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The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Vol. IXI No. 957| January 10, 2015 | ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
Flag carrier
enrages private
carriers
www.thereporterethiopia.com
Price 5.00 Birr
When the smoke clears
By Kaleyesus Bekele
Owners and managers of local private
airlines yesterday voiced their grave
concern over Ethiopian Airlines recent
initiative to launch a premium charter
flight services.
Following a news article run by The
Reporter about Ethiopian Airlines plan
to commence new premium passenger
charter flight services in Ethiopia and
abroad with light aircraft, local private
airlines wrote a letter to the Ethiopian
Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA)
requesting the authority to organize
an urgent stakeholders meeting.
Accepting the request ECAA called
representatives of Ethiopian Airlines,
Ethiopian Airports Enterprise, private
Flag carrier... page 40
Board demands
Blue apology
Blue says no
By Neamin Ashenafi
The National Electoral Board of
Ethiopia (NEBE) has demanded a
formal letter of apology from Semayawi
Party (Blue) due to the party’s activity
in the past mainly relating to its
walking out of two meetings that the
Board called to discuss election time
table and fund allocation to political
parties, in addition to its role as leader
of the newly established the nine parties
cooperation.
Board demands... page 40
K
enya has one of the most stringent laws when
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endangered group”. Prison terms of up to three years and
a ma[imum Àne of 86' , are set out as penalties
in the 7obacco Control $ct that came into effect in .
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Ethiopia recently issued a directive that seeks to control
the production and sale of tobacco, which when compared
to Kenya is lenient. 6mokers in Ethiopia will have to adapt
to the new law, which is expected to be enforced in three
months time, writes Mikias Sebsibe. 6EE )8// 6725<
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2| EDITORIAL
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Published weekly by Media &
Communications Center
Address: Bole Sub City,
Kebele 03, H. No. 2347
Tel: 011 6 616180 Editorial
011 6 616185 Reception
011 6 616187 Finance
Fax: 011 6 616189
PO Box:7023
0910 885206 Marketing
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
www.thereporterethiopia.com
General Manager
Amare Aregawi
Managing Editor
Bruh Yihunbelay
Editor-in-Chief
Asrat Seyoum
Sub city: N.lafto, K. 10/18, H.No. 614
Senior Editors
Yacob Wolde-Mariam
Dibaba Amensisa
Mikias Sebsibe
Editors
Kaleyesus Bekele
Yonas Abiye
Assistant Editor
Tibebeselassie Tigabu
Senior Reporters
Henok Reta
Neamin AshenaÀ
Columnist
Leyou Tameru
Chief Graphic Designer
Yibekal Getahun
Senior Graphic Designer
Tewodros Kebkab
Graphic Designers
Tsehay Tadesse
Fasika Balcha
Endale Solomon
Semenh Sisay
Netsanet Yacob
Bezaye Tewodros
Head of Photography
Nahom Tesfaye
Photographers
Tamrat Getachew
Mesfen Solomon
Website
Bezawit Tesfaye
Binyam Hailu
Cartoonist
Elias Areda
Fasil W/giorgis
Marketing Manager
Endalkachew Yimam
Marketing 2IÀcers
Biruk Mulugeta
Biruk Chernet
Computer Secretaries
Birtukan Abate, Helen Yetayew,
Print
Tesfaye Mengesha, Yeyesuswork
Mamo,Gezaghgn Mandefro
Looking to Ethiopian values for inspiration
Some of the values which are considered to be the hallmarks
of Ethiopian culture are our strong solidarity during both
good and bad times, our ability to value more the ties that
bind us together than those that set us apart, our celebration
of various religious and cultural holidays together and, above
all, our undying love for our country. The age-old custom
of settling disputes amicably through the offices of elders
is also a time-honored tradition that is shared by various
communities in the country.
The celebration, as one, of religious holidays by followers of
the Islamic and Christian faiths sets an example to the whole
world. Aside from holidays, the concern we show for each
other during weddings, mournings and other social occasions
is among the values we very much cherish as a people. Despite
differences in traditions, religious beliefs, political outlooks
and lifestyles we have managed to co-exist harmoniously to
this date. Though we are struggling under the burden of an
inexorable rise in the cost of living, though we are suffering
from human rights violations, though poverty is testing our
very survival, and though the lack of good governance is
increasingly making life an ordeal for us, we Ethiopians have
stuck it out and will continue to live in peace thanks to our
precious values.
In the past week the togetherness that has existed for
centuries was reflected in the society when Muslims and
Christians celebrated two holidays within a space of four
days. They not only partook in the other’s festivities, but also
exchanged good wishes and visited the other bearing gifts; in
short, they reaffirmed their solidarity and brotherliness. Such
a treasured value needs to be nurtured and strengthened.
Regardless of differences in political views, the ability of
Ethiopians to look out for and help each other has never been
questioned.
This said, the elite of the country are trying to exploit ethnic
and political differences to undermine these laudable values
of the society so as to foist their extremist views on the
Ethiopian public. Indisposed towards the fact that there is
unity within diversity and beauty within diversity, they are
intent on advancing their group interest alone at the expense
of others’ interests.
One of the major flaws that have characterized Ethiopian
politics over the past 40 years is the unwillingness to give
credit to time-tested values which are embodied in what is
known as Ethiopianness. This is primarily manifested in the
intolerance displayed towards and labeling those who express
differing views as enemies. A glance at history, however,
reveals that Ethiopians are well-known for treasuring unity
and patriotism than squabbling over their differences. While
ordinary citizens appreciate the fact that they are but citizens
of a country they love and root for each other, politicians
www.thereporterethiopia.com
prefer to tread the opposite path.
The group which ascends power wastes no time to intimidate,
imprison and kill its opponents in disregard of their
legitimate right to express views contrary to its manifesto.
Meanwhile, those aspiring to take the reins of power
threaten to “return the favor” should their wish come true.
Consequently, such aversion to accommodating differences
through dialogue perpetuates the enmity between both sides.
The country’s history over the past 40 years was marred by
blood-letting and hatred owing to our collective inability to
respect the precious values of the society. Indeed it’s sad to
see bad blood between politicians in a country where there
proliferate elderly persons held in high esteem. The situation
has been compounded by “elderlies” who add fuel to the fire
instead of using their moral authority to ease the tension and
help find an amicable solution. All in all, Ethiopia’s future
will not be rosy unless political actors embrace the virtuous
aspects of the society’s values.
Both left-leaning and right-leaning political parties have for
long said more than their fair share about how they alone
are capable of ensuring that the people of Ethiopia enjoy the
fruits of democracy. Therefore, we should ask ourselves as
a country why they have been found wanting when it comes
to delivering what they promised. Given that democracy is
a marketplace where diverse opinions can be exchanged,
no limit should be placed on freedom of expression. If the
conditions which allow the exercise of this right fully are put
in place, then it’s only natural that conflict, polarization and
use of force will give way to peace, unity and tolerance.
The tradition of co-existing in harmony, a value which
is prized by the Ethiopian society, is a veritable sign of
possession of wisdom. In spite of the trials and tribulations
they have undergone for centuries and continue to face at
the hands of their rulers and politicians to this date, and
despite the unrelenting effort of extremist elements bent on
undermining their long-established traditions by sowing the
seeds of conflict, Ethiopians have been wise enough not to lose
sight of the need for unity.
The values and traditions of the great people of Ethiopia need
to be respected by all Ethiopians alike, including politicians
and those who hang on their coattails. It is not in anybody’s
interest to entrench divisions and add fuel to fire. Making
use of the centuries-old values of the society will go a long
way towards putting back on course the badly-gone-awry
Ethiopian politics. So will placing the interest of the nation
and the public above that of political parties or certain
individuals. In short, it is high time that Ethiopian politicians
of all stripes looked for inspiration to the remarkable values of
the Ethiopian people in how they conduct themselves.
HEADLINES |3
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Parties
reject Board
deadline for
settling their
issues
Exporters’ Day
By Neamin Ashenafi
Photo By: Reporter/Mesfen Solomon
Leaders of two opposition parties,
the Unity for Democracy and Justice
(UDJ) and the All Ethiopian Unity
Party (AEUP), severely criticized the
National Electoral Board of Ethiopia
(NEBE) for placing a fixed deadline,
which extended for one week, to settle
their internal party differences and
disagreements, if they are to take part
in the upcoming election scheduled for
May 24.
The two parties have experienced
internal turmoil during past few
months mainly pertaining to party
leadership succession and power
struggle. The Board’s deadline expires
on January 12. And the parties have to
get their leadership elections in order
by then if they want to participate in the
election.
Chairperson of the Board with a rank
of minister, Merga Bekana (Prof.), told
journalists in his office on Tuesday,
that each of these parties have not
presented their nominees for the
upcoming general election due to the
disagreements that have been created
among the leaders.
Wonji-Shoa Sugar Factory boosts
production to ease shortage
Merga also said, “The parties have
selected their leaders without
convening a general assembly, which in
effect is a violation of their own bylaws
and the regulations of the Board.”
Wonji-Shoa Sugar Factory has started
producing with full capacity making
7221 quintals of sugar per day to curb
shortage of the sweetener that recently
gripped the nation.
“AEUP had held its general assembly
without a representative of the Board
present, as the party changed the date
of the assembly without proper notice.
Some of the leaders elected were not
even in the party and this is against the
parties’ bylaws,” the chairman added.
The factory has been undertaking
an expansion with an outlay of three
billion birr since 2011 in Wonji area;
110 km south east of the capital, in the
Oromia Regional State. The expansion
work was carried out by Uttam Group
of India after the Indian government
extended a USD 640 million loan for
three sugar factory projects including
two expansion projects at Fincha and
Wonji and a new factory in Tendaho, in
In this regard, the Board has thus
decided to fix a deadline for January
12, for the parties to come up with a
solution and in order to be able to take
part in the upcoming election.
INSIDE
Parties reject... page 38
orter,
The Rep
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The Wonji/Shoa crushes 6250 tons
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much needed sugar which was in a
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of sugar production during the rainy
season in the three existing sugar
factories – Wonji/Shoa, Metehara and
Fincha – as well as delay in Tendaho
Sugar project which was expected to
enter production in May last year.
T
20| IN
According to him 85,574 quintals
of sugar is already stored in the
warehouse waiting to be picked up for
distribution.
A similar scenario was witnessed at
Wonji-Shoa Sugar... page 38
2015
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ay, Jan
No.
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Shoa Factory officials said part of the
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Picture above are Bereket Simon, advisor of the PM and the board chairman of CBE accompanied by Bekalu Zeleke,
president of CBE, while awarding Addis Alemayehu, managing director of 251Communications who represents the leading
money transfer agent, Western Union. Western Union along with Midroc Gold, received the special award for fetching the
nation some USD 450 million in remittance last year. The Exporters’ Day was marked in the presence of senior government
officials and top business people.
S
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) hosted a gala dinner at the Sheraton Addis on Thursday to award its prominent
customers engaged in the export sector.
4| HEADLINES
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Gov’t downplays urban
lease price concerns
By Yonas Abiye
Amid growing critique towards the
government for exuberant urban land
lease prices in Addis Ababa, Mekuria
Haile, Minister of Urban Development,
Housing and Construction (MoUDHC),
downplayed concerns saying that
it is in no way linked to the current
macroeconomic condition of the
country and the health of the economy.
However, responding for questions
from PMs, Mekuria assured the
lawmakers that recent high prices
has no macroeconomic implication
whatsoever. The Minister defended that
the incident is just a happening in a free
market and that it has no relationship
Ð
The Ministry of Mines announced
that it has stopped issuing mineral
exploration licenses in the South
Western part of the country, a region
known for different mineral deposits.
Local and foreign mining companies
expressed their discontent over the
large concession held by the Chinese
and Ethiopian geological survey
institutes for the joint geological study.
Based on a bilateral agreement signed
by the governments of China and
Ethiopia the Ethiopian and China
geological survey institutes are
undertaking a joint geological study
in the South Western part of Ethiopia
since 2012. The South Western part
of Ethiopia is known for different
mineral resources including gold. The
concession includes tens of thousands
of sqkm of land in South Western parts
of Ethiopia. The geological surveys are
trying to identify the mineral resources
of the concession area. Chinese and
Ministry suspends... page 39
Japan-funded geothermal project
hobbled by shortage of water
While presenting a five-month
performance report of his ministry,
Mekuria told MPs, “As Addis Ababa
is already undergoing re-development
process, the city would provide
sufficient amount of land that can fully
meet the demands of any investor and/
or any individual”.
It also drew fierce criticism for the
government for playing its part in
the ever soaring urban land price
in the capital. Some even accuse the
government of purposely limiting the
supply of land that results in fueling the
price.
By Kaleyesus Bekele
In a public notice issued last week, the
Ministry of Mines, Mineral Licensing
and Administration Directorate,
announced that it has suspended
issuing mineral exploration licenses
in South West part of the country
as this area is reserved for a joint
geological study being undertaken by
the Ethiopian and Chinese geological
survey institutes. The directorate
revealed that it will not accept
applications from companies requesting
exploration areas in this part of the
country for unspecific period of time.
The minister, who appeared before
parliament on Tuesday, said that the
recent lease prices, which are recored
to be as high as 305,000 birr per sqm, is
for sure unusual but will not concern
the government since it will go back to
being normal very soon.
Following last month’s auction that
saw a plot in Merkato area priced over
300,000 birr, analysts are arguing that
this price offered for a total of 449 sqm
of land may well be the most expensive
land-lease price in the world.
Ministry suspends issuing exploration
licenses in mineral rich areas
By Birhanu Fikade
Mekuria Haile
with the core economic process.
“Usually, in Addis Ababa, several
thousand plots are offered for auction
at a time. Out of these, thousands of
plots, only one plot was provided for
auction recently, which has managed to
fetch 305,000 birr per square meter. This
cannot be a reflection of the existing
economy” he explained.
“It is this particular plot of land that
has become such an unprecedented
phenomena,” Mekuria added.
“May be, the individuals who leased
that particular plot, have their own
economic analyses. Therefore, there
is no any other explanation other than
accepting it as it is the principle of free
Gov’t downplays... page 38
One of the projects funded by the
Japanese government in Ethiopia,
the newly-initiated Alto Langano
geothermal power plant, is said to be
delayed due to shortage of water supply
that is essential in an initial test drilling
work.
The Alto Langano geothermal project,
which is being undertaken near Lake
Langano is expected to generate some
70 MW electric power for the country.
The project was set to be finalized and
start power generation by the end of
2018. According to Jin Kimyaki, Chief
Representative of Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) for
Ethiopia, however, the project is facing
some challenges that are hindering
its progress. One of the challenges he
mentioned was the availability of water
for the first phase drilling activity.
At a press conference held on Thursday
at his office located off Ethio-Chinese
road, in Wollosefer, Kimyaki said that
the project had planned to conduct as
many test drillings as possible before
commencing with actual construction of
the power plant.
So far, Japanese experts, in
collaboration with the Ethiopian
Geological Survey and the Ethiopian
Electric Power, have manged to drill
some 2,000 meters, Kimyaki told
journalists. However, if it was not
for shortage of water that is required
while operating the drilling equipment,
the drilling activity was scheduled to
continue during the coming month,
Kimyaki said. The whole drilling tasks,
according to the chief representative,
will be finalized in the coming two
years’ time.
But it is also the case that Tokyo has not
yet been able to embark on the funds
Japan-funded... page 39
NEWS IN BRIEF
Vitol Bahrain to supply diesel, benzene
to Ethiopia
Ethiopia marks 365 days without
reported cases of Polio
Vitol Bahrain, part of the Vitol Group a multinational energy trading
company, will supply 30 percent of Ethiopia’s import of diesel and
benzene starting from this month, the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply
Enterprise (EPSE) announced.
Since 5 January 2014 no new cases of wild polio virus have been reported
from the Somali region of Ethiopia, where the last case of polio in the
country was reported, according to the World Health Organization
(WHO).
The contract has given to the company that won the bid for the
importation of the products for the coming year, Demelash Alemu,
Adviser to the CEO of the Enterprise, said.
Pierre M’Pele-Kilebou (PhD), WHO Representative to Ethiopia, and Dr
Omar Mohammed Farah, head of Somali Regional State Health Bureau,
visited Wardher town in Doollo Zone, Somali region, on 5 January 2015
to congratulate the Zonal Administration and WHO/UNICEF Operations
Base staff for their persistent efforts to ensure that every last child gets
vaccinated against this paralyzing disease.
The fall in the price of oil globally benefited Ethiopia. The nation has
managed to save more than 103 USD because of the price decline over the
past six months, Demelash said.
The nation saved this amount of money in spite of the increase in the
consumption of oil nationally by 8 percent compared to the previous year,
the adviser added.
Ethiopia could still stand to gain from the continued tumble in the price
of oil with the nation expecting to save another USD 600 million.
Ethiopia imports 70 percent of diesel, kerosene for airplanes and benzene
from Kuwait, while light and heavy diesel oil for industries are imported
from Saudi Arabia. (ENA)
The high level delegation acknowledged the excellent collaboration with
the Polio Partners Group in Ethiopia to kick polio out of the country and
the Horn of Africa. Until August 2013, when the first case of wild polio
virus was confirmed from the Somali region, Ethiopia had been polio-free
since 2008.
Ethiopia’s fast and aggressive response together with immunization
partners helped to halt the spread of the disease, but intensified efforts
must continue as the virus continues to circulate in neighboring Somalia.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
HEADLINES |5
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Etur Textile to start export to Unregulated raw hide, skin
Europe, US
market irate traders
By Henok Reta
The Turkish textile manufacturer, Etur
Textile has announced on Monday that
it would start exporting its products to
markets in Europe and America having
conducted successful trial exports to
Algeria and Morocco.
According to Adil Basoglu, board
member and executive director of
Etur, the factory has fully embarked on
production and it will soon start export
into the larger overseas markets.
Etur Textile, one of the largest textile
factories operating in Ethiopia, is
located in Wonji road, six km from
Adama town in the south east of the
capital Addis Ababa.
According to the executive director,
the textile factory aims at becoming the
biggest exporter in the country.
“We have moved here to become more
productive and help out the countries
vision in the sector,” Basoglu said.
Turkish, Chinese and Indians are
major contributors for the textile and
garment export which has reportedly
grown by 28 percent year on year
during the previous fiscal year (20122013). Under the five years Growth and
Transformation Plan, currently on its
final year, Ethiopia aims to earn USD
one billion from the textile industry But
the country is still far from achieving
the target mainly plagued by shortage of
raw material such as cotton.
In the last five months of 2014, Ethiopia
imported more than 3,000 tons of cotton
to meet the demand of domestic textile
industry as a short-term measure,
Textiles Industry Development Institute
(TIDI) said this week.
By Yonas Abiye
Despite the revised Raw Hide and Skin
Marketing Proclamation – enacted by
the House of Peoples’ Representatives
in 2013 – the conventional marketing in
Addis Ababa remains unregulated and
is conducted in a disorganized manner.
According to the revised proclamation,
any person, other than the producer
participating in first level marketing
of raw hide and skin shall have a
valid business license to engage in the
business of raw hide and skin.
The raw hide and skin market
Ready to rail
Currently there are 110 textile
companies in Ethiopia of which
Photo By: Reporter /Tamrat Getachew
Basoglu said high turnover of
employees is forcing the company to
bring in untrained labor which is only
aggravating work-related accidents
inside the main production units.
“We have no clear response for that
since we know we are paying them
relatively higher salary,” Basoglu
says. In addition to this Basoglu also
told journalists visiting the company
that dust blowing up from the gravel
road by adjacent to the factory is set up
has also been affecting business in the
production unit. “We have told the city
administration so many times but no
quick response yet,” Basoglu said.
The underground railway tunnel located near St. George Church is
considered to be a milestone engineering achievement in the history of Addis
Ababa. This is part of the Light Railway Transit (LRT) project which is
expected to start operations in a few months time.
Al-Shabaab lost 80% of the areas
under their control – AU
“The government has repeatedly
promised to regulate the market
by controlling those traders with
no license. However, they [the nonlicensed traders] are still conducting
the business while we are trying
to penetrate the market in a legal
manner,” a businesswoman, who
requested anonymity, told The Reporter.
Others also expressed their discontent
saying that that illegal traders are
affecting them by setting unnecessary
price for raw hide and skin.
Hiring more than 800 employees, the
factory has stepped up its production to
start export in full capacity. However,
employees complain of meager wages,
a portion of which is deducted for the
recruiting agency but the company
denies.
“We have no clear response for that
since we know we are paying them
relatively higher salary,” Basoglu said.
during the just-passed holiday season
witnessed lack of supervision and the
involvement of some “brokers and
non-licensed traders”. Raw hide and
skin traders at the Shola market in
Addis Ababa told The Reporter that
the involvement of “brokers and nonlicensed traders” is something that that
government needs to control.
On Christmas day, sheep skin was
sold for an average of 50 birr while
it was sold for 60 birr a few days ago
during Maulid (the Birth of the Prophet
Mohammed). Similarly, goat skin was
sold for 25 birr while ox skin was sold
for 5 birr per kilogram; however, the
price of goat and ox skins showed no
difference from the selling price during
Maulid day. The licensed traders bought
sheep skin for 50 birr while the “nonlicensed” traders bought it for for 50 to
60 birr. This is one of the rancors raised
by the licensed traders.
In addition to this, The Reporter
witnessed mishandling of the products,
which is also one of the obligations
penned in the proclamation.
Similarly, the revised proclamation
prohibits the selling and buying of raw
hide and skin outside designated areas
and should be conducted under the
supervision of the enforcing body; the
Ministry of Trade.
Unregulated... page 39
Turkish president to visit Ethiopia in
Africa tour this month
The Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab has lost ground in 80
percent of the areas it used to control in Somalia, African Union (AU) envoy
said.
AU Special Representative to Somalia and head of AMISOM, Ambassador
Maman Sidikou said this at a press conference held in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
Shedding light on the security situation of Somalia and the achievements
of African Union peacekeeping troops, the ambassador said Al-Shabaab
lost control of over 80 percent of the areas under their control through joint
military operations by AU troops and government forces.
The ambassador stated that Al-Shabaab shifted their strength and capability
to the rich agricultural areas of Lower Juba region controlled by the Interim
Juba Administration.
Sidikou has not specified the exact date when the military operations
against Al-Shabaab will be launched, but said there are ongoing
negotiations and consultations on the issue.
The ambassador has been in Addis Ababa the last few days to discuss issues
with the regional leaders related to the operations against Al-Shabaab that
are expected to begin in few weeks time.(WIC)
Turkish President Reep Tayyip Erdogan will go on his first overseas trip of
2015 to the African continent. World Bulletin reported citing information
from the Presidency sources that Erdogans’ first round trip, which will be in
January, will include Ethiopia, Tanzania and Somalia.
Turkish investors with over 3 billion USD capital are engaged in various
sectors in Ethiopia, the country’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Osman R. Yavuzalp,
disclosed.
This makes Turkish business persons the leading foreign investor in Ethiopia
in terms of capital volume. According to the ambassador, the trade exchange
between the two countries had jumped over 400 million USD.
Ethiopia imports machinery, metals, plastic products, drugs and factory
products while exporting oilseeds, fruits and vegetables, cereals and textile.
The two countries would work together in climate change, fighting terrorism
and other international issues, Ambassador Yavuzalp said.
Erdogan will go to four separate tours and will visit a total of 12 countries in
Africa. As the prime minister, Erdogan visited Somalia in 2011 and he will go
there as the president this time.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
6| IN-DEPTH
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
1ational Tobacco Enterprise has enjoyed a
continued rise in proÀts averaging above ten
percent each year. In 20, the enterprise
generated . million birr in proÀt before
tax, representing a growth of percent
compared to that of the previous year.
The irony in the government’s bid to control the
use of tobacco lies in the fact that some 0 percent
of the market share of the tobacco industry is
owned by the state itself.
Ð
When the smoke clears: new
tobacco directive
In a January 2013 interview with
Tobacco Journal International, a leading
publication on tobacco, Gizachew Hagos,
managing director of National Tobacco
Enterprise (NTE), said he does not
anticipate any significant policy changes
affecting tobacco products in Ethiopia
following the death of the then Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi. Prior to that, the
late premier sent back a regulation which
sought to control the use of tobacco for
revision.
The House of Peoples’
Representatives
recently ratiÀed
the Framework
Convention on
Tobacco Control.
The convention is
one of the quickly
ratiÀed treaties in
the history of the
United 1ations.
1ow the Ethiopian
regulatory authority
is mandated to
undertake “all
acts necessary”
to implement the
convention, writes
Mikias Sebsibe.
His replacement, Prime Minister
Hailemariam Desalegn, however, acted
swiftly in pushing the ratification of the
World Health Organization’s Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
in January 2014, a decade after Ethiopia
signed the convention. The convention
was ratified by parliament in January
2014 earning the House an award from
the World Health Organization (WHO).
FCTC entered into force in February 2005
and is one of the most quickly ratified
treaties in the United Nations history.
There are 180 states as parties to the FCTC
with Zimbabwe being the latest to join on
December 4, 2014.
Ethiopia is perceived as a country where
cigarette smoking rate is one of the lowest
in the world. Out of a population of 90
million, some 2.4 million people smoke
cigarettes. Although available data is
sketchy, most recent figures show that
annual cigarette per capita consumption
(number of cigarettes smoked per adult
per year) stands at 62 pieces – roughly one
cigarette a week. In comparison, per capita
consumption in Djibouti is 309 and more
than 2,800 in Serbia.
However, the picture is quickly changing
with a growing number of smokers
particularly among the youth. Forecasts
indicate a substantial rise in the coming
decade.
As smoking of tobacco continues to decline
in higher income countries, global tobacco
companies have shifted their attention to
low income regions of the world where
cigarette smoking is on the rise. Africa
is quickly becoming a frontier market
for tobacco companies. However, more
and more countries in the continent are
also introducing measures to control the
production and distribution of tobacco.
In 2014 alone, a dozen African countries,
including Ethiopia, have done just that.
which is expected to enter into force in the
next three months.
Banned
Tobacco
advertisements,
promotions and
sponsorships
Smoking in public
places
Use of any
additives to give
the tobacco Áavors
that would make it
palatable
Import of
electronic
cigarettes
Use of trademarks
as well as
depictions such
as ‘light’, ‘ultralight’ or ‘mild’
Selling to under
the age of Selling cigarette
in singles
2penly display
cigarettes
Following Ethiopia’s ratification of the
FCTC, the Ethiopian Food, Medicine and
Health Care Administration and Control
Authority (EFMHACA) was mandated
to undertake “all acts necessary” to
implement the convention. Pursuant to
that, the authority has drafted a directive
www.thereporterethiopia.com
“Tobacco is a growing public health
concern in Ethiopia which requires early
intervention,” Dereje Moges, health law
advisor at EFMHACA and one of the
drafters of the directive, told The Reporter.
The directive prohibits indoor smoking
in public places such as hotels, bars,
nightclubs, cinemas, tourist sites, work
places, elevators, stairs, restrooms,
factories, airports, bus and train stations.
In these places smoking is allowed in areas
specifically designated for such purpose.
Designated areas must have their own
ventilation and should be quarantined.
However, there is no obligation on the
part of owners of such places to designate
smoking areas. There is also a complete
ban on smoking in schools, hospitals,
children’s playgrounds, stadiums, youth
centers and in public transportations.
The directive also puts a comprehensive
ban on tobacco advertisements,
promotions and sponsorships. Companies
would also be required to have a special
permit to produce or import tobacco. The
directive forbids the use of any additives to
give the tobacco flavors that would make it
palatable. This could spell an effective ban
on the use of shisha tobacco which, almost
in all cases, is prepared using a variety of
flavors. Although there has been no law
that bans the use of shisha, authorities
have been confiscating properties and
shutting down businesses that offer the
service in the past. The new directive
could give the measure a legal backing that
was absent in the past.
The law also bans the import of electronic
cigarettes regardless of the fact that it
contains nicotine or not. Importers were
expressing interest and approaching
EFMHACA to import such products but
there has been no license issued, The
Reporter has learnt.
Manufacturers will also be required
to print health warnings with a
corresponding image on tobacco packets
covering 30 percent of the packet’s cover
front face. The law also bans use of
trademarks as well as depictions such
as ‘light’, ‘ultra-light’ or ‘mild’. The
packaging and labeling section of the
directive is suspended for six months for
manufacturers to sell out.
Industry in the dark
The irony in the government’s bid to
control the use of tobacco lies in the
fact that some 60 percent of the market
share of the tobacco industry is owned
by the state itself. The National Tobacco
Enterprise (NTE) has a monopoly on all
IN-DEPTH |7
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Failure to observe the law entails Ànes and other
administrative measures including suspension of
business license in grave cases against establishments.
But the law does not prescribe penalties on smokers
found in violation of the directive.
the manufacturing and importing of
tobacco products in the country, as
well as owning the only four tobacco
farms. NTE is 78 per cent owned by the
government and 22 per cent by a Yemeni
company called Sheba Investment Plc.
However, Sheba is expected to up its
share to 60 percent after sealing a deal
of 1.25 billion birr in June 2014.
The enterprise, that had not anticipated
policy changes affecting the tobacco
industry, was kept in the dark during
the entire drafting process of the new
directive.
“It will be difficult to comment on
the new directive and its impact on
the tobacco industry as we were not
consulted at any stage of the drafting
process,” Ayele Alebel, public relations
head at NTE, told The Reporter. He only
had a first look at the directive when
approached by The Reporter.
Dereje says the convention Ethiopia
ratified requires states to protect the
involvement of tobacco companies in
the formulation of their public health
policies.
Indeed, the convention obliges parties
to the treaty to protect the setting and
implementation of their public health
policies with respect to tobacco control
“from commercial and other vested
interests of the tobacco industry.”
Yet, those in the business of tobacco
industry insist the new directive will
have little impact on their industry.
“People in this country rarely smoke
cigarettes in many of the public places
now banned even before this directive,”
an official at NTE said on condition of
anonymity. “Instead of discouraging
smokers, this directive might, in fact,
promote illicit commercial activity,” he
added.
In collaboration with the Ethiopian
Revenues Customs Authority (ERCA),
NTE has been fighting to tackle
contraband business. It is estimated
that the contraband tobacco business
serves at least 40 percent of the market.
Despite the challenges, NTE has enjoyed
a continued rise in profits averaging
above ten percent each year. In 2013,
the enterprise generated 319.5 million
birr in profit before tax, representing
a growth of 14 percent compared to
that of the previous year. Aside from
the revenue it generates as a major
shareholder of NTE, the government
has also pocketed 730 million birr in
taxes from the enterprise in 2012, 23
million birr more than the previous
year.
The law could spell an effective ban on the use
of shisha tobacco which, almost in all cases, is
prepared using a variety of Áavors. Although
there has been no law that bans the use of shisha,
authorities have been conÀscating property.
of Ethiopia. The machine is expected
to boost cigarette production by fifty
percent.
“This company has been in the business
for the past 70 years but the number of
smokers in the country is still very low.
This is mainly because the business has
been under government monopoly,”
the anonymous official said. “We will
continue to conduct our business
responsibly,” he added.
The enterprise produces four brands
including Nyala, Delight, Eleni and
Gissila and plans to add another brand
during its strategic plan period. It
also imports Marlboro and Rothman
cigarettes.
Ban on singles
The majority of cigarette sales in
Ethiopia are in singles, according to
the NTE. When the tobacco control
directive enters into force, such
transactions will be banned. Buyers will
be required to purchase cigarettes in
packs containing at least 20 pieces.
Under its strategic plan (2013 - 2017),
NTE has more aggressive goals
including increasing profit before tax
by 115.6 percent and set up more tobacco
farms and expanding its market share
to 80 percent producing 6.5 billion sticks
of cigarettes from the current four
billion.
“It is mostly very young kids who
buy cigarettes in singles,” Mesfin
Mahmoud, a shoe shine and street
vendor, told The Reporter. He welcomes
the government’s move to control
tobacco and says he would happily help
in enforcing it because of his ‘Christian
values’.
To achieve these targets, NTE last
year acquired a new 140 million birr
machine after securing loans from
the state-owned Development Bank
“I try to advise people to quit smoking
whenever they ask for cigarettes. But
they reply why I am selling it if I believe
smoking is bad,” Mesfin says. “If it
www.thereporterethiopia.com
wasn’t for my partner I would not be
selling cigarettes,” Mesfin, who started
street vending business with his friend
two years ago, said. Cigarettes are one
of the most in-demand items among the
small stock of socks, sandals, matches,
gums and biscuits on Mesfin’s display.
The directive bans vendors like Mesfin
from openly displaying cigarettes or
selling tobacco for children under the
age of 18. When in doubt, retailers may
require identification cards to ascertain
ages, the law states.
Yosef Fisseha (name changed), 23,
started smoking when he was 17. He
says he and his friends started smoking
when they were a high school student.
“Smoking was considered as something
cool,” Yosef, who buys cigarettes in
packs but smokes three cigarettes a day,
told The Reporter.
“The law will not have an impact on my
smoking habits but I see its importance
from the point of view of protecting
non-smokers and discouraging new
starters,” Yosef says.
Yosef has been smoking for the past
six years, despite health scares in the
past which led him to quit smoking
temporarily; he does not anticipate he
would stop smoking.
“I might cut back but I do not intend to
stop,” he told The Reporter.
Health risks associated with smoking
When the smoke... page 38
8|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
www.thereporterethiopia.com
|9
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
INVITATION FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST(EOI)
FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL AND CHILD FRIENDLY
SPACES CONSTRUCTION IN GAMBELA REGION
TO REGISTER FOR REVIEW AND PREQUALIFICATION AS POTENTIAL CONTRACTORS
TO UNICEF IN ETHIOPIA
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) intends to construct primary
school(s) and child friendly spaces in Gambela region refugee camps and
hosting communities located in Lare and Itang weredas with selected ‘preTuali¿ed’ General/Building Contractor(s) of Grade-5 and above who will be
invited to submit Offers for building construction contracts.
To respond to this EOI, all interested General/Building contractors are
requested to submit by email a Letter in English expressing their interest for
registration and evaluation. Interested General/Building contractors of
Grade-5 and above will be required to submit a detailed Questionnaire
form ¿lled for pre-quali¿cation review. The Questionnaires for construction
contractor can be obtained by directly contacting Mr. Sebastian Muzuma
on [email protected] and/or Mr. Yonas Mindaye on yonasmind@yahoo.
com. All requests for EOI must be submitted with full Contractor’s name and
contact addresses.
The contractors will be assessed and quali¿ed for registration based on the
completeness of submission of valid documents for the criteria required as
listed below and in the Questionnaires:
- Construction Experiences & References (include details of
similar projects, value of completed work, etc)
- Individual assessment (include ¿nancial statusreview)
- Staff Quali¿cation and Experience (include resumes of ke\
personnel)
- Organizational Structure
- Resources
- Standard Strateg\ and MetKodolog\
- Qualit\ Control Program
- Safet\ Polic\ Statement Record
- MemEersKip Af¿liation
Well-established companies with excellent construction capacities and
experience with reputable clients are encouraged to register as potential
construction contractors.
A limited number of contractors will be short-listed for evaluation. Contractors
witK positive evaluations will Ee invited to participate in Construction
Bid. Other contractors, depending upon the desk assessment, will also be
retained for inclusion in appropriate and relative tenders.
UNICEF fully reserves the right to accept or reject registration.
Filled Questionnaires and supporting documents must be submitted in both
hard copy and soft copy no later than 16tK -anuar\ 1 at p.m.
Soft copy submission can be by e-mail copy as MS Word and P'F ¿les to
Mr. Sebastian Muzuma on [email protected] and/or Mr. Yonas Mindaye
on [email protected].
Hard copy submission of questionnaires and supporting documents can be
submitted in any of the two locations provided below:
(1) UNICEF, ICC Ware House, Debrezeit Road, Lancia. In front of
Concord Hotel, next to Action Aid, approximately 300 meters from
main road. You may call phone No +251 114660848 for directions.
Or
(2) UNECA Compound, NOF Building #20, UNICEF Ethiopia, Supply
Section, 2nd Àoor, east wing.
The UNECA security rules requires 36 hours ‘advance notice’ to be
given by visitor, therefore please notify the Supply Section by email:
[email protected] providing the full name of the
person who will be submitting the EOI and proposed date of arrival.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
10|| COMMENTARY
By Tadesse Kassa Woldetsadik (PhD)
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Conveying a wrong signal on the
limits of sovereign entitlements?
Only last week, in an interview with the
Al Ahram Online - Egypt’s celebrated
media outlet recognized for its affinity
to the state apparatus - President
Abdel Fattah El Sisi dumbfounded
those who follow the diplomatic and
legal discourse on the Nile that he will
request Ethiopia ‘to turn the … verbal
assurances that the dam won’t affect
Egypt’s Nile share into a document
binding on both parties’.
If by anything else, it would appear
that President El Sisi’s audacious
move to petition for a written
guarantee of non-interference with
Egypt’s ‘allocated waters’ under the
1929/1959 agreements may have been
prompted by the specific melody of the
diplomatic language which Ethiopia’s
officials have themselves employed
in the recent past in defense of noble
intentions of the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam (GERD) itself. In the
preceding two years, the mainstream
media and official pronouncements
have repeatedly endeavored to assuage
downstream fears by employing a
particular language that the GERD
‘means no injury’ to downstream
interests and that it is intended solely
for the ‘generation of electric powers’.
Such overplayed diplomatic oratory
with regard to the ‘dam’s operation not
causing adverse effects’ would seem
to have created an impression, both in
Egypt and Sudan, that Ethiopia’s ‘right’
of use over the Nile is in fact restricted
only to power-related benefits which it
anticipates to derive from the GERD.
Yet, Ethiopia’s declarations, however
imperfect, could by no means be
construed as conceding that its
sovereign interest on the Nile is limited
to hydropower production. Nor could
they be viewed as an acknowledgement
of Egypt’s ‘historical rights’ or ‘water
shares’ allotted under the old legal
arrangements.
True, against the background of a
lop-sided riverine developmental
setting, no other state had grappled
against the British, and later, Egyptian
and Sudanese states for control of
the Nile as robustly and consistently
as Ethiopia – both in diplomatic and
legal discourses. This is particularly
evident in the country’s diplomatic
offensives hurled during the imperial
eras and demonstrated since the mid
1990’s through its ‘starring role’ in
initiating and marshalling cooperative
enterprises within the framework of the
‘Transitional Institutional Mechanism
of the Nile Basin Initiative’ and the
‘Agreement on the Nile River Basin
Cooperative Framework’.
In all instances, Ethiopia has
endeavored to safeguard its rights
of use of the Nile waters based on
principles accepted under international
watercourses law, and most notably,
norms that highlight equity in the
development of transboundary rivers.
Such principle guarantees Ethiopia’s
rights of utilization in various contexts
and without distinction - whether it
chooses to pursue irrigational schemes
and hydropower developments or
aspires to fulfill the domestic or
industrial water requirements of its
population. The project for construction
of the GERD, the greatest engineering
feat in Africa and one of the biggest
hydropower infrastructures in the
world, is conceived in such context and
has been implemented since 2011.
We recall that on 28 May 2013, i.e. on
the second anniversary of launch of
the dam construction by the late Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia
started diverting the Blue Nile River’s
course along a different route, an
engineering procedure required to
provide way for physical construction
of the GERD on the bed of the river.
However, in unpleasant turn of
events, the immediate aftermath of
this engineering accomplishment saw
President Mohamed Morsi convening
party leaders where he declared that
‘his country is ready to confront
any threat that would endanger the
Conveying a wrong... page 31
VIEWPOINT
Human trafficking or human slavery
By Neftalem Fikre Hailemeskel
Right now as I am writing this article
any person can buy an Ethiopian
woman as property for as little as USD
2000 in Yemen. Once they purchase the
women and her children, she will be a
property and as such; she can be traded
and exchanged; and if/when she dies,
she will be cut opened and her kidney
sold to the highest bidder. If she was
purchased with her children, they will
be raised, so they can work on the field
and used; once of age, they will share
their mother’s fate.
Every day we hear about the “migrants”
who returned from Saudi Arabia;
ranging from, 100,000, 150,000, 250,000,
270,00 etc… and every day is the same
story of how people were shocked
they were so many “illegal” Ethiopian
migrants in the Middle East. As they
have returned, with so many stories of
horror and injustices inflected upon
them, everyone is running around to
get rid of the blame off themselves;
while shamelessly trying to be humble
about the mistakes that took place.
We hear statements of “we could
have acted earlier but things are okay
now” or “mistakes were made but we
have learned from them”. These same
comments are made by our government,
opposition parties, civil society and the
international community; yet few are
held accountable. The issue at hand
seems to be if this is simply an issue of
labor migration gone wrong or if it is
more sinister; the unresolved issue of
human slavery in modern day Ethiopia
contributing to human trafficking.
The Government of Ethiopia
On October 31, 2014; a lively radio
program was held discussing the
issue of returnees from Saudi Arabia.
Government officials gave their account
of the programs setup to support the
returnees; ranging from reintegrating
them back home with livelihood
projects to awareness programs about
the danger of illegal or/and irregular
migrants. Callers spoke about the
limitation of these programs and the
need to do more about information
on lifting the ban to the Middle East,
reintegrating livelihood programs and
illegal brokers.
However, the magnitude of the problem
was not dealt with sufficiently.
Questions of how many persons
returned, why they were so many
deaths and what can be learned from
establishing better services in the host
countries in the Middle East by the
Ethiopian government (such as safe
houses) was not discussed suitably.
Moreover, the progress in the bi-lateral
agreements between Ethiopia and the
host countries was not discussed: how
www.thereporterethiopia.com
many are in the committee, issues
of the anti- human trafficking force
were not discussed. Additionally
areas of what should people do if they
suspect human trafficking taking
place in their neighborhood (such as
anonymous phone calls), what is the
rate of corruption within government
and private businessmen dealing with
illegal migration were not properly
addressed. Why there has not been
faster closures of illegal brokers and
why there has not been successful in
doing so was not elaborated. Issues of
lack of funding to the police force were
not addressed.
Areas such as curbing illegal migration
by looking at family pressure, push
and pull factors, employment, women
rights (in areas of employment rights,
sexual harassment, equal pay, sexuality
and early marriage) was not addressed.
The laws in place now are reactionary
in nature rather than preemptive.
Blaming the victim has become a norm.
Statements such as, “The burden of
responsibility lies with the migrant,
the migrant doesn’t understand the
hardship that awaits them when they
reach Middle East, they are greedy for
more money for easy work, and they
have unrealistic expectation when work
Human traf¿cking... page 32
|11
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
ƯǩąňøĒňƑğƲ
Re-announcement
Call for Consultancy for the
Preparation of Standard Operating Procedures/training
materials
Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) Ethiopia carries out a wide range of programs to support the
Ministry of Health of Ethiopia in improving the health status of the country by ensuring access and
quality of health services. CHAI Ethiopia has seven programs: The Ethiopian Hospital Management
Initiative (EHMI), Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH), Access to Medicine, Lab Services,
Vaccines Introduction, Nutrition, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Global Health Financing.
CHAI Ethiopia seeks consultant/consultancy ¿rm to undertake the task of developing two Standard
Operating Procedure (SOP) Manuals/training materials forPharmaceuticals Fund and Supply
Agency(PFSA) on procurement process, custom clearance procedures, international payment
modalities, negotiation and sourcing, supplier performance evaluation. The consultants are expected
to work closely in consultation with CHAI Ethiopia MNH team and PFSA to achieve the desired
outcome of this consultancy service. Consultants are highly encouraged and also requested to
express their willingness to provide training after the materials preparation.
Proposal Submission:Interested and eligible consultants or local consulting ¿rms are invited to
apply. The consultant/consultancy can collect TOR to the address given below, is/are requested to
provide the following information:
1. Educational and work background (for individuals) and pro¿le (for ¿rms/companies)
2. Views and approach for undertaking this assignment and the draft content of the SOPs
3. Relevance of candidate/¿rm’s work experience in delivering the required service
4. Proposal must be delivered to the address below at or before 2:00 PM, January 20, 2015.
Late submission will be rejected
5. Bidders should submit Technical and Financial proposals
6. Bids must be delivered to the address below:
Address: Clinton Health Access Initiative
Bid Document for IFB # CHAI/MNH/06/2014
Meskel Flower Road
Tel # 011 416 6993-98
Fax: 011 416 6988 and
P.O. Box 3297, Code 1250,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
CDue to the nature of the bid, there will be no public opening for this bid. CHAI reserves the right to
accept or reject part or all bids. The ¿nal date for proposal submission is January 20/2015
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www.thereporterethiopia.com
12| OPINION
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
The state of global poverty
By Kaushik Basu
The economic geography of the world
is changing. The eurozone faces the
specter of another round of stagnation;
Japan has slipped into recession; and
the United States, despite relatively
strong performance in the latter part of
the year, has raised concerns worldwide
with its exit from quantitative easing.
Meanwhile, emerging economies have
continued to perform well. India and
Indonesia are growing at more than 5
percent per year; Malaysia at 6 percent;
and China by more than 7 percent.
The scale of the global change can be
seen when purchasing power parity
(PPP) – a measure of the total amount
of goods and services that a dollar can
buy in each country – is taken into
account. According to the figures for
2011, released earlier this year, India is
now the world’s third largest economy
in terms of PPP-adjusted GDP, ahead
of Germany and Japan. The data also
revealed that China would overtake
the US as the world’s largest economy
in PPP terms sometime this year – a
shift that, according to our estimates,
occurred on October 10th.
Despite this progress, a large proportion
of people in developing countries
remain desperately poor. Globally,
the poverty line is defined as a daily
income of USD 1.25, adjusted for PPP – a
line that many criticize as shockingly
low. But what is truly shocking is that
nearly one billion people – including
more than 80 percent of the populations
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of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Madagascar, Liberia, and Burundi – live
below it.
One reason global poverty has been so
intractable is that it remains largely
out of sight for those who are not living
it, safely somebody else’s problem.
The fact that most participants in
discussions about global poverty
– the readers of this commentary
included – know few, if any, people
who live below the poverty line is an
indication of the extent of the world’s
economic segregation. If poverty were
communicable, its incidence would be
far lower by now.
Fortunately, a chorus of voices, not
just from civil-society groups, but also
from international organizations, has
given rise to a global movement to
end poverty. There is now a growing
consensus that global poverty is not just
a problem of the poor. Though moral
outrage is important, it is not enough
when it comes to crafting policy.
Policymakers need data and, equally
important, the ability to analyze it.
The first task is to distinguish between
what is feasible and what is not. For
example, some have proposed including
the provision of employment for all
adults in the Millennium Development
Goals’ successor framework, which
is to be unveiled in 2015. This is an
impossible target. All economies of
any reasonable size will have some
unemployment. In fact, a limited
amount of unemployment can help
to promote development. To declare
“employment” a right is to divest the
word “right” of its meaning.
Next, there must be recognition
that economies are complex and
interconnected. Consider, for example,
a government policy in which subsidies,
funded with newly printed money, are
handed out to residents of 1,000 villages.
This will not necessarily be a boon
for the economy as a whole. Injecting
money might improve the living
standards in the villages receiving
the funds, but doing so may well drive
up the cost of food throughout the
country, causing residents of nonsubsidized villages to fall into poverty.
The macroeconomic impact of microinterventions is an important reason
why poverty has persisted, despite wellmeaning interventions to combat it.
Another reason poverty endures is
persistent – and, in many places,
widening – inequality. The current level
of global inequality is unconscionable.
In 2013, the World Bank, where I am
Chief Economist, helped bring the term
“shared prosperity” into everyday
discourse by declaring, for the first
time, that every society should make
progress toward this goal its mission.
To be sure, there will always be a
certain amount of inequality in the
world; in fact, as with unemployment, a
The state... page 28
Call for Consultancy Service
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RE-INVITATION FOR Bid PIE cons 1(Re-Advertised)
To: ALL CONTRACTORS OF CATEGORY BC/GC-5 CLASS AND ABOVE WITH LICENSE VALID
FOR THE YEAR
Plan International Ethiopia Gambella Program Area has planned to construct
A. One Block of four class rooms with 2 blocks of VIP latrine for War Primary School;
B. One Block of four class rooms with 2 blocks of VIP latrine for Akula Primary School; Both are in
Itang Special District, Gambella region and invites wax sealed bids from eligible bidders for providing
the necessary labor, material and equipment cost for the construction of the above mentioned project.
Interested eligible contractors shall provide written application with original and copies of the
following legal documents:I
License de¿ning the legal status with renewal for the physical year under
consideration.
II
Registration with Ministry of ¿nance for Trade.
III Evidence of settlement of current tax, registration for VAT and Tin certi¿cate.
1. A complete set of bid documents can be obtained free fee paying from PIE, CO of¿ce or
Gambella Regional Program Area, within eleven working days during of¿ce hours following this
announcement in the newspaper.
. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security, in an acceptable (CPO or Bank Guarantee)
form of 2% of the bid amount, and must be delivered to Plan International Ethiopia, Country
Of¿ce or Gambella Program Area on or before the 12th working days on or before 5:00pm after
it appears on the Newspaper.
The number of copies of the Bid to be completed and returned shall be original and copy. The
3.
post shall be clearly marked “ORIGINAL” and “COPIES.” In the event of discrepancy between
them, the original shall prevail.
4. Final Date of bid submission Both in Gambella PA and Addis Ababa CO will be 20/1/15
(Tuesday )
. Bids will be opened in the presence of bidders’ or their representatives who choose to attain will
be on, 22/1/2015 (Thursday) at Gambella Program Area of¿ce on 09:00a.m.
6. The construction of the works shall be completed within a maximum of 120 (One hundred
twenty) calendar days for each from the commencement of the work.
7. Partial offer is not allowed
8. Bidder can bid on all lots but only win single lot if the bid is substantially responsive.
9. The Program Area reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids.
For further information please contact through the followings address
PIE, Gambella Regional Program Area of¿ce
Telephone or Cellphone: (+251 917 93 87 45)
Or
PIE, CO. Of¿ce Addis Ababa, tel.: 011-4670175-82
Tenders are invited from reliable, established and competent
consulting ¿rm
To provide
components
Based Child
and UAMs )
technical support on Child protection especially on soft
(IDTR, CPMiS, FTR, Case management, Community
protection mechanisms and psychosocial support for SCs
in the refugee context
Provide technical support in Child protection soft components at Gambella
refugee camp
x Properly design company pro¿le for Technical Evaluation
x Consultants must Bid only on their area of specialization
x Consultants must provide technical and ¿nancial documents on
a separate envelop
x For different LOT different Envelop must be used otherwise the
bidder is automatically rejected from the bid.
x Plan international Ethiopia reserves the right to reject all or part
of the bids.
Case management, FTRDetails of the scope of the work can be obtained
from Plan International Ethiopia, Country Of¿ce
Conditions are stated in the TOR
Tender will be on Àoated from January 12, 2015 to January 22,2015,
3:30pm only
and will be opened on January 23,2014, 10:30 am
ToR is available in hardcopy at the following address:
Plan International Ethiopia, in front of Lancha
to the right detour 100m from the main road
For further information please contact;Tel: +251 114 670175-82;Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia
www.thereporterethiopia.com
OPINION + |13
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Do economic sanctions work?
With Western economic sanctions
against Russia, Iran, and Cuba in the
news, it is a good time to take stock
of the debate on just how well such
measures work. The short answer is
that economic sanctions usually have
only modest effects, even if they can be
an essential means of demonstrating
moral resolve. If economic sanctions
are to play an increasingly important
role in twenty-first-century statecraft, it
might be worth reflecting on how they
have worked in the past.
By Kenneth Rogoff
As Gary Hufbauer and Jeffrey Schott
note in their classic book on the topic,
the history of economic sanctions
goes back at least to 432 BC, when the
Greek statesman and general Pericles
issued the so-called “Megarian decree”
in response to the abduction of three
Aspasian women. In modern times, the
United States has employed economic
sanctions in pursuit of diverse goals,
from the Carter administration’s
efforts in the 1970s to promote human
rights, to attempts to impede nuclear
proliferation in the 1980s.
During the Cold War, the US also
employed economic sanctions to
destabilize unfriendly governments,
especially in Latin America, though
they do not appear to have played
more than a minor role, even where
regime change eventually occurred.
Economic sanctions on Serbia in the
early 1990s did not deter the invasion of
Bosnia. Certainly, the US government’s
symbolic punishment of chess legend
Bobby Fischer (for playing a match
in Belgrade that violated sanctions)
provided no relief for the besieged city
of Sarajevo.
The old Soviet Union played the
sanctions game as well – for example,
against China, Albania, and Yugoslavia.
It, too, did not have much success,
except perhaps in the case of Finland,
which ultimately bent its policies to
gain relief from sanctions imposed in
1958.
Most modern cases of sanctions pit a
large country against a small country,
though there are a few cases involving
countries of equal size, such as the long
quarrel, from the 1950s to the 1980s,
between the United Kingdom and Spain
over Gibraltar.
As Hufbauer and Schott, among
others, have illustrated, the effects of
sanctions are often fairly disappointing
– so much so that many scholars have
concluded that such measures often
are imposed so that governments can
appear to domestic audiences to be
“doing something.” Certainly, severe
US sanctions on Cuba failed to bring the
Castro regime to heel; indeed, President
Barack Obama’s move to reestablish
full diplomatic relations may have more
effect.
But sometimes sanctions do work.
The strong international consensus to
impose sanctions on South Africa in the
1980s eventually helped bring an end
to apartheid. Likewise, sanctions have
helped bring Iran to the bargaining
table, though it is not clear how long
its government will be willing to defer
its nuclear ambitions. And the Russian
economy today is in big trouble, though
this might be described as a lucky
punch, with the real damage being done
by an epic collapse in global oil prices.
Some in Russia, where the price
collapse has hit government revenues
hard, claim that the US and Saudi
Arabia are conspiring to bring Russia to
its knees. But that gives US strategists
far too much credit. A more likely
culprit for the steep price decline is
a combination of the shale-energy
revolution in the US and the sharp
slowdown in Chinese growth. China’s
slowdown has helped precipitate a
broad-based fall in commodity prices
that is having a devastating effect
on countries like Argentina and
Brazil, with which the US authorities
presumably have little quarrel.
One of the major reasons economic
sanctions have fallen short in the past
is that not all countries have complied.
Indeed, significant differences of
domestic opinion in the imposing
country often undermine sanctions as
well.
Moreover, countries imposing sanctions
Do economic... page 28
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www.thereporterethiopia.com
14| COMMENTARY +
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
The right choices for 2015
By Christine Lagarde
The year 2015 has started and
policymakers around the world are
faced with three fundamental choices:
to strive for economic growth or accept
stagnation; to work to improve stability
or risk succumbing to fragility; and
to cooperate or go it alone. The stakes
could not be higher; 2015 promises to
be a make-or-break year for the global
community.
For starters, growth and jobs are
needed to support prosperity and social
cohesion in the wake of the Great
Recession that began in 2008. Six years
after the eruption of the financial
crisis, the recovery remains weak and
uneven. Global growth is projected at
just 3.3 percent in 2014 and 3.8 percent
in 2015. Some important economies are
still fighting deflation. More than 200
million people are unemployed. The
global economy risks getting stuck in a
“new mediocre” – a prolonged period of
slow growth and feeble job creation.
To break free from stagnation, we
need renewed policy momentum. If
the measures agreed by the leaders
assembled at the G-20 in November are
implemented, they will lift world GDP
by more than 2 percent by 2018 – the
equivalent of adding USD 2 trillion
in global income. Furthermore, by
2025, if the laudable – yet not overly
ambitious – goal of closing the gender
gap by 25 percent is achieved, 100
million women could have jobs that
they didn’t have before. Global leaders
have asked the International Monetary
Fund to monitor the implementation of
these growth strategies. We will do so,
country by country, reform by reform.
Besides structural reforms, building
new momentum will require pulling
all possible levers that can support
global demand. Accommodative
monetary policy will remain essential
for as long as growth remains anemic
– though we must pay careful attention
to potential spillovers. Fiscal policy
should be focused on promoting growth
and creating jobs, while maintaining
medium-term credibility. And labormarket policies should continue
to emphasize training, affordable
childcare, and workplace flexibility.
As we ponder the second choice,
between stability and fragility, we
must consider how we can make our
increasingly interconnected world
a safer place. Financial integration
has risen tenfold since World
War II. National economies are so
interconnected that shifts in market
sentiment tend to cascade globally. It is
therefore critical that we complete the
agenda on financial-sector reform.
To be sure, there has been progress,
especially on banking regulation and
on addressing too-big-to-fail financial
institutions. But countries must now
implement the reforms and improve
the quality of supervision. We also
need better rules for nonbanks,
stricter monitoring of shadow banks,
and improved safeguards and more
transparency in the derivatives
markets. Progress on closing data
gaps in the financial sector is urgently
needed as well, so that regulators
can properly assess risks to financial
stability.
Most important, the culture of the
financial sector needs to change. The
principal purpose of finance is to
provide services to the other parts
of the economy, which it cannot do
unless it enjoys the confidence of those
who depend on those services – that
is, all of us. Restoring trust should
therefore start with an all-out effort to
promote and enforce ethical behavior
throughout the industry.
The third choice, whether to cooperate
or go it alone, is the most critical. No
economy is an island; indeed, the global
economy is more integrated than ever
before. Consider this: Fifty years ago,
emerging markets and developing
economies accounted for about a
quarter of world GDP. Today, they
generate half of global income, a share
that will continue to rise.
But sovereign states are no longer
the only actors on the scene. A global
network of new stakeholders has
emerged, including NGOs and citizen
activists – often empowered by social
The right... page 28
VIEWPOINT +
Alliances for peace
I grew up in the shadow of World War
II, and at the dawn of the Cold War.
By John F. Kerry
My father’s work as a Foreign Service
officer gave me an opportunity to see
history up close in a searing way: I
will never forget walking the beaches
of Normandy with him and seeing the
burned hulks of Higgins’ boats still
on those shores, just a few years after
so many young men went to their
graves so the world could be free.
Likewise, I will never forget the eerie
feeling of riding my bike through the
Brandenburg Gate from West Berlin
into the East, and seeing the contrast
between people who were free and
those who were trapped behind the Iron
Curtain.
What strikes me now, all these years
later, is that a generation of leaders won
not only a war, but also the peace. They
did it together. The United States and
our partners worked to create alliances
that brought prosperity and stability
to Western Europe, Japan, and South
Korea. Old enemies became new allies,
and together pioneered a new global
economic system that made the world
more prosperous. And even as the
Cold War raged, leaders found ways to
cooperate on arms control and prevent a
nuclear Armageddon.
In short, by building effective and
indispensable international institutions
and strategic partnerships, we did not
just avoid another catastrophic world
war; we ultimately ended the Cold War
and lifted global living standards for
hundreds of millions of people.
That is the remarkable story of the
twentieth century. The question now is
what story will emerge from the twentyfirst century.
Today, the world order faces new
challenges. Russian aggression is
rattling allies. Extremists who hijack
religion threaten governments and
people everywhere. Technology is
accelerating a shift in the balance
of power between governments and
governed that offers both opportunities
for democratic accountability and
obstacles to inclusive politics.
We have gone from a world where
power resided in hierarchies to one
where it inhabits networks. Statecraft
has yet to adapt. The international
institutions and partnerships that
emerged in the postwar years demand
both maintenance and modernization.
In the face of all of this turbulence,
some suggest that America should turn
inward. That is nothing new. Some
argued the same after WWII. They
argued it again 25 years ago, after the
fall of the Berlin Wall. They were wrong
then – and they are wrong now.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
The need for leadership has never been
greater, and the US has never been
more engaged with the world. Our role
in Afghanistan’s first-ever peaceful,
democratic transition reminds us all
that, having invested so much blood and
treasure in helping to give Afghans a
chance to succeed in battle, the world
has just as much responsibility to help
its leaders succeed in governance.
We know that the destruction of 100
percent of Syria’s declared chemical
weapons would not have happened
without direct, hands-on diplomacy and
perseverance, just as Syria’s immoral
and horrifying civil war will not end
without an equal commitment. So, too,
in Asia, where President Barack Obama
and Chinese President Xi Jinping
announced ambitious commitments to
tackle climate change, we are reminded
of what countries can accomplish
together with real leadership – and
of how much additional leadership
is required to conclude a successful
climate agreement in Paris next year.
The world has changed, and we are
changing with it. Lines on the map no
longer contain the gravest threats, and
the players are no longer divided neatly
into two camps.
Alliances... page 28
|15
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
www.thereporterethiopia.com
16| LIVING & THE ARTS
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
The Monument Of An Anonymous Passerby,
Wroclaw, Poland
Mustangs By Robert Glen, Las Colinas, Texas, US
Ð
These days Addis Ababa
is growingly emerging in
the limelight on the global
stage. Reports published by
various reputed international
institutions describe the
metropolis as one of the cities
of the world which should
be visited and acknowledge
that it is gaining prominence
from among the emerging
cities of the world. A.T.
Kearney’s Global Cities Index
(GCI) ranked Addis Ababa
third among cities located
in middle - and high-income
countries to become even
more global. There is rapid
pace of the construction of
commercial and residential
buildings, roads, light
railways and other
infrastructures. However,
due attention is not being
given to soft components
like public art, writes
Tibebeselassie Tigabu.
In search of public art
Meskel Square of Addis Ababa is one of the places that public performances are held from time to time
The epic Indian film – Mother India – is
famous among Ethiopians as it was able
to transcend time. The story of a strong,
despaired character, Radha (Nagris), a
single mother who strives to raise her
son against all the odds is one story
many Ethiopians can relate to.
In the 1960’s those who watched it
in drive-in-theaters around Amche
area reminisce about the film and
the ambiance deeply. Cinema culture
commenced with outdoor movie
screens, refreshments stands here and
there and drive-in-theaters.
This popular hangout place is still vivid
in the memory of the then student and
renowned playwright Ayalneh Mulatu.
This vibrant outdoor entertainment
attracted the urban elites and socialites.
Ayalneh reminisces about how the
urban dwellers sat in their cars to
watch the films. It was also a preferred
dating place for couples. This vibrant
public entertainment faded away
through time leaving behind memories.
Moving forward to 2015, the streets
if Addis Ababa do not have music
concerts, art performances and graffiti
art like other cities in the world. The
plays, poetry and painting exhibitions
are only confined to indoor display.
Public art, which is vibrant in many
countries, is a rare phenomena and an
alien concepts to Addis Ababa’s public
spaces. The only entertainment that is
visible are the bazaars during holidays
by Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs).
idea of twisting the art and making it
a propaganda tool, many agree it also
gave rise to the interaction of public
space and art.
However, this culture is not a new to
Ethiopians. In rural Ethiopia, most of
the rituals and holidays are public and
are conducted outdoors.
Traveling overseas and attending small
cornered mime shows, melodic guitar
playing or artists instantly pulling out
their instruments and performing is
what Ayaleneh misses from Addis.
When it comes to the urban culture of
using public space, many say it is being
used for commercial purposes and also
for different festivals, but using the
public space for art is still strange for
many.
During Emperor Haileselassie’s
period personalities such as Ayalneh
Mulatu remember how plays used to
be advertised by marching bands on
the streets. According to him, this is an
example of taking art into the public
domain.
Similarly, public art was vibrant
during the Derg regime. Using art for
propaganda being the main theme,
the kinet concerts were staged to pass
the “socialist” message to the wider
community.
Those kinet bands were stretched to the
kebele level and they had venues for
theater showings. Meskel Square was
also the main venue during that time.
Though some despised the totalitarian
www.thereporterethiopia.com
One of the traditional ways of using
public space for art is building
monuments and sculptures. In Addis
Ababa, according to the different
historical accounts, the building of
monuments started during Empress
Zewditu’s regime. According to
historians, the building of sculptures
in Ethiopia, which depict official
historical icons had political motives.
Though many monuments were built
during different periods, the building of
monuments have stagnated nowadays
Rather, most of the squares, which
were left demarcated for building of
monuments, are being developed by
private developers.
Looking at Addis and roaming around
the different neighborhoods of the city,
it is easy to see how many companies
have taken over the squares of Addis for
advertising purposes. DH Geda in Kolfe
Keranio Sub City, LG around Sar Bet,
Pepsi on the road to Bole Bulbula, Edna
LIVING & THE ARTS|17
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Ð
Break Through From Your Mold By Zenos Frudakis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Mall on the road to Bole Medhanialem,
Kadisco on the road to Saris, and
Midroc around Sar Bet are some of
the companies who seem to “own” the
squares while putting their logos and
posters.
name of “development”. He says that
squares are not used for art or by the
public and that is why the intervention
of art is necessary. The squares are
still given to companies and are not
artistically conscious.
These companies are given the places
temporarily even though the duration
is not known. The squares have not
been given official names by the city
administration so they they are refered
in different publications by the names
of the companies that have placed their
advertisements.
“There is no country as such
where squares are given to private
companies,” Bekele says.
The current trend of leasing the squares
to developers is what leads many to
argue that public places can be owned
by corporations.
Many artists do not agree with this
trend and say those places should have
been left to historical figures. Opposing
this trend, a controversial performance
was presented by Mulugeta Gebrekidan
entitled “invading Samsung” in 2013.
Around Teklehaimanot area a
clock tower erected by Samsung
is standing in the historical
square which history
remembers as the place
where Mengistu Neway, who
was behind the 1960’s failed
coup d’état, was executed.
In Ethiopia there is no clear definition
or directives regarding what public
spaces are. Bekele also raises the
question as to what public spaces are.
In that regard, some artists ask for the
redefinition of public spaces so artists
can also present their work freely.
In many countries, the interaction
with public space is changing in scope
Though many criticize the government
for not providing accessible public
spaces there are also many who
criticize the artists for not bringing
out their art. On the other hand, artists
say that the bureaucratic red tape is a
major obstacle.
“It is a country where everything is
restricted. No is a common response in
many places and the public space we
think of are in our heads,” founder and
director of Netsa Art Village, Mihret
Kebede, says.
She says that she faced challenges
when organizing the Wax and Gold
International Workshop which focused
on artistic freedom and censorship, in
2013.
The first challenge was approaching
the officials, especially since they were
alien to the concept of performance art.
They approached the sub-city officials
but they found out that the outdoor
(public space) is outsourced to the
SMEs and they were told to get
approval from them.
The hustle, according to
Mihret, was to make them
understand the concept
of public performance
art, so they were forced
to say they were doing
exhibitions, and circus
Attired in a patriot’s outfit,
performances but luckily
holding a spear, shield and
they got the approval.
sprayed in gold, many could
The tour went on in
not hide their amusement
different neighborhoods
when they saw him traveling
and was very vibrant.
in his Volkswagen. He stood
Some of the performances
outside the square like a
included Mulugeta
statue, spreading the message
Gebrekidan’s golden statue
of how the patriots are being
People Of The River By Chong Fah Cheong, Singapore
which created commotion
pushed away from these kinds of
among the dwellers. Another piece
spots. It is not only Mulugeta but
was by Darios Hailemichael, who
many other artists despise the idea
made seats from plastic water bottles
of giving out these public squares to
which were beautiful but could not be
corporations. This raises a question of
used for sitting. He was referring to the
who do these public spaces belong to
chairs in parliament which he said are
and application.
These art
and how does one define public space.
not functional.
forms are ever changing and are used
In other countries, public space is
as cultural interventions to engage the
The public space performances also
defined as social space that is open
community.
earned the curiosity of parliament
people. With the definition, roads,
security. They were suspicious of the
New forms of art are getting alternative
pavements, squares, parks, beaches,
activities and asked what was going on.
meanings such as participatory and
public buildings and public libraries
The artists had letters and they were
activist art, community-based art,
fall into this category. For Bekele
fine with it.
contextual art and relational art. These
Mekonen, an assistant professor and
are new genres and the concept social
instructor at Alle school of Fine Arts
Another public art performance was
intervention.
and Design, Addis Ababa University, in
by Kenyan artist and activist Boniface
the Ethiopian urban context, the main
Mwangi who was beating a drum to say
Artists started getting involved in the
public space are medas (fields).
a farewell to the former Prime Minister
new venture of actively participating in
Meles Zenawi.
the new genre of public art or what is
According to Bekele, in every corner of
termed as social activism.
the city, there are medas (fields) such
Mwangi was awestricken after seeing
as the former Siga meda now Tatek,
pictures of Meles Zenawi everywhere.
The public art is not popular in Addis
Jan meda, Kuas meda and Shiro meda.
Ababa among the art community for
These are places where communities
He placed a drum around Arat Kilo
different reasons, which has alienated
use to transact commercial activities
with a picture of Meles covering the
the art from the bigger audience.
or places used for sports activities or
drum. He urged Ethiopians to come
Usually it is criticized for being
religious celebrations apart from other
and beat the drum, to say good-bye and
“elitist” and involving a few people.
activities. For Bekle, with the changing
move on.
The publicly accessible buildings are
face of Addis, the structure of the public
criticized for being dull. The daily
Some of the artists were able to relate to
space is also changing fast.
routine is becoming the dull routine
the people is a simple way. One artist
so artists such as Mulugeta say the
Bekele says that these fields are
is Tesfaye Bekele who depicted the
intervention is needed among the art
narrowing down and are considered
community.
to be pocket spaces. Most of them are
In search... page 33
replaced by high-rise buildings in the
www.thereporterethiopia.com
Ayalneh Mulatu
This popular hangout
place is still vivid in
the memory of the then
student and renowned
playwright Ayalneh
Mulatu. This vibrant
outdoor entertainment
attracted the urban
elites and socialites.
Ayalneh reminisces
about how the urban
dwellers sat in their
cars to watch the Àlms.
It was also a preferred
dating place for
couples. This vibrant
public entertainment
faded away through
time leaving behind
memories.
18| PROFILE
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
A Chef’s Three-Country Odyssey to Stardom
Marcus Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia, grew up in Sweden and now lives in a Àvebedroom brownstone in 1ew <ork’s Harlem.
Celebrity chef Marcus
Samuelsson, ,
owns four 1ew <ork
restaurants, with
a Àfth³Streetbird
Rotisserie³opening
in the spring. He is
author of “Marcus 2ff
Duty: The Recipes I
Cook at Home”, which
features 0 dishes
inspired by his travels
and background.
He spoke with Marc
Myers of The Wall
Street Journal.
Chef Marcus Samuelsson shares an omelet with his wife, Maya Haile, at their home in Harlem.
I was born in Ethiopia but grew up in
Sweden, which wasn’t as big a culture
shock as you’d imagine. I was 3 when
my older sister and I were adopted by
a couple from Göteborg who taught me
to fish, cook and prioritize my life—
lessons that remain with me today.
I don’t recall much from my earliest
years in Meki, Ethiopia. I was too
young. My mother had died from
tuberculosis during an epidemic and
my father was a priest and couldn’t
take care of us. The hospital where my
mother had died was affiliated with
Sweden, which is how my sister and I
came to be adopted by Ann Marie and
Lennart Samuelsson.
Göteborg is a major city on the
southwestern coast of Sweden, but
we lived in a residential area with
many two-story homes. My father
was a geologist and my mother was a
homemaker. When they brought my
sister and me home, they already had
another daughter who was 8 and also
adopted, but we all got along perfectly
from the start.
Our house had four bedrooms and sat
on about half an acre. The kitchen
was the center of the house, and we
all ate dinner together most nights,
with extended family and friends often
joining us. My parents had a Bang &
Olufsen turntable, and records by Bob
Marley, David Bowie and ABBA were
always on. It was a happy house.
In Sweden, many people maintain
gardens for food, and we grew carrots,
onions and other produce, as well as
apples and plums. There was always
a season for something that could
be picked and added to the dinner
table. This made us self-sufficient,
an important concept in Sweden. We
were never far from the woods or the
ocean, and I remember waiting with
anticipation for sweet strawberries
to grow in the spring or mushroomhunting season in the fall.
As an Ethiopian, I didn’t have a hard
time growing up in Göteborg. My
parents saw to that. My sister and
I knew we looked different, but we
A Chef’s Three... page 34
ENTERTAINMENT IN BRIEF
“Crossroad” painting Exhibition at Lela
Gallery
A painting exhibition entitled “crossroad” by Tesfaye Bekele will
open today at Lela Galley. The exhibition features Tesfaye’s critical
view of the city’s [Addis Ababa] fast changing social and cultural
landscape.
Tesfaye’s interest in art started at the early age. As a young child,
he began to use art as a way of documenting the images in his
community.
He further pursued his interest in art and graduated from the Addis
Ababa University Alle School of Fine Arts and Design.
Taste of Addis food Festival
The eighth edition of the Taste of Addis food festival will be held on
January 31 and February 1 at the Tropical Garden.
More than 40 restaurants and special cuisines from 10 different
countries will be featured in the festival.
In this festival, from the Jamaican curry goat, to various types of
fast foods and Ethiopian Kurt (raw meat), a variety of dishes will be
presented for foodies.
Currently, Tesfaye teaches there. In the past, he has showcased his
works in different solo and group exhibitions. He was also awarded
the Fana Wogi prize in 2011 at the Goethe Institute for the originality
of his work.
Organized by Blue Media PLC in collaboration with Hakim Stout, Taste
of Addis is mainly a food festival for restaurants and hotels in Addis
Ababa to display their special food and showcase their culinary arts.
This is not only for established restaurants, but also for homemade
dishes, caterers and also restaurants which are just opening and in the
process of renovation.
The exhibition will stay open to the public until January 25.
For the dishes there is a fixed price of 50 birr.
This festival will be highlighted by music performances and food
competitions. Apart from grown up events, an area is secluded for
children where a special play ground is set up away from the smoke and
the alcohol. The entrance fee is 40 birr with one beer coupon included.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
SOCIETY |19
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Northwestern brings women’s health
expertise to Ethiopia
By Bonnie Miller Rubin
Dr Gelila Goba has not forgotten where
she came from.
Instead of joining a comfortable
practice in the US after completing her
residency in obstetrics and gynecology
at Northwestern University, Dr Gelila
instead will be caring for patients in
her native Ethiopia, where in many
communities light and heat qualify as
luxuries.
After she graduates in May, Dr Gelila
plans to move back to Ethiopia to
implement a new initiative that she
hopes will improve the state of women’s
health in the desperately poor country
of 90 million.
“A lot has been given to me,” Dr
Gelila said, during a break at Prentice
Women’s Hospital. “I must make sure
that I use those gifts wisely.”
The program is a partnership between
Northwestern and Mekelle universities.
It provides medical education, clinical
training and research in sub-Saharan
Africa, where acute doctor shortages
and women’s health continue to be
vexing problems.
In Ethiopia, the maternal mortality
rate is twice the global average, and
the rate of death from cervical cancer
is almost seven times higher than in
the US, according to the World Health
Organization. The entire country
has about 220 OB-GYNs nationwide
— roughly the same number as
Northwestern Memorial Hospital alone,
according to university officials.
Residency programs are rare in
Ethiopia. After students earn medical
degrees, they often become general
practitioners and work in district
hospitals, experts said. OB-GYN subspecialties such as oncology, high risk
Dr Gelila Goba is a resident at Northwestern University and is the impetus for a group of physicians setting up an ob/gyn
residency program at an Ethiopian hospital
obstetrics and fertility are virtually
nonexistent. Some doctors seek
training abroad, but it has not been
standardized. The Mela Project aims to
raise the bar and formalize residency
training.
“This is not medical tourism, but about
something that is truly sustainable,
about training the trainers,” Dr.
Magdy Milad, professor of obstetrics
and gynecology at Feinberg School
of Medicine, said. “With Gelila as the
steward of this program, it will not fail.”
The program, called the Mela Project,
gained traction when Ethiopia’s foreign
minister, Tedros Adhanom (PhD),
visited Northwestern in 2012 to rally
global resources for women’s health. Dr
Gelila credited Tedros with setting up
programs to train health workers who
provide care in nearly every community
across Ethiopia — especially for women
and children, the most vulnerable and
underserved.
Northwestern embraced the idea and
moved forward with the collaboration
with Mekelle University, under the
direction of Dr Gelila.
Dr. Keith Martin, executive director
of the Consortium of Universities for
Global Health in Washington, praised
such partnerships.
“Building and retaining human
resources across a broad range of
medical and nonmedical skills is vital
to saving lives and reducing disabilities
in developing countries,” Martin said.
“Universities like NU are an excellent
and underutilized way to build access to
the public health, primary and surgical
care systems needed to do this.”
As noble as the cause may be, Dr Gelila
not only will be making professional
Northwestern... page 34
The weekly Wednesday comedy night @
Mama’s kitchen
African Mosaique fashion, cultural gala
to be held at Sheraton
Mama’s Kitchen Bar and Restaurant has become one of the handful of
joints in town to feature a weekly comedy night, where this week’s show
which was on the Ethiopian Christmas, January 7, brought together
celebrity singers and comedians.
The Annual African Mosaique fashion and cultural benefit gala is
scheduled to be held on January 15 at the Sheraton Addis.
On this occasion, apart from the comedians, the renowned Tsedenia
Gebremarkos performed live accompanied by the Five Play Band. The
comedy night started two months ago as a weekly event. So far, city’s
famous stand-up comedians with different style of performance present
their work every week.
Known for his impersonation of renowned personalities such as Nelson
Mandela and local celebrities like Haile Gebresilassie, Abiy Melaku
a.k.a. Jammy was one of the stand-up comedians who were highlighted
on the comedy night. Another impersonator, Alemayehu Getachew
a.k.a. Alex is among the regulars at Mama’s comedy night. Apart from
that, the famous Bereket Bekele a.k.a. Filfilu and his sharp sense of
humor is also part of the weekly comedy’s night. The comedians are
household names and seems to be the new happenings in town cracking
jokes about the societal values and taboos. Putting the spectators in
constant laughter their jokes among other things revolve around issues
of poverty, the nation and nationalities.
Seven international and local designers will showcase their works
including the renowned Nigerian designer Lola Fatouroti.
The gala will also feature Ethiopian designers such as the top three
finalist of the first designer competition held in collaboration with Bahir
Dar University Institute of Technology for Textile, Garment and Fashion
Design (IOTEX).
One of the household names in the fashion industry, Anna Getaneh, is also
expected to showcase her African Mosaique collection.
International African models Sophie Ducasse Tiga (Central African
Republic/ France) and Huguette Marara (Rwanda) are expected to grace
the stage along with 25 other Ethiopian models.
African Mosaique is a platform that promotes and celebrates African
fashion and design. For the past 15 years the proceedings from the event
benefited Ethiopian Children’s Fund (ECF), an integrated development
project for children and adolescents in Aletu, 55 km north of Addis Ababa.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
20| INTERVIEW
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Zemelak Ayitenew Ayele (PhD) is a constitutional lawyer specializing on local governments in Ethiopia. Zemelak did his Àrst degree
in Law (LLB) in Addis Ababa University. He has served as an instructor at the Law School of Jimma University before leaving for
further studies in South Africa. He earned his second and third degrees in the Western Cape University at the Community Law
Center, South Africa. He is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at the same University. Zemelak published various articles
on internationally recognized journals dealing with the legal frameworks governing local governments or the lowest tiers of
government in Ethiopia (kebeles, woredas, special woredas, zones, and the like) and their performance. He recently published a
book entitled “Local Government in Ethiopia: Advancing Development and Accommodating Ethnic Minorities”. Zemelak has
recently started to give courses for PhD students at the Center for Federal Studies of the Addis Ababa University. He was also
one of the participants in a conference organized by the Center that evaluated how federalism performed in the last 20 years since
the FDRE Constitution came into force . Solomon Goshu of The Reporter sat down with Zemelak to discuss his book and issues
pertinent to local governments in Ethiopia. Excerpts:
“The last five local elections took place basically
without the participation of the opposition”
Zemelak Ayitenew Ayele (PhD)
The Reporter: What is the place
of local governments in federal
systems generally?
Zemelak Ayitenew (PhD):
Constitutional recognition of local
government in a federal system is
the ultimate goal, as one writer said.
Many federal systems, specially the
old ones, like the US and Australia,
do not recognize local governments
as a sphere or level of government.
Recognizing local government as a level
of government is a recent development.
New federal or quasi-federal states
like Nigeria and South Africa
recognized local governments in their
constitutions.
You have mentioned two types of
local governments in Ethiopia in
your book, namely ethnic local
government and regular local
government. What makes you
classify local governments this way
and what is its impact?
The Ethiopian Constitution does not
expressly recognize local government
as a level of government. However, it is
not totally silent on the issue. It implies
the establishment of local government
in two Articles. On its Article 39 which
recognizes the right to self government
of ethnic communities and the other
is Article 50 (4) which requires the
state to establish sub-regional level
of government. My argument is that
the Constitution implicitly requires
the establishment of two types of local
government. One is what I call ethnic
local government or in another work
I did with my colleague Yonathan
Fiseha (PhD) we called it Article 39
local government. Article 39 implicitly
requires the establishment of that
kind of local government. The purpose
of this kind of local government is to
manage intra-regional ethnic diversity
which cannot be addressed through the
establishment of regional states. The
other type of local government which
is implied under Article 50 (4) is a kind
of local government which is meant to
allow the public to participate. While
what I call ethnic local government
is supposed to be established only in
those multi-ethnic regions and in those
particular areas where intra-regional
ethnic minorities are found, what I call
regular local government is supposed to
be established throughout the country.
Because in the case of regular local
government, the purpose is enhancing
www.thereporterethiopia.com
democratic participation and providing
service delivery. So, it doesn’t matter to
which ethnic group you may belong to
as long as you need service delivery.
What is the role of the federal and
regional governments towards the
powers and functions of the local
government?
Local government is basically left
to be the competence of the regional
states. The Constitution does not
envisage the federal government to
have a direct say on the establishment
of local government. That is why
under Article 50 (4) the Constitution
requires the states to establish local
government. In many federal countries
including the USA, Canada, Switzerland
and Australia, establishing local
government is left to be the competence
of regional states. However, in the older
federal systems, the constitution is
totally silent on local government. So,
it is up to the discretion of the states
or the sub-national units to determine
the tiers, numbers, and nature of the
local government system that they
want to establish. In the Ethiopian
case, around the time when the
Constitution was being drafted there
was a debate as to what to include
regarding local government in the
Constitution. Some people argue that
local government should be expressly
recognized in the Constitution. Others
say if we recognize local government
expressly, the federal government
will get a leeway to interfere in
regional governments’ affairs. So,
they contend that it should be left to
the regional states. The compromise
was to leave it to the regional states
but to make sure that they just don’t
establish mere administrative system
with no democratic elements. Rather
they suggest putting implicitly that
regional states are required to establish
democratically constituted level of
government. That is how the FDRE
Constitution tries to balance the role
of regional states and the federal
government on local government.
You also narrate how local
government assumed different roles
and responsibilities at different
phases. What are the factors that
led to improve the status of local
governments in Ethiopia?
Different political forces triggered the
empowerment of local government
INTERVIEW |21
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
in Ethiopia. Since EPRDF assumed
power, at different stage, different
political factors have influenced
its decision regarding sub-regional
government. There are at least two
discernible phases in empowering local
government. The first is between 1991
and 2000. During this time, the most
important political issue in the country
was management of ethnic diversity
with a view to ensuring peace and
security in the country.
So, the whole government structure
including the federal structure itself
and the whole political discussion with
regard to how government should be
structured revolved around the ethnic
issue. The regional governments were
established in such a way that ethnic
communities can be accommodated and
those which cannot be accommodated
through the establishment of regional
states again were accommodated
through sub-regional territorial and
political units. In this period, local
government featured as institutional
mechanism of managing ethnic
diversity not as a level of government.
executive. When the division occurred
in the ruling party some of the regional
presidents dissented and stood against
the former Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi like former presidents of Tigray
and SNNPR, namely Gebru Asrat
and Abate Kisho. So, the argument is
having seen how powerful they were
constitutionally speaking and how they
can threaten the federal government’s
authority, there was a decision to
disempower the regional executives.
The principle of separation of power
was introduced at regional levels in
of local government was a calculated
measure to disempower the regional
executive.
You argue that even if it is possible
to infer from the FDRE Constitution
that local governments are not
instruments of the federal or
regional government, there are
concerns in the practice as there
is a tendency to consider them as
apparatuses to enforce the wishes of
the upper level of government. Can
you elaborate on it?
“
The
regional
states
while
more
or less recognized
the ethnic local
governments which
include nationality
zones and special
woredas, they
basically created
the regular local
government as
an administrative
system not as a level
of government. If you
see the regional
constitutions
woredas and cities
were not as such
local governments.
The regional states while more or less
recognized the ethnic local governments
which include nationality zones and
special woredas, they basically created
the regular local government as an
administrative system not as a level of
government. If you see the 1994 regional
constitutions woredas and cities were
not as such local governments. They
were local administrative agents.
Starting from 2000 there is a shift
in the policy of EPRDF. The ethnic
issue became less and less important.
Officially, achieving development
became the most important factor and
political issue.
There seems to be a decision to
discourage the establishment of
ethnic local government and rather to
empower the regular local government.
And it is around that time, between
2000 and 2002, that the regional states
supposedly amended their constitutions
with the purpose of empowering
woredas especially. It was also around
the same time that the poverty
reduction policy and the district level
decentralization program of the federal
government was issued. There was a
move from ethnic obsession.
Around this time ethnicity became
less important whereas development
and service delivery became the
most important issues. Ethnic local
governments were becoming some
kind of hindrance and had some kind
of inefficiency in terms of service
delivery. So, the establishment
of new ethnic local government
was discouraged. Even there were
attempts to amalgamate some ethnic
local governments especially in the
SNNPR. This is regarding the official
rationale for the empowerment of local
government.
There is less discussed and unofficial
reason for the empowerment of local
government. That is the Ethio-Eritrea
war and the division in the EPRDF
specifically in the TPLF. Some people
argue that the decentralization program
was actually influenced by the division
in the political sphere within the ruling
party. In the 1994 constitutions of the
regional states, the regional executive
especially the president was very
powerful. He was the speaker of the
regional council. Local administrative
agencies were directly accountable
to him. He was also the head of the
Ð
the amended constitutions. So, the
regional presidents is no longer both
head of the executive and the speaker of
the regional council. The other newly
introduced system is the establishment
of a local level of government as opposed
to a local administrative agent which is
not accountable directly to the regional
government, rather accountable to the
people who elected or constituted it. So,
the argument is that the empowerment
Even in constitutional terms, local
government is not explicitly recognized
as a level of government. It is implied
in the Constitution that this level of
government should be autonomous and
democratically constituted. If you just
read Article 50 (4) of the Constitution
and don’t connect it with other
provisions and the drafting history of
“The last ¿ve local... page 26
www.thereporterethiopia.com
22|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
www.thereporterethiopia.com
|23
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
www.thereporterethiopia.com
24| #REPORTERBOOK
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 9957
#JeSuisCharlie
Beggars refuse to accept
new Zimbabwe bond coin
#beggarschoosers
The beggars’ universal cry is “spare any change”, but in Zimbabwe they can
be choosers on the issue.
At a traffic light in the capital Harare, a Reuters correspondent gave an
insistent beggar a handful of bond coins, which provoked a burst of laughter
and a “no thanks” before he scrambled to the next car.
Shouting matches erupt on the streets when the touts who ride with taxi
drivers and dispense change to passengers try to pass off the bond coins to
them.
“We have people who just refuse the coins because they say th
they will not be
able to use them. They prefer the rand coins (of South Africa),
Africa),” Lyn Kahari, a
shop assistant at a grocer in a Harare suburb, said.
Reserve Bank Governor Mangu
Mangudya told the
state-owned Herald newspa
newspaper last week
that only USD 2.5 millio
million worth of coins
were in circulation ou
out of the USD 10
million that had been
bee imported.
He said the low up
uptake of the coins
was a result of co
commercial banks
not making larg
larger orders from
the central bank
bank.
The scepticism is rooted in
the memories Z
Zimbabweans
have of hyperinflation,
hyperin
which
reached 500 bill
billion percent with
prices changing more than twice
a day before the government
abandoned a curr
currency that had
been rendered worthless.
wort
Smart bed tells parents when
kids are awake #brainybed
A new super smart bed can tell parents when their children aren’t
getting enough quality sleep. And for mums and dads plagued by the
patter of tiny feet in the dead of night, the brainy bed can also end
arguments about whether junior strayed away from the mattress.
The SleepIQ bed by Sleep Number in Minneapolis provides adults with
sleep data via a smart app. And it can even be adjusted remotely to
make it more comfortable if the child is struggling for sleep.
The bed made its debut at the International Consumer Electronics
Show (CES) in Las Vegas. And manufacturers claim it is the only bed in
the world that adjusts with children as they grow up.
Sleep is measured by built-in sensors that monitor breathing rate, heart
rate and movement. And the bed sends an alert to the app when a child
leaves the bed or is restless. Its firmness can be adjusted to change the
level of comfort and support to suit children as they grow.
A tilt feature for reading is included and parents can remotely turn a
light off using the app. An automatic light also guides children if they
need to get up at night. The bed is available online and in the US from
around USD 1,000.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
|255
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
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Nike’s self-lacing trainers ‘coming
soon’ #self-lacing
When Marty McFly slipped into his
self-lacing trainers in the 1989s Back
to the Future II, the year was 2015 and
hoverboards and flying cars were the
norm. While we’re still waiting on the
levitating transport, avid fans may be
able to get their hands on and feet into
Nike’s iconic trainers by the end of the
year.
The company first announced it was
working on a consumer version of the
shoes early last year, and was granted a
patent for the power lacing system last
July.
The patent outlines how a weight
sensor, coupled with a user control
device could be used to trigger the strap
www.thereporterethiopia.com
moving mechanism, making the shoes
appear to tie themselves once your foot
is inside.
1,500 Nike MAGs went on sale via eBay
in 2011 and raised almost USD 6 million
for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for
Parkinson’s Research, although they
could not tie themselves.
It took the team six years to create the
Nike MAG as a perfect replica of the
shoes as worn in the film, featuring a
3,000 hour rechargeable battery, lights
and electroluminescent out-sole.
Everyday technologies for 2015 via
Back to the Future II predicted included
virtual reality headsets and video
calling, both of which are now realities.
26|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
“The last five local...
that particular provision, you may come
up with the conclusion that actually
what the Constitution envisages is the
establishment of a mere administration
system not local government. So,
even in constitutional terms, local
government is not in a very strong
position. My argument is that it is
why the regional states treated it as an
administrative agency between 1994 and
2000. Had the Constitution been explicit
like the constitution of Nigeria which
clearly says that local government
will be a level of government which
is democratically constituted or like
South African constitution which
dedicates one chapter about the
structure, functions, powers, and
finances of local government, probably
local governments in Ethiopia would
have been treated better. Among other
things, because it is not constitutionally
in a strong position, the actual
treatment of local government is also
kind of as a step-child of the federal
system. It is used to enforce the
policies of the regional and federal
government especially given the fact
that one ruling party controls all levels
of government. The ruling party is
structured and operates based on the
democratic centralism principle which
requires a decision to be made at a
higher level and to be implemented at a
local level. Basically local government
is serving and being used for the
purpose of implementing the will of
the higher levels of government rather
than the will of the local community
which is supposed to have elected and
constituted that level of government.
Government policies which are
prepared under the guidance of EPRDF
emphasize on the need for grassroots
level public participation to achieve
accelerated development in Ethiopia.
Local government being the lowest level
of government, do these policies help
in strengthening the position of these
levels of government on the ground?
Even though in terms of constitutional
and legal terms there is no clarity, in
terms of policy direction, it is clear
that local government is meant to
serve as a level of government where
democratic participation takes place
and services are delivered efficiently.
However, the existence and function
of local government should not
depend on mere policy. It should be
legally, if possible constitutionally,
entrenched. The problem with mere
policy is that it can change. Yesterday,
local government was not seen as
important level of government for
democratic participation. Now, it is
seen as a level of government which is
important for democratic participation.
Tomorrow, this may change. There
are different measures that are taken
with the purpose of enhancing public
participation one of which is increasing
the size of local councils. The official
explanation for this is making local
government more accessible to the
public. Now, we have more than 3.6
million local representatives’ seats
throughout the country. This has
increased the democratic participation
as many people are represented, you
can argue. On the other hand, it has
discouraged democratic pluralism.
Due to the fact that there are millions
of seats in local government councils,
only the ruling party can contest in
local election. Because of the sheer size
of local councils, the other opposition
parties are in capable to run for local
elections structurally, organizationally,
and financially. This has helped the
ruling party to stay dominant by
controlling local government where
any political interaction between
local community and any political
organization takes place.
Despite the fact that the opposition is
not in a position to compete and win
local government seats against EPRDF
is well appreciated, one of your works
insist that the opposition lack interest
even to participate in local elections.
What possible factors explain this lack
of interest?
The participation of the opposition in
local elections is insignificant. As I have
argued in one of my opinion pieces, the
opposition complains that they face
difficulties to participate in the national
elections but at the end of the day they
still participate. When it comes to local
election, at the first sign of harassment
they boycott. The last five local
elections took place basically without
the participation of the opposition. Of
course, participating in local elections
is more demanding than the national
election. Local government is huge in
terms of size as it has 3.6 million seats.
However, in national elections, we
have only a maximum of 550 seats. I
don’t think that this is the only reason.
On the other hand, they consider
controlling the national government
will ultimately lead to controlling the
local level of government. So, rather
than spending time and energy on
local government, they just want to
participate in the national election. I
believe that if the opposition parties
are to be successful, they cannot ignore
CONT`D FROM PAGE 21
local elections. On the one hand, that
is the level of government where they
can have direct interaction with the
public. On the other hand, they allege
every time that it is local authorities
which block their interaction with the
public. So, if they want to have direct
interaction with the public, then they
have to control local government.
Some federalism experts advice that
to compete with a highly dominant
incumbent like the EPRDF, the
opposition has to start claiming local
government seats and build on it
step by step before controlling the
federal government. On the contrary,
as you have argued in your works,
the opposition has a strategy that
anticipates controlling the federal
government will definitely result in
controlling the local governments.
Which approach is advisable?
At the end of the day, it is going to be
a political decision. It is a matter of
calculation by the political parties
as to which way will suit them. For
some, it is preferable to start slowly
from local government and build up.
For others, it is preferable to control
the national government and go down
from top to local government. I don’t
think, I can say this or the other one
will work. But what I can say is there
are a number of justifications that I can
give on why the opposition should not
ignore local government. This is the
level of government which is creating
difficulties, as they allege. If they want
to avoid this difficulty, they have to
give attention to local government. The
other justification for decentralization
is it provides a political space where
the workability of different political
views and programs can be tested. If
they start to test their political program
at local level and if they are found to
www.thereporterethiopia.com
be workable, they can make a case for
themselves to say that it is working at
a local level and will definitely work at
regional and federal level. You can test
it without putting too much risk, with
less expense at local level.
Many constitutional experts argue
that the division of power between the
federal government and the regional
government in the Constitution lacks
clarity. Considering that establishing
local government falls under the
competence of the regional states, can
one attribute some of the problems of
local governments to this controversy?
We have a dual federal system.
Whatever power and function the
regional governments have, it has to
come from the Constitution. They can
only devolve powers and functions
assigned to them to local government.
It is up to the regional states to clearly
define the powers and functions of
local governments. Currently, the
powers and functions of the local
governments are totally unclear. The
regional constitutions do not define
what kinds of powers and functions
local governments may exercise, what
kind of revenue it can raise and use,
and whether it can demand as of right
from regional states’ budget some
kind of equitable share in the form of
block grant. It is not also so clear what
powers and functions the regional states
themselves have. There are some openended provisions in the Constitution
which provide some kind of leeway for
the federal government to enter into the
territory of the regional states and to
assume power. The Constitution itself
is framed in such a way that it allows
the federal government to encroach into
the terrain of the regional states power
“The last ¿ve local... page 29
|27
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
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www.thereporterethiopia.com
28|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Alliances...
In the twenty-first century, next door
is everywhere. That is why the world
needs coalition diplomacy. No country
can defeat terrorism on its own. No
country can solve the existential threat
of climate change alone. No country
can eradicate extreme poverty, combat
potential pandemics, or improve
nuclear security by itself.
None of us can live safer, richer lives by
turning our back to the world. We must
build on our history of working with
The
right...
CONT`D FROM PAGE 14
media. This new reality demands a new
response. We will need to update, adapt,
and deepen our methods of working
together.
This can be done by building on
effective institutions of cooperation
that already exist. Institutions
like the IMF should be made even
more representative in light of the
dynamic shifts taking place in the
global economy. The new networks
of influence should be embraced and
given space in the twenty-first century
architecture of global governance.
This is what I have called the “new
multilateralism.” I believe it is the only
way to address the challenges that the
global community faces.
The year 2014 was a tough one.
The recovery was slow, a series of
dangerous geopolitical risks emerged,
and the world was confronted with a
devastating Ebola outbreak. Next year
may be another tough one, but it could
also be a good one – a truly multilateral
year.
New momentum on global trade could
help unlock investment worldwide, and
I am hopeful about the new Sustainable
Development Goals (which will succeed
the Millennium Development Goals
in 2015), and about the prospects for
a comprehensive climate-change
agreement at the end of next year.
Against this backdrop, the adoption of
the IMF reforms by the United States
Congress would send a long-overdue
signal to rapidly growing emerging
economies that the world counts on
their voices, and their resources, to find
global solutions to global problems.
Growth, trade, development, and
climate change: 2015 will be a
rendezvous of important multilateral
initiatives. We cannot afford to see them
fail. Let us make the right choices.
Ed.’s Note: Christine Lagarde is
Managing Director of the International
Monetary Fund. The article was
provided to The Reporter by Project
Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source
of original op-ed commentaries. Project
Syndicate provides incisive perspectives
on our changing world by those who are
shaping its politics, economics, science,
and culture. The views expressed in this
article do not necessarily reflect the views
of The Reporter.
CONT`D FROM PAGE 14
allies by forming new coalitions – with
governments, with civil society, and,
yes, with everyday people.
A good example is the international
effort to confront the Islamic
State’s malign brutality in Iraq and
Syria. Political, humanitarian, and
intelligence tools from more than 60
countries are being used to support
unified military action. Success
depends not on what one or even a
handful of countries can do alone, but
on what all of us are able to achieve by
moving forward together against this
common threat.
together countries with competing
interests and varying resources
is hard work. It demands intense
diplomatic engagement and calls
upon relationships that have been
built and maintained over decades, as
well as alliances with new partners.
But by overcoming differences and
coordinating efforts to defeat the
Islamic State and conquer Ebola, we are
reinforcing support for a world order
grounded in collective solutions to
common problems.
On an equally important front, the US
is working with the United Nations
to galvanize a global response to the
danger posed by the Ebola virus. I have
personally talked with more than 50
foreign leaders, and we all agree that
only by coordinating our actions can we
stop the devastation in West Africa and
halt Ebola’s spread.
Cooperation is equally vital in
reinforcing the bedrock economic
principles on which America and
other countries built their postwar
prosperity. Frustration cannot grow
faster than opportunity in any country.
For example, the negotiations on the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) reflect
President Obama’s determination to
strike an accord with countries that
represent one-third of global trade and
40 percent of global GDP.
We are making progress on both issues,
but much work remains. Bringing
The benefits – for both the US and our
partners – are enormous. Estimates
Do economic...
CONT`D FROM PAGE 13
must be prepared to address their own
vulnerabilities. North Korea is perhaps
the most noxious regime in the world
today, and one can only hope that its
cruel government collapses sometime
soon. The Kim regime has clung to
power despite being subject to severe
economic sanctions, perhaps because
China, fearing a united Korea on its
border, has not yet been willing to
withdraw its support.
Yet it is easy to forget that there are
different viewpoints in international
relations, even in the most extreme
situations. Though North Korea’s
alleged attack on Sony Pictures’
computers has been rightly condemned,
it must be admitted that from the
perspective of the North Korean elite,
their country simply applied economic
retaliation much like anyone else does.
Sony Pictures had produced a satire
poking fun at North Korea’s leader, the
“Young General” Kim Jong-un. This
was an intolerable affront, to which the
elite responded with economic sabotage
rather than military action.
Let us also not forget that Russia,
too, has deployed cyber attacks in the
service of foreign-policy goals. Indeed,
Russia has far more formidable hackers
than North Korea (though much of
the top talent currently is employed in
mafia rings, rather than in strategic
operations).
In a world where nuclear proliferation
has rendered global conventional war
unthinkable, economic sanctions and
sabotage are likely to play a large role
in twenty-first-century geopolitics.
Rather than preventing conflict,
Pericles’s sanctions in ancient Greece
ultimately helped to trigger the
Peloponnesian War. One can only hope
that in this century, wiser heads will
prevail, and that economic sanctions
lead to bargaining, not violence.
Ed.’s Note: Kenneth Rogoff, a former
chief economist of the IMF, is Professor
of Economics and Public Policy at
Harvard University. The article was
provided to The Reporter by Project
Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source
of original op-ed commentaries. Project
Syndicate provides incisive perspectives
on our changing world by those who are
shaping its politics, economics, science,
and culture. The views expressed in this
article do not necessarily reflect the views
of The Reporter.
In a world where nuclear proliferation has
rendered global conventional war unthinkable,
economic sanctions and sabotage are likely to play
a large role in twenty-Àrst-century geopolitics.
Rather than preventing conÁict, Pericles’s
sanctions in ancient Greece ultimately helped to
trigger the Peloponnesian War.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
are that the TPP could provide USD
77 billion a year in real income and
support 650,000 new jobs in the US
alone. The Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership being
negotiated with the European Union
offers another major step toward
increasing trade.
Whether for mutual security or shared
prosperity, genuine partnerships are
not built overnight. Patient diplomacy
and a collective will are needed to
advance common goals. America’s
objectives remain the same as they have
been for decades – peace, prosperity,
and stability for the US and for our
partners around the world.
Ed.’s Note: John F. Kerry, former
US Senator from Massachusetts and
Chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, is US Secretary
of State. The article was provided to
The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the
world’s pre-eminent source of original
op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate
provides incisive perspectives on our
changing world by those who are
shaping its politics, economics, science,
and culture. The views expressed in this
article do not necessarily reflect the views
of The Reporter.
This is a collective failure.
As we head into 20, we
must consider policies and
interventions to curb such
extreme inequality.
The state...
CONT`D FROM PAGE 12
limited amount is desirable as a driver
of competition and growth. But the deep
and pervasive inequality that exists
today can only be condemned.
According to some back-of-the-envelope
calculations, the wealth of the world’s
50 richest people totals USD 1.5
trillion, equivalent to 175 percent of
Indonesia’s GDP, or a little more than
Japan’s foreign-exchange reserves. If
one assumes that this wealth yields 8
percent per year, the annual income of
the world’s 50 wealthiest people is close
to the total income of the poorest one
billion – in other words, those living
below the poverty line.
This is a collective failure. As we head
into 2015, we must consider policies
and interventions to curb such extreme
inequality. We must do this not only out
of a sense of justice, but also because,
in a world afflicted with such extreme
disparities, its poorest residents lose
their voice, even when they have the
right to vote. Extreme inequality is,
ultimately, an assault on democracy.
Ed.’s Note: Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice
President and Chief Economist of the
World Bank, is Professor of Economics
at Cornell University. The article was
provided to The Reporter by Project
Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source
of original op-ed commentaries. Project
Syndicate provides incisive perspectives
on our changing world by those who are
shaping its politics, economics, science,
and culture. The views expressed in this
article do not necessarily reflect the views
of The Reporter.
|29
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
“The last five local...
and function. This has been manifested
in the recent urban land administration
proclamation when the federal
government invokes the purpose of
creating one economic community as a
leeway to engage in the administration
of urban land. According to the
Constitution, land administration is
state power. Even under sub-regional
governments, land management is
basically the power and functions of
local government. So, it directly impacts
local government.
Is there a direct relationship between
the way the local governments are
structured and the level of minority
protection especially regrading those
migrated from other areas for different
reasons?
In relation to ethnic local government,
the Constitution seems to envisage the
accommodation of those territorially
concentrated ethnic communities.
In multi-ethnic regions like SNNPR,
Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, there
are ethnically structured territories.
SNNPR, Benishangul, Gambella,
Afar, and Amhara regional states
established ethnic local governments
at zonal, special woreda or nationality
zone levels. When it comes to other
minorities which are not territorially
concentrated especially what we call
ethnic migrants or what some writers
call exogenous ethnic communities,
as a matter of institutional structure,
they cannot be accommodated through
the establishment of ethnic local
government. They are territorially
dispersed and belong to different ethnic
communities. The question should be
are there non-territorial institutional
mechanisms and structures for the
purpose of accommodating these ethnic
migrants. One way of accommodating
these ethnic migrants is to protect their
individual rights. For that, both the
federal and regional constitutions have
bill of rights. When it comes to political
representation of ethnic migrants, there
seems to be some measures taken by
the regional states which discourage
their political representation. One is
quota system. For example, in Oromia
50 percent of city council seats are
CONT`D FROM PAGE 26
reserved for ethnic Oromos especially
in those cities where ethnic Oromos
are found in minority. And 20 percent
is reserved for rural kebeles which
are dominated by ethnic Oromos.
So, practically 70 percent of the city
council seats are out of contestation
for other individuals belonging to
other ethnic communities. On the
one hand, this measure seems to be
justified. These cities being found in
ethnically organized regional states
and being centers of administrative
offices, schools, and universities,
excluding those communities for whom
the regional state was established
from having some kind of control over
the cities will not make sense. On the
other hand, this kind of measures with
extensive exclusionary provisions
puts hurdle on their participation. Its
constitutionality may be questioned.
Are local governments in a position
to raise their own revenue to cover
the required costs emanating from
the powers and functions entrusted to
them?
With regard to financial powers of local
government, except some big cities
which are financial and economic
centers, they are to a large extent
dependent on grants from senior levels
of government. This is actually the
case even in other federations like
Nigeria and South Africa. Mostly,
local governments are not capable
of covering all their expenses from
internal revenue. But in other federal
countries constitutions the upper
level of governments are required to
transfer grants to local government. In
Ethiopia, local governments’ revenue
raising power is not clearly defined. The
woredas just exercise administrative
power over taxes assigned to regional
governments like rural land use fee
and agricultural income tax. Since
2001, there is a policy that directs upper
levels of governments to transfer block
grants to local governments especially
woredas. But it is not a constitutional
requirement. That means a woreda
cannot require the regional state to
transfer block grants to it. If a woreda
is controlled by an opposition party and
the regional state governed by another
ruling party, the party governing the
regional state may refuse to transfer
block grants. And there is no way that
the opposition party can enforce that
right.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Inform the public to make
the right decision
Dear Editor,
Media has usually, if not always, the
power to change the way the public
thinks and behaves. Information is
always power. And the one from the
media plays a significant role in the
decision citizens make as it is usually
taken for granted and double-checked.
Media professionals are considered as
authorized truth tellers. As a result, the
information coming from the television
screens, radio speakers, and newspaper
columns has a big impact on the way
the majority of the public perceives the
truth about something.
This means the media organizations
and the media professionals are
expected to dig more information
and go extra-miles to double check
whether the information they accessed
is reallythe truth. That is a matter of
trustworthiness for them while it is
for the public a matter of making the
right decision using the information.
Whenever they fail to do so, the
destruction will be regrettable both for
the public and for themselves.
That is what happened during the last
three months in media reports about
what is going on in the country’s
telecom sector. As of October, reports
appeared on different newspapers
indicating that Ericson, the Swedish
telecom company, is to take part in the
country’s telecom expansion project
that was signed amonge thio-telecom
and Huawei and ZTE, Chinese telecom
operators, with 1.6 billion USD vendor
financing agreement to last for two
years.
From the beginning, I have read
different and conflicting information
about the involvement of Ericson in
the project. I was not surprised about
the distorted information as the issue
was at its early age. After all, the
information had some slice of truth in
it. What is surprising is the media still
seem not to get the truth about what
exactly the involvement of Ericson is.
Ethio-telecom did officially sign a frame
contact with Ericsson a week before and
various media outlets have covered the
story.
Unfortunately, the public is not yet
informed about what the agreement
would mean in providing an efficient
telecom service. I believe the public
has the right to know the truth about
it as the issue is something significant
for the public in everyone’s day to day
activities and the lion’s share in this
respect is up to the media.
As an individual who wishes to get
accurate information about significant
projects, I learnt that Ericson’s share
in the project is to work only on the
wireless lot in all four different circles
it is awarded with 400 million USD.
That means it will not work on other
www.thereporterethiopia.com
lots even in the four circles unlike what
the media reported. Most importantly, I
came to understand that the negotiation
shifted all the potential risks to the
country. The agreement worth of
USD 400 million, which the country is
expected to start paying after a year in
Foreign currency (because Ericson’s
grace period is only one year as far as
I know), excludes the cost of auxiliary
facilities like batteries and iron towers.
These costs will instead be covered
by the country even after paying 400
million USD.
I also highly doubt the impact it will
have on the time frame the project is
expected to be put into commercial
usage. It takes months to produce and
transport the batteries and towers
to the sites from factories. The time
it takes to reach agreement with the
supplier is not exceptional. After all
these processes, it needs another time
to implement it. This is something that
has to do with whether the project can
be put into commercial usage as already
set a year ago. That is a question that
should have led the media to know
more about the details instead of simply
taking what was literally said in the
official press conferences. We need
more detailed information from the
media. That is a long way to go.
Antonio Blanca
[email protected].
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The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
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www.thereporterethiopia.com
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The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
2n hindsight, though, one could perhaps note that such downstream anticipation is not totally
unreasoned. After all, one cannot fail to appreciate that Egypt owes its very existence to the 1ile and
could do anything to salvage its privileged position with regard to the use of the river. Since the ancient
times, the 1ile Áood in Egypt has presented the foundation for one of the most-stable and structured
social, economic and political realms in human history. Sudan, too, depends extensively on this natural
endowment. Experimentation on the huge potentials of Sudanese agriculture dates back to as early as
0 Sudan has for long had an elaborate system of irrigation covering a vast area of about 2 million
hectares using dams and diesel pumps.
Conveying a wrong...
country’s water security’ and retorted
that should Egypt ‘lose one drop, our
blood is the alternative’. Apparently,
the final report of the International
Panel of Experts - submitted on June
1, 2013 to Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt
- had played little role in influencing
the hydro-political setting in Egypt.
Outraged by the open declaration, of
course, Ethiopia pursued a series of
diplomatic measures and reiterated
its stance that the project will not be
stopped even for a second - despite the
stirs caused in Egypt.
While the diplomatic confrontation
subsided in June 2013 after Egypt’s
Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel
Amr visited Addis Ababa, and later,
following a summit between leaders of
the two countries in Malabu in 2014, the
blemish of this brief incident lingered
as somber reminder of the deeply
entrenched disparity between national
interests and how Egypt constructs its
‘water rights’ even when its position
remains incompatible with any reading
of fundamental principles under
international law.
Most importantly, the episode left
Ethiopia on the defensive in relation
to construction of the GERD and in
improving relationships between the
two states. Diplomatic shuttles became
order of the day, public diplomacy
was reinvigorated, and exceedingly
optimistic views were reiterated
in Ethiopian corners emphasizing,
without caution, that the Ethiopian
dam ‘has limited objectives’ and ‘causes
little or no injury to Egypt’. Not many
seemed to give due consideration to the
‘high expectation’ Ethiopia’s diplomatic
language raises along the downstream
Nile in terms of ‘future forbearance’
in utilizing the dam itself or the Nile
waters for other purposes, for example,
to fulfill its dire water requirement in
agriculture or food security.
A prudent approach, however
challenging in the short-term relations
of the two states, would have required
Ethiopia to openly predicate all its
claims on the equitable uses principle.
Ethiopia’s argument in defense of
the GERD should principally be
grounded on a premise that pursuing
development on any part of the Nile
- including the GERD - is in fact a
sovereign right - whether such action
causes harm along the downstream Nile
or entails a diminution in the flow of the
Nile waters to Sudan or Egypt. Indeed,
except in the context of promoting good
neighborly relations and cooperation,
Ethiopia is not bound to labor on
assuring that the GERD poses no harm
to downstream states - so long as it acts
within the confines of its equitable
share. If anything, a persistent employ
of language that the GERD does not
impair Egyptian and Sudanese interests
only molds a wrong perception that
Ethiopia’s equitable entitlement is
determined in narrow confines of a
specific use, which, if exceeded through
another use, engenders undesirable
diplomatic racket with the two
downstream countries. In diplomatic
settings, how a state tunes its pledges
could well have implication on the
nature of the expectation by other
riparian states. El Sisi’s intended appeal
is a suitable example.
In Egypt, despite all the wisdom availed
on international water law, if its
leadership looks for Ethiopia’s written
warranty that the GERD has no hidden
agenda than the development of hydropower or that Ethiopia’s use of the Nile
will not shrink the river’s flows, one
could postulate that Egypt was only
taking advantage of how Ethiopia has
framed its rights on the Nile during
the construction phases of the GERD.
Egypt has regarded Ethiopian stakes
as limited to the development of power
- further inferring that the latter would
not pursue other uses on the Nile although it realizes that Ethiopia’ uses
in all sectors are legitimate under
settled principles of international law.
On hindsight, though, one could
perhaps note that such downstream
anticipation is not totally unreasoned.
After all, one cannot fail to appreciate
that Egypt owes its very existence
to the Nile and could do anything to
salvage its privileged position with
regard to the use of the river. Since
the ancient times, the Nile flood in
Egypt has presented the foundation for
one of the most-stable and structured
social, economic and political realms
in human history. Sudan, too, depends
extensively on this natural endowment.
Experimentation on the huge potentials
of Sudanese agriculture dates back to
as early as 1910; Sudan has for long
had an elaborate system of irrigation
covering a vast area of about 2 million
hectares using dams and diesel pumps.
In both countries, the Nile River and its
tributaries supply the vital waters of
life.
Hence, in the past two years, if
Sudan has acquiesced to Ethiopia’s
construction of the GERD or
enthusiastically supported its
enterprise, this must only be
understood as a coefficient of a
tacit trade-off (or anticipation) that
Ethiopia will not use the Nile waters
for irrigational or other uses which
subtract the water’s flows. No altruism
could be inferred from its behavior. If
anything, the extreme ‘no-interference’
“
undertaking of the government.
CONT`D FROM PAGE 10
position which Sudan advocated
during the final legs of the negotiations
on the CFA only serves as a fitting
demonstration of its ‘veiled intent’ with
regard to the GERD.
On the other hand, if Egypt has so far
failed to endorse the GERD, this is only
because it suspects that the dam edifice,
once built, could well be used for
purposes other than producing power,
or that the revenues generated from it
could be employed to further expand
Ethiopia’s dependence on the Nile
waters. Clearly, neither of the two states
will easily yield to a compromise if
Ethiopia choses to raise its stakes on the
Nile through, for example, large-scale
irrigational schemes as a legitimate
exercise of its equitable shares.
No doubt, Ethiopia will heighten it
stakes on the Nile; this is only a matter
of time. True, in relation to Ethiopia,
the fundamentals of an old British
policy on the Nile which had advocated
that Ethiopia ‘had no pressing uses’ for
the Nile and that ‘its benefit from the
river is limited to the development of
power for which there is no immediate
market’ has been wholeheartedly
inherited by Egypt and Sudan even
today. Yet, so much has also changed
in Ethiopia in the past decades - and
particularly since the 1990’s. Master
plans of major national river basins
have been worked out, or reorganized;
and a chain of prefeasibility and
feasibility studies had been completed.
While various organizations had put
the figures quite differently, a modest
study published by the FAO in 1997 had
estimated that across the Nile basin, the
gross irrigational water requirement
stands at 124bcm/yr., far beyond the
river’s mean annual supplies, of which
19.9bcm/yr. was in Ethiopia, 38.5bcm/
yr. in Sudan and 57.4bcm/yr. in Egypt.
Ethiopia’s irrigation potential in the
Nile sub-basin - constituted of the Blue
Nile, Baro-Akobo and Tekeze-Atbara
sub-basins - extends over 2,219,700
hectares. On the basis of an average
irrigational water requirement of 9,000
cubic meters per hectare, irrigated
agriculture in Ethiopia would alone
require a total of 19.98bcm of waters a
year.
In light of such great potential, a
plan for rapid agriculture-based
industrialization which projected to
exploit the land, water and peasant
labor resources of an agricultural
society has been highlighted as
a vital policy frame to revive the
momentum of the national economic
development. Among others, the
institution of a series of hydro- power
facilities and irrigational schemes have
been identified as the most pressing
www.thereporterethiopia.com
Naturally, these developments could
not be achieved without making use
of the Nile waters - a key national
resource. This verity engenders one
important consequence: that the
protected uses regime on the Nile,
historically enjoyed by the states of
Egypt and Sudan, would have very
little chance of being sustained in the
future in its present form or scale. At
some stage, reassessment of the shares
or readjustment of the beneficial uses
would only be imperative.
But, this also means that Ethiopia must
pursue its riparian interests through
a clear articulation of principles of
international law that establish its
equitable entitlement. Today, when
the CFA has petite chances of being
endorsed by Egypt - the largest user
of the Nile waters - and hence no
comprehensive accord would be
feasible in the short term, Ethiopia’s
diplomatic calisthenics in relation to
the GERD must be consistent with the
approaches its maintained during the
CFA negotiations which had sought to
annul all pre-existing accords on the
Nile. Its discourse should twirl on ‘reallocation’ of appropriated waters, when
reasonable. And when such course
appears impractical, Ethiopia must
firmly defend its rights on the basis of
broader conceptions of equity - without
leaving any opening for ambiguity.
In the context of the GERD, this entails
that its diplomatic language should
be outlined in a style that would not
produce a mistaken optimism in Egypt
and Sudan - that Ethiopia’s interest is
indeed restricted to the development of
hydropower schemes. It must plainly
convey a message that it is perfectly
legitimate for Ethiopia to dedicate
the GERD or other tributaries of the
Nile for any use it deems fit; only an
accord between the three states could
impose a limit on its rights. Such a
clear stand from the outset thwarts any
misunderstanding which might arise
subsequently - should, for example,
Ethiopia choose to enlarge its uses of
the Nile waters. Most importantly, a
consistent assertion of a broader right
of use in all instances, including in the
context of diplomatic engagements on
the GERD, would potentially inhibit
Egypt from venturing to request for
Ethiopia’s written undertaking that
it will not use the GERD for purposes
other than the production of electric
powers, nor will it be cornered it into
acquiescing that its actions will not
diminish the river’s flows downstream.
Ed.’s Note: Tadesse Kassa Woldetsadik
(PhD) is an assistant professor of Law
and Human Rights, College f Law and
Governance Studies, Addis Ababa
University. The views expressed in this
article do not necessarily reflect the views
of The Reporter. He can be reached at
[email protected].
32|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Trafficking or slavery
Human trafficking...
is available in Ethiopia” has become
a norm. However, these presumptions
are yet to be substantiated by facts. One
example where misreading the situation
of domestic workers in the Middle East,
has been the training program initiated
by the government.
The so-called training consisted of
teaching women how to iron, using
washing machine, usage of modern
kitchen equipment’s etc. However, there
is very little qualitative or quantitative
data that showcases a correlation
between domestic workers ability to
perform their contractual agreement
and violence towards them. The only
data available concerning training
domestic workers in such a fashion is
that such workers could be paid more
(such as Philippine workers being paid
more than Ethiopian workers).
Therefore, when these programs are
implemented; there have been cases
where some women are taught to
apply perfumes on their clothes so as
to seem more adaptable or in teaching
them that they should not complain
too much to their employers. Thus, the
end result occurs whereby when they
do arrive in the Middle East they are
prone to their rights being violated
because they blame themselves for not
“adopting” to the work culture and
the training given to them at home
in Ethiopia. These trainings become
counterproductive because it empowers
the abusive employer and blames
to victim for the abuse. Therefore
because the presumptions have been
that these domestic workers both who
had traveled (legally and illegally) are
attracting violation to their rights due
to their lack of labor experience or their
lack of discipline; the training programs
only embodies these stereotypes that
undermining their human rights in the
first place.
Opposition parties
The stands of the opposition parties
on the issue of migration could be
divided in two areas. There are those
who are advocating for the wellbeing
of migrants in light of policies and
then they are those who want to exploit
the tragedy of Ethiopian migrants to
score some political points. This is
nothing new in the game of politics, as
political parties globally act in such
manners. However, what is worrying in
this case is that the opposition groups
both internally and externally have
not been vocal about what they would
do differently than the stands of the
government is taking. For example,
when controversy occurred when the
Blue (Semayawi) party organized a
rally after the returnees came back to
Ethiopia, there was very little from the
opposition party as to what they hoped
to achieve. It begs the question if the
rally was really about migrants’ rights
in the first place or media attention for
the party.
This question is even more troubling
by the fact that after the rally was
canceled, it seems the interest of
opposition groups subsided in the
area of migrants. Different avenues to
address the issue of migrants’ rights
such as the media both local and
international were not utilized. As the
general elections were approaching, too
busy with funds and mobilization, again
the rights of migrants are sidelined by
the opposition. Some in the opposition
blame what they call government
repression for the lack of action,
yet very few explain exactly what
repression was in place to hinder them
to help shape polices that they think
would help returnees. Again we see how
because migrants are within the fringe
of society (the poor, the uneducated, and
the vulnerable) most opposition parties
only use the plight of migrants when
it fits their agenda of criticizing the
government.
IOM, ILO and civil societies
On April 10, 2014, Migrant-Right (
Middle East based NGO) spoke to
chief technical adviser on migrant
domestic workers at the International
Labour Organization (ILO’s) head office
in Addis Ababa. The conversation
ranged from livelihood projects for
returnees to the challenges ILO and
IOM encountered such as stigmatization
of returnees due to children born
out of wedlock and debt returnees
owed to brokers. However, very little
information as to ongoing projects
conducted by IOM and ILO was
informative. Again there seems to
ambiguity as to the responsibility
shouldered by organizations such
as International organization of
Migrants (IOM) or International labour
organization (ILO). For example, ILO
did not state if they were working
with host countries about improving
domestic workers rights or if they are
working with the active civil societies
within the Middle East who are
working on migrants rights. However,
what is more disheartening is lack
of accountability in dealing with the
failure or lack of action by IOM and
ILO before the forced deportation of
Ethiopian migrants from the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia took place.
Looking at the backdrop before the
outbreak of the crises; contrary to
many media outlets both local and
international, about the sudden
violence that engulfed Ethiopian
migrants in Saudi, the six month
temporary extension for migrants to
apply for work permit was for those who
changed jobs (which at that time were
illegal) and not for those who entered
Saudi nation illegally. Thus, this limbo
existed for Ethiopian migrants as many
entered the country illegally and thus
can be prosecuted by law.
In poorer neighborhoods of major
cities in Saudi where the majority
of Ethiopian migrants lived, there
existed uneasy atmosphere between
the Ethiopian migrants and poor
Saudis and other migrants from Asia.
Accusations and counter accusation
existed about rape, murder and theft
committed by Ethiopians on other
nationalities and vice versa before the
six month extension of deportation
order. At this time, it was the
responsibility of IOM and ILO to step
in to try to meditate between the local
council and the migrants; this was not
done sufficiently even though local
civil societies, local businessmen and
some religious leaders have warned
of an upcoming conflict between these
communities.
CONT`D FROM PAGE 10
Moreover, even after the deadline
passed and conflict intensified, ILO and
IOM did not deploy enough people on
the ground even to guide the Ethiopian
migrants to where to go, which police
station was safe, help local police to
be deployed, coordinate with different
actors etc. Thus, their absence added to
the confusion, which allowed a vacuum
for corrupt policemen and locals to
take the law into their own hands
and “teach” the Ethiopian migrants a
“lesson” by rape and murder.
Arab society and Ethiopian domestic
workers
To understand the violence that
encountered Ethiopian migrants in the
Middle East; we have to understand
the history of labor migrants from the
Horn of Africa to the Middle East. In
ancient times, slavery between the Horn
and the Middle East approximately
had 2 million black slaves transported
to the Middle East. Most of those who
were traded and sold to the Middle East
disproportionally had been women
compared to those sold by European and
American slave traders in the Western
part of Africa (which were mostly men
for labor on plantations). These women
were used as concubines to serve their
masters’ sexual needs (mostly by force)
and can be traded and exchanged
(or shared) without their will. It was
common place for the concubines
to act as domestic laborers in their
masters’ household. These services of
course went on without any salary or
compensation.
It is from this background, we can
better understand why there is a
disproportionate level of violence
towards domestic workers at present
time in the Middle East. Both the
Kafala system of work sponsorship
and domestic laws pertaining domestic
laborers rights (which in most cases
does not apply to foreign domestic
workers); can be better understood by
the lack of will both in the population
and the government of the host nations
to implement laws protecting domestic
workers such as Ethiopian domestic
workers. As with the past, most
Middle Eastern governments wish for
the employers and the employment
agency to meditate the fate of domestic
workers; for little value has and is given
to domestic workers from Africa and
Asia, due to a history of enslavement of
women from Africa that has not been
dealt with sufficiently by the society at
present time.
This is not to say that many in the
Middle East still hold the same view
as the past. The new generation
especially has been an advocate for
humane treatment of domestic workers
from Africa and Asia. It is actually
their brave and hard work that has
highlighted the plight of domestic
workers in the Middle East. It is
these individuals and some religious
leaders who have protected the rights
of Migrants, quoting the holy Quran to
show mercy and compassion. However,
the institutions in Middle Eastern
countries, especially those dealing with
domestic workers have not met the bare
minimum international standards and
still resonate the dark age of female
slavery and servitude practiced in the
Middle East in recent past.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
Most would argue that human
trafficking is a means by which
human slavery would occur. However,
within the context of Ethiopia, I
would argue that the main misguided
policy practiced by our government,
civil societies and the international
organizations in relations to Ethiopian
migrants is because of the belief that
human trafficking can be tackled with
policy changes, awareness camping and
livelihood alternatives. Yet, when we
look at the facts on the ground more and
more people are going even after the
ban by the government, as illustrated
by the recent tragedy of 70 Ethiopians
drowning going to Yemen; a war torn
country which already has 2 million
illegal migrants and human rights
violations that takes place daily on
migrants.
From our government to our society at
large, we have been using the prism of
economic or political situation in our
country to understand the migration
flow; thus focusing or trajectories
and economic incentives at home as
solutions; yet what we have failed
to understand for so long has been
that, the same society government is
encouraging to protect the vulnerable
individuals (such as women) is the
same society that is selling their own
people for their own greed. Blaming
poverty as an excuse for example on
Monday July 21, 2014, an article written
by David Smith (a reporter for The
Guardian newspaper) looked at how
some regions in Ethiopia would tell
their own daughters to marry so they
will lose their virginity then divorce
and migrate to Middle East to earn more
money. They marry off their daughters
knowing that these daughters will more
likely be raped in their host countries;
which is okay with the family, for they
can still keep their “honor” as their
raped daughter is no more a virgin
when she gets raped. As she endures
the torture of daily rape and sends
whatever she has saved from her 20
hour workday; her family will get a new
TV, Radio and can brag about their rise
of income; while getting her younger
sister ready to fill in her footsteps.
Our government is in denial about
the magnitude of the problem, when
on the other hand, the international
community is not. For example,
Ethiopia is named one of the 15
countries in the world with over 300,000
people living in slave-like conditions
according to Global Slavery Index
of 2013, These are not migrants but
Ethiopians living in Ethiopia; and it
is mostly from this same group that
end up being coerced (by bullying and
intimidation) even by their family
members to migrate (feminization
of migration) to the Middle East and
Southern Africa.
Ethiopia has a dark history of slavery,
in which time; it sold its own people
for profit before slavery was officially
banned in 1942. However, we have to
face the fact that Ethiopia is again
selling its own people for profit; using
poverty as an excuse for mothers and
fathers sending off their daughters to
the Middle East as a cash cow.
The way forward…
There is no easy solution to the
problem of human trafficking, for
there can never be a lasting solution
to the problem. However, what would
be the best solution to tackle the issue
of human trafficking is setting up
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The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
multiple mechanisms to address the
issue at hand. If our society is not the
solution to human trafficking, then we
must accept the fact that we are part
of the problem. Behind the rhetoric of
Ethiopian solidarity, we first have to
accept the fact that our treatment of
those who are vulnerable to bondage
and trafficking can only be protected by
the law of the land; which in this case is
our constitution.
It is, therefore, a must that we take
away the power given to the masses
(for example community elders) and
empower institutions that deal with
human trafficking such as training
and funding police force how to handle
human trafficking cases and how to
collect intelligence (not to depend
exclusively on informants from the
public “tikoma”).
We should also empower the courts
and prosecutors with better laws to
tackle this epidemic. For example,
the US Department of State on June 14,
2010 produced a report on trafficking and
the report said that “…Though the
Ethiopian government has increased
its efforts to prosecute and punish
transnational trafficking offenders,
prosecution of internal trafficking cases
remains nonexistent. Article 635 of
Ethiopia’s Criminal Code (Trafficking
in Women and Minors) criminalizes sex
trafficking and prescribes punishments
not exceeding five years’ imprisonment.
Articles 596 (Enslavement) and 597
(Trafficking in Women and Children)
outlaw slavery and labor trafficking
and prescribe punishments of five to 20
years’ rigorous imprisonment. These
articles, however, have rarely been
used to prosecute trafficking offenses;
instead, Articles 598 (Unlawful Sending
of Ethiopians to Work Abroad) and 571
(Endangering the Life of Another) are
more often used to prosecute cases of
transnational labor trafficking.”
We must also widen the scope of
what qualifies traffickers to include
guardians of underage children, to
make sure that parents do not sell their
kids to human traffickers, such as the
case in Cambodia and Philippines.
We have to setup a system where by
parents understand that children
are first and foremost citizens of this
nation, protected by law; even from
their parents if they bring harm to
their child, regardless of the parents
economic situation. We not only have
to educate but be firm that breaking
the law be manipulating their children
to travel abroad illegally, will also
hold them responsible. We have to
show that breaking these laws will
have consequences, having them be
prosecuted just like the traffickers,
including jail time.
We also have to work with the
government, media, religious leaders,
civil society in the Middle East, so that
once migrants (both legal and illegal)
end up in the Middle East, they are
protected by all actors involve. For
example, ILO and IOM have to do a
better job in coordinating with local
civil society groups in setting up safe
houses (as some Ethiopian migrants
do not wish to go to future Ethiopian
government run safe houses). Moreover,
the ILO and IOM have to reorganize and
modify their mechanism of collecting
funds for projects pertaining migrants,
making sure to setup funds on the side
for emergencies; so that there would
not be lack of funds to help Ethiopian
migrants in the future in areas of
emergency evacuation to safe houses,
hiring lawyers etc.
In conclusion, even though fighting
poverty is logically key in fighting
human trafficking and many other
issues, not only in Ethiopia but globally;
we have to narrow down and focus
on protecting and empowering those
vulnerable within our society, without
forgetting it is us the majority in this
society, who have made these young
women to become vulnerable in the
place. If not for the tolerance by us of
FGM, lack of education of our young
women, early marriage, domestic
violence, lack of employment for rural
women and the list goes on; then most
of these women and girls would not had
been force or coerced into making this
journey in the first place. Simplifying
the issue of female migration within the
context of better livelihood and lack of
awareness has only helped create more
problems than solutions.
It is not a coincidence that most of
the domestic workers who have faced
the most violence in the Middle East,
have come from countries which
have appalling women rights records
(Nepal, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Indonesia,
Pakistan, India). Therefore in Ethiopia,
it is not human trafficking which is
a means by which human slavery
is occurring aboard but it is human
bondage and slave like conditions our
In search...
Ed.s Note: Neftalem Fikre Hailemeskel
studies Global Refuge and International
Development at Aalborg University,
Copenhagen, Denmark. Conducted
case studies on livelihood – migration
nexus concerning labor migrants.
The views expressed in this article
do not necessarily reflect the views of
The Reporter. He can be reached at
[email protected].
With this, many are opening the
door to explore the landscape, to reimagine and re-invent art. For Mihret,
public art should be the trend since it
invites ownership and also breaks the
conventional way of presenting art,
reaching a wide audience, involving the
community
Many artists say that there should be
public places where people can enjoy
themselves. These places should cheer
people, make them curious and art
plays a major role in this.
As Addis is changing, the plan of
the city is still in a state of constant
revision. And artists say that it is
important to include open spaces and
green areas.
After staging this performance, Mihret
believes that the street culture is very
rich and is easy to communicate with.
Mulugeta, who also tested the public
with his performances, says that the
community is interactive. He also
believes in intervention and likes to
function as a wake up call. So did his
second performance around Kebena
area.
Since the community does not have a
say as to what kind of statue should
be erected he wanted to trigger the
community with his question “what
kind of monument would you like to see
at these kinds of public spaces?”
The community crowded him and
also questioned his sanity and he was
a joy to the children. Some people
taught it was a statue. Proposing an
integrated solution for the city even at
the community level, he says art can be
participatory.
We have started to become a nation
that is turning its back on its own
people who have given so much, even
their lives, so that their parents can
live a better life, their sisters can go
to school and their brothers can start
their own business. But when they
were in hardship; we shunned them
away, blaming them for greed and
naivety; only dealing with them when
the suffering was televised globally;
shaming our country’s pride and
economic growth; suddenly we grew a
consciousness. Our society has become
at best indifferent and at worst ignorant
about the suffering and sacrifices made
by Ethiopian migrants for more than a
decade.
actually has a plan to do street music
performances.
CONT`D FROM PAGE 17
housing commotion by building a model
house in cartoon. His art performance
showed the condominium scheme that
was introduced by the Government
of Ethiopia. Many bought the model
cartoon condos. An old woman, who
carried money in her handkerchief,
bought the model house and said “let me
at least buy this one.” for Mihret these
were some of the critiques of the tension
that is going on in the city.
Creating his provocative piece, he did
not ask the officials. He rather wanted
to see whether if they would arrest him,
but luckily that did not happen.
women are facing in Ethiopia that has
created the vacuum for these same
women to be treated as slaves abroad.
If our society of more than 90 million
people cannot for any reason let it
be cultural or religious norms have
become indifferent to human slavery
of their own children, using poverty
as justification for slavery; then our
society doesn’t have the ability to
function in a modern world.
De Vaartkapoen, Brussels, Belgium
On the musical side one artiste who
attempted th unusual is Samuel Yirga.
He randomly played music on the
streets of Addis. Playing on the streets
of London was easier but bringing
his performance around piazza
overwhelmed many who were not used
to street piano concerts.
Since street concerts are not usual in
the Addis scene, the sound system was
placed in a neighborhood bank. During
the concert people stopped what they
were doing to see Samuel play. They
fully supported him. Breaking the
conventional way of playing music
also felt good for him in reaching a
community which does not know his
music. “They were clapping, cheering
for me and it was an overwhelming
experience,” Samuel says. Now he
www.thereporterethiopia.com
Many urban designers recommend
in building a city which is not
monotonous, but rather one which
takes into consideration the unique
aspect of local culture. Helawe Sewunet,
architect instructor at the Ethiopian
Institute of Architecture, Building
Construction and City Development
says that the public spaces are used
during commercial purposes and also
religious purposes but when it comes to
art there is nothing.
Though in theory the creation of open
spaces and green areas is the main
objective of urban design, he says
in reality these places are not there.
With the new downtown urban design
which connects the jubilee palace to
the Filwuha area there are plans to
build plazas and he believes things
will change. For him the main point of
urban design is to make the city lively
and these discussions should go on.
34|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
A Chef’s Three...
CONT`D FROM PAGE 18
My favorite dish was my grandmother’s
roast chicken. It was rubbed with
spices—cardamom, cinnamon, salt
and pepper—and served with roasted
potatoes. The bones would be used to
make chicken soup. It was farm to table
before that term existed.
stuck together and were taught to view
our distinction as an opportunity. No
matter what happened, we were still
the Samuelssons. Sometimes it was
tough at school. Kids will be kids.
Nevertheless, I did well in class, and
much of my confidence came from being
an exceptional athlete in soccer, tennis
and hockey.
I’m so proud of my Swedish heritage—
and grateful. I knew in high school that
I wanted to be a professional chef, and
after graduation I trained in France and
Switzerland. Once I was there, moving
to America to work was the logical
next step. I arrived in the States in 1994
and eventually became a U.S. citizen,
retaining my Swedish citizenship as
well.
I don’t believe children are racist, and
most kids in Sweden weren’t. But I
was prepared for anything. My parents
spoke with me and said, “You know
you’re from Ethiopia and children
are going to say things.” They told us
not to retaliate, that nothing anyone
said made any difference anyway. All
of those talks prepared me for reality
and made me stronger, giving me
tremendous focus.
Like most Swedish families, my parents
owned a second house on the water in
Smögen, a small fishing village about an
hour and a half up the coast. We spent
weekends there fishing on a 15-foot boat
that my father and uncles owned. The
experience taught me that I was from
the city and the country.
I started fishing with my father when
I was 6. We’d sail all day out into the
North Sea. My first job was to throw
the net into the water to catch fish and
to clean them. At first I was afraid, but
older people on the boat gently taught
me how to do it. It was part of nature,
and in Sweden children are brought
into the adult world early. Adults don’t
look down on kids, nor do they serve
Marcus Samuelsson and his sister Anna, in undated photo, make Christmas cookies
in their childhood home in Sweden.
children special meals. Kids eat what
adults are served.
I still remember the taste of the first
fish I caught. It was delicious. It was a
filleted mackerel that we brought back
home to cook in a black skillet with wild
chives, lemon and mashed potatoes.
That day we caught 40 fish. We cooked
and smoked most of them, gave some to
our neighbors and sold 10. Fishing was
a spiritual, sharing enterprise.
Cooking quickly became a passion
for me. Whenever my parents were
out of the house in Göteborg for
extended periods, I spent my free time
at my grandparents’ home, which
was an eight-minute walk. For my
grandmother, cooking wasn’t a chore.
She loved it and constantly worked
to improve. I started in her kitchen
by peeling carrots and mixing the
ingredients for meatballs, which are
a staple there. Then I graduated to
making the gravy, pickling the herring
and jarring things.
Instead of a modern electric range
and oven, like my mother had, my
grandmother had an old gas stove,
which lets you better control the heat.
Back then, it was strange to me that
something older was better. Despite all
Northwestern...
sacrifices, but also personal ones.
Her husband and two children — a
9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son
— will remain in their Lakeview home
while she spends six months of the year
at Mekelle, located in Tigray, about
400 miles north of Addis Ababa, her
hometown. “I want them to be proud
of me and proud of where they came
from ... but I’d be lying if I told you that
it wasn’t hard,” Dr Gelila said. “When
I talk to my daughter, she gets very
emotional, but I want both my kids to
know and understand that the world is
bigger than just ourselves.”
The physician has seen the world’s
dichotomies firsthand.
In her native country, only 10 percent of
deliveries occur in healthcare facilities,
and more than half of women giving
birth are assisted by an untrained
relative or friend, according to the
2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health
Survey.
Dr Gelila recalled the first time
she stepped into Prentice Women’s
Hospital, with its marble floors, tasteful
art work, “brilliant” teachers and stateof-the-art equipment — all just a stone’s
throw from Michigan Avenue and Lake
Shore Drive.
“I felt like I was Cinderella and this was
the land of make believe.”
As the oldest of four children and the
only daughter, she was encouraged to
cultivate more than her domestic skills
— something that set her apart from
other girls in the country’s patriarchal
society, where 63 percent of women
the cooking in our family, no one ever
became heavy. Swedish portions were
small, which makes a big difference in a
daily diet.
are married by age 18, according to
government data.
While most girls are taught to stay
inside, taking care of the house and
younger siblings, Dr Gelila said she was
encouraged to spend her time reading
and studying.
Her grades were good enough to get
into Jimma University in Ethiopia,
where she entered a five-year program
to become a physician. There, she
saw girls barely in their teens having
babies, and women dying from diseases
and complications from labor that could
have been prevented.
“It opened my eyes. I realized how
easily that could have been me,” she
said.
After graduation in 1998, the newly
minted general practitioner spent five
years as head of maternal and child’s
health in Addis Ababa. If she was going
to elevate the level of care, Dr Gelila
realized she needed to acquire more
business and administrative skills.
She was accepted for a fellowship from
the Gates and Packard Foundations
for young leaders at the University
of Washington, where she met an
American graduate student Kenneth
Divelbess. Their friendship soon
blossomed into something more.
“I told him I have no plans to marry or
have children,” she recalls, “that I was
focused on saving the world.”
He followed her back to Ethiopia and
changed her mind. They wed in 2004 and
honeymooned in the groom’s hometown
CONT`D FROM PAGE 19
of Juneau, Alaska.
After earning her master’s degree
in public health, she applied for an
OB-GYN residency at Northwestern,
unaware she was one of 900 vying
for a mere 12 slots in the prestigious
program.
“I just saw the Northwestern part
... and thought it was in the Pacific
Northwest,” she said. Milad recalled
interviewing Dr Gelila and being
impressed by the slight, young doctor
from the other side of the world.
“She articulated this desire to develop
a partnership, which was very
effective and very attractive to us as
a department,” he said. “We had been
sending residents all over the world —
to Guatemala, Hong Kong, Honduras
— but we were looking for a more
sustainable relationship.”
Northwestern’s Feinberg School of
Medicine and Center for Global Health
is investing USD 100,000 in the program,
while Mekelle has contributed USD
386,000 and the IDP Foundation of
Chicago has pitched in with a USD
25,000 grant. They are committed to
the initiative through 2021 and hope to
contribute some 20,000 training hours to
this region over the next four years.
The Northwestern team has made two
visits to Ethiopia since October and
left Monday for another trip. Milad
marveled at how patients walked miles
to be seen and at their overwhelming
gratitude for the smallest intervention,
such as an IV line.
“I met a woman with diseased Fallopian
www.thereporterethiopia.com
Today, I live with my wife, Maya, in a
4,650-square-foot, four-story townhouse
on a quiet block in Harlem. Maya
is a fashion model who also is from
Ethiopia. We met at a housewarming
party in Harlem. Our home has five
bedrooms, four bathrooms and a nicesize fenced garden that’s private. We
look at it as a resting spot for us and a
place to host a rotating cast of family
and friends when they visit New York.
Each year we visit Maya’s family in
Ethiopia. There’s so much about the
culture that I still need to know.
Both of my sisters remained in Sweden,
so each August, our families return
to the Samuelsson weekend home in
Smögen. The entire extended family
gets together there for about two weeks.
I do the cooking, of course. I love it.
Ed.’s Note: The article first appeared on
The Wall Street Journal.
tubes who related what it was like to
live with infertility — to be ostracized,
beaten and threatened with divorce,” he
said. “I was stuck by how I could make a
difference ... even save a life. But it’s not
just me. ... Everyone who has come over
returns as a changed person.”
The Northwestern delegation pays its
own way to Ethiopia and uses vacation
time. But it is “beneficial on so many
levels,” Joan Tankou, a fourth-year
medical student who traveled there in
October, said.
“It allowed me to experience medicine
practiced in a resource-limited setting,
where a lot of the diagnostic tools we
have are not available,” Tankou said.
“As a result, I learned alternative ways
to evaluate patients, relying primarily
on a thorough physical exam, a dying
art in the U.S.”
With creative minds working
on scientific and technological
breakthroughs, Dr Gelila envisions
a collaboration so close that X-rays
taken in Tigray can be read by doctors
in Chicago; where every woman and
newborn gets the same chance at a
healthy life.
She’s also relying on technology to
keep her close on the homefront, using
Skype to connect with her husband
and children, staying on top of their
schoolwork and activities.
“I know I’ll be homesick ... that it will
be a struggle,” she said. “But I also hope
they understand ... that if I can make a
change in just one person’s life, that’s a
day worth living.”
Ed.’s Note: The article first appeared on
The Chicago Tribune.
|35
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTERST
NATIONAL CONSULTANT TO PROVIDE TECHICAL ASSISTANCE
ON THE STUDY OF CORRUPTION CAUSES IN RELATION
TO CONSULTANCY SERVICES IN CONSTRUCTION SECTOR
FOR FEDERAL ETHICS AND ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION
(FEACC)
suggestions/recommendations,
o
Provide strategic advice on effective of the study.
o
Facilitate the planning and follow-up progress meetings with
the necessary stakeholders.
o
Provides trainings for major stake holders on the ¿nal
document of the study.
Background
The government of Ethiopia recognizes corruption negatively
affects the endeavor of meeting MDGs targets, and the Growth and
Transformation Plan (GTP). So, the Government has shown a high
level of commitment to ¿ght corruption and rent seeking.
Outputs:
United Nation Development Program has indicated its interest to
support UNDP country of¿ce in Ethiopia to implement the sect oral
approach to address governance bottlenecks, particularly corruption,
as an integral part of the MDG programming.
o
Work plan and progress reports relating to the project study,
o
Monitoring and evaluation report on overall project progress,
o
The (draft and ¿nal) research study report.
The Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission has planned to
conduct a national survey on corruption related to consultancy service
in construction sector, with the budget granted to the Commission
by UNDP of¿ce in Ethiopia. In order to undertake this study, the
commission needs an individual consultant that can provide technical
professional support to the commission for six months on contract
bases.
Scope of the service
The individual consultant will work in support FEACC in exploring of the
causes of corruption and fraudulent practices regarding consultancy
The consultant will be responsible for providing FEACC with the
following outputs:
Location and Timeframe
The assignment will be undertaken in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but the
consultant should travel to some selected regions on selected project
site. The work is expected to be commenced in January 2014 and
¿nalized on July 30, 2015. The Consultants will work as a member of
the study team of FEACC on a full-time basis, for four months.
Selection Criteria
service in construction sector of in Ethiopia. The assignment of the
consultant will be:
¾MSC/BSC degree in civil Engineering or other relevant ¿elds,
x Advise the task forces established in the commission in the study
process,
¾Work experience 6 years for MSC and 8 years for BA degree in
construction sector,
x In collaboration with the ad hoc team (task forces established) in
the FEACC,
¾experience in research and providing training in construction
sector,
o
o
Review action data collection instruments and budget
allocation of the study,
Design the extent of the scope of the study and identify data
collection sites/ areas and stakeholders..
o
Identify stakeholders and design the frame the extent and
approach of the stakeholders involvement in providing basic
factual information for the study,
o
Prepare detail proposal including research tools and
methodology of the study,
¾Strong project management and monitoring and evaluation skills,
¾Good oral and written communication skills in both Amaharic and
English, are advantageous
Payment
Negotiable and should be compatible with quali¿cation and previous
work experience of the applicant.
Applications
Interested consultants shall submit their non-returnable application,
Participate in the whole process of the study (data collection
and documentation) with FEACC Team members,
CV, and copies of all necessary documents, within 7 working
o
Participate in the data analysis and report writing,
Prevention Directorate in the Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption
o
Support the commission in drawing of conclusion and
Commission, 8th Floor, Room No 814, or send to P.O.Box 34798.
o
days from the ¿rst announcement on Newspaper, to Corruption
Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission
Address, Kirkos Sub-City, Legahar, in front of ex-Nethret Bus-Station, FEACC Building
Tel:- 0115 533843, 0115 527787 0115 529100 ex-307
www.thereporterethiopia.com
36|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
Vacancy announcement
Ethiopian Electronics Pvt. Ltd. Co. (PHILIPS) would like to
¿ll the IollowinJ vacant position with Tuali¿ed and coPpetent
Vacancy Announcement
applicant:
ConsortiuP oI Christian 5elieI and 'evelopPent $ssociation (CC5'$)C25E *roup
1. Position
Polio ProMect (C*PP) and 7he International 9accine Institute (I9I) aJreed to collaEorate
on a proMect entitled ³PuElic Health InIorPation CaPpaiJn to Enhance IPPuni]ation´ in
SALES PERSON
4uali¿cation
'iploPa in 0arketinJ Àuent in EnJlish
Salar\
$s per the coPpan\ sales
E[perience
$dvantaJeous
2. Position
oI the proMect:
IMPORT ASSISTANT
4uali¿cation
%$ deJree in 0anaJePent 0arketinJ or
other discipline IroP recoJni]ed universit\
or colleJe
E[perience
Salar\
2roPia 5eJional State SandaIa :oreda. 7he proMect is Iunded E\ L* Electronics. In this
relation CC5'$C*PPI9I would like to recruit a coPPunication consultant on contract
part tiPe Easis. 7hereIore potential applicants are invited to ¿ll the IollowinJ positions
Position Title:
Number required:
CoPPunication Consultant
2ne ()
Reports to:
C*PP Secretariat 'irector
Required .noZledge, SNills and Abilities:
- PostJraduate deJree or ¿rst deJree health education or coPPunication or
siPilar Tuali¿cation 5eTuired
-
0iniPuP oI 7wo \ears workinJ e[perience
-
in related ¿eld
-
$s per coPpan\ sales
-
Ethiopia Electronics Pvt. Ltd. Co. (ETHELCO)
Ledta. Philips Building Personnel Department
-
OI¿ce No. Tel. No. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
-
$t least \ears e[perience in coPPunicationsIEC social PoEili]ation with
previous e[perience oI health related proJraP such as iPPuni]ation
E[cellent writinJ and editinJ skills in EnJlish 2roPiIa and $Pharic as well as
e[cellent oral coPPunication skills.
StronJ knowledJe and skills in coPputer application proJraP and aEilit\ to work
independently
Partnership e[perience with proJraPs supported Ey international and local
1*2s )ederal 0inistry oI Health reJional health Eureaus and woreda health
oI¿ces and Eilateral and Pultilateral aJencies such as )0oH 8S$I' :H2
81ICE)
E[perience workinJ in iPPuni]ation caPpaiJns on social PoEili]ation activities
and conductinJ surveys.
*ood interpersonal skill
2rJani]ational skill
Major Duties and Responsibilities:
- )ollow up the production oI video posters leaÀets and other MoE aids on
IPPuni]ation in $Pharic and 2roPiIIa.
-
IMMEDIATE VACANCY
'EP$570E17: HuPan 5esources 'epartPent
P2SI7I21:
$dPinistrative $ssistant
-oE 1uPEer:
H27==
-
$s a HuPan resources $dPinistrative $ssistant <ou will Ee responsiEle Ior PanaJinJ H5
adPinistration responsiEilities to deliver an e[cellent teaP e[perience. $ HuPan resource
adPinistrative assistant would also Ee reTuired to interIace with Hilton¶s systeP Paintains
dataEase and supports ePployee relations. Speci¿cally you will Ee responsiEle Ior perIorPinJ
the IollowinJ tasks to the hiJhest standards:
x 0anaJe H5 adPinistration such as contracts letters and personnel ¿les
x Ensure accurate inIorPation is Ied into the Hotel¶s data Ease
x $ssist with ePployee relations issues in the hotel in a con¿dential Panner includinJ
disciplinary and Jrievances issues
x Ensure recruitPent and selection process is adhered to the coPpany¶s Policy and
ensure that appropriate checks are carried out as reTuired
x Help achieve departPental Joals
x SupportinJ the hotel with departPental traininJ reTuirePents includinJ inductions
work e[perience careers Iairs and traininJ Paterials
x $ssist and resolve teaP PePEer and PanaJePent Tueries
E'8C$7I21$L E;PE5IE1CE 5E48I5E0E17S
x %$ 'eJree in 2I¿ce PanaJePent and Secretarial science plus two years oI e[perience
in related ¿elds
x Positive attitude
x *ood coPPunication and people PanaJePent skills
x CoPPitted to deliverinJ a hiJh level oI custoPer service Eoth internally and e[ternally
x E[cellent JrooPinJ standards
x )le[iEility to respond to a ranJe oI diIIerent work situations
x $Eility to work under pressure
x $Eility to work on their own or in teaPs
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x .nowledJe oI hospitality industry
Interested applicants are reTuested to apply online Ey usinJ the IollowinJ link https:hilton.
taleo.netcareersectionPeaBe[ternalMoEsearch.Itl search the post insertinJ the -oE 1uPEer
H27==
-
)ield test MoE aids and ¿nali]e
Conduct puElic awareness caPpaiJns on IPPuni]ation aPonJ the coPPunity
in the proMect area such as School children teachers parents and coPPunity
PePEers
Conduct outreach Ey holdinJ a stakeholders¶ PeetinJ to enhance iPPuni]ation
and visit selected schools and distriEute appropriate MoE aids to children and
people in coPPunities.
0ake sure the availaEility and distriEute hyJiene kits such as soap and Eucket
to students Ior use in their households
)reTuent Iollow up and support to the proMect area
SuEPit Ponthly activity report oI the overall proJress oI the proMect and ¿nal
proMect report to the C*PP
'evelop pre and ¿nal .$P survey tools.
:ork closely with reJional ]onal and district health Eureaus oI Ethiopian
JovernPent and other relevant JovernPent Eodies
Participate in Jroup teleconIerence calls andor IacetoIace PeetinJs convened
Ey I9I andor L* Electronics (Seoul headTuarters or Ethiopia Eranch oI¿ce)
Terms of employment: 1ine Ponth contract as parttiPer Ior three days a week.
:orkinJ hours per day is neJotiaEle
Duty station: $ddis $EaEa with IreTuent ¿eld visit
Salary: 1eJotiaEle
4uali¿ed candidates are invited to suEPit their application letter C9 Contact $ddresses
Ior three reIerences and copies oI supportive docuPents (non returnaEle) within ten
workinJ days IroP the appearance oI this announcePent to:
Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA)
P.O.Bo[ Addis Ababa
2r can apply in person to 5ooP 1o CC5'$ 2I¿ce which is located 'eEre =eit
5oad .ality in Iront oI 'rivers and 0echanics 7raininJ Center
)or Iurther details: 7elephone. e[t. N.B. Only Short-listed applicants will be contacted
www.thereporterethiopia.com
|37
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Advertisment
www.thereporterethiopia.com
38|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
By Leyou Tameru
@anchihoye
BitsΎ
&
ΎPieces
Preparing for the
future!
I have been thinking a lot about education lately. In
Ethiopia, as well as most developing countries, education
is a prized possession. Especially the higher one goes
in her education, the more she gets respect in the
community. Yet things seem to be changing. With the
exception of certain professions that require some sort of
licensing, many of the other fields are opening up to those
with more talent and less higher degrees. I’m referring
of fields such as business or IT related work, it is no
longer about whether someone has a degree in software
management but whether she can actually design a
software, code a program etc… Adding to this, I have come
across many who have doctoral degrees in a social science
field, have been having a hard time finding jobs because
they are considered to be “overqualified”.
In a way I keep noticing that the more the work/field is
practical, the less formal education seems to be a factor.
Does this mean that the job market is finally reflecting the
fact that curricula taught in school is not paying much
attention to practice? In all honesty, I think so. The more
I look at what we are taught in schools versus what is
happening and what is needed, the more I realize how out
of date our curricula are. In a way, I’m feeling that we are
being taught 19th century curricula to face a 21st century
world. Gone are the days where one can be guaranteed
a desk job because she has a higher degree from some
university. The number of those who are qualified has
grown so much that degrees are no longer a factor that
make one unique. In fact, the knowledge base is pretty
much the same, what separates one from the crowd is how
one applies that knowledge base, ones personality, talents,
network. This is very key! The reason one will succeed in
job search, business or other ventures is not because she
has better grades. And grading is the way that we measure
and reward ones level of understanding while in school.
More often than not, the exams given to students are
testing ones capability to rehash what was written on the
notebook instead of her capacity to use and contextualize
what she has learned and relate it to the real world.
At the end of the day is about theory and practice. It’s not
that there isn’t a need for someone to theorize trends and
movements in a certain practical field, but rather that
those who are training to do it are too far removed from
the practice. The walls between academic and practice
need to come down. As a matter of fact, we need to realize
that there is a mutual dependency between these two. You
cannot theorize what doesn’t exist, and you cannot move
forward without theorizing on what has happened and
what is happening.
It is high time that we bring our realities into the
classroom rather than perpetuating the not so real
distinction between education books and our lives. We
should not be going to school to learn about things that
do not exist but to learn about how we and the rest of the
world are. Math, Physics, history and art are all studies of
existing realities, and we need to teach them as such. As
we are teaching the youth and preparing for the future we
must keep in mind the importance of making them aware
of the world they live in, how they can use what they learn
and are passionate about can help them change lives, their
own or others. We need to remind them that a classroom
is not just a place to learn about books but to learn from
the experiences and realities of others. I believe that the
more we make our curricula contextualized and focused
on personal experiences, the more we will succeed in
preparing a generation that will solve its own problems!
Ed.’s Note: Leyou Tameru is a graduate of Georgetown and Addis
Ababa University Law schools, specializing in International Legal
Studies. Born and raised in Addis Ababa, she seeks to understand
the impact of economic, political and social issues on everyday
lives. She can be reached at [email protected]
When the smoke...
tobacco are numerous. Health
experts say tobacco contains
more than 60 carcinogens.
Tobacco smoking also causes
cardiovascular and respiratory
diseases. The health risks are not
limited to smokers only as second
hand smokers also continue to
pay the price. It is said tobacco
kills one in two of its long-term
smokers. Globally, death caused
by tobacco is more than deaths
caused by TB, HIV and malaria
combined.
Although there is no available
data that show the number of
deaths caused by the use of
tobacco, the reality in Ethiopia is
still grim.
“Tobacco is becoming a growing
factor in the prevalence of
non-communicable diseases
in Ethiopia,” Dereje told The
Reporter.
Enforcing the directive is mainly
left to the EFMHACA at the
federal level. And Dereje says
it would be relatively easier to
enforce sections of the directive
dealing with entry to market,
packaging and labeling as well as
advertisements and promotions.
But the section dealing with
tobacco smoke exposure and sale
requires the participation of the
wider public. The law mandates
owners of public places as well as
employers to enforce this section
CONT`D FROM PAGE 6
of the law.
“They are enforcement agents
with legal responsibilities,”
Dereje told The Reporter.
These public places are required
to put out signs that forbid
smoking, prevent people from
smoking outside the designated
areas, and avoid practices such
as placing ashtrays. Failure to
do so entails fines and other
administrative measures
including suspension of business
license in grave cases. But the
law does not prescribe penalties
on smokers found in violation of
the directive.
Parties reject...
CONT`D FROM PAGE 3
Though the chairperson of the board had said
this puts a fixed term for the parties to come up
with their solution, leaders of the party severely
criticized the deadline and called the decision more
of political than administrative.
since their representatives were in attendance
in the general assembly meeting of the party
that brought the current leadership into power.
Therefore, the problem lies with the Board and not
us,” the president added.
Mamushet Amare, President of the AEUP, in
a press conference that he held in the party’s
headquarter located around Tewodros Square,
told journalists, “This notice made by the Board
is intentionally aimed at creating havoc in the
party and also aimed at weakening the party not to
participate in the upcoming general election.”
By the same token, Asrat Abreha, acting head of
public relation for UDJ told The Reporter, “The
decision is highly politically motivated and in this
regard, UDJ has called its general assembly for
the weekend to discuss on the issue and the way
forward.”
He further said that due to this problem, the party
called its general assembly to discuss and inform
its members about the situation which will be
conducted this weekend.
“So far, our activity is based on all legal grounds,
and the problem that the board raised is baseless
“This is such a trivial decision that puts the
credibility of the Board in question, and the party is
ready to tell all the details for the public to prepare
itself for the next level of struggle,” he said.
Both leaders said that the next decisions will be
taken after the board has made it clear what its
decisions would be after the fixed deadline.
Wonji-Shoa Sugar...
Metehara Sugar Factory. Zenebe Yimam, general
manager of the factory, said there is a stockpile of
72,000 quintals of sugar waiting for distribution.
However, MEWIT insists it has been distributing
sugar according to the time table it has set out.
“Out of the 395,000 quintals we are expected to
distribute in four months we have distributed more
than 70 percent so far. We still have a month to go
at which time we will transport the rest,” Gemeda
Alemi, general manager of MEWIT, told The
Reporter.
Despite the government ambition to realize
CONT`D FROM PAGE 3
competitive sugar industry, sugar is still one of
the commodities that majority of the people hardly
find in the market. According to factory managers,
the three fully functional sugar factories found in
Wonji, Metahara and Finhca are inadequate to meet
the domestic demand. But the domestic market can
expect a boost when Tendaho, whose construction
has been completed, enters production.
Established in 1951 in the reign of Emperor
Haileselassie after a lease agreement was signed
with H.V.A, Dutch company, Wonji had been the
only sugar factory that supplied sugar for the entire
nation until Metahara Sugar was founded a decade
later in the central Rift Valley South-East Shoa.
The construction of ,000 of these houses is also percent complete
and will be ready for delivery in the coming February. Whereas,
,000 houses are planned to be delivered by the coming April.
Gov’t downplays...
market” Mekuria told MPs.
In his five-month performance report, the minister
also highlighted the progress of the government
housing development project in Addis Ababa,
According to Mekuria, the construction of 159,213
houses is already underway, out of which 120,712 is
for 20/80, 24,288 for 10/90 and the remaining 14,213
is for 40/60 housing schemes.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
CONT`D FROM PAGE 4
The construction of 35,000 of these houses is also 91
percent complete and will be ready for delivery in
the coming February. Whereas, 39,000 houses are
planned to be delivered by the coming April.
The Minister responded to questions raised by
the Members of the House on credit services,
construction problems, the high price of urban
land lease, foreign and local contractors’ relations,
dry waste removal and sewerage services, among
others.
|39
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Ministry suspends...
Japan-funded...
CONT`D FROM PAGE 4
Ethiopian geologists are jointly working
to learn about the types of the existing
minerals. The cost of the exploration
project is covered by the Chinese
government. However, Ethiopian and
foreign mining companies are not
happy about this project. They are
wary of the Chinese move saying that
this gives comparative advantage for
Chinese mining firms.
The Ministry of Mines, Public Relations
and Communication Directorate
director, Bacha Fuji, told The Reporter
that the Ethiopian and Chinese
geological survey institutes are
assessing the mineral potential of the
area for the past two years. “They are
collecting useful geological data. They
are adding value to the concession.
Hence, the Mineral Licensing and
Administration Directorate will not
process exploration license applications
until the joint study is finalized,” Bacha
said. However, he said the Ministry will
avail the crucial geological data for all
local and foreign mining firms once the
joint study is finalized.
“Apart from the concession area held
by the joint study other concessions are
open for interested local and foreign
investors,” Bacha said.
The Ministry of Mines recently
introduced a stringent mineral
exploration licensing procedures. It
has also evaluated the performance
of companies engaged in mineral
exploration activities and revoked
56 companies licenses who failed to
execute exploration work according to
their commitments.
CONT`D FROM PAGE 4
required for this project. In fact, no
financial details of this project has been
disclosed thus far.
On the other hand, the trunk road
construction which stretches down
from the capital to the town of
Debremarkos, some 300 km to the
north of Addis Ababa, is also the other
project that is lagging behind schedule.
The road project, which was started
in 1998 with a grant aid that was made
available by the Japanese government,
is stifled by another natural factor
that is widely observed in the area.
The delay this time is related to the
recurrent landslide which happens
following the rainy season at the Abay
Gorge, Kimyaki explained. In spite of
this the rehabilitation of the road is
set to be finalized by this year. So far,
some USD 42 million has been allocated
for the project, the chief representative
said.
On the other hand, the newlyconstructed bridge, on the road that
links Addis to Djibouti, is expected to be
inaugurated soon, it was learnt. The 230
million birr bridge project is among the
most typical infrastructure projects that
JICA finances and has been financing in
Ethiopia. The project is quite important
since it facilitates the movement of
goods and services along the Djibouti
corridor, the import-export lifeline of
Ethiopia.
In a related news, JICA is set to
introduce rice plantation projects in
Ethiopia. Kimyaki was bold in stating
that Ethiopia has never been able to
utilize its wetlands. Hence, the import
of rice has been increasing from time
to time. And, as a result, following
some agronomical and marketing
Unregulated...
The Reporter witnessed
mishandling of the
products, which is also one
of the obligations penned
in the proclamation.
According to the existing legislation, no
person shall transport and sell raw hide
and skin to areas that are not approved.
Amakelew Yimam, Director of
Communication Directorate at the
Ministry of Trade told The Reporter
that there are no improvements with
regards to regulating the marketing of
raw hide and skin. “Now, the Ministry
studies, JICA plans to expand into rice
plantations in Ethiopia. According to
Kimyaki, the town of Fogera in the
Amhara Regional State is chosen to be a
pilot project site for the rice promotion
project which will remain for the
coming five years in the area.
In related news, an advanced level of
the Japanese quality and productivity
improvement –Kaizen –will continue
to be implemented for the coming
five years in the major industrial and
academic communities in Ethiopia.
The four-year scholarship program
called Africa Business Education
(ABE initiative) plans to send 1,000
selected African youths to Japan to
enable them attend Master’s level
education and internships at some
Japanese companies. The first batch
of 23 Ethiopian students recently left
for Japan. On average, 25 Ethiopian
students will be receiving the
scholarships extended by the Japanese
government.
CONT`D FROM PAGE 5
is primed to start implementation,” he
said.
He also told The Reporter that
the Ministry has delegated the
implementation tasks to regions.
“We are undertaking several activities
that will enable it fully implement the
proclamation to regulate the market,”
he said.
Advertisment
Bid Invitation For international bidders
(Tender Nr. FPCSFR11)
1. National Tobacco Enterprise (Ethiopia) S.C invites
sealed bids from internationally renowned and reputable
companies for the procurement of consultancy service for
preparation of detailed Engineering Design & supervision
of Construction, Relocation, Rehabilitation, Installation
and commissioning of a Cigarette factory in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
2. Interested eligible bidders can obtain the complete set of
the tender document from the address as state hereunder:
Supply Department Room No. 118
National Tobacco Enterprise (Ethiopia) S.C
Roosevelt Street, in front of African Union Headquarter
P.O.BOX 552 or 5658
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Telephone 251-011-552 11 70/5518982/5513732
Fax: 251 115 517846 or 251115528590
E-mail: [email protected] or nte_yahoo.com
3. All wax sealed bid proposals must be delivered to the cited
address on or before February 19,2015 at 10:15 an (local
time). Bids presented by any bidder after the closing date
shall not be accepted.
4. Bids received in time and Àuf¿ng formalities shall be
opened in the presence of interested bidders or their legal
representative at 10:30 Am (local time) on the same date.
5. National Tobacco Enterprise (Ethiopia) S.C reserves the
right to accept or reject any or al bids.
National Tobacco Enterprise (EtKiopia) S.C
Addis Ababa, EtKiopia.
MAKAKA GENERAL BUSINESS P.L.C
Loss of bill of loading
Our company, Makaka General Business PLC
addresses Ethiopia. Addis Ababa Lideta subcity woreda 4 House No. 493/01 declared
that it has lost original bill of loading No.
PKIIB200000.
Therefore, if there is any party has hold such
bill of loading such party can present otherwise
we kindly request the release of property
without the bill of loading.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
40|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Flag carrier...
operators and other stakeholders to
the urgent consultative meeting held
yesterday at the authority’s auditorium.
Two members of the Parliament’s
Transport Affairs Standing Committee
attended the consultative meeting.
Most of the private airlines expressed
their discontent over Ethiopian new
business plan to provide premium
charter flight services. The national flag
carrier is contemplating to provide high
end comfortable charter and scheduled
flight services with light aircraft that
each has 10-20 seats. The airline is
planning to buy about 50 light aircraft.
Amare Gebrehanna (Capt.), deputy
managing director of Abyssinian
Flight Services, said that the general
aviation sector in Ethiopia is at its
infant stage. Amare said the sector gets
little support from the government. “It
is only recently that the ECAA and the
Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE)
started supporting the sector. And
recently for the first time scheduled
flight service license is granted to a
private operator,” Amare said.
Amare went on to say that Ethiopian
Airlines is an international airline
that competes globally. He said that
he surprised to read on The Reporter
newspaper that the national airline is
to provide charter flight service with
light aircraft. “What is the purpose
of venturing into general aviation
business? Is it to eliminate the existing
infant general aviation sector? Is it the
airline’s business strategy or is it a
government strategy?” Amare inquired.
Terefe Haile (Capt.), general manager
of Trans Nation Airways (TNA), a
subsidiary company of MIDROC
Technology Group, said that following
the government’s decision to push
the seat limits on aircraft that private
airlines can operate from 20 to 50 his
company launched scheduled domestic
flight service. “We are the first company
to launch domestic scheduled flight
service. We are making history and we
labored a lot to achieve this.”
Terefe said that Ethiopian Airlines is
growing fast and everybody is proud of
the growth. However, he said, it is not
only about Ethiopian Airlines that one
should think of when speaking about
the growth of aviation in Ethiopia.
CONT`D FROM PAGE 1
“There are only three or four of us
(private airlines) actively engaged in
the general aviation sector in Ethiopia.
We are very small. While this is the case
I am confused to read that Ethiopian
Airlines is to deploy 50 light aircraft to
provide charter flight service. If this
is true we cannot compete with the
prominent Ethiopian Airlines. So we
will salute them and walk out of the
business.”
TNA launched scheduled flight service
to Bahir Dar, Gondar and Humera
last November. Terefe said that his
company undertaken a feasibility
study before commencing domestic
scheduled service and identified the
gaps in the domestic flight market. “So
we started operation with the view of
closing the gap. But when TNA is about
to commence the domestic flight service
Ethiopian started to fly to Humera,
Bale, and Assosa. They recommenced
operation to domestic routes which
they ignored for years. Is it business
competition or is it a strategy to
eliminate us? We are confused,” he
lamented.
Terefe went on to say that ECAA which
always provides prompt service to TNA
granted only a temporary license valid
for only three month. “As an airline
how can we plan for three months? And
if Ethiopian is going to start charter
flight service with 50 aircraft how can
we plan for the future?”
Owner and managing director of
National Airways, Abera Lemi (Capt.),
said that Ethiopian Airlines as a
business company can engage in any
type of business. However, he said,
he wants to know if it is the airline’s
move or if it was the government’s plan.
“We often hear the Prime Minister
saying that the government involves
in business sectors where the private
sector is unable to engage in. Does
the government wants us to thrive or
not? We want to know this. We do not
think that the government wants ET
to venture into the general aviation
sector.”
Abera said that if Ethiopian is to
venture into general aviation then
the government should lift the seat
limitation that it imposed on private
airlines.
Henock Tefera, Ethiopian VP for
Corporate Strategy, Communication
and Alliances said that what has been
reported about Ethiopian move to
commence premium charter flight
service is accurate. Henock said that
Ethiopian Airlines for the first time
became the largest carrier in Africa.
“Today Ethiopian is the largest cargo
operator in Africa. It is building a
state-of-the-art cargo terminal at a cost
of 110 million euros. Ethiopian serves
84 international destinations across
the globe. These achievements are
realized by a hard work of a dedicated
management team and staff of the
airline.”
Henock said that Ethiopian considers
aviation as enabler adding that
Ethiopian plays its role in expanding
tourism and trade. “The government
tasked us with availing even air
transport service throughout the
country. The government wants us to
support the export trade business. We
positively contribute to the country’s
GDP growth.”
Henock told participants that with the
view of availing air transport service
in all the regions Ethiopian is opening
up new domestic routes in different
parts of the country. “This is clearly set
in our Vision 2025 growth strategy. We
now have 20 domestic routes and will
increase it to 26 in the coming years.
This has to be clear. So it is totally
wrong to say that Ethiopian started
flights to Humera, Bale and Assosa
when TNA is about to commence
scheduled operation.”
According to Henock, considering the
fast economic growth of the country,
Ethiopian has undertaken a study on
the domestic charter flight service
market. “We have identified a viable
market potential. We have been
providing charter flight service for
the past many years but now we want
to strengthen it. The tourism sector is
growing and there is also a need for air
ambulance service. We want to augment
the growth of the tourism sector. We
want satisfy the demand.
Henock went on to say that the objective
of the airline is to provide air transport
service to the public. He said when it
comes to domestic service it is not the
market that governs the airline fares.
“We are not governed by the market. We
consider the public’s purchasing power
when we set fares. We have a national
obligation set by the government to
avail affordable air transport service to
the public.”
He also said the airline does not
consider the local private airlines
as competitors adding that the
national airline’s competitors are the
international ones.
Tekle Geberyohannes, Ethiopian Addis
Ababa Hub Director, on his part said
that Ethiopian does not consider any
one as an enemy. Tekle said when
Ethiopian flights to Bahir Dar, Gondar
and Humera are full it remands
passenger to TNA. “As a business
company we should pass our customers
to other airline. But since we value our
customers we send them to TNA. Why
should we offer passengers to TNA if we
want to eliminate private operators?”
he asked.
Director general of ECAA, Wossenyeleh
Hunegnaw (Col.), said that there is no
proclamation that prohibits Ethiopian
not to provide domestic charter
flight service. Wossenyeleh said that
Ethiopian has been providing domestic
scheduled flight service for the past
many years. “There is no one who can
stop Ethiopian from providing domestic
flight service. The government will
not prohibit Ethiopian from providing
domestic charter flight service. It is not
appropriate to say that I will walk out
if Ethiopian is going to do this and that.
Private airlines should compete. The
question that should be asked is about
level playing field. The government
supports the national flag carrier.
But it is not at the expense of private
operators. We have to make sure that
there is a fair competition.”
With regards to the seat limit
Wossenyeleh said that it was a policy
issue. “A national air transport policy
is in the pipeline and this is something
that will be addressed in the aviation
policy.”
The private airlines have complained
about airport services which were
addressed by representatives of
Ethiopian Airports Enterprise and
Ethiopian Airlines. Wossenyeleh told
the audience that ECAA will forward
some of the questions raised by the
private operators to government
officials in the higher echelon.
“We are not accepting such decisions since an apology is not offered lightly,
and also there is no legal ground based on which the Board can demand a letter
of apology from one single party”.
Board demands...
During a press conference that was
held at the head office of the Board on
Thursday, Public Relations Directorate
director of the Board, Demesew Benti,
said that the Board reached the decision
based on the amended electoral law of
Ethiopia, specifically proclamation No.
532/2007. And further stated that the
decision of the Board that is to demand
a formal letter of apology was based
on articles 102(4) a, b, c and (6) c of the
proclamation, which states election
code of conduct.
Demesew added that article 102(4) of
the proclamation reads “Any political
party or candidate shall a) recognize
CONT`D FROM PAGE 1
the authority of the Board and respect
its orders and directives b) establish
good relations with the Board and
other political organizations running
for election and c) cooperate with
the Board in complaints screening or
investigation activities.”
Apart from this, sub article 6 of the
same article states, “During the
election, no political organization or
candidate shall make false accusation
or publish defamatory writings or make
a speech of such nature.”
He further added that since the party
is intensifying rumors and false
accusations on the Board against the
articles of the proclamation the Board
demands a letter of apology and fixed a
deadline by January 12.
Yonatan Tesafaye, head of Public
Relation of the party, told The Reporter
that his party perceived the decision
as not a formal stand of the Board, but
rather a manifestation of how the role
of the ruling party is mounting in the
Board.
And hence, he said, “We are not
accepting such decisions since an
apology is not offered lightly, and
also there is no legal ground based on
www.thereporterethiopia.com
which the Board can demand a letter of
apology from one single party”.
“We were telling the Board to focus
on other issues than the time table
and the allocation of funds in the
previous meetings and walked out of the
meetings because our agenda was not
on the table for discussion,” he told The
Reporter.
He also said that if the Board is
offended, demanding an apology is not
a formal solution, however calling for a
discussion to sort out the problem is.
“Demanding a letter of apology is highly
informal and did not bring lasting
solution to the problems and at the
same time, it is also undermines both
the country and the political process,”
he concluded.
LEISURE|41
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Crossword
ACROSS
1. Often for medication
4. Pad
7. A hard return hitting the ball above your
head
12. S American wood sorrel
13. Environmental Protection Agency
14. Manila hemp
15. Seaman
17. Wrap
18. Deviating from the familiar or customary
19. A pituitary hormone
21. Many not ands
22. Supernatural force
24. Political action committee
25. Leg joint
26. Be in debt
27. Castanet
29. Risk taker
31. “Pulling” a boat through water
35. Conditions of balance
37. Thai
38. A waterproof raincoat made of rubberized
fabric
41. Father
42. Fixed charges
43. They __
44. The 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet
45. Flower petals
Kuncho Komments
Oh Kuncho!
What the heck
are you doing?
46. The deep vascular inner layer of the skin
48. Intellectual sustenance
52. Soul
53. Brew
54. __ Corporation, makes steel
55. An official who carries a mace of office
56. A quantity of no importance
57. Affirmative (slang)
DOWN
1. Noun suffix denoting territory
2. Alias
3. A member of the British order of honor
4. Repair
5. Person who resembles a non-human primate
6. Dragon
7. A band of material around the waist that
strengthens a skirt or trousersv 8. Business
degree
9. Moses’ elder brother (Bible)
10. Cause to lose courage
11. Guild of merchants
16. Potato state, abbr.
20. Made afraid; thrown into a fright
22. An association of criminals
23. Reverence
24. A ceremonial procession
25. Siouan language
What does it look
like? I’m giving the
computer a piece of
my mind.
Your Zodiacs
ARIES (Mar. 21- April 20)
For the next couple of weeks you need to drive within the
speed limit or you may end up with a costly ticket. This
is especially true over next weekend. Be careful what
you commit to writing because it could cause you trouble
later and your reputation could suffer. On Monday and
Tuesday you could be very charming in order to get your
own way or to get a price break on something you want.
This week lucky numbers are: 11, 53, 71, 5, 28
TAURUS (Apr. 21- may 21)
What are you
saying?
27. Witty remark
28. Elongated head with loosely packed
dark-green leaves
30. Expression of disappointment
32. Idyllic
33. No (Scottish)
34. World data organization, abbr.
36. Chinese boat
38. A woman of refinement
39. An enclosed space used for public
entertainments
40. Contains cerium
42. An acute highly contagious viral
disease
44. Picasso’s mistress
45. Cain and __
47. Woman (French)
49. Caliph
50. Shoshonean language
51. The player judged to be the most
important to the sport
Well! I was playing
chess with it and
it proved to be
unbeatable.
So why should
you kicking it?
US Box
office
1
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2
Into the Woods
3
Unbroken
4
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death
5
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
6
Annie
7
The Imitation Game
8
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
9
The Gambler
10
Big Hero 6
(astrology-online.com)
CANCER (June 22-July 22)
You have to accommodate some family members this week
and may be called on to help throughout the month. You
are spending a little more than you planned on gifts, etc. so
shop around for better prices. You have a social obligation
this next weekend that you really do not want to attend.
%owever, you need to buy a new outłt and go anyway. You
will be surprised at how much you will enjoy yourself. This
week lucky numbers are: 97, 16, 83, 25, 2
LIBRA (Sept. 24 -Oct. 23)
CAPRICORN (Dec 22.- Jan. 20)
If you put some extra effort into whatever you do this month
you should be successful. You have some good ideas now
and once cleared with the boss they should be put to use.
Your success for the next year is going to depend solely
on you. This means if you do not try, you cannot succeed.
You will have to make your own chances. This week lucky
numbers are: 86, 38, 7, 66, 2
You are soon going to be taking a good look at your life to see
what new direction you wish to take. This is a rather sobering
experience as you realize just how important your decisions
over the next two years are going to affect you. Meanwhile new
friends are important so get out of the house and meet them! The
weekend should bring you into the orbit of someone exciting to
accept all invitations and keep your eyes open. This week lucky
numbers are: 74, 47, 46, 11, 41
AQUARIUS (Jan. 21 -Feb. 19)
LEO (July 23-Aug 22)
You will feel as though a burden has been lifted. Certainly
there should be a lessening of responsibilities this week.
Now you need to pay attention to income and perhaps
some long term investments. Extra money coming your
way this next weekend. A family gathering is in the
offering and you may surprise everyone and actually enjoy
it. This week lucky numbers are: 56, 27, 96, 40, 37
The pace is still a little hectic even for you but you are
loving every minute of it. More family visits are still around
the corner so keep your energy up to par. Meeting new
people seems to be on the agenda for next weekend with
a cookout or party planned. (Could be a family reunion).
Introductions to new family members are at hand also and
you will make a good impression. This week lucky numbers
are: 11, 39, 47, 45, 10
SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22)
GEMINI (May 22-June 21)
VIRGO (Aug. 23 -Sept. 23)
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 -Dec. 21)
You have to adjust your schedule to accommodate
others this week but if you do so with a good heart,
your popularity could soar. Invitations are coming from
unexpected sources and not surprisingly, you will have
a good time. Most things are out of your hands right now
but your enthusiasm will carry you throughout it all. A
gathering next weekend could introduce you to someone
important. This week lucky numbers are: 34, 56, 26, 69, 23
I admit, the computer
beat me at chess, but it
was no match for me at
kick boxing.
Family gatherings are being planned and you are right in the
middle of it all. Looks like you have thought of everything
and everyone will have a good time. You are going to make
an excellent impression on all your relatives, especially
those from a distance. You may start thinking of building an
addition onto your home and this year seems the best time to
have it done. This week lucky numbers are: 15, 49, 88, 78, 96
If you have been waiting to meet “Mister or Miss Right”, this
weekend should prove interesting. You may not realize he/she
is the one until later so take notes and phone numbers. Act
enthusiastic even though you do not feel like it. That way at
least you will leave a good impression for later. You are going
to be building something permanent this year. This week
lucky numbers are: 4, 41, 40, 51, 20
The lifting of an obligation or responsibility should make you
feel more light hearted now. Some accommodation still has to
be made to these old duties but still, everything lightens up for
you now. An entertaining weekend is coming up with friends but
you seem to be the one doing all the work. Still, a new outłt is
needed to make the right impression. This week lucky numbers
are: 41, 61, 83, 77, 82
SPOT THE DIFFERENCES
Can you spot the 12 differences between the two pictures?
www.thereporterethiopia.com
Solution
Visits to and from family members keeps you going this month
even though you feel less than enthused this week. Next week
is better. You feel irritated this week and may feel like picking
an argument with anyone around you. This is not a good time to
gamble or take a chance. Be careful driving because you tend to
go too fast this month and could get a speeding ticket with a hefty
łne attached. This week lucky numbers are: 74, 39, 91, 98, 97
PISCES (Feb. 20-Mar. 20)
New responsibilities are headed your way. Be careful of what you
take on, these new duties will last approximately two years. Get
out and about as much as possible and keep your eyes open, you
could meet that special someone this week. You will need a new
outłt for next weekend when you are invited to a special occasion.
Something colorful will put you in the right mood. This week lucky
numbers are: 7, 61, 34, 16, 3
Solution
42|THE REPORTER SPORT
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
Genna is also the name of a hockey-like game which is
said to have been played by the shepherds when they
heard of the birth of Christ.
Genna sports
out second and third clocking 35 and 40
minutes respectively.
By Dawit Tolesa
Ethiopia celebrated Christmas, locally
known as Genna, on January 7. Aside
from the holiday festivities of foods and
visiting relatives, Genna has also been
an occasion to participate in various
traditional sports activities such as polo
in Janmeda. Genna is also the name of
the hockey-like game which is said to
have been played by shepherds when
they heard of the birth of Christ.
In hunting competition, Abay Tadese
(39.44 minutes) from Baldars Club,
Ahmed Sami (39.82 minutes) from
Italian Embassy and Shumet Sebahat
(40.08 minutes) from the Major
General Hayelom Araya Military
Academy became the winners. “One of
our highly prized assets in Ethiopia is
our cultural heritages. This holiday
games also have the potential to become
a source of income from tourism”.
Solomon Tadesse, CEO of Ethiopian
Tourism Organization, told The
Reporter.
This year was no exception as
thousands had gathered at Janmeda on
Wednesday to be a part of the annual
occasion. The sporting activities
included games like polo, horseback
hunting and open jumping.
Gemechu Desta, who participated in
the polo sport, said the occasion is not
getting the support it needs from all
stakeholders.
Genna is also the name of a hockey-like
game which is said to have been played
by the shepherds when they heard of
the birth of Christ.
The objectives of feres gugs (polo) is to
score goals against an opposing team,
players score by driving a small white
plastic or wooden ball into the opposing
teams goal using a long-handled mallet.
This traditional sport of polo is played
at speed on a large grass field up to 300
yards (274 meters) long by 160 yards (146
meters) wide and each team consists of
four riders and their mounts.
Four polo clubs participated at this
year’s sporting event. First in line were
Janmeda A vs Jan Meda B. The twenty-
Feres gugs (polo) is a hockey like-game where players score by driving a small white
plastic or wooden ball into the opposing goal siting on a horseback.
minute showpiece ended with Janmeda
B coming out at the top with a 3-1 win.
Next in line were Addis Ababa Police
Club vs. Major General Hayelom Araya
Military Acadamy which the former
won in a similar 3-1 score line in penalty
shootouts.
In open jumping competition, nine clubs
participated including Major General
Hayelom Araya Military Academy,
Addis Ababa Police, Baldaras Club,
Addis Ababa Society Club, Frighters,
Pony Club, Italian Embassy, British
Embassy and Equestrian Club.
Ashenafe Bekele of Addis Ababa
Society won clocking 34.12 minutes.
Ahmed Sami from the Italian Embassy
and Habtamu Alem from Major General
Hayelom Araya Military Academy came
Kenenisa to run in star-studded
London Marahon
“Wilson is familiar with our course
and showed last year why he is
already regarded as one of the greatest
marathon runners of all time. But
Dennis arrives as a history-maker after
making headlines around the world a
few months ago,” Brasher said.
Olympic and world 10,000 and 5,000m
champion and world record holder
Kenenisa Bekele is scheduled to take
part in London Marathon in April. Prior
to that Kenenisa will run in the Dubai
Marathon on January 23.
Kenenisa made a very successful
debut at the Paris Marathon in April
2014 smashing both the course record
and the debut marathon times of past
legends Haile Gebreselassie, Paul
Tergat and Samuel Wanjiru clocking
2:05:04, the sixth-fastest marathon
debut. His second marathon was
disappointing as he finished fourth in
Chicago in October last year.
Kenenisa, the greatest track runner
of all time, will battle it out with
the Kenyan Dennis Kimetto, world
marathon record holder, and eight other
East African giants of the race with
times under 2:06.
In September’s Berlin Marathon 2014,
Kimetto clocked two 2:02:57 improving
the world record time held by another
Kenyan Wilson Kipsang by 26 seconds.
The two Kenyans will face each other
for the first time in the mouth-watering
London Marathon. Kimetto will be
making his London Marathon debut
Confirming his participation in the
Dubai Marathon, Kenenisa’s agent, Jos
Hermens, confirmed to Runner’s World
Newswire that his client will work with
Canova, who has also coached Hermens’
clients Florence Kiplagat, a 2:19:44
marathoner, and Moses Mosop, who
ran 2:03:06 for second in Boston in 2011.
Canova also mentored American Ryan
Hall for about a half-year in 2012 and
2013, but Hall was injured for much of
that alliance.
Kenenisa Bekele
while Kipsang is seeking a third title
after winning in 2012 and 2014.
“Having the current and former worldrecord holders in the same race for
the first time, is a real coup for us on
our 35th anniversary, and a thrilling
prospect for marathon fans,”
Race Director Hugh Brasher said.
“Kenenisa was not prepared well
enough, certainly, for Chicago,” the
agent said. The decision to work with
Canova was made by Hermens soon
after the Chicago Marathon.
Prior to the London Marathon’s tough
test, Kenenisa is aiming to break the
course record in Dubai (2:04:24) as well
as the Ethiopian record of 2:03:59 held
by Haile.
www.thereporterethiopia.com
“With the participation of all
stakeholders, there is a big chance to
promote the cultural sport activities
such as polo sport,” Gemechu told The
Reporter. .
This year’s event was sponsored by
Sony Electronics and DH Geda Trade &
Industry Plc.
Ethiopia Horse Sport Association
Director, Mesfin Tameru, said; “the polo
sport competition can also create an
opportunity to recruit professional polo
players in the international polo sports
games”
ETHIOPIAN PREMIER
LEAGUE FIXTURE &
RESULTS
Week eleven fixtures
Saturday 10\01\15
2:00 CBE SA vs WolaytaDicha
4:30 Electric vs AdamaCity
Sunday 11\01\15
2:00 St. George vs Arba Minch
2:00 Dashen vs Dedebit
2:00 Muger Cement vs Awassa city
2:00 Sidama coffee vs Woldiya city
10:30 Ethiopia Coffee vs Defense
Week ten results
Saturday
03/01/15
Defence Force
0 - 1 SidamaCoffee
Sunday
04/01/15
AdamaCity 1 - 1 Muger Cement
AwassaCity 1 - 2 CBE
Arba Minch City 1 - 0 WoldyaCity
St. George
1-0
Dashen Beer
WelaytaDicha 0 - 0 Ethiopia Coffee
Dedebit 2 - 0 Electric
THE REPORTER SPORT|43
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
EPL Week 11 Preview
Ethiopia Coffee
and Aschalew Girma (suspension)
also missed the action that ended in a
goalless draw against WelaytaDicha at
the venue of Boditiin week ten.
By Dawit Tolesa
Week 11 Ethiopian Premier League
(EPL) continues this weekend with the
2010 EPL Champions, EthiopiaCoffee,
taking on Defense at Abebe Bikila
Stadium in Addis Ababa on Sunday.
“After boditi match, midfielder Gatoch
Panom, Million Beyene and Tilahun
Wolde are injured. We don’t know yet
if they can return for the match against
Defense,”Tilahun Mangesha, coach of
Ethiopia Coffee,told The Reporter.
Ethiopia Coffee is showing a dip in
form as of late. Since their 2-0 triumph
against Dedebit in Addis Ababa nearly
a month ago, the team has drawn
in all three of its last EPL matches
against Adama City, Hawassa City and
WolaytaDicha.
“David bisha, Biniam Assefa and Dawit
Estifanosare expected to return after
their injury,” added the coach.
“Obliviously we drew in three
consecutive matches so on Sunday we
need all three pointsand continue on a
winning run in upcoming matches,”he
added.
Ethiopia Coffee was without two of
its key midfielders including team
captain Dawit Estifanos and Tilahun
Wolde. Strikers Binyam Assefa (injury)
Ethiopia Coffee currently sits at fourth
in the EPL table, just a point below
their opponent of the week Defense.
Defense has amassed 16 points from 10
EPL matches, one more than Ethiopia
Coffee. The two teams encounter will be
vital for both to stay in the top four in
EPL standing.
“In the last match we dropped three
points because of a silly mistake but
hopefully in the match against Ethiopia
Coffee we will dobetter” Gebremedhin
told The Reporter.
“Our two players Frew and Tekele
are ready for Sunday’s match against
Ethiopia Coffee,”he added.
Defense suffered their second loss in
four matches against league leaders
Sidama Coffee. The match in Addis
Ababa ended in a 1-0 score line helping
Sidama to consolidate their grip to the
top of the table. Defense was without
the key players Frew Solomon and
Takelewold Fikadu. Defense’s form this
season has been otherwise encouraging
for Coach Gebremedhin Haile.
Elsewhere, defending champions Saint
George, who have continued their
march to the top of the table guided by
Brazilian coach Dos Santos, will travel
south to face Arba Minch City. St.
George is second in the EPL standing
with 18 points from - two points behind
leaders Sidama Coffee with the former
having a game in hand.
Ethiopian Premier League Table
Team
MP
W
D
L
GD
P
Team
MP
W
D
L
GD
P
Sidama Coffee
10
6
2
2
3
20
EEPCO
9
3
4
2
0
13
Saint George
9
5
3
1
6
18
Adama City
10
2
6
2
1
12
Defence
10
4
4
2
3
16
CBE SA
10
2
6
2
1
12
Ethiopian Coffee
9
4
3
2
2
15
Dashen Beer
10
4
0
6
-2
12
Welayta Dicha
9
4
2
3
2
14
Muger Cement
10
2
3
5
-3
9
Arba Minch City
10
3
5
2
0
14
Hwassa City
9
1
3
5
-4
6
Dedebit
9
4
1
4
4
13
Woldya City
10
1
2
7
-13
5
www.thereporterethiopia.com
44|
The Reporter, Saturday, January 10, 2015
Vol. XIX No. 957
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