Ethiopia’s Golden Girl: Dibaba Wins Women’s 10000m (Tadias)

(BEIJING, August 15) — Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia has won gold and set a new Olympic record in the Women’s 10000m at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 15....more

Guji versus Burji – Proxy War and Ethnic Cleansing (Addis Voice)

Four days ago I wrote a letter to the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the on-going political, cultural, economic and the national destruction of Ethiopia. I was candid about the role I felt the USA has played in facilitating the current thugs in Addis Ababa to bring Ethiopia to the current state of degradation. While I feel it is legitimate to lay some blame on the Bush Administration for emboldening the Meles regime in their systematic dismantling of the social fabric of Ethiopians and the sovereignty of Ethiopia, ultimately Ethiopians must take the majority of the blame for the sorry state of affairs!

Meles and his TPLF have never made any secret about their scheme against Ethiopia! They sought and obtained the co-operation from the rest of the country, notably the OLF, in instituting the most subversive constitution imaginable. Once they got that out of the way, they were done with the OLF and the rest is history! The systematic purging of the communities which showed any resistance to their thuggish rule has been well documented:

1. The massacre of the Anuaks;
2. On going purge of the Oromos using their OLF support as the main excuse;
3. The ongoing genocide in Ogaden;
4. Atrocities against the people of the various ethnic background throughout the country; and
5. Blaming natural disasters such as failed rainfall while the country’s thousands of square miles of arable land in Ethiopia lie fallow, thus condemning millions of Ethiopians to recurrent seasons of slow deaths by starvation....more..

HR2003 'Inhofed', but alive and well (Addis Voice)

On Planet Inhofe, Mugabe is an "authoritarian" leader by conducting elections that are "tainted by intimidation of voters and violence against the opposition party and their supporters", but Zenawi is a benevolent leader who has "taken significant steps to regain a democratic process that is fair and respectful of human rights" by jailing opposition leaders, human rights advocates and journalists, and thousands of ordinary citizens suspected of disloyalty to his regime. Mugabe is a heartless and ruthless despot for "threatening already hungry people to either vote for Mugabe or starve", but Zenawi is an enlightened leader for weaponizing famine against civilians, creating the second largest refugee population (after Darfur) in Africa, and condemning 13 million Ethiopians to avoidable famine. "It is time for Mugabe to allow his people to decide the next phase and direction of their country," but it is NOT time for Zenawi to do the same in Ethiopia....more..

Country’s biggest reggae star’s arrest sharpens dissent in Ethiopia (The Indian Express)

“We’d hoped that was the beginning of an opening in the democratic space,” said Hailu Araaya, deputy chairman of the recently formed Unity for Democracy and Justice party. He spent 20 months in jail before his release in July 2007. “But the political space is contracting again. It’s clear the ruling party is determined to stay in power by any means.”...more..

Woyanne tribal politics rears its ugly head at Beijing Olympics (Ethiopian Review)

Ethiopia's superstar athletes such as Haile Gebreselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and others were no where to be found among the Ethiopian delegation. Instead, the flag (with that ugly Woyanne logo in the middle) was carried by Miruts Yifter, a great Ethiopian athlete from the 1970s, followed by Ato Seyoum Bereded, a Woyanne cadre who has never done any sport in his life, and...more..

Islamists Seize Provincial Capital Near Ethiopian Border (VOA)

Witnesses in Somalia say Islamist insurgents have seized control of Hudur, the capital of the Bakool region.

The insurgent group al-Shabab says on its Web site that its fighters entered Hudur early Friday after government-allied soldiers fled the town late Thursday. ...more

The rains have come, the land is lush but Ethiopians still go hungry (Guardian)

n June the government said 4.6 million people in drought-affected parts of the country required £162.5m of assistance, but unofficial estimates from donor agencies following recent nationwide assessments put the figure closer to 8-10 million people....more..

UN To Disband Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Mission (Reuters)

The UN move comes after Eritrea withdrew support for the mission last year, demanding the UN pressurize Ethiopia to agree with an earlier international border ruling that awarded the disputed territory to Eritrea....more..

FIFA suspends Ethiopia with immediate effect. (Ngex)

FIFA has suspended the Ethiopian Football Federation with immediate effect after the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) failed to comply with a roadmap agreed in February 2008 aimed at normalising the Ethiopian federation. ..more..

Obang Metho's Message to Ethiopian Muslim Leaders (Anauak Justice Council)

ight now there are human rights atrocities going on in the Afar region, in Oromia, in the Beninshangul-Gumuz region, in the Southern Nations and especially severely in the Ogaden and into Somalia. These are not just violations of human rights, they are violations of Allah/God’s law and principles and people who fear Allah/God and value human life, should show that they care about such injustice through their actions.
When the Anuak were killed, no one spoke out. It is now our chance to speak out for those now suffering in our country. If someone is wounded at the side of the road, we should not first ask the wounded person if they are from the same tribe, region, culture or religion before we help them....more..

ICI claims article was 'racially offensive' (Irish Times)

Section 2 of the Act says it is an offence to publish or distribute written material if it is threatening, abusive or insulting and intended to, or having regarding to all of the circumstances, is likely to, stir up hatred.

In the article, Mr Myers questioned whether it was moral to save an Ethiopian child from starvation, given that it could grow up to face poverty, hunger, violence and possible sexual abuse....more..

Africa is giving nothing to anyone -- apart from AIDS ((Independent .ie)

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.

There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this...more..

Failed leader + failed regime = failed state (Ethiomedia)

Contrary to Assefa’s categorical denial that Ethiopia is not a “failed state”, his boss admitted in a Time Magazine interview that Ethiopia actually is just such a state “in terms of poverty”. Zenawi stated⁵: After Nigeria, we are the second biggest black African nation. We are the headquarters of the African Union. We are the only African country that has never been colonized. This is perhaps the last surviving African civilization. We have our own script. We have our own calendar. We represent the greatness of Africa's past. We also represent the worst of Africa's present, in terms of poverty. It is the best and the worst of African reality.

This frank admission by the leader of the ruling regime reflects not so much a failure of state institutions, but rather a dismal failure of individual and collective leadership. It is an admission that the country is at the bottom of the African economic barrel because its lacks capable and visionary political leadership with a long-term economic recovery and growth plans for the country....more

Abebech Gobena: A profile in compassion (drmehretmandefro)

Abebech’s life instructs what happens when you do not stop the love. The kids soon became 200 and in 1988 she received a permit to raise the children as orphans. Her unusual actions have grown into 6 different branches of the Abebech Gobena Children’s Care and Development organization with over 12,000 children under her care...more..

The aid Africa can't afford(LA Times)

Instead of serving their people, most African states function as vehicles for the self-enrichment of political elites that have inherited none of the public-spiritedness of their colonial predecessors but all of the latter's contempt for the African masses. The remedy, therefore, might be to let Africa's failing neocolonial states disintegrate totally -- so that organic African political structures can emerge....more..

OutragCrisis e Over Lavish G-8 dinner At Food Crisis Talks (RTTnews)

Ironically, leaders from Africa - where some of the world's poorest nations exist - - including the heads of Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal, who had taken part in the talks, were excluded from the feast organized by the Japanese government in Hokkaido, according to media reports....more..

Medical aid group pulls out of Ethiopia's Fik region after government harassment (Pr-inside)

GENEVA (AP) - The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres says it is pulling out of Ethiopia's Fik region because of persistent government harassment.
MSF representative Hugues Robert says staff members have been denied work permits and detained without reason....more..

Millions Face Disaster Due to U.S. Ethiopian Occupation of Somalia (Black agenda Report)

The U.S. has made Ethiopia its hit man in the Horn of Africa, a decision that is guaranteed to destabilize the entire region. That’s part of the American modus operandi: to create chaos – always resulting in mass deaths among the poor – in order to declare Africans unfit to run their own affairs. This is a theme that plays well among U.S. corporate media, who have dutifully pushed the Bush line on Zimbabwe, but go months without even mentioning the American-made crisis in Somalia. Democratic Party leadership is no better, including presidential nominee-to-be Barack Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, Somalia’s neighbor. Obama, the Speaker of the House and the top Democrat in the Senate are all mum on U.S. crimes against the Somali people...more..

Somali government base attacked(BBC)

It was the first time Baidoa, the only town fully under government control, had been attacked since late 2006.

A soldier was killed and six people wounded in the attack on the airport and presidential palace, witnesses say....more..

New Media Law, New Threat to Press Freedom (IPS news)

The new law fits into a pattern of official persecution of journalists seen over the last three years. Soon after controversial 2005 elections, three newspapers and magazines belonging to the country's largest private publisher, Serkalem Publishing House, were closed down as part of a widespread crackdown on media that dared to criticise the handling of the poll. Serkalem Fasil and her family were imprisoned for over a year....more...