Year: 2015
- Africa
Behind the smokescreen of Ethiopia’s surging tobacco production
Ethiopia is one of the few countries that evaded the global tobacco plague; yet, with aggressive measures at many levels, it can maintain its low smoking prevalence, and even reduce it further. But that is less likely to happen if its ruthlessly ambitious monopoly believes “in creating a more ergonomic workspace to improve” its business Dr. Frank Ashall, Special to…
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Open Letter to the Policy Makers at the National Bank of Ethiopia
Re: Suspension of the Executives of the Cooperative Bank of Oromia In a baffling decision, you have suspended the top officials of the Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO) for reasons that have not yet been made clear to the public. The news that they were sacked “due to alleged mishandling of foreign exchange trade” cannot be taken seriously until further…
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Opinion: Ethiopia’s new Parliament: the inauguration of electoral authoritarianism
Eyob Aselefech Balcha Yesterday, 5 October 2015, the new Ethiopian parliament was officially opened. The best depiction that captured the essence of this new parliament is its paramount role to the consolidation of electoral authoritarianism in Ethiopia. The parliament got its mandate from a general election held on 24th May 2015. The electiontook place in a context where the ruling…
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Ethiopia’s PM Hailemariam Desalegn forms his new government; parliament approves all candidates
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who was reelected as yesterday, formed the new government this morning with full endorsement by the national parliament of his ministerial candidates. The House of People’s Representatives (HPR) has approved the appointments of 23 ministers and four senior positions with ministerial portfolio. Accordingly, the House endorsed the PM’s nomination of Demeke Mekonnen, as well…
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The Donald
No presidential candidate in modern American history has been able to voice what Mr. Trump has and still be alive as a candidate; he has managed to defy the conventional wisdom of politics and political correctness by attacking it ferociously, and yet his popularity shows no sign of slowing down Tomas Mega, Les Vegas, Nevada Donald Trump is a political…
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Ethiopia’s experiment with federalism: Why it’s not South Africa’s Apartheid? (Part I)
Tsegaye R. Ararssa, Special to Addis Standard What is the story of Ethiopia’s experiment with federalism? What stories does it tell? And what stories can be told about it? Feeding from and into the ever polarized and polarizing ‘debate’ on Ethiopia’s politics, a few academicians are arguing that the Ethiopian federal arrangement is synonymous with apartheid South Africa’s ‘racial federation’.…
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U.S. businesses visit Ethiopia as part of largest-ever U.S.-led trade mission to Africa
The U.S. Embassy to Addis Abeba, through its Foreign Commercial Service office, welcomed Ten U.S. Companies to Ethiopia this week as part of the largest U.S. government-led trade mission to Africa in history. The companies went through a day of meetings with Ethiopian government officials and area businesses, in an effort to facilitate new U.S.-Africa business deals. The Ethiopia visit…
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African Dams linked to over one million Malaria cases annually
New study urges future dam projects to consider better disease control measures Over one million people in sub-Saharan Africa will contract malaria this year because they live near a large dam, according to a new study which, for the first time, has correlated the location of large dams with the incidence of malariaand quantified impacts across the region. The study…
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Germany hosts first German-African business summit
On the margins of the first German-African Business Summit, the German Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met on September 8 with leaders of four African Regional Organizations; Southern African Development Community (SADC), African Union (AU), East African Community (EAC) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). They discussed German cooperation with regional organization in African, peace and security as…
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The price of European indifference
Bernard-Henri Lévy Baghdad – Europe’s migration debate has taken a disturbing turn. It began with the creation of the catch-all concept (a legal freak) of a “migrant,” which obscures the difference, central to the law, between economic and political migration, between people escaping poverty and those driven from their homes by war. Unlike economic migrants, those fleeing oppression, terror, and…
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