Month: August 2015
- Africa
U.S. Congressional Delegation visits Ethiopia, looks at impact of American-Ethiopian development
Earlier this week, an eight member congressional delegation visited Ethiopia. The delegation consisted of Senators Chris Coons, Jeff Merkley and Al Franken and Representatives David Cicilline, Joseph P. Kennedy, Betty McCollum, Terri A. Sewell and Kay Granger. While in Ethiopia the Members visited U.S. development assistance project partner sites, held a roundtable discussion with Ethiopian Civil Society members and…
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The coming (and going) of no messiah
A careful look at President Obama’s visit to Ethiopia will reveal that plenty of unlikely circumstances will render his purpose to visit to a near irrelevance, except for one only KalkidanYibeltal The drizzly afternoon on June 26, 2015 saw Addis Abeba’s Bole International Airport playing host to a hitherto unacquainted guest – Air Force One – the flying White…
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Charleston and the war that never ends
Though it ended 150 years ago, the bitterness caused by the American Civil War continues to reverberate; why has so little changed when so much has changed?,our U.S. correspondentTomas Mega asks On the evening of June 17th, twenty-one year old Dylan Roof walked into the historic Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina and murdered six black women…
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Why resist the Addis Abeba Master Plan? – A constitutional legal exploration
Tsegaye R. Ararssa, Special to Addis Standard (@RArarssa) When,in mid April 2014, the government in Ethiopia announced its readiness to implement what it called the “Addis Abeba Integrated Regional Development Plan” (the “Master Plan” for short), which proposes to annex most of the city’s surrounding areas belonging to the National Regional State of Oromia, it provoked an immediate reaction…
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A new approach to Eurozone sovereign debt
Yanis Varoufakis Athens – Greece’s public debt has been put back on Europe’s agenda. Indeed, this was perhaps the Greek government’s main achievement during its agonizing five-month standoff with its creditors. After years of “extend and pretend,” today almost everyone agrees that debt restructuring is essential. Most important, this is true not just for Greece. In February, I presented to…
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Opinion – The meek flyby: Silences and reactions
Tarikua Getachew (@tarikawipeace) Obama and My Mother I hesitated between hundred ways to begin this piece. I wanted to write the Kenyans have treated President Obama like their runners do our runners on track: they wear us out but we still win. But then I figured nah… the Kenyans, more brothers to us than to Americans, can’t be responsible…
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Drought in Ethiopia affecting millions, worsens food insecurity as government appeals for emergency food assistance
The less than usual drops of rain in the past several rainy seasons have caused drought in many parts of the country, particularly in Eastern and Southern Ethiopia, triggering severe food insecurity in communities already on constant food distribution list by donors. Estimated numbers of people affected by the current drought and are in need on emergency food assistance has…
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EDITORIAL: The Trial of Abubaker Ahmed et al: Ethiopia must avoid a symbolic miscarriage of justice
Monday July 6, 2015 was an important milestone in a court case that has been simmering since Ethiopia’s crackdown on Muslim protestors that began on July 19th 2012. The trial that followed became yet another high profile court case involving the government and a group of individuals; only this time the latter are no journalists, bloggers or opposition political party…
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Opinion – The unfair trial of Muslim Leaders: Why it undermines counterterrorism in Ethiopia
Abadir M. Ibrahim Something was awry at a hearing of the High Court of Ethiopia on July 6, 2015. As the much anticipated conviction of Muslim civil society leaders (Abubaker Ahmed and 17 others) was underway, it was clear that this was no ordinary trial. Security was beefed up, the public gallery was crowded and the atmosphere was tense. A…
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Editorial: Controlling police excesses long overdue!
Much to the expectation of curious spectators of Ethiopia’s current political affairs, the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) claimed a 100% win in the last general election held on May 24th 2015. When seen against the party’s own record since the first national election in 1995; the thinning global trend of an electoral tale of a 100% wins;…
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