Save a Tree
Let’s face hard facts: Ethiopia is facing an ecological disaster! Not from catastrophic climate change (that is macro-climatic changes resulting from variations in solar radiation, deviations in the Earth’s orbit, changes in greenhouse concentrations, etc.,) but from man-made causes. Ethiopia is facing an ecological catastrophe caused by deforestation, soil erosion, over-grazing, over-population, desertification and loss of biodiversity, and chemical pollution of its rivers and lakes. Hundreds of square miles of forest land and farmland are lost every year. According to the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute1 , “Ethiopia loses up to 200,000 hectares of forest every year and warned that if the trend continues the country would lose all of its forest resources by the year1 2020.” Other data show that “Between 1990 and 2005, Ethiopia lost 14.0% of its forest cover (2,114,000 hectares) and 3.6% of its forest and woodland habitat. If the trend continues, it is expected that Ethiopia could lose all of its forest resources in 11 years, by the year 2020.”2 The wild animal population is disappearing at an alarming rate due to deforestation and loss of natural habitat, and hundreds of plant and animal species are facing imminent extinction.
Dr Gedion Getahun, Research Scientist at the Environmental Radio analytical Chemistry in Mainz, Germany writes3,
According to the UN, Ethiopia’s forests are depleted, at present less than three percent of the entire country is covered with trees… In Ethiopia, biodiversity is treated in very awful manner. The destruction of natural habitat as well as a threat to the flora and fauna and other biological resources diminish the economy of the country. This affects the country’s wealth and with it, the existence and the well being of the nation.
The Lake Koka environmental disaster -- a topic of special coverage by the Al Jazeera Network4 -- a few kilometers outside Ethiopia’s capital is only the tip of the iceberg of Ethiopia’s environmental nightmare. As one resident of the Lake Koka community put it5 :
The main problem here is the water. People are getting sick. Everyone around here uses this water. There is no other water. Almost 17,000 people… come from 10 kilometers away and use this water. The water smells even if you boil it; it does not change the color. It is hard to drink it. The people here have great potential and we are losing them, especially the children. I am upset but I don’t have the ability to do anything. I would if I could, but I can’t do anything.
Another local resident lamented the polluted Lake Koka water in apocalyptic terms:
It is better to die thirsty than to drink this [Koka] water. We are drinking a disease. We told the local authorities our cattle and goats died due to this water, but nobody helped. We are tired of complaining.
Nothing has been done to hold criminally accountable the polluters of Lake Koka, or “compensate for damages” the people living in that community for the devastating health problems they continue to face from using the toxic water of the lake.
Almaz Mequanint, who has struggled for years to bring attention to the devastating environmental pollution caused by the Wonji/Shoa and Metehara sugar factories, wrote six years ago:
I feel helpless and in despair when I think of my whole family and the 100,000 voiceless residents who have been living around the sugar factories of Ethiopia…. I now suffer from asthma because of the air pollution at that time. My teeth are decayed and I have knee and other joint problems. My kids are suffering from tooth decay, cavities and staining.”6
Nothing has been done over the past six years to improve the health conditions of the tens of thousands of people who worked in the sugar factories or community residents, nor has any action been taken to “compensate them for the damages” they suffered as a result of industrial pollution of criminal magnitude. Just this past week, a website was set up to call attention to the plight of these victims.7
Africa’s knights in shining armor should take care of business in their own backyards -- lakes, rivers and factories -- before mounting their steeds on a crusade to save Africa from global warming.
Editor's Note:
The above article is an excerpt from Professor Al Mariam's article issued for solely politicizing the matter. While nothing is wrong with it, I think coming up with a solution would be a noble idea in addition to, of course, his great contributions to constantly inform us with major issues such as this. My recommendation for this disastrous situation is to immediately start doing something to fight it. The environmental concern, if nothing is done now in a national dimension, no doubt is already causing the demise of the society in that region much faster than any where in the world. Before things get to the point of no return, Africans need to fight the new enemy that's out to destroy them. Technology is the answer for this. There needs to be a way to stop people from massively cutting trees for their every day use. Any idea? Aha...
Joke of the day
A student walks into the school house and sits in his seat. The teacher asks him what his favorite word is. He says you will have to guess it; I will give you a hint. He says it starts with an f and ends with ...uck. The teacher says ok we don't need to hear your word but he says you know what, it is not that bad it is just firetruck!!!!!
Ethiopia Commodity Exchange Promises Huge Benefits
Addis Ababa (AllAfrica) — The last nine months of its existence has been challenging for Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). It saw decline in coffee production and felt impact of global financial depression, among others, ECX disclosed.
Transformation from traditional to modern transaction system, shortage of laboratories, low storage capacity of warehouses, the existence of 256 to 781 coffee variety grades were also among the challenges faced by the ECX, said Dr. Eleni Zawde, CEO, at the annual ECX members’ forum held at Addis Ababa Hilton on Monday.
Even then, ECX has been striving to overcome the challenges and achieve its targets since its establishments nine months back, it was indicated. Before ECX was established, the agricultural markets in Ethiopia had been characterized by high costs and high risks of transaction; only one third of the output reached the market; and commodity buyers and sellers tended to trade only with those they knew so as to avoid the risk of being cheated or default, she said.
In addition to that, trade was carried out on the basis of visual inspection because there was no assurance of product quality and quantity. This drove costs up, leading to high consumer prices.
Small-scale farmers on their part, who produce 95 percent of the country’s output, came to the market with little information and were consequently at the mercy of merchants nearby, the only market they knew. Hence, they were unable to negotiate better prices or reduce their market risk, Dr. Eleni underlined.
ECX is working for reconciliation between warehouses and the central depository, to install an automated system and for regular close monitoring of security issues and manipulation at warehouses.
In the just ending year, coffee worth 2.8 billion birr was made available for transaction in the domestic and export market by ECX.
The suitable altitude, ample rainfall, favorable temperatures and fertile soil makes Ethiopia a favourable region with a huge potential for coffee production. A genetic pool of the country’s coffee shows it contains more than 6000 varieties, giving the country a big specialty coffee capacity.
Coffee plants cover a total area of 700,000 hectares in Ethiopia, producing roughly 250,000 tons per annum. Around 20 million people make a living out of the commodity. Forest coffee accounts for about 10 percent of the total.
The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange is a recent initiative in Ethiopia. ECX has a vision to revolutionize Ethiopia’s tradition bound agriculture through creating a new market system that serves all market actors, ranging from farmers to traders, from processors to exporters and consumers.
Ethiopia - Forty Preconditions for Elections 2010
I am of the view that Ethiopia's political forces in the opposition must ensure that the government will fulfil these preconditions before contemplating participation in the forthcoming elections in 2010. These forty preconditions should be met before any of the opposition parties could decide to participate. The political landscape in Ethiopia today has narrowed by wide margins compared to the democratic space which was a little ajar in the run up to May 15, 2005. These preconditions, if fulfilled, will certainly narrow the room for TPLF/EPRDF while they open up greater breathing space for the opposition.
Media and Information
1. Equal access for all opposition parties to state owned media
2. Equal time allocation (in the state owned media) for all political parties to announce their programmes to the public
3. Government financial support to political organizations in the opposition camp to finance advertising costs of airing or publishing information in the private print and broadcast media
4. Unhindered access for all Ethiopians to web cast media based both at home and abroad
5. Stopping government efforts to jam radios like VOA and DW Amharic programmes particularly when Ethiopians are highly sensitive about the political developments in their country in the run up to national elections 2010
6. Complete freedom for all Ethiopians back home to freely publish or air their concerns in the state owned media without any fear of repression or punishment from local cadres and apparatchiks
7. Free circulation of fliers and leaflets published by opposition parties in their effort to reach out the public and introduce their programmes
8. Freedom for all journalists to travel and penetrate into any part of the country to investigate and report on cases of civil and political rights abuses in connection with opposition members and supporters and their activities
9. Restore all the private news papers that were squeezed out of the market following the contested elections 2005 and allow them to continue their work of informing citizens
10. Reduce the skyrocketing publication cost imposed on private news papers and periodicals in attempt to undermine their financial capacity and limit the scope of their activities
11. Guarantee that the government will not disrupt the Short Messaging Services (short mobile text messages) as it did during and immediately after elections 2005
12. Allow opposition forces to make use of local/regional radio services including education transmission radios (particularly on weekends) to impart election related information to local residents since it is at woreda and kebele levels where most of the activities will be done
13. Issue directives to make it possible for opposition parties to relay important messages at social gatherings and religious congregations particularly in rural areas of the country since the rural community has limited access to the luxury of print, broadcast and web cast media
14. Allow oppositions to stage their programmes and policies at rural market towns, where, given the constraints mentioned in No.13, opposition parties will have the chance to address a diverse audience from various rural kebeles who in turn could carry the messages to their respective kebeles
15. Freedom for all rural teachers, medical practitioners, development agents and micro credit officers to choose and get involved in political activities which will enable the opposition to have easier and more effective means of outreaching rural Ethiopia
Political Prisoners
16. Release Chairman of Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, Judge Birtukan Midekssa, without any preconditions
17. Discharge the tens of thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience held in various concentration camps including Dedesa, Shewa Robit, Zeway and Sheraro (I heard about Sheraro for the first time more than a decade ago when my childhood friends' fathers who had served in the Derg military rule were said to be held there. Till today nothing in known about them)
18. Free all journalists who have been arrested and detained for publishing critical editorials against the government
19. Stop the arrest and incarceration of opposition members and activists without warrant and without due process of law
20. Release all the 37 or so Ethiopians who were rounded up and detained based on trumped up charges of having "links with Ginbot 7 and attempting to assassinate high profile government officials."
NGOs
21. Rethink the so called CSO/NGO law passed by the rubber-stamp parliament in January 2009 whose primary objective is limiting the activities of NGO/CSO in promoting democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights
22. Lift the financial cap which discourages home grown NGOs from raising more than 10% of their revenue from abroad. Without enough fund, local NGOs could hardly play significant roles in combating corruption or advancing democratic culture
23. Remove all technical and political barriers against local and international NGOs which seek to contribute to building democratic institutions and good governance in the country
24. Allow humanitarian and charity organizations to resume their philanthropic operations in war-ravaged Ogaden region. The government must stop using famine as political weapon to put our Ogadeni brothers and sisters into submission. The opposition must ensure that the government revamps its position on local and foreign NGOs for one cannot go into elections with a ruling party that starves its own citizens through its bad policies and legislative smoke screen against NGOs
25. Lift all geographical barriers as to where local and foreign NGOs will have to concentrate their operations unless and otherwise such restriction is deemed dangerous for the wellbeing of NGO operatives (such potential conflict areas)
Human Rights and Human Rights Defenders
26. Stop the political pressure on Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) which requires it to abandon its obsession with democracy and the rule of law and focus only on human rights--which is absurd since no one can talk about democracy or respect for human rights where the rule of law is non-existent
27. Give appropriate weight to reports on human rights situations in Ethiopia issued by the State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Genocide Watch and other human rights organizations rather than engaging in a war of words which will only worsen the human rights situation in Ethiopia
28. Clear and unambiguous position regarding the much publicized government land deal with Khartoum and its implications on the basic human rights of Ethiopians inhabiting on our Western frontier bordering the Sudan, including their rights to till the land they possess and to get protection against attacks by the Sudanese armed forces. A ruling party which turns a blind eye on the plights of Ethiopians has no legitimate right to stay in power, let alone engage in periodic elections
29. Clear and unambiguous position on the horrendous human rights violations against our sisters being committed by petrodollar rich Arab countries, which is dramatically on the rise in the past few years. We all remember that in April 2008 the TPLF/EPRDF regime broke off diplomatic relations with the Gulf state of Qatar for Qatar's alleged indolent in arming and training terrorists in the Horn. The opposition must demand that the government recognize that the atrocities against our sisters are no different than terrorist acts
30. The government must officially promise that any unwarranted harassment, intimidation, arrest or detention of opposition members, supporters and sympathizers is a signal that 'the game is over!'
Electoral Board
31. A new electoral board must be established whose members constitute fair opposition presence, where at least one third of the members are opposition nominees
32. According to Article 104 sub article 2 of the current constitution, the electoral board is appointed by the House of Peoples' Representatives upon recommendation by the prime Minister. The opposition, having little or no confidence in the Prime Minister and his opaque regime, must demand that his recommendation include members of opposition forces to reflect and reinforce mutual confidence in the electoral process
33. Members of the electoral board shall be made up of professionals including lawyers, statisticians, geographers and political scientists who, in the course of discharging their duties and responsibilities, could make profound technical analysis and informed decisions and could also live up to some degree of professional ethics than lowly cadres and apparatchiks
34. Building the capacity of the electoral board such as the provision of training and logistic support to the board shall be made by independent local and international organizations and agencies which are concerned with the democratic political process in Ethiopia. This prevents the government from using its financial clout to influence the behaviour and actions of board members.
35. 'Without new and independent electoral board, no participation' should be the slogan of the opposition. Our opposition leaders need to recognize that partisan electoral board is the 'final straw' in their desperate bid to beat the TPLF/EPRDF regime.
Police, Security and the Army
36. Disband the special and ethnically oriented AGAZI death squad and re-form it in a manner that reflects the true and proportional composition of all ethnic groups. Such re-structuring will significantly weaken the strong link between the executive branch of the government and the AGAZI special force which are infested with people from the same ethnic group
37. Re-shuffle the high ranking military positions in the National Defence Forces more than 95% of which, as reported by Ginboat7 a few months ago, are occupied by Tigreans. The country’s two largest ethnic groups, Amhara and Oromo, deserve more places proportional to their ethnic make-up in the nation
38. The commander-in-chief of the Army must be the head of state of the country, namely, the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, who, at least superficially, is independent. This requires amending the constitution which lavishly puts such power on the Prime Minister
39. Specific directives, rules and procedures must be designed and deployed to guide the activities and operations of the police and security forces in the country. The government must guarantee the opposition that its police and security forces will not haphazardly arrest and detain members and supporters of the opposition without warrant or concrete evidence that they were involved in destructive acts
40. Yeshi Filt Maseriyaw Lit—All the above preconditions are the bones and flesh of an expanded political landscape for the opposition to operate effectively. But Independent Court System is the soul! TPLF/EPRDF has four legs: a Kangaroo Court system, a special AGAZI Death Squad, a Puppet Electoral Board and a Voluble Charlatan (the party’s chairman). Forget the last leg; but without any change in the first three legs (Electoral board, Kangaroo Court and Agazi Death Squad) it is waste of time, energy and even human lives to engage TPLF/EPRDF in elections.
Get the forty preconditions fulfilled or No Elections!
Wondemhunegn Ezezew
bishangary@yahoo.com
Joke of the day: Strangers on a Train
A scientist gets on a train to go to New York. His cabin also has a poor farmer in it. To pass the time the scientist decides to play a game with the guy.
"I will ask you a question and if you get it wrong, you have to pay me one dollar. Then you ask me a question, and if I get it wrong, you get ten dollars. You ask me a question first." The farmer thinks for a while.
"I know. What has three legs, takes ten hours to climb up a palm tree, and ten seconds to get back down?" The scientist is confused and thinks long and hard about the question. Finally, the train ride is coming to an end. As it pulls into the station, the scientist takes out ten dollars and gives it to the farmer. "I don''t know. What has three legs, takes ten hours to get up a palm tree and ten seconds to get back down?"
The farmer takes the ten dollars and puts it into his pocket. He then takes out one dollar and hands it to the scientist.
"I don''t know."
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