Ethiopian Exchange Student Makes Big Impact at Signal Mountain (WRCBtv)

Let's talk about when it rains. I didn't have an umbrella. Like other rural Ethiopian students, I had to use the leaf of the Inset plant to cover myself on my way to and from school. The Inset plant looks like a banana plant and it is a major crop that southern Ethiopians use to feed their families. Even though times were tough, I never gave up because my teachers always supported me....more..

Eritrea and Ethiopia leaders make worst dictators list (Jimma Times)

Meles Zenawi - A former guerrilla leader, Meles shows no signs of sharing power with anyone. In January, his government passed a law forbidding any NGO that receives more than 10% of its budget from abroad from doing human rights work in Ethiopia. Despite Meles’ excesses, the U.S. considers him an important regional ally and continues to train his military....more..

British foreign aid: To poor people or oppressive governments?(GBN)

So how is this working out in practice? In 2007, the UK gave 20 percent of their total bilateral ODA in the form of budget support to 13 countries: Tanzania, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique, Vietnam, Malawi, Zambia, India, Sierra Leone, Nepal, and Nicaragua. (Source)

Of this list, only Ghana and India were classified as “free” by the annual Freedom House ratings on democracy (according to either the 2007 or 2008 rating). For the 11 other countries that did get British budget support, how much is there “country ownership” when the government is not democratically accountable to the “country”?....more...

Cry Me a Lake: Crime Against Nature - By Prof. Alemayehu G. Mariam (Abgida)

Who is responsible for the death of Lake Koka? And Amina’s husband and children? Did Chromium, Cadmium, Arsenic, Microsystsis Aeruginosa kill them? No. Official neglect and indifference killed them. Those who claimed to have the public trust, but turned a deaf ear, blind eye and muted tongue, are responsible. Those who slammed the official door in the face of the Ammudde resident who complained about “drinking a disease” are responsible.. ...more..

ICC warrant raises questions on leaders targeted (AP)

And they question why only Africans have been charged since the ICC — branded "the white man's court" by Sudan's information ministry — began its work six years ago. A temporary court, the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, indicted Slobodan Milosevic in 1999 while he was still president of Yugoslavia...more..

Birtu-Can! Yes, We Can!(ECADF)

Col. Dewars concluded, “Detention conditions of prisoners are a disgrace and make the Federal Police
vulnerable to the Human Rights lobby.” He “recommended that the Government should investigate this
situation with the intention of improving the current appalling conditions inside Ethiopian prisons, which
must brutalise prisoners and their goalers equally. It is recommended that senior Ethiopian Ministers
and Police Officers visit the prison that I visited.”...more..