and no one showed up!
They passed a law in August to regulate the coffee industry. In other words to nudge the independent merchants to submit to the authority ECX. The Prime Minister went to parliament and threatened to ‘cut the hands’ of the merchants that refused to deal with ECX. Again The PM threatened to confiscate all coffee that is not under the control of ECX. Hording was the reason given for this draconian action.
Coffee is Ethiopia. Coffee was our number one export during the Emperor’s reign. Coffee sustained the brutal Derg. Coffee is Woyane government’s lifeline. Control of the trade of coffee is a must for the minority regime. ECX was a vehicle to take control of the independent merchants and drive them out of the coffee business.
Our merchants and farmers were too smart for that. They refused to be led to the slaughterhouse willingly. No amount of threat and coercion was effective against those that have survived numerous trials and tribulations the last thirty years. TPLF was forced to show its ugly face in broad daylight. The Ethiopian people are not new to government confiscation of property, wealth and their children. It is just another criminal action by a government against its own citizens.
So as usual we heard the news and we sighed. We are so used to TPLF abuse and disrespect it did not raise an eyebrow let alone indignation. When they killed Assefa Maru we were quiet. When they murdered Professor Asrat we shrugged it off. When they arrested Bekele Jirata we were silent. The arrest of Judge Birtukan did not bother most of us. Thus confiscation of tons of coffee from private warehouses is just another chapter in our saga of humiliation by the illegal regime.
Starting an exchange without the good will and participation of the people affected is not rational. Imposing from above is a recipe for failure. Merchants are in business to make money. They buy low and sell high. Selling for less than the cost is suicide. Now the government has the coffee what comes next. International coffee price is depressed due to the market melt down. What is TPLF’s next move? Of course they can sell it for any price since they did not pay for it. How about next season? The smart merchant is pushed out of the business what is left is cadre merchants. Good luck Ethiopia.
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) – Ethiopians Tilahun Regassa and Amane Gemeda have won the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K race in Richmond.
The 19-year-old Regassa won the men’s race Saturday in 28:21. He finished 13 seconds ahead of Alene Reta of Ethiopia.
The 26-year-old Gemeda won the women’s event in 32:37, finishing nearly a minute ahead of former Virginia Commonwealth University runner Maria-Elene Calle.
More than 32,000 runners signed up for the 10th anniversary running of the Monument Avenue 10K.
KHARTOUM (Sudan Tribune) — Sudan said it is undertaking extraordinary measures for president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir’s trip to the Arab Gulf state of Qatar later this month as France voiced support to any attempt to apprehend the Sudanese leader.
Sudan has confirmed that Al-Bashir will attend the Arab League annual summit and the Arab Latin summit that will be held in Doha on March 30th.
One of Bashir’s advisers Abdallah Massar told the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that it is likely that the government “will have special arrangements” in place for the flight.
Massar said that having Sudanese fighter jets accompany the presidential plane “is something to be determined by concerned agencies in the government”.
But another security official speaking to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity confirmed that military fighters will guard Bashir’s flight in Sudanese airspace.
The official also said that there may be “camouflage” tactics deployed “in light of threats by rebels to shoot down the plane” before expressing doubt about the ability of them to do so.
“We can say that we will not have the slightest trouble in flying the president safely to Qatar god willing to attend the Arab summit” he added.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said last week that Bashir risks apprehension once he leaves Sudan.
The ICC spokeswoman Laurence Blairon in an interview with Agence France Presse (AFP) yesterday urged Qatar to cooperate with the court in apprehending Bashir.
“The court counts on the cooperation of states and therefore of Qatar, but it does not have its own police force,” she said.
“Qatar is not a state member of the Rome Statute, the founding text of the ICC, but it is a member of the United Nations” Blairon added.
The Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs Al-Samani Al-Wasila downplayed chances of attempts to apprehend Bashir.
“They will not be able to do anything because intercepting a plane is a criminal act of piracy punishable by law unless they decide to down the plane” Al-Wasila said.
But Eric Chevallier, spokesman of the French foreign said that Paris “strongly” supports any operation aimed at arresting the Sudanese president.
“France as many other countries are members of the Rome Statute. There are clear obligations on executing arrest warrant for Bashir” Chevallier told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat in an interview.
The French official said that the majority of the European Union (EU) countries “are pushing towards having ICC members and non-members to assist the court in executing the arrest warrant for Sudanese president especially if he flies to Qatar”.
France has military bases in the African state of Djibouti and Arab Gulf State of United Arab Emirates (UAE). It remains to be seen whether Paris will utilize its air force to bring Bashir’s plane down en route to Qatar.
In December 2006, the ICC arranged an operation along with a number of countries including a neighbor of Sudan to divert a plan carrying Sudanese state minister for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun who wanted to perform the annual Islamic pilgrimage on a forged passport.
Saudi Arabia was notified of the plan, the ICC prosecutor told Sudan Tribune at the time. Khartoum said it was “infuriated” that some countries were willing to take part in the operation.
Haroun, who is also wanted by the ICC, ended up canceling his travel plans thwarting the plot to nab him.
The Sudanese security official said that it is “unlikely” that Bashir’s plane will be prevented from landing in Doha international airport.
“This is not possible and will not happen. We have our own arrangements but will not talk about it in international media” he said. Furthermore he said that the time of Bashir’s flight will not be made public.
Sudan rejects the jurisdiction of the ICC saying it has not ratified its founding Rome Statute treaty. The UN Security Council (UNSC) invoked its power under the Statute to refer Darfur case to the Hague-based court despite Sudan not being an ICC member.
(Economist.com) — OMAR AL-BASHIR certainly gets around. In defiance of the arrest warrant for war crimes issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 4th, the Sudanese president has spent the past week jetting about northern Africa. He visited Eritrea, Egypt and Libya and was planning a trip to Ethiopia. Having called on some of his neighbours, he is making up his mind whether to attend a summit of the Arab League in Qatar on Monday March 30th.
Mr Bashir is scathing about the allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes that are levelled against him. As he travelled, a spokesman for the Sudanese foreign ministry said that the president considers the warrant for his arrest “not worth the ink it is written with—and this is the message of this trip.”
For now the ICC is putting on a brave face. Speaking to al-Jazeera television the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, retorted that Mr Bashir’s trip is “a sign of desperation rather than a challenge to the ICC”. In fact the trip demonstrates the enormous difficulty faced by the court in getting those indicted into the dock.
Within Sudan Mr Bashir faces no threat of arrest. In Khartoum, the capital, people prefer to avoid talking in public about the indictment of the president. When pressed, a typical response is no more than a resigned shrug of the shoulders. A few dissidents explain that after two decades of military rule, it is time for Mr Bashir to go. Those more sympathetic to Mr Bashir, notably in government and business, suggest that the warrant is part of a broad American conspiracy to steal resources (mainly oil) from Sudan. For them, the president’s wanderings are welcome evidence of his thumbing his nose at the court.
Beyond Sudan Mr Bashir is slightly more at risk, but he has designed his tour with care. Eritrea, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya have all failed to sign up to the ICC and thus they have no direct obligation to nab Mr Bashir (although any member of the United Nations is expected to co-operate with the court). The African Union and the Arab League, of which they are variously members, have both called for the arrest warrant to be deferred, arguing that it will destabilise Sudan.
It might grow trickier for Mr Bashir if he decides to go to Qatar, which would involve travelling through international airspace. The president’s supporters worry that his plane could somehow be diverted to a third country which might be more willing to enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant, sending Sudan’s president to The Hague.
In Qatar Mr Bashir could have pause for thought. The host country itself has not signed the Rome treaty which set up the court, so is not obliged to detain Mr Bashir. But Jordan, Djibouti and the Comoros—all members of the Arab League—have signed up to the court and should in theory lend a hand in bringing the indicted president to book. In practice, with the Arab League rejecting the validity of the warrant, this is most unlikely.
Yet Mr Bashir might yet hesitate. Various former heads of state—from Liberia’s Charles Taylor to Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic—were eventually delivered to international tribunals, despite widespread belief that the courts were toothless because they lacked the direct means to conduct arrests. The Committee of Muslim Scholars, Sudan’s highest religious authority, has issued a fatwa advising Mr Bashir to avoid the Arab League summit because “the enemies of the nation are creeping round”. Should Mr Bashir decide to stay home, he has a convenient excuse to do so.
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) — Gebreegziabher Gebremariam kept the men’s individual title at the world cross country championships in Ethiopia after winning a sprint finish to Saturday’s championship in Jordan. Gebremariam crosses the line first to claim gold in the world cross country championships.
Gebremariam crosses the line first to claim gold in the world cross country championships.
Gebremariam took gold ahead of Ugandan Moses Kipsiro and Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea after a testing 12 kilometers over a course at the Bisharat Golf Course in Amman.
He crossed the finishing line in 35 minutes and two seconds, two seconds clear of Kipsiro and 2007 champion Tadese who had the same time, putting daylight between himself and the other medal winners on a sharp rise before the run in to the finish.
Gebremariam succeeds compatriot Kenenisa Bekele as the winner of what is rated as the most competitive race in distance running.
Six-time champion Bekele, the world record holder for 5,000 and 10,000 meters, was forced to sit out the race through injury.
Kenya’s main hopes for the individual title faded in the closing stages but they still retained the coveted team title from Ethiopia.
Earlier, Kenya’s Florence Kiplagat sprinted past compatriot Linet Masai in the closing straight to win the women’s title over eight kilometers.
Masai, who also finished runner-up last year in Edinburgh, could not hold off Kiplagat in the race for the line.
Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu took the bronze medal behind the Kenyan pair.
Last year’s winner Tirunesh Dibaba did not race through injury as Kenya took the team title. Dibaba’s sister Genzebe won the women’s junior race which was held over six kilometers and is a recognized breeding ground for future world and Olympic champions with Britain’s Paula Radcliffe a past winner.
Ayele Abshero of Ethiopia won the junior men’s race as African runners enjoyed a clean sweep of the major titles.
Ethiopia, Kenya share spoils at world cross-country
AMMAN (AFP) — Athletics powerhouses Ethiopia and Kenya shared the spoils at the World Cross-Country Championships here on Saturday as African runners swept the medals board.
Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam made up for the absence of compatriot Kenenisa Bekele, the defending champion and multi-medal winner, to win the senior men’s event.
With Ethiopia’s defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba also absent in the women’s race, Florence Kiplagat claimed the first victory for Kenya since Hellen Chepngeno in 1994.
Kenya topped Ethiopia in the overall team podiums for both events, Eritrea taking third in the men’s and Portugal in the women’s.
In testing conditions around a largely clay course at the Bisharat Golf Course that featured a range of differing gradients and a strong headwind in places, both senior races came down to dramatic sprint finishes.
Gebremariam clocked 35min 02sec over the men’s 12km course, with Ugandan Moses Kipsiro and 2007 champion Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea both timed at 2sec off the pace.
Up until the half-hour mark, there had been a leading group of 12 runners, but that was cut to six as the pace was upped, Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen and Kenyan Moses Mosop two notable casualties.
Gebremariam made his mark in the final 50 metres of the gruelling ascent that led to the run-in to the finish line, keeping enough in reserve to out-pace the chasing pack.
“I didn’t know until I crossed the finish line that I had won. But the pace of the race was easy for me and I knew I had a good finish in me,” Gebremariam said, adding that the Ethiopia team had been confident despite Bekele’s absence.
“We won gold when he competed last year and we won gold today. We, as a team, have full confidence and we are afraid of no-one. We fight and we’re happy to have got some medals.”
Earlier in the day, Kiplagat also showed the value of keeping something in reserve when she surged past compatriot Linet Masai over the final strength-sapping 150 metres.
Masai, the silver medallist at the worlds in Edinburgh last year, had taken the lead after 16 minutes of the race and held onto it up through the final punishing ascent of the 8km course to the flat run-in to the finish line.
Cruelly, Masai had left herself too much to do and she faded as Kiplagat sprinted past her in a dramatic finale, clocking a winning time of 26min 13sec.
Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu claimed bronze to prevent a clean sweep by Kenya.
“I did not expect to win,” said Kiplagat. “Kenya have not won since Hellen Chepngeno in 1994.
“The course was hilly and tough and I had to battle all the way.
“I hope the gold remains with us next year even if Tirunesh returns.”
Masai said she had been disappointed at burning out in the final stretch but acknowledged that it was good the Kenyan team had got the monkey off their back by winning the event.
“I was certain I had won and then I was second,” she said of her meltdown in the run-in.
“But as long as Kenya win then I’m happy. We’ve been hoping to break through in this event.”
There was Ethiopian joy in the junior races: defending champion Genzebe Dibaba retained her title while compatriot Ayele Abshero took the junior men’s crown.
Dibaba, 18, timed 20:14 over a 6km course, finishing ahead of Kenyan Mercy Cherono and her compatriot Jackline Chepgnego.
“I am extremely happy that I won, even without my sister Tirunesh here to watch,” Dibaba said of her sister’s absence.
“I am happier with my win this year than last year because this race was extremely difficult with the competitors and the course was more than we could handle.”
In the men’s race, Abshero went one better than the worlds in Edinburgh last year – when he won silver – this time claiming gold in a time of 23:26.
Kenyan Titus Mbishei was second and Uganda’s Moses Tibet won a sprint finish for third.
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) – Ethiopians Tilahun Regassa and Amane Gemeda have won the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K race in Richmond.
Mr Bashir is scathing about the allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes that are levelled against him. As he travelled, a spokesman for the Sudanese foreign ministry said that the president considers the warrant for his arrest “not worth the ink it is written with—and this is the message of this trip.”
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) — Gebreegziabher Gebremariam kept the men’s individual title at the world cross country championships in Ethiopia after winning a sprint finish to Saturday’s championship in Jordan. Gebremariam crosses the line first to claim gold in the world cross country championships.