Addis Abol : The Victory Of Adoa In pictures

Addis Abol :




The Victory Of Adoa

In pictures: The Victory Of Adoa In pictures

The Victory Of Adoa

In pictures

Egypt: Shifting from Israelization to Turkishization

 

BY ZERIHUN ABEBE YIGZAW

Two rivers which are dotted in the book of Genesis entice everyone's attention with their peculiar nature of mystery and paradox. They are also bound in similarities, yet entertain differences. The River Nile that receives the great share of its waters from Ethiopia, flows from South to North bonding eleven countries and finally joins the Mediterranean Sea. The twin rivers-Euphrates and Tigris originating from the Anatolian Highlands run North to South through Turkey, Syria and Iraq and finally forming the Shatt Al-Arab and concludes its journey in the Persian/Arabian Gulf. These two river basins had been the cradle of human civilization hosting the Ethiopian/Egyptian and Mesopotamian/Sumerian or Assyrian Civilizations respectively, as literature show.

Among the major trans-boundary watercourses in the world such as the Colorado, the Euphrates-Tigris, the Mekong, etc., the Nile is too paradoxical. In the case of the rivers above, upstream states such as USA, China and Turkey, respectively, are the most powerful ones. Conversely, downstream nation, Egypt, was portrayed hegemonic on a water course which originates outside its boundary. As far as trans-boundary water bodies are concerned, power steams from geographic, economic, political, and military, grounds —to mention but few.

In his recent Televised statement, Egypt's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Mohamed Abd el-Motaleb, was quoted as “arrogantly” saying: “Ethiopia is not Turkey and Egypt is not Syria and Iraq.” The message seems implying as Egypt is more “powerful” than the upstream Ethiopia and can “do” anything regardless of upstream states interests for water. Again Motaleb with his negatively charged words tries to say that his country can bring whatever is kept distant with in its reach.

Had the Egyptian minister and the likes of him been honest, polite and respectful, Ethiopia's stand which is non harming downstream nations would have received appreciation and gratitude from the Egyptian government.

Nature makes these two countries, Ethiopia and Turkey, the water towers of their respective region; While rivers from the highlands of Turkey quench the thirst of multitudes for water in Syria and Iraq, the Nile has turned the desert in Sudan and Egypt into something green.

Nature is not the only similarity, in fact, most of their history, and civilization is also alike. For instance, both Turkey and Ethiopia do share same culture and religion, the Hrran of Turkey and Harar of Ethiopia cherish many similarities. Be that as it may, both Ethiopia and Turkey were the world's most ancient civilizations and empires, the civilizations of Axum and Byzantine (Constantinople) could be cases in point in this regard. These two civilizations were in their peaks and had managed to control many territories beyond their homes and across the seas. The writer has mentioned the historical narrative not to give the impression of weak analogy but to give a historical background.

Most importantly, Ethiopia and Turkey do share a history of the downturn of their civilizations. Nonetheless, they are also countries which we can compliment them as a rising stars. Today's Turkey is not what we did know yesterday. It is changing and is one of the emerging powers. In the same vein, today's Ethiopia is not the Ethiopia that we knew yesterday. A lot have been achieved in terms of domestic and foreign investment, mega infrastructure provision, and in bolstering the economy in Ethiopia, for instance, and the best is yet to come.

What can be understood from Egyptian Minister's remark is how the political elite in Egypt is still in the 19^th century mode of leadership, with an imperialist and war mongering habit. But, whatever he is saying, power is not uni-dimensional. Different countries have different power. In fact, Motaleb did clearly know what power Ethiopia has which his country will never have. However, What this writer needs to bring to the attention of Motaleb and his folks is that the solution for the Nile issue is not an arrogantly stated and war mongering remarks. The solution is peace and dialogue. To use the terms of the late Meles Zenawi, “for Egypt to stop Ethiopia from utilizing its Nile waters, it must control the whole country and no one has done that in the past and the Egyptians are not different and they know that very well.”

As far as development doctrines of international water law is concerned, there are theories which are commonly propagated by upstream and downstream states. For instance, countries such as Egypt, Iraq, and Syria are proponents of Absolute Territorial Integrity which declares the untouched flow of water from upstream states to downstream states. In line with this, the doctrine stresses that downstream states have the right to monitor and even veto on upstream water projects. In other words, the doctrine of Absolute Territorial Integrity leaves upstream states at the mercy of downstream states for the water which originates in their own territory.

The other doctrine is Absolute Territorial Sovereignty which is propagated by upstream states in most trans-boundary watercourses such as China and Turkey. According to this doctrine riparian states have the right to do whatever they want on any water resource in their own territorial jurisdiction. Maintaining water flows to downstream states is regarded as charity and kindness only. The most important idea is maintaining territorial sovereignty of the state. In this case, the remark of Suleyman Demires regarding Euphrates-Tigris Rivers is worth mentioning: “we [Turkey] do not say we share their [Iraqi or Syria] oil resources. They cannot say they share our [Turkey's] water resources. This is a matter of sovereignty. We have a right to do anything we like.”

However, what Ethiopia have been known for is opening window of opportunity for discussion on its own waters claiming that the riparian states of the Nile that drinks same water to share the benefits and fruits of the river and maintain its [the river's] health. Ethiopia's call is a call of good neighbourliness and brotherhood not of enmity despite it carries the scars of the Nile politics in its shoulders—in spite of the fact that Egypt has been always behind all wars, Ethiopia fought in the Horn of Africa.

The Egyptian elites for long have been a captive of their own constructed conspiracy on the Nile. Whatever endeavours Ethiopia make on its water resources, particularly the Nile, the Egyptian elite always understand there is a kind of involvement by a third party/parties, mainly Israel. Such baseless fear has to do with the historical experiences of Egypt during the colonial era where Britain was threatening the former, particularly during the Suez Crisis. The Arab-Israel wars fought with the active involvement of Egypt, another source of fear. But why linking it with Ethiopia? The answer is obvious, a baseless fear. It is only because the Egyptian political elites know what they have been waging against Ethiopia, they are captives of their lies and offences. They are victims of their own constructed fear and mistrust to this extent. That is the real problem. Israel like any other advanced country has its own interest and it supports countries in Africa as USA or European countries have been doing so.

When Ethiopia starts the GERD project, the Egyptian elite stood together with a misinformed media and shout loud considering as the Israeli and American support the dam's construction. But such baseless accusation is, however, used to mobilize the Arab world against Ethiopia. It should also be recalled that the sacked Deputy Defence Minister of Saudi Arabia Khalid Bin Sultan`s remark on the GERD is an extension of such Egypt's relentless accusation. Now, the Egyptians are moved from Israelization to Turkishization of the GERD again taking Turkey as a financier of the GERD. This is another white lie and manifestation of the frustration of the Egyptian political elite. This blind accusation might have to do with Teyyip Erdogan-Turkey`s president criticism of the military coup against Mohamed Morsi and the deterioration of the relations between the two governments since then.

One thing which should be clear is, Ethiopia is pressing ahead with the construction of the dam by its own finance for the Egyptian lobbied on international financiers. We cherish the psychological power of the GERD that it brings to the Ethiopian people.

In general, for the Egyptian elite whatever good happens in Ethiopia is a monster in Egypt. Yet, that is baseless and unnecessary. Their accusation of USA through Israel to Turkey is nothing other than jealousy of Ethiopia's progress and change. Regarding the Nile, Ethiopia's call is a call for peace and development, and a call for brotherhood and togetherness. And the GERD is a symbol of African renaissance and brotherhood which can also leads to cooperation and integration of the Nile littorals and beyond.

Zerihun Abebe Yigzaw is a lecturer at Dilla University and researcher on the Hydro-politics of trans-boundary watercourses especially the Nile. He can be reached at zerihun.yigzaw@graduateinstitute.ch.

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GRD has more space for cooperation: Outgoing Italian Ambassador

BY WORKU BELACHEW

ADDIS ABABA— Italian Ambassador to Ethiopia Renzo Mario Rosso said that the issue of Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (GRD) has more space for cooperation among the riparian countries.

In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald yesterday, Ambassador Rosso said that understanding one another would enable riparian countries benefit from the low cost energy to be produced. He added that all technical issues of the dam have fully been met by Ethiopia as far as his knowledge is concerned.

Ambassador Rosso also expressed his strong conviction that Salini Construction would successfully bring the construction into reality. “I can say the Ethiopian government knows Salini more than I do. And more than words can tell, the construction firm has international credence and full capacity to do so.”

The Ambassador, who concluded his tenure in Ethiopia, perceives the relations between the two sisterly countries dating back to the years in the 1890's has complimented the growing “special relationships”_ in his own words— between his country and Ethiopia in all spheres, political, economic, and social and more. He also described his stay in Addis as rewarding: “My stay here has been so rewarding because Addis has become a truly African city and Ethiopia has been changing over the years.”

Regarding the political cooperation between the two sisterly countries, he noted that Ethiopia and Italy have been co-chairing the IGAD Partners Forum showing their increased collaboration.

“We share common vision concerning the stability of the Horn of Africa. Italy signed bilateral protocol for a project concerning the stabilization of Kismayo area and full agreement with Ethiopia and IGAD administration. In this case, we are trying to be a sort of loud speaker for the efforts made so far”, the Ambassador added.

According to him, IGAD has become an important stakeholder in promoting peace initiatives in Somalia and South Sudan.

The Ambassador took leave of President Dr. Mulatu Teshome earlier in the day, The Ethiopian Herald. learned.

(Ethiopian Herlad, Feb. 27,201)

Ethiopian physicians join forces to establish a centre of excellence hospital

ADDIS ABABA–Ethio-American Doctors Group Inc. (EADG) and Global Ethiopian Medical Enterprise Inc. (GEME) have agreed to join forces to pursue their common goal to build a centre of excellence hospital in Addis Ababa under one entity: EADG.

According to EthioSports, the organizations have over 250 member physicians of Ethiopian origin and this exciting development will likely result in other members of the Ethiopian physician community to join raising the total number to 300.

By uniting their intellectual and membership resources, the common mission of EADG and GEME to establish a centre of excellence hospital will be strengthened and enhanced, which in turn will have a tremendous impact in the lives of the people of Ethiopia.

To mobilize all resources, the Ethiopian government through its various ministries and agencies (e.g., Health, Foreign Affairs, etc.), various US agencies who have been briefed about this project, and people and firms in the business community throughout the world have supported and encouraged both organizations to combine their efforts under one entity to establish a world class hospital in Addis Ababa.

EADG and GEME look forward to continuing to recruit and encourage physicians to join this historic project to transform the health care of Ethiopians and people in the region by improving the quality of health services through excellent quality clinical care, high standard medical education and relevant research.

Ethio-American Doctors Group Inc. is a US-based corporation with offices in Washington DC and North Carolina. EADG has members having 31 different areas of specialization and sub-specialization from all over the world, including 28 States in the USA, Ethiopia, Canada, the Caribbean, England, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Qatar, Scotland, Sudan, and Sweden as well as US Virgin Island.

Global Ethiopian Medical Enterprise Inc. is a health care management company organized to build a state of the art, centre of excellence hospital in Ethiopia founded by a coalition of a global network of Ethiopian Diaspora physicians with diverse specialization practicing in the US, Canada, Europe, Ethiopia and other African nations.

(The Ethiopian Herald Wednesday, 26 Feb. 2014)

Ethio telecom: How long will service interruption prevail?

Ethio telecom, Ethiopian telecom service provider, in a press conference which was arranged to unwrap its biannual execution on Thursday had enclosed as it has obtained over seven billion birr from all forms of services it is rendering. According to Abdurahim Ahmed, Corporate Communication Manager of the company, the amount has stricken 91 per cent of the company's plan for the time period. Compared to last year's same period execution, this one oversteps by 12.4 per cent. Abdurahim also mentioned figure pertaining to the aggregate number of customers of the company which he said to have escalated as big as 27.14 million till end of last December. (See further, Addis Zemen Friday issue No. 157, 2006 E.C.)

Over the past years, Ethio telecom repeatedly announced that its services are marking a profound progress. In most cases, this service provider also lists challenges which are reducing quality service such as telecom infrastructure vandalism, skyscrapers that are blocking networks, and a now unprecedented problem has rolled in—i.e., power irregularities. Despite such mishaps, the revenues made year in, year out are on the rise.

Customers quite often are, however, left with discomfort when it comes to quality service provision. To prove this fact one needs not to make an in-depth research, it is easy to go to a nearby bank, for instance, most of the time bad network connections make it hard to carry out normal bank transactions. Though the number of mobile users is being rocketing, quality service is still a daily headache for most. It is clear that, revenues fetched from mobile service take the lion's share.

 During the reported period mentioned earlier for instance, 67 per cent of the revenue has been secured from mobile service. No confusion, this sum is collected at the expense of customers. In addition, Internet connection gives the hardest time to users. Imagine, the number of customers— be it domestic, enterprise or whatever—who could be disadvantaged due to such poor service provision. To make matters worse, recharging prepaid accounts has become too upsetting for one cannot do it easily. When one takes these matters into consideration, they may conclude as the company could have collected even more revenue, had quality service been in place. The land is fertile, what remains is to cultivate it in a better way possible.

Quality telecom service is one and great factor that promotes development of nations. Understanding this fact, the government of Ethiopia has put a direction in place on how the sector could be transformed during the GTP years. As it is stated in the GTP period, apart from making calls, the sector is conceived of fostering social service provisions and to be an instrument for implementation of development strategies.

Among the goals set on this document is, finalizing existing network infrastructure development and applications and making them functional to ensuring the expansion of competitive service in terms of price and quality, among other. In line with this, the company has already signed a 1.6 billion USD telecommunication expansion project in a multi vending approach with ZTE and Huawei, 50 per cent share for each. This expansion work is envisaged to uplift the network coverage from existing 64 per cent to 85 per cent and to increase number of mobile users by 39 million, inter alia.

The irregularities which disappoint customers on a daily basis would be overcome when this project see completion. But, that would not be enduring solution for quality service, rather ethio telecom is expected to work aggressively to improve the quality of its services with the infrastructure available. This could be in terms of investing on the capacity of its human capital and/or working hand in hand with all stakeholders. Awareness raising works on the public and working hand in hand with police force, for instance, can help the company fight individuals that perpetrate damages and robbery on cables, if at all this is a grand problem now.

 Moreover, most service interruptions source from uncoordinated works of municipal infrastructure providers such as water and sewerage, electricity and road construction. Therefore, the threesome along with ethio telecom should extend a kind of mechanism to do away with this mess. 

Published on The EThiopian Herald on 15, Feb.  

 

Old wine into new wineskins

 

BY WORKU BELACHEW

 

A 45-member Egyptian delegation led by Head of Diplomatic Institute Ambassador Alaa El-Hadeedy is said to have arrived in Addis Ababa to meet various key personalities which have direct and indirect engagement with the issue of the Nile Basin.

 

A matter of interest for this writer is, however, what special value would this delegation add into Nile politics, particularly the construction of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) other than sophisticating, if at all they succeed, the unique opportunity created for cooperation among the basin nations as a result of the GERD construction. May be the delegation can have a good vacation in one of the capitals of the world with the highest altitudes.

 

But, one needs to see the writer's thesis with a kind heart, meaning this article has no intention to undermine discussions held between countries of the Nile Basin to resolve differences. Indeed, if there is a real interest to bring issues to table, the result is immense. And this is what we call “For African Problem, African Solution.”

 

Notwithstanding that, the previous track record of Egyptian delegates—who dealt with GERD— has left enough rooms to see the newly arrived delegation with suspicion, the writer believes. Frankly speaking, the other delegations were with too many cracks even within themselves. In the first place, apart from treating main issues they stood for, previous delegates served their personal interest. This could be, of course, intentionally to deter discussions into a wrong path and to confuse the international community. For instance, during the third round of talks the trio held in Khartoum in which representatives convened to discuss the implementation of recommendation given by the previous International Panel of Experts (IPoE) which studied the Dam's impact to downstream countries. (It is to be recalled that IPoE concluded as no significant threat on them.) But, the Egyptian delegate's seemed to have forgotten why they were in Khartoum. Members of the delegate were deliberately throwing irrelevant agendas to table such as discussing Cooperative Framework of Agreement (CFA) and hiring International Experts (IE). How can representatives of three countries, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, discuss the already signed CFA. It is clearly indicated on the CFA's preamble as basin nations (10 Nations) has recognized the Nile River and its natural resources and environment as “the property of Nile Basin Nations.” This means only three countries cannot discuss and decide on the CFA and it was not also the right place to discuss it. No confusion, the delegate knew this hard fact but were trying to disturb the whole process. Again same delegation were tightly asking to hire an international expert's panel that oversees a trio panel of national experts knowing that matters which this trio would fail to resolve can be referred to respective water ministers and get decided.

 

Egyptian delegates including those in the IPoE who signed the consensus report of the study also championed in disseminating an unofficial and distorted versions of the report. They told their favourite media ill famed stories that may inflict conflict. We witnessed a lot after that including phrases like “all options are open”, “sabotaging Ethiopia”, the dam is “a threat to the Arab World”.... Such phrases are undoubtedly counter-productive for the Basin nations peace and security. But, it seems what they have preferred.

 

So, what their delegations were doing is just making campaigns after campaigns against the GERD Project and using every opportunity to mislead the international community, though failing to succeed. It is from this ground that this writer is questioning what sort of result would the current delegation can come up with. For sure, each member of the delegation will tell the world their own version of this visit- may be, masking the reality on the ground, when they go back to their country. For them, making fruitful discussion that is on the equitable usage of Nile waters is unconstitutional because they vote for maintaining Egypt's “historic rights'' which other basin nations, hopefully, perceive it as their “historic confusion”. It is an article which put discussion in friction than fruit. They closed their door twice to Nile basin countries, I believe, once when they refuse to sign the CFA and now when they proclaim their “historic confusion”. If is not too hyperbolic, they are leading their people with the mode of the oldest century risking their National Security on a matter out of their control.

 

Countries South of Egypt are aggressively working to pull millions of people out of poverty. And, no doubt, they exploit every resource within the reach of their boundary. Doing so is not a crime by anyone's standards indeed. And when it comes to cross border rivers and lakes, the customary law available is the Danube notion of posing no significant harm to downstream countries. Likewise, downstream countries should not also harm upstream countries putting impeding requisites like “historic rights”.... What abides both together is cooperation and equitable use of cross border rivers and lakes.

 

Let go camels while dogs bark

The true arena to discuss cooperation is first respecting all the basin Nations. It is repeatedly said that the dam has no significant threat to downstream countries. That is why Sudan is in good terms with Ethiopia. Egypt's “politicians” and “scholars” still pose threats to upstream nations with their old fashioned diplomacy. They are knocking every door loading same issues but with various delegations. Unless they bring something new that fosters cooperation, it is only wandering about countries. And putting old wine into new wineskins, it does nothing. Whatever the case is the dam's construction is over 30 percent complete. The pace is on acceleration. Ethiopia is in a point of no return. And Ethiopia is leaping forward to make its visions reality. Actually, Egyptian politicians and scholars will never fail campaigning against Ethiopia. This is not phenomenal. They were over doing it in the past with different approaches. But, World order has already changed. Now the thing is adjusting oneself to best fit in the new world order. That is what Ethiopia has championed and Egyptian politicians and scholars are failing repeatedly or get it hard to accept. 

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