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Tag Archives: Ethiopia
African Water Rights in DeNile
What happens when a group of film and television producers, master modern storytellers, travels to Africa, specifically Ethiopia, the cradle of Man and the source of all storytelling, on adventure? They find stories, some with an unexpected twist.A lar… Continue reading
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged adventure, African, african water, american films, denile, entourage, Ethiopia, gorillas in the mist, lord of the rings trilogy, mad men, series, storytelling, television, television producers, trilogy, Twilight, twilight series, unexpected twist, water, water rights
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Spotlight on the Struggle of Birtukan Mideksa: Ethiopian Human Rights Activist in the Global Women’s Movement
Today I would like to tell you the story of Birtukan Mideksa, an Ethiopian prisoner of conscience who is facing life imprisonment for speaking out against an oppressive government. Birtukan is an opposition leader of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (formerly Coalition for Unity and Democracy) party and is advocating for democracy and rule of law in Ethiopia. After years of civil unrest and war with Eritrea, Ethiopia is still struggling to overcome oppression and establish political freedom. The parliamentary elections in 2005 spurred violent protests, which led to the arbitrary arrest and detainment of hundreds of opposition leaders, journalists, human rights advocates and civilians. Birtukan was one of those arrested in 2005, and she received a life imprisonment sentence. Then, in 2007, Birtukan received a pardon and was released from prison, only to be put back into prison once more in 2008 for discussing the details of her prior arrest. Her original sentence of life imprisonment has since been reinstated.
Much of Birtukan’s time in prison has been spent in solitary confinement. The only people allowed to visit Birtukan are her mother and her four-year-old daughter. Before her arrest, Birtukan was the main provider for her family, who is now suffering not only emotionally but also financially from Birtukan’s imprisonment. She is not allowed to meet with any legal representation and the government refuses to listen to her needs. There are even reports that she is being denied medical treatment, despite numerous requests for a physician. The Red Cross and other humanitarian officials are being denied access to the prison, and the exact treatment of Birtukan is unknown.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged arrest, Birtukan, civil unrest, coalition for unity and democracy, democracy, democracy party, Ethiopia, government, human rights advocates, humanitarian officials, imprisonment, life, life imprisonment, opposition, opposition leaders, prison, prisoner of conscience, sentence, solitary confinement, today, treatment, Unity, violent protests
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Global Beat Fusion: Nas and Damian Marley Trace Ancestries
“In Ethiopia, they have churches and mosques with loud speakers on top, so you have spiritual sounds filtering through the town throughout the day,” Damian Marley once told me in an interview. “It’s a very different culture than from where I’m from.”
Marley was deeply affected by his African voyage. His already sedated voice turned reverential as he recalled walking those dusky streets, hearing muezzins wail over tinny loudspeakers, finding music in every alley and pair of eyes he met. This was, after all, biblical land, and as a devout Rasta, he felt an ancestral connection. Perhaps that’s why the singer chose to kick off his album with Nas, Distant Relatives, with a not-so-subtle sample of Ethiopian legend Mulatu Astatqé’s “Yègellé tezeta,” a song featured in the irreplaceable Ethiopiques series, though made famous with its inclusion in “Broken Flowers.” Every time Don Johnston popped one of the two CDs that his neighbor Winston gave him, off went Mulatu.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged ancestral connection, broken flowers, culture, Damian Marley, day, different culture, distant relatives, Don Johnston, dusky, Ethiopia, finding music, interview, loud speakers, loudspeakers, Mulatu, spiritual, time don, town, voice, voyage, wail, Winston
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East Africa’s Looming Famine – Gibe III
East Africa’s looming ‘eco-geno-cide’ – set to impact one million people, is about to become a reality in Ethiopia, extending to Sudan and Kenya, if Gilgel Gibe III mega-dam – the second largest in Africa – continues along its destructive path.
From the very start, Ethiopia’s Gibe III mega-dam (height of 240m, a 151 km reservoir, and a storage capacity of 11.75 billion m3), was marked by the sort of clumsy corruption and irregularities that could only be realised in the worst B Grade movies – think rotten actors, and terrible scripts, catering to unbelievably hysterical plots.
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Tagged Africa, b grade, capacity, corruption, destructive path, East Africa, Ethiopia, Gibe, Gilgel, height, III, irregularities, Kenya, m3, mega dam, one million, path, reality, reservoir, start, storage, storage capacity, Sudan
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China’s Biggest Bank to Support Africa’s Most Destructive Dam?
Ethiopia’s Gibe 3 Dam is one of the most destructive hydropower projects being built today. If completed, it would destroy fragile ecosystems on which 500,000 poor indigenous people depend for their survival. A worldwide civil society campaign has held international financial institutions at bay for several years. Yesterday, however, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) offered to step in with a $500 million loan. If the loan is confirmed, China’s biggest bank will become responsible for a massive social and environmental disaster.
The Gibe 3 Dam on the Omo River threatens the livelihoods of 500,000 indigenous people in Southern Ethiopia and Northern Kenya. By ending the river’s natural flood cycle, it would destroy harvests and grazing lands along the river banks and fisheries in Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake. The dam will devastate the unique culture and ecosystems of the Lower Omo Valley and Lake Turkana, both recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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Tagged Bank, China, Dam, desert lake, Ethiopia, fragile ecosystems, Gibe, Hydropower, industrial and commercial bank of china icbc, international financial institutions, Lake Turkana, loan, Northern Kenya, Omo River, Omo Valley, river, Southern Ethiopia, survival, today, unesco world heritage, unesco world heritage sites, world, world heritage sites, worldwide
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Getting to Know You
Not all book signings are entirely about your book. Sharing lives, laughs and loves can connect you with a reader far beyond the pages that once held their attention. I recently went to a book signing that was like being on a great first date where you discover that even if you don’t marry the guy you’ve found a friend for life.
Last year I read a riveting novel entitled Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It’s a sweeping story that takes place in Ethiopia. Written by a medical doctor, the story is about what happens in a rural hospital where a young nun secretly gets pregnant and dies birthing twin boys. This dramatic, biblical story is set against the backdrop of political turmoil, the life of the hospital compound in which the twins grow up, and the love story of their adopted parents, who were both doctors. The writing and the story captivated me.
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Tagged Abraham Verghese, Attention, backdrop, book, book signing, date, Ethiopia, first date, friend, guy, hospital, hospital compound, life, love story, medical doctor, political turmoil, reader, rural hospital, story, sweeping story, twin boys, Year
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The Impact of Education on Children’s Lives in Ethiopia
Constructing schools closer to children’s homes in rural Ethiopia
Nine-year-old Aster Arba lives in the remote village of Duguna Fango, about 450 kilometers southwest of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. Before Concern Worldwide intervened, Aster and her friends had to walk eight kilometers every day back and forth to school.
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Tagged Addis Ababa, Aster, Aster Arba, capital, concern, concern worldwide, Constructing, day, Duguna, Ethiopia, EthiopiaNine-year-old, Fango, kilometers, village, worldwide
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Twestival: Get Involved And Make A Difference For Global Education
The first global Twestival was held on February 12, 2009. The idea was simple: Twitter has a bajillion people on it — so why not get as many people as possible to use Twitter to promote a good cause? Over $250,000 was raised for charity: water, which aided the construction of wells in India, Uganda and Ethiopia.
This year’s Twestival is likely to raise even more money, as the social microblogging site expands into the mainstream. Concern Worldwide, a nonprofit organization that seeks to educate the world’s poorest people to help end poverty, will be this year’s beneficiary. Each city or school has selected a different educational area to support within Concern Worldwide.
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Tagged bajillion, beneficiary, cause, charity, concern, concern worldwide, educational area, Ethiopia, February, february 12, idea, India, mainstream concern, nonprofit organization, poverty, Twestival, twitter, Uganda, worldwide, Year
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Kidnapped, Raped, Married: The Extraordinary Rebellion of Ethiopia’s Abducted Wives
Every woman remembers her wedding day with a tear in her eye – but, here in Ethiopia, the tears are different, and darker, and do not stop. Nurame Abedo is sitting in her hut high in the clouds, remembering the day she became a wife. She lives hundreds of miles into the countryside, thousands of miles above sea-level, in the hills of the bridal-kidnapping capital of the world. For 40 years, she didn’t talk about her wedding, or how it came to happen. If she tried, she was beaten by her captor, who said good women never speak of such things. So she tells her story slowly, haltingly, her sentences punctuated by sudden high-pitched laughs that seem to erupt involuntarily from her gut.
Nurame was in her bed when she was woken by an angry mêlée. In her family’s hut there were grown men – an incredible number, 10 or more, all in their 30s, all standing over her father, shouting. They reached for her. At night here, where there is no electricity, perfect darkness falls, and everything becomes a shadow-play of barely visible flickers. But even though she was eight years old, she suspected at once what was happening. She had heard whispers that, when a girl is considered ready for marriage, a man will seize her, and rape her, and then she must serve him for the rest of her life. “That was the culture,” she says. But it wasn’t her culture: like all the other little girls, she didn’t want it. “I started screaming and tried to run out of the hut,” she says. “I hid in the trees – hah! – but one of the men found me.”
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Tagged Abedo, countryside, culture, darkness falls, day, Ethiopia, eye, flickers, hah, high in the clouds, hundreds of miles, hut, little girls, Nurame, remembering the day, sea level, shadow play, wedding, wedding day, wife, woman
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Fleeing to Djibouti: The Life of Somali Refugees
The New York Times reported on March 5th that the U.S. is helping the Somali government prepare to take back Mogadishu. As part of a counterterrorism strategy, this American support may make the country, steeped in anarchy for 20 years, less hospitable for Al Quaeda and Al Shahab and its allies. Young Somali men who have been training for the past few months in neighboring Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan are now reinforcing the 6,000 to 10,000 troops, freshly armed and equipped, that will be led by General Gelle. What this means for the Somali people waits to be seen, but in all probability, it will involve more forced displacements and refugees seeking asylum.
While government forces in Somalia get ready to regain control in the capital, Djibouti is steeling itself. According to Ann Encontre, UNHCR representative in Djibouti, southern Somalia and Mogadishu have been relying on local food supplies since WFP withdrew its food aid program in January this year. Local UN staff in Somalia have been distributing non-food items, such buckets, pots and pans, and UNICEF have been providing vaccinations. Other agencies on the ground have been catering to people’s needs where they have access outside of Mogadishu. But by April, Somali’s reserves from its 2009 bumper crop might run out. It is expected that hundreds or thousands more of its 1.5 million uprooted citizens will desperately try to cross the 36-mile long border with Djibouti, avoiding Kenya’s closed borders and Ethiopia’s numerous roadblocks, to find refuge and sustenance.
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Tagged Al Quaeda, Al Shahab, Ann Encontre, bumper crop, counterterrorism, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Food, food aid program, General Gelle, government, Kenya, March, Mogadishu, New, new york times, part, pots and pans, seeking asylum, somali government, somali men, Somalia, southern Somalia, strategy, Sudan, support, Times, U.S., Uganda, what this means, York
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