vol. 24 no. 1255 september 26, 2020 addis ababa, ethiopia … · 2020. 9. 28. · 2| the reporter,...

Vol. 24 No. 1255 September 26, 2020 ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA www.thereporterethiopia.com Price 10.00 Birr

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#StaySafe

Pho

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Dan

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Brook Abdu

The Federal Attorney General said it has charged 2,000 individuals alleged to have participated in various ways in the protests and violence following the killing of the prominent Oromo musician, Hachalu Hundessa.

This was disclosed at a press briefing the Attorney General Gedeon Timoteos (PhD) gave along with the Foreign Languages and Digital Media Head of the Prime Minister’s Office Press Secretariat, Billene Seyoum, on Thursday September 24, 2020.

It is to be recalled that more than 9,000 people had been detained right after protests held in Addis Ababa and Oromia, subsequent to the assassination of Hachalu. Among the detainees are prominent politicians like Lidetu Ayalew of the Ethiopian Democratic Party, Eskinder Nega of the Balderas, as well as Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba of the Oromo National Congress (ONC).

Briefing the media on the status of the rule of law over the past three months and beyond, Gedeon stated that singling out and attacking minorities in parts of the country were observed. 160 people have died

and 360 people have sustained injuries accordingly. In addition, 4.6-billion-birr worth of property was damaged as a result of the violence instigated in Addis Ababa and Oromia.

According to Gedeon, the charged individuals participated in the killing of Hachalu and incited violence with various degrees.

“The scale and manner to which the crimes were committed posed a challenge by itself. So, the enormity of the crime was the main challenge we faced,” Gedeon stated.

On her part, Billene argued that such kinds of pockets of violence

in the country are not indicative of the government’s limited capacity to protect citizens from attacks. She added that the government had thwarted unreported attacks, terrorist activities and it should not be judged because of the reported attacks that gained media attention.

Gedeon also said that, apart from preventing other attacks, the fact that perpetrators have been brought to justice will deter future attempts of violence.

Prominent politicians like Jawar Mohammed had claimed in court that they were detained because of their political views and the government wanted to get rid of

them from the political space as elections approached. But the Attorney General downplayed such claims and argued that no link should be made between the political roles of the individuals and their charges.

“We have to distinguish between correlation and causation. Some of the people detained were politicians but they are not detained because their political activity,” he said.

While indicating some court cases have been delayed, he said he hopes the recent appointment of judges will ease the burden on the judiciary to quicken trials and sentences.

I

2| The Reporter, September 26, 2020 Vol. 24 No. 1255

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EDITORIAL

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Sub city: N.lafto, K. 10/18, H.No. 614Senior EditorBrook Abdu

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Senior ReportersSamuel Getachew

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Columnists

Tsion Taye

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Endalkachew Yimam

Now that the go-ahead has been given to conduct 2020’s delayed general elections all political parties are duty-bound to make the necessary preparations to earn the consent of voters. They must always bear in mind that as the ultimate repository of sovereign power the people get to pick through whose person they exercise this power. Prior to setting out to sell their vision to the electorate, they need to do their homework properly. Parties lacking the requisite discipline to engage in a peaceful political struggle and a clear program should know that there is nothing to be gained by appearing on the ballot, that power cannot be gained by force, deception or making empty promises. As such it’s incumbent on each and every party to put the interest of the country and its people front and center and demonstrate that it is committed to the peaceful and democratic pursuit of its objectives. This said the ruling party owes the obligation to go the extra mile to broaden the democratic space. It’s then that the playing field can become level for all competing parties.

Ethiopia finds itself at a time when the political space has to be more accommodative of diversity of views. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right Ethiopians should be able to enjoy. Critical to the enjoyment of this right is respecting differences in opinion. Democracy cannot thrive where freedom of expression is solely used to criticize the views of others without offering a better alternative. Whether in political parties or other organizations no two persons should be expected to agree on everything all the time and they should be able to express themselves freely. Such culture of civilized engagement is vital to generating ideas that can win the public over. Resorting to such undemocratic practice as peddling vitriolic narratives to grab the reins of power is not befitting the times. This backward attitude has for long characterized the leaders of most political parties. These leaders need to understand that if they are to win the hearts and minds of voters it’s of the essence to submit to their will.

Ethiopia’s backward political landscape has to be fundamentally transformed so as to empower parties that truly embrace transparent and people-centered agendas. Needless to say the transformation may succeed insofar as all the players abide by the rules of the game. Chief among these are resolving differences through constructive discussions; eschewing the notion that differences are a bar to working together; engaging in unfettered and yet rational dialogues; and demonstrating unequivocally one’s commitment to respect the will of the people including accepting the results of elections. All Ethiopians want is to live in peace, freedom and equality. A party whose platform enables it to deliver increased income, affordable housing, quality education, justice and stability is apt to gain the electorate’s trust. The very purpose of political rivalry is to convince the public that they are best suited to fulfill these basic needs.

It’s undeniably of crucial importance to forge a shared vision on the unity of Ethiopia and its people. There still abound compatriots who detest the very mention of Ethiopia

and want nothing more than its disintegration. No matter what philosophy they spouse all politicians have the duty to put the continued survival of Ethiopia above their personal or organizational interest. Those entirely clueless about the art of politics or are consumed with conniving and hatred better take off time from politics until they develop a mindset that puts the nation and fellow citizens first. They and their ilk are zero-sum politicians who live to bicker over trifle matters and have no place for give-and-take; they wax lyrical about democracy but don’t live it actually. Ethiopians have had enough of pseudo-politicians masquerading as their authentic voices. Given they have no qualms about using the upcoming elections as an excuse to roil the country, it’s sensible to take the necessary precautions aimed at assuring the credibility and integrity of the electoral process from start to finish.

The raft of complex challenges confronting Ethiopia has been accumulating for years, if not decades. The first thing to do in overcoming the challenges should be to seek pragmatic, prudent and knowledge-based solutions. The irrational and

sometimes malicious actions frequently taking place across the country are destined to produce ephemeral gains and eventually become irrelevant. As a country undergoing a sea change, Ethiopia faces the real prospect of sliding backwards if it is unable to move beyond wrangling over inconsequential issues and focus instead on institution building and the rule of law. The most important task before the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) in terms of laying the democratization process on a firm foundation is to assure the prevalence of durable peace and stability. This calls for, among others, upholding the rule of law; respecting democratic and human rights fully; guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary; broadening the political space; and undertaking preparations which help ensure that the next elections meet international standards.

The people of Ethiopia have time and again intimated that the single most important thing they want out of their leaders is to understand their needs and govern them accordingly. Aside from figuring out what the people they govern really feel and think, the leaders must promote their active participation in finding solutions to the intractable problems besetting Ethiopia. Indispensable to the search for solutions is the contribution of intellectuals, religious leaders, elders, educational institutions, the media and civil society organizations. It’s criminal to disenfranchise a people possessing wisdom and civility. In particular, politicians and self-proclaimed activists have to desist from any and all acts that disrespect the public. Sooner or later the public will dish out the same treatment to them. In fact they should endeavor to leave behind a legacy that future generations will be proud of. Ethiopia’s thorny problems cannot be resolved without a vision anchored in the aspirations of its people. This is why it’s of the essence that all stakeholders in the electoral process, especially political parties, gear up for the success of the upcoming elections

HEADLINESThe Reporter, September 26, 2020 Vol. 24 No. 1255 |3


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The Reporter, September 26, 2020 Vol. 24 No. 1255


LIVING AND THE ARTS

ELECTRIFYING

THE MUSIC SCENE

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E

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The Reporter, Septembe


INTERVIEW

FIGHTING

AN ARMY OF PESTS

Birhanu Fikade of The

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IN-DEPTH

By Brook Abdu

The preparations for the 2020

general elections in Ethiopia

was engulfed in a hype, full of

promises, to make it a free and

fair election, unlike previous

times. The newly appointed

Chairperson to the National

Electoral Board of Ethiopia

(NEBE) had repeatedly

committed that the general

election is going to be like no

other, in the past.

A previous politician and

an ex-judge herself, the first

task Birtukan Mideksa,

chairperson of

NEBE

undertook was to restructure

the Board along with enacting

laws that establish and

govern political parties. This

is one of the success stories,

the leadership on the Board,

mentions here and there.

While going through this

“reform” the first test for the

Board came from the Sidama

zone in the Southern Region,

demanding to establish their

own regional state through

a referendum as directed by

the regional council. Now a

breakaway region from the

South, the Sidama referendum

was conducted by the NEBE

resulting in the formation of

the 10th regional state as a new

member of the federation.

Since the completion of the

Sidama referendum, all eyes

turned to the general elections.

The preparation for the polls,

originally slated for August

29, 2020, began months ago by

arranging several directives

for the various actors in the

election process, including

the media, civil society, and

political parties. The board

had also mapped and disclosed

the ballot stations across the

nation, which were counted to

be around 59,000 at the time.

Alas! This was but a mere

enthusiasm and talk. The

global Coronavirus pandemic,

which entered the country in

March 2020, made the Board

halt all its preparations

for the election and asked

the Parliament, to which

it is accountable, to find a

resolution to the constitutional

crisis arising thereof.

In a report presented to

the House of Peoples’

Representatives (HPR), the

Board also indicated that,

while the elections should have

been held a month before the

end of the term to the existing

parliament and the executive

body, the House should find

ways to fill the gap in the

government.

The major reason the Board

presented to justify its inability

to hold the elections is the

limiting factor the stringent

measures put in place in the

country to prevent the spread

of the Novel Coronavirus.

As a result, activities like

sealing of election equipment

at the Ethiopian Airlines’

warehouse, procurement of

remaining printed materials,

trainers training for more

than 1,000 election officials

and for more than 150,000

election facilitators and voter

education, have been delayed.

The Board then cancelled the

election schedule it prepared

and announced it would

prepare a new operational plan

and proceed with its activities,

when the virus is under

control.

After the Board’s decision,

the government contemplated

four alternatives, to find

ways to deal with the looming

constitutional crisis due to

lack of a clear provision in

the constitution that governs

elections at a time of a State

of Emergency. The four

alternatives the government

XXXELECTION AMID

CONFLICTING HEALTH,

CONSTITUTIONAL ALLUSIONS


|17


FEATURE

By Samuel Getachew

Inside the restaurant known

for its mouthwatering Kifto

in Bole, by Yod Abyssinia

Cultural Restaurant, this

year’s celebration of Meskel

festivities is in some ways

somber. There were a much

smaller crowd of people

than the place is used to pre–

COVID-19 pandemic, but that

did not mean the day was not

marked, with people eager to

showcase the unique culture

of the Gurage people.

This annual event has been

hosted for the last decade by

Yod, with people that come

from near and far, to dine,

be entertained for free and

commemorate Meskel.

For the owner of the

restaurant, Tezazu Kore even

with the challenge of the new

era where social distancing

is the norm, it was important

for the day to be marked

and celebrated and to him,

be the Ethiopian cultural

ambassador he has become.

“This year, we have taken all

the caution that we have been

advised to take, plus invited a

small selection of people and

provided ample masks and

others, to ensure the safety

of our guests,” he said as he

greeted his guests near the

entrance of the restaurant.

“Ethiopia is a unique and

beautiful nation and I am

privileged to do my part to

remind as many as possible,

the beauty of our diversity.

That is what it is all about for

me. The money I earn from his

is the cream of the cake,” he

added.

The restaurant, sacrificing a

cow for the day, served variety

kinds of kitfo, including

gomen kitfo and kocho to

those that came, including

foreigners who on a regular

day seem to occupy the eatery.

“This is my first diplomatic

assignment to Ethiopia and

even on my first briefing

before coming to Ethiopia, I

was advised to come and visit

Yod Abyssina. It was an eye

opening to what has so far been

an exciting time to Ethiopia

for me. So far, I have visited

much of your beautiful nation,

including Lalibella and I have

been amazed by what is out

there and the potential it

presents to tourists and for the

Ethiopian government to take

advantage of,” a diplomat told

The Reporter while refusing

to identify himself as he was

not authorized to speak by his

ambassador.

His wife nodded in an

agreement as she took a big

bite of kitfo.

“What we experience here, we

try to cook at home. Injera,

while I found it bitter at the

beginning is an adopted taste

I have come to love and we

often try to make it (with an

assistant cook) and also make

all kinds of specialty in wot

like shero, which is quite easy

to make but Kitfo remains a

challenge to me and that is

why we often come to Yod

to eat with our children and

guests whenever they come to

visit us and we all love it,” she

said.

The Meskel celebration,

which is a commemoration

of the discovery of the True

Cross, has been one of the most

attended events in Ethiopia,

bringing tourists from around

the world. From the historic

city of Lalibella to the capitals

Mesqel Square, it is a widely

regarded celebration by

the Orthodox, Catholic and

Protestant faith followers.

According to history, the

bonfire represents a belief

that it signifies the direction

of where the True Cross rests

when it falls, as believed by

Queen Eleni.

This year’s festivities at

Mesqel Square,

which

was expected to have been

cancelled for the first time

due to COVID-19 and a

mega construction of water

fountains and a parking lot

by a Chinese state contractor,

it was decided that a small

reduced event will be offered

to the public.

That did not stop, Derik

Davidson and his friends

from a variety of European

nations, from Denmark and

others, from embarking to

Ethiopia, for their first trip to

the nation.

“From the day I discovered

Ethiopia by chance by being

a customer at a restaurant in

Copenhagen, I have always

wanted to come and the

Meskel celebration, especially

the bonfire, Demera, is such a

special and unique culture and

I wanted to visit it in person

and here I am. Up until now,

I only watched it on television

and what a wonderful scene to

see and now experience,” he

told The Reporter.

“When I came I did not know

what to expect. I backpacked

across Europe, visited many

places in North America, as

well as South America. But

Ethiopia, to me offers what

other nations do not which

is something that is here

and in no other places. The

celebration of Meskel is one

and I am happy I am here,” he

added.

To Tizazu, who has been

paying the salaries of his

workers while he was forced

to close his restaurant in the

midst of the pandemic, is what

makes him happy in a life

time spent on introducing the

cultural mystiques of home.

At his celebration, he offered a

gigantic bonfire, a celebration

of the slaughter of an animal,

cultural dancers, prayers and

family gathering of strangers’

in a celebration unique to

Ethiopia and Eritrea.

“In the entire milestone we

have been able to reach at

our restaurant, each means

something to us. We see those

that come to our restaurant as

those wanting to experience

culture, not just eat and leave.

That is why we put much

resources and heart in what

we do. We value diversity and

each has a heart and you can

experience that in all we do.

However, to me, Meskel is who

I am, what I grew up watching

and loving and showcasing

it to those at home and those

visiting – as a citizen and

an entrepreneur,” Tezazu

concluded.

A subdued Meskel

INSI

DE

By Kaleyesus Bekele

The African airline industry this week lost an iconic personality who served the continent for more than 34 years – Gobena Mikael Imiru.

Gobena had served Ethiopian Airlines for 27 years and RwandAir for six years. He was loved and respected by his colleagues at Ethiopian Airlines who affectionately call him “Gena”. Gobena joined Ethiopian at a young age of 25. He also earned a due recognition from Kigali where he had served the national carrier RwandAir since 2014.

He was one of the founding members and a senior partner of AFRI Aviation Plc., an aviation consultancy firm based in Addis Ababa.

Gobena passed away on Monday, September 21, 2020, at the age of 58 in Kigali, where he was hospitalized for a few days. The management and employees of RwandAir paid their tributes, before sending

his body home on Tuesday. A large number of senior staff of Ethiopian Airlines, his family, relatives and friends, received his body at Bole International Airport and laid him to rest at the Holy Trinity Church on Wednesday.

Gobena was born to his father Lej Mikael Imiru, a close relative of Emperor Haileselassie I and was the last prime minister of the imperial regime and his mother Almaz Teklehawariat. He spent his childhood days in Russia and Switzerland while his father was serving his country as an Ambassador. He later attended the American Community School in Addis Ababa and graduated from Addis Ababa University with a BSc degree in Mathematics. He also holds a diploma in Airline Marketing and Finance, and an MSC degree in Information Science. Gobena served RwandAir in Kigali as the General Manager Commercial/chief commercial officer until his final days.

Prior to joining RwandAir,

Gobena served Ethiopian Airlines with distinction, in various positions for 27 years. During his long service with Ethiopian Airlines, he held the positions of

Manager Pricing, Manager Sales Development, Manager Marketing Automation and Project Manager Marketing Support Systems. He was then promoted to the positions of Director of Marketing Information Systems, Area Manager of France based in Paris, Regional Director of Southern Europe based in Rome, Regional Director of North & South America, based in Washington DC.

After completing his outstation assignments, Gobena returned to Ethiopia and was assigned to spearhead the massive change management program in Ethiopian Airlines as the Senior Director Change Management. Having completed this assignment, Gobena joined the Ethiopian Airlines executive management team as Senior Vice President of Global Sales and finally as the Chief Commercial Officer of the airline.

By Yonas Abiye

The House of People’s Representatives (HPR), convening on Tuesday, has passed a resolution granting the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) permission to resume its preparations and conduct the 6th national election this Ethiopian fiscal year, while the government goes ahead in opening schools nationwide.

It is to be recalled that due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ethiopia had postponed the periodic national elections for the House of Peoples’ Representatives and Regional Legislative Councils, which was slated to take place in last August.

This time, the latest decision comes a week after Minister of Health, Lia Tadesse (MD), presented her Ministry’s report and resolution that

suggested the possibility of holding the election. In here report, the Minister told the House that, this time, the nation could undertake the election, amid the pandemic, taking extra-precautions in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during polling day.

After hearing that report, MPs sent the report and motion of the COVID-19 epidemic response and subsequent steps, to the Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Democracy in collaboration with the Standing Committee on Women, Youth and Social Affairs for further scrutiny.

The head of the Women, Youth and Social Affairs Standing Committee, Abeba Yoseph, presented a resolution highlighting crucial issues that would help avert the spread of the virus, based on the guidelines and recommendations given by the World Health Organization

(WHO) and the Ethiopian public Health Institute (EPHI).

Lia said that drafting and designing a new code of conduct and guidelines that take the virus into account is important. MPs on their part stressed the need for urgent precautionary measures, including continues awareness raising campaigns be undertaken, ahead of the election, at a community level.

During the debate, the experience of other countries was taken into consideration including the countries that have postponed voting. In Africa, Guinea, Burundi, Mali and Zimbabwe went forward with their elections taking various steps to reduce the risk to voters and election officials, from contracting the disease.

With eight abstaining and one vote cast against the resolution, the House endorsed the resolution with a majority

vote, giving the green light to the electoral board to resume its preparations for the election.

It is to be recalled that earlier in the month, the Tigray Regional Administration had conducted its own regional election, despite the federal government’s unwillingness to recognize the election.

In addition to the election, the House deliberated and gave its consent to the government, to open schools with proper protective measures put in place. Abeba told MPs that due to COVID-19, over 26 million students have been away from schools across the country, since March this year. She further highlighted that undergraduate studies have also been impacted.

Abeba further said that the sports sector of the nation, and as a result the country, may have to get out of continental and global competitions.

Gobena Mikael . . . page 22


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HEADLINES6| The Reporter, September 26, 2020 Vol. 24 No. 1255


... NEWS IN BRIEF

By Yonas Abiye

The Ministry of Transport, in its latest report revealed that the total number of vehicles registered by the authority, at both federal and regional levels, has reached close to 1.2 million vehicles. Out of the total registered number; motorbikes top the list for any type of vehicle registered by the Federal Transport Authority.According to the report, a total of 1,200,110 vehicles have been registered nationwide until the last fiscal year ending July 7, 2020.The report shows that Addis Ababa has registered around 630,440 vehicles while Oromia (204,026), Amhara (106,434) and SNNPR have registered 118,424 vehicles. The above four regions rank from 1st to 4th, accordingly. The rest of the regions, according to the Ministry, rank from 5th to 11th with Tigray registering 60,800 vehicles, Dire Dawa Administration (24,510), Somali (19,579), Harari (10,728), Benishangul Gumuz (10,655), Afar (8,277) and Gambella registering 6,237 vehicles, respectively.However, the report did not indicate how many vehicles were not registered during the period, but were expected to be registered.According to the latest data and figure obtained by The Reporter from the Federal Transport Authority, the stated total number of registered vehicles [Of the 1.2 million registered vehicles], the highest portion goes to motorcycles (243,435) or 20.3 percent.Meanwhile, Automobiles and Dry Cargos account for 19.71 percent (236,588) and 18.33 percent (220,060) of the total registered vehicles, respectively.Surprisingly, the data also shows that Forklifts, Liquid Trailers, Combiners, Dozers and Graders respectively

account for 316 (0.026 percent), 185 (0.015 percent), 167 (0.013 percent), 27 (0.002 percent) and 16 (0.001 percent).However, the authority’s data does not indicate whether the vehicles under the possession of the Ministry of Defense are included in the figures or not. Furthermore, it does not show how many vehicles are in the private sectors possession or if it belongs to the government.Explaining the numbers, Yohannes Lemam, Head of Road Safety Education and Awareness at the Authority, said the stated number of vehicles only represents the total number of vehicles registered in the fiscal year of 2012 (2019/20 GC) by the authority, but does not include vehicles existing in the country. He indicated that there may be more vehicles, whose owners

might have failed in getting them registered during the given period.Yohannes further pointed to the fact that there are a lot of vehicles particularly motorbikes that have been smuggled in illegally, adding that illegal vehicles are already on the roads. “Though we [the authority] have our own stock in controlling these illegal vehicles, the mandate of chasing and capturing these illegal vehicles mainly falls under the duty and power of Ministry of Revenue and Custom offices,” Yohannes told The Reporter adding most of the motorbikes and other vehicles are smuggled in though border entries mainly from Sudan, Kenya and other neighboring countries..Various reports puts Ethiopia at a lower rate of vehicle

possession per population compared to other countries, but boasts a higher rate of accident and subsequent fatality rate.Earlier this month, State Minister of Transport, Mullu Gebre-egziabher said that during the last fiscal year of 2019/20, the number of car accidents and its substantial fatally rate hit lower figures than previous periods. She, however, underlined that even though the number of death during the reported period looks low, the actual death toll is too big considering the number of total vehicles Ethiopia has in comparison with other African nations. According to the minister, the total death in the reported period was lower by some 464 or 10.09 percent than in the previous year.“Still, the latest death rate is

too big and is at a shocking level compared to the total vehicles Ethiopia has. This figure still reminds us that we need to bring urgent measures to address such tragic fatality rates,” she said.According to the WHO’s Global Health Observatory data repository, Ethiopia’s total number of registered vehicles in 2015/16 was at 708,416.Meanwhile, the African Development Bank report dated in 2014 shows that vehicles are the number one export from Korea to the Horn of Africa, especially to Sudan and Ethiopia. Countries in the Horn have more vehicle imports than exports. Countries in the Horn had 928,994 registered vehicles in 2014. Ethiopia had the largest number of registered vehicles, 478,244, and a 6 percent annual growth rate.

Two-wheelers top list

The Ethiopian army is tightening its grip on money laundering activities around borders, following the country’s introduction of new Birr notes to stop illegal circulation of money outside financial institutions.

In an exclusive interview with Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), General Berhanu Jula, Deputy Chief of Staff and Head of Military Operations Division of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, said the army has been strengthening its control on the flow of illicit funds into the country.

However, there are false claims by some quarters that the army has been given permission to seize money at will, he added.

The general strongly dismissed the allegations, saying values of the army would never allow it to do illegal activities.

General Berhanu explained that illegal money that violates the law is seized and saved in one account and used to strengthen the security structure.

He also said that there are persons who deliberately tarnish the good reputation of the defense force, the country is proud of.

(ENA)

Ethiopia will launch a second satellite into space in December this year, said

the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute on Monday.

Solomon Belay (PhD), director-general of the institute told state affiliated

Fana Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) that the satellite, named ET-SMART-

RSS, will be launched on December 19, 2020 from a Chinese satellite center.

It would play a significant role in sending information helpful for agricultural

activities and in covering areas that could not be reached by the first satellite,

he said.

Weighing 12 kg, the remote sensing satellite, which has so far cost USD 2

million, has a lifespan of 3-4 years in orbit, said the director-general.

Ethiopia launched its first satellite named ETRSS-1, a 70 kilogram multi-

spectral remote sensing satellite, in December last year.

According to Solomon, work is in progress to launch ETRSS-2 in 2022.

Ethiopia has planned to launch a total of 7 satellites over the coming 10 years.

(FBC)

Brook Abdu

A research conducted by Afro Barometer, “a non-partisan, pan-African research institution conducting public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy and society,” indicated that leaders are more trusted in Ethiopia than institutions. Accordingly, PM Abiy Ahmed has received the highest approval rates from leaders and the Ethiopian Defense Forces got highest rates from institutions.

The new study presented for discussion on Friday over a Zoom webinar, showed that the researchers found out that two thirds of Ethiopians approve of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s performance

in office and 31 percent of Ethiopians disapproved of the PM’s performance in office.

The National Defense Forces has the trust of 45 percent of Ethiopians, with the numbers for the Police, the ruling party, the courts of law, local government councils, tax authority, Electoral Board, Parliament and opposition political parties stand at 24 percent, 22 percent, 20 percent, 18 percent, 15 percent, 15 percent, 15 percent, and 7 percent, respectively.

Among the 2,400 respondents to the research program, 51 percent approve of their parliamentarians’ works, 55 percent approved the local government councilors and 85 percent approved the performances of traditional

leaders.

In terms of doing “a good job”, 51 percent of the respondents said they believe MPs are doing well while 55 percent said their local council representatives are doing a good job. In terms of this measurement, traditional leaders have received 85 percent of the approval rates.

This finding which depended on data gathered from 2,400 samples selected on random walk pattern, indicated that religious and traditional leaders have greater popular trust with approvals of 75 percent and 62 percent of respondents, respectively.

“Only about one in 10 Ethiopians say that MPs



By Yonas Abiye

The House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) has approved the appointment of four ministers that were nominated by Prime Minitster Abiy Ahmed (PhD) last month.

The four nominees are Kenea Yadeta (PhD) [Minister of the Ministry of National Defense Force], Gedion Timothios (PhD) [Attorney General, Minister], Samuel Hurqato (PhD) [Science and Higher Commission Education Minister] and Takele Uma (Eng.) [Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas].

The appointment’s resolution was presented before the House by Deputy Whip Challa Lemi. A brief debate on the appointees followed after the appointee’s profiles were readout by Challa. They were later voted through a majority vote while five abstained.

In addition to these appointments, lawmakers have endorsed the appointment of 40 judges to the Federal High Instance Court with a majority vote and five abstaining. Similarly, the House ratified 50 justice nominations with three absaining and the majority in agreement.

MPs, during the session raised questions as to why a larger number of judges leave their jobs frequently, about the level of women’s proportion, from where were they hired (is it across the nation or is it limited) and other related issues. A Federal Judges Administrative Council representative, Senait

Council has made efforts to collect comments from the public, through telephone lines and social media, to encompass the nation.

MP’s, in the same session, have debated and later endorsed various loan agreements the Ethiopian government had signed with various international financial lenders and multilateral organizations, for various infrastructure and development activities.

Andargie responded to the queries.

According to Senait, she said that all judges have the right to pursue advanced jobs and payments across the nation, while the open vacancy notice for the positions was released by the media, to make the participation fair and equitable. And that the nominees presented to the House are the most qualified ones, among others.

She told the House that the

The House unanimously approved two draft loan agreements including between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Export-Import Bank of Korea in response to the Coronavirus Emergency Response and for the provision of medical equipment.

The terms of the loan agreement include USD 40 million for the Coronavirus Emergency response and USD 30 million for the supply of medical equipment. The loan

agreement between the two countries will be finalized within 40 years, including a 15-year grace period.

Furthermore, the House unanimously approved the draft proclamation to ratify the Assela Wind Farm project between Ethiopia and Denmark’s largest Bank, Dansek Bank Group. The loan agreement reaches EUR 117.3 million and will be repaid within 20 years, including a five-year grace period.

Beijing Foreign Studies University has launched a program that offers the Amharic language at an undergraduate level.

The launch ceremony was held in Beijing on Monday, according to the Ethiopian Embassy in Beijing.

The program will be offered based on the Cooperative Agreement between Addis Ababa University and Beijing Foreign Studies University. This is the first ever program to be given in China, it was learnt.

Attending the ceremony were Ethiopia’s Embassy Representative in China, Samuel Fitsumberhan and Beijing Foreign Studies University Vice President, Jia Wenjian.

According to the agreement the university will provide the Amharic language course at a bachelor’s degree level for the first time.

Beijing Foreign Studies University is a prestigious university established in 1941 in China. As the first foreign language university and offering the most language programs in the country, it excels in the teaching and studying of foreign languages, foreign literature, overseas sinology, and also serves as an important base producing quality professionals with language competence and global vision.

(ENA)

Haramaya Town Administration has announced that Lake Haramaya

has been restored, following nature conservation and viable

measurements were undertaken by the government.

Muleta Bushura, Mayor of the town, told The Ethiopian Herald on

Wednesday that, the lake was endangered by improper and irresponsible

human activities since 16 years ago.

For him, starting from 2004, the lake and its environs was a dry land and

other parts of the lake were inundated by water weeds, the fish species

in the lake were eradicated, and swimming activities were totally over.

He underscored that the town administration has been undertaking

different activities in collaboration with different stakeholders, to

address the challenges and devise proper solutions especially working

closely with Haramaya University. As a result, efforts started to bear

fruit.

He also stressed that the university undertook a lot of problem solving

researches and investigations by enhancing Integrated Lake Haramaya

Water Shed Development project, to bring the status of the lake back.

(The Ethiopian Herald)

House endorses loan agreements worth USD 70 mln, Euro 117.3 mln

By Kaleyesus Bekele

Most of the hotels in Addis Ababa and regional towns, which were out of business in the past six months due to COVID-19, are reopening their doors for business. With the exception of those serving as quarantine centers, most hotels were closed for renovation in the past several months.

Feteh Woldesenbet, President of the Ethiopian Hotels and Related Service Providers Employers’ Association, told The Reporter that the hotels are undertaking the required preparatory works to return to business with recommended health precautions.

According to Feteh, a health safety protocol prepared by Tourism Ethiopia and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in collaboration with the Addis Ababa Hotel Owners Association, the Ethiopian Tour Operators Association and Ethiopian Hotels and Related Service Providers

Employers’ Association, has been endorsed and signed by stakeholders recently.

“Trainings on safety protocols are being organized. The trainings will be offered to hotels and tour operator employees, and they will be certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The hotels are returning to business by putting the required precautions in place,” Feteh said.

The restrictive measures taken by governments to curb the spread of COVID-19 globally brought the tourism sector to its knees. Hotels in Ethiopia had secured a subsidized bank loan to keep their employees on their pay rolls.

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) disbursed 3.3 billion birr in loans through 18 commercial banks finance the ailing hotels with five percent interest. But as the five percent interest rate was payable to the NBE, the banks were not making money out of these transactions

leading to a lack of interest from the banks to actively work on the initiative. According to Feteh, not all hotels have benefited from the scheme.

“Unless they start working, these businesses which employ large number of people and generate foreign currency, their survival would be in jeopardy,” Feteh said. According to him, since the State of Emergency has come to an end and Ethiopia as a country is under preparation to restart tourism, it is a high time to fully open the hotels.

Daniel Berhanu, general manager of the Addis Ababa Hotel Owners Association, told The Reporter that as the government is relaxing restrictions, hotels in Addis Ababa are preparing to welcome guests. Daniel said travellers with negative PCR test results can now walk out of the airport and lodge in any hotel they prefer.

Hotels to reopen . . . page 19



By Yonas Abiye

Lifebox, an international nonprofit organization working to make surgery and anesthesia safer, announced significant results for reducing surgical site infections (SSIs) by nearly half in ill-equipped hospitals and health facilities systems, after it successfully accomplished its pilot projects in five local hospital facilities in Addis Ababa and Oromia regional state.

A study published in the British Journal of Surgery on Wednesday, revealed encouraging results of Clean Cut – a Lifebox program that engages surgical teams to address preventable causes of SSIs.

Entitled “Outcomes Following Implementation of Clean Cut, an Adaptive, Multimodal Surgical Infection Prevention Program for Low Resource Settings: A Prospective Quality Improvement Study,” the study details the impact of Clean Cut in five pilot hospitals in Ethiopia, whereby a combined data and relevant measures and indictors were collected and analyzed within two years, since the pilot project commenced in Ethiopia.

According to the report, in a prospective cohort of over 2,000 surgical patients, the results showed a reduction in the risk

of SSIs by 35 percent.

“Most importantly, for scalability across low and middle-income countries, Clean Cut requires no major investments in new infrastructure or resources,” said a statement by Lifebox sent to The Reporter.

“We are very excited and encouraged by our results. Effective implementation of the Surgical Safety Checklist requires coordination and teamwork, and that is what we were able to accomplish through this program,” the statement said, quoting Thomas G Weiser (MeD), Trauma Surgeon and Clinical Lead of the Clean Cut program.

“We improved outcomes and reduced postoperative infections without relying on major capital investments. We know that global surgery gets a fraction of global health funding, and here we have a program that slashes infection rates regardless of a hospital’s budget or location. Clean Cut makes surgery demonstrably safer for patients. If we can effectively disseminate and scale this work, it has ramifications for surgical ecosystems worldwide.”

Head of Lifebox- East African Chapter, Senait Bitwe, told The Reporter that the project – Clean Cut – was first introduced in 2016 as a pilot project, primarily commencing

its intervention in five surgical hospitals, mainly in Jimma University Specialized Hospital (JUSH), Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH), Menelik II Specialized Hospital (MII) [both affiliated with Addis Ababa University – and St Peter’s Hospital; and Fitche Hospital.

The first three are high-volume tertiary teaching facilities, whereas St Peter’s is a regional referral hospital and Fitche is a district hospital, under the auspices of the Oromia Regional Health Bureau. Together they have a combined catchment population of over 25 million people.

In its latest report, Lifebox labels SSIs as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in surgical patients particularly in low and middle-income countries where rates of infection can be nearly twice that of high-income countries such as the USA, UK and other advanced nations.

Clean Cut is a checklist-based program that works to reduce SSIs by improving adherence to six essential preoperative infection prevention practices such as appropriate timing of antibiotics, confirmation of instrument sterility and routine swab counting.

Across the five pilot hospitals, there was a 64 percent increase in compliance across these six infection prevention standards

(from 2.9 to 4.5 out of six) with the maintenance of sterile field improving by 49 percent and confirmation of instrument sterility increasing by 50 percent.

As a result, the relative risk of infection dropped by 35 percent for all surgical patients. “When comparing surgical patients with low versus high compliance of infection prevention standards, high compliance reduced the risk of infection by 46 percent.”

“This is welcome news for surgical patients in Ethiopia,” said Tihitena Negussie (MD) of Black Lion Hospital.

“Like in many low-income countries, Ethiopian patients suffer disproportionately from surgical infections. Clean Cut is a locally-led and affordable way for surgical teams to make every single patient safer. With the backing of the Federal Ministry of Health, we’re rolling out Clean Cut across Ethiopia, to replicate our successes to date,” She said.

Initially supported by the GE Foundation’s Safe Surgery 2020 initiative, Clean Cut is now being rolled out in a number of new facilities in Ethiopia, in collaboration with MoH. With the results demonstrated by the pilot, Lifebox plans to implement Clean Cut in new settings in the coming months, The Reporter has learnt.

By Birhanu Fikade

Closed for more than half the school year, the government has further relaxed restrictions to allow the reopening of schools amid the spread of COVID-19 across the country, leaving many parents in limbo.

The Ministry of Education has proposed tentative schedules to reopen schools. According to Getahun Mekuria (PhD), the Minister of Education, universities, primary and secondary education will resume in weeks. For instance, regional states and rural administrations advised reopening schools on October 19, 2020, and onwards, while Schools in Addis Ababa have recommended reopening on November 30, 2020.

By Samuel Getachew

Addis Ababa based, John N. Nkengasong, the Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has received the 2020 Global Goalkeeper Award by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This comes as the canter is receiving kudos for its works in battling the pandemic.

“Dr. Nkengasong and his team at Africa CDC are

However, with the growing number of new cases and mortality, many parents fear sending their kids to schools.

Parents expressed their frustration over the lack of information on how schools could adhere to the safety measures. Concerns on physical distancing, wearing a mask, maintain hygiene and sanitary conditions have circulated on social media platforms. Many parents have created social media groups, to exchange views and concerns about schools and education matters.

Hargua Mamo, director of public relations with the Ministry of Education, told The Reporter that such concerns are valid. However, there are several parents equally concerned about the

deeply deserving of this award,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Their commitment to securing the latest innovations from elsewhere in the world—as well as developing them themselves—will go a long way towards ensuring that the continent has the vaccines and medicines it needs to fight COVID-19.”

Describing him as “Africa’s scientific community,” he was hailed as one that “is leading

to secure a variety of late-stage vaccine clinical trials on the continent by bringing together global vaccine developers, funders, and local facilitators. This work will be vital to ensure that the most promising vaccine candidates for the African population are identified and scaled up.”

The award is an emerging recognition to African’s who work in areas of health within the continent and in which the Gates Foundation continues to invest resources,

potential impacts their kids might encounter, due to the prolonged closure of schools. She said scores of parents have also demanded for schools reopen.

Responding to claims made by parents about lack of consultations, the director said the ministry has met with both parents’ and teachers’ representative groups. She added that it follows and monitors, whether safety standards and requirements are implemented in schools. Failing to meet safety measures will not be tolerated, she stressed.

Efforts to teach students by remote learning and homeschooling practices have fetched little outcomes for many countries, and Ethiopia is no different. The 2020

becoming one of the leading partners of development and try to change the narrative of a continent which others have emerged from. It has honored those in areas of rights, science and technology, digital or business initiatives and plays a prominent role in embracing public deeds.

The recipients were announced following the release of the Bill & Gates Foundation annual Goalkeepers Report, highlighting the economic impacts caused by COVID-19.

Human Capital report by the World Bank Group indicated that three out of ten children have received remote learning or digitalized education. The report details that these practices have yielded in lower outreach in Ethiopia when compared to Kenya, where six out of ten children and in Uzbekistan, seven out of ten children have been able to continue education through remote learning.

Currently, some 25 million children are forced to stay at home. In addition to that, the UN has reported that 20,000 more refugee children are out of school. However, the schools which have remained closed in the early stages of the COVID-19 transmissions are resuming education, as the total COVID-19 cases surpass 70,000.

It shows the inequalities and the negative impact it had in achieving some of the economic and developmental goals of the foundation within the continent.

For John, a virologist, in addition to his demanding role with the Center, he is also a special envoy to the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom (PhD) to help amplify the messages of the UN agency on COVID-19 preparedness.



IN-DEPTH

By Brook Abdu

The preparations for the 2020 general elections in Ethiopia was engulfed in a hype, full of promises, to make it a free and fair election, unlike previous times. The newly appointed Chairperson to the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) had repeatedly committed that the general election is going to be like no other, in the past.

A previous politician and an ex-judge herself, the first task Birtukan Mideksa, chairperson of NEBE undertook was to restructure the Board along with enacting laws that establish and govern political parties. This is one of the success stories, the leadership on the Board, mentions here and there.

While going through this “reform” the first test for the Board came from the Sidama zone in the Southern Region, demanding to establish their own regional state through a referendum as directed by the regional council. Now a breakaway region from the

South, the Sidama referendum was conducted by the NEBE resulting in the formation of the 10th regional state as a new member of the federation.

Since the completion of the Sidama referendum, all eyes turned to the general elections. The preparation for the polls, originally slated for August 29, 2020, began months ago by arranging several directives for the various actors in the election process, including the media, civil society, and political parties. The board had also mapped and disclosed the ballot stations across the nation, which were counted to be around 59,000 at the time.

Alas! This was but a mere enthusiasm and talk. The global Coronavirus pandemic, which entered the country in March 2020, made the Board halt all its preparations for the election and asked the Parliament, to which it is accountable, to find a resolution to the constitutional crisis arising thereof.

In a report presented to the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR), the

Board also indicated that, while the elections should have been held a month before the end of the term to the existing parliament and the executive body, the House should find ways to fill the gap in the government.

The major reason the Board presented to justify its inability to hold the elections is the limiting factor the stringent measures put in place in the country to prevent the spread of the Novel Coronavirus. As a result, activities like sealing of election equipment at the Ethiopian Airlines’ warehouse, procurement of remaining printed materials, trainers training for more than 1,000 election officials and for more than 150,000 election facilitators and voter education, have been delayed.

The Board then cancelled the election schedule it prepared and announced it would prepare a new operational plan and proceed with its activities, when the virus is under control.

After the Board’s decision, the government contemplated

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The Reporter, September 26, 2020 Vol. 24 No. 1255 |11


IN-DEPTH

four alternatives, to find ways to deal with the looming constitutional crisis due to lack of a clear provision in the constitution that governs elections at a time of a State of Emergency. The four alternatives the government looked into were extending the state of emergency further, dissolving the HPR and announcing an election within six months, amending the constitution to extend the government’s term and seek a constitutional interpretation. The government went for interpreting the constitution.

Taking this choice, the Parliament referred the matter to the Council of the Constitutional Inquiry (CCI), an advisory body to the constitutional interpreting body – the House of Federation (HoF).

The Council, presenting its findings to the HoF and the HPR, which ultimately got fully endorsed, decided that the general elections should be held within nine to 12 months, starting from the announcement, by the relevant bodies, that the pandemic is not a public

health threat anymore.

In an inquiry the CCI made by calling the heads of the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) on May 2020 and incorporated in its 24-page long report to the HoF, said the pandemic will only be deemed over when a vaccine, a cure or another scientifically proven findings are found. Hence, it concluded, it is impossible to hold the elections in the presence of the pandemic because it would hinder electoral processes like voter registration and polling.

Citing free and fair elections at a time of a pandemic would require huge resources and legal documents’ amendment as well as exploiting technology to conduct voter registration, voting and other components of the election; CCI indicated that the country is devoid of the required huge resources to hold the elections according to schedule.

“Given the limited economic capacity of the country, it would not be possible to hold a free and fair election before the virus is no more

a public health threat,” the recommendation had concluded.

Accordingly, the authorities to deem the virus “not a public health threat” are, in ascending order, the World Health Organization (WHO), the MoH, and EPHI and other members of the scientific community, who would take the vulnerability of the public in relation to health situations in neighboring countries, it concluded.

Nevertheless, the MoH has come up with new recommendations to hold the postponed national election, despite the virus being a public health threat for the unforeseeable future, surprising many observers.

Approved by the HPR, the report by the MoH indicated that the pandemic had a far-reaching impact than health and it had affected 66,224 people in more than 900 woredas as of Monday, September 16, 2020.

Although Ethiopia stands

Election amid conflicting . . . page 19

Citing free and fair elections at a time of a pandemic would require huge

to conduct voter registration, voting and other components of the election;

hold the elections according to schedule.



INTERVIEW

Birhanu Fikade of The



INTERVIEW

The Reporter: The Fall Armyworm was first detected since March of 2017, in Ethiopia. Since then, the pest has remained, infesting mostly cash crops. What is the current situation?

Habtamu Tsegaye: When first identified in 2017, we did not know about the nature of the pest. The government of Ethiopia also didn’t know about the fall armyworm. We sought the expertise of international communities. We brought in technical experts from the US and other countries. We were in urgent need of knowing how to manage the pest and control the infestation. Once we understood how to tackle it, we have consulted with stakeholders on how we could devise mechanisms to fend of the impacts. We have identified four intervention mechanisms. One is how to create capacity among the local communities, working with agricultural extension workers. Concerning creating awareness, in our second approach, we devised a system to create mass mobilization and public participation. The third approach creates a monitoring system.

Tell us a bit about how the monitoring system works.

It was essential to have such a system when you don’t know it infests or how it migrates. Currently, the early warning and monitoring system has been effectively working and has now been handed over to the government. The Ministry of Agriculture is running the system.

The fourth intervention is how to use chemical sprays. Despite the lack of judicious and sound approach in utilizing chemicals, it is advised as part of the pest controlling technique to apply chemicals. Pesticides play a significant role and we have trained professionals on how they use chemicals when needs arise. In the process, we have worked with various stakeholders, hired consultants and worked with the Ministry of Agriculture along with district and zonal admirations. For instance, for the mass awareness campaign, we work in partnership with Farm Radio International. Airing across four regions, it has broadcasted more than 20 programs for the community. Our assessment indicated that some four million farmers received the necessary information to tackle the infestation. The early monitoring system has helped us to learn the impacts and the level of damages or the loss of yield. Currently, the infestation is declining as communities have well understood the pest’s biology, pest management options, and the unfavorable climatic conditions. Of course, there are irregularities. We could say the level of invasion or the infestation has been under control now. But we don’t know when it will reoccur. There is a potential for an unexpected outbreak. We don’t know when. The good thing is that we have a system that can easily detect and monitor at the early stages. The pilot project has involved 80 villages of eight districts

in four affected regions and the ICT based early warning and monitoring system is a community-based platform so that they can get all the required information through their mobile phones.

When we talk about the impacts of fall armyworm, earlier projections on crop losses and damages were alarming. Maize producing regions would likely lose 30 to 50 percent of their yields. What does the overall assessment indicate?

Frankly, this is one of the challenging issues we have. There is no commonly agreed-upon consensus with regards to the economic impacts the pest causes. For the first year, I remember that from the filed observations we had conducted, the loss of yield was enormous, but I can’t give you numbers at this moment. However, there is no severe damage reported by farmers. The overall understanding is that the damage is slowing down, but we need to be cautious of recurrence. The farmers know how to scout. The communities know how to control the pest culturally. Hence, the potential damages are not as dreadful as expected.

Is it safe to say that the government was overwhelmingly occupied with dealing with Deseret Locusts, forcing it to shift its priorities? Did the government neglect the potential impacts of fall armyworm?

I am not familiar with the locust infestation situation. I would tell you, as a citizen,

what I feel. I would say in terms of priority, the pest infestation level we have recorded from the fall armyworm is lower compared to the desert locust situation. Hence, prioritizing locust and dealing with it requires serious efforts. There is no question about that. Similarly, the fall armyworm is still present and the system we have created helps to monitor and control potential outbreaks. The threat from fall armyworm is not as huge, compared to the locusts at this time.

Experts often say that the pests have become a citizen, and will stay forever. Is that still the case in Ethiopia?

The Fall Armyworm is here to stay. It is not going to go away. It came to live with us, and it is difficult to exterminate the entire generation of the pest. However, we can manage and control the hatching and spread of the insect. For instance, initially, fall armyworm was voracious, and the damage it caused on crops was enormous. We need further studies and research to know more about its nature and behavior. The African Fall Armyworm has been with us for a longer time. However, the damages and the infestation is not that critical.

Could we expect another round of generation of fall armyworm invasion?

It has already invaded and infested Ethiopia. It has now familiarized itself with the natural environments of the country. I don’t think we would see a new generation of the pest migrating to Ethiopia. The trick is on how we can manage the existing insect. At any given time, it might strike and infest crops. For that, a well-functioning early warning system and monitoring is crucial.

After two and a half years working on fall armyworm, the project was transferred to the government. Does that mean the government has equally created a platform that incorporates the project?

The design plan of the project was a two and a half year support program that Feed the Future has created. We have achieved what we have planned to do during that time. I think the Ministry of Agriculture will follow and build upon what we have created. We are leaving after creating a dependable system behind it. We will not abandon the project. We will still provide support on spraying chemicals and the like.

Could you monetize the support activities Feed the Future has provided in fighting the fall armyworm?

We have invested some USD one million during the project period. Half a million of that money went to support spray service providers. In addition to that, another USD 250,000 was spent on mass awareness campaigns. The remaining sum, USD 250,000, was invested in creating an early warning system and monitoring.

Photos By: The Reporter /Tamirat Getachew



LIVING AND THE ARTS



is hoping to compensate vocalists, musicians, sound engineers and

painters, producers, and graphic

for the in-house production and

rural Ethiopia and across the African continent.

LIVING AND THE ARTS

By Hiwot Abebe

Ethiopian Records has been a pioneer in Addis Ababa’s electronic music scene for several years. Starting out as an underground artist creating experimental sounds that mainstream audiences are now only growing accustomed to; Ethiopian Records is used to being ahead of the curve.

Also known as Endeguena Mulu, he first released three records under the label 1432R, the first iterations of what he has come to call Ethiopiawi Electronics. These tracks were a sign of how Ethiopian Records was working towards an experimental amalgamation of traditional Ethiopian sounds and ethereal electronic beats with a message of black liberation and solidarity.

“The purpose of my music is multiple folds. First and foremost, music for me is something very personal, it is part of my daily life, and it is part of who I am as a human being. It is also something I use to push boundaries, boundaries of my own sense of what music is, of how it is made and of the conventional ways of music making. My core is traditional music.”

Taking elements of traditional music has enlightened Endeguena to the politics of sound across the globe. He is inspired by pan-African and post-colonial politics, and revolutionaries like Thomas Sankara, Walter Rodney, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkurmah, Amilcar Cabral, the American civil right activist and revolutionary socialist Fred Hampton, Chilean teacher, singer-songwriter and political activist, Victor Jara.

“Music isn’t just music, art isn’t just art; it is how you shape a society. It is how you shape power and states of mind. Starting from the business side of it, what I have learned is that on the global stage, every infrastructure out there is made to facilitate music from the west to strive, which is great for the west but intentionally or unintentionally, that same infrastructure exploits, undermines, cuts short, fetishizes and appropriates music from what the West itself calls ‘the global south’. The scales are tilted completely in westerners favor, marketing wise, economy wise, and in every other way. The lack of infrastructure and support, the lack of diversity of music locally, pushes young people to craft their music and art, after the western world. So, basically, everyone else around the world is forced to assimilate to western culture, water down their culture to accommodate a global music and art

that otherwise either ignores or segregates you in corners such as ‘world music’. Even though we are seeing shifts in west Africa and some other parts of the world, where young people are reclaiming their space and their cultures’ space on the global stage, those shifts in my opinion are happening too slowly and aren’t significant enough.”

These plans of decolonizing music are currently taking form in Ethiopian Record’s upcoming double EP Wel. “Wel means in common, the commons, or ye gara. I chose that title years ago after having remixed and sampled Gash Tsegaye’s poem Aba Geda countless times, in my live sets and in a few tracks.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has hampered the production of this EP which led to a crowd funding campaign to finance this musical project and

the last 6 months were spent in long hours of production. With pandemic restrictions

eliminating live performance events, Endeguena spends almost the entire

day recording and producing without interruptions. He also hosts a radio show on Sheger FM called No Requests.

The crowd funding campaign was launched by WAG, based in Addis. The goal of WAG is to build a record label with a self-sustaining creative, studio space called, GODJO. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has foiled these plans and with this crowd funding campaign, they are hoping to

rebuild and gain momentum.

With funds from the campaign, ER is hoping to compensate vocalists,

musicians, sound engineers and editors, filmmakers, animators, painters, producers,

and graphic designers, for their work and purchase the necessary equipment for the in-

house production and post-production as well as enable collaborations with artists from outside Addis Ababa, including rural Ethiopia and across the African continent.

“Our own local music scene that has no patron, no significant professional infrastructure support, is focused on very few possibilities of what the music of our country and our corner of the world could be. We have a gold mine of cultures on our hands and we aren’t giving those cultures and those people the space, the support or the freedom of imagination to grow into things that haven’t existed before. We are not giving each other the room to be more than we are today, to create things that have nothing to do with the western frame of mind.”



By Terry Teegee

A landmark report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services painted a bleak picture of our planet’s health. Around one million animal and plant species – more than ever before in human history – are now threatened with extinction, many within decades. Pollution is proliferating, land degradation is accelerating, and we are nowhere near on track to achieve global goals for protecting biodiversity and achieving sustainability.

But, even as media touted the report’s dire warnings, they largely missed another of its key findings: lands and waters that are owned, managed, and used by indigenous peoples and local communities are much healthier than those that aren’t. A growing body of research supports the clear implication that indigenous peoples have a vital role to play in addressing the biodiversity crisis.

Only recently have international discussions about environmental issues begun to acknowledge the role of indigenous communities. Over the last year, delegates of the 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) participated in countless workshops aimed at producing a new international

agreement setting common goals and targets for reversing biodiversity decline, using ecosystems sustainably, and ensuring that the benefits they confer are shared equally. And in their most recent discussions of the initial draft of the post-2020 framework, the parties recognized the importance of including indigenous peoples in the process. This was an apparent nod to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which promotes our full and effective participation in all matters that concern us.

Yet, in practice, indigenous peoples continue to play a very limited role in biodiversity discussions. The second meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, held in Rome in February, is a case in point. We sat at the back of the room listening to delegates tout the benefits of indigenous knowledge for protecting nature and debate the legitimacy of our rights to our biodiversity-rich territories. We worked tirelessly to persuade the parties to include our proposed text in the official meeting record. Though some progress was ultimately made, it will not be nearly enough to address the biodiversity crisis. In fact, we did not hear a single proposal that would spur the paradigm shift that our planet so

desperately needs.

In my previous career as a professional forester in British Columbia, I saw firsthand the destruction wrought by unsustainable forestry practices, which reflect a utilitarian approach to nature: the planet and its ecosystems are little more than a source of material wealth. This approach is anathema to indigenous knowledge, culture, and laws – the very factors that explain our superior record of environmental stewardship.

Indigenous peoples’ connection to our lands, waters, air, and other natural resources is deeply embedded in our cultures and traditions. We hold ceremonies to show our gratitude and respect for the natural gifts on which our survival depends. This instills in us a deep understanding of – and commitment to – our duties and responsibilities as nature’s stewards and guardians. We know that we need nature as much as it needs us.

I believe that the world’s failure to embrace such a holistic perspective lies at the root of the imbalances that are propelling our planet’s destruction. We cannot continue to make the same mistakes. And that means following through and building on the commitments contained in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect our rights and engage us fully in

discussions of issues affecting us.

Canada offers a promising example. Last November, the government of British Columbia enacted legislation to implement the UN declaration, enshrining our rights to our lands and waters, our resources, and our self-determination. It is now required in the province to move toward consent-based decision-making and further collaborate with indigenous peoples on any legislative or policy changes that affect our rights. The federal government is set to replicate this legislation at the national level at the end of this year.

More countries should follow this example, enshrining in legal frameworks the rights of indigenous peoples to govern our own territories and practice our knowledge. This means recognizing our governments and laws, which are essential to ensure that our knowledge is transmitted through generations for the benefit of biodiversity.

It also means repealing racist laws designed to oppress indigenous peoples. Such protections will go a long way toward strengthening our communities’ resilience and defending the ecosystems we have long protected – sometimes with our lives.

VIEWPOINT

By Ban Ki-moon

COVID-19 has shone a light on the acute vulnerabilities of a deeply interconnected world. No country, regardless of its size, wealth, or technological sophistication, can tackle this crisis alone.

Owing to the pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly this month is being held under exceptional circumstances, with heads of state participating “virtually” rather than traveling to New York City. The unique nature of this year’s gathering should serve as a reminder that the only way to overcome the threat of COVID-19 is through international cooperation, transparency, and adherence to shared rules and regulations.

It is a poignant irony that the pandemic has struck on the UN’s 75th anniversary. Born from the wreckage of World War II – a wholly human-made calamity – the world’s premier international forum embodied post-war leaders’ determination that future generations must be spared from the kind of suffering they had witnessed.

In the Middle East and other conflict-riven regions, the UN and its principles of multilateral cooperation remain indispensable for finding long-term, sustainable solutions that will guarantee peace, stability, and prosperity. The principles of

international law are the bedrock of our global order, providing a crucial framework for defending rights and exercising power in the face of global challenges.

We can see this clearly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has lasted for almost as long as the UN itself. The best solution will be two states – Israel and Palestine – for the two peoples, based on the internationally recognized pre-1967 borders and in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 2334, among others.

The recent establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and two Gulf countries, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, is a significant political development that I hope can help overcome decades of estrangement and mistrust. But I still believe that the only way to achieve true “normalization” between Israel and the Arab world is for all parties to work toward a durable two-state solution that delivers peace, justice, dignity, and security to Palestinians and Israelis alike. People’s inalienable rights should never be bartered away by others.

In 1945, many hoped that the world had finally learned the lessons of two disastrous world wars. In the words of the UN Charter, the body was created to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” and to pursue peaceful and inclusive paths to global prosperity and democracy. The web of UN-centered international

covenants and institutions that have been established since then is far from perfect. Yet, for more than seven decades, it has decisively supported the pursuit of peace, security, human rights, and economic and social improvements around the world.

To highlight this legacy, The Elders – a group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, of which I have the honor to serve as Deputy Chair – recently released a report on the defense of multilateralism. In it, we issued five calls to action for today’s leaders:

Recommit to the values of the UN Charter;

Empower the UN to fulfill its mandate for collective action on peace and security;

Strengthen health systems to tackle COVID-19 and prepare for future pandemics;

Demonstrate greater ambition on climate change to meet the Paris agreement targets;

Mobilize support for all of the Sustainable Development Goals.

All countries must recognize that the only way to achieve these objectives is through effective multilateralism, which is ultimately in everyone’s interest. More often than not, the UN’s failure to meet its stated goals has been the result of member states – particularly but not exclusively the five permanent members of the Security Council (the United

States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China) – not meeting their responsibilities. When countries place narrow national interests above common priorities, everyone loses out.

To be sure, this past July, I welcomed the UN Security Council’s unanimous adoption of Resolution 2532, which called for a global ceasefire to avert further humanitarian catastrophes in the context of the pandemic. I also strongly supported this initiative when UN Secretary-General António Guterres first proposed it in March. Yet I was disappointed to see so many valuable months wasted in arguments over the details of the text.

Squabbles over semantics in the face of bloody conflicts and an unprecedented pandemic sent a terrible message to the global public. Beyond the direct health effects, the economic fallout from the crisis will be long-lasting and severe, creating ripple effects that will be felt in many fragile and conflict-affected parts of the world for some time to come. This was no time to play diplomatic hardball.

Since then, the World Food Programme has warned that we may be headed for the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII, with as many as 600,000 children likely to die from famine and malnutrition in hard-hit countries like Yemen, Somalia,

A Healthy Earth . . . page 22

Returning to. . . page 22

COMMENTARY



FEATURE

By Samuel Getachew

Inside the restaurant known for its mouthwatering Kifto in Bole, by Yod Abyssinia Cultural Restaurant, this year’s celebration of Meskel festivities is in some ways somber. There were a much smaller crowd of people than the place is used to pre–COVID-19 pandemic, but that did not mean the day was not marked, with people eager to showcase the unique culture of the Gurage people.

This annual event has been hosted for the last decade by Yod, with people that come from near and far, to dine, be entertained for free and commemorate Meskel.

For the owner of the restaurant, Tezazu Kore even with the challenge of the new era where social distancing is the norm, it was important for the day to be marked and celebrated and to him, be the Ethiopian cultural ambassador he has become.

“This year, we have taken all the caution that we have been advised to take, plus invited a small selection of people and provided ample masks and others, to ensure the safety of our guests,” he said as he greeted his guests near the entrance of the restaurant.

“Ethiopia is a unique and beautiful nation and I am privileged to do my part to remind as many as possible, the beauty of our diversity. That is what it is all about for me. The money I earn from his

is the cream of the cake,” he added.

The restaurant, sacrificing a cow for the day, served variety kinds of kitfo, including gomen kitfo and kocho to those that came, including foreigners who on a regular day seem to occupy the eatery.

“This is my first diplomatic assignment to Ethiopia and even on my first briefing before coming to Ethiopia, I was advised to come and visit Yod Abyssina. It was an eye opening to what has so far been an exciting time to Ethiopia for me. So far, I have visited much of your beautiful nation, including Lalibella and I have been amazed by what is out there and the potential it presents to tourists and for the Ethiopian government to take advantage of,” a diplomat told The Reporter while refusing to identify himself as he was not authorized to speak by his ambassador.

His wife nodded in an agreement as she took a big bite of kitfo.

“What we experience here, we try to cook at home. Injera, while I found it bitter at the beginning is an adopted taste I have come to love and we often try to make it (with an assistant cook) and also make all kinds of specialty in wot like shero, which is quite easy to make but Kitfo remains a challenge to me and that is why we often come to Yod to eat with our children and guests whenever they come to visit us and we all love it,” she said.

The Meskel celebration, which is a commemoration of the discovery of the True Cross, has been one of the most attended events in Ethiopia, bringing tourists from around the world. From the historic city of Lalibella to the capitals Mesqel Square, it is a widely regarded celebration by the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant faith followers.

According to history, the bonfire represents a belief that it signifies the direction of where the True Cross rests when it falls, as believed by Queen Eleni.

This year’s festivities at Mesqel Square, which was expected to have been cancelled for the first time due to COVID-19 and a mega construction of water fountains and a parking lot by a Chinese state contractor, it was decided that a small reduced event will be offered to the public.

That did not stop, Derik Davidson and his friends from a variety of European nations, from Denmark and others, from embarking to Ethiopia, for their first trip to the nation.

“From the day I discovered Ethiopia by chance by being a customer at a restaurant in Copenhagen, I have always wanted to come and the Meskel celebration, especially the bonfire, Demera, is such a special and unique culture and I wanted to visit it in person and here I am. Up until now, I only watched it on television and what a wonderful scene to

see and now experience,” he told The Reporter.

“When I came I did not know what to expect. I backpacked across Europe, visited many places in North America, as well as South America. But Ethiopia, to me offers what other nations do not which is something that is here and in no other places. The celebration of Meskel is one and I am happy I am here,” he added.

To Tizazu, who has been paying the salaries of his workers while he was forced to close his restaurant in the midst of the pandemic, is what makes him happy in a life time spent on introducing the cultural mystiques of home. At his celebration, he offered a gigantic bonfire, a celebration of the slaughter of an animal, cultural dancers, prayers and family gathering of strangers’ in a celebration unique to Ethiopia and Eritrea.

“In the entire milestone we have been able to reach at our restaurant, each means something to us. We see those that come to our restaurant as those wanting to experience culture, not just eat and leave. That is why we put much resources and heart in what we do. We value diversity and each has a heart and you can experience that in all we do. However, to me, Meskel is who I am, what I grew up watching and loving and showcasing it to those at home and those visiting – as a citizen and an entrepreneur,” Tezazu concluded.



Who Should Apply?The following individuals, organizations, or groups are eligible to apply for the pitch competition:

Non-registered Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations Registered Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations Civic-minded entrepreneurs, social enterprises,

startups, or businesses Civic-minded individuals or groups with some

advocacy experience, looking to implement a

Focus Areas of the Grant Support: Proposals submitted should seek to address one or more of the following areas related to advocacy OR organizational sustainability:

For the Civic Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition advocacy initiatives can include:

Supports greater economic resilience in response to Covid-19;

Strengthen governance and civic participation; Seek to constructively engage youth on activities

related to civic social, economic and political development in Ethiopia;

Support digital advocacy or improve access to information.

For the Civic Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition, organizational sustainability initiatives can include:

Support the creation of a new, revenue generating service for the organization;

Strengthen the membership, reach, or impact of an existing organization;

Strengthen research, monitoring, and evaluation practices for organizations already engaged in advocacy;

Offer a new way to support organizational sustainability.

Teams and individuals developing a new venture, or an advocacy initiative are welcome to apply. All proposals must be able to be implemented in the context of the current pandemic and should consider innovative ways of implementing the activities while taking appropriate public health measures.

Grant and Application Process 5-10 shortlisted candidates will be selected to attend

their proposals in preparation for the pitch competition. All workshop participants will be invited to present their project idea at the pitch competition. The three winning candidates from the pitch competition will receive a

on budget. The grant will be utilized for a period of 4-6 months to implement the advocacy or organizational sustainability project with mentorship from CIPE Civic Engagement Hub.

Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to participate in the virtual training on advocacy hosted by the CIPE Civic Engagement Hub in October. This is an optional training.

Interested candidates can apply directly here: https://bit.ly/3kEUkt5

Applications are due no later than October 20, 2020 at 6:00 PM (EAT).The CIPE Civic Engagement Hub currently only has capacity for 5-10 candidates for this workshop and competition, but will be hosting a second competition next year. Only applications with strong, innovative proposals, that can be reasonably implemented within the allocated timeline and budget will be shortlisted.For more information, visit: https://bit.ly/3hYOIYWOr contact: [email protected].

APPLY NOW: Civic Entrepreneurship Pitch CompetitionAt the CIPE Civic Engagement Hub, we’re supporting the next generation of civic leaders in Ethiopia. We recognize that the future of civic leadership in Ethiopia may not look like the past, and we want to support the groups and individuals that are leading the way and continuing to be civically engage in their communities with an eye towards impact.

To support this, the Civic Engagement Hub is hosting its inaugural “Civic Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition” a workshop and funding competition for civil society groups, social enterprises, and civic-minded individuals to strengthen their advocacy and organizational sustainability initiatives. Winners receive a small grant to implement their proposals.

This opportunity is only for individuals and organizations currently working in Ethiopia.



third in Africa for the number of tested individuals, it also boasts the highest number of COVID-19 infections in East Africa.

According to the report, 58 percent of the affected people are from Addis Ababa with Oromia, Tigray and Amhara regions trailing behind for the highest number of infected people. This information has made many questions how the election could be conducted while places like Addis Ababa, where there is better awareness of the pandemic, have large number of people that have contracted the virus. And the fact that there is a huge stereotype against masking in most parts of the country, it makes the recommendation by the MoH weaker.

However, the elections that are going to be held should take two main measures into consideration. The first one is preparing a new election code of conduct, regulation and directives that serve the prevention of the virus, while the other consideration is enhancing preparedness to isolate areas in case of sudden spikes in infection.

But critics indicate that the MoH did not provide enough evidence for the elections to be conducted, as was

previously demanded by the CCI decision. Rather, it strongly asserted that the pandemic would remain to be a public health threat with the recommendation and the analysis supporting the case for not holding the elections, commentators indicated.

Surprisingly, the fact that Tigray region had conducted its regional council elections on September 9, 2020, has made many to believe that the elections could have been held according to the original schedule, during the early stages of the pandemic had the government resorted to not holding the election. But this argument, others observe, lacks an understanding that even though the preparations were carried out according to the schedule, the D-Date would have been at a time the pandemic reached all the regions.

The antibody test conducted in 14 towns across the nation indicates that the rate of the spread nationwide is at 4.5 percent. Addis Ababa’s rate is 4.1 while Gambella, Dire Dawa City Administration, Jigjiga and Harari, have the highest rates in the country with 9.3 percent, 7.7 percent, 7.5 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. This shows that there is a rampant community

spread in the country and the higher rate, the higher the spread is in other parts of the country compared to Addis Ababa. This is indicative of the loose measures put in place to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

In addition, the report by the Ministry also shows that 86 percent of people infected by the virus are people in the productive age group, aged between 15 and 59, affecting the election process and voter turnout, given the fact that the most affected people by the virus are the people who would actively take part in the elections.

Although people who travel out of Addis Ababa to remote parts of the country are mocked for wearing masks, the Ministry has said that the number of infected, dead and the peak of the spread are determined by the level of implementation of physical distancing, and especially masking.

“For instance, if physical distancing reaches 25 percent and masking 50 percent of the society, the spread and deaths can be decreased to 92 percent without any other additional measures. And if there was 100 percent masking, the spread would drastically drop and push the pandemic’s peak

ahead. Apart from decreasing the death rate, this would minimize the impacts on the health system, social and political aspects of life,” the Ministry recommends. But anti-masking and stereotypes would eventually hinder this task, as it is being observed currently. For instance, the level of masking in Addis Ababa stands at 75 percent which indicates that there is still a section of the society that needs to embrace masking.

Admitting that the recommendations and predictions that the Ministry has made are based on assumptions as a result of the novelty of the virus, it cautions that the key determinant of the spread, death, peak and the socio-economic impact, is the concerted efforts made by the government and the public to prevent the disease.

On the other hand, the deficit in the government’s projected financial requirements to help prevent the spread of the virus and mitigate its impacts, could also pose a challenge in the overall activities relating to the coronavirus pandemic. The government projected it needs USD 360 million to help deal with the pandemic but runs short of USD 128.6 million.

All in all, the report by the Ministry indicates that the virus is still a public health threat. Even though the Ministry and the EPHI told the CCI hearing that a vaccine or other scientifically proven findings are helpful to deem the pandemic no longer a public health threat, it states that even though a vaccine is found, it would be difficult for the country to access it.

“After the finding of the vaccine, it won’t be easy to access enough amounts of vaccines by purchase or aid, given the current race at a global stage. Hence, for the coming time, it is believed that the disease will remain to be a public health threat,” the Ministry concluded.

Nevertheless, many commentators have indicated that, when seen against the CCI, HoF and HPR’s decisions, the MoH’s recommendations to proceed with the election and resume economic and social activities by implementing strict preventive measures are week. Some also say that the report does not provide a strong case that the pandemic would stop being a public health threat, at least at the time of polling as demanded by the CCI.

CONT`D FROM PAGE 11

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(9 percent) and local government councilors (12 percent) “often” or “always” do their best to listen to their constituencies. More than half (52 percent) say traditional leaders do,” the study presented.

In terms of trusting institutions and leaders, 36 percent of the respondents said that they do not trust the opposition political parties at all, while 21 percent said the same for the parliament. Similarly, 21 percent responded they do not trust the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia at all. In addition, 19 percent said the same for the tax authority, and the local government councils; 18 percent for the courts of law, 20 percent for the ruling party, 18 percent for the Prime Minister, 13 percent for the National Defense Forces,

six percent for the traditional leaders and five percent for the religious leaders.

According to Mulu Teka, National Partner for Afro Barometer, the sampling questions and replies have been collected using a tablet computer, programed to last longer than three minutes so that data collectors won’t manipulate it. The computer also records the audios of interview sessions and sends the data directly to a server linked with the University of Cape Town.

Thomas Tadesse, a Senior Researcher from Abcon Research and Consulting firm also indicated that the research has involved ordinary Ethiopians who are not necessarily engaged in any research or activities related to the research ideas.

Commenting on the methodology, Yonas Ashine (PhD), a professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Addis Ababa University, said that the probability for every citizen to get involved in the research was commendable. But he criticized that the traditional leaders’ roles in politics is minimal and it should not have been included in the research.

“In general, there are 28 research questions among which 14 focus on modern and 14 on traditional institutions and leaders. In this regard, the main focus was on the traditional institutions which pose the question whether this emanates from of the study’s view of the Ethiopian politics or is just by accident,” he commented.

He added that, according to the research, leaders are trusted rather than institutions and this should have been analyzed based on its pros and cons for the nation’s political culture.

Yonas also commented on the disproportionate representation of religion in the study. According to the sample description, Christians account for 63 percent of the sample size and Muslims accounted 36 percent; one percent fall in the “other” category.

Mulu in his part argued that this has occurred not by design and it is a random result as the data collectors learn about the religious affiliation of their respondents later on visiting them.

Considering the global impacts of the COVID-19 and the necessary health safety precautions, hotels are preparing to receive guests. Daniel said the Addis Ababa Hotel Owners Association will organize trainings on health safety protocols for hotel employers and employees, and business entities have to be certified.

Currently, the Addis Ababa Hotel Owners Association in collaboration with the Chefs Association is organizing trainings for Chefs.

A study released by the Addis Ababa Hotel Owners

Association last May indicated that hotels in Addis Ababa have been losing about USD 35 million in a month, due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The association has 130 member hotels.

Sileshi Girma, Tourism Ethiopia Director General told The Reporter that the private sector is proactively working with his organization on the preparation work. “Hotels, tour operators and Chefs are closely working with us on health safety protocols,” he said adding, “Since tourists spend up to 12 hours in their hotels, we are working on

the precautionary measures that should be implemented at reception, in guestrooms and the kitchens. We are not talking about not only wearing masks, face shields, using sanitizers and maintaining social distancing, but the end-to-end service should be free from body contact.”

According to Sileshi, the health safety protocol ensures all the services catered to tourists at hotels, transport and tourist sites are safe and protected from exposure to COVID-19 infections. Tourism Ethiopia last week held a demonstration on the implementation of the

health safety protocol in Harrar Ras Hotel. Hotel owners, tour operators and chefs attended the demonstration.

Previously, Tourism Ethiopia had organized a workshop on the implementation of the protocol for all regional states tourism bureaus in Adama town.

The Addis Ababa Hotel Owners Association, Ethiopian Tour Operators Association and the Ethiopian Chefs Association have been working with Tourism Ethiopia on the preparation of the health safety protocol.

Kumneger Teketel, CEO and

Lead Consultant of OZZIE Business and Hospitality Group Consultancy, welcomes the reopening of the hotels. “There should be an evaluation system with strict and regular follow-ups, especially at tourist destinations. Using this opportunity, we should be able to institutionalize safety and security control systems at destinations. All stakeholders in the tourism industry should work towards building the confidence of the tourists’ community and get commendable reviews and feedbacks from visitors,” Kumneger said.



#REPORTERBOOK

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Who needs Alice In Wonderland when we have Mother Nature? As crazy as it sounds, there are too many mind-boggling things happening just outside the comfort of your home. Like, did you know that... goats have accents and owls don't have eyeballs? Nature has surely been generous with throwing its weird gifts at us to think about.

And often, you don’t need to go far to realize there’s a bunch of (mildly) interesting stuff happening right at your doorstep. From an odd tree that has a single branch of an apple tree to a frog so tiny, your fingernail looks like Everest in comparison.

Whether it’s mildly or overwhelmingly interesting remains a subject of debate, but one cannot argue just how crazy nature can be.

Remember the days when you were a kid playing in the back yard, never ready to come home for dinner? It’s because spending time in nature was an adventure most of us were already ready to take on. There are moments full of excitement that you may still carry to this day.

(Bored panda)

Facebook is introducing a new tool that will allow rights holders to protect and manage their photos across both Facebook and Instagram. With the newly launched “Rights Manager for Images,” Facebook is offering creators and publishers access to content-matching technology similar to what it introduced in 2016 to combat stolen videos. The new feature, which is available in Facebook’s Creator Studio, will allow rights owners to assert control over their intellectual property across Facebook and Instagram, including when the image is embedded on an external website.

As with Facebook’s existing Rights Manager for video content, creators who want to assert their control over their images will have to provide Facebook with a copy of the images they want to protect, as well as a CSV file with image metadata, as a first step. These are uploaded to a reference library that Rights Manager uses to locate matches across both Facebook and Instagram.

The creator doesn’t have to publicly post their images on Facebook or Instagram for this process to work.

When matching content is found on a Page or a profile, the rights holder can choose whether to simply monitor the content, block its use through a takedown request or attribute credit to themselves via an ownership link. Creators can also choose whether or not they want their ownership to apply worldwide or only in certain geographic locations.

(TechCrunch)



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#REPORTERBOOK

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#HailleSalassie

This year has been hard. Wildfire smoke has engulfed the West Coast, hundreds of thousands are dead from an ongoing pandemic. Even for those not directly affected, the perception of the ongoing crises has turned into a kind of psychic assault, challenging the limits of what we can express.

Fortunately, a new crop of emoji has just been approved by the Unicode Consortium to help out. They probably won’t reach your phone until 2021, but they’re clearly influenced by the chaos of the year, whether it’s “face exhaling” (clearly exhausted), “face in clouds” (smoke?), or “heart on fire” (self-explanatory).

The general shorthand is clear enough, particularly from the anime examples included as part of the document: spiral eyes means dizzy, hypnotized, or generally overwhelmed to the point of no longer being in control of one’s actions or capable of perceiving the world.

In part, it’s meant to resolve a conflict in how different platforms interpret the “x eyes” emoji since Google and Microsoft have actually been interpreting that emoji as spiral-eyed for some time now. But it’s also an expression of the deeper incomprehensibility of the past six months, as social isolation curdles and a surreal pageant of personal and global tragedies unfolds. In 2020, we all have spiral eyes.

(The Verge)

Wikipedia has been an integral part of web culture for nearly twenty years, letting users browse its millions of text-heavy, crowd-sourced encyclopedia entries from their computer, tablet, or phone. Now, the overall look of Wikipedia on desktop is getting a makeover for the first time in a decade to make the site more approachable for new users.

A collapsible sidebar will be the first change to roll out; this will allow users to collapse the menu on the left side of each page, to minimize distractions, and limit irrelevant content and links on the left of your screen to make it easier to focus. The site will also add an easy one-click button to switch the language for a page you’re reading.

Wikipedia will also add improvements to the in-site search tool to make it easier to find other pages and will reconfigure the logo to make it smaller on each Wikipedia page.

Wikimedia Foundation, the site’s parent company, announced in a blog post that the changes will happen “incrementally over a long period of time,” allowing users to test the new features before they officially roll out, but that it plans to redesign the entire look of the desktop version of Wikipedia by the end of 2021. It didn’t say whether the mobile version would receive the same redesign.

(The Verge)



COMMENTARY +

By Jeremy Adelman and

Andrew Thompson

The contest over national symbols and stories is shifting into higher gear as the drive to topple statuary and rename institutions moves past the usual suspects of Cecil Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Confederate generals, and Belgium’s King Leopold II.

The British Museum, for example, has removed from prominent display a bust of its slave-owning founder, Sir Hans Sloane. “We have pushed him off the pedestal,” observes the museum’s director, Hartwig Fischer. Similarly, just a week earlier, a desecrated statue of Voltaire in Paris’s tony 6th arrondissement was whisked away for its own protection.

Everywhere, it seems, cultural artifacts that once hid in plain sight are being scrutinized for their connections to empire or slavery. But even when those deemed worthy of removal are gone, the Great Reckoning will not be over.

In fact, the current trend seems to be moving us even further away from a genuine reconciliation with the past. Instead of producing new, inclusive stories of peoplehood, we are witnessing a violent clash of public narratives and a backlash against what some see as decolonization run amok. This contest is on full display ahead of the US elections this November. “Sorry liberals!” one pro-Trump group recently tweeted, “How to be Anti-White 101 is permanently cancelled!”

In any case, those who would seek a new consensus after the statues have already come down tend to miss a basic point in the debate over national history. Reckoning with the past is not

a discrete event, but rather an ongoing process, especially when it comes to dealing with deep, systemic injuries. Throwing statues into harbors might play well in the media, but rarely do such acts resolve the underlying issues.

Moreover, there is a deeper history to the current cultural impasse, and it shows that quick fixes will not come easily. Many of the statues that have been called into question were installed at a time when Western countries defined themselves largely through territorial ambition. In that sense, the white imperialists who dominate our public squares have always been beacons of a highly selective gaze. Their presence tells us more about the people who erected them than about the subjects themselves.

We are now caught between an outdated style of patriotism and a fatigued pluralist alternative. The old national narrative that drove the boom in monuments was born in the heyday of empire and burnished in the twentieth century’s world wars, when founding heroes and myths served as a unifying force. But starting in the 1960s, civil-rights movements, feminism, and an influx of immigrants pushed Western societies to become more inclusive, and the old emblems of patriotism looked increasingly outré.

The idea underpinning the pluralist alternative that supplanted the old patriotic narrative was to let many stories bloom, to bring new voices to the fore, and to embrace diversity as the path to coexistence. But pluralism never commanded the same power as the old narrative had. Tolerance seldom led to recognition – to seeing the world through others’ eyes – and, as long as the emblems of the old order stood on their pedestals, marginalized groups’ objections

were bound to intensify. When the weak consensus around globalization broke down following the 2008 financial crisis, so, too, did the fragile pluralist framework.

Now, we face an impasse. Entrenched defenders of the old patriotic story feel their world slipping away, while advocates of a new pantheon view the previous one as a source of arbitrary hierarchy rather than unity. Feeling bruised and victimized, each side has weaponized history, creating a my-story-versus-your-story, winner-takes-all standoff.

The Great Statue Reckoning has served as a lightning rod for wider societal frustrations. Even without the COVID-19 pandemic, the last decade had snuffed out any sense of progress toward a new, brighter future as political, generational, and geographic polarization deepened.

How can we break the impasse? The purpose of museums, like universities, should be to promote an open and inclusive yet critical dialogue about the past. Because this requires the exchange of competing narratives, it is not a “safe space.” But nor can such an exchange occur without a mutual recognition of others’ grievances and losses.

If we are to avoid becoming prisoners of the past, we must acknowledge that what some see as a tale of conquest and discovery, others see as a story of domination and exploitation. It is no coincidence that the contested statues are overwhelmingly white and male. For black people, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups, living under the stony gaze of asserted superiority is now simply intolerable.

As long as the old patriot narrative endures, critics and challengers will forever have to

ask to be admitted and tolerated, and to request monuments of their own, provided there is space for them. Far from representing recognition, such accommodation serves as a cunning way to leave the symbolic hierarchy intact.

But recognition is a two-way street. While traditional patriotic champions must confront how their myths deny others, their critics need to acknowledge the difficulty the fallen now face: seeing one’s own narrative being toppled. It is not easy to accept that a longstanding source of pride should suddenly become an object of shame. It is understandable that advocates of the old narrative would resist this change. Letting the old symbols go is a sacrifice worthy of acknowledgment.

Of course, there will be arguments over whose act of recognition shows the biggest heart. Is it the old patriot, asked to view a heroic general as someone else’s oppressor? Or is it the oppressed, asked to see that they are not the only ones paying a price for overcoming the cultural impasse? We can argue about that. But this type of disagreement would be much better than the current displays of intolerance that are now dominating the public square.

Ed.’s Note: Jeremy Adelman is Director of the Global History Lab at Princeton University. Andrew Thompson is Co-Director of the Global History Centre at the University of Oxford. The article is provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provided inclusive perspectives in our changing world by those who are shaping politics, economics, science and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

But, if we are truly to protect biodiversity, this approach must also be reflected at the international level. The parties to the CBD will be meeting, either online or in person, next May to finalize a global biodiversity framework for the next decade and beyond. This will determine

Nigeria, and South Sudan.

The COVID-19 crisis is a somber reminder of our common human bonds and vulnerabilities. If we fail to respond to the pandemic

the fate of the world’s remaining biodiversity – 80 percent of which is protected by indigenous peoples.

Rather than relegate us, yet again, to observer status, the meeting’s chairs, with the support of the parties, must allow

indigenous peoples to make written submissions that, unless openly opposed by a party, will be included in UN documents. We are the original stewards and guardians of this planet. We know how to protect it. It is time for world leaders to listen to us.

and other shared threats with a renewed sense of solidarity and collective action, we will have dishonored the victims of the virus and betrayed the hopes that the UN’s founding generation

had for us.

Ed.’s Note: Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders, is a former secretary-general of the United Nations and South Korean

Ed.’s Note: Terry Teegee, a member of Takla Lake First Nation, is the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief and a former registered professional forester. The article is provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed

foreign minister. The article is provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provided inclusive perspectives in

commentaries. Project Syndicate provided inclusive perspectives in our changing world by those who are shaping politics, economics, science and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

our changing world by those who are shaping politics, economics, science and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.

CONT`D FROM PAGE 16

CONT`D FROM PAGE 16

CONT`D FROM PAGE 3

As a seasoned aviation expert, Gobena had represented Ethiopian Airlines on numerous forums and addressed several meetings and conferences.

His longtime friend and colleague Girma Wake, former CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, remembers Gobena as a young hard working man at Ethiopian Airlines in the early 1980s.

“He joined Ethiopian after he graduated from Addis Ababa University. I knew him while he was working in the space control department. He was a dedicated hard working young man,” Girma said adding, “He does not

get satisfied easily. He was detail oriented.”

Girma, who was board chairman of RwandAir, worked with Gobena in Kigali for three years. “He won the hearts and minds of our Rwandese brothers and sisters, in a short period of time. He was disciplined and God fearing person. Above all what amazes me most is his willingness to share his knowledge of the airline business.”

The Rwandese people showed their high regard and the respect they have for him during the tribute ceremony held at the headquarters of RwandAir.

“We lost such a good person who was also a part of RwandAir and it will never be the same without him. We will all miss him immensely. He was a big brother more than a colleague,” Yvonne Manzi Makolo, CEO of RwandAir said.

Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebremriam said Gobena’s sudden death was very shocking and sad. In a statement sent to The Reporter Tewolde said he knew Gobena for the last 34 years. “He was friendly, straight forward and a direct person who speaks his mind at all times,” Tewolde said adding, “We miss him a lot. May God

bless his soul and give strength to his loved ones to manage the pain and grief of his death.”

Over the years, Gobena had established a strong network in the African airline industry and had become a credible source of information for industry players and aviation journalists.

Prof Wolfgang H. Thome, a renowned aviation and tourism writer, said Gobena was a reliable source of information. “This is a very sad day. He had become a good friend over the years and a reliable source on aviation news from across Africa. I express my deepest sympathy and sincere

condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.”

Ethiopia’s Ambassador to France, Henok Teferra Shawl said “it was an honor to serve with him at Ethiopian. My sincere condolences go out to his family, who are in our prayers and thoughts.”

Gobena was in Addis Ababa last March to attend the Aviation Africa Conference which attracted more than 900 delegates at Ethiopian Skylight Hotel. He

is survived by his son and wife.



laborers. And restored landscapes offer additional benefits. A 2016 study by the World Resources Institute found that in Latin America, reviving degraded lands would yield USD 23 billion in net benefits over a period of 50 years. On average, farmers who restore their land can earn an extra USD 1,140 per hectare in net economic value.

Let’s be clear: Chile still has some way to go to achieve the targets in its original climate pledge. The government’s response to COVID-19 has thus far been a mixed bag, and it has yet to demonstrate any serious commitment to advancing climate action since releasing the plan months ago. But, at the very least, Chile’s NDC gives us a good example of what an NDC can and should be: not a legally binding policy document, but a political signal to ministries, private-sector actors, and development-finance institutions to identify and pursue opportunities to link a government’s climate plans to economic recovery.

Each updated NDC creates greater political momentum and builds the international trust we need to combat climate change. Instead of delaying work on the NDCs while the pandemic continues, governments should consider how these targets could be

OPINION

By Francisca Tondreau

With the world gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers have turned their attention to economic stimulus and financial support of households and firms. As a result, many countries have been delaying the preparation and submission of their new emissions-reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement. These updated targets, known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, were originally due earlier this year, ahead of the COP26 climate-change conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November. But that, too, has been postponed.

The switch from summits to stimulus is understandable. But we should not lose sight of the important role that NDCs can play in economic recovery efforts. NDCs are among the best vehicles for governments to articulate their vision of future economic growth and technological transformation, both of which have clear links to job creation. Moreover, setting the targets provides a golden opportunity for countries to identify shovel-ready projects and activities that can deliver both climate and economic benefits.

Chile is a good example. The

government announced an updated climate pledge in April, together with a new climate bill that is currently before the National Congress. The updated NDC links climate action to sustainable development and a just energy transition. At its core is a commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and it is easy to see how the government’s pandemic response can help to achieve this goal by accelerating the necessary transitions in the energy and transportation sectors.

But Chile’s new NDC also shows another front where countries’ economic recovery plans can receive a significant boost: nature-based solutions. The NDC demonstrates an understanding of the role nature can play in achieving carbon neutrality, as well as in adapting to the effects of climate change and recognizing the importance of creating and maintaining natural carbon sinks.

For starters, Chile’s climate plan links ocean and climate health, while acknowledging the economic value of coastal ecosystems. We don’t need to look far for an example of how healthy marine ecosystems support local economies. In Mexico, in the Gulf of California and the Baja California Peninsula alone, marine

ecosystems generate USD518 million in annual tourism revenues and directly account for at least 3,575 jobs. Given Chile’s extensive coastline, the possibilities are much likely orders of magnitude higher. The NDC does not disappoint in this regard: It includes a commitment to turn 25 percent of its exclusive economic zone into a protected area. If properly implemented, this pledge would create new economic opportunities for the country.

The new NDC also significantly strengthens Chile’s commitments regarding forests. The government has doubled its target for sustainable forests management and restoration from 100,000 hectares to 200,000 hectares by 2030. Likewise, it will plant 200,000 hectares of new forests (up from 100,000 hectares), of which at least 100,000 hectares will comprise permanent forest cover and at least 70,000 hectares will be native species. Finally, Chile has said it will cut emissions from deforestation and land degradation by 25 percent by 2030.

The link to economic growth (albeit understudied and underappreciated) is clear here as well. Pursuing these targets will enable governments to create a variety of jobs, including foresters, botanists, machinery operators, and

forces.

In other words, the declaratory statement duly released by the highest constitutional organ, (sometimes referred to as the ‘upper ‘chamber’, amounts to a guilty verdict rendered by a criminal court of law, virtually without any meaningful and determinate sentence such as jail terms so as to penalize the cruel offender putting an immense pressure on them at liberty and deter other potential candidates from committing similar misconduct. In fact, the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)’s Executive Committee earlier lambasted the highest constitutional authority and warned in its organizational statement that any decision on the part of the House of the Federation in connection with its electoral preparation would amount to an open declaration of war against Tigray and its people poised for their lasting self-determination as inherently enshrined under the infamous Art. 39 of the Federal Constitution.

Fake Election Instead of a Genuine one

It is to be recalled that the sixth-round national and state elections which were slated for August 29 had been extended for a period of 9 through 12 months to be counted from the date of the COVID-19 having been contained

By Merhatsidk Mekonnen

It is nearly three years now since the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T.P.L.F) had been expelled from the Arat Kilo Palace in Addis Ababa and fled to Mekele following the dissolution of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (E.P.R.D.F) as a formidable coalition which has managed to rule over the country for almost three consecutive decades in an authoritarian manner. Although Prosperity Party was set up on the ashes of the former E.P.R.D.F to replace the latter, TPLF has preferred to become indifferent to the new constellation and still remains at odds with the ruling Prosperity Party in power outside Tigray.

Emergency Session of the House

On September 5 2020, the House of Federation (HOF) of Ethiopia reluctantly declared in its emergency session to have debated and passed by majority vote a landmark resolution denouncing the preparatory process of holding separate regional election embarked upon by the Tigrean authorities and vowed to nullify any outcome it may produce afterwards.

In the terms of its ambivalent note, the unilateral move by the Northern State of Tigray to resort to and conduct an isolated election, including the

enactment of electoral law and the concomitant establishment of its Electoral Commission are null and void thus making the result of the adventure invalid and of no effect at all.

Having examined the recommendation submitted to it by its Constitutional Interpretation and Identity Affairs’ Permanent Committee supported by the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, the House concluded that the whole exercise of the regional election won’t be considered legitimate and credible deserving implementation by any means pursuant to the provisions laid down in Art. 9 Sub-Art. (1) and Art. 102 of the country’s constitution.

Apart from that, the House did, for the very first time, recognize and remarked, at least in loose and conciliatory terms, on the gross human rights violation which is currently being perpetrated in Wolqait-Tseghedie, Raya and Thelemt areas of the Tigray Region adjacent to the neighboring Amhara State.

The above mentioned territories were forcefully annexed and occupied by the pre-constitutional EPRDF forces from their original arrangement against the wishes of the inhabitants. Historically, these territories belonged to Gonder and Wollo Provinces which, at present-day constitute the

Amhara Region.

By and large, the inhabitants of these areas trace their cultural and linguistic affinity or more resemblance to the Amhara community and, to that effect, demand for the reunification with their immediate compatriots without further delay. Definitely, there abounds so much pain and consistent outcry that the populations in question are being mistreated and severely persecuted in an effort to suppress their bitter and persistent struggle to re-establish their demolished identity and regain their lost territorial homeland to no avail. This time around, the people in the cited areas have protested against the action of the Regional Regime and refused to take part in the stalled regional election organized in an open defiance of the Central Government decision to postpone it in view of the spread of the global pandemic.

Yet, the resolution, regardless of its admission of the wrongdoing, still appears to be less relevant for the people in distress as it does not, however, provide for any concrete and remedial measure in favor of tackling their difficulties as they continue under subjugation from the enormous suffering they have been passing through the day under the ruthless yoke of the dictatorial behavior and tyranny by the Regional special

OPINION +How Climate Targets . . . page 24

A Declaratory Statement . . . page 24



CONT`D FROM PAGE 23

CONT`D FROM PAGE 23

24||

YOUR MIND

Ed.’s Note: Tsion Taye is a researcher in the field of Agricultural Economics. She is a graduate of

Wageningen university from which she obtained her Masters and PhD degrees. Her passions include

reading books and reflecting on life experiences with whomever shares this passion. She can be reached for

comments at [email protected].

So Meskel is finally going to be celebrate as usual this year. This time, the number of participants are going to be limited due to the Corona virus. Just like the lifting of the state of emergency, the celebration of Meskel with the bone fire and the gathering of people in the thousands was among the events that I least expected to be happening. One thing that keeps getting forgotten is that the Corona virus first started with very few individuals. Those few individuals were enough to have the whole world infected with the virus and hundreds of thousands dying from it. The take home message from this is that, as long as there is a single individual person infected out there, millions are still at risk of being infected. So, this makes me wonder how people who will be part of a celebration that will still involve thousands of people are expected to protect themselves from the virus. So, Meskel celebration this year can be expected to be one haven for the virus.

And we heard that the national elections will be held this Ethiopian year. The announcement came very soon after the elections in the Tigray region have been completed. And to our surprise, and many others I assume, we heard that the elections in Tigray are going to be repeated because apparently the one that took place just a couple of weeks ago is illegal and should be made void. For me, all of this is like a child’s game. First of all, what was the reason for which the national elections did not take place at the same time as the elections in the Tigray region? I won’t be convinced if one tells me that in two weeks time, a miracle happened that made that the Corona pandemic is no longer a health risk to society. For me, all the word wars between the federal and the Tigray government on the timing of the election was for nothing. Secondly, wouldn’t it be a huge disrespect to the people of Tigray to make their attempts at voting completely void? And this with no form of dialogue between the federal and the Tigray governments?

I am not sure if that is also the case in other cultures, but one of the typical characteristics that characterize us Ethiopians is what we call in Amharic ‘Yilugnta’. That means the act of worrying to much about what others would say or think about us. In my opinion, yilugnta is one of the culprits for the spread of the virus in the country. People attend funerals because they worry to much about what the relatives and friends of the person who passed away would say about them if they did not show up at the funeral. And this is regardless of whether they know the true cause of death, which by the way can pretty much be the Corona virus. The same is true for other social gatherings. People just worry too much about others would think if they did not attend. Apparently, what others would think is more important than the risk of being infected. Isn’t that weird? People are ashamed to keep their masks on their faces when joining a group of people who are not wearing masks. They think keep their masks would make them an outcast. People send their children to play with a group of kids in the neighborhood without the slightest knowledge about the health status of other kids and their families. They think that preventing their kids from going out would have them considered as an ‘Akabaj’ in Amharic, or a person who likes to complicate the simplest things. What people tend to forget is that, the moment we get infected and feel sick, people will not care much about us. And if we die from the virus, the best we will get from those whose thoughts we deeply worried about is a Tsk of the lips for a couple of days. So, why risk our lives by worrying too much about others think about our precautionary measures?

and put under control following the controversial interpretation of the constitution earlier in June 2020 on the part of the House itself amid the heated deliberation and debate across the political spectrum. By virtue of that resolution, both the federal and state governments have been allowed to remain in power regardless of the expiry of their mandates until such time that they shall have been replaced by their respective substitutes once the delayed election takes place.

No doubt that this extra ordinary position taken by the House of Federation to postpone the entire election and prolong the authority at all levels equally applies to and legitimates the existing Tigrean legislative and executive organs, too.

In view of this affirmative development, it is not that clear what the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T.P.L.F) will actually gain out of the futile exercise in which it has unilaterally engaged itself in an unprecedented defiance of the prohibitive terms of the resolution passed by the House of the Federation.

Come what may, the inflated election has now taken place in a misguided manner on September 9 2020 with little or no attention paid to it on the part of the Federal Government gazing at the frustrating show from afar. Definitely, it is impossible to think of a free and fair election in the absence of a neutral electoral body and independent observers from home and abroad.

On the backdrop of this tricky development, Dr. Debre-Tsion Ghebre-Michael, the Deputy Head of Government of Tigray is quoted to have imprudently commented after having casted his vote in Aduwa that “the masses are to be feared more than the Corona Virus”. To the dismay and astonishment of onlookers, he was not ashamed to elaborate that the electorate has been emboldened to turn out and joyfully participate in the unique regional election with full confidence. In that case, it looks as if the population was, to a large extent, led to believe and act like a breakaway portion of the country permitted to establish a de-facto state of Tigray in due course.

Now that the fictitious Electoral Commission tasked with the responsibility has publicized the result, TPLF is shamelessly declared to have won the election in a landslide victory with a record score of 98.8 Percent of the votes overriding all the remaining satellite groupings invited under the guise of political parties to take part in that dramatic theatre only to accompany the vanguard party whom they consider unwinnable by any means. When this translates into parliamentary seats, it is now laughable to find out that TPLF has henceforth been warming up to occupy 189, but one seats of the entire Regional Assembly to be inaugurated shortly. Obviously, this is tantamount to an open insult to the natural intelligence of the civilized community.

In real terms, it is the narrow-minded politicians from an outdated ideological background who have been tirelessly advancing selfish and parochial desires and interests alone that promote and call for a de-facto state. The mindset of our Tigrean compatriots is, on the contrary, is far removed from the psychology of cessation of their very homeland from the center.

Many of the TPLF elders, (now at the daudering age), are heard

consistently claiming the separate regional election is being resorted to with a view and in order to operationalize Art. 39 of the Federal Constitution which under Sub-Art. (1) asserts that “every nation, nationality and people in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession”. Furthermore, they quite frequently lament on the instrumentality of Sub-Art. (3) of the same Article for “every nation, nationality and people in the country to demand the right for a full measure of self-government which includes the right to establish institutions of government in the territory that it inhabits and to equitable representation in both the state and federal governments”.

Should one critically explore, though, none of the provisions of the infamous Article on which they wish to rely for their stubborn approach and action specifically stipulates a unilateral election to be conducted by any state of the federation. This mandate is already centralized and bestowed upon the National Electoral Bord under Art. 102 of the Constitution without any exception.

In fact, Art. 102 Sub-Art. (1) of the Federal Constitution makes it mandatorily clear that “there shall be established a national electoral board independent of any influence to conduct in an impartial manner free and fair election in both Federal and State constituencies”. Art. 55 Sub-Art. (2) d. of the basic law of the land already vests the “power of issuing electoral laws and procedures as well as enforcing political rights established by the constitution” in the House of the People’s Representatives. Consequently, under no circumstances are state governments entitled to enact electoral laws, establish separate bodies for the implementation of such laws and conduct unilateral elections which are the prerogatives of both the country’s Supreme Legislature and the National Electoral Board re-established under Proclamation No. 1133/2019.

To make matters even more explicit, Art. 2. Sub-Art. (5) of the newly enacted Ethiopian Electoral, Political Parties Registration and Election’s Code of Conduct Proclamation No. 1162/2019 defines the term “election” in such a way as to encompass or embrace a range of “general elections, local elections, bi-election or re-election to be conducted in accordance with the F.D.R.E’s Constitution, regional constitutions and other relevant laws”.

Pursuant to Art. 2. Sub-Art. (6) of the same proclamation, what are known as “general elections” include those elections conducted with a view to producing members of the house of People’s Representatives and Regional State Councils in accordance with the relevant laws”.

Final Remarks

By way of a constitutional and statutory mandate, the undertaking of all general elections, (local elections, bi-election, re-election and referendum included, as appropriate), conducted in the country in compliance with the constitution are the preserve of the National Electoral Board. Save exceptional circumstances, “general elections are conducted throughout the country simultaneously” under the auspices of the Board and the approval of the House of People’s Representatives as provided for in Art. 7 of the proclamation under consideration.

As a rule, the crucial issue of citizen participation in the conduct of public affairs including the right to elect and be elected is an inherent right enshrined under Art. 38 of the Federal Constitution and Art. 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which the country has ratified and made it part and parcel of the domestic legal system under Art. 9 Sub-Art. (4) of the constitution. Nevertheless, this has nothing to do with the grand right of the people to determine their own destiny as an independent and sovereign state in the strict sense of public international law.

Hence, the poorly propounded argument which the TPLF ideologues advance to resort to the conduct of separate regional election in the name of the right of the people to self-determination and self-governance is far-fetched and not tenable from a constitutional point of view. In fact, what they have gone through in their latest adventure may best be likened with a referendum conducted to assess the public interest or know the public desire based on a decision made in accordance with the F.D.R.E’s Constitution or other relevant laws although it does not comply with the basic requirements laid down under Art. 39 of the Federal Constitution itself from the very outset.

An age-old proverb reminds us of the fact that “the fruit of the poisonous tree is poisonous itself”. With that universal comprehension, the would-be structured 190-member strong regional council whose inauguration is to be witnessed and administered by the illegal Electoral Commission is to become illegal perse. Nevertheless, the resolution of the House of Federation remains to be far from perfect as it does not, in any way, reprimand and penalize the wrongdoers involved in the defying course of action deemed unconstitutional from the very start.

Ed.’s Note: Merhatsidk Mekonnen Abayneh is a senior expert in law and peace and security studies. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].

used to leverage the economic contribution of nature-based solutions. In short, climate action, as expressed through an NDC, can go hand in hand with economic recovery plans. When nature is protected, it has much to offer in return.

Ed.’s Note: Francisca Tondreau is Country Director for Chile, Paraguay, and Bolivia at The

Nature Conservancy. The article is provided to The Reporter by Project Syndicate: the world’s pre-eminent source of original op-ed commentaries. Project Syndicate provided inclusive perspectives in our changing world by those who are shaping politics, economics, science and culture. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter.



JOB OPPORTUNITYAMERICAN EMBASSY

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIAall available positions and to apply online, please visit https://et.usembassy.gov/embassy/jobs/

Please see the below Vacancy announcement on the Embassy Website and apply online.

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: Addis-2020-033 (RA)

POSITION: Public Health Administrative Specialist /Senior Statistician

OPENING DATE: September 21, 2020

CLOSING DATE: October 5, 2020

WORK HOURS: Full-time (40 hours/week)

SALARY: Ordinarily Resident (OR): Position Grade: FSN-11, – 22,927.00 USD per year.

Not Ordinarily Resident: FP-04

*Final grade/step for NORs will be determined by Washington.

Duration of Appointment: probationary period.

NOTE: For ordinarily resident employees, salary will be paid in local currency using the established exchange rate.

Basic Function of Position:

Provides direction and advice to and supervises the Statistics Section of the Strategic Information Branch. Incumbent works in collaboration with the Branch Chief of Strategic Information, both in creation of strategic plans for the Section, as well as in providing high-level statistical expertise to CDC Ethiopia, other PEPFAR Ethiopia agencies. FMOH, EPHI and other local government agencies. This includes a broad range of statistical support to epidemiologists, behavioral scientists, and health service researchers working with projects led by and organizations supported by CDC-Ethiopia.

Support includes the development and review and supervision of research studies, the application of appropriate statistical methods to the analysis of project data, the statistical investigation of issues related to research topics, and the development and implementation of statistical software applications to address epidemiological and surveillance activities for diseases including Case-based Surveillance as well as support for national level surveys such as key population surveys, the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey and EPHIA; and support routine health program data systems including Health Management and Information Systems and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). •Supports the

location of PEPFAR supported health facilities in the country in line with their HMIS attributes. The incumbent works with national teams to prepare epidemiological and demographic projections that measure the impact of HIV and provide estimates of future needs for policy and program interventions and gives technical assistance to CDC partners on related activities. Assists CDC and staff in survey design and analysis of public health and program evaluations. Provides technical assistance for researchers in protocol preparations for ethical clearance of activities that involve data collection from human subjects, by reviewing and evaluating research protocols. Incumbent provides statistical expertise as well as computer programming for research and projects conducted by CDC-Ethiopia. Serves as a statistics representative of CDC Ethiopia on multi-disciplinary teams such as PEPFAR technical working group (TWG), National Surveillance TWG and other teams.

Utilize appropriate software programs for data analysis and reporting, such as Epi Info, SPSS, SAS, EPP, SPECTRUM, ARCGIS, etc. Perform other duties as assigned by the Branch Head for Strategic Information and the Associate Director for Strategic Information.

1. Required Education:of Statistics, Demography, Biostatistics is required.

2. Required Experience:

advanced analysis of epidemiologic studies and analysis of complex survey data using SPSS, SAS or any other statistical software is required. Experience in HIV/AIDS is required.

3. Language Requirement: Level IV (Fluent) Reading/Writing/Speaking English is required.

Level IV (Fluent) Reading/Writing/Speaking Amharic is required.

(You are required to pass the English Placement Test (EPT) that is conducted by

Note:

How to Apply please go to https://et.usembassy.gov/embassy/jobs/

|

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. .


26| The Reporter, September 26, 2020 Vol. 24 No. 1255SNAPSHOT

Photo By: The Reporter /Daniel Getachew



SNAPSHOT



following tenders;

TENDER SUBJECT CLOSING DATE1 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL – Construction of

Gymnasium, Septic Tank, Watch Tower, Walkways and Boundary Wall Works, Sewer and Water Line at the UNHCR Compound

- RFP/HCR/SOG/SUP/2020/002

1 October 2020

2 REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL – Construction of phase 1 of Gure Shombolla Health Centre,

in Asossa -RFP/HCR/AA/2020/003

1 October 2020

Interested Companies are invited to collect the tender documents

following address:1. UNHCR Representation in Ethiopia,

Supply Unit, Addis AbabaBole road near to Ramada Hotel.

Working hours: Monday to Thursday from 09:00 – 12:00 and 14:00 – 16:00

Friday from 09:00 – 14:00Collection period: Effective from 31 August 2020

Closing date is stated in each individual tender document.Company Representative(s) collecting the tender documents will be

Offers must be hand delivered in a sealed envelope and deposited in the tender box located at Ramada Hotel – Addis Ababa. Late offers will not be considered.NHCR

SUPPLY UNITADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

UNHCR Representation in EthiopiaTel.: +251 11 6612822P. O. Box 1076Email:[email protected]

Ericsson Innovation Awards 2020: taking on climate change

2020, a global competition that offers university students the chance to develop new, innovative ideas with support from Ericsson experts.

The theme in 2020 is “Reclaim the Future,” which centers on addressing current and future climate challenges and focuses primarily on how information and communications technology (ICT) can provide radical climate change mitigation for consumers and industries. Based on Ericsson research, ICT solutions have the potential to improve energy use in industrial operations, minimize negative environmental impacts, and enable a reduction of global carbon emissions by up to 15 percent by 2030.

Heather Johnson, Head of Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson, says: “Through our research and collaboration with academia and industry partners, we know that digitalization will drive the innovation and opportunities we need to achieve a 1.5-degrees-Celsius future in line with the Paris Agreement. That’s why this year’s EIA will challenge some of the best and brightest students sharing our passion for innovation to demonstrate how technology can support climate action.”

We believe that young people drive innovation and development when it comes to current pressing issues. That’s why, with innovation at the heart of Ericsson, we want to invite young talents to register for Ericsson Innovation Awards 2020.

Who can enter, dates and prizes

EIA is open to university students from around the world. Students are invited to enter the competition and are encouraged to form diverse teams of two to four members. Teams must register and submit their ideas by September 30, 2020.

the opportunity to receive mentorship from Ericsson experts before

teams will then go on to compete in the Grand Final event (held digitally this year) in December 2020. The winning team will receive a cash prize of EUR 25,000, with a second-place prize of EUR 15,000 and a third-place prize of EUR 5,000.

INVITATION TO TENDERSupply and Delivery of Billboard Structure changing

for existing Regional Sites. Tender Ref. No. HBSC/OT/009/2020

supply billboard Structure changing for existing Regional sites.The present tender invitation has been issued with the objective to guide tenderers in preparing a competitive offer through understanding of responsibilities, obligations and expected performance in providing the services in this scope. The full detailof the tender is found on the Terms of Reference (TOR).

TenderStarting Date:September 25, 2020

TenderClosing Date:October 15, 2020, at 12:30 PM

Tenderers shall submit their tender in a sealed envelope;

during submittal of tender documents;

The tenderers shall submit a tender bond , CPO, to the value of 50,000 birr to the name of Heineken BreweriesSC;

The tender security bond to the unsuccessful tenderers shall be released within 15 working days after closing of

the tender;

The tendersecurity bond shall be released to successful tendererupon signing of the contract;

The successful tenderers shall sign the contract within

to comply with this shall result in forfeiting of the tender bond;

Tenderers shall collect the tenderdocument (TOR) by paying 100.00 ETB non-refundable up on receivingthe documents from the below address:

SC,

Heineken BreweriesSC reserves the right to accept or reject any or all tenders at any time.

It is possible to obtain further information from procurement unit of Heineken Breweries SC by

Mob: +251 (0) 933 19 89 57



C r o s s w o r d

(astrology-online.com)

Kun

cho

Kom

men

tsACROSS1. Rescue5. Bitter10. Hens make them14. Beers15. Of which person16. District17. Bode19. Harvest20. N N N N21. Employs22. Decorative jugs23. Promptly25. Aromatic seeds27. Before, poetically28. Joys31. Put forward34. A machine for baling hay35. A wise bird36. Envelop37. An unbound manuscript38. Threesome39. Indian bread40. Herring-like fishes41. Overindulge42. Statues collectively44. Suffering45. Not first or second46. Black Sea republic50. Coquetry52. Merchandise

54. American Sign Language55. Hubs56. A lively whirling Italian dance58. Egg-shaped59. Pretext60. Encounter61. Water source62. An edict of the Russian tsar63. To be, in old RomeDOWNDOWN1. Less hazardous2. Solitary3. Vice ___4. East southeast5. For some time6. Cautious7. Was a passenger8. Kind of triangle9. Morning moisture10. A type of insect11. Newbie12. Equipment13. Exhausts 18. Bake in a shallow dish22. Arab chieftain24. Bottomless26. Gorse28. Father

29. Branchlet

30. Blackthorn

31. Possesses

32. A social club for male

undergraduates

33. Overzealous

34. Wooden seaside walkway

37. Blacken

38. Layer

40. A set of garments

41. Promote

43. Exhilarate

44. Twerp

46. Seizes

47. Storms

48. Small islands

49. Winged

50. Current

51. Great affection

53. Operatic solo

56. Letter after sigma

57. An uncle

Aries

Make sure to arrange in advance to spend quality time together. New emotional connections can be made through business contacts. Recognition will be yours if you meet your deadline.

Taurus

Use your charm, but don't be phony. Your self

and caring. Discord could be unnerving. Don't let situations get out of hand.

Gemini

You may overspend if you travel this week; however, the trip will be one to remember. Abrupt changes in your home may send you for a loop. Look into alternate means of sup

others about your problems.

Cancer

with your lover. Think twice before eating spicy foods; you may have problems with your stomach. If you're willing to cut loose

exciting encounter.

Leo

Look into the cost factor, but don't try to get backing yet. Monitor your budget carefully to avoid unnecessary stress. You may

good judgment.

Virgo

You can make progress if you deal with the right individuals. Trips will be exciting. Those you live with may be experiencing problems. Past partners may try to come back into your life.

Libra

Don't do something silly just to get back at your mate. You may have major blowups with someone you love if you don't back

you give your mate an ultimatum.

scorpio

affairs could cause upset. Be prepared to deal with groups and organizations of greater magnitude. Verbal abuse may lead to walkouts; don't make any rash statements you may regret later.

You'll regret every word for some time to come. You need some help this week. Involvement in groups will be favorable and lead to valuable information. Relationships will be erratic this week.

Capricorn

Look into attending seminars that can expand your perception. Try to be understanding. Opposition is present and you should be prepared to counteract it as best you can.

Aquarius

Watch for empty promises that may give you false hope. Do not sign your life away. You will make new friends through physical activities. Concentrate on work.

Pisces

Verbal abuse could lead to carelessness. Try not to take everything so seriously. Travel will entice you; however, a tendency to overspend is quite possible. Verbal abuse could lead to carelessness.

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2

3

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5

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10

Hey Kuncho, you must be excited that

school is reopening.

I am happy but not that excited,

dad.

Reconsider what?

A few more remote learning.

SPO

T TH

E D

IFFE

REN

CES

Can you spot the 12 differences between the two pictures? SOLUTION

Why not excited?

I was thinking they will

reconsider.

LEISURE

NEW TO



SPORT

By Dawit Tolesa

Thanks to advances in technology, sports and all of its related spectacles have come so far in recent times. This meant that we can easily, in real-time, broadcast sports coverages, and enable billions of people around the world take part in the spectacle and excitement of major sporting events around the world. Apart from the enjoyment, this has opened new doors to broadcasters and sports teams; an opportunity to commercialize sports through broadcasting rights. And through the years, this has played a pivotal role in the blossoming of sports and sports-related business.

Hence, broadcasting rights have long being the backbone of many sport clubs across the world, with media organizations paying huge sums of money to get exclusive rights to broadcast top sporting events, targeting lucrative advertisement deals in connection to such sporting events. The sale of such rights is now one of the biggest

sources of revenue, generating the funds needed to finance events.

Most European football associations have already signed deals for exclusive broadcast rights amounting in billions, with certain portion of this funding going to clubs, at the end of each season.

Following in the footsteps of their European counterparts, many African leagues as well are selling their TV rights to broadcasters. Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria and several African football leagues are among those keenly working with TV right holders.

Ethiopia, a country that has more than 100 million people, has just started to commercialize the national league, through the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) and Ethiopian Premier League (EPL) share company. Invited, interested bidders are already submitting their offers for broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals. According to sources, three contenders are bidding for the title sponsorship of the EPL.

The French-based Canal+, the Chinese Star Times and Super Sport, are in the running, according to the same source.

However, various analysts have pointed out that before delving into an agreement, the league share company needs to first look at what the league is planning to achieve from the sale, in addition to the financial gain. Furthermore, the bidding process must follow proper requirements which include technical and financial documents.

Canal +, one of companies vying to gain entry to the market, is a well-known brand and already has a relationship with the French league which did not cost much in getting the rights.

The other one, Star Times, which is Chinese-owned and has some experience in the African market, has the rights to the Ghana Premier league. However, this relationship was fraught with issues starting from not broadcasting the game despite scheduling to broadcast, to reducing the initial bid amount promised,

in the middle of the contract. Their relationship has been rocky to say the least, but is believed to be stabilizing with the Ghanaian league settling for a lesser payment than what was initially proposed.

It is rumored that the Star Times have a huge lead in the bid, sources close to the matter pointed out.

Meanwhile, Super Sport of the Multichoice group (DSTV), a major player in the African market, has a huge presence in the Ethiopian. Super sport has the rights to various African leagues like Kenya, Zambia, Uganda and the South African Premier Division, referred to as the PSL.

Analysts urged the body overseeing the bid, not to focus on the direct financial gains but rather focus on the long-term benefits to football in Ethiopia, the exposure that the players and clubs will receive by partnering with a certain broadcaster, and the viewership that the league would get, which in-turn will mean more financial benefits in the long run.

Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Hailemaryam Kiros were victorious over 15km on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, in a race that started in Beke and ended in Sandafa.

The event will be used by Ethiopian Athletics Federation as a form guide, when selecting its team for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020, Poland.

African Games Half Marathon champion Yalemzerf, like many athletes in this race, had not competed for several months because of the pandemic. Before today, her most recent race was back in February and March when she clocked a 5km Personal Best of

15:27 and ran 1:06:35 to finish fifth at the Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon.

The 21-year-old clearly has not lost any form since then, however, she held off world half marathon champion, Netsanet Gudeta to win in 50:15. Netsanet was a close second in 50:18.

Zeineba Yimer, who had not raced since clocking 2:19:46 on her marathon debut in Valencia in December last year, finished third in 50:30, nine seconds ahead of Ababel Yeshaneh, who earlier this year, set a world half marathon record of 1:04:31.

Hailemaryam Kiros, the African U18 steeplechase

silver medalist back in 2013, was a surprise winner of the men’s race. He crossed the line in 42:59 to finish four seconds ahead of runner-up, Andamlak Belihu, the two-time Delhi Half Marathon winner and World Championships 10,000m fifth-place finisher.

Amedework Walelegn, the 2017 world U20 cross-country silver medalist, finished just a stride behind Andamlak and was given the same time for third place. Tokyo Marathon champion, Birhanu Legese and 2017 Berlin Marathon runner-up, Guye Adola were next to finish, clocking 43:20 and 43:36, respectively.

Leading results

Men

Hailemaryam Kiros – 42:59

Andamlak Belihu – 43:03

Amedework Walelegn – 43:03

Birhanu Legese – 43:20

Guye Adola – 43:36

Leul Gebresilase – 44:12

Women

Yalemzerf Yehualaw – 50:15

2. Netsanet Gudeta – 50:18

3. Zeineba Yimer – 50:30

4. Ababel Yeshaneh – 50:39

5. Sisay Meseret Gola – 51:00

6. Medhin Beyene – 51:15

(World Athletics)



DESIGN & PUBLISHER MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS CENTRE (MCC) PRINTED BY BERHANENA SELAM PRINTING ENTERPRISE

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vol. 24 no. 1255 september 26, 2020 addis ababa, ethiopia … · 2020. 9. 28. · 2| the reporter,...

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