Ethiopia leads bamboo revolution

  

Tuesday, 09 April 2013 17:16 Written by Ed McKenna 

ADDIS ABABA—A combination of an abundance of bamboo and eager foreign investment is making Ethiopia a frontier for the bamboo industrial revolution in Africa, according to this country’s government.

“Ethiopia has the resources, the investment, a rapidly developing manufacturing industry and a strong demand for our bamboo products from foreign markets. We have what we need. The expansion of Africa’s bamboo sector has begun,” Ethiopia’s State Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Mitiku Kassa told Inter Press Service.

Ethiopia currently has the largest area—one 1 million hectares—of commercially untapped bamboo in East Africa, making it attractive to investment partners from the bamboo industry. However, the agriculture ministry told IPS that it was unwilling to disclose any figures on the bamboo economy, but added that there had been no formal bamboo economy in Ethiopia until 2012.

“The market potential of bamboo in Europe is massive. We believe that there can be a reliable and effective supply chain built here in Ethiopia to create a bamboo manufacturing industry,” said Felix Boeck, an associate engineer at Africa Bamboo Plc., a public-private partnership set up with Ethiopian partners and supported by the German Development Cooperation in 2012.

The partnership plans to invest €10 million over the next five years in their Ethiopia-based manufacturing operation, which will supply competitive flooring products to European and US markets. The company plans to export 100,000 square meters of bamboo flooring products by 2014. By 2016 this figure is expected to rise to 500,000 sq m.

“The fastest-growing market in Europe for the wood industry is flooring and outdoor decking. We expect our products to play a large role in this market,” Boeck told IPS.

In comparison to soft wood trees that can take 30 years to reach maturity, bamboo is a fully mature resource after three years, making it commercially and environmentally sustainable.

Sub-Saharan Africa has 3 million hectares of bamboo forest, about 4 percent of the continent’s total forest cover. Ethiopia plans to increase its bamboo cover to 2 million hectares over the next five years.

Small-scale Ethiopian bamboo farmers like Ghetnet Melaku are enthusiastic to participate in the development of the bamboo sector, if investment in its expansion is inclusive of small farmers.

“I am just making enough money to subsist by producing bamboo for the local craft market and, if I had the opportunity, I would like to increase my capacity for skilled production and a better financial return,” Melaku told IPS.

The International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (Inbar) is an intergovernmental organization that assists governments, businesses and local communities to identify innovative bamboo-based opportunities for human development.

It is helping sensitize African governments to the high potential of bamboo as a versatile and renewable resource that can generate sustainable development. According to Inbar, 1 billion people around the world use bamboo in their daily lives as housing material, fencing and food, and in craft production, etc.

“If properly managed, this highly versatile resource could spur economic growth in a world export market valued at $2 billion in 2011, reduce deforestation and cut carbon emissions,” Inbar Director General J. Coosje Hoogendoorn told IPS.

Devastating deforestation

DEFORESTATION has ravaged Africa’s environment—the carbon emissions from burning timber on the continent alone are expected to reach 6.7 million tons by 2050. As 90 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa use firewood or charcoal to cook, the development of an alternative resource like bamboo has become essential.

“Sourcing fuel for cooking food is integral to food security,” said Hoogendoorn. “Rice, maize and pulses all require heat to become edible. Renewable alternatives like bamboo can help minimize deforestation caused by the logging of soft timber wood for cooking fuel and house materials.”

Ethiopia’s government has prohibited the creation of charcoal from burnt wood for retail and is actively advocating sustainable alternatives such as bamboo.

“Bamboo is a major untapped resource for Ethiopia. We are pushing to grow and conserve our bamboo resources. We are starting to work with farmers and enterprises to encourage and develop this sector for the country’s economic and environmental benefit. We are working to undo unsustainable practices and advocate new alternatives,” Kassa told IPS.

Although Ethiopia has one of the highest deforestation rates in Africa, it has increased its national forest cover to 7 percent from 3 percent a decade ago, out of an original 40 percent. Hoogendorn said that governments needed to make financial resources available to enterprises that wished to develop Africa’s bamboo industry.

“We want governments to put structures in place that offer financial support such as micro finance and that remove any hindrance for investors in the bamboo market, so that when companies want to set up a bamboo industry they have access to financial support,” he said.

High demand for Ethiopia’s agricultural output such as bamboo can drive growth and development for the country’s poor if it generates employment opportunities and remains non-exploitative toward farmers and the land, said research fellow Steve Wiggins from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). The ODI is the United Kingdom’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues.

“It is good if there is another source of demand for farm produce, so long as the economics of bamboo offer decent returns to land and labor, equitable deals can be struck in the supply chain, and the crop is environmentally sustainable,” Wiggins told IPS.

While bamboo production in Asia carries connotations of unsustainable forestry practices and illegal logging, Inbar is working to share lessons learnt and bring bamboo production in Africa’s market up to the highest standards.

“Sustainable management of a country’s bamboo sector is extremely important to the future of a country’s market, especially if that country is wanting to export its products to the European market where laws stipulate conformity to high sustainability standards,” Hoogendoorn said.

As the industrial development of bamboo in Africa is in its infancy, investors have until recently been cautious about plowing large amounts of money into a market whose dividends are relatively unknown.

“We are ready for the same industrial revolution in bamboo development that Ethiopia is currently experiencing,” Andrew Akwasi Oteng-Amoako, the chief research scientist at the Forestry Research Institute in Ghana, told IPS.

He lamented that although his West African country had an abundance of bamboo, it failed to secure the same investment as Ethiopia.

“We anticipate a revival of investment interest in Ghana’s bamboo industry in the near future thanks to Ethiopia’s success,” Oteng-Amoako said.

http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/business/agri-commodities/11819-ethiopia-leads-bamboo-revolution 

REFILE-Ethiopian driller seeks place in oil history

REUTERS  : Mon Apr 8, 2013 1:55pm EDT

(Refiled with dropped word Hong Kong in paragraph 7)

* Company holds large exploration acreage in Ethiopia

* Thinks Ethiopia is next in East Africa's oil surge

By Andrew Callus

LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - - Tewedros Ashenafi hopes his Ethiopian exploration outfit will become the first indigenous company to make a basin-opening discovery in sub-Saharan Africa's 21st Century oil and gas boom.

His privately-held SouthWest Energy holds 46,000 square kilometres of exploration acreage amounting to almost 4 percent of the vast, land-locked east African country.

It is looking to drill three wells in 2013 and 2014 in its Jijiga basin blocks on Ethiopia's border with Somalia in the east of the country.

Geological similarities with oil-rich Yemen across the Red Sea could help make a country which produces no oil or gas at all into a 400,000 barrels a day producer, as much as western neighbours Sudan and South Sudan can produce together, Ashenafi hopes.

The company also has acreage in the west, in the Gambella basin bordering South Sudan, and in the nearby Jimma Block.

Ashenafi, a native of Ethiopia and the biggest shareholder in the company he founded in 2005, was in London this week to raise $100 million in a private finance placement to finance the drilling.

He would not disclose any other details about the Hong Kong registered group's ownership and financing, except to say that all board and advisory board directors are also shareholders.

Simon Murray and John Bond, respectively chairmen of the international mining and commoditiesgroup Glencore and its affiliate Xstrata, are on the advisory board. Miles Morland, a director of the multinational brewer SABMiller and a long-time Africa investor, is on the main board. Ashenafi holds his owns stake through a family trust.

Gas was discovered in Ethiopia in 1972. Revolution and war have held back development since then, but a wave of oil and gas development has spread up the east coast in recent years from Mozambique through Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

"Ethiopia, I think, is going to be next", Ashenafi told Reuters by telephone.

"It has huge potential and is very underexplored. The Jijiga basin alone is 367,000 square kilometres. That's larger than the North Sea, and there have only been 50 wells drilled."

Potential exit routes for Ethiopian oil include Djibouti and Somalia, and at 50,000 barrels a day and growing, home consumption is a potential option too.

SouthWest Energy holds Jijiga blocks 9, 9A and 13, with similar sedimentary rock to oil and gas-rich areas of the Middle East. It estimates possible overall oil volume at between 1.5 billion and 3 billion barrels.

International companies working in Ethiopia include Tullow Oil and Africa Oil which are exploring along the country's southern border with Kenya. (Editing by James Jukwey)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/08/ethiopia-oil-southwestenergy-idUSL5N0CV3QP20130408 

Ethiopia: Right in Prison, Wrong on the Throne

by: Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam

 
APRIL 8, 2013 12:06AM

Eskinder Nega

Last April, I wrote a “Special Tribute to My Personal Hero Eskinder Nega”.  In that tribute, I groped for words as I tried to describe this common Ethiopian man of uncommon valor, an ordinary journalist of extraordinary integrity and audacity. Frankly, what could be said of a simple man of humility possessed of indomitable dignity? Eskinder Nega is a man who stood up to brutality with his gentle humanity. What could I really say of a gentleman of the utmost civility, nobility and authenticity who was jailed 8 times for loving liberty?  What could I say of a man and his wife who defiantly defended press freedom in Ethiopia, even when they were both locked up in Meles Zenawi Prison just outside of the capital in Kality for 17 months! What could anybody say of a man, a woman and their child who sacrificed their liberties, their peace of mind, their futures and earthly possessions so that their countrymen, women and children could be free!?   

Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega is a special kind of hero who fights with nothing more than ideas and the truth. He slays falsehoods with the sword of truth. He chases bad ideas with good ones. Armed only with a pen, Eskinder fights despair with hope; fear with courage; anger with reason; arrogance with humility; ignorance with knowledge; intolerance with forbearance; oppression with perseverance; doubt with trust and cruelty with compassion. Above all, Eskinder speaks truth to power and to those who abuse, misuse, overuse and are corrupted by power.   

Now almost a year since I wrote my tribute, I remember my great friend and brother Eskinder Nega as he languishes in Meles Zenawi Prison.  But I do not remember him in sadness or with heartache.  No! No! I remember Eskinder in the hopeful, faith-filled and resolute words of American poet James Russell Lowell (“The Present Crisis”): “When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s aching breast…/ Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide…/ In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side... For Humanity sweeps onward: where to-day the martyr stands…/ Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne…/   

Eskinder and his wife Serkalem did the right deed to defend the right of press freedom in Ethiopia. They spoke truth to falsehood in their newspapers and never backed down. They spoke right to wrong in kangaroo court. The man who tried for 20 years to right the wrongs of tyranny, today, like Lowell’s Truth, hangs on the scaffold in the belly of Meles Zenawi Prison, a place of  “wrath and tears where the horror of the shade looms”, with his head bloodied but UNBOWED!     

Last week, Birtukan Mideksa wrote an opinion piece for Al Jazeera urging the release of Eskinder Nega and  other journalists including Reeyot Alemu (winner of the International Women’s Media Foundation 2012 Courage in Journalism Award) and Woubshet Taye (2012 Hellman/Hammett Grant Award) and all political prisoners in Ethiopia. Birtukan is the first female political party (Unity for Democracy and Justice) leader in Ethiopian history. Birtukan, like Eskinder, was the personal political prisoner of the late dictator Meles Zenawi.   Meles personally ordered Birtukan’s arrest and on December 29, 2008, a year and half after he “pardoned” and released her from prison, he threw her back in jail without even the usual song and dance of kangaroo court.  On January 9, 2010, Meles sent chills down the spines of reporters when he declared sadistically that “there will never be an agreement with anybody to release Birtukan. Ever. Full stop. That’s a dead issue.” On January 15, 2010, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted an opinion finding that Birtukan Midekksa is a political prisoner.  

It is heartwarming to read Birtukan’s moving and robustly principled defense of Eskinder Nega and the other Ethiopian journalists and political prisoners. It is also ironic that Eskinder should replace Birtukan as the foremost political prisoner in Ethiopia today.   

Few can speak more authoritatively on the plight of Eskinder and all Ethiopian political prisoners than my great sister Birtukan who also spent years in in the belly of Meles Zenawi Prison, a substantial part of it in solitary confinement. In her Al Jazeera commentary she wrote:  

My journey to become a political prisoner in Ethiopia began as a federal judge fighting to uphold the rule of law. Despite institutional challenges and even death threats, I hoped to use constitutional principles to ensure respect for basic rights… [Ethiopian] authorities have detained my friend Eskinder Nega eight times over his 20-year career as a journalist and publisher. After the 2005 elections, Eskinder and his wife – Serkalem Fasil – spent 17 months in prison. Pregnant at the time, Serkalem gave birth to a son despite her confinement and almost no pre-natal care. Banned from publishing after his release in 2007, Eskinder continued to write online. In early 2011, he began focusing particularly on the protest movements then sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. Eskinder, who does not belong to any political party because of a commitment to maintain his independence, offered a unique and incisive take on what those movements meant for the future of Ethiopia. Committed to the principle of non-violence, Eskinder repeatedly emphasised that any similar movements in Ethiopia would have to remain peaceful. Despite this, police briefly detained him and warned him that his writings had crossed the line and he could face prosecution. Then in September [14], 2011, the government made good on that threat. Authorities arrested Eskinder just days after he publicly criticised the use of anti-terror laws to stifle dissent. They held him without charge or access to an attorney for nearly two months. The government eventually charged Eskinder with terrorism and treason, sentencing him to 18 years in prison after a political trial. Unfortunately, Eskinder is not alone; independent journalists Woubshet Taye and Reeyot Alemu also face long prison terms on terrorism charges.  

Eskinder is a hero to the world but a villain to Meles Zenawi and his disciples  

Who really is Eskinder Nega? In Meles Zenawi’s kangaroo court, Eskinder has been judged a “terrorist”, a “public enemy”. In the court of world public opinion, Eskinder is celebrated as the undisputed champion and defender of press freedom.  

When speaking of my brother Eskinder, I could be accused of exaggerating his virtues, hyperbolizing his singular contributions to press freedom in Ethiopia and overstating his importance to the cause of free expression throughout the world. Perhaps I am biased because I hold this great man in such high respect, honor and admiration. If I am guilty of bias, it is because seemingly in Ethiopia they have stopped making genuine heroes like Eskinder Nega, Woubeshet Taye, Anudalem Aragie, Temesgen Desalegn… and heroines like Birtukan Midekssa, Serkalem Fasil, Reeyot Alemu….   

Let others more qualified and more eloquent than I speak of Eskinder Nega’s heroism, courage, fortitude, audacity and tenacity in the defense of press freedom.   

On December 3, 2012, when Carl Bernstein (one of the two investigative journalists who exposed the Watergate scandal leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon) read at a public forum Eskinder’s last blog before he was arrested, he said:  

… No honor can be greater than to read Eskinder Nega’s words. He is more than a symbol. He is the embodiment of the greatness of truth, of writing and reporting real truth, of persisting in truth and resisting the oppression of untruth… So let us marvel at and  celebrate Eskinder Nega. For who among us could write what I am about to read [a blog of Eskinder’s] spirit unbound, faith in freedom and the power of the word untrammeled…   

When Eskinder was named as the recipient of the prestigious 2012 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, Peter Godwin, president of PEN American Center said, “The Ethiopian writer Eskinder Nega is that bravest and most admirable of writers, one who picked up his pen to write things that he knew would surely put him at grave risk…”   

Larry Siems, director of PEN Freedom to Write Award, at the award ceremonies groped for words trying to describe Eskinder Nega. “…[This year] one [journalist] really stood out, and that is Eskinder Nega. So tonight we recognize one of the world’s most courageous, most intrepid, most creative advocates of press freedom that I have ever seen…”   

In awarding its prestigious Hellman/Hammett Award for 2012,  Human Rights Watch described Eskinder and the other journalists as “exemplifying  the courage and dire situation of independent journalism in Ethiopia today. Their ordeals illustrate the price of speaking freely in a country where free speech is no longer tolerated.”   

The Committee to Protect Journalists declared, “The charges against Eskinder are baseless and politically motivated in reprisal for his writings. His conviction reiterates that Ethiopia will not hesitate to punish a probing press by imprisoning journalists or pushing them into exile in misusing the law to silence critical and independent reporting.”   

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the American civil rights heroine and former CNN Johannesburg bureau chief defended Eskinder and travelled to Ethiopia to plead for his release:  

The specific charge against Eskinder was that he conspired with a banned opposition party called Ginbot 7 to overthrow the government. At his trial, government prosecutors showed as evidence a fuzzy video, available on YouTube, of Eskinder at a public town-hall meeting, discussing the potential of an Arab Spring-type uprising in Ethiopia. State television labeled Eskinder and the other journalists as “spies for foreign forces.” There were also allegations that he had accepted a terrorist mission—what the mission involved was never specified.   

United States Senator Patrick Leahy read a lenghty statement into the Congressional Record informing his colleagues that “7,000 miles from Washington, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia… a journalist named Eskinder Nega stands accused of supporting terrorism simply for refusing to remain silent about the Ethiopian government’s increasingly authoritarian drift…”  

The U.S. State Department has condemned the imprisonment of Eskinder and the other journalists:      

   

The United States remains deeply concerned about the trial, conviction, and sentencing of Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega, as well as seven political opposition figures, under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. The sentences handed down today, including 18 years for Eskinder and life imprisonment for the opposition leader Andualem Arage, are extremely harsh and reinforce our serious questions about the politicized use of Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law in this and other cases.  

Eskinder is a hero to the heroes of international journalism. In April 2012,  twenty international journalists who have been recognised as “World Press Freedom Heroes” by the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) stood by Eskinder’s side, condemned his unjust imprisonment on trumped up terrorism charges and demanded his release and the release of other journalists. These press freedom heroes minced no words in telling Meles Zenawi of their “extremely strong condemnation of the Ethiopian government’s decision to jail journalist Eskinder Nega on terrorism charges.”     

On November 21, 2012, the U.N. Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a 9-page legal Opinion concluding: 

The deprivation of liberty of Eskinder Nega is arbitrary in violation of articles 9, 10, 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 9, 14, and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights… The Working Group requests the Government to take the necessary steps to remedy the situation, which include the         immediate release of Mr. Nega and adequate reparation to him.  

In December 2012, 16 member of the European parliament demanded the release of Eskinder Nega and journalists Reeyot Alemu and Woubshet Taye.     

Who is (are) the real terrorist(s) in Ethiopia?   

Meles said Eskinder and all of the journalists he jailed are “terrorists”.  If Eskinder Nega is a terrorist, then speaking truth to power is an act of terrorism. If Eskinder Nega is a terrorist, then advocacy of peaceful change is terrorism; thinking is terrorism; dissent is terrorism; having a conscience is terrorism; refusing to sell out one’s soul is terrorism; standing up for democracy and human rights is terrorism; defending the rule of law is terrorism and peaceful resistance of state terrorism is terrorism. If Eskinder Nega is a terrorist today, Nelson Mandela was a terrorist then. The same goes for all of the other jailed journalists and opposition leaders jailed by Meles Zenawi.   

But the real terrorists know who they are. When Meles and his horde of guerilla fighters challenged military dictator Mengistu Hailemariam, they were officially branded as terrorists, bandits, mercenaries, criminals, thugs, murderers, marauders, public enemies, subversives, rebels, assassins, malcontents, invaders, traitors, saboteurs and other names.  Were they?    

Let the evidence speak for itself. In an interview Meles Zenawi gave to an Eritrean magazine called Hiwot (which was translated into Amharic and published by Etiop newspaper, (Vol. 5 Issue No. 52), he presented himself as the Willie Sutton of Tigray pulling bank jobs all over the palce. Meles spoke proudly of the banks he and his comrade-in-arms robbed or attempted to rob to finance their guerilla war. Meles boasted of his “victorious” robberies in Shire and Adwa while regretting botched jobs in Axum. Today they own the banks!   

The current ruling party, “Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Movement” (TPLF), is listed today in the Global Terrorism Database as a terrorist organization.  Documented acts of terrorism by the TPLF include armed robberies, assaults, hostage taking and kidnapping of foreign nationals and journalists and local leaders, hijacking of truck convoys, extortion of business owners and merchants, nongovernmental organizations, local leaders and private citizens and intimidation of religious leaders and journalists.   

An official Inquiry Commission established by Meles Zenawi to investigate the deaths that occurred in the post-2005 election period determined that security forces under the personal control and command of Meles Zenawi  massacred 193 unarmed protesters in the streets and severely wounded another 763. The Commission concluded the “shots fired by government forces were intended not to disperse the crowd of protesters but to kill by targeting the head and chest of the protesters.” On November 1, 2005, security forces in the Meles Zenawi Prison in Kality gunned down 65 inmates while confined in their cells. No one has ever been brought to justice for these crimes against humanity.  

In September 2011, the world learned that “Ethiopian security forces (had) planted 3 bombs that went off in the Ethiopian capital on September 16, 2006 and then blamed Eritrea and the Oromo resistance for the blasts in a case that raised serious questions about the claims made about the bombing attempt against the African Union summit earlier this year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.” Following its own investigation and “clandestine reporting”, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa fingered “GoE (Government of Ethiopia) security forces” for this criminal act. If all other acts of state terrorism committed against Ethiopian civilians were to be included, the body count would be in the hundreds of thousands.     

Who are the real terrorists and criminals in Ethiopia today?   

Tale of the Good Wolf and Evil Wolf   

The late Meles Zenawi and his apostles remind me of an old Cherokee (Native American) tale of two wolves:  A grandfather tells his young grandson that everyone has a Good Wolf and an Evil Wolf inside of them fighting with each other every day. The Good Wolf thrives on peace, love, truth, generosity, humility and kindness. The Evil Wolf feeds on hatred, anger, greed, lies and arrogance. “Which wolf will win, grandfather?” asked the boy. “Whichever one you feed,” replied the grandfather.  

Meles and his disciples have been feeding the Evil Wolf for decades, and now the Evil Wolf sits triumphantly crowned on the Throne of Hatred and Falsehood. They have fattened the Evil Wolf with a lavish diet of inhumanity, barbarity, brutality, ignobility, immorality, depravity, duplicity, incivility, criminality, ethnocentricity, mediocrity, corruptibility and pomposity. 

Eskinder, Reeyot, Woubshet, Andualem. Temesgen and the rest have managed to tame the Good Wolf and have followed the path of peace, love and truth. Their wolf thrives on a simple diet of humanity, unity, integrity, authenticity, civility, morality, incorruptibility, dignity, affability, humility, nobility, creativity, intellectuality and audacity.  

It is hard for the reasonable mind to fathom why Meles and his disciples chose to embrace and follow the path of the Evil Wolf. Indeed, the Evil Wolf has been very good to them. The Evil Wolf has made it possible for them to accumulate great wealth and amass enormous power. They have unleashed the Evil Wolf to divide and rule the country along ethnic, religious, linguistic and regional lines. They have used the Evil Wolf to destroy not only the lives and futures of young professionals like Eskinder, Birtukan,  Reeyot, Woubshet, Temesgen and  Andualem but also the future of the younger generation. They have used the Evil Wolf to sell off the country’s most fertile lands for pennies and plunder its natural resources. They have used the Evil Wolf to convict the innocent in kangaroo courts. They have used the Evil Wolf to strike fear and loathing in the hearts and minds or ordinary citizens.  

They have given new meaning to the ancient Roman playwright Paluatus’ aphorism homo homini lupus est  (“man is a wolf to his fellow man”).  They have used the Evil Wolf to create war from peace; strife from harmony;  wrong from right; vice from virtue; division from unity;  shame from honor;  immorality from decency; poverty from wealth; hatred from love; ignorance from knowledge; corruption from blessing; bondage from freedom and dictatorship from democracy.  In 21 years, Meles and his disciples have managed to jam a whole nation between the jaws of a snarling, gnarling and howling Evil Wolf.   

How long before the Good Wolf wins over the Evil Wolf?  

The great Nelson Mandela wondered when Apartheid would end. He told those who had unleashed the Evil Wolf of Apartheid,  “You may succeed in delaying, but never in preventing the transition of South Africa to a democracy.”

My friend Eskinder Nega warned the overlords of the Evil Wolf in Ethiopia, “Freedom is partial to no race. Freedom has no religion. Freedom favors no ethnicity. Freedom discriminates not between rich and poor countries.  Inevitably freedom will overwhelm Ethiopia.”   

But how long before freedom overwhelms Ethiopia? How long before Ethiopia transitions to democracy? How long before “truth crushed to earth rises again” in Ethiopia? How long before all Ethiopian political prisoners are set free? Before Eskinder is released and joins his wife Sekalem and their son Nafkot? How long before Reeyot, Woubshet, Andualem… rejoin their families? How long before the Good Wolf wins over the Evil Wolf? 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. agonized over similar questions during the darkest days of the struggle for civil rights in America. His answer to the question, “How long?” was “Not long!”. 

I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?”  Somebody’s asking, “How long will prejudice blind the visions of men…?”  

Somebody’s asking, “When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham… be lifted from this dust of shame…? … How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?”

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

How long? Not long, because “no lie can live forever.”

How long? Not long, because “you shall reap what you sow.” 

How long before the Good Wolf wins over the Evil Wolf? Not long, because “once to every man and nation comes the moment” to decide between Good and Evil. 

How long before wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Addis Ababa, Mekele, Adama, Gondar, Awassa, Jimma… is lifted from the dust of shame? Not long, “because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

How long before truth and right crushed to earth rise up again in Ethiopia? Not long, because truth and right will not remain forever on the scaffold nor wrong and falsehood nest forever on the throne! 

I have no greater honor than to stand up, speak up and defend my friends, brothers and sisters Eskinder Nega, Serkalem Fasil, Reeyot Alemu, Woubshet Taye, Temesgen Desalegn, Andualem Aragie and all political prisoners held in Meles Zenawi Prison! 

http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/2013/04/06/ethiopia_right_in_prison_wrong_on_the_throne

Ethiopia delays appeal of jailed blogger, opposition figure

Monday, April 08, 2013, 15:16 

 Addis Ababa: An Ethiopian court on Monday delayed again the appeal of blogger Eskinder Nega and opposition leader Andualem Arage, who were jailed last year for terror-related offences.

Eskinder and Andualem were among 24 people jailed in July 2012 on terror-related charges.

"The judges have requested further time to assess all the evidence and statements to make their decision," said Andualem's lawyer Debribew Temesgen.

Both men, who were present in court, are accused of having links to the outlawed opposition group Ginbot 7.

The ruling has been repeatedly delayed, with the next hearing due on May 02.

Eskinder was jailed for 18 years, while Andualem was sentenced to life.

Rights groups have called Ethiopia's anti-terrorism legislation vague and accuse the government of using the law to stifle peaceful dissent.

AFP

Ethiopia: Renaissance Re-Dedication

Ethiopians celebrated the second anniversary of its execution by reaffirming their promises to finish it. Right: Renowned athletes, musicians, and comedians participated in the different competitions organised to celebrate the event at the Yidnekachew Tessema Stadium.
The Construction work of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is actively going on
The second anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was colourfully celebrated at the Yidnekachew Tessema Stadium, on Ras Desta Dametew Street, last weekend, three days prior to the actual date. High ranking officials and invited guests were present making the ceremony more dignified.
The program was structured to generate excitement for spectators by running bizarre competitions, such as; races between athletes and their partners and a football match between musicians and comedians. These entertaining activities were, however, only distantly expressed sentiments; they were interspersed with vows and solemn promises to go as far as it takes to complete the construction of the Dam. The heart of the project was in progress hundreds of kilometres away, in Benshangul Regional State, in the western part of the country.
Over 5,000 men and women are sweating at the project site, round the clock, braving the scorching temperatures. Over 1,000 pieces of machinery have been deployed and are active there, digging and moving soil and rock.
Every single day counts, and adds to the work of the previous day. Two solid years have elapsed and an aggregate of 18pc of the project has been accomplished. This gives some indication as to how much work has yet to be done, in order to finalise the project.
For a country like Ethiopia, and its hard working people, there is nothing more important than freeing its people from the bondage of poverty and backwardness. These challenges have to be faced squarely. Thus, generating power from renewable energy sources is not only an environmentally-friendly undertaking to fight against poverty, but also a stepping stone towards prosperity.
At present, the country is engaged in the construction of renewable energy projects that would eventually generate a total of 155,000Mw. Its hydropower energy generation potential stands at 45,000Mw. From its water resources, Ethiopia hopes to knit eastern Africa together, electrically.
source: Ethiopians celebrated the second anniversary of its execution by reaffirming their promises to finish it. Right: Renowned athletes, musicians, and comedians participated in the different competitions organised to celebrate the event at the Yidnekachew Tessema Stadium. The Construction work of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is actively going on The second anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was colourfully celebrated at the Yidnekachew Tessema Stadium, on Ras Desta Dametew Street, last weekend, three days prior to the actual date. High ranking officials and invited guests were present making the ceremony more dignified. The program was structured to generate excitement for spectators by running bizarre competitions, such as; races between athletes and their partners and a football match between musicians and comedians. These entertaining activities were, however, only distantly expressed sentiments; they were interspersed with vows and solemn promises to go as far as it takes to complete the construction of the Dam. The heart of the project was in progress hundreds of kilometres away, in Benshangul Regional State, in the western part of the country. Over 5,000 men and women are sweating at the project site, round the clock, braving the scorching temperatures. Over 1,000 pieces of machinery have been deployed and are active there, digging and moving soil and rock. Every single day counts, and adds to the work of the previous day. Two solid years have elapsed and an aggregate of 18pc of the project has been accomplished. This gives some indication as to how much work has yet to be done, in order to finalise the project. For a country like Ethiopia, and its hard working people, there is nothing more important than freeing its people from the bondage of poverty and backwardness. These challenges have to be faced squarely. Thus, generating power from renewable energy sources is not only an environmentally-friendly undertaking to fight against poverty, but also a stepping stone towards prosperity. At present, the country is engaged in the construction of renewable energy projects that would eventually generate a total of 155,000Mw. Its hydropower energy generation potential stands at 45,000Mw. From its water resources, Ethiopia hopes to knit eastern Africa together, electrically.