Year: 2016
- Africa
An Oromo dilemma: The national question and democratic transition
Ezekiel Gebissa, Special to Addis Standard In his ground breaking study, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, the Swedish Nobel-laureate economist Gunnar Myrdal described America’s race problem as a vicious cycle in which whites oppressed blacks and then blamed their alleged poor performance as the reason for their oppression. The way to break this cycle, Myrdal suggested, was to disprove…
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News: Rights group say more than 400 killed in Ethiopia’s #OromoProtests
Ethiopian security forces have killed more than 400 protesters and others, and arrested tens of thousands more during widespread protests in the Oromia region since November 2015, Human Rights Watch said in a report. The group also called on the “Ethiopian government should urgently support a credible, independent investigation into the killings, arbitrary arrests, and other abuses.” The report came…
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Opinion: Welcome to the Ethiopian Wide Web
Tess Conner Last week, the government in Ethiopia approved, much to the outcry of the rights activists, a new Computer Crime Proclamation, which, according to the government, is designed to protect the state and citizens from crimes committed using computers. It is not clear if governments, especially the US and individual EU member states, which are Ethiopia’s allies, could join…
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News: Rights Commission declares measures against protesters in Oromia “proportional”, admits excessive force used against Qimant people
Kalkidan Yibeltal The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, (EHRC), a government body which was investigating killings, maiming, arrests and forced disappearances of protesters in Oromia regional state following a five month region wide civil resistance, declared that security measures taken against protesters were “proportional.” Contrary to its report on Oromia, however, the commission admitted disproportional “excessive forces” were taken against the…
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Commentary – #OromoProtests: The “Oromo street” and Africa’s counter-protest state
Etana Habte, Special to Addis Standard Part I Throughout Africa, increasing numbers of people are fundamentally altering the power structure of urban centers, transforming the very nexus of these centers as government sites of socio-political stability, economic development and investment, into sites of demonstrations and demands for justice and socio-political change. African streets are not new to African protesters demanding…
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U.S.-funded renovation of the Historic Sites in Lalibela completed
U.S. Ambassador Patricia M. Haslach and Yonas Desta, Director General, Director General of the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH) jointly inaugurated the completion of the preservation of Biet Gabriel Rafael Churches and re-consecration of the Churches. Representatives of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Lalibela government administration, members of the National Scientific Committee and invited guests were…
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Opinion: ‘Did Menelik II really say he is Caucasian?’
A call for caution-Lest we rewrite history in the name of contextual interpretation By Tsegaye R. Ararssa There is a renewed frenzied interest among social media activists in the Ethiopian right, who vow that Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia never claimed to be a Caucasian. The activists dispute the accuracy of Menelik’s statement in which he said “I am…
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Ethiopia Drought: The Worst is yet to come
Kalkidan Yibeltal & Tesfalem Waldyes The Bulbula River, named after the name of the small town 193km south of Ethiopia within the Rift valley, is no more. The entire water from the river has dried out in the last two months and it now looks a bare river bank. What’s left of it is just a few wells in areas…
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Obituary:A good bye to the Ethiopian “King of Saxophone”
Getachew Mekuria, known to his fan as the “Ethiopian King of Saxophone”, spent more than 5 decades playing the Saxophone. When news of his death was heard on April 05 thousands of Ethiopians took to the social media to pour their condolences. Addis Standard reached out to the one man who knows Getachew and his works, Francis Falceto, who has…
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Vulnerability
Vulnerability By singing to you Songs of what “Is” or by telling you Stories of the “Ought” you thought I sowed seeds of Wisdom to enrich your languishing Soul– but I tricked you I sneaked a message –a Trojan Horse– that I dumped on your gate my weapon of the weak that you pulled in in the middle of the…
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